Camarones al Ajillo

The prawns go in shell on and the shells fry in the oil first, which is where the sauce gets everything it has.

Shellfish. Not vegetarian — contains shellfish.

Ingredients

• 800 g whole raw prawns, shell on, heads on if possible
• 12 cloves garlic, sliced thin
• 3 guajillo chillies, stalks and seeds removed, in rings
• 100 ml olive oil
• 30 g butter
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 teaspoon salt
• a handful of parsley, chopped
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. THE PRAWNS GO IN SHELL ON AND THE SHELLS FRY IN THE OIL FIRST, which is where the sauce gets everything it has. There is nothing in this dish but prawns, garlic, chilli and fat -- no stock, no tomato, nothing to build on -- so the only thing that can make the oil taste of anything is the prawn itself. Shell on, the shells and heads hit hot oil and give up their colour and their sweetness into it within a couple of minutes, and that oil is then the sauce, spooned over at the table and mopped up with tortillas. Peeled prawns in the same pan produce garlic oil with prawns in it.
2. IT IS MESSIER TO EAT AND THAT IS THE DELIBERATE TRADE. Shells have to be pulled off at the table with fingers. The alternative is a cleaner plate and a thinner dish, and this collection takes the sauce.
3. THE GARLIC IS SLICED, NOT CRUSHED, AND GOES IN OFF A HIGH HEAT. Twelve cloves in thin slices, into warm rather than smoking oil, and cooked gently until pale gold -- two or three minutes. Crushed garlic has far more cut surface, burns in seconds in oil this hot, and burnt garlic is bitter and cannot be picked out of a sauce that is mostly oil.
4. THE CHILLIES GO IN AFTER THE GARLIC AND ONLY BRIEFLY. Guajillo rings in hot oil darken fast. Thirty seconds, once the garlic is already gold, is enough to colour the oil and soften them.
5. THE BUTTER GOES IN AT THE END AND OFF THE HEAT. Olive oil does the frying because it will take the temperature; butter would brown and burn at the heat the shells need. Stirred in at the end it thickens the oil slightly and pulls the whole thing together into something that coats rather than runs.
6. The prawns rinsed and patted dry, SHELLS LEFT ON. The backs slit with scissors and the dark vein lifted out, which makes them easier to peel at the table.
7. The olive oil warmed in a wide pan over a medium heat -- warm, not smoking.
8. The SLICED garlic added and cooked gently 2 to 3 MINUTES, stirred, until pale gold. It must not brown.
9. The guajillo rings added for 30 SECONDS only.
10. THE HEAT TURNED UP to high.
11. The prawns added SHELL ON in a single layer and cooked 2 MINUTES without moving, so the shells fry in the oil.
12. TURNED and given 1½ to 2 MINUTES more, until the shells are bright orange and the flesh is just opaque.
13. The pan taken OFF THE HEAT and the butter, lime juice and salt stirred through until the butter has melted.
14. TASTED -- the oil is the sauce and is seasoned as a sauce, not as a frying medium.
15. The parsley stirred in and everything tipped into a warm dish with ALL the oil poured over.
16. Served with tortillas, peeled at the table with fingers.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes