Crumbed Prawns on a Sweet Veggie Salad

Ahh seafood, a luxury for a student like myself. How is it that something so simple can brighten up my day in an instant? When I scurried into Harbour Fish yesterday, I was shocked to see a whole bag of crumbed prawns for five dollars. Lucky me.

Prawns. Crumbed prawns. What do people have with prawns? Being such a luxury, I had never cooked them before and rarely get the opportunity to eat them. So I searched high and low in my fridge and decided to use what I had. A few desperate vegetables and a lemon. It was going to be one of those experimental meals. I quickly ran to warn my boyfriend of the potential failure that was ahead, and then started chopping like crazy.

This is often the way my kitchen works. I have learnt to be economical and use up as much as I can whenever I cook. People often ask me how I can afford to cook so many meals that often have  expensive ingredients such as prawns, when I am a student. My answer? Honestly I am still learning but I guess I'll start by saying, don’t go to the supermarket with a strict list, buy what is in season and what's on special, and then come up with your meals. Use leftovers, create recipes, and always keep your spice rack full! You might have the odd disaster, but it is all a learning experience. And sometimes you might just have a wonderful outcome, like I did last night.

A simple cauliflower, broccoli, calvo nerco (kale), and date salad with pre-crumbed prawns. Obviously you can opt to crumb your own prawns or even keep them fresh, but like I said, I bought what was on special at the fish store. With a touch of seasoning and some lemon juice, this dish was divine.

Serves two

Ingredients

1 small head cauliflower

1 small head broccoli

Handful of calvo nero (dark kale)

Moroccan seasoning (season to taste)

Salt and pepper

Garlic

1/2 cup dates 

Rice bran oil for frying

1 lemon (zest and juice)

16 prawns (crumbed or fresh)

Grate the broccoli and cauliflower, and finely chop the calvo nero and dates. Fry the calvo nero in the oil until softened. Add the cauliflower, broccoli, dates, Moroccan seasoning, garlic, and lemon juice. Fry together over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

In the mean time you can either bake or fry the prawns. To bake the prawns, drizzled them in a touch of oil and lemon juice and then bake at 200°C for 10 minutes or until nice and crispy. To fry the prawns, heat some oil in a pan and fry the prawns for a few minutes on each side or until nice and crispy. 

Serve up your veggie salad, place the prawns on top and drizzle with a bit of lemon juice.

This is such a fast and easy meal, enjoy!

-Sophea

Beetroot and Cauliflower Pizza Base

The pizza oven from heaven. 

What is a better way to finish off a gloomy Monday than make your own pizza night! Gather all your leftovers, purchase all your tantalizing toppings, and don't forget that cauliflower and beetroot!

This picture is all the family's own pizza bases and ingredients! Don't they look beautiful? I love the odd make-it-yourself night! 

I've just had a weekend full of Christmas baking, decorating and A LOT of eating (more posts to come!) so I had to start this week off as healthy as possible. But when my lovely Aunties' suggested pizza cooked in an outdoor pizza oven I just couldn't resist. Healthy, gluten free, beetroot and cauliflower pizza base it was. I've seen so many recipes for cauliflower pizza bases on Pinterest but I just wanted to try something different, something a little more exciting and a pink pizza base sounded pretty awesome to me. So I made sure I had all of my favourite toppings; baby spinach, parmesan, cranberry sauce (the good stuff with whole cranberries!), brie cheese, some figs, smoked chicken, and mozzarella.  Obviously you can choose your own ingredients, but if you want to eat the best pizza in the world I suggest you follow my instructions (I'm kidding, or am I?).

To make your pizza base it's really quite simple. In a food processor blend up half of a medium cauliflower (or a whole small one) and an average sized beetroot. Once blended so it looks like fine rice, microwave in a bowl for 7-8 minutes. Once microwaved, be careful it'll be very hot, wrap the mixture up in a clean tea towel. Squeeze and ring the tea towel with all your might until no more juice comes out. You will be surprised how much juice comes out and how much it will decrease in size! Once you have gotten as much out as possible put the mixture back into the bowl, add an egg, some fresh rosemary, oregano, Italian parsley, 1/4 cup grated parmesan, and some salt and pepper. Give it a good mix up and then spoon onto baking paper in a prepared baking or pizza tray. Use your hands to push it out into a good pizza-like shape. It should be moist enough to hold together nicely. I like to make the edges a little thicker. Bake for 15 minutes (or until slightly crispy), then scatter your toppings on and bake for another 15. You're done!

However, cooking in that pizza oven does make it so much more divine... It gives it that smokey flavour! 

Practical, perfect, and pretty pizza! Oh... And healthy! Profitable? You get the point, awesome pizza!

Bon-appetite! 

-Fee