Dry white toast

Dry white toast

Seems the jetsetting has caught up, I've got the flu and I ache far too much to eat, let alone cook. There's something to be said for the sad fact that I can't be troubled to eat, but I can be troubled to blog.


Ingredients:

• White bread
  

Time to cook: 3 minutes (slow toaster)
Cost of ingredients: 30cents
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: Ha!

Gnocchi, with Bolognese and Meatballs

Gnocchi with Bolognese, Meatballs and a baby vegetable salad.












Nice and quick to prepare (especially when you cheat and buy the gnocchi), which apparently meant I could spend more time on the photography (note I managed to capture steam for the second time in about 50 posts). I couldn't get any pork mince tonight, so it was just veal and the bolognese suffered for it. The gnocchi was cooked to perfection and the crunchy salad made me feel virtuous as I enjoyed it so much. Managed to get the 3 year old to try all items on his plate, he wouldn't eat the rocket, but he really liked the cucumber.


Ingredients:

• Veal mince
• Tomatoes, canned
• Tomato paste
• Onion
• Garlic
• Salt
  
• Basil
• Spicy sausage, cases removed
• Gnocchi
• Baby veg salad.

Baby veg salad

• Cherry tomatoes
• Golden cherry tomatoes
• Baby cucumbers
• Baby rocket
• Baby spinach leaves
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil
• Salt

Time to prepare: About 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: Supermarket isle browsing.

Airline Food: Qantas

Muesli with Yoghurt, Fruit and Milk.




Airlines being what they are they serve meals that make absolutely no sense, we departed san francisco at 11pm and the first meal they served was breakfast! WTF? The muesli actually was very nice, crunchy and just that little bit sweet to contrast with the tanginess of the yoghurt and out of season fruit.


Detectable Ingredients:

• Oats
• Almonds
• Rice bran (I think)
• Wheat bran (I think)
• Yoghurt
• Milk
• Green melon
• Cantelope

Time to prepare: Very little I suspect
Cost of ingredients: I'd guess less than $5
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: little or none

Restaurant Meal: Khan's Mongolian BBQ

Mongolian Chicken with Noodles


Another photo-less meal, sorry. This one was enormous and I couldn't finish it, was very tasty with just the right amount of chili heat to tingle the tongue. The process was cool too, I was given a bowl and then walked along a long line of prepped ingredients selecting what I wanted. When I was finished two guys threw the raw ingredients on a huge hotplate, that looked a lot like a kettle drum, and moved it about with over sized chopsticks. Then when it was done they scrapped it off the hotplate with a flourish and presented the steaming plate to me for consumption.


Ingredients

• Noodles
• Chicken
• Pork
• Bean sprouts
• Capsicum
• Onions
• Spring onions
• Garlic
• Sesame oil
• Chili Oil
• Oyster sauce
• Soy sauce
  
• Ginger
• Sugar syrup
• Salt
• Chicken stock

Time to prepare: About 10 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $US6.49
Number of serves: 1.5
Recipe inspiration: No idea

Restaurant Meal: Santa Clara Taco Bell

Burrito Supreme and Nachos


Suprisingly this meal wasn't enormous, was tasty and wasn't particularly expensive.

Detectable Ingredients

Burrito

• Flour tortilla
• Chicken bits
  
• Beans
• Lettuce
• Tomatoes
• Onions
• Sour Cream
  
• "Cheese" (it was bright orange and had the right texture, but that's about it)

Nachos

• Corn chips
• Melted "cheese" (again bright orange)
  

Time to prepare: Less than 5 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $5.49
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: No idea

Restaurant Meal: Santa Clara Bennigan's

Chicken Caesar Salad




No photo's again, due to "restaurant policy" as politely explained by our server (and our host and our busboy). Another huge meal, this time an enormous amount of overdressed lettuce leaves. No anchovy, no egg, no bacon, so pretty much no caesar beyond bucket loads of dressing.


Detectable Ingredients:

• Cos lettuce
• Grilled chicken breast
• Croutons
• Caesar dressing
• Cheese (definitely not Parmesan as it was orange)
  

Caesar dressing

• Garlic
• Mayonaise
• Lemon juice
• Mustard (maybe, not sure something had a tang)

Time to prepare: 15 minutes from order to table
Cost of ingredients: $US8.45
Number of serves: 2
Recipe inspiration: Not sure how inspired it is to delete all the yummy bits from a recipe

Restaurant meal: David's at Santa Clara Golf and Tennis Club

Seafood Tortellini in Chardonnay Cream Sauce











Medium tasty and over priced. Came with lots of bread to soak up the excess sauce.

