Skewers: Thai Satay Prawns

If you like Asian-inspired recipes, this one is for you. Satay is a dish of marinated, skewered and grilled meat or seafood, served with a sauce. Peanut is quite popular in Asian cuisine and it gives this recipe its special taste.
It's very easy to prepare but you need already prepared (peeled and deveined) shrimps and some time for marinating. Enjoy!

For 6 skewers
Preparation time: 30 minutes + 2 hours marinating
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: **

Ingredients:
- 12 king prawns, peeled and deveined, with tails intact
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 1/2 cup (80g peanut butter)
- 1 onion, grated
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2/3 coconut milk

You can serve with a Satay sauce:
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
- 1 stalk lemongrass (white part only, finely chopped)
- 1 cup (250 ml) coconut milk
- 3 tablespoons smooth peanut butter
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons roasted unsalted peanuts, finely chopped

Soak six wooden skewers in water for a couple of hours to prevent them from burning.
Prepare the shrimp if they are.

Using a blender, prepare the marinade by mixing the garlic, peanut butter, onion, fish sauce, chili flakes, turmeric powder, ground coriander and 2 tablespoons of coconut milk, until smooth.
Stir in the rest of the coconut milk.

Plunge the prawns in the marinade, keeping the tails out if possible. Cover and place in refrigerator for 2 hours minimum.

Thread 2 prawns onto each skewer. Keep the marinade for the sauce and to brush the prawns during cooking.

Prepare the satay sauce: heat oil in a pan. Add the curry paste and lemongrass. Cook for 1 minute on high heat. Add the coconut milk, peanut butter and sugar. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat to let simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes.
Stir in the rest of the marinade and boil until thickened (2 minutes).

Barbecue the prawns until cooked through, brushing with the marinade and turning once.

Serve with the satay sauce sprinkled with chopped peanuts.

On the side, you can prepare saffron rice (basmati and wild rice): start with the wild rice which cooks twice longer than the regular rice. At half-time, add the regular rice to the sauce and some saffron strands. Drain the rice and serve.

Scallops on a bed of leeks

This dish is perfect for a "chic" diner. Scallops are a delicate ingredient which marries perfectly with leeks, which belong to the same family as onion and garlic. Leeks have a very mild taste and they are very good bones, joints, arteries and connective tissues. Make sure you include them in your diet thanks to this great recipe!

Serves 2
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Difficulty: **


Ingredients:
- 8 nice and big scallops (4 per person) - Use more if your scallops are on the smaller size
- 4 leeks
- 1 + 1 tablespoon butter
- 1/3 cup (50 ml) water
- salt & pepper
- a pinch of paprika

First, wash the leeks. Make sure you do it properly since the layers might trap some dirt. Trim the leeks, keeping only the white onion base and light green stalk. The dark green portion is usually discarded since it has less flavor and can be bitter.

Chop the white base of the leeks into slices about 1 inch (1.5 cm) thick.
Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large pan. Add the leek slices and the water and let "melt" on medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the water is gone.
If you see that the water evaporated but the leeks are not melted (=tender) enough, add a little bit of water and continue cooking on low heat.
Do not let the leek slices brown, they should keep their origial color!

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a frying pan. Pat dry the scallops with kitchen paper and season with salt and pepper on each side.
When the frying pan is hot, add the scallops and let brown for about 2/3 minutes. Return the scallops and do the same on the other side.
**Do not overcook the scallops since they can become chewy. Be also aware of the risks of undercooked meat, poultry, seafood, shellfish and eggs consumption.**

Once the scallops are cooked as you like, lay a bed of melted leeks on a plate and place 4 scallops on top. Add a pinch of paprika on the scallops to add color. Repeat for the second plate.

If you liked this recipe, let me know!