Creative Leftovers

The last time I made Cajun chicken I had one extra breast that I cooked and put in the fridge for...later. It's now later and I decided to get another breast and make a standard starch, vegetable and meat dinner, the grocery store had other ideas.  I needed either one or three breasts to be left with none or enough for two. The store had none or four boneless breasts.  There were three bone in, skin on breasts but I didn't want to make stock again and they were expensive. There was one package of one breast bone in, skin on but it was priced the same as the boneless breasts, which is more than I'm willing to pay for skin and bones I'm going to throw away. So what to make. I still have frozen prawns...if I make pasta with a garlic cream cheese sauce and put in prawns and Cajun chicken it should taste pretty good. So that's what I decided to do.

The peas were fresh from the garden, the first time I've ever picked podded peas for dinner (excuse the alliteration). It was extra work, a bit fussy, but was well worth the effort.  The peas were rich with flavor that's lost in the frozen ones. I put a pot of water on the burner and added the spaghetti when I was about 15 minutes from completing the sauce.

I counted out 10 frozen prawns and put them in cold water to thaw. I diced up half an onion and put it in the pan with some oil and butter. When the onions had a bit of color I added two cloves crushed garlic and cooked it a bit.  Next in went the prawns and I cooked them about half way on each side then I took them out and left them aside with the cubed chicken. The peas were added then a heaping teaspoon of flour and a bit more oil followed by milk. I added about a cup of milk in small amounts so I didn't end up with a lumpy sauce.  Once all the milk was in I added about 50 to 100 gms (1/4lb) of Edam cheese cut up.  I kept stirring till it was mostly melted. Then the prawns and chicken went back in to finish cooking. I plated the pasta and spooned the sauce over it.  This is the first time I've made spaghetti with anything other than tomato sauce so a lot is riding, it better be good.


We sat down and dug in.  The garlic was cooked perfectly so the sweet flavor came through over the Cajun spice from the chicken.  The prawns were not over cooked which made a real difference in the overall enjoyment of the meal. Somehow rubbery prawns just don't eat well. The Edam cheese came through tempered with garlic and Cajun spices. Over all it was absolutely delicious, one of the best prawn dishes I've ever made.