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Gumbo - International Incident Party
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
Gorgonzola Tagliatelle
Week 51
Creamy
Can you hear me sobbing… the cookbook challenge is nearly over. Week 51!
When I saw that the topic was creamy I knew I wanted to do a creamy pasta dish. I immediately had visions of the luscious, creamy, blue cheese, Gorgonzola. I just needed a recipe to tie it all together for me. I was flicking through an old “Delicious” magazine when I noticed an interesting pasta dish. It was Green Pea Tagliatelle by Rick Stein.
The dish looked divine. I went through the list of ingredients feeling sure it would have a creamy blue cheese in there somewhere. When it didn’t, I reread the ingredients to determine if the dish would be suitably flavoursome and creamy enough for the challenge without the Gorgonzola I had been planning to use. To my mind, the answer was no, hence, this is the modified recipe of Rick Steins Tagliatelle, as published in Delicious Magazine September 2010. So tell me what you think of my amendment, is it a keeper or would you prefer the dish without the cheese and just a little chili as suggested in the Delicious Magazine.
Ingredients:
600gm Frozen Peas
1 Cup vegetable stock
½ cup grated parmesan
2 T/s olive oil
2 cloves garlic
½ cup chopped mint
1 large sprig rosemary
5 sprigs thyme
6 shallot sliced finely
6 cloves garlic chopped finely
3 T/s olive oil
½ cup shaved parmesan
500gm tagiatelle
100gm gorgonzola
Method:
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and blanch peas for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and drain the peas.
Reserve half of the peas for later.
Place ½ the peas in a food processor with stock, 2 T/s oil, grated parmesan and two cloves of raw garlic. Blend until you have a paste.
Fry the garlic and shallot in 3 T/s for just 2-3 mins, do not allow the garlic to colour. Turn the heat off.
Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil and add pasta. Cook to the manufacturers specifications.
Chop the mint, thyme and rosemary roughly and add to the reserved whole peas.
Roughly chop the gorgonzola cheese and reserve for later.
Drain the pasta and toss into the sautéed shallot and garlic mixture. Mix the pea puree though the pasta and then add the reserved whole pea and herb mix. Stir through the gorgonzola and serve. The remaining shaved parmesan cheese is for serving.
I really enjoyed this dish. Although it doesn’t have a lot of fat and has no cream it tastes creamy and healthy at the same time. I served the dish lukewarm. I had photos to take after all. I really liked the dish served at this temperature for summer.
I will definitely make the dish again as it was really simple, quick and tasty. I also found it really practical because all the herbs came out of my garden (as well as the odd pea). I only had to buy the gorgonzola. I always have peas in the freezer, and pasta about, either in the fridge or pantry, so this is a dish I could make at a moments notice.
In the future I would add more herbs and more garlic. I really felt the dish could stand up to the extra herb flavours with the addition of gorgonzola to the recipe.
Shouga-yaki
The main course for this evenings meal is Shouga-yaki. Our Japanese student Mana and her friends Tomo and Mayumi are teaching us how to cook some of their favourite traditional Japanese meals. I am watching and taking photographs and notes to that I can share them on my website and recreate these dishes again.
Ingredients:
¼ lg cabbage
4 T/s sugar
150ml mirim
150ml soy sauce
2 inch piece ginger finely grated
900gm pork thinly sliced and flattened
3 onions sliced finely
2 T/s oil
Method:
Finely slice the cabbage into long shreds and place onto the serving platter. The cabbage will form a layer which should completely cover the plate.
In a large bowl combine the sugar mirim and soy sauce stir until combined. Add the finely grated ginger to this mixture.
Pound the pork steaks until thin and place in the marinade. Allow the meat to marinade for 30 mins.
After the meat has sat for 30 mins in the marinade, slice the onion and add to the pork marinade.
Stir the mixture until the onion is also well coated in the marinade.
Allow the pork and onion to marinade for a further 30 mins minimum. The smell of the ginger and soy sauce was amazing even at this stage. It is such a fresh healthy aroma.
Heat a heavy frying pan until very hot. Add oil and quickly fry one or two pieces of pork only at a time.
Remove the pork as it is cooked and place onto the serving tray of cabbage.
Once all the pork has been cooked pour the onion and marinade mixture into the frying pan.
Cover the frying pan with a lid and reduce the heat to sweat the mixture and cook until it is caramalised.
Remove the onion from the heat when complete and top the pork steaks with the caramalised onion mixture serve with sticky rice.
Oishi!
Today has been amazing fun! The cooking has been a “Japanenglish” experience, half the cooking, cursing and counting in Japanese and half in English. Strangely we have all had a reasonable idea of what is being said at the time and there have been side splitting giggles along the way.
