B1 loves cooking as well, and usually cooks dinner for us on a Friday night. One of her (many) birthday present’s consisted of the Junior Masterchef cookbook. Here are a couple of creations from the book:
Chocolate cake & Lamb pizza, 
both were delicious
This combination was lovely, the tangy salad was very refreshing.
Ingredients: serves 2
Salad:
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon grated orange peel
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 x cup crunchy lettuce (I used cos)
¼ red onion, thinly sliced
½ avocado sliced
½ mango sliced
Cutlets:
3 slices white bread
1 tablespoon oregano leaves, chopped
25g haloumi grated
sea salt and cracked black pepper
6 lamb cutlets, trimmed
15g plain flour
1 small egg, lightly whisked
1 tablespoon olive oil
Method:
Salad:
Place the lettuce on the plate and alternate slices of mango and avocado across the lettuce bed. Mix the other salad ingredients and immediately before serving, drizzle over the top.
Cutlets:
Place bread in a food processor and process until roughly chopped. Place breadcrumbs in a bowl with the oregano, haloumi, salt and pepper and mix until combined.
Press the lamb into the flour, dip into the egg and then press onto the breadcrumb mixture.
Heat oil in a large, non-stick frypan, over meduim heat. Cook lamb for 4 – 5 minutes each side for medium rare or until golden and cooked to your preference.
Serve with salad
We visited the Deloraine Craft fair at the beginning of the month with the sole purpose of buying a dragon. Not just any dragon, but a fire-breathing dragon……. well, a smoking dragon at least.
Douglas is a cute little dragon that sits over a mosquito coil. When lit, the smoke comes out his nostrils. He is very cute and a nice way of hiding the ugly mosquito coil.
The other edition is R-Well, a lovely “wee gribyn” that is near our back door and lights the way to it in the dark for us. I am not sure what a Grybn is and Google wasn’t much help, but we think he is cute, all the same.
Thank you to Rod & Eryn from Wee Folk Garden Art for your lovely sculptures and putting aside a Douglas for me to collect. http://www.weefolkgardenart.com/main/
I know that you can get a Thai Green Curry recipe anywhere on the web, but trust me, this is THE BEST one I have ever tasted. I am sure that the secret is making the paste from scratch, using fresh ingredients.
Ingredients:
400ml coconut milk
2 tablespoon oil
1 onion, chopped
2 tablespoon Thai Green Curry Paste
500g chicken thigh fillets, cut into strips
¼ cup water
4 kaffir lime leaves
100g fresh green beans, chopped (I didn’t have beans, si I just used some green capsicum)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tespoon finely grated lime rind
3 teaspoon grated palm sugar
1 tablespoon lime juice
coriander leaves to garnish
Method:
Heat the oil in a wok. Add the onion and curry paste to the wok and cook over high heat for about 1 minute, until the spices are fragrant. Add the chicken and stir-fry for about 5 minutes until the chicken is almost cooked.
Add the coconut milk, water, kaffir lime leaves and beans to the wok. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice, rind and palm sugar. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with steamed jasmine rice.
Serves 4
FISH CAKES:
Ingredients:
¼ x 250g pkt dried rice vermicelli noodles
450g firm white fish, skinned and chopped roughly
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon red curry paste
1 kaffir lime leaf, shredded finely
2 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped
1 tablespoon mint leaves
1 egg, lightly beaten
40g green beans, chopped finely
vegetable oil for frying
Method:
Prepare noodles as per packet instruction
Put fish, fish sauce, curry paste, lime leaf, coriander, mint and egg in the bowl of a food processor. Process until just smooth. Scrape into a bowl and stir in the green beans and roughly chopped noodles. Set aside and make the dipping sauce.
Pour enough oil into a frying pan to just cover the base and heat. Divide the fish mixture into 16 balls. Flatten balls into patties and fry in the hot oil for 1 – 2 minutes each side until golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Serve hot with dipping sauce.
DIPPING SAUCE:
Ingredients:
½ Lebanese cucumber, seeded, sliced thinly
¼ cup palm sugar
½ cup water
¼ cup white vinegar
1 kaffir lime leaf, shredded finely
2 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon salt
1 small red chilli, sliced thinly
2 spring onions, green top, sliced thinly
2 teaspoon chopped, fresh coriander
Method:
Place the cucumber in a heatproof serving bowl.
Combine sugar, water, vinegar, ginger and salt in a small saucepan, stir over heat without boiling until the sugar has dissolved; pour over cucumber.
Sprinkle with chilli, onion and coriander, refrigerate, covered until chilled.
