All posts filed under: Eats

Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back chili mac

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Here is where we need ya, hey it’s nice to see ya! Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back Chilly Mac This catchy chorus isn’t about food but it’s not exactly a misheard lyric either. In any case, hearing about Chilly Mac made me want to eat a chili mac for dinner. What’s better than chili mac? Chili mac and cheese! First I made mac and cheese based on the good old Edmonds cookbook recipe. Then I browned some mince with a heaped teaspoon of chili seasoning, added a can of pasta (tomato) sauce and a can of kidney beans. I poured the mac and cheese into an overproof dish and topped with the chili. Grated cheese on top and then bunged it into the oven to get golden for about 20 minutes. I made enough for about 4 people so there was plenty left for leftover lunch the next day. These days the only time I bring lunch is when I have leftovers. There’s no effort involved in making a little bit more at dinner …

A cartoon dinner for real life people

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In cartoons, they always have dinner with a brown meat, some green and some creamy white. Sometimes there’s yellow or orange, but the 3 main colours on cartoon character’s dinner plate are brown, green and cream. This is what I call a cartoon dinner. Instead of mash potatoes this time, I boiled kumara (sweet potato) and then gave them a good stir and finished them off in a hot oven. The trick is to get the kumara roughened up so that the rough bits crisp up nicely in the oven. I marinated a couple of slabs of steak in Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. Then fried with slices of onion. As the steak was resting, I added red wine to the pan with a little flour and made a red wine and onion sauce. Brocolli made up the green component. And there you have it. A dinner fit for a cartoon character.

Cook Duck (thanks to Nosh)

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Singing songs like “The Man I Love” or “Porgy” is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck. – Billie Holiday As much as I adore duck, I have never cooked it. Until now. When I saw Nosh’s recipe for duck this week, I knew that I had to make it. Absolutely had to. With a title like Sticky Cherry Duck legs with Parsnip Mash and Roast Fennel, I didn’t stand a chance. They even listed Nipple Hill Pinot Noir for the marinade. Cherries, duck legs and nipples. I don’t know where this is leading to, but it sounds sexy. The recipe can be downloaded from their website here. It is a pdf so don’t freak out when your computer pauses for a moment to download and open the file. My only adaptions were that I used bouillon instead of stock, garam masala instead of allspice (I thought I had, but turns out I didn’t have allspice) and I roughly split the recipe in half since I was cooking for …

The best weekday breakfast for a cold Autumn morning

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This is the congee I’ve been eating this week. I treated myself to a 50mm f1.8 lens for my Nikon D3000 this week and this is the first food photo I’ve taken with it. This lens has no auto focus when screwed to my camera so I’m hoping that this lens will force me to get better with the camera’s manual settings. I usually just put rice straight into water to boil for congee, but I read that soaking the rice prior to boiling  makes for creamier congee. It’s true! This week I’ve been eating congee with seasoned pork mince and ginger for breakfast. Garnished with fresh spring onion slices from the garden, soy sauce and sesame oil. Pork and Ginger Congee (Makes 3-4 servings) Ingredients 1 cup long grain rice (a rice cup is 180ml) Water 200gm lean pork mince 2 slices of ginger for each serve (cut into matchsticks) 1 stem of spring onion (chopped) Splash of soy sauce Drizzle of sesame seed oil Preparation Soak the rice for a hour or two …

How to deal with 60+ types of New Zealand seafood

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The Greatest Meal On Earth website has a handy table on New Zealand fish. All the basics about 60+ local seafoods including characteristics of the meat and how to cook each kind. If you come across an unfamiliar fish at the fish markets you can count on this table to tell you what to do with it. I especially like how you can sort by each of the categories. For example, you can choose to view all local seafoods that are eaten raw. There are 16 of them and of those, there is only 1 seafood that is not cooked at all. That would be kina. A Ruby is not a jewel. The other day at the fish shop, I spied some pretty looking Ruby fillets. I’ve never cooked Ruby before and I didn’t know what to do with it. Lucky for me the table recommends: Poach, Smoke, Steam, Bake, BBQ, Casserole, Fry. Which pretty much means I can do whatever the hell I want with it except eat it raw. So I pan fried …

