Peri Peri Chicken Wings

by Trisha Vaz

Peri Peri Chicken Wings – a perfect , spicy dish to serve up at a party or game night, or even with a nice big salad for a quick weeknight meal. Either way, these are super delicious and while looking through the blog recently, I realized that I haven’t shared many chicken wings recipes here. So today, I’m going to rectify that. I bring you some spicy, delicious Peri Peri Chicken wings. These are made from scratch and bake off in the oven. So there’s very little hands-on time required for this recipe. All you have to do it put together a simple marinade paste and then work on a dip, a salad or anything else you’d like to serve these wings up with.

PeriPeriChickenWings
Peri Peri Chicken Wings
 

If you’re prepping your own chicken wings, split the wings and either set the tips aside for a stock or discard. I bought Marco’s Wing Nibbles from Woolworths that has this stage dealt with so you use the wings as is. 

This recipe couldn’t be any simpler. After prepping the wings, you simply wash them and pat them dry. Sprinkle with salt and use our beautiful homemade marinade. Peri Peri is known to be a spicy sauce / marinade and this one is. If you enjoy a good Peri Peri, but don’t want it too spicy, you could substitute some of the birdseye chillies with a milder pepper. That way you will still get the color and volume in the marinade but it won’t be too spicy. 

In our house, we love spicy food, so I’ve used birdseye chillies with the seeds and all. And can I tell you, these wings turned out so very delicious. It packs the perfect amount of kick for us and when you pair this with the homemade Blue Cheese Dip, it is absolutely divine. 

The Blue Cheese Dip has the perfect cooling affect to counter the spiciness of the wings. Let me tell you, once you taste this, you won’t be able to stop at one. But don’t just take my word for it. Go ahead and make these wings and try them out for yourself. 

So let’s take a look at the recipe now, shall we?
Peri Peri Chicken Wings
Pin
Print

Peri Peri Chicken Wings

Recipe by Trisha VazCourse: AppetizersDifficulty: Easy
Servings

4

servings
Prep time

15

minutes
Cooking time

40

minutes
Calories

300

kcal
Marinade time

30

minutes

Peri Peri Chicken Wings – a perfect , spicy dish to serve up at a party or game night, or even with a nice big salad for a quick weeknight meal.

Ingredients

  • 1 kilo chicken wings (split the wings and either set the tips aside for a stock or discard. I bought Marco’s Wing Nibbles from Woolworths that has this stage dealt with so you use the wings as is.)

  • Salt, to taste

  • Chopped parsley, to garnish

  • For the marinade –

  • 8 birdseye chillies

  • 4-6 large cloves of garlic

  • 1 tbsp. smoked paprika

  • 1/2 tsp extra hot Cayenne Pepper

  • 1 tsp oregano

  • 1 tsp black pepper powder

  • Juice of 1/2 lemon or 1 lime

  • 1 – 2 tbsp vinegar

  • For the Blue Cheese Dip

  • 1/3 cup Greek yogurt

  • 1/4 – 1/3 cup of Blue Cheese crumbled

  • White pepper powder, to taste

  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions

  • The wings –
  • Grind all these marinade ingredients to a paste.
  • Wash the chicken and pat dry.
  • Season with salt.
  • Pour the marinade over the chicken and toss to coat the chicken pieces well. Set aside to marinade for about 30 minutes.
  • Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
  • Lightly grease a baking dish. Place the chicken wings in a single layer.
  • Bake for about 30-40 minutes or till cooked through, flipping them over about halfway through the the cooking process.
  • Garnish with some chopped parsley.
  • Blue Cheese Dip
  • Mix all the ingredients together. Serve up.

Recipe Video

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Starters / Appetizers

Spinach, Feta and Ricotta Rolls

by Trisha Vaz
Back when I was working at my last job, a colleague, who happened to be my work bestie, introduced me to this treat. We’d take our breaks together whenever we could and hop over to Muffin Break. Our Muffin Break outlet made the best Spinach and Feta Rolls (sidenote – their Bran muffins were to die for). But I’d never noticed these little beauties before this. I was on a first name basis with its Non-vegetarian counterpart – the sausage roll. I’ve had quite a few of those. But on this particular day, when we went over to Muffin Break, she ordered a Spinach and Feta Roll to go with her coffee. Needless, to say, I was intrigued. So I ordered one for myself too. And the rest, as they say, is history.
 
