Prawn cocktail plonk plate

Name: Prawn cocktail plonk plate
Cook time: 30 min
Yield: 6-8 as part of a spread
Cuisine: Modern Australian
Ingredients: 500g prawns, deveined, tails intact, butterflied; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 1½ tbsp olive oil; ½ tbsp Urfa biber* (dark red pepper flakes) or sumac (to taste)

Katrina Meynink

December 9, 2020

Prawn cocktail, but make it a platter.Katrina Meynink

easyTime:< 30 minsServes:6-8 as part of a spread

Love an old-school prawn cocktail. Don't love the fiddly prep. This is a plonk plate with all the essentials.

Ingredients

Spiced prawns

500g prawns, deveined, tails intact, butterflied
1 tbsp lemon juice
1½ tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp Urfa biber* (dark red pepper flakes) or sumac (to taste)

Rose harissa and tomato cocktail sauce

2 tbsp rose harissa (or to taste)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup Kewpie mayonnaise

Salad

2 limes, peeled and sliced
1 lemon, peeled and sliced
2 green chillies, deseeded, sliced
5 mint sprigs, leaves picked and roughly chopped
½ bunch coriander, leaves picked finely chopped
5 dill sprigs, fronds picked
3 stalks spring onion, white and green part sliced
50ml olive oil
2 small avocados, diced

Method

1. For the cocktail sauce, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Cover and place in the fridge until ready to serve.
2. For the salad, combine all the ingredients in a bowl and using your hands toss to combine, giving them the odd gentle squeeze to get the juices from the lemons and limes through the salad.
3. Turn a barbecue hotplate to medium-high heat. Toss the butterflied prawns in the lemon juice and olive oil then add to the hotplate. Cook for approximately 1 minute and turn and cook for another 45 seconds or so. You want the prawn meat to have turned white and just taken on a lovely hit of charry colour.
4. To serve, scoop the cocktail sauce onto the centre of a serving plate. Add the prawns to one end and season with the urfa biber pepper (or sumac). Add the salad and avocado chunks to the other end of the platter. Serve immediately as this is best when the prawns are warm and the salad still has freshness and crunch.
*Urfa biber is available fom Middle Eastern and specialty grocers