The footy’s over, Wimbledon’s done, and now everyone’s looking forward to the Olympics. Including Hellman’s, them of the mayonnaise, who got in touch to ask if I’d like to try their new ‘Brazilian Spicy Churrasco BBQ sauce’. Well, we all know us Mannings love a barbie so – swept along with dreams of blistering summer afternoons entertaining friends over G&Ts as a barbecue sizzled in the background – I said yes. That particular dream has yet to become reality, but I got bored of waiting for the sunshine so cracked on with my own indoor tribute to Rio.
The plan was that I’d try the sauce, which can be used as a glaze or marinade or just as a straight sauce or dip, in a recipe or two. Now I’m not sure whether the guys at Hellman’s had heard of my slightly questionable culinary skills or not, but they helpfully sent me a recipe put together by John Quilter, AKA Food Busker, just in case I got stuck.
As a warm up, I served up the sauce as an accompaniment to one of our household staples – fajitas – and it went down a treat. All the sweetness of a barbecue sauce, but with an added good ol’ kick of heat at the end that even took Mr M by surprise.
And so to my attempt at my own version of Food Busker’s ‘Brazilian King Prawns’. I’m rather proud to say I didn’t just copy the recipe but kind of made it my own.
The recipe’s below but the long and short of it is that you marinade the prawns in a mixture of the sauce with lime, chilli and coconut, skewer them, then barbecue and serve up with a peanutty dip made, again, using the churrasco sauce.
I pretty much stuck to the marinade recipe but swapped out grated creamed coconut for coconut milk (because that’s what I had). It made for a marinade that I guess was runnier than the original recipe but worked fine in my eyes, as did my rather epic ‘skewering’.
Now as I’m sure you can guess, it was way too cold to have a barbecue, so I griddled my skewers, turning them a few times and pouring a bit of the marinade over them to make sure I got as much of the citrusy spicy flavour on them.
As delicious as they were, I knew they wouldn’t be enough for dinner for the both of us, so served my skewers with a pan-fried salmon fillet, as well as some couscous and salad.
What I did do was follow Food Busker’s instructions for a lovely satay-style peanut dip made by mixing the sauce with some peanut butter. I had to thin it down a bit with some warm water but it went down a treat. In fact, the whole meal did. Mr M was massively impressed by my creativity, as well as the healthiness of the meal and the general picturesque plate I presented him with.
He went on to polish off the rest of the churrasco sauce, using it in the same liberal way we usually attack chilli sauce and dousing his couscous and salad in it.
He loved the fact it was the best of both worlds – barbecue and spicy – in one bottle. I liked that it was tasty and spicy, though not too burn-your-mouth-to-bits, but also that it’s so versatile. I have to admit I don’t use marinades half as much as I should and this reminded me of how much flavour you can infuse into meat or fish with just a bit of effort and prep.
Ingredients
- Hellman’s Brazilian Spicy Churrasco Sauce
- Juice from one lime
- Quarter can of coconut milk
- 1 red chilli – finely chopped
- Garlic – finely chopped
- Pack of king prawns
- 1tbsp peanut butter
- Bunch fresh coriander, chopped
- Fillet of fish – I used salmon, use whatever you like
- Couscous (to accompany – I used a packet that you just add water to)
- Mixed salad
Method
- Mix 5tbsp of the churrasco sauce in a bowl with the lime juice, coconut milk, chilli and garlic. Add the prawns, cover with clingfilm and leave to marinate
- Skewer the prawns – cook on a barbecue or griddle pan if the weather is as bad as it’s been recently. Turn occasionally until they turn pink and baste in leftover marinade if you like. Food Busker also cooks a few lime wedges but I missed this bit.
- Prepare the dip by mixing a few tablespoons of the sauce with one tablespoon of peanut butter. I had to thin the mixture with a bit of warm water.
- Meanwhile, prepare a mixed salad and add boiling water to the cous cous. Pan fry the fish.
- When cooked, arrange the skewers and fish on a plate and garnish with the chopped coriander. Serve up!
I went sent a bottle of Hellman’s Brazilian Spicy Churrasco Sauce to try. I bought everything else myself.
