Tags
bunnies, chicken curry, fox, lamb kebabs, magpies, prawn cocktail, prawns, satays, Spicy prawns, tiger prawns, tomatoes
Spicy prawns – raw tiger prawns cooked a bit more until legs are crisp. Finger licking good.
Kebabs – quick and easy. Large cubes of lamb from the leg or oyster blade beef marinated with a little olive oil, salt, garlic, lemon, oregano and paprika. The paprika makes everything stick nicely. Cook under grill.
My ‘regular’ chicken curry. Photo misses the papadums in another big bowl.
Malay satays. Done with lamb and cooked over coals. Marinated for 1-2 days. Plan ahead dish.
My prawn cocktail. Old fashioned iceberg lettuce at the bottom and cut up prawns into thirds to make a mouthful. Homemade dressing.
Some of the tomatoes from this season – it’s a mix of heritage and more regular varieties. They didn’t grow as big as they should have but tasted wonderful. Still picking and eating.
After a bunny shoot one night. Not exactly wild life – very much dead.
A deceased fox. We have had two wandering through the property for months. Finally got one. A friend has tanned the skin.
Keeping the water up to our magpie family. They’re all fine and well.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Apologies for late arrival Viv,. I’ve been incredibly busy, so I just tend to splurge on the internet for an hour than relax.
Not done much on The Drum. However, I left a note for you on one of the daily Morrison blogs.
PRAWN COCKTAIL: The forgotten hero, yet how gorgeous is it, with a home made dressing, standing up on a thoughtfully measured chiffonade, with or without a sprinkle of cayenne.
I remember making lobster cocktails when I was buying them in bulk (live) off the fisherman. Man that was a cocktail to die for. Did you make the mayonnaise or, use mayonnaise (from a jar) and add tomato?
Careful on the sage – somewhere shoe. It can be astringent, if it’s not chopped or blended with certain components. I use a lot. (try a few whole leaves in butter then break a couple of eggs. Serve them sunny side up with the sage underneath. A good fragrance.
Fox is best around old ladies necks.
Everything looks spot on. Someone will be having nooky in The PA car park later I’ll warrant.
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Thanks Jules. My dressing was described as homemade and that is exactly what it is in its entirety. A dash of tabasco (no cayenne) – the rest is a secret.
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Jules is right about sage, I have it growing on my windowsill, I use a little bit of it in my omelettes…
My Tomatoes are finally ripening, all of a sudden there are some beauties out there…
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Woo hooooo. At last!
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WOW !!! Sounds like you don’t need any help cooking for one Sandshoe !
Actually it sounds more like a fish soup with pasta -and you could live off it for a week !
You could swap the fish for some pulses one night if you make it again -like butter beans ( I use the tinned ones ) and freeze it in small containers .
Just a thought –
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I forget about butter beans! O gee thanks. Recently lindyp I am so bored by food worrying about what to eat. I can envisage the broad beans too using greens with them and smaller amounts of pasta in that mix. I will try that. Must remember most importantly to buy some good quality mushrooms when a fresh batch comes in and ‘forget’ them in the fridge for a few days. They made all the difference to the delicate flavour. Just thought of more of those with a good batch and make a mushroom-carrot ‘soup’ too. LOl Miso soup without the miso? Funny how we think to cook and change our diets.
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Shoe, what do you think about encouraging Lindy to write a Cooking for One piece for the PA? And we could all chime in with the odd highly recommended idea. Though I’m thinking it is more to do with ‘what to eat’ tonight than ‘what to cook’.
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PS: and to do with how many years one has been eating/cooking for one (or more for that matter).
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Yes, of course, Vivienne and LindyP..
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Though I am thinking your role in a newspaper as an editor is valuable, Viv. Change the format, put a price on it, polish up the door handles and voila, cooking vegetarian in the pig’s arms kitchen. A whole supplement..
