Chilli prawn wontons

I wasn't thinking of cooking something new this weekend. I still had umpteen limes and was keen to do a few extra batches of lime curd and indeed I did complete this aim. However, when I was shopping today I came across wonton wrappers and was tempted. Could I whip out a few prawns from my dinner and make them wontons? Could I also do wontons tomorrow with a pasta sauce I was going to make?

Well, of course, the upshot of this speculation was buying the wonton wrappers and experimenting with chilli prawn wontons. I had never made wontons before so this was getting out of the comfort zone. The first thing I did was to Google wontons and come up with a good page on Taste.com.au about making wontons. This page had its source in Australian Good Taste, September 2004 p. 53. I found a couple of other instructions and played around a bit as well.






Essentially, I started cooking my sauce for Chilli prawns with pasta which I have blogged about before. Then I took a small bowl of water and a pastry brush, pulled out a wonton wrapper, placed a prawn in the middle and followed the instructions on Taste.com.au as well as playing around with a couple of other variants. I then steamed them for 10 minutes and ate them up with a chilli sauce for dipping. Yummy! I could have popped them in a soup or deep-fried them and served with the chilli dipping sauce. I will continue to experiment with these. They are easy and yummy.

The learnings were: wontons are very simple to make; whole prawns are perhaps a wee bit big for them but it did work ok; and when steaming make sure that the individual pieces are placed separately or it will not be possible to separate after cooking!

Chilli prawns with vegetables and pasta - a quick meal with a bit of help from Piedimonte's!

One of the fabulous things about living where I do in Melbourne is that my local supermarket is the renowned Piedimonte's. This means that mostly I can get anything I want to cook with and often things that I can cook but don't bother to because I can get them ready made. This meal is based on a couple of things that I can buy from Piedimonte's and have on hand for a quick meal.

There are basically two prepared elements here, the pasta sauce and the chilli prawns though, of course, the pasta is also sourced from Piedimonte's. Piedimonte's sells ready prepared chilli prawns available in their fish and seafood section which I'll be using here. I am also going to use one of the Bertolli Five Brothers range of pasta sauce as a base for this dish as I find them so good. I am using the roast garlic and onion one tonight but many of the others are equally suitable and contain fresh ingredients without preservatives.



Yes, I could make both of these without any problems, but when I come home late from work and want a quick meal this is always a favourite for me. It can be served with whatever fresh or dry pasta you have on hand. Tonight, the fresh pasta I had on hand (from Piedimonte's, of course) was tortellini with veal and sage, so I am serving my chilli prawns with a dry spaghetti as the fresh really was not suitable.




Chilli prawns with vegetables and pasta

250 gr Piedimonte's chilli prawns (prawns, sweet chilli sauce, garlic, salt, parsley)
Half red pepper sliced
10 florets broccoli
Roasted garlic and onion (Five Brothers) pasta sauce (tomatoes, tomato puree, onion, roasted garlic, salt, herbs, olive oil)
1 serve fresh/dry pasta
Olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Shaved parmesan

Heat pan on moderate heat and add chilli prawns.
Chop vegetables, add to prawns and continue to simmer.
Bring water to boil, add a dash of olive oil and pasta.
Cook pasta for required time - 15 minutes for the dry pasta I was using.
Drain pasta and return to saucepan.
Drizzle on olive oil and grind black pepper and mix.
Turn out pasta into bowl and add prawn mix.
Top with shaved parmesan and serve.