Morepork

(Nothing to do with the owl)

Monday night, involved roast pork. Since there are only two of us, that means Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and by the looks of it, Thursday night also involve roast pork.

Tuesday night was roast pork sandwiches. Delicious, but hardly worthy of making a blog post about it.

Tonight, though, we had stirfry.

First up, make “delicious liquid #94” (Okay, so 94 is a somewhat arbitary number. Don’t ask me what the preceding 93 delicious liquids are.): So called delicious liquid #94 involves combining about a tablespoon each of soy sauce, golden syrup and mirin (It’s Japanese, sweet, white, rice wine) and mixing everything together.

Next, chop some stuff up! For the two of us, that was about two handfuls of roughly diced roast pork; Eight mushrooms sliced, and two bunches of pak choy (I used one. Two was the correct number, it turns out).

Finally: Fire! Heat up a wok with a little oil, and toss in the pork. Cook until it browns up. Next up, the mushrooms go in. When the mushrooms are starting to brown, add about 1/3 of delicious liquid and continue cooking until the liquid has evaporated off. Add another third, and evaporate again. Add the final third of delicious liquid #94, and add the pak choy. Continue to cook until the pak choy has wilted.

Unfortunately, this smelled so delicious I forgot to take a photo. Oh Noes!

Mushroom+Bacon Risotto



Mushroom+Bacon Risotto

Melt butter in a pan, and add chopped bacon. When the bacon is browned; add risotto rice (arborio or carnaroli), and fry until just starting to brown.

Deglaze the pan with a couple of glugs of vermouth; then add finely diced onion and saute until translucent.

If there is still fond on the pan (uh.. brown bits), use some chicken stock to deglaze further. Then, add enough chicken stock to just cover the rice.

When the stock has evaporated off; cover the rice with stock again.

This time, when the stock evaporates, add sliced mushrooms; and again, cover the rice with stock.

When the stock evaporates this time; the risotto is probably ready. Sample a grain of rice, and if it tastes about right; stir in grated parmesan cheese and serve. Otherwise, continue adding and cooking off more stock until it’s finished.

Our House

Yes. We are buying a house (more like a townhouse, really). The offer was made (and accepted) on Friday, and today we went unconditional. Settlement date is April 22, at the moment.

There’s a courtyard:
Kitchen:
Dining:
Lounge:
Master Bedroom:
Study:
Bath:
More bathroom:
Laundry (part of bathroom):

Tomato-less Lasagna

Lasagna is cooking as I type this; so I must hurry! Pictures might follow, depending on just how starving I am when it is finished.

The lasagna is tomato-less for good reason – Cyrus has an irrational dislike of tomatoes. I think I’ve teased him about this before…

The ingredients are: 4 chicken thighs, chopped finely and cooked through; a bag of baby spinach; a generous handful of mushrooms, sliced; one red onion, diced finely; about two good handfuls of grated cheese; 2-eggs of pasta, rolled into a sheet (or equivalent); salt, pepper, nutmeg, butter, flour, and milk (for bechamel sauce)

The way I approached this, was to deal with the chicken, mushrooms, onions and cheese first; then make and roll out the pasta; then the bechamel and finally the assembly of the lasagna before baking.

For pasta: Place about three handfuls of flour into a bowl. Make a well in the flour. Crack the eggs into the well. Mix the eggs into the flour, and when all of the flour has been absorbed; add more flour and continue to work the dough. Roll the dough through a pasta machine until about the second to last setting.

For bechamel: I’m.. uh.. not so good with bechamel. Put a bit of a sprinking of flour, and a couple tablespoons of butter into a saucepan; and cook until the butter starts to brown. Add about a cup of milk, little by little. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens a bit (it will continue to thicken as it cools).

For assembly: Coat a lasagna dish with a thin layer of bechamel, then a layer of pasta, then more bechamel. This provides a handy solid layer for retrieving pasta later. Next, add half the chicken, half the mushrooms and half the onions into an even layer; then a layer of spinach; then a layer of cheese. The next layer, is pasta again; which is covered in more bechamel. The next layers are the same as before: chicken, onions and mushrooms; then spinach; then cheese. The top layer comes next: one last layer of pasta, bechamel sauce, and the last of the cheese.

The lasagna is then baked for about 25 minutes in a 200C oven.