Detectable Ingredients:

• Mussels
• Clams
  
• Prawns
• Scallops
• Calamari
• Cheese Tortellini (appeared to be not restaurant made)
• Cream
• Chardonnay (not really detectable, but it was in the name)
• Napoli Sauce (that's the brown stuff, sorry the colours are off, it was really red)
  
• Garlic
• Salt
• Pepper

Time to prepare: 10 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $US 15.95
Number of serves: 1
Recipe Inspiration: very little.

Restaurant Meal: Santa Clara Yan Can Cook

Shrimp Pad Thai

Photos will return, I promise. A very tasty meal with just the right amount of chili, only problem was the size of the serve. It was ridiculous. I like a large serve of food, but I had trouble finishing half of it.


Detectable Ingredients

• Noodles, flat rice
• Peanuts
• Thai basil
• Shrimp
• Chili
• Bean shoots
• Soy sauce
• Lime juice
• Green onions
• Coriander
• Fish sauce

Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $US 9.20
Number of serves: 2
Recipe inspiration: Who the heck knows what's going on in Yan's mind.

Plane food: Beef Casserole with Potatoes and Pumpkin

Plane Food: Beef Casserole with Potatoes and Pumpkin and Green Salad with Balsamic Vingarette


No photos this time, due to my ineptitude. Food was not too bad, if a little bland.



Time to prepare: No idea
Cost of ingredients: Guestimate: $5
Number of serves: 1
Recipe inspiration: uninspired.

Takeaway Chinese

Takeaway Chinese


Same as last time (but I note with a little modicum of happiness, that it was a fair time ago)


Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $42
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: authentic Chinese food

Peanut Butter Crackers

Peanut Butter Crackers













Still got a queasy tummy, rice and veg wouldn't stay at lunch so I thought I'd get a little more fundamental (and small).

• Crackers
• Peanut Butter

Time to prepare: 3 minutes
Cost of ingredients: < $1
Number of serves: 1
Recipe Inspiration: none

Pressed Chicken on Toast

Pressed Chicken on Toast













This was all I could face, haven't been very well over the last 24 hours or so. The rest of the family made do with leftovers.

• Bread
• Pressed chicken
• Butter

Time to prepare: 5 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $3
Number of serves: 1
Recipe Inspiration: None required.

Lamb Rump with Crushed Peas and Bacon

Lamb with Crushed Peas with Bacon.

Idea came from a website, it looks nicer than it tastes. Although eveyone else seemed to slurp it up.

• Lamb rump
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Peas
• Bacon
• Mint
• Butter

Time to prepare: about 20 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 4
Recipe inspiration: Lamb chops with pea puree

Chicken Parma with Chips and Veg

Chicken Parma with Chips and Veg













Nice and simple and the fact that it was NOT fajitas made it very tasty.

• Chicken breast fillet
• Breadcrumbs
• Parmesan cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Tomato sauce (ready made)
• Prosciutto
• Mozzarella
• Peas
• Corn
• Brocoli
• Chips (frozen)

Time to prepare: 20 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $24
Number of serves: 4
Recipe inspiration: Too many pub meals.

Faj*yawn*itas again again

Faj*yawn*itas again again.


Three year old demanded fajitas, he got them again. Only change from before was the additional of prawns.


Cost of ingredients: About $20
Time to prepare: About 40 minutes
Number of serves: 4
Recipe inspiration: The back of a old el paso fajitas kit.

Roast Chicken with Gremolata, Chorizo and Potatoes

Roast Chicken with Gremolata, Chorizo, Potatoes and Spinach Salad












I wanted to be doing things (installing a new pantry if you care) during the time that I needed to be cooking dinner. This seemed an easy way to do both. (pantry is still not finished). Very tasty, the combination of lemon and parsley is made in heaven and miracle upon miracle, my three year old ate his salad (he'll pretty much eat anything except green leafy vegetables).

