The UK in Antarctica Food from the Deep South

Real Antarctic Krill Squid and prawns from the supermarket The green dyed rice represents phytoplankton Green rice (phytoplankton), red rice (zooplankton) and prawns (krill) in place Add the top predator in this food chain, the squid and extra rice and chilli sauce to make it more edible for the ultimate top predator - you

Krill eat a lot of phytoplankton concentrating the food into much bigger pieces of food - the krill themselves, which are then eaten by almost anything and everything else that can fish in Antarctic waters.

Ingredients

White rice
Green food coloring
Red food coloring
Whole shell on prawns
Small squid

Cook the rice by the absorption method whereby you add about a half a cup of rice to three times the volume of water. Add the green food coloring at the start of cooking according to the instructions on the bottle. This way as the rice takes in water and swells, it also takes in the food coloring. Wash the starch off it when its cooked.

Cook about a third as much of this rice which you color red instead, you'll have to do them separately to avoid a mess.

I bought a bag of frozen ready-cooked prawns and prepared uncooked small squid. Defrost a few prawns and a couple of squid. Cook the squid by frying in a shallow pan in a little oil for a couple of minutes on each side, then remove and pat dry and remove excess oil with kitchen towels.

Assemble the food chain on a suitable background. I couldn't find anything blue to represent the sea so I made do with a tray I made from cooking foil with folded edges. You could use a blue plate or even a suitably cleaned blue tray if you have one to be the sea.

Spread the green rice around, this represents the phytoplankton, add the red rice which represents the zooplankton. Now position your prawns (krill) and squid, (squid). You could use fish instead of, or as well as the squid and whatever prawns are available.

I thought it needed some sauce to go with it as it was a bit boring and went for sweet chilli because I like it. It doesn't represent anything much but means that your food chain becomes more of a meal.