Greenie, Birdo, Foodie, and Karaoke nut

The new bed is awesome. It's so soft and cushy. My new Visco pillow arrived yesterday and is also awesome (I am becoming a big fan of Visco/memory foam). I made the mistake of dropping my head onto the pillow when I went to bed though, and it kinda hurt. Like a non-Newtonian fluid, it only softens when gentle pressure is put on it. In winter I will have to be more careful as the stuff hardens in the colder weather.

And food. I've been thinking how interesting it how tastes mature (in some people at least). I've never been a massively fussy eater due to my mother being one of those with the good old rule of "eat it or go hungry". I grew up on a diet of mostly homecooked meals with a decent ratio of meat to fresh fruit and veg.

But there are many things I used to hate but will eat now, some things I even love.

Olives, a couple of years ago I started experimenting with black olives in Subway rolls and on pizzas. Now I'll scoff any kind of olive you put in front of me. I have quite an appreciation of the difference in flavour between black olives, kalamata olives and green olives with various stuffings. I'm quite partial to the anchovy stuffed ones.

Which brings me to anchovies. I first tried them on a Dominoes pizza (one foodstuff I pretty much refuse to eat these days, or at least pay for). They were horrid salty things. Yet it seems as you grow older the saltier, anti-pasto stuff appeals to the palette more. I now use anchovies for various dishes.

I used to not like rice, believe it or not, after a while I'd eat buttered rice with chicken caccitore that my mum made. Now I wonder how I'd ever manage without rice (of various types).

And rice leads to sushi. I was one of the many who immediately associated sushi with raw fish. I've since been educated. And I had the opportunity to try sushi made by a friend (which contained chicken, not fish). I wasn't going to try it if I had to pay for it (I usually don't, if I don't like it I've wasted my money and good food). I loved it. Since then I have tried raw fish (seeing as nowdays I'll try pretty much anything once). I still prefer my fish cooked, but I don't go eww at the thought of raw fish.

When I was little I tried a smoked oyster out of a tin. It tasted like smoky, muddy rubber and put me off shellfish for many years unfortunately. Then I went to an Italian restaurant and tried scallops pan fried in garlic butter. They were absolutely delicious and I've since fallen head over heels in love with marine molluscs (and I'd like to try snails). Again, I prefer them cooked, but will eat a raw oyster if I don't have to pay for it.

ONIONS!!! I've had nightmares about onions. Horrid things, taste weird, make your eyes sting (you know why your eyes hurt and water? Because the gas that onions release mix with the moisture in your eyes and create freakin SULPHURIC ACID!! Nasty shit). Anyway, even though I'm still wary of the raw onion, I'm quite tolerant of them cooked, especially when sauteed with garlic in some butter or olive oil *drools* as a base for some dish like a risotto...

Or a curry. Another thing I used to turn my nose up at. Well, all except a tomato curry from a jar mum used to serve up occasionally, I LOVED that. I've sinced learned that saying "I don't like curry." is as stupid as saying, "I don't like vegetables." Curry essentially means 'sauce' in Indian and there are soooo many different curries, you could never claim to dislike them ALL. Ironically, I adore Indian food but can't stand chilli (it's a food I've never been tolerant of, I prefer my meals to be pain free). I love every other spice on the planet and a plenty good curry can be made with little to no chilli.

The thought of blue cheese used to make my stomach turn. Now I'm a huge fan of a strong bash-you-on-the-head, nightmare inducing Stilton or Roquefort.

Avocado is another food I used to retch at, but now use frequently.

Gee, you can see I'm running out of inspiration can't you? So tell me, what foods do YOU adore now that used to make you go 'blech'?

So, today and tomorrow I intend to make -

Plum upside-down cake for Saturday - relatively easy.
Pumpkin muffins for Saturday - easy.
Apple Hi-pie for Saturday - this will be a challenge, are pies as easy as they claim to be?
and possibly Bacon and Egg pie for dinner tonight.

Some of this will involve making the pastry from scratch. I hope I don't screw it up too badly.

Ferris wheel on the foreshore - hell yes! Bring it on. Something interesting for Perth, and I hold the hope that it will pave the way for roller coasters and stuff. The city part of the river can't get any more fucked up by a well planned theme park. I originally quipped that a giant wooden roller coaster around Melville Water would be awesome, but then I thought the better of it - there are wader roosts around Melville Water, but Perth Water is all walled for some reason and disturbance of wildlife would be minimal.

Wednesday night's cooking adventures was one of my pick 'n' mix pasta dishes.

Pasta (regular spaghetti and some spinach fettucine)
Yellow squash
Mushrooms
Sugar snap peas
Tomato
Garlic
Olive oil
Chopped parsley
Smoked trout
Olive tapenade
Pine nuts
Slivered almonds
Shaved parmesan

I sauteed the garlic, squash, sugar snap peas, tomato and mushrooms in the olive oil while I was cooking the pasta. It was pretty.