• Chicken, whole
• Salt
• Olive Oil
  
• Gremolata
• Potatoes
• Chorizo
• Spinach salad

Gremolata

• Parsley
• Lemon zest
• Garlic

Spinach Salad with Lemon Vinegarette

• Spinach
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Lemon Juice
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Time to cook: 90 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 4
Inspiration: Jamie Olivers cookbook 'Jamie's dinners'

Veal Osso Bucco

Veal Osso Bucco













This was my first attempt at transcribing a recipe from a tv show (Better Homes and Gardens) to the table, all in all it worked out alright. 4 happy people sucking on bones and mopping up plates with garlic bread. The 3 year old wasn't so enthusiastic, but he muddled through too.

• Veal shin
• Ciocchetti pasta
• Panceta
  
• Carrots
• Celery
• Shallots
  
• Chicken stock (I didn't have any veal bones to make veal stock)
  
• Parsley
  
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Pasta

• 00 flour
• eggs
• salt

Chicken Stock (purchased)

• Chicken frames, roasted
• Water
• Parsley stalks
• Celery
• Carrot
• Salt
• Pepper

Time to cook: 6 hours (including making the stock 4 hours)
Cost of ingredients: About $40
Number of serves: 5

Spaghetti Bolognese(ish)

Spaghetti Bolognese(ish)













Tonight was a bit of a poop, I had visions of salmon fillets crusted with crushed wasabi peas, but my wife still has a pregnancy induced aversion to salmon, so that dish idea died a quick death. Backup plan? Spag bol, but I'm sure my version has about as much to do with the authentic recipe as a McDonalds "sandwich" has with a real hamburger. Still it was eaten and enjoyed by all, but I still have _no_ idea about portion size for pastas.


Bolognese(ish) sauce.

• Pork mince
• Veal mince
• Onion
• Garlic
• Tinned diced tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Basil
• Salt
• Pepper

Pasta.

• 00 Flour
• Eggs
• Salt

Time to prepare: 40 minutes (needed more simmering I think)
Cost of ingredients: $15
Number of serves: 4 of pasta, 8 of sauce. (sigh)

Restaurant Meal: Terminus Hotel

"Bangers and Beans"


No photos again, I asked at the bar and they said that they didn't allow photos inside the pub? WTF? Anyways, I had a very tasty Kransky sausage on a bed of cannellini beans, tomato and chorizo.

Detectable Ingredients:

• Kransky sausage (they claimed free-range, but I've never seen a sausage gamboling in a paddock under the bright yellow sun)
• Cannellini beans
• Tomato
• Garlic
• Chorizo sausage
• Parsley

Time to prepare: 15 minutes
Cost of meal: $14

Risotto with Peas, Corn, Mushrooms, Sausage and Mint

Risotto with Peas, Corn, Mushrooms, Sausages and Mint.












Far too many ingredients, but very tasty anyway. Won points with the 3 year old as sausages are currently "my favourite food". Wife cleaned the plate and went back for more, which has to be a good sign.

• Arborio rice
• Chicken stock
• Peas
• Corn
• Swiss brown mushrooms
• Continental sausages, sans skins
• Mint
• Salt
• Butter
  
• Parmesan cheese

Time to cook: 25 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $15 ish
Number of serves: 3.5

Steak and Veg

Steak and Veg













Simple, quick and relatively yummy.

• Porterhouse steak
• Corn
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Carrots
  

Time to cook: About 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $15
Number of serves: 3

Chicken Pesto Fettucini

Chicken Pesto Fettucini












Food photography is hard! That aside this one all started with a trip to the Dromana drive-in Sunday market. There was a guy there selling herbs and vegetables so fresh they still had the dew on them from when he picked them that morning. The enormous bunch of basil screamed pesto. Add a little fettucini and some shredded chicken and a tasty meal ensues. Enjoyed by all who partook.

• Chicken thigh, shredded
• Pesto sauce
• Fettucini
• Salt
• Olive oil

Pesto Sauce

• Basil
• Garlic
• Salt
• Lemon
• Olive oil
• Pine nuts
• Parmesan cheese

Fettucini

• '00' flour
• eggs
• egg yolk
• salt
  

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $15
Number of serves: 4

Fajitas again

Fajitas

This time three year old demanded, three year old got. See previous entries for the details.

