Day 128: a summer quartet
How are you all coping with the heatwave? I believe some parts of the UK had their thunder and rain showers already. Good for the plants and great for resetting the humidity levels in the air! I think we’re due our storm on Saturday. Lord knows the grass needs it! It’s a long weekend for us this week; apart from a short client meeting this morning, we’re taking the next two days off. Today, we celebrate four years of marriage. Happy anniversary to us!
I’ve never been one to enjoy eating late: I don’t sleep well and I wake up puffy and swollen (not just bloated) the next day. It’s not always avoidable, though: yesterday I was so busy getting as much work done as possible in advance of taking these two days off that I didn’t realise it was 8 pm and we still hadn’t eaten. Luckily, as ever, Nigella was there to save the day and (for once) I had been organised enough to get the prawns out of the freezer earlier in the morning to make her Prawn and Black Rice Salad with Vietnamese Dressing.
Nigella’s Prawn and Black Rice Salad with Vietnamese Dressing
The dressing is a breeze to mix up and absolutely the kind of dressing you want to make double of to apply to your summer salads throughout the week. I cheated hugely and used two pouches of microwaveable Thai Black Rice. I believe this is different from the suggested Nanjing black rice in that it is a far more glutinous/sticky variety of the ‘forbidden’ grain, but I would need to do extensive research before I made any attempt at lecturing you on the different types of rice. If anyone reading this knows, please do share your knowledge (if you so wish) in the comments below! Slightly unimpressed with the prawns I bought. They were frozen but not cheap. After thawing I only kept them in the salty lemony poaching liquid on a simmer for about 30 seconds; any longer and they would have shrivelled into pink raisins. They still tasted lovely, but I think even 15 seconds would have been enough!
Flavour musings
This is a doddle to make and a delight to eat. The dressing is sharp, salty, sweet and spicy: the essential quartet for a re-energising summer eat. Boosted vitality even further with a big bunch of fresh coriander (rescued from the reduced shelf) and lime wedges. Without hesitation, I could - and in fact, did - eat the dressing with a spoon straight from the bowl like a soup.
You can find this recipe in Nigella Summer.
