Kitchen Kapers Week 12

Monday

This week's soup night soup was a roasted kumara and pumpkin soup. Sorry no picture!

I had an oversupply of sweet potato built up over the last couple of weeks of Aussie Farmers Fruit and Veg boxes, and last week I also received a pumpkin - so perfect for making this soup which is super simple. Just roast the kumara (sweet potato) and pumpkin in the oven (about 1kg in total) with some olive oil, seasonings and peeled garlic, for about 1 hour. Then blend in a food processor and add 5 cups of hot chicken stock - and serve.

Tuesday

I made Lemon crusted schnitzel with corn fritters and avocado cream. Served with a simple green salad.  I had a stock of corn cobs (also from the fruit and veg pack), so decided to make fritters instead of steaming them. The crumbing on the schnitzel not only included bread crumbs, but also polenta which added a nice crunchiness to the crumb.

A note on bread crumbs - I never buy packet breadcrumbs any more (apart from the Panko Breadcrumbs - normally used in japanese cooking), I simply keep the slices of bread that have gone stale (but not mouldy ew!) and freeze them in packs of 3-4 for smaller slices and 2 for really big slices of bread. When I need some crumbs I defrost the bread and then blitz them in my hand-held stick food-processor. These breadcrumbs have a nicer more rustic texture, with the added bonus of reducing food wastage.

Wednesday

I thought I would try a Sherry Braised Pork dish.

I was meant to use Pork Shoulder - did you think I could find one anywhere? No! So I decided to take my chances and use a rolled roast.... I like to live on the edge LOL.

I stripped off the layer of fat (normally used for crackling), and slow cooked it for 11 hours in Sherry, beef stock and some other bits and pieces.  I served with mashed potato. It was delicious, and this is from someone that's not a huge pork fan.

A note on Sherry - it is now called Apera in Australia on account of the fact that the Spanish have taken the name "Sherry" back, and we can't use it anymore.

Thursday

I made a cauliflower puree with grilled whiting fillets and a butter and oregano sauce.

I normally use the cheaper Hoki or Basa fillets for the firm white fish fillets - and I'm not sure the girls appreciated the Whiting. I think I'll go back to the cheaper fish fillets that they normally clean up!

Friday

We had a heap of people over (aka. friends and family) - to help install our new dishwasher (it was finally time to say goodbye to our old dishwasher which just didn't cut the mustard anymore), to deliver Avon and also to generally catch up. I love the fact that we designed such an open plan kitchen and family room area - plenty of room for guests to mill around!

Saturday

With Eliza over at a sleepover, and me not really feeling like cooking -  Dave, Jasmin and I decided to wander down to the local restaurant to try it out. It recently changed hands and changed it's name to H20 Restaurant and Bar. Italianish-style menu. Nice food, although not spectacular - could have a bit more variety on the menu to add a bit more excitement. For example - there were two salmon dishes and no other fish dishes, the beef dishes were two dishes which included Scotch fillet - why not one scotch fillet and one eye fillet! The service was good though - lovely waitress, and fairly fast service.

Got me thinking about what my ideal restaurant would be - and what meals I would include on the menu! perhaps the subject of another blog post?

Sunday

I decided on a simple Asian menu for tonight, using a couple of recipes from Adam Liaw's Asian After Work recipe book.  I made the Soy dressed Tofu (on the account that both Jasmin and Eliza to a lesser degree love it), Edamame Beans (which the girls also love) and Bang Bang Chicken (or shall I say - Not so Bang Bang Chicken on account that I quartered the chili in it!).  

It was a simple and quick Asian meal to cook.

The Bang Bang Chicken actually used Black Vinegar - which I didn't have time to go out and get, but you can substitute equal quantities of Balsamic, Rice Wine Vinegar and Water.  I was meant to put in matchsticks of cucumber in the dish, but opted to serve it on a bed of shredded wombok instead - as this is what I had, and it worked well, as it provided the contrasting crunchiness.

I hadn't cooked Edamame beans before - which I purchased from Costco, and just boiled in salted water. After reading conflicting advice on the internet and the packet, I cooked them for a little too long - next time I will cook for about 5-6 minutes in boiling water not 10 minutes. You simply just squeeze the beans out of the pod when you eat them.

And there ends another week of food....
Di :-)