A Few of My Favourite Things !

This weekend, I decided to pull out a couple of old recipes from the time I visited the Baipai Cooking School in Bangkok. I haven’t made these in a while but I really should keep them in my current repertoire – they are winners. The pictures aren’t as pretty as they ones I took at the cooking school but the flavours brought back memories of my visit to Thailand. The recipe cards that Baipai gave us for these recipes serve one – yes, one (1). I know that some people do need to only cook for one, but I have NEVER seen a recipe that provides measurements for serving one. So, I did some guess work and threw in what I thought was reasonable for serving six, however as I didn’t write the measurements down, you can do the sums for yourself if you’d like to try these recipes!

(Please note that I haven’t poured the tamarind sauce on yet in this photo)

Pandanus Chicken

(makes 5 pieces)
70 grams chicken thighs, cut into 5 bite-sized pieces
5 scented Pandanus leaves
1 clove garlic
1 coriander root, roughyl chopped
10 black pepper seeds
1 lemon grass stalk, cut into pieces
1 tsp sugar
1.5 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp white sesame seeds
2 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

1. Pound garlic, coriander root, black pepper seeds and lemon grass together well
2. Mix the wet ingredients and sugar and sesame seeds with the chicken pieces and leave to marinate for at least 1 hour
3. Wrap each piece of chicken with a pandanus leaf
4. Deep fry the chicken on medium heat, turning regularly until cooked. Remove and rain well. (NB. I shallow fried them for a minute on each side then drained and put them in the oven to bake until cooked)
5. Serve with a dipping sauce of 1 tbs ketchup manis and 1/4 tsp roasted sesame seeds if you wish.

Prawns in Tamarind Sauce

3-4 medium prawns, shelled and deveined
1 tbs wheat flour
1 cup vegetable oil for deep frying
1 tbs shallots, finely sliced
2 tbs tamarind paste/sauce
1 tbs palm sugar
2 tsp fish sauce
2 tbs water

1. Coat prawns with flour and deep fry until just cooked. Set aside.
2. Stirfry shallots until crisped
3. Add tamarind paste, palm sugar, fish sauce, water and stir well until sauce is thickened
4. Arrange prawns on a plate and top with tamarind sauce. Serve with coriander leaves and chilli

Melbourne has been surprising us with some amazing weather of late – a sunshiny, blue-skied 21C in winter – and pulling me out of the winter food rut. I’ve been trying to increase my protein intake so today, I marinated a 500g rump steak in 1 tbs palm sugar (finely grated), 1/4 cup fish sauce, 1/4 cup lime juice, 2 tbs soy sauce, 2 cloves of garlic (crushed) for the afternoon while my 3yo and I had fun at the playground.

Upon our return, I sizzled the steak on high heat for a few minutes on each side, as I like it quite pink/red, then left it to rest while I collected the washing from the line (yay, a day when I can hang the washing outside!). The extra marinade was used as a dressing for the salad of mixed leaves, thai basil and mint on top of which thinly sliced beef strips were laid. It was cool enough to light a fire by that time so we sat down in front of its warmth for our dinner. We also baked a couple of small, cored apples filled with sultanas in the coals for dessert. A diverse menu for diverse weather conditions.

I grew up in a family that never put brussels sprouts on the table. In fact, I don’t recall ever eating brussels sprouts ever, except maybe once on a plane when I was doing air time with British Air. So it came as a surprise to me, after hearing all the horror stories of how awful this vegie tasted, that I LOVE brussels sprouts! I stir fry it with garlic, salt and pepper until it’s charry and crispy on the cut side. Mmmmm, still with the slightly bitter tang that makes it more appealing to adult taste buds, but my 1 year old had a good go of it anyway.

Knowing that I would home close to dinner time, I decided to put the bread machine to work today making some pizza dough. Actually, it was the presence of La Latteria’s Scamorza Bianca that inspired me to make pizza tonight, truth be told. Good thing I was organised as I arrived home to a text message that my boys had decided to walk down to the local supermarket and needed a lift back.

