Larb Chicken Salad

This recipe is one I've learnt not to experiment with and follow to the letter. It's deceptive in it's simplicity. I used to try and add more things like coriander or nuts, but it needs nothing else I promise. Traditionally it is eaten inside a lettuce leaf similar to like san choy bow. It also tastes great with jasmine rice or vermicelli noodles. I served it along side two Indonesian curry's (that I didn't have the energy to photograph, but I promise I will post them in the future).

 

These photos are from when I made a double batch with pork, which is traditional, but wasn't as well received as chicken normally is (the butcher only had chicken breast mince that didn't have a scrap of fat in it which would have been dry and grainy). The pork was also a bit smelly and I guess that put some people off... Lesson learned, some people aren't big fans of pork. But as a chicken dish it is usually a bit hit.

 

for one batch you'll need... 

 

 

2 tbl uncooked jasmine rice

500 gm chicken mince

2 tbl finely chopped lemongrass

1/3 cup water

3 tbl fish sauce

3 tbl lime juice

1/2 cup of mint

1 red onion finely diced

3 spring onions finely chopped

3 small hot red chilli's (seeds removed if you want it mild)

  

 

The weirdest part of the recipe is how you prepare the rice. First you dry roast it in a fry pan until it browns. Then crush it in a mortar and pestle until it looks like crushed nuts. It adds texture to the salad and is missed if you forget to put it in.

 

 

Finely dice the mint, onions, lemon grass and chilli

 

 

Cutting up these vegetables is the only really time consuming step. I use my mandolin for the red onion, it makes a huge difference!

 

 

To cook the chicken mince, put the lemon grass, 1/3 cup water and meat into a fry pan on a moderate heat and continue to stir until the meat is cooked through but not browned.

 

Carefully drain off the water and add the meat to the salad with the crushed roasted rice. I like adding the meat when it's hot because it slightly cooks the onions and mellows their flavour slightly.

 

 

 

It's best eaten still slightly warm or at room temperature, but always great the next day in your lunch box!

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

This is by far one of my all time favourite recipes! It's pretty close to Luke Nguyens Char grilled pork neck with vermicelli noodles, classic street food fare. Instead of pork neck, I used chicken thighs. In the past I have made with pork neck and also using rump steak, both worked really well. I prefer chicken thighs over breasts because; (1) because they taste better; (2) they are fatty and juicy and hence (3) more forgiving when BBQ'ing

As I've said previously, what constitutes "free-range" according to standards in Australia is not always what I consider to be "free-range". Since moving to Western Australia, I've started buying Mt Barker free range chicken. My favourite thing about Mt Barker Chicken is their website clearly outlines their free-range standards, which includes how they define access to free range -

"At least 50% of the building sides must open to allow chickens access to the free range area for new farms, and RSPCA Approved Free Range Standards for existing farms. Birds must have access to the range as soon as they are reasonably feathered and at the latest between day 21 - 28."

Which is far more generous than the free-range standards suggested by other regulatory organisations. At the end of the day, short of driving out to the farms and having a look for myself, you have to take a leap of faith and chose a chicken supplier if you want to eat chicken. So I vote with my dollar and buy Mt Barker free-range chicken!

Before I begin with the recipe - a quick note on the salad dressing: because it's easier, I usually eat my salad with a little fish sauce and a squeeze of lime. If you want more dressing, I recommend making a nuoc chum dressing, I found a recipe for a really good one here. Try to make it a few hours or a day before to help the flavours mix and the garlic to pickle a little.

Vegetarian Note: If you want to make this salad with tofu, I recommend using fresh tofu with a nuoc chum dressing made with vegetarian fish sauce.

Alright, now for the cooking!

First thing to do is marinate the meat. Luke recommends marinating 2 hours to over night, but last night i only managed an 1 hour, which still worked really well.

 

Meat Marinade (straight from Luke)

6 white part spring onion, finely sliced,pounded into a paste
2 tablespoons sugar (I used brown)
1 tablespoon honey
4 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a mortar and pestle pound the whites of the spring onions, chopped garlic and sugar

then add the fish sauce, honey, pepper and oil

 

I made it using 4 chicken thigh fillets roughly diced. I don't worry too much about how I cut the meat because I use metal skewers, meaning I can thread a single piece of meat two to three times regardless of its dimensions.

