Food and favorite recipes

[lealta]

I looked back a few pages and did not see a thread about food and favorite recipes, so I thought I would start one.  Tonights dinner was Chicken Pasta Primavera, and a tomato, fresh corn, red onion, basil and mozzarella cheese salad tossed with olive oil and vinegar dressing.  It was so good.  I'd love to see some recipes from Australia.  I'm always game to try different things.

[lealta]

Joono, that looks delicious. I especially like the chilled snow pea salad. Is there any way you can post recipes? I love cold vegetable salads.

My blue plate is Fiesta and the pink bowl is Portmeiron.

Barri, then I guess you don't like guacamole either? I love avocados.

[j*oono]

Will do Lealta.  I'll have to type it up which I will do later this arvo.  I have to go out for a while first.

[sineaterdoodah]

nope,but curtis LOVES it. and my clients did too,with a latino buffet,so i can actually make a very good guacamole. but there's this other dish i'm better at,and i can NOT remember the name of it! it's a dish i made for the middle eastern harmony conference.

it has avocado,yoghurt,honey and almond slices,mix it ,then we aged it for,i think 4 days before the festival. it was odd,and i DON'T like yoghurt, but this was pretty good ! 🙂

i'm a VERY boring eater,but that doesn't reflect in my cooking as a pro,and sometimes at home. if i've got somebody to eat it,i'll cook it,lol! 

[j*oono]

First I would like to say that I didn’t do this exactly as the recipe suggests.  For instance I didn’t use that many chicken breasts and the snow peas were my own addition because I like them.

Also, I used much more poaching liquid than soy sauce for the dressing.  It was too strong for me with their ratio.

Poached ginger chicken with spring onions

10 spring onions

4cm piece of ginger, sliced

4 chicken breasts (free range)

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 tsp sesame oil

1 small red chilli, finely sliced

1.  Trim dark green parts from spring onions and trim off root ends.  Place 6 whole spring onions in a large deep pan with ginger and chicken.  Add just enough water to cover chicken.

Cut remaining spring onions into long fine strips, then place in a bowl of iced water.

2.  Cover pan with a lid.  Bring slowly to a simmer over medium-low heat, then poach chicken for 10 minutes.  Remove chicken from pan, cover loosely with foil and let rest for 5 mins.

Combine 1/3 cup poaching liquid with soy sauce and sesame oil.

3.  Drain spring onions in iced water and combine with chilli (and lightly nuked snow peas).

Slice chicken and serve with sauce mixture and spring onion mixture.

The rice mixture on the side is actually coconut rice but I didn’t like it that much.  Next time I will make just plain rice.

As you can see, it was very simple but it tastes nice and looks good.

[katydidthat]

Looks and sounds yummy, Joono.

I could be here all night and tomorrow with my fave recipes ... but it's nearly bed time so just one or two.

Rice ...

Basmati rice ... use packet instructions on how much rice you'll need to feed your guests and the quantity of liquid. I use a big cloth bag of Pakistani rice (5 - 10 k). The ratio is about 1 cup of rice to 2 cups of liquid.

Boil water with measuring cup handy.

In a saucepan with a close fitting lid, add olive oil to cover base.

Heat until oil is hot.

Add rice and stir until some grains of rice start to turn white and a little tiny bit fluffy.

Add water and stir to combine. It should be making loud sizzling noises (this is all quite exciting, yes?).

Alternatively, use a good chicken stock instead of water. Depends how much VAVOOM you want 😉

Place lid on saucepan. It should be still making exciting noises.

Now, turn off the heat.

Ignore the rice and get on with whatever you want to serve it with.

The rice will be ready in about 20 minutes, but will retain the heat for quite a bit longer if you want to have a glass of chardonnay before dinner 🙂

The rice is a little oily, but that gives a bit of extra flavour.