Coconut Chilli Chicken & Chocolate Impossible Pie...

All the ingredients assembled for the dish...
(links to both recipes are in my previous post)
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Lemongrass, garlic, ginger, red chillies, fresh coriander and lime zest go into the food processor...
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Then add fresh tomatoes, oil, fish sauce, soy sauce. I made the paste ahead of time so the flavours could 'get to know each other' ...
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Heat oil in a pan and gently brown the chicken thigh fillets. Remove from pan and add in the spice paste and cook off for 2 minutes.
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Nestle the chicken back into the sauce and add the coconut milk. Simmer for a further 20 minutes. Finally add juice of a lime, about 12 apricot halves (fresh if you have them) and toss in more fresh coriander. Let simmer a final 5 minutes ...
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Serve with steamed rice. Gus had just driven home 400 kms and was looking for a hearty meal. He loved it and kept saying how fantastic it was. Just what every wife wants to hear, eh?
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Onto dessert - this recipe had me running all over the kitchen. Food process the egg yolks, butter and sugar. Sift flour, salt and cocoa together in a bowl. Add flour then milk to butter mixture. Add in coconut, vanilla and cream. Beat egg whites to soft peaks in another bowl. Tip chocolate mixture into egg whites and fold in. Phew! I guess I need to read the recipe a bit better. I would have done the egg whites first and measured out things ready to go instead of doing each thing as I read it...
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I made the pie before I started the chicken dish. It was souffle light when it came out of the oven and I think it's one of those dishes that is best served up straight away.
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We had it about an hour after it came out of the oven so it had sunk a bit and lost it's lightness but it was still delicious. A tad too much coconut for my liking so next time I will knock it back to about 1/2 a cup of coconut or less. Brown sugar would also make it richer, I think. Will definitely be doing this again.
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Well, I got out and pruned my standard roses out the front and do you know, it only took me about 20 minutes. All that putting off and BAM!, over in no time flat!
~I tidied up the outdoor pots too, weeding etc.
Do you like my sign?
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Finally, a sunset from a few days ago - this is actually looking in the opposite direction to the setting sun - the clouds picked up a beautiful pink light.
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I'm off to relax now - that 20 minutes of bending out in the cold has told me my back did not like it. I want to catch up on a MasterChef episode I missed on Thursday so it's couch time, baby!
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Cheers - Joolz

This and that on Saturday...

(web pic) - I love it!

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I've been thinking I should go for a walk around the block... !
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So what have we been chowing down on? Monday night I made chicken skewers with lime, fresh coriander, honey, soy, ginger and garlic...
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Pan fried in the skillet... very nice!
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Tuesday night was pork cutlets with cheesy mash and veggies...
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Wednesday night I slaved in the kitchen to produce this Chicken Korma ... well, I snipped open the sachet and voila! A delicious meal in about 15 minutes! These sachets are really good - no preservatives just natural flavours and spot on with heat...
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Add steamed saffron Basmati rice and top with cashews and a dollop of natural yoghurt. Gus had naan bread with his too!
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We are still juicing each morning - all this lovely fruit makes our fresh breakfast juice - I throw in the odd stray kiwi fruit, mandarin, banana - anything that is looking tired in the fruit bowl.
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Thursday night we dined out at a lovely restaurant with some business colleagues and last night I was home alone so I made my Chow Mein - I just love it!
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I have a couple of recipes to try tonight - a Chocolate Impossible Pie from $120 Food Challenge and Coconut Chilli Chicken from Nigel Slater's Simple Cooking
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In other mind shattering news, I wiped out my washing machine with vinegar to get rid of the soap scum build up on the drum and cleaned out the lint filter - yuk! The old girl is sparking again!
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Washing on the line, drying in the sunshine - now that is a novelty! It might look warm but it's actually only been about 12C all day!
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Now, this is my garden of shame! I haven't weeded since probably March/April! The carpet roses all need pruning and the weeds are out of control. I'll get to it one day soon ... I promise!
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Oh, dear!
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I have neglected my knitting too - I might to a bit later...
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More clothes drying in the sunny doorway...
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My standard roses out the front - definitely need pruning - I will tackle them tomorrow - I promise! That is only a small job and my back won't complain too much.
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Yep, definitely needs doing!
~Well, I'd better get whizzing in the kitchen - I bought myself a new food processor yesterday. My other one (which was about 15 years old) was not mixing dry ingredients correctly and the switch had malfunctioned so it was either on or off and I had no speed choice. Time for a newy!
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Nigel Slater is on ABC1 at 6pm (before Gardening Australia - I need some inspiration there, I can tell you!) so I need to whizz the curry ingredients so they are all combined ready to throw in with the chicken when Gus gets home and I may as well have the Choc Impossible Pie made early too. I'll let you know how it goes.
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Cheers - Joolz

Sunrise at my house...

