Janice Tripepi

I have had the most wonderful week with my little 9 year old niece – Jade.  Spending time with her, I am reminded of the wonder of childhood. Her sparkling mind and eyes have illuminated my home and her eagerness to cook with me has been so inspiring. Jade is adept in the kitchen – rattling off her “cheese puff” recipe it soon becomes quite clear that this little lady is fearless in the kitchen. After a short debate she encouraged me to make something new – that I had never made before and we would make it together, our own adventure.   So – Spaetlze it is!

 

I have had my eye on these babies for a while – to my utter joy and delight Spaetlze were served with the lamb shanks that we ordered at The Goat Shed at Fairview. To my amazement they are not the same as pasta as I had always imagined – they are rather like little angel’s giggles ……. They are soft and light and willingly carry the flavour of their host dish on their delicate transparent angel wings.

 

Jade had chosen – cotolette (crumbed chicken breasts) for dinner – so with the addition of exotic mushrooms in garlic and herbs – we had the makings of a good meal.   I had a ball at the wine farms in Cape Town – how I long to spend days and days wandering from farm to farm sampling their vino’s and food! What a treat it is to go wine tasting. I had some Meerendal Chardonnay 2007 (R70.00 at the farm shop) nicely chilled in my fridge – ready and waiting to cut through the creaminess of the Spaeztle. I think that my pallet has matured somewhat – I am beginning to enjoy certain lightly wooded chardonnays! My home is brimming with some handpicked, totally wonderful wines now, so I shall happily share my wine pairing experiences with you over the next few weeks …… until they are all gone!!

 

Cotolette di Polo

Chicken Schnitzel

or

Crumbed Chicken Breasts

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the Cotolette – Crumbed Chicken Breasts.

 

The secret of cotolette is to cut your chicken  breasts transversally and

to bash them nice and thin.  If you do this they cook in literally

two minutes and from one pack of chicken breasts you will yield a whole pile of

cotolette.

 

Monique – churns these out by the dozens – literally!

I buy large packs of de-boned chicken breasts – Monique crumbs the lot – and

packs them away in freezer bags of 6 at a time.

 

They de-frost in a jiffy – and are ready and waiting in your freezer to save your

bacon when unexpected guests arrive or for those days when you have

neither the time nor the inclination to cook!

 

Ingredients

 

4 de-boned chicken breasts cut in half – if they are juicy plump organic breasts you can cut

them in half transversally – if  not just cut in half and bash thin.

 

1/2 cup of flour

2 cups of bread crumbs

2 eggs – beaten and mixed with a dash of milk

salt and pepper – to season the egg mixture

 

Using a meat hammer – bash your chicken until nice and thin.

Be careful though – don’t pulverise the chicken!  If you are taking out the days

frustrations on the poor unsuspecting chicken – it’s a good idea to place a piece

of cling film over the chicken – to protect it.

 

Coat the chicken in the flour first

Then into the egg wash

Then into the bread crumbs – use your hand this time to flatten

the chicken into the crumbs – this way you get a good coating of crumbs!

 

Crumb the lot and put them in the fridge for about half an hour – they

fry so much better when you do this.

 

 

 

 

 

You can season the bread crumbs if you like too -  i like to finely chop

fresh rosemary and add some origano – salt and pepper.

 

For a spicey version – chopped thyme, 1/2 tsp of coriander, 1/2 tsp of cumin and 1/2 tsp of

chilli powder.

 

For a lemon version – add the zest of two lemons to some finely

chopped rosemary.

 

The combinations are endless!!!

 

 

Now for the Spaetzle.

 

Ingredients

 

2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 eggs

1 cup milk

a good grating of nutmeg

100g melted butter

a good splosh – approx 200ml fresh cream

freshly ground black pepper

 

I adjust the recipe that i found for these – the batter was too thick to go through

my colander, which in the absence of a Spaetzle Hex (a Spaetzle making gadget)

was my Spaetlze making machine.

 

 

 

Combine the flour, nutmeg and salt.

Whisk the eggs and milk together and

making a well in the middle of the flour – add it to the flour

and mix well.

 

 

 

    

 

 

Jade cracking eggs like a pro!

 

Pour the batter into your colander and using a soup ladel

stir the mixture – small amounts of the batter dribble

through the holes – into a bath of boiling, salted water.

