July Theme

Sichuan

The theme for this months international incident party is Sichuan cuisine, please excuse my ignorance, but before I could commence this month’s challenge I needed to consult Wikipedia.  I discovered that Sichuan cuisine is a style of Chinese cuisine which originated in southwestern China. It is known for bold flavors and in particular the spicy nature of the food.

The unique flavour of the food comes, in part from the Sichuan Peppercorn, as well as the liberal use of garlic and chilli.

I like a decent amount of chili so I was looking forward to giving the Sichuan peppercorn a try.  The peppercorn has a reputation for being mouth numbingly hot. I have to say, I didn’t find this to be true, although it did have a lovely distinctive flavour, and the pop in the mouth was delicious and added to the overall texture of the dish.

Like any Chinese dish the art is in the preparation. It is important to have the ingredients prepared before you heat the wok. Vegetables are cut in a very fine Julienne and the ginger and garlic a prepared using a mandolin for extra thin slivers.

Once again the International Incident Party has seen me venturing into an unknown cuisine and coming up with a delicious meal to add to my repertoire.  This has been a great learning experience and I will definitely be delving into the cuisine further in the future.

Thank you Penny from Addictive & Consuming for suggesting the Sichuan Cuisine as this month’s theme, for some more delicious Sichuan recipes please check out what the other International Incident Party contributors have made, or you could join us on the forum. Thanks again for hosting Jeroxie

Ingredients:

880gm boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into cubes
4 large dried red chilies
1 tablespoon of Sichuan peppercorn
8-10 slices of peeled ginger
3 large cloves of garlic thinly sliced
1 large stalk of scallion, leek or shallot (julienned for garnishing)
4 sprigs of coriander (for garnishing)
½  red capsicumi (julienned for garnishing)
3 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
Method:

In a hot wok add one tablespoon of oil and fry off the chicken breast in batches until cooked through. Set aside. Bring the wok up to heat, and another tablespoon of  oil add the sliced ginger, garlic, and Sichuan peppercorn, stir fry until they turn light brown. Add in the dried chilies, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and return the chicken to the wok.

Stir through the mixture and add half of the capsicum, coriander and shallot to the wok. Quickly toss the vegetables through the meat and turn off. Serve hot and garnish with remaining shallot, coriander, and red capsicum.

This recipe is an adaptation from the Rasa Malaysia site, the place I always go to for authentic delicious Asian recipes.

Once again, my food horizons have been stretched. Try this recipe for a delicious healthy meal.

Serves 5

Approx 280 calories per serve.

Now off and visit these lovely bloggers and see how they have interpreted the theme of Sichuan cuisine.

Winter seems to have arrived in full force and I find myself craving all the hearty warming dishes I like to cook at this time of the year. It is curry weather here at the moment and I need something a little spicy to ward away the cold.

At the start of winter I went in search of a recipe for the Massaman curry paste. We all know how to make a Massaman using a jar but I wanted to be able to produce the curry with just the raw ingredients. I have now tried so many Massaman curry recipes in the search of perfection and this one is my favourite.  I found it thanks to Jimmy Seervai from MasterChef season 2.  Seems the previous seasons contestants could cook a Massaman Curry.  Was it only me screaming at the the television when everyone in the "fix the Massaman" elimination missed choosing the two core ingredients, potato and peanuts.

Although this curry is made from scratch its still quick and tasty because all the ingredients get piled into the slow cooker and forgotten about for the next 6 hours or so. The flavours develop beautifully and I am always pleased with my dinner choice as the aromas takes over the kitchen.

Luckily Massaman curry is also hubby favourite Thai dish. He usually orders either Pad Thai or the Massaman Beef Curry when we get Thai takeaway.  This recipe makes a very large quantity of curry so you should have some to freeze for those times when you don’t want to cook or you could easily halve the recipe. 