My 3 year old helped me shape out the dough and to dollop on some tomato paste (he quickly started licking the spoon after that). Then he helped me to layer on the red pepper marmalade, anchovies and cheese on one pizza, while tasting everything multiple times, and olives and cheese on the other. I’m not sure whether more cheese went onto the pizza or into his mouth. While the pizzas were baking, I washed the rocket and sliced the tomatoes and these went on top of the second pizza when it came out.

Dinner was a blast. I think my 3 year old had about five slices and my 1 year old was also trying to get in on the act, having some of the cheesy crusty bits. In fact, he was still trying to put food into his mouth when hubby was trying desperately to get him cleaned up as it was about 20 minutes past his usual bedtime!

Pizza Dough (takes 50 minutes in bread machine):
200ml water
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt
2.5 cups flour (I used 1.5 cups plain flour and 1 cup wholemeal)
1.5 tsp yeast

Shape dough out, layer on pizza topping, bake at highest temperature for about 8-10 minutes.

My 3.5 year old, EJ, is fairly happy to eat most foods but like most children, he seems to have an innate dislike for any *green* foods. Fortunately for me, he does like broccoli and cauliflower so I try to capitalise on this. I’ve bee cooking a lot of soups this season but had not really thought about serving him soup until he started at kindergarten two weeks ago and they served chicken and corn soup as part of lunch. So, why not make him a cauliflower soup and we can all enjoy it together?

I don’t always buy organic fruits and vegetables but I just feel that it’s more important to do so with broccoli and cauliflower, knowing through a friend who used to grow vegetables commercially that a lot of pesticide is used on these crops. It seems to be trickier to wash away any chemicals from the tight florets so I try to ensure these are organically grown.

I always cut the head of cauliflower into florets before cleaning. Then I simmer it in a pot of water until soft, season it with salt & pepper (I like using white for a bit more of a bite), then add a spoonful of bechamel (white sauce). Yesterday, instead of the bechamel, I added a cup full of sago which had been soaked in water for about 20 minutes and cooked until they became clear. EJ loves sago pudding and he was equally delighted when I told him this was a cauliflower and sago soup. It serves to thicken the soup slightly and also adds a lovely textural surprise to each mouthful. Last night, it was served with some cheesy cauliflower and leftover risotto.

I first came across quinoa in 2006 through Heidi Swanson’s blog and the first recipe that I tried was her lemon-scented quinoa salad. 5 years on, I’m still a fan of this thing that I keep calling a grain, but it’s actually the seed of the plant that we eat.

While many of my friends may have heard of it or tried it at a restaurant, I don’t think many would have it as a pantry staple. However, I love its nutty-crunch so much that there’s usually a pack lying around somewhere in mine. It’s just as easy to cook as rice or pasta – two cups of water to one cup of quinoa and simmer until the curlique pops out as the germ separates from the seed. Then it’s a matter of dressing it like a salad.

For first timers, here’s my amazing red quinoa salad recipe:

1. Cook 1 cup of organic red quinoa in 2 cups water until tender
2. Thinly slice a green zucchini and grill until soft with edges are crispy
3. Steam a bowl of cubed pumpkin until tender
4. Simmer a clove of garlic in milk for 15 min then mash
5. Cut up some small cubes of chèvre and pit a few olives and halve some black russian tomatoes
6. Toss all ingredients together and season to taste with salt & pepper and a dash of olive oil

I made this with my 3 year old for dinner last night and I thought it was fantastic. He took one look and told me “I don’t like the brown things” before pushing the bowl right off the table! He had two serves after that so either he agreed with me or decided that it wasn’t worth going hungry for the night. Anyway, try it and tell me what YOU think.

My three year old son called a ‘deer‘ a ‘quesadilla‘ by mistake the other day.

As you can tell we’ve been talking Mexican food of late (well, this post is late but seeing as Melbourne is treating us to some lovely sunshine this week, you can let it slide can’t you?). Maybe it’s the plethora of tortilla and burrito wraps that are cropping up all over the place that’s inspiring us, or maybe it’s the cool freshness of the salsas that we look forward to on hot summer days. Either way, this food is right down my alley. I love foods that you have to use your hands to eat with and even more so when you have to assemble it yourself. I think eating with your fingers makes food taste different though I do try to avoid picking off food straight off shared plates when we have company.