 

 

Second toast your peanuts in the oven or under the griller/broiler. I only say this because I keep forgetting until right at the end and it drives me crazy! Keep an eye on them because they burn easily - roughly chop when done.

 

Third cut up all your salad ingredients

lettuce

spring onions

mint

coriander

red onion

carrots

tomatoes

cucumber

Fourth, put the meat on the skewers

Fifth soak the vermicelli in hot water for about 5-10 minutes (I buy them already bunched in individual serves to save tiny pieces of noodle flying across the room) test them to see when they are done, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Sixth put your chicken on the BBQ to cook. I cook mine on a Weber baby Q. I cook them pretty slowly on a low heat to prevent the marinade from burning and to give the fatty chicken thighs time to render down.

Seventh while you are waiting for the meat to cook, assemble the salads, palace the vermicelli on the bottom and then add the salad and herbs

 

Eighth, once the chicken is cooked, you are good to go!

finish off your salad with roughly chopped toasted peanuts, chilli, a squeeze of lime and a dash of fish sauce (or nuoc chum if you so please)

 

Seriously, if I had chose one food to eat for the rest of my life, I think this would be it...

Welcome to Canada....

This past week I have been visiting a friend in Calgary, Alberta Canada. I've been having a really great time going hiking in the Rockies near Banff, dabbling in a little rock climbing and of course tasting some local cuisine. As an Australian in north America the abundance of chain restaurants, ribs, wings and burgers is all a little confronting and the fact that my 88 cent/pound banana is from Ecuador is difficult to reconcile. It would be really easy to get up on my high horse and carry on about what's wrong with the food in this country. But the thing is, some of the most inspiring food blogs I have read are written by people in the US and Canada. Clearly this country has a lot to teach me. It has dawned on me that the prevalence of the American diet (ribs, wings, burgers etc) is the exact thing that has inspired people here to pull away and make positive changes to how they eat. I think that in Australia we are a bit behind in this regard. I am sure "things Canada taught me" will become a running theme in my blog, but for today I am just going to include a few highlights.

Exhibit A of this positive approach to food is the way Canadians can't get enough of nuts in salad, I found a bunch of these "salad boosters" in the supermarket that contain unusual combinations of nuts and grains that seem like an awesome idea. The majority of bars, cafes and restaurants seems to have at least one salad on the menu with walnuts or toasted pumpkin seeds, it's excellent! Also, these people love kale... I had some purple Kale cooked in a foil pocket on the BBQ at a friends place - I am totally converted!

Alberta is beef country, in fact the local indigenous people used to survive on a diet of bison and berries. I've been told that in Calgary the snow begins to fall some time in August and doesn't stop until May, this doesn't leave much room for locally sourcing your food - unless you are happy to eat dried berries and beef jerky for 8 months of the year... I've eaten asparagus from Ecuador and organic strawberries from USA (both of which have tasted considerably better than the same produce in Australia), I fell pangs of guilt and find it difficult to comprehend how the majority of north Americans eat food that has been transported such great distances and is still somehow affordable. On the flip side I have felt much less guilt about eating as much beef as I want, because it's local and environmentally sustainable for this kind of landscape (unfortunately for me 3 days of beef is my limit and I'm currently taking a break from beef).

Before I hit my beef limit I had this Mexican Beef burger at the Rose & Crown in Banff and it was pretty delicious. It was modest in size and was topped with jalapenos, cheese, tomato, pickle, lettuce, mustard and guacamole, even better you get to choose your side - I chose sauteed seasonal vegetables. In Australia if you don't want chips, you have to ask to swap it with salad or vegetables. I'm not a fan of hot chips because I don't enjoy them enough to justify the calorie intact, a rich chocolate cake on the other hand - totally worth it... But I digress. 

Two things that Canada is not known for is great coffee and great bread - but I didn't have to search very hard to find them. Wild flower bakery in Banff was a great find, their beer and rye bread was almost up to German standards (there was a reason why i gained 16kg living in Germany for a year) and the double espresso was perfect. Speaking of espresso, I just wrote this blog while sipping on one from The Roasterie in Kensington, Calgary, which doesn't have a website, but several reviews proclaiming it the best coffee in Calgary with a warning "watch out for the crazies, the kids and the hippies" love it! you can always find your people, you just have to be open and keep looking until you find them!

