Growing up in a 1970′s household with a working mother, it was not uncommon to awaken to the smell of onions and meat browning. Reason being, my mother was the first generation of crockpot cooks, who have now evolved into the slowcooker generation.

A new name, but essentially not a lot has changed in terms of the workings or output of these machines. Perhaps only the aesthetics – ours being an earthy brown ceramic inner, housed in a vibrant orange metal unit to reflect contemporaneous kitchen décor. Today we are offered stainless steel and white. (In line with the colour pop emerging trend, I expect we shall soon be marketed these appliances in an array of primaries).

Our crockpot does all its work in the cooler months, and to provide us with lovely offerings it only requires meat and onions to be browned, cuts on the bone or large chunks thereof and removal of visible fat, in return.

At the end of the day (literally), regardless of model colour or name, there is nothing finer than opening the door to the aroma of your ‘low and slow’. Fill your crockpot with these Thai Beef Curry ingredients and an aromatic blend of cinnamon, lemongrass and bay will be first to greet you as you turn your key in the lock tonight.

2 tbsp peanut oil
2 large brown onions cut into wedges
1kg chuck steak, cut into large cubes
195g jar Massaman curry paste
250ml coconut milk
250ml chicken stock
2 cinnamon sticks
2 bay leaves
3 medium potatoes chopped into chunks
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
handful of coriander leaves
1 lime

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan and cook off the onions until browned, place in slowcooker.
2. Heat remaining oil and brown the beef in batches, add to slow cooker.
3. Add paste to pan and cook, stirring for one minute until fragrant, add to the slowcooker.
4. Add coconut milk, stock, cinnamon, bay leaves, potato and nuts to the slowcooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
5. Remove cinnamon sticks and stir in the sugar and fish sauce.
6. Serve garnished with coriander, limes wedges on the side and fluffy white rice.

Postscript: curiously, with the technological strides taken over previous decades, crockpot manufacturers may have managed to up the styling and revamp the recipes but have overlooked a feature that would change the lives of many disappointed hungry evening families – a reminder device to switch the machine on before you close the front door behind you……

I am one of those people who will make a stellar dish and still find something wrong with it.  My hubby often unfairly accuses me of “fishing for compliments”.  Truth is, I happen to be truly critical of my dishes and am seldom 100% satisfied with the final product.  Friends and family will be praising my cooking creations and I will be standing there commenting on the three things that are wrong with it.  It can be annoying, especially if you live with it constantly, like the hubby does, but I think it means I am always trying to better my cooking.  For the record, I am not this critical of other people’s cooking – just my own – lest, the dinner party invitations dry up.  In fact, when it comes to other people’s cooking, I am the “easy critic” and my husband the annoying/difficult-to-please one.

This Thai curry is so beautiful (tough to take a bad photo of it), so yummy and so much the food we adore, that even I could find nothing lacking with it.  I made an excessive amount of it some time ago for a dinner party, in hopes that I could take leftovers to a friend recovering from an accident.  My friend never got any – much to my disappointment. It was all devoured.  No leftovers of a dinner party dish is unheard of when I am entertaining.  I am a “true-blue Indian Aunty” who makes way too much food when people are coming over.

The recipe is from Cooking Light, but I modify it by using pieces of stewing beef which we prefer over short ribs.  I also use about a can of regular coconut milk vs. the 1/3 “light” can suggested in the recipe because I am not counting my calories and we love the extra gravy.  I do also add some extra cumin, coriander, turmeric and chilli powder, which aren’t quite necessary, but just additions I throw on to make the dish my own.  In our minds, this is true comfort food.  Something you make on a cold, rainy night.  Something you send to a friend recovering from an unexpected turn in the road.  It’s a bit spicy for the “untrained” little ones, but ours gobbles it up with some rice and yoghurt.