Ingredients:

1.4kg chuck steak or gravy beef diced

4 lg potatoes diced

1 lg onions finely diced

250ml beef stock

1 cup peanuts

400ml coconut milk

6 curry leaves

2 bruised cardamon pods

1-2 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp grated palm sugar

1 tbsp tamarind paste

Method:

Place all the above ingredients into the slow cooker.  Set the cooker to high and cover with the lid.

Paste:

2 stalks lemongrass (the tender, inner white part only), finely sliced

6 cloves garlic, peeled

3 eschallots, peeled and sliced

1 knob ginger, peeled and sliced

1 knob galangal peeled

1 knob tumeric peeled

1 tbsp shrimp paste

3 large dried chillies, soaked in warm water*

1 chopped tomato

1 Tbs Cumin Seed

5 kaffir lime leaves

Method:

Make the paste by food processing all of the curry paste ingredients.

Fry off the paste briefly with a little bit of oil in a saucepan until there is no longer a raw smell.

Place the curry paste into the slow cooker and stir through the meat and potato.

Allow the slow cooker to remain on high for the next 8-10 hours depending on how tender you wish the dish to be.

Serve with rice and enjoy this delicious warming curry. Thank you so much to Jimmy for sharing this is the really the best Massaman Curry recipe. I really like the fact that I can now make a Massaman without a commercially purchased base paste.

“On the second day of Pizza my true love said to me… S-m-o-k-e-y Steak Cheese…. Caramelised onion, Rosemary and Brie…” and a partridge in a pear tree… okay maybe I’ve gone a little carbohydrate mad but you get the picture, I'm fa la la ing while I make a Smokey Steak & Cheese Pizza with Caramelised Sweet Onion.

Now this is the most divine pizza ever, even if I do say so myself, (there’s that modesty coming out again.)

Anyway, this was going to be a Wagyu & Brie Pizza with Caramelised Onion but I hit a snag getting the Wagyu at short notice.  Thankfully the guys at Russell’s Quality Meats in the Plaza fixed me up with some gorgeous Dorrigo eye fillet, cut super thinly in little rounds. Even though it wasn’t Wagyu the beef just melted in the mouth.

I am a huge fan of the Bakers Delight bases; because they are pre cooked this pizza spent only 6-7 minutes in the oven.  This allowed the steak to stay incredibly moist and tender.

Don’t forget I have some $5 Bakers Delight vouchers to giveaways to readers who are interested in making their own gourmet pizzas. Look for the question at the bottom of the recipe for your chance to win one.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh Bakers Delight Pizza Herb and Garlic Base

1/4 cup Smokey BBQ Sauce

1/2 cup grated cheese

2 sprigs rosemary

½ cup caramelised sweet onion

8 thinly cut slices of eye fillet steak

5 slices of Brie

½ cup rocket

Caramelised Sweet Onion:

Ingredients:  

3 Onions sliced into rings

1  Tbs Olive Oil

1 Tbs Butter

1 Tbs Brown Sugar

1 1/2 Tbs Brandy

Sweet Onion Method:

Melt butter in saucepan with oil, onion, and sugar. Stir until coated with oil.

Cover and sweat on a low heat for 10 minutes stirring regularly.

Uncover pan and continue to cook and stir until caramelised, approx 10 minutes. Deglaze with Brandy and cook over a low heat until evaporated.

Pizza Method:

Spread the pizza base with barbeque sauce.

Add the grated cheese and rosemary to the base ensuring even coverage.

Scatter ½ cup of caramelised sweet onion over the pizza.

Place the steak rounds on the pizza where each of the eight slices will be cut from.

Bake at 220 degrees for 7 minutes.

Remove the pizza from the oven and add slices of brie.

Serve with Rocket and enjoy!

I have made this pizza before on a homemade pizza base.  The flavour was awesome but the base did not handle all the liquid from the barbeque sauce, steak and caramelised onion. The Bakers Delight pizza base suited this pizza perfectly as the thick par cooked base was the perfect vehicle for such a lush moist pizza.

