Tuesday 29th September '09

Morning Tea at Work
fresh Banana & Strawberries

The servers at work were down this morning so Marissa and I went to have morning tea together. Marissa was having porridge. She poured the dry porridge flakes into her corningware dish (that I bought for her from Singapore!), added boiling water, then zapped it in the microwave. Something went wrong though, because the porridge exploded.

Before...

...and After. Oopsies!

Lunch at Work
Caesar Salad with homegrown Cos Lettuce

Yes, I kept aside all the inner leaves of the cos lettuces from the garden to make this salad. I boiled and peeled a few eggs last night, added grated parmesan cheese and some whole egg mayonnaise. Light, healthy lunch.


Dinner

I drove out to 99 Seafood to find laksa paste. They had the Yeo's brand, but this isn't as good as the brand I've used previously. I'll have to remember that next time! As you can tell from the photo...the soup looks rather thin.

Seafood Laksa

Monday 28th September '09

from the garden:
left: cos
right: parsley & rocket


Tonight I had steamboat at home with Mum, Jocelyn and David.

I stuffed the tofu with chicken and fish mince.

With the rest of the chicken and fish mince, I rolled them up in beancurd sheets that I cut into rectangles. You need to brush water over the beancurd sheets so that they become soft and malleable. I never bother to use a brush, I just use my hands and dab the water on.

Mum and I went shopping for seafood dumplings.
We bought these from 99 Seafood on Warton Road.

We were all so hungry,
I forgot to take a photo until we'd pretty much finished eating!

Sunday 27th September '09

SPRING BBQ
at Ling & Shallen's
For the first time this month, I finally feel like spring is here. The overcast, raining nights are giving way to the warm sunny days. Perfect weather for outdoor entertaining.

We were all amazed and loved the makeshift brick BBQ table Ling and Shallen had constructed out of bricks. We crowded around as the food cooked and then lazed around stuffing ourselves.



Such an awesome lazy day with fantastic foods and friends. All washed down with a few beers. The chicken wings were awesome!! So were the prawns. Everything was delicious! I'll be sad to see our steamboats get packed away now that the weather is warming up, but I'm excited and drooling over the BBQ's we'll be having instead.

What more could you ask for!?




PORK WANTAN SOUP

Ingredients:

wantan dumplings 250g pork mince 2 Tbpn soy sauce 1/4 tspn white pepper 1/4 cup sliced spring onions wantan wrappers

soup 4 cups water 2 Tbpn soy sauce 1 Tbpn fish sauce 1 tspn chilli flakes 2 Tbpn dried salted fish

Method:

1. In a pot, bring all the soup ingredients to the boil and simmer while preparing the wantans.
   
2. Combine all the ingredients for the wantan fillings.
   
3. Make the dumplings by putting a small amount of filling on each wantan wrapper and bringing all the corners together to encase the meat in the centre.
   
4. Add the wantans to the soup and cook for about five minutes or until the wantans begin to float to the surface.
   
5. Serve with fresh spring onions.

I always add whatever Chinese vegetables I can find in the fridge. If you put the dried salted fish in a little teabag filter, you don't need to fish them out individually because they're not particularly nice to eat.

Saturday 26th September '09

ROXBY THAI CAFE
1 Yampi Way, Willetton
Tonight we got together for dinner. The restaurant looked odd - a mish mash of different themes. There were sofas and coffee tables near a wood heater where patrons could snuggle up for a coffee; the usual tables for diners; an attempt to create a Thai theme; but overall rather tacky looking with a central ceiling piece of flashing Christmas lights.

The menu was also a bit of an oddity. They had the usual traditional Thai dishes, but I suppose to cater for those with other cravings, they had a section offering dishes like chicken parmiagiana, fish and chips, lamb shanks and other things you'd find in a bistro.

Now, I apologise that the quality of my photos at dinner tonight are not that great as I can't use the flash.

Satay Chicken - 9.5
char-grilled chicken skewers served with peanut sauce

Golden Bags - 9.5
minced chicken and prawn with vegetables, wrapped in pastry,
deepfried and served with sweet chilli sauce

Papaya Salad - 16
fresh grated green papaya with shrimp paste, crushed peanuts, palm sugar,
fish sauce, green beans, tomatoes and lemon juice

Gaeng Daeng - 23.5
a smooth curry with red chilli paste, coconut milk,
exotic Thai spices, with mixed vegetables and lamb

Gaeng Pah - 21
jungle curry - the only curry without coconut milk
the sauce is flavoured with ginger root, basil leaves, fresh chilli,
and served with vegetables and chicken

Phat Kapow - 24
a stirfry with mixed seafood, vegetables, garlic, chilli,
basil and topped with crispy basil leaves

Goong Makram - 26
king prawns in a sweet tamarind sauce with cashew nuts

Kao Pad Supparod - 15.5
Thai style pineapple fried rice with chicken,
cashew nuts, egg and a touch of curry powder

Steamed Jasmine Rice - 3 per serve
they came molded into the shape of a star - nice touch or tacky?


