Curry to go

Friday night take out.

Nat got Chicken Masala (bottom). It was alright. I got a lamb in spinach gravy (bottom - forgot the name of it). It was alright. I realised I like my curry sweet, because this one was not!

Cookies and Vegetable Curry

Seriously. I ate so much dough and so many straight out of the oven (you know, "testing") I decided to eat a full dozen (or so) and make it a meal.

But I fed the kids something decent. This DELICIOUS vegetable curry. When I ate it earlier today for lunch I kept hoping that the next chunk would be chicken, even though I knew it wasn't. But it was good. My base sauce: a can of tomatoes, coconut cream, cashew milk (made by blending cashews in water. I don't know if other people do it, but I know that's how you make almond milk so I gave it a shot), regular milk. Then a ton of spices that I'll never be able to replicate, but it was good. Yummo! So glad there's leftovers!

Savoury mince and veges

I thought about just calling this "dinner" but I've learned from experience if I can't give something a definite name then it's not going to be good.

And this was good. Even though it's a bit-of-a-mess looking. I was focussing my energy somewhere else today.

Chicken Drumsticks

a la Jamie Oliver. Cooked with potatoes, tomatoes (meant to be cherry tomatoes), garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper and chili flakes/chopped chili. And there are meant to be basil leaves, I used dried basil. Really you shouldn't make that substitution unless you absolutely have to. So simple and so delicious!

We had some other veges as well but they were freezer veges and didn't look good on the plate, so didn't make it into the photo shoot.

Stir fried vegetables

I'm really not making anything that flash lately, am I?

Pork and Bok Choy 2

Nat made this delicious meal again tonight. I think I'll have to post the recipe next time because it's SOOO GOOD!

Meat and two veg 2

Somehow, when Nat cooks the steak it's "Beef Porterhouse Steak with....". But when I make it, it's just "Meat and two veg". I lack finesse I think.

I did manage to make delicious onions to go with it though: Onions in half rings, cooked with a splash of both Worcestershire sauce and white wine vinegar, and a little salt. Yum!

Pork and Bok Choy

Nat stir fried up this simple number tonight. I go nuts for it because it uses oyster sauce which is DELICIOUS. That's how people make delicious stir fry.

Nat's steak and mushrooms

Nat made delicious steak tonight with sauteed mushrooms and shallots, fresh/parbaked sour dour and rice as sides. We ate it like an open sandwich, topping the bread with the mushrooms/shallots, then the steak and then mustard. It was really good! Nat sure is good at cooking his steak, I'll tell ya. (With brocolli and carrots also not pictured)

Mushroom Risotto

Mushroom Risotto

3 Tbsp oil

50g butter

2 small onions

3 cloves garlic

8 large button mushrooms (250g ish maybe?)

5 slices of shaved ham

3 rice cups of rice (how much is a rice cup? Much smaller than a standard/metric cup)

6 standard cups of water

4 tsp chicken stock/4 stock cubes (dissolved in the water)

Put oil and butter in the pan and melt the butter. Add chopped onions, crushed/chopped garlic, chopped mushrooms and diced shaved ham and saute until they're all looking yummy (10 minutes maybe?) Add the rice to the pan and "brown" it a little bit. Add more butter if you need to. Make sure the rice gets nicely coated. Add 2 cups of water. Cook on high for 5 minutes or until the water is about 3/4 absorbed/cooked off. Add the rest of the water with the stock. Cook until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

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This was pretty nice but you may want to consider making some changes to adjust to taste. My suggestions:

-Add peas. Lots of them. 1-2 cups of peas.

-Scrap the ham. Or use less. It affected the flavour a bit too much.

-Use less stock, maybe half the amount, and add a bit of salt instead.

I also don't know if this is the correct way to cook "risotto". But it works for me.

Stir fry with prawns 3

The prawns were extremely sparse tonight and I added strips of cooked scrambled eggs. I've got the flavour right though, so we're on the right track.

Beef porterhouse steak with creamy mushroom sauce 2

Nat made this tonight so I'm not sure the recipe he used but it was GOOD. I heart creamy mushroom sauce. (Peas and corn included in our dinner too, not pictured)

Tomato and Cheese "Risotto"

My sister Erika's recipe. More or less. Over Christmas she made this for the big family gathering. My nephew said "Dad, when I throw up, it looks like this". But he still ate it and liked it (I think...?).

Tomato and Cheese "Risotto"

Oil

2 slices middle bacon (I actually use shaved ham. WAY cheaper!)

1 onion, chopped

50g butter

2 1/2 cups rice

1 400g (ish) can tomatoes

4 cups water

salt

pepper

chilli powder

1 cup (or more) grated cheese (like Edam)

Cook onion and bacon/ham in oil. Add butter. When melted add rice and stir while cooking for a few minutes. Add tomatoes, water and seasonings and cook, stirring occasionally until rice is tender. Stir in cheese until melted.

