Curry

Celebration Pumpkin soup

Posted by Gary

What am I celebrating? 

My last head cold was in February 2020. I’ve been boastfully rejoicing that the pandemic has proven that if we as a community, if we as a society, observe some simple hygiene principles, we can reduce the number of circulating respiratory infections.

There is so much evidence now for the truth behind the importance of physical distance, hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and staying home if unwell.

As a society, as a community, we must encourage business owners and leaders to begin the next task, which is changing infrastructure to be safer. By that, I mean increasing the number of no-touch approaches to our everyday lives, such as using sensors for doors, taps, toilets, and lifts, making better use of smartphone apps to avoid touching things.

Anyway, as we’ve opened up more and people are relaxing their observance of the mechanisms for reducing communicable respiratory infections, we see more upper respiratory tract infections. I’ve been trying to maintain my observance of physical distancing, hand hygiene, and respiratory etiquette as much as possible. But success relies on everyone doing the right thing.

This week I was infected with a respiratory viral infection. I developed nasal congestion and rhinorrhoea, and then a cough. I didn’t have any fever or headache. Given the advice I freely share with everyone, I went to the local drive-through collection centre to have specimens collected by sampling my throat and nasal mucosa for SARS-COV-2 RNA RT-PCR in ACT Pathology. 

I received my result by text message within 12 hours of the collection time, which is excellent.

COVID-19 SARS-COV-2 RNA RT-PCR result

Ingredients

  • Butternut pumpkin (1 diced)
  • Potato (1 diced)
  • Extra virgin olive oil (a good number of glugs)
  • Clive of India Curry powder (1 tablespoon)
  • Mapuche spice Chilean spice blend (1 tablespoon)
  • Cream (1 cup)
  • Sour cream (1 tablespoon)
  • Onion (chopped)
  • Bacon (diced)
  • Rye sourdough bread (1 slice)

Instructions

  1. Turn on your oven to about 180 °C.
  2. Smear some oil on the inside surfaces of a large baking tray.
  3. Lay the pumpkin pieces into the baking tray.
  4. Add a few good glugs of EVOO over the pumpkin.
  5. Sprinkle the curry powder and spice blend over the oiled pumpkin.
  6. Mix everything with a wooden spoon or if you like scratching your baking tray, use a metal spoon.
  7. Put the baking tray into the oven for 20 minutes.
  8. Remove the baking tray and pray to the Lord that the pumpkin has started to colour without sticking to the baking tray.
  9. Move everything around with the spoon of your choice.
  10. Put the baking tray back into the oven for a further 20 minutes.
  11. Remove the baking tray and again pray. This time, add in the diced potato and mix everything around. By now, the pumpkin will be soft, and the spoon you choose will deform the pumpkin.
  12. Put the baking tray back into the oven for a further 20 minutes.
  13. While the pumpkin and potato are in the oven, sautée the onion and bacon pieces in a large saucepan on low heat.
  14. When the baking tray has completed a total of 1 hour in the oven, remove it and mix everything up. By now, the pumpkin will be mushy, and the potato will be soft. The beauty of this method is there is no excess water in the soup; this means the soup is rich and unctuous.
  15. Add the mashed up pumpkin and potato into the saucepan with the onion and bacon.
  16. Mix everything around and process with a stick blender.
  17. When the mixture is smooth, put the saucepan back on the hob and add the cream and sour cream. Stir until the soup begins to simmer.
  18. Toast the rye sourdough bread.
  19. Plate up the soup with some chopped chives, garnish with basil and serve with the toast.
  20. Sit down with your plate, give thanks to the Lord for all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Then enjoy your soup.

Final thoughts

I think this soup would have been nice with some anchovies stirred through during the oven phase.

  • Butternut pumpkin mixed with Clive of India Curry powder and Mapuche spice Chilean spice blend in a baking tray.
  • Curry and Mapuche spice roast butternut pumpkin soup with rye sourdough toast.
  • Curry and Mapuche spice roast butternut pumpkin soup with rye sourdough toast.

