Tommy Thai Smile

Last night we didn't feel like cooking, so decided to go to a restaurant instead. Went with some friends that live just around the corner from us - Bel, Trina and Matt.
There is a Thai restaurant that has recently opened it's doors. They were originally situated a few doors up, but ended buying, renovating and moving into this new store.
It looked really posh. Very dim lighting which set the mood for an intimate dinner. Just a really pretty restaurant to look at, they had put a lot of work into making it look good.
The menu had lots to choose from. We all picked the dishes together and decided to share between us all. The food was excellent, we chose:
Entres - money bags and spring rolls
Main - Red Curry Prawn, Chicken Pad Thai and Bangkok Beef
Better than your average Thai. Same price but slightly smaller servings.
Am thinking about having my birthday there as is a nice setting to have 10-15 people. It's nice to have a good Thai restaurant within walking distance of home. Thai is definately one of my favourite foods!

Raspberry and Chocolate Muffins

Ahhh, dessert - my favourite, my specialty!
At about 8.30pm Monday night, Tony thought it would be a good idea to cook some muffins from scratch for dessert. He selected a recipe from one of his manyfood magazines and hauled me into the kitchen to help out.
In the end I managed to cook the whole lot on my own. Tony did supervise to ensure that I didn't miss anything off the recipe (as this has happened on the odd occasion). He also cleaned up immediately after every utensil was used. He gets quite agitated when someone else is in his kitchen, so he's got to find something to do to be able to stay close : )
Muffins were quite easy to make actually.
Just put in some flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, etc. After you mix the basic ingredients, you can choose anything you want to flavour it. We chose rasberries and chocolate. We had frozen rasberries, which Tont thought was a great idea as when you fold the mixture, they don't break. Muffins took about 15mins in the oven.
We had them with some thickened cream. They were really yum, if I do say so myself : )

Roasted Lamb Loin with Red Wine Jus

On Sunday night Tony cooked Roasted Lamb with Red Wine Jus.
I don't have the recipe or have much of an idea of how Tony cooked it, but I can say that it was bloody tops!
We went to an Italian Restaurant in Drummoyne on Saturday night. Tony ordered a lamb dish. It was quite nice, however they managed to ruin the 'jus' by putting a kilo of salt in it.
Tony then put the challenge down to cook some lamb, but do it right.
This is what I do know - He fried the lamb loin first in a pan, then put it in the oven for a while. Once the lamb was cooked he used the juice from the pan to start the jus. Added some red wine and other yummy flavours. Vegies - Put some broccolini and asparugus in boiling water. I took them out of the water when I thought they were ready, Tony congratulated me, he said "these are cooked to perfection". I was quite happy that I could help.
Once the vegies were ready Tony 'plated up'. See the attached picture to see how lovely it looked.
The lamb was 100 times better than what we ate in the restaurant, it was sooo tender. The jus was absolutely perfect.
Tony reckons he'd like to cook this for a group of people, as it was really easy and really yum.
I wonder who the lucky group will be??

What is the Meatrix ?

Check it out here www.themeatrix.com . Flash movie worth the watch.

Prosciutto wrapped scallops

Last weekend we got out of the city for a weekend up to a friends holiday house at Lemon Tree passage near Nelson Bay. Beautiful weekend with nice weather, some good friends and some pretty good food.

Spent some time during the days at the beach, playing cricket and frisbee - couple of dips in the ocean, then back to the house for some food. After the swim we went shopping in ?Anna Bay? where we found a great little butcher / deli / greengrocer all-in-one. They had some great meats and some really nice fresh local fruit and veg.

Got some steaks to order 3 t-bones, 2 sirloins and a scotch, some lamb kebabs for that late night snack and some prosciutto. Had the idea of the wrapped scallops, so asked the butcher if there was a seafood shop nearby. The lady waiting next to us says - "Yea - right across the road, I own it". Asked if she had scallops and they did, so headed across and grabbed some.

