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Posts Tagged ‘prawns’

Jules’ Party Prawns

Posted in Food, Party Food, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , on 28 November 2011| Leave a Comment »

These are the prawns we served as a canapé at Jules’ birthday dinner yesterday. Really simple to throw together and tasty too – the mint makes a big impact.

Prawns with mint & chilli yogurt 

Mix 4 tbsp of natural yogurt with 1 small deseeded red chilli and 8 leaves fresh mint, both finely chopped, and some seasoning. Heat 1 tbsp of sunflower oil in a frying pan, add 12 large raw peeled prawns (leave the tails on if you’re peeling yourself), and fry for a minute each side until they have turned pink and cooked through. Put teaspoonfuls of the yogurt on 12 baby gem lettuce leaves, top each with a hot prawn and a couple of tiny mint leaves. Serve hot.

Wine Suggestion: Something pink and bubbly! We had a Coates & Seely sparkling Rosé from Hampshire in Southern England. This producer used traditional French winemaking techniques and traditional Champagne grapes of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Very classy looking bottle too. Available from Mitchell & Son for €42.95.

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Prawns with Mustard Seeds and Coconut

Posted in Food, Shellfish, tagged , , , , on 22 November 2011| 1 Comment »

This is pretty fiery and a really tasty mid-week dinner. Perfect for anyone suffering from a cold!

Prawns with mustard seeds & coconut – to serve 2

  • 150g basmati rice
  • 100g frozen peas
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, sliced
  • 1 green chilli, sliced
  • 1 tsp mustard seeds
  • 2 tbsp masala curry paste (we use Patak’s)
  • 400g tin cherry tomatoes
  • 1 tbsp desiccated coconut
  • 200g large raw peeled prawns
  • a small bunch of coriander, chopped

Cook the rice according to the pack instructions, adding the frozen peas a few minutes before the end.

Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion, garlic, half the green chilli, and mustard seeds. Cook until the onion is soft and the seeds are popping. Add the curry paste and cook for a minute. Pour in the tomatoes and add the coconut. Simmer for about 10 minutes or until thickened, then add the prawns. Cook for another few minutes until the prawns turn opaque. Serve with the pea rice and some coriander and green chilli sprinkled over.

(Original recipe from BBC Olive Magazine, December 2011)

Wine Suggestion: We thought a simple, fruity Pinot Blanc, maybe a Pinot Grigio or a Beaujolais Nouveau for a bit of seasonal novelty (released on the 3rd Thursday in November and the first wine released each vintage). Then we decided a beer might be more appropriate!

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Creamy Linguine with Prawns – another low-fat version!

Posted in Food, Healthy, Pasta, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , , on 11 November 2011| 3 Comments »

Creamy linguine and low-fat don’t usually go in the same sentence but in this case they work. Generally we’re not keen on low-fat substitutes, preferring to have a bit less of the real thing, but reduced-fat crème fraîche is an exception. We really enjoyed this and it feels quite indulgent despite being both low-fat and good for you.

Creamy linguine with prawns – to serve 2

  • 175g linguine
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
  • 100ml white wine
  • 2 tbsp reduced-fat crème fraîche
  • juice 1/2 lemon
  • 150g raw peeled prawns
  • small bunch chives, finely chopped

Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, heat the oil and gently fry the garlic for 2 minutes. Tip in the wine and bubble over a high heat for 1 minute, then lower the heat and sitr in the crème fraîche and lemon juice. Season with salt and lots of black pepper. Simmer for 1 minute to reduce a little, then add the prawns and simmer in the sauce until they turn pink.

Drain the pasta and tip into the sauce with half the chives. Mix it all together, divide between two dishes and sprinkle with the rest of the chives.

Wine Suggestion: Have a glass of whatever you used in the sauce. Picpoul de Pinet works well and Tesco Finest do a fairly decent one at a very reasonable price. It’s light but has nice fruit and a good crisp acidity – perfect for shellfish plus enough acidity to cut through the creamy sauce in this dish.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Easy Thai Prawn Soup

Posted in Asian, Food, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , , on 6 November 2011| Leave a Comment »

A really quick and easy week-night supper with bags of freshness and flavour. It’s also infinitely variable depending on what crunchy vegetables you may have to hand. We would have added a couple of sliced red chillies if we’d had some!