Curried Beef Short Ribs – from Cooking Light

Finishing this dish with lime zest and juice brightens its rich flavors (it’s a genius step)

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
• 2 pounds beef short ribs, trimmed
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
• 1/3 cup minced shallots (I used about a cup)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons red curry paste
• 1/4 cup light coconut milk (I used a whole can of regular coconut milk)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 teaspoon grated lime rind
• 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
• 4 cups hot cooked basmati rice

Method

1. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle ribs with 3/4 teaspoon salt and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Add half of ribs to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until browned. Place ribs in an electric slow cooker. Repeat procedure with remaining ribs.
2. Add shallots, garlic, and ginger to pan; sauté 2 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup water and curry paste; cook 1 minute. Stir in coconut milk, sugar, and fish sauce. Add coconut milk mixture to cooker. Cover and cook on LOW 6 hours.
3. Remove ribs from cooker; keep warm. Strain cooking liquid through a colander over a bowl; discard solids. Place a zip-top plastic bag inside a 2-cup glass measure. Pour cooking liquid into bag; let stand 10 minutes (fat will rise to the top). Seal bag; carefully snip off 1 bottom corner of bag. Drain drippings into a small bowl, stopping before fat layer reaches opening; discard fat. (this step will likely not be necessary if you use beef stew chunks as it is a less fatty cut)
4. Stir in remaining 3/4 teaspoon salt, remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper, rind, and juice. Shred rib meat with 2 forks; discard bones. Serve sauce over ribs and rice

I do have a secret weapon though, its my Thermomix. Aside from our coffee machine, it is the only appliance in our kitchen. You could call it the smartest kitchen gadget in the world because it does lots of things. It chops, beats, mixes, mills, emulsifies, kneads, blends, cooks, juices, stirs, steams, weighs and melts. It means I can make everything from scratch, and I use it to do a lot of my prep work. For example, rather than making an asian spice paste in the mortar and pestle, I just throw all ingredients into the Thermomix and in 20seconds, its all done!

Last night I made a beef curry, from scratch. It took 1 hour in total (including preparation and cooking time) and it was delicious!

Adapted from tenina.com

Thai Beef Curry

Ingredients:

Curry Powder:

3 cloves

2 tsp each coriander and cumin seeds

1 tsp cardamom seeds

1 star anise

1 generous pinch sea salt.

Curry Paste:

3 dried large red chillies, soaked in boiling water 10 minutes

Generous handful coriander roots (reserve leaves for the curry)

1 red onion, halved

4-6 cloves garlic

Thumb sized piece galangal or young ginger

2 stalks lemongrass, white part only

A little of the water from soaking the chillies

The Curry

1200g gravy beef, cubed

400g tin coconut cream

75g fish sauce- use a good quality one without added sugar.

40g organic coconut sugar/honey/agave (I didn’t use this as I am still on my detox)

50g roasted crushed cashews plus some more for garnish

2 carrots, finely sliced

green beans, chopped into lengths (approx 3cm)

(Coriander leaves from paste, reserve some for garnish)

Additional coconut cream to serve

Lime juice and salt flakes to taste

Method:

To make curry powder place all ingredients except salt into Thermomix and roast for 8 mins on 100 degrees /speed 1. Add salt and mill for 20 sec/speed 10.

Add all curry paste ingredients and chop for 6 seconds/speed 6.

Saute 10 min/Varoma/speed 2. Then blend 30 sec/speed 6, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as necessary.

To make curry, place all ingredients except garnishes into Thermomix and cook 45 min/100ºC/Reverse/speed 1.

Serve over rice or cauliflower rice with lime wedges, coriander leaves and remaining crushed cashews.

Delicious!

This recipe turned out so great that I came up with the name “The Curry you can present to your mother”. I would no doubt plate this infront of my mom the queen of cooking without hesitation cause I personally believe that she will lick her fingers to the bone once she digs into it! It was soo good that I almost wanted to make it today. Now here is a quick note about me I tend to eat my favorite foods over and over till I get bored of them, so I had to refrain myself from that idea!

