Tag Archives: Peas

Week 52 2012 Christmas

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I hope I have one more post for 2012 to close out the year. This post however, will focus on the lead up and execution of Christmas 2012.

The last weekend was another quiet one. I didn’t have much to do besides wash clothes and clean the apartment. I’d completed all my Christmas shopping and so I enjoyed a weekend of lounging and watching DVDs. I ended up seeing the end of series three of Breaking Bad and watching what in the US is the first series of Strike Back. Apparently in the UK, there were six episodes shown before the US saw the seventh episode which it calls the first episode. I don’t understand the reasoning. The story can be found at IMDB and Wikipedia.

Because I was travelling for Christmas and New Year I needed to go through the contents of my refrigerator. Toasted sandwiches are always a good weekend lunch option.

Toasted red salmon and tomato sandwich. Delicious.

Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.

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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.

Scotch fillet steak (rare) with mango and feta salad.

I served it with a mango salad that also had salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and lots of Australian feta cheese. I made a light gravy from the marinade which was sherry, oil and soy plus some honey and mixed herbs and some minced garlic. I thickened it with some corn flour and used a little red wine to deglase my fry pan. I like my steak rare so this got about 90 seconds on each side and was rested for 10 minutes.

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On Saturday night a storm brewed but we didn’t see any rain. The clouds though were very pretty. I captured this image from my balcony but there were some much better ones from other IGers.

Amazing clouds over Lake Ginninderra.

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I forgot to mention in my last post, that on Thursday evening when dining with my friends they gave me a book for Christmas. http://garydavidlum.com/2012/12/22/week-51-2012-christmas-party-season/

Great Christmas gift from friends

I like watching Jamie Oliver on television and if you search this blog for Jamie Oliver you’ll see a number of references. http://garydavidlum.com/?s=Jamie+Oliver&submit=Search I’ve heard though with Jamie Oliver’s recipes that sometimes they’re wrong, that is, quantities can be significantly off. This doesn’t always get corrected. If you know enough to know that’s fine but if you’re pretty ignorant like me, that can spell disaster.

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WARNING Sad Image

One of the saddest images I’ve captured is this one. Last week I posted this image of a friendly blue tongued skink. Sadly it was run over in my apartment car park.

This guy greeting me when I got home.

From last week

So very sad. The blue tongued skink I met last week came to a sad end in the car park.

What I came across on Sunday morning.

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I love pistachios

Snack time

Snack time.

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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.

Lunch. Blue cheese, Aldi tinned red salmon and tomato.

This time with blue cheese because like bacon and butter, everything tastes better with blue cheese.

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On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.

Salmon and mango salad with blue cheese

Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.

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Normally when I’m walking back from the post office you can see heaps of people at work.

Barren on Christmas eve.

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There are no calories for the next two weeks.

There are no calories for the next two weeks.

Caramel doughnut.

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I was tempted, but this was for a work friend.

No I did not eat this jam doughnut. I did covert it though. Ping @jacquimkane @jesskirkham08

Jam filled doughnut.

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Because a work mate was ill last week when we went to the snag stand, we went back with her on Monday.

Spicy cheese kransky on brioche is the bomb. Ping @kecozanat @jacquimkane @jesskirkham08

Spicy cheese kransky on brioche. This was delicious. Our plan is to eat through the entire menu.

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I finished work early on Christmas eve and I went to the airport as soon as I could.

White Christmas

A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.

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I also had a couple of chilli beef pastizzi in the lounge

Chilli beef pastizzi

They were a little hot.

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I managed to secure an upgrade on flight QF960. The flight was meant to leave a little after 1745 however a couple of storm cells hit Canberra and to keep the ground crew safe they were evacuated from the tarmac and we stayed in the aeroplane for more than an hour connected to the aerobridge. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll see were we able to use our telephones.

QF960 crumbed steak

For dinner I had the crumbed beef. The crumb also contained feta cheese. While the beef was well done and tough, everything else was very nice.

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When I got to my parent’s place I put out presents for them and my girls (who I’ll see later this week).

Mum and Dad's Christmas tree

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It’s Christmas Day. I had a poor night’s sleep, not through Christmas excitement, but because I’m sleeping on my childhood bed. Dad woke up early and we sat together for a couple of hours while he told me stories.

Christmas breakfast of champions. Vegemite on toast. I'm pacing myself today. #Christmas

I had a light breakfast in anticipation of a big lunch. The breakfast of champions, vegemite on toast with a couple of coffees.

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And so lunch preparation begins…

One chook with skin tightened with boiling water. #Christmas

This is chicken after we’d tightened the skin with boiling water.

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Mum's seafood sauce for the prawns.