 

They need literally a minute or two in the water to cook.

 

Remove them with a slotted spoon and

plop them into some melted butter – which keeps them nice and moist.

 

 

 

 

Soft – gentle little Spaetzle – which means Sparrow in German.

 

A good grinding of black pepper and a generous splosh of fresh cream

and you are in store for a treat!

 

 

Crumbed Chicken Breast with Spaetzle and Exotic mushrooms – and an ice cold

glass of Meerendal Chardonnay!

 

What a fabulous meal we had! 

 

Always serve the cotolette with lemon wedges!

 

Next post – Jade and I made a Roast Loin of Pork in Plum Sauce!

 

Buon Appetito!

xxx

 

jan

 

 

 

Tuesday 17 August:

 

Well, the kitchen/bathroom saga continues – we have bathroom tiles – a toilet and shower, we have some kitchen cupboards (shells only) and slowly but surely it’s all taking shape. We are not at the point of getting excited yet – but hope springs eternal. Hubby has returned to Durban – we had a fabulous weekend of sunshine and awesome food.   Life as a gypsy has its benefits – I found R10 on the road yesterday shortly after I set off on a food adventure. The Seapoint area was bathed in champagne sunlight and I didn’t even need to wear a cardigan. After packing – moving and unpacking for the fourth time – I got settled and was off!

 

This Seapoint area is buzzing with loads of fabulous little foodie shops and restaurants. My first find is a brand new spot – opened on Sunday! So this is hot off the press people.   154 Main Road boasts a brand new food emporium Delish – (021 – 4342181) Sexy décor and sexy food! Owner Achilles (no points for guessing he is Greek) is offering homemade signature dishes ranging from Biftekia to Kleftiko and a myriad in between. Freshly baked loaves of bread beg to be hugged – bagged and taken home, lathered with juicy dollops of Tarama, Skordalia (their fridges are laden) and the likes. From their kitchen – to yours, Delish offers platters and catering services.  

 

 

 

 

 

Another gem of a find is the New Asian Spice Supermarket at 186 Main Road, Sea Point (021 – 4340598) – I could have gone buck wild in there – but for the fact that I still had a way to walk. Even so – I racked up a good two bags of bits and pieces. I wanted to put Mr Lu, the owner, in my bag and take him home too! He was a fount of information on each product and rattled off recipes as we discussed each ingredient.   If you are looking for fresh Thai greens, Bok Choy, fresh Chinese radish, plump ivory coloured bean sprouts with nery a blemish on them, silken tofu, ginger, chilies, coriander (with the stems and roots) – I could go on and on and on. Needless to say – Tuesday evening Daniele and I enjoyed a starter of – Chicken Pot Stickers, Steamed Pork Dumplings and fresh Prawn Spring Rolls – which Daniele had asked me to show him the ropes over!   This spotlessly clean supermarket is laden with all the ingredients that you would need for ANY Asian dish – Thai, Chinese, Korean etc. and Mr Lu knows his bean sprouts!

 

  

 

 

 

Tuesday 24 August –

 

Hooooray I am home in Durban and the kitchen and bathroom saga is a distant memory! Shortly after writing the above i dive bombed into a Kamikaze date with the flu which accounts for my silence. Oi – was I a sorry site for a few days – my hair had risen up and revolted against me, and I had a box of razor blades where my throat once existed! Sjoe – she was in a state!!!! I was gifted a beautiful bottle of Nitida wine – this one, the Cab Sav – was begging to be poured all over a leg of lamb and the rest drunk – so for entirely medicinal reasons – in my weakened and palid state I managed to cook this awesome – roasted deboned leg of lamb with carrots and pastina! – a winter warmer if ever there was one!

 

 

 

Ingredients

 

olive oil

1 deboned leg of lamb – of course you can make this with the bone in (i prefer this but the time

share spot i cooked this in had tiny weeny little knives – nothing i could carve with)

 

1 bottle of Nitida Cabernet Sauvignon (or any good red Cab Sav)

 

2 tins of peeled tomatoes

 

8 carrots – peeled and sliced

 

garlic

 

salt and pepper

 

a bouquet garni of – rosemary, thyme and parsley

 

2 chicken stock cubes

 

1 packet of pasta – the rosmarino shape

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insert some rosemary, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper into the centre of the rolled lamb.

