Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

This post is my ultimate dream – combining the two biggest loves of her life. Josh and Jamie. That’s right, Josh was cooking a Jamie’s recipe. Well, a twisted, modified to his liking Jamie’s recipe anyway. But let’s take a moment of silence to appreciate how lucky I truly am.

(one minute of silence)

Anyway! I came home late one night to find that not only Josh was in the process of making a fabulous cock-a-leekie pie but he had done all the work of taking the process photographs for me. All I had to do was plate it up, take some more photos and we were away.

He got his bitchass back in the kitchen and he made (the two of) us some PIE!

1. 2 sheets of frozen puff pastry*
2. a bit of olive oil and a bit of butter
3. 1 full breast of chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces
4. 1 big(ish) leek, cleaned and chopped, discard the dark green part
5. 1 carrot, chopped
6. 2 sticks of celery, chopped
7. 1 cup of white wine
8. 2 tbsp of flour
9. 1 cup or so of milk
10. 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
11. some salt and pepper
12. 1 egg

(isn’t Josh an artistic little boy? haha)

Read the rest of this entry »

Som tum, I’m led to believe, is actually Laotian in origin. The salad of green papaya is actually quite common among a few countries in South East Asia. The Thai version flowed through from the north east of the country, bordering Laos*

So when the dish reached Central Thailand, it became, well, I guess bastardised hence the word Som Tum Thai (as opposed to Som Tum Lao). The main difference is the inclusion of sweetness by use of sugar and the addition of peanuts. Most som tum peddlers in Thailand will sell different varieties of som tum. This one is my favourite.

(clockwise from left: payaya and carrot, palm sugar, snake beans, tomato, lemon, roasted peanuts, dried prawns, chilli and garlic)

I’m not too sure referring to this dish as a salad does it justice. The vegetables and other ingredients are pounded in a pestle and mortar with seasonings (fish sauce, palm sugar, lime juice, tamarind) added one at a time while being pounded and churned. Like Josh said ‘it’s strange how you people beat the hell out of your salad.’

(fish sauce, tamarind paste and my awesome pestle and mortar)

I have this little gadget that slices the green payaya into strips which can be bought at Asian grocery store. I haven’t got a picture of it at the moment but I’ll get it up later. Read the rest of this entry »

Right. So I have so far done roast chicken, roast lamb #1, roast lamb #2, so now we’re onto roast pork. I suspect one of these days I’m going to make roast beef and yorkshire pudding to complete the set.

So as usual, we start with our roasting base which are off cuts of vegetables that we use the rest the meat on and use it for gravy a bit later. Leave the skin on these if they are clean, otherwise peel them. The quantity is enough for about 4-6 people.

Roasting Base

1. 2 onions, sliced
2. 1 bulb of garlic, each clove lightly crushed
3. 1 large carrot, thickly sliced
4. 1 stick of celery, thickly sliced
5. 2 fresh bay leaves (or dried)
6. 2 large sprigs of rosemary
7. olive oil

Scatter all the chopped vegetables on the roasting tray and drizzle with some olive oil and season with a bit of salt and pepper.

Roasting the Pork

1. 1 kg. of boned roasting pork
2. olive oil
3. salt and pepper

Read the rest of this entry »

The very first time I had rabbit was actually at Grossi Florentino and it was absolutely delicious. One Saturday I just decided that cooking a bunny was in order so I perused through all my food books and settled on something vaguely resembling Stephanie Alexander’s Country Rabbit in a Claypot.

I never cooked rabbit before so I figured surely one cannot screw up a casserole and went with that choice. Which turned out to be a rather good one (if I may say so myself). Our local butcher sold whole free-range rabbits, which  she kindly jointed for me (very loudly with a huge cleaver, might I add. Josh commented, ‘Bunny definitely dead now’).