Give this pizza a try at home, I promise you will fall in love. The Bakers Delight Pizza Bases are available in a two pack at your local Bakers Delight store for only $4.50.

For a chance to try a Bakers Delight Pizza base “on the house” use the comments section below to share your pizza creation with me. I would like to know what you would call your pizza creation plus what type of sauce and toppings you would use.

You will need to “like” Gourmet Getaways on FB as the winners will be announced via FB on Saturday 9^th July.

Don’t forget to vote for my Berry Breakfast Pizza on the Bakers Delight FB page.

The only thing better than a Friday afternoon, is knowing that the next Friday afternoon signals the beginning of a long weekend! Here we are getting ready to celebrate the Queens birthday weekend and I am cooking for a few different gatherings with friends. The first occasion is a day/night Bonfire on Saturday and the second a BBQ with friends on the Sunday.  I am wondering, ahead of all the social gatherings of the long weekend if we have all seen the Cadburys etiquette advertisement?

The, what to bring when your host says”don’t bring anything” I have to say, the bloke in the ad might as well be my hubby. “Bring nothing… cool” he says, and then he gets “the glare” from his wife. “We have to bring something!”

Every girl knows, as a guest, you never show up empty handed.

So what is this etiquette? Why do we have etiquette? Is etiquette out of date in today’s society? 

I borrowed my grandmother’s 1939 edition of “The Ladies Handbook” and a copy of “A Manual of Etiquette” and did a little research. It seems that etiquette allows a young lady to understand what is expected of them in each social situation.  This will naturally then save that young lady from social embarrassment and cement her place in society.

So why would a host say “bring nothing?”  Is it a spiteful trap of the host? Edwardian etiquette says...

A host should try to make a guests  visit as agreeable as possible, but without any apparent effort; so that they may not think that you are putting yourself out of the way to afford them pleasures in which you do not often indulge. It is your duty to endeavor to make the time pass pleasantly, but if your visitors perceive that you are altering the daily tenor of your life on their account, it will detract greatly from their happiness.

In other words the host says don’t bring anything because they don’t want you to feel the event is a burden to them.

So it seems that etiquette is still alive and well in our society, and perhaps the rules have not changed very much at all.

Does etiquette then require anything of the guest? Should you actually bring nothing?

Cadbury’s have hit the nail on the head when it comes to giving chocolates to your host. A gracious guest will give a gift to the host. Chocolates are the ideal gift because they are not personal; they can be saved and enjoyed later by the host or shared after the meal is complete.

If you were to bring a dessert this may imply that you don’t think your host can manage the occasion without your assistance. Or that what is provided isn’t to your standard. Hence, the amusing antidote on the television commercial, the guest brings a whole animal carcass to “chuck on the barby.”

In my research I have enjoyed reading the quaint sentiments from the past such as;

“the aim of a lady is to be gracious, and not to call undue attention to herself.”

Perhaps that is why turning up at a BBQ with a towering Croquembouche is bad manners unless it has been specifically requested.

It has surprised me that not too much has changed in etiquette over the last hundred years. While we may not be as stiff and formal as our predecessors the “rules” have remained pretty much the same in polite company.

This weekend I have been asked to bring a plate to share for the bonfire, it seemed that savoury dishes were well covered so in light of this amusing Cadbury’s advertisement I have decided to do a Cadburys Favourites Dessert.

Ingredients:

Pastry

200gm Flour

50gm Cocoa Powder

125gm Butter

50gm Icing sugar

Iced water

Filling

400gm dark Cadbury chocolate

300ml pouring cream

3 egg yolks

Decoration

Cadbury Favourites chocolates

Method:

Combine the flour, cocoa, icing sugar and butter in a food processor until the mixture looks like fine bread crumbs. Add just enough water to cause the pastry to ball. Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Roll the pastry out between two sheets of plastic wrap.

Line a fluted flan tin with the pastry.

