Category Archives: Seafood

Red Prawn & Mango Curry

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I bought myself Nigella Express from Cook the Books on a weekend jaunt to Auckland last year. I haven’t made loads from it yet, but as is my usual experience with Nigella Lawson’s recipes, every one that I’ve tried has been delicious.

This is a really easy little curry that cooks up quickly and is super tasty, plus it’s pretty healthy so ticks all my boxes. I’ve adapted the recipe below to allow for ingredients more available in New Zealand and picked the healthy substitutes where possible. Fingers crossed Nigella doesn’t mind my sharing it with you. If you like it, I recommend you pick one of her beautiful books up!

Red Prawn & Mango Curry
Serves 2
Adapted from Nigella Express

1 Tbsp canola oil (or if you prefer, a spritz of cooking oil spray)
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1-2 Tbsp red Thai curry paste, to taste
200ml light coconut milk
1 cup reduced-salt chicken stock
2 tsp fish sauce
350g kumara or pumpkin*
200g frozen prawns, thawed
1 tsp lime juice
150g mango cubes**
3-4 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
rice or noodles, to serve

* I used pumpkin, and I think I zapped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes before starting the curry to speed the process up.
**I used a fresh mango, but I think (drained) canned mango would also work

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, and fry the sliced spring onion for a minute, then add the curry paste. Whisk in the coconut milk, chicken stock and fish sauce, and bring to the boil. Tip in the pumpkin or kumara (possibly microwaved, as per above). Simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes, or until tender.

Drain the prawns and run them under the cold tap if you need to get any last bits of ice off. Add them to the pan, letting the sauce come back to the boil. When it does, add the lime juice and mango and cook for another minute or two, until the prawns are cooked through.

Serve over noodles or rice and sprinkle with chopped coriander.

Saganaki Prawns on Toast

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It’s Sunday again, and I’m in my usual routine of cooking something fun for lunch and sitting down to a blog post while it does its thing. Making pea and ham soup today; it’s part of a pet project to try cooking new cuts of meat (bacon hock this week). I’ve been annoying busy butchers with my many questions. It’s working well so far.

But today’s recipe is a prawn dish. I find prawns great; it doesn’t matter if you need to defrost them just before you start cooking because they thaw fast, they’re quick to cook, healthy and superlecker (my favourite German word of all time, meaning emphatically tasty). I usually cook them with chilli, ginger and garlic, but this dish is tomato-based and pairs them with feta.

I hadn’t come across prawns saganaki until recently… I never really associate prawns with Greek cooking, but it makes sense, I guess. Anyway this dish has gone to my favourites pile – really good for weeknight cooking as it’s simple, fast and offers a bit of variety from same old same old. This is a really healthy dish too – pretty light on kJ for a main meal, and will fill you up, specially if you serve it with colourful salad.

Saganaki Prawns on Toast
Serves 2

½ red onion, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ tsp (or to taste) minced chilli, or finely chopped fresh chilli
½ tin chopped tomatoes
½ cup vegetable stock
250-300g prawns, deveined and heads removed, but tails left on
30g feta
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped, plus extra to garnish
sourdough bread, sliced thickly and toasted

Spray a fry pan with a little olive or rice bran oil, and cook the onion and garlic over medium-high heat until the onion softens (3-4 minutes). Stir through the chilli for a minute or two.

Add the tomatoes and vegetable stock, and gently simmer (uncovered) for 10-15 minutes. If you want the recipe to stretch further, feel free to add more tomatoes.

Add the prawns and just simmer til they’re cooked – probably 4-5 minutes. I just nick off the corner of one and if the flesh is white all the way through, it should be done. I bite the corner that I nicked off to check it tastes firm and cooked too.

Season to taste and stir through parsley. Place your toast slices on plates and spoon prawn & tomatoes over the toast. Crumble the feta over and maybe some extra parsley too.

