French Fridays with Dorie - Vanilla-Butter-Braised Prawns

Today´s recipe for the French Fridays with Dorie group is Vanilla-Butter-Braised Lobster – I opted for Vanilla-Braised-Prawns instead and served them (three per person) on a bed of Lemon-Steamed Spinach.

Poaching in butter is a technique most often used to cook fish and shellfish gently, resulting in an elegant flavor and a silky texture. Add some real vanilla here, real like the scraped seeds from a fresh, incredibly flavorful Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean, and you are in for a real treat.

The sweet richness of the butter-braised prawns was tempered here by the bright citrus flavor of the lemon zest in the Lemon-Steamed Spinach (also one of my beloved Dorie recipes).This side dish is a breeze to prepare and I was lucky to come across a big bunch of fresh spinach at the store – I also explained the recipe in the parking lot to a fellow shopper who was wondering how to prepare fresh spinach. You see, my dear compatriots are rather fond of their already prepared frozen spinach from that rather well-known company in Northern Germany.

Honestly, we were thrilled with this recipe, all but the youngest taste tester who just could not make herself take a nibble, although she loves fresh spinach prepared this way, she could not explain why the prawns smelled like her favorite homemade dessert (semolina pudding). But the rest of my beloved lunch crowd was sad that the portions I served were rather small. No reason to whine, there will be a next time, no doubt!

To see whether the other members of the French Fridays with Dorie group enjoyed this week´s recipe, please go here.

For copyright reasons, we do not publish the recipes from the book. But you can find the recipe for “Vanilla-Butter-Braised Lobster “ on pages 324-25 in Dorie Greenspan´s cookbook "Around my French Table".