Prawns in White Wine Recipe

Gambas al Vino Blanco
Prawns in a white wine sauce is a delicious dish which can be served as a main course for 4 on boiled rice or with crusty bread. It is a quick and easy dish to make but is very tasty. If you prefer you can substitute sherry for the white wine.

One of the ingredients is fish stock which you can make yourself or you can just buy some ready made stock. If you do buy ready made stock be careful about how much salt you then add to the sauce as the stock may be salty.

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 25g butter
  • 700g large prawns – peeled but with the tail on
  • 70g serrano ham chopped into small cubes (chopped bacon can be used if you can’t get serrano ham)
  • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
  • 75ml white wine
  • chopped fresh parsley to garnish

For the sauce

  • 25g butter
  • flour or corn flour
  • 175ml milk
  • 175ml fish stock – see Fish Stock Recipe
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • black pepper
  • salt

Cooking Method

First make a white sauce using the butter, milk, fish stock and mustard. I do this by putting the milk in a pan and adding the butter, fish stock, Dijon mustard and black pepper. I heat this gently and then add the cornflour to thicken the sauce and bring this to the boil. You should make this sauce a little thicker than you want the end result to be as you will be adding a little more liquid to it later. I then reduce the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes. Check the seasoning and salt if necessary.

If you prefer you can make the white sauce in the more traditional way of making a roux and then adding the milk, fish stock and mustard.

Now put the butter and olive oil into a frying pan and heat until very hot. Keep the heat high and add the prawns, serrano ham (or bacon) and the chopped parsley and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the white wine, bring to the boil and cook for another 2 minutes. Add all of this to the sauce, stir well and heat through.

I choose to serve this on boiled rice but you could just as easily serve it with crusty bread.