Middle Eastern February – Week 1, Let the Feasting Begin!

As sad as we were to say goodbye to Thai January, I have been looking forward to getting into some Middle Eastern cuisine. The flavours are so different, rich and complex. So far we’ve only tried Turkish and Lebanese dishes, but we will be looking at some other countries too.

Turkish Style Roast Vegies & Pide

Day one
I’d been waiting for this one – super keen to try my hand at making pide! As far as bread making goes, it’s not very complicated, but it is quite messy, as the dough is rather sticky while you’re kneading. It was worth the effort though, I love pide! To go with it I made Turkish Style Roast Vegies. While the vegies are warm you pour over a chilli oil dressing and then toss it all in a yoghurt sauce. Yum! We were off to a good start!

Mujaddura & Fattoush Salad

Day two
In the morning I made a Fattoush Salad, using an array of different vegies. The beauty of this is that you can make it using whatever you have on hand. The dressing is wonderfully rich and tangy, with sumac and pomegranate.
Steve made Mujaddara – lentils with rice and caramelised onions. Simple and delicious, the lentils and rice are cooked together then topped with the caramelised onions. It went really well with the Fattoush Salad.

Batata Mle’aayeh

Day three
I took leftover salad and Turkish Vegies to work for lunch, and then later on at home while I was busy catching up on a few tasks, Steve made Batata Mle’aayeh – spicy potato sauteed with onions and tomato paste, quite simple but utterly delicious. We had it with Mujadurra and Turkish Roast Vegies.

Loubieh Bi Zait

Day four
Perhaps not too surprisingly we had built up quite a few leftovers, so we decided it would be wiser to finish some of the things we had rather than keep making more – plus we were running out of room in the fridge. So we had Mujadurra, Batata Mle’aayeh and the last of the Turkish Roast Vegies.

Kibbeh Aat’aa

Day five
Steve was looking forward to having a go at making Kibbeh Aat’aa – Potato Kibbeh. It takes a while to make, so he started mid-afternoon. Our oven probably wasn’t hot enough, so it got a bit crispier on the outside than it was meant to, since it took longer to cook, but still it was delicious. I made Loubieh Bi Zait – Stewed Green Beans in Olive Oil, the list of ingredients may be short, but it was really good! Steve doesn’t usually like green beans that much, but he loved this!

Zeytinyagli Turlu

Day six
The recipe Steve used to make Kibbeh, made rather a lot, so I made a simple mixed vegetable dish to go with it. Zeytinyagli Turlu – mixed vegetables in olive oil, a very similar dish to the Loubieh Bi Zait, with simple ingredients, relying on the flavours of the vegetables. Topped with a little coconut yoghurt – delicious!

Kishk El Foukara

Day seven
I decided it was time to have a go at a dessert. My choice was dependant on already having the required ingredients. In the end I settled on Kishk el Foukara – milk pudding with nuts. I actually didn’t have all of the necessary ingredients, the most important being orange blossom water, but I did have rose water which seemed like a good substitute. I also had some coconut cream to use up, so used that in place of some of the milk. Mmmmmm it was good, delicate and not too sweet.

Thai January – Week 4, The love affair is over … for now

Rice Paper Rolls with Peanut Sauce

The end of January is upon us, and so the end of our Thai adventure. It’s been a busy week, there just don’t seem to be enough hours in the day at the moment. So I’ve ended up condensing the final week into one post. It’s been great fun, and while I do feel like I’ve learned a lot, it’s just the tip of the iceberg (so to speak).

Day twenty five
Steve had been keen to try making Thai Samosa, and today he got the chance. The wrapping is rice paper rolls, and while they didn’t look that pretty, they tasted really good!

Thai Tofu Scramble

Day twenty six
I decided to make a batch of Rice Paper Rolls, another of my favourites (yes, I know it’s a long list), partly because I just wanted to eat some, and partly so I could take some to work for lunch. There was a peanut dipping sauce to accompany that is really quick and easy to whip up, and also makes a great salad dressing. I made a Thai Tofu Scramble as well, which was based on a Thai Omelette recipe. The ingredients list was pretty minimal, but it was delicious. Had I chosen to bake it rather than cook it on the fry pan, I could’ve gotten something that more resembled an omelette. We had it for dinner with Rice Paper Rolls, Samosa and toasted pita bread.

