Prawns & Spicy Lentils - and - Rice & Seafood Soup - 1 - $

My stove blew up this week! A loud bang, a flash of the house lights and that was it - gone!
I'm secretly glad because the oven thermostat was shot and if I have to have an electric cooking appliance then I want to be able to at least choose which one - and now I can! The only downside of course is having to spend a Sunday trawling the suburban horror that is THE HOMEMAKER CENTRE (insert scary music and shudder) and forking out the required cash. So I am focusing on the positives and looking forward to all the delicate baking I can try, once I am the proud owner of an oven that knows how to behave itself and stay at the temperature that is required.

Luckily I have these recipes up my sleeve to share with you in the meantime. A few weeks ago I was poo pooing a certain magazine and then low and behold I find two cracker - albeit similar - recipes that I think are worth sharing.
So without further ado, here's some I prepared earlier!


Spanish Prawns with Spicy Lentils - Ingredients (serves 4)

1tbs olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 chorizo sausage, chopped
1tbs harissa
1 can chopped tomatoes
2 cans lentils, rinsed and drained
220gm jar of roasted red peppers, drained and sliced
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
500gm green prawns, peeled and tails left on
chopped flat leaf parsley
crusty bread to serve

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and chorizo and cook stirring until the onion is soft and chorizo crispy. Stir in harissa, cook for another minute and then add the tomatoes, lentils, peppers and stock. Bring to the boil and then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every so often.
Season the prawns and add to the pot. Cover and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and serve.


Rice & Seafood Soup - Ingredients (serves 4)

60ml olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 chorizo sausage, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 litres chicken or fish stock (I used chicken)
1 can chopped tomatoes
75gm calasparra or aborio rice
200gm skinless salmon fillet, cut into 2cm pieces
2 squid tubes, cleaned and cut into rings (I cheated and bought a handful of calamari rings at the fish mongers)
12 green prawns, peeled with tails left on
1tsp orange zest
chopped flat leaf parsley

Heat 2 tbs of the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, chorizo, carrot and zest and cook for 10 minutes or until onions and carrots are soft. Add stock, tomato and rice and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until rice is al dente.
While the soup is simmering, add the remaining olive oil to a fry pan and cook the seasoned seafood in batched over a high heat for about 1 minute.
Stir the partly cooked seafood into the soup and simmer for another minute or until it's cooked through. Stir through the parsley and serve.
There's no need to have any bread with this dish as the rice fills up your tummy. And as with most dishes of this nature it's even more super tasty the next day.

Enjoy!

The Cookbook Challenge Week 22 - Red - Chorizo & Tomato Salad - 1 - $

It would be fair to say that the wheels have fallen off in my efforts for The Cookbook Challenge over recent weeks.
First there was a holiday; then a lot of socialising in the evenings, which meant not much cooking; then there was a lot of overtime due to The Volcano. Pfft what a bore (well the volcano part anyways).
And then there was the fact that I wasn't feeling particularly inspired by any of my books. That was until a divine friend of mine dropped off a copy of Jamie Oliver's newie Jamie Does Spain, Italy,Greece, Morocco, Sweden, France. With 6 countries included there had to be something. And there was! So to begin my Challenge Catch-Up I present Week 22 - Red:

Best Chorizo & Tomato Salad in the World - you don't get much redder than this.

Ingredients (serves 4 as a light meal)

225gm chorizo sausage, roughly sliced
olive oil
3 large, ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, quartered
3 spring onions or 1 shallot, finely sliced
sherry vinegar
small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and finely chopped (Jamie reckons basil or mint is OK to use too)
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
rustic bread to serve
salt and pepper to season

Fry the chorizo over medium heat with a little olive oil, stirring occasionally as you prepare the rest of the salad.
Put the tomatoes and spring onion in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper and then pour a splash of olive oil and sherry vinegar over them. Sprinkle the parsley on top, toss everything together and then put aside.
Once the chorizo is crispy and all the fat is sizzling away in the pan, add the garlic. Keep it moving around, as you don't want it to burn, and as soon as you can smell it, get the pan off the heat and splash in some sherry vinegar to stop it cooking.
Spoon the sausage and a little of the oil over the salad ingredients, toss well to combine and serve immediately.

This salad is quick, easy and delicious. The smell of the chorizo certainly got the attention of everyone in the house and by the time it was ready to serve I had an audience of one man, a dog and a cat.
I think during the winter I will continue to make this dish, however I think as a variation on cooler nights, some roasted, vine-ripened cherry tomatoes will be perfect - added at the same time as the sausage and served hot straight from the oven.
Jamie also suggests in this recipe to keep any leftover fat from the chorizo pan and rub it all over a chook for roasting - this is on the menu tonight at my place, so stay tuned for how it goes.

Enjoy!

Eds' Winter Pasta Bake - 1.5 - $

This recipe and these pics have come from one of our readers - applause for Eds please everyone!

Thanks for sending this in and big WELL DONE YOU for being man enough to send in a recipe - c'mon the rest of you fellas out there, show us what you've got in the kitchen.

Here's one for a Friday night in. You have friends coming over but can't go anywhere due to appalling wet and windy weather. You want comfort food, a lot of it. The kind that you can see stretching your belt as you eat it, the kind that means going back for seconds is mandatory and non-negotiable. Wash this down with either a lighter, easy drinking red (Pinot Noir) or a few beers (think Coopers Sparkling).
I pilfered the bare bones of this recipe from some vegetarian German backpackers who stayed for two weeks and cooked something similar to this nearly every night for us. Serves 4 people, up to 6 if stretched out, but no one will go hungry.



Ingredients:

400 grams penne pasta
2 chorizo sausages, sliced
2 tins diced tomatoes
1 tin broad or butter beans, drained
1 well diced onion
250 grams Fetta
250 grams tasty/cheddar cheese
50 grams Parmesan
Pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 180-200c.

2. Boil pasta for 10 minutes (it will cook more while it is in the oven so no need to go al dente here). While this is going, cook sausages in a little olive oil and remove from pan once browned. Don't throw out the oil in pan.

3. Brown the onions and add pepper to taste, then add the drained beans. Cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the sausages, cook 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cook until it starts to simmer.

4. Cut Fetta in to large rough chunks, and add to mix. Stir in lightly. Do not break the Fetta up too much; keep it chunky. Turn off heat.



5. Drain pasta well, add to large baking dish, pour in 200 grams of the tasty/cheddar cheese. Add the rest of the ingredients from the pan to baking dish and mix it all up. Evenly spread the rest of the cheese and Parmesan on top. Cover with foil.

6. Cook at 180-200c (depending on oven) for about 45-60 minutes (not an exact science). Stand with foil off for a few minutes before serving. The cheese should be a little tough on the top* and the protruding pasta should be a little crusty.

When you get that first partially melted chunk of Fetta on your fork, you will know the reason why it says "keep it chunky"!

Enjoy!

*What's For Tea? reckons foil off for the last 10minutes to brown off the cheese - just a thought.