Spicy Prawn Soup – to serve 4

  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 300g bag crunchy stir-fry vegetables
  • 140g shitake mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 tbsp Thai green curry paste
  • 400g can reduced-fat coconut milk
  • 200ml vegetable or fish stock
  • 300g medium straight-to-wok noodles
  • 200g large, raw prawns

Heat a wok, add the oil, and stir-fry the vegetables and mushrooms for a few minutes. Take out and set aside, then tip the curry paste into the pan and fry for a minute. Pour in the coconut milk and stock. Bring to the boil, drop in the noodles and prawns, then reduce the heat and simmer for 4 minutes until the prawns are cooked. Stir in the vegetables and serve.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Fennel, Chickpea & Prawn Stew

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , on 30 September 2011| Leave a Comment »

A much needed healthy dinner – we’ve been eating lots of meat and rich sauces recently and have more of the same planned for the weekend. Try this with a hunk of bread to mop your plate. Really easy and tasty but don’t forget to season!

  • 1/2 a bulb of fennel, finely sliced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
  • 1tsp paprika
  • 1  tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1  tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  •  a handful of cavelo nero or kale
  • 150g raw prawns
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan and add the fennel. Cook for about 5 minutes, until softened. Add the garlic and paprika and fry for another minute before adding the tomatoes. Turn up the heat and cook for 5 minutes, until thickened.

Stir in the chickpeas, chopped greens, seasoning and a splash of water and cook for 2 minutes. Add the prawns and cook until just pink.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Time for something a little lighter…

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on 11 August 2011| 1 Comment »

Easy-peasy and used up some prawns that had been in the freezer for nearly too long.

Lemony prawn pasta with broccoli – to serve 4

  • 300g farfalle pasta
  • 1 head of broccoli, cut into small florets
  • 200g large cooked prawns
  • 3 tbsp double cream
  • juice of 1/2 a lemon

Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the pack and scoop out and keep a bit of the cooking water near the end. Add the broccoli to the pasta pan 3 minutes before the end of the cooking time and cook for another 3 minutes. Drain and tip back into the pan.

Turn the heat down very low and add the prawns, cream, lemon juice and some seasoning. Add a bit of your pasta water if you need to thin the sauce a bit.

Healthy and low-fat dinner is served (the 3 tbsp of cream is divided between 4 people!!)

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Prawn Salad # 2

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , on 8 June 2011| Leave a Comment »

We’re mad for prawns these day; mostly because we have a huge bag in the freezer. We’re also mad for avocados; but that’s because they are in season and taste yum at the minute! We even managed to eat this on the patio just before another big, rainy cloud came over. We love summers in Ireland; we might not get the weather but at least we can get summery produce.

Prawn, grapefruit and avocado salad – to serve 4 on the patio (weather permitting)

  • a medium rustic-style loaf, torn into big chunks
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 large pink grapefruit
  • 2 avocados
  • 4 little gem lettuces
  • 200g cooked large prawns
  • 3 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce
Heat the oven to 220C/Fan 200C/Gas 7. Put the bread chunks onto a baking tray, drizzle with 2 tsp of oil and rub in with your hands. Season and bake for 10 minutes until they are crispy and golden.
Cut the peel and pith off one of the grapefruits and slice into segments. Throw these in your salad bowl.
Squeeze the juice from the other grapefruit into a separate small bowl.
Peel, stone and slice the avocados and separate the lettuce leaves. Add these to the grapefruit segments along with the prawns.
Whisk the sweet chilli sauce and remaining tsp of oil into the grapefruit juice and season.
Cool the croutons for a few minutes before tossing with the rest of the salad and drizzling over the sweet chilli dressing.
Dada!

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Italian Summer Avocado and Prawn Salad

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , , on 6 June 2011| 2 Comments »

It’s avocado season and we have a big bag of prawns in the freezer. This is one of two prawn and avocado salads we’ve tried in the last few days. The seasoned pistachios make this one a bit special. We loved it.

