Christmas Curry

I decided to take a run at the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meal "CURRY" - basically it is a vego (pumpkin, cauliflower & chickpea) number with a few nummy sides. I like that the book also calls for "BEER". The full title of the 30 minute meal is CURRY ROGAN JOSH FLUFFY RICE CARROT SALAD POPPADOMS FLATBREAD BEER. Page 80.

As we have discovered, Jamie has some very big eaters for friends, and so I halved the amounts. I left out a few ingredients and also missed his carrot salad, pickled lemons and poppadoms (which we spell puppodums over here, never really thought about that before!). I added a raita as well. Somehow, between two overseas trips, an interstate trip and a massive charity dinner at my house, I seem to have come out with NO RICECOOKER anywhere in the house - which led me to run around, dilated crazy catseyes & poofy frazzle tailed, until I read in Mr Jamie's book that you can apparently cook rice some way OTHER THAN A RICECOOKER? - crazy non-Chineseses! First time ever making rice by the absorption method, felt very proud and also dirty.

I told my seestah and my bro-in-lo to come round, coz it's more fun cooking for company and having a billion leftovers, than eating alone and having a bajillion leftovers. My freezer's only small, you know. We did "present-ing" (two Capricorns in one relationship, lord help us) and had alcoholic and desserty accoutrements. Bro-in-lo responded to a last minute bat-signal and provided (very nice) beer. All in all a big success.


PUMPKIN/VEGO CURRY de Jamie by Deanne:

Boil a kettle of water and have it standing by. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Peel and slice an onion, add it to a large pan on high heat with a splash of kettle water and a drizzle of olive oil.

Use a pre-halved (love ya work, IGA) butternut squash/pumpkin (lengthways). Remove the seeds with a soup spoon, halve the half again lengthways (ie into a quarter-pumpkin) and chop into 1cm wedgy chunks. Jamie omits the seed bit, but I didn't find it took that much more time. Add to the pan.

Remove the tough outer leaves of a cauliflower half (thanks again, grocery store) and then cut into bite sized chunks, higgledypiggledy and chuck them in the pan, with two big handfuls of cashews. Stand and stir and stare vacantly into the pretty colours and watch as the flame transforms the outside corners of the vegies into blackened sweet spots of flavour explosion. Mmm, stir. Stir. Ahem.

Add half a teaspoon of chilli flakes, then a couple of cloves of finely chopped or minced (if only I had a garlic press on both coasts of Oz!) garlic, a generous splash of kettle water, a jar of store-bought curry paste/sauce mix (I used a jar of Korma paste I found in the back of the pantry). Open a tin of chickpeas but don't drain - just pour in the chickadees and their juices straight into the pan. Salt, pepper, stir and fire up the heat. Cover if you have a lid or don't if you only have a wok and no big pans in your house. Ahem. Stir when you remember to, add kettle water when you remember to.

RICE by Jamie's Absorption Method, or non-Chinese witchcraft, as I like to call it:

Pour a mugful of rice into a medium saucepan with a "lug" of olive oil and a few cloves, salt and pepper. If you don't have cloves, use a chicken stock cube. Ahem. Cover with two mugfuls of boiling water from the kettle (same mug as the rice ie 1:2), put the lid on and boil on medium heat for 7 minutes. Yes I did watch the clock. Then after that, take off the heat with lid still on and sit for 7 minutes to steam through.


FLATBREAD Jamie says Chapattis, I say Naan Breads, let's call the whole thing off!

Scrunch up a large sheet of baking paper under running water, flatten it out on a baking tray, layer the store bought flatbreads on top, with a spray of olive oil and a sprinkle of chopped garlic between each bready doona (or turmeric if you are Jamie). Wrap them in the paper and put them on the middle shelf of the oven at 180 degrees.


RAITA or as I was once told by a waiter in a posh resort restaurant in Alice Springs once "no, we don't have any raita sorry but this is mint and yoghurt sauce to go with your meal."

Shred/use vegie peeler/slice etc a small lebanese cucumber into unembiggened slivers.
Chop up a handful of mint.
Pour a tub of natural yoghurt on top. I used "Greek" style but in future I think I will seek out the "European" style next time, I find it more tart (no comments, thanks).


BEER

Thank your bro-in-lo profusely for complimenting your "very classy bottle opener" that was actually a freebie/stolen from a crab smashing event. No really.

