Double garlic hit with these Garlic Brown Butter Shrimp! Shrimp/prawns marinated in garlic drizzled with garlic infused brown butter, served on a cloud of cauliflower puree. Elegant, fast and EASY!
This is my copycat of a dish I had at a posh Sydney restaurant. Do you ever go to restaurants, order expensive dishes, pay a fortune and think “heck, I could make this myself!”?
That’s exactly what I did in this case. It’s such a simple, beautiful flavour combination which was super easy to replicate at home.
Ahem. OK. To be entirely truthful, I may have rather extensively grilled the poor waiter to get as much detail as I could…and he actually had to go into the kitchen to get all the answers! 🙂
The extra garlic flavour is what caught my attention. Turns out the prawns (shrimp) were drizzled with melted roasted garlic butter. The special finishing touch.
Easy enough to copy. BUT roasting garlic takes around 50 minutes in the oven which, in my books, is not worth doing when you only need a teeny bit for the butter. So I decided to make mine with a garlic infused brown butter instead which takes around 7 minutes. The flavour is remarkably similar!
For a dish like this which is so simple but elegant, the key is using GOOD SHRIMP / PRAWNS! Prawns are a treat in my books. Raw whole fresh prawns in Sydney are around $20 – $25 per kg ($10 – $12.50 per lb).
When I splurge on prawns, my biggest fear is overcooking them. Have you ever had overcooked prawns? They’re bouncy, kind of like rubber. Horrid.
It’s a crime to overcook prawns in my books.
And it is way easier to tell if a prawn is perfectly cooked than it is to know if a steak is perfectly medium rare. See? Simple as this:
I really recommend purchasing either whole prawns and peeling them yourself or buying peeled fresh prawns. Frozen prawns just aren’t the same!
The crowning glory of this is the brown butter. You do not need very much! I know it sounds utterly indulgent, but actually it is not that bad! You do need 3 tablespoons to make the brown butter, but you only end up using 2 tablespoons because the rest gets discarded.
So don’t feel so guilty.
You deserve a treat. Or find a reason to indulge / celebrate a romantic evening. This is perfect for that!
– Nagi x
- 10 oz / 300 g peeled prawns (12 to 14 large prawns) (about 500g whole unpeeled prawns)
- 2 cloves garlic , crushed
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp white wine
- 3 tbsp salted butter
- 2 garlic cloves , smashed (Note 1)
- 1/2 medium cauliflower , broken into florets
- 1 to 3 tbsp butter (or to taste)
- 1/3 to 2/3 cup milk
- Salt and pepper
- Parsley , finely chopped
-
Garlic Prawns: Combine ingredients except the wine in a bowl, using your fingers to toss gently. Set aside for 10 minutes.
-
Cauliflower Puree: Cook the cauliflower in boiling water until soft - about 10 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly. Transfer cauliflower to a blender or food processor, add butter, 1/3 cup of milk, salt and pepper. Puree until smooth, using extra milk to get the texture to your liking. Leave in the blender with the lid on to keep warm.
-
Place the butter and garlic in a small silver saucepan or small silver fry pan over medium heat. After a few minutes, the butter will start to foam. Then it will begin to turn brown, begin to smell nutty and little brown flecks will appear.
-
When the garlic is a golden brown colour, transfer to a small bowl (I pick them out with chopsticks).
-
When the butter turns a golden brown colour, remove from the stove. Carefully pour the butter into the bowl with the garlic, leaving the brown specks in the saucepan (they are a bit bitter). You should have about 2 tbsp of browned butter.
-
Heat a skillet over high heat (no oil). Add the prawns and cook for 50 seconds or until the underside has just a hint of golden brown. Turn and cook the other side for 30 seconds, then add the wine and cook for another 30 seconds or until the wine has evaporated.
-
Spread about 1 cup of Cauliflower Puree onto a plate. Top with half the prawns, drizzle with browned butter and sprinkle with parsley.
1. I used smashed garlic cloves in this rather than crushed/minced garlic because it burns and turns bitter. Use the palm of your hand to hit the side of a knife to smash the garlic so it sort of "bursts" open into 2 or 3 largish pieces. The skin will slip right off. (This is also how I peel garlic cloves!)
