Valentine Warner's Moroccan prawns & spinach

Method

1. Get each prawn ready by peeling the shell away. Make an incision down the back and hoick out the black intestine and discard. Roughly chop the prawns and put to one side.
2. Wash the spinach free of beasties, by all means life-guarding any that appear to be poor swimmers. If the stalks are particularly fibrous, snap them off and discard. Bunch up the spinach and chop it roughly.
3. Cut the stalk base from each tomato, criss-cross the other end and cover in just-boiled water for 30 secs. Tip away the water and peel off the skins. Chop the tomatoes roughly, but not too large, taking care to save the seeds and juice. Peel and finely chop the garlic.
4. Take the frying pan and dry-fry the cumin seeds over a medium heat until their aroma comes to the nose, by which time they will be nicely toasted. Now add 2tbsp of the olive oil, followed quickly by the spinach. It will crackle and pop as you add it. Turn in the pan, adding fresh leaves as you go until it is all in and wilted.
5. Now add the tomatoes, garlic, lemon juice and a good amount of salt and black pepper. Cook together fairly rapidly, stirring occasionally, making sure that the contents don't stick and burn. You want to get rid of an obviously watery appearance without drying out the dish. Transfer to a bowl and, without washing out the pan, add the remaining oil, then return the pan to a medium-high heat.
6. Fry the roughly chopped prawn meat briskly until opaque and a little golden (a couple of minutes or so). Flop the spinach and tomato mixture back on top. Cook until bubbling and serve immediately in the Moroccan style with warm white rolls and mint tea.

This recipe is from What to Eat Now - More Please! by Valentine Warner and published by Mitchell Beazley - www.octopusbooks.co.uk. Valentine's new show What to Eat Now starts on BBC Two from 6th July at 8.30pm.