Compliment your bro-in-lo on his excellent taste in beer.



Serve up, with presents on the side (a touch early this year as I'm going back interstate to my "other home" for the silly season).

Happy Curry everyone!

Pasta cheat!

Sometimes, I walk past my local Italian restaurant and all I can think is alio olio alio olio alio olio...vongole...
Then I get home and realise that all my recent travel has meant that a) I have no alio b) I've killed my basil plants and c) I have not been shopping in ages and I have no fresh seafood. Like last night.

Fortunately I had a full tub of Chunky Basil, Cashew and Parmesan dip (do you remember, back in the early noughties when these first started appearing on supermarket chiller shelves? What a godsend!), a few squashy old mini-Roma tomatoes, half an onion from who-knows-when, some instant spaghetti (cooks in 8 minutes!) and my usual pantry staples.

So I boiled up the pasta and at the same time drizzled olive oil & balsamic vinegar into a frying pan and blackened the tomatoes with a sprinkle of salt, pepper and powdered garlic. I then added the chopped onion and cooked through until translucent to get the flavour out of its sorry bones. I then smooshed the tomatoes hard with the back of the spoon. The basil dip tub was unceremoniously dumped into the pan and then the pasta was done so I mixed it all up in the frying pan to coat the strands and hey presto! Alio olio tomato pesto.

Just cos

So here's a post just for my friend who has posted this very funny pic on Fbook:

Yes I must admit that yesterday I did crack a lovely bottle of extremely wooded chardonnay. However today, when opened the door of the fridge, I spied a little baggie of something that is a healthier kind of weakness.



My local Independent Grocers (yes people, IGA stands for something more than just "convenience store") has the most amazingly fresh, plump, crisp, young cos lettuce leaves and I never can resist a bagful whenever I am in there. Sadly the Hass avocadoes were a little overripe so my usual go-to of "Cos, avo, lemon juice, olive oil" soupy salad was a no-go.

As my hand reached into the fridge for milk for a post-dinner cuppa, it emerged clutching the bag of lettuce like an addict. So here's the craving recipe of the day, healthy-style:

Rinse young cos lettuce leaves.
Decide they are too pretty to slice up.
In a coffee mug, pour some olive oil, then a splash (roughly 1:3 or 1:4) of balsamic vinegar, ground salt, ground pepper and some dried thyme from your homegrown windowsill stash. Swill it around and then pour it in lines over the leaves.
Pick up the leaves by hand and eat them, letting the dressing run all over your hands and cover your phone with oil when you decide to take a photo halfway through:

crunch crunch crunch smile
prunehands!

I did also have a cuppa. Now, I spy some leftover chardonnay in the fridge, excuse me...

...because we all love a good Kanga Banga...

I just got home from Peru, and had been chatting away with a bunch of North and South Americans about the Australian love of Skippy. To eat, that is. (I ate lots of delicious alpaca dishes, and I even tried guinea pig!)

So, I had a metric sshttonne of things to do after almost forty hours in transit - unpacking, work catchups, clean the house, get the bung oven door fixed... but no, it all had to wait because I NEEDED to cook. Every now and then I just crave fresh food and the joy of wielding a knife into it. I popped down to the local IGA and bought some you beaut fresh fennels (did I mention I forgot my oven was limply hanging open and not safe for use?) in amongst a basketful of luscious green stuff. I knew I had a freezer full of meat and on my arrival home I was pleased to see these bad boys in the top drawer:

A quick defrost in the micro-onde and a cue for Sale of the Century thinking music. Yes, I often build my meals around the protein.





I introduced my Dadsy to fennel with my oven roasted warm salad, and as is his way, he's made it his own by making it the star of many a stirfry, often with beef. I ran with that idea at a recent impromptu extended rellies Shiraz Shindig, serving pan seared kangaroo steaks sliced on the oblique and juicy atop my ovenated fennel.

So, what was it for lunch? Bush tomato Skippy & Fennel Stirfry of course!

It went something like this:
(Jetlag permitting)

Slice the fennel into 1cm-ish width short strips, chuck into hot wok with a generous drizzle of olive oil; pull out some frozen lemon slices from your stash (fresh or bottled juice would be fine too) and chuck them in too. Pour over some water, loads of cracked pepper and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar to help with the caramelisation.






Meanwhile, grab your defrosted kangaroo snags (mine already had herbs and bush tomato flavouring) and snip the skins off with some scissors or a knife.

