Drunken King Prawns

“It was a hot autumn in the 9-ties when we decided to bulldoze our way to southern Spain. Our flight landed in Malaga. We checked out of the airport, got in to our rental car and were looking very much forward to exploring this part of the world. It was my first time in spain, the culture, food was something really new for me. Andalusia was blessed with warm temperatures, hidden secret spots that only the locals would know of, awesome crags with fantastic 35m routes and everyone was just so friendly! We headed off for Granada after staying a few days climbing in Anteqeura and El Chorro,

 

 

it was hot and the journey was just going to take a while. I was starving, and there was just no end to this hot car ride. No, we were not blessed with any air condition – funny that I’m the one who’s always thinking about eating – and how could I, with this heat?

After another 15 minutes of torture we finally found a parking lot under a tree. It wasn’t really idyllic, no lovely camp grounds with a wonderful sunset, no green juicy grass around, no view – just a terribly dusty hot parking lot with one damn tree next to the main road, but my stomach was telling me that it didn’t matter. My brains was dehydrating and echoing “you want food”,“ you are hungry”,“eat eat eat” –McDonald’s has not found it’s way in to this part of the country yet (thank goodness!) and there was just no place to save us from the hunger. I looked into the many plastic bags we filled up in the last visit to the supermarket and decided that in this unbearable heat I was going to make something easy and fast, yet tasty.

I whipped out the kilo of king prawns we bought earlier supposedly for dinner and dished out one of the best meals I’ve had in ages. Served with tons of garlic, white wine and a fresh baguette, we had a feast! It made me smile to see the reaction of cars passing by and wondering where on earth does this garlic smell comes from. I think we finished everything that was in the pot, with exception of the shells and were definitely handicapped from any further driving after we decided to finish off the rest of the bottle of wine! The dirt or heat didn’t matter any more, everybody was happy and contented, the stomach was full, the head spinning from too much wine. It was just the situation – the heat and the settings, the reaction of those cars passing by that inspired me with fond memoirs of “Recipes on the road”.

It is more the love of a self cooked meal, the indulgence of eating good food in a situation and place where you would least expect which yet has a happy memorial end.

Ingredients:

• 500g King prawns
• Bundle of Parsley
• 1 Lemon
• 1.5 cup White wine
• 6 cloves Garlic
• Salt, Pepper

Method:

Wash the prawns in running water if possible. Drain and leave aside. Heat up your stove, add some olive oil to your pan, and brown the garlic till golden brown. Make sure that the garlic don’t burn. Raise the heat and when your pan is really hot, throw the prawns in and stir vigorously. Once those prawns start to curl up and get rosy, add ½ a cup of white wine and allow it to simmer until almost dry. Add again the rest of the white wine and let it simmer for another 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste, garnish with parsley and lemon.

Fresh baguette fits perfectly to this meal, as well as white wine. If you prefer beer, it’s also fine to the meal, but be prepared that if you use it for cooking, too much may cause it to get bitter.

Buen apetito!