Best Prawns Ever

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My husband went back to work this week, so it’s just been me around the house. Well, me and the cats, one of whom has pulled the timer knob off my oven and either swallowed it or hidden it somewhere very secret. I can’t find it anywhere. I think I might need to write to Fisher & Paykel and ask for a new one. Grrrrrrrrrrr! But could you stay angry at this?

Anyway, I’ve been cooking simple, easy meals and enjoying them with J when he gets in from work. Prawns are perfect for warmer weather, and they’re really easy to cook.  I tried this recipe from Jamie Oliver’s book Happy Days (probably about 10 years old now), and it was a true success.

There’s a great combination of flavours – chilli, ginger, garlic, lemon. When you bite into the prawn or mop up the juices with the bread, you can really taste all the flavours – and you notice how well balanced they are. There’s a lot going on, but it’s well orchestrated. Beautiful.

Prawns with Chilli, Parsley, Ginger & Garlic on Toast
Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days
Serves 2

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3cm sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1-2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
As many prawns as you think you’ll eat, heads off, tails left on. (I used about 20 prawns/300g I think)
1-2 lemons, to taste, zest and juice
1 good handful fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
slices of ciabatta, sourdough, or french bread, toasted while the prawns cook

Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, put in the olive oil, ginger, garlic, chilli and prawns, along with the finely grated zest of one lemon. Fry for 3-5 minutes, until the prawns are just cooked. Turn down the heat and add the juice of one lemon and the parsley. Toss the prawns to coat and take the pan off the heat. If you’re happy with how much juicy sauce you have, and it tastes good, go ahead and season and serve. I wanted a wee bit more sauce, and a more lemon-y flavour, so added the juice of a second lemon. Season to taste. Serve the prawns on the toasted bread and pour over the sauce. You’ll need a dipping bowl on the table. Enjoy!

Winter Seafood Risotto

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I couldn’t think how to begin this post. So I asked Mr. J, “What can I say about risottos?”

“They’re full of rice,” he replied.

Yes. Yes, they are.

I usually have a lot to say about foods for which I feel great enthusiasm. And I love risottos. But oddly enough, I don’t have a lot of commentary about this dish. I can’t even remember where this recipe came from, but I don’t think it was a particularly gourmet source.  I’ve adapted it slightly, although you could do a lot more with it – perhaps add more lemon-y zing, or if you have saffron threads, you could make it a cheery yellow. You could change the veges (in spring I want to try asparagus).

But for now, let’s just enjoy the moment and be grateful that risottos really are Full of Rice. Delicious Rice.

Winter Seafood Risotto for Two

1 Tbsp olive oil
½ onion, peeled and finely diced
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 cup Arborio rice
2 cups fish or chicken stock
½ cup white wine
finely grated zest of ½ a lemon
300-400g seafood of your choice (I used salmon, calamari, prawns and added
steamed mussels at the end)
2-3 Tbsp parmesan (shaved or shredded)

Heat the oil in a large frypan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook for around 5 minutes, until the onion
softens. Add the rice and stir to try and coat all the rice in oil. Keep cooking, stirring occasionally, for a couple of minutes until the little grains turn mostly white. Add one cup of the (hot) stock and mix well. Bring to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer, uncovered. As the liquid evaporates, keep topping it up with the wine and stock, about ¾ cup at a time.

When all the liquid has been added, and has evaporated (this will take about 20 minutes), the rice should be tender and yummy!

I actually quickly sautéed the seafood in a separate pan, but if you were desperate to keep dishes down, you could just cook it in the risotto pan – add it 5-10 minutes before the end of the cooking time. Mix the cooked seafood through the risotto gently. Stir the parmesan through, or just use it to garnish, depending on your preference.