Chuck the meat into a big bowl and smoosh into chunks with a spoon.





Add equal splashes of light soy sauce and dry sherry, heaps of pepper and a punch of sugar or tiny bit of balsamic. By now the fennel is pretty much cooked through (go for soft, not al dente) and the liquid in the pan has reduced. Add the lovely roo meat lumps, stirfry the bejeezus out of the mix...

...and hey presto, lunch is served!


(Albeit, not particularly photogenic!)

I'm a very lucky girl, my past self really looks after me, so I was able to have a box of rice reheated out of the freezer in a jiffy. However, I reckon this recipe could be served with pasta, potatoes or cous cous as the carb base. Also, I reckon the addition of some olives and a dollop of tomato (tins, paste or sauce) could easily convert this to more Mediterranean feel.

Mmm, next time I'll use roo steak (more on that later). But only because good alpaca can be hard to find here.

Yay, leftovers for dinner too. Good to be home in the kitchen.

Holy guacamole! So many handy hints!

Cooking dinner tonight, I had another one of those lovely moments where you realise you are making something that until quite recently you had no idea how to do!

Back before the Mexican renaissance of late, we used to frequent a Tex Mex bar in Perth known as Santa Fe, I used to impress people with my ability to scarf down the entire serve of ribs, and guacamole was a mysterious delicacy of avocadoey goodness wrapped in a riddle, served as an enigma.

I have since taught myself to make guacamole, with a lot of trial and error, and a little help from Ready Steady Cook, a fervent conversation with my friend Luke and some heated debate with my ex-boyfriend Chris - which has led to a very flexible recipe. I'd love to know other people's variations!

I was making guacamole today as a filling for my steak sandwich/wrap; plus a few family gatherings of late have featured bro-in-lo's bro Tim's taco salad, which will have to have its own dedicated blog post soon (when I attempt to make it myself!) so I was feeling the avocado vibe.

Avocado and tomatoes are a staple on my grocery list, and guacamole is definitely a go-to now that I've mastered it.

In my mind, you MUST have:

AVOCADO
- lots and lots (tonight's recipe featured one and a half Hass avocados, my breed of choice)

Handy hints with avocado:
#1 - when buying an avocado, very gently squeeze the narrow top part between thumb and forefinger. If it's unripe it will be too firm to have any "give". Too ripe and you'll lose your fingertips into it from squashyness. Just right and you'll feel a bit of give but no permanent dentage.

#2 - chop citrus (eg lime or lemon) with your knife first or drip some citrus juice on it to prevent oxidation of the cut edges.

#3 - to chop an avocado, halve it lengthways and give the halves a twist and pull apart. To remove the stone, slam your knife into it firmly at 90∘ to wedge the blade in there (fortune favours the brave, be firm). Turn the knife handle clockwise (and attached stone) like a lever and it should just plop the stone right on out of the flesh without too much hassle and slipperydippery. Now half your halves again ie cut the avocado into lengthways quarters. At this size, it is very easy to simply grip the skin firmly at one tip and peel the skin off the flesh, as if you were peeling a banana. No more wasted flesh smooshed into the skins!

- I then dice the avocado very finely and transfer it to a bowl to mash with a fork; or if it is very very ripe you can just mash it without dicing.

TOMATO
- a bit, finely diced (I prefer to buy a punnet of Grape tomatoes when I do my regular grocery shop, but this time I used the slightly larger Mini-Roma tomatoes; for tonight's guacamole I used 8 of them to go with my one and a half avocados). Here's a pic, with a teaspoon for scale, and my pretty new red knife (it comes with its own red blade sheath too!):

LIME JUICE
- a generous amount (I used the juice of one lime to the above ratio of ingredients)

Handy hints when juicing a lime (or any citrus fruit):

I'll assume you are using your hands - as Rick Stein's Spain programme has taught us, "citrus juicers are for wusses"!

#1 - Microwave the lime for 10-20 seconds to release the juice more (or run it under hot water briefly)

#2 - Cut it in half transversely:

Once you have squeezed "all" the juice out of the half segment that you can (squeeze with one hand and use the other to catch the pips if you are pip-phobic, or two hands and then just pick the pips out, up to you) - cut the spent half-segment in half again (transversely, as shown):

You will see exactly how much more than "all" the juice you got out is left! Now you can squeeze the end stump and totally bleed that cheeky cheek dry. Mmm, juicy.

