A Profusion of Prawns

This is not a good look!

Bit of a kitchen disaster here……

I do love prawns, and I have had put aside in my copious piles of “to try” recipes, a sample recipe from one of those “buy it in 52 parts” cookbook folder thingies. Actually I don’t see how those publishers make money these days, with the plethora of free recipes for anything you can think of, freely available online. But, I got this junk mail in my letterbox and put aside the Crisp Honey Prawns leaflet as it looked super easy and delicious.

On Easter Monday, I went to the supermarket for dinner inspiration, and thought hmmm I’ll make that prawn dish. The recipe called for 20 prawns, but I had no idea how much weight that would be so just bought 700gms, thinking this would be plenty and I’d have leftovers.

The weather here was stunning right through Easter – 27-31 and all blue skies – really perfect. So in the afternoon, I had a last minute invite out for a walk (& a bottle of wine) along the river, near home. Had a lovely relaxing time, but by the time I got home I just couldn’t be bothered starting to cook, so just had a sandwich.

Next day, I realised I’d better use up these prawns as they were “thawed” ones so I didn’t want to re-freeze them. I was already going out in the evening for a meal, so decided to make the Crisp Honey Prawns for lunch instead. WELL, as you can see from the photos, there were a darn sight more than 20 prawns when I opened up the paper!! I over-purchased, just a tad lol…..

Anyway here’s the recipe, but it was a flop as you can see. Easy yes, but I just NEVER have any luck with batter – onion rings, calamari, squid, prawns…..my batter never bloody stays on!! It doesn’t look anything like the leaflet photo. They didn’t taste too bad, but really too deep-fried/oily flavoured for me. Oh well, it was worth a try.

Crisp Honey Prawns

2 tsp cornflour

2 egg whites

2 tsp oyster sauce

3 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp plain flour

salt & pepper, to taste

20 raw prawns, peeled & deveined, tails intact

1/2 cup honey

Combine cornflour, egg whites and oyster sauce in a bowl. Use a whisk to beat the mixture together until thickened.

Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat (or use a wok). Put flour in a bowl and season with salt & pepper.

Dip prawns into flour, shaking off any excess, then dip into batter mixture to coat.

Cook in the pan for 2 minutes each side until golden. Place cooked prawns on paper towel to absorb excess oil, while preparing and cooking the remaining prawns.

Once all of the prawns have been cooked, add honey to the pan and heat gently until runny, then add the prawns and gently toss to coat.

Batter-less!

After doing a batch I thought nope this just isn’t going to work, so I just chucked the rest of the prawns in the pans un-battered, with some pepper, truffle salt and a splash of soy sauce (see pic above). I then had a mountain of prawns to get through haha, so had a pile of them in a sandwich with lettuce, crunchy bean sprouts and chilli paste. Prawns are great in a sandwich or bread roll!

I then ate prawns for a few days, in various forms…..it’s a good thing I didn’t mind that!

Lots of prawns…

Happy Fooding!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

I’ve had a bit of a meat-free phase recently – kind of a post-Christmas detox, only not really as I haven’t given up wine haha. I just sometimes feel my body needs more vegies, and I firmly believe in listening to what your body tells you.

I am eating lots of fish and prawns, and am also eating a lot of spices at the moment, no idea why. There are many versions of red and green Thai curries around, so I made up my own prawn dish using the elements I liked from several dishes. The result was quite good, medium hot and not too complicated to make.

The prawns I bought were quite small – I should have bought the giant king prawns and shelled them myself, but I just couldn’t face the messiness of peeling/deveining them myself . You just have to be in the right mood for that, so I cheated and bought smaller prawns, already peeled with the tails left on. Of course they shrink when cooked as well, so ended up quite small. Instead of cooking rice or noodles to go with it, I decided to have Thai fajitas! Prawns wrapped in tortillas with a little yoghurt instead of guacomole – yum!

Thai Red Curry Prawns

2 tbsp olive oil

500 gms prawns, tails left on, peeled/deveined

1 brown onion, cut into wedges

1 small carrot, peeled & thinly sliced

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

2 tbsp red curry paste

400 mls coconut milk (I use low-fat)

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 kaffir lime leaves

1 cup fresh basil leaves

100 gms baby spinach leaves

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a wok or saucepan; add prawns and toss for 1 minute or until starting to change colour. Set prawns aside.

Heat remaining oil, and saute onion, carrot and ginger for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

Add red curry paste and stir to coat, for 1 minute.

Add coconut milk, fish sauce, brown sugar and kaffir lime leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Return the prawns to the wok along with the basil and baby spinach, and simmer for 2 more minutes.