Mum made a 1000 islands dressing for our lunch time prawns. If you click on the image you can work out the ingredients in a chat with Hilah from hilahcooking.com

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Our duck is patiently waiting. #Christmas

The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.

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Prawns to start #Christmas

The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.

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#Christmas prawns

I love prawns.

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The prawns were good 😃😃😃 #Christmas

I could not help capture an after image.

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My task is to remove the neck. I love a Chinese cleaver.

The duck had a reasonable neck attached. You can tell my intent by the strategically placed Chinese meat cleaver.

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My next job is an actor on Game of Thrones #Christmas

I want a role on The Game of Thrones as an executioner.

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Because everything is better with bacon. #Christmas duck.

Because everything is better with bacon.

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When chook meets duck #Christmas

Side by side, don’t they look a treat (and very cute too).

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Chicken cut up #Christmas

Mum makes a mean stuffing. Check out https://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/b0224e03-ecac-4ec6-93cd-7f8246b75d18/45f16c08058a64d34147000cbd21095d for the details. I had my eye on the Maryland at the top of the image. It has the cloaca attached. I love a chook’s cloaca when it’s been roasted.

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Poultry mix duck and chook #Christmas

With the duck added. I like to cut the breast off and slice it. It makes it easier to eat because you bite end on into the grain of the meat. Do you see the size of the duck’s neck and cloaca? I’d already bagsed (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bagsed) them.

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All the stuff separately for lunch #Christmas

Because of the small size of Mum’s kitchen and oven, rather than roasted vegetables, Mum made a potato bake yesterday and we heated it up in a small toaster oven at lunch time. We also had broccoli, asparagus and peas.

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My plate was full of goodness. Duck and chook arse plus duck neck and breast and chook thigh. Oh and some vegetables. #Christmas

This is my plate. Mum made a nice orange flavoured sauce too. It was sublime.

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Mmm... I dissected out the trachea from the neck bones of the duck. The duck coccyx is also there too #Christmas

The neck has such nicely flavoured meat. I also managed to dissect out the trachea too. This started a nice little chat on twitter and instagram.

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So that’s it for now. Mum decided against making a pudding or a pavlova. This evening we’ll have fruit and some cheese. I’m pretty grateful. I don’t really want to blow out. I can fit into a pair of shorts I like to wear at Christmas time so I’m happy holding back a little.

I hope everyone reading this blog had a wonderful time if you celebrate Christmas. I hope your day was full of happiness and peace and good food.

Merry Christmas friends,

Your friend and fellow blogger

Gaz

Things and places mentioned in this post

Kransky sausage
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kranjska_klobasa

Strike Back
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strike_Back_%28TV_series%29
IMDB entry http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1492179/

Pastizz
Wiki entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastizz

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Scotch fillet steak take two

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Last night I cooked a nice piece of Scotch fillet steak. In last night’s post I mentioned I’d bought two pieces and I’d try something different tonight. Well tonight I didn’t really use anything different but I did do a few different things with the same ingredients.

Tonight I sliced the sweet potato and sliced some cheese and put in an oven with some white wine to get some steam action. The onions were the same as last night. The steak was simply touched to the hot fry pan and then put in the oven for a few minutes. I like my steak rare. Some friendly tweeps have made cow noises when I posted an image to instagram.

Let me know what you think.

Scotch Fillet steak Click on image for more detail (Nikon D90)

Scotch Fillet steak Click on image for more detail (Nikon D90)

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Scotch fillet steak with onion, sweet potato, peas and corn

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On returning yesterday I did a little grocery shopping and bought a couple of steaks for tonight and tomorrow night. I’ll often do this, make the same dish twice and see how I can make the second night better. Sometimes I’m so impatient on the second night I just cook the meat :-)

Tonight I shaved some sweet potato put it into a shallow tray with some grated cheese and softened in an oven. I caramelised the onion and at the end added some frozen peas and corn. The steak touched a hot pan for a minute and then was turned and the heat turned off.

Fillet steak (Nikon D90)

 

Fillet steak (Nikon D90)

Yes, I know there was some butter leaching through the bottom. I cook with butter.

 

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Salmon and weight loss

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Before Christmas 2011 I shed about 7 kg through a concerted effort of reducing my portion sizes, eating less and avoiding sweets. I also did a little exercise (without going overboard).

I’ve gained all the weight back through a combination of bigger portion sizes, eating more often and consuming sweets and desserts.

I want to feel more comfortable in my clothes and fasten the top button on my business shirts which is my indicator of a good healthful weight.

Seafood is always good and a big protein burst which will sate my appetite.

In Australia Atlantic Salmon is farmed around Tasmania. It’s not cheap but not too expensive either.

