Being slack is my new forte.

So, I was wandering through the supermarket with my housemate last week and saw one of those instant packets of Japanese Curry mixes. I bought one, thinking that I would never use it, but really, I felt lazy today.

Well, I don't know about degrees of lazy. There is the whole walking-past-a-jap-take-out-store-and-getting-curry type of lazy and the use-a-packet-mix lazy. I was the latter, mainly because I felt the need to cook, but not to go to too much effort.

I know, I know...I'm annoying.

Still, I managed to make a tofu curry and get my weeks worth of monosodium glutamate in one hit, so I am up for the week.



Packet curry, oh yeah.
Serves 5

Brown rice

1 onion, diced
a handful of mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
4 carrots, cut into even chunks
1 head of broccoli, stem cut into chunks and florets kept aside
water
1 packet of Golden Curry mix

Firm tofu, cut into half centimetre slices
salt

Wash your rice and place in the rice cooker with water. Don't forget to turn this on or you'll have your curry with no rice. I have done this on so many occasions on where I have to cook rice. Yes, I am human, and arrogant. Who would have thought?
In a pot, add some oil and fry off the onion with the mushrooms on a medium heat. After a few minutes, add the carrot and some salt, turn the heat up and put the lid on. After about five minutes, add the broccoli stem and water to cover and inch over the vegetables. Cook for about ten to fifteen minutes or till the carrots are soft.
When the rice is a minute from being done, add the broccoli florets to the rice cooker to steam. I only do this so I have one less thing to wash. Yes, lazy.
Then, heat a pan on high and fry off the tofu to your desired doneness. Depending on my mood, sometimes I like it just warm and charred on the outside, to being quite crispy. Salt it.
Add the curry mix to the pot of cooked vegetables by crumbling it in and stirring till it thickens.
Then, serve in a bowl. I kind of wish I had lotus root pickles, but hey, I am satisfied.
Obviously your vegetables can change here, but this is just what I had.

So, so lazy.

Comfort food is always hideous.

I am feeling a little worse for wear as I had been out drinking and didn't crawl into bed till 5am. The funny part is that I didn't intend to have a big night, a long night or any type of night past a dinner with friends that didn't happen anyways.
An outing was made and Match was revisited.

One of my friends was hell bent on a kebab and convinced me to eat part of one. I had the innards in a box and pretty much only ate the lettuce and a few strips of meat.
I had never had a kebab before.

Yes, gasp.

You done?

Well, I had been a vegetarian for 6 and a half years and just never had the opportunity. My friend was very proud of taking my kebab virginity. Needless to say, I could feel my tongue lining itself with animal fat (not in a good way) which is why I only ate a few strips of the meat before I waved a white flag.
My friend said she had to stop eating hers when she was about three bites from the end because she could feel her heart palpitating (though she said she felt unsatisfied because she really wanted to finish it). It is not to say that she is obese or even overweight, but between her ridiculously good eating (Vietnamese family), she has no qualms with sucking down a serve of nachos to herself or washing a Chico roll down with a bottle of V. Now, multiply this out over twenty-one years and add large melted Caramello koalas as snacks in between and you get heart palpitations.

Now, I know I am one for sarcastic exaggeration, but when I woke up from a "kebab" induced coma, I swear my heart was palpitating as well. I can only reconcile this by thinking that I don't usually eat such foods and my body is exacting its revenge. So, I exercise and I still feel like I have a brick of food in my stomach and realise it is 5pm.
I can only see myself balancing this out with vegetables, and such. So, from my youth, I cooked brown rice in a rice cooker, seasoned it, added dried shitake mushrooms for fragrance. Then, near the end, I stirred through chopped broccoli, fresh peas, marinated tofu (in chili, soy, sugar, sesame oil, ginger and garlic) and cracked an egg over and let it set.
When the rice cooker clicked over to "Keep warm," I served it up in a bowl with shredded lettuce and keep some chili and soy on the side. I was going to eat it with fried dace with fermented black beans, but I wasn't that hungry or in need for flesh. Plus, it is swimming in oil.

I didn't take a photo of it because it is hideous. All comfort food is.

