Old Family Favourites

On Sunday I used up the last of my Nice'n'Spicy Nasi Goreng spice mixes. You may recall the Denningvleis from July last year. I made the Nasi Goreng following the recipe on the pack. I used pork with carrots, celery, capsicum, the last of the broccoli from the garden and some beans. And I served it with my sister's peanut sauce recipe - a great favourite in our house.
Saute chopped onion, crushed garlic & chopped ginger until soft. (She doesn't say how much - I just used half an onion, 1 clove garlic & a knob of ginger). Add 1/2 tsp chilli powder & 2 tsp curry powder & cook one minute.
Add 1/2 cup vinegar
1/3 cup sugar/ 1 tsp salt
2 tbsp peanut butter
1/3 c fruit chutney (we always use Tamarillo)
2/3 cup water (add more if too thick)
Bring to the boil & simmer until it thickens.
This sauce is lovely with spicy chicken on skewers and other Indonesian style dishes. Also very popular with children if you don't make it too spicy.
Apparently Phoebe's friends are very impressed with soup Monday as she reports on Tuesday the previous evening's delights. Monday is now her favourite day of the week because it includes both maths & soup - apparently a winning combination. Have any of you taken up the soup Monday concept, or even soup Tuesday? I recommend it. We've explored some great soups.
This week we went back to an old favourite, Pasta & Bean soup. I needed to use up some orzo I had bought a while back for something in particular & couldn't for the life of me recall what it was. I wanted to see the back of it & this soup seemed the ideal vehicle.
Heat a little olive oil in a large pot & soften a finely sliced onion & a finely chopped clove of garlic. Stir in a sprinkling of chilli flakes to taste with 2 bay leaves & 1/4 tsp dried thyme. Dried herbs are often good in a soup. Cook for a minute.
Add a can of crushed tomatoes, a can of kidney beans & one of mixed beans with 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock and bring to boil. Add 1 cup pasta. I usually use macaroni, but in this instance I used a mix of macaroni & orzo. You could use spirals or any short pasta you have in the cupboard. Boil gently until the pasta is cooked then season.
Serve topped with chopped parsley or try pesto & some grated or shaved Parmesan. This is something you can whip up in 20 minutes just from your store cupboard. Always a favourite with all our children.

Leeks and Peas

Leeks are good just now so for Soup Monday we had this variation on leek & potato soup. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil & a knob of butter in a large saucepan & add 2 leeks, finely sliced; 500g floury (I usually use Agria) potatoes cut up small; 2 cloves garlic, crushed & some chopped thyme. Heat gently until the leeks are very soft but not browned. Patience is required. Then add 5 cups of chicken or vegetable stock and 1 cup milk. Season & bring to the boil, then simmer 30 minutes. Don't worry that it looks a bit curdly - you're going to blend the curdle out of it. Add 3 cups frozen peas & cook another 5 minutes. Blend until smooth. Drizzle with a little cream to serve. What a colour! You'll notice this makes quite a bit, so freeze the leftovers. It's always good to have soup in the freezer in the weather.

On Tuesday I had to bin the chicken I had planned & this is why you should always have pasta & pesto at the ready. Boil egg pasta ribbons according to the instructions on the packet. Gently warm a large pan & when the pasta is done use a slotted spoon or tongs to lift the pasta from it's saucepan into the clean one. Stir through a tbsp per person of creme fraiche, the same of pesto. Season and add a knob of butter. Grate over some Parmesan. Serve with a green salad that you've prepared beforehand because once you start cooking the pasta you are less than 6 minutes from the table. If you've got pasta in your cupboard you've always got a meal.

On Thursday we had pea & prawn risotto. This combination is beautiful. Just make a regular risotto base (see May 09). You could substitute fennel for the leek and use Pernod instead of wine. Remember to be patient when softening the leek. You don't want crunchy leek. When the risotto is done, stir through 1/2 cup frozen peas & 1/2 cup frozen cooked prawns with the juice of 1/2 a lemon. You could use raw prawns and just cook them through in the pan. Cook a little more until the peas & prawns are ready then season, drop in a knob of butter, cover & leave with the heat off for a few minutes to rest. Serve with Parmesan.

The next night, if you've got some left over, make risotto cakes. I recently learned a clever trick to make these. Butter some ramekins & put a circle of baking paper in the bottom. Lightly beat 2 or 3 eggs & mix with the risotto & some Parmesan. Tip the mixture into the ramekins & bake in a moderate oven about 15 minutes until the egg is set. This is much better than trying to fry them as I have done in the past. They turn out really well. You could make it in one large shallow dish & cut into wedges like a cake.

Chinese greens

Along with the new job we have got into a new routine in the kitchen. Now that we're walking both ways, there is less time to spend on dinner during the week & I need to accommodate study. Wednesdays & Saturdays, when Phoebe works, we try to do something with fish or something else she's not so keen on.

On Saturday night we had something I've been meaning to try again for ages. I saw something on a tv programme but being unable to remember what it was & never writing it down, it was probably nothing like the meal I am about to describe. The key ingredient is a Chinese green - the leafy one with thin stalks & yellow flowers - Choy Sum.

Finely chop the stalks from a bunch of choy sum & soften in a pan in a little peanut oil, with some grated ginger (the grating plate is good for this), sliced spring onion, garlic & a little celery if you like it. Add sliced mushrooms & cook down a little. Then add a splash of soy sauce & stir through the choy sum. Add some baby spinach leaves if you have some to use up. Serve with pork cooked your favourite way and rice or noodles. A chop is good. In this instance, we had pork fillets which had been marinated in a mixture of vegetable oil, soy sauce & honey in a roasting dish. (For 2 servings use about 2 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp soy, 1/2 tbsp honey) We roasted the pork at 180 about 15 mins, turning once, then rested about 10 minutes. I am not a huge fan of Chinese flavours or Chinese greens but I just love this.

We didn't eat it all, so for Sunday lunch fried up the left over rice, veg & meat with some shredded carrot, pumpkin from an earlier meal, some ham that needed to be eaten & a plain omlette sliced on top. This was delicious.

On Sunday we had a busy afternoon in the kitchen. Phoebe baked cup cakes for an SPCA fundraiser & I made tomato sauce (ketchup type).