Marinade

1. 1 farmed rabbit (about 800 g.)
2. 1 tbsp dijon mustard
3. 1 tbsp plain flour
4. 1 tsp soy sauce
5. 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked

Start by making a paste from the ingredients above (minus the rabbit of course) and then coat the rabbit pieces with it. Leave to marinade while you prepare other things.

(fryin, not boiling, the bunny)

Casserole

1. 1 onion, finely chopped
2. 1 carrot, finely diced (reserve peel)
3. 1 carrot, sliced into chunks (reserve peel)
4. 100 g. of smoked bacon (I used kaiser but try pancetta or any smoked bacon)
5. 8 pickling (small) onions
6. 12 small button mushrooms (leave whole, or halved)
7. 3 cloves of garlic, sliced
8. 1/2 cup of dry white wine
9. 3 sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked

Stock

1. 2 fresh (or dried) bay leaves
2. 1/2 litre of boiling water
3. carrot peel
4. pumpkin peel (from the pumpkin and sweet potato mash puree)
5. sweet potato peel
6. 2 tsp of Vegeta gourmet stock powder (or your favourite)
7. 4 pieces of dried porcini
8. rosemary stalks

(simmering the stock)

Start by heating up a bit of olive oil in a large frying pan and fry the rabbit pieces on all sides until browned. Be careful not to dislodge the marinade.  Set the meat aside in a casserole dish and deglaze the pan with the white wine. Pour the pan juice onto the rabbit pieces.

Meanwhile, heat up a knob of butter in a frying pan and slowly fry the chopped onion and diced carrot with some garlic and rosemary. Add the bacon and cook on medium heat until the bacon mixture slight lycoloured. Place the bacon and onion mixture on top of the rabbit pieces in the casserole dish. Preheat the oven to 160′C. Put the casserole dish in it to keep warm while making the stock.

Pour the stock ingredients onto the frying pan that was just used for the bacon and simmer the stock ingredients for 5 minutes. Pick out the bay leaf and add to the rabbit. Add the pickling onions. Strain the stock and pour it onto the casserole dish. Cover and cook for an hour.

After an hour, add the mushrooms, carrot slices and the rest of the rosemary leaves. Cook for another hour.

Serve with mashed pumpkin and sweet potato.

I declare my bunny experiment a success!

(Chicken and Tortilla Soup, topped with avocado, lime and coriander)

This is part 1 out of 3 from this week’s $20 Feast.

The main reason I wanted to do this soup is because it’s fabulous using leftover roast chicken and that’s what I had plenty of. We were at the supermarket late the other night and came across a nice looking barbecued chicken so we thought why not. They make really good sandwiches and other things.* If you don’t have leftover roast chicken, just use some fresh chicken breast instead. Poach it in the stock first and then slice and add to the soup.

So what you’ll need (this makes four servings of soup):

1. 1 litre of chicken stock
2. 1 tbsp of butter
3. 1 stalk of celery, chopped (leaves reserved for stock)
4. 1 small carrot, diced (peel reserved for stock)
5. 1/2 onion, diced
6. 1 garlic, chopped
7. 1 fresh coriander  (4-5 stalks), leaves reserved, stalked chopped
8. 1.5 cups of leftover roast or barbecued chicken, no skin
9. 1 tsp ground cumin
10. 1 tsp ground coriander
11. 1/2 tsp chilli powder
12. 1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
13. 1/3 canned diced tomato
14. 1 tbsp tomato paste
15. 2 corn tortilla
16. wedges of lime, to serve
17. 1/2 avocado, cubed to serve

Making chicken stock

(freshly made chicken stock)

So first things first, the stock. I find that supermarket barbecue chicken bits (skin, wings, frame, bones) make fantastically rich chicken stock. And fast too! I placed a litre of filtered water, handful of chicken bits (that we didn’t really want to eat, no stuffing though!), some carrot peels, some young yellow celery leaves (don’t add the dark green stalks) and tough stalks. You can add a bit of stock powder if you like, I tend to do that instead of salt. Bring the stock to boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Skim off any fat.