A Mother’s Day Feast

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“God can’t be everywhere, so he created mothers.” I don’t think I am alone on this, but as a teenager I was always embarrassed when someone told me that I looked like or acted like my Mum. It’s funny how no matter what you do, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I inherited my mother’s mothering. I inherited my mother’s excellent organisation skills. I can see my Mum in many of the things I do and it doesn’t bother me anymore. I don’t see her in the mirror, but I do see her in photos of me. Mum is my eternal consultant and groupie. I love my Mummy. Both my parents are excellent cooks and can both cook and huge repetoire of Cantonese dishes and Western fare. Although I never cooked while I lived at home, I adore cooking now. I’m sure my adventurous cooking style came from my parents. My mother never made food aversions an option. Or maybe we tried it all with relish? I remember when I was 8 or 9 and sushi …

Make Polenta

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I have this rule that I don’t cook anything that I haven’t eaten before. It generally works well. I eat, I like, I cook. But then I broke that rule. I don’t know why I decided that I’d cook polenta. I put it on my list of things to attempt this Autumn/Winter even though I hadn’t had it before, but I cooked it and ate it and I didn’t like it. I followed the package instructions, even adding cheese and butter (which was optional). It was really, really bland. The Koala likened it to watery custard and ate everything else on the plate. I guess it looks like a gritty custard. I would have much preferred mashed potatoes for dinner. In any case, I’ve got a whole package of polenta that I don’t know what to do with. Is there anyone out there that likes polenta? What’s your polenta recipe? Failing that, does anyone want a big bag of polenta? Minus 1 cup, but there’s probably about 10 cups in there still. You can have …

Cook with Squid Ink

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In the novel The Snack Thief, Inspector Salvo Montalbano is invited for dinner by the police Superintendent. “My wife will prepare spaghetti in squid ink. An exquisiteness”.  Then the day before the dinner: “Superintendent? I am calling to say I am really mortified, but won’t be able to make it for dinner tomorrow.” “You are mortified because we cannot meet, or because of the squid ink pasta?” “Both Sir.” A few years ago, I read The Snack Thief by Andrea Camilleri. I’m not sure when my fascination with squid ink pasta began, but this novel could have been it. It’s a crime novel set in Sicily where the quirky main character, Inspector Salvo Montalbano solves murder mysteries but also tucks into lovely Sicilian feasts. Pasta dishes and seafood seem to be the gastronomic detective’s favourites and the feasts are described in enough detail to make you salivate. If you enjoy crime novels and you enjoy reading about food like I do, Andrea Camilleri is a name to remember. There is something remarkably cool about shiny black pasta. …

How to make Chinese Soup

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I grew up with a bowl of Chinese soup before dinner. Chinese soup is a clear broth full of nourishing goodies. The Chinese love their soup and many Chinese families make a healthy brew to enjoy every day. These soups not only nourish, but are prized for properties such as clear skin, healing, cooling, warming as well as many herbal and medicinal ingredients which all have their uses. A happy home is a Chinese soup home. Chinese believe in daily soup to prevent illness while the West often serves soup to cure illness. I’ve been craving Chinese soup this autumn and when I found out that The Koala also loves Chinese soup, I started planning my first Chinese soup. There is a whole aisle of dried soup packs at my local Chinese supermarket, but apparently you only really need these if you want to make a medicinal or herbal soup. Dried ingredients for soup are really cheap at just a few dollars each so it’s ok to experiment without having to squint at your bank balance. …

Glaze a ham

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First thing crossed off the Bunny Eats Design Autum/Winter To Do List. Oh yeah! The Koala’s Mum had sourced a ham for our family lunch. She provided everything and I did the honours of decorating and glazing. Using tropical fruit, cloves and an apricot sauce for a glaze, this ham provided many yummy meals over the weekend. We even made crackling with the ham skin. The ham was paired with a greek salad, peas, roast potatoes and pumpkin. Easter lunch was finished off with Mum’s individual pavlovas with berry compote and whipped cream. Yum!

Looks like poo, tastes like awesome.

