Ingredients
- <ul> <li>200g pearl barley</li> <li>1 cinnamon stick</li> <li>Juice of 2 lemons</li> <li>Juice of 1 lime</li> <li>100ml olive oil</li> <li>2 tsp ground cumin</li> <li>Salt and pepper</li> <li>Large bunch coriander </li> <li>Large bunch flat leaf parsley</li> <li>1 red onion, peeled and finely diced</li> <li>1 head celery, finely chopped</li> <li>500g frozen prawns, defrosted and drained</li> <li>Good knob butter</li> <li>1 tbsp sumac or za’atar spice</li> <li>2 cloves garlic</li> <li>Sprinkle dried chilli flakes</li> <li>125g (approx) mache or lamb’s lettuce</li> <li>120g (approx) flaked almonds, toasted</li> <li/> </ul>
Cook the pearl barley and cinnamon stick in boiling water until the barley is tender (about 25-30 minutes). Drain really well (discard the cinnamon stick) and then mix in a bowl with the half the lemon juice, all of the lime juice, half of the olive oil, all of the cumin and plenty of salt and pepper. Allow this to cool and then mix it in with the coriander, parsley, red onion and celery. Set aside.
Heat up the rest of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Add the prawns. Inevitably they will go a bit rubbery, but keep the heat up high and eventually the water will evaporate off . Add the butter, spices, garlic and chilli.
If you still feel not enough caramelisation is happening, add in a sprinkle of sugar or squeeze of honey. This will get things colouring.
Season and taste. When you are happy that the prawns are mega tasty, toss them into the salad and mix.
Arrange the lettuce on a big plate, spoon the barley and prawns on top, scatter with toasted almonds and serve.
