Tiger prawn soup with confit tomatoes

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 12 tiger prawns
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoon tomato concentrate
• 1 large red pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
• 1/4 English cucumber, roughly chopped
• 2 large, very ripe Roma tomatoes
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled
• 50 g bread, soaked in 100 ml olive oil
• 50 ml water
• Salt and cayenne pepper
• Pinch of caste sugar

To Serve:

• Make a tomato confit de tomato using cherry tomatoes. – see separate recipe
• Make a pistou – see separate recipe

Method:

• Twist off the heads of the tiger prawns, then remove the shells starting from the underside of the prawns, leaving just the last piece of shell with the tail on. Keep all the heads and shells for the sauce.
• Next, slit the prawns down the backs, not cutting through them completely, and remove the intestine. Set aside the prawns
• Sauce the tiger prawns shells for a minute or so in half of the oil until the shells begin to change colour, then add the tomato concentrate. Sauce for a further minute until the tomato concentrate starts to darken, then cover the prawns with water, Bring to the boil, and skim, then cook over a fairly high heat for 10 minutes. Puree the shells with the liquid in a blender and strain through a fine sieve. Set aside
• Puree the red pepper, cucumber, tomatoes, garlic, the olive oil soaked bread, and the water in a blender together with the stock made from the tiger prawn shells. Season well with salt and cayenne. The soup is great if there is a little bite to it. Add a pinch of salt of sugar if necessary
• Fry the prawns in the remaining oil for 3-4 minutes until they are bright pink and longer transparent. Serve the soup in deep plates, topped with the prawns and the confit tomatoes. Drizzle over the pistou and serve

This soup is usually served cold but if you prefer it hot you could just leave out the cucumber and the bread. You can make it a day before before you serve it.

Recipe by Alex MacKay and photo by Peter Knab