Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #10: Pork Curry and Rice

This should be a nice straightforward one. The recipe just has you using the Japanese style instant roux which I've done before. It doesn't mention making the rice but we already know how thanks to RECIPE #1

Peel!

I used 2x fairly big potatoes and carrots cause that seemed like a good amount. No I did not arrange them to look like a weenus on purpose. hehe though. 

Slice up!

Chopped these up into big ol' chunks. Also cut 2 (smallish) brown onions to the same size.

Cut!

I bought one of those weird long PORK FILLETS because I thought that might be a nice cut to use. Have some leaner meat chunks rather than chewy fatty bits. And it's weirdly cheap.

Saute!

In the gameplay these always seemed to take about the same amount of time to cook so i've just tossed them in together. Took ages to brown a bit but eh no worries. They'll have more time to cook fully in the stewing part.

Measure and add!

The curry roux I am using has instructions on how much water to use, so we are doing just that!

Stew!

Stewing it in the water and adding the curry roux halfway through. Stir it a lot to make sure it's all dissolved and just let it do its thing really. Just left it on low heat for like 40 mins.

Finish

*****

This recipe is SO straightforward and so satisfying. The pork tasted great and you're making like 4-6 meals worth at a time. I highly recommend adding this to your repertoire if you need more simple, cheap recipes to feed a family or meal prep. (And if you're vegan you can easily skip the meat or add mushrooms)

Curry Pizza.. No really.

Mode: 2-4 Player
Hardware: Pans, Oven.
Accessories: Water.

Sometimes you just have to try something.

I always like to be all 'It's alive!' when I add yeast.

The main thing I wanted to do with this experiment is have a go at making a pizza bread with indian style spices.

Gritty. Those afflicted with pica look away please.

I used my new blendermajig's grind feature to grind up some onion seed, cardamom and garlic to put in the bread dough.

Stuff was cooked.

I think I got some dairy free rogan josh or something of that nature, to cook with chicken and is that onion and cucumber I guess? I don't REMEMBER THIS AT ALL. This is what I get for not keeping up with this blog. What are we even doing here? Jesus, Valkyrie.

I lack the facilities to make it round. ROUND IS OVERRATED.

Here's the pizza base in the oven. Can I just say that if you've never done this, you should definately try making your own pizza dough. Home made bread is THE SHIT I don't know why it's always so good. But it always is. You could just eat that on its own.

It's cool only the whole internet can see.

Man, this curry looks kinda dry. I don't know. Guess I needed more sauce. I'd have done something creamier, but... it had to be dairy free, so yeah.

Probably more to Splinter's tastes than the ninja turtles.

Post-Mortem: ** The bread was awesome, the curry was sortof dry and oniony, I actually ended up adding some ketchup to it to make it a little saucier. Curry goes great with bread, naturally. Also, this is really more of a knife and fork endeavour in spite of me calling it a 'pizza'.

The tale of the perfect omelette.

Mode: 2 Player
Hardware: Pans
Accessories: Peach Iced Tea

So I had a few more turkey leftovers, but slightly less than I thought for a stir fry, so I decided to supplement it by making a bit of shredded omelette like a foo yung kinda thing. I'm really really rubbish at making omelettes that don't turn into scrambled egg, see, so I'm just going to make a really shitty one and then mash it up to put in!

WHAT IS THIS SORCERY?

...Except it turned out to be the BEST OMELETTE I'VE EVER MADE IN MY LIFE. Look at it, perfectly browned, perfectly circular... ideal thickness. CURSE YOU PERFECT OMELETTE! I CAN'T BEAR TO DESTROY YOU.

Not sure what I think about failing at failing.

So I'll just serve it all side-dish-y. Anyway meanwhile, don't forget to boil/steam some WHITE RICE to go with this.. stirry fry monstrocity thing.

hey look vegetables.

I chop up some.. ah whats in there... celery, carrot, pepper, possibly red onion, into some pretty small pieces and fry them up first.

Stuff and bits!

When the vegetables were cooked a bit, added the leftover turkey. There was also a bunch of like garlic and stuffing in there too.. thats cool though.

Oops I sneezed.

Then I add frozen peas and some store bought thai green curry sauce. It looks HILARIOUSLY disgusting like phlegmy baby vomit. But don't worry, itll look good when it's done.

SEEEE?

Post-Mortem:**** See! This meal was pretty ace, perfect omelette and all. Not really sure what exactly its meant to be, just food on a plate.

Chilli'd to the Bone

Mode: 2-4 Player
Hardware: Pans
Accessories: HOT Chocolate.

Euch, have I ever mentioned how much I hate winter? You do the whole Christmas thing, which is cool, but then after that you realise that you've got like 2 more months of that shit, and then 3 more months of people telling you it's spring now, and you seeing absolutely no evidence of that because it's still cold as balls.

Anyway, this is LITERALLY the best thing to make in winter. It suits both the 24-hour narcoleptic level tiredness you feel, and the desire to cram yourself with searing hot and spicy red meat and carbs. Who would have thought the mexicans knew so much about european winter? 'Cause it's Mexican beef and bean chilli.

Baby button sounds weird.

