Cooking with tea!

Sarah from Simply Cooked was our November Daring Cooks’ hostess and she challenged us to create something truly unique in both taste and technique! We learned how to cook using tea with recipes from Tea Cookbook by Tonia George and The New Tea Book by Sara Perry.

I made a chicken stir-fry using a lemongrass & ginger tea as part of the marinade for the chicken and for the sauce to coat the stir-fry. I added carrots, red capsicum, broccoli, mushrooms and green beans and combined the tea with some soy sauce, chilli, garlic, ginger and shallots.

The flavour combinations worked quite nicely and made a perfect mid-week dinner for this warmer weather we've been experiencing lately. Thanks Sarah :)

Time to make Moo Shu - Daring Cooks

The October Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Shelley of C Mom Cook and her sister Ruth of The Crafts of Mommyhood. They challenged us to bring a taste of the East into our home kitchens by making our own Moo Shu, including thin pancakes, stir fry and sauce.

 

Moo Shu is generally made with pork for the protein along with cabbage, green onions, bamboo shoots and wood ears(fungus).
I made Moo Shu prawns for the challenge and it was delicious! The whole family loved it and we ate all the pancakes! I didnt get the best pictures because they were messy & hard to photograph but i think the proof is in tasting them!

I added red capsicum along with carrot , zucchini and red cabbage to the mixture for a bit of colour and added nutrition. The hoisin sauce i made with peanut butter but i think next time id try it with the black bean paste as i didnt particularly like it on its own, it tasted fine all together though.

I also loved the pancake cooking process, which involved rolling 2 balls of the dough out on top of each other, cooking them & then separating them - i was truly amazed at how well it worked!

Thanks so much for a really fun challenge!!

Daring Cooks - Appams and South-Indian Curries!

All in all a successful challenge with yummy results, my fussy sister in particular couldn't get enough! Thanks Mary!!

Mary, who writes the delicious blog, Mary Mary Culinary was our August Daring Cooks’ host. Mary chose to show us how delicious South Indian cuisine is! She challenged us to make Appam and another South Indian/Sri Lankan dish to go with the warm flat bread.

Appams are made from rice, yeast and coconut milk and sort of resemble a crepe. Id never heard of them before the challenge so it was quite interesting a challenge as i had no expectations of what they would taste like or how they would turn out. The batter ferments for 8-12 hours before cooking the appams individually.

The finished product should be slightly crispier on the edges and spongy in the centre. You need to have a covering over the pan when cooking otherwise the appam does not cook correctly.

I made the appams with a vegetable and chickpea south indian spiced curry,

a cucumber raita(pictured below in green bowl) & butter chicken -i know its not south indian or sri-lankan but my sister could fathom the idea of 'indian' food without butter chicken! haha.

Daring Bakers Pasta Challenge!

Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks. July hostess. Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine. She provided us with recipes for Spatzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!

 

I had never cooked my own pasta before so i was a bit apprehensive, but now that i have i will continue doing it myself as it is so much fun!

I decided to make a mixture of fettucini and tagliatelle, doing some by hand and some using my pasta maker.

I made a chilli lemon and garlic dressing and tossed it with king prawns. Served with a side salad of baby spinach, roast pumpkin, semi-dried tomatoes, cucumber and pine nuts, it was the perfect mid night meal. So much so that i got distracted while cooking and almost forgot to take a photo of the finished result!

Bon Appetit!

Daring Cooks first challenge - Healthy Potato Salad!

I used to be a spud girl. I absolutely adored potatoes in any form - baked potato, mashed potato, boiled potatoes, jacket potatoes, potato bake, potato gems, potato chips, i could go on and on! But in recent years ive totally gone off the potato and become obsessed with sweet potato and pumpkin. I now love it in every single form, especially sweet potato mash & pumpkin pie ;)

So i finally got my act together and did my daring cooks challenge, deciding to make a sweet potato salad with baby spinach, grilled capsicum, walnuts and craisins with a dressing of wholegrain mustard, lemon olive oil & red wine vinegar. I think it turned out pretty tasty :)

medium-size (5.3 ounce) potato has 110 calories, no fat, no cholesterol, no sodium and includes nearly half your daily value of vitamin C and has more potassium than a banana!

Jami Sorrento was our June Daring Cooks hostess and she chose to challenge us to celebrate the humble spud by making a delicious and healthy potato salad. The Daring Cooks Potato Salad Challenge was sponsored by the nice people at the United States Potato Board, who awarded prizes to the top 3 most creative and healthy potato salads. A