Coles Atlantic Salmon (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Atlantic Salmon from Tasmania (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Some vegetables (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Salmon Dinner (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

 

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Pie again and again it was good

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Okay today has been good at work. Busy but entirely manageable. I spent some parts of it thinking about dinner. I had a boneless and skinless chicken thigh in the refrigerator along with some vegetables. I bought some puff pastry from the supermarket.

I finely chopped some onions and sliced a part of a leek very finely. I also finely diced some salami I had too. While that was softening in a wok I floured some diced chicken meat and then added that. While that was cooking I grated some sweet potato and Gruyere cheese. After tossing the chicken around a bit to brown it off I added a little white wine and cream to thicken the sauce. I combined the sweet potato and cheese with a packet of French onion soup. To this I added the chicken salami, onion and leek. This all went into a Pyrex dish and I added some peas and corn and a little more cheese.I added some Tabasco sauce and chili flakes to add some kick to the hot salami. I covered this with the puff pastry brushed with an egg wash and then covered in freshly ground pepper. The dish was put in a moderate oven for 45 minutes.

It tasted good. It was really nice.

Just ready for the oven

Just out of the oven

It's not a pie without sauce :-)

I cracked the pastry and the creamy cheesy goodness oozed around inside

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My first Wagyu beef cooking experience

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Yesterday we went to Costco and bought some Wagyu beef.

Wagyu steak from Costco

This morning we started with homemade Eggs Benedict to prove a point about the niceness of runny yolks and a smooth Hollandaise sauce. While yesterday’s breakfast was nice, this was better.

Bron's Homemade Eggs Benedict. Runny yolks are good.

A lot of thought and some research went into preparing for this evening’s meal. Wagyu beef is an expensive investment. The returns in terms of delicious flavours need to be maximised through careful cooking. The last thing we wanted was for the meat to be mishandled in any way.

After reading many websites and articles, we agreed on this method http://www.evernote.com/shard/s183/sh/6d02cff7-25f4-4a37-84ad-453bfa366032/72e8c7be756eac09e6fe4edc9b06a67c This is a method advocated by the Internet Chef.

Without an induction stove top we worked out our plan of attack. The meat was chilled and then the board dressed Jamie Oliver style to apply the seasoning. One side was cooked for 90 seconds and the fillet was turned and placed on a low heat hob with the lid on for 45 minutes. After cooking it was rested for 10 minutes. During this time Bron prepared a Jamie Oliver horseradish mash and we also had asparagus and peas.

Just look at how beautiful this piece of meat looks. It's good enough to cut thinly and eat raw.

The rib eye fillet looks gorgeous. Unctuous, gorgeous, beautiful, YUM…

Seasoned after seasoning the board as per Jamie Oliver

Don’t worry, this is not too much salt.

Bron's plate

I dissected the lean fillet from the fatty deckle. Bron prefers the lean fillet and I love the fatty deckle. The lean fillet was delicious and went well with the horseradish mash and peas.

My plate

I love the fatty deckle and all its succulent juiciness. The sauce was simply a white wine reduction with a little Dijon mustard and cream in the beef’s pan juices.

The tastiest meat and fat I've ever had

The deckle meat is on the left. It was separated from the lean fillet by a nice piece of fat. The fat tasted amazing. It was not a ‘fatty’ texture at all. It melted in my mouth and was full of flavour.

Steamed pudding with chocolate cherry sauce

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe.

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Another one of those days, using a distraction to help me cope

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It’s been a long couple of days at work with a few issues taking all my attention. They were sufficiently different to make focus and concentration difficult. To help me focus better, I used a technique that I learnt many years ago. Whenever I felt a bit stressed I thought of something I wanted to do and built up a picture to appreciate. I knew I had a piece of steak in the refrigerator. By the end of the day I had a meal composed and cooked in my head. The problem was I had little time. I left the office at a reasonable time however, my bag was full of work and my e-mail inbox replete with unread messages. On top of that I had a week’s worth of ironing I had to do tonight.

The best time saver in the kitchen is the pressure cooker. I’ve blogged about my pressure cooking before when I made jook (congee) and pork belly.

In my mind this morning I started with a piece of steak that I diced. In the pressure cooker I put some roughly cut onion, ginger, potato and the steak. I also added a little red curry paste and water. I cooked this for 30 minutes. In a wok I sauteed onions and ginger in olive oil. When the onion had softened I added some diced tomatoes and then the rest of the red curry paste I had. While that was simmering I added peas, beans and carrots. When the meat was finished I added it to the wok and combined everything through. I added some coconut milk and while that was coming to a simmer I prepared some noodles. I added a little lime juice and coriander as I served the curry on the bed of noodles.

These thoughts kept me sane today. The meal turned out well and I’ve now finished the ironing and completed a good portion of my homework.

My dinner tonight was a red beef curry

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