Anyhow give this dry yummy thai style curry a try and let me know if you were licking your fingers to the bones as well!

Ingredients:

1/2 lb  of cubed or stripped beef

Half an onion cubed

1 to 2 garlic clove (I like garlic so I went with 2)

1/2 tsp ginger paste (you can used chopped ginger as well)

8 Table spoons Lime juice

Pinch of Sugar

2 table spoon Soy sauce

7 to 8 squirts of Sirarcha(Rooster Sauce)

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 teaspoons cumin

1 1/2 cup Beef stock

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon oil

Recipe :

1) Heat up the stock with the cubed beef and bring it a boil. Reduce the heat to low and let it simmer covered for about 15 minutes

2) Put Onion, garlic, ginger paste, 4 table spoons of lime juice, sugar, soy sauce, half the amount of sirarcha, oil, turmeric and cumin in a blender. Add a table spoon or two of coconut milk to help blend well into as paste.

3) Place the beef on a hot wok or frying pan and cover it with the paste you just blended.

4)Once the paste starts to simmer add the remaining coconut milk and 1/2 cup of beef stock used earlier.

5) Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for 20 minutes untill the paste turns dry around the beef.
If you prefer liquid curry over dry curry you can go ahead and add some more broth and coconut milk at this point.

Serve with jasime or white rice!

A few months back, our friends from Oh Lala! invited us to sample their menu and taste of their wines.  Which we did.  Gladly.

Recently, Jorge and Mikaela asked us if we wouldn’t mind coming by and trying their revised menu and revamped wine list.

(Dammit, guys … do you have any idea how busy we are?)

So we invited Megan’s mom, Susan, to come and off we went.

Oh Lala!, in case you’ve forgotten, or are new to TSB, is a unique restaurant in the heart of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, which specializes in world-class cuisine and hands-on service.  Chef Jorge Garcia makes virtually everything on the menu from scratch and tries to buy local ingredients whenever possible.

(That isn’t to say that the menu at Oh Lala! is restricted by what is available locally.  There are certain items that he will bring in especially for the restaurant.)

The last time we dined with Jorge and Mikaela was inspiring.  This time was no different.  Being that we were one more person, there were more dishes to sample, which we begrudgingly accepted.

On the Menu: 

Nordic Salad (Fine selection of Italian lettuce, Norwegian smoked salmon, goat cheese, garnished with olive oil)

Salade Méditerranée (Fresh selection of tomatoes, onions, goat cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar)

Cheese Plate Oh Lala Antipasti (Cured meats and a fine selection of cheeses) 

Lamb Chops in a Mint Honey Reduction (Served with mint mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables)

Grilled Tuna Steak (Served with mashed potatoes in a soy-butter reduction)

Thai Beef Curry (Served with rice and vegetables)

Crème Brûlée

Vanilla Ice Cream with Strawberries

And … goodnight.

The food was exquisite.  Susan particularly enjoyed it, marvelling at the mix of flavours and the incredible presentation that sets Oh Lala! apart from your average restaurant.  She also took special note of the transparency of the process – Jorge’s kitchen takes the concept of the Chef’s Table and explodes it, making all seven interior seats kitchen-facing.  From the beginning of a dish to the plating, you can see it all.

There really was too much food to go into absolute detail about each item.  A brief note on each, then …

The Nordic Salad was our favourite of the salads.  Using Norwegian smoked salmon, and not the standard North American variety, made for a much more delicate flavour.  The fish was part of the salad, but not the only part.  (You know it’s a good salad when everyone is eyeing how much the other people are taking.)

The Salade Méditerranée features tomatoes, julienned and tossed in oil and balsamic, and served with a generous portion of pepper-encrusted goat cheese.

The cured meats and cheeses were a welcome addition to the salad trio.  Garnished with dried cranberries, they were the perfect buffer between the tangy Méditerranée and the delicate Nordic.