Jalapeño spam and prawn curry

Posted by Gary

Jalapeño spam is a lovely spicy taste sensation

Jalapeño spam is a variation of my favourite tinned meat. When you slice through a brick of Jalapeño spam you come across small pieces of diced Jalapeño pepper.

So far I’ve had a couple of sandwiches with a thick wodge of Jalapeño spam either oven baked and fried, or pan fried in a toasted sandwich.

Guess what is covered in Coon cheese with broccoli? Jalapeño spam Gary Lum
Guess what is covered in Coon cheese with broccoli? [click on the photo for a better view]
Saturday #Canberra #heatwave Jalapeño @SPAMbrand @KFCAustralia coleslaw and #cooncheese #toastie Jalapeño spam Gary Lum
Saturday #Canberra #heatwave Jalapeño @SPAMbrand @KFCAustralia coleslaw and #cooncheese #toastie [click on the photo for a better view]
Tonight, I thought I may combine some spam with prawns in a ramen noodle curry.

Please do me a favour

I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the sidebar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).

By subscribing you’ll receive a personalised e-mail from me and from time to time, apart from the blog post I’ll share something new, like my ideas for a cookbook sometime this year.

Preparing tonight’s dinner

Today Canberra experienced another 41 °C maximum temperature. To avoid dehydration and heat stroke I’ve stayed inside and not done terribly much. I did go grocery shopping this morning and bought some raw prawns.

Spam, coconut cream and duck fat Jalapeño spam Gary Lum
Spam, coconut cream and duck fat [click on the photo for a better view]

What you will need to put this meal for one together

  • Jalapeño spam—diced
  • Raw prawns that have been peeled
  • Instant noodles
  • Coconut cream
  • Red onions—sliced
  • Thai red curry paste
  • Red chillies—sliced
  • Jalapeño peppers—sliced
  • Chilli flakes—dried
  • Tomato—quartered (I wish this was a sweet fresh tomato)
  • Peas
  • Corn
  • Broccoli
  • Carrots
  • Potatoes
  • Lime zest and lime juice
  • Mint

How to put all this together

  1. Cook the noodles in boiling water
  2. Fry off the spam and onions until they start to caramelise and then add the tomato
  3. To the spam and onions add the peas, corn, broccoli, carrots and potatoes and keep stirring while frying
  4. As the vegetables begin to soften add a couple of tablespoons of the Thai red curry paste and stir through the cooking food
  5. Once the curry paste has been well incorporated add the cooked noodles and stir everything through getting the curry paste mixed in with the noodles
  6. Open the tin of coconut cream and add it while stirring
  7. Bring the coconut cream to a slow gentle simmer and the red chillies, jalapeño peppers and chilli flakes
  8. Add the juice of one lime
  9. Hopefully, while the coconut cream simmers it reduces in volume slightly
  10. At this point add the prawns and let them cook gently and be careful not to overcook them
  11. Put everything into a bowl and garnish with lime zest and mint

How did it taste?

I liked it. What’s not to like, though? My favourite tinned meats are spam and corned beef. This jalapeño spam is very nice.

A like hot and spicy meals on hot days and today was a very hot day. It was worth making.

Saturday #Canberra #heatwave Jalapeño @SPAMbrand and prawn red curry Jalapeño spam Gary Lum
Saturday #Canberra #heatwave Jalapeño @SPAMbrand and prawn red curry [for a better view click on the photo]

Final thoughts

If you’re not anti-spam, I reckon you should give this jalapeño version a go. If you do, please let me know what you think. 

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.

My alimentary tract has come alive with the smells, sights and sounds of Delhi

Posted by Gary

How much of my alimentary tract?

All my alimentary tract! I’ve just returned from eight nights away from Canberra, five of which were spent in Delhi, India. I was participating in a World Health Organization meeting on poliovirus containment.

One of the highlights, apart from the meeting, was the food. Every meal was filled with flavourful spices from all parts of India.