2. The nutrition reflects that even though the Browned Butter calls for 3 tbsp of butter, 1 tbsp is discarded. Nutrition for shrimp/prawns only on the left and nutrition with cauliflower puree on the right.
Hi Nagi! I was wondering, is there anything one can replace white wine with?
Hi there Zainab! Yup, just replace it with a splash of chicken broth! 🙂
My husband cooked this for me tonight. We both loved it, what a treat! He used fresh (large) prawns, indeed a huge difference. The brown butter on top of the cauliflower puree and prawns was delicious! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe. Will definitely make this again! ☺️
Oooh! Lucky lucky you, having a wonderful husband to cook for you! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, thank your HUBBY for me too for trying my recipe! 🙂 Brown butter brown butter….I can’t get enough of it! 🙂
I made your cauliflower recipe tonight and unfortunately not the shrimp, but I will get there! I thought it was delicious, but my two guys (one younger and one older) were turned off by the peppery flavor that I can only compare to the slight bite that raw cabbage can have. Is there a way to avoid that for future? Obviously cauliflower does not get served often in our home.
Hi there! Hmm, I’m actually struggling to understand what you mean!! Cauliflower puree is really creamy, it tastes quite rich actually. I don’t detect any “bite” – I know what you mean by that. That’s rather odd! Was the cauliflower cooked until soft?
I didn’t mean for “bite” to have anything to do with the texture. It was definitely cooked through and everything pureed together wonderfully. Hmmm, how describe… there was a spicy hotness to it that could not be attributed to any seasoning. I wondered if maybe it had something to do with the cauliflower; too ripe, not ripe enough, picked under the waxing crescent moon in a month ending with ‘C’ruciferous.
I got that! 🙂 I knew you meant “bite” as in flavour. I am quite baffled though! I must say, I have never tried an unripe cauliflower so I am wondering if it has something to do with that That’s all I can guess because there are definitely no spicy seasonings in the puree! 🙂
Mysterious cruciferous then. There was a slight bit of green on the bottoms of the stalks, so maybe it was just a little under ripe. I shall have to try again! Thanks!
I’m with you in that whenever I go to a restaurant and come across a dish I like I am on it that weekend trying to replicate it. To me that’s fun… or am I crazy? Either way this looks wonderful and that last shot with the spoon pouring the sauce… drool. 🙂
Nope. You aren’t crazy. It IS fun!! 🙂
Great illustration of properly cooked prawns… thank you.
Glad you find it useful Ingrid! 🙂
Beautiful dish Nagi! Love both shrimp and cauliflower and the garlic browned butter is the perfect addition!
Thanks so much Mira!! Not many things that brown butter doesn’t got with, right?! 🙂
This looks luscious! And it’s great you included the overcooked versus perfectly cooked shrimp picture! More restaurant chefs should be aware of that haha.
That’s right!! I can’t believe restaurants serve overcooked shrimp. It’s offensive!!
This looks incredible!! I’m so glad you grilled the waiter because doing so gave me another recipe to pin! 🙂
Thank you so much!! Hope you are having a WONDERFUL weekend! N x
Double garlic and browned butter? Swoon!! And then you’re seriously sending me over the edge adding some amazing looking prawns and cauliflower – favorites! Love the diagram about overcooking them. I’m always wide eyed and hovering over the pan because I do NOT like my shrimp tasting like rubber and it’s so easy to step away for “just a sec” and then, done. Horrible feeling! But this dish looks simply divine. I menu plan like a crazy person but left a night open for the “day we met” anniversary with my husband next week and this sounds like such a perfect dinner to celebrate!
I know what you mean!! I’m so paranoid about overcooking shrimp I never leave the stove either!! 🙂 Oooh, so romantic!! So – wedding anniversary, “day we met” anniversary – have you got a “first kiss”, “first date”, “proposal” anniversary too? I presume you get PRESENTS for each anniversary, hmmm? 😉
Haha! Nope, just the first date and wedding anniversaries. And nope, no presents. We don’t even do presents for Valentine’s Day. Geez, are we that old already? But I do try and make a special dinner for occasions – all about the food 😉