The Pastry Queen’s Prawn, Parsley and Prosciutto Tostada
This easy and quick recipe for prawn, parsley and prosciutto tostadas are a solid contender for the perfect summer supper: fresh, tasty and full of bright flavours.
There are certain cookbooks that you find yourself addicted to. You carry them around in your bag in case you get a spare few minutes to read it at work, all other cookbooks become forlorn because this particular one is getting preferential treatment. And then along comes another cookbook to usurp the last favourite and so the cycle continues and so our menu (and waistbands) expand further still.
My favourite cookbook a few years ago was Rebecca Rather’s The Pastry Queen. I didn’t have high hopes for this book when I ordered it, other than a few reviews on Amazon and someone who had said that the author seemed like a Texan version of Nigella Lawson. Still, I was intrigued and when it turned up, I was charmed, beguiled and seduced by the book.
The recipes are unlike any others that I had cooked before; café style cakes and muffins, unusual Tex-Mex hybrid dishes and classics, like chicken pot pies and jumbo chocolate chip cookies. I cooked from it incessantly.
The pecan pie bars were, as every other Pecan pie endeavour I’ve had, a runny but tasty failure. The whole lemon muffins were delicious, tangy and moreish. The peach kolaches tested my baking skills (and the size of my bakeware) but I was rewarded with rolls that were softer than any other bread dough I had ever tasted.
Yet, as time passed, Rather’s book was replaced by Nigel Slater and Diana Henry, British food writers who intrinsically understand the English desire for cosy comfort food. The Pastry Queen became relegated to the bottom of the pile.
That is until Tim mentioned that he fancied something “hot weather” for dinner. Suddenly I thought of Rather’s book and her section of unusual quesadillas and tostadas. I shoehorned the book out from the bottom of the pile, blew the dust off and started reading. It was as if I had been reunited with an old friend. I remembered recipes that I had cooked, some that I had long forgotten making (such is my short memory) and was pleased to see that my tastes had changed enough to consider making some of the recipes that I had previously skirted over. Such is the nature of the constant cook.
So, Friday night, whilst sniffling over a cold, I decided to make something summery and bright: Prawn, Parsley and Proscuitto Tostadas. Curiously I had everything in the house to make this dish: a work collegue had passed a packet of the paper thin Italian ham to us (“it’s too stringy”) and I had just purchased a pot of curly leaf parsley to let die on the windowsill and keep the other twigs company. The scene was set.
I had never had Tostadas before so eating a crispy, open tortilla was somewhat of a novelty. However, the flavours were positively bursting with summery joy and whilst I would put a little less lemon juice in, it felt like a tiny piece of Baja in our living room.
Tip! If you too find prosciutto a little “stringy” quickly fry it in a hot frying pan to crisp it up a little.
Customise Your Tostada!
- Try replacing the parsley with coriander for a more fragrant herb.
- You can replace the prosciutto with rags of smoked salmon if you’d prefer.
- I prefer to use lime sometimes instead of lemon.
- I like to drizzle the tostadas with sour cream or a herby yogurt dressing.
The Pastry Queen’s Prawn, Parsley and Prosciutto Tostada
INGREDIENTS
- 2 Flour tortillas (you might use 4 if you have small tortillas)
- 200 g Prawns chopped if using king prawns.
- 1 Onion small, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice or lime juice
- 20 g Parsley roughly chopped
- 1 Spring onion large, or two small ones, chopped, including greenery
- 1 clove Garlic Finely chopped
- 3 tablespoon Olive oil extra virgin
- 1 tsp White wine vinegar to taste. The recipe asks for Champagne Vinegar so use that if you have it
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 Chargrilled pepper I use jarred, cut into strips
- 8 Slices Prosciutto
- 1 handful Lettuce leaves Mixed, preferably soft small leafy ones
- tbsp Sour cream optional
INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil and saute the onion until softly transclucent.
- Add the garlic and spring onions and cook until the whole mixture has started to collapse and is fragrant. Do not let burn.
- Roughly chop the prawns (you don't need to chop if you're using small prawns) and throw them into the frying pan. If they are raw, cook until they turn pink. If already cooked, just heat through.
- Now stir in the chopped parsley.
- Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and vinegar, judicially at first, tasting as you go along. Season well.
- Optional: In another frying pan, throw in the pink rags of prosciutto and cook over high heat until they curl and crisp up, about 30 seconds. Remove to a plate.
- In the same frying pan, or under a hot grill, toast the tortillas until they are puffy and a little browned in places.
Assembling the Tostadas
- Stir the salad greens through the prawn mixture and divide between the two tortillas.
- Top with the prosciutto.
- Drape the chargrilled pepper slices on top of the tostada.
- Add some sour cream if desired, although not necessary.
- Apply to face and have napkins to hand!
