Ixta Belfrage’s Tropical Prawns with Plantain and Pickled Shallots
This colourful Brazilian recipe from Ixta Belfrage combines juicy prawns with plantain in a rich and deeply flavourful prawn oil. If you're looking for the perfect starter for hosting, look no further.
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Introduction
This is easily one of my favourite recipes in FUSÃO. It’s a bit of a labour of love, but I promise it’s worth it.
To make it more manageable, you can marinate the prawns, make the prawn head oil and pickle the shallots up to a day in advance.
Inspired by one of my favourite botecos in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro – Adega Pérola – a seafood bar that’s been a local institution since 1956. This dish reimagines their Pérola Tropical – tropical pearl – which is a mix of prawns and plantain marinated in garlic-infused oil. This version is much more elaborate, but the flavours are unmatched.
Serve straight away, as the plantain and prawns will harden as they cool.
Ingredients
| For the prawns and oil: | |
|---|---|
| 12 x 35g (420g) | shell-on prawns |
| 2 whole | red bird’s-eye chillies |
| 2 whole | green bird’s-eye chillies |
| 120g | olive oil |
| fine sea salt | |
| ¾ tsp | ground urucum (aka annatto/achiote, or use sumac + black pepper + sweet paprika as an alternative), plus a little to serve |
| 40g | tomato purée/paste |
| Everything else: | |
| 1 | banana shallot, peeled and sliced into 3mm rings (use a mandolin if you have one) |
| 3 | limes, juiced to get 60g |
| 15g | rice vinegar |
| 2 small | very ripe plantains |
| 1 tbsp | ghee (homemade or from a jar, not from a tin) |
| 2 small | garlic cloves + 5g fresh ginger, finely minced |
| 2 tbsp | fresh coriander stalks, very finely chopped |
Method
Remove the heads and peel the shells from the prawns, keeping the tails on. Place the heads and shells in a frying pan off the heat. You should have about 260g of peeled, tail-on prawns.
Slice down the back of the prawns to slightly butterfly them open, then devein them.
Place the peeled, tail-on prawns in a bowl with the chillies, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt and the urucum. Gently mix and set aside.
To make the prawn oil, add the tomato purée and 100g of olive oil to the pan of prawn heads and shells. Place on a high heat and stir-fry until the shells become bright pink, about 3½ minutes.
Place a sieve over a bowl and spoon the prawn heads, shells and oil into the sieve. Press down on the heads to extract as much liquid and flavour as possible.
Put the sliced shallot into a separate bowl with the lime juice, vinegar and ½ teaspoon of fine sea salt. Mix and set aside.
Peel the plantains and cut into 2cm-thick rounds.
Wipe the frying pan clean. Add the ghee to the pan and place on a very low heat. Once melted, add the plantain, spaced apart, and sprinkle over ¼ teaspoon of fine sea salt evenly. Cover with a lid and gently cook for 5 minutes, then flip the plantain and gently cook for another 5 minutes. You’re not trying to brown or fry the plantain slices, you want them to steam and soften, so keep the heat low.
Pour the ghee into the bowl of prawn oil and set the cooked plantain aside.
Wipe the frying pan clean and place on a high heat. Once very hot, add the prawns and chillies to the pan, spread out as much as possible and fry for 1½ minutes on each side.
Remove the pan from the heat, then add the ginger–garlic mix, the prawn head oil, the cooked plantain and the coriander stalks.
Finely slice 1 of the red chillies and 1 of the green chillies, put them back into the pan and gently mix everything together.
Transfer to a platter and top with some of the pickled shallots (you won’t need them all) and a sprinkling of urucum.
Drizzle over some of the shallot pickling liquid and serve with more fresh lime squeezed on top.
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