Prawn paste .. instead of potted shrimps

Spent the day at the Oxford and Cambridge varsity hockey matches, as Lettice's team was playing the warm-up game. It was the last game for the team, half of them leave school at the end of next term. They won, and Lettice scored a great goal.

Vegetable soup

It was snowing at breakfast, so I made soup for our picnic - an onion, softened with a couple of chopped carrots, some mushroom, then a huge squirt of tomato passata, a little water, and half a tin of baked beans. I left it to simmer for half an hour, then poured it into a couple of small wide-mouthed flasks, and it was just what was wanted at 1pm, with a few soldiers of onion bread to dip.

On the way home, I asked Lucius what he'd like for dinner, as we had to stop at a shop. Potted shrimps. When he says that, these days he doesn't mean the tiny little Morecombe Bay shrimps held together with their own weight in butter. He means this really really delicious light and easy recipe for prawn paste. We wouldn't have it any other way.

Prawn paste

Blitz 250g cooked prawns, with the juice of a lemon (I often put in the grated zest, too). When it's smooth, slowly add olive oil - four two six tablespoons. Serve with toast. There are other ideas for flavouring this at my original prawn paste post.