Cooking has had to be downscaled in volume and I am thinking about, but haven't quite got totally round to, cooking smaller and healthier meals.
One of the reasons I really like my husband is that he is willing to try anything, foodwise - even if the thought of it makes him feel squeamish. Because that is the way I had been brought up and because of his openness, when the children were growing up, I always told them to try before saying they didn't like things. My husband first fell in love with Spanish blood sausage, morcillo, when he was offered it by a Spanish friend, when we were first going out together, and politely, but with trepidation, accepted it, and ended up devouring most of it. Since then, he has eaten blood sausage of many nationalities, but still votes the Spanish versions as the best. The other day, I notice it in the Aldi supermarket and bought it for him to try out. I simply fried it and we had it with baked and spiced plantain, cauliflower and pumpkin and a tomato salsa with middle-eastern bread and it was deamed very good. Nicely spiced though more like a salami or sausage.
I also went down to Fortitude Valley to stock up on Asian groceries. As a result, one night we had a nice light soup with silken tofu, rice drop noodles, Asian greens and sliced beef.
The next night I bombed, trying to make a satay type dish with chicken, greens and the noodles, based on an online recipe which incorporated worcstershire sauce. I overcooked it due to an interruption, so it went gluggy, but I don't think the tastes worked at all well either. My response was yuk, though my other half thought it was passable, so the dogs got the left overs, rather than me saving them for lunch the next day.
We used dried forest mushrooms to make an omelette night:
Another night, I bought a nice piece of flake and made this very tasty stir fry.
My mum used to make a wonderful oxtail stew, which incorporated curry and broad white lima beans. I decided to take inspiration from Movida and made one with dry sherry, carrots, onions and tomatoes. Slow cooked, the meat was tender and sweet.
We had the oxtail with rice, but for a starter we had artichokes with a dipping vinaigrette.
I baked for the work team, and though the cakes tasted nice, they stuck to the pan and were a bit too brown. ( I can't wait to get a good oven! ) I didn't line with baking paper so have learned my lesson. I must grease AND line with baking paper when using sugary recipes. We ate the worst one ourselves since it tasted better than it looked. This is my second, more succesful, attempt based on an old recipe a friend gave me:
Apple Cake .
( usually I make this with nuts, but I didn't have them this time so omitted them). It is beautiful served with cream.
Ingredients:
2 cooking apples
250 g sugar
185 g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
(125 g roughly chopped pecan or walnut nuts)
125 g butter
1 egg
Method:
Peel, core and dice the apples, then mix with sugar in a bowl.
Place flour, soda, spices and salt in a seperate bowl,and mix with nuts.
Melt butter in a pan and cool slightly. Beat in egg. Add apple mixture. Fold in nut mixture.
Spoon into greased and lined 20 cm pan. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees .
Bob has been experimenting with his poached egg meals. This time we had a smoked salmon version for lunch.
And we have eaten out. I had lunch with the ladies at Moray Café in New Farm. One friend ordered the scrambled tofu and seemed to enjoy it:
I had the Vietnamese beef in omelette, which turned out to be tasty, but very heavy. An odd combination which didn't altogether work, in my opinion.
Another day, we were in the vicinity of Manly and were hungry. We popped into the first eatery we saw, Keith's on Cambridge, unencouragingly positioned between the IGA supermarket and a carpark, but with a nice view of the boats moored along the shore.
The food was simple but good. I really enjoyed my fish and chips and Bob's hamburger was great too. The cakes looked yummy, but we were too full to order any.
