July 2007 - Thai Pork Stir-fry

I started this post a couple of days ago and haven't managed to get back to it until now. I am sitting here waiting for the electrician to turn up. He was supposed to be here an hour ago but he had an emergency call so will hopefully be here soon. I am hoping that I will not end up being too late for work. I have already called work to let them know I might be. I guess that I will have to work late to make up the time, although I already have to make up some time from yesterday when I had to do to a medical appointment. Wonderful to have a boss that is flexible enough to let me do these things.

Anyway, back to the food. There were a few recipes that I considered in this issue. The first was Jamie Oliver's Mulligatawny Soup. I don't think that I have ever made a mulligatawny soup before, although I am pretty sure that I have had it. It looked pretty easy and sounded really tasty but I had just made a soup and even though it is winter, I didn't want to make another one straight away.

Next option was Valli Little's Pumpkin, Sage & Ricotta Lasagne. This is such a good recipe. I have actually made it and various other vegetarian lasagne recipes before. I would highly recommend it. It is an excellent dish for entertaining as it can be made ahead of time and then just popped in the oven when needed. It is also quick to put together and very tasty. If you don't have sage in your garden it is an herb that is seasonal. It can die off in the winter months so supplies of it can be short depending on where you live. You can try other herbs. I have used oregano before and it is lovely but not quite as good as the sage. However since I have made this recipe a number of times it was time to make something else. Although I just had to share it with you all.

I had originally intended on making two different recipes to make a full meal, both from Skye Gyngell's feature on hazelnut recipes. The first is pan-fried veal and english spinach with hazelnut picada. This seems to be an easy dish, the picada with a combination of sourdough crumbs, hazelnuts, sage, orange zest and juice, with a few other ingredients, sounded terrific. To go with that the facing page in the magazine has a beautiful looking roast pumpkin & blood orange salad with toasted hazelnuts. The combination sounds divine. I am not normally a huge orange fan but I do love blood oranges although they are few and far between here. The green in the salad is lamb's lettuce or mache which I don't think I have ever had or seen so I probably would have needed to substitute something else. I have a party this coming weekend for which I am making a few things so I may give it a whirl if I can find some blood oranges. Although I will probably end up just making my spinach, avocado and roast pumpkin salad with lime vinaigrette. I coat the diced pumpkin in garlic olive oil before roasting and it ends up with a beautiful hint of garlic in the salad without it being too overpowering.

After struggling with what to make it was decided one night when I just needed something quick to make after work. I ended up making Valli Little's Thai Pork Stir-fry. This was fabulous. I had most things for it but did have to make a couple of substitutions. I didn't have any green beans so used some zucchini and carrot. I had Asia at Home massaman paste in the fridge so use that one. I didn't have thai basil but did have some sweet basil that I was going to use but forgot until I was sitting down eating. While I was eating this I had vague recollections that I may have made this before, either when issue #62 first came out or as a recipe that I had found on taste.com.au. Although since it isn't saved in my cookbook on Taste I am assuming it was from the magazine. So I guess that I broke my rule about making new things, although I didn't remember that I had made it before which is strange as it was very, very good. I will definitely make this one again. I still have some massaman paste so I might make it again soon. It doesn't look that great on the plate but it definitely is worth making.