Spiralizer Week: Day Four: Ginger Egg Drop Soup

This was the evening of another exercise class and I knew that the very simple soup we had in mind was just not going to cut it. So I beefed it up with some extra ingredients, while keeping the rest mostly the same. I was really unsure about adding vinegar to a soup, but it worked *really* well. In fact I can't quite believe how smooth and tasty this dish was. Of course it helped that I had made a really great chicken stock with the chicken carcass I had left from jointing a chicken earlier in the week. I think that is crucial for any non-puréed soup. The photo really doesn't do this soup justice!

Ingredients

• a thumb of ginger, peeled and minced
  
• 3 tbsp dried wakame
• 4-5 spring onions, shredded
• 1/3 tsp chilli flakes
• 4 tsp sherry or apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 3 cups really good chicken stock
• 2 large eggs, gently beaten
• two chicken thighs or a chicken breast, cooked, shredded
• two grilled corn-on-the-cobs, kernels cut
• 1 zucchini, spiralized into thin noodles

Fry the ginger gently until golden and beginning to crisp, then add the wakame, spring onions, chilli flakes, vinegar, soy sauce and chicken stock. Let it come to a simmer and cook for a few minutes, then add in the eggs, stirring as they cook. Add in the shredded chicken, corn kernels, and zucchini, and bring back up to temperature. Serve!

Spiralizer Week: Day Three: Avocado-Basil Zucchini Noodles with Chilli-Lime Prawns and Corn

Wow, what a mouthful. In both senses! I really liked the cold sauce for this dish. It was interesting how it affected the texture of the zucchini noodles. The prawns were OK, but not that great; I think I'd rather serve this with some jerk chicken or fried fish. The corn was luscious, and I liked how its heat softened the zucchini noodles just a tad. For some reason, this is the only dish in months that has provoked my lovely SO to spontaneously exclaim how much he liked it. So -- a win!

Ingredients

• juice of one lime
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1 ripe avocado, skinned and stone removed
• 1/4 cup yoghurt
• 12 basil leaves
• 1/2 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 corn on the cob
• 2-3 zucchinis, spiralized into noodles
• seasoned, barbecued fish or chicken, to serve

Method

Whiz the lime juice, salt, pepper, avocado, yoghurt, basil and garlic together in a blender. Barbecue or grill the corn until golden and tender. Cut the kernels from the corn and then mix with the sauce and zucchini noodles. Would serve really well with some freshly barbecued chicken or fish.

Yasai Cha Han

This weekend was chore-tastic but also really hot, so I wanted something nourishing but not too heavy. I'm still working my way through the vegetarian section of the Wagamama cookbook, and this recipe called for things I mostly already had in the fridge. A quick cycle to the local grocer (and a quick swim when we got back to cool down) and I was able to pick up the rest of the ingredients. It was super-fast to prepare; easily a new weekday meal for me. You'll want really good fresh ingredients for this, as there are no other flavourings beyond soy sauce, so the vegetables need to speak for themselves. The rice instructions and the sheer amount of salt were both a shock to me, but I followed the recipe and they did work out.

Ingredients

• A ladleful of Thai fragrant rice
• Four ladlefuls of boiling water
• two king oyster mushrooms, cubed
• 250g firm tofu, cubed
• 8-10 baby sweetcorn
• 15-20 sugarsnap peas
• 4 spring onions, trimmed and cut into 4cm pieces
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• 2 eggs

Cook the rice in the boiling water on a medium heat for 4-5 minutes, until softened but not done. Drain and refresh under cold running water; set aside. If you have wobbly tofu (which I usually do), fry the tofu in a little oil in a hot wok, turning carefully and occasionally until lightly seared on a few sides. Scoop out and set aside.

Turn the heat up, add a little more oil, and stir-fry the mushrooms for five minutes, until golden and bouncy. Throw in the vegetables, rice, salt, and soy sauce, and stir fry for a further 2-3 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the vegetables are bright. Add the egss and stir fry until they are just cooked. Divide between two bowls and serve with miso soup on the side.

Corn Bread Tamale Pie

Happy New Year! Champagne and oysters for everyone!

I didn't post much toward the end of last year because I was away for almost all of November and December. Now that I've recorded most of my usual meals, and all the discoveries I made in 2012-2014, I find myself using the blog more as a resource and inspiration rather than a daily recording. So I think I can probably manage a weekly update from now on, and that more achievable target will hopefully inspire me to cook at least one new thing per week.

In late December I stayed with some friends who live in the US South-west and they kept talking about  Mexican food, which really made me miss the food of my childhood. When I got back I figured that The Joy of Cooking would be able to help me out with some ideas, so I tried out its corn bread tamale pie. It was really good! I think it was thoroughly Americanised Mexican food but I just love corn bread, and this one had ingredients I could actually find, as well as feeding us for days.

Ingredients:

• 450g ground beef
• 1 finely chopped white onion
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin red kidney beans
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 cup of hot beef stock
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• a green pepper, deseeded and chopped
• 3/4 cup polenta/cornmeal
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

In a large oven-safe casserole pot (e.g. a big Le Creuset), fry the ground beef and onion together until the beef is browned and the onions are translucent. Let them rest occasionally to get a bit of colour, but don't burn. Tip in the tomatoes, sour cream, sugar, stock, spices, beans and green pepper; stir to combine; cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 220C.

Sift and mix all of the remaining dry ingredients together, then gently fold in the egg, milk and vegetable oil. When the chilli has been simmered through, give it a generous season, a stir, and then gently pour over the corn bread toping. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the topping is risen, golden and set. Let rest a few minutes before serving with buttered corn or salsa.

