Saturday, July 30, 2011

Pickled Coleslaw - Jared Ingersoll

NOTE: Blogger has had real issues this this post, I apologise for the haphazard layout!


I was wandering around a bookstore the other day and stumbled upon what looked like an urbancool cookbook called Danks Street Depot. After a flick though, but not really a proper read, I bought it anyway because it looked cool. I judged a book by its cover, how shallow of me. How ever its all turned out ok, since its an awesome book. A more comprehensive review of the book will be on its way due to the fact that I've only made one recipe from it. That one recipe was the pickled coleslaw.


I've never pickled anything before, but I had a couple of cool jars which needed using, too small for flour or rice, way to big for jams. Something pickled was the answer, and since this book has a few recipes for pickles, and they're really simple I figured it was time to have a go.

Ingredients

1 litre cider vinegar
800g sugar (FYI all the sugar in my house...)
1 tbsp celery seeds
1 onion, finely diced
2 green peppers, finely diced
800ml water

1 large white cabbage, shredded

Salt and pepper

Method

To make the brine, pour the vinegar into a large saucepan and add the sugar, celery seeds, onion and green pepper. Bring to the boil for 15 minutes then add the water.



You will need a non-metallic container large enough to hold all of the ingredients. Start by scattering a layer of cabbage, salt and pepper in the base of the container and spoon on some of the brine. Keep going until everything is used . . . you will probably have to really push the cabbage down towards the end.
Put a weight on top of the cabbage to make sure that it stays immersed . . . I use a dinner plate or tray. Cover and allow everything to pickle for at least 24 hours at room temperature or 48 hours in the fridge. This will keep perfectly in your cupboard for a couple of weeks and will last indefinitely in the fridge.



I only had half a head of cabbage so added in 2 carrots chopped into sticks, and a couple of sticks of celery, chopped. These are things I'd put into a normal coleslaw anyway, so figured it would work... I also didnt have an onion *facepalm* its one of those things I always have, but today I had none somehow. I also had no celery seeds and couldnt find any at the shops? Weird. I just went without. So I actually hardly followed the recipe...


I put the carrot in while the water was boiling to soften them up a bit (if you check his recipe for pickled carrots, cauliflower or whatever - it gives you a few tips on how to pickle veges), but left the celery for a bit later - that doesn't really need to be cooked, and I wanted it to retain its crunch.


I had a big glass salad bowl which was perfect for the overnight pickling.

















So I left it overnight on the bench, weighed down by a plate... I admit I did some taste tests before it was ready - delicious!


I sterilised the jar (hot soapy water, good rinse, dried in the oven), stuffed the finished product in and covered it with the pickling liquid.


This is a great recipe for pickling... Im definately doing it again. I found it a touch sweet - however Im going to reserve judgement until I make it how its MEANT to be made, with the onion and celery seeds. I may add less sugar next time though, 800g is alot, though I do like the sweetness, and I think its sweet and sour flavour is going to be really versatile.

Ive made a salad with it - rocket, pickles and shaved aged cheddar which was great with some bbq'ed chargrilled chicken.

Its also great as part of an antipasti spread with hummus and grilled flatbreads, which I had for the first time at the Subiaco Hotel, Perth - and LOVED.

I cant wait to make more things from this cookbook such as:
pickled cauliflower, carrots or whatever
cauliflower and caper tapenade
cured cucumbers
orechiette w/broccoli, bitter greens and pecorino
pickled and spiced cherries (for a leg of ham)
poached salmon w/caper and egg dressing (he has 2 other options for the salmon - asparagus w/capsicum jam and salsa verde)
roasted scotch fillet w/ watercress and beetroot salad
slow roasted pork shoulder
bread and bean soup (ribollita)
pasta stuffed with roasted pumpkin, ox heart tomato and pecorino cheese
lamb shoulder and cardamom curry
spag with cauliflower strascicata
Danks st bread and butter pudding (made w/croissants)


Just a small list.......... more to come!


Update!!
I've made the picked again (still without celery seeds - woolies dont stock them Im guessing, as here in the West Aussie countryside, there were none and I couldnt find them in the supermarket in Perth, or in the asian grocer), but this time have used red cabbage, and its a gorgeous pink colour! I love it, and think Ill be making it with red cabbage from now on, because I think it presents alot better - the green cabbage and green capsicum taste great but colourwise, its quite bland. I think the white and khaki green have their place, when you dont need/want such vibrant colour. However the colour added so much to a plate with homemade hummus, beetroot/fetta/mint/celery leaves/pine nut salad and roast pork, that its going to be hard to go back! Have left 2 jars here at mum n dads, so hope they have a hankering for it in the next few weeks!

Friday, July 29, 2011

Urbanspoon

Yay my blogs are now featured on urbanspoon.com a reviewing website for restaurants/bars/cafes, which is pretty cool :)


They're featured on the Jus Burgers, Grill'd Burgers, the Urban Bakehouse, and Tiger Tiger review pages.


Hoping that theres more to come!

Where the wind blows me... Perth restaurants

Jus Burgers - Leederville

It was a rainy friday afternoon. My bf and I had just gone and gotten the keys to our new house, wandered around, had a look, taken some measurements and then realised we were hungry. Even better, we now live 10minutes from Leederville. After a wander, I dragged him to Jus Burgers. I've been before but he hadnt, and I had a hankering for a good burger (again!). He liked the look of quite a few things, so we decided. Jus Burgers it is!

I went and grabbed a seat while he ordered. The thing with this place is, its TINY. It doesnt take bookings, and you have to line up. Rain, hail or shine, people will line up for these burgers. We got lucky and didnt have many people in the line, but the fact that a few people showed up spurred us on to get organised! We didnt wanna wait any longer than we had to... So I found us a seat against the wall looking at the space opposite, covered in a huge graffiti style mural. The place has a funky vibe, and the staff were friendly and not too cool for school, which happens alot in places like this.

Its difficult for either of us to go past a burger with beetroot in it, so we both went for the Mullet burger - partly for the name! Its got bacon, cheddar cheese, beetroot and a free range egg, topped with a char grilled Amelia Park beef patty (other accolades include being MSA approved, and hormone free). We ordered a side of chips and the spanish slaw, with sherry vinegar, honey and smoked paprika dressing.
These burgers are big. They come skewered with a steak knife, partially to keep it together when they're bringing it to you. This is not first date food. Im very lucky Im in a secure relationship and were past impressing each other. This got messy. Neither of us could take an initial bite for the ridiculous height of the thing, I had to resort to cutting mine in half, bf actually used his knife and fork. Juice everywhere. The bottom of my burger bun was bright pink from the beetroot. It was friggen delicious. We didnt talk much...

