Depending on when you began to care about food, you may think the prawn cocktail passé, but it seems to be experiencing a (possibly ironic) resurgence. (Though, in my mind, the prawn cocktail never went away; it was us who strayed.)

It’s a simple dish that requires two things. First, the prawns must be purchased fresh, cooked with care and chilled thoroughly. Then there is the sauce.

In this age of "instant" appliances and meal kits, recipes that take more than an hour are often optimised and streamlined, or ignored completely. But flavour extraction can take time, and this intense, prawn-packed sauce base is worth every minute.

Hello friends, and welcome back to Will It Sous Vide?, the column where I make things with my immersion circulator. This week we're cooking a tasty little crustacean - the prawn - in a myriad of ways.