The Untidy Cook

Pork & Sweet Potato red curry

This is derived from a Madhur Jaffrey recipe - Prawn/Shrimp curry from 'A Taste of the Far East - which I've modified a bit to reduce the fat a bit and make use of what I had in the fridge.

Red curry paste:

1 peeled clove garlic

1 tsp cumin & 1 tsp coriander seeds - toasted in a pan and finely ground

3 dried chillies soaked in 3 tbsp boiling water

3 fresh red chillies cut into three, I included seeds

1 shallot (that's eschalot to you Aussies)

quarter of a white onion

2 tsps curry powder

1 tsp smoked paprika

good squeeze of lemon grass from a tube

- put this lot into a blender, including the water from soaking the dried chillies, and liquidise until turned into a runny paste.

- in the meantime, put some light olive oil in a deep pan that's moderately hot and fry the rest of the finely sliced white onion until its almost all caramelised, browned and a bit crispy.  Then add the curry paste, cook it for 5 to 10 minutes until the liquid evaporates and it browns up.  

1 pork tenderloin, cut into 1/2" slices

1 sweet potato, peeled & cut into 1'' chunks

1 400ml can lower fat Coconut Cream

2 tsps tamarind paste

5 kaffir lime leaves

- Add pork and sweet potato to the paste mix and cook for about 5 minutes. 

- Then stir in the Coconut Cream, about a 1/3 of the can of water plus the tamarind paste and the kaffir lime leaves.  Give it a good stir, set the heat to a gentle boil and leave for about an hour.

Served with greek yoghurt and some brown bread, because I was too idle to cook any rice.  This was nicely spicy and very good indeed.  It made enough for two suppers for two people.

 

Bulgur wheat salad with haloumi

Some haloumi from the late 1900's has been muttering squeakily about how its 'best by' date was impending so it made the ultimate sacrifice for our supper.

I put 2/3 cup of bulgur wheat into a bowl with twice the volume of boiling water and left it to steam for 15 minutes.  

Toasted 1tsp each of cumin, coriander and nigella seeds, then ground them finely and put this into a mixing bowl along with two small chopped, seeded red chillis.  The honey and walnut oil mix I did yesterday was so good I thought I'd use it again, especially as I have a fresh tin of the nut oil that needs to be eaten before it goes stale. Expect lots of walnut oil as it gets used up.  I dipped a fork into some groovy hippy raw honey, that we picked up in Mullumbimby on our recent road trip up there, and stirred it into the spice mix along with about a desertspoon full of the nut oil.   It felt like it needed something to lift the flavour so I added 6 finely chopped dried apricots and 2 tbps of raw cashews, toasted.

Once the wheat was cooked, it went into the spice/nut/ fruit mix and sat quietly until the rest was ready.  

The haloumi was sliced into 4, rubbed with a smidge of oil and then fried in the frying pan at a high-ish heat until it was golden brown.  

At the last minute I decided to use up a very ancient avocado, which I chopped up (missing out the brown bits) and stirred into the wheat mix.  

To serve: heap wheat onto plate; add some salad stuff like chopped cucumber and maybe some herbs, and a gob of greek yoghurt along with the haloumi.  

I was concerned that the wheat would be boring, but it was nutty and rather good.  Next time, I would measure 1/4 cup of wheat each rather than 1/3, it was slightly too much.

Good combination of flavours, spice, sweet and sour.  Yum.

 

Beetroot, goats cheese & quinoa supper

We're on a mission to sharpen up our diet, eat more fruit & veg and generally drop the fat, so suppers are now on my list to make interesting but healthier.

Wrap 4 mid sized raw beetroot, with a bit of the tops and the whole tail still on, in foil with a splash of balsamic or flavoured vinegar and a peeled, bashed garlic clove. I used some spiced beetroot vinegar from Nicolsons www.nicholsonfinefoods.com.au. Cook in the oven at 180c for about 3/4 hour until they are cooked through.

I decided, after many years of mickey-taking of it, to actually cook some quinoa (or should that be keeen-waaaah?).  I used 1/4 cup of quinoa with 1/2 cup of water, brought to the boil and then left at a low, covered simmer for 15 mins.  I turned it off at that point and left it covered until I needed it.

