Scrumptiously smelly

Scrumptiously smelly..

Not long ago I flew a wedge of blue cheese all the way back from my overseas trip only for the one and only brother I have. Thing is, living in a tropical country, cheese goes bad probably triple its normal speed.

I don’t normally cook with exact recipes, tossing in a bit of this and that every time I cook, plus, with the resources I have, can only make do with what I’ve got in the pantry and fridge.ed, what better excuse to make pesto wrapped eggplant to go with my roast?. So, I’ve been trying my best to use some of it every time I cook.

I was craving to roast a chicken since I got back and since we had eggplant and a whole bag of basil that needed to be used, what better excuse to make pesto wrapped eggplant to go with my roast?

I don’t normally cook with exact recipes, tossing in a bit of this and that every time I cook, plus, with the resources I have, can only make do with what I’ve got in the pantry and fridge.

So, here’s a vague recollection of how I made the pesto:

PESTO

About 2 handfuls of basil (my hands are not very big)

1 stalk cilantro (I only used because that was all I had)

About 1 tsp mashed salted fish (yes, you did not read wrong!...since anchovies are harder to get here, so I decided to do a little taste trial with this)

½ handful of nuts (I used walnuts because can’t bite things that are too hard)

Bit of olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Chop all the ingredients and crumble a little blue cheese into the mix.

I tried using our tiny food processor but it didn't really work out as I expected, so, the good old chopping board it was...

I grilled the eggplants to soften them first, then rolled it with the pesto filling and secured it with a toothpick. I also made a little mock ratatouille for the sauce.

I know it’s not exactly the prettiest looking dish, but it did taste quite nice.

And yes, keep reminding me that I need to get a better quality camera.

So that was the roast, and just a few nights ago I made this apple salad as an accompaniment to our homemade burger.

APPLE, BLUE CHEESE SALAD

¾ apple, sliced into thin wedges

Blue cheese, depending on how much you want

½ handful of walnut pieces

Homemade balsamic vinaigrette

Some lettuce

1 small lemon, cut into wedges

Mix it all together and voila!!

The first bite my dad took and you should have seen his worried, disgusted face going “don’t eat the dressing anymore…the oil’s rancid”. But in my head I was thinking “meh! He discovered the blue cheese!...and he doesn’t like it….”.

Took a bit of convincing my parents that it was the blue cheese not the vinaigrette, I even had to pick out the blue cheese and made them smell it.

Their repulsed faces said it all -- no more blue cheese in salads it is!

Did you think I’d give up that easily??..No way! ...only makes me more determined to find a dish that they’d love and watch them wolf down that smelly yummy-ness.

Funnily enough, though I must say, blue cheese isn’t exactly the yummiest in a warmer climate. But enough said, try out the salad, I still think it’s quite nice.

Thai Salad

Working in a Thai restaurant gives you many advantages (even if you are only a kitchenhand/waiter!). I've had many opportunities to talk to the chefs and learn a few traditional Thai meals from them. Here's a great recipe for a Thai noodle salad. Actually the 'salad dressing' (for want of a better expression) is a basic sauce that can be used in making any Thai salad.

Thai Noodle Salad

Ingredients:

• 200g chicken breast, sliced


• Glass noodles (Tang Hoon)


• Celery slices


• Spring onion, sliced


• 1 red onion, sliced


• Coriander


• Red chilli, sliced

Dressing:

• Lime juice


• Chilli sauce (sweet thai chilli or normal)


• 2-3 tbsp of fish sauce

Method:

1. The meat in Thai salads are fried, then boiled. In a pan, heat some oil and toss the sliced chicken breast in. Lightly fry for about 1-2 minutes, then add water until it covers about 2/3 of the meat. Let the meat boil, stirring if necessary and remove once done.


2. In a bowl, combine the dressing ingredients together. Mix in the vegetables and the chicken meat. Serve garnished with sliced spring onions, coriander and celery leaves.

*Note: This recipe is rather brief with the measurements of the ingredients. Just mix up whatever feels right (but you might want to go easy on the onions if you do not like the taste - or have a meeting after!) and taste the dressing before mixing the vegetables in. It's probably best to put less rather than more in at the start as you can't remove ingredients once you start. The salad should be sour-ish and hot!