I seem to be quite slack at updating this thing regularly. I do cook and I do take pictures, but by the time I've had dinner I don't really feel like sitting down and writing about it. So instead, you get the content in batches of when the inspiration strikes. On the upside, you get several recipes at once, so if you're a "once a week" reader, then it's perfect really :)
This month I've been trying to be extra frugal and not spend any money that isn't planned. I was whittling away hundreds of dollars on the incidental "I'll just pop into the supermarket on the way to the train station" purchases. Literally, hundreds! So this month, I said to myself, "No more spending unless it's from a list". The first four days were really really hard! I wanted that takeaway coffee or to go out for lunch or there's a sale on at that store. It's amazing how much time you spend thinking about buying things when you don't have any money!
A few days later it settled down. I realised that I have a ton of food at home and I should make do with what I have instead of constantly buying more. I borrowed a book called The $21 dollar challenge that focuses exactly on that - cooking with what you have instead of buying things you don't use.
On the second weekend of the month, I ventured out to the markets to buy some supplies. Only bought the things that I needed for a couple of recipes: potato bake (already had potato but needed bacon), chicken casserole (The Mad Butcher had thighs for $4.99 a kilo!!), and apple crumble (a friend at work gave me a whole bunch of apples from her father's orchard). Also bought a few household supplies, such as coat hangers and toilet cleaner. I haven't yet ventured out into the world of baking soda for cleaning, but I'm sure the time will come!
Today I noticed that Whitcoulls has a massive sale on books (they're in administration), so bought Yates Garden Fresh Cookbook. It has recipes but also a lot of information on how to grow your own vegies. It's good because it talks about having a continuous vegetable garden, not just about how to grow one thing and be done with it. Might get inspired!
So yes, I have been spending far less money. Unfortunately that means I am not cooking things that all that fancy and they are kind of making me fat. The cheaper food choices are also paired with my current medication that specifically states "watch out as it may lead you to overeat", so I have to be extra-vigilant. But that ice cream just seems so good! Have to be strong.
I also went to a cooking class the other night. I've never been to one before, and I bought this for me and a friend as a birthday/Christmas gift for her. We got all the ingredients and recipe provided and the instruction, and we cooked it right there, and then ate it and shared a bottle of wine. It was really quite nice for $40 each. They do classes several times a week.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Fried mozzarella and aubergine sandwiches with tomato salad
I got this recipe off Hairy Bikers (man, I love that show). It's very filling, and I assume it is quite low in calories as most of the ingredients are vegetables. I watched them make this recipe on TV and recreated it from memory. Which means I forgot half the ingredients :)
So my salad only had tomatoes, olives, gherkins, salt, and a dash of olive oil. Was still tasty though!
Surprisingly I remembered everything that went into the sandwiches, except the flour. But seeing as there's already breadcrumbs, I figured I didn't need it. I left the frying pan a bit too hot and let the sandwiches burn. Next time must remember to use lower heat as my stove is super powerful -- medium heat is enough to boil water (ie. high heat on every other stove).
We ate these for Sunday brunch and it was quite pleasant to start the day with so many vegetables :)
So my salad only had tomatoes, olives, gherkins, salt, and a dash of olive oil. Was still tasty though!
Surprisingly I remembered everything that went into the sandwiches, except the flour. But seeing as there's already breadcrumbs, I figured I didn't need it. I left the frying pan a bit too hot and let the sandwiches burn. Next time must remember to use lower heat as my stove is super powerful -- medium heat is enough to boil water (ie. high heat on every other stove).
We ate these for Sunday brunch and it was quite pleasant to start the day with so many vegetables :)
Pan-fried lamb with leeks and beans
I got this recipe off Hairy Bikers. Except I didn't have pork, so I used lamb. Real lamb, not hogget or mutton that pretends to be lamb, mind you. Now that I go to the Saturday markets, I've become quite the lamb snob :)
I didn't have flageolet beans either, so I used a can of "Mixed Beans". And I didn't have Calvados, so I used Apple Schnapps, and I didn't have apple juice, so I used leftover stock that I had in the fridge. Frugal!