Heat a frying pan and cook a teaspoon of mustard seeds until they pop. Put in a bowl in which you've stirred together 1 tspn honey, a dessertspoon of walnut oil and a splash of the flavoured vinegar. When the beetroot are cooked through, cut off the top n tails, scrape off the skin and cut into small chunks. Put into the dressing bowl along with the cooked quinoa and beetroot.  Give it a jolly good stir.

Serve:  torn up lettuce leaves on plate, scatter beetroot mix over.  Crumble some baked, wholewheat pitta chips over to add some crunch.  Stir together a generous tsp of sour cream and tablespoon of greek yogurt together well, and dot over the salad.  Crumble some goats cheese over the top.

I added some chopped nectarine to mine.  

Next time, rather than quartering the beetroot I will chop into bit sized chunks.  I'd toyed with the idea of added a seared pork cutlet but I think this would have been overkill.

The Loved One declared it to be very good.  The quinoa was the suprise of the piece.  It was nutty and nice, despite sounding immensely pretentious.

A supper of sossidge and beans

Well, it's amazing what you turn out when you're just not concentrating.

Home after a day at the, admittedly rather lovely, salt mines of work.  The Loved One is white with hunger having dined lightly upon crisps and coffee all day.  The poor little mite needs some proper feeding to regain his good humour.

A quick root around the freezer unearthed some of those lovely sage and apple sausages that I'd squirrelled away in an earlier moment of planning clarity.  I did a bit of a quick defrost and stuck them in the oven along with a quartered onion. I love it when the onion goes all soft with caramelly bits around the edges. The Loved One, not so fond.

Which leaves the thorny question of the carbohydrate component.  Ah ha!  It must be about time for beans again.  I did get a bit hooked on them last year and got some complaints from the feed'ee about unwarranted repetion in the staples department.  He must have gotten over this by now.  So, I drained a tin of chickpeas and slung them in a saucepan.  Added a tin of chopped tomatoes, a teaspoon of good old curry powder and a big teaspoon of soft brown sugar and left that lot to bloop away for about 20 mins.  When I came back to it, it still looked a bit thin.  In went a good squeeze of tomato puree, a glug of maple syrup and another tin of drained and rinsed cannelli (cannellini?) beans.  And so, some more glooping away until the sausages were nice and browned.  I turned them halfway through so they were consistently cooked.

The beans were declared the best version of beans ever.

So, there you go.  Just don't try hard.  Be lax.  You get great results.

Breakfast in town

Monday morning in the city. Cool cafe. Sitting waiting for a large flat white. Nabbed the paper the catch up things (government are shonky, pedestrians taking over the streets, long is the new short) . And all's well with the world.

Rhubarb & Ginger Streusel

Sunday, which makes it time to cook. 

I feel like some cake.  Picked up the Womans Weekly 'Cook' book, which is excellent, and it fell open at this one.  I'd used it in the past, as you can tell by the quantity adjustment, and must have doubled it to fit into the chosen pan.   I'd bought a tub of some Yalla - http://yalla.com.au/ - rhubarb & ginger compote and not finished it yet, so it was languishing in the fridge looking for a new purpose and direction in life.

 
  
Working to the doubled recipe, I followed the directions.  Well, sort of.

• swapped plain flour for wholemeal in both the base & the top  (when I realised that I'd run out of white)
• used a sort of brown granulated sugar (when I realised that I'd run out of caster)
• made the topping in the style of crumble instead of the chilling/grating approach in the recipe
• just used plain flour inthe crumble topping, no self raising
• substituted their fruity middle bit for the 2/3 tub of Yalla rhubarb mix

Beat 200g butter, 1 cup sugar and 2 egg yolks together in the trusty KitchenAid until pale, creamy and well mixed.  Next time I will sling in some vanilla at this point too.

Sieved 1.5 cups plain/wholemeal and half a cup self raising flour together along with 2 tbspns custard powder (! how brilliant is that, it's got custard powder in the base. I bet this bit would be quite nice on its own. Perhaps do the original quantity).

Mixed gently together and then pressed into base of greased/floured pan.  No baking paper, as I'd run out of patience in the supermarket and had to leave without finishing my shopping list when I kept bumping trolleys repeatedly with a tracksuit attired neanderthal.  My fault, entirely, I believe.

