Messy Eats from The Food Wife

MESSY EATS

This month FRAN STEVENS, aka The Food Wife, shows you some delicious, if rather messy, recipes to try at home!

HONEY, SOY & CHILLI CHICKEN WINGS

Makes approx 12 wings

Winner winner, chicken dinner! This dish has a great combination of flavours: it’s sweet and salty with a mild heat from the chilli sauce. It’s super easy to put together and tastes delicious...this is messy eating at its absolute best.

Ingredients 1kg chicken wings 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp soy sauce (gf if required) 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce 1 tsp sesame oil 120ml water Sesame seeds (optional) Crispy onions (optional)

Method Preheat the oven to 200ºC (fan). Next, spread the chicken wings on to a roasting tray and bake for 40 minutes until they are cooked through and the skin is nice and crispy.

About five minutes before the wings are finished cooking, mix together the honey, soy, chilli sauce, sesame oil and water and add the mix into a wok over a high heat and start to reduce it down until it starts to thicken. When they are finished cooking add the wings and toss, still on the high heat, so they get coated in the sauce which will then continue to reduce down to a sticky glaze. Serve immediately, scattered, if you like, with sesame seeds and crispy onions. Be sure to have something on hand to wipe your fingers on when you’re finished!

GARLIC & CHILLI PRAWNS

Serves 2 as a main/4 as a starter

Another messy and absolutely delicious meal! If you’re not a fan of peeling prawns you can use ready peeled raw prawns (about 250g) but they won’t have as much flavour.

Serve with crusty bread to mop up all the oil and juices or with some fries.

Ingredients 500g raw, shell on, king prawns 3 tbsp olive oi 2 spring onions 4 cloves of garlic, crushed/finely diced 1 tsp chilli flakes (more if you like spice) 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Method Finely slice the spring onions, reserving the green ends as a garnish. Add the sliced white ends to a large frying pan or wok with the olive oil. Heat over a medium/high heat, as they start to sizzle add the garlic and chilli flakes along with the prawns. Stir frequently and cook until the prawns turn pink (a few minutes).

Remove from the heat and sprinkle over the reserved slices of green spring onion and serve with wedges of fresh lemon. Serve immediately. Ingredients 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 red onion, finely diced 3 cloves of garlic, finely minced 2 tsp chipotle paste 1 heaped tbsp tomato purée 250g cooked quinoa 1 tin of black beans, drained Water Salt Chipotle chilli flakes or pepper

Method Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Once hot add the onion and fry, stirring so it doesn’t catch, for a few minutes until soft. Then add the garlic, chipotle paste and tomato purée, and keep stirring for 30 seconds or so.

Add the quinoa and beans, and enough water to loosen. Heat through, adding more water as so that it doesn’t dry out. Season with salt and either pepper or chipotle chilli flakes.

Serve with tacos (soft or crispy) and any other accompaniments you wish!

• thefoodwife.co.uk

QUINOA & BLACK BEAN CHILLI

Serves 3-4

Coming up with some new vegan meals for a friend and this went down a storm. It’s also super easy to make! I used a 250g packet of ready cooked quinoa but you could cook 100g of dry quinoa to give the same quantity. I served this in small soft corn tacos with guacamole and some habenero hot sauce.