Prawns and asparagus

Bit of a quiet day on Meat and Fish at work today so had a bit of a think about what to do my Rock Chick and I for supper.  A customer came in and bought some lovely looking crevettes and there were some uncooked king prawns on display which looked lovely and plump and juicy.  I decided to do a spicy prawn and asparagus pasta with a couple of the crevettes as a garnish.  I've done this a few times before and it works well with either pasta or noodles.  I used spaghetti  this evening only because the one we like was on offer recently and we have shed loads to use up!

So, in a large non-stick pan I softened half a small onion, which had been finely chopped, in a good lug of olive oil.  To this I added four cloves of finely chopped garlic, a handful of small cherry tomatoes (halved), three sliced red chillies, about a dessert spoonful of tomato puree, half a teaspoon of ginger and the same of lemongrass and a good splash of white wine.  I also bunged in the finely chopped stalks of about half a handful of the coriander that I would be using later to finish the dish.

I love coriander.  Adding the chopped stalks early on really adds flavour to a dish.  The soft leaves only need to be added last thing or as a garnish as they need little or no cooking.  The ginger and lemongrass came out of a jar on this occasion.  For a heavily spiced dish where all you want is some background flavour I can't see the point of buying fresh and throwing most of it away.

I cooked all of this together on a low heat for about 15 minutes until everything was soft and the flavours had all joined together in a happy clappy kum ba ya sort of way.

Whilst all this was going on I had salted water on for the pasta and part cooked some asparagus.  I cut off the tips (about 2") and sliced the rest into half inch chunks.  The woody bottom bits I always freeze and make up a batch of asparagus soup when I have accumulated enough.

Once the kum ba ya point had been reached it was action stations.  The heat was whacked up under the pan, the pasta was added to the boiling water and the raw prawns, asparagus (tips and smaller stem bits) and pre-cooked crevettes were added to the kum ba ya mix.  The prawns and asparagus were stir fried in about the time it took the spaghetti to cook then whilst the pasta was draining I added chopped coriander to the pan, stirred it in and then turned the heat off.

The drained pasta was then stirred in and it was turned out into nice big bowls.  The crevettes were ceremonially plonked on top and with a last garnish of coriander and a good squeeze of lime juice it was ready for eating.

Simples!

PS For those of you reading this in Russia, Germany and other non-histoically Imperial countries - 2" is about 4cm and a half inch chunk is just under 1cm!!