If you are using a bone in leg – make incisions with a sharp knife – chop the above up nice and

small and insert that into the lamb.

 

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and brown your meat on all sides.

Take care not to go too dark here – because lamb gets a bitter taste if browned too much!

Remove the meat and set aside.

 

In the same frying pan – brown your onions, garlic and add your bouquet garni.

 

 

 

 

When your onions are nice and brown – enough wine to cover them and continue

to cook this until the alcohol has evapourated.  You can tell when this has happened simply

by putting your face (watchout as steam is hot) – over the pan and having a good sniff!

If the alcohol has not fully evapourated you will get a “smack in the face” by the acrid aroma!

 

In a bowl and using your (clean) hand – squish each tomato through your fingers in order to smash them up and

release their juices.  Now add your smashed, peeled tomatoes, 2 stock cubes and pepper to the frying pan

and bring to the boil.

 

Put your carrots and herbs together with your browned meat into your roasting dish.

Pour the tomato sauce all over

 

Pop the lid on – or cover tightly with tin foil and put into your oven at 180 d for ten minutes then

reduce down to 120d for about 1 1/2 hours – remember the golden rule with roasting meat!

Long and slow – produces the best results.   So reduce your heat down as far as you can go

and let the meat cook slowly – especially lamb!  This recipe has loads of sauce to stop the

meat from drying out – so long gently heat turns the connective tissue in the lamb all gooey and

sticky!!!   I am drooling now!

 

When your meat is ready – remove the roast from the oven – and take the piece of roasted meat out

and keep covered so as not to dry out while you finish the dish off.

 

 

 

 

Place the roasting pan on top of the stove and bring the sauce to a boil – the sauce, is quite thin

after roasting but don’t worry – this is EXACTLY what we are after.

 

Add 3/4 of the packet of pastina to the pot and bring back to the boil.

Once it’s boiling reduce the heat down to about 4 – you can’t leave the pasta at this stage or it will

stick to the bottom of the pot – so pour yourself a glass of that awesome wine to keep

you company for the 10 minutes or so that it takes to finish off this dish.

 

 

 

All you need do now is carve up the meat – plop it in the centre of

this yummy pool of uuuuuuuuber tasty pastina

and eat!!!!!

 

This is a complete meal in one dish!!!

 

 

 

 

Buon Appetito!!!!

 

xxx

 

jan

 

 

 

 

Daniele has lived in Cape Town for four years now- but as he has been a student on a limited budget, Wine Tasting had never been within his financial reach. His alcoholic bevvie of choice was certainly not wine. With the option of staying at home with all the banging and crashing last week – I managed to get him to agree to a day of wine tasting and seeing as I had enjoyed the cheese platter on 1time sooooo much – and was keen for him to taste the cream cheese (a favourite of his) with onion chives at Fairview. We bundled up and off we went.

 

 

 

What a day we had – we never got any further than Fairview! Together we tasted the amazing cheeses and wines on offer and shopped our guts out . Johan, in the wine tasting room has converted Daniele into a red wine drinker. He was in heaven!!   My luck – he fell in love with the Jakkelsfontein Shiraz at R170 a bottle – but what a bottle. I am not much of a wine connoisseur but Oh my madumbis – that is ruby red nectar that bursts with fruity flavours yet still maintains an essence of mystery! To my delight I now have a Chardonnay in my arsenal of preferred wines – Fairview’s has a wonderful vanilla flavour lurking inside somewhere and their Viognier with a hint of apricot was the PERFECT find to accompany my Camembert zuccotto! My recipe for you today.

 

Our appetites well and truly whetted – we moved to Fairview’s most charming restaurant to lunch on succulent Springbok Shanks with some more wine and the best baked cheese cake I have ever tasted!

 

Fairview Camembert Zuccotto

 

 

Ingredients

 

1 Fairview Camembert

1 loaf of bread – I used the honey and nut loaf from the Fairview shop

2 tsp soft butter – 1 for buttering your mold and 1 for the camembert mash

fresh thyme

salt & freshly ground black pepper

slivered almonds

sundried turkish apricots

Apricot Jam – i used “Brenda’s” apricot jam purchased at Fairview (deeeeeeeeee-vine)

 

These quantities make 2 Camembert Zuccotto.

