King prawn and Chicken Laksa

Enough with the potatoes and gravy it's time for some refreshing spicy flavours and a bit of a health kick so here is a really simple and delicious laksa recipe with abnormally bright photo's, not sure what happened there!

2 shallots
2 red chillis
2 lemon grass sticks
Piece of ginger cut into thin batons
pack of deboned and skinless chicken thighs
handful of king prawns or any other prawn!
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1tsp of shrimp paste
1tbsp of brown sugar
500ml chicken stock
1 tin of coconut milk
1 lime
handful of beansprouts
baby leaf spinach
rice noodles
1tsp of veg oil





Finely chop your lemongrass and chilli and cut the ginger into matchstick shapes.


Fry in some oil for a few minutes


Add your chopped chicken thighs and shrimp paste but cook only for a minute before adding the coconut milk and stock or they won't be tender. You can use breast if you like but thighs have loads more flavour


Let it simmer for around 10 minuites and add the beansprouts and spinach near the end so they don't overcook.


Add the lime juice, fish sauce and if you are using prawns that ready cooked add them at the last possible moment so they don't loose there flavour.


I put some thinly sliced cucumber to garnish and would have put some coriander on to if I had remembered to buy some!


My eyes!!!! The brightest photo ever taken, sorry about that!

Valen-Thai Feast

Did you like what I did with the title there, Valen-Thai like valentine but with Thai put in it because that's what I cooked for me and Mercer for our Valentines dinner.....No, fine.
Me and Mercer arn't exactly rolling in money at the moment so I said I would cook a romantic meal for us instead of going out, so that's what I did and Thai food is what I cooked. I made some classic Phad Thai minus the prawns as fussy pants won't eat them and i also made a Panang curry and served it all with coconut rice, prawn dumplings(for me) and some little spring rolls.
To get supplies I went to my favourite oriental food market called 'Yum Yum' that I did a post on awhile back and got supplies. I'm afraid I did buy the panang curry paste, the phad Thai sauce, the dumplings and spring rolls ready made so there!




My little prawn dumplings frying away! I steamed them first then I like to fry them to make them all crispy on the outside and they are lovely.


Chicken Panang Curry and Phad Thai




Bit of a blurry photo but still yum!

Crispy duck stir fry and prawn toast

After the very carb filled start to my week I felt like something a bit healthier and found some organic duck legs on special offer so decided to make a stir fry with them.
I nevcr buy stir fry sauces and have always done pretty much the same thing every time I make my sauce by just adding sesame oil, dark soy sauce, fish sauce and sweet chili sauce and it's never failed me yet.



To make my stir fry I pan fried the duck legs before roasting them in the oven and when they were done I let them rest before chopping into bite size chunks and accidentally eating all the crispy skin.....



I have never made prawns toast's before and I really love them but it can be very much hit and miss when you order them from the takeaway so I thought I would have a go at making them myself. I just minced prawns with pork mince, ginger, sesame oil and a pinch of salt and sugar before frying them in sesame oil. Here is a picture of them before they got fried.



To make my stir fry I just used up what ever veg I had in the fridge so we ended up with carrots, beansprouts, sweetcorn, red and yellow pepper, spring greens, red onion and of course the crispy duck all doused in soy sauce, fish sauce and chili sauce. I did get a couple of spring rolls for Mercer as he hates seafood but I didn't make them





Sorry the photo's are not that great but it's hard with a rubbish camera phone, oh well it's my Birthday soon and I think I have dropped enough hints to Mercer.....

Prawn and Pea Risotto.

I wanted something relatively indulgent and filling but also fresh and summery to eat for my dinner this evening, so though a sweet pea and prawn risotto would be perfect enjoyed outside in the afternoon sun with a glass of white wine, so that is exactly what I did.
Mercer does not like sea food because he is mentally unbalanced but luck had it that he was going to spend the evening with friends so I had free reign to cook what I wanted in the kitchen and by God I knew it had to be seafood.

Prawn and Pea Risotto

Knob of butter
olive oil
1 small onion , finely chopped
2 garlic cloves , crushed
300g arborio rice
100ml white wine
800ml vegetable stock fresh
250g cooked peeled prawns
100g frozen peas
80g Parmesan , grated

First melt a knob of butter with a dash of olive oil in a wide, shallow pan and add the onion. Cook until softened, then add the garlic and cook for a minute but don't brown. Tip in the rice and mix well. Add the wine and stir till it evaporates. Pour in stock to just cover the rice and gently simmer, staying with it the whole time and stirring from time to time.
As the stock evaporates, add more stock and stir until all the stock is used, this will take about 12-15 minutes. Finally, add the prawns, peas and season. Simmer for 2 minutes, mix in half the Parmesan just before serving then sprinkle the remainder over the top and you can add a squeeze of lemon juice if you fancy and have a green salad with it, if you fancy but it's very perfect as it is as well!

Gyoza dumplings.

I had the day off work today and had a hankering for Japanese gyoza dumplings and thought it would be fun to make some ( not many people think making Gyoza dumplings on your day off is fun, especially some of my friends but to me it's a day well spent!) so I took a bus into Brighton and went to "Yum Yums" which is an amazing oriental supermarket selling everything you could possibly want to make a delicious authentic Asian meal.



I had looked on the Internet for the basic idea of how to make the dumplings and what should be in them, most were just pork but some had pork and prawn and thas's the way I decided to go as I think the prawns add sweetness. Obviously adjust the measurements to how many dumplings you are making.

quarter of a Chinese cabbage
2 gloves garlic, minced and crushed into a paste
1 teaspoon grated ginger
1 Chinese spring onion
6 ounces ground pork
1/3 pound prawns, shelled, deveined, and chopped
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 pack Gyoza wrappers

Put the chopped cabbage in a bowl and add the garlic, ginger, spring onion, pork, and prawns. Stir the ingredients so they come together. Add salt, sugar, pepper, soy sauce, and sesame oil and combine well.
Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of filling and put it in the center of a gyoza wrapper. Fold, pleat, and press to enclose the filling into a pleated crescent shape. Place the finished dumplings on a plate lined with parchment paper (to avoid the bottom sticking to the plate). Repeat the same until the filling is used up.Heat up a frying pan over medium-high heat and add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil. Add the dumpling's one at a time and fry them for 1-2 minutes, until they are golden or light brown at the bottom.

Add 1/4 inch depth of water into the frying pan and cover it immediately with a lid and lower the heat to medium. Let the water bubble away until it’s dry, for about 6-8 minutes. After the water is gone, remove the lid and fry for another 1-2 minutes until the bottoms are brown and crisp. Transfer the dumplings to a serving plate and serve immediately with a dipping sauce if you remembered to make or buy one which I did not but they tasted amazing if I do say so myself.