Seafood Chowder

So another cold cold night and I saw a pretty picture of this Creamy Seafood Chowder in my cookbook last night so figured I'll give it shot.

Only difference is though, in the cookbook the chowder was served in a hallowed out bread roll, that just seem too fiddly for me.

I'm usually not a big fan of creamy soups, but this one was really really yum. I made a massive pot - as you do with these things. So plenty for lunch tomorrow

Creamy Seafood Chowder

• Garlic
• Onion
• Butter
• Bacon
• Carrots
• Celery
• Potato
• Parsley
• Seafood Mix
• Parmesan Cheese
• Cream
• Milk
• Stock
• Paprika
• Allspice
• Salt & Pepper

- Melt Butter, brown the garlic and onion

- Add the vegetables

- Add stock, simmer until soft and then blend

- Add corn, milk, seafood, cream and seasoning

- Simmer and then top with parsley and Parmesan cheese and serve

Beef and Bean Stew

Seems like I've been in hibernation mode since the beginning of Winter. I have been cooking but just not as often, and the last dinner party I had was hot pot...aka minimal cooking.

My favourite things to eat during the shivery winter months are stews/soups (plus it's also a one pot wonder)

Last week I made a Cajun seafood gumbo - sorry I forgot to take pictures, but mark my words - it was absolutely delish.

Since then I've been craving Oxtail and beans but was a bit too lazy to shop so I made do with the beef cut I had in my freezer -this actually cut down my cooking time (score!) As I was rather disappointed when I checked the recipe again after I had everything happily bubbling away that the stew would take 4.5 hrs to cook!!! I wanted to eat it tonight!!!

Lucky with the beef chunks diced into bite size, the stew was basically (I was too hungry to wait longer) ready in 2 hrs.

Beef and Beans Stew

• Onion
  
• Garlic
• Carrots
• Celery
• Potato
• Herbs
• Butter Beans
• Butter
• Can of Tomato
• Stock
• Worcestershire Sauce
• English Mustard
• All Spice
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Pepper & Salt
• Chili flakes (for an extra kick)

Melt Butter in oil, Brown meat, add onion and garlic,

Add all vegetables til soften, add herbs

Add can tomatoes, stock, sauce and mustard

Add seasoning,

Cover and simmer for 35 mins

Add Butter beans, cook for another 20 mins til everything is soft and liquid has boiled down.

Cooking Chinese

So it was one of those rare occasions when I feel like cooking Chinese food. Guess I've been pretty spoilt as a kid. I always like to have my many dishes. Despite just the 2 of us living here, I tend to want at least 3 dishes. But it's such a pain thinking up the various dishes to cook really.

Tonight i invite my new temp neighbour, 50's Babe to join us for dinner. Dr Rats was suppose to be here also, but she missed out coz of work - poor thing.

So my 4 dishes for the night are: "Fish fragrant Eggplant" - this is a modified Sze Chuan dish, then Chicken and Chinese mushrooms, Black Bean & Garlic ribs and also just some ginger stirfried green veggies.

Just enough so there's leftovers for lunch for all 3 of us. Yay! Delious, took me about 1 hr to make everything :)

Black Bean & Garlic Spare Ribs

Ingredients

• Black Bean Sauce
• Garlic
  
• Chili
• Pork Spare Ribs

Directions

• Rinse ribs, cut into bite size pieces
• Marinate with Black with sauce, add chopped garlic and chili
• Place in steamer (I cook mine in my rice cooker as I make the rice)
• Ready to eat :)
  

Cinco De Mayo 2011

Time for Mexican again and it's Cinco de Mayo! Though we steered clear from the Tequillas since it was a school night.

Instead we had some quesadillas, guacamole, salsa and mole pollo. Basically my favourite food.

Did a spin on the salsa - used both green and golden kiwi fruits to give it sweetness to balance with the acid of the lime juice and freshness of the tomatoes.

I think maybe the next time I have Mexican, I'll make some burritos and fajitas :)

Bits and Pieces

Finally finally got my new sandwich press! Uber excited :D

So not satisfied with making just cheesy toast, I decide to put on my favourite Mexican snack, Quesadillas! Which was basically toasted tortillas with melted cheese and whatever toppings you like in the middle. I made it with mushrooms, roasted veg and also some refried beans.

For toppings, I made a guacamole and a pico de gallo. Which is basically just onions, tomato, chili, coriander, lime juice and salt.

May I say... Yummo! So simple and quick! Totally adding it to my weekly favourite snacks list:)

Alongside, I also made some curry fishballs, panfried dumplings and an African sweet potato peanut soup. I think the Africans really liked Peanuts or peanut butter!

For a lot of randomness and lack of consideration of how the various flavours would work together. It wasn't too bad, not too bad at all. But next time. I'll probably give it a bit more thought heh :)

Left Overs and Whatnot

So for the lovely Ms Neverthlands farewell back to the US of A, I made a hasty dinner for a group of us to say goodbye. Lucky it was the Monday after Earth Hour weekend, with plenty of left overs from the bbq we had (which was great fun! Totally doing it again in 2012~)

So I toss some pre-marinated drumsticks in the oven to grill, while I concentrate on pasta that I throw together with whatever I could find in the pantry. Also there's a Waldorf salad - plenty of food for 5.

For the pasta, I had some left over sausages, tomoatoes, parsley, onion, garlic, chili and capsicum.

African Night

Been too distracted lately to update my kitchen, but it's been bubbling away happily. There's been a few dinner parties recently. From one end of the world to another.

First was an African Night I had for some friends, so I made African Peanut Chicken Stew, a quinoa and baked pumpkin salad and Curry Beef. Everything was really delicious. Though I must admit to cheating a little as I got a pack of South African Durban Curry sauce in a satchel. This really cut my work in half - Yay!

Initially I wanted to make a couscous salad, but then turns out my pack of couscous is kinda....past used by date, oops. But fear not, there was a pack of Quinoa readily available in my pantry. I've had this grain-like seed once, and really liked it

. But the salad's recipe is basically from the back of the can of Cole's Chickpeas. It was so easy. I even showed my friend Mr Singerboy the dish, he loved it and made it for his flatmate :)

This was such a colourful salad, I'd definitely make it again.

It consist of:

CucumberCapsicum
Chickpea
Coriander
Cumin
Quinoa
Lime juice
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Just toss everything together!

The African Peanut Chicken Stew was pretty yummy also, actually this was my flatmate's favourite dish actually. This was the first time I cooked with peanut butter. I just love my one pot wonders :) These things usually taste better the 2nd day.