Avocado and prawn salad (Insalata di avocado e gamberetti)

  • 50g pistachio nuts, shelled and chopped
  • 2 avocados
  • juice of a lemon
  • 200g cooked peeled prawns
  • olive oil
  • salt and white pepper
Mix the pistachios with a pinch of pepper in a bowl.
Peel, half and stone the avocados. Slice them thinly and drizzle with the lemon juice.
Put the avocado in a salad bowl, add the prawns and stir gently.
Sprinkle the pistachios over, season lightly with salt, drizzle with oil and serve.
Wine Suggestion: Try a dry Gasgogny rose (ours was Domaine de Pellehaut from Mitchell & Son on offer for €7.95. Bargain!)
(Original recipe from ‘Recipes from an Italian Summer’ published by Phaidon)

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Healthy Thai Prawn Stir-fry with Ginger and Scallions

Posted in Asian, Food, Healthy, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , , on 27 May 2011| 2 Comments »

This tastes so much better than it looks and it looked really good on the plate when served, but by that stage we were so starved we ate it instead of taking pics! So much healthier than a Thai takeaway and dead-on tasty. The marinade is a really neat trick which we’ll definitely use again.

  • 200g raw, peeled tiger prawns
  • 1 green chilli, chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, crush 1 and finely slice the other 2
  • a bunch of coriander, separate the leaves from the stalks and save both
  • 1 tbsp caster sugar
  • juice of a lime
  • 3 tbsp fish sauce
  • 2 tbsp groundnut oil
  • 3 cm piece of ginger, finely slice and then shred it
  • 8 scallions, finely sliced
  • a red pepper, thinly sliced
  • 85g water chestnuts, sliced (we couldn’t find these and it was fine without them!)
  • 100g beansprouts
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • pack of egg noodles to serve
  • lime wedges
Whiz the chilli, crushed garlic, coriander stalks (snip them with scissors to make them small) and caster sugar in a small food processor. Add half the lime juice and the fish sauce and then pour over your prawns.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok, add the ginger and scallions and fry for a minute. Add the red pepper and fry for another minute or until it starts to soften. Add the water chestnuts and bean sprouts and toss until the sprouts start wilting. Add the soy sauce and plenty of black pepper and tip the lot into a serving dish.
Heat a bit of oil in the wok and toss your egg noodles until hot. They’ll pick up some of the juicy and crunchy bits from the veggies. Mix them into the serving dish with the vegetables.
Lift the prawns out of their marinade and cook in wok with the remaining oil for a minute or two or until they turn pink. Add the marinade and swirl it around in the wok to heat it. Tip everything over the vegetables and noodles. Add the coriander leaves and remaining lime juice before you serve. Put some lime wedges on the side of the plates.
Wine Suggestion: We had a glass of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc which went really well. The fruit was juicy and counter-acted the chilli instead of fighting against it which can happen. It was fresh and zingy.

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Keralan Prawns

Posted in Asian, Food, Indian, Shellfish, tagged , , , , , on 10 March 2011| Leave a Comment »

Our cooking’s been very healthy this week but tasty too so don’t despair. It’s nice to find an Indian dish which isn’t full of calories and doesn’t take forever to make. This is very nice but do add a bit of salt at the end to bring the flavours out and balance the spice. We wished we’d had some naan breads or chapatis so you might want to get some of them too.

Serves 2

  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • oil
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
  • 2 cm piece of ginger, grated
  • dried red chilli crumbled or some chilli flakes
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 200g raw peeled prawns
  • some low fat natural yogurt

Get your rice on first as this is quick.

Cook the onion gently in a little oil in a frying pan for about 5 minutes or until starting to soften.

Add turmeric, garlic, ginger and chilli and cook for another few minutes or until it smells good.

Add the tomatoes and simmer for 10 minutes – add a splash of water if you need it.

Stir in the prawns and cook until they turn opaque.

Add a bit of salt to season and serve with rice, bread and some yogurt on the top.

(Original recipe from BBC Good Food)

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Easy Prawn & Curly Kale Linguine

Posted in Fish, Food, Healthy, Pasta, tagged , , , , , , , on 3 March 2011| Leave a Comment »

We debated whether this could actually be called a recipe as it is so simple; it’s more of an assembly job.

To serve 2:

  • 200g linguine
  • 200g curly kale or spring greens
  • olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 red chilli, finely sliced
  • 200g raw prawns

Cook the linguine following the instructions on the pack and add your greens for the last 3 minutes.

Heat a little olive oil in a small frying pan and gently fry the garlic and chilli until soft.

Add the prawns and stir around until they are pink and then season well.

Put the linguine and greens in some bowls and serve the prawns etc over the top.

Drizzle a bit of oil over and you’re done.

Wine suggestion: something light and white and a little aromatic like a Cote de Gascogne. We had a Marsanne/Viognier blend from the Languedoc which was also good.