The pan is a super heavy Anolon one.  It conducts heat brilliantly and gets hotter than the face of the sun as I keep finding out whenever I use too thin a teatowel when I try and hitch it out of the oven.   It won't get me this time.  I'm wise to it now. 

Bake for 20 mins at 180c and then take out of oven to cool for 15 mins. 

 

Make streusel topping now.  I blended the 1.5 cups of flour and 160g butter together first, then threw in the 2/3 cup of soft brown sugar.  I also added a couple of teaspoons of ground ginger and mixed spice to give it a nice warm depth to the flavour.  It turned all lovely and sandy looking.  Perhaps the wholemeal flour had something to do with that.

After 15 mins cooling, I spread the rhubarb mix onto the base and covered it evenly with the crumbly topping.

 

Sprinkled with some caster sugar and then put back into the oven for a further 15 mins.  Having re-read the recipe it says to put the heat up for this stage.  I didn't.

So pretty!  After 15 mins it didn't look quite finished enough so I put it back for a further 5 mins.

It looked fabulous.  I thought that it tasted a bit funny, maybe to do with the powerful extra dredging of mixed spice that the topping got.  The Loved One thought that it was nice but a bit on the crumbly side.  I can see that making the streusel topping the proper way would product a more dense and edibly manageable aspect to it.   Maybe you could just combine the crumble topping a bit more until it starts to clump together into lumps.

  

Amazing repeating beans

This week the focus has been on fibre, lots of lovely fibre. As it is very good for us. To satisfy this urge, I've been cooking beans.

Monday - whilst he ate the remains of the beef rendang (very good second time around) I had beans on toast. That's the mix you can see in the pan - drained tin of canelli beans, tin of pulped tomatoes, cube of palm sugar, slug of balsamic, heaped 2 tsps of curry powder. Left to bloop away until well mixed.

 
Tuesday - the remains of yesterdays beans extended w a drained tin of chickpeas and all cooked together. With sliced chicken boob, marinaded for 5 mins in dsrtspn soft brown sugar, glug of thick soy, rice wine vinegar and rice wine. Then grilled with marinade until sliced cooked and a bit caramelised.

Wednesday - a drained, rinsed tin of chickpeas heated with the remains of yesterdays beans. This time emerging with pork & apple sausages, roasted onions, salad and a spoon of bang bang sauce.  Rather a great combination this one.

Thursday - scraping the barrel for inspiration now; we ended up with jacket potatoes with an assortment of left left-overs.  Beany stew, some parmesan, bang bang sauce, lettuce and the remaining sausage thinly sliced.  This beany stew just keeps getting better the more it morphs between meals.

Friday - for a change, no beans!  We elected to have a grown up supper out at a place we'be been meaning to try for a while - http://www.steelbarandgrill.com/.   As a precursor to a trip to the theatre we were able to have a calm meal that meant we neither rushed nor lingered.   It was pleasingly unfussy,with an absolutely delightful waitress and a great way to end a week of beany austerity. 

Now then, all toghether ..."Baked Beans are good for your Heart! The more you Eat, the more you ..?!"

Sunday night - Beef Rendang accompaniments

In addition to rice I added bowls of other bits for the diners to use to customise their own Rendang.

Reminds me of the curries my mother used to make way back in the 70's.  I hated the funny curry muck but loved the little bowls of sliced banana, sultanas and dessicated coconut.  So profoundly exotic.

Pickled cucumber:

• Cucumber - finely sliced
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• dspn palm sugar - grated
• chopped fresh mint
• salt to taste

Mix vinegar, sugar and salt to taste in bowl.  Add thinly sliced cucumber and chopped mint.

Put in fridge to chill.  This was unexpectedly good.

Crispy fried shallot shreds:

Finely slice a stack of shallots (sometimes known as Eshallots) and fry in tbspn hot oil until brown and crispy.  Drain on paper towel before serving.

Thick yoghurt:

As, somehow, the Beef Rendang had turned out hotter than hades I added a bowl of thick greek yoghurt to help slake the heat.

Toasted grated coconut:

Does this one really need explaining?  Um, toast shredded coconut in a dry frying pan until brown but not burnt. 

Quartered hard boiled eggs:

'Nuff said.

Sunday night Beef Rendang

I had a couple of big slices of rump steak sitting in the freezer from some abandoned barbie in the summer.  It was about time they were pressed into action and I'd been yearning to cook a Beef Rendang so the stars seemed to be alignment to cook.