Serves 2-4 depending on what other things you have with it.

Happy Summer Fooding!

Delicious Dumplings!

Still haven’t been cooking much here, apart from a last minute Christmas cake. Instead, I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping (and I mean a LOT – 10.5 hours at Chadstone shopping centre on Thursday!!!), and quite a bit of just slobbing around!

At Chadstone, 4 of us had the most wonderful dumpling lunch at the Oriental Teahouse. Lots of small serves of dumplings that just melted in your mouth. I had chilli prawn dumplings, chill vegetable dumplings and chilli pork dumplings (yes there is a recurring theme there….). The pictures tell it all really. Scrumptious.

Today, we are in a flurry of Christmas Eve activity – last bit of shopping (there is always something you’ve forgotten, isn’t there), roasting two boneless turkey breasts and a piece of pork, preparing the stuffing, making a cheesecake, making some mountain bread rollups, the list goes on…..busy day, but it means tomorrow will be nice and relaxed, with strawberries and champagne flowing from very early on!

Mum’s Christmas Tree

May all of your Christmas wishes come true, with lots of food, family (and of course presents!), involved in your day tomorrow.

Happy Christmas Fooding!

King Prawns As Made By The Experts (Not Me!)

http://www.notquitenigella.com

At work I have to do half an hour of “shelving” in the afternoon, on each week day that I work, and we have a rotating roster each month of which type of item it is our turn to shelve, ie Junior Fiction, Audio Books etc. At the moment I am responsible for Non-Fiction 000-500 (very dreary- computers, religion, self-help etc.), but if I finish my bit and still have time I help out with whatever there is most of waiting to be shelved. I particularly like to pick out the 641’s – the cookbooks – because then I can have a nice browse whilst putting them in order on the shelves!

Last week, I came across the Doyles restaurant seafood cookbook. Doyles is a famous Sydney based restaurant chain, begun at Watson’s Bay on Sydney Harbour in 1885, and still run by the same (Doyle) family. I rarely go to Sydney, but when I do I make a point of going to Doyles for lunch.

I’ve been there several times over the last 20 years, and it’s a fabulous eating experience – crazily busy, totally overpriced (check out the menu, gulp), because they are so famous they can charge what they like, and you have to book weeks in advance if you want to sit outside on the beachfront. But, the atmosphere’s amazing (helped by the wine??? maybe) and the food excellent – the seafood is always so fresh it’s just about leaping out of the fishing boat on to your table! Plus, it’s great with kids as they can play on the sand in front of you quite happily, keeping them from getting bored and hence making a more pleasant outing for you as a parent.

The cookbook reminded me of the most delicious king prawns you can imagine – stuffed and crumbed, with a kind of fruity, herby, macadamia stuffing mixture. I’ve had this as an entree and I knew that the website used to have a lot of their recipes on it, so I went looking for this prawn one, but they seem to have removed actual recipes and now only offer advice on general seafood preparation, plus a “recipe of the day”.

I went back to the cookbook at work, and sure enough, here is the recipe. Actually, it looks like a lot of effort for something so small, and I’m not sure I could do it without the stuffing/crumbs all falling off when being cooked – they come out very big, at the restaurant. But if you can be bothered with it, these are uber-awesome to eat.

I’ve written the recipe exactly as stated, so the quantities are a bit uncertain, and I’ve never seen spinach in tins????  I’d have thought fresh or frozen would work just as well.

I’m thinking maybe I’ll just go back there some time and eat the real thing……with a seafood platter to follow, copious amounts of wine to wash it all down, and a water taxi to get me back across the harbour…..sounds good???

John Doyle’s Stuffed King Prawns With A Rich Sauce

24 large green (raw) king prawns

beer batter (I don’t have the recipe for this so use whatever beer batter you like)

oil for frying

Filling:

6 slices thick bacon, rind removed

1 medium-sized tin spinach

1 onion

butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 large egg, beaten

parsley

breadcrumbs

pinch salt

1/2 cup sultanas, soaked in wine and drained

Fruity Curry Sauce:

1 small jar fruit chutney (size ??)

1 tbsp curry powder

6 fine green onions (scallions), chopped

1 small jar mayonnaise (size ???)

1 egg white, beaten

Butterfly and devein the prawns, and remove the heads. Put aside.

Finely chop bacon, and drain the spinach. Chop onion and saute in butter with garlic. Mix all filling ingredients together, using enough breadcrumbs to bind.

Fill the cut section of the prawns with the mixture, press the sides together and put aside in the fridge for a while to firm.

