Home cooking

Lux congee

Posted by Gary

Last week I concocted a congee with Italian Arborio rice and tri-colour quinoa. I used pulled chicken thigh meat and bacon as the meat.

Tonight, I have pulled beef short rib and Speck for lux congee.

Lux beef short rib finger and Speck congee made with Italian arborio rice and tri-colour quinoa. Served with cucumber and soy sauce.

Ingredients

  • Beef short rib fingers (3)
  • Diced Speck (100 g)
  • Dried anchovies (1 handful)
  • Italian arborio rice (1 cup)
  • Tri-colour quinoa (1 cup)
  • Beef stock (6 cups)
  • Soy sauce
  • Fried shallots

Instructions

  1. Wash the rice and quinoa with cold water until the water is clear and not cloudy.
  2. Put the rice and quinoa into the vessel of a slow cooker.
  3. Add in the stock.
  4. Add in the beef short rib fingers and Speck.
  5. Cook on low heat for 8 hours.
  6. Remove the cooking vessel and pull out the rib fingers. Pick the meat from the ribs, pull the muscle fibres apart, and add the beef back to the cooking vessel. Unless you leave the beef short rib fingers out for a few minutes, you’ll find the process of removing the meat unpleasant as the tips of your fingers burn from the retained heat. I recommend waiting or trying to ameliorate the problem by wearing a couple of latex gloves on each hand to dampen the transfer of heat from the meat to your nerve ending enriched fingertips.
  7. With a wooden spoon (or a metal spoon if you don’t care about scratching your cookware), mix the beef through the congee (also known as jook).
  8. Remove the congee from the cooking vessel and aliquot into containers.
  9. Serve a bowl of congee with some soy sauce and fried shallots.
  10. Given thanks to the Lord and eat with a spoon.

Final thoughts

  • How would you make congee more luxurious?
  • Do you like adding dried anchovies to give your meals a little more umami?
  • What’s been the highlight of your week?

What’s happened this week?

This past week has been great. Work has been busy and exciting. I am so very grateful for the fantastic people with who I work.

Apart from work, I’ve enjoyed reading Don Carson’s book, “Praying with Paul”. I’ve also been bingeing on YouTube videos featuring Alistair Begg. I love his mixture of humour and seriousness with a gloriously compelling Scottish accent.

William Booth. “I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.

Notes

Lux is short for luxury.

  • Coles Australian Beef Short rib fingers
  • Coles Australian Beef Short rib fingers and Primo Speck portion
  • Fried shallot and Dried anchovy fillet
  • Lux beef short rib finger and Speck congee made with Italian arborio rice and tri-colour quinoa. Served with cucumber and soy sauce.
  • Lux beef short rib finger and Speck congee made with Italian arborio rice and tri-colour quinoa. Served with cucumber and soy sauce.
  • Lux beef short rib finger and Speck congee made with Italian arborio rice and tri-colour quinoa. Served with cucumber and soy sauce.

Chicken and bacon congee

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader, 

How are you travelling with work and life at the moment?

Tomorrow, I’m presenting at a national scientific conference. My paper is on two Acts that occupy a good portion of my work time. I’m grateful to my workmates, who drafted the presentation for me.

This conference will be the first I will have attended for more than two years.

The conference is virtual because it is in Sydney, and Sydney currently has a significant outbreak of COVID-19. The NSW Government has implemented restrictions. 

I don’t mind the idea of virtual conferences. I know I will be safer, and I like the idea that I can participate and sleep in my bed and cook my food each day. It also means I can exercise the way I want. I like living without disruption. I like the routines I have developed. Pandemic life is my life.

Apart from work, I’ve been reading good books, listening to podcasts, and watching YouTube videos.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve read Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis, The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson, and David Wilkerson by Gary Wilkerson. I’ve also started the Westminster Confession of Faith.

My current favourite podcast is Gospel in Life, which drops a “show” thrice-weekly and features Timothy Keller, a reformed Presbyterian pastor and communicator from New York City.

I’ve been devouring YouTube videos from The Gospel Coalition, Crossway, and Desiring God. I’ve enjoyed the presentations by Kevin DeYoung, Sinclair Ferguson, John Piper, Jen Wilkin, Melissa Kruger, Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, R.C. Sproul, Sam Alberry, Joni Eareckson Tada, and Rebecca McLaughlin.