Bake the pastry blind for 15mins on 180 degrees. Remove the beans and bake for a further 5 mins.

Allow pastry to cool.

In a saucepan combine the cream and chocolate over a low heat until the chocolate is melted.  Allow the mixture to cool.  Beat the three egg yolks through the chocolate mixture until it is smooth.

Pour chocolate into the tart and then decorate with Cadbury Favourites chocolates.

Refrigerate until the tart is required, serve at room temperature.

I have enjoyed taking a bit of a look backwards through history and I wanted to add one last parting word I found in the Ladies Handbook on “the making of a successful marriage”:

Marriage is a dual life: and life, we rightly say is what we make it. How can this double life be successful? How may this blending of two lives be made a blessing to both?  It is important that married life begins well. The husband shall soon discover his wife is not an angel, and for this fact he should be grateful. The wife will have to her revealed a mortal man, both shall have their weakness and faults. No one person can be perfect.

No doubt the foundation of a happy home lies very largely in the kitchen. A well cooked dinner gives cheer and comfort to all who partake.  The husband will leave the home with reluctance and will return after the days toil has ended with naught but thoughts of quietness and peace.

So readers, please tell me what are your thoughts on etiquette and the manners of years gone by?

May Theme

Gumbo

Really… Gumbo, it is not often that I am uninspired by a cooking theme but this one was really not doing it for me. Images of Happy Gilmour in the Water Boy and “mama” throwing a muskrat into a bubbling cauldron kept coming to mind.

Now naturally I know you can use shrimp or chicken but I still wasn’t getting the appeal of this southern stew. The more I researched recipes the less convinced I was of the value of this dish.

But I have joined these cooking challenges to stretch my repertoire and force myself to cook dishes that I would not have otherwise attempted.  There is nothing like procrastinating until literally hours before the post is due up to inspire an uninspired cook. I decided that I would modify the recipe slightly as I was never going to be able to find Southern Louisianan Turkey sausages or file powder, I even struggled to find Orka as I had left things too late on a Saturday afternoon.

My final google search included the words “quick easy gumbo.” What I have produced is a combination of three recipes which I then further adapted for the slow cooker.  Yes, I am being truly lazy.

Ingredients:

Stage 1

600gm chicken thigh fillets

2 chorizo sausages sliced

1 litre chicken stock

1 can tomatoes

1 t/s oregano ground

1 t/s ground celery salt

2 t/s Cajun spice mix

3 cloves garlic

1 onion finely diced

2 celery sticks chopped

1 green capsicum diced

2 hot chillies sliced

2 carrots diced

Stage 2

2 pkts ready cooked rice (or 2 cups of home cooked rice)

2 T/s Butter

2 1/2 Tbs flour

Method:

Throw all the stage 1 ingredients into a slow cooker and cook on high for approximately 4 hours or until the chicken has softened and has cooked through.

Next make a roux. In a saucepan fry the butter and add the flour, cook this over a low heat until the flour turns white and has been cooked. Take 1 cup of sauce out of the slow cooker and add to the roux, stir continuously to ensure there are no lumps.  Turn off the heat and continue to work the sauce until smooth, add more sauce if necessary to the roux. Once smooth add the roux to the gumbo and stir through, this should thicken the dish.

The rice can either be added to the gumbo now or heated through and served with the dish.

So what was the verdict on this dish??? It was pretty damn delicious and so easy! The chorizo sausage gives the dish depth of flavour and a gorgeous smoky taste and the chilli I used were from my garden and incredibly hot so this dish had depth and fire. YUMMY! I also love having another slow cooker recipe in my repertoire for these cold winter evenings. Winner!

