Fried seafood cocktail with marie rose sauce
This marie rose sauce is made with seriously charred chillies and tomatoes, and a whole garlic head. They give it a particular depth that I love, and you can use it with all kinds of cooked vegetables and meats. The seafood cocktail also works perfectly fine without it, though; you can also serve the cocktail with a commercial tomato or chilli sauce.
15 mins
Prep
40 mins
Cook
4 as a starter
Serving size
Ingredients
For the marie rose sauce:
1 small garlic bulb, thetop fifth cut off to expose the cloves
Flaked sea salt and pepper
180g cherry tomatoes
4 large red chillies
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp chipotle powder (or smoked paprika)
60g mayonnaise
For the fried seafood:
60g panko breadcrumbs
40g desiccated coconut40g sesame seeds
10g black sesame seeds
2 makrut lime leaves, pulled off stalks and finely chopped (optional)
100g plain flour
2 eggs, beaten
200g squid tubes, cleaned, patted dry and cut into 6cm x 3cm rectangles
250g raw large king prawns, patted dry
600ml vegetable oil
1 red chilli, finely julienned
1 spring onion, finely julienned
1 lime - zest finely grated, to get ½ tsp, then cut into wedges, to serve
Method
- Start with the sauce. Heat the oven to 230C/450F/gas 8. Sprinkle the garlic bulb with some salt and pepper, wrap tightly in foil and put on an oven tray lined with baking paper alongside the tomatoes and chillies. Roast for 20 minutes, until the vegetables begin to blacken and blister, then remove from the oven. When cool enough to handle, squeeze the garlic cloves into the small bowl of a food processor, and discard the papery skins. Add the chillies (deseeded, if you don’t like too much heat), tomatoes, maple syrup, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle powder and half a teaspoon of flaked salt, and blitz to combine. Leave to cool completely, mix in the mayonnaise and refrigerate.
- While the garlic is roasting, mix the panko in a bowl with the coconut, sesame seeds, lime leaves (if using), a teaspoon of flaked salt and a generous grind of pepper. In a second bowl, mix the flour with two teaspoons of flaked salt and plenty of pepper. Put the eggs in a third, shallow bowl.
- Set a metal rack over a tray, then prepare the seafood. Dip the squid and prawns first in the flour, then the egg and finally the panko mixture, shaking off any excess as you go, then lay on the rack while you coat the rest of the seafood.
- Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium-high flame and have ready a large tray covered with plenty of kitchen paper. Once the oil is very hot, fry the chillies and spring onions for about two minutes, stirring them with a slotted spoon until crisp and golden brown, then transfer to the lined tray and sprinkle with a little flaked salt.
- Fry the squid and prawns in batches, so you don’t overcrowd the pan. Drop each piece carefully into the oil and fry for one to two minutes on each side, until golden brown and very crisp. Transfer to the lined tray as you go, and sprinkle with flaked salt.
- When you’re ready to serve, arrange the fried seafood on a platter and sprinkle over the lime zest, fried chilli and spring onions. Serve with the marie rose sauce and lime wedges.