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.