From that day on, if I ever need to grab a bite and am in the mood for something savoury, I pick up one of their Spinach and Feta Rolls. They are seriously good. And, I like to think that I’m getting a little extra Spinach in my diet that day.
 
 

So getting back to yesterday. When I found myself with a big basket of Ricotta cheese and a bag of Spinach I needed to use up, I decided to see if I could use the two together and come up with something delicious. After a little looking around, I found just the thing. I’ve based my rolls on a similar recipe I found online and I just switched it up to my liking. This time around, I used store bought Puff pastry. I had a packet in the freezer that I wanted to use up too. This recipe has just 2 basic components – the pastry and the filling. The filling is really easy to put together. You just mix up all the ingredients and your ready to go. The verdict – These rolls are really good. They’re not exactly like the Muffin Break ones. I am now convinced that there is some flour added to their filling, possibly to bulk it up. But these homemade rolls can give them a serious run for their money. And this time, I know for sure that there’s a heap of spinach in there. And everyone knows that Spinach with Ricotta and Feta is a match made in heaven. So let’s have a look at these Spinach Rolls, shall we?

 

Spinach, Feta and Ricotta Rolls
Pin
Print

Spinach, Feta and Ricotta Rolls

Recipe by Trisha VazCourse: SnacksDifficulty: Easy
Servings

18

servings
Prep time

20

minutes
Cooking time

30

minutes

Full of the goodness of spinach and two different types of cheese, these rolls are a great lunchbox snack and also work pretty well as a tea-time snack.

Ingredients

  • 3 sheets Pampas all butter Puff pastry

  • 200g Feta Cheese

  • 300g Ricotta Cheese

  • 150g Baby Spinach, finely chopped

  • Red Chilli Flakes, to taste

  • Salt, to taste

  • Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

  • 1 egg

  • Black sesame seeds, to sprinkle over

Directions

  • Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Place the baking tray in the oven.
  • Thaw 3 sheets of puff pastry. The pastry should be soft enough to work with but still cold. If it warms up too much, it gets sticky and difficult to work with.
  • Crumble the feta into a bowl.
  • Now add the Ricotta and crumble that in as well.
  • Add crushed black pepper to taste.
  • Taste the mix and add more salt if you want. I didn’t need to add any salt at this stage.
  • Add the spinach and red chili flakes. Mix well.
  • Crack the egg into a small bowl. Whisk and keep aside.
  • Working with one sheet at a time, cut the sheet in half.
  • Spoon the mix to form a long log in the center of each half of the pastry (lengthwise).
  • Brush one side (along the length) of each half of the sheet with the whisked egg.
  • Roll the other side of pastry over the spinach into a tight log. The egg will help seal the pastry.
  • Cut each roll into 3 pieces. (Alternatively, you can cut the pieces into the size you’d like.)
  • Place the rolls on greaseproof paper, seam side down. Repeat with the rest of the pastry.
  • Carefully place the paper onto the heated tray.
  • Brush the tops of the rolls with the whisked egg (egg wash).
  • Crack some black pepper on the top of each roll and sprinkle some black sesame seeds on the rolls.
  • Bake for about 30 minutes or till golden brown in colour.

    Serve hot.

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Snacks, Starters / Appetizers

‘Monster Eye’ Crackers – a perfect savory option for Halloween

by Trisha Vaz
** This post contains affiliate links.

Around this time of the year, especially if you partake in the Halloween festivities, you will find yourself inundated with candy and other sweet treats and bakes. In a nutshell, a sugar overload. While I love my cakes and sweets / candy as much as the next guy or gal, if you are like me, you will need a little bit of savory to cut through all that sweetness.

Last year, I was really excited about Halloween. We were supposed to have a big Halloween party at my workplace. However, as luck would have it I quit that job in early October to focus on building up a little business. When my colleagues threw me a small farewell party, they decided to roll with the Halloween theme. I couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to whip up a few treats. These little cracker bites were one of them. I will share the rest of them with you over the next few days. My job was extremely physically demanding and boasted quite a few really long days. So I had to come up with treats that were quick and easy to put together. I knew the candy part of the party would be taken care of, so I stuck with the savories.

