Carne asada

I discovered that the butcher I usually go to carries flank steak a while ago. The price was appealing, so I picked up a slab and made carne asada with it.

Carne asada is a fairly simply dish to make. The trick for great flavour is to let the flank steak soak in the marinade for at least four hours and preferably overnight.

Carne asada with baby gems and sautéed potatoes

Honey sriracha chicken

Watched how sriracha sauce was made on 'Food Factory USA', and it inspired me to make honey sriracha chicken legs for dinner.

Honey sriracha chicken

Baked garlic chilli chicken drumsticks

Garlic chilli chicken drumsticks with mixed leaf salad and steamed baby potatoes

Pork chops with mango & peach salsa

This is the dinner that almost didn't happen.

Last week, I bought a perfectly ripened mango and some peaches and decided to make a salsa to go with pork chops. I had trimmed and marinated the chops, made the mango and peach salsa, prepared the baby potatoes and Brussels sprouts. Husband came home around 7pm and said he was hitting the gym and probably wouldn't be having dinner when he returned. Then he walked into the kitchen and saw all the raw ingredients for dinner and apologised for not letting me know of his plans before I went to all this trouble. While I was a bit irked, I did appreciate how hard it was to keep fit, particularly when one hit middle-age, so far be it for me to thwart his endeavours.

And off his went. When he got home around 9.30, he said he was hungry and would like the dinner. So I fired up the grill and pan and within 20 minutes, I came up with two plates of beautiful food. 

Grilled pork chop with mango & peach salsa, served with sautéed Brussels sprouts and crackling, steamed baby potatoes

Lemon chilli chicken

Lemon chilli chicken with lemon & thyme gravy, served with roast baby potatoes and steamed broccoli

Lamb vindaloo

After a visit to Asia Market and sourcing lots of wonderful spices and herbs, I decided to make curry from scratch for the first time. I was able to find lamb stew meat at the butcher's, so I went for a lamb vindaloo. Again, my mini chopper proved to be a terrific buy. 

Lamb vindaloo with wholegrain basmati and blanched green beans

Steamed sea bass with citrus, ginger, chilli & coriander

Steamed sea bass with citrus, ginger, chilli, coriander, served on a bed of blanched lotus root slices

Mala soup base 麻辣湯底

A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching a course on Chinese history, culture, and business and in the last class, I talked about Chinese cuisine. As I went through the Eight Culinary Traditions and explained the different flavours and textures, I was hit with a serious craving for Sichuan mala spices that demanded to be satisfied. So after class, I promptly visited Asia Market and got the necessary ingredients to make my version of mala tofu hot pot (麻辣豆腐鍋).

Mala tofu hot pot with mung bean sheets

Baked chicken leg & thigh

Baked chicken leg & thigh with cayenne pepper & marjoram, served with hasselback potatoes, and fried chilli green beans (乾煸四季豆)

Ginger braised chicken wings 薑燒雞翅

Seafood korma

Grilled mackerel with garlic, chilli & lemon

Korean BBQ beef and vegetable stir-fry

Chilli & ginger beef stir-fry (2)

Thai red curry with turkey

Chilli & ginger fillet beef stir-fry (1)

Chilli con carne

This is classic comfort food in our home. The dish is wonderfully aromatic and with just the right amount of kick to awaken any palate. I sometimes substitute, to a great degree of success, the steak mince with turkey mince for a lighter taste. 

Pan fried tofu

One of my favourite foods is tofu, particularly the firm variety. The easiest way to cook tofu is to throw it in stew or soup, which I do sometimes when I cook gimchi jjigae. But when I have a bit more time, I often opt to pan fry it.