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I did my best to make this look pretty, but there’s no two ways about it, stewed fruit and melted chocolate looks horrible. I made this recipe up based on what I had on hand. No reason why you can’t do the same. By all means, experiment! And eat the evidence. Feijoa  (pronounced fee-jo-ah) can be replaced with berries or stone fruit. Feijoa Custard with Chocolate and Cointreau Makes 2 Ingredients 12 feijoa 1 tablespoon sugar 1 shot of Cointreau 12 chocolate buttons plus 4 extra for garnish 1 cup of custard (chilled) Preparation Cut feijoas in half and scoop fruit out and into a small sauce pan. Add sugar and Cointreau. Simmer for 5-10 minutes. Stirring with a wooden spoon and breaking up the fruit as you go. When the fruit is all broken down and resembling baby food, drop in 12 chocolate buttons. Give the mixture gentle mix and divide into 2 ramekins. Top with custard and make a butterfly garnish on each dollop of custard using 2 extra chocolate buttons.

Unbelievably Easy Feijoa, Chocolate & Custard Pastries

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Tofu the bunny has been eating feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) and I have to check the lawns every day so that he doesn’t over eat. I toss any half eaten feijoas into the worm bin. The uneaten feijoas get turned into all sorts of yummy things. I made these babies for Natahma’s baby shower last week. It was the first baby shower I’ve ever been to and it was mostly just eating yummy food, talking about girl stuff and drinking champagne and feijoa wine. We didn’t play any silly games and the experience didn’t put me off having babies for life. These pastries are really easy to make and if you have a heavy feijoa tree in your yard, this is a good way to get rid of some. If you don’t have feijoas, I’m sure you could experiment with other fruit. I considered using plums and maybe still will at a later stage. I made something similar over a week ago but the latest ones are much, much better because they have chocolate in them. …

Baked fish and chips with coleslaw

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Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all have some feasting and chocolate eating this long weekend. We have both Mondays and Friday off for Easter. Is that the same the world over? I thought it fitting to write about fish today since Good Friday is traditionally a day when you abstain from meat, but apparently, fish is fair game. Personally, I don’t morally differentiate between eating fish and meat, but hey, I didn’t make the rules. If you don’t eat meat on Good Friday, you don’t eat meat on Good Friday. We don’t eat fish and chips very often. It’s not one of our regular takeaway choices – it’s a summer treat reserved for afternoons spent at the beach. Fish and chip shops here can be a bit hit and miss. Fresh fish comes at a price. The fish and chip shops by us are either too greasy or too expensive so it’s easier just to go without. Our too greasy local was to be just around the corner from our Sandringham flat and their “number …

Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock

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Autumn weather is in full force and we’ve brushed the cobwebs off the hot water bottles and have been snuggling up to them in bed. The heater hasn’t made it’s debut yet, but in an old villa, it won’t be long. We had Peking Duck on Sunday at Canton Cafe and I took the duck carcass home. I remember when we ate Peking Duck in Beijing, the duck carcass was taken home to make soup. So I figured I would boil up the bones and make a rich duck stock to form a soup base. Cabbage soup with meatballs and duck stock Soup Ingredients 1.5 cups soup mix (pearl barley, yellow split peas, green split peas, red lentils) Quarter of a large cabbage 1 tablespoon of oil 5 potatoes Duck stock 1 duck carcass (meat removed for another meal) Meatball Ingredients 500g beef mince 1 tablespoon ground chilli seasoning* Salt Half an onion, finely chopped Half a cup of breadcrumbs 1 egg, beaten 2 tablespoons Worcester sauce Preparation In a large pot, heat the oil …

Pork dumplings with prawns and pasta

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I always make enough dumplings to feed a gang of rowdy cats, so there is always plenty to freeze. When faced with no fresh food in the house, at least I’ll have a bag of frozen prawns, frozen home made dumplings and some dried pasta to work with. Pinch a few basil and spring onion leaves from the pots on the deck you got yourself an easy dinner.

We don’t have feijoas coming out our ears.