These Monster Eye crackers are perfect for a party or get together. They are a Halloween Play on cheese and crackers. They can be whipped up really quickly with all of 3 ingredients. So, I knew I was going to make them. I was a little skeptical about them considering how simple they are, but let me tell you, they vanished really quickly. I wish I had made more. If you decide on making these, make sure you make a big batch. So to make these, all you need are crackers. I love the Eton crackers found in Aldi stores locally, but if you cannot get your hands on them, Ritz Crackers will work just as well. You can use any other crackers you’d like. Now that the crackers are sorted, the next ingredient is the cheese. I used Kraft Cheese Slices, but again, you can use any cheese slices you like. The last ingredient you need are olives. You can use Pitted Kalamata olives or pitted Green olives, if you prefer.

The process is fairly simply, and works fastest if you create an assemble line. I hope you enjoy these little snacks this Halloween as much as we did.

Monster Eye Crackers


Eton crackers (You can also use Ritz Crackers)
Kraft Cheese Slices
Pitted Kalamata olives

You will also need a circle cookie cutter, just a little smaller than the size of the crackers you choose to use.

Cut the cheese slices into circles using the cookie cutter and keep aside.

Cut the pitted olives in half and keep aside.

On a serving platter, place the crackers in a single layer.

Top the crackers with a circle of cheese and top that with half an olive.

And that’s basically it. Serve up.

Enjoy!!!

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Snacks, Starters / Appetizers

Goan Fish Cutlets

by Trisha Vaz
UPDATED: to add recipe video.

Fish cutlets are one of my favorite seafood recipes to make and to eat. I love seafood and I also happen to love cutlets. They are so versatile. You can serve them as a snack / appetizer (they go so well with a chilled beer), as a meal with a side of chips and / or a salad or you can use them to make a fantastic burger. I have shared a recipe for fish cutlets previously using fresh fish. You can find that one here. This recipe is fairly similar with the exception of one main difference. This one uses canned tuna.

Now, I love my fish fresh. I believe that fresh is the best way to enjoy fish. But yesterday, I found myself longing to eat some fish cutlets but didn’t have any fresh fish. Now that was just not going to do. So I put my thinking hat on and eventually decided to try to make cutlets using canned tuna instead. I had heard that some people make their cutlets with canned fish, but I’d never tried it out for myself. I happened to have a few cans of tuna chunks in the pantry, so I figured I had nothing to lose.

The cans I used were tuna chunks in spring water. You need to make sure you drain the tuna well. I didn’t know what to expect and found that I had to use a little extra egg for binding but in the end I was delighted with the results. The cutlets were delicious. It took a fraction of the time to make compared to if you were to use fresh fish because the fish has to be cooked and deboned. So in all, I was extremely pleased with this attempt.

The type of canned tuna will determine how much egg is needed. I would recommend starting out using one egg and if you can shape the cutlets easily without them falling apart, then you are good to go. If not add more egg to the mix.

Goan Fish Cutlets
Yields: 12 cutlets


4 cans of tuna (I used 95g cans of chunk tuna in spring water) (Or 1 can x 495g Tuna)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 red birdseye chillies, finely chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp fresh ginger, finely chopped (or you can use paste)
2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped (or you can use paste)
A small bunch of fresh coriander leaves and stalks, finely chopped
Salt, to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/4 tsp black pepper powder
1-2 eggs
2 slices of bread
Bread crumbs, to coat the cutlets
Oil for frying

Drain the tuna thoroughly and flake it in a large mixing bowl.

Soak the bread slices in water for about 5 minutes and squeeze thoroughly. Crumble the bread as fine as you can and add it to the bowl.

Add the rest of the ingredients except the panko bread crumbs and the oil to the bowl.

Place a layer of the breadcrumbs on a dry plate.

Using the fish mix, shape into cutlets and carefully coat on both sides with the bread crumbs.

Heat 1-2 tbsp oil in a pan on medium heat and carefully place the coated cutlets on the pan. Cook for a couple of minutes on medium heat till golden brown on one side.

Then carefully flip over to cook to a golden brown on the other side too. Add another spoon of oil to the pan as needed.

Repeat till the batter is over and all the cutlets are fried.

Serve hot.

