Fennel and Prawn Risotto with Prosciutto

A risotto is actually a very easy dish to make so if you've never made one cus you think it's hard; it is not! Just go for it! And don't be snobbish about using ONLY arborio rice. You don't need to do that.

Yes, I know I've just offended millions of untold readers who are risotto aficionados. Tough. Tough, I say. I've made it with arborio, jasmine, basmati, long-grain, short-grain, medium grain, and probably a few others. Heck I even did one with half basmati and half long-grain brown rice.

You know what? They all tasted great. The key (for me at least) is to dry fry the rice a bit first so it goes from translucent to opaque, THEN start on the liquid it'll be cooking in.

I used prosciutto in this because I got a large, unsliced slab of it half off at the shops and after I finished thin slicing it I had a small piece leftover that just wouldn't go through my meat slicer.

Well, it probably would have but I doubt I'dve had any fingertips left for typing.

Obviously, a piece of ham or bacon can be substituted for the prosciutto, no worries.

You'll also notice that this risotto is not heavily seasoned as I really wanted the fennel flavour to stand up and be noticed. It was.

What you need:
1 hunk of prosciutto --about the weight of a full sized bacon rasher

1/2 of a large fennel bulb

1 cup of rice --any kind, uncooked
1 or 2 tbsp olive oil
sprinkle of sea salt

2 litres (1/2 gallon) of MY fennel stock
handful of dried red capsicums, minced
fronds from the fennel bulb

250 grams (about 1/2 pound), peeled, cooked, deveined small prawns


What you do:

First, prepare the fennel. Remember what a fennel bulb looks like?




Trim the stalks off.




Hey look! A pile of fennel stalks with fronds!




Trim the fronds off the fennel, you'll use the fronds for flavouring the risotto.




Then chop up all the fronds. I don't need to show you a picture of that, do I? Thought not.

Next, cut your fennel bulb in half.


Notice that thick core? Some people cut that away. I don't. Especially since it'll be so soft and succulent in this dish.

Slice one of the fennel halves (or both, your choice). Try to make them about 5 mm or 1/4 of an inch thick.


Then, for this dish, I cut the slices in half. You don't need a picture of that, right?

Take your hunk of prosciutto and trim the fat off. Keep the fat! Chop the fat up finely and put it in the large fry pan you'll be using for the risotto. Cook it till the fat is liquid and the little bits left over are browned.

Now add you sliced, cut, fennel bulb and cook it till it looks about like this.

Slightly caramelized, but not soggy. Stir whilst frying, of course.

Next, add the rice, the olive oil, and the sea salt. Fry it (whilst stirring) till the rice turns opaque. This'll only take a minute or two.

Now add 1 litre of the fennel stock, the minced fennel fronds, and the dried red capsicums (bell pepper). Give it all a good stir, turn the heat down to medium low. Cover it.

Check it in 5 minutes. Stir it. If the liquid isn't cooking down and being absorbed into the rice the turn the heat up a bit higher. Stir it every few minutes. Add more fennel stock as need until the rice is done and there's almost no liquid left.

The above paragraph should take around 18 minutes.

Turn the heat off and add the prawns, give it a mix. Put the lid on and let it stand for a few more minutes. Now's a good time to finely mince the rest of the prosciutto. Add the minced prosciutto, mix well.

Serve it up!




Obviously, you can modify and add ingredients to your heart's content. With this one though, I really wanted to get the fresh fennel flavour.

Grilled Garlic & Chilli Prawns

Ahhhhh, this is a great lip-tingling, spicy-hot, tasty, summer grilling treat. Why do you get a great summer recipe as the Holiday season approaches? Cus I'm in Oz where it is late spring and yesterday I saw 110 F in the shade and 143 F in the sun.

Obviously this weather calls for spicy food to help cool you down! Ahem. It works, really. Trust me, 'k?

Wifey-Poo and I got a great deal on some local tiger prawns the other day. I decided I wanted to grill mine and make them rather spicy. I dug back through my ancient memories of when I was in Austin, Texas, USA. There was this one place I found that made the best cajun crawdads.

What I made last night turned out to be a very good approximation of the lip-tingling goodness that I remembered.

You can make this as a main course or a side dish. Just depends on how many prawns ya got.

The first thing to do is make the chilli/garlic paste. There are 3 ways to do this.

An easy way: Mix 2 tbsp prepared garlic with 1 tbsp cayenne powder, a pinch of sugar, 1 tsp sesame oil, and 1 tsp prepared ginger.

Another easy way: Same as above but with 2 tbsp of chilli paste (the real stuff) instead of the cayenne powder.

The easiest way: Go to an oriental grocery store and buy a jar of garlic/chilli paste.


Now put 10 raw, not-shelled, tiger prawns into a bowl, and spoon 2 tbsp of garlic/chilli paste (however you made it) onto the raw, NOT shelled tiger prawns. Use your fingers to make sure the paste coats all the prawns (be careful!!!!!! They are spiny). Then sprinkle 1 tbsp of ground black pepper over the prawns and toss them gently so the black pepper has stuck to the garlic/chilli paste.

Crank up your barby to medium high heat. Place the prawns on the barby and grill for about 2 minutes a side (don't overcook or they'll be tough instead of succulent).

Put the blackened prawns on a plate to cool just enough so that you can handle them. This would be a very good time to wash your hands, BTW.

To eat them, just rip the heads off (make sure you suck out all the juices from the head part of the shell), quickly shell the rest of the prawn and eat it. Continue until all the prawns are gone.

Your brow should have a nice sweat by now. An ice cold lager will take the heat off your tongue and the capillary-dilating properties of the spices will cool your body on a hot summer day.

