Bland food

I haven't been in the mood to cook too much since coming back from my daughter's wedding last week.  Normally, I would love nothing better than potter around the kitchen trying out recipes.

Yesterday, I asked my husband what he wanted to eat because I had no inspiration whatsoever. Asking whether he wanted, chicken, beef, pork or fish.  "Pork" he replied  "But can you please make something that is not bland' !! he says.

Now, for those of you that know me, I don't have 'bland' in my vocabulary.  So, to say I was surprised at this statement is putting it mildly ! He was quite insistent that I don't cook anything bland.

I have lived with this man for the past 8 years and cooked for basically 99.99% of the time.  In all that time, I may have cooked something more spicier than most but bland does not make it into my kitchen.

So, I cooked a Pork Curry, Dhall (lentils) and a stir fry Silverbeet.  Just for good measure I made the Pork Curry extra spicy and added extra chilli pieces into the Silverbeet.  It was definitely far from bland !

I waited for the verdict at the dinner table, "Excellent!" he said.  Phew thank God for small mercies. Imagine, if I had to learn a whole new way of cooking at my age !

Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato

Today, we went to Launceston to do some shopping.  Although we have a supermarket here in Deloraine, we like to go into Launceston and do our bulk meat shopping and also visit the Chemist Warehouse where drugs are almost half the price of what you can get at regular chemist shops.  I was also looking for a jacket or scarf or something to go over the dress that I am wearing for my daughters wedding.

Once sometime ago we discovered this neat little cafe called Bon Apetite.  It is so busy at lunch time that you can't really get a seat unless you grab a table as soon as someone is getting ready to leave.  We have now settled on going there most times we go to Launceston.

They make THE BEST BLTs ever.  Here is a recipe I like to use when I make these.  I found it on the internet once and have used it a few times.  It's not mayonnaise with crumbled bacon, but mayonnaise made with bacon fat. The recipe makes only a small amount, about enough for four sandwiches. It's best to use it all up at once because any leftover mayonnaise must be refrigerated, and the bacon fat will turn it solid. This mayonnaise is good in any sandwich, especially those made with eggs, grilled vegetables, cooked shrimp or lobster. It is also good stirred into a warm potato salad, and I'm sure you can find other uses as well. You can use the fat from cooking the bacon for your sandwich, but since you can never be sure just how much fat your bacon will render, it's a good idea to have some extra bacon fat on hand. In a pinch you could add a tablespoon or two of lard, but no more, or you'll lose that special bacon flavour.  Not so sure what it does to your arteries though lol.  I would love to hear from you if you use this recipe.


Ingredients
For the sandwich
2 tbsp bacon mayonnaise
2 slices of your favourite bread
1 lettuce leaf
2 or 3 slices ripe, juicy tomato
freshly ground black pepper
3 or 4 slices cooked bacon

For the bacon mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup (125ml) liquid bacon fat

Method
For the sandwich

Spread 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise on each slice of bread. Arrange the lettuce and tomato slices on 1 slice of bread and season well with pepper.

Top the tomato with the bacon slices and then the second slice of bread. Press together gently and serve.

For the bacon mayonnaise

Combine the egg yolk, mustard and lemon juice in the small bowl of a food processor or in a blender and process to mix. Season with salt and pepper.

Have the bacon fat liquid but not hot. With the machine running, gradually add the bacon fat until the mixture starts to stiffen and emulsify, about 2 minutes. Once it starts to emulsify, you can add the fat more quickly. If the mayonnaise is too thick, just blend in 1 teaspoon of boiling water to thin it. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Makes about 1/2 cup (125ml)

Recipe book

I haven't blogged for a while for a lot of reason which I will write about in my other blog which is is called Thoughts Deeds and Inspirations.

Suffice to say though I have done copious amounts of cooking.  I have had heaps of people contact me asking why I haven't written for so long, and I promised that I will be back.

I will start by saying that one of the things I enjoyed cooking recently was a Red Velvet Cake.  I am not a great baker but since coming to Tasmania I have ventured towards using the oven more often to cook sweets.

