A truck selling “Natal avos” parked on a nearby corner in our Karoo town the other day. The giant avocados turned out to be perfectly ripe, buttery (as “Natal avos” always promise to be), and worthy of being a meal in themselves. With a bit of dressing up.

For the filling, I bought what was available on a Sunday afternoon in a small town: a frozen pack of “Argentinian red prawn meat”. They were uncooked, and once thawed were packed with water. I had to literally squeeze water out of them and then pat them dry several times with kitchen paper. But once that was done they cooked perfectly in olive oil on a high heat, very quickly, with a little black pepper and chilli. But you could use pre-cooked prawns, or cans/tubs of cooked shrimp, or start from scratch with whole prawns, deshell and clean them, and steam or blanch them, or fry them as I did. Either way, be sure that they are cooled to room temperature before mixing with the sauce.

(Serves 2)

Ingredients

1 whole or ½ avocado per portion

Lemon juice

300 g prawns, cooked

3 or 4 heaped Tbsp mayonnaise *

2 Tbsp Tomato sauce/ ketchup *

2 Tbsp brandy *

* Note: the quantities above for the Marie Rose sauce are approximate. You need to balance the flavour correctly by tasting. You need to be able taste all three elements: the mayo, the tomato sauce, and the brandy. (In my first mix the tomato sauce and mayo masked the brandy, so I added a drop more brannewyn and it was perfect.)

Juice and zest of 1 lime

1 tsp soy sauce

1 stick lemongrass

3 spring onions, finely diced

2 or 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 red chilli, finely chopped

12 baby roma tomatoes, halved

10 cm chunk of cucumber, diced (no need to peel)

⅓ of a yellow bell pepper, diced

Salt and black pepper

2 tsp grape seed oil

1 Tbsp olive oil

Coriander leaves

Salt and white pepper (for the side salad dressing)

Method

Mix the mayo, ketchup and brandy in a small bowl, and whisk to ensure it is well blended. Mix the cooked, cooled prawns with the Marie Rose sauce.

Bash the lemongrass with a heavy object. (I used a hammer, no kidding). Discard the hard outer layers and chop the soft, inner layers very finely.

Mix the dressing ingredients (lime, soy, grape seed oil, olive oil) in a bowl and add the chopped ingredients, first the lemongrass, garlic, chilli and spring onions, then the tomatoes, cucumber and bell pepper and some finely chopped coriander leaves. Season to taste with salt and white pepper and set aside.

Cut the avocado/s in half, and peel off the outer skin. (I used only a half per portion because they were that huge, but a whole smaller one each would make sense; halved of course).

Rub lemon juice over the flesh to prevent it discolouring. Season with a little salt and pepper.

Spoon in the prawns in their Marie Rose sauce, then the salad alongside, drizzling any remaining dressing over it. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. DM/TGIFood

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