Easy prawn fried rice

Rice was never something I was particularly excited about and there was one reason behind it: I had no idea how to cook it! A quick browse through Google reveals thousands upon thousands of methods of cooking it, yet I was always intimidated. Maybe, just maybe one rice cooking attempt which had me rinse the Gloopy Sticky Yucky Blob, Formerly Known as Rice in cold water to make it edible had something to do with that. After that shameful incident I just gave up (yes, I'm super patient) and decided that I shall never ever touch the stuff again. I'm not even sure what made me decide to give cooking rice another go, but let me just say I'm ecstatic (yes!) that I tried.

The recipe is from Delia's website: it is simple and works every.single.time. Incredibly proud of my newly acquired skill I decided to make a quick fried rice. The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it's incredibly versitile: I used mushrooms, bacon and prawns, but you can easily use chicken, peas, edameme, carrots, shredded cabbage; the possibilities are endless. I made a variation of this dish for my parents and friends when I was in Poland last week (this trip is my lame excuse for the temporary blogging hiatus) and they loved it. Funnily enough one of my friends confessed he doesn't even like rice only to come back for seconds (and scrape the pan, heheh).

To make 4 normal (or 3 very generous) portions you'll need:

5 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped into small pieces

1 pack (about 250g) mushrooms (I used chestnut mushrooms for their earthy flavour, but white mushrooms are equally good)

1 pack (about 230 g) prawns, frozen or fresh (I used frozen)

1 bunch of spring onions

1-2 garlic cloves

2-3 eggs, whisked

pinch of chilli flakes

soy sauce

sesame oil (optional)

basmati rice

salt, pepper

oil, for frying

Start off by boiling water in the kettle. Now measure your rice: no weighing necessary! Just grab a small tea cup or a measuring jug (I use 1 American cup for 2 people and have leftovers for lunch! The American cup is about 240ml). You don't need to wash or rinse the rice. Put a big pot on the medium heat, add a glug of oil, then add the rice. Stir the rice so that every grain is covered with oil. Gently heat, then add hot water. The only thing to remember is 2 measures of water to 1 measure of rice. Easy peasy.

Once you've added hot water stir the rice to make sure no grains are stuck on the sides of the pot. Add a bit of salt or stock granules. Now cover the pot with the lid, turn the heat to medium-low and set your timer to 15 minutes. That's it. Don't sneak a peak, don't stir, just get on with the sauce. 

Chop spring onions, bacon and mushrooms and mince garlic cloves. 

 

Fry bacon, garlic and spring onions in a little bit of oil until bacon is crispy. Add mushrooms, chilli flakes, salt and pepper and keep frying. Finally add the prawns. If you're using frozen, there'll be a bit of liquid in the pan; keep frying everything until the water evaporates.

Add a bit of soy sauce at the end.

While your sauce is frying, grab a small frying pan, add a bit of oil and pour in the eggs. Fry them, stirring with a spatula, until you have dry scrambled eggs. Take off the heat and mix in with the rest of the sauce.

When your timer beeps (you're cooking rice, remember? ;) take the pot off the heat, take the lid of and cover the pot with a clean cloth. Leave for 10 minutes. The cloth will absorb all the extra moisture making the rice fluffy.

Once the rice is ready mix it with the sauce, add a bit of sesame oil or more soy sauce and munch away.

Super comforting potato bake

Warning! Don't let the broccoli in this dish fool you. It's rich, indulgent, packed with goodness (cheese! potatoes!) - perfect comfort food. I don't make it often because my thighs cry at the mere thought of the calorific value of this beauty. But every now and then conditions are perfect to make this bake. It's cold and salad just won't cut it. It's gloomy, dark and grey outside, pavements covered with slimy leaves. You just need a big hug. This bake is IT. It's easy to make, but a tad time consuming, so wait until the weekend to make it. 

To make enough for 4 (or 2 gluttons in need of a BIG hug) you'll need:

2 white potatoes (I used Maris Piper)
1 sweet potato
1 onion
4 rashers streaky bacon (smoked or unsmoked)
1 small broccoli
200 g cheddar cheese
about 200 ml cream (I would normally use single, but my local shop only had double - double the calories, gulp!)
a few rosemary leaves, chopped (optional)
dried basil/oregano/Italian herb mix
olive oil
salt and pepper

Start off by chopping the onion, garlic and bacon.

Fry them in the pan until bacon is crisped up and the onions translucent. Take off the heat and put aside.

Cut broccoli into little florets and boil in salted water for about 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Get the potatoes ready - wash them and peel the sweet potato. You can leave white potatoes unpeeled. Now slice them all very thinly - the easiest way to do it is by using a mandoline (watch these fingers!)  but if you don't have one you can slice them up with a knife (it will take a bit longer). Grate the cheese.

Preheat the oven to 200 C.

Now get a small heatproof dish and pour a tiny bit of oil on the bottom. Place the first layer of white and sweet potato slices, sprinkle with pepper, basil and chopped oregano (I tend not to use salt as bacon is already quite salty).