For some more delicious Gumbo recipes please check out what the other International Incident Party contributors have made, or you could join us on the forum. Thanks for hosting Jeroxie

It’s the end of another month and the opportunity to sort through the GourmetGetaway archives to choose a submission for Spicie Foodies “Your Best Recipe.” I really enjoy this exercise because it reminds me just how much, (or in the case of March) how little I accomplished. This month I had a lot of delicious desserts to choose from so it was hard to choose just one for “Your Best Recipe”

I decided to choose the Strawberry & Rose Teacup Cupcakes because I was overjoyed when these little starlets were voted into the “Foodbuzz Top 9.” I really try hard to make my recipes taste delicious and be styled to look irresistible, so when I made the top 9 I was extremely proud of my accomplishment and extremely grateful to everyone who chose to “buzz” my little teacups into that position.  Thank you again everyone.

I have used one of the images from this shoot to make invitations to my daughters’ birthday party.  I uploaded the file to Vistaprint and have since received the cute little invitations, they look gorgeous. So tell how you use the images you spend so long in producing. Do you have cards printed, as I did, or do have another use for your images?

Please go over to the Spicie Foodie website, and take a look at the other delicious submissions for April “Your Best Recipes”.

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple syrup mousse in an edible container.

There were two mandatory items in this challenge.  Firstly I needed to choose from one of two provided recipes.  The one I decided to use was a vegan maple syrup mousse.  I would not usually think to make a tofu dessert so I saw this as a great opportunity to try something a little different. It was a very simple dessert and whilst it doesn’t have the texture of a traditional mousse it was a delicious alternative.

Recently I have been trying to add a few more healthy options to my diet, so this mousse seemed to fit the profile a little better than a Maple Syrup Mousse made on egg yolks and cream.  After all the rich food of Easter another rich dessert was not exactly high on the list of items I want to consume at the moment.  Note the Easter celebrate Chocolate Mousse Torte I posted previously.

The second part of the challenge was presenting the mousse in an edible container.

Just between you and I, if I was serious about being healthier I wouldn’t have put the tofu mousse in a white chocolate cup and topped it with delicious crispy praline. However presentation wise I knew it would look gorgeous and taste divine.

Daring Bakers are awarding prizes for the most creative edible container and filling.  So if you like the presentation of my mousse, please vote for me.  Voting commences on April 27th and runs until May 27th at The Daring Kitchen!

Ingredients:

Chocolate Shells

1 cup white chocolate melted

Tofu Maple Syrup Mousse

300gm silken tofu

¾ cup maple syrup

¼ cup boiling water (only if using the Agar)

1 1/2 tsp Agar Agar (or unflavoured glycerine- non vegan alternative)

Walnut Praline

1 cup walnuts

¾ cup sugar

3 Tbs water

Method:

Firstly paint the inside of some silicone cupcake moulds with the melted chocolate. Return the moulds to the fridge in between each coat.  I only needed two coats of chocolate but check for thin sections and spot fill if needed. Return the moulds to the fridge while you prepare the fulling.

Let tofu come to room temperature. Use an electric mixer to mix until the tofu is smooth.

Sprinkle agar-agar on the maple syrup and let it rest for 10 minutes. Heat maple syrup on the stove to a boil and then let it simmer 5 minutes until the agar-agar has dissolved. (if using the gelatine just add the tablespoon to the boiling water and stir until smooth.) Then add the gelatine mix to the maple syrup.
Blend the tofu with the maple syrup mixture until creamy and combined.
Allow the mixture to cool.

Remove the chocolate shells carefully from their moulds.

Pour the mousse into the shells. Return to fridge. Refrigerate until set.

Place the nuts on a tray in an oven on 150 degrees until they become fragrant. Remove the nuts and reserve.

Place the sugar and water in the saucepan and heat gentle without stirring until the mixture starts to caramelise.

Turn off the heat and add the nuts to the toffee. Pour the mixture onto a lined baking tray and allow to set.

Break up the praline up and decorate the mousse cups.

I would love some more healthy dessert ideas, if anyone has anything they would like to share please let me know!