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Really we don’t. Our tree is giving us a respectable 3 to 6 fruit a day. Totally manageable. This week, I learned that feijoas (pronounced fee-jo-ahs) thrive in our sub tropical climate and also don’t have any natural pests here. Every day, I check the lawn under and gather up any fallen fruit. Although Tofu doesn’t seem to be interested in feijoa this autumn, he could just be trying to trick me into nonchalance. I’ve caught him hoeing into them in other years so I’m not so easily fooled. I’m still squirreling away all the macadamia nuts that are dropping onto our lawn. I haven’t bought a macadamia nut cracker yet so I’m just collecting and collecting. The only way I can get them open right now is using a brick and smashing the nuts on concrete. But it’s not pretty and kind of caveman like to be honest. I hope my neighbours don’t see me smashing bricks and nuts in the backyard…and eating the results. The nuts have a great flavour, but aren’t crunchy. I’ve already …

Creamy Tomatoey Chicken

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My local Chinese supermarket now offers boneless thigh! I prefer the texture and flavour of thigh over breast meat. Boneless thigh is the same price as breast meat so I guess I’m not going to be buying breast ever again. I cooked up some the chicken for me and the boys*. Some cream, some tomato, some spices like garam masala and curry powder. Whip up some rice and some vege and you got yourself some tasty nutrition. The boys gobbled it all up. * By boys, I’m really referring to men. I don’t have any offspring.

Lamb and Pinot Noir Meatballs

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I still had a little pinot noir leftover from the other day when we all needed a BFGOW after work. So I got half a kilo of lamb mince in a bowl, added a good glug glug of the wine, some chopped garlic, chopped basil, salt, pepper, some breadcrumbs, no, more breadcrumbs, no, still more breadcrumbs and rolled up 60 little meatballs and baked them for about 15 minutes in a hot 200°C oven. Then I made this light sauce to go with it. If it wasn’t a school night, I might have cooked this sauce for longer, but I’d already laboured over the meatballs and hey, a light sauce is good too. Chop up 2 red capsicums, 2 sticks of celery, 1 onion and brown in a hot pan with a little oil. Add 2 cups of water and boil for 20 minutes. Drain most of the water out. Work some voodoo magic with a stick blender and then put it back on the heat and add salt or bouillon as you wish. Serve with …

Cabbages and pears

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Just another mid week dinner. I read Citrus and Candy’s braised cabbage recipe the other day and was inspired to pair cabbage, balsamic and a fruit too. I didn’t have granny smiths and I don’t really braise during the week, but I had a pear and I’ve cooked cabbage in a frying pan a gazillion times before, so frying pan and pear it was. I’m trying to make extra these days so we can have lunch the next day. Lunch can be so expensive and cooking a bit extra doesn’t cost much at all. Intrinsically, this is chicken, cabbage and potato. I have a microwave at work, The Koala is on the road. So I’m taking chicken and cabbage for lunch tomorrow to heat, The Koala is taking chicken and potato salad to have cold. Hopefully his new insulated lunch box will keep it cool. Cabbage and pear with balsamic A side dish to pretty up any plate. Ingredients Quarter of a red cabbage 1 pear About 2 tablespoons of butter A glug of balsamic vinegar A …

I ♥ Pork & Apple…still

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Tasty, fatty comfort food. Make a big pot of this stew plus a big pot of rice and help yourselves to little bowlfuls whenever it takes your fancy. Great for lunch the next day and this stew seriously tastes better and better with time. Pretty similar dish to this rough guide. I seared (even burnt bits) the pork in a pan before I simmered and included some chunks of turnip (Chinese white carrot). Star anise might not be familiar to y’all but it’s a aniseed flavour that I love even though I don’t like licorice. They are added to food for flavour, but don’t eat them. It’s not nice to crunch on so try and remove them prior to serving or if they are intact, they can serve as a pretty garnish. The rough guide to Aromatic Pork Belly and Apple Ingredients: Pork belly, granny smith apple, onion, garlic, ginger, 5 spice powder, cloves, star anise, black vinegar, raw sugar, soy sauce. Preparation: Brown the pork and then simmer with all the other ingredients for about 1.5 …