Prawn stir fry

A really quick and easy one tonight!  Stir fry is one of those dishes that you can do in a hurry but still delivers fantastic results.  It can be adapted to whatever meat you happen to have in the freezer, or just leave the meat out for a cheap veggie version.  There are loads of sauces available in the shops, but I find them overpriced and I prefer the flavour when I've done it myself.  Also, if you make it yourself, you can adjust flavours and spices to your own tastes rather than being stuck with the homogeneous packet mix.

That's one of the evil chilli peppers from the other night, so tonight I made sure to test it by tasting a small piece raw before the point of no return.  It was quite hot, so I scraped the seeds out and only used half of it.  You can use dried cayenne pepper or chilli flakes from a jar instead if you want to.

Peel and chop some spring onions, and crush a clove of garlic using whichever means you prefer (garlic press, flat of a knife blade...).  Put them in a bowl along with some prawns (this packet was 225g, which worked out quite nicely for two people), a generous glug of soy sauce (I prefer the flavour of the dark variety, but use whichever you like), a drop of Thai fish sauce, a pinch of salt and some ginger.

Feel free to use fresh ginger if you want - recipes generally refer to "a thumb-sized piece" for some reason, peeled and finely chopped - but I really like a nice generous tablespoonful of ginger paste (also known as lazy ginger).  It lasts absolutely ages in the fridge so there's rarely any waste and it tastes just as good as fresh ginger to my mind.  Why do I still use fresh garlic and not garlic paste then?  Because fresh garlic lasts forever (and if it does start to sprout, you just plant it in a pot and get more garlic) so there's no need to preserve it in a jar.

This marinade will be just as nice with chicken, cut up into mouthful-sized pieces.

Get your hands in and mix it all around so that the prawns are covered in flavour.

Cover with clingfilm or a plate and leave it in the fridge to marinade for at least half an hour but as long as you can.  I work funny hours and I was home at four o'clock so I prepared it then.  It's flexible - if you work regular hours you can prepare it as soon as you get home then relax for a bit and cook it later, or even do it in the morning before work or last thing the night before.  I have been known to buy frozen prawns, put them in marinade the night before eating and leave the whole lot in the fridge for 24 hours so that they defrost ready for cooking while marinading.  That's probably not a technique you'll find recommended in a glossy cookbook but we are busy people with jobs and lives!

My girlfriend and I teamed up on this one.  She asked me to start marinading the prawns as soon as I got in and she'd buy the rest of the ingredients on the way home from work (being a sensible person, she works 9-5).  She got one of the prepared bags of stir-fry veg, containing onions, beansprouts, carrots and some other bits and bobs, already sliced up.  The only problem with these prepared bags is that they're really past their best after a day, so you need to be feeding enough people to use it all up (I hate wasting food).  My preference in a stir-fry would be onions, beansprouts, mangetout and sugar-snap peas, but chuck in whatever you like.

She bought fresh rice noodles, the type that you just have to cook in the wok with the rest of the stir-fry.  Dried ones are fine too, but you'll need to boil them before adding them to the wok.

She also did all the cooking from here on in!  It just needs to go into the wok and fry over a medium to high heat for about three minutes, stirring all the while.  Obviously if you're using your own choice of veg you need to figure out if it needs boiling for a little while first, or just chopping finely enough that it will cook in a stir-fry.  Packets are quite informative these days so read carefully, or if you're using a greengrocer or small independent shop don't be afraid to ask.

Serve and chow down!

Taste verdict
I got the spice level about right this time, so the flavour of the prawns came through nicely - we both love seafood.  Don't cook it for too long - the veg needs to be nice and crunchy, which it was.

Financial verdict
3 spring onions - 30p
1 tamed chilli pepper - 20p
225g prawns - £3.30 (prawns seem to vary wildly in price so keep your eye on the price tag here.  Frozen ones might be cheaper, and they freeze very well so you can use them with little or no loss of flavour) 
180g rice noodles - 40p (I'd have probably used dried egg noodles - they're cheaper and they store better.  Rice noodles are lovely though)
350g bag of prepared stir-fry veg - £1 (this is one of the rare occasions where I think prepackaged veg is cheaper than making it up yourself)
Clove of garlic, splash of soy sauce, drop of fish sauce, tablespoonful of ginger paste - pennies, from store.

£2.60 per portion.  This is one where our household's compact size counts against it - we had the luxury of a high prawn:noodle ratio (not to mention big portions), but if I'd been cooking this for four I would have done it exactly the same way but used the whole packet of noodles instead of just tearing off what I thought we would eat.  For four, this would work out at £1.40 each.

The skinny
Make the marinade:
Peel and chop three spring onions.
Peel and crush one clove of garlic.
Chop one chilli pepper (adjusting to the right heat level, or use dried chilli flakes.  You know how hot you like it).
Put all the above in a bowl with a generous splash of soy sauce, a drop or two of fish sauce, a heaped tablespoonful of ginger paste and a pinch of salt.

Put the prawns into the marinade and mix it all up with your hands so that everything's covered in flavour.

Cover and place in the fridge for at least half an hour, up to overnight.

Heat oil in a wok or frying pan.

Add the marinaded prawns, a bag of stir-fry veg (or veg of your choosing) and cook over a medium heat.  It will only take about three minutes.

If using dried noodles, have them on the boil when you start the stir-fry cooking, then add to the wok when soft.

If using rice noodles, just put everything in the wok together.

Cook on a medium-high heat, stirring all the time (hence the name).

When it's all hot through and coated with flavour from the marinade, it's ready.

WeightWatchers ProPoints
8