Monthly Archives: April 2012

ANZAC Day post

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To those who have served Australia,
THANK YOU.

To those who have lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters to protect our country,
THANK YOU.

To those who have mourned the loss of loves ones as they fought for freedom,
I feel for you and THANK YOU.

To those who are serving Australia today and making a difference to countless lives around the world,
THANK YOU.

I will not forget.

Today I wanted to do something that involved a product of New Zealand. However, there has recently been some controversy in the news because a journalist from New Zealand called Australian soldiers lazy bludgers (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/last-post-first-light/6792303/No-apology-over-dig-at-Aussie-soldiers). That gave me a reason to pause and reconsider. Rather than something obvious like lamb I chose tinned beef. Bully Beef (bully beef; from the French bouilli “boiled”) is the name of a tinned meat that soldiers ate in the field. Soldiers’ only food was whatever they had carried ashore in their packs. Apparently for several days on end all they had to eat was a little bully beef, some tea, sugar and a few very hard biscuits from the ship. (Reference http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/afor/afor-b.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corned_beef)

Now who can forget some of my special corned beef dishes? My Man versus Food version and my previous sausage roll.

New Zealand Corned Beef (Nikon D90)

New Zealand Corned Beef (Nikon D90)

For lunch I made myself a sausage roll with the corned beef. I added a little flavour with GOA beef curry powder and an onion. I also added a little Worcestershire sauce (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worcestershire_sauce).

 

Corned beef sausage roll (Nikon D90)

Corned beef sausage roll (Nikon D90)

One of the other flavourings for today is rosemary. I didn’t realise until recently what the significance of rosemary is for ANZAC day. A sprig of rosemary is worn on ANZAC day. It is an emblem of both fidelity and remembrance in literature and folklore. It is found growing wild on the Gallipoli peninsula. (Reference http://www.awm.gov.au/commemoration/customs/rosemary.asp, http://www.theradish.com.au/rosemary-for-remembrance-677/, http://www.anzacday.org.au/education/tff/rosemary.html, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anzac_Day). Today I acquired my rosemary outside of Swimming Australia on Beissel Street in Belconnen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimming_Australia). This is particularly apt given it’s an Olympic year and my favourite sport is swimming.

Dinner was a surprise and by surprise I just put stuff into a saucepan and hoped for the best. It was surprisingly good. I did the usual sauteing of onions, garlic and ginger. To this I added some diced tomatoes and then diced chicken thigh meat. After everything was soft I added Mudgeeraba Parsee Chicken and Potato curry powder. I added some sliced potato and sweet potato and then put the lid on the saucepan and kept it simmering for three hours. With half an hour to go I added some beans, corn and mushrooms. I served it with noodles.

Curry chicken and beef (Nikon D90)

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Shout out for @kecozaphoto

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I have a friend at work. Her name is Nat. She’s new to twitter (@kecozaphoto) and instagram (kecozanat). I recommend her for following. She has a great website and Facebook page. Check out her photography and lens bling at http://www.kecozaphotography.com.au/ and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kecoza-Photography-Capture-Life/118674384815323

GOA Beef curry

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Curry beef and noodles

It’s the usual routine of frying off some onion, garlic and ginger. Add some tomato and simmer. Add the curry powder. Brown diced beef. Add to the wok. Add sliced potatoes, carrots and beans. Simmer for about 30 minutes and then add some coconut cream. Prepare the noodles and serve.

This was purchased this year at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney (Nikon D90)

Simmering in my wok (Nikon D90)

Served with noodles (Nikon D90)

 

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My weekend in food while in Brisbane

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This weekend I visited my daughters in Brisbane. Miss14 was competing in the Queensland Women’s Artistic Gymnastics championships for 2012. It also included the trials for the state team to compete at the national titles in June in Sydney. Miss14 is Level 9. On Saturday she came third overall in Queensland. She freely admits her vault lets her down. Her routine is not as difficult as the others in the competition. When I asked why, she simply said she’s uncoordinated. That is the biggest understatement of her life. Compared to the rest of us in the family she’s amazing. So today as I was returning to Canberra Miss14 was competing to make a place in the Queensland team. She got in and received an award for her floor routine. I recorded her routine from yesterday which was ranked second.