Restaurant Meal: The Dava

Baked "American Style" ribs

Holy smokes they didn't mess about, an entree serve was 14 (yep 14) ribs. Very tasty sauce, very mediocre meat. What the heck, yum.

Detectable Ingredients:

• Beef ribs
• BBQ sauce

Open Yiros

Another monster serve, this time char grilled (within an inch of shoe leather) lamb, piles of tomato, onion and lettuce, all mixed up with tzatziki on a pita.


Detectable Ingredients:

• Lamb
• Oregano
• Tomato
• Lettuce
• Pita
• Tzatziki

Time to cook: about 20 minutes (entree was up in 5 minutes, pays to be the first in the restaurant)
Cost of meal: $29.90
Number of serves: 2 (I ate both)

Guiness Beef and Vegetable Stew

Guiness Beef and Vegetable Stew













Nailed the seasoning on this one, very tasty. Perhaps I could have let it simmer a little longer for falling apart beef rather than just tender. All four plates were wiped clean, although that may be a testament to the quality of the garlic bread rather than the stew.

• Beef shoulder
• Guiness beer
• Beef stock
  
• Red wine
• Potatoes
• Carrots
• Garlic
• Tomato paste
• Sugar
• Bay leaves
  
• Thyme
• Vegemite
• Butter
  
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Coriander
• Sour cream

Time to cook: About 2 1/2 hours.
Cost of ingredients: About $25
Number of Serves: 4

Roast Lemon Marinated Chicken, Mash and Veg

Roasted Lemon Marinated Chicken with Mash and Steamed Vegetables.










An extremely tasty tender piece of chicken. The reduced marinade was delicious.

• Chicken breast fillet (marinated)
  
• Salt
  
• Pepper
  
• Lemon marinade (reduced)
• Steamed vegetables

Lemon Marinade

• Lemon juice
• Lemon zest
• Lemon squash (yep the fizzy stuff)
• Lemon Thyme
• Salt

Mashed Potato

• Potatoes
• Salt
• Butter
  
• Nutmeg

Time to prepare: 90 minutes (70 of which were marination time)
Cost of ingredients: $25
Number of serves: 4

Pizza, Ham and Prawn

Pizza, Ham, Pineapple (ick) and Prawn.












Wife demands pizza, wife gets pizza.

• Pizza dough
• Tomato Paste
• Shredded ham
• Pineapple
• Prawn
• Cheese

Time to cook: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $24
Number of serves: 5

Ham, Cheese and Tomato on White

Ham, Cheese and Tomato on White with Tzatziki












Quick simple and tasty, with just me to feed, inspired by a work friend who eats this for lunch (varying pretty much only the dip) for lunch every day. I admire his fortitude, that level of gastronomical uniformity would kill me.

• Floppy white stuff that says bread on the packet.
• Kumato tomatoes
• Swiss cheese
• Smoked leg ham

tzatziki

• Yoghurt
• Lemon Juice
• Cucumber
• Garlic
• Salt

Time to cook: 10 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $5
Number of serves: 1

Spaghetti with chicken, chili and marscapone

Spaghetti with Chicken, Chili, Marscapone, Bacon and Spring Onions












One of my wife's favourite meals, tangy and cooling all in one mouthful and the crunchy bacon is a nice contrast. Spring onions add some crunch. I may have overdone the chili though as my three year old proclaimed 'Its burning holes in my tongue, can I have some more please'.

• Spaghetti
• Chili (I used sambel olek)
• Marscapone
• Bacon
• Salt
• Olive oil
  
• Spring onions (scallions I think they are also called)
• Chicken tenderloins
• Garlic bread.

Time to cook: 15 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $15
Number of serves: 4.5

Jamabalaya (well almost)

Jamabalaya (ish)













This was inspired by a bunch of jambalaya recipes I had seen, but I had no long grain rice, no all spice and no smoked sausage. So pretty much it's a risotto. *shrug* Tasted just fine anyway.

• Chicken thighs
• Chorizo
• Polish sausage (your guess is as good as mine on this one)
• Kabana
• Kransky
• Short grain rice
• Chicken stock
• Tomatoes
• Capsicums, char grilled
  
• Star anise
• Clove
• Pepper
• Nutmeg
• Bay leaves
  
• Salt
• Oregano
• Sour cream
  

Time to cook: 60 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $30