Drunken Dumplings from Every. Night. Of. The. Week. by Lucy Tweed

So I have been meaning to share this delicious recipe with you for a few weeks now... actually it's more like a month. Back in July I was sent a copy of Every. Night. Of. The. Week by Lucy Tweed by the lovely people at Murdoch Books and boy is this book a keeper. 

The book is entertaining and quirky which I love. I mean come on - this recipe is called Drunken Dumplings and the optional ingredient listed is noise cancelling headphones. Midweek - whether you are working and spending all day looking at a screen or you've spent the day singing silly songs that you STILL get can't get the words right - its exactly what you need. I also think that right now, we all need a little quirky and fun in the kitchen and at home. Thinking about what we're eating next is exhausting when we are currently spending so much time inside. Lucy has brought the colour back into cooking and she shows how it can still be fun and you don't need a hundred ingredients or hours spent prepping. It's real food.

If you follow Lucy on Instagram everything she cooks just makes your mouth water and you instantly want that for dinner. Her instagram live's are worth rewatching as she cooks from Every. Night. Of. The. Week. and shows you how friendly her recipes really are. It's a cookbook that's for midweek meals but is anything but boring which I find most midweek cookbooks to be. Each recipe its bright and bold and the recipes I've cooked - so full of flavour.

So for something fun and different but highly delicious on a regular Thursday night and while we're all stuck inside with waaaaaay too much time on your hands thinking about whats for dinner. I'd suggest making this recipe one night or picking another which she's shared on her instagram or one step further, grabbing yourself a copy of her book - I think you'll thank me. With all the cookbooks I own, I can truely, hand on heart say - this is is the one I've gone to most over the past month for inspiration and dinners. Its exciting and fun and exactly what we all need right now.

Images and text from Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed; photography by Lucy Tweed. Murdoch Books RRP $35.00.

Drunken Dumplings

Recipe from Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed

Serves 2

For when you can’t commit to the idea of either a soup or a stir-fry.


Images and text from Every Night of the Week by Lucy Tweed; photography by Lucy Tweed. Murdoch Books RRP $35.00.

Ingredients

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 chicken breast fillet (around 220 g)

8 frozen dumplings
180 g somen noodles

2 tablespoons tom yum paste

400 ml tin coconut milk

2 heads of bok choy

1 teaspoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon lime juice

1–2 teaspoons chilli paste

Optional ingredients

noise-cancelling headphones

At some point every week I completely lose track of time. This happens so commonly on a Wednesday that it should act as a reliable time stamp.

There’s always someone at some kind of sport practice and usually a child in the house who belongs to another family in the neighbourhood.

It’s a comfortingly confusing day, Wednesday.

Mainly because there are often leftovers for the kids from yesterday, which means a compilation dinner of spices and flavours, dumplings, and some vegetables, blossoming and undisguised. The world is your drunken (somewhere between soup and sauce) bowl.

Just the way a Wednesday should be.

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F).

Heat the oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over high heat and pan-fry the chicken breast for 2 minutes each side. Place in the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking through.

Boil the dumplings for 1 minute or until thawed. Add the somen noodles and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain. Remove the pan from the oven and set the chicken aside.

Fry the tom yum paste over medium–high heat for 2 minutes, then pour in the coconut milk. Add ½ cup (125 ml) of water to the tin and swish it around, then add to the pan. Bring to a simmer, stirring to combine with the tom yum paste.

Meanwhile, lightly steam the bok choy.

Slice the chicken and divide among two shallow bowls, then add the noodles, dumplings and bok choy.

Pour the broth over the top. Drizzle with sesame oil, then the lime juice and top with as much chilli paste as you can handle.

Fress - to eat copious and without restraint.

Fress - to eat copious and without restraint.

What a great word! and a pretty cool name for a cookbook if you ask me.

Fress by Emma Spitzer, the cookbook with the very cool name arrived in my letter box a good few weeks ago and I've been meaning to write this up for a little while now. It's is a cookbook that's full of traditions and family recipes. I have always felt a pull to find out my family tree and where everyone came from but to be honest, I just want to know what they ate. I want to know what traditions were kept, if something was made on a weekly basis? or for Easter or every birthday? I want to know what they kept on cooking and eating even when life got...well life. I'm nosey. And well because, everyone has to eat no matter whats going on in their life or how shitty their day was. We still have to eat.