One final note, during my travels I am reading a copy of Michael Pollans book "In defense of food", which is an America focused book about what people should be eating and why. It's relevance to myfood journey in Canada cannot be understated. It's excellent. I love Michael Pollans writing and his book, "The Omnivores Dilemma" about the ethics and origins of our food has changed my perspective on what I eat.

Lamb Rogan Josh Curry

It's the weekend and I've cooked up a huge batch of lamb curry. I start the curry on the stove top and finish it in a low oven for several hours using a Le Creuset cast iron casserole pot. That way you can walk away and not worry about it burning at the bottom, plus a lack of frequent stirring means it doesn't end up a shredded meat mush. I'm sure this recipe would work really well in a slow cooker too.

A large amount of my curry is destined for the freezer, which is why I don't add extra vegetables. If you choose to make a smaller version, with no intention of freezing it, I'd recommend adding some vegetables such as potatoes in the last hour of cooking or in the final 15 minutes add some beans, broccoli and cauliflower.

I often cook stews and curry's using chump lamb chops, they stew really well, have a strong flavour and are, you know, cheap. I prefer the leg chops, which my butcher calls "target chops" because the have a little round bone in the center. They are really meaty, not as fatty as the shoulder chops and plus have all that marrow goodness! I don't cut them up, instead I take a more osso bucco approach - if you cook them long enough the meat will all fall apart anyway.

The base for the curry is Mangal rogan josh curry powder, if this troubles you, have a read of my Dahl recipe for my justification for not making it entirely from scratch.

Preheat your oven to 150 degrees

Lamb Rogan Josh

20 green cardamon pods

10 whole cloves

2 cinnamon sticks
4 tbl Mangal brand rogan josh curry powder
1 tbl coriander seeds

1 tbl cumin seeds

3 onions diced

2.5 cm knob of ginger diced

3 cloves purple garlic diced

2 kg of leg/sirloin lamb chops

2 tins tomatoes

dry roast the cumin and coriander seeds then grind in mortar and pestle

Brown all chops in a pan with a little oil. Be careful not to over crowd the pan, I used two to speed up the process

while you are browning the chops, dice the onion, garlic and ginger

Set the browned chops aside, add a little more oil and onions to the casserole dish. Even with the extra oil, the base of my casserole dish was pretty dry at this point and the browned meat bits were sticking and at risk of starting to burn. I didn't want to waste the brown meaty goodness in the extra fry pan either, so I added about 1/4 cup of water to the fry pan and scraped up the good stuff, then pored that water into the casserole dish and did the same again.

fry onions for about 2 minutes, then add garlic, ginger, cardamon, cinnamon and cloves until the onions are translucent

add the remaining spices (cumin, coriander & mangal curry powder) fry for another couple of minutes. Then add two tins of tomatoes. I don't like it to have too much tomato so I make up the rest of the liquid with water - about 800 ml

Allow it to heat up to a gentle simmer, then layer in the chops, gently pushing them down as you go. Again wait for it to start simmering then transfer it into a 150 degree oven.

I cooked mine for 4 hours, which is long I know but I think it is totally worth it, the meat was falling apart and the flavours well developed. If your oven is reliable, you could just check on it every hour, or even less, it only needs to have the chops pushed down every now and then. My oven is not reliable, so I checked every 1/2 an hour for the first 2 hours, then after I was convinced the temperature was steady I left it for the next two and it came out like this...

I stirred it a bit take out the cinnamon sticks and had a moderate attempt at removing the cardamon pods and pulled out the odd stringy bit of fat. A little bit of gentle stirring broke up the meat perfectly - and now I'm swimming in lamb curry! I also tasted it to check if it needed salt or a tsp of sugar - sometimes the tomato flavour is too acidic and needs some sugar to balance, but this time it was fine without.

I served it with dahl, diced capsicum, cucumber, coriander, greek yogurt, papadums and brown rice. i know I should have taken a photo... blogger regret, a lesson learned for next time!

Thai-inspired beef noodle stir-fry

Its stir-fry madness… well not quite, it’s just a quick, simple and healthy way to cook, so I make them often.  

