When it comes to curries I have always preferred Japanese curry but lately Indian curry has sort of grown on me (and I know I just saw Liz cringe). Even stanger is that it is vegetarian curry that I have become obsessed with and I really wanted garlic naan bread. So I just had to make this recipe. It was very easy to make once you've made the sauce. Just cook the vegies (I used potato, mushroom, zucchini and eggplant) and then add the sauce and simmer. But the sauce did not taste as good as the one I had from the Indian takeaway. And I don't think there was enough of it for the amount of vegies I had. Also the garlic naan was definitely not the best I've ever had.
My other complaint with this recipe is that it requires like a hundred ingredients to make the base sauce (so I omitted a few). Next time I'm just going to buy the stuff in the jar.
Just another one of the things that will be sitting in my fridge for the next few days. Maybe I'll look for some better naan bread though, since this one did not have enough garlic at all!
I actually made this on Monday but I never got around to writing all about it. Last week when we went out for lunch some people ordered seafood chowder. I've never had chowder before so I was interested in trying this recipe to see what the difference between sweetcorn soup and chowder actually was. Apparently, not much except chowder is probably thicker. I really have to learn to half the garlic quantities because there was way too much garlic and salt in this so I had to use a lot of bread to help me get through this. And it's weird but bread didn't actually help. In the end I just got so sick of it I ended up getting rid of the last bowl.
Last week I ate a lot of leftovers. I had leftover Chinese from work which I finally finished on Thursday and I made an eggplant stirfry, half of which is still sitting in my fridge. And I probably should have stopped there but I like variety with my rice so I then bought a Thai stirfry because I'd been craving something spicy. And then I had to make something extra today for dinner as well. I can already imagine the things my mum would say about cooking food when there is already food sitting there in the fridge.
With our economy in crisis I'm sure everyone has thought about how it will affect them and what poverty even means.
It is Blog Action Day today. A chance to spread the message about poverty. I know I'm not the best person to be discussing this since today for lunch I had duck breast with sweet potato frittata and brioche bread and butter pudding with coconut gelato for lunch. Did you know that extreme poverty is defined by living on less than $1 a day? I can't imagine $1 buying enough food to feed one person for a day let alone all the things I seem to require in order to live. And moderate poverty is defined by living on $2 a day. It is hard to imagine that the difference between the two is only $1.
During times of famine it is basic foods such as corn, potato and rice that are essential for survival. My dad used to say he thought eating rice with tea or soy sauce was a luxury. I don't think I ever really believed him.
I calculated the cost of this meal I just had excluding the cost of the bowl, cooking utensils, water or gas that was required for cooking. Pack of soba noodles ($3.20/6 = $0.53), soy sauce (14/700*$2.70 = $0.05), sugar ($0.01), chicken broth ($2.50/6 = $0.42). In total that's $1.01 for two tiny bowls of soba with no meat or vegetables, just the bare minimum. To think that one dollar could bring someone out of extreme poverty is very heartbreaking. Especially when I couldn't feed myself on $1 for dinner (unless I ate a pack of instant noodles).
The United Nations estimates that 854 million people are hungry every day. There are currently more than 6.6 billion people in the world. That means for every 8 to 9 people, 1 person goes hungry. Maybe the problem is too big for one person. Instead why not find 6 friends to help you go out there and make a difference to one person's life. The cost of sponsoring a child so that they can recieve a tertiary education is $2000 a year. Which is $0.80/day if you happen to have 6 friends. That is most likely to be the amount sitting in the bottom of a handbag you never use or the amount hiding between the couch cushions. I am not preaching because I have no moral high ground to stand on. I just feel it's a problem too small for one person and to say you're going to donate $20 is not a long term solution.
In this time of economic crisis many of us are going to start adopting a much more frugal way of life. We will probably not rush out to buy a Chanel handbag or a huge plasma TV screen. But how many of us are worried about what will happen when we have no money for food? I can imagine not owning material objects, but I have never considered the possibility of not having any food. The hunger problem is not just about not having enough money for food. With the erratic global climate the possibility that we will run out of food is also likely. But that's another problem for another day.
I know I've had a lot of steak this week. It just happpened that I found one steak recipe after the other so I decided to try them all. This is another Portuguese recipe from the Piri Piri Starfish cookbook. A lot of Tessa Kiros recipes include just cracking an egg on top. Such as egg on risotto or the egg with pan-fried potatos I made a few months. The egg is an amazing ingredient.
After I finished cooking I realised my camera battery was dying so I only had enough time to take this photo. It will have to do. I need to buy another pan. It was very difficult to co-ordinate the cooking of the egg, steak and chips with just one wok.
From photos, it looks like Bitoque is usually also served with salad. But I've always thought salads were a little overrated. I chose this recipe because it is served with piri piri sauce which is the same thing as Nando's peri peri sauce, piri piri chilli and spices in oil. It tastes as good as it sounds, especially when you're dipping your chips in it. This is a very simple recipe, but it is all in the sauce! I loved it, and my egg turned out just the way I like it (slightly runny).