Potato Curry

Day twenty seven
Steve wanted to make another batch of Potato Curry, and I wasn’t going to argue. We still had some of the stir fries from the other night left, plus rice paper rolls, so one dish was all we needed.

Day twenty eight

There were some vermicelli noodles left over from making Rice Paper Rolls, so I threw together a quick Vermicelli Noodle Salad. I just sliced up a few vegies – carrot, mushroom, cucumber and spring onion – tossed with the noodles and a soy sauce based dressing.

Day twenty nine
Feeling a bit drained after an all day meeting, I was more than happy to not make dinner. Steve was feeling keen though so he jumped in and made Massaman and Chickpea Curry. Absolutely no objections from me on that one!

Pineapple Curry

Day thirty
Steve had been wanting to make Pineapple Curry for a while, and time was running out. So after getting back from our day at the beach, he got stuck in. Now I’m not generally a fan of sweet main meals, I like my dinner to be savoury, but this was really delicious!

Mung Bean & Veg Curry

Day thirty one
The final day has arrived. With the end of Thai January coming up, we’d decided not to replenish any ingredients that wouldn’t be made use of, so by this time it really was a case of just making something up with what we had left. I put my thinking cap on and came up with a Yellow Mung Bean and Vegetable Curry. It turned out to be really yummy! You could probably think of it as being like a Thai Dahl.

And so we’ve reached the end of Thai month. Unfortunately I never got back to trying to make Pad Thai again, and there were a few curries I never got around to either.

February is looking to be another fun adventure, as we move onto Middle Eastern food. It’s a very broad term that covers a lot of different cuisines, so there might have to be a second Middle Eastern month. We’ll mainly be focusing on Turkish and Lebanese this time, with a dash of some other flavours thrown in.

Thai January – Week 3, Part 2, The Love Affair Continues

Yep I know, the ‘week’ idea has gotten slightly out of sync, but then again the month isn’t an even number of weeks, so I’m going to let it slide.

Vegies in Yellow Bean Sauce

Day twenty one
It was another cooler day, so in the evening I decided to get stuck in and make two dishes. What I really wanted to make was a Ginger Stir Fry … but we were out of ginger! So I made do using a mix of galangal and krachai (lesser ginger), and while it was nice, it wasn’t the flavour I was looking for. I wanted that bite and warmth that ginger has. It’s on the shopping list now, so I’ll get to have another shot at it soon. The other dish was Vegies in Yellow Bean Sauce, which did turn out rather well. Yellow Bean Sauce, which is made from fermented soy beans, has a strong and salty flavour.

Deep Fried Yellow Bean Paste

Day twenty two
I was feeling like noodles, so got into the kitchen in the morning and made Mushroom Curry Noodles. It’s a simple dish, but really full of flavour. Steve had been keen for a while to make Deep Fried Yellow Bean Sauce, it doesn’t sound all that appealing from the name, but it is delicious. I suspect it’s the closest thing to falafel you’d get in Thai food. Needless to say, there was none of that left over.

Mushroom Curry Noodles

Day twenty three
At this stage, the only leftovers we had were the Mushroom Curry Noodles, of which I did make rather a lot. Steve took up the challenge and made Satay Tofu to have with leftover noodles – always a winner with me!

Day twenty four
Due to my insomnia, I often find it’s better for me to cook in the morning when possible, before I run out of steam. Quite often by the time evening comes around I’m just too tired to be bothered making anything much. I was keen to have another go at Tofu & Vegies in Chilli Jam, and we’d bought some ginger, so a Ginger and Lemongrass Vegie Stir Fry was on the list too. I was much happier with the chilli jam dish this time around, and the ginger stir fry really hit the spot.

Tofu & Vegies in Chilli Jam

Ginger & Lemongrass Vegie Stir Fry

Thai January – Week 3, Part 1, a Hot and Steamy but Delicious Kitchen

Now that’s what I call leftovers!

Time is moving on quickly, and it won’t be long before we move onto a different country. In the meantime though we’ll just keep on enjoying all this delicious, fresh food!