Some tips for making a successful stir-fry

• Do all your prep before you start cooking - everything chopped and your sauce made

• Cut each vegetable into the same, even size – not necessarily all the same as each other, just the same as its own kind. 
• Get your timing right in terms of when you add the vegetables during in the cooking process to ensure everything is cooked evenly. This is pretty impossible to teach and something you learn through trial and error, but the recipe below gives a step by step example.  
• I like everything to be a little crunchy so my hot tip is to take it off the heat before it finishes cooking, it will continue to cook after you turn it off, especially if you have a big thick scanpan wok like mine. 
• Develop the repertoire of a few different flavour combinations so it doesn’t get boring. 
• Little things like roasted peanuts, cashews, sesame seeds, thai basil, coriander, spring onions, diced omelette and fresh chilli are all good additions to the typical veggie, meat/tofu combination
• Garlic and/or ginger are your friends
• Less is more in terms of the variety of vegetables you put in. Aim to make your food-rainbow with the smallest number of vegetables as possible.

• Keep in mind the interplay of their different textures when cutting them up, for example, I no longer put finely shredded cabbage and finely shredded carrot in the same stir-fry because it ends up as this big sloppy cabbage/carrot hairball. Instead I cut one chucky and the other fine.

There is no judgement here. I don’t think that everyone should cook exactly like me, I like to take my time because I enjoy it. My super busy ex-housemate Anna used to make a stir-fry using those bags of pre-chopped veggies and store bought sauce, which I think is great if you can’t be arsed buying all the individual components. If this is how you cook, good for you, its about a million times better for you than take away. Perhaps next time you do it, also buy some unsalted roasted cashews and a bunch of coriander and add them at the end. I’m hoping for this blog to inspire not preach. I believe that if we eat satisfying, nutritious food it leads to less cravings and binge eating, which is better for all of us.

This sauce is pretty light and low sodium, increase the quantities if you like a strong sauce. The recipe cooked enough for 3 medium sized portions

Sauce

2 tsp fish sauce

2 tsp oyster sauce

1 small fresh chilli diced

2 tbl soy sauce

Juice of one lemon/lime

Stir fry

¼ cup cashews

360gm of rump steak cut into thin strips (90 degrees to grain of the muscle)

1 onion coarsely chopped

3x20cm sticks celery cut into sticks

½ a red capsicum diced

2 garlic cloves diced

Big handful of cabbage cut into chunks

1 carrot julienned

Coriander to garnish

90 gm dry Soba noodles par cooked and drained

In a wok dry roast ¼ cup cashews (this is a fairly small portion of nuts because I’d snacked on many nuts already that day – I suggest going for ½ a cup if you want a cashew in every bite!)

Add 1 tbl vegetable oil and 1/3 of the beef, you are aiming to brown the meat, which is why I suggest to not overcrowd the pan, but you don’t want to cook it through completely. I gave mine about 1 minute each side.

Meat tip: I try to always have my meat at room temperature before cooking it – because it cooks more evenly and is often turns out more tender.

Continue cooking the meat in batches and set aside with the cashews

Next add 1 coarsely chopped onion. My wok was quite hot at this stage, which is important, but I added about 2 tbl water with the onion to improve the heat transfer between the onions and the wok (as opposed to adding more oil) and also liberating the brown meaty bits from the pan. 

Fry for 1 minute, add celery

Fry for another minute or so, then add red capsicum and garlic

Fry for another minute or so, then add cabbage, fry for another minute.

Then add carrots, sauce, cooked beef, par cooked soba and cashews.

Allow everything to heat through then turn off the heat and sprinkle with a little chopped coriander.

Calling it Thai is a stretch, especially because of the use of soba noodles. But I like to use them because they are really good for you, filling and tasty. Also in terms of a maintaining a balanced diet I often let myself down by over doing it with my portions of pasta and rice. So this way the carbohydrates are already portioned out for me. 

Left overs update: I just had some for lunch today with a runny fried egg on top… yuummmm.

Chilli con carne roast potatoes

For this post I used some chilli con carne I had in the freezer so I'm not going to include the recipe, mostly because i made it up at the time and can't remember exactly what I did. I am in the process of trying to develop a recipe for chilli sans carne that I am looking forward to posting soon....

