Indonesian inspired stew

This is one of my favourite dishes. Not only because it tastes good - a lovely mix of Asian spices and apple cider - but it is extremely easy to make, especially if you are in a hurry or want to make something nice and filling for a lot of people. This dish takes about 20 minutes to whip together and you can let it rest in the fridge over night, say make it Thursday evening for dinner on Friday evening. It need to simmer for at least 20 minutes, time enough to boil some rice and put together a salad - and you're done. Volià!
         It goes almost without saying that garlic bread is practically made for this dish and if you are a fan of nuts and pineapple they work well on the side too.

Indonesian inspired stew

• 500 g of pork (fillets, chops or already diced pork)
• 1/2 dl dark soy sauce
• 2 dl apple cider or concentrated apple jucie (or by all means something cheaper like this)
• 1 onion (for a milder flavour use leek)
• 1 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp of ground ginger 
• 1 tsp of Sambal Oelek - a strong Asian spice, although it won't make the stew hot/spicy (unless you use a lot more that is), it just adds flavour but it can be ignored.
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 tbsp of vinegar (Apple cider vinegar ideal)
• 1 tbsp of flour

1. Mix in a bowl or a pot: soy sauce, cider, chopped up onion, curry, ginger, sambal oelek, crushed garlic cloves, and vinegar.
2. Dice the meat, add to the marinade and let sit in the fridge for ca. 6 hours or longer.
3. When you are ready to eat, place pot on the stove, sprinkle over the flour and let simmer under a lid for at ca 20 minutes. If there is time, there is no harm in letting it simmer for a lot longer, and feel free to add more flour etc if you prefer the sauce to be thicker.
4. Serve with rice and salad.

Enjoy! X/N

Cooking with Wine: Risotto

'We like cooking with wine...
                 Sometimes we even use it in the food.'


Risotto with Mussels

• 2 dl risotto rice (arborio rice for example)
• 1 onion (white)
• 200g of mussels (the pre-cooked ones were on sale)
• 1,5 dl (or more) emmental cheese grated
• about a liter of veggie stock
• half of lemon
• dill
• 1-2 dl white pepper
• garlic
• white wine (dry-ish)
• little bit of butter for the skillet

1. Sauté the onion (and garlic) in a large skillet. Add the rice and give it a turn.
2. Start adding the warm veggie stock bit by bit, letting the rice soak it up before adding more. This process will take about 30 minutes (depending on the rice).
3. Once your rice is almost done, add the juice of a half of lemon and the white wine (Mondelli, Pinot Grigio used here) and dill according to taste
4. Last but not least mix in the cheese and mussels

A tiny confession:
I don't think making risotto is that hard, what it takes is care and especially patience - something I find myself sometimes in short supply of. So make sure you spend enough time on step 2, I know I don't always do...and I wish I had had fresh dill.

Budget:
Total cost for 2 portions came to under £4 excluding the wine (which could easily be left out).

X /A.

Sushi Cravings

- Oh, this menu has sushi...Should we order some?
   Mm, yeah, though we could make sushi ourselves you know, would be a lot cheaper.
- True, and we'd get loads more, I actually have the rice for it I think.....
     
      24 hours later

We used:
Sushi Nori
Sushi rice - 2,5 dl (We had a bag of 500 grams and used about half)
Rice Vinegar - a dash on the rice (can be excluded)
Spring onions - ca. 4 small ones, or according to taste.
Salmon - ca 200 grams. We used Smoked Salmon flakes (from Sainsbury's)
Surimi sticks - 8 pieces
Other topping suggestions: cucumber, avocado, carrots. Make it veggie, fishy, chickeny (though cook that first!) - anything goes!
    Bamboo mat
    Sharp knife
    Bowl of water

1. Boil the rice according to instructions, and leave aside to cool completely.
2. Place a nori on the mat, moist one end with water, not too wet just make it damp. Dip your fingers in water (makes it easier to handle the rice) form a ball of rice and place it on the nori. Spread it out, as close to the side edges as possible, and cover about 2/3 of the sheet. You can make a thin or thick layer of rice according to taste.
3. Choose your topping! We used a combo of surimi sticks (crab-flavoured fish sticks), smoked salmon flakes (both from Sainsbury's Basic selection) and spring onions. Place your topping near the end closes to you.
4. Roll, with the help of the bamboo mat. Near the end, dampen the end bit of the nori so it will stick to the rest of the roll. Make sure the roll is tight.
5. Let it rest in the fridge - or somewhere cool - for a little while, that will make it easier to cut. Use a sharp knife!

We got 8 rolls, roughly 10 pieces a roll = so ca. 80 pieces.
(However, that depends on which end of the nori was used in rolling, the width of the pieces - and most importantly - how many pieces the chef ate while cutting.)
    Compared to a standard restaurant where you get 4 to 6 Maki-rolls for ca. £3,50, we estimated we made sushi to the value of about £42. We spent on ingredients roughly £7 and this amount of sushi would serve at least 4-5 people (or save and have an awesome lunch the next day, to the envy of your coursemates.) Remember: if you use raw fish, it will spoil quickly and when buying raw fish for sushi make sure it is really fresh and of good quality. Don't keep in fridge for more than 1 day.

XoXo
Loony Foodies