Monday, March 23, 2015

Garlic, Lemon Prawns

Garlic, Lemon Prawns 2

If you're one of my regular visitors, you'll have noticed that I haven't posted anything for a while.  Some of you have even emailed me to check up on me, and I appreciate your thoughts and concern more than you can ever know.

I'm not going to go into details here, this is not the place, but the reality is life has been pretty challenging for me lately, leaving me completely disinterested in food.  I've scarcely been bothered to eat it, let alone cook it or write blog posts about it.  But life goes on;  there are plenty of people who are faced with very much worse;  and the clouds are beginning to part sufficiently for me to get back into the kitchen today.

And I have the lovely Nicole at I Am a Honey Bee to thank for getting me back to the stove top.  It's Secret Recipe Club (**) time, and Nicole's blog was my assignment for the month.  Nicole lives in the Bay State with her husband, Price, and beyond gorgeous 16 month old daughter, Autumn.  She works in architecture, and like me she enjoys cooking, design and loves all things Greek.

*  So what's this Secret Recipe Club you may ask?  The club has over a hundred members, divided into four groups, and each month one member is assigned (in secret) to another member from their group.  That person then selects a recipe (or more) to make, photograph, and prepare a blog post - all in secret.  Then everyone in the group posts their recipe on the same day, and of course the secret is then out.  It's a always a thrill to find out who has posted something from your own blog, and to meet and discover some new blogs.   If you are a food blogger and interested in joining the Secret Recipe Club, be sure to check out the Join SRC page.

So several weeks of secretly browsing through Nicole's blog, has been enough to tantalise my jaded taste buds.  Dishes like 40 Cloves of Garlic Chicken, Scallop Salad, and VegetarianWontons with Spicy Soy Dipping Sauce all piqued my appetite and have been bookmarked for a later date.  But it was Nicole's delicious Garlic Lemon Shrimp that eventually lured me back into the kitchen.

This dish is incredibly quick and easy to put together (which is just perfect for me right now), and I took Nicole's advice of serving it with some crusty bread, though you could just as easily as she suggests serve it over some rice or pasta.  To keep things healthy I had a simple green salad on the side.  Other than adjusting quantities, as I was only cooking for one, I followed Nicole's recipe fairly closely - adding lemon zest and parsley being the only other changes I made.

Garlic, Lemon Prawns 1

Garlic, Lemon Prawns Recipe
Adapted from recipe from I Am a Honey Bee
Serves one as a main meal
Click here for a printable copy of this recipe

200g (7 oz) prawns or shrimps, shelled & deveined
3x cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine
generous pinch of red pepper flakes
zest and juice of 1x lemon
flaky sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon cut into wedges
generous handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (450 degrees F).

Place prawns into a bowl.  Add the crushed garlic, butter, olive oil, wine, red pepper flakes, and lemon juice.  Add half the lemon zest, and set the remaining zest aside to use later.  Season generously with sea salt and black pepper, and mix everything together well.

Line a shallow baking dish with foil (makes the washing up easy later on), and spread the prawn mixture in the baking dish in a single layer.  Nestle lemon wedges in amongst the prawns, and place dish in the preheated oven.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the prawns have turned pink and cooked through.

If serving with crusty bread, place bread in the oven 5 minutes before the prawns finish to heat through.

Remove from the oven and use the foil to carefully transfer the prawns and all the lemony, garlicky juices to a serving dish.

Mix the reserved lemon zest with the chopped parsley and sprinkle over the top of the prawns and serve immediately.  Use crusty bread to mop up all those heavenly juices.

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I did, and visit the links below to check out all the other great dishes my Secret Recipe Club friends made.



28 comments:

  1. Garlic lemon and prawns are wonderfully delicious together. This is simple yet divine!

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    1. Thanks, Angie - as you so rightly say ... simple yet divine :-)

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  2. I hope things get better for you xoxo. There is something therapeutic about preparing food... I totally understand xoxo

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    1. Thanks for your kind thoughts, Karen. You're so right - cooking is definitely the best therapy.

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  3. What a wonderful recipe~ Perfect for the upcoming summer months~ Great Reveal Day pick~ I hope Spring sheds a new light on what is troubling you~ Lynn @ Turnips 2 Tangerines

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    1. Thank you, Lynn - that is such a kind thought. This is definitely a great summer dish, and although we have been having an almost endless summer here, autumn is certainly beginning to make itself felt.

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  4. That sounds so good! I hope you get on top of life - it does get in the way of blogging sometimes.

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    1. Thanks, Alicia. Little by little getting back on top of things, thanks - good days and bad days, but I think at last the balance is shifting slightly in favour of the good days :-)

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  5. Garlic, prawns and lemon = yes for me! GREAT pick for SRC this month. Karen

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    1. It is a pretty winning combo, isn't it?! There are some things which just can't really be improved on :-)

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  6. Hope things continue to improve for you - thank you for joining us today to share this delicious shrimp dish; lots of seafood today! Yumm!

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    1. Thanks for your kindness, Rebekah. There are a few good seafood dishes in this round, which always makes me happy.

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  7. Welcome back....I hope things continue on an upswing. I love your choice for this month's reveal. Shrimp and Lemon remind me of Spring...Spring reminds me of rebirth...Rebirth is my prayer for you right now.

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    1. Thank you so much, Wendy, for your very kind wishes - it's greatly appreciated xo

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  8. Very sorry to hear you are going through a down phase... I hope that as you said, the clouds are starting to dissipate and you can find reasons to eat, be merry, take good care of yourself, and if the mojo comes back, blog a lot!

    great that you could still join us this month...

    best of luck for you!

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    1. Thanks a lot, Sally - my kitchen mojo, along with my appetite, is definitely starting to come back slowly.

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  9. This looks amazing! Great pick this month!

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    1. Thanks so much - it was a very delicious dish - and thanks for stopping by.

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  10. Sounds delicious. And your photos are beautiful! I hope your days start getting brighter!! Great pick this month :)

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    1. Thanks, Melissa. Definitely very delicious, and definitely a dish that will become a regular in my kitchen.

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  11. I thought something was awry when your month of salads stopped on day 8. It isn't like you to not follow through on a project. Best wishes.

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  12. What a beautiful dish!! And I agree, Nicole's Vegetarian Wontons look fabulous. Great pick this month!

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    1. Thanks, Susan. I can't wait to try those wontons - I actually have the wonton wrappers in the freezer ready to go.

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  13. Fantastic pick! I'm so glad you tried these!
    And thanks for the kind words about my blog. xoxo

    Nicole @ I am a Honey Bee

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    1. You're welcome, Nicole. I loved visiting and getting to know you and your blog a little better, and I was so happy with my choice of dish. Can't wait to try a few more of your dishes. xo

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