Quick and easy meal for all to enjoy. When I was young, fried rice was an almost everyday affair. Being slightly picky (young and naive at the time) with my food, Grandma would whip up a fried rice in minutes. Beautiful thing about fried rice is that you can substitute prawns with virtually anything in your pantry; vegetables, beef, chicken or even plain.

Serves 4

225g Raw Prawns
3 tablespoons Vegetable oil
4 cloves Garlic (finely or roughly chopped)
1 small Onion (sliced)
3 teaspoons of Chilli jam
450g Cooked Jasmine rice (preferably left overnight to cool. Freshly cooked rice will make the end result very moist similar to a dry risotto)
1 tablespoon Light Soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon Sugar
2 Schallots, finely sliced
1 lime (to garnish before serving)

Peel and devein prawns. You may choose to cut each prawn along the back so it opens up like a butterfly, be sure to leave the tail attached. This method will ensure that the prawns are thoroughly cooked.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan and stir-fry the garlic and onion over medium heat until light brown in appearance. Add the chilli jam and stir fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the prawns and stir fry over high heat until the prawns open up and turn pink. Add the cooked rice, light soy sauce and sugar. Stir fry for another 3 - 4 minutes. Add the schallots and mix well. Taste and add seasoning if necessary.

Just before serving squeeze lime over rice.

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This chilli jam is a real treat when accompanied with rice or noodles. The aroma of the chilli infused with the flavours from the shallots and garlic make you just want to eat more and more!

80ml oil

2 Shallots, finely chopped

2 Garlic cloves, finely chopped

40g dried chilli flakes (its best to make this yourself from dried whole chillies warmed up in the microwave and then finely ground. Beware, make sure that all your windows are wide open!)

1/4 teaspoon palm sugar

Makes 185g

Heat the oil in a small saucepan and fry off the shallots and garlic until golden brown.

Add the chilli flakes and palm sugar, stir and mix well.

Season with a pinch of salt.

This jam can be stored in an airtight jar and refrigerated for several weeks.

A simple and quick accompaniment or dip for any occasion!

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I found out the hard way today that you can run into all sorts of issues when I attempted to "live to eat". Don't get me wrong, I love food. However, the old saying "everything in moderation" runs so true!

Ones love of food should never cloud your judgement when attempting to finish that last bit of dark chocolate gelato on the plate or the last slice of medium rare Wagyu beef with a side of greek salad.

If we eat to live, there is no problem; but once we live to eat then that’s when the problem starts. You see, the issue of eating is not a major issue for living beings if they know how to do it in moderation. Eating becomes a way of replenishing our body to enable us to stay alive.

However, in reality, we produce food and promote it to be comsumed for pleasure. This creates a disturbance to the balance of our mind and body. The more we eat, the more disturbances are caused.

As the Buddha once said,"if you eat for pleasure you will suffer much"...and boy, how suffer much did I!!!

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