King Prawn Ramen

I am always on the hunt for finding interesting ingredients. Last week I stumbled across these pumpkin, ginger and rice noodles by King Soba in Whole Foods and I was inspired to make my first ever ramen.

I tend to steer clear from the ramens when I visit wagammas (love a cheeky wagas- I always go for the yaki udon/soba) just because I never feel like I'll be 100% satisfied. HOWEVER, this spicy number that I have created is on a whole other level. So I know it might be controversial to use curry paste in a traditional Japanese dish but this is the secret to the heat of this beautiful bowl.

As I always say, use my ingredients list as a guide. Multiple veggies could be used in this ramen, such as sugar snaps, beansprouts or red onion. Additionally, the prawns could be switched to chicken, beef or go vegetarian with tofu!

Ingredients:

Serves 2

- 60g rice noodles

- 140g chestnut mushrooms

- 100g sweetcorn

- 180g broccoli

- 4 spring onions

- 100g king prawns

- 2 handfuls spinach

- thumb size piece of ginger

- 1 clove garlic

- 2 chicken stock cubes

- 1 ¾ tbsp red curry paste

- 1 tbsp soy sauce

- 2 tsp tamarind sauce

- 600ml boiling water

- oil for frying (I recommend coconut or sesame oil)

Method:

1. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 5 mins (or according to package instructions) until cooked. Rinse under cold water, drain and put to one side.

2. Prepare the ingredients by cutting the broccoli into small florets, slicing the mushrooms, chopping the spring onion (use all of the spring onion, even the green ends!), and grating the garlic and ginger.

3. Add some oil to a saucepan along with the red curry paste, ginger, garlic, prawns and mushrooms. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms have softened and the prawns have turned pink.

4. Pour the boiling water into the saucepan containing the prawns and mushrooms. Break up and stir in the stock cube as well as adding the broccoli, spring onion, soy sauce and tamarind sauce. Place a lid on the saucepan (not essential) and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Using a fork, check if the broccoli has softened (if it's still hard, continue to simmer for a bit longer). Add the sweetcorn, noodles and spinach, give it a stir and allow it to simmer for another minute or so.

6. Grab yourself a ladle and serve up!

WARNING: It will be extreeeeeemely hot. I know it's difficult to resist but let it cool slightly before diving in!

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