Shanghai stir-fried chunky noodles by Fuchsia Dunlop from Land of Fish and Rice

The other day I was extremely lucky and received a copy of Fuchsia Dunlop's new cookbook 'Land of Fish and Rice' in the mail. Fuchsia Dunlop is known for her authentic Chinese cooking but I've never owned one of her cookbooks before, having heard only good things everywhere I was pretty exciting to get a copy. The first thing I did was grab a pen and paper to make my shopping list, knowing well and good I'd need to stock my pantry with a few bits and pieces from the Asian supermarket. What I didn't realise was that there would be quite a number of vegetables that I've never heard of and to be honest, no idea what or where to look for them.

It was the dumpling section of the book which had me hooked the minute I flicked to it. I have a weakness for Chinese dumplings, doesn't everyone?! but the thought of making them on a Thursday night after work was a little intimidating so I'll admit it, I went for an easier looking, midweek option rather then some of the other more complicated dishes in this cookbook. The other section of the book which I was drawn to was the noodles and rice chapter, any type of fried noodles or rice and I'm done. I decided to make the Shanghai stir-fried chunky noodles as it can be a stand alone dish or part of a banquet style dinner, plus the ingredients weren't too obscure and no random vegetables I'd never heard of so I jumped at it almost instantly.

My first tip if you're going to make this dish or in fact any of the dishes that require stir-frying in this book, get a wok. I don't have one and I kind of struggled. The pot I used had noodles sticking to the bottom instantly and needed soaking for a good 48 hours after. My second piece of advice when making this dish is get the wok stupidly hot! Do not use your crock pot like me and have it over a medium flame. I felt like I was having a work out trying to toss the noodles and get to the the bottom of the pan to stop the sticking.

Apart from my pan troubles, the flavour of these noodles with strips of lean pork dotted throughout and crunchy pakchoi was delicious. It was salty and comforting and the vegetables added a lovely freshness to the whole dish, it was moorish. I could have eaten the whole pot myself in one sitting if my stomach had allowed it. Normally when I make a throw-everything-in-a-pot-stir-fry I make them a little heavier on the vegetables but what I've come to realise is that Chinese cooking is a lot about sharing a variety of dishes so I think a vegetable dish on the side would be a perfect combo to these noodles.

I can't wait to get stuck into the other recipes in this book and even plan a banquet style dinner party... might need to tell people to byo a chair but it'd be worth it to try some of the other dishes. A trip to the asian fruit and veg store might need to happen first and maybe even bring the cookbook along with me so I can ask for help. With some of the ingredients I wouldn't even know where to start but there is nothing wrong with a challenge now and then for a delicious dinner.

Shanghai stir-fried chunky noodles

by Fuchsia Dunlop from 'Land of Fish and Rice'

100g lean pork
425g fresh Shanghai noodles or Japanese udon
2 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
200g baby green pakchoi or 2 large handfuls of spinach (I used regular pakchoi)
1 1/2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
salt
ground white pepper

for the marinade:
1/2 teaspoon light soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Shaoxing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
2 teaspoons potato starch (potato flour)
1 tablespoon beaten egg or 1 tablespoon cold water

- Cut the pork evenly into thin slices, then into slivers. Add the marinade ingredients and mix well.

- Bring a pan of water to the boil. Add the noodles and cook for 2 minutes (fresh shanghai and udon are half-cooked when you buy them which is why this doesn't take long) or if using dried noodle, according to packet instructions. Turn the cooked noodles into a colander and cool under the cold tap. Shake them dry. Drip over 1/2 tablespoon oil and stir in thoroughly to prevent sticking.

- Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a seasoned wok over a high flame. Add the pork strips and stir-fry swiftly to separate them. When they are just cooked, remove from the wok and set aside.

- Clean and re-season the wok if necessary, then return it to a light flame with the remaining oil. Add the noodles and stir-fry until piping hot (if you used regular pakchoi, add it with the noodles), adding both soy sauces and seasoning well with sale and ground white pepper. Add the baby pakchoi or spinach and continue to stir-fry until just wilted. Finally, stir in the pork. Serve.