 

 

 

 

 

Butter the inside of your mold – I used a tumbler

Line the inside with some cling film – to make it easier to get out. Iknow that this probably sounds impossible – all you do I cut the cling film 20 cm larger than needed – and with the aid of a cloth you jam it into the glass and Walla!! Done!

 

Cut slices of bread – cut off the crusts (all of your offcuts can be used to make bread crumbs so don’t throw them away) and line the inside of your mold. Use the glass to cut discs to close the camembert zuccotto up!

 

Using a fork – mash the camembert with a little soft butter . Add ½ tsp salt, freshly ground black pepper and 1tsp of fresh thyme.

 

Roughly chop 5 of your Turkish apricots and combine with 4 tsp of apricot jam and ¼ tsp of thyme.

 

Toast some slivered almonds in a frying pan.

 

 

 

 

Now – all of your ingredients are ready and it’s just a matter of layering it in your mold.

First layer – a good generous Tbls of the apricot jam –

 

 

Second layer – the creamed camembert

 

Third – a good thick base of toasted almonds.

 

 

Four – spread just 1 tsp on to one of your disks and place on top to form the base of the zuccotto.

 

 

 

To un-mold the zuccotto simply pull it out of glass with the cling wrap!

 

Weight them to compact the filling for about 1 hour and pop them into a hot oven – around 200d for four minutes and flash grill the top just before you remove them. 

 

 

Garnish with a dollop of the apricot jam and sprinkle with some toasted almonds.

 

 

The beauty of this recipe is that it requires only a moment in the oven to turn the camembert and apricot into a gooey creamy lava flow of cheese that oozes onto your plate when cut open and to crisp and brown the bread up. So you could have this ready to go into the oven for a nice warm winter starter for your dinner parties by preparing it either the day before or earlier on dinner party night.

 

The variations of this are endless and this zucotto could be served either as a savoury starter or as a sweet dessert. Think walnuts – apple- chili jam – honey – crystallized ginger – parma ham etc etc ….

 

 

Pair this Camembert Zuccotto with a glass of Fairviews Viognier – and you have pure cheesy apricot heaven!

This was to have been my recipe prepared in the bedroom at the flat (due to having NO kitchen at the moment) but I bring this to you from our little tiny weeny timeshare kitchen instead. The renovations are moving along – the bathroom is nearly finished and the kitchen is still just a sad and vacant hole! Not long now though!

 

Buon Appetito

Xxx

jan

 

Bang bang bang bang BANG BAAAAAAAAANG – I have failed you my fellow bloggers!! The sound of the workmen banging and crashing inside my bathroom, kitchen and HEAD ….. I could stand NO MORE! I was 8 Compral down by around 09am yesterday. There is only so much that this koekie can cope with! We packed our bags, raided our fridge and cupboards and off we trotted to a timeshare spot in Sea point until Monday when – Oh dear Lordie hear my prayers – we will be able to use a toilet and shower again! I dashed back inside to grab two bottles of wine from my Fairview trip – Sjoe.. nearly nearly left without my libations!

 

After purchasing a toilet – basin – tiles and the 5 million bits and pieces that go with these items – Daniele and I were virtually lifeless from hunger.   Shortly before we both passed out from a lack of sustenance we made a quick pilgrimage to Giovanni’s.  Oh I just love that store – the warm and familiar aroma of espresso wraps you up in a comforting blanket of lekkerheid. I know that I promised you a recipe for a camembert creation that could be made in your bedroom or lounge but the banging defeated me. I had a trial run of my invention in the kitchen of our new home – I need to tweak the flavour up about 4 notches ….. Watch this space. The good news is that the actual “Idea” of the dish works fabulously well – I have flavour issues –that’s all!

 

Seeing as I have picked apart most airline’s pallid attempts at “Panini” making – I thought I should share the secret of Panini making – which I cannot claim as my own – this is a learned skill people – Tricky Ricky is the undisputed reigning King of Panini. If there is a panino to be made – he’s your man and he won’t allow anyone else to make them. My boys have been known to sell their school sarmies for many Ronds, on picnics families move closer and closer to befriend him and sample his prize Panini! And boy does he let the whole world know – one thing about Italians ………… their middle names are usually – I love myself!!! So here are a few of Tricky-I-love-myself-Ricky’s Panini.

