Asian with a side of Brazilian

Someone pulled Asia from the container (I can't remember who now), so instead of picking a country from Asia, I decided to pull out my latest Donna Hay recipe book "Easy", and cook some Asian inspired recipes (and I added one of my own).

Here is what we decided to eat:

Thai Chicken Salad

Lovely and healthy (if you ignore all the coconut milk that is). Chicken breasts poached in coconut milk with kaffir lime, served with herbs, lettuce and bean sprouts and cucumber, a side of steamed rice and a dressing made from coconut milk, mint, coriander and lime.

Diane's San Chou Bau

These days I just make up my own recipe for San Chou Bau.

Here's how I make it:

Group 1 ingredients

1 onion or 4 spring onions chopped 

3 cloves of garlic

500g mince (can be pork, chicken, beef, veal and pork mince - whatever you like)

Lettuce (I used Baby Cos as they form nice little bowls to fill with the mince)

1/2 packet of vermicelli noodles

Group 2 Ingredients

Chopped tinned corn spears

finely chopped capsicum (red or yellow or green or combo - whatever you happen to have)

chopped celery

1 grated large carrot

Group 3 ingredients

2 Tb Oyster Sauce

1 Tb Soy Sauce

1 Tb Fish Sauce

Juice of half lime

Handful Coriander chopped

Serve with

2 limes - quartered (to squeeze over extra juice when eating)

Method

1. Put kettle on to boil.

2. Saute first 2 group 1 ingredients in wok in a little oil (vegetable, peanut or olive) until softened, add the mince and brown.

3. While mince is browning wash and drain lettuce.

4. Put Vermicelli in a large bowl and cover with the boiling water (soak for 4-5 minutes).

5. Add the group 2 ingredients to the mince and cook for approximately 4 minutes - we still want the veggies to have a little crunch.

6. Drain the Vermicelli and add to the mince mixture. Mix through.

7. Add all group 3 ingredients. Mix and then serve.

Everyone can just help themselves - spooning spoonfuls of the mixture into lettuce leaves a bit like a taco. Squeeze extra lime juice over for extra punch.

Simple Beef Noodle Soup

This one was also from Donna Hay's "Easy" cookbook (worth the investment).

I actually made it a self serve soup - serving the beef broth and then everyone could add what they wanted to the broth. I pimped it up a bit by adding some extra ingredients to add to the soup, including the asparagus (which was on sale) and some oyster mushrooms. The family could also add basil, mint, bean sprouts, chilli, beef sliced thinly and blanched in the beef broth, noodles, and lemon juice to their soup as they desired.

Crispy Thai Salmon Cakes with Chili Lime Mayonnaise

Delicious little salmon cakes. What I really liked about the flavour of these salmon cakes (the recipe was also from Donna Hay's "Easy" cookbook) was the taste of shredded coconut, lime zest and coriander.

Sticky Korean Pork with Apple and Cucumber Pickle

Also from the Donna Hay cookbook. Loved the little salad on the side - it was sweet and crunchy and only took a couple of minutes to cook. Also the Pork was quick to make, overall it took less than 30 minutes to make this meal.

A Side of Brazilian

We had the pleasure having our Brazilian friends over for dinner, and not long ago finishing a Brazilian food week, it gave me the opportunity to cook some Brazilian food and get some feedback.  I only remembered to photograph a couple of the dishes, but here is the menu:

Before Dinner:

Grilled Chili and Cinnamon Pineapple (I also did a lot without chili)

Fried Cheese Sticks (Queijo Coalho). 

Dinner:

Grilled Caipirinha Chicken Skewers (Frango com marinada caipirinha)

Mojo de Acaraje ( a prawn and chick pea dish)

Cheese Breads

Barreado (Beef Clay Pot Stew)

Brazilian Pumpkin and Black Bean Salad

Rice

Dessert:

Supplied by the delightful Luciana - Condensed Milk Pudding 

It was delicious and just perfect - I'll have to admit to eating all of the leftovers of this afterwards :-)

Here are a couple of pictures:

Well - that's it for Asian Week.

Di :-)

African

Eliza put a couple of continents into the container - and for this week's food (which was almost two weeks ago now), we pulled Africa out of the container. Africa is huge and the food is very diverse across the different countries. So I decided to limit us to one country - Morocco.

Moroccan cuisine has apparently been influenced by many other cultures and nations over the centuries - the main ones being Mediterranean, Arabic, Moorish and Berber Cuisines.  They use meat mainly beef, lamb, seafood and chicken in their dishes; Mediterranean fruits and vegetables including lemons, olives and dried fruits like apricots; grains including Eliza's favourite - Cous Cous and lots of lentils as well; spices such as saffron, cumin, ginger, cumin, coriander and cinnamon; and herbs such as parsley, coriander and mint.

We cooked some very tasty dishes for this week - here is a brief run down:

Moroccan chicken skewers with pea tabbouleh

This recipe was sourced from the Delicious "Love to Eat" recipe book. The recipe did call for some burghul wheat - but I just could not find it in the two supermarkets I looked in. So I decided to use cous cous instead (which was just fine with Eliza). The cous cous version of the tabbouleh turned out rather nicely, and included peas, herbs, feta  and cherry tomatoes. The chicken was meant to be skewered (as per the name of the dish), but I'm kinda over skewered meat at the moment, and I was just too tired - so we had it unskewered. The chicken was marinated in yoghurt, onion, lemon juice and spices, before being grilled.

Fish Tagine

A Moroccan week would not be complete without a tagine of some description. I decided on a fish tagine so we ate a variety of meat this week - and made the tagine  with Snapper fillets. The recipe came from Marie Claire's "Kitchen" recipe book. I served it with crusty bread, olive oil and some cous cous of course. It was tasty, but I think I much prefer the lamb tagines made with some dried apricots and the like in it.

Harira Soup

This soup is traditionally eaten during the holy month of Ramadan, to break the daily fast, which starts at sunrise and finishes at sunset. It's quite a thick stew like soup made with chickpeas and lentils, and the recipe I sourced from Yummly (there were heaps of different recipes there) included stewed lamb. The spices included turmeric, saffron, cinnamon and ginger. I would probably make this one next time - as it is a lot less thick - Harira Soup.

Moroccan Meatballs with Cous Cous

We went to a friend's place for dinner on Saturday night, and they had prepared a Moroccan meal for us which was very nice, a slow cooked Moroccan Meatball dish served with Cous Cous. I also took over an Orange and Almond Cake which I made from a recipe found in the latest Delicious Magazine.

Moroccan Slow-Roasted Lamb with Ancient Grains Salad

The last Moroccan dish for the week was this slow cooked Moroccan Roast lamb dish. The lamb was basted with Ras-el-hanout as well as molasses and cooked on low temperature in the oven. I liked the ancient grain salad, especially the sweetness of the pomegranate seeds through the Freekah and lentils. The salad also contained a number of different seeds, herbs and capers. The local Coles at Gungahlin now as a section where you can buy self serve seeds, nuts and mixes. So I was able to purchase smaller quantities of sunflower seeds and the like for this recipe.

Well - that's it for this week!

Di :-)