Spread half of the bacon and onion mix on top of the potatoes and follow by another layer of potatoes.

Spread the rest of the bacon mix and add another layer of potatoes, followed by drained broccoli.

Add the final layer of potatoes and sprinkle cheese on top.

Now pour cream all over in a thin stream; take your time - you want the cream to go through all the layers of potato.

Bake in the oven for 40-60 minutes until potatoes are soft. The easiest way to check whether the bake is ready is to poke it with a fork.

Slice up and eat! And maybe, just maybe plan to go to the gym the next day. It's all about balance, people :)

French style chicken

After the whole cake craziness it's time to go back to savoury dishes I think. Today's recipe uses my two trusty ingredients: chicken and bacon, but it's fresh and surprisingly light, thanks to the addition of gem lettuce, peas and creme fraiche. I found it on BBC Good Food (doesn't take a genius to figure out it's one of my favourite websites!) and it quickly became one of my to go to ways of eating chicken. I don't think I can vouch for this recipe's authenticity. The last time I was in France my experience of French cuisine came down to devouring baguettes all day long. Granted, they were super tasty and I sometimes dream about them.

All I know is, this French style chicken is tres tres bon mon cheries. So give it a try!

To make enough for two you'll need:

4-5 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, fat trimmed off
2-3 rashers of streaky unsmoked bacon, chopped into small pieces
4-5 spring onions
2 gem lettuces
2-3 tablespoons creme fraiche
500 ml chicken or vegetable stock
2 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped
2-3 handfuls of frozen peas
potatoes, to serve
olive oil
salt and pepper

Start off by frying bacon in the pan until crispy. Remove and set aside.

Use bacon fat and a tsp or so of olive oil to fry the chicken thighs. Place them in the pan on quite a high heat and step away. You'll be tempted to keep turning them (I always am), but remember, we want flavour so they need to brown nicely. Turn them after 4-5 minutes and brown the other side.

While the chicken is frying, chop spring onions and wash and halve the potatoes.

Add spring onions, garlic and bacon to the pan with the chicken and fry for 2-3 minutes.

Add enough stock to cover the chicken. Add pepper and salt to taste (I tend to skip the salt because bacon and stock are usually salty enough, so remember to taste as you go!)

At this stage, the longer you simmer the chicken the more tender it will be, I generally cook it until half the liquid evaporates. Turn the chicken every now and then so it cooks evenly. After about 15-20 minutes add peas and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.

Finally, add 2-3 tablespoons creme fraiche and roughly chopped gem lettuce.

Serve with boiled potatoes.

Bon appétit!

Smoky corn chowder with prawns

What do you get when you mix prawns, bacon and corn? Indulgent deliciousness, that's what. 

I never made chowder before. I found the recipe on Pinterest (where else?) and impulsively decided I need chowder in my life. And after making it this week I can definitely say this: I need chowder in my life. Like, every day. Thick, creamy, packed with flavour, smoky, slightly spicy. Healthy (corn and prawns, hello!) yet indulgent and comforting. Convinced yet? 

Then let's begin!

The recipe makes enough chowder for two and is slightly modified from a recipe I found on a blog called Bev Cooks (by the way, something tells me I'm going to visit that blog very often). As the recipe used American ingredients and measurements I had to improvise and change a few things. I also added chipotle paste for extra smokiness and a little kick.

You'll need:

200 g raw prawns

75 g streaky unsmoked bacon, chopped into quite small pieces

1 onion

3 cloves of garlic

1 heaped tsp of vegetable stock powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chipotle paste

2 cobs of corn, kernels removed (about 200 g corn in total. If you can't find fresh corn, canned should do!)

3 heaped tbsps creme fraiche (I used half fat version)

pepper 

oil for frying

few basil leaves, chopped, to garnish

Start by prepping the veggies: finely chop the onion, mince the garlic and slice the kernels off the corn cob into a bowl.

Fry bacon in the frying pan until nice and crispy, then remove from the pan and place on a paper towel to drain off the fat.

You should have some bacon fat left in the pan - place your prawns in the pan and fry for about 1 minute on each side - be careful not to overcook them. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add a bit of olive oil to the pan if necessary, then fry off onion, garlic, chipotle paste, paprika and pepper for about 5 minutes. I didn't add any salt as bacon and stock are already quite salty.

Once the onion and garlic are softened add corn to the pan and fry some more. While the corn is frying, boil some water and make about 250-350 ml of stock. Add 3 tablespoons of creme fraiche to the pan, stir in, then add stock, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes place half of the chowder in a bowl or a deep dish and quickly blitz it with a hand held blender (or pulse in a food processor). The mix should stay a bit chunky. Return the blitzed mix to the pan and stir. Mix in most of the prawns and bacon bits, stir again and serve, topped with reserved prawns, bacon and torn basil. Use some toasted bread or baguette to mop up the sauce. Delish.