Ill admit the photo isnt of our visit, rather c/o the Spend it in WA blog, I didnt have my camera... so have had to troll the net for a substitute. These pics so the actual product you get served justice. They dont look that much different... Im always relieved when I hear a band live, if they sound just as good as what you hear from the studio. Same with food. A doctored pic, set up to look appetizing and appealing, is only any good if the product you end up with is similar. In the case of Jus Burgers, you do get what the promo pics show you.

The sides we ordered came out pretty fast. The chips were good, crunchy, salted, good portion size. The slaw would have been nice, however it was full of coriander and I hate coriander. This is normally fine, but it wasnt mentioned on the menu, which ruined it for me really. If I had've seen it had coriander in it I would have ordered something else, so I barely touched it. Bf wasnt sure he liked it either. Im not too sure about the addition of the smoked paprika either, Im not sure it did it for me, but to be fair I didnt give it a good crack, due to the evil green herb.

I ordered a chocolate shake, made from Bannister Downs chocolate milk, which was thick and rich. This is local milk which is FAB - we buy it regularly, their Cafe au Lait flavoured milk is also great. This leads me to another plus at Jus Burgers, theyre proud suppliers of local produce. The menu tells you where all the meat comes from, and the milk. They use free range eggs, and Australian oils. Its all on their menu, and they're vocal suuports of the Buy West, Eat Best campaign. They have great vegetarian options as well as a range of sides and sauces to make your burger how you want it - check out their menu. Boerworst, kangaroo, chicken... truffled chicken parfait?! Fancy pants or basic, you'll find it.

The food here is great, we both loved our burgers, even though they were stupidly huge and messy. I love that they're promoting local WA produce. Go there. Go early or line up!

Jus Burgers on Urbanspoon

Monday, July 25, 2011

Praised Chicken, Nigella Lawson

Today, my dear bf woke up with a cold, and stayed home from work sick. He had a fever and slept half the day, so because I was off work today as well, it was my duty to be the caring gf. Chicken soup was on the cards.


I went to my local butcher and bought a whole chicken - hormone and chemical free as well as organic. It was $16.95 for a 2kg chicken, which is a fair bit more than your run of the mill chicken. Upon getting the bird home though, it was worth it, plenty of meat, plump and juicy. The added reassurance that its free of nasties I dont even know how to pronounce, or that I could never begin to explain how they got in the chicken in the first place, really for me is worth every cent.


I grabbed some celery, a few waxy potatoes, and flat leaf parsley. On a side note, I went to a masterclass run by Vince Gareffa, the founder of Perths Mondo di Carne, purveyors of Perths finest meats! Anyway he told us that you should only ever use flat leaf parsley, because of its superior flavour. He explained that curly parsley was like pubic hair, only for decoration and not to be eaten! Wise words!


Now, Im not going to go on about the recipe itself, its very simple. Here are the ingredients you will need, taken directly from Nigellas website;


  • 1 large chicken, preferably organic
  • 2 teaspoons garlic oil
  • 100ml white wine or dry white vermouth
  • 2-3 leeks, cleaned, trimmed, and cut into approx. 7cm logs
  • 2-3 carrots, peeled and cut into batons
  • 1-2 sticks celery, sliced
  • approx. 2 litres cold water
  • 1 bouquet garni or 1 teaspoon dried herbs
  • fresh parsley stalks or few sprigs, tied or banded together
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt flakes or 1 teaspoon pouring salt
  • 2 teaspoons red peppercorns, or good grinding pepper
  • chopped leaves, from parsley stalks above
  • chopped fresh dill
  • English mustard

Method

Serves: 4-8
  1. Get out a large, flame-safe cooking pot (with a lid) in which the chicken can fit snugly: mine is about 28cm wide x 10cm deep.
  2. On a washable board, un-truss the chicken, put it breast-side down and press down until you hear the breastbone crack. (As you may imagine, I like this.) Then press down again, so that the chicken is flattened slightly. Now cut off the ankle joints below the drumstick (but keep them); I find kitchen scissors up to the task.
  3. Put the oil in the pan to heat, then brown the chicken for a few minutes breast-side down, and turn up the heat and turn over the chicken, tossing in the feet as you do so. Still over a vigorous heat add the wine or vermouth to the pan and let it bubble down a little before adding the leeks, carrots and celery.
  4. Pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken, though the very top of it may poke out, then pop in the bouquet garni or your herbs of choice, and the parsley stalks (if I have a bunch, I cut the stalks off to use here, but leave them tied in the rubber band) or parsley sprigs
  5. The chicken should be almost completely submerged by now and if not, do add some more cold water. You want it just about covered.
  6. Bring to a bubble, clamp on the lid, turn the heat to very low and leave to cook for 1½–2 hours. I tend to give it 1½ hours, or 1 hour 40 minutes, then leave it to stand with the heat off, but the lid still on, for the remaining 20–30 minutes.
  7. Serve the chicken and accompanying vegetables with brown basmati rice, adding a ladleful or two of liquid over each shallow bowl, as you go, and putting fresh dill and mustard on the table for the eaters to add as they wish.
I did cheat a few ways, I had no leeks so put in the last of the spring onions from my garden, I added potato because I wanted to, and toward the end of cooking I added rice.

It was delicious. I took the chicken out and reduced the soup down a bit more (in hindsight this wasnt necessary). I shredded the chicken and added it to the bowl on top of the chunky, ricey chicken broth, and finished it off with some parsley. I wasnt even sick, and I felt renewed.


This is a family feeder, crowd pleaser, lone freezer stocker... I will be making this again, for 100%. Its so easy, delicious and comforting. So good.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Neil Perrys Beef Rendang from Good Food


We have wanted to try this recipe from Neil Perrys book, Good Food, for a while now, since my bf loves curries, and he especially loves hot ones. The picture in the book makes it look lethal so bf was instantly attracted to it. One look at the ingredient list and he decided this was the one. 12 chillies.

Yes.

12.

I explained to him that the 12 chillies go into the paste and you dont use it all, however he was hooked. I was cooking the 12 chilli curry.