If you enjoy a good cutlet, try out some of these recipes –
Fish Cutlets
Beef Cutlets

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Goan Recipes, Mains, Recipes, Seafood, Sides, Starters / Appetizers

Beef Puffs

by Trisha Vaz
Today I have a yummy little snack to share with you. Back in Bombay and in Goa, these puffs are legendary. You find loads of variants of the puff with a variety of the fillings – chicken, veg, mutton etc. They are pretty easy to find, though finding a good one might not be too easy. My favourites all came from stores in Bandra, namely my college haunt – Andora’s Cafe, Hearsch’s Bakery and a more pricey Candies. So eventually, when I learned to make my own at home, I was really excited. Back in Bombay I always made the puff pastry from scratch and it always turned out well. I hope to make it again someday and share the recipe here.

Here in Sydney, I was thrilled to find I could buy frozen puff pastry. That meant it was now possible to enjoy these little puffs with a fraction of the effort and time involved. Now don’t get me wrong. I am all about cooking and baking from scratch, but everyone needs to be open to a few shortcuts every now and then, especially when life gets hectic. So today, we are going to use the store bought frozen version. That covers the pastry. For a tasty filling I use my Beef mince recipe, but leave out the potatoes. Also you need to make sure that the liquid has cooked out so that you don’t have a runny filling. A runny filling will only result in a soggy pastry.

Now it’s just a matter of assembling the puffs. I cut up each thawed sheet of pastry into 6 portions and place the filling on one side keeping away from the edge. Run a finger dipped in water along the edges and fold over to seal. Apply an egg wash and bake. You can make these in a larger batch and refrigerate them. Just bring them to room temperature and heat them up on a pan or in the oven and you can sit down to a nice little snack. Very often, I have these with some tomato ketchup and I can safely say, nothing beats it.

Beef Puffs


Beef mince (each puff requires a spoon of filling)
Frozen puff pastry sheets, as many as you need (Each sheet yields 6 pieces)
1 egg, for the egg wash

Preheat the oven to 220ºC (follow the package instructions if you’re using puff pastry).

Place the thawed puff pastry sheet on a flat work surface and cut into 6 potions. Place a spoon of the filling on one side of each puff staying away from the edges like so –

Keep a little bowl of water near your work surface. Dip a finger in the water and run on the edges of each puff.

Flip the empty half over onto the side with the filling and seal the edges. Place it on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

Crack an egg in another bowl and beat lightly. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the egg wash over the puffs. This gives it a lovely golden brown glaze.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or till golden brown.

Enjoy them warm.

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Goan Recipes, Recipes, Snacks, Starters / Appetizers

Zucchini Fritters

by Trisha Vaz
UPDATE:

Watch the recipe video here –

This recipe has quickly become one of my absolute favorites. Its a funny story,until a couple of months ago, I didn’t really care much for Zucchini. They aren’t easily available in Mumbai but I’d had it as a side dish at a couple of restaurants and every single time, I personally found it revolting. I couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about in blogland. I saw so many blog posts with so many absolutely delicious recipes, I figured it was just me, something I didn’t like and was going to have to live with it. Again, this was hard for me to understand, because there aren’t too many things that I don’t like. Anyway, life went on. And then when I moved to Sydney, my aunt invited us to spend the day with them at their place in Woy Woy. At dinner, one of the sides that my uncle whipped up was a simple veg. stir fry, which had zucchini in it and you know what, I loved it, much to my surprise. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a one off thing, so I decided to try my hand at cooking it myself.

After a few minutes online, I had found a recipe I knew would be nice. I bought some zucchini from my favorite Paddy’s market (Haymarket). I had the rest of the ingredients on hand. This recipe is fairly quick to put together, apart from hand grating the zucchini. If you have a food processor that can do the job for you, go for it. Nothing like saving time and effort. Its simple and quick to put the batter together and then all you do is fry it up. Within a short while, you will be sitting down to some pretty amazing fritters. My husband and I love these little guys so much, I’ve made them thrice already. And trust me, I can see myself making these fritters many more times to come. Try it out for yourself and see how good these are.

