Harissa Prawn Skewers with Fattoush

Ingredients

• 400 g raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
• 2 tbsp harissa paste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 2 pitta breads, torn into chunks
• 2 large tomatoes, diced
• 0.5 cucumber, diced
• 0.5 red onion, thinly sliced
• 15g fresh mint, leaves picked
• 15g flat-leaf parsley, leaves picked
• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
• 0.5 tsp sumac
• salt and black pepper
• Chopped salad, to serve

Method

1. Soak wooden skewers in cold water for 10 minutes — this stops them charring to ash under the grill. Pat the prawns dry with kitchen paper; water means steam, and steam means no char.
2. Toss the prawns with the harissa paste, olive oil, a generous pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper until every prawn is slicked red, then thread onto the skewers, leaving a little space between each so the heat can get round them — crowd the skewer and they'll steam instead of char.
3. Tear the pitta into rough, bite-sized chunks and toast under a hot grill or in a dry frying pan, turning once or twice, until deeply golden and shatter-crisp — 3 to 4 minutes. You want them properly dry; soft pitta turns to mush in the dressing. Set aside.
4. Whisk the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, pomegranate molasses and sumac in a small bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Taste it on the tip of a spoon — it should be sharp, sweet and faintly tannic. Adjust now, not at the table.
5. Tip the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, mint and parsley into a large bowl. Add the crisp pitta and pour over about two-thirds of the dressing, tossing so the bread drinks up the tomato juices and dressing but still holds its crunch. Leave it to sit for a minute while you cook the prawns.
6. Heat a griddle pan or heavy frying pan over high heat until you can feel the heat rising off it and a flick of water hisses and vanishes — a cool pan won't give you the char that makes this dish. Lay the skewers down in a single layer, don't crowd them, and grill for 2 minutes per side until the prawns are pink, opaque through and have dark-edged grill marks. Overcooked prawns turn rubbery in seconds, so pull them the moment they curl tight and the flesh turns from grey to white.
7. Taste the fattoush one last time — the pitta will have soaked up salt from the tomatoes, so it may need another pinch, or another squeeze of lemon to lift it.
8. Pile the fattoush onto two plates, lay the prawn skewers on top and drizzle over the remaining dressing. Dust with extra sumac and tuck a lemon wedge alongside each plate to squeeze over at the table.