Little Blueberry Cheesecakes

Was a complete fiasco disaster.  No wonder I haven't posted anything in months......

Yes.... even the best of us, through to the least best of us, have abysmal days..

Let's make Laksa. Or at least give it a go

If Asian food seems exotic - and therefore difficult - I felt the same way!! Until Laksa paste turned up on Supermarket shelves.  There are 3 I use and no, I'm not getting paid to say that.

The best (and cheapest) is almost always out of stock.  If I find it, I buy 2.  If it's on special, I buy all of them.  It's this stuff:

Everything in one simple packet and generally under $2.

Option 2 is this:  a tad more pricey at about $3.50

followed closely by option 3:   even more pricey, which is starting to seem silly.

 all the rest of the pastes are much of a muchness unless you start to think about making your own.  Which is something I'll look at in about 10 more years.

Ultimately what you need to know is that all of these pastes require some stock and some coconut cream as the secret added ingredients.

What you need:     

YOU NEED TO FIGURE OUT IF YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE A SEAFOOD, CHICKEN, MEAT OR VEGI LAKSA.  

I'm doing a Chicken Laksa:  So I need some Chicken stock - I'm just as happy to use Stock Cubes or one of those 1 litre Pantry Packs of Stock, but as I have the Chicken pieces - and the time, I may as well make it.  The stock is not the stock to write home to mother about, it's a means to an end:

I put 1kilo of Chicken Legs (Free Range, Happy-Living Legs from Happy-Living Chickens) into 6 cups of water with some salt, bay leaves, oregano, pepper and fennel seeds. Bring the whole lot to the boil with the lid on, then turn down, put the lid half on/half off and simmer for half an hour.  REAL stock is so much more than this... but it'll do, and it's easy.

 

You may as well make a cup of espresso at the same time.  I generally do.

Turn the heat off after 30 minutes and let it sit there for a while.  That's your stock, together with your chicken pieces.  Gather the rest of the stuff you need:

Laksa Paste (see above)

1 Can of coconut milk (or coconut cream, if you're feeling gluttonous and reckless)

Either Vermicelli noodles, or instant noodles or even some other rice noodles, but vermicelli is along the path of least resistance...

Oil & Onion

500g - 1 kilo Meat, Vegies, Chicken, Prawns... whichever.  I use Chicken legs AND any vegies I have around

2 cups of Stock

Bean Sprouts & Coriander

It's a shame you can't buy a few Bean Sprouts.  I have found small cans perfect for this dish, but not often.  I'm generally left with buying a 2 kilo bag of them (and really, nobody purposely eats that many bean sprouts) or a 400g can of them - same problem just not as large.  I tried omitting them altogether, but these simple things are essential for this dish.  Essential.

Firstly - do your noodles:  Grab about 200g (or more..) of vermicelli noodles, squish them into a heat proof (preferably glass) container big enough to hold them if they double in size.  Pour boiling water over them to cover, cover the dish with whatever you can that's also heat proof and leave it while you cook dinner.   5 -10 minutes should be plenty, but if you don't like how the noodles are after 5 minutes, adjust the time to your taste

                                                             (You don't really need to cover it either)

I'm going to put some vegies into the mix because I've got some vegies running the gauntlet at the bottom of the fridge, so... I chopped them up with an onion and added all these vegies (horrors! at the same time) to a wok with lots of Grapeseed Oil (it burns at a higher temperature).

 

I played with this for about 3 or 4 minutes, then added some frozen peas, corn & carrots because there just wasn't enough colour in the mix.  Almost immediately, I added the Laksa Paste and stirred it around at a bit of a high temp until the smell went from "You've got to be kidding me?" to, "Oh, I see where this is going...."

I gave it a few more minutes of aroma mingling and then added an entire can of Coconut Cream, stirring that around for a good minute and a half, I turned the heat down a bit.

  

Then I took the lid off the chicken stock right next to the wok on the stove and took out each piece of chicken and added it to the Laksa mix.

 Once they had all been added, I picked up the pot of Chicken Stock and added enough of the stock until I was happy with the contents of the Laksa pot (maybe about 1 and a half cups). 