Only had enough of the prosciutto to wrap about 1/2 the scallops, so just seasoned the others and brushed with extra virgin olive oil. Made a bit of a rocket salad with a balsamic vinegar, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper dressing. Seared the scallops a really hot BBQ plate for just a couple of minutes each side, a minute longer for the prosciutto ones.

Oh yea, also grabbed 2 dozen oysters from the oyster barn on the way back into Lemon Tree. Did 1/2 chilli kilpatrick and 1/2 natural. Finished off with the steaks, some baked spuds and another salad. Thanks to Rhea, Bron, Bel, Trina and Matt for making it such a fun weekend and eating everything without complaints. Thanks Trina for the photos, I nicked them from your site, hope you don't mind.

Smoked Trout

Took some of the smoked trout and sourdough that I picked up on saturday and made a bit of a snack for some special guests on Sunday night. Cut the sourdough loaf into 2 slices, each piece into quarters, brushed with olive oil, toasted under the grill until golden on each side.

While toasting, made dressing using sour cream, horseradish cream, dash of olive oil, and s+p. Mix together, then spread onto toasts after rubbing the toast with a piece of garlic. Top with some smoked trout and fresh chives.

Pyrmont Growers Markets

The Pyrmont Growers Markets are on the first saturday of every month at Pyrmont - in the park across the road from Star City Casino. Got down this morning around 9 (its open from 7-11am). There must have been around 100 stalls with everything from specialty mushrooms, trays of fresh figs, gourmet pet food, coffee, venison, duck, lamb, wagyu beef, chilli sauce and goat.

Only had about $40 on me, so had to head back across the road to the casino within about 10 minutes and grab quite a bit more cash. Ended up coming home with:

• Honey smoked trout from Ibor
• 2 Wagyu steaks , 2 wagyu pies from Condobolin
• 2 Lamb shanks (Ladysmith Lamb)
  
• Organic spelt sourdough loaf from La Tartine
  
• Bunch of fresh baby rocket or arugula
• Rosemary for the herb patch on the balcony
• Fresh fettucine & smoked salmon, parsely and ricotta ravioli from Peppe's Pasta
• Sydney Morning Herald with free Tropfest DVD

Will try to make it more often, wont be parking at Star City though (min charge $15), will try to get Rhea up early to join me I think.

Prawn Toasts

Really need to spend some time updating the blog. Been doing lots of cooking, but not lots of blogging. Have some requests also for a couple of recipes, plus a couple of friends want to know some easy easy stuff that can be made from scratch, but in a small amount of time.

Saturday night saw a menu of chicken & spinich and lamb & rosemary sausage rolls (Easiest you can make), followed by some asian style starters - Prawn & Scallop dumplings, then some seafood spring rolls. Didnt get time for the special fried rice with loads of bbq pork, so made it Sunday night for work lunches.

Sunday night lashed out on a pork roast, a rolled loin roast, from Pete's meats at St Ives. They always have their meat looking so well prepared and fresh in the window. Expensive for a 2kg pork loin at $39, but it was worth it. No bone, easy to carve - about 2.5 hours on the webber.

Don't have a lot of pics for the above, as I couldn't find the camera, but will put up some recipes soon and photo them next time I make it. I did have a pic from the prawn toasts I made some time ago though. Easy as and taste great. Fresh green prawns rather than the minced versions they do at the chinese restaurants.

Prawn Toasts

• Get 12 fresh green prawns peel them leaving tails intact, cut down the back of them, devein and cut a little further but not all the way through so you can flatten them, place in a bowl with a few spoonfuls of cornflour and water to make them just wet, but not as covered as a batter.
• Get 6 slices of bread, remove the crusts and cut in half.
• Press a prawn onto each 1/2 slice of bread. The cornflour makes them stick. Slice some spring onions finely and stick them onto the cornflour. Put on a plate in the fridge until ready to cook.
  