 

Ingredients

 

1 ciabatta

1 red pepper – pepperoni style

butter

cream cheese – i used Fairview Bobba’s

rocket and watercress

3 slices of mortadella

tomatoes – 3 baby rosa

salt and pepper

a squeeze of lemon

mayonnaise

 

 

 

 

 

Cut your ciabatta in  half and butter it properly – covering ALL open exposed bread

Place on your mortadella

rocket and watercress

halved rosa tomatoes

red pepper

a squeeze of fresh lemon juice

a squirt of mayo

 

   

On the other half

spread on your cream cheese and give a good grinding of black pepper

now gently place the half with cream cheese on top of the other half

and gently press the two together

 

|The  secret IS no to put too much of any one filling – you are aiming at achieving

a balance of flavours – DON’T go wild with the mayo.

 

 

 

And that’s that!!!

 

 

 

 

These two have

 

1.  parma ham, rosa tomatoes, rocket, mayo and lots of black pepper

2.  chopped herring, tomato, watercress and lemon juice with lots of black pepper.

 

Here is my first go at the Camenbert Zuccotto

 

 

Have a great day everyone, we are off to the Old Biscuit Mill!

 

Buon Appetito

xxx

jan

 

I flew from Durban to Cape Town on wednesday.  Top tip no 1 – ALWAYS ALWAYS wear your spectacles when checking your boarding times on your boarding pass. DO NOT ever ever ask the baggage check staff to give you your boarding time. As a result of this tom foolery I nearly missed my plane. To 1Time’s credit – they PHONED me on my cell phone to politely tell me that I shoud haul my dainty little a**ss - blitsvinnig to the  plane because they were closing the doors. Oh my madumbi’s – I run-walked really fast – trotting occasionally – red face – perspiring out of my toenails I arrived to them closing the door!!   The whole world went slo-mo on me and I did the “Chariots of Fire”dash ….. da da da da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa .. dad a – oh you know that music!!!  I arrived looking like I had just gone 5 rounds with Mike Tyson to a sea of miffed passengers giving me the death stare!  Eish! 

 

My In-flight memoirs:

 

The Good news is that my tochas is now growning roots in seat 1c – no window view – but HEY I am on the flight. Sjoe – we are airborn and the cabin crew are fantastic. After making a thousand apologies to all and sundry  I have chatted to the attendant In charge – Cheslyn Udemans and she informs me that  1time prepare their own meals and load them – in this case in Cape Town (around 4am this morning). I am flying from Durban to Cape Town. Flight 1T645.

 

You will remember that my last BA flight – I landed up in business class!!!! On 1time there is no business class and food can be purchased in flight from the menu on the last page of their in-flight magazine “About Time” or a food voucher can be purchased when booking flights on line.  Not a bad idea!

The menu is extensive offering a choice of 1 Sandwich (R24), 3 specialty rolls (R28) , 1 wrap (R28), 2 muffins (R15) and a cheese platter (R24). A hot breakfast is served on the jnb/cpt/jnb, jnb/George, jnb/znz and dur/cpt flights departing before 9am. A wide range of snacks are available from biltong, chocolate, chips and snack (peanuts, peanuts and raisins, jelly babies, wine gums and choc chip cookies.  I am really impressed with the Kiddies Pack which contains a colouring in book, crayons, a water tattoo and a packet of jellytots.  Every child on board is given one to keep them occupied for a while.  Mothers can be heard sighing in relief!!

 

  

 

 

I ordered one of their speciality rolls – a Ciabatta with roast chicken marg mayo lettuce (lettuce? what lettuce?) and rocket… followed by the Fairview Mini Cheese Board and a bottle of Wine Zorgvliet – Silver Myn –  from Stellenbosch.

 

 

The Ciabatta – Packet opens easily. I must say that the ciabatta is not too easy on the eye but it tastes fab! The flavour of the roast chicken comes through well  and the rocket – give it a nice crunch! I could have done without the chunk of gristle though! Kudo’s for actually –”almost” margerining the bread – so it has retained at least some of its moisture.  The chicken was well seasoned – and enjoyable. The ciabatta is not fresh – crumbling quite a bit and i am left with a pile of the pieces that broke off in my hand.

