Garlic and Chilli Prawn Pasta

This is one of those dinners I kind of stumbled upon one night while chucking together stuff that was in the fridge. It was devoured so quickly last night that I forgot to take a photo, but I will add one asap! The quantities here are for 4.

Ingredients

• Long pasta - spaghetti, linguine or similar (aprox 75g per person)
• King prawns
• 2 Red chillies - I leave the seeds in, but you can de-seed one or both to suit your taste.
• 4 cloves of garlic crushed or chopped very finely
• Juice of half a lemon
• Hand full of basil
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop  the garlic and chillies (and de-seed if required). Put in a wok with a good glug of olive oil.
• Put the pasta on to boil.
• Heat the wok over a medium heat and then add the prawns.
• Lower the heat if required and cook the prawns through.
• Juice half a lemon and tear or chop a good hand full of basil.Add the lemon juice to the wok and stir in well.
• Drain the pasta and add the basil to the wok
• Put the pasta into the wok and toss well to make sure the pasta is well coated in the oil and the prawns and basil are distributed evenly (ish).
• Serve in bowls while piping hot and add a big chunk of warm, crusty white bread on the side.

This dish would also work well with bow or shell shaped pasta, minus the prawns and served cold on a summer buffet.

Lasagne

 This is my 6 yr old sons all time favourite dinner - EVER!!! He refers to himself as 'The Lasagne Monster'. I have had so many requests for this recipe that it seemed utterly silly not to have it here. 

 Ingredients, Mince :

• 800g Lean Beef Steak Mince
• 1 Small red onion diced
• 1 Small white onion diced
• 3 Carrots grated
• 4-6 Cloves of garlic chopped or crushed ( reduce or increase garlic to your own taste)
• 2 Tins chopped tomatoes
• ½ – 1 Tube tomato puree
• Worcestershire sauce
• Dried oregano
• Dried basil

Method:

• Sweat the onions, carrot & garlic in the pan for a few minutes until softened.
• Add the mince, and combine well with the garlic, onion & carrot and cook over a medium heat until cooked through.
• Add aprox. 1-2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce and crumble in the oxo cube. Stir well.
• Add the tinned tomatoes, about half of the tomato puree and leave to simmer gently.
• Sprinkle in the dried herbs and stir well.
• Leave on a really low heat while you make the white sauce, stirring occasionally.

Ingredients, Bechamel Sauce:

• 3oz Butter ( unsalted)
• 3oz Plain Flour
• 1 & ½ Pints of milk


Method:

• Put the butter and flour in the pan and melt over a very low heat, stirring until you form a rue.
• Remove from the heat and gradually stir in half of the milk.
• Return to a med heat and add the rest of the milk, stirring continuously.
• Add salt & pepper to taste.
• Keep stirring until the sauce has reached your desired consistency ( I like it like good custard – not too runny, not too thick).
• Switch off heat and assemble lasagne as quickly as possible.

I use aprox 8 sheets of fresh lasagne for the following construction:

• Cover the bottom of the lasagne dish with a good layer of mince.
• Cover with lasagne sheets ( you may need to trim them to fit, which is easy done with scissors or by folding)
• Pour over one third of the bechamel sauce and spread to cover all the pasta.
• Repeat the mince, pasta, sauce and then repeat again.
• Top with grated cheese and black pepper.
• Pop in the oven for about 20 mins on gas 7.