FOCCACCIA THURSDAY
For out weekly lunch at work today, Ian brought in homemade foccacia with sea salt, herbs and sundried tomatoes. I can only imagine how fantastic it would have tasted straight out of the oven!
We all made up our foccaccias how we liked and then some of us toasted them before devouring them.
In mine I had roast chicken, roasted eggplant,
sundried tomatoes, avocado and cheese.
Oh so delicious!After work I deliberated whether to postpone cooking my crab another night, but then decided that I should have it tonight. Ideally I should have cooked it last night since I caught it in the morning, but tonight it will still be just as good.
I have never cooked chilli crabs using a crab that I have caught before. Usually when we catch fresh crabs, we take them home and Mum takes care of the cooking! I know how to prepare them because I cooked some
soft shell crabs a while back.
First, you have to pry off the triangular piece of shell from the crab's base and remove all the sex organs (I might have the details a bit off because I'm just remembering this). I then twisted off each leg one by one, pried the top of the crab's shell off, and then cut the main body of the crab into half. I rinsed the pieces in water before cooking.
For the sauce, I wanted ginger but we didn't have any in the fridge. So, I chopped up some garlic and sauteed this in some oil in a wok (round based fry pan actually), added half a can of crushed tomatoes, some Thai sweet chilli sauce, some chilli flakes and simmered this sauce for a few minutes. Lastly, I added the crab pieces, making sure to coat the pieces in the sauce by giving it a good stir around. I then added one egg white, mixing it to break it up in the sauce. lid on and allow to simmer for a few minutes. The crab doesn't take long to cook at all.
Garnish with fresh coriander and serve!So, what was the verdict? I was happy with my first attempt at cooking chilli crab without a recipe. I only wish we had caught more crabs!
We had the usual things that you find in Vietnamese spring rolls - prawns, pork, chicken, bean sprouts, vermicelli noodles, mint and coriander. We didn't have time to prepare the hoi sin dipping sauce, but Ling improvised with one that he made from fish sauce, chilli, and a few other things.
We were amazed at the unique presentation. I have never seen a cheesecake prepared this way. When we cut a slice, we were oohing and aahing over the way she had layered the biscuits. There were glazed cherries and I believe chocolate in the centre.
Today I gathered with a few friends for a BBQ lunch. Aside from the BBQ, we didn't really make much of an effort to follow an 'Aussie' theme for Australia Day. We just ate!
My mouth is watering just thinking of them...
One of the girls at work brought in a huge tray of cupcakes today and I nibbled away at three of them with my coffee for morning tea. On days when I have a sweet tooth, butter frosting hits the spot.
For out weekly lunch at work today, Ian brought in homemade foccacia with sea salt, herbs and sundried tomatoes. I can only imagine how fantastic it would have tasted straight out of the oven!
We all made up our foccaccias how we liked and then some of us toasted them before devouring them.
I have never cooked chilli crabs using a crab that I have caught before. Usually when we catch fresh crabs, we take them home and Mum takes care of the cooking! I know how to prepare them because I cooked some soft shell crabs a while back.
Dinner at work consisted of a microwave dinner that I picked up from the shops en route. Coles' Bechamel Beef Lasagne.
Dinner tonight at work was a very simple salad that I threw together. Beetroots, asparagus (the soggy kind from a jar), baby cos lettuce, a few anchovies and a soft boiled egg with some olive oil and white balsamic vinegar for dressing.
I love cooking with my Le Creuset pots. For lunch today, I put together a simple pasta dish.
For dinner, I spied a bottle of bechamel sauce in the pantry. I also found some beef mince in the freezer, so I made a beef sauce with a can of crushed tomatoes and grated carrot.
Oops, when I went to plate up, I realised to my dismay that I had used too much bechamel! I didn't want to store any in the freezer so I had emptied out the rest of the bottle over the top. Without some pasta to absorb some of the moisture, it resulted in a rather sloppy dish. However, it was still just as tasty! It was more of a casserole!