So it is winter in my part of the world... and while we don't get snow and zero degrees weather like the US and Europe, it still is cold to us.
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This pic was taken of my back yard with the winter sun hitting the garden bed last Thursday (27/6). It was the first bit of sun we'd seen in a few days.
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Last Thursday had a cracker sunrise - this picture was taken at 7.05 am
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Ten minutes later and the sky was ablaze with oranges, pinks and purples...
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7.15 am
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Next morning at 7.20 am there was no sunrise to speak of, just a black sky with plenty of rain coming.
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Sunday morning 8.33 am, a promise of sunshine but the day was interspersed with heavy showers and not much sun at all.
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This morning at 7.47 am, cloudy but a bit of blue sky and maybe some sunshine? At least the rain might stay away today. We've had heaps in June and things are quite waterlogged around town. Our tanks are well and truly overflowing (I hate hearing that running, wasting water sound).

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Hump day today. I didn't want to get out of bed. Why is it that when you just find that comfortable position, the pillow is just right, the temperature under the covers is just right and you doze off after a fitful nights sleep .... the alarm goes off ?!!

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More end of financial year stuff for me to do today. My computer went on the fritz yesterday which was very frustrating so I hope the technician has been this morning and fixed it. All my work is done on computer so when it is down, so am I!
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Stay cool or warm, friends!
Cheers - Joolz

Saturday, Sunday... more food...

Gus knocked up a delicious meal on Saturday night. It was from the My Kitchen Rules cook book I bought him for his birthday, a recipe from the two army boys from Queensland, David & Scott .... The recipe for Prosciutto-wrapped Chicken is here - Gus stuffed the chicken with mushrooms, sliced black olives and sundried tomatoes...

Looks as good as it did on MKR I think!

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On Sunday, I made a slow cooked Beef Ragu to go with our homemade pasta... I bought gravy beef...
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seasoned with salt and pepper then seared it off in my dutch oven...
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then removed it from the pan so I could cook off onion, carrot and celery in a little oil...
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Add a tablespoon of flour to the onion mix, fry off for one minute then add in 1.5 cups beef stock, a can of chopped tomatoes and 2 teaspoons of sugar...
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Snuggle the gravy beef back into the sauce, add a good shake of dried thyme and about 10 basil leaves and let it slow cook for the next 3 hours...
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I also added in 5 portobello mushrooms then let it cook on for another hour, taste and adjust seasonings ... Flake all the meat with a fork so that there are no big bits left. It's ready to go on the pasta now.

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Gus and I made the pasta - I used 200gms 'OO' flour, 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons of good olive oil. I made the dough in my food processor then let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes...
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Voila - fettucini!
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We dried/rested the pasta on my clothes airer... I reckon we could do San Remo out of a job...

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Ready for the pot of boiling water...
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5 minutes later - perfectly cooked fettucini!
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Beef ragu and fettucini...
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Everything cooked from scratch! Delicious!
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Jodie at Jellywares had a wonderful looking slice so I decided to make it. So easy!

Jam Filled Shortbread Slice
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250gms butter, softened
2.5 cups plain flour
1 cup Icing sugar
Jam of your choice
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Place first 3 ingredients in a food processor and whiz until a dough ball forms.
After patting down half the mixture in a paper lined slice tin, top with your favourite jam - mine was homemade Mulberry jam from 2009 (actually it was the syrup that was left after bottling all the other jars - no fruit lumps in it), then top with the second half of the mixture, this time just crumbling it on.
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Bake at 180C for 25-30 minutes until golden. It is buttery and shortbready ... Mine turned out a bit crisper than Jodie's, her's looks more gooey but either way the taste is there!

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and delicious! I had one piece on Sunday night then the rest has been plated up and taken to work for the troops. That is how you get rid of temptation!
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Enjoy the coming week - hopefully we will see a bit more sunshine than rain...
Cheers - Joolz