Singapore noodles

Singapore noodles are one of my favourite dinners to eat at home.  The dish is easy to prepare and you can stick to a more traditional recipe or change it up by varying the meat and vegetables.  It is also really good using tofu instead of meat or fish.

In this recipe I used egg noodles that I had on hand but I also make this dish with rice vermicelli noodles.  In my opinion, the fine rice noodles work better and really soak up all the flavours.

If you like a bit of heat in your noodles, then I suggest using a hot curry powder instead of the mild one I used or alternatively add some chilli flakes for that extra kick of spice.
Like all stir fry dishes, this is a speedy dish so it pays to have all your ingredients prepared and ready to go so you can just throw them into the wok.

Below the recipe you will find a video of me making this dish so go ahead and take a look at it if you would like to see how I made it.

Singapore noodles

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1 sliced red capsicum
4 Tbs vegetable, peanut or canola oil
400-450g noodles - prepared according to packet instructions
400 g raw prawns
1/2 cup frozen peas
6 spring onions, finely sliced
1/4 cup coriander, chopped
2 tsp ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs curry powder
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
3 Tbs soy sauce

1.  Heat the oil in a pan or wok.  Add the spring onions and fry for about 5 minutes until soft.
2.  Add the garlic and ginger and curry powder and fry for about 1 minute until fragrant.
3.  Add prawns and peas and cook until the prawns are almost cooked (the prawns will turn opaque when cooked).
4.  To the pan, add the noodles, soy sauce, lemon juice and coriander.  Stir well to incorporate all the ingredients and fry for a couple minutes until the noodles are fully heated through and the prawns cooked.
5.  Serve with wedge of lemon if desired.

Midweek meals - Ricotta stuffed chicken

Mid week dinners is where my enthusiasm for cooking can sometimes wane a little bit (only a little mind you). It's about mid week that the gruelling work week starts to take its toll and I am tempted to crack open a wine bottle and order a takeaway. There's no home delivery where I live, a small but not insignificant side effect of living in a semi rural location, so a delivered takeaway is not an option. Mr Shady Pine and I love to eat out, especially when we can try somewhere new but we tend to leave eating out to a Friday or Saturday night when we can relax and take our time at a restaurant.

On the up side, because of our location, I always have a well stocked fridge and pantry and know that I can whip up a wholesome meal quickly.
The thought of getting back into a car to go and pick up some takeaway loses appeal when I know that in far less time I can pull something together. Sometimes I'm lazy and dinner ends up being a boiled egg and toast or when I really couldn't be bothered it might be a good old toastie.


So in the spirit of drumming up more enthusiasm to cook something more inspired than during the working week, I intend to have a series of mid week meal posts. The guidelines to what I cook will be 1) to use readily available ingredients and 2)to prepare the meal in about 30 minutes (not including any photography time so I can share the results with you back here).


With this in mind, this week's mid week dinner was a stuffed chicken breast with ricotta, spinach,pinenuts and lemon. I liked the fact that I could throw the sealed chicken into the oven and let it do the work from there without a lot of other fussing around.


At any other time of the week, I might take the cooked chicken and slice it on the angle prettily. This was a mid week meal people. Time was short. So instead it was cut in half and served with leftover roast pumpkin and spinach salad made here. It made for a tasty, delicious and quick meal.

What do you do for mid week dinners? Do you rely on takeaway, go out to eat or do you cook at home every night?

Stuffed chicken breast with ricotta, spinach, pine nuts and lemon
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 small chicken breasts (preferably free range with the tenderloin removed)
Large handful of baby spinach leaves
2 Tbs pine nuts (toasted in a non stick pan until golden)
100gm ricotta
Zest from 1 lemon
S&P to taste
1 Tbs olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 180C fan forced or 190C.
2. Cut the chicken breasts in half lengthways taking care not to cut all the way through. Open up each chicken breast and lay flat out.
3. On each chicken breast, place half the ricotta, spinach and pine nuts and S&P.
4. Roll each chicken breast carefully and secure with toothpicks
5. Heat olive oil in a non stick pan on high heat. Seal the chicken in the pan turning to seal all sides.
6. Place chicken on a baking tray covered with baking paper. Place in the oven and cook for 20 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked.
7. Allow the chicken to rest for a few minutes prior to slicing. Serve with a side salad.