Couscous with 4 beans salad

Ingredients:
1 cup Couscous
250ml Chicken stock
1 can of 4 bean
2 tbsp butter
lemon

Tools:
medium sauce pan
wooden spoon


Procedure
1)  Bring to boil chicken stock in medium sauce pan
2)  Add Couscous mix thoroughly
3)  Cover and set aside for 3 minutes
4)  Add butter and a splash of lemon
5)  Rinse Beans
6)  Add Beans to Couscous
7)  Mix thoroughly
8)  Serve

Lamb Shank Casserole in Red Wine Sauce

Ingredients:  

  4 pieces of lamb shank

  4 large cloves of garlic

  1 large onion

  6 large ripe tomatoes 

  3 - 6 pcs bay leaves

  2 sprigs of rosemary

  250g button mushrooms

  1 suede

  2 turnips

  1/2 taro

  1 large carrot

  1 small can of tomato paste

  1 bottle of red wine (preferably cabernet sauvignon or shiraz)

  3 - 6 tbsp oil

  oil for browning/frying

Equipment:

   Frying pan

   Cast Iron Pot

Procedure:
1)  Brown lamb shank
2)  Set aside
3)  Heat oil in the cast iron
4)  Sautee garlic and onion till onion becomes translucent
5)  Add tomatoes, bay leaf and sprig of rosemary
6)  Add 1/4 bottle of the red wine
7)  Simmer till tomatoes for a sauce
8)  Place lamb shanks
9)  Mix
10) Pour rest of the wine
11)  Simmer
12)  Add tomato paste
13)  Add mushrooms
14)  Simmer
15)  Add the vegetables
16)  Cover
17)  Place in oven
18)  Bake at 180 degrees for 1 hour or longer

Creme Brulee

Ingredients:
   6 egg yolks beaten
   300 - 350 ml double cream
   1/2 cup sugar
   1 tsp vanilla
   sugar for brulle

   serves 6




Equipment:
   medium size sauce pan
   whisk
   ramekin
   Brulle torch

Procedure (custard):
   1)  Place sugar, cream and vanilla in the saucepan
   2)  Mix thoroughly with a whisk over a slow to medium fire
   3)  Continuously whisk the mixture to aerate the mixture
   4)  Ensure the mixture does not boil
   5)  Place the beaten egg yolk in a mixing bowl
   6)  Slowly combine liquid mixture and and beaten egg yolk
   7)  Continuously whisking to prevent egg from curdling
   8)  Replace mixture in the saucepan
   9)  Continue whisking until the mixture thickens (mixture coats the whisk)
  10)  Pour in Ramekins
  11)  Set aside to cool and set

Brulle (French burnt creme)
   1)  Sprinkle a generous amount of sugar
   2)  Caramelise sugar with a brulle torch or in the grill
   3)  Serve

Garlic Chilli Prawn with wilted Spinach on Tomato and Basil Rice Crackers

Ingredients:
      2-3 tbsp oil
      12 pcs of prawn
      250g spinach
      1 - 2 tsp garlic and chilli paste
      salt
      4 tomato and basil rice cakes

Equipment:
     wok
     wooden spoon

Serves 4






Procedure:
     1)  Heat oil in wok
     2)  Add chilli and garlic paste
     3)  Stir
     4)  Add Prawn
     5)  Cover and let the prawn cook
     6)  Add spinach
     7)  Stir
     8)  Cover
     9)  Turn off stove (let the heat wilt the spinach)

Construction:
     1)  place a rice cake on a small plate
     2)  layer wilted spinach on top
     3)  arrange prawns
     4)  drizzle with some sauce
     5)  serve

Lamb shank casserole dinner

Friday (15/10/2010) markde the beginning of a particularly cold spring weekend in canberra.  That weekend it hailed in the city and snowed in the alps.  Canberra was miserable on saturday.  I thought hmmmm what to do to make the weekend better.  After dinner with Patrick on Saturday (16/10/2010), I decided to host a 3 course dinner.  

Menu includes:

ENTREE:

                  Garlic chilli prawn with wilted spinach on Tomato and Basil Rice Cracker

MAIN MEAL:   

            Lamb casserole in red wine sauce

            Couscous with 4 beans salad

DESSERT:  

       Creme Brulee

Dinner was successful.

Ginataang Mungo (Mungbean in coconut milk)

Ingredients
   2 - 3 Garlic
   1 large Onion
   1 thumb sized Ginger
   2 large ripe Tomatoes
   2/3 cups Mung beans
   200g Anchovies
   50g Pork
   1 1/2 large can Coconut Milk
   Salt
   Pepper
   2 - 3 tbsp Oil

Equipment:
1)  Cleaver
2)  Wok
3)  chopping board


Preparation:
1)  Finely mince garlic
2)  Finely mince ginger
3)  Slice tomatoes
4)  Slice onions
9)  Slice pork (separate lean meat from the fat and skin)
       a)  Chop pork fat with skin into cubes;  salt pork fat cubes
       b)  Slice lean component into thin strips
10)  Soak Mungbean overnight in 1.5 cup water
11)  Cook mungbean in microwave for 15 minutes or on the stove till mungbean is relatively soft


Procedure:
1)  Place pork fat in Wok add water
2)  Allow the pork to produce oil
3)  removed browned pork fat and set aside
4)  If required add oil in the wok
5)  Sautee garlic and ginger in the wok
6)  Add onion and sautee till translucent
7)  Add tomatoes and simmer to form sauce
8)  Add browned pork fat and lean pork pieces
9)  Add fried anchovies
10)  Add some of the water from the mungbean
11)  Simmer
12)  Add salt
13)  Add Cooked mung bean
14)  Simmer
15)  Ad coconut milk
16)  Simmer
17)  Taste and season with salt and pepper

Lechon Paksiw

Ingredients:

   1 - 2 kilos Lechon (crispy roast pork)Pork

   2 - 3 cloves of garlic

   3 - 5 bay leaves

   1/2 tsp blackpepper

   1/3 c Vinegar

   1 tbsp salt or 1/2 cup of soy sauce

   Lechon spice filling (traditional filipino lechon involves the stuffing of spices in the tummy of the pig)

Equipment

1)  clay pot

2)  cleaver

3)  chopping board

Procedure:

1)  Chop lechon into cubes

2)  Place lechon in the pot

5)  Crush Garlic

6)  Add Garlic with skin into the pot

7)  Add Bay Leaf into the pot

8)  Add Salt (1 tbstp per kilo or less) in pot

9)  Add Vinegar in pot

10)  Add lechon spices in the pot

10)  Cook at low heat 

11)  Simmer till lechon is tender

Pork Adobo

Ingredients:
   1 - 2 kilos Pork (with skin and fat)
   2 - 3 cloves of garlic
   3 - 5 bay leaves
   1/2 tsp blackpepper
   1/2 c Soy Sauce
   1/3 c Vinegar

Equipment
1)  clay pot
2)  cleaver
3)  chopping board


Procedure:
1)  Wash pork thoroughly
2)  Chop pork into cubes
3)  Place pork in the clay pot
4)  Crush Garlic
5)  Add Garlic with skin into the clay pot
6)  Add Bay Leaf into the clay pot
7)  Add Soy Sauce in clay pot
8)  Add Vinegar in clay pot
9)  Cook at low heat
10)  Simmer till pork is tender