A dish from Falastin, it’s packed with flavour and we recommend adding the optional black olives and feta cheese. A green salad and some crusty bread is also a good choice. The tomato sauce and coriander sauce can both be made in advance, just char your cherry tomatoes and fry the prawns at the end.
Wine Suggestion: Despite this being a seafood dish we think a Southern French red is the way to go with this. Tonight something quite special: Roc des Anges Unic which is a super expressive Grenache with a thrilling tension and energy.
Prawn and tomato stew with coriander pesto – serves 4
- 250g cherry tomatoes
- 60ml olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 2 tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed in a pestle and mortar
- 1½ cumin seeds, lightly crushed in a pestle and mortar
- 8 cardamom pods, lightly bashed in a pestle and mortar
- 20g dill, finely chopped
- 2 tsp tomato purée
- 6 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 600g peeled raw king prawns
- a handful of black kalamata olives (optional)
- 100g feta cheese, crumbled into chunky pieces (optional)
FOR THE CORIANDER PESTO:
- 30g coriander, roughly chopped
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 50g pine nuts, lightly toasted
- 1 lemon, finely grate the zest to get 1½ tsp, then cut into wedges to serve
- 80ml olive oil
Toss the cherry tomatoes with 1 tsp of oil. Heat a large sauté pan over a high heat, then add the cherry tomatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally, until charred and blistered. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Wipe the pan out, then add 2 tbsp of olive oil and place over a medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook for 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until softened and lightly browned. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, spices, dill and tomato purée, then cook for another 2 minutes until fragrant. Add the plum tomatoes and 300ml of water, 1½ tsp salt and plenty of black pepper. Bring to a simmer, then lower the heat and simmer for 25 minutes or until thickened and the tomatoes have broken down.
Meanwhile, make the coriander pesto. Put the coriander, pine nuts and chilli into a food processor and pulse a few times, just until the pine nuts are roughly crumbled. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the olive oil, lemon zest, ¼ tsp of salt and some black pepper. Stir to combine and set aside.
Dry the prawns well then mix in bowl with ¼ tsp of salt, 1 tbsp of oil and plenty of black pepper.
Put 2 tsp of oil into a large frying pan and place on a high heat. When the pan is hot, add the prawns in batches and fry for a minute on each side, until cooked and browned.
Stir the cooked prawns and the charred tomatoes into the tomato sauce and cook over a medium heat for another 3 minutes, to heat through. Transfer the prawns and tomatoes to a serving dish, drizzle over some of the coriander pesto and sprinkle over the olives and crumbled feta.
(Original recipe from Falastin by Sami Tamimi and Tara Wrigley, Ebury Press, 2020.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 