I’ve also been walking daily. I’m getting about 40 minutes each morning. I begin anywhere between 4 and 5 am, depending on when I feel like getting out of bed. On weekends, I also try to do the 6 km circuit of Lake Ginninderra each day. All up, I’m doing nearly 40 km each week. This gentle exercise has helped me feel better with less joint pain compared with this time last year.

Ingredients

  • Chicken thighs (2)
  • Diced bacon (100 g)
  • Italian arborio rice (1 cup)
  • Tri-colour quinoa (1 cup)
  • Chicken stock (4 cups)

Instructions

  1. Wash the rice and quinoa with cold water until the water is clear and not cloudy.
  2. Put the rice and quinoa into the vessel of a slow cooker.
  3. Add in the stock.
  4. Add in the chicken pieces and the bacon.
  5. Cook on low heat for 6 hours.
  6. Remove the cooking vessel and pull out the chicken thighs. Pick the skin and flesh from the chicken thigh bones and add the meat and skin back to the cooking vessel. Unless you leave the chicken thighs out for a few minutes, you’ll find the process of removing the skin and flesh unpleasant as the tips of your fingers burn from the retained heat in the meat. I recommend waiting or trying to ameliorate the problem by wearing a couple of latex gloves on each hand to dampen the transfer of heat from the meat to your nerve ending enriched fingertips.
  7. With a wooden spoon (or a metal spoon if you don’t care about scratching your cookware), break up the chicken flesh and mix it through the congee (also known as jook).
  8. Remove the congee from the cooking vessel and aliquot into containers.
  9. Serve a bowl of congee with some soy sauce.
  10. Given thanks to the Lord and eat with a spoon.

Final thoughts

  • Apart from work, how have you been spending your time?
  • What books have you been reading?
  • What podcasts have you been enjoying this last week?
  • What YouTube videos have you enjoyed lately?
  • Do you get much exercise?
  • Do you attend many professional conferences? How do you feel about virtual meetings?

Notes

  • I used Italian Arborio rice because I like using ingredients that aren’t typical. Mixing some Italian with my Chinese makes sense to me. It may not make sense to anyone else, but it works for me.
  • What is congee? Congee or jook is rice gruel. My Mum’s chicken jook is my favourite food.
  • Sinclair Ferguson is Scottish and has the most mellifluous speaking voice. 
  • In the 1980s, The Cross and the Switchblade was popular reading. Friends told me to read it then. I’m slow when it comes to recommended reading.
  • Chicken and bacon congee
  • Weight Chart 2019
  • Weight Chart 2020
  • Weight Chart 2021

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.

Cauliflower soup

Posted by Gary

In the early 2000s, when I lived in Darwin, I would make a cauliflower soup on a Saturday night for my family.

My youngest daughter didn’t like it. So, as a reasonably stern father, I’d patiently sit with her at the dining table, waiting for her to finish her bowl of soup. I remember one night we sat at the table together until about nine o’clock.

To this day, my youngest daughter expresses a distaste for cauliflower soup.

I regularly comment that one day I want to make a cauliflower soup that she will like. Experiencing her enjoyment of my cauliflower soup is a dream I have.

Cauliflower, white onion, and bacon pieces.

Ingredients

  • Cauliflower
  • Bacon pieces
  • White onion
  • Iodised salt
  • Vegetable stock
  • Cream
  • Rye sourdough bread
  • Butter
  • Extra virginal olive oil
  • Chilean spice blend/Mapuche spice
  • Red hot chilli flakes

Instructions

  1. Break down a whole cauliflower with a paring knife to release the florets.
  2. Place the florets onto a baking sheet and cook in a hot oven for about 20 minutes. Cook until there is a slight browning of the surface of the florets.
  3. Dice the white onion.
  4. In a saucepan, heat some EVOO with low-intensity heat.
  5. Sautée the bacon and onions until the onions become translucent and fond forms on the bottom of the saucepan.
  6. Deglase the fond with a bit of vegetable stock.
  7. Add in the Mapuche spice and chilli flakes and stir around with the bacon and onions.
  8. Add the cauliflower florets to the saucepan and the rest of the vegetable stock.
  9. Bring the liquid to a slow boil.
  10. Simmer until the cauliflower is soft enough to allow the tip of a paring knife to penetrate the stalk without any feeling of resistance.
  11. Blend the soup with a stick blender.
  12. Add some cream, and bring the soup back to a simmer.
  13. Season the soup with salt to taste.
  14. Toast some bread and add a layer of real butter.
  15. Thank the Lord for the meal.
  16. Enjoy the soup while reminiscing about my daughter’s resistance to cauliflower soup when she was a young child.

