Peking Duck, Chicken with Vegetables and Cashews, Rice

Ingredients

• Duck legs (preprepared peking duck flavour luv-a-duck vac pac)
• Cucumber
• Spring onions (home grown)
• Hoisin sauce
• Peking duck pancakes (I bought 'em as I'm lazy)
• Long grain rice
• Corn-fed chicken thighs
• Baby corn (canned chopped)
  
• Water chestnuts (canned sliced)
  
• Capsicum
• Snow peas
• Beans
• Broccoli
• Cashews
  
• Stir fry sauce
• Ginger (grated/minced/reduced to pulp however you want)
  
• Sugar
• Salt
  
• Soy sauce
• Garlic (same as the garlic)
  
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Tomato sauce
  
• Water
  

Method

1. Preheat oven to stupid degrees C.
2. Whack duck on an oven tray and stick in oven.
3. Stir fry sauce, is easy, mix it all together in a bowl.
   
4. Put rice in heatproof bowl and cover with water to the depth of one knuckle. Cover with glad wrap.
5. Nuke rice on full power for 3 minutes.
6. When done nuke for a further 10 minutes on 50% power.
   
7. Chop cucumber into bits, and spring onions into long batons, stick on a plate.
   
8. Chop vegetables and chicken up.
   
9. Heat wok until smoking and then toss in a little canola oil (don't use olive oil it smokes too much)
10. Stir fry vegetables in batches (or all at once if you have a good wok burner than can keep up the heat)
11. Stir fry the chicken in batches.
12. Chuck all the vegetables, chicken, cashews into wok and toss in sauce, heat through.
13. Nuke pancakes for 30 seconds or so, until they go soft but don't turn into a single gelatinous mass.
14. Remove duck from oven and remove meat from bone and slice.
15. Serve thusly

Time to cook: 30 minutes
Cost per serve: $15
Recipe inspiration: The luv-a-duck pack spotted in the local wholesale butchers.

Pumpkin and Sage Risotto

Ingredients

• Arborio rice
• Pumpkin
  
• Sage
• Parmesan cheese
• Herb bread
• Salt
• Onion
• Garlic

Method

1. Chop half the pumpkin into largish bits and boil until soft in 1 litre of lightly salted water.
2. Chop other half of pumpkin into small even sized cubes and fry over low heat until carmelised on all sides. Patience is the key, just let 'em sizzle away on one side until they are nicely browned and sweet.
   
   
3. Once the first batch of pumpkin is soft, blitz it with a stick blender and add water to make up to 1.5 litres or so.
   
   
4. Stick herb break in hot oven to heat.
   
5. Chop onion and garlic and sweat for a little while.
6. Dump in rice and swirl around until covered with the oily goodness.
   
   
7. Add the pumpkin stock bit by bit whilst stirring.
8. Half way through the stock add most of the chopped sage (retain a little for garnish)
9. Risotto is done when it mostly squishes between your fingers.
10. Add the grated parmesan cheese and stir to melt in.
    
11. Serve with herb bread, garnished with left over sage.
    
    

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost per serve: $4.00
Inspiration: An Andrew Blake recipe from one of those newspaper inserts.

Risotto with broccoli and chicken balls.

Ingredients:

• Chicken mince
• Coriander
• Arborio rice
• Vegetable stock
• Garlic
• Onion
• Broccoli
• Parmesan cheese
• Prosciutto
• Olive oil
• Salt

Method:

1. Heat oven to 220 degrees C.
   
2. Chop coriander leaves into tiny bits
3. Grate onion
4. Chop coriander stems into really tiny bits, mix with onions
5. Chop broccoli into florets
6. Heat the vegetable stock (I nuked it as I killed my last saucepan not too long ago)
   
7. Mix half the coriander leaves, a tiny bit of grated onion and the chicken mince.
8. Form into balls and fry in batches until brown. Shaking the pan makes rounder balls that using tongs.
9. Stick garlic bread in oven.
10. Heat olive oil in pot and chuck in garlic, rest of onion and coriander stems.
11. When translucent, chuck in rice and stir to coat rice with all the oily, oniony goodness.
12. Chuck in the florets to soften
    
13. You know the drill, whack in stock and stir until absorbed, repeat until bored and rice feels right when you squish it between your fingers.
14. Just as you are about to serve chuck in the rest of the coriander and stir.
15. Crumble prosciutto over the top and remove garlic bread from oven.

Time to cook: 45 minutes
Cost per serve: $7.50
Inspiration: None

Chicken cashew, apple, potato curry with Rice

Chicken Cashew, Apple and Potato Curry with Jasmine Rice











This is very similar to curries I've cooked before, I beefed it up a little with some stock The three year old was entranced with the moulded rice and scoffed a sizable quantity. I think I could have chucked in more chilli, but it was tasty none the less. Certainly it was better than the last inspid curry I made.


