Recipe: Langoustines with garlic butter and herbed aioli

Serve with your favourite dry white.

Ideal seaside holiday meal.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
For the grilled langoustines with garlic butter
4 x langoustines
100g butter
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp (15ml) parsley, chopped

For the poached langoustines with herbed aioli
4 x langoustines
1l water
1 lemon, quartered
2 sprigs parsley
4 peppercorns
2 egg yolks
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
squeeze of lemon juice
½ cup (125ml) olive oil
1 tbsp (15ml) basil, finely chopped
2 tbsp (30ml) parsley, finely chopped

Method:
Grilled langoustines with garlic butter
Defrost frozen langoustines overnight in the fridge or under cold running water.

Place langoustines onto a clean chopping board and using a very sharp knife, butterfly lengthways, discarding the vein that runs down the middle.

Heat butter in a saucepan and add garlic and freshly chopped parsley.

Heat a grill pan until moderate heat and brush the flesh of the langoustines with a little garlic butter. Grill langoustines for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until flesh is cooked. Serve immediately with extra garlic butter.

Poached langoustines with herbed aioli
Defrost frozen langoustines overnight in the fridge or under cold running water.

Bring a litre of water to the boil and add lemon, parsley and peppercorns. Poach langoustines, whole, for 7-8 minutes or until cooked. Remove from poaching liquid and set aside to cool.

For the herbed aioli
Place yolks, garlic and lemon juice into a bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly pour in olive oil, whisking continuously until a thick mayonnaise is formed. Add chopped basil and parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Remove heads of langoustine and discard. Peel away the shell, leaving the end of the tail still intact and serve cold with herbed aioli.

Wine pairing:
Just about any full-flavoured dry white wine will work.

• Recipe supplied by Source Food – a Cape Town-based food agency that specializes in experiential marketing. They will create a recipe or meal to communicate your brand’s message.