trio of appetisers - Part 1 Wontons

Trio of appetisers - part 1

Wontons! What can I say except i love these little suckers, as passionately mentioned in my previous post on 'the art of making wontons'. I actually made these with the leftovers I had from Wonton noodle soup I made the night before. I must admit that i am guilty of sometimes making more than I need to - just so i can enjoy these little pleasures.



INGREDIENTS
wonton wrappers (50 sheets in a pkt)
Vegetable oil for deep-frying
Filling: chicken mince 300g
salt n pepper
tbsp minced garlic
tbsp minced ginger
1/2 cup finely sliced spring onions
2 tbsp oyster sauce
tbsp fish sauce


Mix all the filling ingredients. then let it set in the fridge for 5 minutes.
take a sheet of wonton wrapper and put a small amount of the filling in the middle.

Have a small bowl of water set aside and dip your finger into the water and then run your finger along two sides of the wrapper.

Fold over and seal sides together and you should have a triangle shape with the point facing you. Then again wet your finger and dab one corner of the wonton and bring two sides together and then flip it up. You should have a little boat.

Heat a wok with vegetable oil, wait till the surface is shimmering and drop in the wontons in batches.

Fry until golden brown and transfer to paper towels to absorb excess oil
Serve on plate or platter with your choice of dipping sauce. I use sweet chilli.


Part 2 - spuds. STAY TUNED

What do with black bananas!

MAKE BANANA BREAD or LOAF...(same difference)

I had way, way, way too many bananas in my bowl and what made it worst was the fact that I bought more a week after because they were cheap. I do not know why I bought so many; it is not as if I have a pet monkey. However, after watching the bananas rapidly deteriorate in colour, I brooded over my stupidity of buying in excess and put it down to my inability of purchasing for one. Since moving out and fending for myself, I have realised I cannot buy things in masses because:
1. You spend more than you need to
2. Your food will go off before touch it
3. As a result of no. 2 you waste your money

Yes! I think it will take a bit of time before I settle and adjust to living on my own. In meantime, while I am in this transition phase I guest my mates will be my extended family and enjoy the fruits of my labour.

Further to justifying my lack of self-restraint to buying bananas, I believe with great affirmation that I bought the bananas in a mad frenzy due to the banana drought we had early 2007, when bananas were like $20.00 kilo. That went for a good six months and I thought I would never eat a banana again.

Now I have too many!!!

So what to do with black bananas?

Make yummy moist banana bread....

INGREDIENTS
2 ½ cups of organic self raising flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup honey
1 cup milk
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 ripe bananas
1 cup shredded coconut
½ cup of crushed walnuts
1 cup rolled oats

EXTRA: rolled oats & Walnuts to sprinkle on top

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
2. In a bowl mix eggs, sugar, honey, bananas, milk.
3. Then add in flour, coconut, rolled oats and walnuts and fold with large spoon. Do not over do it.
4. Butter loaf tin and pour mixture in. Sprinkle rolled oats and walnuts on top.
5. Place in oven for approx 45 mins or test by poking a knife in the middle and if knife comes out dry then it’s done.

Slice it up warm/cold or even toast it and spread a generous amount of butter/margarine and enjoy with a good cup of tea.

Merry Christmas & Chox in box

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
I heart Christmas! (sigh) I Absolutely adore what this day represents, how it brings love ones together and the uncontrolable joy that expels through every vessel in my body upon receiving presents. But what I absolutely adore about Christmas, is the food - food glorious food. Your turkeys, hams, chooks, spuds roasted to perfection. Oh dear goodness Christmas is like a smorgasboard that celebrated once a year and gives anyone and everyone a guilt-free reason to indulge themselves into having extras. More potatoes? Yes please!....Gravy oh yes!

However this Christmas, was first one in a long time where we had home cooked meal, or should I say barbeque. Last year I was on a plane to Cambodia on Christmas day, the year before that we went to a birthday. This year Mum had the fortunate task of feeding us silly and she succeeded. What was on the menu:

Cos lettuce salad mixed with capsicums, olives, tomatoes and feta cheese
Potato salad (always good)
garlic sauteed prawns (with chilli dipping sauce)
Corn on cobs
barbequed baby carrots
Lamb on the barby

Melbourne's weather decided to take a break from giving us thunderous, lightning and constant pouring of rain the days leading up to Christmas. We were praying for good barbeque weather, as Mum was adamant of having her lamb chops on the bbq and her prays were answered, it turned out to be beautiful, actually - warm, not to windy, not hot, just right.

Unfortunately folks, I did not take any pictures and I have a good reason. I'm currently moving out and renovating the house, so everything is everywhere at the moments, so instead of showing you pictures of our wonderful Christmas feast. I've posted up these choccies. Yes folks! Chocolates, I made these about a week ago, during the last week of work. Last year I made chocolate chip cookies and put them in tiny boxes and gave them out to my workmates. This year I wanted to make chocolates, but didn't have the stamina to present them in little gift boxes, so instead I brought them to our Kris Kringle morning brunch and was well enjoyed by my fellow peers.

