This is probably my second attempt at cooking curry. It tasted really nice except for the fact that the beef was a little too chewy. I think I could have marinated the diced beef with some flour in advance. I marinated the beef with soy sauce, turmeric powder, cumin ground, nutmeg, rending curry paste (cheat 101 hehe!), garlic, onion and bay leaves. Separately, I brought the veggies – carrots, broccoli and eggplant to boil before adding them onto my fried beef (maybe that’s why my beef was chewy because I fried it). I should have just brought everything to boil at a low heat (simmer right?) for a long time. Oh well, next time. Also, I should read proper instructions and have a proper name for a curry instead of just calling this “beef and vegetable curry” because it is some kind of self-made curry.

As long as… the hubby’s satisfied and he says it’s yummy. That’s all I need for a start. I’ll make sure I put up some real curry names next time like “Aloo Gobi” or some kind of “Masala”.

The “good wife” has not neglected her role in the kitchen, maybe just a little when the hubby was racing in Kazakhstan at the UCI World Cup. Josiah missed a medal by this much |-| and came in fourth place in the keirin out of 32 riders over a few rounds of racing. I’d say it’s a good start to the season. Now it’s really making me think if my choice in food’s okay for the Olympic athlete.

Eye Fillet Steak

Eye fillet medium rare with blue cheese & wine sauce, served with rice and salad. Absolutely yummy. This is a real winner, not kidding!!!

Salmon Sushi

I’m still trying to perfect the shape of the sushi-roll.  Not quite round yet. It’s cut quite neatly with my super sharp Kyocera knife.

Soy Chicken & Pok Choy Soup

I marinated some diced chicken with soy sauce, garlic and sesame oil before frying them. I insisted on a good balance of veggies with my meat so I boiled some poke choy and added chicken stock in it plus pepper. Tadaa! Balanced meal.

Eggplant with Egg

Eggplant with hoisin sauce, soy sauce, pepper, sambal oelek, onions, chives, cut chilli, and when it’s all ready, I dropped two eggs onto the wok.

Japanese Tofu and Beansprouts Hor Fun

Fry everything you see in the photo: hor fun noodles, japanese tofu, fresh cut chillies, beansprouts. Fry with soy sauce and pepper and you’re all set!

The Non-Authentic Bibimbap

Bibimbap apparently means “mix”. Firstly, I boiled the rice, then placed it in a bowl. Then, I sliced some ingredients and fried them with a dash of salt and pepper. This applies to the cucumber, carrots,  beef, japanese tofu and the beansprouts. Finally, the sauce. Instead of making authentic Korean chilli paste, I made do with my ABC sauce. Don’t laugh. It tastes pretty decent! When I get a chance to go to the Korean grocer’s someday I’ll make a more authentic one.

Fried Meehoon

This is nothing new but tasted really good. Japanese tofu on meehoon with beansprouts, chives, chilli. I know, what’s with me and Japanese tofu right?

Long Beans and Radish Soup

\

I fried the long beans with fu-yue, garlic and cut chillies. The radish soup, I boiled them with a dash of soy sauce and pepper.

Kanga Salad

I was lazy, so I just fried some Coles readily-marinated BBQ kangaroo meat and placed them on top of some baby spinach leaves and cherry tomatoes before sprinkling some chilli flakes and chives on top.

Chutney my bengal cat dines on kangaroo meat. While I was enjoying my meal, he decided to climb onto my kitchen counter. I wanted to shoo him off so I got up from the couch with my bowl in hand, slipped and fell on my back, bowl still in my hand but food all over the floor. So much for a simple meal. I was safe and didn’t hurt my back. You can almost imagine this in slow-motion. In Malay, I call it “terpelanting”.

I was watching Gabriel Gate on Tour de France last night and he recommended Cheese Fondue. Josiah and I were looking up French restaurants in Melbourne that offered that.

This morning at Prahran market, I just decided to make the fondue myself since I have that fondue burner thingy Liz gave me two years ago! It’s just a matter of pouring white wine in and mix it with a good creamy cheese, so I chose brie cheese that had some blue cheese in it. At Prahran market, they had a sale of $10 for 4 items. I picked out 8 items including some crackers and more cheese.

Oh yummy…. and a really good 2009 Riesling wine too, to neutralise or rather to complement the cheese and the antipasto. Total cost for this meal including wine = AUD$15 for both.

I have three different cheese on the platter; herb and cheese, brie and blue cheese, swiss cheese. I also have pesto and Wild Berry & Cranberry Chutney. Some fresh bread on the side and also some Jamón. Antipasto – eggplant. Parsley is just decoration of the platter.