Spicy Seafood Gumbo

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I saw a seafood gumbo on the Food In A Minute show a few weeks back and was reminded that it’s not something I’ve ever got around to making. The restaurant I used to waitress in while I was at university had an awesome gumbo on the menu, so I’m not sure why. Anyway here is my take on the dish…

Spicy Seafood Gumbo

for the stock:
trimmings from vegetables
prawn tails
1-2 fish heads
2 cloves garlic, peeled
sprig fresh rosemary
bay leaf
1/2 tsp fennel seeds

for the gumbo:
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 long red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
1 chorizo sausage, sliced
about 5 cups fish stock (see above)
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes (I used Mexican flavoured)
seafood – use firm white fish pieces, prawn meat, scallops, mussels, squid -  or buy marinara mix
spring onions and/or Italian parsley to garnish

Stock
Start by chopping up all your gumbo veges – the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and potato. Throw all the peels, ends, leaves and whatever else is left into a big pot as you go. Put the prepared veges away for later. If you’re using prawns in the gumbo, and they’ve still got their tails on, take the tails off now and throw those in the pot too. I also bought a snapper head from the supermarket. It was only about $2.50 but I think it made the stock. So if you’ve got a fish head, pop that in too. Add an extra clove of garlic and whatever herbs you have handy. Cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for a couple of hours. Strain the stock through a sieve – line it with a tea towel if you’ve used fish heads, to stop any tiny bits getting through – and set aside for use in the gumbo. Once it’s cooled down, skim any fat off the top.

If you can’t be bothered to make the stock … no probs! You could use chicken or vege stock instead.

Gumbo
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or stock pot. Add the onion, garlic, celery, carrot and potato and cook for 5-10 minutes until the onion and celery have softened. Add the spices and chorizo and cook for a further minute. Add the stock, tomato paste and tinned tomatoes. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the soup is tasty.

Add any seafood that will be cooked in the soup – so fish, scallops, calamari, prawns, and gently simmer for a few more minutes until the seafood is just cooked. I also used fresh mussels – but steamed them separately and just added them to the soup in the serving bowls.

Serve with crusty garlic bread – I toasted some sourdough and rubbed it with a cut clove of garlic while still hot. Yum!

Rice Paper Rolls

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I love rice paper rolls. They’re simple enough to make on a weeknight, can be as super healthy as you want, and seem somehow more impressive than the effort they require. My only complaint is that they’re not that photogenic.

OK, so maybe the problem is I’m not the greatest food stylist or photographer. Whatever. I’m still complaining.

You can put all kinds of delicious into rice paper rolls. This week, I used poached chicken as my main filling. I added soy sauce, sherry, brown sugar, five spice and fresh garlic and ginger to the poaching water following an Alison Holst recipe — often adding a bit of water to a marinade mix makes good poaching liquid! Then once the (whole) chicken breast has been cooked, remove it from the pan, let it cool and slice it thinly or shred it.

While the chicken cooks, you can get your salad-y type fillings ready. I had shredded cabbage, mung beans, grated carrot, chopped cashews, spring onions, mint and coriander.

Prawn or shrimp meat, lettuce leaves, cucumber, peanuts, and softened vermicelli noodles also make good rice paper roll fillings.

I don’t want to tell anybody how to suck eggs, but I needed pictures to help me make these the first time! So … for the rice paper novice: rice paper wrappers come in flat circles. You get a dish big enough to hold one whole, and fill the dish with warm water. Then you gently dip the rice paper in and let it soften. This only takes 10-15 seconds – less than that it’s still too hard to roll, more than that and you’re trying to pick up mushy rice glug from the bottom of the dish. Lay the softened wrapper on a board, or a clean black tea towel so it shows up in photos.

Lay a bit of filling in a strip about 2/3 of the way down the wrapper. I learnt the hard way not to try and fit too much filling in. This is about right:

Then fold up the bit at the bottom:

Then fold in the sides:

Then roll it up and all done.

Now for a tasty dipping sauce. I made chilli and lime. Mix together, and leave to stand for a few minutes:

1 lime, juice and finely grated rind
3-4 Tbsp water
3-4 Tbsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp caster sugar
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
the white part of 1 spring onion
as much finely chopped chilli as you can handle

Annabel Langbein also has a Vietnamese Dipping Sauce recipe that she hopefully won’t mind me sharing… 3 Tbsp fish sauce, 1 Tbsp sugar, 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar and 2 Tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Yum!