King Prawn Noodle Broth – effortless joy in a bowl

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Do you ever feel too exhausted to cook in the evenings but want a fresh, healthy, comforting dish that you can prepare in lightening speed with very little effort? I think all of us do from time to time, I certainly did this evening. So I put together this wonderfully flavoursome broth in less than 10 minutes. I feel it cleanses the body and heightens ones senses. It’s definitely my kind of dish.

King Prawn Noodle Broth – Serves 2

190g  Jumbo king prawns (or any prawns will do)

1 bag/ 200g of udon noodles (double the amount if you are feeling hungry)

1 tamarind broth cube (Knorr make them)

1 garlic clove, finely sliced

6 thin slices of fresh ginger

half a red chilli, finely sliced

1 lime

1 spring onion, finely sliced

1/2 tsp of lemongrass paste

2 tsp of light soy sauce

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp of coriander, chopped

1. Thinly slice the garlic, ginger, red chilli and spring onion. Heat the sesame oil in a pan, and when it is hot, add the chopped ingredients and the lemongrass paste, and cook gently for a couple of minutes.

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2. Meanwhile put 600ml of boiling water in a pan on a low heat and break up the tamarind broth cube into the water. Then add the prawns and watch them reduce in size slightly – this will only take a couple of minutes – be careful not to over cook them!

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3. Place the contents of the pan with the garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass and spring onion into the broth along with the udon noodles. Whilst I use udon noodles any type of noodles will work equally well. Experiment and see which you prefer. Cook the noodles for 3 minutes and during this time add the soy sauce and the juice from half a lime.

4. Serve piping hot with chopped coriander on the top with a lime quarter on the side.

If you are feeling under the weather or want a general ‘pick me up’ this warming broth is sure to reinvigorate you. Instead of prawns you could use chicken or for a vegetarian option: broccoli, sugar snap peas, mange tout or pak choi.

Bream me up Scotty!

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If you were to open my fridge at any point in time you can pretty much guarantee that you will find some fresh red and green chilli, garlic, ginger and coriander/cilantro lurking within. They are like my kitchen essentials. I adore them I really do. They make what would otherwise be a rather bland dish into one that wants to shout from the roof tops ‘I’m alive and kick ass’. From these ingredients I can pretty much conjure up a feast without too much effort.

Following a glorious full on wedding weekend I thought it was a good idea come Monday to cleanse the body and soul with some tasty bream and some of my kitchen essentials. Its certainly no ‘rocket science’ recipe but it certainly tastes good and can be adapted to suit ones liking to chilli, or not, as the case may be.

I had some wonderful bream in my freezer, which I defrosted the night before to make the dish. Bream is a delicious fish, similar to seabass in texture being firm and sweet.  As an added bonus you can sleep soundly at night, dear reader, with the knowledge that it is not on the endangered list like cod and halibut. Its reasonably priced, simple to cook and not overly boney.  So what’s stopping you? Seek it out and let me know what you think.

This recipe is quite a personal thing in the sense that you can emphasise more or less of the ingredients depending on your preference to them, or not as the case maybe. I tend to cook it with no particular guidelines, however, I realise that this is not very helpful when you are trying to pass on a recipe so here goes at me noting down how to create this gem of a dish.

Bream with chilli, spring onions, garlic and ginger

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 13 minutes

Serves 3 (hungry people or 6 less greedy people)

6 pieces of Bream or 3 Bream

3 spring onions, chopped

4 garlic cloves,  choppped

2 inches of ginger, grated finely

2 chilli, chopped

1 lime, chopped into two

4 tbsp of soy sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

Handful of chopped coriander/cilantro

Whole grain rice

1. Place the rice in a pan of boiling water and simmer gently for the required time. Whole grain rice takes a little longer than white, normally around 20/25 minutes.

2. Place the oil in a relatively deep pan on a low heat.  When the oil is hot add the garlic, ginger, spring onions and then the chilli. Fry gently for a couple of minutes and then add the bream  pieces. Squeeze in the lime halves and then leave in the pan so that the flavours can blend together.

3. After a minute add half the soy sauce and add a splash of water so as to give more of a steam effect to the cooking of the fish, placing a lid on top.

4. After 5 minutes turn the bream over and cook for a further 5 minutes, so that it is cooked/steamed sufficiently on both sides.

5. Just before you take it off the heat, place a good handful of corriander/cilantro over the fish. This adds a wonderful aroma to the dish.

6. Serve with whole grain rice.

So speedy to prepare and cook that even those with a busy schedule can cook such delights.