Recipics

Jamaican brown stew part one: Rice with beans

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 01:32:58 +1100

At the moment, it’s just one killer day after another. Tommorow I am flying across the country again, and I’m hoping to use the plane time to catch up on my recipics. (I missed yesterday sorry!)

Tonight is the first of a two part series. This is Alex’s Jamaican brown stew with rice and beans. It’s hot, spicy and everything a good Caribbean stew should be.
Take it easy mon.

Ingredients

1 can kidney beans
1 can coconut milk
2 green capsicum
1 whole hot pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper
2 cups rice
1 Tbsp. margarine

Cooking time: 45 mins

Lotus root chips

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:39:22 +1100

A few months ago when Chelsey and I were hit with Masterchef fever I saw a recipe for Lotus root chips on the show.

This recipe isn’t an exact match, but when I saw the little frozen lotus root slices in the local Asian grocer I just couldn’t resist the urge to try them. Alex gave them 2 thumbs up, so they can’t have been all bad. I’ll try anything once. And in this case, twice.

Ingredients

lotus root
cajun seasoning
sea salt
canola oil for frying

Cooking time: 15 mins

Eggs Benedict Part 2: Poaching the perfect egg

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:42:09 +1100

Anyone who has ever had a weekend cafe breakfast with me more than once knows that I am the most predictable person ever born. “Eggs benedict with an iced coffee thanks” is my usual order, without so much as a peek at the menu.

This weekend I’ve decided to do an eggs benedict post over Saturday and Sunday. Today we learn how to poach the perfect egg.

Ingredients

egg
smoked salmon
hollandaise sauce (see recipic)
english muffin
butter
2 tsp. white vinegar
1 tsp. salt

Cooking time: 15 mins

Eggs Benedict Part 1: Hollandaise Sauce

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:29:04 +1100

This weekend I’ve decided to do an eggs benedict post over Saturday and Sunday. Today we learn how to make hollandaise sauce!

Ingredients

2 egg yolks
110 g Butter cut into cubes
squeeze of Lemon Juice

Cooking time: 15 mins

Curry Pasta Salad

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 01:32:26 +1100

Today in Perth it was hot, and not just any old kind of hot, but dry, West Australian, sucks-the-life-out-of-you sweltering heat. So I decided to make one of my favourite summer meals. It’s simple, quick and fresh. Perfect for lazy summer heat.

Ingredients

1 red onion
1 green capsicum
1 red capsicum
1 apple
1/2 bunch celery
1/4 cup sultanas
500g pasta spirals
1 cup mayonnaise
2Tbsp. Keen’s curry powder
salt and pepper

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 15 mins

Alex's spag bol

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 01:50:20 +1100

I can’t believe it’s Thursday night and another week is almost over. Alex has been the greatest housemate ever, and taken care of dinner for me two nights in a row!

Tonight we had his version of “late-home-from-work-and-tired” which was an impressive three dish spread consisting of Spaghetti Bolognese, Rocket and Parmesan salad, and Garlic Bread. Of course Alex’s lazy meal puts us all to shame. (Like I would have expected anything less from that over-achiever.)

…And naturally it was delicious. Big tired thumbs up from me!

Ingredients

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp. olive oil
500g minced beef
1 tin crushed tomatos
2 Tbsp. tomato paste
3 Tbsp. Italian herbs
2 cups water
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 Tbsp. sugar
salt and pepper

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 1 hour

Jug of Danger (a.k.a. Pimms Cocktails)

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Last night was one of those nights where you totally don’t plan on having a big night, and the next thing you know it’s midnight and you’re eating Macdonalds in the back of a taxi wondering why the road is spinning.

That said, the jugs of Cocktails at Madame Brusells were refreshingly, deliciously, amazing. We started with a jug of Pimms and though I can’t remember what else followed, my iphone pictures tell me that the colours of the liquid delights were every shade of rainbow.
My thumping head this morning tells me that I defenitely sampled the entire menu.

I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did!

Apologies also for the delay (I know I should have posted this last night) but I was in no state to be working the tools palette in Adobe Illustrator, and then today was a whirlwind of waking up early, flying across the country and then working my day job. I promise to do a double-post tommorow to make up for it.