 The rest of the stock can be used for all sorts of things later - but that's another blog.

 then this quickly transforms to a richer orange colour that transforms your whole house into an South Sea vacation



Leave it just long enough for the meat to drop off the bones. Considering it has been cooked while making the stock, it wont take long..

The Laksa is mostly cooked.  Leave it to simmer for about 3 minutes.  This is not a meal to be cooked for hours.  It should all be done in about 15 minutes if you're not making stock.  Which is why you should prepare the vermicelli early in the piece.

 

Now that serendipitous moment when the noodles are ready, the laksa is cooked, you have chopped up some coriander, found the elusive perfect amount of beansprouts (or found 15 more recipes calling for them), and you also slivered off some slices of spring onion/shallot you just discovered in your garden and it's time to put it all together:

First:  drain the noodles, and leave them draining over a bowl while you dish out the required amount into everyone's bowl.

Then add a couple of chicken drumsticks, followed by a few ladles of the yummy soupy laksa stuff

Then throw in a pinch of shallots,

followed by a handful of bean sprouts

and topped off with as much coriander as your little heart desires.

Done

It was delicious, even though this Laksa - being Malaysian Laksa Paste (like I knew there was a difference) is substantially hotter than Thai Laksa Paste.....

Cooking's sometimes hard enough, but do I have to wash up also?

The short answer is yes... unless we use banana leaves to serve and eat with our fingers and stir with sticks (not really a bad idea...)

but we can keep the cookware down, which often includes the grottiest implements to wash.

ONE POT WONDERS

Roast Chicken and Char-Grilled Vegetables. 

Bake the whole thing in one pot!!  

This is also a good pantry dinner (not much from the fridge)

Turn the oven on to about 180/350.

Throw together 6 slices of bread (cut off crusts and cut into little squares); a jar of roasted char-grilled vegies (drained), one shredded BBQ chicken and some spinach leaves.  Stir it together IN the dish you're going to cook it in, you don't have to go overboard, just so the chicken isn't all on one side and the spinach wont turn into a black mess in the corner.

Whisk up 6 eggs with about 1 and a bit cups of milk and pour it over the chicken/vegie mix.  Leave it to swoon a bit while you tidy up the little tiny mess in the kitchen.

Grate some cheese over the top of the goodies in the dish and place it in the oven in order for it to consider how it can warm the cockles of your heart.  You should give it at least 35 minutes thinking time.

The bread becomes golden when it comes up with an idea and miraculously the eggs set at about the same time.

Eat it!!  Sometimes it looks like this - but the bottom of the dish couldn't possibly be this clean if you've just taken out a slice.  If it is, all power to you - your washing up is going to be even more minimal.  If it's not, it's because you just BAKED in it, which is how things should be.

Moist - emphasis on moist - Orange Poppy Seed Cake

I still haven't got around to explaining the purpose of this blog.... bear with me. Perhaps if you read and see my madcap way of cooking, it'll dawn on you.  Nobody has to be a good cook in order to cook

I love this cake, but although it takes minutes to slap together, the "boiling oranges" bit can take a fair whack of time (and the 'boiled orange' is where we get the moistness of this cake - you can choose not to, but you'll just have an orange poppy seed cake then, not a moist orange poppy seed cake).  

But I just found out I can microwave the oranges!!!  Never one to shirk a good nuclear blast, I currently have my oranges in the microwave for 8 minutes (that's a long time to be nuked).  

HOW TO MAKE THE CAKE 

I turned the oven on.  You know - the usual moderate oven thingy

170deg C/350F.    

I also readied my cake tin.  I have recently upgraded from my tiny little, rusty-round-the-edges cake tin, to a high-top spring form pan.  THIS IN ITSELF TRANSFORMS YOU INTO A COOK WHO KNOWS WHAT THEY'RE DOING.  The cake tin needs to be oiled/buttered OR... my personal favourite: spray the crap out of it with cooking oil spray - IT DOESN'T MATTER which oil.  It's just to stop it sticking.  You can, if you want (and it always looks good) cut out a circle of baking paper the same size as the bottom of your cake tin.  Put it in the tin - no point cutting it out and putting it anywhere else.  It too will aid in the smooth transition from tin to cake cooling rack after it's holiday in the tropics of the oven. 

