Langoustine and Samphire Stir-Fry
This is fabulous quick and easy dish to serve when you have guests. It only calls for a handful of ingredients but it is nutritious and tasty, provided you can get your hands on garlic chives, which are fragrant and impart a garlicky onion flavour. These can be found in the Chinese supermarkets. Or you could use baby tender leeks and spring onions to give the same sort of flavour. If you like experimenting with your greens and you have a good fishmonger, you can also ask for some Marsh Samphire. These are little hardy cactus looking plants which can be found along the coast so you can pick-your-own at low tide. In the UK, the best place to pick these is along the Norfolk coast! With Marsh Samphire, you can boil them in some water for 2 to 3 minutes, drain and then add them to this dish instead of the garlic chives, crunchy and delicious in the final stages of the stir-fry, this marriage would make this dish almost perfect! If you can't get hold of fresh samphire, why not try cooked samphire preserved in brine it's just as tasty and gives this dish a salty sweet edge.
- Level: Easy
- Total: 25 min
- Prep: 20 min
- Cook: 5 min
- Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon groundnut oil (peanut)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 Dublin Bay prawns (langoustine or jumbo shrimp), boiled, or 12 large raw Tiger prawns (shrimp), shelled, deveined, tail left on
1 teaspoon Shaohsing rice wine or dry sherry
6 ounces fresh marsh samphire, stemmed, or marsh samphire preserved in brine, or 6 ounces garlic chives, washed, trimmed, and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces, or fresh wakame, soaked in water to reduce saltiness*
6 ounces baby tender leeks and spring onions, washed, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
1 teaspoon light soy sauce
Sea salt, optional
Directions
- Heat a wok over high heat and add the groundnut oil. Add the garlic and stir fry for a few seconds.
- Add the prawns and stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes. Then add the Shaohsing rice wine or sherry.
- Add in the fresh samphire or the preserved samphire with a splash of brine or the garlic chives.
- Stir-fry the leeks and spring onions for a minute, and season with the light soy sauce. Add additional salt, if using, to taste, if no brine was used. Transfer the prawns to a platter and serve immediately.
Cook’s Note
*Can be found at specialty Asian markets. If using raw prawns, cook until they start to turn pink.