Woohoo! Air-con is finally fixed and the temperature has dropped a bit. Just my luck. Overall I haven't had much luck today. I realised that today was my early start and I was supposed to be at work by 7:30, get to work and my computer malfunctions, still none of the tea bags I like, and I had to go through 2 cans of coke because there was no tea. Maybe all of those things aren't luck related.
This pasta wasn't that great. I think I have lost my taste for pasta recently. I feel like every pasta I've ever eaten has always been just okay. Acceptable. But I can't pinpoint a pasta dish I've absolutely loved except for the lasagna from the pasta factory. And I haven't eaten it in so long, I'm afraid even that probably doesn't taste nice anymore. This pasta dish doesn't taste any different from pasta I've had in the past. Be it at a restaurant, food court or sauce in a jar. Not terrible just not very exciting. It's just pasta. Diced tomatoes, oregano and prosciutto make up the sauce. It even sounds exciting! Nevertheless a healthy and fulfilling meal.
It sounds a little bizarre but wait till you taste it! This was one of the best steaks I've ever had and I don't mean it sound like some exaggeration of my cooking skills because it wasn't me. Thanks to Liz for the link, you'll have to try it next time you're in Brisbane ;) *hint*hint* The recipe is not exactly the most precise because as you can see he sort of just throws random handfuls of spices together and he doesn't taste it to see whether it suits his taste. So you sort of just assume he's made it so many times he doesn't need a recipe.
For one 200g fillet steak I used: 3 tbsp of instant coffee (which I just ground a bit to make it finer) 2 tbsp unsweetened cacao powder (because I didn't know where to buy the beans) 1 tsp mustard powder 1 tsp ginger powder 1 tsp garlic powder 1 1/2 tsp chilli powder (I left out the chipolte and Mexican powder since I couldn't find that either) You mix the spices together and after seasoning the steak with pepper and salt you rub the spices all over the steak. Then leave aside for at least 3 hours before grilling. I just pan-grilled mine even though he has grilled his over hot coals.
I loved the taste, although since I had to wait three hours, hunger might have played a part. After I marinated the steak it looked exactly like dried beef jerky. I was sort of weirded out that raw meet could smell that good. Cacao doesn't really taste like chocolate, it's not sweet at all. The cacao and coffee make the steak quite bitter but it's also very spicy. It is quite unique the taste, and I would definitely recommend you try it (just don't attempt it with real chocolate).
Boy do those chips look fat or what! I borrowed Piri piri startfish by Tessa Kiros a few months ago and this was one of the few recipes that appealed to me. All the recipes in this book are from Portugal, and when you read the recipes they all sound very exotic. I finally decided to try this recipe because Liz sent me a youtube link for coffee steak, which I will attempt to make tomorrow. The difference between the recipes is this one uses espresso as a sauce while the other recipe uses ground coffee as a dry spice.
Today it reached 33 degrees in Brissie. This would have been a nice meal to eat outdoors with family and friends. Although they'd better like coffee. The recipe said to add 1 tbsp cream and about 2 1/2 tbsp of strong espresso coffee. I'm no coffee expert/snob - if it has caffeine then hit me with it. So I put 2 1/2 tbsp into about 1/4 cup of boiling water and used that to make the sauce and since I had no idea what type of cream to use I left that out. The coffee might have been a bit strong, but that's how I like my coffee. Apparently this is a very common dish in Lisbon. So I will have to go there some day so I can figure out if the sauce was supposed to be strong and bitter or if the cream was supposed to add some sweetness to it. Although I made this very much to my taste, I think the amount of coffee will depend on the individual. I have included the recipe, just in case anyone is interested in making figuring out how they like their coffee with their steak.
1. Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp of olive oil in frying pan. When it starts to fizzle add 1 fillet steak (150g) and cook until golden. Turn over and sprinkle with some salt. Cook until steak is done to your liking. Turn steak over again sprinkle with salt. Add 2 bay leaves and 2 cloves of garlic to flavour the sauce. Lift steak out onto a plate.
2. Add the 1 tbsp cream and 2 1/2 tbsp espresso to the pan and let it bubble up and thicken for a few seconds. Turn off the heat and return the steak to the pan, then leave for a minute to let the juices mingle. Grind some black pepper over the top once it's on the plate. Serve with chips.
And for dessert? Passionfruit banana pineapple and cream Weis bar. Yummo!
When it comes to curries I have always preferred Japanese curry but lately Indian curry has sort of grown on me (and I know I just saw Liz cringe). Even stanger is that it is vegetarian curry that I have become obsessed with and I really wanted garlic naan bread. So I just had to make this recipe. It was very easy to make once you've made the sauce. Just cook the vegies (I used potato, mushroom, zucchini and eggplant) and then add the sauce and simmer. But the sauce did not taste as good as the one I had from the Indian takeaway. And I don't think there was enough of it for the amount of vegies I had. Also the garlic naan was definitely not the best I've ever had.
