Soo -Uunn

This little tutorial is in honour of my brother in law P and his 50th birthday. Happy Birthday for yesterday!! In honour of his birthday, I made him a favourite from the past, that my former mother in law taught me over 30 years ago to make even though I never made it quite the same as her. Now she doesn't cook any more, I recently relearnt how to make it the last time I visited her in Brisbane. So yesterday, I cooked it for P and I hope he likes it. This recipe is Dedicated to Lorna.


First up, the list of ingredients.
2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
2 tablespoons crushed garlic. At least 8 cloves I would say.
slice belecan about 2'' x 1" x 1/4"
100 ml of oil
2 kg lovely legs (you can use any pieces you like or a cut up chicken, I prefer the no skin ones to reduce fat, but the fat does add to the flavour. Tough choice, flavour versus heart..hmmmm. I want P to stick around, so no fat here)
About 5 cups chicken stock
about 1 to 2 tablespoons sugar. taste test.
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 packed dried soy bean curd (sounds yummy doesn't it?)
1/2 packet dried black fungus(sounds even yummier!)
50g packet dried rice vermicilli
A close up of the stuff you get from the asian grocery. This is belecan, this is essential. It comes in a block like cheese. There the similarity ends. Warning: This stuff stinks so you need to keep it in a jar in the fridge a screw top glass one at the back of the fridge. It never goes off and if it did it would be impossible to tell. Don't be put off, it imparts a wonderful flavour when fried up.
Before you do anything, boil the jug and set the dried stuff to soak. Here is from left to right, the bean curd, fungus, and noodles.

This is the dried bean curd as it comes from the shop. It seems like some sort of dried tofu and takes on the flavour it is cooked with. I love it.

This is the rice vermicilli. You can get this in woolies.

This is the dried black fungus. In love this stuff too, doesn't taste good till it is in this dish. It also takes flavour as well as adds. The dish is not the same without it.

Ok now for the method. It is pretty easy really once you have the ingredients and you will need a big pot.

Heat the oil and fry up the onion, garlic ginger and belacan till the onion is soft and the belacan is evenly distributed and the whole lot should be a yukky grey colour. Then dump in the chicken pieces.

Stir around till the chicken pieces have browned.

Then add the stock, sugar, soy sauce and simmer for about an hour till the chicken is tender.

Then drain the soy bean curd, fungus and noodles and add to the pot. Simmer for another few minutes. Test for sugar and salt. Add more soy sauce for salt. Not too much as you don't want to too dark.

Serve with rice. It makes a great soup. as well...

Roast Pumpkin and Blue Cheese Salad

This a cut down version of a Nigella Lawson recipe. Saw it on TV a couple of weeks ago. The original recipe was huge! I divided it by three and we each got a big helping with a little leftover for lunch the next day for one. Absolutely delicious, and would do as a main as well as it is quite satisfying.
About 600g of butternut cut into 1 inch cubes, leave the skin on.
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 stalks fresh thyme or pinch dried
1/3 cup pecans
1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese

Shake together the pumpkin, thyme and oil and spread out onto a baking tray. Bake in a hot oven about 30 to 45 minutes until tender. Put roasted pumpkin into a bowl and scatter over the pecans and crumbled blue chesse. and toss together very gently. Add some salt and pepper, a bit more fresh thyme to make it look pretty and serve.

I had the leftovers warmed and served in a wrap with some lettuce the next day. So good!

English Muffins

This recipe made about 16 with the egg rings we have but they are quite small. Am planning to try these again once I either get bigger egg rings or get some tuna tins. Taste just like the real thing with a hint of crumpet!

Mix in a big bowl
3/4 cup milk powder
1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2cups hot water

In a jug mix
1 pinch sugar
2 heaped teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water

Let the big bowl cool down then add 3 cups flour one wholemeal and 2 white and the yeast mix. Mix together then let six about 20 minutes.
warm a non stick frypan on medium then fill greased egg rings about 1/2 to 3/4, cook a couple of minutes, turn then do ther side. They puff up nicely. When cool, cut in half, rejoin and freeze. Nice toasted but so good fresh too. Makes the shop bought ones seem really stale. So much cheaper as they are getting expensive to buy.