Zucchini Fritters

2 medium zucchini
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 chilly, finely chopped
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup grated cheese
1 egg
2 tbsp. fresh coriander, finely chopped
1/2 tsp. dried oregano leaves
1 tsp. salt
1/4 cup of bread crumbs, approx
2-4 tbsp olive oil

Grate the zucchini coarsely. Sprinkle a little salt (about 1/4 tsp.) over it and let it stand for about 10 minutes. The salt will draw out all the excess liquid. Place in a colander and squeeze to drain out as much excess liquid as possible.

Place the grated zucchini in a bowl. Add the onion, chilly, flour, cheese, salt, coriander, oregano and bread crumbs. Whisk the egg and add to the batter. Mix all the ingredients together. If the batter is to wet, add a tbsp or 2 of bread crumbs.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pan. Place spoonfuls of the batter onto the pan and using the back of the spoon, flatten it out a bit and shape into fritters. Fry on medium heat till it turns golden brown. Flip and cook on the other side till it turns golden brown too.

Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

** I have tried this recipe using cream cheese as well as grated cheese and both times, it was delicious. Feel free to experiment with your favorite cheese.

This recipe has been shared at –
Show Me Your Plaid

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Mains, Recipes, Sides, Vegetarian

Mushroom Toast Bites

by Trisha Vaz
Here’s something I came up with on the go. In the spirit of complete disclosure, I must admit that I got this sauteed mushroom beauty from my brother who had whipped these up to serve along with some barbecued beef strips at out last barbecue. It was delicious and everybody loved it (even the mushroom haters.) This is so simple and easy to put together and even if you aren’t planning on barbecuing anything, this would work really well as a side dish. A few days ago, I was feeling completely uninspired about what to cook up for dinner. Yes, that does happen to me sometimes. And as a last minute light bulb that sprang to life in my head, I realized that I had some yummy button mushrooms in the fridge. Immediately I thought of the sauteed mushrooms, but it struck me that I didn’t want to do anything fancy besides this. I simply toasted some bread and served the mushrooms with the bread and a nice fresh salad alongside. That was a simple, yummy weeknight meal for us.

Mushroom Toast Bites


200g packet of button mushrooms, cleaned and sliced thickly
2 onions, sliced
1-2 green chillies, slit
1 tsp olive oil
A knob of butter
3 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed to release flavor
Salt, to taste
Crushed black pepper, to taste

Place the oil and butter in a pan over medium heat.

Add the mushrooms and saute till they’re done. Don’t overcrowd the pan as the mushrooms will just stew in their juices. Do this in stages if you’re using a small pan. Drain the mushrooms and keep aside.

Using the same pan, add a dash more oil / butter, if needed and tip in the garlic and onions and saute them on medium heat till they’re lightly caramelised.

Add the chilies and the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Stir to mix well.

Take off the heat.

You can add some chopped coriander leaves at the end. I didn’t have any that evening, so I just left that out.

Lightly toast slices of bread and cut in halves and place the stir fried mushrooms over it.

Arrange on a platter and serve.

This recipe is linked to –
Savory Sunday
My Meatless Mondays
Mix it up Monday
Recipe Sharing Monday
Just Another Meatless Monday
Mouthwatering Monday
Mangia Mondays
A Little Birdie Told Me

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Starters / Appetizers

Aloo Tikkis – Potato Patties

by Trisha Vaz
The last couple of weeks have just passed me by. There are so many goodies that I’ve whipped up during this time, but I just haven’t gotten around to posting any of them yet. To top that I had the craziest weekend. We had the family over for lunch on Saturday, it was so much fun having them over, that’s 11 people and 3 dogs in all. Once they left, I had to focus on a real quick clean up since I had to complete an order of a kilo of handmade liqueur chocolates and a couple of dozen thank you bars for a Monday pickup. By the time Monday  arrived, I was ready to sleep it off. Of course, that was not possible. Even though things were so hectic, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Since I had very little time to put meals together in the last few days, I whipped up some of the quick but good stuff. One such treat is the Aloo tikki, or a potato cutlet. Its comes together fairly quick and is really tasty. I served it as a side but I think it would be really tasty in a vegetarian burger as well. This tikki is fairly versatile and you can add a few finely chopped veggies to it if you’d like. You need to add some bread crumbs to make these a little sturdier than they would ordinarily be. It also adds a lovely crunch to the tikkis.  This would be a great way to serve the kiddies their veggies, in a burger. I think they’d enjoy it. Try it out and let me know how it goes.
Aloo tikkis before frying
Aloo Tikkis

2 potatoes, washed, boiled and mashed
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 green chilly, finely chopped (optional)
Some fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Salt to taste
A pinch of chat masala (optional)
1/2 tsp red chilly powder or to taste
A couple of pinches of cumin powder
1-2 tbsp bread crumbs
Oil, for frying
Mix all the ingredients except the oil well. 
Check for seasoning and adjust if needed.
Shape into small cutlets.
Shallow fry in a pan.
Serve hot.