I promise to blog more often but my best excuse of all for not blogging is because I was actually writing a recipe book.  Heaps of people tell me I need to jot down my recipes. Most of the recipes that I cook are from the top of my head and it could be something I saw here, something I read there and as I cook I experiment.  Therefore, no recipe is ever the same.

My children always call me up and say 'how do you cook this or that' and I painstakingly try and tell them the ingredients, always ending up saying ' just taste it and add what you think it needs'.  My son Jason then said to me in exasperation the other day, 'you really need to write these recipes down and give it to me'.  This had me thinking and one day looking through the web I found a site that I can actually print a book. Self publish if you will.

I sat and wrote out recipes that the kids like to eat. The ones they call me up for the most, or tell me to cook the most. I thought 20 pages would do, but all of a sudden I found that I had more than 25 pages. Oops!  I checked the website and I could go to 40 pages for the next price bracket. This was getting to be expensive! Anyway, I finished it, proof read it, got my husband to read it and uploaded it.  Once, I was on there, the site suggested that I put the book up for sale !

Since, I knew a lot of my friends who really wanted my recipes, I decided to put it up for sale on the company's website and also send it to Apple Itunes for them to sell it.  So here is the link to the book if you are interested... and I will write again tomorrow.....

http://au.blurb.com/books/3633332

Nasi Goreng

Ever wonder what to do with left overs ? I have a serious issue with wasting food. Therefore, if there is anything left over, I try to make the dish look different or try and cook a something using the left overs.

A great way to get rid of a lot of little bits and pieces I find is making Fried Rice, or Nasi Goreng as they call it in Indonesia.  Thats where I first learned how to make it. We had a gorgeous old cook that made the best ever Nasi Goreng.  I always think of her when I make this dish, although it resembles nothing like what she made.

I had a bit of the BBQ Lamb that was cooked yesterday.  It was marinaded with Lemon, oil and Rosemary blended together. I also had a few beans that were left over and also some cooked rice that looked a little bit sad from about 2 days ago. This is what went into my Nasi Goreng tonight.

Ingedients

Rice
Onions
Garlic
Sliced up left over lamb
2 slices of bacon chopped
1 onion chopped
a few slices of Red Peppers
Couple of spring onions from my vegetable garden
Approximately 1 cup of shredded cabbage
1 grated carrot
Ketchup Manis
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

Fry bacon until it is starting to brown, add onions and garlic until they soften.  Add the rest of the vegetables and stir until the cabbage starts to get soft.  Add as much rice as you need, and stir through the ingredients. Add approximately 1-2 tablespoons of Ketchup Manis.  Basically, I put the Ketchup just to add colour. It is sweet so if you are watching calories or sugar content you will need to check this. Add salt to taste.

This is what ours looked like tonight.

Nasi Goreng

We had this with a Beef Curry and Stir fry cabbage with dried prawns.

Chicken Giblets

I had promised my son to cook him Chicken Giblets long before we moved to Tasmania.  We visited Brisbane last week and he called his promise.  So, I thought I would share the recipe with you.

Sri Lankans do eat offal, personally, I have only eaten, liver, brains and giblets.  I am fond of chicken and calf liver and also giblets but am happy to leave brains for someone else !

Here is the recipe

Chicken Giblets

1kg chicken giblets, washed & cleaned
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/4 salt
 1 punnet of grape or cherry tomatoes cut in half- I use these because I like the taste, but any tomato will do
1 Red salad onion sliced - I cut them into circles
1-2 lemons - juice
Oil - similar to peanut

Once the giblets have been washed, add the tumeric and salt, cover and put in fridge at least for 1 hour.

Heat the oil and deep fry the giblets until they are practically crisp. I use peanut oil because it can get to a high temperature.  Fry small batches of giblets and drain on paper towel.

Once giblets are all fried, add all the other ingredients and mix well.

PS: last week I used vegetable oil because someone was allergic to peanuts. It takes a little longer to get to a high temperature but it worked.

