What to eat tonight: Grilled prawn cocktail burgers

Grilled Prawn Cocktail Burgers
Serves six large burgers or ten sliders

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for grilling
1 large onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely diced
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp smoked paprika
zest and juice of 1 lemon
1kg jumbo prawn tails, peeled
2 tbsp soft white breadcrumbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the cocktail sauce
75g mayonnaise
75g ketchup
Tabasco, to taste
15ml brandy
splash of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp smoked paprika

To serve
6 brioche buns (or 10 mini ones)
baby gem lettuce leaves
sliced beef tomato
pickled cucumber

Method

1  Heat the oil in a pan and gently sweat the onion, garlic and carrot over a low-medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the onions are soft. Transfer to a bowl to cool completely and then add the cayenne, paprika and lemon zest and juice.

2  Place the prawn tails in a food processor with the cooled vegetables and breadcrumbs and blitz to a coarse mixture. Season with salt and pepper. Fry a small amount of the mixture so you can taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

3  Divide and shape the mixture into 6 flattened patties and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prepare the sauce.

4  Combine all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl; taste and adjust the seasoning and set aside until ready to serve. (If you have a squeezy bottle, pour the sauce into one of these.)

5  Lightly oil both sides of each patty and place on the hottest part of the barbecue for 2 minutes on each side, turning carefully. Then move over to a cooler part of the barbecue for another 8-10 minutes, turning halfway through cooking.

6  Spread (or squirt) both sides of the brioche buns with the cocktail sauce and assemble the burgers with lettuce, tomato slices and pickled cucumber.

Extracted from Feeding Friends by Terry & George: Great Recipes to Cook, Eat andShare by Terry Edwards and George Craig (Hodder & Stoughton). Photography – Georgie Clarke.