Wine: Las Moras, Blacklabel, Bonarda, 2009, San Juan, Argentina
Rating: Two-and-a-half Bottles

This is a really fun wine, because we drank this wine with every dish we were served and it never felt like the wrong bottle.  Very pleasant, soft red fruit flavours, lifted by reasonably dry tannins, left your mouth feeling happy.  (Yep.  I just used ‘happy mouthfeel’ as a wine descriptor.  Deal with it.)

We never asked what the bottle retails for, being assaulted as we were with a constant barrage of food, but we would feel comfortable spending between $300 – $400 pesos a bottle.

Back to the food.

Jorge brought us the entrées next.

Though two of the dishes offered mashed potatoes as a side, they were prepared so differently from each other that it really didn’t matter.

The tuna steak was … perfect.  The way it is meant to be done.  Lightly seared on the outside, the centre warm but not cooked, the flavours subtle and inviting.  Close your eyes, and you could almost be tricked into thinking that you’re eating steak, thanks to the soy-butter reduction.

Lamb, in case you’re thinking of gift ideas for us, is always a winner.  (Please don’t send us lamb in the mail.)  Jorge serves his lamb with mashed potatoes and steamed French beans, the flavours buttressed by the mint in both the sauce and the potatoes.  This gave your palette a chance to process the lamb without being overpowered by it.  Then, the sweetness from the honey comes in and resolves the two salient flavours wonderfully.

The Thai curry was a real treat, since it cut through the other two dishes and smacked your mouth around like a trainer in a corner in the tenth round.  Spicy without being unreasonable, it warms you up nicely and gets your reaching for your wine glass.  Jorge prepared the curry with beef, seeing that we had lamb and fish already, but he told us that guests may choose from chicken, fish, lamb, beef, or shrimp in theirs.

At this point, we needed to rest.  Our bellies were asking both for more and respite simultaneously.

We were given little quarter.

Jorge brought out the dessert and we were no less impressed.  The Crème Brûlée was infused with orange and lime zest, giving it a playful aroma.  The ice cream, plain vanilla with fresh strawberries, was the perfect companion – it’s simplicity highlighting the variety of tastes that preceded it.

Once again, we were astounded at Jorge’s skill in the kitchen, and the proficiency of his team.  We were never left unattended and the wine flowed like … well, like wine.

If you haven’t discovered this gem of a restaurant, we encourage you to do so.  Dinner is served every night except Sundays.

We hope that Oh Lala! revamps its menu often.  We could really get used to this.

60 weeks ago I remember almost as if it were yesterday, I cooked up two recipes. Capsicum muffins with taponade and mascarpone and Thai meat balls. They were the first and second recipes in my humongous book and both were delicious! Now, it’s my 60th week, and including the two recipes above I have made 142 recipes. Yay!
Before I begin though blabbing on about the delicious… and those not so delicious, I would like to say thankyou to all those who have supported me and followed my blog from the beginning, the middle or have just read my blog for the first time . If you’re a blogger… you’ll know what I mean, when I say it means so much when people are supporting, reading, liking and commenting on your posts. It’s a feeling of happiness, joy and accomplishment. So thankyou to all my friends and family who have put through my cooking frenzies and messy kitchen days, I’m still not finished my goal of cooking all the recipes from the book, but I’ve made progress, and of course thankyou for the support that I have received from those who I don’t know, it means a lot

Now for the two magic recipes! Because I am going on holiday soon, a family friend, Veronica, has offered to house/dog sit for us and we invited her over for dinner. I made her two recipes, both really yummy . For entrées I made a little’Guacamole’dip, not much… but still something. I served it with Doritos of course! The only thing bad about it was it didn’t have that surprise, that spiciness, that ‘oomph’ (as the Master Chef judges say). After adding in crazy amounts of cayenne pepper (a really spicy type of pepper-dark red in colour), it finally tasted like a guacamole!