I was able to get a picture of it just before the last of it vanished ! Here it is

Strange foods

In Sri Lanka a frequently used ingredient is Maldive fish.  It is basically cured Tuna. It is made in the Maldive Islands.  An island quite close to the island of Sri Lanka.

This is a form of a dried fish. Processed by boiling, smoking and then sun drying.  This enables it to be kept unrefrigerated indefinitely.

It looks like petrified wood. It tastes like fish.

And it is usually used by flaking a some off, or pounding a piece in a mortar and pestle so that it looks like splinters.

You would think it is hard to eat, but once broken like this it actually melts in your mouth.

It is a popular addition to sambols and various vegetable dishes.

Easy stressfree cooking

Some friends of ours visited us yesterday from Brisbane. It was lovely to see them. They decided to come fly here for a visit on the spur of the moment.  Which is what life is all about.

I cooked dinner last night for all of.  I cooked a Beef curry, a sliced cabbage dish with dried shrimps and pototes with chillie and onion.  I cooked the whole meal from start to finish in roughly 45 minutes. 

It is not a hard thing to do.  But my friend was amazed that I was not stressed.  I think a key to that is, that I have my pantry and larder all organised and I know that I can put my hand on whatever I need instantly. 

I also never follow recipes.  I put a little of this and a little of that and therefore, my dishes are always different, not by intent but thats the way I cook.

I find it hard therefore, to write recipes for the classes, and sit there very carefully measuring ingredients before I write a recipe.

But basically, it doesn't matter what a recipe says, if you think you need to add something else, add a little bit of soy sauce, or little bit of vinegar or whatever takes your fancy and you think the curry/dish needs you should go for it. If it doesn't work, you know not to do it again. But experimenting is important.


I teach some dishs that are quick and easy, and that the whole meal and come together in less than an hour. 

I would love to hear what you have done !

Cutting Chicken for curries

My grandmother like all Sri Lankans loved to feed people. She also needed to have an abundance of food on the table. I remember once when we were in the kitchen together she was talking about cutting chicken.  At that time, you could only buy whole chickens, now, in modern Sri Lanka you can go to a supermarket and buy various special pieces for example:  breast, Maryland etc.

The servant was new, and did not know my grandmother's ways and had cut the chicken for the curry that day into 'wrong' pieces. One would ask,  'how could you cut the chicken the wrong way'.  Well apparently there is a 'right' way. And I have never forgotten it.

The way my grandmother cut the chicken was: the  breast is cut down the middle and then each half cut into two pieces. The back is cut into 4 pieces, each thigh cut into two at the joints, and wings cut into two at the joints. The back pieces and the wings are not counted as portions and she used to say a whole chicken only had 8 pieces. So, you can imagine how many chickens were used for a family dinner !  It is cut this way so that the spices can readily penetrate the meat. The neck and also the giblets were included in the curry to give extra flavour.

I very rarely cook a whole chicken for a curry now, preferring to use the breast, or if my daughter was coming for a meal I would cook drumsticks because they are her favourite. But if I do cook a whole chicken, I still calculate that each chicken has only got eight pieces.... Some habits are hard to let go.

Milk Toffee

A favourite sweet in any Sri Lankan home is Milk Toffee.  It looks like fudge. But much harder and is basically pure sugar. But what a treat!  Why don't you try and it and see what you think.

1 can Condensed Milk
25 ml Water
350 g Sugar
2 Cardamom pods husk removed - you only need the seeds
1 tsp Vanilla extract

Dissolve the condensed milk and water over a low heat. Add the sugar and continue to stir constantly until the mixture starts to crystallise and leave the sides of the pan. Crush the seeds of the Cardamom. Add the vanilla extract and the cardamoms into the pan and mix well.

Spread the mixture onto a buttered laminton pan and even out the top.  You will need to do this quickly before it starts setting and gets too sticky to move around.  When it is cool to touch mark the square shapes so it will be easy to cut through. Once cool cut and separate and store in an air tight jar.  For a different touch you can add a handful of chopped nuts.  Sri Lankans usually add Cashews.  You will do this with the Cardamoms and Vanilla.

