Camp Food - Lamb chops in the forest

Can't believe I am away for that long!! Been busy lately, lots of packing and day trips. Only 2 more weeks till I leave Melbourne to KL! In fact, my dogs are already in an airport awaiting for their flights to KL for the next day. Lucky dogs to be on a plane! Their tickets are not cheap, I must say, it totals up to A$2145 for both of them. Phiew. There goes my holiday trip to Italy.

Allright, back to the topic. Went bush camping at the Kooyoora State Park in Bendigo last weekend. It was hot and dry. Also, there were like gazillions of flies all around, which is the most annoying thing ever! I never knew that there could be so much flies! God damn!

I must say that the highlights of the trip for me would be the dinner and the trip to Melville Caves which was absolute gorgeous.

I freeze lamb chops the night before and by the time we were at the camp the next day, the lamb chops had defrosted nicely to be whacked on a pile of hot coals! I seasoned it with dried rosemary, salt and pepper. While it's cooking, it smelt amazing and guess what. It just attracted more flies. Ouch.

Turning around.

I wonder, why does camp food always tasted so much better than the same meals made at a kitchen? I swear to god, those were the best lamb chops I ever had. And I had many before that. It was so good.

Oh yah, the canned food was chilli beans with beef chunks. It was yummy but the lamb chops still wins in the taste factor hands down. Yee-haa!

Recipe: Shrimp Egg Foo Yong / Prawn Omelette

This is the type of Chinese dish that I love but will hesitate to order in a restaurant because it is so easy to make. It is so yummy and so good with rice.

I heat up the oil until its smoking hot before pouring the omelette mixture into the hot wok. It was real pleasure watching the omelette puffing up. I managed to take a picture of it. ^.^

*************************************************************************************
This is my recipe:

Ingredients:

Pink, fresh prawns

8-10 large fresh prawns
3 eggs
1 small brown onion
1 bunch of spring onion - sliced into 3 cm in length
salt to taste
3 tbsp oil

Method:

Fluffing up in hot oil

1. Cut the onion into halves. Then slice it into even half-rings.
2. Pour a tablespoon of oil into the wok. Cook the onions until it is slightly golden in color. Dish out and leave aside.
3. Break eggs in a bowl. Add salt and whisk it up with chopsticks. Add fresh prawns, cooked onions and spring onions into the omelette mixture.
4. Heat up remaining oil in a wok. Leave it on high heat until you begin to see smoke rising up. Pour the omelette and enjoy the beautiful sight of eggs puffing up. Lower down the heat to medium and cook for 30 seconds. Turn around to cook the other side. It is ready when the prawns are cooked.
5. Serve with rice.

*************************************************************************************

Yummy prawns

Oven-baked pork spare ribs with crispy garlic

Spare ribs with garlic

There's something about eating spare-ribs. It brings out the primitive side out of me. There is no way of eating politely when it comes to meat on bone. Especially the juiciest part of meat normally comes with bone. I.e lamb racks. I.e spare ribs.

I served the spare ribs with white rice and some chinese vegetables stir-fry. I picked one spare rib with my chopsticks. It became quite a chore as I find it hard to balance the rib on the chopsticks while I chew off the meat from the bone. It was so annoying because the meat kept slipping from the chopsticks. Lol.

My bare fingers then came to the rescue. Some food are just meant to be eaten with hands. There is just something about eating ribs with your hands. It is just so... carnivorous and comforting at the same time. Lol. Oh yeah, and the crispy garlic went so well with the rice...

My recipe is very simple, I just marinated the ribs for a couple of hours (overnight would be better) and then just bake in a hot oven till cooked. The whole house smelled so nice while the ribs are sizzling in the oven. I looove it!

*************************************************************************************

Here is my recipe:

Ingredients:

1 kg pork spare ribs
5 cloves of fat garlic - chopped
2 tbsp soya sauce
2 tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt

Method:

1. Marinate the pork with all ingredients. Leave it in the fridge for at least an hour to marinate.
2. Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius.
3. Line marinated ribs in a tray. Reserve the garlic for later. Bake for 20 minutes.
4. Turn the ribs around, baste with marinade. Bake for another 20 minutes.
5. Turn the ribs, baste with marinade. Place garlic on top of the ribs. Bake for another 5 minutes.
6. Serve immediately. Great with rice.



Note: If I have 5 spice powder, I would have added about a teaspoon in the marinade. It would give another dimension to the ribs, but it is already good as it is.

Recipe: Chicken Rendang

Seeing Jackson's post on his nasi lemak fare with chicken rendang the other day made me crave for chicken rendang soo much that all I can think about the whole day was chicken rendang. Serious. I am so not kidding you.

And so, the very next day, after dreaming of tender and spicy chicken rendang, I went to the market and get the ingredients for a chicken rendang. I am such an impulse food shopper, when I see something online, particularly in food blog that triggers my cravings and interest, I got to have that right away!!

Sigh, shouldn't I be an impulse clothes and shoes shopper instead? Guess, I am different from other gals. Food is my weakness, yo.

Well, I'm not sure if mine is as tasty as Jackson's, but I was very, very happy with the result, so did J - who had second helpings of rice and chicken rendang. Haha.

My recipe is very similar with my beef rendang recipe, the only difference would be the cooking time - as I do not need to cook the chicken for a very long time for it to be tender. In fact, I merely let it cook for about an hour to achieve a fall-off-the-bone tenderness.

Oh yah, I forgot that I also added lemongrass to the rendang. It definitely made the dish more flavourful and fragrant.

*************************************************************************************
This is my recipe:

Ingredients:


1.5 kg chicken
1 large brown onion - chopped finely
1 thumb-sized ginger - minced finely
3 lemongrass - use the white part only and minced finely
1 cinnamon
1 star anise
4 green cardamom pods
1 packet of ready-to-use rendang paste
2 cups of water
400 ml coconut cream (substitute with coconut milk if available)
1/2 cup of desiccated coconut for kerisik


Method:

1. To make kerisik: Toast desiccated coconut in a dry pan on low heat until the colour turns brown. Be very careful as they tend to burn easily. Leave aside.
(The other method would be toasting at 180 degrees celcius in a oven for 20 minutes).

2. Fry onions, ginger, lemongrass, cardamom pods, star anise and cinnamon until fragrant.

4. Add the rendang paste and stir well.

5. Add the chicken. Mix everything well together until chicken is coated with the paste.
Add water and simmer for 30 minutes on low heat.

6. Add the coconut cream. Allow it to simmer for 30 minutes until almost dry.

7. Add the kerisik. Mix well and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Serve hot with rice or roti canai.

Bon appetite!!

Bacons, Eggs and Sausages for Breakfast

There's something about preparing a leisurely breakfast on a Saturday morning and then enjoying it slowly over glasses of orange juice and morning chat. What you see on the picture are fried eggs, bacons, sausages and grilled tomatoes with parsley. I had given a recipe for grilled tomatoes in my previous entry. J had already piled up his toast with bacon and grilled tomatoes. They are so yummy!!

My plate

J's plate, with double of everything =)

So, what did you have for breakfast today?