No, that’s not some kind of indecent proposal, it’s the name of the new monthly event being hosted by Cate at Sweetnicks!
So, what’s in my fridge? Mostly the same stuff as other fridges - condiments, spreads, juices, egg, butter, cheese, drinks…and some not so usual stuff. There are the 5kg of fuji apples currently overwhelming the crisper draws (we drink fresh carrot and apple juice courtesy of our juicer every morning!).
An entire bag of dried tapioca balls resting on top of them, a tuppaware box of 4kg of Kimchi (a Korean side-dish of chilli picked chinese cabbage), a pressure-cooker full of bone marrow soup chilling so the fat can be skimmed off, an ice cream container with chilli marinated squid, chilli paste, chilli fried dried squid, dried baby anchovies fried in with sugar and thai chillis, soy marinated lotus root, soy pickled sour cucumbers, boiled marinated beef, and a carrot/cucumber/beef mince mix marinating in some sweetened vinegar for use in making stuffed tofu pouches.
Yes, this entry is a week late, but thanks to the most lovely Cate, she’s let me take part anyway! Indulge in your voyeuristic side and check out all the other fridges that took part in the very first round-up of “I’ll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours“! 
Technorati Tags: I’ll show you mine, refrigerator, food
One last essay *sob*, I’m almost there…Just taking a break at the moment!
Now, my family, having mostly grown up with my mother’s cooking, are quite unadventurous when it comes to food. My father will only eat Korean/Chinese/Japanese cuisine, the only other foods he enjoys are pizza, subs (and even then it’s only the teriyaki chicken sub) and fried chicken. Mom is willing to try different things, but can’t stand anything that is oily/greasy, creamy, or generally too rich. My sister and brother, after years of being subjected to my experiments, are more happy to eat most foods, but still err on the conservative side. Oh, did I mention that my sister cannot bear the taste of seafood? The only thing from the sea that she eats is either dried seaweed sheets (called ‘kim’ in Korean), or a seaweed broth (called Mi-yohk-guk in Korean). What this generally means is that I have no opportunity to cook more ‘exotic’ things (and by exotic, I mean such as a herb-stuffed roast chicken!!!) as they most probably won’t get eaten.
However, with dad away in South Korea this week on a business trip, I decided to make a bolognese for dinner earlier this week, and just threw in almost anything that I could find in the pantry and fridge. It’s not exactly quick, but does make for an intensely flavoured, hearty meal for a cold winter’s night!
Ingredients (makes about 10 servings, and freezes well)
Approximately 500g lean beef mince
100g bacon, diced
250g field mushrooms, cleaned and diced
2 large brown onions, diced
1 zucchini, diced
2 medium carrots, diced
1 red capsicum, deseeded and diced
1 green capsicum, deseeded and diced
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 1l bottle of italian tomato puree
1 cup water
1 tbsp caster sugar
1 tsp or 1 crumbled cube of chicken stock
2 tsp dried thyme
10-12 dried or fresh bay leaves
1. Saute onions, garlic and ginger in olive oil in a large pot till onions are starting to become translucent.
2. Add the beef mince and bacon and cook till brown, making sure to continuously work the mince so it does not form large clumps.
3. Add the carrot, capsicum, zucchini and mushroom, and stir through till well combined.
4. Add the tomato paste and stir through till it is well combined.
5. Dissolve the sugar and chicken stock in the water, then add this and the tomato puree to the pot, stirring through till well mixed. Add the thyme and bay leaves and stir through.
6. Lower the heat to low and maintain the mixture at a very gentle simmer for about 30 minutes, or till the sauce has thickened and the carrot is soft enough to bite through without too much resistance (but NOT squidgy!)
I like to serve bolognese with a spiral pasta as I find it’s better at clinging to the sauce than your usual spaghetti. This sauce may seem a bit confused, but then again, so am I! The addition of vegetables means that it’s going to have a lot more of those good things like vitamins, as well as providing a variety of texture when you’re eating it. The herbs definetely help to boost flavour as well as providing a delicious, heady scent whilst it’s being cooked and once it has been served - however, be careful when serving as actually biting into a bay leaf isn’t the most pleasant experience in the world!
Technorati Tags: bolognese, pasta sauce, pasta, savoury mince, Italian
I’ve been flat out with my studies, so haven’t really had much time for cooking or blogging, poor me 
So, in the meantime, I’ve got a recipe from my mom to tide you through till I return! This is divine, and traditionally eaten with lettuce - you get a lettuce leaf, put a spoonful of cooked rice in the middle, then a piece of the pork, then wrap it up and eat it! The lettuce is handy for a few reasons - it adds a vegetable element to this dish, as well as helping to balance out the chilli in this dish as it is veeeery spicy (well, not to me as I’ve been eating chilli dishes since I was 3, but to anyone not quite as desensitised as me it’ll burn just a little!).
