This is one of my favourite summer lunches, or indeed suppers, of all time. I don’t normally portion food up individually, but this is how I make this: one person, one plate.
Serves 2
lemon 1
garlic 2 cloves
spring onion 1, roughly chopped
groundnut oil 2 tbsp
olive oil 5 tbsp
cos lettuce hearts 3, or 1 large cos lettuce
raw prawns 375g, medium, shelled and deveined
chives a small bunch, chopped
Peel the lemon by cutting the top and bottom off, then sit it upright on one end, and cut away the zest and pith from top to bottom with a sharp knife, turning it with your non-cutting hand as you go. Discard the skin and chop the flesh roughly and put it in a food processor with one of the cloves of garlic and the spring onion, and blitz. Open, scrape down, then stick the lid back on and, with the motor running, pour the groundnut oil and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil down the funnel into the processor. Roughly tear the cos lettuce into pieces, toss with this dressing and divide between two large plates.
Heat the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan and gently heat the second garlic clove until lightly golden to infuse the oil. Take out the garlic clove and add the prawns to the pan. Cook for 5-6 minutes until cooked through and no longer glassy in the middle. Spoon them over the dressed salad leaves, being scrupulously fair as to how you divide them (if there’s an odd number, I’d wolf it down as you stand by the stove), and sprinkle over the chopped chives.
From Nigella Summer by Nigella Lawson (Chatto & Windus, £25)
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