Seriously, This. Is. Good.

Prawn and Bacon Curry

I mean really, just what DOESN'T go well with bacon? You can do loads of different dishes with bacon. Ahhhhh, the humble pig; Mother Nature's gift to the culinary world.

Don't worry about me abandoning the cheesy goodness, I'll be back with a How To Make Awesomely Good Feta Cheese soon --complete with pictures. But I've been told by the clan that I'd better write this one down cus they are going to want it again.

See, when I make curries I usually make them with whatever I can find in the pantry. They always come out great, but every once in a while one stands out. Two nights ago was a "once in a while" curry.

Note about the prawns (shrimp): I used already peeled and cooked prawns cus that's all I had at the time. Feel free to use fresh ones, no worries. Just make sure you keep the shells, tails, and heads as they make a very flavourful seafood stock when boiled and strained.

Feel free to use lemon grass or kaffir lime leaves if you'd like, they should go in at the same time you add the garlic. Speaking of the garlic, I used jarred, prepared, minced garlic as I was out of fresh garlic heads.

Alright, I've blathered enough! Let's get cookin'!

Prawn and Bacon Curry


What you need:

Prep wok-ing:
5 or 6 large rashers of bacon, diced (for you US'ns that'd be about half a pound of bacon strips chopped up)

For the initial wok-ing:
bacon fat (see above)
1 small onion, minced
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp tamarind paste
2 tbsp Tom Yum paste
1 small red capsicum (bell pepper), minced
1 small can (225 grams around 8 oz) whole water chestnuts

For the prawn part:
350 grams (3/4 of a pound) of shelled, deveined, de-tailed, small prawns (think cocktail shrimp size)
1/4 cup cornflour (called cornstarch in the US)
2 tsp curry powder --I used Clive of India, but any good one will do
1 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
2 tbsp olive oil

For the cookin' part:
1 can (400 mls or 13 oz) coconut milk or coconut cream (whichever is in your pantry)
1/2 cup cream
semi-cooked bacon pieces from prep wok-ing

For the serving part:
Bed of cooked, white, long-grained rice (I used jasmine)
1 cup of greek yoghurt


Yeah I know, seems like a long list. You'll be happy that I broke it up into sections though, makes the instructions very easy to follow.


What you do:

Start with the bacon in the prep wok-ing section. Toss the cut up bacon into a large wok and cook on low heat till the bacon is about halfway cooked --you don't want it to be crispy. Take the semi-cooked bacon pieces out of the wok, but leave the bacon fat in the wok.

Next add the minced onion to the wok and cook in the bacon fat for a minute or 2 on medium-low heat. Then add the next four ingredients in the "initial wok-ing" section. Give it a good stir. Once it starts to really sizzle (and smell OH SO GOOD!), add the water chestnuts plus the water from the can they were in. Give it a good stir.

While the can water is cooking down (it'll only take a minute) you get to do the prawn part! Put the prawns in a large bowl and then add everything from the "prawn part" section. Toss to coat everything evenly.

By the time you take the bowl with the coated prawns over to the sizzling wok the water should have cooked down. Add the olive oil and then add the prawns to the wok (which is smelling really good by now). Stir and toss and then turn the heat up for a minute.

Add the coconut cream, the cream, and the semi-cooked bacon pieces. Give it a good stir to combine, turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 or 10 mins. Stir it every now and then.

Serve it over a bed of the cooked long grain white rice, and each plate gets a dollop of greek yoghurt on the top of the curry.

Why? Well, this could be a bit hot for some folks and the yoghurt takes care of the heat but you still get the flavours.

Some people will think this isn't hot enough! If you're one of those folks who likes your curries really hot, then double the amount of Tom Yum paste and add a few chopped up thai chilli peppers at the time you add the garlic. That'll be guaranteed to clear the sinuses!

Prawn-Flavoured Miso and Seaweed Soup

Ever done any cooking with prawns (shrimp)? Ever had to shell them? Did you ever wonder what you could do with the "heads" and the rest of the shells besides chucking them in the bin? Well, you are about to find out what you can do with them.

This easy and tasty soup makes a great side dish to whatever you are doing with the shrimp (prawn) meat for the main course.


Here's what you need:

Prawn (shrimp) shells and heads from about 1 pound of shrimp (prawn)
1 or 2 tbsp light miso paste
1 or 2 sheets of yaki-nori seaweed (the kind you make sushi rolls with)
8 to 10 cups of water
a large saucepan
a heat source

There's some optional stuff, like shitake shrooms, chillis, or some of the prawn meat, but the above will give you a very nice, refreshing soup. Oh, the light miso paste refers to the color and has nothing to do with reducing calories.


What you do:

Dump the prawn shells and heads into your saucepan along with the water. Crank up the heat source, cover and simmer till the liquid is reduced by around half. This'll take anywhere between 30 mins (minutes) and an hour (3,600 seconds).

Remove from heat. Take a potato masher and mash the shells (while still in the broth) to extract every last bit of prawny goodness from them. Strain to get rid of the shells. Put the strained broth back in the saucepan and add the miso paste. Put it back on the heat to bring it up to a simmer.

A couple of minutes (a few hundred seconds) before serving, shred the seaweed sheets into the soup. Let it stand for a minute.

Serve it up!

Tasty, simple, healthy!

Makes about a litre. If you want more soup, then use more water initially.

If you are using dried shitakes, try reconstituting them in half water and half dry sherry --it'll take an hour or so depending on how dry they are (if they've been in your pantry for a few years it'll take a long soak). And add the reconstipated shitakes to the soup the same time as the miso.