Gambas al Ajillo
Sizzling garlic prawns — six minutes from fridge to table.
Gambas al ajillo is prawns cooked in olive oil with sliced garlic and a little dried chilli, brought to the table still sizzling. It is a tapas-bar dish rather than a dinner-party one: six minutes, one pan, and bread to finish the oil. The only judgement in it is the heat — hot enough to colour the garlic, not so hot it burns.
Ingredients
- 300g raw prawns
- 4 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 dried chilli
- 100ml olive oil
- Parsley
- Salt
Method
- 1
Heat the oil gently with garlic and chilli until the garlic turns pale gold.
- 2
Raise the heat and add the prawns in one layer.
- 3
Cook 1 minute per side until just opaque.
- 4
Off the heat, add salt and chopped parsley.
- 5
Serve in the pan with bread for the oil.
Frozen raw prawns work perfectly here and cost a third of fresh.
The rest of the tapas round
- Pan con Tomate — The bread that mops up the garlic oil.
- Patatas Bravas — The other thing every counter has ready.
The Tapas Atlas
Six Spanish recipes are free here. The guide holds fourteen, plus the ordering language, the pricing rules and the label knowledge that turn a tapas bar from a guess into a decision.
Fourteen Spanish recipes, and the law, language and labels around them.
- Fourteen Spanish recipes with metric and US measures
- Regional context from Andalusia to the Basque Country
- Menu and ordering language for bars and restaurants
- Protected food names and what they guarantee
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