At the start of this cooking adventure there was no recipes just the ingredients and a lot of adding and tasting, “ohhs” “ahhs” “smell is good” and then finally “it’s good” thumbs up and we proceeded to the next stage.
The meal was delicious and the girls said “the taste is like home taste”. It will be a dish I make again soon.
Garlic King Prawn
With the beautiful Spring weather at the moment I was looking for a fresh, healthy but tasty recipe for dinner. I didn't feel like salad and I had a bag of home grown peas in the fridge. I went back to the Rasa Malaysia website to find another Chinese classic.
What I found was a recipe for Choy Sum, or stir fried Asian greens in a white sauce. It was exactly what I felt like eating, and I promise on a stack of recipe books it took under 5 minutes to make! It is so quick it would take longer to find the number for your local Chinese Restaurant than it does to cook this dish. The taste is 100% spot on and it would be just as nice with chicken.
Ingredients:
1 bunch choy sum or bok choy
1 bunch brocolini
2 cups of snow peas or sugar snap peas
500gm medium-sized green prawn (peeled and de veined)
1 inch ginger (peeled and sliced thinly)
5 cloves garlic chopped finely
2 tablespoons cooking oil
White Sauce:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon fish sauce or to taste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon corn starch
10 tablespoons water
2 teaspoon Shaoxing wine
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
Method:
Prepare all the vegetables, washing and trimming as needed.
Mix the white sauce ingredients and set aside.
Heat up a wok and add the cooking oil until hot. Add ginger, and ginger stir-fry until light brown or aromatic. Add green prawn and stir until the prawn is about half cooked. Add vegetables into the wok and stir quickly. Transfer the white sauce mixture into the wok and continue to stir-fry until the sauce thickens. The vegetables should still be crisp and cooked perfectly, but not overcooked.
Serve with rice immediately.
Check out this great site for the yummiest Asian recipes Rasa Malaysia
Chinese BBQ Pork "Char Siu"
Week 44
Chinese
After a night out with the girls which started at home with a bottle “Two Tails Villard Blanc” and ended in the early hours of the morning, I have decided to dedicate this week’s cookbook challenge to my gorgeous husband, who I love dearly. This is the man who answers the call of his drunken wife to “come out and play,” & puts me to bed with panadol and a glass of water at the end of the night. What a man!!
As a measure of my love I have chosen his favourite Chinese dishes to prepare. Hubby loves steamed pork buns but we can only get them when we go to Sydney, so they are a bit of a treat.
Whilst researching on the internet I have discovered these will be a labour of love as the first step to making the bun is Char Siu (Chinese BBQ Pork) which I can’t buy here and will have to be made from scratch.
Thanks to Rasa Malayasia I found a really a good recipe for Char Siu. I have made a few modifications to ingredients and method but it is basically straight from this website http://rasamalaysia.com. There are so many other yummy recipes to be found so check it out.
I have made double quantity of the recipe given below so we can have the Char Siu as a meal and then have enough BBQ Pork left over to make the dumplings. So here is the first of my Chinese Banquet in honour of my dear husband.
Ingredients:
1 kg pork (loin cut into large pieces)
6 clove garlic (finely chopped)
1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
Char Siu Sauce
3 tablespoons maltose/ glucose
3 tablespoons honey
3 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon Chinese Shaoxing
5 dashes white pepper powder
6 drops red coloring (optional)
1 teaspoon five-spice powder
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Method:
Combine all of the char siu sauce ingredients in a sauce pan, heat and stir until blended and becomes slightly thickened and sticky.
Cut pork into about 6 to 8 large peices. Use 2/3 of the sauce to marinade the pork. Add the chopped garlic to the pork, ensure the meat is well covered in marinade and refrigerate overnight.
Put remaining marinade in the fridge in a separate container.
Next day, heat the oven to 160 degree. Put the pork into an oven bag and cook for 20 minutes. Check to see if the pork is cooked by slicing the meat.
When the meat is just cooked, remove from the oven bag and drain any juices.
Heat a wok or frying pan with sesame oil and add the cooked pork. Pour the remaining marinade over the pork and continue to turn until the pork is well coated and the sauce is lovely and sticky. Serve with rice. Yum.
This was the most delicious dish I have ever cooked. The place smelt like a Chinese Restaurant. The meat was tender and juicy and the sauce was sweet, salty, sticky and mouthwaterly amazing. It is definitely work the effort.
Give it a go and let me know what you think.
Wild Rice & Blue Cheese Risotto
I am preparing to take a challenge set down by KatieGirl a fellow food blogger. The challenge is as follows:
1. Clean out your pantry, and gather up the items that are lurking in the back corners. The ones you just know you will end up throwing out (nothing too out-of-date, I don't want any casualties.). You can do as many as you like, but the minimum is five items.