Three leeks turned out to be a LOT of vegetables, and the lamb turned out perfect. The creamy sauce is really tasty and is a perfect fit to the leeks. I didn't have any sage leaves either, so I just went without that part of the recipe. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't have any garlic that day, haha, I did use more mustard that it said, so it was quite noticeable.
In the end, it was quite a variation from the recipe, but it was still delicious and didn't cost me a fortune having to buy things I didn't have :)
I didn't have flageolet beans either, so I used a can of "Mixed Beans". And I didn't have Calvados, so I used Apple Schnapps, and I didn't have apple juice, so I used leftover stock that I had in the fridge. Frugal!
Three leeks turned out to be a LOT of vegetables, and the lamb turned out perfect. The creamy sauce is really tasty and is a perfect fit to the leeks. I didn't have any sage leaves either, so I just went without that part of the recipe. Actually, come to think of it, I didn't have any garlic that day, haha, I did use more mustard that it said, so it was quite noticeable.
In the end, it was quite a variation from the recipe, but it was still delicious and didn't cost me a fortune having to buy things I didn't have :)
Russian Fudge
This is a recipe I got given at work. It seems to be doing the rounds, with everyone at work making it. It's extremely simple, and, like the carrot halwa, is made in the microwave.
Combine the sugar, condensed milk, and butter in a microwave safe dish. Microwave for nine minutes, stirring thoroughly every three minutes. Stir in the white chocolate melts and microwave for three more minutes. Put in a slice dish to set (or on a lined baking tray).
I didn't have Nestle melts, so I just used Pam's white chocolate buttons. And I had ghee leftover from making the carrot halwa, so I used that instead of butter. Didn't seem to make much of a difference.
Watch your microwave power settings as mine is too powerful, and I ended up with half the fudge on the rotating tray instead of in the dish. Was quite a mess! I cooked my fudge on medium power (1200 watt microwave), and it still came out in the last three minutes before the buttons go in.
Not for diabetics :)
Ingredients:
3 cups brown sugar
1 can condensed milk
125 g butter
375 g packet Nestle white chocolate melts
Combine the sugar, condensed milk, and butter in a microwave safe dish. Microwave for nine minutes, stirring thoroughly every three minutes. Stir in the white chocolate melts and microwave for three more minutes. Put in a slice dish to set (or on a lined baking tray).
I didn't have Nestle melts, so I just used Pam's white chocolate buttons. And I had ghee leftover from making the carrot halwa, so I used that instead of butter. Didn't seem to make much of a difference.
Watch your microwave power settings as mine is too powerful, and I ended up with half the fudge on the rotating tray instead of in the dish. Was quite a mess! I cooked my fudge on medium power (1200 watt microwave), and it still came out in the last three minutes before the buttons go in.
Not for diabetics :)
Ingredients:
3 cups brown sugar
1 can condensed milk
125 g butter
375 g packet Nestle white chocolate melts
Carrot Halwa
I got this recipe off the Hairy Bikers. As I was baking for people at work (self-celebrating my three year anniversary with my current employer), I doubled all the ingredients and rolled out the halwa on a tray so it would make a slice.
This recipe is extremely expensive if you get the saffron and the vanilla pod for the cream. I did buy them and only then noticed how expensive they were. In the end, I didn't make the cream as I was taking the slice into work, so the vanilla beans are still unopened. For the price of gold, it's just as well! Ghee is also not cheap, and you don't actually have to double the ghee if you double the rest of the recipe, because it's used just in the frying of semolina. An Indian person at work said that the whole liquid off the frying is supposed to go into it, but I just poured off the fat into the sink and chucked in the fried semolina.
For the final step, I didn't serve it in glasses or with cream, but simply lay it out on a baking tray, pressed it flat, and put it in the fridge. It set nicely overnight, I then sliced it to take to work.
This is a really tasty dessert. It's not as sweet as I expected it to be (and apparently not sweet enough to be truly Indian, hehe). The cardamom makes it extremely moorish. You can also go without the saffron as it's just for the colour I think.
