Paul Gayler - Executive Chef, The Lanesborough

Dutch fire roasted pepper soup with prawns and smoked olive oil

Ingredients

1 tsp Maldon Smoked Sea Salt Flakes
Maldon Sea Salt freshly ground black pepper
12 cooked prawns
4 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, chopped

3 roasted red peppers (homemade or in jars)
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1tsp thyme leaves
1 tsp chopped fresh oregano
800ml well flavoured chicken stock
4 ripe juicy tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp soy sauce

A Dutch chef friend gave me this utterly delicious recipe many years ago. Serve with lots of good crusty bread.

Heat 2 tbsp of the oil in a saucepan, add the garlic, onion, red pepper and sweet paprika, reduce the heat , cook gently for 10 minutes or until the vegetables have softened. Add the oregano, thyme and a good pinch of Maldon Smoked Sea Salt flakes, little black pepper, cook for another minute.

Add the stock, tomatoes and soy sauce and cook for 20 minutes.

Transfer to a blender, blitz until smooth, then strain through a fine sieve, return to the pan and keep hot.

Heat a small frying pan with the remaining oil, season the oil with the remaining smoked salt, add the prawns and cook for one minute until they are cooked through.

Transfer the soup to individual shallow serving bowls, add 3 cooked prawns to each soup, drizzle over a little of the smoked cooking oil and serve immediately.