I asked chef Shane Delia to cook a summery prawn salad when he came over to do videos with me. Sure, he said. Only thing is, he wrote the recipe and brought it over without testing it. Ah well, Thermo to the rescue, and luckily Shane knows a thing or two about cooking!
These grilled prawn kofte are partnered with funky basturma (air-dried beef) and purslane but you can just as easily use prosciutto and baby spinach – I love the flexibility of this salad!
Try Shane Delia’s Melbourne restaurant Maha and his kebab joint Biggie Smalls.
Serves: 4-6 as an entree
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
Prawn skewers
- 2 cloves garlic
- 300 grams (10.6 oz) raw prawns
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 wedge preserved lemon, pulp removed, skin finely diced
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, roasted
- 1 tsp red Aleppo pepper (or chilli flakes)
Dressing
- 2 tbsp seeded mustard
- 2 tbsp honey
- 250 ml extra virgin olive oil
- 100 ml sherry vinegar
- salt and pepper, to taste
Salad
- 1 bunch purslane (or use baby spinach or rocket)
- ½ red onion, finely sliced
- ¼ bunch mint, leaves only
- few sprigs parsley, leaves only
- 200 grams (7 oz) fresh ricotta
- 100 grams (3.5 oz) finely shaved basturma (or prosciutto or Parma ham if preferred)
- 60 grams (2.2 oz) flaked almonds, toasted
- pinch salt
Method
Prawn skewers
1. Place garlic into mixing bowl and chop 1 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula.
2. Add prawns and salt and mix 10 sec/speed 6. Scrape down sides of mixing bowl with spatula.
3. Add preserved lemon, fennel seeds and Aleppo pepper. Mix 5 sec/speed 4.
4. Wet hands and form prawn mixture onto skewers, making the mixture flat on each side. Place on an oiled baking tray.
5. Heat a grill plate or barbecue over medium heat and grill skewers for 2 minutes each side or until lightly golden.
Dressing
6. Spoon mustard and honey into a small bowl. Slowly add olive oil, whisking in, then vinegar. Add salt and pepper and stir through.
Thermomix method for dressing:
- Place mustard and honey into clean mixing bowl.
- Mix on speed 4, slowly add olive oil (250 grams), then vinegar (100 grams) and salt and pepper through hole in mixing bowl lid.
Dressing keeps for a few weeks in pantry.
Salad
7. Arrange salad ingredients on plate, starting with greens, then onion and herbs.
8. Break ricotta into chunks and arrange over salad, then tear bastourma and add to salad, then sprinkle over almonds.
Sprinkle with a little flaked salt then generously spoon over dressing. Finally, top with prawn skewers.
Tip
- Basturma (also known as bastourma, pastourma, bastirma, basterma or pastirma!) is salted and air-dried beef that’s rubbed with a spice paste heavy on the fenugreek and cumin.
- Aleppo pepper is a deliciously warm chilli that you may find at Middle Eastern grocers and also online from Herbie’s.
- Kofte? That’s just a meatball!
Variation
- Use any greens in place of purslane – cos lettuce is nice, as well as the rocket and baby spinach we chat about in the video.
- You could use chicken in place of the prawns – it works well with these same flavours.
See more Shane Delia recipes:
- Lamb Kustilji: you’ll love these lamb ribs with a Maltese spin
- Cauliflower Hummus with Spiced Beef: everyone who makes this makes it again (try it with lamb instead of beef, too)
Instead of Middle Eastern flavours, you could season the prawns with Chilli Lime Crumb. They are also great sprinkled with Virtual Bacon Dust.
There’s nothing like a BBQ to make it feel like summer and there’s nothing quite like throwing a delicious home-made burger patties on the barbie. If you love a good burger as much as I do, you’ll absolutely love my BeetROOt Burgers.
Did you know Dani Valent gift vouchers are available right here? They make the perfect present for the Thermo-lover in your life.
More about this video
Today I’m wearing Nancybird.
Have you watched Shane’s Spice Journey TV series? I’m a big fan.
