Recipe || Thai Prawn Vermicelli Noodles

When I first met Adam we realised that we shared a mutual love of one particular hobby – cooking.

Whereas the difference was that whilst I love to bake and know most hearty family favourites by heart, his passion and skill lies in Asian cooking. Give the boy a curry, spring roll, fried rice or stiry fry to make and out of nowhere he’ll conjure his own homemade curry pastes, delicious sauces and brilliant Indian, Chinese and Thai food. I really love eating pan-asian cuisine, but when it comes to cooking it, I’m just not as confident as with other dishes. Therefore, being offered some Thai Taste ingredients to learn to make their Thai noodle salad meant I could practice at home (and, y’know, whip up a delicious bowl of soupy, flavoursome, rice noodley goodness from easy to use, tasty ingredients). Next time I make this I might throw in a few more veggies, and actually add in a little more chilli as though I don’t appreciate having my head blown off from spice, I think I could have handled a little more heat. Plus, this is the first time I’ve tried galangal and it was triumphant. A bit like a less fiery earthier ginger if I had to find a way of describing it!

Thai Prawn Vermicelli Noodles

Serves: 2 (Gluten-free)

Preparation: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh tiger prawns, de-veined and sliced lengthways in half
• 100g Thai Taste vermicelli noodles, blanched in boiling water for 10 minutes and then refreshed under cold water
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled
• 1 tablespoon coriander root (leave out if you can’t find)
• 1 tablespoon Thai Taste galangal
• 1 tablespoon Thai Taste turmeric paste
• 200ml, Thai Taste coconut milk
• 10g coriander, picked and washed
• 1 tsp Thai Taste Red Chilli paste
• 10g chives, chopped into 1cm pieces
• 10g mint, leaves torn slightly
• 20g peeled Thai shallots, sliced (any sweet shallot will be nice)
• 2 spring onion, cleaned and finely shredded
• 1 lime, chopped into cheeks
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
• 1 tablespoon Thai Taste fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon Thai Taste palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Method:

1. Mix the garlic, galangal, turmeric and red chilli paste together

2. In a large pan or wok heat the vegetable oil on a medium to high heat and then fry this paste out, moving constantly to avoid it sticking to the pan. When the paste begins to turn golden brown in colour add the prawns and continue to fry for a further 2-3 minutes until they are completely pink and hot throughout.

3. At this stage add the fish sauce and the palm sugar and fry for a further 30 seconds to caramelise the sugar, you will notice that the paste begins to darken at this stage.

4. Next add the coconut milk, blanched noodles, shallots, mint, coriander and chives and delicately toss everything together in the pan allowing the noodles and prawns to all mix and be coated by the coconut sauce.

4. Serve the noodles straight away in bowls with spoons and chop sticks and a cheek of lime, it’s also great with a good helping of Thai Taste sweet chilli sauce. This recipe makes enough for a hearty lunch, however this is an awesome dish to serve at dinner too, double the recipe if you want a bigger feed.

***I was sent some ingredients from Thai Taste for the purpose of a review, but all opinions as ever are my own***