Twitter embed for alimentary tract alive tweet

Facebook embed for alimentary tract alive tweet

Please do me a favour

I think I’ve managed to work out how to use e-mail lists for sending post notifications and newsletters. I’d love it if you would sign up using the ‘form’ in the sidebar (if you’re using a laptop or desktop) or at the bottom of the post (if you’re using a mobile device).

Breakfasts

I ate breakfasts in the hotel and each morning I had an omelette with bacon and most days spicy baked beans. I also added a few Indian treats including the different types of bread.  

Cheese omelet with baked beans and bacon breakfast at The Imperial alimentary tract Gary Lum
Cheese omelette with baked beans and bacon breakfast at The Imperial

Tuesday breakfast at The Imperial Hotel. A little more adventurous with some local bread. alimentary tract Gary Lum
Tuesday breakfast at The Imperial Hotel. A little more adventurous with some local bread.

Is it wrong to have lovely spicy baked beans with my poori along with a cheese omelet and bacon? alimentary tract Gary Lum
Is it wrong to have lovely spicy baked beans with my poori along with a cheese omelette and bacon?

The potato dumpling went well with the spicy baked beans as well as the cheesy omelet and bacon alimentary tract Gary Lum
The potato dumpling went well with the spicy baked beans as well as the cheesy omelette and bacon

Croissant and doughnut alimentary tract Gary Lum
Croissant and doughnut

TGIF my last breakfast. Aloo Bhaji on paratha meets my spicy baked beans, cheese and chilli 🌶 omelette with bacon alimentary tract Gary Lum
TGIF my last breakfast. Aloo Bhaji on paratha meets my spicy baked beans, cheese and chilli 🌶 omelette with bacon

Lunches

Each day I tried something different and yet each day there were elements that were the same, like pappadums. The main regions with distinctive flavours are the north, south and east.  

Northern Indian food alimentary tract Gary Lum
Northern Indian food

Eastern Indian curry lunch alimentary tract Gary Lum
Eastern Indian curry lunch

Southern Indian lunch Imperial Hotel alimentary tract Gary Lum
Southern Indian lunch Imperial Hotel

French chicken cassoulet and crepe Florentine with mutton masala is such a good flavour combination alimentary tract Gary Lum
French chicken cassoulet and crepe Florentine with mutton masala is such a good flavour combination

Chocolate mousse and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce alimentary tract Gary Lum
Chocolate mousse and vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce

Friday lunch Imperial Hotel, chicken, cauliflower, lamb and paratha alimentary tract Gary Lum
Friday lunch Imperial Hotel, chicken, cauliflower, lamb and paratha

Dinners

Monday night was a buffet with a northern touch.

Northern Indian dinner at The Imperial Hotel | The big green balls were a bit funky, everything else was fantastic. alimentary tract Gary Lum
Northern Indian dinner at The Imperial Hotel | The big green balls were a bit funky, everything else was fantastic.

Tuesday night I had a Thai duck curry.

Kaeng Phed Ped Yang | Roasted duck cooked in Thai red curry garnished with pineapple and rambutan | Spice Route Restaurant alimentary tract Gary Lum
Kaeng Phed Ped Yang | Roasted duck cooked in Thai red curry garnished with pineapple and rambutan | Spice Route Restaurant

On Wednesday night, I went out with some WHO colleagues and we went to Barbecue Nation. It was a barbeque pit with hot coals placed in the middle of the table with spicy meat on metal skewers cooked as you want it.

Barbecue Nation, Delhi. Prawns, Chicken and Fish. alimentary tract Gary Lum
Barbeque Nation, Delhi. Prawns, Chicken and Fish.

Thursday night was my last night staying at the Imperial Hotel, and I ate at Daniell’s Tavern. I enjoyed Burra memsahib’s favourite pepper mutton from Coorg. It was mutton tossed in spicy marsala with lots and lots of black pepper corns. 