The red is not from any filter or mucking around with the photo - the pork really is this red!
Ingredients
1kg pork belly, sliced reasonably thin (usually about 5mm)
5 tbsp caster sugar
5 tbsp korean chilli paste (gotchujjang)
1 tbsp garlic
1/2 onion, grated
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
To Serve
Cooked rice
Lettuce (we usually use red or green oak lettuce, but it’s fine with iceberg or red coral)
1. Mix together all ingredients and marinate the pork for a few hours, or overnight if you can.
2. Heat a non-stick frying pan or grill, place the pork on and cook till the meat is well done.
3. Serve with rice and lettuce leaves to make wraps
So there you go - quick and easy! It might be a bit of a struggle to find the korean chilli paste, but you should be able to find it at most Chinese or Korean grocery stores
This is the arrangement of a lettuce wrap known as ’ssam’ in Korean - an open lettuce leaf, a smal spoonful of rice, some ‘namul banchan’ (root/stringy vegetable side dishes), a spoonful of gochujjang (Korean chilli paste) and the pork!
Once everything has been placed in the lettuce leaf, it is then carefully wrapped like so and eaten up in one or two bites - delicious, and a guaranteed way of getting the kids to devour half a head of lettuce on their own!
Technorati Tags: pork, chilli, korean food, korean cooking
This cake is delightful - light, airy, nutty and the cream is lovely and sweet without tasting too rich. It’s starts with a meringue mix, and needs a lot of care so it’s not a cake for a quick night fix but more for an afternoon tea or dinner party dessert.
The icing isn’t meant to be so goopy, but I was too impatient to beat the cream!
Ingredients
Cake
3 eggs, seperated
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/3 cup cornflour
1/3 cup self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup finely ground hazelnuts
Coffee Cream
1 1/2 cup double thickened cream
1/4 cup icing sugar
2 tsp instant coffee powder
2 tablespoons chocolate hazelnut spread (like Nutella)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a 20cm springform round cake tin with butter and baking paper (this is important to prevent the cake from sticking).
2. Place egg whites in a clean bowl and beat till firm peaks form. Gradually add the sugar, beating constantly till the mixture has become thick and glossy.
Bwa-ha-ha! I am the meringue monster!
3. Add egg yolks and vanilla, beat v. briefly till combined (no more than 15-20 seconds). Sift together cornflour and baking powder, mix in cornflour, self-raising flour and ground hazelnuts, alternating and working quickly and lightly. Do NOT overmix, as this will result in the cake mix losing air.
Even the cake mix is insanely light!
4. Spread mixture into cake tin and bake for 25-30 minutes, till cake is lightly golden and has shrunk from the sides of the cake tin. Make sure that a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out perfectly clean. Leave in the open oven for 5 minutes before turning out to cool.
Look at that golden beauty!
To make coffee cream:
Using electric beaters, beat all ingredients together till the cream is thick and holds firm peaks. Cut cream in half, spread with cream, then put the top on and cover with cream again. Top can be decorated with walnuts and chocolate curls for presentation.
“Oh man, that chicken was sooooooooo good!”
“Hmmm, I think I might just hang out here…maybe I’ll get more food!”
A dog this big should not attempt to sit on a kitchen chair, nor should it sit on anyone’s lap. My brother complained that his legs had died when he attempted to get up!
Check out other greedy (and not so greedy!) puppies over at Sweetnicks for the round-up of Weekend Dog Blogging #36!
Also…
Because I’m not aware of any Weekend DUCK blogging, I’ll just post Boris and Gwynevere here…
Gwynevere (left) and Boris (right) coming in for some food
Ain’t they beautiful?
They’re both Black Pacific ducks, and my suspicions are that Gwyn is actually the male and Boris the female - as Gwyn makes a low pitched quacking noise almonst continuously, whilst Boris makes a very soft ‘pipping’. They’re very friendly and have no problem eating bits of frozen (shelled) prawns straight from your fingers. I call them my birthday ducks as they first appeared on my birthday last year, and ever since have come to visit my pool once every few weeks!
Mr. Woofy, being a golden retriever (i.e. a dog breed which is bred to hunt ducks) is a bit disgruntled when they come to visit, as he can’t get into the pool to ‘play’ with them…yes…play (he’s afraid of water), but they co-exist quite well, chilling out by the pool, keeping a wary eye on each other…hehehe!
