Massaman Lamb Curry

Firstly, an apology - I promised to have this post up a few days ago, but just didn't find the time. So, here it is, in a condensed form of sorts: Massaman Lamb Curry. Now I'm not gong to go into too much detail about the recipe, since you can easily find it on Waitrose's website.

Now then, the obligatory ingredients shot:


Seeing as I didn't want to OD completely on the curry and needing some veg, I also decided to stir-fry some peppers and asparagus, quite simply with a little sesame oil, soy sauce and sesame seeds. Unfortunately, I had to work later than expected that night and had to make do with a Tesco Local, so I could get the ready prepared diced lamb the recipe called for - a couple of leg steaks, a sharp knife and some inconvenience later, here is the resulting fat-trimmed, cubed lamb:



Mmmmm. Meaty goodness. Now as called for I fried up the chopped onion and mixed in the paste - the paste smelled amazing by the way, like concentrated spices. Then I threw in the lamb and stired it all together until everything was coated evenly in the paste.



At this point John yelled out "that's smells great! I'm hungry, when is it ready?". I noted disappointment when I said at least an hour and a half to go yet. Hey, these things take time! After I cooked the lamb this way for about 6 minutes I poured in the stock and (low fat!) coconut milk, personally I think the recipe calls for a little too much since the aroma was overwhemlingly coconut rather than curry.


Now since this has an hour of simmering to go I prepared the peppers and asparagus for stir frying, I prefer slicing my peppers finely and stir-frying as little as possible so they're still crunchy:


I don't know about any one else, but I adore riots of colour in cooking. Peppers (ahem, capsicums) are a fantastic way to achieve this since they come in such a wide variety of colours. In this case I used the standard red and orange, but there are also green, yellow and even purple peppers available. I must admit for a long time I disliked raw pepper a great deal, but with the impending weight loss I had to go through about a year and a half ago I developed a liking for them. But back on topic, after about an hour of the Massaman slowly bubbling away I threw in the chopped potatoes and a little extra chili, since I prefer my food a bit more spicy. While the potato was softening up nicely I prepared some jasmine rice and stir-fried the prepared vegetables:


Once everything was ready and the peanuts where stirred through the curry, I served each part of the dish in separate bowls, here is the final plating before the other half scrapped away the last of the curry:



Overall, I think my first at-home attempt of massaman curry went quite nicely. Though next time I'll use less coconut milk, a little more paste and throw in a few more chilies.

Sunday Roast Chicken

Due to some last minute change of plans I didn't end up making massaman curry this weekend, but, I did make a lovely Sunday roast - my second ever attempt to roast a whole chicken, since I had invited friends over (long story short, they, unfortunately couldn't make it, but John's mum said she'd come over, which was great since we tend to go to her place all the time). Unabashed plug: Sue is a flavour consultant, if you need any flavours developed, invented or tested, email me for details - she makes a cracking crème brûlée flavour, I keep sniffing the vial every time I go over there.

On to the show then, since I'm great at forgetting to take photos, below is a photo of the almost prepared chicken, basically, chopped up a few cloves of garlic and sprinkled them on the pan base with a little olive oil, stuffed more cloves up the chicken's butt, layered the top with bacon strips and generously sprinkled it with steak seasoning, another little way to cheat in flavouring food, since it seems to have the right amount of saltiness and spiciness for a variety of dishes.


This is when I remembered I forgot to add the shallots to this base = me hurriedly chopping up the shallots with tears streaming down my face. Yes, I've tried all the "tricks" to stop myself crying when I chop up anything to do with onions. They don't work with me. I'm convinced the whole keeping your mouth open and breathing heavily through it instead of you nose is just another way invented for me to look silly, or running the onions/shallots under hot water is a sure thing to getting scalded. Luckily on occasion I have my beautiful assistant to help me - "Jooohhhnnnn, can you chop this up for me while I hide in the bathroom from the toxic fumes?!!" I got about this far, before tearing up. Pathetic huh?


OK, after that episode was over, I scattered the chopped shallots around the chicken and whacked it into a preheated (190°C fan) oven, well, not whacked, more like issuing a few choice four-letter words from me trying to juggle a huge pan while discovering it doesn't fit on the shelf, trying to rearrange the shelves in the oven without dropping one and a half kilos of raw poultry. That should be a point, rearrange your oven shelves before you heat the oven up.

Next up was the stuffing, since time was going to be precious, good ol' Paxo came to the rescue - it's no where good as home made, but great to soak up gravy on a plate. Aw, look, little balls of stuffing, how cute! (no more innuendo jokes please! I heard enough from a 27 year old bloke going on 13!)


Since the chicken takes nearly an hour and a half to roast for it's size (general rule of thumb is 20 minutes per 500 grams, plus an extra 20 minutes, basting every now and then), I used this time to prepare the usual assortment of vegetables: boiling thick chunks of potato in salted water to be roasted in hazelnut oil - the flavour combination is excellent. Chopping up the carrots and some more garlic to be roasted along side the potatoes and the stuffing balls and boiling up petite pois towards the end of cooking time. Speaking of which, in the last half an hour, take the bacon off the chicken in order for the skin to roast to a golden hue, or it will look very anemic. The bacon can be reheated in the oven in the last 5 minutes for further crisping.

Unfortunately I haven't got a picture of a final plating since everyone was so eager to start eating I forgot to take one, but here is what the leftovers looks like:


And this was the aftermath of Captain Clucker:

First post here!

Testing, testing, one, two...three.

Righto, welcome to the very first post of my food blog Did you put garlic?. Those who know me know I love cooking - and I mean the whole process of it: Selecting and buying the ingredients (just try and drag me away from Borough Market on a Saturday), preparing, cooking, eating it and just as importantly, having others enjoy it.

So, why the title Did you put garlic? Well, it is a bit of an homage to my mother. Since I moved to London from Melbourne I developed a bit of a habit calling her while I was cooking, since it meant I had enough time to chat to her and she would be at home getting ready to start the day. Naturally the topic always turned to food since she'll ask what I was doing and, without fail, every time I was cooking a savoury dish (especially one she used to make), she would promptly ask (now imagine this in a heavy Maltese accented smokers voice) "Did you put garlic?".

It became a catchphrase, and one my partner constantly imitates.

Oh, and don't worry - I never forget the garlic.