Ingredients:

• Chicken thighs
• Golden delicious apples
• Beef stock
  
• Potato
• Coriander
• Cashews
  
• Curry paste
• Coconut cream
• Salt
• Pepper
  

Curry paste:

• Onion
• Shredded coconut
• Tomato paste
• Sugar
• Curry powder
• Chilli
  
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Tumeric
• Garam masala
• Cashews
• Almonds

Method
Curry paste
Stuff everything in a blender and turn it up to obliterate.

Rice:
I succesfully nuked it and it turned out nice and fluffy. Secret turned out to be nuke on high for a while and then on low for a long time in a bowl covered with glad wrap (BTW NEVER go cheap on plastic wrap, it's just not worth the hassle)

Curry:
Sweat some onions in a pan and then fry off the curry paste. When it starts to become fragrant, chuck in the chicken thighs and fry 'em until golden. Then chuck everything else in and turn the heat down low and cover the pan and cook until it's all tender.

Time to prepare: 60 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $18
Number of serves: 4
Recipe inspiration: Many many recipe books.

Risotto with Corn, Mushrooms and Chicken Sausages with baby veg salad

Corn, Mushroom and Chicken Sausage Risotto, with a baby veg salad











Sorry about the lack of posting, the family has been ill again. You didn't miss much, cheese and tomato on toast and miscellaneous deep-fried frozen things (fish fillets, fingers, chips) and steamed veg were as exciting as it got. Today we had risotto and in an effort to get the 3 year old to eat without help I snuck some rice around his sausages. It turned out a little salty, which is a change from my normal insipid, oh well live and learn.

Ingredients:

• Arborio rice
• Chicken stock
• White wine
  
• Swiss brown mushrooms
• Corn
• Coriander
• Chicken sausages
• Onion
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Parmesan cheese
• Baby vegetable salad
  

Fairly standard risotto method, heat the stock to a simmer. Fry the mushrooms in a hot pan with butter and then add the snags to the pan and fry until nicely cooked and crispy. Then Chuck some onion and oil in the pan on low heat and sweat until translucent. Then toss in the rice and swirl about until the rice just begins to catch and lets off a nice smell. Then dump in some white white and stir until it's gone. Gradually add the stock whilst stirring until the rice is basically done. When it's done add the corn, coriander, mushrooms, cheese and season.

Baby veg salad is simple chop vegies, toss with a little olive oil, lemon and salt.

Time to prepare: About 45 minutes
Cost of ingredients: About $30
Number of serves: 6
Recipe inspiration: none

Risotto with Pork Sausage, Corn and Coriander

Risotto with Pork Sausage, Corn and Coriander











Apologies for the delay in posting this, the family hasn't been well and I've been on baby/wife caring duties rather than blog posting. This was fairly tasty and again I think it was down to correct seasoning. Didn't have any trouble getting anyone to eat it.



Ingredients

• Arborio rice
• Chicken stock (purchased)
• Onion
• Garlic
• Butter
  
• White wine
• Pork sausage
• Corn
• Coriander
• Salt
• Pepper
• Reduced balsamic vinegar

Time to prepare: 25 minutes
Number of serves: 4
Cost of ingredients: approx $20
Recipe inspiration: none

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

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

Restaurant Meal: Billie Chu

Nasi Goreng

Gotta be my favourite quick meal, this one was grabbed at the Billie Chu "restaurant" at Adelaide airport, quick tasty and cheap.

Detectable Ingredients

• Rice
• Egg
• Bean Shoots
• Capsicum
• Spring Onions
  
• Prawns
• Fish cake
• Squid
  
• Curry powder
• Soy sauce

Time to cook: about 5 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $9.90

Mushroom and Corn Risotto with Chicken

Mushroom and Corn Risotto with Chicken












Another lateish night home but this time I didn't woose (sp?) it and actually cooked a fairly nice risotto.
Risotto

• Arborio Rice
• Chicken stock
• Corn
• Shiitake mushrooms
• Tarragon
  
• Salt
• Pepper

Accompaniments.

• Chicken tenderloins
• Balsamic vinegar
• Fried spring onions
• Sour cream
  

Time to cook: 30 minutes
Cost of ingredients: $20

Risotto with Bacon, Mushrooms and Coriander

Risotto with Bacon, Mushrooms and Coriander











I liked this one a lot, the contrast between the just cooked rice and the smoothness of the creme fraiche was great and to top it off got thumbs up from all partakers.

• Arborio rice
• Chicken stock
• Bacon
• Shittake mushrooms
• Coriander
• Cream fraiche
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil
• Pre-packaged garlic bread (not pictured)
  

Cooking Time: 20 minutes.