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Did I leave anything out Erika? Is that even right? That's what I did the other night when I made it anyway. Is that what you do?

Also, it's named "Risotto" because I'm sure that it's not cooked right to be a risotto, but that's what I call it.

Pork Chops

Camera = found. It's embarrassing where it was.

We used to eat pork chops all the time. It was the first meal Nat cooked for me. We haven't had it for AGES because Nat advises me it got real expensive there for a while there. So tonight's dinner was a real treat.

Pork chops with crackling, rice and roast tomatoes.

Chicken Nibbles

A recipe we pulled from my in-laws book. I'm not sure where it originates.

Honey Chicken Nibbles

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 Tbsp honey

3 Tbsp malt vinegar

3 Tbsp ketchup

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 onion finely chopped

Salt and pepper

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Chicken nibbles

Combine all the ingredients to make the sauce and marinate the chicken nibbles for a while. Cook at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 minutes, then turn and baste. Cook for another 10-30 minutes. If you need it fast(er) up the temperature to 230(ish) and take the early time, or else leave at 180 for the full 30 minutes (or any variant in between).

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The sauce (that's not on the chicken nibbles) reduces down to something really tarry, not good to spoon on the plate. Make things easier for yourself, get that roasting pan soaking as soon as you can, the tar softens right down (and eventually completely dissolves) in water!

New York Angus Porterhouse Steak

Perfectly cooked steak, sauteed mushroom and shallot on top (my favourite part. DELISH), oven roasted cherry tomatoes and rice. Perrrr-fect!

Tuna Curry

Today was another day where I look in my cupboards and make what I see. (In my mind) Tin of tuna + coconut cream + rice = Tuna Curry. Despite how it sounds it was not the most disgusting thing ever.

After looking through a few recipes I found that most had chopped tomato (check) and chopped capsicum (no check). And they all varied in methods of cooking. Here's what I did.

Tuna Curry

Put your rice on to cook. Oil in pan/wok. Add chopped onions, crushed garlic and tuna. Add salt, pepper, a couple tablespoons of curry powder, a teaspoon of ground coriander and a couple teaspoons of ground ginger (I'm sure chopped fresh ginger root would be better if you've got it). Give it a stir and cook for a couple minutes. Add chopped tomatoes. Add a can of coconut cream and simmer for a bit (maybe 20 minutes) while your rice finishes cooking. Serve with sour cream or yoghurt if you like (the kids will eat almost anything if it comes with a side of sour cream!). Voila!

Note: You don't necessarily have to add any chili to this curry because there is chili in curry powder. Since I added quite a lot of curry powder and left it to simmer for quite a while (chili gets hotter the longer it's heated) mine had a nice little bit if curry bite.

I thought this was pretty tasty, Theo loved it (ate every last grain of rice) and Sadie enjoyed the first half of her dinner and then only wanted plain rice. So I don't know if it's a repeat recipe but it was good for the evening.

Chicken legs

Tonight we had chicken drumsticks with potato, tomato and basil. You're meant to add garlic as well but we're out. Served with rice and salad. It's easy as. Ours was a bit overcooked, so hopefully yours wouldn't turn out as dark (read: charred).

I know you don't need potato and rice in the same meal, but our family (stemming from my husbands side) seems to need it that way.

Chicken legs with potato, tomato and basil

6-8 large chicken legs

olive oil

salt and pepper

a handful of basil

2 big handfuls of cherry tomatoes, halved/4-6 large tomatoes quartered

6 garlic cloves (we use a whole bulb)

chili finely chopped

3-4 large potatoes, chopped

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Season chicken with salt and pepper and put in a large roasting pan. Add chopped potatoes and cherry tomatoes (or chopped large ones like ours) whole peeled garlic cloves, chopped chili to a large roasting pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Mix around a bit with your hand. Cook for 1 1/2 hours, turning potatoes and tomatoes and adding basil leaves at halfway.

Barbecued Scotch Fillet

Getting back in to the swing of things I forgot to take a photo today. Nat has told me numerous times that no one wants to look at a food blog that doesn't have pictures so I've decided that from now on I'll only post when I get my photo. So I must remember!

The last picture-less post:

Nat barbecued beef scotch fillets (cooked in garlic and butter) and kumara chips for us, which we ate with rice, peas and corn. Whenever we have steak we give the kids sausages, that's one way that we afford it. They don't seem to mind too much.

Stir fry with prawns 2

Happy New Year!

A quick and easy meal tonight. It was a bit less flavourful than last time, less seasoning, but that made it more palatable to the kids.