This recipe is extremely expensive if you get the saffron and the vanilla pod for the cream. I did buy them and only then noticed how expensive they were. In the end, I didn't make the cream as I was taking the slice into work, so the vanilla beans are still unopened. For the price of gold, it's just as well! Ghee is also not cheap, and you don't actually have to double the ghee if you double the rest of the recipe, because it's used just in the frying of semolina. An Indian person at work said that the whole liquid off the frying is supposed to go into it, but I just poured off the fat into the sink and chucked in the fried semolina.
For the final step, I didn't serve it in glasses or with cream, but simply lay it out on a baking tray, pressed it flat, and put it in the fridge. It set nicely overnight, I then sliced it to take to work.
This is a really tasty dessert. It's not as sweet as I expected it to be (and apparently not sweet enough to be truly Indian, hehe). The cardamom makes it extremely moorish. You can also go without the saffron as it's just for the colour I think.
White Chocolate Cheesecake
My friend Amy linked me to this blog, from which I took this recipe. I am a bit of a klutz when it comes to baking (but not cooking for some reason!), so it was somewhat of a disaster. But the cake still turned out delicious, yet not quite cake-like.
The biggest challenge was melting the white chocolate. The first block I burned. I've got to say though, burned white chocolate is absolutely delicious. Kind of like a caramel cookie. I didn't know what to do when it burned (this was 1 minute + 1 minute + 1 minute in 1200 watt microwave, so anything less nuclear will probably be just right), at first I went through a mental list of friends who could bring me new white chocolate, even thought of the ex's parents that live miles away. Then it struck me -- the dairy down the road! Whoa, this being self-sufficient business is quite a feat!
So here I was, traipsing through Naenae, in pouring rain, in the middle of the cold dark night, in search of white chocolate to go into my cheesecake (yeah yeah uphill both ways in the snow, world smallest violin, etc etc). There was a massive dead seagull on my way even. In fact, I thought it was a dead cat until I saw the wings. Huge.
Naturally, the dairy had every which chocolate bar but white! I did find one block hidden behind some others though, so the cheesecake was saved. Didn't have much luck melting this block properly either, so ended up with a few lumps in the cheesecake. The people at work said it was actually a nice surprise.
I have a silicone cake pan, and didn't quite fit into the baking pan to which you add water. So the cake was misshapen, and when I took the silicone pan out, the cake split as the pan took its original shape. Also, I think I didn't bake the cake enough, so it was a bit mousse-like. It was still delicious though, albeit quite expensive. Dairy is really a luxury item now, isn't it. :( I'm sure it'll be a better cake if I make it another time.
I decorated mine with tinned strawberries.
The biggest challenge was melting the white chocolate. The first block I burned. I've got to say though, burned white chocolate is absolutely delicious. Kind of like a caramel cookie. I didn't know what to do when it burned (this was 1 minute + 1 minute + 1 minute in 1200 watt microwave, so anything less nuclear will probably be just right), at first I went through a mental list of friends who could bring me new white chocolate, even thought of the ex's parents that live miles away. Then it struck me -- the dairy down the road! Whoa, this being self-sufficient business is quite a feat!
So here I was, traipsing through Naenae, in pouring rain, in the middle of the cold dark night, in search of white chocolate to go into my cheesecake (yeah yeah uphill both ways in the snow, world smallest violin, etc etc). There was a massive dead seagull on my way even. In fact, I thought it was a dead cat until I saw the wings. Huge.
Naturally, the dairy had every which chocolate bar but white! I did find one block hidden behind some others though, so the cheesecake was saved. Didn't have much luck melting this block properly either, so ended up with a few lumps in the cheesecake. The people at work said it was actually a nice surprise.
I have a silicone cake pan, and didn't quite fit into the baking pan to which you add water. So the cake was misshapen, and when I took the silicone pan out, the cake split as the pan took its original shape. Also, I think I didn't bake the cake enough, so it was a bit mousse-like. It was still delicious though, albeit quite expensive. Dairy is really a luxury item now, isn't it. :( I'm sure it'll be a better cake if I make it another time.
I decorated mine with tinned strawberries.
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