This is more of a "how to get the most enjoyment out of your leftovers" kind of post

I think in Australia we have an unhealthy tradition where when we eat things like chilli con carne or an indian curry we sit down with a bowl full of rice and curry/chilli and that's our meal. It's often meat intensive and kind of monotonous. I think by making a little extra effort with salads and different toppings, you can make your meal so much more interesting and therefore more satisfying. This is my suggestion for baked potatoes with chilli and coleslaw in the tradition of the food court lunch!

coleslaw

1/2 a carrot grated

1 stick celery sliced

some finely sliced cabbage (man this girl eats a lot of cabbage)

3 slices of red onion

a pinch of mint

a handful of parsley

Dressing

1 tbl apple vinegar

1 tbl greek yogurt

1 tsp mayo

1/2 tsp dijon mustard

I roasted two tiny potatoes for about 1 hour at 190 degrees, but you could nuke them in the microwave for 5 min and finish them in the oven, or just nuke them... it's up to you

Additional toppings

butter

sour cream

grated cheese

pineapple

beetroot

Jalapeño

spring onion

black olives

BBQ'd corn cut off the cob

yummo!

Too much meat...

I think we (the people of the developed world) are eating way too much meat... It’s a complex issue with many sides, but personally I think people eat too much meat either because they are lazy, greedy or ignorant (or all three). I’m not trying to offend anyone, I myself used to be all three. I used struggle to understand how vegetarians could think opting out of eating meat was an ethical choice, but I just didn’t understand the argument. Granted meat is the most efficient thing for us to eat in terms of calorie content and nutritional value and for that reason it is a convenient way to eat, however it is by no means the most energy efficient thing to produce, or the healthiest option. The fact that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of men and women in this country must be telling us something.

So why is this happening? Is it the break down in the connection between the people who produce the meat and the people who consume it? A break down in the cultural traditions that used to dictate the treatment and ceremony of meat? Public pressure for higher volumes of a cheaper, more "affordable" product that has enabled the industrialisation of meat production? Everyone want the cost of living to be less, pressure by consumers to produce more chicken at a cheaper price has led to the establishment of battery hens in the most pitiful of conditions, the true cost of your daily chicken stir-fry or green chicken curry is the torture of an innocent bird. Clearly this is a subjective issue, I've heard people argue that they can’t taste the difference between cage eggs and free range and therefore there is no difference. I understand there are people who say they can't afford free range/organic food - but if that is what it costs to produce meat and eggs humanely and you can't afford it, doesn't that just mean you should be eating less?

some happy free ranging chooks...

My current solution to this issue is to eat less meat, cutting back to two-three times a week (less when my boyfriend is away) and when I do eat meat I try to buy free range/organic produce from local producers and treat meat as a side dish, not central to the meal. Supermarket meat does not enter my kitchen, I'd rather eat baked beans. 

I do however eat meat sometimes when I eat out - which is lazy of me - how can I be all preachy when I eat a roast duck noodle soup for $11? After a recent news bulletin on ABC 7:30 report, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be eating roast duck...

I'm still conflicted about this but perhaps that's where I should be. I should be considering the welfare of the animals I eat, the conditions they lived in and how they were slaughtered.  I have heard it be said that lamb is the most reliable "free range" meat because you can't make a sheep eat grain - they have to eat hay or grass. But even that doesn't ensure their transportation and slaughter is in line with what I would consider humane. I have seen plenty of trucks transporting sheep crammed in, legs poking out at all angles, with the top level open to the elements, often in scorching heat. Not to mention the number of sheep paddocks I have seen devoid of a single tree or shade cloth, with sheep hiding under each others bums from the 40 degree heat.

Needless to say, it's is just about impossible to always eat "ethically reared, humanely treated" animals.  Unfortunately regulation standards on this don't currently exist at level I am satisfied with. Which is why many people choose to be vegetarian.

So after all that, last week I bought two lamb chops from the butcher last week. You should see the perplexed looks I get from my local butcher "200 gm of organic mince thanks".... "anything else love?...". which is part of the problem, there are people out there that can't imagine what you could do with only 200gm of mince... Anyway I enjoyed two lovely BBQ'ed lamb chops, steamed broccoli, peas and roasted sweet potato and red onion. I eat most of the fat on the chops.. because I think the lamb was nice enough to grow it for me, I should eat it.... but that's mostly a justification for myself because I love the taste... tell me I'm gross if you want...