We went down to Wanneroo Markets and picked up all the necessary ingredients, quite a few that I dont have - shrimp paste, galangal, kaffir lime leaves... and came home with an affordable bag of goodies to get stuck into this recipe.

Deseeding 12 chillies wasnt great, Im not gonna lie. My fingers were dangerous little appendages for the rest of the night, its hard to get all that chilli oil thats seeped into your skin. The things I do for curry...

The curry itself is quite easy... You make a paste, cook it off, add the meat, tamarind, lime leaves, and coconut milk and let it simmer for 1-1.5 hours, and serve with rice. Easy.

However unless you already have a well stocked pantry full of SE asian ingredients, a trip to the asian grocer is in order - however we found the items inexpensive and easy to find. The only thing we didnt get, was fresh tumeric, and to be honest we didnt look that hard.

Heres the ingredient list for the paste (this is enough to make about 500ml of paste, which is enough for approx 4 curries. I have portioned mine out and frozen them in labelled bags, so another curry is but a quick defrost away!)
  • 15g shrimp paste
  • 1 red onion, roughly chopped
  • 5g fresh turmeric, grated or 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • Finely grated zest of 1 kaffir lime (I used normal lime)
  • 40g ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  • 40g galangal, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 lemongrass stem, white part only chopped
  • 12 long red chillies, seeds removed and chopped
  • 8 garlic cloves chopped

And for the rest of the curry you'll need

  • 800g topside beef, cubed (I used chump steak, was fine)
  • 150g rendang curry paste
  • 600ml Coconut milk (I used light)
  • 1.5 tablespoons tamarind paste
  • 6 kaffir lime leaves, crushed
  • 1.5 tablespoons grated palm sugar
The shrimp paste needs to be wrapped in foil and put in a medium oven for 10mins, until its fragrant. How you can tell when it becomes more fragrant than it is in its uncooked state I dont know.


It stinks.


Wow. Seal that baby up and put it away in the fridge until you need it again... get it outta the kitchen! I dunno how Im gonna use it all up, 15g isnt much, and I bought the whole block! On the upside though, its not expensive... A little info for you, Belacan is Malay for shrimp paste, Terasi is Indonesian, and Ngapi is Thai. For all other info you might want on shrimp paste, check out this site (thanks to TFP for sharing the link with me via twitter).

You pretty much just blend all the ingredients together to make the paste, and like I said you have enough for 3 or 4 curries.















Now is the time to turn on your exhaust fan, open the windows or doors. You're gonna fry that paste up and with 12 chillies you don't wanna be taking any chances regarding the coughing fit you may encounter.

Truth be told, I didnt have a particularly bad experience, like I have had before cooking chillies. But I started out with the door open and the fan on full. Stir the paste around for a few minutes and you'll smell it from a mile away. I could pick up the shrimp paste more than I would have liked, but everything else smelled great.

Add the meat, coconut milk, lime leaves, tamarind paste, and leave to simmer for 1- 1.5 hours. Make sure you stir it often, otherwise it can burn a bit. Also make sure you're not watching a Western Derby which goes down to goal kick after the siren... I admit I did slightly burn it a bit. Not much, it was all good. But my team lost so it wasn't worth letting my curry stick!

This next bit allows you to do what you want to your curry depending on what you want from it. If you like a creamier, saucier curry then cook it a little less until the sauce gets to a consistancy you like, otherwise cook it longer. However make sure you choose the right steak for it.

If you want a saucier curry, I would strongly advise you use a better cut of meat than chump or casserole steak, as it will be tougher than youd like, due to the shorter cooking time. You can add more liquid if you want a cheaper cut but a sauce that goes further, however I can't really tell you what that would do to the end result. Probably not much but dont quote me on that!

Bf likes his curries dry, so without too much sauce. He's also not a fan of curries with coconut milk (I did tell him it was in this curry but he was blinded by the 12 chillies), so he wanted his cooked down as far as it would go. The meat was still a bit tough for me, so I added some water to give it more time. In the end, we were hungry and just ate it, but it could have done with a bit longer to get the meat falling apart, which is how I like it in a curry. Add the palm sugar and salt last, to taste. It has a really tangy flavour to it when you're stealing bits of it during the cooking process (don't lie, you all do it too!), and so using the palm sugar will mellow out the flavour and make it alot more rounded.

We served with rice and some fresh lebanese bread we picked up (not authentic I know, but tasty nonetheless!). You can improve this curries presentation dramatically by topping it with some chopped coriander, however I hate the stuff so left it off.

Overall, it was a decent curry, but we both agreed that it was definately not the best curry Id made. I will make it again, as I have enough curry paste to feed an army, but next time I will cook it a bit less to keep the sauce creamy and coconutty - and eat it when bf isnt home lol. I think frying off the paste and then putting it in the slow cooker might be a winner, as it definately needs to have tender, fall apart meat.

I think its also worth mentioning that this curry is not hot.
At all.
Someone explain this to me.
There was NO heat, whatsoever.
Curry Fail.

UPDATE!
Well after this curry being a bit of a let down, I still had 2 serves of the paste left, frozen in bags. I decided to use them in a laksa inspired soup when I had a bit of a cold.

I fried off the paste until the house smelled like shrimp paste, garlic, ginger and lime, and added coconut milk and 2 cups of chicken stock, and let it simmer down for a while. I added some sliced chicken thigh to poach, and later some udon noodles, bamboo shoots, asparagus, broccoli, a squeeze of lime juice and a dash of soy... It was nice but not as nice as laksas Ive had from restaurants! It was also, again, not spicy at all.

Its nice and versatile, in that you dont need to use it just in a rendang, and can make things a few nights in a row from the amount of paste the recipe yields, and not feel like you're repeating yourself too much.

But I still think theres something missing from this paste... Im not sure if its something Ive done with it, or if its the recipe... Its not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but its not mind blowing either.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Grill'd Burgers, Joondalup

On thursday, after Id returned from a long drive home from the small country town I grew up, I felt pretty weird. For some reason I felt like I hadn't eaten in days (which is very clearly not the case). You know when you get sick and you dont eat much, and the day after you've recovered, you could eat for Australia? Thats how I felt. We were planning on going out to a japanese place, however I decided that I was in a burger mood. We headed to Grill'd, Joondalup.


