Creamy Tiger Prawn Gratin

This really does make a wonderful starter, slightly unusual flavours with the chilli and the lime but it’s always a winner and always has guests scraping the sides. I think that it is a Delia recipe but the scrap of paper I have in my file at home doesn’t say where it came from.

And the best part, it can be all put together in a nano-second and takes a mere blink of an eye to cook. It is also pretty much fool-proof so if you’ve over clubbed it on the pre-prandial drinks you should still be able to get this to the table without too much of a fuss.


You will need:

1 medium sized onion chopped fine
2 cloves of garlic chopped fine
1 Thai chilli, chopped fine
1 lime, juiced and zest peeled off
8 or 12 (depending how generous you feel and how large your gratin dishes are!) large tiger prawns, shelled and de-veined. You can use frozen prawns no problem.
3 rashers streaky bacon chopped into little pieces.
200ml double cream
100g fontina cheese.


You will also need four shallow gratin dishes.

Fontina comes from the Val D’Aosta in Northern Italy and is a soft cows milk cheese that melts brilliantly. If you can’t find it substitute Tallegio or perhaps even Gruyere. On Friday I made this dish and used Raclette which actually worked pretty well.

In a small frying pan with a drop of EV olive oil fry the bacon pieces until crispy. Once done place in a little bowl lined with kitchen paper.

Then in the same pan fry the onion, garlic and chilli very gently until soft and translucent. Put to one side.

Peel the zest from the lime and then juice it.

Take your four gratin dishes and in each place an equal portion of the onion mixture, the bacon pieces, the lime zest and lime juice.

Divide the prawns equally between the four dishes. Pour about 50ml of fresh cream into each dish (I didn’t say it was healthy!).

Cut the cheese into thin slices, Fontina is pretty hard to grate due to its texture, but slice it up as best you can. Divide equally between the four dishes and put on top of the prawns and cream.

Heat the grill until very hot, stick the dishes under the grill close to the fire and cook for about 5 mins until slightly browned and bubbling and the prawns have turned pink and yummy.

Serve with some crusty bread and some Tabasco for those that want a hotter kick.