Spicy king prawn and tomato Courgetti - a quick and easy but tasty Friday night dinner!

So we got a spiralizer for Christmas and ever since (New Year, New me and all that jazz!) I have been constantly on the look out for great spiralizer recipes. So tonight I had my lovely friend Nikki over for dinner (she's doing Dry January - how, I'm not quite sure! I found it difficult to do Sober For October last year and that was for a good cause, not just self preservation!) so I was on the white wine and she was on the non-alcoholic beer. I wanted to make something fresh and tasty as I wasn't 100% sure what time she would be arriving at my house, so I picked this recipe out of thin air whilst wandering around Sainsbury's Local earlier. My husband went out to see one of his friends who is about to become a Dad for the second time so I guess it was one of his last "hurrah's" - so I decided I was going to cook something healthy for me and my lovely friend that meant I could have some wine and not feel guilty about it due to the fact I was going to be eating Courgetti as opposed to Spaghetti.

Anyway, I thought it was pretty darned good - and the bonus is that Courgetti takes about 4 minutes to cook whereas Spaghetti takes about 10 minutes when the water has boiled!

This leaves more time for catching up and fun times which is just what you want on a Friday night after a hard week at work!

I also decided to treat myself to a new camera today so I wanted to test it out on the food I was about to cook in the hope that photos of my food taken with a professional camera would gain a larger audience than those taken with my iPhone!

So here it goes, Spicy tomato and king prawn Courgetti! (Btw; it's best to make the tomato sauce about an hour before you want to serve the dish to let the spice and flavours all come together but it's not essential)

What you'll need:
180g pack raw king prawns
1 x small red onion, diced
2 tsp garlic purée
7 x plum tomatoes, halved
200 ml white wine
1 x 400g peeled plum tomatoes
2 tsp dried oregano
3 tsp hot chilli powder (adjust this to how spicy you personally like it)
Salt and pepper to season
2 x courgettes, spiralized

How to make it:

1. Spiralize the courgettes into approx 3 x 3mm spirals, set aside
2. Heat the oil on medium heat in a casserole/skillet (I like to use a Le Creuset casserole pan)
3. Add the onions and garlic and cook until the onions are translucent (approx. 4 mins - but make sure they don't stick to the pan)
4. Add the halved plum tomatoes and cook for 2 mins before adding the white wine. Bring to the boil and then add the tin of plum tomatoes

1. Add the oregano, chilli powder, salt and pepper; bring to the boil and them simmer for a couple of minutes
2. If time allows, turn off the heat and leave for about an hour to let the flavours mix
3. When you're nearly ready to serve, put some plates to warm in an oven (we're lucky in that out microwave doubles as an oven so we can heat the plates in there)
4. When the plates are warm, turn the heat back on the tomato sauce and add the Courgetti. Cook for about 1 minute until they are warmed through and then add the raw prawns
5. Cook all of the mix for about 4 minutes, stirring continuously, until the prawns are cooked through,
6. Serve immediately with some grates Parmesan and some freshly ground black pepper (and some fresh bread if you're feeling really naughty!)

I drank the Sainsbury's TTD Limoux Chardonnay with this dish and loved it as it was really refreshing.

Any comments welcome (including tips on photography! please!) - check out my Twitter/Instagram/Facebook and just search for aswarmastoast if you like what you've read.

Enjoy!

R x 

Chicken Tagine (without the actual tagine equipment!)

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted on my blog! So Christmas sort of got in the way and then so did New Year and then so did my new job which I only started last Monday so in all that time, although I have cooked a LOT of food, I haven't actually found the time to blog about any of it.

Well tonight I am - and I'm making a chicken tagine. I watched Rick Stein's Long Weekends programme last night and he was in Thessaloniki (somewhere I have actually been before in my limited travel of the world) and he was cooking some dishes that reminded me of dishes like tagines due to the spices he and the restaurants he went to were using. I haven't made a tagine for ages and considering we had lamb on Sunday I thought I'd try one with chicken tonight instead.

So here it is; a simple chicken tagine that doesn't take 8 hours to marinate but will probably need around 1 and a half hours to prep and cook instead.

What you'll need:
2  tbsp tomato puree
2 tbsp coconut cream
1 x tbsp chilli paste (harissa would be good but you can adjust to your spice preference and pick a hotter or milder paste)
6 boneless chicken thighs
1 large white onion, finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinammon
(a few chilli flakes if you'd like - this is optional and depends, again, on how spicy you like your food)
500ml chicken stock
400g tin chopped tomatoes
130g tin of chickpeas
100g raisins
200g couscous (to serve)

How to make it:
1. Combine the tomato puree, coconut cream, peanut butter and chilli paste. Put the chicken thighs in a bowl and then rub the marinade over them. Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Heat a bit of oil in a casserole dish and add the onion. Cook the onion until soft and then add the chicken to the pot. Cook for about 5 minutes and then add the spices and stir them in.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes, chicken stock and raisins and then simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes.

4. Add the chickpeas and cook for a further 15 minutes
5. Serve straightaway on a bed of couscous.

And that's it! Enjoy! (and I promise I won't be such a stranger from now on!)

Check me out on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram - just search for aswarmastoast

R x