Jan 2011 Dinners

Found all these random dinner pictures from my phone from the past week. so figured I better post them up before I forget.

First off, Mexican Mole Chicken, basically one of the basics I cook pretty often since it never fails me despite me not following the recipe each time. so something must be right? hahahah

Next up, Chinese Fried Rice with Lap Cheung, since my flatmate made like 1o cups of rice the other night. Meaning alooot of left over rice and what better way to get rid of it than Fried Rice? I put in alot of stuff in mine, egg, lap cheung, mix veg, onion, garlic, and some coriander to top it off after seasoning with soy sauce and sesame oil. My flatmate said it tasted even better the nx day. Yes there was that much rice for lunch the next day also!

Tonight's Meal is Pan Fried Barrimundi with Lemon and butter along with an Everything-in-the-fridge-salad. Which was pretty awesome. Very healthy too since it was pretty low carb. I actually tried to bake the fish at first, but it wasn't quite ready when I was ready to eat so off into the fry pan it went. :)

Perfect with little bit of crunchiness on the outside and the flesh was still moist and tender.

I Love Breakfast!!!

Best Meal of the Day, even though I usually don't eat breakfast during the week. Solely because I love my sleep too much, and usually don't get up til the very last possible minute. aka 8:30am (yes I start work @ 9:00am, YouSeemi!)

But weekends are alllll about the Brunch, Big Breakfast for me. Though typically I'm not really a fan of cafe breakfast, since usually I make it better. Exception was the Soft shell crab omelet @ Cafe Ish, that was to DIE FOR!

Anyway so when Muso Dude comes to visit, I make vegetarian breakfast, last time, I had some fetta cheese scrambled eggs, roasted tomato, spinach, garlic mushrooms and tofu (just coz they were around). It was pretty delish and I didnt even miss my meat.

But then the following week I had a girlie sleep over and I made sure I got some Bacon ready. And Avocado! Love love love avocado :) I wanted to fit more on my plate but ran outta space, ooops. Greedy! HA

Singaporean Night

This was probably 3-4 months ago and I thought I already wrote about it, but guess it slipped under the radar. I consider myself a pseudo honorary Singaporean, all began over 10 years ago with my very first bf (Dr PJ) - he first introduced me to all things Singaporean back in Jamaica. So by the time I got to Sydney I joined the Singaporean Society on campus and was also on the committee, organising parties and outings. Some of my closest friends to this day are Singaporean.

So I decided to do them proud (not really) and try out my skills with some Singaporean dishes.

There was the Hainese Chicken Rice (not quite there), Curry Devil (yum! but not quite either), Chilli Prawns (closer but no) and just some steamed green veg. Who knew Singaporean was so difficult to make! Uuuggggh - so annoying. Now I dunno if I'll want to do this again....

Funny thing was my flatmate offered to help me that night and she was in charge of the rice. And we ran out! OMG most embarrassing. Whoever runs out of rice and it was Chicken Rice too, so good.

My ex flatmate NerdyGirl used to make Curry Devil, and wow it was sooo good, so spicy but sooo good that you can't stop eating. Her mom made some for me when I went to visit her last year. BLISS

Curry Devil

• Chicken
• Tumeric
• Onion (LOTS)
• Mustard seed
• Chilli
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Potato
• Vinegar

Directions

Heat oil, fry seasonings, fry onion, add chicken, add potato, and vinegar and water. cover

Turkish Delight

Apparently I offered to cook Black Belt Dude dinner for his birthday (so totally did not recall this conversation happening). But anyway, it's been a while since my last dinner party plus I'm going away - Jamaica! (bwoy mi cyaaan wait!) next week. So it's good excuse to see some ppl before I see them all next year. OMG can it be 2011 already?!?

BBD specifically requested Turkish Dinner (actually he asked for Roti & Curry - but that got shot down real quick, told him to go to Mamak if he wants some). So he brought over a couple frens from work who are in need of a home cook meal and I got some girlfriends along, in total a dinner party of 8.

