Food Babies

Curried Noodles & Mother In Law's

2012-02-18T17:05:00.001-08:00

Let's dicuss Mother-In-Law meals.
These are signature meals your mother in law makes, and her boy loves them to bits.

These meals are dangerous. If you make them and screw them up, he just leave you.
If you make it better than your mother in law, she may never ever speak to you again.

So what's the trick to making everyone happy?

NEVER ask if it tasted better than the mother in law's version. EVER.

NEVER ask a man full stop to compare your meal to his mother's. EVER

This rule is ancient. Obey it. No one knows what happens if you don't follow this rule because no one has ever lived to tell the tale.

Seriously. Just don't.

True story: Last Christmas I made rum balls for the first time and Mr Food-Babies refused to eat them. Why? His mum makes awesome rum balls and point blank refused to try mine.

Mr Food-Babies Mum is an amazing cook. And she makes Curried Noodles like a real pro. Lick the plate, spoons, pan, everything, spotless. Then go back for more until you explode. I used to take the left overs to the bakery and make pies out of them. DAMN they were good.

Curried Noodles are Mr Food-Babies favourite meal.

So I took the plunge and made them from the recipe she gave me a year ago.
(It's taken me this long to pluck up the courage to make them!)

Ingredients:

About 6 chicken thighs, cubed
1 onion
1 tomato
Couple of cloves of garlic
3 tblsp Madras Paste (I use Pataks)
Tumeric
Chilli (LOTS of chilli!)
2 Cups water
2 tsp Palm Sugar
400ml coconut milk
2 tbsp Fish Sauce
250g noodles (I used thick noodles, NEVER AGAIN!)
Bok Choy (Grocery shop had none, I used silverbeet)

KGO!

Heat up a large pan and brown the chicken in batches. The idea is to just seal it, not to cook it completely.

Once the chicken is sealed, remove it from the pan and set it aside. Cover it. We don't want no flies in our curry! Make sure you keep the juices in the pan!!

Dice your onion, tomato, crush the garlic, add the paste, tumeric and chilli. Fry this up in the chicken juices.

Ahhh. Take a second to admire the smell and the colours :)

Fry it up until the onion is all soft and squishy.

This looks like baby sick.
It's actually the water, coconut milk, palm sugar and fish sauce.

Whack the chicken back in the pan with the onion goodness and the ~~baby sick~~ coconut milk mix.

Let it simmer for half hour - 45 mins. Whatever you feel is right.
I used 3 cups of water, just like the recipe said, and it was too watered down. Yukky.

Scoop out as much chicken as you can. Set aside and again, cover it up. No one likes flies.

Chuck the noodles in and let them boil for a minute or two, or until they are all separated.

Mr Food-Babies wanted me to use thick noodles instead of his mothers usual thinner noodles.
Never again. They were just too thick.

Now the recipe calls for Bok Choy. My grocery shop is pretty slack in the fresh food department. So I used silver beet. You only really need a little bit of silver beet, and chop it up good! Mine was a little big.

Chicken goes back in, silverbeet goes in, simmer it for another few minutes and BAM
We have a Mother In Law Meal

That didn't quite live up to standard.

Serve with fresh white bread with plenty of butter.

Food Baby scale?
About 3 months pregnant. Needs thinner noodles and less water!

A Taste of What's to Come

2012-01-31T02:31:00.000-08:00

My To Do List over the next few weeks:

New recipes:

Fire in the Hole! - Stuffed and grilled jalapenos, wrapped in bacon
Curried Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin Pie
Dulce de Leche Baked Mini Cheesecakes - Mini Caramel Cheesecakes

Old Timers:

Flourless Chocolate Cake
Roasted Pumpkin & Cumin Soup
Cajun Burgers
Eggnog Cheesecake <---- Do NOT miss this one. This is one of my most treasured recipes
Secret Roast Beef (no longer a secret!)
Fried Rice

And I'll also take the chance to show off some of my cake decorating skills!

Stay tuned for more Food-Babies!

Irish 'Stew'

2012-01-31T01:39:00.000-08:00

So the weather here hasn't lived up to its name of "The Sunshine State" lately. But I can assure you it is still HOT and MUGGY! Be right back, kissing my air con..

