Gambas al ajillo

Name: Gambas al ajillo
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Spain
Ingredients: 500 g large raw prawns, peeled and deveined, tails left on; 6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly; 2 small dried guindilla chillies, or 1 whole dried cayenne, left whole; 100 ml extra virgin olive oil; 2 tbsp dry sherry (Manzanilla or Fino), optional but highly recommended; 0.5 lemon, juiced; 1 tsp flaky sea salt; 1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped; 1 loaf crusty bread, to serve

Spanish garlic prawns: the tapa that made a sauce of sizzling garlic and oil famous

Origin: Spain (Madrid / Andalusia)

From the journey of Garlic.

Gambas al ajillo is the most famous tapa in Spain and one of the most replicated dishes in the world; raw prawns cooked in a dramatic quantity of sliced garlic and whole dried chillies in very hot olive oil, arriving at the table still sizzling in a terracotta cazuela, the garlic perfuming the entire room before the dish has even been set down. It is deceptively simple and deceptively easy to get wrong. The oil must be genuinely, almost violently hot; the prawns should be shocked into the oil, curling and turning pink in under two minutes, rather than gently poached in warming fat. The garlic must be sliced, not minced: sliced garlic turns golden and sweet at high heat, while minced garlic scorches in seconds, becoming bitter and acrid, destroying the dish. The version served in Madrid's historic tapas bars often includes a splash of dry sherry, Manzanilla or Fino, added to the pan at the last moment, where it hisses and reduces almost instantly, adding a nutty, rounded oxidative note to the garlic oil. The Andalusian coastal version, closer to the dish's origins, is drier and more austere. The phrase al ajillo, literally 'with garlic' or 'garlic style', recurs throughout Spanish cooking as a preparation applied to a wide range of ingredients: pollo al ajillo (garlic chicken), champiñones al ajillo (garlic mushrooms), bacalao al ajillo (garlic salt cod), cordero al ajillo (garlic lamb). It names an entire philosophy rather than a single dish; the combination of garlic slices fried hard and fast in Spanish olive oil is the flavour bedrock on which an enormous proportion of the Spanish culinary repertoire is constructed. To cook al ajillo is to commit to garlic as a primary flavour, not a background note.

Ingredients

Main

500 g large raw prawns, peeled and deveined, tails left on
6 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thinly

Spice

2 small dried guindilla chillies, or 1 whole dried cayenne, left whole

Cooking

100 ml extra virgin olive oil

Liquid

2 tbsp dry sherry (Manzanilla or Fino), optional but highly recommended

Seasoning

0.5 lemon, juiced
1 tsp flaky sea salt

Garnish

1 small handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

To Serve

1 loaf crusty bread, to serve

Method

Pat the prawns completely dry with kitchen paper. Any surface moisture will cause violent spitting when they hit the hot oil and will lower the pan temperature, causing the prawns to steam rather than sear. Season lightly with flaky salt and set aside.
Choose a wide, heavy pan: a cast iron skillet, carbon steel pan, or traditional terracotta cazuela (preheated very gradually) works best. Add the olive oil and heat over high heat until the oil is visibly shimmering and a small piece of garlic dropped in sizzles aggressively on contact. This will take 2–3 minutes. The oil must be hot before anything else goes in.
Add the sliced garlic and whole dried chillies to the hot oil simultaneously. Stir constantly for 30–45 seconds; the garlic will colour very quickly at this temperature. You are aiming for golden and fragrant, not brown. As soon as the garlic is pale gold at the edges, proceed immediately to the next step.
Add the prawns to the pan in a single layer. Do not crowd them; if your pan is small, cook in two batches. Leave each prawn undisturbed for 45–60 seconds on the first side. You should see the colour change from translucent grey to opaque pink progressing up from the bottom of each prawn.
Flip each prawn and cook for a further 30–45 seconds on the second side. The prawns are done when they are fully pink and opaque throughout, and have curled into a loose C-shape. An overcooked prawn curls into a tight O; remove from heat before this happens.
If using sherry, add it now off the heat or with the flame pulled back; it will hiss and reduce almost instantly in the residual heat of the pan. Squeeze over the lemon juice, scatter with parsley, and taste for salt.
Bring the pan directly to the table still sizzling, or transfer immediately to a prewarmed terracotta cazuela. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the garlic oil; the oil is the point.

Notes

The garlic oil left in the pan is as important as the prawns themselves; it should be soaked up completely with bread. If you have access to a terracotta cazuela, preheat it on the lowest gas flame for several minutes before use so it does not crack; the clay retains heat and keeps the dish sizzling at the table far longer than metal. Frozen raw prawns work well provided they are fully defrosted and thoroughly dried before cooking.

The Gastrographer

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control