Wednesday 13 June 2007

Australians Women's Weekly read by Little Foodies

After reading a post by the lovely Kelly-Jane at Cooking the Books who did a quick curry with real spices a la Nigel Slater, I wanted a quick curry (most definitely using a jar of paste though). The boys had already eaten as we'd had a lovely impromptu afternoon at a friends house, (Thank you K for the lovely cold glass of white, nice chat and feeding the boys.) This was after I'd had a fantastic lunch with some very old friends (Thank you C & M). After such a lovely day I didn't want to COOK cook so I googled Australian Curry and was led to this article. The Australians Women's Weekly - Inspired but still unable to follow a recipe, I then did my own thing.

Lazy Girls Prawn and Spinach Curry
One bag of uncooked frozen king prawns (rinsed in water but still frozen)
Half a large onion which was lurking in the fridge - finely chopped
1 sachet of Bart's creamed coconut (Now selling them in 4 x handy 50g sachets)
Half a carton of cream (left over from Bill's scrambled eggs)
3 tablespoons of Patak's mild curry paste
3 huge handfuls of young spinach leaves
Big punch of parsley (didn't have any coriander) - finely chopped (& obviously I meant bunch)
Tablespoon of sunflower oil
Half a mug of boiling water

Fried the onions in the oil until nicely browned. Added the boiling water to get the brown bits off the bottom of the pan (for flavour and it would have made a mess of the pan).
Added the curry paste, cream and coconut milk. Warmed through until coconut milk had melted then added prawns, cooked for 2 minutes, then added spinach leaves, put a lid on and cooked for a further 5 minutes. Hubby and I decided it was the best curry we've had in ages.

Cooking under the influence - food to drink to by Ben Canaider and Greg Duncan Powell. This book is great. I've had it for ages, but again never cooked anything from it. I thought I wouldn't cook anything from it while we did Australia but the more I look at it, the more I'm compelled to try something. The writing is fun and I love the drinking notes. No snobby wine critic offerings just plain fun suggestions. Lots of the recipes also have a tips + tricks + tabletalk bit to the side. Some of which are very funny indeed. It's a good book! They probably behave a bit 'men behaving badly' but I reckon it would be a fun evening to have dinner with the writers and their ladies.

15 comments:

FH said...

Aussies like curry too!:)
Looks great,although I never use bottled curry paste etc. Patak's pickles are my fav.

Nora B. said...

Amanda, that is a good recipe that you whipped up there. And I actually have all the ingredients lying around at home (except for the cream). I like using AWW recipes because they always work. I don't know if you know this - 1 tbspn in AWW recipes is 20ml, and not the standard 15ml. I read that on one of the covers of the AWW recipe books.

Anonymous said...

Oh how I wish I could eat seafood, for that surely looks delicious. Don't you just love the Australian Women's weekly cookbooks???

Anonymous said...

Morning Daughter of Mine, I have just been looking at your blogpot. It amazes me how many cookery books your actually have. You must buy cookery books the way I buy novels. I know you get as much pleasure from them and they are probably more practical. You come up with some wonderful ideas. Lucky boys, having a Mummy who loves to cook.

Love You Lots
Mam XX

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Hi Asha, Everybody loves Indian food,surely? I know I should do it from scratch but there are days when I can't think about getting the measuring spoons out. I had leftovers with my friend for lunch today, it was even more tasty.

Hi Nora, They sell their cookery books here and everyone seems to love them. I didn't know that re: the measures so thank you for sharing. I'll add it as a tip, thank you.

Hi Marie, It was and I do. :)

Thanks Mum, you finally plucked up the courage to leave a comment! It's a 'blogpot' indeed. Love you!

Amanda xx

Kelly-Jane said...

Your curry looks fab Amanda :)

I've not heard of that book (must be slipping!)sounds interesting.

Love that your Mum has commented :) - big smile!

KJxx

Cynthia said...

Hey Amanda, that curry looks good! What I love about any seafood curry or seafood dish as a matter of fact is how quick it is easy to prepare and how easily it absorbs the flavour of the herbs and spices that's added to it.

Those guys so do look under the influence (lol)

Truffle said...

What a great recipe! Thanks for sharing. Sounds like it has some really wonderful flavours.

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Hi Kelly-Jane, thank you, it made me smile too.

Hi Cynthia, They do don't they!!

Hi Truffle, Thank you, it was, especially the next day as leftovers for lunch.

Amanda

Freya said...

I love quick curries and there's no shame in using a paste or powder. Sometimes I've found that the bought version is better than homemade (not many things you can say that about)! And a great way to use fridge leftovers up!

Anonymous said...

Sorry for the delay in commenting back - life has been hectic at the moment! But what wonderful stuff you've been writing about, just wanted to say 'thanks', your blogging is superb :)

Lovely curry recipe too - I am going to have a go!

Have a great weekend!

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Hi Freya, I know. Having spent time watching and helping my sister in law's mum cook a few Indian dishes (quite a while ago now) I know she'd be horrified at using a paste herself but sometimes it's just easier and quicker. Also I once made a curry from scratch for a dinner party and it tasted disgusting! Literally, as though I'd poured dry spices and sand in and not cooked it at all... I always keep paste on hand to rescue something if I do make it from scratch and it tastes like that did... It brought on much mirth and micky taking.

Hi Tash, thank you, you too.

Amanda

Nora B. said...

Hi again Amanda, thanks for recommending Asha's blog to me. It looks great and easy for me to follow. My mom cooks without a recipe and by estimation, but I've asked her to start writing her recipes down... esp. since we don't live in the same country now, so I can't watch and learn.

Amanda at Little Foodies said...

Hi Nora, My pleasure. Asha's is a great blog, you get authentic, at home Indian cooking with recipes - pretty hard to come by. Glad you checked it out. Amanda

Maggie said...

AWW have some fabulous recipes and you have certainly stumbled across a good one there.

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