Prawn skewers with rice salad

Hello everyone, gosh it's a hot summer's day in Sydney today! Mum used to say on days like this she wished she could put a zipper into the cat's coat, and I'm thinking that today. Bellatrix doesn't look too uncomfortable, but it would be lovely to unzip that fur coat and help her out of it.

My freezer is acting in a very suspicious way too...I reached in for some ice cubes this morning and there seemed to be some significant thawing going on. I do hope it's just because of the very hot temperature outside but I am starting to wonder if I'm going to be taking a trip to the new fridge shop this week....

I'll ignore it for the minute. This week's recipe is another of Bill Granger's (from Bill's Open Kitchen) and is one of those dishes that just tastes like summer. When I made it I did the full quantity of the rice salad so that I had some for lunches during the week. I know it looks like a long list of ingredients, but many of the ingredients for the salad are the same as for the prawns and once you have done all the chopping of the ingredients you are nearly there.

Have a wonderful week! Love from Jane xx

Prawn skewers with rice salad

Serves four

What you need:

• 3 thick slices of sourdough bread
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 24 medium green prawns, peeled and deveined
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon wedges to serve

Rice salad

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 cups COOKED white rice (boil up two cups of uncooked rice)
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup green olives, pitted and sliced

What you do:

1. Soak eight wooden skewers in water for 30 minutes to stop them from burning during cooking.
2. Preheat the oven to 200C.
3. Place the bread on a baking tray and toast for 20 minutes or until lightly golden.
4. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then turn into breadcrumbs in a food processor.
5. Toss the prawns in the olive oil.
6. Add the remaining ingredients, including the breadcrumbs, and mix well so that each prawn is evenly coated in breadcrumbs.
7. Cover with gladwrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
8. To make the rice salad, combine the oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a large bowl.
9. Add all of the remaining salad ingredients and toss until well combined.
10. Preheat a grill or a BBQ to high.
11. Thread 3 prawns onto each skewer, curling and skewering the tails to maintain a round shape.
12. Cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden, and serve with the lemon wedges and rice salad.