Add the olive oil, garlic and onion to a large pan. Place it over medium-high heat until hot. Stir fry the onion for 3 minutes. Then add the raw prawn heads and shells to the pan.

Stir well and bake the prawn heads in the oil for 3 minutes. They will become fragrant. Then add the water, the tomato, tomato paste and season with the fish bouillon cube.

Bring the prawn heads to a good boil. Then turn the heat lower and simmer them for 20 minutes. Take the soup off the heat and let it cool down. Then blend or mix the prawn soup very well for 2 minutes until all of the ingredients are turned into a very fine pulp.

Pour this pulp through a large and fine sieve (you can place a cheesecloth in it as well) over another large pan and gently stir and press the soupy pulp until you end up with a slab of prawn pulp. Press it well using the back of a spoon to get as many of that fantastic liquid out of it as possible.

Discard the prawn pulp. You should end up with about 1 ⅔ cups (400 ml) of prawn reduction. If you have a little more, don’t worry. If you don’t have enough, just add an extra portion of milk or cream until you reach about that amount. Keep the prawn reduction aside until needed later on.