RED PRAWN AND PAPAYA CURRY

After a heavy day on the food - testing three giant roasts in a day and and eating most of them - a supper of fruit and fish proved sufficiently antidotal. This serves perfectly as a simple midweek winner, bright and lively, and takes no time at all. 

RED PRAWN AND PAPAYA CURRY

serves 2

ingredients

2 tbsps olive oil

180ml coconut milk

2 tbsps red curry paste (this is a good quantity for Thai Taste Massaman Red Curry, but brands can vary hugely - taste before you paste)

1 tsp fish sauce

1 tsp palm sugar (or caster if you can't find any)

150g raw king prawns

100g mangetout

1 papaya, peeled, deseeded and cubed

2 tbsps chopped coriander leaves to serve

150g rice

Rinse the rice and add to a large sauce pan with 1 1/2 the amount of water to rice. Bring the rice to the boil and turn to a gentle simmer. Cover with a lid, tilted so the steam can escape, and cook for approximately 15 minutes. Drain any excess water and fluff up.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan or wok and add 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk. Stir and add the curry paste. Add the fish sauce and palm sugar. Pour in the the rest of the coconut milk, bring to the boil, and add the prawns. Turn down to a gentle simmer and cook for 2 minutes to reduce the sauce. Add the mangetout and papaya and cook for another minute.

Serve the curry with the rice, and the chopped coriander leaves.

WASTE NOT WANT NOT.

Having a fridge full of leftovers is my fortnightly joy. It is the only time you can scrape the mould off the yogurt and no-one knows the difference. The stew has lost its freshness but tastes better than it did the first time. The wrinkly apples are screaming to be put into a crumble. The stale bread in the bread bin looks the perfect friend to welsh rarebit or pappa al pomodoro. And the old cheese is at its best.

Leftovers let you be frugal yet still generous. Using them up makes you environmentally friendly without giving it a thought. And, best yet, you can be as creative as possible. And who will mind if it goes wrong? It would have only gone in the bin.

So it's time to give the old dears a second chance...

This weeks fresh(ish) leftovers are as follows:
Half a Roast Chicken, Eaten yesterday, Taken off the Bone (approx. 300g)
Stock made from the Bones
1 Rasher of Smoked Bacon
Last Batch of Homemade Yogurt
Broccoli
Three Boiled New Potatoes
1 Browning Banana
Half a Mango

And here are the old pots in the fridge that should have been used a LOOOONG time ago:
Harissa Paste
Tom Yum Soup Paste
Very Lazy Red Chillies
Thai Green Curry Paste
1 Scraping of Pesto

I'm going to try to whip as much of a dîner délicieux as I can using as many as these as possible - the fridge has been rather kind this week, I must admit. So that means the bacon and pesto will have to be left til tomorrow's sarnie, and the Harissa should probably be thrown.

So, who's for giving some life to a Thai chicken curry?

No coconut milk, you squeal? No rice? Rice we have. There is always rice. Coconut milk is also something that must always be in the larder. NEVER let it run out. Leftovers NEED coconut milk.

Curry is a great one for using up what you've got and need to get rid of. It's in the same category as soup: chuck it all in and boil it up. (But do check the sell by date just in case. Most of the time it's there for a reason).

LEFTOVER GREEN THAI CHICKEN CURRYSERVES 3

300g torn chicken
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps green curry paste
1 450g tin of coconut milk
1 ladle of chicken stock
2 scantily chopped shallots
2 broccoli stalks, broken into smaller trees
1 tsp very lazy red chillies.
3 cooked, chopped new potatoes
half mango, sliced
three large tablespoons of natural yogurt - homemade
200g dry basmati rice

sliced banana

Warm up some olive oil, stir fry oil or sunflower oil (see what you've got) in a heavy based pan or wok. Throw in two tbsps of green curry paste, and fry for about 2 minutes, with regular stirring. Now, add the coconut milk and stock.

Make sure the chicken is skin-free and torn into medium sized strips. Add to the coconut mix. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes(If you are using raw chicken, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through).

Add the broccoli.

Boil a pan of water and cook the rice - cooking times vary so check the packet.

Add the red chilli.

Once the broccoli is cooked, throw in the chopped new potatoes to the curry - if they are already cooked they only need a short simmer to heat up, and they are lovely in their original new potato (or old in this case) form.

Add the mango to sweeten it up - it works deliciously with chicken.

Once the rice is cooked, drain and serve in a large bowl. Ladle the curry over the rice. If you have lime, use it. Give it a good squeeze over the curry. Serve with chopped banana - trust me it's good. Dollop the leftover yogurt on top and devour.

Can't wait until next fortnight's luxury leftover load!