2. Get creative, and devise a recipe to use them up.
3. When you're done, write a blog post about what you made with the ingredients, and add it to the website.
4. The entries will be critiqued and the winner receives a recipe book courtesy of KatieGirl.
The added bonus to me is I will have a clean panty.
There is a note to watch out for the “use by” dates. This is a note I will pay particular attention to, I am pretty sure some of the products in my pantry are almost old enough to leave home on their own!
I recently found a chocolate sauce bottle in my mother’s fridge that went out of date in 1984! The reason I checked the date is I remember the sauce from when I was still living at home. My first thought was that mum must really like that brand of sauce and has continued purchasing, but suspicion took over and I check the date. Horror! Mum’s defense was “its okay it was in the fridge” OMG MUM!
Then I released the sauce had survive the demise of two fridges!! Again, according to my mum, “the date is just a guide”.
Anyway, I have now completed stage 1 of the challenge. My pantry is clean.
However I am no closer to being inspired to cook. I am lucky enough to have a huge pantry, and even though it is full, there is never anything to eat in it. The items on the shelves are the same items which are always there and they haven’t inspired me yet.
After assessing my pantry I have decided that 6 bottles of Masterfoods Cajun Spice is probably a little excessive, and I don't need 5 half empty packets of rice. Below are the items I chose for my Pantry Challenge invention test.
The fresh herbs were chosen specifically to hide a stain on the chopping board, so they are not critical to the dish.
Ingredients:
2 t/s Cajun Spice (circa 2006)
1 Sachet Continental Cup-a-Soup Potato & Leek (Feb 08)
100gm Pkt Wild Rice (surprisingly still in date given I have had it at 3 years)
¼ Cup Californian Walnut (Nov 10)
2 Cups Rice
1 litre Stock
80gm Blue Cheese
¼ Bunch Parsley (out of the garden)
4 sprigs Thyme (out of the garden)
1 T/s Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 t/s Smokey Paprika
Method:
Boil Wild Rice with 450ml of water in a covered saucepan.
In a rice cooker add the white rice, stock, soup sachet and Thyme stripped from the stem. Preheat oven to 180 degrees to toast walnuts. When white rice is cooked add the drained wild rice and stir half the parsley and most of the blue cheese through the dish. Top with the remaining Parsley, Blue Cheese and Walnuts.
Sprinkle Smokey Paprika and grated Parmesan Cheese to the top.
Verdict:
On the whole the dish was pretty good, and I finished all the ingredients pictured except the white rice, so it’s a win. I served the Wild Rice as a side with a marinated Kangaroo Steak. Although I think if it was an invention test on Masterchef, I would be up for elimination as I admit it is that inventive.
Maple Syrup Lamb Shank
This week I am concentrating on “comfort food”… what is a comfort food??? I am sure it is probably something different for everyone. What is my number one comfort food? I think it is probably smooth mashed potato, with lots of butter and salt. So it stands to reason, any dish I cook for this challenge needs to include a side of mashed potato.
What else do I include as a comfort food… Bangers and Mash with Caramalised Onion, is absolutely top of my list. Slow cooker meals have a tendency to fall into that hearty, warm your soul comfort food category, so a Lamb Shank or Osso Bucco would have to be there for me.
I do love a good Pumpkin Soup with a hot crusty roll when things are feeling less than wonderful. Home cooked is a must.
Given that all my comfort foods are winter warmers, I just have to hope I never need to employ them in the heat of Summer.
I asked around to find out what other peoples comfort foods are, the answers I got were very similar to my own, it seems we all like something pretty stodgy. Another interesting food which came up as a great comfort food was chocolate! I can fully agree with that choice also, although as the friend mentioned it has to be rich and gooey and completely indulgent.
So as I contemplate “what is a comfort food?” I am smelling the aroma of a delicious lamb shank cooking away in my slow cooker. The aroma is a warming, cozy and very much a comfortable feeling. This delicious smell will permeate the kitchen for the remainder of the day, and I have had to do know more than chop and onion and throw ingredients in the cooker. I love it when you get maximum joy, with minimum effort in cooking.
I have to thank Elizabeth for this amazingly simple and luscious recipe. Even while it was cooking the family commented on how great it smells. When Brett was eating dinner he commented that he wanted to drink the gravy like a cup of tea!
Of course a “Comfort Food” would not be complete without a bit of creamy mashed potato on the side.