Putting the soup together

Heat some butter in a saucepan and sautee onion, celery, coriander stalks and carrot on medium heat until soft. Add bay leaf, garlic and chicken. Turn the heat up and stir for a minute or so until heated through. Add ground cumin, ground coriander, chilli powder, canned tomato and tomato paste. Add 3/4 of the  stock and bring to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and season accordingly. If desired, add more stock.

Garnishing the soup

Take the two corn tortill and either cut them into strips and deep them or spray some cooking oil and microwave on high for about 1 minute. Once cooled, the tortilla will be come crispy.

Cut avocado into cubes.

To serve, ladel the soup into a soup bowl. Top with avocado and the crispy tortilla (crack them if they are still whole) Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve with a wedge of lime squeeze over the soup. ¡Buen apetito!

* That chicken ended up being numerous sandwiches, this soup, chicken a la king, and barbecued chicken and veggie stir-fry. Talk about stretching one chookie!

I made this last week and I’m having a hard time trying to remember how I made it! I always order Vegetable Biryani at Indian restaurants and they are always so yummy and buttery and somehow I haven’t been able to replicate that. I guess I’m not game enough to put in more oil and butter! But also I don’t cook the hell out of my vegetables the way it’s done (properly I guess) because I like the crispness in the veggies. So feel free cut them in smaller pieces and cook them for longer if you like softer veggies.

Roughly, from my hazy memory, I use (for four):

Garnish

1. 1 onion, sliced
2. 1/2 cup of cashew nuts
3. 2 tbsp sultanas
4. 2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Rice

1. 1 cup of basmati rice, rinsed well to get rich of excess starch
2. 1 tsp of turmeric powder (I’m unemployed and cannot afford saffron!)
3. 1 tbsp of vegetable oil

Vegetables and Sauce

1. 1/2 broccoli florets and stems, sliced into bite-sized pieces
2. 1/2 cup of cauliflower florets and stems, sliced into bite-sized pieces
3. 1 small carrots, cut into chip size
4. 5 long beans, sliced
5. 5 button mushrooms, cut into thick slices
6. 1/3 cup of frozen peas
7. 1/2 cup yoghurt
8. 1 tbsp of crushed ginger
9. 2 cloves of crushed garlic
10. 1 star anise
11. 5 cloves
12. 5 green cardamon pods
13. 2 sticks of cinnamon
14. 3 dried bay leaves
15. 1 tsp garam masala
16. 1 tsp Vegeta vegetable stock dissolved in 1/2 cup of hot water
17. 2 tbsp of butter

First things first, we need to make the fried onion garnish. Fry the onion slices in low-medium heat in the vegetable oil until it’s very brown. Set aside. Leave the leftover oil in the frying pan. Read the rest of this entry »

This is basically the easiest chicken stew in the world. I hope so anyway. I made this once for a friend who was very impressed with it and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it’s just fried chicken with canned tomato soup.

This is for two people (plus leftovers):

1. 2 pieces of chicken maryland, cut into drumsticks and thigh pieces
2. 1 can of condensed tomato soup*
3. 1 onion, chopped
4. 2 small carrots, chopped
5. 3 small potatoes, cubed
6. 1 can of champignon (optional), drained and rinsed

Take a large non-stick frying pan and drizzle it with a tiny bit of oil. You won’t need a lot of oil at all because the chicken pieces will render more fat. Trim off any excess fat on the chicken pieces. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the eternal lunch favourite in Thailand. Of course, they make it much nicer and spicier.

Basil (grapow) in this case means the holy basil, which isn’t the same as the Thai basil (horapa) here in Australia. You can get fresh Thai basil in abundance here in Australia as they seem to be much more hardy in this climate. I have tried growing the holy basil here in Melbourne and it just didn’t do well even in Summer. So in general, if you go to a Thai restaurant and order a pad grapow, you’ll most likely end up with a pad horapa instead.

