Happy New Year!

Today is the start of the Chinese new year - the year of the snake. According to Chinese wisdom, having a snake in the house is a good omen, meaning that the family will not starve. Lucky for us, we have two, so I confidently predict I will be sharing my food with you for another year. The snake follows the dragon in the Chinese calendar. Dragon years are very lucky but snake years are less so and they may put people off doing big things like weddings, moving house or giving birth. You have been warned.

Sunday lunch

If you want to theme your food today, I suggest you try some stir-fried prawns with noodles, accompanied by Asian greens. You can make the whole meal in less than 15 minutes with these ingredients: noodles, spinach, raw prawns, garlic, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, sesame oil, chilli flakes

Cook some dried noodles in water with half a chicken stock cube added to it (or use fresh noodles and skip this step).

Greens: Gently melt a knob of butter in a pan and add a crushed clove of garlic and some spinach. Let it cook until the spinach starts to wilt and then add a couple of tablespoons soy sauce, a teaspoon of sesame oil and a pinch of chilli flakes. Stir well.

Prawns: Heat some vegetable oil in a pan, add some crushed garlic, raw prawns, soy sauce (preferably the light kind) and sweet chilli sauce and stir well until the prawns turn pink. Use about 2 tablespoons chilli sauce for every one of soy. Tip in the noodles and give them a swish around in the cooking juices, then serve with the greens.