Prawns with cream and brandy sauce

This is a typically Norman dish - combining prawns, cream and brandy.  Richer than some prawn dishes it has a sophistication that surpasses  many ways of cooking them.

The sauce is an “integral” sauce – that is, it is produced as part of the cooking process of the prawns.

Preparation Time: 10 Mins

Cooking Time: 20 Mins

Total Time: 30 Mins

Ingredients

For 2 servings…

40 gms            Butter       

170 gms           Prawns  - cooked and shelled   

  Pepper  - freshly ground, white         

  Salt              

1 pinch            Nutmeg     

½ tbs              Lemon juice            

1 glass             Brandy      

10 cl               Cream       

1 tbs               Parsley  - chopped finely         

60 ml              Rice  - Patna           

For the rice

60 ml              Rice  - Basmati        

1 pinch            Salt          

Method

To cook the rice…

Wash the rice in cold water until it runs clear.  Put the rice in a sauce pan and add enough water so that the rice is covered to a level of ½ cm.  Add the salt.

Put on a high heat and bring to the boil, stir, turn the heat down as low as possible, cover and cook for 10 minutes.  Leave covered until ready to serve the prawns.

To cook the prawns…

Heat the butter in a frying pan and sauté the well-seasoned prawns gently for two minutes.

Warm the brandy, pour it flaming over the prawns and shake the pan so that the flames spread.  When they have gone out, turn the heat low and leave a minute or two; then turn up the heat and add the cream.  Let it bubble until it starts to thicken, again shaking the pan and spooning the cream over the prawns.

Stir in a little finely chopped parsley and serve the prawns on top of plain boiled rice.

Wine recommendations

An aromatic white wine.

Conventional

     Picpoul de Pinet

Interesting

     Mâcon

     Pinot Gris

     Vouvray sec or demi-sec