Random Receipes

I couldn't really think of a theme or overarching idea or thing-to-link-these-together for this posting. So let's just call it "Cool Receipes I've Tried and Why They Were". (sounds like a topic for Son 1's Show and tell!). There seem to be quite a lot of curries and spicy foods; coincidence or me rebelling aganst my meat-and-three-veg upbringing??

• Chicken Laksa: this one I tried as part of my quest  to have our regular Thai-and-movie night home made. It was great fun as I had an excuse to go and explore my freindly neighborhood asian grocery store and find things like fried Asian shallots (which made it look very authentic), kaffir lime leaves (in a jar not fresh, but better than nothing) and Thai basil. Very easy but very delcious.

• Lamb Red Duck Curry: which taught me that curry is kind-of color coded, with green not so hot but red quite hot! But it did let me use plam sugar again (which I love using as it makes me feel very chef-like grating it up), and my mortar and pestle to pound peanuts, which makes me feel very apothecarian (if that's even a word???)

• Sri Lankan Chicken Curry: (from 'Amanda's on the Edge' at Windsor Edge winery): this was exciting as I got to make a curry past from scratch! It's funny, as a few years ago, I had dismissed this act as crazy when a foodie mate said that he had done it himself; surely just buy it in a jar?!?!?But it was lots of fun mixing it all together, even if the end result didn't look restaurant quality (still tasted delicious!)

• Risotto with Red Wine (from Jamie Oliver): I have always been a fan of risotto, ever since I was shown how to make it properyl (thanks Sheree!), but I always used white wine, and most memorably with chicken and pesto (mmmmm). Now I love red wine as much as the next person (especially on a Friday night on the couch with chocolate) but I was a bit wary about how it would go in a risotto. But my fears were unfounded as it was awesome; a lovely winter take on an already wintery dish. I also got to use dried porcini mushrooms for the first time, which was made even cooler by the fact that I had bought them at Salamanca market in Tasmania! Delicious!

 Other recent cooking adventures included a Yule dinner with roast turkey and a encore of the triple-cooked roast potatoes, with sticky date pudding and maple walnut ice cream for dessert (which survived an only partially frozen ice-cream maker bowl), and a tomato soup with molten bocconcini (you cooke dit int he over for a few minutes) served with garlic and parmesan bread (the garlic was roasted first so not as strong a flovour, which is great for hte kids - very yum).

And on that note, I think I will have to go and trawl my thesaurus for new words apart from Yum and Delicious. Either that or stop cooking such yummy food .....