It's nearly jolly holly time!

Well we're winding up for our summer holiday in our house this week so it's a bit hectic right now. I have had time to get into the kitchen though and I have two new recipes to share with you all.
 The first came out of boredom.
 I'll be honest I'm so rushed off my feet I can barely bring myself to cook a full meal when I get home from work. Ordinarily this would mean turning to my trusty slow cooker and living on one pot meals but it's a little on the warm side weather wise for that sort of thing. So we've developed what my Mum would term the " kill it and cook it yourself" approach. In other words it's every man for himself, so my kids are living on beans on toast, bless 'em. I wish I could do the same!
 Anyway, using what I had left in the fridge and freezer I came up with this little ditty:
Saffron Noodles
Serves 1
Ingredients

• 1 portion of rice noodles ( dried or the straight to wok kind)
• 100g (approximately a large handful) of prawns or diced chicken.
• 100g of frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 tsp saffron strands
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 tbsps of goats/cow's milk butter
• 1 tbsp of rice flour.

1. If using dried rice noodles put them into boiling water to soak.
2. Peel and crush garlic and add to a medium pan with the prawns/chicken, vegetables and butter. Fry on a medium heat, stirring frequently.
3. Once the prawns/chicken and vegetables are heated through add the rice flour to the pan one spoon at a time, stirring vigorously. This is to make a butter sauce.
4. Finally add the saffron strands and turn the heat low. Allow to bubble for 2 minutes until the sauce turns yellow, then add in the noodles and mix well until they're coated with the sauce .
 Enjoy!

My next adventure was making dairy free ice cream. I did a little research first of all and found that most recipes are egg custard based ( Gack!). Not good when you can't eat eggs, so I pressed a little further and found several that were based on coconut milk.
I found one particular recipe that works quite well but there were a few kinks in it.
Firstly, it contained gelatine and I'll be honest there's absolutely no need to add it to the mix at all so I'll be leaving that one out next time around. The second was, being an American recipe, the coconut milk in this country is a little different so the result although good wasn't as fantastic as I'd hoped. Anyway here's the basic recipe, it does make a nice creamy dessert although the ice crystals tend to be a little big, so maybe this would be good in an ice cream maker.
Coconut vanilla ice cream
Serves 8
 Ingredients

• 3 cans of thick coconut milk ( keep one in the cupboard and put two in the fridge over night)
• 150g sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

1. Using the can of coconut milk from the cupboard, add it to the sugar in medium sized saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently until it has thickened and reduced. Set this aside until it is completely cold.
2. Empty the two cans of milk from the fridge into a large bowl and whisk with an electric mixer until it is light and creamy and then place in the fridge for an hour.

3. Once the condensed coconut milk is cold and the creamy mixture has been refrigerated combine the two and add the vanilla. Mix once more with the electric whisk and then pour into freezable containers.
4. Freeze for 3 hours and then mix thoroughly to break up the ice crystals before returning to the freezer for another 3 hours.
5. Serve with fruit or on it's own. If it is difficult to scoop leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to soften.
 I hope that'll keep you going for a week. Next week I'll be looking at eating abroad when you're on holiday and how to avoid your "banned" foods.