Next time I make this dessert I would serve it is a glass with a caramelised banana, nut and sultana compote on the bottom and the mouse on top.  I would still top the dessert with the nut praline. This would make the dessert a completely healthy vegan dessert, full of flavour and nutrition (albeit a little high on the sugar).  I really enjoyed the tofu and maple syrup flavour so I will be making this dessert again.

Crunchy Asian Noodle Salad

Topic 9 - Crunchy

Take a look at the view from my new kitchen window! It doesn’t get much more scenic than this. So where am I? I am currently in transit and enjoying a few days in the Forster Tuncurry area.

However it is cookbook challenge time and rather than missing a challenge while I am on the road I decided to take the theme of “crunchy” to the park across the road from where we’re staying.

For this challenge I am going to be guilty of blogging a boring, unphotogenic salad again. Trouble is, it isn’t really boring, it is super tasty, healthy, quick to make and one of my “go to salads”. Best of all, it really fits the topic of crunchy.  The combination of nuts, crispy noodles and cabbages is incredibly crunchy.

So here is Cookbook Challenge 9- Crunchy Asian Noodle Salad, and a few pictures of my new beachside kitchen.

Ingredients:

¼ head cabbage shredded

4 chopped shallots

1 bunch fresh coriander chopped

6 mint leaves

50 gm crispy noodles

50 gm nuts toasted

Dressing:

60ml white vinegar

60ml soy sauce

1 t/s sesame oil

2 t/s caster sugar

Methods:

Layer all the salad ingredients on a plate. Start with the cabbage and finish the layers with nuts and noodles. Any nuts can be used I like, almond slivers, cashews or peanuts. I have served the salad with BBQ Chinese Pork but shredded poached chicken is also nice.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a bottle and shake. Pour the dressing over the salad and serve.

Serves 4 people

 We are really enjoyed the foreshore area of Forster and what I imagine will be the last remnants of Summer. We took a ten kilometre push bike ride on a cycle way from Foster and across the bridge to Tuncurry.  The path weaved its way through the various foreshores and park areas. Mercifully it was all flat and there were gorgeous views to keep me motivated. Enjoy your Easter break everyone and checkout the other entries in the "Crunchy" Cookbook Challenge!

I was more than just a little excited to learn that Masterchef’s Jimmy Seervai would be attending the CurryFest this year.

As I have stated previously, curry is not my specialty, so the knowledge that Jimmy “The Curryman” himself was going to give three cooking demonstrations throughout the day was music to my ears. The demonstration I was most interested in was the Prawn Curry. On Masterchef the Crab Curry was Jimmy’s signature dish.  The prawn curry he was preparing for the festival was an adaptation of this dish.

Jimmy was born in Indian and moved to Australia when he was just two years old. He grew up with the aroma of spices both at home in the kitchen, and in the family business, a spice store located in Ryde.

The family are marketing there own blend of spices for various styles of curry.  I sampled Jimmy's Prawn curry and I purchased a selection of the blends so I could recreate some of "The Curryman" magic at home.

In person Jimmy has a huge personality, more so than came across on the Masterchef program. Throughout the demonstrations he was chatting constantly about the show, letting tidbits of gossip out of the bag, and keeping the audience enthralled both in the cooking and the story telling.

I had been curious to know who actually cooks in the family. Seems that Jimmy is not only the Masterchef of the family, he is the only chef in the Seervai household. He said his wife has cooked about five meals in the time they have been together, occasionally she will make the announcement that she will cook, but Jimmy will come home only to find that the meal had not eventuated.

At that point in the story telling he would stop cooking and look over the audience heads and say, “oh no, I think she may be here…. I feel that death stare”

As he was speaking the rice was being put on to cook, and the Paratha's were getting underway.

Jimmy's assistant Harvinder

He told a story of coming home from work with a leg of lamb and announcing to the wife.  “I’m going to make lamb for dinner tonight.” He then went into detail about all the delicious things he would do with the lamb. Now I would suspect the usual response for most wives would be, terrific, thanks sweetheart. Jimmy said “not my wife, her response was, but I don’t feel like lamb”. There were laughs all round, and then more laughs when Jimmy check again to see that his wife hadn’t yet arrived at the festival.