Land of Fish and Rice by Fuchsia Dunlop is published by Bloomsbury Publishing, August 2016 (RRP $49.99).

Chicken Noodle Soup - adapted from Martha Stewart.

So my attitude towards not wanting wintery foods did a 180 pretty quickly over the rainy weekend... all I felt like was chicken noodle soup. chicken noodle soup. chicken noodle soup. chicken noodle soup... I could not get it off my mind.

I've never made chicken noodle soup before but have always thought that it was something that had to sit on the stove simmering away for hours, used a whole chicken and then be able to feed an army with the amount you made. It sounded a bit daunting to me to be honest and not a midweek dinner.

But my cravings for comfort food over came any doubt I might of had and I sought out this recipe from Martha Stewart for Chicken Noodle Soup that didn't require hours of cooking, a whole chook or feed an army AND you can have this soup on the table within the hour. I was sold.

Oh my goodness! how oh how have I never made chicken noodle soup before?? Seriously!? It is everything I ever dreamed the soup to be and better. Perfect for a cold night or if someone in your home has come down with 'man flu' or passed the 'man flu' onto you (cough cough).

I adapted the recipe slightly because I couldn't help myself and added parsley stalks, a knob of butter, a bay leaf and used parsley instead of dill because that is what I had in our herb garden and of course I added a few extra noodles.

This is a great midweek soup that doesn't take long to prepare or cook and definitely feels like you have put a whole lot of effort in. I want to try and make chicken soup using a whole chicken and home made stock this winter but will save that for a weekend of pottering about when it's too rainy to leave the house. Until then... I have found my winter saviour!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Recipe adapted - original recipe by Martha Stewart.

Serves 4

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
2 sticks celery, diced small
2 medium carrots, roughly chopped into 1cm rings (or creative as you like)
1 brown onion, diced small
Salt and pepper
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken stock
450g (approx.) skinless chicken breasts
220g think spaghetti (or angel-hair spaghetti or vermicelli)
small bunch parsley, chopped, stalks reserved

- Heat oil and butter in a large pot until butter is melted then add your celery, carrots and onions. Fry them on a medium heat for about 5 minutes until the onion is translucent and vegetables start to soften. Season with salt and pepper.

- Tie your reserved parsley stalks into a neat little parcel with some kitchen string (or you can let them wonder around but it's easier to take them out at the end it you tie them up - just don't do a Bridget Jones blue soup - google it!) and add them along with the bay leaf, stock and 4 cups of water into the pot and bring to a boil.

- Add your chicken breasts into the pot, clunk on a lid and simmer until cooked, about 10-15 minutes but it does depend on how large your chicken breasts are.

- Using tongs, remove the chicken from the pot and shred using two forks or chop it into small soup spoon sized pieces. Return it into the pan and bring everything back up to the boil.

- Add your spaghetti (or vermicelli) and cook until tender according to the packet instructions. I used thin spaghetti and it took about 10 minutes but I know other noodles don't take as long.

- Give it a taste, season with more salt and pepper (if needed) and stir in the parsley. Serve and enjoy... mmmm

charred beef and rice noodle stir-fry from delicious. magazine.

I think the thing with takeaway is that it just never tastes the same when you try and make it at home and you don't get the variety of a couple of dishes in the same sitting. Yes even home alone on a Friday night I order at least 2 mains (plus entrees)... variety is the spice of life!

In the new delicious. magazine this month they have a great charred beef and rice noodles stir-fry recipe that tastes pretty close to a dish at the local thai around the corner from us. I just need to find the right noodles and I think it would have been spot on. My supermarket didn't have big fat flat rice noodles... I chose the fattest ones they had but not the same thing but then I'm being picky and in reality a noodle 1cm thinner is probably not going to make that much of a difference.

I was pretty impressed with this dish as there wasn't many ingredients and normally when I make a stir-fry I start getting every asian condiment and sauce in my fridge and pantry out and add a little of everything and then it all ends up tasting the same. This time I went by the recipe (kinda) and trusted it. I couldn't find bean sprouts so I used some baby pak choi instead and my measurements were adjusted slightly with the soy sauce as I adjusted the recipe for 2 people instead of 4 ...but it still tasted pretty amazing!