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Sides, Starters / Appetizers, Vegan

Eggplant Slices

by Trisha Vaz
These batter fried eggplant slices take me back a long way. My mum makes these for us. They were my all time favorite way to enjoy eggplant. But mum never made these too often because they were fried. But when she did, my brother and I couldn’t get enough. If you have trouble getting your kids to eat eggplant, you may want to try this out. You never know, they may enjoy it. If you are going to serve these to kids, make sure you adjust the amount of spice that the chilly powder adds to it. In a short while, you’ll be sitting down to some lovely crunchy, not to mention really tasty, eggplant slices.

Eggplant Slices


Oil, for shallow frying
1 large round eggplant

Wash the eggplant, cut off the stalk and cut into slices and as you slice the eggplant, put the slices in a bowl of salted water (enough water to cover all the slices and 1/2 tsp salt dissolved in it). This will prevent any discoloration off the slices.

Let it stand in the salted water till you make the batter.

For the batter:
1 cup chickpea flour / besan
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/3 -1/2 tsp red chilly powder
1/4 tsp. carom seeds / ajwain
Salt, to taste
A little water

Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl and gradually add water to make a smooth batter without any lumps. The batter shouldn’t be too think and neither should it be too thin. It should coat the back of a spoon when you dip it in.

Heat some oil in a pan. Dip the slices into the batter and carefully place them on the pan. Let them cook on a medium flame till they are a nice golden brown.

Turn the slices over and brown the other side as well.

Drain on some absorbent paper towels to get rid of the excess oil.

Serve hot.

This recipe is linked to –
Savory Sunday
Meatless Mondays
Just Another Meatless Monday
Meatless Mondays
Mangia Mondays
Mouthwatering Mondays

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Goan Recipes, Recipes, Sides, Vegan

Prawn Cocktail

by Trisha Vaz
This is one knock out treat that I usually save for an occasion like a birthday, an anniversary or guests coming over. Just the other day, I felt that we deserved a treat, for no particular reason, but just because I felt like it. I am a little funny that way. When I get fixated on something, I usually end up doing it. Very seldom do I change my mind. Exception to the rule being, if I don’t have the necessary ingredients at home. Then, off course, I have to improvise and work with what I have at hand till I can get to the store and stock up again. Anyway, back to the prawn cocktail. This beauty is a hit every single time. It is ridiculously easy to make and you can make it a little ahead of time. Get ready to wow your guests with this one.

Prawn Cocktail
(Serves 2)

1/2 cup iceberg lettuce, cut into strips
10-12 prawns, cleaned, de-veined and boiled with a pinch of salt and a few drops of lemon juice
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tbsp tomato sauce
 A few drops of Tabasco sauce (I used a combination of pepper sauce and smoked jalapeno – both Tabasco products)
A pinch of crushed black pepper

In a bowl, mix the mayonnaise, tomato sauce and Tabasco sauce. Add the pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning, if needed. If you want it more tart, add some more tomato sauce. If its too tart, add a little more mayonnaise to balance it. Up the spice levels with the Tabasco sauce.

Tip in the prawns and mix till well coated. You should typically have more cocktail dressing than whats needed to simply coat the prawns.

To serve – 
If you’re serving individual portions as a starter, place some of the lettuce at the bottom of a cocktail glass and top it off with the prawn cocktail dressing mix. Garnish with a prawn placed on the rim of the glass.

If you’re serving it more like a salad that people need to help themselves to, place a bed of chopped lettuce on the plate. Pour the prawn cocktail dressing mix over.

This recipe is linked to –
Recipes I Can’t Wait to Try
What’s On the Menu Wednesday
Real Food Wednesday
What’s Cooking Wednesday

Trisha Vaz

This post was posted in Recipes, Salads, Sides, Starters / Appetizers