Final thoughts

My daughter tells me part of the reason she doesn’t like the soup is the colour. I used to make it without any spices apart from salt and white pepper along with the stock. She didn’t appreciate the pale colour.

This soup made with the Chilean spice blend/Mapuche spice plus the red hot chilli flakes gives the soup a reddish-brown hue.

The spiciness of the soup had the mucosa of my buccal cavity excited. The sensations were terrific. I rejoice in having a party in my mouth!

Thanks again to my work friends for the Mapuche spice.

  • Chilean Spice Blend Mapuche Spice
  • Cauliflower, white onion, and bacon pieces.
  • Diced white onion, bacon pieces, Mapuche spice, and red hot chilli flakes
  • Cauliflower soup and rye sourdough toast
  • Cauliflower soup and rye sourdough toast
  • Cauliflower soup and rye sourdough toast
  • Cauliflower soup
  • Rye sourdough toast
  • Moon Queensland nuts and nougat

Spam and vegetable traybake

Posted by Gary

Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.

A couple of weeks ago I made a sausage and vegetable traybake.

Sausage and vegetable traybake

It’s been a while since I’ve opened a can of Spam. I was watching a Bon Appétit video on YouTube, and Spam was the featured ingredient.

I shared the video with a Facebook friend who also likes Spam and played on my mind overnight.

Ingredients

  • Spam
  • Pineapple
  • Eggplant
  • Capsicum
  • Red onion
  • Broccoli
  • Garlic
  • Paprika
  • Parsley
  • Iodised salt
  • Whole black peppercorns
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Sourdough bread
  • Grated cheese 

Instructions

  1. Turn your oven on and set the temperature for between 180 and 200 °C.
  2. Sharpen your cook’s knife and think about Proverbs 27:17.
  3. Cut pineapple into quarters, trim off the skin and cut away the fibrous core. You can use as much or as little pineapple as you like. I used a whole quarter and diced it.
  4. Peel the eggplant and cut it into bite-sized cubes.
  5. Dice the Spam into small pieces.
  6. Thickly slice the capsicum.
  7. Cut the florets off a head of broccoli and cut the stalks into small lengths.
  8. Smash your garlic with your fist and peel the papery skin off.
  9. Put everything into a large mixing bowl and splash with extra virgin olive oil. Get your hands in there and gently fondle everything to ensure everything gets touched by the oil.
  10. Season generously with the flaky iodised salt.
  11. Spread everything onto a baking tray leaving enough room for a slice of sourdough bread.
  12. Pour EVOO over one side of the sourdough bread.
  13. Place the baking tray into the oven.
  14. Cook for 10 minutes.
  15. Remove the baking tray and turn the bread over and use a pair of tongs to separate the vegetables and turn them over.
  16. Cook for 10 minutes and remove the bread.
  17. Return the tray to the oven and check the vegetables regularly over the next ten minutes to ensure everything is tender.
  18. Remove the tray and allow everything to rest for a few minutes.
  19. After the Spam and vegetables have cooled, season with freshly ground black pepper and drizzle some Old Bones smoked garlic chilli sauce over the Spam pieces and vegetables while the food is warm.
  20. Transfer everything to a dinner plate and add the toasted sourdough on the side with some spicy mango chutney spread on the bread.
  21. Sit down with your meal and gives thanks to the Lord for dinner.

Final thoughts

I know Spam isn’t popular. Spam isn’t healthful. That said, Spam is delicious.

  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.
  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.
  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.
  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.
  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.
  • Spam and vegetable traybake with fresh pineapple and rye sourdough toast.