On Friday I had lunch with some work mates and also some colleagues from another agency. We ate at the Hellenic Club. The Hellenic Club is a fantastic Canberra institution. It has a range of restaurants including a pretty good Chinese restaurant which is a nice touch for a Greek establishment. I love the Hellenic Club’s bistro. It does a really good steak with pepper sauce and chips (which is what I had) while others had chicken breast schnitzel or a roast dinner.

Hellenic Club's pepper steak (rib eye fillet) and chips (iPhone)

After a very squishy flight to Brisbane and then discovering I had rented a General Motors Barina (beep beep) I got to my parent’s place and enjoyed some time with the kids. Let me digress and discuss the rental car. I rent through Hertz and normally I get a small compact like a Toyota Yaris or Ford Focus. Both are good small manual transmission cars that I don’t find uncomfortable. I should declare that after Chrysler left Australia I switched my allegiance to Ford. For non-Australian readers, in the main, if you’re a bloke, you’re either Ford or Holden (GM). There’s not debate. The Barina, even if Ford produced it would have been and remains a lemon. For someone who is only 170 cm (short arsed), it’s hard to believe that leg room posed such a problem. I would NEVER purchase a General Motors Barina.

In the morning we had a light breakfast. By light I mean toast. I don’t mean warm bread either. I like toast that has a good amount of colour. Not burnt, but at least browned. I also like Vegemite. For non-Australians, Vegemite is a yeast extract and it is a salty dark paste the consistency of cream cheese. It is an acquired taste. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. I don’t get how some Australians go on and on about it. It’s good. Just don’t carry on about it.

Toast with a smear of Vegemite (iPhone)

For lunch I had a sausage roll and chips (no photograph). Most of the day was spent driving between Chermside, Clayfield and Chandler (Sleeman Sports Complex). The competition was at the Sleeman Sports Complex while Miss11 had to also train at Clayfield. I had Miss16 to keep me company :-)

I also had fudge that Miss14 had cooked the day before. This is GOOD fudge.

Fudge after a bite (iPhone)

Miss14′s competition ran late, very late. We didn’t leave until nearly 2000 AEST. When we got back to my parent’s place, Mum and Dad had cooked a roast dinner. We had roast chicken, stuffing, roast potato, roast sweet potato, roast pumpkin, broccoli and beans. Mum also made gravy from scratch. I love Mum’s roast chicken with gravy and stuffing.

Roast chicken (Nikon D90) Click on the image for a more detailed view.

May is a big month for birthdays in our family and it’s not clear if I can visit in May so Mum made a cake. Miss14 and Miss16 become Miss15 and Miss17 on the same day in May. I turn 47 in May. My Dad also has a birthday in May.

Birthday sponge cake with almond chocolate (iPhone)

This morning we were in a rush but that didn’t stop Mum cooking us some snags, scrambled eggs and mushrooms. Mums and Dads are like that and I love my Mum and Dad for being like that.

It doesn’t look all that flash but it tasted great.

Sausages, eggs and mushrooms for breakfast on a plastic picnic plate. Classy :-) (iPhone)

At the airport I sat in front of a container of macaroons. I will not say if I had any or not.

Macaroons (iPhone)

This afternoon after arriving back in Canberra I bought some baby spinach leaves, salmon and a tomato. Dinner was inspired by breakfast and I had the last of the very fresh free range eggs to cook. I cooked the scrambled eggs with cream, a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt. I also added a little blue cheese for flavour.

Atlantic salmon and fresh free range eggs (Nikon D90) Click on the image for a more detailed view.

Look at how yellow and creamy the folds of egg are. They were amazing.

All in all it’s been a good weekend. Miss14 made the Queensland team. I hope Miss16 is watching the Brisbane Roar win the A-league soccer grand final tonight. Miss11 did an awesome job cheering today and being an all round great kid.

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I really work with the best people

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I love the people I work with. For readers who follow me on instagram you’ll know that I often post images of treats given to me by my work mates. I have been blessed with macarons, cakes, biscuits, fruit and vegetables from work mates.