Once the pasta was cooked I drained it, stuck it back in the saucepan and added the sauteed veg. Then chucked in half a smoked trout, broken up, the chopped parsley, a spoonful of tapenade, sprinkled in the nuts and stirred it altogether, put it in a bowl and topped it with parmesan cheese. Didn't look pretty in the end but it was tasty.

And my God did Bella go silly for the skin off the smoked trout. Usually Lil is able to bully her away from any treats I give them, but Bella protected the trout skin and miaowed quite loudly for more. I'm keeping the head and tail and skin and stuff for stock, as I do.

So, last night we went to a cheese party. I like this concept. All guests donate $10, and the hosts spend $100 or so on various cheeses to try. There was a lot of cheese left over, and I really hope it doesn't go to waste. But I did make a point of trying ALL of them.

So what did we have? And what did I think of it? Luckily, I wrote notes.

Listed in no particular order...

( No, don't open the cheese man. That's gross. )

I think the calcium overdose has done my knee good. It's feeling good this morning and I'm laying with it pretty straight sans knee brace. I think my new foam underlay for the bed is helping too. I woke up and didn't have achy joints and pins and needles from sleeping on a hard bed. *snuggles new cushy bed* There are now also non-slip mats in the bathroom.

I've raved about it before but I'll rave about it again. I am so addicted to this dish, it's become my new comfort food. I started to make it every Sunday night, and now I've had it two nights in a row and it totally hits the spot.

And the brilliant thing is - it's low fat! And vegan, so everyone can enjoy it!

Artichoke Lemon Limbo Rice

Stolen from Naughty Curry.com.

Ingredients

Serves 1

1 serve cooked rice (keep warm).
2/3 tbsp oil
3 tbsp unsalted cashews (preferably raw, but roasted is okay)
1 tbsp Urud dahl
1/2 tsp Black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Asafoetida (also known as Hing - available at Asian food stores)
4 or so artichoke hearts, halved (or quartered, whatever. Have more if you like. Just get the ones in brine, NOT marinated, it just makes the whole thing taste weird).
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp tumeric
2 tbsp lemon juice

Method

Before you start have the warm rice in a container nearby (I cook it in the microwave and just use the container I cooked it in).
Combine the uncooked dahl, hing and mustard seeds in a small container - this is the masala.
Chop up the artichokes and have them ready.

- Heat the oil in a frypan (one you have a lid for).
- Throw in the cashews and brown them a bit.
- Put the cashews in with the rice (but not the oil, leave that in the pan).
- Throw the masala into the hot oil (remember, that was the dahl, hing and mustard). Put the lid on the pan and wait until the mustard seeds stop popping. You'll want to shake the pan around a bit so the dahl doesn't end up too burnt.
- Add the artichokes to the pan. Warm them through and get them coated good with the mustard/dahl mix.
- Empty the pan contents onto the rice.
- Add the salt, tumeric and lemon juice to the rice and stir it all around with a fork.

ENJOY! (I like it with a Red Eye, but I like EVERYTHING with a Red Eye. ;)

I think I initially came across the recipe in food_porn. I've been making this a lot lately, made it again for dinner tonight and my gosh it is so yummy.

I really need to try some other recipes on the Naughty Curry site.

Artichoke Lemon Limbo Rice - first recipe down.

Would you be able to order this from the local Pizza Hut.



I want to say, that's even more gross that the meat pie pizza, but this one actually looks halfway appetising. That meat pie pizza made me want to puke just watching the ad.

Honestly, aren't all good curries experimental?

Quite a few years ago my brother explained to me that to make real curry you must have no curry powder in your pantry. Which confused me a bit.

Then in Broome, Ricki my boss showed me how she makes authentic Indian vegan subjees (vegetable curries). And it clicked a bit more.

These days as one of my "use up the leftovers" dishes I make curry. A bag of diced meat (beef in this case), whatever veggies are hanging around, whatever spice combo seems good, a tin of tomatoes and some stock.

This time I used whole spices too, because I now have them. The mortar and pestle got a workout. The only powders I used were Garam Masala and a smidge of ground chilli. I used whole coriander, cumin, cardamon, fenugreek, yellow mustard, black mustard and fennel seed.

Damn it was good. No two curries are ever the same using this method, but inevitably they will be tasty.

I was busy this afternoon. And I ended up being very impressed with myself. I made an Indian feast AND I managed to get everything done and it was all done at the right times so things were finished when they were needed and all the space and utensils I needed were available when I needed them.

I made...
- Dhal
- Tamarind chutney
- Naan bread
- Rogan Josh curry
- Pakoras (cauliflower, capsicum and zuchinni)
- I didn't make the papadums but we had them too

My gosh it was good. Cauliflower pakoras with tamarind chutney. *foodgasm*

So I'd experiment with stuff I had around. I thought out my method and went for it. And the results were great!


Simmering away

( B.J.'s Brown Rice Chicken Paella )