#3 - Whilst you cannot compost what's left, unless you have a major problem with alkaline soil; you can save those skins and use them to make natural cleaning solution which I now make (with lemon, mandarin, any citrus peel) and pretty much use for everything around the home.

SEASONINGS
Ground black PEPPER (20 grinder turns)
A pinch of SALT (2 grinder turns)
The extra zing can come from ONION (very finely diced red onion or spring onion or chives); SHALLOTS and/or GARLIC; but I find this is not always to my liking, depends on your mood.
CHILI is fun, but not really my preference. Cayenne or paprika or even finely diced capsicum are sometimes called for in recipes but I don't really swing that way (capsicum gives me the toots, and a sore belly sometimes so it's best to avoid it in my case).
I do enjoy adding some finely chopped fresh PARSLEY. As I am currently growing a small 'living spice rack' on my kitchen bench and the parsley was plentiful I did go for it tonight.

Handy hint with parsley and fresh herbs:
#1 - Invest in a good pair of sharp small scissors for the kitchen garden. Harvest herbs with scissors instead of pulling or plucking as the plant will be much healthier and happier.
#2 - Plonk the harvested herb into a tumbler or mug, stick the scissors in and chop chop chop; I find this so much easier and less messy than trying to wrangle them all on a board with a knife as I am not a chef with mad knife skills!

THE CREAM OF THE CROP?
Some recipes (and fanatical people) really like adding sour cream to the mix presumably to extend the avocado and bulk up the volume. In fact I will admit to trying this and even using Philly cream cheese when I'm running low on avocado. However, I actually think I prefer my avocado nude, as I feel that filly ingredients tend to also dilute the flavour, but I can see how people do prefer the creamy texture that comes from a mix.

Guacamole handy hints:
#1 - If you do have some left over, you can keep it for a day or two. To prevent oxidisation and that horrible brown appearance, place glad wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole, and squeeze out as many air bubbles as you can with the back of your hand:

#2 - Enjoy and experiment to find the way that you like to make it most, and try to use it in many different ways - as a dip with corn chips or crackers, as a topping or condiment for nachos and other delicious Mexican dishes, as a spread on toast, or as a flavour packed filling in sandwiches and wraps. Its fresh taste is so yummy, it's easy to make and the bonus is it is also very healthy!

Inspiration of the day - Rick Stein and the Spanish Ringo Star

Thanks ABC for airing Rick Stein's Spain - just caught up on Episode 3 over on iView (sorry non-Aussies you might not be able to view it).

I'm finally settling in to my new place in my old city, now single once more, and I am warming up to the idea of some more experimental cooking. I find at a time like this, when I'm still trying to find my feet, and my centre, I do tend to stick to tried and tested "experecipes" and comfort food. Now that I'm a bit more sorted, the urge to set fire to things, erm, and make tasty new dishes is coming back slowly but surely.

Tonight I had a simple home-made sukiyaki dish, which is one of my top ten "go to" dinners (but more about that later). As I nommed and slurped and watched Rick Stein's iView Ep, his conversation with Antonio, the lovely "Spanish Ringo Star" (a man who used to be in Spain's equivalent of The Beatles) about how he used to be a drummer, but now he cooks pretty much summed it up for me:

"Why do you cook?"

"It’s a mystery… passion… I mean, cooking is an artistic thing, I cannot paint a nice picture but I can do something here full of colour, but not only colour… smell... taste... everything! Everybody must do that. Why not?"

Ah, cooking. So universal, so beautiful and always something to learn from so many different people! Bring it on!

Handy hint - let's twist again

I still cannot thank Jamie Oliver enough. He's taught me about a very large proportion of what I like to cook, in particular, he unexpectedly helped me conquer (and pretty much own) the lamb roast.

I was on a plane recently, and had one of those fancy back of the seat tv set entertainment systems to play with, and I was lucky enough to watch his sustainable seafood show as part of the Fish Fight campaign. Sadly, I haven't been able to find the show online, but here are some great recipes on the Fish Fight site.

The crusade for sustainable seafood is extremely worthy (please, do have a look at the Fish Fight recipe and also for my lovely readers in Australia, there is an amazing Sustainable Seafood app for us too on the Australian Marine Conservation website.

However, (wait for it) - in regards to today's amazing handy hint, sustainable seafood is just... a red herring! (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Jamie was demonstrating a delishy fishy recipe, and his handy hint made me gasp at the simplicity of his genius. Out loud. On a plane.

