Well, Christmas has come and gone yet again….hectic, relaxing, busy, overindulgent, exciting, lots of pressies, and overall gone in a flash! I was away in Melbourne for Christmas week, but didn’t have to do much cooking, just some nibbles to take to my brother’s (cashew & lentil balls, which we discovered are brilliant dipped in guacomole!).
Leading up to Christmas I went to a masquerade ball, then spent 4 days in the Margaret River wine region down South, eating lots, tasting wines and generally chilling out. Then NYE was HUGE – a “bling” themed party at a pub – and so was NY Day, with a trip to the Perth Cup annual horse race for frocking up and yet more champagne drinking, in a very relaxed atmosphere with friends. My feet are still sore from all of the dancing in high heels that I’ve done over the last few weeks!
Now we’re sort of back to normal, although a lot of people are still on holidays as are the school kids, so Summer holiday mode is definitely the thing of the hour. It is very hard to be motivated to go to work I can tell you.
With a maximum temperature of 39C today, food that is suitable for hot weather and not a lot of hot appliances is the go, and this throw together vegetarian fajita dish fits the bill perfectly. I just made this up and it worked really well!
This chicken mince dish, kind of Thai larb-ish, is adapted from a that’s life! reader recipes compilation, and I served it with tortillas and Greek yoghurt, to make it a fajita meal. Yum. The coconut milk gave the chicken a definite Thai flavour.
Soooooo quick, the whole thing was cooked and ready to serve in 20 minutes. Definitely one to rival Jamie with his very quick meals – including chopping time it was less than 30-minutes from start to finish. A weeknight winner, and especially good at this crazy time of year!
Thai Chicken Fajitas
2 tbsp olive oil
500 gms chicken mince
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped
165 mls low-fat coconut milk
¼ cup sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or wok. Add chicken, garlic, chilli, onion and lemongrass, and saute, stirring often to break up lumps, for about 5 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Serve with tortillas and Greek yoghurt (optional – add shredded lettuce as well).
Creating a healthy meal in a hurry does not have to be complicated. This salad incorporated what I had on hand at the time, as well as including beetroot and pear, two things that (according to practitioners of Chinese medicine) are very good for the skin. As I have had rosacea for years, I try anything and everything to give my skin a helping hand.
Steam 1 whole beetroot in the microwave (skin on or off, up to you). Trim roots and cut into wedges.
Place a heap of baby spinach leaves on your plate, and top with beetroot wedges, chopped pieces of ripe pear, chopped avocado, bits of cheese of your choice (I used torn bits of shaved Jarslberg as that’s what I had, but I also like feta or blue, or sauted cubes of yummy haloumi) and a sprinkling of walnuts.
For a dressing, just whisk together some extra-virgin olive oil, sherry vinegar (use balsamic if you can’t find sherry vinegar, which is expensive but lovely for this kind of thing) and a bit of dijon mustard – drizzle over the salad and tuck in!
I know, I know….there’s been a definite emphasis on Thai style curry flavours in my cooking, since Christmas. I have no idea why! Perhaps it’s the hot weather and the fact that Thai dishes are a lot lighter and fresher than the stodginess of say an Indian curry (much as I LOVE Indian curries!) or a casserole.
Whatever the reason, this recipe from the Tassal Tasmanian salmon producer’s website, is amazing! I adore Pad Thai, but the only one I’ve ever tried to make, a few years ago, was a vegetarian one and was majorly complicated. When I saw this salmon version I thought it looked too easy to be great tasting – not so. Easy yes (I made it after a day at work when tired, so that shows how uncomplicated it is), tasty yes yes yes!
I followed the recipe exactly, except I garnished with cashews instead of peanuts, as I just like them a lot better. And I was starting to make it when I realised I had completely overlooked the red capsicum when I wrote out my shopping list, and had none in the fridge – so just had to leave that out.
If you can please imagine flecks of red here and there, when looking at the photo, then you will have it about right….
I made the full serving, so as it definitely does make enough for 4 as stated in the recipe, I had it for lunch at work for the next couple of days – I could have reheated it, but I just ate it cold as a kind of noodle salad and it was delicious.
Bright, vibrant and fresh, this salad was made by my daughter on Christmas Day – it is in fact a recipe her friend made up. There aren’t proper quantities for the salad part – just toss it in until it looks good!
I’ve listed the dressing ingredients as it was made; however, I found this amount of sesame oil to be too overpowering. Next time I will only use a few drops.
AJs Salad
cucumbers (we used the small Lebanese ones – sliced thinly)
cherry tomatoes (chopped in half)
fresh coriander (chopped)
snow peas (blanched in microwave for 1 minute first)
sweet potato (we used 2 – peeled, diced, and roasted with olive oil for about 15-20 minutes – be careful they don’t burn)
pine nuts
Dressing
1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part sesame oil
1 part extra-virgin olive oil
pinch of sugar
sesame seeds, to taste
Mix all ingredients together, toss well and refrigerate until serving. Toss again just before serving.