I spent a jolly good half an hour at the wine store picking out a suitable wine bottle that cost me $18. Absolutely well worth it. Our total meal was indeed $7 per person in terms of how much we consumed here including drinks. Imagine eating at the restaurant. Different ambience of course, but hey, this was really fun! It’s always fun when you’re preparing your meal at the table itself; similar to a steamboat or barbecue session. It’s just fun fun fun! Plus, encourages interaction with the people you dine with too.

Then, I had a competition with Josiah to see who has a more creative bread topping. I didn’t get his photo because he gobbled it right away!

One of my best meals in a while.

Just look at the bread dipped into the cheese fondue.

I have some dishes over the last few weeks to share with you. Tell me which is your favourite.

Chutney’s Dinner

If I have to have a good meal, my cat should deserve a good meal too. It’s just unfair if his bowl’s not cleaned, or if he doesn’t have a good eating environment. He walks away from his meat if it goes bad, like after 4 days. His meat is always kept fresh. Mon & Tues pack in the refrigerator, and Wed & Thurs in the freezer.

Preparation for a week

When I buy my groceries, I immediately marinate my meat right away even if I’m freezing a few of them. It really makes a difference in taste.

My refrigerator is always neat and in order. I always prepare my food for work the next day as the area I’m working at can be quite expensive. Well, AUD$10 is expensive to me and I cannot survive on 2 sushi rolls ($2.80 each) on a daily basis. I have a few bottles of beer for guests. On the left is pre-cooked rice so I can microwave it at work. Fresh salmon to be eaten with the rice with wasabi and soy sauce. Chutney’s pre-cut meat in the little white bowl.

Asparagus Soup with Garlic Prawns and Bread

Asparagus soup – it’s quite easy to make. Firstly, I chopped up the asparagus (the smaller the better) and brought it to boil before blending them. Then, I added some cream and stirred the soup and garnished the soup with some parsley and cracked pepper.

Salmon and Ocra (Lady’s Fingers)

Lamb Salad with Pomegranate

Lamb salad with cracked pepper, pomegranate and olives.

Spiral Beef Pasta

Spiral pasta with beef, olive oil, lots of broccoli and corn.

Taugeh (Beansprouts)

Beansprouts with pancetta instead of salted fish! Still tasted pretty authentic Asian. Stir-fried with minced garlic, pepper and soy sauce. Served on rice.

Eye-Fillet Steak

Marinating – my fav part of cooking. Minced garlic, olive oil, pepper, mixed herbs, cajun seasoning and garlic salt.

The outcome of garlic steak with salad and fetta cheese on side.

I like it medium rare or more rare! :p

Pancetta and Bread

This is what I had for lunch at work. Bread and pancetta. That’s all.

Stir-Fried Spicy Vegetarian Noodles

Vegetarian stir-fry tonight woohooo! To balance out the lot of meat we ate the last few days.

Vegetarian stir-fry tonight woohooo! To balance out the lot of meat we ate the last few days. One major setback though – the texture of the noodles is suited to soup than stir-fry. I accidentally cut the noodles short while frying. Carrots and pok choy – love em!

That’s all for now folks. Have a lovely week ahead.

My sovereign lady of the kitchen, bestow yourself with the goodness of the ingredients:
The dishes are tempting in their plates set,
And will with all temptation of the food charge on our tummies.

My bestie Amber cooked ginger beef dish for Amelia and I.

Ginger Beef

First, she sliced the ginger, spring onions and beef. Then, she tenderised the beef with corn flour and soy sauce before bringing it to fry with oyster sauce. For added taste, it is best to marinate the beef overnight with minced garlic.

Stir-Fry Hokkien Noodles

Some kind of stir-fried Hokkien noodles, not authentic with dark sauce etc. This one’s with garlic chilli sauce, garlic, soy sauce, pepper and strong mushroom flavour. The cabbage added the sweet flavour. It is pretty decent, but not a wow-effect because I almost killed my tummy by adding too much garlic in it.

Salted Radish Omelette

Nothing special about the pok choy and the rice. This time I tried frying omelette with no salt but only preserved salted radish and pepper. I cooked for two, one for me today and another one for me tomorrow. Hmmm, I should really diversify my cooking – they’re not blog-worthy enough. These are decent 15-minute cooking meals full stop and that’s it.

I cannot wait to see Josiah next week. It’s been a month. And I’ll have him till the end of the year till we try to get rid of each other, or maybe not.

Now this one food blog is worth pimping. Chopstick Diner from Malaysia features Kuching-born Elaine’s food musings. Elaine graduated in the area of food and science technology so you can only imagine how pretty her plating would be and yummy her cooking would taste. Check it out here.