I was fretting the whole day that I wouldn't have enough food (why ?!?! There's always left overs!) So the menu includes: Fattoush, (A mountain of) Couscous, Tava (modified) and Apricot Chicken.

The food all went down quite well. I particularly liked the Apricot Chicken but it was the most labour intensive. and even though I modified the Tava. It was really quite nice, its simple favours played off well with the complexity of the Chicken dish.

Piggierised Tava

• Beef Chunks
• Onion
• Garlic
• Mushrooms
• Potatoes
• Can of Tomato
• Jar of Grilled Capsicum
• Parsley
• Fetta Cheese
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

Brown Meat, add onion and garlic, add mushrooms and then pureed capscium sauce and can of tomato. Layered Casserole dish with nuked potatoes, cover with mixture from pan and cook in oven uncovered for 20 mins. To serve, top with chopped Parsley and crumbled fetta

Thai Chilli Basil Beef and Modified Doubles

This is one of the most simple stir-fries around. Doesn't require much seasoning as long as you got your handy bottle of Fish Sauce it's all good. :)

I start throwing in some random vegetables and before I know it, my wok was full! It was so yum though so lucky to have extra for lunch.

My friend DigiKing was sharing his recipe for the Trinidadian Favourite Doubles with me on Facebook and I couldn't wait to try it out. But after reading the recipe, there were instructions on how to make the "Bara" - the fried dough/bread that you fill it with the Curried Channa (Chickpeas)...I thought about it for a minute, and knew there's no way I'm gonna try make the Bara. So I modified and here's the first FAILED attempt with puff pastry.

Dr Rats and my flatmate were my test subjects. It wasn't too too bad. I just need to figure out a way to wrap this thing prettier and not let the filling escape. I made it again when I went to Melbourne to visit MrShyGuy. It's actually a really good snack. I would recommend for potluck or picnics.

My Piggierised Version of Doubles

(Guess it's a bit influenced by Curry Puffs)

• Onion
• Garlic
• Cummin
• Can ChickPeas
• Tumeric
• Ground Coriander
• Salt & Pepper
• Puff Pastry

Fettuccine Puttanesca

Dr Rats was hanging out one night and flipping through various magazines I had lying around and found this one that featured on some great Pasta dishes (Yes even my magazines are food-centric!). Initially she talked about making the great looking prawn pasta for me, and I readily agreed to be her test subject. But she's too busy testing on real rats to be cooking. So it's left to me again. as per usual.

I was more intrigued by the Puttanesca sauce, I've made it back in my college days and thought I could upgrade it. There's the Origin of the Puttanesca sauce that version (as they are many versions, as with most things) claims it was first put together for a bunch of prostitutes (Italian - Puttana) who visited a restaurant late one night after closing and the chef there didn't have anything left to put a proper meal together and so just went through what was available in the pantry and ta-da!

My version consist of: Garlic, Onion, Feta, Basil, Chili, Capers, Anchovies, Olives and cherry tomatoes. Not quite what's readily available in everday pantry, but it was great :)

Why am I eating alone?

I think I got food poisoning for the past couple of days, and it's the worst ever. I am so over Congee at the moment. Even though usually I looove that stuff, but after 2 days of eating nothing but plain congee. it's enough to dry up one's palate.

So for my day 1 recovery, I wanted something simple. Not going to make some crazy curry at the moment. LOL

Initially I contemplated on the Fusion Tom Yum Pork and Mushroom Spaghetti. But I think that might be too much for my tummy to handle. So the lamb cutlets were on sale in the local IGA supermaket, plus I still had some green beans I meant to cook from the week before.

And I totally thought my flatmate was home, so I set about cooking some anchovies garlic beans, dry roasted potatos, lemon & rosemary lamb cutlets and a salad for dinner.

But turns out I was the only one home! All that food and just for me....greedy piggie it is