Chilli Sauce Recipe - Just like you get on Doner Kebabs!!

Here's a quick and easy chilli sauce recipe, perfect for splashing on kebabs. I had it with marinated chicken & veggies in a pitta bread and it was great. Fruity and refreshing but spicy, this should take you about 10 minutes. Try sticking it in a burger to give it a real kick.

I took a tin of tomatoes, a large white onion (sliced), 4 cloves of garlic, a splash of white wine vinegar, a big blob of ketchup, a couple of teaspoons of mint sauce and a handful of red chillis. It went into the blender until really fine, then into the fridge where it should save for a couple of days.

Told you it was quick and easy!



Chilli sauce! Behold it's ethereal glow!

I reckon that if you were to replace the mint sauce with horseradish, this would also work perfectly with seafood such as prawns.

Soft Shell Crabs - Ugly, but tasty.

I recently discovered the joys of cooking (and eating) soft shell crabs. Popular in Asia and America, they don't seem to enjoy the same popularity here in the UK. As far as I'm aware they can only be bought frozen in this country, but if you can find yourself a fishmonger or Asian supermarket that stocks them, you're in for a treat.

When a crab is getting too big for its shell, it does a crabby striptease and sheds the old one. Underneath is the new shell, but it's soft and takes a while to harden. When harvested in its soft shell, the crab can pretty much be eaten whole.  If working with fresh crabs, you need to take rip off its gills and 'bib' (blurgh!), and then cut its face off (retch!). An advantage of the frozen ones is that it has already been violently violated, and you can defrost it and get cooking. You eat the whole thing, including the shell and legs.

Uncooked crabs.
The one on the left is on his back, showing off to some prawns.

The simplest way to cook them is to just dip in a little seasoned flour and deep fry for a few minutes until they look crispy and brown. Put them in the frier on their back first so that they spread their arms and bask in the oil, if you put them legs first, they curl up an look sorry for themselves. They will spit because of all the water in there, so watch yourself!
You could also make (or buy a packet of) a tempura batter, or coat it in 'panko' breadcrumbs. I went for dipping the crabs in whisked eggs, and then in potato flour. This makes them go good and crispy.

He's ugly but delicious!

Soft shell crabs are good in a sandwich with mayonaise, cucumber and tomato. They also work really well with Asian food. I ate these badboys with egg fried rice and prawn toast, and some sweet chilli sauce for dipping.

Snails - What's WRONG with you, France?!?!

I recently wrote about finding a good frozen fishmonger in an earlier post, and one of the things I picked up was frozen edible snails in a garlic and parsley butter.

I once ate snails in Amsterdam on a stag party, and I scoffed them down, telling everyone how delicious they were. This was on a stag party...In Amsterdam....I would have eaten anything.

So I decided to give snails a try in the cold light of day. Consider this an experiment.

The snails before cooking. This could be a bad idea.

Straight from the freezer, these 'Epic Seafood' branded snails come in a foil tray, with a bright green bung of garlic and parsley butter keeping the snail sealed fresh. 10 minutes in the oven from frozen, and out they come, steaming and snaily. The smell is of garlic butter, and that's about it. I'm pretty sure that fresh would be better, but for now, frozen is where it's at.

So in goes my little fork, and out comes something from a sci-fi movie:

It Came From Outer Nose!

I consider myself quite adventurous with food, but I am not looking forward to this at all. In it goes and it's a bit of an effort to chew. Not because it's chewy, but because I'm creeping close to a gag reflex just thinking about what I'm eating. If I could seperate my thoughts from my tastebuds, I probably would have an easier time of it. It's a bit like a mushroom type texture, and doesn't taste that dissimilar. Slightly earthy, with a meaty quality. I swallow, and go in for a second one. In it goes. Chew. Blurgh. Mushroomy. I consider this a very French dish. I thought those guys were supposed to know all about food?!

I ate two from the tray, and the rest are in the bin. I don't think I'll be eating snails again....

And why do I feel so.......dirty?

Home Made Sesame Prawn Toast!

There's a big gap between real Chinese food and the sugary MSG laced stuff that most takeaways sell, but I still love a bit of prawn toast. Forget buying it from a takeaway, though, when you can easily make far, far better quality stuff at home.

Get some uncooked prawns, and either blend them, or do it with a knife, which is really satisfying. Lay the prawns out on a chopping board, get a large sharp knife, and just chop away until it's a lumpy pulp. Then throw it in a bowl. Fine chop some spring onions, and mix them in the bowl with the prawns, plus a small dash of soy sauce and a little beaten egg to help it stick.

I chop you good!

Get some white sliced bread that you've dried in the oven (low temperature for a while until it's a bit crispy), and coat one side with your prawn mixture, patting it down so that it sticks to the bread. Then coat with sesame seeds, and pat them down so that they stick.

Can you tell me how to get.. how to get to Sesame Seeeeeeds

Then simply deep fry the bread for a couple of minutes until a nice brown colour, cut into 2 or 4, and serve with soy sauce or sweet chilli sauce for dipping. Better than from a takeaway!

This is Sesame Prawn Toast, in case you weren't paying attention

Get googling for variations on the recipe, you can't really go wrong! Different versions include adding a bit of pork mince or chicken in with the prawns (since prawns aren't always cheap). You can also experiment with adding a little bit of chilli, a sprinkle of finely chopped coriander or Thai fish sauce into the mixture. I've chopped up a bit of salmon or scallops in with the prawn mixture before. It's always come out tasty.