Sweetcorn Patties

Was tempted this morning to pop into the butchers' on the way home, and lazily meat my way out of my inventiveness failure. But NO! Instead I remembered that I'd been meaning to make sweetcorn patties for ages, but hadn't because sweetcotn were so perfect on the barbeque during the summer. Miraculously they're still cheap in the store so we picked up a couple at the weekend, along with a massive bag of cheap and wonderful avocados - perfect for salsa. With the remaining sweet potato and a couple of store-cupboard tricks, I had a whole meal ready to eat in half an hour, which was good as I stayed late finishing my talk for the conference in India next week.

Ingredients:

• kernels cut from two large sweetcorn-on-the-cob
• one large egg
• 5 tbsp plain flour (chickpea would probably be quite tasty too)
• three spring onions, roughly cut into pieces

Put half the kernels, the egg, plain flour, and spring onions in a blender, season well with salt and black pepper, and whiz into a chunky paste. Stir with the remaining kernels. Heat a little vegetable oil over a low heat in a non-stick pan. Using two spoons, drop 2-tbsp-size portions into the pan, and flatten with the back of the spoons into a patty shape. Fry gently, about 4 minutes per side, until golden and cooked through.

Okra and Sausage Gumbo

As is typical when I get back from a trip away, there were a couple of cold sausages slowly edging past edibility at the back of the fridge. Luckily I noticed them in time, and put together an incredibly fast gumbo, which also happened to be amazingly tasty. We served it with pumpkin and potato mash - I suspect that the pumpkins aren't fully in season yet as they're a tad bland still.

Ingredients:

• a large white onion
• a few handfuls of okra
• two cloves of garlic
• a corn-on-the-cob
• 1 tbsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and crushed
• a pinch of dried chilli
• three ripe tomatoes
• a couple of cooked sausages, preferably spicy chorizo, but any will do

Peel and finely chop the onion; fry over a moderate heat until softened. Top and tail the okra, then cut into bite-size pieces. Add to the onion and crush in the garlic; fry for a further minute. Meanwhile, cut the kernels from the corn-on-the-cob and chop the tomatoes. Add to the pan, along with the spices, and a splash of boiling water. Cover and cook for 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to make sure the mixture doesn't stick. Add more water if you need to. Slice the sausages and stir into to the pan; turn off the heat and allow the flavours to mingle, then serve with mash or brown rice.

BBQ Bean Burgers

Storecupboard... running down... must... use up... ingredients! Bean burgers fit the bill - and the wallet. Also good if you want to cook your whole meal on the barbie - I cut half-cm-thick rounds of sweet potato and drizzled them with olive oil, and popped them on with a couple of sweetcorn-on-the-cob.

Ingredients:

• a white onion
• a thick slice of bread
• 1 tin red kidney beans, well-drained
• two cloves of garlic
• half a chilli
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce, BBQ sauce or a dash of salt
• an egg

Finely chop and fry the onion for ten minutes, or until golden and well-cooked. Blitz the bread in a blender to make bread crumbs; shake in a bowl and put the largest ones back in the blender with the kidney beans. Blend again, then combine with the rest of the breadcrumbs. Crush in the garlic, finely chop the chilli, dash with  Worcestershire sauce and break in the egg. Add the cooled onions and combine together to make a thick paste. Divide in half, then in half again or by three, depending on how much mixture you have; form into burger-size patties with your hands. BBQ for 2-3 minutes per side.

BBQ Aubergines and Double Bean Salad

At last, a meal this week that I put together and actually feel happy about. As I previously covered, aubergines work great on the barbie; this time I spiced them up a little with some ground black pepper, Chinese five-spice and ground coriander. While the aubergine slices and a couple of sweetcorn slowly toasted over the BBQ, I put together a tasty little salad.

Ingredients:

• 250g green beans, tailed
• two ripe red tomatoes
• a small bunch of basil
• a tin of butter beans
• 2 tbsp capers
• juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Steam the green beans for five minutes, until just cooked. Drain and rinse briefly; they will continue cooking while they're hot, so if they're in danger of going soggy, blanch them in ice cold water. Cut the tomatoes into small cubes and tear the basil into pieces. Drain the tin of beans and combine with the vegetables and capers in a large salad bowl. Whisk the lemon juice, sugar, salt and olive oil together in a jar or bowl then pour over the salad. Toss and serve immediately.

Honey and Soy Chicken Drumsticks

Super-husband actually made this on Monday, but I was so zonked from gliding that I forgot to take a photo. Fortunately he made loads, so we had more cold tonight, with some corn bread slathered in mayonnaise and a quick salad made of roasted peppers, torn basil and olive oil. The chicken was simply skinned, marinaded in soy sauce and honey, with a tsp of chilli flakes for a couple of hours, then bbq'd for about 20 minutes until cooked through. For the last five minutes, baste on a little more honey and then sprinkle over sesame seeds. (Or if you are a very funny man, uncooked quinoa...!)

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.

Cashew and Vegetable Stir-Fry

The weather's cooled down a bit so we're having a couple of BBQ-free days :) This is a simple vegan version of the usual chicken and broc stir fry since we've not been particularly active and don't really need the meat. Just substituted some carrots and baby sweetcorn for the chicken, egg-fried the rice, and added some extra cashews for more protein. I'm still poorly so super-husband cooked this one, and he very cleverly came up with a way of not burning the garlic and ginger - he fried them first for a minute in the vegetable oil, then removed them, stir-fried the rest of the vegetables in the flavoured oil, and added the ginger and garlic again at the end. Really tasty!