My mouth is so happy with Burra memsahib's favourite pepper mutton from Coorg. Mutton tossed in spicy marsala. Sorry about poor light. alimentary tract Gary Lum
My mouth is so happy with Burra memsahib’s favourite pepper mutton from Coorg. Mutton tossed in spicy marsala. Sorry about poor light.

Garlic naan alimentary tract Gary Lum
Garlic naan

Would I return?

Sure, if I need to return to work there, of course, I would. Would I go to Delhi for a holiday? I wouldn’t in winter, maybe summer. I’d probably want to explore the other regions.

My reason for not returning in winter is not so much the cold, it wasn’t. It was the very low humidity. My skin became a mess. I was forever applying moisturiser and it didn’t feel like anything would help. It was very uncomfortable.

Final thoughts on eating in Delhi

I titled this post “My alimentary tract has come alive with the smells, sights and sounds of Delhi”. Every mouthful of food was like having a party in my mouth. Some meals were spicier than others. The food from the south seemed to be hotter and more intense. The food from the east seemed to be milder. Each meal though was very nice. I didn’t go much for the desserts, I was eating so much rice, I don’t think I needed any more carbohydrates.

The good news is I didn’t feel unwell at all and there were no episodes of gastroenteritis. That said, there was an awful lot of gurgling noises from my bowels. Some nights it was almost musical.

The food is also very colourful. It was like art on a plate or in a bowl. The only meal I had that didn’t look pretty was my favourite meal, the pepper mutton. Best meal but nothing to look at.

In terms of smells, each dish had amazing aromas, and given the title of this blog post, the fragrant aromas passed completely through my alimentary tract. I suppose I shouldn’t write anything more about that.

Another surprising thing!

Apart from my iPhone, I didn’t bring a camera. You can tell the images are not as sharp. My iPhone photography suffers from motion blur, especially on aeroplanes. 

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.

Curry prawns with pork beef mince balls

Posted by Gary

Curry prawns with pork beef mince balls for Sunday tea

Curry prawns were on my mind today after I realised, that last night when I cooked the scotch fillet steak, I forgot to add the prawns for a surf and turf steak sandwich.

I had some pork and beef mince (ground meat) in the refrigerator and I knew I could make enough to have leftovers for lunch at work this week.

 

 

 

What you need to make this meal

  • Raw peeled prawns (bought from Coles)
  • Pork/beef mince (500 g bought from Coles)
  • Thai red curry paste (2 tablespoons)
  • Coconut cream (1 × 375 mL tin)
  • Spring onions (1 small handful)
  • Onion (1 onion, sliced)
  • Peas, Corn and Capsicum (frozen, 2 small handfuls)
  • Lime zest and juice (1 lime)
  • Red quinoa and brown rice (1 packet, 250 g)
  • Tomato (1, diced)
  • Red chilli (1, sliced)
  • Jalapeño pepper (1, sliced)

How do you put it all together?

Mould the pork beef mince into small balls just bigger than human testicles (sorry, podcasting medical fun facts has got me confused, this is a cooking blog isn’t it?)

If you’ve never held human testes, mould the balls to a size a little smaller than table tennis (ping pong) balls.

Pork beef meat balls curry prawns Gary Lum
Pork beef meat balls [Click on the photograph for a full view]
Set the meaty balls aside

Get out a nice big wok

Cook the packet quinoa rice in the microwave oven for 90 seconds on high

Get the wok nice and hot

Add a little vegetable oil to your hot wok

Stir fry the onion, some of the spring onion and if you want it some garlic and ginger

Slowly and carefully add the balls to the wok and brown them off

Once the balls are mostly cooked through add the curry paste and get everything nicely covered in the paste’s flavours

Capsicum, Corn, Ginger, Jalapeño peppers, Marmalade, Onion, Peas, Red chillies, Spring onion, Tomatoes curry prawns Gary Lum
Capsicum, Corn, Ginger, Jalapeño peppers, Marmalade, Onion, Peas, Red chillies, Spring onion, Tomatoes [Click on the photo for a full view]
Add the following ingredients in this order

  1. chilli, jalapeño and tomato and stir,
  2. quinoa rice and stir everything thoroughly,
  3. the tin of coconut cream and bring the wok to a very gentle simmer,
  4. lime zest and lime juice,
  5. Peas, Corn and Capsicum and stir in, and
  6. prawns and keep stirring until they are cooked

Turn off the heat and transfer the curry to a bowl and garnish with the rest of the spring onions

Put the remainder of the curry into a plastic container and put it into the refrigerator

So how did it turn out?

