sort of kedgeree...

Actually I made the curry powder (previous post) because I felt like this dish for breakfast on Sunday morning.  I can eat any types of food any time of the day and any left over dinner to me is the ultimate breakfast.
Anyway there was some left over plain white rice in the fridge from the previous nights dinner and I felt like something savoury and spicy, so kedgeree came to mind, not that I have made it before or actually eaten it either.
Well I started looking at some recipes and realised I did'nt have the main ingredient which is smoked haddock.  Well that wasn't going to deter me and I thought tuna from a can would be a reasonable substitute.  I was pleasantly surprised, very tasty.  I love eggs and tomatoes so it couldn't be wrong.
Probably a dish you don't want to eat at work as it has the winning smell combination of eggs, fish and curry.

For my adapted recipe from Jamie Oliver, you will need

• 2-3 cups of cooked plain white rice
• 1 small tin of lite tuna  (or preferably use smoked haddock or even smoked fish would be better)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder
• 1 tablespoon mustard seeds
• 4 chopped tomatoes
• 4 soft boiled or hard if you prefer eggs
• 1 handful of chopped coriander

Start by frying the onions in some butter on medium heat then add the garlic and ginger and gently fry till they have softened.  Next add the curry powder and mustard seeds and mix together to get a good paste.

Next add the rice to the pan and mix through the spice mixture till well coated and warmed through, followed by the tuna, tomatoes, coriander and eggs and there you have it.

homemade curry powder

Curry powder is much more vibrant if you make it yourself.  I adapted the recipe from here

To make it, put together

• 4 tablespoons of cumin powder
• 3 1/2 tablespoons of coriander powder ( I dry fried whole seeds and smashed them in the mortar and pestle)
• 2 tablespoon of turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoon of ginger powder
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder

Spices have so many health benefits especially tumeric see here for all the wonders it does

Finn Bowman Gromdays 2

This is a you tube video of Finn skateboarding at 'Victoria Park' a few weeks ago.  He will kill me if he knows I have posted this.  I was just experimenting on how to upload video on to my post.  Obviously it was successful.  I now see why Finn has so many bruises and scabs.  Make sure you watch it to the end when he finally gets his tricks down.

roast for one

This is my dinner that I made and took to work last night.  We had some drumsticks left over from another dinner and decided I would roast whatever was about.  Which was carrots, kumara, potatoes, some cabbage an onion, cloves of garlic and one very small red pepper and of course some herbs that are in the garden.

 Prepare the vege, add a glug of olive oil and lots of salt and pepper.  I slice the onions and layer them on the bottom of the dish along with the rosemary and thyme.  Then pile on the rest any way you like.

Roast in a 180C - 200C preheated oven.  I cook it in 3 lots of 15 minutes, turning it over and making sure things aren't getting too charred and that everything is getting coated in the juices.
I added some fresh thyme at the end because it tastes so nice.  The cabbage becomes really sweet and amalgamates with the onions perfectly.  Lastly it's added to my lunchbox all ready to be reheated in the microwave at dinner time at work.  Yum...

spicy lamb with lebanese bread

I made this for myself and Jacob for lunch using the left over lamb from the night before.
I chopped up the cold lamb from the fridge and fried in a pan with a big pinch of ground coriander, cumin, and sweet smoked paprika and salt and pepper and some olive oil.

I heated up a lebanese bread ( I like the 'Jabal brand - you can get it from most supermarkets)
in a large cast iron fry pan with no oil.  It only takes a couple of minutes on both sides.

Then I put down a layer of sweet spicy tomato sauce (just add some chilli to it) on the bread, then the lamb and what ever vege you have.
I used lettuce, red onion, red cabbage, tomatoes, coriander and mint and topped it off with some yogurt sauce.  The flavour combinations go so well together, really delicious.  You could make it vegetarian and use hummus instead of the lamb if you prefer.
Jacob ate his like a loaded pizza and I used less filling and folded mine over in half.

marinated butterflied lamb

We had this marinated butterflied leg of lamb for dinner on Sunday night.  I have posted this marinade recipe before but there was no picture and it is so easy and delicious I thought I would post it again.

For the marinade you will need

• 1 butterflied leg of lamb  ( you could use any cut of lamb - steaks or chops)
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cloves of chopped garlic
• 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander ( I dry fried whole seeds and ground )
• zest of 1 lemon
• handful of coriander finely chopped
• lots of salt and pepper

For the cooking I seared it fat side down in a large fry pan on moderate high heat with a small amount of olive oil until golden, then I turned it over, cooked for about another minute and then put it in a pre heated oven 180C for about 20 mins or until a thermometer reaches 63C.  Make sure you let it rest for 15 mins before slicing.

We had the lamb with a simple tomato salad of tomatoes, red onion, chopped mint and coriander, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
Along with some small cut roast potatoes and yogurt sauce with a lot of finely cubed cucumber added to it.

photos from sunday

Lily has wanted a hammock for our outside room forever.  I came across this one at the 'Trade Aid' shop.  Chris put it up yesterday.

Beautiful Peonies.  Just about to do there dash, but their colours at this time are just beautiful.  I bought these from the 'lady who sells them from her truck' at Shore Rd, Remuera (Sports ground carpark).  She is there Wed, Thurs and Fri morning till about 1pm.  Really fresh and much cheaper than any where else.

The tuis have been waking me up at the crack of dawn clicking and barking away for the last few weeks.  Nice but the flax flower nectar it likes, are right by our bedroom window,  really loud!  Apparently the tui has a huge vocal range, some sounds that we as humans cannot even register.

I was delighted to capture some shots in the Pohutakawa tree out the back.  Usually by the time I have found my camera it has flown away.