 

 

The Fairview Cheese Board was absolutely amazing.  A choice of 5 cheeses – each one better than the last -cream cheese with french onion, cream cheese with black pepper, camenbert, blue rock and havarti.  Full marks for providing as many biscuits as there were cheese.  The lady sitting next to me and I munched away at the platter – it’s too much for one person – and jabbered all the way to Cape Town.   The cream cheese with french onion was the unanimous winner on the platter – creamy, mild onion chive flavour with a delicious fruity after-taste!  This went down so well the the Zorgvliet Sauvignon Blanc.  It would have been nice to have something sweet with these cheeses – perhaps Fairview could forgo the havarti and plop some preserved fruit or honey in the empty space this would create.

 

I must add that the seats on the 1Time flights are very comfortable and unusually spacious and I love the fact that they take a wee bit of pressure of mum’s and dad’s by giving kiddies their own 1Time FunTime pack.  The inflight staff were great and I am definately off to Fairview to go and get me some of their awesome cheeses and wines.

 

 

Buon Appetito

xxxx

jan

 

Ps: I am inventing a fabulous starter with Fairviews Camenbert cheese  - i hope!  I will have to

do this in the lounge or the bedroom as ALAS the kitchen – doesn’t exist at the moment!!!

 

This is gonna be fun!!!!

 

Ciao for now!

 

PS: BAKED CHEESE CAKE ALERT …………

 

I tasted the best cheese cake that I have EVER eaten at Fairview yesterday!

My eyes rolled back in my head and the world just disappeared for a

moment or two!!!!!! Sjoe – but more about that tomorrow when i

hope i can post my cheesy camenbert starter – designed to be

easily preparable in your lounge or bedroom!!!!!

 

 

 

It’s been a busy weekend in glorious KZN. With temperatures soaring, mother sun shone down on us all weekend leaving a pink glow on whatever she touched.  The men all humba-buggered off to throw their money at race horses and I was left alone at home. You would have thought that two models were preparing for a fashion show – Max and Tricky left a trail of shirts, gel and hairbrushes behind them. Between the Kouros after-shave and the Johnson’s baby powder – a gas mask would have come in handy.

Max’s interpretation of “A Blooming (blue-ming in his world) Good Day” – the July theme for 2010 – was to wear a blue shirt Bwahahahaaaaa …. He just cracks me up old Maxi! Needless to say – a few shopping trips, another few hours in front of the mirror and they were off like two debutants sporting their funky button holes. The mind boggles though …. Have I raised a moron or Einstein? We all have those really silly blonde moments though don’t we? I have had some corkers in my time.

What a joy! The house to myself – this doesn’t happen too often so on went my fave cd – at full blast so I could hear it from my work station!   Out came my gardening equipment and off I trotted, bucket of ice cold wine in hand, down the garden path I tippled. Top tip #1: garden in the gloves you would wear to wash your dishes if you did them – slosh a wee bit of olive oil into each glove – and WALLA: hand treatment while you work!!!!!

I designed my garden to have two main elements. One, peace and quiet, calm and tranquility and two, the most important of the two – almost NO upkeep.  So a smidgen of pruning is all it takes. It’s such light work – that I hardly ever crack a sweat, I elegantly quaff my garden with only one hand while the other one brings the glass of wine deftly to my lips. Top tip #2: It’s VERY IMPORTANT to remain well hydrated when working in the sun!

My third and final Top Tip for today is: do not throw away wilted roses. Strip the petals and feed them to you Koi fish. They love them!! And none of mine have died yet. It also looks very romantic and pretty. I am such a re-cycler!!!

  

Egg Fried Rice!

Ingredients

1tbs each of the Thai Trinity – finely chopped garlic, ginger and chili

1 onion finely chopped

1 carrot finely chopped

Cooked Basmati Rice

5 eggs – beaten and set aside

2tbl brown sugar

2tbl soy sauce

Chopped basil or chopped whole spring onions – i ran out of spring onions

at this point so had to make do with the basil.

