Big on flavour, small on freezer space – Highly concentrated prawn stock.

The last time we had Dublin Bay Prawns was after the Dublin Bay Prawn Festival (imagine dreaming up such a thing). Having driven out to Howth and back again, there was not time to make prawn stock. So, I thought the best thing to do was to freeze the shells and heads for later use. In my mind, later can mean any time in the future. That is, unless the Wife decides that there was not enough space in the freezer and my prawn shells have to go.

Boy, were we exotic – “I’ll have the Gambas Pil Pil”

I was 19 years of age and we (the Lads) were on our first Spanish apartment holiday. We were the height of Irish male sophistication, looking like six milk bottles for the first couple of days and like a breed of strange glowing lobsters for the balance of the fortnight. We proudly displayed and contrasted our tans beside the pool. Me a golden bronze (in my head) and the others a more swarthy mahogany (in their heads). Time by the pool would be spent recovering from the previous night’s excess and preparing ourselves for that yet to come. This would involve lying in the Feungirola sun, feeling like death warmed up before being brave enough to have the first bottle of San Miguel. 

Easy oriental part 9 – Prawns with honey, chili and green beans even though you don’t deserve it.

You don’t deserve this one. It’s not that you are a person of dubious virtue. It’s not that you have done any specific thing to offend me and it’s nothing to do with your personal hygiene. This little recipe is just too good to share. It fits the ‘easy oriental’ description like a prawn fits its shell. It looks pretty awesome and it tastes spectacularly good.