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Vietnamese Prawn and Rice Soup

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, Soup, tagged , , , , , , on 11 December 2010| Leave a Comment »

WOO-HA! This is a fandabidozi soup!

Jono and me sold lots of wine today and got home late. If I’d have had my way we would have stopped in the pub for grub on the way home. I’m so glad he persuaded me to stick with the plan for Vietnamese soup.

If you like prawns and asian-style you will love this!! Super tasty and super healthy too.

Serves two tired people with very little effort:

  • 75g basmati rice
  • 750ml  chicken stock
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • a finger of fresh ginger, cut into little matchsticks
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 3 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced
  • 150g raw, peeled prawns
  • 15g chopped dill
  • coriander to serve (but don’t go buying any just for this)
  1. Cook the rice until al dente and drain.
  2. Boil the stock, add the fish sauce, ginger, rice, lime juice, tomatoes, prawns and dill.
  3. Simmer until the prawns are pink and cooked.
  4. Serve with a bit of coriander over the top if you have some.
  5. Slurp.

Check out the original recipe here: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/889668/vietnamese-prawn-rice-and-dill-soup

Julie

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Quick n tasty!

Posted in Food, Healthy, Shellfish, Soup, tagged , , , , , , , on 30 November 2010| 2 Comments »

After a long day … made even longer by cold weather and snow delays … a simple and tasty soup that is all about freshness and flavour.

 

 

 

 

Quick prawn noodle soup (for one)

  • Boil 85g thick rice noodles for about 6 minutes or until al dente, then drain.
  • Put 500ml hot chicken or vegetable stock in a pan with a tsp of fish sauce, the juice of 1/2 a lime, a star anise & a pinch of sugar.
  • Bring to the boil and add the noodles and a handful of small raw prawns.
  • Warm through, then pour into a bowl and top with a handful of mint and coriander leave and some chopped red chilli.

(We don’t like talking about calories too much but this is only about 250 calories a bowl and has no saturated fat – we felt very good (and full) after eating it).

Click here for original recipe on BBC Good Food.

Jono & Julie

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Winter Warmer: Baked Prawn Casserole and New Zealand Chardonnay

Posted in Chardonnay, Fish, Food, New Zealand, Wine, tagged , , on 5 November 2010| Leave a Comment »

Proper blog to follow but for all the Irish Foodies doing the Cookalong this evening here is our Winter Warmer – really rich and seriously tasty!

Serve with crusty bread and Man O’War wine.

Last night we took part in our first Irish Foodies cookalong. Check out the Irish Food Bloggers Association website for more information. We only heard about this on Wednesday and didn’t think we could take part as we were determined to cook prawns (as our freezer was full of them). Also the theme was Winter Warmers which to us means pie or stew or pumpkin or chestnuts, but not prawns. Still never ones to turn down a challenge (and not wanting to miss out on all the fun) we set about finding a Winter Warming prawn dish and I think we managed it with our Baked Prawn Casserole (from Vefa’s Kitchen).

We were at a fabulous Lustau Sherry tasting on Thursday night which inspired us to have some nibbles and Sherry to start (see post below) – all very festive.

Baked Prawn Casserole (to feed 6 but there was 4 of us and we managed to finish it)

  • Put 1.5kg peeled prawns into a saucepan, add 4 tablespoons of water, bring to the boil, and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and keep the liquid.
  • Melt 60g butter in a pan and add a large chopped onion, cook for 5 minutes or until soft.
  • Add a sliced carrot and a green pepper cut into thin strips, cook for another 5 minutes.
  • Whizz up a tin of tomatoes until smooth and pour into the pan along with the reserved prawn liquid, season, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, until thickened.
  • Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C and brush and ovenproof dish with oil.
  • Take the sauce off the heat and stir in 250g crumbled feta and 4 tablespoons of finely chopped parsley.
  • Spoon the prawns over the base of the prepared dish and pour the sauce over them.
  • Sprinkle with 150g diced Gruyere and a pinch of cayenne pepper and dot the top with butter of drizzle with some olive oil.
  • Bake for around 30 minutes, until the  top is lightly browned.

We served this in bowls with some crusty bread for mopping up all the lovely sauce.

Our guests brought us a bottle of Valhalla Chardonnay 2009 from Waiheke Island, New Zealand (which has just arrived this week in O’Brien’s). The wine worked perfectly as it had the weight to pair with the richness of the dish.

Aren’t we lucky!

Julie

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