Miles Collins

Piri Piri Prawns with Spanish style lentils…..

Now as much as I love dal my all time favourite lentil dish bar none has to be the Spanish lentejas. I could, indeed do eat this every week. A couple of weeks ago I was devouring them with great gusto (a fat magician friend!!!) in an old tapas bar on the Spanish coast and loved every mouthful. Garlicky from the chorizo sausage and acidic from the sherry vinegar I eat them hot or cold, I don’t care.

So I was thinking about some new menus for our restaurants in Spain and one dish which we are, so I am told renowned for; Prawns Pil Pil. I watched the chefs cook this in one of the restaurants and they were delicious. Olive oil, white wine, garlic, chilli, paprika and plump prawns all cooked together in an earthenware pot. Perfect beach food. I decided to cook my own version and decided that they would work brilliantly with a portion of lintaje. I seasoned the prawns with olive oil, Spanish paprika, fresh garlic and a touch of sherry and left them to sit in the marinade for an hour.

For the lentils I cooked a diced onion in olive oil until soft, in went some diced carrot and celery followed by a torn bay leaf, maybe two. A dried chilli was a prerequisite but not to the extent that chorizo and sherry vingar is to any self respecting lentejas cook. It’s not easy to get a chorizo for cooking outside of Spain but a cured one is perfectly acceptable. Chorizo sausage adds garlic, paprika, colour and a robustness which gives this dish its character. Now for the vinegar, try the lentils when they are cooked, taste them and see what you think. Stir in the vinegar and try it again. It just tastes right. Salt, pepper and a touch of lemon juice and that’s it. There should be some liquid left, enough to dunk a piece of bread in but no more.

The tiger prawns were flash fried in a hot pan until they had just changed colour and then straight on top of the lentils. A warm pitta bread and you have a perfect supper dish.

Piri Piri Prawns with Lentils