I didnt even know what to choose, they had alot of items on the menu. I often go for any burger with beetroot in it - a burger isnt a burger without beetroot. At Grill'd, alot of them have it so I was spoilt for choice! I ended up with the Wild Wild West burger ($13.50), which at any other establishment would be an aussie burger. It had egg, bacon, beetroot beef patty, cheese, herbed mayo and relish. My bf ordered the same, with a regular chips ($4.30, which anywhere else would be a large - it was big!), and all 3 sauces (.70c each, sweet chilli aioli, herbed mayo and tomato relish).

The burger was SO nice, it was exactly what I felt like eating! It was messy, definately not first date food! The patty was juicy and really tasty, it had plenty of everything in it, and I chose to have panini bread rather than regular bread, which was really good. The chips were crispy, well cooked, and delish, with herb salt. The dipping sauces were nice, the sweet chilli aioli isnt spicy, but its creamy and tasty, the tomato relish was great, tangy and a nice contrast to the aioli. I didnt really like the herbed mayo, it tasted like it had something powdered in it, which tasted kinda strange. It was also a bit much because it was in the burger, and the herbs were on the chips. Herb overload! However it tastes good in the burger as its more of a background flavour.


We'd both definately go back, it was a good sized meal and left me satisfied! There are lots of other burgers to try, and if they're anything like the burger I had, Ill be happy to go back and eat more of them!!


Grill'd is located just outside Lakeside Shopping centre, opposite Grand Cinemas and The Sovereign Arms pub. Photo is c/o the Grill'd website.


Grill'D Healthy Burgers on Urbanspoon

Monday, July 18, 2011

Mandarin Cake

When you have a glut of fruit or veges, you end up searching for ways to use them to avoid chucking them out. This is what I've done when we had about 14 mandarines to use. Eating them is obviously an option, however they need to be eaten soon... They just wouldnt make it...

So I decided to make an adaption of Nigella Lawsons Clementine Cake - but with mandarines. The added bonus of this cake is that its gluten and dairy free! I dont follow either diet but its handy to have that kind of recipe in your recipe bank, should someone roll up with those requirements. This recipe also appeals to the frugal - you use the whole mandarin, skin and all. Ive read that this recipe can be adapted to use any thin skinned citrus fruit, and that its a very forgiving recipe - so if you try this with another fruit I'd love to hear about how it goes! Click on the link above for the recipe, Ill just describe how I did it and how it turned out.

Anyway... to start off you place 4-5 mandarins (I used 6 but 2 of them were really small) in a pot of cold water and bring it to the boil, and leave it on the stove for 2 hours. Depending on how you feel about the smell of mandarines, you'll either find the aroma the simmering fruits sweet, citrusy and warming, or weird. I found it pretty weird. It kinda reminded me of deep heat mixed with mandarin. Not the best combo. The recipe said nothing about whether or not you keep it boiling for 2 hours, or simmer... I pretty much just simmered it,but it boiled for a while. I dont think it really matters. The fruit will go from being shrivelled and bumpy, to smooth, plump and soft! Once they're done, drain them and leave them to cool somewhere for a while (be careful, as they're pretty hot!).
Once they're cool cut them in half and remove the pips, then blitz them whole. Skin and all! You can add the almond meal, sugar (I used half vanilla sugar and half caster, as I was unsure how strong the vanilla sugar would be), eggs and baking powder to the mixer, followed by your blitzed fruit, and give it a mix till its combined.

I found that the mix was really wet, and was a bit concerned that I had added too much fruit, however I was assured that it IS a wet mixture, and to have faith, Nigella wont fail me!!

Pour the mix into a greased 21cm tin, or as I used, a silicone mould. Make sure you have a baking tray or something similar underneath your silicon moulds, they're floppy and you might break your cake in half when you take it out of the oven!! I did admittedly use spray oil... I was in a hurry and couldnt be bothered to do it any other way. The purists will poo poo my decision to use it, however I had just spent half an hour scrubbing the shower, as well as the oven. So I earned a short cut, I think!

Pop your golden almond speckled gem into the oven for about an hour at 190C. You might find after a while that your cake is going a little tooooo golden on top (aka burnt) so after about 30mins cover it with baking paper to stop it going any further.

You can smell it now... and its smelling goooood! It will rise a bit, and I think I got lucky with mine, it was all uniform and looked good enough to be in a cafe - though it was slightly darker than I wanted in places... You need to let the cake cool completely before you try and get it out of your tin/mould. Its a really moist cake and when its hot its way too fragile to move it too much, just let it sit there for an hour for it to settle down and chill out.
For some reason, my cake seemed to be darker and moister than the rest in the middle, no taste difference really though! Its a bit sticky on the top, and came out nice and flat looking like a pro made it! Ive been told it improves in taste on the 2nd and third day, which is pretty sweet. So Ill have to report back tomorrow on how it tastes then. My bf and I had some tonight, and it was pretty nice. It was fairly sweet, as the boiling of the fruit really brings out the natural sugars. For some, its perfect, however for me, if I make it again Ill put less sugar in. It had a decent texture, however I noticed it being slightly eggy (there ARE 4 eggs in the recipe), which isnt something I really want my cakes to feel like, however it was negligable. Bf said that it was a good way to use up fruit that needs eating, however I dont think he was crazy about it. He said it needed a good bitter chocolate sauce on it, and I think it would be great with spiced lemony natural yoghurt or mascapone, as I think it definately needs something else.

However, in saying that... its meant to taste better tomorrow! So ill get back to you when I do further tests ;-)

UPDATE: have tried this cake day 2 and Nigella was right, it DOES taste better today. The citrus flavour has come out stronger and evened out the sweetness a bit. Its much better today - had it with some greek yoghurt which should have been toned down with something, but still really nice, with a healthy persuasion!

Related post: Ottolenghi's Clementine and Almond syrup cake - MUCH BETTER!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

rental inspection

means no big cook ups till thursday. My bf cleaned the kitchen and so I think Im banned from doing too many crazy things in there...

I think, since I spent all sunday at the Good Food and Wine Festival (blog post coming) he spent 4 hours cleaning the house... Im expected to do the rest of it now. Which means no perusing cook books or watching cooking shows to get ideas. Boo.

Rental inspections really suck...

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Tiger Tiger Cafe and Bar


The reviews on Urbanspoon are mixed about this place, with most people having negative experiences here, mostly due to the staff or the manager, which is unfortunate. It appears the negative reviews about the staff have been more recent, as the older reviews of Tiger Tiger are very positive.