Let me know what you think from the photograph.

Red curry prawns with pork beef meatballs with red quinoa and brown rice in coconut cream Gary Lum
Red curry prawns with pork beef meatballs with red quinoa and brown rice in coconut cream [Click on the photograph for a full image view]
The curry had a nice limey lummy tang with the spiciness of the curry and chillies.

The coconut cream nicely infused the meaty balls and prawns too.

 

All that said, tomorrow I’m fearing the burning ring of fire 
 

Parting words

I regularly post photographs of food to Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Please feel free to connect with me on any social media platform.
I also have a podcast. It’s not food related but each show is short and it’s named Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store as well as Stitcher. A show drops every Monday and Tuesday. It has a little cynicism, a little scepticism and occasionally some sarcasm.

Salmon ramen noodle curry

Posted by Gary

The thought process behind the Salmon ramen noodle curry

I started back at work today (Tuesday 03 January 2017) after some time off over the CNY break. I had some fresh salmon in the refrigerator and at about lunch time I began the usual process of wondering what I might cook for dinner. A ramen noodle dish began to emerge. 

I knew in the “shelf of shame” there was some coconut milk as well as some 3-minute noodles. In the refrigerator I had some asparagus and broccoli stalks for greens. To add some spice I had some pickled red and green chillies that I’d prepared on the weekend.

What could be easier than dicing the salmon with a sharp knife and making a simple meal for one.

The cooking process

I cooked the 3-minute ramen noodles by opening a packet into a bowl, emptying the flavour sachet and adding boiling water from a kettle. I stirred that around with a pair of chopsticks for a few minutes and then drained the ramen noodles.

I added the drained ramen noodles into an oiled (I use relatively cheap Coles brand olive oil) frying pan and turned up the heat constantly stirring so the noodles wouldn’t stick. After the noodles began to dry out a little and take on some colour, I added a small tin of coconut milk and kept stirring. My preferred stirring tool is a pair of chopsticks. They are perfect for stirring. I heard Matt Preston criticise wooden spoons recently in favour of silicon spatulas on the basis of hygiene. I hope he’s not critical of wooden chopsticks.

To the ramen noodles and coconut milk, I added the greens and the chillies and brought the liquid to a gentle simmer. Don’t bring it to a rolling (aka roiling) boil, you don’t want to split the coconut milk.

Once the liquid is simmering gently, added the diced salmon. Stir everything gently and keep simmering for about 5 minutes. By then the fish will be mostly cooked.

 

 

If you are carbohydrate loading, you could serve this on some red quinoa and brown rice but I think I carbohydrate peaked over the CNY break.

If you want, you can garnish with anything suitable. I used some spring onion I had in the refrigerator.

Salmon and ramen noodles curry with broccoli stalks and asparagus Gary Lum
Salmon and ramen noodles curry with broccoli stalks and asparagus

Social media

I regularly post food photographs to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you have friends stuck for ideas on cooking meals for one, please let them know about Yummy Lummy, that’s me!

And now for something completely different!

If you’re sitting on the toilet and want something of short duration to listen to, why not check out Medical Fun Facts. You can find it in the iTunes podcast store. MFF is also on Stitcher so if you have an Android device, download the Stitcher app from the Google Play store and enjoy the show. I drop a show every Monday and Thursday evening at about 7 pm Canberra time (UTC+11 during DLS and UTC+10 from the first Sunday of April until the first Sunday of October).