FROM THE GALLEY OF ... Tim Bridgen, aboard Marionette

Prawns in their own sauce (serves 2–4) Technically this is a bisque, but it’s not too cheffy and is entirely doable in the galley!

Ingredients

• 500g prawns (more if you have them!) • 1 large white onion, peeled and sliced • 1 large carrot, washed and sliced • 2 celery stalks with their leaves, sliced * • 1 desert spoon tomato concentrate • 1 table spoon brandy (optional) • 2 table spoons double cream (optional) • 1 pinch saffron (optional)

The prawns can be any type, any size, boiled or raw, fresh or frozen – but they MUST have their heads and shells on. That’s where all their flavour is. If frozen, defrost. If raw, put in boiling, salted water for no more than five minutes until they all turn bright pink. Allow to cool, then peel, retaining the heads, shells, tails and legs – everything. Chefs always say to ‘de-vein’ them, removing the black line down the backs of larger ones, but I don’t bother.

Put the shells etc on a shallow baking tray, sprinkle them liberally with olive oil and put them in the oven at 180°C (350°F / Gas Mk 4 / moderate) for about 20 minutes. Browned is okay but don’t let them char. Remove from the oven and tip the shells into a large pot, scraping any bits that have stuck to the tray in with them. Add the onions, celery, carrot and enough cold water to just cover everything. Simmer gently for an hour with the lid on. Do not season!

Strain through a sieve, pressing with the back of a spoon to retain as much of the prawny, veggie goodness as possible. Pour back into the pot and boil vigorously with the lid off until reduced by a half. Lower the heat, add all the other ingredients except the peeled prawns, and simmer very gently for five minutes. Season to taste and, depending how thick you’d like the sauce, you might want to thoroughly mix a teaspoon of cornflour (US: cornstarch) with a tablespoon of cold water and stir into the pan off the heat.

Just before serving, stir in the peeled prawns and allow to warm through. Alternatively you could fry the pawns very briefly in garlic butter (they’re already cooked) and pour the warm sauce over them.

Lovely with fresh, crusty bread to soak up the sauce, or poured over pasta.

* If celery is not available a fennel bulb would be good (but probably also unobtainable).

Cristofine or pak choi might work, otherwise a good old vegetable stock cube.