Ingredients

1 orange slice
1 apple slice
1 lemon slice
1 strawberry sliced
3 cucumber slices
1/2 cup Pimms No.1
1 cup ice
1 cup lemonade
1 mint sprig

Serves: 1

Roasted Quail

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:37:16 +1100

After a long day of usability testing I enjoyed dinner tonight at Melbourne’s famous tapas bar, Movida.

The project team let the two project managers select the dishes, allocate the portions and divide up the bill, which suited me just fine. All I wanted was a never ending glass of sangria and some respite from the 43 degree heat, that is still raging even now at almost midnight.

One of the dishes I managed to snap a picture of, before it was devoured, was the delectable pan roasted quail on a bed of chickpeas. This recipe isn’t an exact match, but I’m sure you will find it just as succulent.

Ingredients

2 Quails
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 tsp. Dried tarragon
2 Turns of pepper

Serves: 2 as an entree
Cooking time: 30 mins

Rigatoni Sardi a Mari

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:17:00 +1100

Today I went to Melbourne’s Southbank to have lunch with my Aunt Pat. She’s pretty much one of the most inspiring people I know. We had her favourite cuisine for lunch, which is of course Italian.

We both had Rigatoni Sardi a Mari, which was quite adventurous for me, seeing as I never normally eat anchovies. But I found the meal to be surprisingly good with the perfect combination of flavours and textures. I look forward to adding it to my repertoire of quick dinners, and I hope you do too!

Ingredients

1/4 cup sultanas
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
4 anchovy filets, minced
1 tsp. fennel seeds
6 Tbsp. minced parsley
500g rigatoni
Salt
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 20 minutes

The Cocktail with No Name (Bar None, Melbourne)

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Apologies for the poor image quality, the iphone 3GS camera is no DSLR.

It’s Saturday night (well… technically it’s Sunday morning, but at this time of the day that’s really an insignificant detail) and I’ve been out. I didn’t really eat much tonight so I figured you might like a recipic of the signature cocktail that I tried at Bar None

It took everything I had to get the secret recipe from the bar (well… it was more like me rambling on about a blog, Pon waving around his iphone saying “It really exists… see isn’t it cool? SEE?!” and Chris throwing in a little quip about it being mentioned in the New York Times.) But they gladly shared the recipe!

The cocktail waiter assured me that this is their most popular drink, and I have to say that it lived up to the hype. As one of my drinking compadres said tonight “On a scale of 1-10, this drink definitely rates at 100%, and you can quote me on that”.

Ingredients

30ml mango vodka
15ml peach vodka
15ml creme de peach
30ml passionfruit pulp
30ml ruby red grapefruit juice
squeeze of lime
blue singapore orchid and lychee to garnish

Pon's spiced lamb mince

Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +1100

It’s been a very long week, and tonight I find myself in Melbourne visiting Pon. In response to my Simple Tomato Pasta post he has cooked me his signature dish.

But does it meet the strict criteria?
Simple? Tick.
Comforting? Tick.
A little (and I mean little) bit healthy? Tick.
And most important of all:
Delicious? BIG GREEN TICK!

Ingredients

500g minced lamb
1/2 cup peas
1 tsp tumeric
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp tomato paste
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 clove garlic
Thumb sized piece of ginger
1 medium brown onion

Serves: 2-3
Cooking time: 15 mins

Simple tomato pasta

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Everyone has one of those dishes they can cook with their eyes closed, in 10 minutes, and know exactly what they’re going to get, right?
Well, this is mine. I’ve cooked it on more home-late-from-work nights than I care to remember, and even once for 20 people on an African safari. It’s simple, but comforting and a little bit healthy. What more can you ask for in 10 minutes?

Ingredients

100g mushrooms
1 zucchini
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup of sugar
250g dried pasta
oil for frying
400g tin crushed tomatoes
1/2 tsp Italian herbs
1 Tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper

Serves: 2
Cooking time: 10 mins

Spicy beef fajitas

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Life is really hectic for me at the moment, so I decided to make something quick and easy for dinner. It’s a shame that making the recipic wasn’t so straightforward.