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Nah – I’ll just appoint you as sub-editor for Vegetarian Dinners for One. Your job description is to do the lot and you are free to co-opt Lindyp. 🙂
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sub-editorial freedom that, eh… 😉
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You’re appointed as of now Shoe. I’ll take the boss’s lack of intervention as approval of my new status. Your first article is due in a week, or two (take your pick) and if you choose to include photos I wish you all the best! I’ll make one suggestion – you might think about including a recommended accompanying drink (not necessarily water).
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I approve of your new status (doffs cap). Righto, makes notes and adds got to get lindyp article or same across food ed’s desk in a week or two (leeway there) … skew is what to eat not what to cook …
lindyp, could I make a special plea to you to support my new sub-editorial career.. if you wish to send unedited copy to my desk, let me know and i will edit and send it on to my departmental head and she’ll give it the final kick up the line..
haha I am enjoying this desk and fancy nancy pen holder and…
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Hmmm – we might have a problem with private communication matters. So … I hereby appoint you as your own proofreader and remind you not to use long sentences. Read it four times before you submit to the Boss. I’m knocking off now. Night night.
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😉
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Hi Viv. Geeze, it must be great to find inspiration in the kitchen. FM is away until the 10th of March and I’m alone with George, Tasha and Kali (the crossbred wombat-warthog doggy). This puts me at a serious risk of losing the weight I put back on over Christmas.
Tonight I microwaved 500g of pre-marinated Tassie black mussels and dipped in some slices of fresh turkish bread. Today is a low cal (600 max calories) day, and I reckon Ive still got 100 or so up my sleeve (fruit and yoghurt, I suspect). I do find it difficult to cook for one – twice as hard as it is to cook for two (no pressure). Also no feel for the sport.
I do enjoy eating out in the wilds of Newtown, though. But I don’t think I would like to have a go at rabbit. I mean, they ARE rodents, aren’t they ?
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Not rodents. Delicious roasted, stewed as in a Greek style, BBQ – anyway you would cook chicken. But you were joking. Wild rabbit tastes great. Farmed ones are tasteless.
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Why don’t people like cooking for one ? I feel like I cook great food every day , and it doesn’t contain dead rabbits or other unspeakables ! (Sorry Vivienne ! I did love the look of those mouth watering prawns though! )
Need a sample ?
Last night I cooked roasted eggplant with sweet potato, crumbled feta over the top , wilted baby spinach , and balsamic drizzle .
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Hey lindyp – the dead stuff was the wild life part of the article ! Are you vegetarian btw?
How about you do a Cooking for One piece for the PA. Just a thought. My ideal cooking for one dish is a bowl of prawns and a cold beer or a few home cooked blue swimmers with a cold beer. I’m full of ideas come to think of it.
Night all.
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Mmmm -might just do that Vivienne-good thinking .
Yes have been a veggie for about 30 years -you just have to be more imaginative -(I can’t think of anything more unpalatable than a plate of steamed veggies !)
Unfortunately I have a weakness for prawns so I am a pescatarian .
And I can certainly relate to a bowl of prawns with a cold beer, even though I am a red wine drinker !
Yum now I’m hungry and thirsty –
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Yummy. LindyP. Surely, (an aside) nothing wrong and unpalatable with a plate of steamed vegetables. The local Chinese shops do just deliciously for their specials for vegetarians on a regular basis if asked. One way of assorting it to cook specific food flavours with different ones on a regular basis so food flavours food, maybe, too?
I have some dysplasia of an adenoma discovered recently so as well I am considering what we can do to as quickly as poss to feed ourselves when we are single, cut down as far as possible on condiments etc. I’m crap at eating sometimes when I am working long hours …what am I doing/ nothing/ where have you been/nowhere etc so usually thinking and I detest that interrupted by cooking for sure …?
Trying to beat the meat rap. I do usually pretty well, but do eat a lot of fish… do you have any suggestions for what I might think of to prepare? I am in a bit of a spin about what food to eat at the moment…
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meanwhile I have to go and get myself a plate of food and a drink hahaha
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…sounds pretty good to me, I’m a borderline case, I could easily be fulltime vegetarian, bu with a meat loving hubby , I stay borderline …easier that way….
