greek prawn and fetta bake

We have been on a Mediterranean mode last week. I made arancini , we had a Mediterranean BBQ lunch which I wrote about in my last post and I made this prawn and fetta bake. Because what would a Mediterranean food craving be with out fetta, right?

I decided to make this because other than the fetta, we already have the ingredients in our pantry and/or fridge. And I have fresh oregano in our herb garden. I also wanted to try this recipe out because I have never made a rice dish with fetta. Fetta for me was always for salads and four-cheese pizza. (Doing a Homer Simpson now and going "Four-cheese pizza..."*drool*)

So yes, this is a rice dish. I am after all, an Asian who has to have rice as often as she can. Although now, I have it in any form I can and not just steamed or fried like in the good old days. And yes it is again from one of my favourite cookbook, the essectial rice cookbook.

I found that this was relatively easy to make, it was really delicious and the family gave it a thumbs up.  Although if you want to feed the family quickly this might not be the thing to make as it takes about 50 minutes to cook. Plus if you are like me who does not cut and chop as fast as the celebrity chefs it might take you a bit longer to prepare. But if you do have the time, this is a good one to make. And lastly don't be lazy like me, crumble the fetta well.

Greek Prawn and Fetta Bake
(the essential rice cookbook, murdoch books, 2005)

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Total cooking time: 50 minutes
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 red onion, choppped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons chopped oregano
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
3 cups (660g/ 1 lb 5 1/2 oz) risotto rice
2 x 400 g (13 oz) tins chopped tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste (puree)
1/4 cup (35g/1 1/4 oz) currants
1 litre (32 fl oz) chicken stock
1 kg (2 lb) raw prawns (shrimp), peeled and deveined, tails intact
250 g (8 oz) fetta, crumbled

1. Preheat the oven to moderately hot 200⁰ C (400⁰F/Gas 6). Lightly grease a 30 x 23 cm (12 x9 inch) ovenproof dish.
2. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan, add the onion and cook over medium heat until softened not browned. Add the garlic, cumin and 1 tablespoon of the oregano. Pour in the vinegar, cook for a further minute, then add the rice, stirring to coat. Add the tomatoes, tomato past, currants and the stock and season. Bring to the boil  and pour into the ovenproof dish. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, or until rice is soft.
3. Add the prawns, poking them in under the rice, then sprinkle with fetta and the remaining oregano, and bake for a further 10 minutes. Serve with a salad.

beautiful sunday

This is not a post for a recipe. So if you are expecting one, I do not mind if you stop reading now. But I would be delighted if you stay and read a while. Who knows you might get some idea out of this. Hopefully.

I just want to share our menu (yes a menu!) for our Sunday lunch.

We had our good friends,the dynamic duo of J & K, over for lunch today. J who is such a computer geek (and I say that affectionately) is coming over to help us sort out our computers i.e., install programs on the new laptop and reformat an old one. My husband reckons that since he is coming to help us out the least we could do is serve something special for lunch. So he asked around and finally came up with the idea of having a Mediterranean bbq. A vegetarian Mediterranean bbq. Because it would be nice to have a barbeque on a warm, sunny day. Except that it rained. But anyways...

For entree we had ciabbata with butter, baked tomatoes with extra virgin olive oil and fresh oregano and fried haloumi drizzled with sweet chili and lime sauce. It was yummy, the haloumi most especially. We had champagne to start too.

For the main dish we had fried polenta with tomato salsa, grilled eggplant with fresh thyme and olive oil, grilled capsicum with basil and olive oil and mixed lettuce salad with feta. We were supposed to put avocado in the salad but the avocado we got was not very good so we had to chuck that idea out.

The salad is just your basic salad with balsamic vinegar dressing and a splash of this dressing we bought at the Willunga markets once called Seduction. Yes, we bought that dressing because of the name.

The polenta turned out to be really good. And I have to say both my husband and I have not cooked it before. Did not know it is such physical activity. All the stirring you have to do! I must admit the husband did most of it. Well, actually most of the cooking today. The tomato salsa is my husband's own recipe because he is such a smart cookie.

I just love the colours on this plate. For this we had 3 kinds of wines, we had a 2006 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc, a 2006 Shiraz from Coonawarra and a 2006 Cabernet Shiraz from Clare Valley. Coonawarra and Clare Valley, by the way, are two of the wine regions here in South Australia.

For dessert we had biscotti, turkish delight and cappucino and Italian espresso. And a bit of dessert wine, a Botrytis Semillon.

I have to mention too that all the fresh herbs used are all from little kitchen garden. I just love our herb garden!

We were so full that we had to burn the calories by walking around our suburb and checking out our neighbours' houses. Some of our neigbours houses are so fancy!

We were supposed to have some crackers with babaganoush and hummus and/or double brie cheese but we did not get around to doing it.

I must also say that although it seemed that we drank a lot of wine, we did not get drunk because our lunch which started at a around half past one in the afternoon ended at about half past 5 so the alcohol was spread out over a few hours. Our bodies had time to metabolize the alcohol. Ooopps, do I sound defensive? Sorry did not mean to.

All in all it was a great Sunday. Spending time with good friends with good food, good wine and great conversations, is one of the best way to spend a lazy, rainy Sunday. I am truly blessed to have such good friends and a good husband who can cook.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Here's our menu again:

Mediterranean Lunch

Entree

Ciabatta with butter

Baked tomatoes with olive oil and oregano

Grilled haloumi drizzled with olive oil and lime

Taltarni Champagne Vintage 2008

Main course

Fried polenta with tomato salsa

BBQ (grilled) eggplant with thyme and olive oil

BBQ (grilled) capsicum with basil with olive oil

Salad – salad mix with feta cheese

Wine: Vasse Felix Semillon Sauvignon Blanc 2006

Coonawarra Shiraz 2006

Clare Cabernet Grenache 2006

Dessert

Biscotti

Turkish delight

Cappucino/Italian espresso

Wine: Woodstock Botrytis Semillon 2006

After

Cheese –double brie

Dips – babaganoush and hommus

Crackers