Crevettes pil-pil: peeled praws fried in olive oil

Crevettes pil-pil could easily be inherited tapas from the Spanish invasion in the early 19th century.

This is again a quick and easy to make started which requires fresh prawns (ideally, small to medium size) and a good olive oil. The rest is as simple as garlic and chili. That's about it!


For another quick starter recipe with shrimp/prawns, please check this previous post. They're almost similar.


Ingredients
Serves 2
Prep: 1 min - Cooking : 2 min

• 500 g of fresh prawns, small to medium size, peeled
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced or chopped
• 1 tbsp of parley, very finely chopped (optional)
• Salt to taste
• 1 small dried red chili, discard the seeds for less heat
• 1/4 cup of olive oil

Preparation

The result of this recipe is a hot tender prawn which is very pleasant to eat. It's important you don't over-fry it as this would ruin the texture. Basically, the moment we add the prawns to the hot oil, we just knock off the heat.

left, fresh prawns in the market. Right, fresh prawn, peeled, with one cooked prawn in the middle for comparison sake.

In a terracotta or any other pan, slightly heat the oil, add the garlic and chilli. Fry for a few seconds.

Add the prawns, salt, parsley. Knock off the heat and stir the ingredients to make sure the prawns fry in a minute from all sides.

Serve warm as a starter along with bread.