Gordon Ramsay’s grilled shrimp is prawns coated in a toasted spice paste of cumin, coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika and cayenne, marinated for two hours, then griddled for 2 minutes each side until charred and just firm. Ready in 15 minutes once marinated.
The recipe is from Bread Street Kitchen, where Ramsay calls them “perfect for a summer barbecue with friends” and says to “expect much lip-smacking and finger-licking as your friends try to catch every last drop of the delicious sauce.” The spice paste does all the work, so the prawns only need four minutes on the heat.
Toasting the six spices in a dry pan for five minutes before blending them into the paste is what makes this different from just dusting prawns with powder. The heat wakes up the oils in each spice, and cooking them in a little olive oil after toasting locks that flavour in so it sticks to the prawns rather than washing off on the grill.
Gordon Ramsay’s Grilled Shrimp
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings15
minutes4
minutes215
kcal2 hours 20
minutesSpiced grilled prawns from Bread Street Kitchen. Six toasted spices blended into a paste with red onion, garlic, lemon and fresh herbs, marinated for 2 hours and griddled until charred. Source: Bread Street Kitchen (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015).
Ingredients
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1½ tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
100ml olive oil
1 small red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
Juice of 1 lemon
3 fresh coriander sprigs, roughly chopped
3 flat leaf parsley sprigs, roughly chopped
500g (1 lb 2 oz) raw large prawns, peeled and deveined
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Lime quarters, to garnish
Directions
- Toast the spices: Mix the cumin, coriander, turmeric, sweet paprika, smoked paprika and cayenne together. Place in a dry frying pan over a low heat and toast gently for 5 minutes, shaking the pan from time to time. Stir in 25ml of the olive oil and cook gently for another 5 minutes. Leave to cool.
- Make the paste: Put the red onion, garlic, lemon juice, chopped coriander, parsley and toasted spice mixture into a bowl. Add half of the remaining olive oil and blitz with a stick blender to a thick paste. Add the rest of the olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and blitz briefly to combine.
- Marinate the prawns: Add the prawns to the paste and turn to coat all over. Cover and leave in the fridge for 2 hours.
- Bring to room temperature: Remove the prawns from the fridge 15 minutes before cooking.
- Grill the prawns: Heat a griddle pan, frying pan or barbecue until very hot. Cook the prawns in batches of about five at a time for 2 minutes on each side.
- Serve: Transfer to a platter, garnish with lime quarters and serve with a crunchy salad and crusty bread for mopping up the juices.
FAQs
Why does Ramsay toast the spices before making the paste?
Raw ground spices taste dusty and one-dimensional. Five minutes in a dry pan on low heat releases the oils trapped inside each one, which is why you can suddenly smell them across the kitchen. He then stirs in olive oil and cooks for another five minutes, which binds the flavour into the oil so it coats the prawns properly instead of falling off on the grill.
How long should the prawns marinate?
Two hours in the fridge, minimum. Ramsay says they “take a long time to marinate but only a few minutes to cook,” which is the whole point of this recipe: all the work is done in advance. Take them out 15 minutes before grilling so they come to room temperature, because cold prawns on a hot griddle steam instead of searing.
How do you know when the prawns are done?
Two minutes each side. They should be pink all over, lightly charred where the paste touches the griddle, and slightly firm when you press them. If they curl into a tight ball they have gone too far. Ramsay cooks them in batches of five so the pan stays hot, because crowding drops the temperature and you end up steaming them.
His timing drops to about one minute per side when poaching prawns in sauce rather than searing, which is the pattern across how Ramsay cooks prawns in all his books.
What is the sweet pepper sauce from the video?
In a separate video, Ramsay makes a romesco-style sauce for grilled prawns: fried garlic and bread blitzed with roasted red peppers, smoked paprika, chilli flakes, almonds, lemon and sherry vinegar. He says “this sauce keeps really well in the fridge and will intensify in flavour.” For those prawns he keeps it even simpler: “just add olive oil and griddle for 2 minutes on each side.”
If you want a dipping sauce without the effort, his BBQ sauce works well with grilled seafood.
Can you use a griddle pan instead of a barbecue?
Ramsay says “heat a large griddle or frying pan or a barbecue until very hot,” so all three work. A cast-iron griddle gives you the char lines. The key is getting it properly hot before the prawns go on, because the paste needs direct high heat to caramelise rather than just warm through.
His Make It Easy has a lemongrass version done entirely on the barbecue, where he warns “coals need to be white, with no flame, or you will scorch the food before it’s properly cooked.”
What goes well alongside grilled prawns?
Ramsay serves the BSK version with “a crunchy salad and crusty bread for mopping up the juices.” His prawn salad with spicy yoghurt dressing works as a starter, or turn it into a full meal by serving the prawns over rice alongside the prawn curry for a two-prawn spread.
