Recipe: Jumbo Prawns with Avocado and Mango Salad

This tasty dish is perfect as a starter or main at any time of the year

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the salad dressing:

50m rapeseed oil
zest and juice of ½ lime
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp fish sauce
½ tsp chilli flakes
½ tsp caster sugar
½ tsp fine sea salt

For the mango and avocado salad:

1 ripe mango, peeled and diced
1 ripe avocado, peeled stoned and diced
40g rocket
handful of fresh coriander leaves
20g pumpkin seeds, toasted

For the second marinade:

16 raw jumbo prawns, unpeeled and butterflied (see below)
zest and juice of 1 lime
2–3 dried lime leaves
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp coconut milk, for basting
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

Method

Prep and measure out all the ingredients before you start cooking so that everything is ready to go and the spices don’t burn.

Start by whisking together all the salad dressing ingredients.

Put the mango, avocado and rocket into a large bowl, then drizzle over the dressing and toss gently to coat. Finish with the toasted pumpkin seeds and set aside.

To butterfly the prawns for this recipe, cut them in half lengthways from top to tail but without cutting all the way through the shell, then press them out flat.

Heat up a griddle pan over a high heat on the hob (it’s fine to use a regular frying pan if you don’t have a griddle pan).

Put the prawns, lime zest, lime leaves, grated ginger, paprika, salt and oil in a large bowl and toss to coat.

Add the prawns to the hot pan, butterflied side down. Cook for 60–90 seconds on each side, then use a pastry brush to baste the prawns all over with the coconut milk and squeeze in the lime juice. Cook for 1–2 minutes more if necessary, just until the prawns are cooked through – the shell should be pink and the meat should be white and firm, but not tough or rubbery. Add the chopped fresh coriander at the very end.