King Prawn Noodles with Sambal Oelek, Peanuts and Coriander.

Looks quite pretty for such a mess

The flavours of this are intense and, really, just the spicy but rounded smack of flavour that is sometimes needed (especially if hungover). It is also pretty quick and, with some substitutions, can be pretty cheap and economical.

In addition, whilst with a lot of “Asian inspired” (deliberately not saying Asian) food you do need a lot of store cupboard ingredients, and this can be daunting when contemplating the shopping, most don’t go off for ages and are common to a lot of other dishes. So it is a pretty decent investment in your store cupboard and not as frivolous as it may seem at the checkout when you are wondering why the fuck you spent so much on one (1!) meal.

I have been making a variation of this, give or take a few ingredients, for a few years. Sometimes with pulled king oyster mushrooms, sometimes tofu and sometimes chicken (Arne even makes this with mince and roasted belly pork, which may not be an obvious combination, but it is beyond incredible). Here I used king prawns, as I had a bag in the freezer, but you can genuinely substitute this for whatever you like.

One thing I do wish I could have done with this, which I didn’t, was to fry the prawns in seasoned cornflour or panko before adding them (though at the end and not fried with the other ingredients), but I just couldn’t be arsed. Which feels slightly like the story of my life, if I’m honest… But ok, therein lies an idea for the future, should motivation ever reach sufficient levels.

With the sauce, variations I have used have been around the chilli paste in relation to whatever I had in the flat (sometimes siracha, sometimes Gojuchang and sometimes just chilli crisp). I use Sambal Olek because it is the most common paste in Belgian supermarkets (actually Albert Heijn, which isn’t even Belgian) and it has a really good all round flavour.

As with a lot of food like this, most of the work is in the beforehand and lots of chopping. Which can be laborious. Though personally, having a lot of problems concentrating generally, I do find it quite useful for actually engaging for a period of time with something repetitive (this is me trying not to use the word “mindful”).

Serves: 2

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 12 king prawns (6 each).
• 1 bunch of spring onions.
• 3 peeled cloves of garlic.
• 1 red chilli (whichever you like).
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger.
• 1 bunch of coriander.
• 2 tbsp chopped (unsalted) peanuts.
• 1 long sweet pepper.
• 3 nests of dried noodles (Or however much you want).
• Cooking oil.

Sauce ingredients

• 3 tablespoons of regular soy sauce.
• 1 1/2 tbsp of oyster sauce.
• 1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce.
• 1 tbsp rice wine vinegar or mirin.
• 1 tbsp of Sambal Oelek (you can really use whichever chilli paste or sauce you like. But taste it and adjust to your preference I use 1 tbsp but it is fine with half).
• 1 tbsp of sesame oil.
• 1/2 tbsp of honey.

Directions

1. With things like this where the cooking time is as short as ten minutes, you really have to chop everything beforehand… So, let the therapy or tortuous chopping labour begin (however you see it). Separate the white parts of the spring onions and then finely chop both (keeping separate). For the chilli and ginger, chop finely and then set aside together. Now finely chop (think minced) the garlic (keep separate to rest). For the the long sweet red pepper slice as you like it (thin rings is what I chose). Lastly finely chop the peanuts and coarsely chop the coriander ready to garnish at the end.
2. Mix together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.
3. Heat up a wok to a high heat (or frying pan) with 2 tbsps of cooking oil (or just a decent glug). At the same time, cook your noodles as instructed on the packet and when ready set aside to be added to the pan later on.
4. Next place the whites of the onions and the sliced red pepper in the frying pan for 1–2 minutes, or until softened.
5. Add the ginger and chilli and fry for 1 minute.
6. Toss in the garlic and fry for a further minute (don’t let brown).
7. Then you are ready to add the prawns and fry until they go pink.
8. Once the prawns are pink and cooked add the sauce ingredients and stir until evenly coated.
9. Finally add your noodles and peanuts, with the heat off, coating them evenly in the sauce and prawns.
10. Garnish with the crispy onions, coriander and greens of the springe onions.
11. EAT!!!!