And so it was that A & I cooked turkey tacos for my family using leftover turkey from our Christmas Feast (yes this post is late, isn’t it?). The turkey was diced and cooked with some onions, garlic, diced tomatoes, ground cumin, salt & pepper then sprinkled with coriander at the end.

This was accompanied by three types of salsas:

1. Tomato, red onion, mint
2. Lychee and avocado
3. Peach, capsicum, cucumber, red onion

The dressings were loosely based on some recipes I pulled out of a magazine, but for the life of me I can’t find the sheet right now. Well, there are loads of recipes you can trawl the internet for or just experiment with vinegar (sherry, cider), garlic, coriander leaves, lime/lemon juice, salt & pepper. It was just lovely to be able to use some summer stone fruits to make the salsas colourful and appetising. Mum used to tell me that you should try to have a bit of red, a bit of green and a bit of yellow in the dish. That way you won’t end up with a brown dish, and these dishes are anything but.

I love having a quick & easy recipe that you can turn to when you have one of those days. It happened to be one of those days for us yesterday, getting back from visiting the in-laws late then having to prep and cook dinner, get my boys (being hubby & toddler) to the table cleaned and ready to eat, as well as feed, change and put down the baby within the space of about 45 minutes.

While the pot of water was on the boil, I shelled and de-veined the Red Spot prawns then chopped about 5 cloves of garlic (yes, my boys wanted a lot of garlic!). The garlic and prawns were sauteed for a few minutes until the prawns had just turned opaque then removed from the heat. When the pasta was al-dente, the strands were tossed into the saucepan with the prawns and a little pasta cooking water to soak up all the garlicky flavours.

The idea is to then serve and eat but when I can’t seem to get everyone to the table at the same time….uh oh, that’s when I get nasty!

Did anyone NOT watch the Masterchef Finale? And did anyone NOT love both the finalists, Adam & Callum – whom both have blogs now.

Seeing as we had not done a potluck since our Neil Perry special, I decided it was time for us to have a Masterchef cook-off, the idea being to cook a recipe from the Masterchef website and bring it along for all to try. As I didn’t bother asking what anyone was making, I was a little concerned that we would end up with four desserts and one entree and we’d have to order in pizza – not that there would have been anything wrong with eating four desserts for lunch. Fairytale ending…

We started with Adam’s Prawn Scotch Eggs with a Coconut, Chilli Sambal. So good.

This was followed by George’s Open Beef Kofta and George & Gary’s Chicken Winglets, Hummus and Raw Vegetable Salad (I took the photo before the winglets were placed!)

To end the meal, we had George’s Braised Tomatoes with Smoked Chocolate Mousse – my effort – and a Fruit & Cheese Platter.

I’ve been a slack little blogger! I have been doing the occasional surfing through the Australian blogs but honestly there are simply too many for me to keep up with everyone now. Of course, I’ve still been taking the odd picture here and there – either of something I’ve cooked or when I’ve been out for dinner. I just haven’t been putting any of it here.

Then this week, I took my 2 year old to Prahran Market and saw someone peeling apples in preparation for her demonstration of A Thousand Layered Apple Cake. I had seen her before on Masterchef and a photo from I can’t remember where, and just this week was reading about the gourmet sandwich bar that she and her husband were about to open up on Bourke St. It was none other than Jackie Middleton, who also confessed that she had fallen off the blogging bandwagon, although not nearly as badly as I had.

I’ve been distracted by all the things you do with a toddler but I have been doing some important baking which is due in 2 months. Yes, a rather long time in the oven isn’t it?

I got to do some cooking for little people this week as our playgroup has decided to do a foodswap on Monday. I figured that there would be a few meatballs and frittata recipes so I went with fried rice, cooked with peas, corn and good ol’ spam – the way I remember it from my childhood. I used to dash on some tomato sauce for additional flavour….. mmmmm. To accompany, chicken nuggets marinated overnight in yoghurt then dipped in beaten egg and flour peppered with five spice powder – enough to tantalise but not overwhelm delicate taste buds. Some of the chicken nuggets were dredged in dessicated coconut instead of the five spice mixture. Either way, they turned out great and one piece even obligingly too on the appearance of a drumstick.