Hello again! Wow, it's been almost two long weeks since my last post, though it feels like it's been forever. Well, not forever, more like...three weeks. But I missed you all! Many tales to tell, many dishes to share, many kilos to shed. And, spoiler alert, this time I had a few wins! Hold on to your hats!
Where do I start? Well, as mentioned a post or two ago, I decided to go back to basics and try my hand at a few simple dishes. And how much simpler can you get then steak and mash potatoes?
Just look at that mash! Potatoes, butter, milk, parmesan and splash of olive oil. I even did that thing where I put the potatoes through a sieve to make it super smooth, and it worked out pretty well. Smooth, rich, creamy, cheesy mash potatoes. And an over seasoned steak, but let's not talk about that. Just focus your eyes on the cool ripples I made with the mash potatoes. Fancy!
I was feeling pretty chuffed after that dish, so for some reason I decided to try my hand again at risotto. Actually it's because I still had half a bag of rice and a litre of stock left and I didn't want to waste it all. A friend of a friend of mine gave me a handy tip that changed everything, and it was so bleeding obvious. When I make normal rice at home (and by normal rice I mean asian style, in a rice cooker) I always wash my rice first, usually multiple times, to get all the crap and starch off. It didn't even occur to me that I should wash my risotto rice, but doing that helped get rid of all the starch that was clagging up my risotto. And the result?
Much much much better. A very beige looking chicken and mushroom risotto yes, but the actual risotto part was a lot better this time. Still not great, but a huge improvement over my previous disasters. And I still have rice and stock left, so expect another risotto dish to pop up in the very near future.
Crap it's been so long since I did all this cooking that I've forgotten what I actually made. I'm sorting through all my photos to remind myself, and oh my! How could I have forgotten this dish? This is the big one! This is my crowning jewel! Check it!
Lamb shanks with leek, onion, carrots, garlic cloves and mash potato. By far the best meal I have made. Ever. What's even more surprising is Jamie Oliver finally pulled through for me. He has an interesting method whereby he wraps up each lamb shank in its own individual foil parcel thing along with all the vegetables, which works very well for single serve people like me. I even had Greta come over to share it with me and she rated it an 8 out of 10. Take that Masterchef!
Anyway I think I'll leave it there. It's 11:30pm, I'm tired, I have work tomorrow, and I'm watching Zombieland, which is pretty good but nowhere near as fun as Shaun of the Dead. Oh and I watched Inception the other day, which was veeeery good. At risk of spoiling it for anyone out there, but it almost seemed like a cross between The Matrix and Ocean's Eleven. With dreams. Work that out!
So hopefully it won't be too long before my next post. Don't worry, I've actually been doing plenty of cooking, I'm just too lazy to put them all up here at once. I've got about...three dishes saved in the bank for next time. One of them is a risotto.
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