Today I received fresh eggs from free range chooks from a work mate’s parents’ backyard. There is not much better than fresh eggs from chooks that are lovingly cared for and fed stuff from your own kitchen as well as the insects and grubs in the garden.

I already had a piece of Scotch fillet in the refrigerator so I thought steak and eggs.

Steak done rare with fried eggs and avocado

The steak was simply dressed on the board with salt and pepper and then cooked for a couple of minutes on both sides. You can see I like it rare. I cooked the eggs in the butter and fat from the steak fry pan. The eggs tasted divine.

I’m so grateful for the generosity of my work mates as well as their brilliance and doing their job.

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Truthful Tuesday Left over curry always tastes better

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Tonight’s dinner.

Tonight's dinner. Left over chicken curry with noodles.

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Baby sheep truly taste good

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A rack of lamb is so easy and so tasty.

This rack was placed in a low oven (120 °C) for an hour along with some grated sweet potato and blue cheese and cream. The potato was seasoned with curry powder and pepper.

Then after carving the sloppy sweet potato was added. I ended up eating the cutlets with my fingers and using the sweet potato as a dipping sauce. It tasted so good.

Plated up lamb and sweet potato with cream and cheese

To be honest, the lamb was a little over cooked. It was, however, very tender and juicy.

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Dexter

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I’ve only just started watching Dexter after a number of friends from work and twitter suggested I’d like it.

I’ve always wanted to complete an apprenticeship as a butcher. I like cutting meat with good knives and bluntly dissecting large muscle bundles with my fingers. It reminds me of dissection as a medical student and then my days as a resident doing surgical terms.

This morning I was tweeting some comments along these lines and the subject of Dexter came up. I thought while I was watching I’d sharpen my knives. Then I thought why not make an audioboo.

listen to ‘Watching Dexter and taking care of my knives’ on Audioboo

//

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Red meat, white meat and carbohydrates galour

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It’s been an odd weekend. Bron has gone away for a couple of weeks so I have to fend for myself. Thinking of Bron I made Brioche French toast yesterday morning and then we went to the local club for dinner last night. Today I cooked pork belly (my other white meat).

The Brioche was soaked in cream, eggs, vanilla and sugar.

Brioche soaking in cream, vanilla, eggs and sugar

I served it with cream and maple syrup because I didn’t have any berries. Note the Brisbane Broncos mug taking pride of place given they defeated the Canberra Raiders on Friday night.

Served with cream and maple syrup

After breakfast I went to Costco to pick up a new pair of reading spectacles. While I was there I happened upon one of the many meat cabinets. I picked up some red meat in the form of a rack of lamb and some scotch fillet.

I plan to cook this this week some time.

I love my vacuum sealer. I can prepare meat and freeze it to keep for extended periods.

My scotch fillet in food saver bags.

On Saturday night we went to the Southern Cross Club at Jamison. This is a local club and they do a reasonable steak. I tend to go for the scotch fillet with prawns and calamari in a Béarnaise sauce served on a bed of mash potato.

Steak, served rare as I want it.

For dessert we had a layered meringue cake. It was delicious. I should have asked for ice cream too.

Meringue layer cake with cream

The meal was fairly good. The service is okay. Saturday night is a pretty busy night for the Southern Cross Club.

This morning I made a salami and Gruyere cheese omelet for breakfast. It was pretty delicious.

Salami and Gruyere Cheese omelet for breakfast

This afternoon I took a piece of belly pork and slowly cooked it in a low oven. After I got it to room temperature I scalded it with boiling water.

It's upside down but this is after it's been scalded with boiling water

I then seared the skin in a saucepan while the oven was heating up.

After searing in a saucepan

I then put the saucepan and pork into an oven for five hours at 110 °C.

This is how it looked after a couple of hours.

I also made a sweet potato and Gruyere cheese and cheddar cheese bake.

To the bake I added some curry powder we got from the Easter Show.

Madras chicken curry

I served the pork with the sweet potato and some asparagus spears.

Plated up pork belly with sweet potato and asparagus spears

It’s been a good weekend, although I will miss Bron for a couple of weeks.

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