So, instead, I will give you a photo of the best tattoo I have ever seen. It is from my friend who I will keep anonymous, but if you have ever seen him in the flesh, acting, performing or otherwise, you would have noticed this.


It is an amalgamation of the two best things in the world. It's the Bombay Sapphire logo with David Bowie's head in the middle.

My Lute Came Home!

One of my dear housemates (Lute) just came back from a week in Perth. God knows why, but he's glad to be back. Our other housemate(Nek)and friend was at the Hotel Lincoln last night and I saw him on my way home, from another beer-filled/fuelled afternoon.

Ahem.

We figured that Lute had gone straight to work and he thought I would be on the Greyhound so, I called him telling him I left him a present behind the bar. As he was crossing the street to retrieve the non-existent present, I hid under the table outside as Nek watched Lute's embarrassment through the window. Then, we crept up behind him and rectified the situation with hugs.

So, after quite a bit of booze, I cooked. The meal didn't really make sense in its running order...as they don't really compliment each other, but it was "damn tasty." Oh, who's my favourite medieval string instrument?

Pea Risotto
Serves 6 as starter, or 4
I managed to pick up a kilo of fresh, organic peas at the market for five dollars and had stock left over from when I made a fresh pea and ham soup...so this only made sense to me at the time.

50g butter
1 brown onion, diced
1 garlic clove, diced
1 1/2 cups Carnaroli rice
1 splash of white wine
3-4 cups hot stock (recipe follows)
200g freshly podded peas
Zest of 1 lemon
50g grated Romano cheese

Melt the butter in a pan and saute off the onion and garlic over a low heat. Add the rice and turn the heat up when the onion is translucent and coat the grains in butter. Allow them to become translucent. Pour in the wine and allow the alcohol to burn off and add the stock a little at a time, when it is absorbed and the lemon zest. I didn't salt it yet because the cheese is coming and the stock I made was with a smoked ham hock, so was already quite salty.
When the grains are almost al dente, add the peas and allow them to cook. When it is all done, stir in the cheese and check for seasoning. Serve with lemon to squeeze over, if desired.

Stock

I usually collect all my vegetable off-cuts in the freezer and make big batches of different stocks when I feel the need to be a grandma.

1 carrot, cut into 3 pieces
3-4 stalks of celery, cut to same size as carrots
1 onion, cut in half
the green part of leeks
1 broccoli stalk (just cos I had it)
3 black peppercorns, crushed
2 fresh bay leaves
1 smoked ham hock

Place all ingredients into a pot and cover with water, bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 hours, skimming the scum when it rises to the top. drain the liquid and discard the vegetables. Eat the ham hock as you wish. I put it in a soup after separating it from the skin, and in sandwiches once it had cooled. Freeze remaining stock.

Tofu Scramble
Serves 4
For some reason, I felt the need to cook tofu not like a slant eye in my tipsy state.

1 block of firm tofu, cubed
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 spanish onion, sliced
1 leek, sliced
2 heads broccoli, diced
2 red chili, diced
balsamic vinegar

Fry off the tofu till it is golden and the moisture has come out. Set aside.
Saute off the garlic, chili and onion in a neutral falvoured oil, like rice bran, and add the leek and broccoli, seasoning to taste. When almost cooked, return the tofu to the pan and splash a generous amount of balsamic over it and let the vinegars cook off and allow to caramelise for a few minutes. Check for seasoning again and serve with a heavy, grainy toast.

I didn't take any photos, because by the time this was all cooked, we were drunk.

And on a side note

I donated blood today. Yeah, they finally let me, after three previous attempts. The woman who interviewed me kept raving on about Gary Glitter and his bad touchy, touchy through the whole thing while ABBA blared in the background.

Yet again, my veins are hard to find. Stupidly I had a work out instead of eating lunch before my appointment.

Hot tip; don't do that.

So, when my head finally connected to simple, every day motor skills, I hid in my room. Hmm, still a little woozy and faint, but that's just my own fault.

Made tofu burgers, for some strange reason.

I hate getting on my moral high horse, but you should go and bleed for people if you're able...and I'm not talking in the emo kid way.