LUNCH
Boiled eggs and toast.
SUPPER
Stir fry with prawns – see RECIPE below
White basmati rice – see RECIPE below
STIR FRY WITH PRAWNS – RECIPE – SERVES 2
This is a quick stir fry, the idea is that you can use any vegetables that you have around. The base of oil flavoured with ginger, garlic etc coats the veg and gives them extra flavour.
Ingredients
3 tbsp veg oil
1 heaped tsp mustard seeds
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
a thumb sized piece of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 large carrot
1 onion
1/2 leek
large piece of cabbage
any other veg
prawns (I used frozen)
1 tbsp soya sauce
small bunch of any green herbs eg parsley, basil (optional)
Method
Get all the veg ready first:
finely peel and chop the ginger and garlic
slice the onion, peel the carrot then use the peeler to make strips
finely slice the leek and cabbage, and any other veg you have
roughly chop the green herbs if you have any.
Heat up oil (although i normally use olive oil for cooking, for this I used vegetable oil for a plainer flavour) in a large frying pan.
When hot add the mustard seeds, coriander, ginger and garlic.
Fry 1-2 minutes, stirring.
Add all the other veg. Cook over a high heat for 5-6 minutes or until veg are cooked but still crunchy, stirring frequently.
(You can remove from the heat at this point until you want to eat.)
Add the prawns, and 2 tablespoons hot water to make a bit of a sauce. Put over high heat, fry until everything is very hot. Sprinkle over the soya sauce and stir in.
NB if you are using frozen prawns, it’s safest to bring them to boil first in a saucepan of boiling water. That way you know they are piping hot and not still frozen at all.
Add green herbs if you have any, and serve with white rice below.
WHITE BASMATI RICE – RECIPE
Not really a recipe but my friend Aimee taught me how to cook white rice perfectly. This is one of several methods of course.
You need 50g of rice per person (small portion) or 75g per person (large portion)
and a saucepan with a lid.
The main thing is you don’t want too much water, you want just enough for the rice to soak it all up, so you can either measure the rice into a cup, or measuring jug, make a mental note of how much you have, and then measure out double the amount of water. Or you can use Aimee’s technique of measuring with your finger, see below.
If you have time soak the rice to remove excess starch. Put the rice in a sieve, place sieve over a bowl or saucepan and fill with water so the rice is soaking. Leave for at least 10 minutes or longer. If you don’t have a sieve, put the rice in a saucepan and cover with water, then later pour off as much water as possible. If you have don’t have time, just cover in water and swish the rice around a bit before draining. You’ll see excess starch (white cloudy water) draining away.
Put rice in a saucepan with a lid. You want double the amount of rice to water, see above, so either measure out the water. Or, this is what Aimee showed me to do, put in just enough water to cover the rice. Put your finger so that it’s touching the bottom of the saucepan, use your thumb nail to ‘mark’ on your finger how far the water comes up to, rest your finger on top of the rice and add enough water so it comes up to the ‘mark’ on your finger (not sure if that makes sense! But it does work every time.
Then, bring the rice to the boil on a high heat, turn down the heat and simmer WITH THE LID until all the water is absorbed. DO NOT STIR. The rice will have craters or pimples on the top. Leave with the lid on until ready to eat, as any steam will finish off the cooking.
People seem to be settling into a routine now. But the Easter holidays start on Saturday and the weather forecast is really good, which is worrying as that means people will want to go out and about. And what do people do if they have to go on working, with no holiday childcare provision?