recipe: chili wasabi fish(i)Anz Banking Internet

I've been wanting to post some recipes for a while, and so here is a start. I've been really enjoying cooking again lately – something to do with watching Nigella's shows again, I think – and this is a quick and delicious dinner that is good for the warmer weather. It also includes one of my favourite textures, crunchy! In particular, I love the crunchy cold-and-hot of iceberg lettuce wrapped around little spring rolls, but this is a much healthier way to enjoy it.

I get a lot of my fruit and veg from a local organic farmer's market once a week, but often run out by Wednesday, the day before pickup. And, annoyingly, the markets have closed by the time I finish work. Sometimes, a quick trot around the supermarket is called for.

This is my take on Nigella's Japanese Prawn Salad. This time, I replace her frozen prawns with Birdseye SteamFresh fish – their Hake – and add noodles and plenty of veg, using a Birds Eye Steam Fresh vegetable pack, as well as some fresh chili. It is so quick and easy to put together, perfect for a midweek dinner, and using the Birds Eye SteamFresh packs makes it even quicker. It saves on chopping, too. Topping and tailing string beans is a bit of a pet hate of mine, and I often try to speed it up using scissors, even though every time I do it I can see it isn't actually any faster, so I do love to skip this tedious part of cooking! It is also satisfyingly, deliciously good.

The Birdseye SteamFresh vegetables come in packs of four steam pouches, in a few different combinations of vegetables. I used the Broccoli, Corn, Peas and Green beans but any of the combinations are good – I think the Carrot, Peas, Baby Corn and Water Chestnuts would be great here, too. Each pouch is 2 of the recommended daily five serves of vegetables, which isn't too shabby for a super quick meal – and the lettuce and fresh coriander adds to the goodness factor. The fish is 97% fat free, cooks in less than five minutes and come in the following flavours: Lemon & Parsley, Garlic & Spring Onion, Thai Coconut Curry. I used the Lemon and Parsley pack as I felt this went well with my other ingredients, although I would have used the garlic and spring onion one if my local supermarket had stocked it.

To serve two for dinner, and two for lunch the next day, you need:
– iceberg lettuce
– noodles
– one or two fresh chilis, depending on how hot you like it
– a mix of veg of your choice
– tofu, fish, or prawns
– mirin
– wasabi paste
– garlic oil OR one or two garlic cloves and two tablespoons of olive oil
– a big bunch of fresh coriander
– three spring onions

Mix about two shot's worth of mirin with a good squeeze of wasabi paste – I love the heat of wasabi and am very generous with it, but use as much or as little as you like, to taste – to some chopped garlic and olive oil in a big bowl. I love garlic and used one unusually large garlic clove here, but I have made this with garlic oil, and no actual garlic bits, too. Stir in a good splash of water and – I use scissors for this – chop in the spring onions. Taste and add more of anything you think you want more of!

Pop two of the four steam bags of the Birds Eye veg into the microwave as per the instructions and put the kettle on to boil. Start the noodles cooking (oh how I want to tell you to let them luxuriate in a busily bubbling bath, or some such), and when the veg are ready add them to the bowl. Now it's time for the fish to go in the microwave, so in they go, and chop, wash and spin the lettuce. Scissor in some of the coriander into the mirin wasabi sauce, and, when they're ready, drain the noodles. To serve, start with a layer of noodles in a bowl, top with the lettuce, and then add the vegetables and their sauce. Chop and add the cooked fish, add some more fresh coriander and top with slices of the chilli. Quick, easy and done!

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