But there is a light at the end of the crazy tunnel I’m in right now. In about a month I’m going away on a round-the-world trip and I’m looking forward to trying real mexican fajitas. Who knows I may even have to post an authentic version of the recipic when I do.

Ingredients

1 green capsicum
1 red capsicum
1 yellow capsicum
400g of beef steak
1 red onion
200g mushrooms
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. sugar
1Tbsp. crushed chicken bouillon cube
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 cup water
oil for frying
1 avocado
16 tortillas

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 20 mins

Stuffed pumpkin flowers

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:00:00 +1100

A few weeks back my dad’s vegetable garden was overgrown with rogue pumpkin plants and I decided to make use of the beautiful yellow flowers. The fairytale soon turned into a disaster when I realised how awful and prickly pumpkin plants can be.

But the rumble of my stomach spurred me on, and I braved the elements, so that I might try this Italian cuisine that had been on my cooking to-do list for years.

The reviews from the family dinner table were all very positive, except for my mum who decided the stalks were not to her liking. Harsh critics aside, I enjoyed the experiment and I would defenitely do it again.

Ingredients

2 eggs
2 tablespoon plain flour
12 pumpkin flowers
200 g fresh ricotta
1 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon of chives, snipped or 4 fresh basil leaves, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 tablespoon parmesan, freshly grated
salt and freshly milled pepper
olive oil for frying

Serves: 3
Cooking time: 30 mins

Onion and tomato tart

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

My old housemate Nina Las Vegas loves this dish. When we lived together it felt like she cooked it every second day. But when you try it, you’ll understand why it was on such high rotation in our house!

Ingredients

1 sheet of puff pastry
4 onions
2 small zucchini
Cherry tomatoes
Bocconcini cheese
1 tbsp sugar
salt and pepper
1 egg
olive oil

Serves: 2
Cooking time: 1 hr 10 mins

Chilled Tapioca Pudding

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 11:42:15 +1100

This is one of my all time favourite summer desserts! I was inspired to try it out a few years ago after an amazing dinner banquet at Jimmy Liks in Sydney.
I have previously made it with mango, lychees and strawberries but you can use any fruit you like.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of tapioca seeds
2 cups of cold water
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup of sugar
400ml of coconut milk (not coconut cream)
brown sugar to sprinkle
6-8 lychees (or other tropical fruit)

Serves: 6-8
Soaking time: 12 hours
Cooking time: 40 mins
Chilling time: 12 hours

Dessert wine jellies with strawberry

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +1100

Day two. This project is going to be harder than I thought.

I made this dessert on Christmas eve for my family and it went down really well in the Sydney summer heat. Try it with some whipped cream on top. Yum Yum.

Ingredients

400ml dessert wine
1 vanilla pod
1 tbsp powdered gelatine
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp water
1 punnet strawberries

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 20 mins
Chilling time: 3-5 hours

Day One: Jamaican Chicken Salad

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 09:00:00 +1100

Inspired by the film Julie and Julia and a recent blog post on Smashing Magazine challenging designers to “design something everyday” I have decided to finish off a project that I started over 3 years ago.

Some of you may be familiar with my earlier recipics which were part of my major-project during my Visual Communication degree at the University of Technology Sydney.

The original body of work was picked up off my flickr stream by some bloggers, and overnight it took on a life of it’s own (even making it to the front page of digg.com). Eventually a story was published about it in the New York Times and I set about creating the coo.kz website with some Sydney based developers.

Fast forward three years, and I’m finally ready to stop talking about it and start doing something. I’ve set myself a challenge: Every day this year I will post a new recipic.

As I type these words, I am sure that many times over the next 12 months I will curse myself for having made this commitment. But I feel after all of the bloggers who wrote about me, the people who emailed asking if they may print my work and hang it in their kitchen, the parents who used my recipics to teach their autistic children to cook, and so many more who have emailed, called, commented and given feedback; that I should finish what I have started.

So join me, if you will, on a year long crusade of culinary visual communication.

Bon Appetit!