it was one big fat greek farewell dinner. one of my besties is moving out east this week (tear). so i cooked up another culinary experiment in celebration of good friendship and, of course, good food & wine. no plate-smashing that evening — just plenty of yummy noises and lots of laughs!
this is part one of a two-recipe post. to start: ouzo prawns & fennel arugula salad. opa!
stay tuned for part two: moussaka!
fennel again, you ask? well, apart from being on a fennel kick, i thought that the anise flavour of fennel would pair nicely with the licorice flavour of the traditional greek aperitif, ouzo. if you prefer to skip the ouzo in this recipe, there will still be a decent amount of licorice flavour from the fennel alone.
the fennel:
- remove 1 fennel bulb from green stems & fronds
- slice bulb into quarters along the vertical and remove the inner core
- slice fennel into thin sticks
the prawns:
- heat up 2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil in large wok on medium heat
- add 1.5 cups raw prawns (deveined, deshelled) to wok
- carefully drizzle 1 tsp ouzo over prawns (optional)
- season w/ ground black peppercorns
- add a dash of sea salt
- sauté prawns & stir ingredients for 1-2min until partially cooked
- then add 2 tomatoes (rough chop) to prawns
- sauté prawns & tomatoes for another 2-3min until cooked
- remove from heat. prawns & tomatoes best served warm w/ the fennel & arugula.
