Prawn & Peanut Noodle Stir Fry

Calming my quavering nerves, I sallied forth last night to make the above noodle dish.  Now I'd been craving noodles for days and had managed to soothe the craving somewhat by purchasing a pack of Mi Goreng noodles (complete with flavouring and seasoning) from the local Supermarket.  Add a one-egg omelette and you've got lunch in under 5 minutes.  Brilliant.

However, I was still keen for a whopping great pile of steaming, fragrant noodles to cross my path.  Son had had a large lunch at school and had opted not to join in the noodle bonanza, so it was just myself and hubby.  Re-reading the recipe again, it just seemed too easy to be THAT nice, but I put my trust in the BBC's Good Food recipes and got cracking.

You can find the original recipe at www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6175 however, you'll see that my version of it changed a bit, owing to the fact that mange tout were in excess of £1 in the supermarket, whereas they did a fresh stir-fry mix which contained mange tout along with butternut squash and beanshoots (amongst a whole host of other veg) for £1.  I also had a yellow pepper going bukshee in the fridge, so that got pressganged into use.

A word of warning - when I mixed the "dressing" together, it behaved somewhat unexpectedly in that it whisked together well but then suddenly set to a very stiff consistency.  I couldn't help but think that it was supposed to be looser than that, but I noticed that the frozen prawns - which I'd just put into the pan with the veggies - had released a lot of water and everything was in danger of going very soupy.  So, I added the "dressing", which combined beautifully with the liquid that was already in the pan and the situation was saved.  *phew*  This turned out to be a delicious combination, which I'd be very happy to serve again - and I'd simply add more noodles, vegetables and perhaps an omelette, to feed 3.

PEANUT & PRAWN NOODLE STIR-FRY (serves 2)

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp chilli sauce
100g egg noodles
200g cooked peeled prawns, defrosted and drained if frozen
A stir-fry pack of vegetables of your choice
2 spring onions, shredded, if not in the vegetable pack
a quarter of a bell pepper, sliced finely, if not in the vegetable pack.

Method :

1.  Put a pot of salted water on to boil.
2.  Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan and add all the vegetables, leaving them to colour slightly, then turning.
3.  When the water boils, add the noodles and cook as pack instructions.
4.  When the vegetables are almost cooked, add the prawns and heat through.
5.  Whisk together the peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce and chilli sauce with 2 tbsp boiling water, season with salt and add to the vegetables & prawns.  Mix through.
6.  Add the noodles and stir to combine.
7.  Serve.