Day sixteen

It’s the height of summer here, every day is pretty hot, but today was just that bit hotter, so neither of us was keen to sweat it out in the kitchen. Thankfully we had enough leftovers to feed us tonight.

Turmeric Fried Rice

Day seventeen

Another hot, humid day was in the works, and our tiny kitchen is easily the hottest room in the house. No one really wants to be cooking in there when it’s hot. Unless of course you’re keen on cooking in a sauna. So I chose to get in quite early before things heated up too much and do some meal prep. I decided to cook one dish, Turmeric Fried Rice, which wouldn’t take very long, and make two salads. One was a Green Curry Noodle Salad, and the other was a Colourful Vegetable Salad with a rather spicy but fairly traditional Thai dressing. Instead of putting the salads together in the morning I chopped up all the vegies and stored them in separate containers ready to be put together later.

Watermelon Cooler

My other creation was a Watermelon Cooler – watermelon, dates, mint and lime juice. Half cooler, half soda water, served over ice. Super refreshing!

Day eighteen

You guessed it, another hot, steamy day. We went to the markets in the morning, leaving with a basket loaded full of fresh vegies. In the afternoon we took the pups to a nearby coastal town, where it was cooler, for a run in an off lead park. Sadly the beach is out for the moment as Willow has stitches from having a small benign lump removed.

Colourful Salad with Spicy Dressing

Steve decided to brave the steamy kitchen early in the evening, and make a batch of Mushroom Satay. I selflessly let him. He made Mushroom and Tofu Satay earlier in the month and was keen to make it again. Yum! We had it with leftover Turmeric Fried Rice and Green Curry Noodle Salad.

Day nineteen

It was great coming home to find Steve had already made a Green Curry, and was going to make a Massaman Curry too! There’s just no such thing as too much curry. We now have some Red, Green and Massaman Curry pastes stored in the freezer, ready to use whenever. An ice-cube tray is a great way to freeze them. We didn’t have a spare one so we just laid out tablespoons of paste into the bottom of a plastic container and put that in the freezer.

Green Curry Noodle Salad

Day twenty

Even though it was a cooler day, we decided it might be better just to finish off most of the leftovers we had, rather than make more. Back to cooking tomorrow!

Thai January – Week 2, Part 2, Our House Smells Like a Thai Restaurant!

The days are passing quickly, and our enthusiasm for Thai food hasn’t started to wane. We have yet to make something and not have leftovers, so even if we only prepare one dish, each meal is made up of three or four different things.

Mango Pudding

Day twelve
Having thought I should look into Thai desserts a bit more I decided to try making a Mango Pudding. I jumped into the kitchen in the morning, so it would have plenty of time to set. Steve is allergic to a lot of fresh fruit, including mango, so we weren’t sure if he was going to be able to eat it, since it’s not cooked just pureed. As it turned out he could eat it, so I didn’t get a second helping.

Grilled Curried Rice

Steve made Grilled Curried Rice, with some leftover plain rice we had, and some little Sweetcorn Cakes, both of which were really yummy. He had planned to make more dishes, but it was getting a bit late, plus we still had plenty of leftovers.

Massaman Curry

Day thirteen
In the morning I made Massaman Curry paste, and a peanut sauce to use as a salad dressing for that night. We planned to go for an afternoon drive without a destination in mind, and not too surprisingly ended up at a beach. So when we got back all I really had to do was chop up the vegies for the curry and salad. Having pastes ready to go really is great for a quick and easy dinner!

Fried Eggplant with Chilli and Basil in a Yellow Bean Sauce

Day fourteen
Steve was keen to make the dishes he ran out of time for a couple of days ago. The dishes in question were Fried Eggplant with Chilli and Basil in a Yellow Bean Sauce and a Potato Curry. Both were delicious, as all the food has been so far!

Tofu, Vegies & Cashews in Chilli Jam

Day fifteen
I decided to have a go at making one of my all-time favourite Thai restaurant meals – Tofu, Vegies & Cashews in Chilli Jam. I cubed the tofu earlier in the day and marinated it in light soy sauce so it would have a bit of flavour before going into the wok. For a first attempt I was really happy with it, but I think a little tweaking would make it even better.