Not all the jokes were at the expense of his lovely wife.  There were stories about mishaps on the Masterchef show, jokes about Indians v’s Australian cricket, it just kept coming and the audience appreciated the sense of humour whilst they salivated at the gorgeous aromas.

So here it is Jimmys Prawn Curry check out the family spice blends.

Jimmy's Prawn Curry

Serves: 6 – 8 (or closer to 200 if you are doing a cooking demo)

Ingredients:
1 kilo green prawns
600 ml coconut milk
300ml of fish stock
20gms palm Sugar
1 tsp fish sauce
1 tbsp spoons soy sauce
5 whole dried Kashmiri chillies (mild)
1 bunch fresh coriander
¼ Tsp tamarind (block – found in Indian Shops)
2 tsp sea salt
2 large tomatoes
50 ml of mild peanut oil
1 fresh lemon juice

Curry Paste:
2 large brown onions
4 cloves garlic
1 stick lemon grass
1 bunch of coriander roots
1 small knob of fresh turmeric
6 lime leaves
2 small red chillies
4 large green chillies
1 very large bulb ginger
1 small bulb galangal
7 curry leaves

3 1/2 tablespoons of Jimmys Special blend curry

¼ cup water

Method:

Roughly chop all the ingredients for the curry paste.

In a large frying pan over a low to moderate heat add the curry paste ingredient and oil. Fry until a slight brown colour is reached.

At this stage Jimmy told another story which I particularly wanted to share because it highlighted to me the feeling of community that is Woolgoolga, and what I see as some of our non urban appeal as a town.

Jimmy telling the story about the missing ingredients

Jimmy commented that he always tries to buy local produce for these types of demonstrations.  He had been out sourcing ingredients at local stores only to find he was having difficulty locating some vital ingredients such as lemon grass, curry leaves, okra.  In desperation he said to a store owner. “Why can’t I locate these items?” the store owner answered, “because there is no need to stock them, everyone just grows their own.”

When I moved here from Sydney I had the same problem. I would complain to anyone who would listen “How can they not stock…” Now I find that I may not grow a particular item myself, but I always know who does, and I get it fresh out of the garden.

Seems Jimmy was privy to the same hospitality. Before the cooking demonstration a lady brought the remaining items Jimmy had needed for his dishes from her garden.

Yesterday I noticed bananas were $12 per kilo in the supermarket.  Naturally I couldn’t justify the purchase. When I got home I found a large hand of locally grown banana’s on my doorstep.

Back to the recipe, add the chopped tomatoes, dried chili, chopped fresh chili and half the coriander, allow the dish to cook down further.

Now did I mention the Seervai family has their own blend of spices on the market?? The next step is to combine the “Jimmy’s Curry Spice” with water to form a paste.  Add the paste to the frying pan, allow it to cook whilst stirring occasionally.

Pour 300mls coconut milk, fish stock, palm sugar, tamarind, fish sauce and soy sauce. Reduce the heat to a low simmer and cook the curry until the mixture starts to thicken slightly.

Jimmy hamming it up for the camera & entertaining the audience

Add the peeled and prepared prawns and cook until the prawns are just coloured.

Squeeze the juice if a lemon into the curry and add the remaining coconut milk and chopped coriander just prior to serving.

Serve with rice and paratha.

For more recipes from Jimmy http://www.jimmysspicekitchen.com.au/

Now pretending I am a Masterchef judge… the presentation may not have been quite up to Masterchef standards, given the paper plates and plastic utensils... just joking!

I didn’t hear a single complaint as everyone lined up to sample “the curry mans” dish. I would have liked to get a final image of the Prawn curry but as the masses swarmed I quickly retreated to safety.