Let me know how you go.

Eat, eat, eat !

Sri Lankans love to entertain. I am not talking about a big bash with loud music I am talking about how they just love to feed people.  Let me try and explain.

If you ever visit a Sri Lankan home it is very likely that after the first few social niceties have been in exchanged like 'hi how are you' 'come in' 'lovely to see you'. I would almost guarantee that the next question that will be asked is 'have you eaten' ? It is probably a direct translation from Sinhalese but it is a question that you will be asked.

Even if you swear on your mother's life that you have just had the biggest meal and you would not be able to eat a morsel I am here to tell that you that you will fail in your attempt to stop them from putting some sort of food in front of you.  At best some 'short eats' - which is equivalent to finger food or at the other end of the scale a full blown meal will be presented in the least possible time. Because you cannot let a visitor leave your house hungry and without being fed !

If you get to the stage of a full blown meal, you will probably need to have at least a second helping.  Your plate will be piled with food with the hostess hovering over you adding more to it with the constant 'eat, eat, eat' !!!

You can give no more joy to a Sri Lankan however rich or poor if you sit down to a meal with them. They will cook you the best meal that they are able to, with whatever ingredients they have and will feel so honoured that you have given them a chance to do this.

My children have been brought up in  Australia and I brought them up to be like this. They follow this ritual and it brings joy to my heart to see that they have not lost their heritage. However, I remember as a single parent with not much money to spare and trying to make ends meet I  would sparingly buy groceries that was needed for the week, to ensure that the kids were well fed. I came home one night after work and the curry that I had cooked for the nights dinner was gone ! I couldn't understand what had happened.  I called both kids thinking that they had put it somewhere else. But my son said to me, 'amma, my friends were over and I gave them something to eat'.  I was horrified, that was our dinner ! I said 'why on earth did you do that son, now what are we going to eat'?  And he said, 'you have always told us to feed anyone that comes to the house, my friends needed to be fed' ! I had no recourse. He had learnt his lesson well and we had baked beans on toast that night !

My heart and Soul

Cooking has been the very breath of me since I was about 7 years old.  I remember as a little child standing on a stool next to my grandmother as she cooked in Sri Lanka. I had lived the first few years of my life in England and had just returned to Sri Lanka and  to bond with my maternal grandmother. She was a beautiful woman who also had a patience of a saint. She also cooked like no other I have ever come across. 

When I say she 'cooked' I mean that she put the ingredients together to make the dish.  Long before she graced the kitchen the servant would have ground the ingredients, sliced and diced the vegetables, onions, garlic and chillies. Yes ! I did say chillies. Some dishes could easily have had 20 chillies per dish!    And the coconut scraped ready for the milk to be made. The rice would be washed and ready with the correct amount of water and my grandmother would then be told that everything was ready for her to cook.

There were two kitchens in most houses.  One the servants used and one the lady of the house used.  The one the servants used was an open hearth and clay pots were used in this kitchen. In the other kitchen was a gas stove, where only Pyrex dishes were used and cakes were baked. 

Once summoned when the ingredients were ready she would then go into the kitchen, place the pot of rice on the open hearth. She would then take the prepared ingredients and put a pinch of that, a handful of this and prepare the dishes. She would then put them on the stove, and stir as she tasted, added other ingredients, and whilst she was doing this she would talk to me and explain to me what she was doing, and why she was doing something. How to stir, how to wait till the 'correct' time before you put the coconut milk into something and so on and so on.

At the time I had no idea that my love for cooking was starting to kindle. That I was absorbing all those little tit bits that she was sharing. To this date each and every time I cook I think of my grandmother. Remember little things that she told me. Sometimes, I would try to cook something that I had eaten as a child and I have no idea how I 'knew' how to cook it but I intrinsically knew how to do it. Was it words I had heard so long ago ? Or is it my grandmother whispering in my ear ?