INGREDIENTS
200g of either milk,white or dark cooking chocolate broken into pieces i used dark and white)
1/4 cup thickened cream
20g butter chopped
1 cup rice bubbles
1/2 cup desicated coconut
50 g red glace cherries coarsely chopped

EXTRA: Coco powder and/or icing sugar to decorate.

This recipe was adapted from Woolworths Fresh Magazine at my local Safeway supermarket. Simple, beautiful, tasty. I used dark and white chocolates.
1. Melt chocolate, cream and butter in heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water until smooth. (In the original recipe, it instructs you to melt the chocolate cream and butter in a bowl in the microwave for 1 1/2 mins, stirring every 30 seconds)
2. Ad Rice bubbles, coconut & cherries and stir until well combined. chill until firm.
Divide mixture into 2 parts and roll into logs by place chocolate on a sheet of baking paper. Cut into 1cm- thick slices. You can roll some of them into balls to create different shapes.
3. Coat with coconut/icing sugar or coco powder

They make adorable pressies. As shown in picsabove I placed them in a round box

Summer, apricots and salmon

We're in the last days of November and summer is unbashfully making its presence to the normally dreary and unpredictable Melbourne state. I confess, I'm not too particular to summer due to the sweltering heat that my body can't handle; my ease of tanning on right side of my body whilst driving leaving me with abnormal skin colour; people's body odour and the idea of me having to bare more skin that usual. But what I do love about summer are beaches at sunset, longer days, ice-cream, barbeques, Christmas in summer and FRUIT, glorious fruit!

apricots in all it glory..ahhh

Oh if there's any time fruit can taste better and make me a healthier person for including it in the recommended 3 fruit and 2 veg a day regime - it is during summer. I cried happy tears seeing all the mangoes, watermelon, apricots, strawberries, honeydew melons, peaches, nectarines, mangosteens and cherries (i could go on) in the market stalls. I have devoured half a watermelon in 2 days, and believe me kids this melon was huge and I’m talking huge like a 3 month old baby size.

Another thing I love about fruit is that it’s self-sufficient and there is no uneasy task of cooking, boiling, steaming, extracting, deveining, and filleting. In most cases the only effort required for the consumption of fruit is peeling, cutting and eating. Fruit taste best in its true raw form and as a bonus gives you essential vitamins and minerals you body needs.... ok I’ll stop there, as I’m starting to sound like a nutritionist and I far from it.

Last week I managed to bag me some luscious apricots and with that I managed to create a dish using the apricots in a salsa accompanied with avocado, cucumber served with pan-seared salmon cutlets. The apricots added a delightful sweetness to the dish and created interesting textures fusing with butteryness of avocado and crunchiness of cucumber.

INGREDIENTS
Salmon cutlet
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Olive oil

SALSA
1/2 cup of peeled & diced cucumber
1/2 cup of diced avocado
1 sml apricot, peeled and coarsely chopped

DRESSING
tbsp olive oil
squeeze of lemon
tsp apricot nectar

1. Season salmon cutlet with salt and pepper and rub olive oil. Set aside.
2. Combine olive oil, lemon & nectar in a bowl and whisk until infused. Then add the diced cucumber, avocado and apricot to the dressing and set aside.
3. Heat pan on High and let the pan heat up before placing cutlet leave for 2 minutes, (do not fiddle, poke or touch or your salmon while it searing or it will stick to the pan - trust me, I know). Then turn onto the other side for another 2 minutes.
4. Serve salmon with the salsa on top. Drizzle extra olive oil and cracked pepper (optional)

5 minute mushies

My love of food that can be cooked in a flash, stems from my uni days as an impoverished uni student whose staple diet consisted of 2-minute noodles and grilled cheese sandwiches. OK, maybe I lied, as I was not that impoverished, thanks to my parents who provided a roof over my head during those years. However working in jobs and receiving minimal wages sucked when going out to eat with a group of friends and scrapping for money in the corner of your bag to pay the bills...oh and I won't mention the embrassment when it came to splitting the bill - I even think one time someone pulled out a calculator!...I say no more.

I love food and dishes that can be whipped up in minutes and this is one of them. Mushrooms are one of my favs, second to potatoes. Like potatoes, they are versatile, delicious and have an amazing texture unlike any other foods. And quite frankly they are the only fungus on this earth I would eat.


INGREDIENTS
500g swiss brown mushrooms
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
Approx. tbsp of each - oyster sauce, fish sauce & kecap manis
1/2 cup coarsely chopped coriander (cilantro)
white onion sliced in thin wedges
vegetable oil for frying

Slice mushrooms in thick pieces about 1cm. And heat the wok with oil.
Throw in onions and garlic and let it cook off for a minute, then add the mushrooms and stir frequently. The mushrooms will absorb the oil and when it's slight brown add the oyster, fish and kecap manis sauces and stir so mushrooms are well coated.
After a minute or so throw in the coriander and stir for few seconds. Turn off the heat and serve it with some rice.

Make sure you don't overcook the mushrooms it will lose it's texture.