He also cooks most days, so I just prepare the salads and eat more vegies and less meat…
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but
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I don’t blame you for being borderline Helvi -where there is someone else to consider it’s different -I could never become vegan -far too hard -and I don’t like chick peas !
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Turning computer off very soon.
To Gerard – I’ve done whole pickled leg of lamb to be served with carrots, mash spuds and …… sauteed cabbage ! (and chutneys/mustards etc) Old fashioned but bloody lovely meat. Will be some cold for tomorrow with a salad. Whole big leg only $20.
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I assume the Fox and bunnies weren’t for eating Vivenne.
The tomatoes look superb. We’ve taken a heap of mangos off our tree over the last two weekends. All that’s left are those we can’t reach. Local butcher is going to use some in their chicken and mango sausages. Mind you the carnage from the fruit bats has half filled the green bin.
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Bunnies could have been eaten but I have no skinning and gutting skills for bunnies, just can do chooks and ducks. I envy your mangos. Could you gently knock them off with a long pole? You may not have a long pole of course! Glad you have close relationship with your butcher. I supply mine with parsley. Fruit bats took up residence in the Albury Botanical Gardens and some dropped dead during the heatwave. Garden staff were spraying the trees with water and Wires people took very poorly bats into care. But the bats are doing harm to the gardens!
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We have a lopper which I bought some 12 years ago, which co-insistently was the last time we had a good crop. This time around I went up the tree and found it had grown another two metres. We’ve attached the broom handle to the end a string bag underneath to catch them with and a length of string tow extend the cutter. I worked well enough but would have been better the first week which would have limited the carnage. Mind you picked a couple of dozen off the ground that had been knocked off by the bats which were intact.
Butcher is as a friend as the butcher nowadays, bartered the weekend meat in return, which is a win-win around really.
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Your approach is just what I might have tried. My butcher chucks in an extra something every now and then. I expect nothing – just nice to see surplus parsley used.
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I love the presentation of your prawn salad, the green of the iceberg lettuce matches the green of your table runner…makes a pretty picture.
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Daughter gets credit for that – it is her house – outdoor eating area. Family gathering – we all take stuff and I gave her the hibachi (same as mine) which she adores. The satays were cooked there too, same day. Both daughters do brilliant salads and amazing dressings. They are both excellent cooks.
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Ah ha, a family gathering. The perfect occasion to cook and photograph some favourites from Mum’s repertoire.
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I’m in the middle of cooking Thai red curried chicken, for work meals, and am about to start on the Thai green curry sauce, for Mrs M’s birthday prawns.
Now your pics (except for the fox) have my mouth watering. We have bloody foxes, here, in the middle of suburbia!!
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BTW, Viv, it was your previously published curried prawns that gave me a hankering for cooking curries!!
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The Burmese prawns wasn’t it. I noticed you were cooking them. Makes me happy. 🙂
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Big M – luv ya. But the headline did say … and wildlife. Impossible to get a close up of live fox!
Your preparation for work lunches is admirable. Mrs M’s birthday today? Have a great day – birthdays are an excellent excuse for good food. SA crays are delicious.
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We have a fox at work that wanders through the carpark in the wee hours.
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What’s her name??
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Foxy Lady…
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Lol H. I thought Big M might ask what the fox does in the poo hours
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Ha ha!!! Very funny Mr HOO.
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HOO – exact same thought passed my mind. But they are up in the wee hours, daylight, and late at night. Not sure when they sleep – probably midnight to 5 am.
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Actually pretty right Viv, this one hits the carpark just before sun up
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Don’t let Tutu know about it.
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We also get rabbits Gez but the worst problem we get are drunks.
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Yes, what’s Sister Hung doing, hunging around the hospital carpark??
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In dem daze unky Mark I ewes too smoke
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The plant in the top left section of the mapgie photo has been removed now. It died (wasn’t a native either). The birds have rotation shifts at this and the other birthbath elsewhere. Certain times of the day it is blue wren hour, then firebirds, willy wagtails, honey eaters etc. Magpies hang out there during the worst of the heatwaves.