Tiger, Tiger Coffee Bar on Urbanspoon


Aesthetically, its really cool, its down an alleyway in the city and has a real op shop chic vibe. I loved the look of it... Your tea is served in cute mismatched vintage tea cups, your side plates for meals are, again, mismatched and vintage - which adds to the op shop feel of the place. Inside is warmly lit, with big red booth style seating against the wall, and chic metal/black chairs on the other side. Obscure, alternative and arty pictures, posters and paintings hang on the walls.



The menu is tapas style with smaller things like Tiger nuts ($5), bread and dips, chorizo with lemon, chermoula chicken skewers, chicken liver parfait, duck salad, and host of other things. There are share plates including a Ploughpersons, which looked nice. They have an extensive wine list, though the cheapest is $35 by the bottle and only have about 4 reds by the glass. Admittedly I didnt look at the white list, because I dont really drink it... It was quite expensive for drinks, and if you arent a wine drinker then you'll struggle because there was was only 3 beers (Weihenstephaner for $12, VB for $5 and another darker beer which was about $9 I think), and 1 cider. Hmmm....


But thats the generalities outta the way... Onto our experience with the place...


We had 3 scoopons, which entitled us to $180 worth of food and drinks. Booking was necessary, so on friday evening we rang up to book us a place and spend our virtual cash. I was told that they dont take bookings anymore, and they dont take scoopons on fridays after 5pm. When I told her (her turned out to be the manager/owner), that this condition wasn't on the voucher, she sighed and with an aggro tone asked me if I just wanted to do it my way then? Um... I just wanna use my voucher and your made up rules aren't written anywhere... She conceded, and booked us in for the following friday. It wasn't a good start but I assumed that maybe she'd had a rough day?

Next friday I gave them another call just to reconfirm our booking. The guy I spoke to had no idea about it, and said they don't take bookings and they don't take scoopons after 5 on fridays. After explaining that I had arranged it last week with the manager, he said it was all sorted out. When I asked him if he'd like us there earlier, as I knew it got busy and I didn't want to make things difficult for them, he said no its fine, it'll all be arranged, and then hung up on me.


Needless to say I wasn't looking forward to going there, which is an ordinary way to be feeling about a night out with your friends! I was grateful they had made an exception for us though, even though we were only asking to redeem a voucher under the conditions that we purchased them with. Not a big ask?


We got there a bit early, and I told the waitress who I was and said I was happy to come back later as I knew I was early. They had a table waiting for us already (we got there about 40mins early), and she showed us in, saying to the manager "this is Jacqui", and then got some funny looks from other staff, and I overheard someone saying "ooh THATS Jacqui" as if I'd kicked up a huge stink about getting a table. Obviously we felt really uncomfortable. The manager came over and said "oh so you're Jacqui? *looked at her watch* bit early..." and walked off.


Wow.


We got menus, they offered us some drinks, nuts/bread to start off with etc, then our friends arrived, and from then on in we didnt really feel like we got much attitude from the staff, they were perfectly civil and did their job.


I was drinking the shiraz which was nice, served in glasses which look like a normal wine glass without the stem, which I liked. Being a red drinker, there isn't as much importance placed on how cold the wine is, however my friend who drinks white doesn't like them because the heat of her hand makes her wine go warmer, faster. Fair point. Have a look at this article to decide whether or not you think a wine glass needs a stem...

Anyway... someone was hungry so they ordered the grilled chorizo with lemon, chermoula chicken skewers and the duck salad. The chorizo came out as fat little sausages that spat fat at us, looked a bit undercooked but were tasty, served with a lemon wedge. The chermoula chicken skewers came out with 4 servings, drizzled with a yoghurt dressing. They were nice, tasty but very dry, and a bit stingy on the chicken. I would have liked to have seen chunks of chicken rather than a tenderloin sliced in hald and threaded onto a skewer. Duck salad was nice, but I hate coriander so didnt eat much of it. The duck was cold, and it was light on the meat, but it was nice. The duck meat wasn't as strong as I've tasted it before, but sometimes I find duck a bit overpowering, so I was pretty happy with the mild flavour.


One of the girls ordered a latte which they said was really nice, came out well presented and looked good, but we werent really there for coffees.


It was time to pay, and we were off. The night had been good, even though we'd copped a bit of attitude from the staff. One of our friends had his own tab and when he went to pay, his bill was pretty big... Turns out they'd been putting some of our drinks, on his tab. He was paying for everything whereas we had vouchers, so they were pretty much trying to scam a bit of money out of us... The waitress, again, got snarky about it saying how good a deal this was etc and that he should have just said it was wrong. Obviously a bit pissy they'd been caught out. They then tried to tell us that we could only use 2 of 3 scoopons, because that was part of the terms and conditions. One of the girls argued about it, and we managed to get it sorted. But again, Tiger Tiger tried to change the rules without telling anyone, so that the game suited them. When we went to leave I apologised to the waitress for the inconvinience, and that my friend can be a bit of a stickler for value (she did argue a bit...). She half smiled and rolled her eyes at me.


Tiger Tiger has the potential to be such a cool place. The decor is funky and cool, the wine list is good, though expensive, and the menu looks good, and tasted pretty decent. However the staff are awful. They treat you like they're doing you a favour by letting you be seen in such a cool cafe. Its such a shame as I really wanted to have a good experience here but I didnt really. I want to love it, but I cant because the staff were so aloof and snarky.


I won't be going back to Tiger Tiger...


Photos c/o The Travel Project, and Lonely Planet.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream

Its been a good week for food! Well its always a good week for food... I like to eat, and I eat nice things. Maybe thats why the kgs have been creeping on... but thats a whole seperate blog!


Anyway...


A while ago I spotted a bargain on Facebook, via Kitchenware Direct, for an ice cream maker - $50, free postage! SOLD to the lady who needs no more gadgets in the kitchen but who buys them anyway!


Its a Cuisinart 1.5L, and of course its RED! I love red things in my kitchen... So I thought I'd give it a test run, upon the request of my bf who wanted something sweet for after dinner... So I went for Nigella Lawsons "Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream" recipe.

The recipe is below, however we changed the recipe slightly... We added the zest of an orange when the chocolate was nice and hot, to make sure all the warmth of the orange soaked in and blended with the chocolate, which it most certainly did! We also found that while making the ice cream... we had no cocoa *facepalm*.


