Today's dinner was cooked by the boyfriend (to be referred to as Quoth). It was: Chorizo omelette (chorizo is our new favourite thing), prawns cooked with ginger, garlic and chilli, chicken caesar salad (with a yoghurt based dressing) and crusty French stick.
I should probably explain that in the last 6 months I've started to eat meat again. I went vegetarian in about 1983 and was vegan from 1985 to 1998, then started eating fish again around 8 or 9 years ago. I'd always wanted to make a roast chicken, ever since I'd seen my friend, Mrs C, making one and thought what a grown-up thing it seemed to be! One evening Quoth and I were having some friends to dinner in a kind of 'Ready Steady Cook' style (they brought me a bag of ingredients and I produced a delicious meal for them, adding some things of my own choosing obviously). One of the friends HATES fish with a huge passion, and normally I'd do something fishy. They would have been quite happy to eat veggie food, but I got it into my head to do roast chicken. I wasn't actually going to have any myself, but when it came out of the oven, all crispy skin, smelling of lemon and garlic and rosemary, well, I just had to. And it was delicious! Since then I've done quite a few equally delicious roast chickens, and I've made lots of other stuff with chicken, and with bacon, and the chorizo that Aldi so kindly sell very cheaply. I've had pork in various forms, and I've tried lamb and beef, but I'm not fussed about those. I intend to explore the world of poulty, and next Sunday I'm going to do a duck or possibly guinnea fowl for dinner.... watch this space!
Anyway, here is the recipe for the prawns, which is one of my most favourite dishes ever, and just the easiest thing to make, and also for the low-fat caesar dressing.
I can't claim credit for this recipe, it came from my favourite cookery book, Flavours of Morocco by Ghillie Basan.
3 tbsp olive oil
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
25g fresh ginger, peeled and grated (or chopped, I chop it)
1 chilli, deseeded and chopped (I use 'lazy chilli', cos, well, I'm lazy!)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp paprika
500g raw or frozen large prawns (the recipe says 'shelled but with their tails intact', I say to hell with shelling prawns!!)
Fresh coriander to taste (that's LOTS then!)
sea salt and black pepper
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
Heat the oil in a heavy based pan
Stir in the garlic, ginger, chilli and cumin seeds and as soon as a lovely aroma arises (that's what the book says) add the paprika and the prawns
Fry quickly over a medium heat for a few minutes till the prawns are just cooked
Season to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle the chopped coriander over
Serve with the lemon wedges and some crusty bread to mop up the juices
I usually just plonk the pan on the table and then everyone can wipe round the inside of it with their bits of bread, because that's delicious!
Low-fat Caesar salad dressing
1/3 cup low-fat or fat-free plain yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp vinegar - I used cider vinegar
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1 tsp soy or Worcestershire sauce
1 garlic clove, crushed
Put everything in a jar or something with a tightly fitting screw top and give it all a good shake.
That's it.
You could add more of whatever you think it needs once you've tasted it, maybe salt and pepper, maybe a little sugar if your hand slipped a bit with the lemon juice or the vinegar (as mine did). I thought this was a bit too sour when I tasted it, but once it was on the salad and the chicken it was just perfect. We didn't put croutons in our Caesar salad, and I think we maybe should have, because the dressing would have been sublime on croutons!
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