The only wok I own is a mini wok that still overflows when making fried rice for one so instead of charring the beef then charring the noodles in a wok on high I used my regular frying pan. This meant that they weren't really charred so even if you don't own a wok don't let that discourage you. It still tastes great even without the charring! It's easy, simple flavours and I was very impressed.

Before you serve it give it a little taste. I added a tiny splash extra fish sauce and dark soy to mine and big dollop of sambal oelek (chilli paste) but the brand of sauce you have used might be saltier than mine so always taste first. I have over salted on more than one occasion being heavy handed with the soy or oyster sauce and made it so salty that it was completely inedible. Now I'm a better safe than sorry girl :) I hate being disappointed with a dinner and wasting stomach space.

I think this is a great mid week dinner, I don't think it took more than 20 min to prep everything and cook it.

Charred beef & rice noodles stir-fry

Serves 2

(recipe adapted from delicious. magazine February 2015 issue - find original recipe here.)

300g minute beef steaks, sliced into strips

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce

200g flat rice noodles (softened in boiling water if using dried)

2 teaspoons sunflower oil

2 teaspoons sesame oil

5 spring onions, white & pale green parts chopped, dark green parts thinly sliced on an angle for garnish at the end

2 teaspoons of fish sauce

1 bunch broccolini, sliced in half and lengthways

1 bulb of baby pak choi, washed and leaves separated

sambal oelek (chilli paste), to serve

- Place a frying pan (or wok) on high heat and fry the beef and half of the dark soy sauce until the beef is brown all over and cooked through (or charred if using a wok) about 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

- Place the same frying pan back on high heat and add your noodles and remaining soy sauce and cook for about 1 minute until noodles are charred (mine didn't char in the frying pan so if your using a wok this step might work).

- Next add both oils, chopped spring onions, fish sauce and vegetables and stir fry for a further 3 minutes until vegetables are tender.

- Return the beef to the pan with any resting juices and toss until heated through.

- Taste to see if you need a little extra dash of anything and serve with the dark green parts of the spring onions and some sambal oelek for a little bit of spice (optional).

Soba Noodle Salad with broccoli, chicken and toasted nori by Karen Martini.

Oh my goodness it's Sunday already!!??

It's been a beautiful weekend of weather and what more to celebrate summer on it's way than salads!!

I love a good salad. I'd been eye-ing off this recipe for ages but always went past it because of the sauce it used which I could never find in the super market and the fact that it used cooked roast chicken. I don't know how often you have left over roast chicken in your house but I don't have it often so the leftovers are always minimal.

But you know... who's going to stop me from roasting a couple of chicken breasts and shredding them especially for the salad. It's not hard work. Turn the oven on, place 2 chicken breast on a baking tray with some olive oil, salt and pepper and cook for 45 min. Done.

SO with no more excuses I finally made the soba noodle salad with broccoli, chicken and toasted nori from Karen Martini's Feasting cookbook that I'd been wanting to make for ages. Actually there are so many dishes in the book that I want to make but the book is set out as huge feasts and all of the dishes feed alot of people. Yes I know I can cut the down and halve them but it's hard when I'm menu planning for the week to grab a book that has all these beautiful large feasts in it when I'm looking for a quick midweek meal. But I was wrong about this book. I was pleasantly surprised that the recipe I chose was easy and didn't take that long, it was a perfect midweek meal with leftovers for lunch the following day (the nori sheets went a little soft but the flavours were maybe even better).

The recipe calls for ponzu... yeh I didn't know what that was either so I googled it while grocery shopping and it doesn't seem like it would be too hard to find in a well stocked supermarket but the one I go to is being renovated at the moment so is not so great. But here's hoping it gets better! When I couldn't find ponzu on the shelves I googled how to make it and I came across a few recipes that required reduced master stock and other fancy ingredients only available form asian grocery stores and nothing could help me in my supermarket dilema. Then I found a simple version here. What did I have to loose? If it tasted bad then I wouldn't use it and we'd make something else up instead and if it did then I could feel like a ponzu genius.

I felt like a ponzu genius.

The whole salad was super yummy. It impressed me so much how all the flavours worked together and how fresh and delicious it all tasted. YUM. I will definitely do this again soon now that I know how easy and tasty it is. Plus I feel that it's pretty healthy too... correct me if I'm not though.