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I love the picture of your home-grown tomatoes, my tomato babies look a bit sad, and lonely, not enough of them to fill a plate….thy look a bit green…. with envy? 🙂
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Going to be sad when they are finished. Picked two this morning. Another dozen romas still to come and an assortment of half grown others. The last massive heatwave burnt off a heap of babies. There are flowers again but whether or not they turn into toms and grow remains to be seen.
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O, how about the photographs. They give a great overview of your cooking Vivienne and your lifestyle. Friday night I went around the corner to the Bordertown Hotel and considered eating there for a change as I had just finished a job, but there was nobody there. When I walked around the corner the Chinese Restaurant was a steady stream and then they couldn’t do me a Take Away for an HOUR. Who is going to say “No” when they need a treat? I bought their Mixed Seasonal Vegetables and Steamed Rice. I have gone a lot off meat, but the vegies really were deliciously done.
What will the fox skin be tanned, Vivienne? Is that a mat or can it be sold on for something?
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Check out the correction in the photos – the kebab came up twice. The correct photo of satays is now there. Chinese veg dishes always taste great to me. When I eat their broccoli I think it is fabulous. The fox skin now belongs to the chap who tanned it – I’ll ask him next time we meet up as to whether it has been converted into something useful (I doubt it).
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Notice your new avatar Shoe. It’s great. I tried to take a selfie via the mirror. I looked pretty stupid so deleted my efforts.
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O dear viv I cannot believe you looked stupid.. I don’t do my hair I like it like it is and I don’t wear make-up so it took real resolve to force myself to do selfies. I did a series. Next thing I started to lose my self consciousness and value judgments about what I allegedly look like… we don’t know what we look like I will swear it. re the kebabs and the satays, I never saw it wrong, I must have logged on just as it was changed. She’s apples. Funny I almost mentioned the broccoli before. I don’t know how they got this broccoli so incredibly perfectly cut and the texture of it perfect…I ought to have taken a photo of it..
I had a quick skim of fox fur online. The pelts make hats and jackets and they are beautiful looking (for what they are). I didn’t tie up that a fox fur is a splendid and desireable thing. I’ve not ever seen one close up and personal alive or dead, maybe on television.
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You’re absolutely right about what we think we look like – totally spot on. The old fox furs worn by Australians decades ago were not made from ordinary foxes. Silver fox fur is long. My grandmother had a silver fox fur stole which I wore on occasions last century. I have a rabbit fur coat in the wardrobe. Don’t wear it anymore. People are so against fur being used for clothes. Very very warm though.
That dead fox’s mate (or father) was very bold – came right up on to the front verandah one day eyeing off the chooks. We scared it off in time.
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Lovely dishes Viv, especially the kebabs over the coal. We went to Goulburn’s worker’s club yesterday. We had pepper and salt squid and Caesar salad.
I could do with a prawn cocktail right now. How was the fox? I believe they can be quite tough. 😉
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I’ve emailed the boss – the kebabs are there twice. There is a different mouthwatering photo missing.
The fox carcass was bagged and went to the tip.
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I love satays Viv
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Always make more than you think is needed. 🙂
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Good advice
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The kebabs look great Viv, hmm, I’m hungry now
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Enter full b\name here: Hungry One On.
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Gee it is funny Mike. I sit here and wonder what I want to eat then I see Viv’s incredible array and it turns me off my ham and cheese toastie. But look tonight I am having crab linguine with green and red things plus Parmesan.
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Oh the green things are baby spinach and the red things are tomatoes.
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Oh and home made garlic bread and CatAmongstThePigeons Shiraz 2012 from the Barossa
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Lovely choice HOO. I actually think it is no more expensive to cook good food than ordinary food. Just takes inspiration. As a kid so much of the food we ate was meat and three veg – cooked to death.
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Me too Viv, me and Tutu grew up on pommie food and made a pledge that we wouldn’t serve it up when we got together. Mediterranean food is our favorite along with Mexican and Indian.
I will be honest though since living by myself I do find it hard to get inspired. During the heatwave I was cooking fresh pasta with some kind of sauce to reduce the amount of heat inside.