Don't worry yourself over your cutting out abilities.  I have never had a cake complain.

The actual cake recipe:

2 oranges – boiled twice with fresh water for 15 minutes OR microwave as below.  Then roughly chopped, skin & all (boiling it twice with fresh water takes the acid taste away - which will be interesting to see if the microwave version can eliminate that taste..)  185g butter, melted or 1 cup of vegetable oil  3 eggs  1 cup castor sugar  1 ½ cups self-raising flour - it doesn't matter if it's Gluten Free or 'normal'  2 Tablespoons poppy seeds

YOU CAN'T STUFF UP SOUP, CAN YOU?

I don't always love food, but when I do we are a good team in a strong relationship and somehow symbiotic, even though one of us ends up eaten.  

I remember my early forays into the chemistry of food.  Yes, yes, I am from the era when "Cooking" subjects were not only mandatory for girls but they were transitioning to "Home Economics" in order to help us better understand our worth.  But really, we just cooked.  My first cooking class at Springwood High School (after the mandatory 'go out and buy all these things' class and having made an apron in 'Sewing' class), was "How to Make a Banana Sandwich".  No kidding.  

Truth be told I actually learnt something.  

Firstly, she told me to butter the bread right to the edges after spying my splodge of butter quite evenly centred on the two slices in front of me.  Having grown up in a margarine household, butter remained cold and untamed to me: any attempt at getting it to behave was met with a nasty gash in my bread.  

Patience was my second lesson: Nothing of worth was rushed.  I was taught to wait for that sweet spot when butter was at its most spreadable; or when the oven had preheated; or the required chemical reaction had occurred - which required timing and order, long before I could venture further to discover the elusive art of perfectly timed Baking.  

The last lesson of the Banana Sandwich involved the correct ingredients: Prior to my Cooking Class Guru's intervention I included sugar on the list.  When she came to check the contents of our sandwiches I thought I had done a disservice to the world of gastronomy and female intelligence by the look of complete horror on her face.  I covered the blight as quickly as possible with the perfectly-timed, room-temperature-buttered (right to the edges) slice and shoved it ever-so-indelicately into my mouth.  It was lunch time after all.

I was made to redo my sandwich, with scraps of leftovers from the perfectionists sitting either row of me.  I was told I was never to put sugar on a sandwich of 'any kind' ever again, lest I forfeit "Home Economics" altogether and would be made to repeat a grade.  I didn't believe her exaggerated threats, but having tasted the subtle yet newly sweet taste of fruit over refinery, I also found it relatively easy never to put sugar on any sandwich I ate again*...

*fairy bread being a different matter altogether 

(photo courtesy of Indulgy)

From correctly-buttered banana sandwiches to a 10 course Italian meal for 28 people with nothing but a regular household stove & oven, I have battled my wits and energy against food.  I became a vegetarian through financial choice when I left home (back in those days I think we all lived on weekly wages of something like $70 a week).  I'm no longer a vegetarian (so all you carnivores can keep reading), although I choose vegetable meals more often than those with meat of any kind.  Being a vegetarian - for whatever reason - meant really thinking about your meals, which I mostly enjoyed.  I pored over recipe books borrowed from libraries and bought at St Vinnies.  At 10am I would be thinking about dinner at 6.30pm, by midday I had the books out, reviewing each for taste, simplicity and available ingredients, by 2pm I had a recipe in mind and would need to walk across the road to the fruit and veg shop to buy all the yummy components for the Roullade or Quiche or Nut Loaf.. If anything involved pulses, well.... I'd actually have to start that meal the day before!  Yep... vegetarianism and a certain Cooking teacher whose name I can't recall, but whose lesson I never forgot taught me the fundamentals about cooking: stretching everything right to the edge, using the right ingredients* and patience.

** there are no right ingredients

Having learnt my cullinary lessons over forty years, I reckon I can cook the really good stuff now.