Prepare the sauce by blending all ingredients together carefully, adding the egg white last. Serve in a large bowl or individual dishes.

When ready to cook, dip the stuffed prawns carefully into beer batter, and fry for 5 minutes in oil a deep pan.

Serve with the fruity curry sauce.

Serves 6.

You can buy the cookbook in their merchandise area, but as I write this it is out of stock. There are a heap of other fabulous seafood recipes in the book, tried and true favourites from this fantastic Sydney icon.

Happy Fooding!

(More information & article about the above photo can be found at www.notquitenigella.com)

Pizza Perfection!

I thought I’d show you some examples of the pizzas I love to make. I use my bread machine (omg I love that thing SO much), on the pizza dough setting. Each batch makes 2 large pizzas – I divide the risen dough in half, roll it out on a floured board and place each on a pizza tray (sprayed with olive oil spray).

Next is the tomato paste spread over the bases, and then I top with whatever takes my fancy (I am very partial to prawns these days, whole cloves of garlic, and lots of vegetarian toppings – asparagus, broccoli, baby spinach, haloumi and part-cooked cubes of pumpkin).

On top I sprinkle a mixture of grated mozzarella and tasty cheeses, but I don’t like TOO much cheese – I like to taste the toppings properly, and if there’s too much cheese it just tastes of oil (not to mention being serious heart attack material, especially if you also have high-fat meats like salami, on the pizza). Fresh basil leaves are awesome sprinkled on top too 🙂

The oven must be hot, as the pizza needs to cook quickly and be hot enough for the dough to puff up and rise properly – I usually do 10 minutes at 220C and then turn the trays around and also switch them over from top to bottom, to ensure even cooking. With my current oven I do have to be very careful not to burn them though.

Making 2 in one batch is good as you can make one with meat and one without, hence suiting all eating styles. Leftovers are good for lunch (or cold, first thing in the morning, if you need a post-booze-carbs-hit….).

Happy Fooding!

Chilli Prawns With Sesame Noodles

I love spicy food, and often choose chilli or garlic prawns when out at Asian restaurants. In fact, I’ve eaten more prawns in the last year, then ever in my life before, which is not intentional but I just have this need for a lot of seafood, no idea why.

This recipe, adapted from one in the same BBC Australian Good Food magazine as the cornbread from the other day, was very easy – once I had chopped up the bits and pieces and soaked the noodles, it was literally a 5 minute job to cook it in the wok.

Recipes like this are great for entertaining, as you can prepare things earlier and then relax with guests until throwing it all together at the last minute, looking like a real pro! Actually, I haven’t really done any proper entertaining in the last six months, because I live in a shoebox and can’t even fit in a dining table, but I’m always practicing on just me, for future dinner party extravaganzas that currently exist in my head only!

The noodles themselves would be great served with any stir-fried food, not just the prawn mixture here. Sesame oil gives a great flavour to this kind of dish, and a little goes a long way.

On a heat scale, this meal is on the Mild side of Medium – it isn’t enough chilli to blow your head off, just leaves a gentle tang afterwards. I will double it to 2 red chillies next time, cos’ that’s the kinda gal I am!

Garlic Chilli Prawns With Sesame Noodles

220 gms hokkien or Singapore noodles (1 pkt)

1 tsp sesame oil

2 tbsp olive oil

250 gms bean sprouts

3 spring onions, thinly sliced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 long red chilli, finely chopped

500 gms large uncooked prawns, peeled & deveined (I left the tails on – up to you)

1 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp light soy sauce

Place noodles in a large bowl; cover with boiling water and stand for 5 minutes. Stir with a fork to separate the strands, then drain well and toss half of the sesame oil through the noodles to combine. Set aside.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a wok on high heat. Stir-fry bean sprouts and spring onions for 30 seconds, until sprouts just wilt. Add the noodles and stir-fry for 1 minute. Stir in remaining sesame oil and set aside in a bowl.

Heat remaining olive oil in the wok and stir-fry the garlic and chilli for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add the prawns and stir-fry for about 4 minutes, until curled and opaque in colour. Stir in the sugar and soy sauce, then add the noodle mixture back to the pan and stir-fry for 1 minute until all combined and heated through.

Serves 4

On a completely unrelated-to-prawns note, later this week I will be having a small giveaway – my first ever! So stay tuned and encourage your friends to subscribe, as I’d like to share my recipes and food explorations with as many readers as possible 🙂

Happy Fooding!

