Dumplings

Today was a karate day and I got home late and tired, so a fast, easy meal was in order. These are just frozen dumplings out of a packet. I have it on good authority that actually making dumplings is difficult and time-consuming, so meh. Unfortunately, a normal supermarket will typically not have much choice when it comes to dumplings and the ones they tend to have aren't that great but you can do better if you go to an Asian grocery store. These were just pork and chive ones from Woolies though.

I'm pretty sure the way I cook dumplings is not in keeping with tradition but whatever, it's fast and tasty. I basically fry them in some oil for a bit, then add water so they kind of steam to finish cooking - if you just fry them, I find the middle doesn't cook before the outside burns, especially if they were frozen. If you do it the way I do you can throw frozen ones straight in the frypan and they cook fine. The only trick is that you need to stir them constantly or they stick; I neglected this a bit this time and some of them broke open. :( You can also just boil or steam them but then you don't get tasty Maillard reactions on the outside.

I also cooked some rice and choy sum to go with them. I cooked the choy sum in kecap manis with some garlic and ginger and then poured the excess sauce over the rice. I added sweet chilli sauce to my dumplings but of course you could use soy or whatever you like.

Tortilla Pie

This is a dish that lemnisca normally cooks.

You cook some beef mince and onions, then you add in taco seasoning, beans and corn and mix.

You place a couple of tortillas in a pie dish and then place the mixture, plus tomato salsa and cheese on top. Put down some more tortillas and repeat the process, creating 3 or so layers and running out of mixture, then cap it off with a couple more tortillas and place a bit more cheese and salsa on top then put the dish in the oven for  about half an hour on 120 degrees.

I didn't put quite enough cheese in this one, the cheese is the key binding agent, so make sure you put plenty in.

Air-cooked chicken

My mum is the queen of random yet excellent gifts. She's given us roof cleaners, waterproof carseat covers and flight simulator experience vouchers that while at the time made us go "wtf" eventually proved awesome. So when she gave us a Tefal air-cooker we expected something special, which was delivered. The thing only needs about a tablespoon of oil, and then (much like a slow cooker) you just put the ingredients in and leave it for the required time. It spins around and magically in a few minutes the food is well cooked.

First I wrapped chicken breast around sticks of cheese, and tied them up so the goodness wouldn't escape.

Then the chicken was brushed with half of the oil and some paprika to make a glaze. After that it was popped in the cooker, which for the past few minutes had been cooking some onions and garlic. Combine all this together with a glass of tomato juice to stew in for about 10 minutes and you get:

Served with a light salad and toasted Turkish, it was a light, healthy but incredibly tender and flavourful meal. I can't recommend the cooker enough, although with the caveat that you definitely do not want to disregard the cooking times listed in the recipes. If it says 5 minutes, that's how long to put it on for. Although it doesn't look like it's cooking fast it will definitely do a quick thorough job, and if you leave it on a minute too long you will dry out whatever you're cooking (a consequence of the lack of cooking oil). Only a minor problem, but one to watch out for.

Roast Lamb

The weather over the last week or two has very definitely been roastworthy, as evidenced by the delectable-looking roast-post immediately prior to this.  But Steph and I have a post-roast boast-post of our own!

We marinated half a lamb shoulder in garlic, rosemary, kiwifruit*, thyme, salt, pepper and a little oil for most of a day, then plunked it in an old roast-rack-thing I appropriated upon moving out, surrounded by a variety of veg (potatoes, pumpkin, carrot and a few heads of garlic sliced in half - carrot added halfway through to prevent overmushification). The whole thing was given a solid salt-and-peppering, then chucked in the oven for about 45 mins. Gravy was then rapidly assembled in the pan, due to me being too lazy to simmer it for a while.

And plated:

* Yes, kiwifruit.  Apparently it tenderises meats in some way, I have not actually investigated whether there is science behind this claim, but it is also tasty, so science can wait!