A bit of research revealed all manner of recipes, ranging from those using a packet mix to ones involving all manner of spice grinding.  I opted for one of the quintillion that I found on the internet.

Curry paste mix

• 150g shallots
• 3cm knob of peeled, sliced ginger
• 5 peeled garlic cloves
• 6 dried chillies, soaked in hot water (deseeded if you're not fancying some heat)
• tsp toasted coriander seeds - ground
• tsp toasted cumin seeds - ground
• 1 lemon grass stick - finely chopped

All this goes into the blender, with good measure of the chilli soaking water, and is whizzed to a nice smooth paste.

1/3 cup of vegetable oil goes into a hot pan - I used an open, oval metal dish - and the curry paste added.  The original recipe asked for sliced turmeric and kaffir lime leaves.  Having neither of these I pared the rind from a lime, using a neat little zester which makes nice long fine stripes, and added this to the paste as it was cooking.  Cook and stir the paste until it is fragrant and has taken on some colour. 

• 1kg rump steak
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 can coconut cream
• 1 cup freshly toasted shredded coconut

Trim and cut the steak into 1 inch cubes.  You want nice chunky ones, these will cook in the sauce as it reduces and clings to them.   Add the cubes to the paste and stir to coat. Sprinkle the curry powder onto the meat, stir to combine and leave to cook a little.

I let these cook a little into the paste, then stirred in the coconut cream and some water that I used to swill out the remains from the can.

In a separate dry pan I toasted the coconut and then ground it in my (lovely new) spice grinder.  It didn't go super powdery but maybe I didn't grind it for long enough.  The ground coconut went into the mix and it was stirred well.

 

The oven had gone on earlier, at about 150c, and the pan went in for a long slow cook. The aim is to render the sauce thick and gloopy.

The beef went in at 3:30pm and cooked at 150c for about an hour, I then dropped the heat to about 60c and continued to cook it until 7pm.  I couldn't help but to prod and poke it periodically.  At the 5:00pm mark I thought it seemed to be tasting bitter, so I put in two chunks of palm sugar.  I'd found a handy package with pre-formed rectangles of sugar so I just buried the cubes under the surface of the sauce and left it to it.  At 6:00pm I thought it was getting too dry so I slung in about half a cup of water.

7pm came round as did our supper guests, unfortunately I'd got so wrapped up in the beef I'd forgotten to put the rice on.  It was around half seven by the time we sat down to dinner.

By this point the Rendang had settled into its stride and was warming and flavourful.  Complemented by a range of accompaniments, see separate entry for these, it was very good indeed. 
 

Pork and apple casserole

Despite the lovely sunny day it's still pretty chilly out there.  This calls for a warming Saturday supper and I'd furnished myself with a fillet of pork (or is it a tenderloin).

This is just for the two of us so it doesn't need to be huge.  Cut the fillet into thick slices, seasoned with black pepper and ground cumin, and sealed them in butter in the casserole dish over a hot flame. 

I like to get a bit of browny crust on them and make some nice bits to scrape up, so I don't crowd them into the pan for this bit.  Once they're nicely sealed and sitting on plate, add a nugget more butter and throw in 6 peeled and lightly bashed garlic cloves along with a cored, chunkily chopped apple. 

  

Stir these around until they take up the remains of the butter and they start to catch a little. 

 

Add a good slug of cider vinegar and scrape up the crunchy brown bits from the bottom of the pan then leave to boil vigorously for a short while. 

Then put the pork back into the pan along with any accumulated juices and finish by putting in a bottle of cider - the drier the better.

Bring back to the boil and then put into the oven, 180c for about half an hour, with the lid off. 

It was nearer 3/4 of an hour by the time I got back to the oven and the juice had cooked away to about half its original volume.  It was still pretty runny though.  I stirred in a generous tablespoon of sour cream, but that didn't make it much thicker and it went a bit blobby.  So I hitched the meat out and attacked the sauce with my stick blender.  That worked a treat and the sauce was rendered into a lovely thick consistency.  The joy of the stick blender is that it turns the apple pieces with their skins and the garlic cloves into a nice smooth sauce with the absolute minimum of effort. 

Served it with butter lettuce and a petite buttered baguette.  The sauce was plate lickingly good.