The second dish was the star though…  ‘Musaman (Thai Beef Curry). It was unbelievable! The sauce was so thick and creamy and packed with the most beautiful flavour, the potatoes were soft and the meat just melted in the mouth. Everything about the dish was amazing, except it was so filling I could only eat one serve even though I wanted more!

I hope you enjoyed the dishes Veronica! Hope to see you again soon!

Thanks so much to all those reading, means a lot :). Hope to hear from you and please WHO EVER YOU ARE tell all your friends and family about this cooking journey, I need more blog traffic! Thanks again, see you all soon!

Another thing that I can’t fault was your efficiently with drinks orders seating etc. and your complete lack of paper use. Instead, all ordering is done through serving staff’s iphones, how cool!

So obviously, I enjoyed this place, and despite your strict rules on photographic equipment, I managed to sneak pictures of each of my 6 plates (yes 6):

Course 1: Prawn crackers, ginger and chilli beef (really spicy), chefs special (thing wrapped in the green thing), salmon in some sauce, chips and onion rings.

Course 2: Plain rice, pineapple rice, Thai beef curry, Malaysian bean-curd

Course 3: Sirloin steak, absolutely amazing.

Course 4: Noodles of 2 varieties (one crispy) and egg fried rice

Course 5: Naan bread, chefs special (something that tasted like a salty hash brown), chips, Makhani curry (mankini)

Course 6: Fudge, marshmallow (not present in photograph), brownie, rocky road (with nuts in it?)

So after what can only be described as an embarrassingly large amount of food, you would expect me to not eat for 3 days… wrong! Here’s what I ate today:

13:00- Ginsters Cornish pasty, banana, crunchie bar
14:00- Rice Krispie cake
18:20- Pizza

After my first “real” 12-hour shift, my little toesies are hurting. Anyone know where I can get a good deal?

Even though I went to bed at 9 p.m. and got 7 hours of sleep, it didn’t make the 4 a.m. wake-up call any easier. But when I crawled out of my warm cozy bed, at least the workout helped me wake up.

While I got organized/packed a lunch/showered, my oatmeal was cooking, which I then placed in an almost-empty jar of TJ’s crunchy peanut butter.

Whoever came up with this idea is a genius!

I also took some coffee for the road, with an eensy bit of vanilla creamer. There was no way I WASN’T getting caffeinated this morning, and I bought the low-fat, low-sugar brand of creamer. I’m either gonna have to suck it up and drink my coffee black or suck it up and take into consideration the calories that come with flavored coffee.

My orientation at the hospital was complete and utter craziness and I loved EVERY second of it! My preceptor is an incredible teacher and I am really looking forward to this experience.

However, the craziness meant that I did not sit down for lunch until 3:30! Oi!

Lunch featured yet another tabouleh pita…I swear it’s like the neverending leftover train. I also had some carrots, and munched on sweet potato crackers by Food Should Taste Good.

And then finally, a bit o’ yumminess!

Mixed in were a few “Just Bunches”…

Sooooooooo good!

Washed it down with another bottle of Honest Tea – this time in Peach Oh La Lang flavor. I finished about half and will save the rest for tomorrow!

My feet were ready to fall off by the end of shift. Luckily the hospital is not too far from where we live, so Steve generously picked me up to save me from navigating the buses and taking an hour to get home. He had also “mies en place-d” dinner ahead of time, so we just threw the ingredients together.

Thai Beef & Vegetable Curry

The flavor was good but it could have used more spice. We doubled the curry paste called for in the recipe and it still lacked a bite. But still very enjoyable!

Vanilla soy milk sounded really good to go with my curry…

And finished it off with a small Montana Whopper!

Back to bed for another early morning alarm. It’s kind of depressing to arrive at work in the dark and then leave again in the dark. Such is the life of a nurse.

Nighty nite!