Low on $$$ ? Its not surprising!

Eating out is expensive. And that’s where most of my $$$ went to………which resulted in an almost non-existent bank balance (well…aside from food, there’s the occasional splurge on a new top, shoes, bags….etc etc).
Well, its about that time where the bank balance looks like its drying up…..and its a long weekend, where work is park at this place called Far Far Away, I’m craving from some nice stuff to eat. My plan to make my own brekky, which would have saved me about $15 - $20 ++ , but none of the grocery shops were open in the morning and I woke up with a ravenous appetite. Hence, from Foodland, I drove to Jones the Grocers in Hyde Park and had a lovely french toast with crispy bacon strips (I added fried egg too)…and a long black! There goes $25 for brekky! I think its worth every cents though.....

Then feeling absolutely ashamed of myself, on how easily I gave up on my plan to be a frugal chick……I vowed to cook dinner.

And so dinner it is. I have lamb mince, and a 3 days old bunch of mint. I’ve bought that after reading a blog, from Tastespotting.com. I don’t have everything….but I think I can improvise. Making breadcrumbs was easy …..and i have a pack of ground coriander somewhere. Took me awhile to find cinnamon….and I ended up finding a bottle of ground cinnamon and a few stick of cinnamon bark. Hmm…well, I’m good to go to make some Lamb Meatball with Mint

As I planned to skip lunch, I’m expecting that I would have work up a huge appetite by dinner time…hence, risotto it is, which is suggested by Kevin, from Closet Cooking blog. Works really well as the weather is rather chilly, it being the tail end of Autumn. While Kevin uses Farro, I only have arborio rice in my pantry, hence that’ll do. I bought a 1L pack of Chicken Stock from Foodland (which opened at 12 pm today, as its Anzac Day)….and I manage to dig out my stash of dry porcini. Bought this a long long time ago….from the Adelaide Central Market, when i first arrived in Adelaide. Bought it mainly because I’ve never been able to find any Porcini mushroom in M’sia…….and its the most “earthy” flavoured mushroom that I’ve ever had before…..and am glad I finally found an excuse to use it.

 

~~Soaking the dry porcini for about 20 mins~~

So, Dry Porcini Risotto it is……
The dry porcini is the only different element from Kevin’s recipe…..and the twist is that I added the water from the porcini soak to the chicken broth…

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Cooking the risotto……and I don’t have any parmesan cheese, just some bitey cheddar ….and am too lazy to grate it (i don’t think I can actually grate cheddar slices…kekeke…), hence I tear it to bits and sprinkle on the risotto…
Added the porcini to the risotto when its about 20-30 mins after I’ve cooked the rice. The colour of the risotto gets darker and darker….and the porcini, the freshly cracked pepper….the butter, cheese..and stock…just smelled so amazingly good. At that point, even if it taste like crap, I’ll probably want to still put it in my mouth….smells great.
Final product ????? Ta daa……….

I let the whole watery mixture reduced to the above consistency…and plate it with the Lamb meatballs.
Did I mention that it took a lot of will power not to gobble up the meatballs while waiting for the risotto to cook?
And stirring the risotto is quite a chore…and thank god I’m cooking just 1 cup of rice. Can’t imagine having to stir a whole lot of rice in a thickening stock………And Shane, I think you’ll love this…the rice is cooked perfectly…with that little bit of bite to it, what you’ll called al dente if you are cooking pasta. :D
I added a bit of lemon zests before digging in…..which really “brighten” what would have been a heavy meal.
Down the whole thing with a glass of Yalumba’s TGV…….nice!!!! And I have leftover to munch on tomorrow….not that I’m too hopeful as to how a reheated risotto will turn out….fingers crossed!
Happy!!!!!!! guinea pigs who want to try this, please sign up on FB….and book me 1 week in advance to cook this…kekekkekekekekeke….

Visit Kevin’s blog– Closet Cook for the recipe to the lamb meatball, and the basic recipe of a risotto , as I just improvised by adding the porcini (which btw, I did a bit of stirfry with garlic before adding it to the cooking risotto).

Am proud of the risotto, and I also love the meatballs :

Away from Hone : The Blues

When you were in your teens, haven't your thought of living in your own apartment? Like no more nagging from mom, clean ur place as and when u want...literally do what you want. Have friends over for drinks, sleepover and etc???

You think it'll be really fun rite??

Well, its not that fun when you are miles away from home, and CNY is round the corner. This is worse than working in Seremban or in Penang.....coz one is just an hour drive back to KL and the other will take an hour flight back to KL......and I'll be at home, helping mom decorate our place with stuff, baking pineapple cookies, shopping for CNY clothes..and my fav, stocking up on food!!

Sigh....this is REAL bad......especially after talking to Mom on the phone for quite a bit just now. She was telling me bout the baking, where are they going to have reunion dinner, ......

I don't even want to start to think about Yee Sang......not sure if they have any in Adelaide. So far, I'm pretty disappointed with the ang-moh styled chinese food here....

~mh feeling the AWAY FROM HOME blues...BIG TIME!!~

Recipes Archive : No. 0001

Roast Turkey with Black Truffle Butter

(Picture from www.gourmet.com)
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A very interesting recipe. But the only problem is getting my hands on black truffle butter, plus...all in all, the whole dish will take about 3 hours to prepare (roasting plus cooking up the wine gravy).

A lot of work ....but I supposed a huge ass turkey can feed more than 10 pax? SO its worth the trouble...and the recipe itself sounds really delicious.......

Something to consider for Christmas dinner......


Poblano Potato Gratin


(Picture from www.gourmet.com)

Seems like an easy dish to cook. I mean, how difficult can making a gratin be rite? Its basically potato bake...kekekeke....

But once again, the recipe calls for odd ingredients like Poblano (some sort of pepper). From the recipe, I think I can grill strips of eggplant until crispy to replace the Poblano....or maybe the normal red/yellow pepper will do? The latter will give it a more vibrant look...in terms of colour.

Something to try, when you have to feed the Mr.Potato aka JJ. Btw, you peeps can visit HY's blog for an entry on JJ.....

Get the recipe at www.gourmet.com : HERE


Dessert : Strawberry Layer Cake

Recipe from www.gourmettraveller.com.au.

Look like a really nice cake, I think it'll be great for birthdays and celebrations.

I've done a strawberry cream cake long time ago, and had never attempt to make another one since mainly because :
1) Strawberries are expensive.....so if I'm just baking for fun, its not worth spending so much money on the strawberries.

2) Slicing the cake horizontally...is not an easy task, though a well serrated knife and a lazy susan helps. It require steady hand and the each thickness of each slice should be even, else the layering will be difficult...coz you'll have to spread the cream properly so that the cake don't look lopsided.



3) I had problem with covering the cake with the strawberry cream. It seems to melt really fast, and I had to chuck the cake into the fridge for an hour, before I can continue to cover the cake with cream and decorating it.

4) I'm lazy. I hate to clean piping bags after decorating a cake.....usually, I'll just soak it in hot water (piping bag and nozzles), then rinse them with soap water. Yea...that makes it much easier, but cleaning up is still a chore!!

(This is what I made....long long time ago. The recipe was from a book by Alex Goh, called Creative Making of Cakes)

But this recipe from Gourmet Traveller looks really good, and I don't mind trying it out.....maybe instead of baking my own cake, I can buy a sponge from a bakery, or maybe it can be replaces with sponge fingers ala tiramisu style? Something worth trying....hehehe....