Butter Garlic Prawns

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to yet another edition of cooking with Varun! Now I've been focusing (rather uncharacteristically) on vegetarian dishes the past few posts and I thought the time was ripe to cook up some non-vegetarian fare.

So the Earth's surface is about 70% water right? And of all the stuff that lives in the water, few taste as good as nice juicy prawns. Fresh plump prawns. Prawns tossed in butter. With a generous amount of garlic. A squeeze of lime. I'd best stop now.. I've already given away half the recipe! 

So breaking out of our reverie and closing our salivating mouths, let's get started!

Now before we begin, I am obligated to tell you that I came up with this recipe in true mad scientist fashion when I attempted to cook the prawns in 2 different ways at the same time and there isn't really a set measure of ingredients so you might find it a little unconventional!

You will need the following:

Fresh prawns	As many as you want. The bigger the better. FRESH being the key word! Frozen prawns taste like sawdust.
Garlic	8-10 cloves
Red chillies	4-5 depending on how brave you are
Chilli powder/flakes	1 tsp
Salt	to taste
Oil
Butter

Prep:

1. Shell and de-vein the prawns if you haven't bought the ones that are already done. (Although there are few things more tedious than de-veining a prawn so you have my sympathies.)
2. Mince the garlic.
3. Finely chop the red chillies.

Method:

1. Grab a nice big bowl. (Big enough to hold the prawns anyway.)
2. Throw in the prawns.
3. Drop in the garlic.
4. Toss in the chillies.
5. Sprinkle in the chilli powder.
6. Add in the salt.
7. Splash in the olive oil.
8. Wonder when the synonyms will stop!
9. Shake head sadly.
10. Hold up hands.
11. Wiggle your fingers.
12. Direct your wiggling fingers into the bowl.
13. Lovingly mix the contents of the bowl. (This is very important!)
14. Continue mixing even after the contents are mixed because you 'like how it feels'.
15. Withdraw hands.
16. Lower head to appreciatively sniff the contents of the bowl.
17. Wash hands.
18. Fetch some cling film.
19. Cover up the bowl.
20. Bung it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
21. Hurl curses at me for not giving you a heads up about the wait.
22. Commence clock watching.
23. Lose patience in 20 minutes.
24. Get the prawns out of the fridge.
25. Get an oven tray.
26. Lay aluminium foil on the surface. (This stops the prawns from sticking to the tray and greatly reduces washing effort!)
27. Spread the prawns out on the tray.
28. Into the oven. 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes. (Or until you can smell them.)
29. Get prawns out of the oven.
30. Turn on the gas.
31. Bung on a pan.
32. Drop in the butter.
33. Watch the butter melt into a pretty, golden pool.
34. Tip in the cooked prawns.
35. Toss the prawns in the butter for about 1-2 minutes.
36. Turn off gas. 
37. Serve out of the pan or in a plate (if you're high maintenance).
38. Stuff face.
39. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Do not overcook the prawns. They'll shrink, curl and the texture will get hard and rubbery. Waste. 

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!