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Exactly so HOO – cooking for one is not much chop. I get more inspired for family get togethers and other times it depends on the weather. Day after day of those heatwaves here and where you are just make me want a magic wand. But we do pretty well for ourselves in the general scheme of things! (ps: co-incidentally I did tacos last night, with dried chilli, not fresh !! 🙂
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Jesus, Hung, if you don’t like cooking for one, then you’ll have to pull your finger out, and win that girl back!
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There is nothing like pommie food. I have often enthused about the time at Oxford Uni when the Master proudly brought in cold cooked cabbage nicely presented on a piece of card board, opened all the doors (it was winter)and when the draught was at its maximum, made the lot of us eat it while standing. Unforgettable, it was.
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Viv, with your chicken curry, which bit of the chicken do you use? I usually use thigh however one day Tutu brought over chicken chops and we baked them in yoghurt and a Marsala. Having the bone in they were delicious.
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I’m doing my best Big M, we are talking about retiring together in Bateman’s Bay and I will expect you and Mrs M to visit.
Cold cabbage Gez, some people are really cruel.
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I start with a whole fresh chicken and cut in half and then separate the breast from the leg and then cut breast in half and joint the drum from the thigh. Everyone gets a bit of each basically. I always prefer it with the bone in. I do the same with tandoori chicken at home but of course I also skin it and slash it. If I was cooking for one, I’d always buy thighs. If I’m doing curry for just the two of us (that’s rare as the girls are here like a rocket) I get my butcher to do marylands for me (he is a very skilled chicken filleter) and I freeze them in serves for two.
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OK mens and womens could not think what and I’m going to do a pasta tonight thanx to being sparked by Hung saying he is having linguine with red and green things and I will have fish with green out of the garden and I have carrot, mushroom, garlic, lemon and a nice olive oil plus a new pepper grinder…sorted…possibly have some sage and maybe scrounge some parsley…have a whole meal pasta. All easy enough.
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Stick with it, or, rather, her. We expect to see you both in Batemens in a coupla years.
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Sounds good shoe, will try it tomorrow night
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Hung here’s a clue what I did because I got lazy and forced myself through the pain barrier so I could report back… it inadvertently ended up super delicious. Put water on to boil, plenty of room, in stew saucepan. thick bottom, and to add to boiling water when it boils cut up a large sweet potato roughly into bits and large quarter size length cut chunks of the bits (end up with good size wedges so cooking will be about 15-20 minutes no longer), one smaller carrot in decent sized rounds, four good size garlic cloves whole and squashed ( a bit LOL), find old whole ordinary mushrooms that are preferably a bit dried out and leathery (rip stalks off and throws stalks where you want but don’t peel mushrooms), get out frozen pea packet, get bored, throw about a third of peas into water and everything else (see foregoing) into water in saucepan even though it isn’t boiling and that includes two good sized frozen whiting you break into pieces or chop with an electric saw in garage whatever method takes two seconds and is clean and drug free and good quality dried wholemeal (must be) pasta, by which time (with say three-quarters of a packet of pasta), saucepan will be still below rim with food but just enough room to boil so top up water a bit if you need and you think heck, hope it doesn’t boil over and go and watch news or talk to the piglets…get an instinct in about 20 minutes time that is too long and go back and find frozen fish perfect, sweet potato getting a little caramel, peas nicely cooked into flavour of dish and they can’t roll away so no escape peas, garlic disappeared somewhere and dish lightly fragrant with it, and pasta exactly right on the knocker because still got kick in it for reheating or just continuing to cook in its own juice and mushrooms like good quality Chinese dried mushrooms you ought to have paid three times the price for, serve, grate freshly ground pepper to your taste and salt to your taste.
Add a drop oif olive oil if you want, but result so moist and flavoursome mine didn’t need it and would have subdued fragrance of mushrooms.
Don’t drain any liquid off, because when you go back for cold seconds it will be like a lightly jellied fish/pasta salad of the finest, skip the parsley and sage they will spoil this flavour. Thank you for your interest. 🙂
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