Nette's Pizza Dough

My good friend Nette and former sister-in-law stayed with us late last year and made us pizza. It was so good and we have made it a few times since. So since we are in baking mood today, this is how its done. Thank you Nette!

In a jug place
1 tablespoon dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup warm water
leave 5 to 10 minutes to thjink about itself

Then in a bowl put

3 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
Whisk all together. You can do this a food processor if you have one. Add the yeast mix and process for a few minutes. This overheats my processor so I knead it by hand for 8 to 10 minutes.
Let it rise in a covered bowl till doubled, then punch down and knead for a couple of minutes. Divide dough into two balls and roll out to fit your pizza tray.

Spread with pizza sauce then grated mozzerella, then toppings of your choice.
Bake in a 250 degree oven 10 minutes or so.
YUM.

Bread

Thought I would try making some bread today as we are out and I can't face going to the shops.

So I thought I would try it the old fashioned way as I don't have a bread maker any more. I got the recipe from Rhonda's Blog at Down to Earth

In a jug I put

1 1/2 tsps dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

65 ml of warm water

Set it aside to prove for about 5 to 10 minutes,

In a bowl put

3 3/4 cups flour.

3 tsp gluten flour (I didn't have any so used bread improver)

1 tablespoon butter

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon milk powder

250 ml warm water

the yeast mix

Mix all together with hands and kned pulling all the dry stuff in. Turn onto the bench and knead for ten minutes. Put the timer on it will feel like forever and you will work up a sweat. Good exercise!

Put the dough ball back in the bowl and cover with a tea towel or glad wrap, pop some where warm to rise. (Here I just put it on the bench - everywhere is warm!)

When it has doubled in size, punch down and knead for two minutes. Shape into a log and put in a loaf tin. Sprinkle withs eeds if you like and cover again and put in the warm spot to rise.

Heat the oven to 220 and when the loaf has risin to the top of the tin, pop in the hot oven for 10 minutes. turn the oven down to 200 and bake a further 15 to 20 minutes.

STAY AWAY FROM THE BREAD!

Once cool, slice, butter, eat. YUM!

Fritters

These are great for using up leftovers and make a great snack for kids or for a lazy tea.

Mix the batter with:
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
When it is smooth, add whatever you like till the mix is crowded.
Try combinations of:

• leftover cooked meat cut up small
• leftover cooked vegetables
• grated carrot, zucchini, pumpkin etc
• grated cheese of course!
• bacon
• onion, cooked up a bit
• beans or lentils, cooked or baked beans
• corn, either kernels or creamed
• anything else that rocks your boat

Heat some butter and oil in a pan and fry 1/4 cup dollops a few minutes each side till browned. Serve with tomato and/or sweet chilli sauce and salad. Great for lunhes next day too.

Anzac Biscuits

Tomorrow is Australia Day and Debs is excited! We are having A&P& Godzilla over for a BBQ tea. Nothing outrageous as it's a school night. Today, in preparation, Debs and I made Anzac Biscuits. They turned out very well. Debs likes them. A lot.
So here is the recipe I used. Pretty standard one.

1 cup plain flour
1 cup brown sugar (though regular works too)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup coconut
125 g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon bi carb soda

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C. (I need 160 on mine so test your oven)
Mix the flour, sugar, oats and coconut together.
Melt butter in a saucepan, add syrup and water and mix well.
Add bicarb soda and wait till it foams then mix in with the flour mixture in the bowl.
Roll into balls about the size of a walnut, and place them, well spaced on a tray.
Bake for 12 - 15 minutes, cool on tray then put on a cooling rack.
If you like them chewy, err on the 12 minutes side, if you like them crunchy, add a little more golden syrup.
Makes about 24.