It felt healthy anyway :)

A great recipe for when you have the girls over because you can have it already to go then add the nori sheets and dress it right before you serve and there is no excess cooking while people are over. And you can fell healthy eating it so the ice cream after doesn't make you feel too guilty :)

Soba Noodle Salad with broccoli, chicken and toasted nori

serves 4

recipe adapted from Karen Martini's cookbook 'Feasting' - find original recipe on here

2 chicken breasts

2 tbsp olive oil

pinch of salt & pepper

(or 400g leftover roast chicken, shredded)

300g dried soba noodles

1 head broccoli, cut into florets

2 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tsp sesame oil

60ml soy sauce

30ml rice wine vinegar

30ml cup lime juice

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 heaped tsp jarred grated ginger

5 spring onions, finely sliced

1 sheet of toasted nori, roughly ripped into shreds

- Preheat your oven to 200 C or 400 F.

- Drizzle olive oil over chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place on a baking tray and bake for 30-45 minute or until cooked through. Remove from the oven and cover with foil to keep in the juices.

- Go and do something else fun for a little while so it can cool down a little (or prep everything else so it's all ready to do).

- Combine the sesame seeds, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, extra virgin olive oil and ginger in a large bowl (your will eventually put everything in this bowl - the bigger the better).

- Cook the soba noodles according to packet instructions (mine took about 3-4 minutes), drain and refresh under cold water.

- Cook the broccoli for 2 minutes and then drain, rinsing under cold water.

- Shred the chicken breasts with two forks. 

- Place chicken, noodles, broccoli, spring onions into the bowl with all the sauces and top with nori.

- Serve cold or at room temperature.

Nigella Lawson's Vietnamese Noodle Soup from Kitchen.

Nigella Lawson came visiting my kitchen tonight for dinner and it was so delicious!

Tonight I made Nigella Lawson's Vietnamese Noodle Soup from her book Kitchen. It was meant o be made with pork fillet but due to my massive debt I've accumulated throughout my apprenticeship my budget does not include pork fillet for dinner. I used chicken breast instead and it still tasted amazing!

Planning our meals this week, I realised I wanted something spicy and fresh one night but realised I didn't own any Vietnamese or Thai food cookbooks. I'm sure there are lots of recipes that I'm yet to still find hidden in the books on my bookshelf but none that solely focus on that specific cuisine. Yes, in my huge collection I found a hole... looks like I'll need to do some research to fill that gap. The latest books that are on my wish list are all French food based or American cuisine but it looks like I need to do some more research and maybe buy a new bookshelf at the same time.

This recipe in Nigella's Kitchen was in the Hurry up I'm Hungry! section which during the week quick meals work well for me and I assume others too. I read this recipe and it sounded perfect. Quick, spicy, soupy, noodles... mmmm yum!

Vietnamese Chicken Noodle Soup from Nigella Lawson - Kitchen.
(recipe adapted)
Serves 4 or 2 hungry people

1 large chicken breast, thinly sliced
2 Tbs lime juice
2 Tbs soy sauce
1/2 tsp paprika
2 Tbs fish sauce
270g ramen noodles
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 clove garlic, crushed,
6 spring onions, sliced
a thumb sized piece of ginger, grated
1 chilli, thinly sliced
1 L chicken stock (Nigella even says stock cubes are fine here so it was a green light to use them)
250g bean sprouts
1 bunch pak choi, roughly chopped
1 Tbs fresh corriander, leaves and stalks

- Place sliced chicken, lime juice, soy sauce, paprika and fish sauce in a bowl and let sit for 10 minutes.

- Meanwhile cook the noodles as the packet instructions tell you to and refresh them in cold water.

- Heat the oil in a heavy based frying pan and add garlic, ginger, coriander stalks and chilli and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the chicken and all the juices to the pan and cook for a few minutes stirring until the chicken had cooked through. This wont take long if you have sliced it thinly.

- Add stock and bring to the boil. Add bean sprouts and pak choi and allow soup to come back to the boil. Taste the soup to see if it needs more seasoning and add extra soy sauce if needed.

- Serve noodles in each bowl, pouring over ladles of fragrant soup with the chicken and vegetables. Top with coriander leaves and a little extra splash of lime juice. Enjoy. I did :)