Ingredients:
4 Lamb Shanks
1 large onion (I use red ones, seriously roughly chopped, I just cut it into quarters or eighths because you strain it out later)
4 cloves of garlic, again roughly chopped
1 cup beef stock
1 cup red wine (either a shiraz or cab sav, something gutsy)
1/2 cup maple syrup
3 t/s cornflour
3 T/s water
Method:
I am a lazy cook so I didn’t do the first step of frying the shanks off. But if you want to you can dust the shank in seasoned flour and fry them off to get a bit of colour.
Throw all the ingredients in a slow cooker until done (all day) or
Throw it all together and bake in the oven covered or with double foil over the top of the dish for about 3 hours at about 180 degrees or slightly lower in a fan forced oven.
When the shanks are cooked take them out and keep warm, strain the liquid into a pot.
Mix cornflour and water and stir through the gravy. Simmer on the stove, and reduce on the stovetop until it is the consistency of gravy you like.
Thai Chicken & Pumpkin Red Curry
Week 42
Bird
Well the topic name didn’t really inspire me this week. I keep picturing a whole bird, and whilst for presentation probably would have looked nicer than what I chose to make, I am just as happy to get my whole birds off the rotisserie at Woolworths.
What I have wanted to try again is a Phukthong Gang Dang which is my favourite Thai Curry. It is Chicken & Pumpkin in a Red Curry with Coconut Cream. I have repeatedly tried to make the dish but never had absolute success. Since being taught how to make a Rendang Curry by chef, Lisa Ryan at “Cooking with Company” I am ready to try the dish again.
I am using a slow cooker because I am lazy, and I wanted to make a huge quantity with minimal work. I also like the idea of giving the curry enough time for the flavours to develop.
Ingredients:
2 T/s oil
1kg chicken thigh fillets
1 kg pumpkin
8 eschallots (finely diced)
1 red capsicum (sliced in strips)
6 x 1cm pieces galangal (peeled)
5 kaffir lime leaves (slightly torn)
1 stalk lemon grass
1/2 bunch chopped coriander
Paste:
8 cloves garlic
6 lrg mild red chili (de seeded)
8cm pce ginger peeled
8cm pce turmeric peeled
1 t/s salt
Method:
In a mortar and pestle pound the paste ingredients until smooth.
Cut each chicken fillet in two and dice the pumpkin into 1 inch squares.
In a large pan, fry the paste in oil until cooked. Add the chicken and cook briefly ensuring it is covered in the spice paste.
Add 1 can of coconut milk to the chicken curry and stir to remove all the paste from the bottom of the pan.
Give the lemon grass a quick bruising in the mortar and chop into four pieces.
Add the pumpkin, eschallots, capsicum, galangal lemon grass and lime leaves to the slow cooker.
Pour the chicken and curry paste mix into the slow cooker and add the second can of coconut milk.
Cook the dish in the slow cooker on low for four hours, or until the pumpkin is soft. The dish will serve approximately 10 people with rice.
What was the verdict on the dish… I am in love! I could happily eat this curry every day of the week. Thank you so much Lisa and Lyn from “Cooking With Company” for you wonderful class which included a Wagyu Rendang Curry it was a wonderful cooking lesson. I have really got the hang of this style of cooking thanks to the techniques you have given me.
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Have Your Say
I wish I had you for my mum when I was 5!
That cake would have been the talk of the town for the rest of the year - fantastic job.
A lot of your blogs will be interactively design and style that visitor share data to read your blog.
Thank you so much, it is going to be a wonderful surprise for my Mum, I wish everyone a great day with your own special people, those who helped you become who you are today.
Mum definitely deserves the hamper, because she is an amazing woman that has brought up 3 kids through tough times. She is the best mum a son could ask for.
She's had it tough, working hard
deserving much more than just a card
So let's raise a glass and toast her true
The best person in the world - Mum, that's you!
Thanks for the info on Rasa Malaysia's book. I used to visit her website for recipes but some time ago, igot a new PC and forgot to bookmark it!
You're too modest Julie! You did a great job with the cake! :D
Yellow strawberries and cream is just perfect for mum as a reward for putting up with two kids who were a pain in the bum.
I would have loved to have seen those martini glasses! Hope Miss A had a lovely time celebrating turning 5 :D
It shouldn't. It should go to me as whilst trying to make sure my mum, step-mum, MIL, Step-MIL, 3 x Grandmas are spoilt on Mother's Day, I always seem to get forgotten!
My poor old mum is battling to care for my step dad who has advanced Parkinsons. My real dad who has had a stroke still expects her to be there for him, my bro is going bankrupt and she lives two states away from her only gransdon. Her life has little joy- JUst wish for one thing nice to happen to her. We all love our mums, good luck to you all!
Perfect place to relax and forget about all the troubles we have in the city and just unwind ~ can't wait to go to somewhere like this hehe
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