Yasai Itameru (Stir-fried tofu in coconut noodles)

I went back to the Wagamama cookbook for this one, and it wasn't half bad. I think the recipes still lack focus, having too many different kinds of vegetables, and the quantities are all over the place. However the sauce was very tasty, if a little rich. I also think it's silly to try to stir fry tofu at the same time as your vegetables: you can get a nice crispy skin if you do them separately, as shown in the photo. I'm posting my amended recipe rather than their original.

Ingredients
For the sauce

• 1 garlic clove
• a thumb of ginger
• two lemongrass sticks
• 100ml hot water
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tsp sugar
• 100g in of coconut milk or cream (depending on how fat you feel)

For the stir-fry

• 75g rice noodles
• 1 red chilli
• 1 red onion
• a bunch of Chinese vegetables, like pak choi
• 50g sweet potato (about an inch from the middle)
• 200g firm tofu, cut into cubes
• a bunch of fresh coriander
• juice of half a lime (or lemon)
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce

Crush the garlic, peel and grate the ginger, and finely shred the lemongrass. Cook in a small saucepan in the hot water until the garlic has softened. Stir in the remaining ingredients and cook gently for a few minutes, but don't let it boil or the coconut milk can separate.

Cook the noodles according to their packet instructions. Peel and (if you like) deseed the chilli, then finely chop. Finely slice the red onion. Julienne the sweet potato. Clean and separate the pak choi. Stir fry the sweet potato and red onion until becoming tender, then add the rest of the vegetables and stir fry until just barely cooked, then remove from the pan to free it up for the tofu. Stir fry the tofu until golden and crispy, then return the vegetables to the pan and squeeze over the lime juice and soy sauce. Combine the noodles with the coconut sauce, and serve the vegetables over the top of them, topped with the coriander and a lemon or lime segment.

Chicken and Lemongrass Patties

Got home from Zumba and needed a fast, protein-rich meal. Whizzed a stalk of lemongrass and a handful of mint in the new blender and combined it with 500g of chicken mince, then formed the mix into small patties and bbq'd them for 3 minutes a side. Egg-fried some rice and topped the lot with a dipping sauce of soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and the juice of a lime. That's what I call fast food!

Sticky BBQ Chicken Wings

Another one from Nigel; I popped the jointed chicken wings and legs into a bowl and immediately covered with the marinade. Refrigerated, they were happy for four days, after which the marinade had completely permeated the chicken.

Ingredients:

• two chicken wings and two chicken legs, or roughly the same quantity of whatever chicken pieces you have to hand

For the marinade:

• 1 tsbp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 clove of garlic
• half a stalk of lemongrass
• 1 tsp sugar

For the dipping sauce:

• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp white sugar
• half a thumb of ginger
• 1 chilli (optional)
• juice of a lime

Crush the garlic and finely slice the lemongrass, then mix together with the other marinade ingredients; cover the chicken pieces and refrigerate for 1-100 hours. For the dipping sauce, finely dice the chilli and grate the ginger into a very small saucepan, and add the other ingredients. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then take off the heat.

BBQ the chicken pieces for 15-20 minutes, until cooked through and crispy at the edges. Serve with the dipping sauce, over plain steamed rice with some stir-fried vegetables.

Laksa Lemak

This is a slightly vegetable-fortified version of a very seafood-heavy Singaporean soup from my humungous Asian cooking compendium. The whole house now smells of prawns but it was worth it :)

Ingredients:

• 10 raw prawns (or more if you're hungry)
• a large handful of rice vermicelli
• 1 tsp dried shrimp paste (don't inhale, lol)
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into big pieces
• 1 tsp galangal powder
• 6 candlenuts
• 1 stem lemongrass
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• a 200g chunk of pumpkin, cut into bite-sized pieces
• 200ml of coconut milk (or thereabouts)
• a large handful of frozen peas
• one lime
• fried tofu, cooked crab or fish cakes (add if you're very hungry)
• a quarter of a cucumber
• a small bag of beansprouts

Peel and devein the prawns; reserve the flesh in the fridge and put the heads and shells in a stockpot. Cover with at least 300ml of boiling water and boil for 30 minutes, to produce a rich prawn stock. Drain and discard the heads and shells. Soak the rice vermicelli in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain.