Well it’s back to reality and work, here – am back in Perth (40C every day, loving it!) and Christmas is all over for another year. I got some great food-related presents for Christmas – you can never have too many gadgets!
5 of us girls went to see Les Miserables on Boxing Day. Not a dry eye in the house! Amazing movie and a great way to finish off the festive season. I have a friend coming over from the UK in a couple of weeks, and it hasn’t opened there yet, so I’ll be forced to go again to accompany her to see it….not hard!
I have had another go at the Caramello Slice, because I wasn’t happy with the stickiness. After reading reviews and different variations, I did it like this:
In a microwaveable bowl, place the condensed milk, chocolate (broken up) and butter. Cook on Medium until melted (for me this was 2 x 20 second bursts), stir until smooth then add the biscuits, crushed quite finely.
Mix until well blended then place in your usual slice container/tin. Sprinkle coconut over the top and refrigerate for several hours/overnight to set firmly. Cut into squares.
Makes 24 pieces.
I am still using a very old laptop while my Macbook Pro is at the doctor’s, and it is quite frustrating – I cannot find the photos of this peppermint slice anywhere!
I love dill – I know it’s a love-it or hate-it herb, and I’m definitely in the love-it camp. To me, it’s a strong flavour like caraway or fennel or cardamom or anise – all of which I love.
Here’s a simple side dish for when zucchini is in season…..this was inspired by The Intolerant Gourmet, Barbara Kafka’s latest book of gluten-free/lactose-free recipes, and is very lemony. I couldn’t get fresh dill – but of course use it if you can get it – it’s a hit and miss herb for me at my local shops.
I had a go at making these last week for a quick dinner after work. This was SO easy and I thought for sure it would be a winner, but for me the flavours didn’t quite work. I found it too greasy tasting, and mine did not come out as perfect looking – in fact they sunk when cooling down, into concave little cheesey blobs really. I had trouble getting them out of the tin, despite it being non-stick and oiled, and the taste just didn’t do anything for me. I ended up scraping it all into the bin and ordering a szechuan prawn Crust pizza instead!
I do think this is a great recipe for kids to make though, and I think little taste buds would enjoy the flavours more than I did.
The other night I made this very easy pork mince dish from taste.com – I don’t usually think of mince when I think of stir-fry, but this did turn out well and has a lovely mix of Thai flavours in it. Instead of serving with rice noodles, this would be good served in lettuce cups, as it pretty much is the same ingredients as a Thai larb dish.
The ingredients here are not anything super unusual, but the flavours come from using fresh foods. If you didn’t use fresh lemongrass, ginger, garlic and chilli, for sure this would taste quite uninteresting and bland.
Another serving idea, which would make this go a bit further if you had more people to feed, is to serve it as a kind of Thai fajitas – the noodles in a separate bowl, with warm tortillas, Greek yoghurt or sweet chilli sauce, and maybe a bowl of shredded lettuce.
Last week my mum recommended this recipe to me, from the One Pot Cooking book put out a couple of years ago by Super Food Ideas magazine. I LOVE this book! It is a compilation of no-fail, easy family recipes from one of my favourite food magazines. In fact, I could have sworn I had already shared the Chicken With Lemon & Olives recipe from it with you before (one of my all-time favourite recipes!), but I can’t find it anywhere here so I must not have. I will do that soon.
This is a perfect post-work-gee-I’m-too-tired-to-cook meal! And although I thought the chillies would have an impact, in fact I couldn’t taste anything “spicy” whatsoever.
Japanese Teriyaki Chicken
500 gms chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces
1/2 cup teriyaki marinade (the recipe says 1/4 cup but I felt that wasn’t enough)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 cups jasmine rice
2 long red chillies, deseeded and thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated
1 bunch baby pak choy, trimmed, washed & roughly chopped
shredded nori (seaweed) OR black sesame seeds, for garnish
Combine chicken and marinade in a glass or ceramic dish and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat oil in a large saucepan and brown the chicken then set aside.
Add rice, water and a further splash of teriyaki marinade, to the saucepan, and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat to low. Place the chicken and chillies on top of the rice and cook, covered, for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Stir in carrot and pak choy and cook for a further 2 minutes until pak choy has wilted.
Top with nori or sesame seeds to serve.
Serves 4.
The recipe suggests that you can make this a Malaysian style dish rather than Japanese, by using satay sauce instead of teriyaki marinade, and garnishing with coriander instead of nori. Sounds good to me!
Salmon & Avocado 