Instead we used 4 heaped teaspoons of rich spanish hot chocolate mix, which has added to the decadence of the end result. I think should we use cocoa next time it wont be quite so full on. However if youre a chocolate lover - I suggest you try it with hot chocolate mixture! Happy Valley Cook, who is also a member of a website I use often, Through the Oven Door has also made this ice cream and pointed me in its direction - all credit goes to her, as otherwise I wouldnt have discovered it! She has a review on her blog about it so go have a look.


Anyway, the recipe is as follows




Ingredients
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 130g plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 500 ml full-fat milk
  • 100g dark chocolate (min.70% cocoa solids)
  • 40 g cocoa (best quality available)
Method:
  • Whisk the yolks & 130 gr of the sugar in a bowl until thick & creamy, foaming pale ribbons when you lift the whisk
  • Bring the milk to the boil & add it to the beaten yolks, pouring slowly & beating all the while
  • Melt the chocolate in a bowl above (but not touching) some simmering water in a pan
  • Then whisk this, followed by the cocoa, into the egg & milk mixture
  • Pour the chocolate-custard mixture into a pan & cook on a low to moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until everything’s smooth & amalgamated & beginning to thicken (don’t cook until it’s really custard-like, but slightly less)
  • Put 2 tablespoons of sugar with 2 teaspoons of water into a thick bottomed saucepan & turn the heat to high
  • Make a caramel: heat this until it’s dark brown & molten (you are after the taste of burnt sugar)
  • As it browns, whisk it into the chocolate custard; don’t worry if it crystallizes on contact as the whisking will dissolve it
  • Turn into a bowl to cool
  • Then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins (or longer if that’s more convenient) before churning in your ice-cream maker according to instructions.
The ice cream maker is great - I dont think its a year in year out use type of investment, it's made of plastic on the outside and then the inner tub which is what you need to freeze before you use it, is obviously metal. It was really easy to use, and Ill definately be using it again!


This is also my submission for Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream! The challenge is to recreate your face childhood experience or flavour. That's really hard to narrow down, but I'm choosing chocolate orange because when we were kids, we used to get jaffas sometimes, if we were lucky! They were round balls with a red shell, like MnMs or Smarties. The red dye would come off, and we used to paint our lips with it, the garish red, and  pretend we were sophisticated ladies about town! 



Shut your goddamn carbon-taxin’ mouth: Reposted

Ive seen this reposted all over facebook, however it seems to be linking to an inactive "forbidden" account. Hmmm..... Ive been feeling pretty disilllusioned with the state of things recently. The live export ban, where the ONLY thing people can talk about is the money lost, and the change in the way of life of every day aussies. This carbon tax is another thing that is causing me to doubt humanity. People are only concerned with money. Its the only thing. No one cares about doing the right thing anymore, and its a disgrace. I thought Australia, while having their fair share of idiots, was reasonably balanced out by informed citizens, wanting to do the right thing. It turns out a vast majority of Australians dont give a shit. All they're concerned with is money. The money out of their pocket. The virtual money out of other "Aussie battlers" wallets. They might have a slight dent in their disposable income, maybe they're going to have to wait another week for their fuel guzzling V8 car, or make 1 extra payment on their surround sound home entertainment system with wall sized plasma tv...

