Re-steamed Rice and Chilli Shrimp with Spinach and Avocado

What I bought:

1. Baby Spinach (reduced to £0.95)
2. King Prawns (reduced to £2.35)
3. Avocado (reduced to £1.55)
4. Mixed Chillies – Medium (reduced to £0.39)
5. Organic Spring Onions (reduced to £0.63)

What I added from home:

1. Leftover rice
2. Three tablespoons of coconut milk
3. Soy sauce
4. Garlic powder
5. Lemongrass

Evolution of the cooking method: The way I cooked this dish was dictated a little bit by the fact that I wanted to re-steam leftover rice so I evolved a sort of oven bain marie process. Anyway, you probably want to know what I made and how I made it.

The Dish: I’ve called it Re-steamed rice and chilli shrimp on a bed of blanched and fresh spinach with avocado on the side; say it quick enough and you’ll win an Oscar. Total prep time was about 25 minutes.

Preparation (per portion):

• Chop half a medium heat chilli and a spring onion into fine shreds and sauté for about a minute with a handful of king prawns, some garlic (to taste), a shred or two of lemon grass and a dash of soy sauce. (Pre-heat your oven to 210 c while you’re doing this)

• Transfer the mix into a Ramekin dish and add one tablespoon of coconut milk.
• Put a portion of leftover rice in a Ramekin dish and spread two tablespoons of coconut milk on top of it.
• Place the two Ramekins in a bain marie of sorts (I used the dish I usually use for making the family crumbles) and cook in the oven for 15 minutes.
• While the Ramekins are in the oven, quickly blanche half of the spinach (this is to add moisture as there is not much sauce, but also gives you a lovely contrast of paler and darker green on the plate) and chop a few slices of avocado (put some lime juice on the avocado if you don’t want it to oxidise/brown).
• Remove the Ramekins, plate and serve. Depending on how you handle the rice you might have a bit of crunch on the exposed side which just makes for textured eating 🙂

How it tasted: Considering I just made this up, it tasted quite balanced. MissMissus (who took the pictures with some Android thing) loved it and my mother, who is visiting, said she wanted to taste it and ended up eating half of it. I think it works because the chilli in the prawn gives you a nice kick, which the spinach and avocado help neutralise. Also, in addition to adding moisture, the blanched spinach undercuts the intensity of flavours from the prawn/chilli/soy/lemongrass… In a word, it was good; simple, but good.

Leftovers: In case it’s of any interest I used my leftover prawns to make a basic tumeric-coconut milk-shrimp paste-lime-lemongrass-ginger-chilli-onion-fish sauce curry soup. I threw in the last few leaves of spinach for good measure.