Recipes / Fish
Garlic butter prawns on the braai
Shell-on prawns split down the back, basted with garlic, lemon and parsley butter and cooked fast over hot coals in a hinged grid.
- Prep
- 25 min
- On the fire
- 6 min
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Garlic butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
On a skottel?
- Heat the skottel on a high flame, add a little oil and lay the prawns in one layer, cut side down. Cook 2 minutes a side.
- Turn the flame to low, pour in half the garlic butter and toss for 30 seconds so it coats the shells without burning.
- Cut along the back of each prawn shell with kitchen scissors, from the head end to the tail. Open the cut a little and pull out the dark vein.
- Rinse the prawns, pat them dry and toss them with the oil and salt.
- Melt the butter in a small pot at the edge of the fire. Add the garlic and chilli and let it sizzle gently for 2 minutes without browning.
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in the lemon juice, zest, parsley and salt. Pour half into a bowl for serving.
- Lay the prawns in a hinged grid in one layer and close it. Cook over hot coals for 2 to 3 minutes a side, brushing the cut side with garlic butter each time you turn.
- Move the grid to the edge of the fire if the butter flares. Tip the prawns onto a platter, pour over the butter you kept aside and serve with the lemon wedges.
Done when: the shells are bright pink, the flesh has turned from grey to white all the way through and a thermometer in the thickest prawn reads 63°C (145°F). Take them off straight away, as they turn rubbery fast.
Tips
- Leave the shells on. They protect the flesh from the heat and hold the butter in the cut.
- Frozen prawns work well. Thaw them overnight in the fridge and dry them well before oiling.
- Keep the serving butter apart from the basting brush once it has touched raw prawns.
Prawns in garlic butter came into South African cooking from Mozambique, where Portuguese cooks grilled big prawns over coals and served them with butter, lemon and chilli. Restaurants in Johannesburg and Durban made “LM prawns” famous, named after Lourenço Marques, the old name for Maputo. At home they are a fast extra on a braai, cooked last while the meat rests. Serve them with braai garlic bread to soak up the butter.