It is a fucking joke.
"Three days on from Julia Gillard’s policy announcement, and the most striking characteristic of the carbon tax debate is just how closely it resembles a dozen retards trying to fuck a doorknob. The only apparent solution is a massive airdop of Xanax into our reservoirs, because really, everyone needs a few deep breaths and a spell in the quiet corner.
Sure, the weeks leading up have all been hysteria: Tony Abbott marching that bulldog grimace up and down the length of the country, like a Cassandra made of old leather and stunted dreams, cawing grim warnings of imminent ruin and destruction at the gates of Troy. But you might have expected, once the details had been released, there would arrive a little more perspective.
Nothing doing.
Far from being objective carriers of information, media outlets have been trying to manufacture furore. “Families earning more than $110k will feel the pain of the carbon tax,” warned the Herald-Sun, straightfaced. “Households face a $9.90 a week jump in the cost of living.”
$9.90.
Cry me the motherfucking Nile.
Households on less than that income would be even less affected. Those in the upper range would have their ten bucks a week at least partly compensated, while others would be fully or over-compensated.
The tax, after all, was not on people, but on 500 high-polluting companies. The compensation was to guard against costs those companies might pass on to their customers.
So, no big deal, I said to myself when the details were announced. Surely this’ll all blow over. And then, found myself more than a little surprised when a Herald-Sun commenter (one step above YouTube on the food-chain, I’ll admit) said “Somebody needs to assassinate Julia Gillard NOW before she totally destroys our way of life.”
Just… hold up a minute. Ten bucks a week? Our way of life? Aside from incitement to murder a head of government being ever so slightly illegal (and something the Hun mods should probably have picked up on), the response just doesn’t make any sense. Here is legislation that might make some things marginally more expensive. Probably not much. It isn’t going to drive industries offshore, because things like power generation and mining Australian resources kind of have to be done in Australia.
And yet the hysteria, even when not reaching Lee Harvey Oswald levels, has been constant throughout, led by the paper who defines ten bucks a week out of a hundred grand as “feeling the pain”.
“Social demographer David Chalke said the tax threatened values at the core of Australian society. ‘To an extent it will make people question, “is it really worth the bother?” They’ll smell in this something of a class war,’ Mr Chalke said.”
Ten bucks a week. Core values. Class war. Then, “Generous payments to those on low incomes and higher taxes for high income earners would anger hard-working Aussies.” Because, people on less than $110,000 don’t have to work hard. That’s why they get paid less! Scrubbing toilets is easy and only takes five minutes, while high-level boardroom execs spend 20-hour days chained to some kind of awful lunch machine being beaten with lobster foam.
I also enjoyed “On 3AW yesterday, Treasurer Wayne Swan was unable to say how the carbon tax would affect a Falcon. He also couldn’t say what the price change for a can of tomatoes would be.” The random grocery quiz had undone the Treasurer yet again. “Wait, wait, wait, got one…uh… large box of Libra Fleur? Nope. Uh, Sara Lee Chocolate Bavarian? Hah, you got nothin’, Swanny!”
Then there were the numerous headlines about airfares set to “soar” (geddit!). Well-meaning travellers were interviewed saying higher airfares would make it much harder to afford family holidays. Tres sad, especially when Qantas “said it would need to fully pass on the carbon price to customers, with the price of a single domestic flight ticket to increase on average by about $3.50.”
Three dollars. Fifty cents. They currently charge you more than that for a bottle of water. They charge $7.50 to buy a ticket online, $8 for a cup of noodles, $25 to use their check-in counter, and $6 to board the plane first. The best comment left after that article was, “So people won’t be able to buy a newspaper for the boarding lounge anymore? Good.”
So let’s never hear any talk of ABC bias ever again, because the Sun has well and truly picked its horse on this one. Any online article on the tax was headlined by a video of the lovely Andrew Bolt, telling us it was “the greatest act of national suicide we’ve ever seen.” Funny, I thought that was when they gave him a TV show. There was also a great line about “so-called solar energy” – because now solar energy is just a theory too. Like gravity, or Adelaide.
I am a sometime journalist. In that sense, the staff in the Herald and Weekly Times building are my colleagues. This makes me feel a bit like whorehouse linen. No doubt they all say they’re just doing their jobs, looking for opportunities. Nonetheless, they’re still actively promoting harm for the sake of attracting an audience. Concentration camp guards are just doing their jobs, too.
And with that level of reporting, the effort from their readers is no surprise. “Co2 is not a pollutant. It is vital for life on Earth. Without it, trees will die,” said John. Get that man on the climate panel.
“How much will Australia’s temperatures decline once the tax is implemented?” asked Marty. Well, Marty, the atmosphere takes notes about where its constituent particles come from, so we’ll get a full report from the Hole in the Ozone Layer each quarter. He wears a jaunty hat, and gives every boy and girl a delicious melanoma.
The dumbshititis was also evident in the audience of the Prime Ministerial Q and A on Monday, where the average question could be summarised as, “I’m a person, and I don’t like paying money. Can I not ever pay money for things?” My favourite line, from a surgical swab of a man towards the end of the show, was that because he earned too much to be eligible for low-income handouts, “I feel I’ll be taxed into poverty.”
This taps into a very prominent feature of our political landscape: the constant line from Tony Abbott that Australian families are hurting, that Aussies are doing it tough, that life is somehow getting harder, that the cost of living is on the rise.
Shenanigans, Tony. Let’s get one thing very clear. Australians, en masse, are enjoying a better standard of living than has ever been enjoyed in this country’s history.
And not just marginally, but by a huge degree. Really, along with a few other developed countries, we are enjoying a better standard of living than any group of people has in human existence. We have every kind of food and beverage from around the world deliverable to our doors. We have technological advances that make a decade ago look archaic. We have goods and luxuries of every conceivable kind; cheap and accessible. We have more and better options with transport, entertainment, comfort, place and style of residence. We have the most advanced medicine and best life expectancy of all time.
While there is still poverty in Australia, it does not even touch the kinds of poverty experienced in most countries on earth. Support systems and sufficient wealth exist to cover at least basic needs. The small proportion of genuinely homeless usually have other factors that keep them away from those systems. Being poor in Australia means living in a crappy house, in a crappy area. Maybe a commission flat. It means living on welfare, getting by week to week, not having any money for nice things. It might mean the kids have to go to their friend’s house to play X-Box, or that they don’t get sweet Christmas presents. It sucks, but it’s safe. It’s solid. It keeps you alive. It’s a level of stability and security that half the world would kill for, and even the basic amenities of a commission flat are amenities that half the world doesn’t have.
Poor people in Australia do not starve to death. They don’t die of cold. There is clean water running in any public bathroom. If they’re ill, they can walk into a hospital and be treated. If they’re broke, they can get welfare. They can get roofs over their heads, even if they’re temporary. They have options. If the utilities are shut off, they can find a tap, or a powerpoint. They can make it through the night.
And those poor aside, the rest of the country is doing very fucking nicely indeed, thanks very much. Reading these stories of parents bitching about working long hours to afford their private school fees just makes me want to give their little tow-headed spawn a spew bath. The lack of perspective is astonishing. Their kids are safe and fed and healthy and getting every opportunity to do whatever they want with their lives. They’re not getting sent out to suck tourist dick for enough US dollars to get their siblings through the week.
It should make us ashamed that there are people with good earnings ready to claim victim status on national television over a worst-case scenario of five hundred bucks a year. This is what is driving people into a panicky rage. Five hundred dollars, if you can afford it. Less if you can’t. If you run a red light camera in Victoria it’s $300. Do 40 ks over the limit, $510. If we get fines, we bitch about it, but inherently accept the rationale: the fine is levied as a penalty by someone endangering others in the society. It’s the basic structure of how a society works. We all agree to abide by certain rules as a form of insurance, to make sure that we’re not on the receiving end of the negative consequences of lawlessness. When people refuse to abide by those rules, they’re variously censured by or removed from that society.
If we obtain energy by burning irreplaceable fuel, and the consequences threaten the safety of our society, then surely we should pay a penalty for that (adding to a fund to guard against those consequences). The rule is basic: you make the mess, you clean it up. Ten bucks a week is a sweet deal.
But in being part of the luckiest couple of generations of people to yet walk the earth, most of us still like to imagine we’ve got it tough. It’s that same sense of entitlement that I was discussing regarding Raquel a couple of weeks ago. When you grow up with a certain standard of living, you come to regard it as the natural state of affairs. If someone threatens that state, they are depriving you of what is fundamentally yours. To your mind, you have a right to live like this, purely because you’re lucky enough to have lived like this.
Well, you don’t. So if you claim you can’t afford ten bucks a week, I call Shenanigans, with a healthy dash of You’re a Dick. One dinner at the Flower Drum would make up your year’s liability in one hit. Genuinely struggling people will get compo anyway. But even they could afford it if they had to. Buy one less deck of Holiday 50s a week. Buy two less beers. Leave off the Foxtel subscription. Wear a franger, save half a mil. What the fuck ever. Remember that you live in a country where drinkable water comes out of a tap inside your goddamn house, and where the power runs 24 hours a day. This in itself is a goddamn privilege, and if you are going to bitch and moan about having to pay for that privilege, you can fuck off and die in a ditch.
Because you do not have a right to this way of life. No-one does. We just have the extreme good fortune of enjoying it, and that won’t last forever. We should appreciate it while we can.

