Dear roasted red pepper sauce, where have you been, all of my life?
I’m scrambling for words to describe its awesomeness. To give you an idea, after taking one bite of this dish, hubby’s first comment was, “This one can serve to guests”.
To give credit where it’s due, I actually got the idea from one of my favourite chefs, Chef Joel Mielle from www.recipe30.com He originally created the sauce to be used with chicken. When I did additional research on Google, I discovered most variations of the sauce featured chicken as protein.
But that day, I didn’t feel like chicken. We just had chicken yesterday. Would it work with … prawns?
You see, I’d just received a fresh batch of tiger prawns from my supplier. I wondered if this sauce would complement the more delicate prawns, or prove too overpowering. Well, there was only one way to find out.
After comparing nearly a dozen recipes, I decided to stick to Chef Joel’s version of the sauce. First, I had all the ingredients already. Secondly, his recipe had the shortest ingredient list!
As for the recipe, there are really just two stages
:
1) Roast the red peppers and blend it into a sauce.
This is the most time-consuming part of the whole process because you have to leave the peppers in the oven for about an hour, until the skins start to turn black and shrivel up. But it’s worth the wait because when this happens, the red pepper acquires a smoky flavour and turns into this mushy, almost creamy pulp.
Once blended, the roasted red pepper flesh become this sweet, piquant, creamy, bright, silky, MAGICAL sauce that is delicious with EVERYTHING.
2) Lightly saute your prawns and season them, then serve with sauce.
Yes, that’s it!
The roasted red pepper sauce is one super amazingly versatile sauce
You can do tons of other things with it:
1) Serve it with a lightly seasoned protein such as prawns, which is what I’m doing here.
2) Use it as a spread for burgers or sandwiches
3) Replace tomato sauce over pizza
4) Convert it into red pesto by adding nuts
The sky is the limit, so knock yourself out 🙂
Oh in case you’re wondering, hubby laid out the food 😊. He’s the plating pro!
Pangrilled Prawns with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Equipment
- Oven, saucepan, blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 2 big red bell peppers
- 6-8 large tiger prawns
- 2-3 shallots, skinned and diced
- 1/4 cup stock (chicken, prawn, etc is fine)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Oil for saute-ing
- A dash of cream (optional)
Instructions
- Slice red peppers in half and remove seeds. Place them cut side down on a lightly oiled tray and roast in pre-heated oven until the skins turn black (about 40 minutes). Let cool and remove skins.
- In a saucepan, heat up oil and saute chopped shallots. Add stock.
- Add roasted red pepper flesh from 1) and shallot-stock mixture from 2) to a blender or food processor. Blend into a smooth paste and voila, you have your sauce base!
- In the meantime, prepare prawns. Heat up a little oil in saucepan and sate prawns on both sides for 2-3 minutes, until cooked. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.
- Before serving, heat up sauce and season with salt and pepper. Add a splash of cream if you wish.To plate, spoon sauce over plate and arrange prawns on top. Done!