A new beginning.........

....well, its been awhile, there have been things that have kept me from blogging, nothing to spend time lamenting, just life I guess.....

Anyway life being what it is, it now feels like a good time to take up the bloging reins again. We have a tender tummy in our little group around the table, as well as one who needs to have the apetite tempted, one who needs to cut back on the much loved carbs and starches and one who needs to have a little bit of care for the cholesterol levels........oh yeah! and the biggie, the cook has been bad, very very bad........she has been giving the credit card a flogging, all in the name of  'the sacred stash'........oh dear, we need to budget.
Well, as we gather around our table, I will leave it to you to decide..........are all the criteria being met?? probably not and lets not loose sight of the fact that the Shitzu needs to be kept happy, there is nothing worse, belive me, nothing worse, than a depressed Shitzu, and he only likes chicken.

So for a tender tum I made Potato, Bacon and Leek Soup from these ingredients, 

Chop the bacon into small pieces, and crisp it up in just a little oil, about 1 teaspoon, remove the crisp bacon from the stock pot and place it to one side to be added to the finished soup later.
Melt the 50grams butter in the same pot, add the 2 chopped leeks, 1 chopped onion, 3 peeled and cubed potatoes and 1 clove chopped garlic, toss to cover in the butter and bacon brownings.
Put the lid on the pot and sweat the vegetables over a medium/low heat for 10 mins.
Remove the lid and add chicken stock to just cover, add the bay leaf and 2 sprigs of thyme, a generous grinding of pepper and sea salt. 
Simmer until the potato is soft and done.

Remove the thyme and bay leaf and using a stick blender, blend the soup in the pot, until it is smooth.
Return the bacon to the soup and simmer for another 2 mins.  Scatter the chopped chives and parsley over the top and serve with hot crusty bread rolls, straight from the oven.
It must have been o.k. as more bowls disappeared during the evening.

As a bit of a treat and an appetite tempter, I thought Garlic Prawns would be a good idea.  Well, I'm not that fond of prawns, having had a run in with one that certainly was not fresh some years ago, and yes, I have held a grudge.
 
Phoned one of the local fishmongers that have their own trawler, and fessed up that I really was a novice in the prawn purchasing game, Des was a font of knowledge and kindly took the time to give me some pointers and explained how prawns are sized, going past the small, medium and large that are all that you usually see available.  It's possible, and in fact easy, to order very large prawns, they come as U6 or U8, an old weight measurement from Pounds and Ounces days, U6 you get 6 to the pound, and U8 you get 8 to the pound, how easy is that!

I ordered a Kilo of U6, and was delighted to fetch these home to the kitchen.  That's a dinner plate they are resting on.

being larger they were easier to clean, still messy, but easier than their smaller cousins.  There are a squillion 'Garlic Prawn' recipes all basically the same.
I wanted these to have a fair bit of sauce but didn't want to use cream, so I made a prawn stock with the 'peelings', that is the legs, shells and tails. 

While the prawn stock was simmering away, I rustled up an avocado side salad.

TOMATO AND AVOCADO SALAD

6 baby roma tomatoes, halved and sliced

1 ripe avocado, cubed

1/4 cup diced red onion

Place above ingredients in a bowl.

DRESSING

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 Tablespoon balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

Put all dressing ingredients in a screw top jar, shake and pour over tomato and avocado, toss the salad to combine.

Pile salad into lettuce cups to serve.

And now the prawns, Steam a small quantity of rice, you only need about 1/4 cup cooked per person to soak up the juices, have rice ready on warmed platter.

Pour a tablespoon of oil and a good nob of butter into a non stick pan with the garlic, heating until the garlic is just softening, raise the heat and add the prawns, cooking them pretty quickly until they have just turned opaque, do not over cook or the prawns will toughen. Lift onto the bed of rice.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of the prawn stock into the pan, swirling around and lifting up the juices and brownings, then pour the sauce over the prawns and rice.

Served them with the avocado, tomato salad.

Would I do them again? probably, but they were expensive protein at $30 per kilo.......so what with the butter and the cost, I guess I failed on two fronts, but heck they were tasty, there were 5 prawns each, and that size we really only needed 3 each, but there is something rather nice about a decadent prawn feast.