When you cook long pasta (fettucine, linguine, spaghetti) - grab it in both hands, then GIVE IT A TWIST before you drop it into the pot. GASP! This way it all fans out evenly into the boiling water, and is less likely to stick and get gluggy or clumpy. Blows my mind to think that something so simple is able to help so much when preparing a great meal instead of a merely 'okay' meal. Mind blown.

Give your f*ing roast potatoes the kick in the arse they f*ing deserve.

That's right, today's 'I can't believe I never thought of that tiny touch but oh my word I'm so glad you did' tip is courtesy of Gordon Ramsay himself, by way of his quite delightful 'Christmas with Gordon' specials. He can cook! He has a gorgeous set of kids! It's not just all swearing and throwing pots & pans about!

So... Little drummer boy drum roll...

Add a touch of chili flakes to the oil when you make roast potatoes. OH MY WORD it makes you very popular! Plus your taste buds will absolutely tap dance!

At a recent family gathering I made potato and sweet potato wedges, crazy-style:
Wash potatoes (I rationed a 1.5 potatoes:1 person serve) and cut into rough wedge shapes, peel-on. Depending on the size of your spud you may need to go for sixths, eighths or twelfths, as long as the end product is roughly the same width for even cooking.
Chuck wedge cuts into a freezer/microwaveable bag. Microwave for a few minutes. In the meantime wash and chop into wedges your sweet potatoes, and then add to same freezer bag as potatoes. Microwave again holusbolus for a few more minutes. Leave in micro in bag to self steam whilst you deal with the lamb or other vegies.
Then, wearing oven mitts (!) pull the bag out. Pour in some olive oil, grind in some salt and pepper then add half a teaspoon of dried chili flakes. Twist the top of he bag shut and toss the mix to coat the wedges well. Empty out ini a roasting pan/tray then cook in the oven on 180-200 degrees for as long as it takes for them to be done, or at least after you've joined the guests for a glass of wine and some antipasto for starters!

I promise you, the zing of the chili will be just the top note you need to really make your next roast sing! Thanks Gordon!!!

All the little things..

Sorry to my lovely blog readership (what's left of you, if any) for my prolonged radio silence. What with an interstate move (including a bonus surprise flight back a week later to pack the car and a trip away for a course a week after that) and a new kitchen with hardly any cookware in it (yet), it's been way too long between kitchexperiments as well as blogging.

The last couple of weekends I have had the honour of cooking big hearty meals for family and friends to celebrate my return to first hometown. It's been such a relief to be able to cook again, and each time I did my usual thing of brainstorming an idea or hankering, ducking out to the shops, seeing what was fresh, then making sh*t up! With great times to be had by all!

Which got me thinking, what is it that has made me so confident in the kitchen that I think I can just lash out, let loose and just ...cook!? I still remember when I first attempted cooking and the whole thing just seemed like mysterious alchemy, witchcraft and terrifyingly easy to burn. After talking with my kitchen gurus Mumsy and Dadsy about it whilst cooking up a big Father's Day lunch; and a recent chat with a new colleague about cooking TV shows... I think I know the answer, a little bit. It's not a definitive moment, but rather, a series of little moments. A cumulative sum of all these small victories or massive failures that add to your mental data bank, your muscle memory and your skill tool belt. Which is why I'm such a fan of the genre of Experimental Cooking a la bork bork bork.

So while I'm warming up into the swing of things, there's a few 'little things' I want to share with you. Soon I will work out what other grand notions to post. In the meantime, enjoy!

Tonight's modest ideas come courtesy of the ever loved Rick Stein, who tonight on my telly, from Spain, enthused about all the little things he was learning (and earnestly writing down in a notebook) from local chefs. The episode is currently up on ABC iView at http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/26392 for any Aussie readers who would like to view it (be prepared to drool and turn green with envy!). In particular whilst he was watching a nice man cook Hake, beginning with a Roux-like mix of onion, flour and oil, Rick was chuffed to learn exactly the degree to which the chef 'sweats down' the onions, or the way the chef turns the heat off right before he adds the flour to stop it from burning; these gems 'you never find in the recipe!' - exactly Rick! Well said! That's the great thing about cooking, you build up a repertoire, but you can still constantly be learning and joyfully discovering! Thanks for inspiring me to return to my blog!