...K. So with this horrible weather, I decided to make a yummy slow cooked meal. Unfortunately I smashed my slow cooker a few weeks ago. Plan B, oven roasted Irish Stew. Not boring, traditional stew. Delicious, herby, gravy-soaked stew. Something I have never made before, or even made anything close. But I am glad I took the risk. And I can't wait for another sodden weekend to make this again.

Let us begin. Pre-heat oven to 130 C

Base recipe:

1.25kg lamb neck chops
1/2 cup plain flour
3 brown onions, chopped
1kg sebago potatoes, peeled, sliced
2 carrots, peeled, thinly sliced into rounds
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups boiling water
3 beef stock cubes, crumbled
1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped, to serve

My tweaked recipe:

1.5kg(ish) lamb neck chops
3/4 cup plain flour
Salt & pepper
2 brown onions, chopped
1kg washed potatoes, chopped, skin on
2 carrots, peeled, sliced into chunks
2 Parsnips. peeled, sliced into chunks
4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups boiling water
3 beef stock cubes, crumbled
Decent splash of spicy Worcestershire sauce
Squirt of BBQ sauce
Rosemary
A PINCH of Cumin
About 6 cloves of garlic (I LOVE GARLIC)
Dried Parsley
4 Bay leaves

Mmmm lamb neck chops!

Whack your flour into a freezer bag and season the heck out of it with salt and pepper. Don't be scared!

Add a couple of neck chops at a time and shake-a-shake-a-shake until all lovely and dusted, repeat until all of your neck chops are covered in seasoned flour. Do NOT chuck the left over flour! We need this for the gravy!

Get all your veggies prepared. I left the skin on my potatoes for the whole rustic feel. And they taste good. That's what Food-Babies is all about.

So make sure you have a nice BIG dish.

Shout out to my Mumma Bear for the Scanpan dish!

Anyway, start layering your veggies up! Depending on the size of your dish you can do one layer or 2 or 5. Up to you! I did 2 layers of veggies and potato but only 1 of meat.

Pile in the taters

I had to really squish in my lamb to fit it all in

Another layer of veggies and taters and we are almost finished!

So chuck your left over flour in a bowl. Make sure it will hold at least a litre!
Add the rest of the ingredients (except bay leaves and mint) to your own taste.

I wanted a really rich gravy, heaps of herbs, and don't get me started on garlic! I LOVE this stinky beast! Anyway, get a-mixing!

Pour the gravy all over your veggie/lamb stack, add a few bay leaves, stand back so you don't drool in the pan, and admire your work for a few seconds. Pat yourself on the back. You have earned it!

Chuck this baby in the oven for 4 hours.

Now, I recommend that you mix this baby up a few times while cooking. ESPECIALLY in the last hour. Otherwise your lamb may overcook a little, taters may burn, and the ones at the bottom may just be mush.

While this is cooking, let me teach you about my nickname... Cyclone Samantha..

Poor Adam nearly goes into a cold sweat when I spend more than 10 mins in the kitchen. I normally end up with food on the bench, floor, walls, roof, China... You get the idea. Adam even rates the Cyclonic force.
This mess I'd guess to be around a category 2. Not bad!

Ready for the final product?

Yep. It's ugly. But one of the most delicious meals I have eaten. EVER.
I heated up a french stick, smothered it in butter, and we dug in. Adam ate 3 times what I did.

On the Food-Babies scale?
I'm having octuplets. Twice.

BUT I did forget something VERY important! The fresh mint leaves over the top when I took it out of the oven! D'OH!

I think next time I will add mint sauce to the gravy....

What Babies?

2012-01-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Food Babies.

I don't quite remember where this term came from. I think it may have been my brother. Or one of his friends...

Anyway. It can be defined as that lovely bloated feeling you get when you eat WAY too much good food.

And I love good food. I find myself impregnated with food babies at least 3 times a week (this may not be helping my slightly high cholesterol levels) and I think it is time I share food babies with everyone else.

A quick rundown before we start with the food.
My name is Samantha. I live with my partner Adam. He is often my guinea pig. I work in admin, and previously worked as a pastry chef. Cooking is something I am extremely passionate about. I love nothing better than a beautiful home-cooked meal. I don't do 5 star, fancy-schmancy meals that cost $500 for 2 bites. I prefer a big plate of comforting stew and mash any day. Cake decorating is a different story. I could (and have) spent hours meticulously decorating cakes.

I don't usually 'follow' recipes. I add things and make it up as I go along, using the recipe as a guide.

Here is my guide. Chop and change as you wish.