• Deep fry for a few minutes until prawns are cooked, and bread is browned.
• Serve with some sauce (sweet chilli, garlic, soy, fish sauce mixed).

Baked Pumpkin & Spinich Fritata

More to come, but made a fantastic fritata that mum found in one of my delicious mags. Used as a side, with a party mother and father had tonight with a few close friends. Had some steak, salads, and nice desserts. Tried out a recipe we found in aunty sue's cookbook called $100 cheesecake. (Named after the fact that someone tried it in a restaurant and asked the chef for the recipe, who asked for $100 for it.) Well it seemed to work pretty well. Put a layer of mango on top... nice.... Pics and recipe? (Maybe) to follow soon...

Sundried Tomato & Herbed Lamb Roast

Couple of friends round for a lamb roast on the webber. First leg roast ive done on it since getting the webber for xmas. Put some olive oil, sundried tomatoes, garlic, fresh herbs, salt and pepper in the wizzer and spread over it like a paste. Left for a few hours in the fridge to marinate, then straight on the webber for a couple of hours.

Pete & Jodes off to India

Well Pete and Jodes have started their trip. Flew out last Monday night. Follow their progress through asia on their blog site here
www.smogfree.net . For a visual, jump onto Google earth and follow their progress.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

I saw this guy on tv some time ago, James Reeson. He was cooking from the cupboard and he said he had a choc cake mix and a tin of beetroot and some onions. So he went on to make a chocolate beetroot cake. It looked pretty good what he made, haven't gotten around to making it yet.

Here is a link to the recipe: Chocolate Beetroot Cake

And I have linked his main page in my food links on the right.

Seared Scallops & Carrot Fritters with Yoghurt Dressing

Well gave it a go, and turned out pretty well. Got the approval from the expert taster. Check below for the recipe. May add the full details later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/searedscallopscarrot_72807.shtml

Tomato and herb lamb shanks

Last night I made some Lamb Shanks after seeing some ideas on a tv show. Ducked up to the butcher and grabbed some trimmed shanks about $3 each. Most of the below ingredients are just stuff i had in the kitchen, as i didnt really feel like shopping for many ingredients. I did grab some fresh parsely from the supermarket though for garnish.

Ingreds

4 trimmed lamb shanks dusted in plain flour
2 cans tomatoes
fresh garlic
vegetable stock (some in freezer)
1/2 punnet of grape of cherry tomatoes
1 bottle red wine (1/2 for the pot 1/2 for me)
1 large onion chopped roughly
celery
fresh herbs, parsely, oregano, mixed herbs, couple of bay leaves, black peppercorns
parsely and grated lemon rind for garnish

Mash
enough potatoes for the number of ppl
butter
2 tabs cream cheese
2 tabs fresh cream
seasoning

Method

Fry the shanks in a large pot with some olive oil to brown up on all sides. Put aside in large deep sided baking dish.

Add onions and garlic to pot, and saute until onion starts to caramelise.

Add red wine, stock, tomatoes, bay leaves, fresh herbs and the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently until reduced a little.

Pour over baking dish with shanks, cover and put in the oven for a couple of hours.

Prepare the mash about 25 minutes before the shanks are ready, and serve with some freshly steamed green beans or peas. Serve 1 shank per person on top of the mash, and sprinkly with some freshly chopped parsely and grated lemon rind.

Enjoy with the rest of the bottle of red. The meat should just fall off the bone, and be very soft and tender. This can be prepared a day ahead and left in the fridge - then reheated, like stews, they are often better the next day as they have overnight to absorb loads of flavour.

First post

Well I have created a blog site. In the process of working out what this will be used for, but have a good idea that I will comment on food and cooking mostly as this is what i spend most of my leisure time doing.

On holidays at the moment, enjoying the cricket on tv. South africa are now 7/397, pretty good score so far, but hopefully AUS will get a couple of quick wickets and get a bat today.