(AGREED!!!)
Perversely, part of me wants to see what would happen if the sea levels rise a couple of metres, the coastal cities get swamped, the rainfall dries up, the power goes out, the militias take to the streets. Part of me would love to see these squawking indignant right-to-luxury dickwipes learning how to live in the dust, scraping out dried plants from the earth and hoarding their remnants from the Beforetime. It’ll be a sight if it happens. Dirty red skies will rise up from the ground each morning like a curse. The only creatures that seem to thrive, the cockroaches and carrion birds, will swarm black against the sand and the sunset, rasping dry songs with their throats and with their legs. The water will be gone. The world will not remember ice floes. And for her sins, for ten dollars a week from each and every one of us, Julia Gillard will hang from the garret at the gates of Troy."

Funghi Pizza - Urban Bakehouse

At first glance on the menu, this seems like just another mushroom pizza. How wrong I was.

Where do I even start? The base was chewy and opposed my knife and fork - this was lip smacking finger food! The big chunks of field mushroom were juicy and the tastiest I've ever had them, my bf and I were looking at each other with mouthfuls of pizza wide eyed. How does a mushroom taste so good??

It turns out the shrooms are cooked in the oven with some garlic and S&P, until they're 3/4 done, then theyre put into another container with balsamic vinegar to allow the mushrooms to soak up the rich dark deliciousness. These are then sliced, and added to the pizza when ordered (all made fresh to order of course!).

The pizza was then topped with cacciatore, mozzarella and aged cheddar (as opposed to gorgonzola, which I'm not a fan of, which the chef graciously agreed to change for me) and then grilled, golden and bubbly in the pizza oven.

It was without a doubt, the best mushroom dish I've eaten! Juicy, tasty mushrooms, crispy sausage, golden cheese and a thin chewy base. Perfect.

Go to the Urban Bakehouse in Clarkson, Perth.
Worth the drive.

The Urban Bakehouse on Urbanspoon

Review was written for Mushroom Mania, a month of celebrating the humble mushroom! You can win $100 for reviewing a mushroom dish you've eaten! Winner!!

San Choi Bow!

I dunno how many different ways there are to spell san choi bow.

Who cares though, I made it last night, and it was great! Whats even better though, it took about 15mins from start to finish, I think the most fiddly part was breaking off the lettuce leaves, washing them, and placing them carefully in a bowl.

I found a recipe online somewhere, but true to fashion I didnt use it once I was home... another typical thing for me to do, is to eat everything before taking a photo. We were starving, we didnt wanna wait.

This is a really forgiving recipe though, and the quantities, in my opinion can be adjusted according to your taste. Im sure there are some SCB purists who believe things must be put in the pan at the right time, with the right things otherwise its been bastardised.

However, I believe that food is there to be eat, enjoyed, and plates licked clean. So ill include here a rough guide, to the ingredients I used, in roughly the quantities I guesstimated. However as I said, they're there to be changed. If you like more chilli - add more. I need not explain this concept further!!

San Choi Bow

250g mince (I used beef, its what we had, however its traditionally made with a mix of pork/chicken. So suit yourself to your tastes, what you have and whats on special!)

2 garlic cloves (grated/blitzed/chopped/crushed)

1 chunk of ginger (prepared like the garlic, I grated it, skin on. Throwing caution to the wind me)

1 green chilli (we used green cos we like the freshness, and took the seeds out)

3 generous tsp of sambal (indonesian chilli sauce - delicious, buy some, use it, love it)

1 tsp chinese 5 spice

1/4 cup chinese cooking wine (or thereabouts. I didnt measure, just splashed)

1/4 cup oyster sauce (free pour - I love this stuff)

1 tbspn thick soy sauce

Quantity of noodles of your choice (good way to bulk out this meal, with cheap noodles. Makes it uni student suitable)

Sliced spring onions/water chestnuts/bamboo shoots

Method

1) Get ready to wok. Heat oil in your wok, and have everything already good to go, cut up and sorted. This is a fast meal to make, but easy to screw up if youre leaving things to burn in your smoking hot wok while you catch up on prep. Depending on which noodles you have, prepare them now (I had rice noodles, that needed to be soaked in hot water for 5-10mins).

2) Add your sambal, garlic, chinese 5 spice, and ginger, and stir it. Alot. Hot wok = burnt garlic, which tastes crap. Keep it moving. It smells good, doesnt it.

3) Add your mince, give it a stir to coat it all in the chilli/garlic/ginger goodness. Depending on your wok, and how much you're cooking (if you're like me, you havent followed the ingredient list and are reading this with a kilo of mince in your hand... never fear, you can make this work), cook the mince in batches, in another pan, or in the wok, it doesnt matter. If you have too much meat in a pan, it brings the temp of the pan down. High temp = sizzle
Sizzle = flavour.
If the temp of the wok is reduced too much, there isnt enough sizzle. You dont want the mince stewing in the juices it releases cos the wok isnt hot enough, you want it sizzling, and the meat should become brown, not a pallid grey being simmered in mince water.

4) Once youve tackled the mince, and its all in the pan, add your sauces, chopped chilli, spring onions, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots. Get stirring, keep it moving. Make sure its all covered in deliciousness.

5) Cooked noodles are drained, and chucked in. Stir. Make sure its all coming together - have a taste, add anything you feel is lacking. This is your dinner, not mine, add what you like!

6) Serve in iceberg lettuce cups, fold them up and prepare to make a mess!

Allow about 1 or 2 serving spoons full of the mixture per lettuce cup.

This would also be great rolled up in rice paper rolls - which is my next plan!

If youve done it all right, this whole meal shouldnt really take longer than 30mins (if youre really taking your time chopping and generally pottering in the kitchen) however it took me about 15-20mins.

Apologies for no pictures............ we ate it........... it was really nice, with a real chinese flavour. Once youve got the sauces/spices, this is a real pantry meal. Grab it all and go.

Fun for kids to wrap their mince up in lettuce leaves, good way of coaxing bf to eat his greens. Can sub the meat for soy mince/quorn/tofu of choice for those less carnivorous. Add more veges, carrot, chinese greens, baby corn - just make sure you add them when its appropriate to make sure they're cooked properly.

Try it, its so easy and fast, its a definate winner for mid week dinners!!