A cazuela arrives still sputtering — oil, sliced garlic, prawns — and that is what you came for. The garlic should be pale gold, the chile already in the oil. The bread is not a garnish; it is how you finish the dish.
The tapa is Andalusian in spirit and now the property of every bar with a terracotta pan. Prawns, a flood of olive oil, garlic cut into coins, a dried guindilla — nothing more.
Keep the heat high enough that the garlic colours without burning, and take the prawns out the moment they turn opaque. Carry it still bubbling. A Manzanilla from Sanlúcar is the glass: bone-dry, slightly saline, cut for this oil. Mop. Do not waste what remains.
Method
- 01
Pat the shrimp thoroughly dry with paper towels — any moisture will make them steam rather than sizzle — and season them lightly with salt. Have everything else at your elbow: sliced garlic, crumbled chiles, brandy, parsley. This dish cooks in minutes, and you will not have time to hunt for a spoon once the oil is hot. Tails stay on; they're how you pick them up.
- 02
Warm the oil in a cazuela or small heavy skillet until it shimmers and a scrap of garlic just begins to fizz. Add the garlic and chile and cook until the garlic is pale gold, about 1 minute — watch it like a hawk, because gold becomes brown in a blink, and brown garlic is bitter. The chile should already be scenting the oil. That's the aroma you want riding to the table.
- 03
Tip in the shrimp and toss them over high heat until they just turn opaque, 2 to 3 minutes; they will curl and blush, and that is your cue to stop. Splash in the brandy and let it leap up — a little drama is part of the dish. The oil should be sputtering, the garlic still pale. Do not walk away.
- 04
Scatter the parsley over the cazuela and carry the whole thing to the table still bubbling; the sound is half the pleasure. Set out crusty bread at once — it is not a garnish, it is how you finish the dish. Mop every last bit of that garlic oil. A cold Manzanilla beside it, and you are doing this properly.