A Sushi & Sashimi Fix

You know that I love salmon beyond almost anything in life….and so it follows from there that I adore sushi and sashimi. In fact I adore raw tuna just as much as raw salmon, and if I get the chance to have really great raw fish I have a wonderful time.  I love all sorts of Japanese food, but I really think if you’re going to go to a Japanese restaurant you have to go with what they do best, which is amazing fresh sushi and sashimi. Divine, it just melts in your mouth, and no matter how full you get, you don’t get a bloated “omg I’ll never eat again” feeling like you do if you overload on pasta or Indian.

I’ve been to many delightful Japanese restaurants, in various countries. My favourite in the whole world (so far) is Matsuri in Adelaide. Now this is a very common restaurant name – there’s one here in Perth, and I’ve been to a Matsuri in Chile as well – not affiliated with each other in any way.  Matsuri in Adelaide does the most amazing “sushi boat” – see the second photo down the page, here. It’s such a relaxing experience, taking your time over a big pile of little bits, with lots of wasabi, pickled ginger, miso soup and a bottle of white wine (or 2, by the time you’ve finished eating – this is absolutely not fast eating).

I think my second best sushi/sashimi experience has been at Japan Restaurant at the Hotel Nippon, in Santiago (Chile). Unfortunately, as I am not likely to live there again, I won’t be going back there anytime soon 😦

Last weekend I went to Seizan here in the city. I’ve been here twice before, but not for a couple of years. Luckily I had booked, as whilst waiting outside beforehand I saw 2 groups of guests arrive and be turned away, as it was fully booked out.  Now this place is not the most fantastic Japanese I’ve had, but it certainly holds its own and is the better of the Perth options that I have tried to date.

Seizan is also in the Entertainment Book, so that meant a discount of $28 – nothing to be sneezed at!

We were the last to leave the restaurant, in fact they were prodding us to go as they were closing up! A very nice, spread out meal, leaving lovely flavours and textures to remember and go back for again.

Happy Fooding!

Crust!

Something very exciting has happened recently – the gourmet pizza franchise Crust has opened a branch in my area. I tasted a Crust pizza in Canberra when staying with my daughter, but they are quite new to Perth and it is only now that one has opened that will deliver to my place. Yummy gourmet toppings, plus a “healthier choice” option and gluten-free bases available.

I’ve just had my first one – I was drooling with anticipation, waiting for them to deliver it! Szechuan chilli prawns. YUMMO 🙂 It was worth the wait, and of course I have lots left over for cold pizza lunches. I think I even like it better cold than hot!

Yes, I know pizzas are generally not healthy, and I usually make my own from scratch, using dough made in my bread machine. But between study, work, getting ready to move house, and personal issues, I’ve had a very hectic and stressful week, topped off by my kids’ lovely cat (in Melbourne) of 17 years, Champers, having to be put down. Yeah, she was old and had had a lovely, long, happy life, but it is still pretty rough. So today I just needed a pizza – because sometimes we just need to treat ourselves to something decadent, JUST COS’.

Happy Fooding!

Champers with her new 'mum' (who is now 24!) on the day we brought her home.

A Visit to the Valley

I took my mum to Feral Brewery in the Swan Valley last week for lunch, after first stopping at the Margaret River Chocolate Factory for tea & a chocolate truffle, and the Cape Lavender shop for some lavender and coffee bean smelling.

Feral is a micro brewery that has a lot of the pale ale type beers – not my preference, but it is a nice relaxing place to take visitors – and they do serve wine and champers as well, phew.

I just wanted something light and healthy for lunch, so continuing with my current seafood frenzy, I had a prawn, cucumber & orange salad. Absolutely delicious – so light and refreshing tasting, with a gorgeous orange & coriander flavoured dressing. Mum didn’t want anything much so she ordered “just” a serve of wedges – haha, she couldn’t eat it all, and we ended up taking the fresh sourdough bread home for later as well.

We ran out of time because I had to work later in the day, so we didn’t get to visit any of the valley’s wineries – probably have to go back there again before Mum leaves, for the obligatory wine tastings….

Happy Fooding!

Restaurant Review….

Yummy dinner earlier this week with both of our mums….an Italian place in Carine called Vincenzo’s. I’ve been there before and it has been delightful on every occasion. This time we shared an entree of Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus, grilled and drizzled with olive oil.

I just can’t get enough seafood at the moment – I’ve been devouring prawns, oysters and calamari so much recently (as well as my usual copious quantities of salmon!). For my main I had fettucine with garlic & onion sauteed prawns. Although in the photo it looks like there is only one prawn peeking out amongst the pasta, in fact there were ten – I kept coming across another one – and they were all yummy BIG ones!

Happy Fooding!