Overall I was quite satisfied with dinner. The spicy dishes were spicy. The vegetables were fresh and each dish had its own distinct flavour even if they looked similar. We were all rather happy after dinner.


Back at Ling and Shallen's place, I opened a bottle of grappa that I've have for a few years now. I remember purchasing it on Singapore Airlines on the way home from Singapore from their inflight duty free.

38% grappa with a beautifully designed bottle

The bottle contains an 'oyster and pearl'

This was good stuff. I drank half the bottle myself and felt as if I had been drinking water. My head was clear - I didn't feel that numb head-throbbing sensation that I usually feel after a few too many glasses of wine. A sure sign of good quality alcohol, which means I will not wake up with a hangover tomorrow.

Of course we got the munchies - well I instigated it. I talked everyone into prawn pizza but instead of buying it, I had some peeled prawns at home and wholemeal tortilla wraps, so I drove back to my house to pick up the ingredients.

There was a large discrepancy between the sizes of the tortillas.
I will be calling their consumer hotline to make a complaint.


PRAWN & BOCCONCINI TORTILLA PIZZAS

Ingredients:

wholemeal tortilla wraps

tomato paste

fresh parsley leaves

fresh basil leaves

grated mozzarella

peeled prawns sliced half lengthwise

bocconcini sliced

chilli flakes

Method:

1. Spread the tortilla wraps with tomato paste.
   
2. Sprinkle the parsley, basil and mozzarella over the base.
   
3. Sprikle with the chilli flakes.
   
4. Arrange the prawns and bocconcini around the base.
   
5. Bake in the oven until the prawns have cooked. Should take 5-10 minutes on 180C.

We didn't have fresh basil and it was too cold to venture outside in the garden to get some, so I used dried basil. The pizzas are so light and aside from the generous helping of cheeses, is rather healthy! Ling garnished the centre of the pizza with some lemon slices.

We also made chicken burritos.

Friday 25th September '09

Simba sprawled on the kitchen floor after a walk.


The below is my own recipe. 99% of the recipes on this blog are my own. I usually don't cook according to actual measurements, but sometimes if I feel like it, I will try to estimate the quantities but it's really a 'feel as you cook' method that I use. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, perhaps a bit more of that...

And when it turns out as delicious as this below dish, then I feel a huge sense of accomplishment and that's the reason I love cooking so much. The experimentation, the flavours, the risk you take when you use a new ingredient or different combinations of spices. It's so fun!


RISOTTO WITH PRAWN & FISH

Ingredients:

1 Tbpn olive oil

1/2 large brown onion, chopped

1 tspn crushed garlic

1/2 Tbpn chilli flakes

1/2 tspn ground coriander

1/2 tspn ground cumin

1/4 tspn ground sweet paprika

pinch of saffron threads, soaking in 1 Tbsn warm water

1/2 red capsicum, diced

1 cup sliced button mushrooms

1 cup arborio rice

5 cups vegetable stock

150g fish, sliced

100g prawns, peeled and deveined

Method:

1. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sautee the onion until translucent.
   
2. Add the garlic, chilli flakes, coriander, cumin and sweet paprika. Add a splash of the vegetable stock and fry for a few minutes to release the flavours.
   
3. Add the capsicum and mushrooms, fry for a few minutes.
   
4. Add the rice and fry for a minute until it has absorbed the flavours.
   
5. Pour in 1 cup of the stock, stir and bring to the boil.
   
6. Turn heat to low and simmer with a lid on. Stir occasionally.
   
7. Every few minutes, check the liquid level and as the rice absorbs the stock, pour in another cup and stir, replace lid and simmer.
   
8. When rice is almost cooked, stir in the saffron.
   
9. After a few minutes, place the fish and prawns around the dish and do not stir. Add another 1/2 cup of the stock, shake the pan to loosen the rice and simmer with the lid on until the seafood is cooked.
   
10. Serve immediately.

OOoh this was soooo delicious!!

I used basa fillets and green banana prawns. I just love makin risotto! The trick is to add the stock a little at a time, wait until it gets absorbed and then add more. This way you won't end up with too much water and a gluggy mush. It'll be just right!


MEXICANO QUIZ NIGHT
at Curtin University Guild Tavern
Tonight Lisa invited me to join her and her uni friends at a quiz night being held by the WCC - White Coats Club - at Curtin University. They were all Medical Science students and I had fun shattering their delusions about what to expect out in the real world when they finish the course. I hope I opened their eyes about the things that I was never told while studying. I think I gave them something to think about.

We came FOURTH PLACE!! We were doing so well..tied first or second place all night until the 8th round, when we bombed. Still...not a bad effort - fourth out of twelve teams.