Not here to teach you Thai! This is a cooking/food porn blog and so we must get on. In fact, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t authentic Thai cooking either. Just because I’m Thai doesn’t mean I cook Thai food properly, aii?

We like our veggies – so I toss a lot of vegetables in. I use (again for two people):

1. 1/2 carrot, cut into thin strips
2. a handful of long beans
3. 5 mushrooms, thickly sliced
4. half an onion
5. 1 red chilli (deseeded and cut into strips – I deseed this one because it’s really, really hot)

Together with:

1. 1 chicken breast, sliced
2. 2 tbsp of pre-made pad grapow* sauce
3. 1 tbsp of fish sauce
4. 1 tbsp of oyster sauce (I prefer Thai oyster sauce)

Start off by browning the chicken in a bit of oil on a really nice and hot wok. If you’re using the premade pad grapow sauce, then add that. Otherwise, pound together 3 cloves of garlic and 2 hot chillis (this obviously depends how much of a pussy you are when it comes to chilli) with a little bit of salt. Add that to the chicken. Season with the fish and oyster sauces. Add the carrot, onion, beans and ‘shrooms and stir fry for a few minutes until the vegetables are cooked. If you’re using fresh basil leaves, throw a handful in and turn off the heat.

Serve it with rice and Thai-style fried egg (below).

I made three portions so Josh can take the leftover for lunch.

Fried egg, Thai-style

It’s common to serve this basil stir fry with a fried egg. Crack a fresh egg into a bowl. Heat 3 tbsp of oil (yes, you’re almost deep frying it here) in a very hot wok. Carefully pour the egg in and fry it for about 3 minutes until the bottom is crispy but the yolk is still runny.

* Two reasons why I use the premade sauce when I’m not really a big fan. Firstly I found a packet which my uncle had left behind when he stayed over while we were on our honeymoon so I figured I would use that up. Secondly, there’s no other way to get the real grapow in Australia anyway.

This is also known as What To Do When You Still Have Leftover Roast Lamb.

If you think the ingredients are a bit questionable, just so you know, this soup is totally in the spirit of desperate food day. I basically start off by tossing the leftover leg of lamb (there wasn’t much left of it), bone and all, into a boiling pot of water and let it stew for about 20 minutes and went from there.

This is literally what happened/my line of thoughts:

• ‘Hmm. Oh! I have corn. That really needs to be used up! They make soup out of corn cobs in Singapore.’ *chop up corn cob into 4 pieces and toss into the pot*
• *consult cookbook for Lamb and Chickpea Soup* ‘Oh they add canned tomatoes and parsley’ *add a can of diced tomatoes and a handful of chopped parsley*
• *find some carrots* ‘Oooh, let’s toss that in’ *chop up and toss in a carrot*
• ‘Maybe something starchy? Oh yeah, I have potatoes!’ *toss in a skin-on, cubed potato*
• ‘Should probably tear the meat of the lamb leg…’ *fish out the lamb leg and shred out the leftover meat, return the meat back to the soup*
• *taste* ‘Hmm, that doesn’t taste very much’ *add a vegetable stock cube*
• *taste* ‘That still doesn’t taste very much’ *add salt and pepper*
• *taste* ‘I think it needs spices. Oh damn. The spice collection is two years old’ *rummage around in the fridge and find instant Japanese curry roux blocks, toss two small blocks into the soup*
• *taste* ‘Hey! Not bad! Need more tomatoey flavour though.’ *add a tbsp of tomato paste, leave to simmer 15 more minutes.

It really wasn’t bad. Seriously.

Note: the ‘spicy’ bit in the title is a total lie. The words Japanese curry and spicy do not belong together in a sentence. Ever. But I would totally have added some coriander, cumin and cayenne pepper if I had any.

Leftover rice that has been sitting in the fridge works wonders. Fry in a really hot wok with some oil, prawns, onion, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, a dash of soy sauce, a dash of oyster sauce. Serve with a slice of lemon.

It takes 10 minutes. Tops.