 

 

As I am typing this recipe – which is one of my own creations, based soley on what I want the dish to taste like , I realize that this may be just a little more far Eastern than Thai food – like as far away as China perhaps!!! Seeing as I have used Soy sauce instead of fish sauce!! It tastes great though.  If I am going to be totally honest – this eggy rice tastes “foo-yong-ish!”

capiche?  like sweet and salty with some crunch in it!

  

 

Pre-heat the basmati rice in the microwave

Beat the eggs and set aside

Heat your wok until smoking

Add enough sunflower or peanut oil to cover the bottom.

In with your garlic chili and ginger and stir fry for 1 minute

Add the onion and carrot and stir fry for 3 minutes

Add a dash of Xiaoshing (oops – this is also Chinese) rice wine and the sugar and soy sauce

Add the beaten egg and stir for about 1 minute – kind of making scrambled egg.

 

 

 

 

Now tip in the rice and stir the two together well.

Add some chopped basil and put into a serving bowl.

 

 

 The Satay

3 chicken breasts – each breast cut into 3 strips length wise

Soaked Satay sticks – soak them to prevent them from burning

The marinade

In a bowl mix together the following:

2tbs peanut butter

2tbs red thai curry paste

1tbs fish sauce

2tbs brown sugar

 

Coat the satays with this sauce and marinade for as long as you can with a miniumum

of 20 minutes.  Grill in your oven – but on the middle shelf.  You want to just cook these

babies – there is nothing worse than sad, pathetic, dry chicken!

5 minutse of so – turning them once will do it.

Serve with the rice.

 

Now for the last dish in our Thai dinner – Again, my rendition of

a Thai style Coconut Rice Pudding.

 

I have added to this creamy – spicy dish, a rather unusual spice.  When I cooked this dish, as always

i have my finger in the pot after the addition of each ingredient – tasting. This is mainly

how i build my flavour base – mostly i think about the dish and imagine what sort of flavours

I feel would both enhance and improve the flavour.  This is how I arrived at the addition of

white pepper – which I KNOW sounds a bit like I have been smoking my socks

but I DO SOLEMLY PROMISE – that 1/4tsp of white pepper raised this dish

up with the choirs of celestial angels- Lights flashed – goosebumpls possessed my boday

and World Peace was achieved if only for the 10 minutes it took me to polish

it all off!!!!!  Seeeee-reeeeee-us!!!! Serias!!!

 

  

  

 

Ingredients

2 Tins of Coconut Milk

1 cup of basmathi rice

4 whole star anise

6 elachi – cardamon – remove the seeds and pound in a pestil & mortar

1 vanilla pod

1 thumb sized piece of ginger – peeled and left whole

100g butter

1 stalk of lemon grass – peeled and bashed with the back of a knife

1 1/2 cups of Demarera sugar

1/4tsp of white pepper – piece de resistance!

 

In a heavy bottomed pot melt the butter till foaming and add the star anise,

cardamon and the beans from the vanilla pod –

fry gently to release all those wonderful eastern aromas and flavours.

add the rice and fry for 1 minute

add the ginger – sugar and lemongrass with the coconut milk and cook until the

rice has absorbed loads of liquid and is plump with coconut milk.

 

How to peel and deal with lemongrass!!!

 

 

 

 

1.  Off with it’s head and tail! 

2.  Remove the woody outer 2 to 3 layers

3.  Using the back of a knife – bash the stem to release the flavours and aromas

Unless you are grinding lemon grass right down with either a food processor or a pestil and mortar, it’s

best, I think, to leave the stem whole.  Add it to your dish for flavour and aroma and remove it

before serving for as light and delicate as the flavour of this wonderful stalk is – it’s as hard

as old nails!!!!

 

Lastly add a good 100ml dash of cream and stir in the white pepper!  This really

gives this dish wings!!!  Serve in t-cup adorned with a sprinkle of nutmeg and a fresh flower!

This orchid is from my garden!

 

 

Here you go Nina of My Easy Cooking my entry for your Thai Meal  Finally !!!

a complete Thai/Jan Style Meal

 Thank You

for your patience.

 

Here is the complete menu with links to the recipes:

Fresh Prawn Spring Rolls

Thai Fish Cakes

and todays post of Chicken Satay in Peanut Sauce

with Egg Fried Basmati Rice

and

Coconut Rice Pudding.

 

 

Buon Appetito

xxx

jan