Melissa Thompson’s grilled prawns with lime, chilli and brown butter

1. This dish is a lesson in simplicity. The flavours are really subtle, just enlivened by the brown butter which in itself is a lovely pairing with any shellfish. This isn’t a dish from Jamaica, but it’s certainly heavily inspired by the island’s cooking.
2. Using scissors, cut through the shell of the prawns down the back, starting at the end next to the head and stopping before you get to the final segment attached to the tail. Use a toothpick to pull the black vein away from the body, pulling it gently towards the tail. Discard.
3. Heat the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat for 5 minutes, until it starts to foam. Turn off.
4. Put a splash of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the prawns. Turn frequently, cooking for about seven minutes in total, until the prawns are pink and starting to char and there is no grey visible.
5. Remove the prawns to four plates and sprinkle with the lime zest, Scotch bonnet and spring onion. Squeeze the juice of half the zested lime over the prawns on each plate and finish with a good pinch of salt.
6. Heat the butter up again and wait for the foam to die down and for it to start to smell nutty. Pour over each of the prawns. Serve with the remaining half lime, cut into 4 wedges. Eat immediately, and make sure that once you take the shell off the prawns, you rub each in the butter and grab up the chilli and spring onion before popping it into your mouth.

From Motherland: A Jamaican Cookbook by Melissa Thompson, published by Bloomsbury