In a food processor, blend the shrimp paste, onion, galangal powder, candlenuts and lemongrass, then fry for 7-8 minutes, turning frequently, until the mixture has darkened and reduced a little. Add the prawn stock and simmer for twenty minutes, then add the pumpkin and cook for a further five -- or until the pumpkin is almost done. Stir in the coconut milk, frozen peas, cooked vermicelli and add the raw prawns. Bring up to a simmer and cook for a few minutes; turn off the heat as soon as the prawns are cooked. Juice in half of the lime, and cut the other half into wedges.

Slice the cucumber thinly and add to the bean sprouts in a separate bowl; add the lime wedges to decorate. Serve the soup in deep bowls, topped with the extra protein if you're very hungry. Take handfuls of salad and top the soup, add a splash of lime juice and soy sauce and eat the salad with the soup. Yum!

Spice-Rub Roast Beef and Corn Bread

Yesterday I went to the butcher and once again marveled at how cheap beef is! Well... when in Rome :) So I bought a huge (1kg) topside roasting piece for $12. Over last week we used the nice leafy bits of a bunch of coriander and the inside of a stick of lemongrass, so we had all the husky stemmy rooty bits left over. I thought they'd make a great base for a spice rub for the piece of beef, so I whizzed them up in a blender, along with a whole red chilli, a few tsp of whole coriander seeds, a slosh of soy sauce and a tbsp of vegetable oil. I rubbed the mixture all over the piece of meat and roasted it indirectly in the BBQ for 45 minutes - a little rarer than the packet instructions of 25 minutes per 500g.

To go with, I was tempted to make Sophie's pots again. But it's Sunday, and if I'm not going to innovate at the weekend, when else will I?? I poked around the cupboards for a bit until I spotted half a bag of corn bread mix - not a full add-water-and-go mix, just a nice combination of corn flour, white flour and corn meal. We'd used it in the bread maker before but I figured it would work well if I adapted a recipe I found online to use it instead. I also got to use these darling little non-stick baking tins my mum gave me at Xmas, so that we could each have our own tiny little loaf! Exquisite :) A couple leaves of lettuce and the meal was complete - and well within the spec of the BBQ challenge week rules, which I appear to have completely adopted on hot days!

Ingredients

• 1 ear of sweet corn on the cob
• 1 cup of corn bread mix (or half and half white flour and corn meal)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2/3 cup natural yoghurt
• 1 tsp vegetable oil
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat the oven (or use an indirect heat on a BBQ) to 180-200C. BBQ, steam or grill the corn until tender - and if possible, singed and golden. Hold the cob vertically, using a corn-on-the-cob-holder or fork if you need, and use a sharp knife to strip off the kernels. Leave to cool while you make the batter. Mix all the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl, stirring and folding until the flour has just stopped appearing. Add the sweet corn kernels, stir, then scrape into two 2x4" baking tins, or one small loaf tin. (You could also double the recipe back up to the original, and use a 19" cake tin). Bake for 35-45 minutes (45-55 if you double the recipe). Serve with butter or margarine for spreading.

Chicken and Lemongrass Patties

It takes longer to type this than to actually cook it. We simply blended a chicken breast with the tenderest parts of a lemongrass stick and half a slice of bread, made small patties, lightly oiled and BBQ'd them for a few minutes a side. A dressing of the juice of a lime, a few tbsp of sweet chilli sauce and a dash of soy sauce gave a pleasing sweet-sourness to drizzle for the patties and a dressing for a herby salad, and we rested the patties on a bed of deep-fried rice vermicelli, which I have made a little video of since I love making it so much!