Beef mince, Mushrooms, 1 Carrot, 1 red onion, and my super special ingredient, a tin of mixed beans in a CHILLI SAUCE. For vegetarians, you can do exactly the same but without the beef. You won't even miss it.

You won't be all 'where's the beef?' Because that's old.

So we start with dicing and frying the beef, onion and carrot, with a helping of crushed garlic in there.

Second worst hot chocolate ever.

Now I dissolved spices in some hot water to make a stock. If I can remember what's in there... probably everything. But especially these things: Beef stock, black pepper, chilli powder (depending on how spicy you like it) and yes, cocoa powder. Trust me, I know what i'm doing.

It'll grow out of the grunge phase.

Add the mushrooms now, and reduce this a little cause it's kinda soupy. You could start making some white rice now to go on the side.

Kidney beans, lung beans, um.. pancreas beans?

Now add the special ingredients and cackle ominously, but not too loud because that's annoying and we're trying to watch TV.

Second best hot chocolate ever.

Keep reducing it until it gets to a pleasing thickness. If you haven't got all day, give up at some point and just pretend its meant to be more of a stew type thing.

Stick it in your chilli con crannies.

Post-Mortem: **** It was a little soupier and less spicy than intended, but then some people prefer a mild chilli. It's hard to cause displeasure with a chilli. Does anyone out there honestly dislike it? Well keep it to yourself, because I don't know you and I don't care.

Fill-up Fillets

Mode: 2 Player
Hardware: Oven
Accessories: Cuppa Tea

Beep boop. I am Allietron 2000 sent to the future from the past (I'm an out of date model) to fill your brains with information pertaining to nutrition preparation.

Sticker reccomended for obscuring unwanted information.

Hydrate the financially favourable food granules by adding the correct amount of water as determined by the instructionals on the containerment vessel.

Also good recipe for paramite brisket.

Apply the nutrition granules into hand-crafted poultry compartment systems. Place in the food heating capsule for precisely 25-ish minutes EARTH TIME.

USE FORK TO PUNCTURE NUTRIENTS

Use as a part of an approved meal with regulation 4354 type green goods and starch discs. Enjoy at a level of ** or more.

Spinach, motherfucker. Do you eat it?

Mode: 2 Player
Hardware: Pans
Accessories: Cold drink

OK so we have some catching up to do. We haven't spoken in a while. It's been um... good... I've had a nice holiday.  I started some other things as you can probably tell. Now I'm going through my camera archives trying to find food items I have taken pictures of last year and trying to vaguely recall what the hell I was doing. Let's see how I do anyway.
 
This appears to be a pork, spinach and butternut squash wrapped in a chapatti.  It's like indian style british food done mexican style.

In case of emergencies, squash also makes a good melee weapon.

It's a pretty simple recipe with few ingredients; about half a squash, some of a bag of spinach, a small pack of diced pork, a big or two medium onions, a cheap jar of madras sauce, and of course the chapattis.

Make sure onion seeds, not tiny beetles.

Fry up basically everything, starting with the onion and squash and pork, leaving the spinach till later on cause its leafy. I think I put some onion seed in there.

If eating pigs is wrong, give me a sign less subtle than trichinosis.

The spinach and madras sauce go in, mm looks its all orange with green bits. Other food that is orange with green bits: carrot and basil soup, pumpkin pie with um... green bits...

SANDWICH DELIS NEVER DO THIS

I lightly fry the bread a little to make it taste good and not all mushy like the ones you get when you order a tortilla wrap sandwich anywhere in the uk.

Overcooking chapatti may lead to taco-esque wrapping issues.

Post-Mortem: **** Delicious! ...Probably. I don't really remember too well, but I suspect so. Looks like a winner.

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Fail!

Mode: 2 Player
Hardware: Pan
Accessories: Cola

Tobi the lavender warrior mentioned to me, what he calls EGG SURPRISE. A hard boiled egg wrapped in mince. So... basically a scotch egg but less gross? OK.

PS this is something I made like two weeks ago, but then I lost my camera, and then I just got... yknow.. a little procrastinate-y.

Now, just a large scotch egg on its own sounds like a terrible meal, to be honest. So I decided to try making some POTATO DISCS. Like potato wedges, but... well, you know.. discier.

Sliced them all and dunked them in a mixture of olive oil, cajun and mixed fajita spices. Then they went in the oven for like 35 mins.

Here I made a mincy mixture of beef, onion and diced basil. I'm a little concerned about my slightly large onions, this mince might not stay together so well. But I'm only making 2 giant meatballs, so all I need to do is get it right... twice...

I boiled these eggs the day before, since a boiled egg will keep just great and it saves a bit of time. PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT AT THE START HAHAHA.

So they're all wrapped up and in the frying pan.

WELL, That failed.

Post-Mortem: *** Well, the giant meatball tasted good and all, but I did basically wreck it. And it basically was just a meat and onion patty with an egg in it. However, what saves the score on this one was those potato discs, they are AMAZINGGGGG. You have the flavours and firmness of a wedge, but with the greater surface area for a better flavour to potato ratio, not to mention a greater crispy-outer-bit to potato ratio!

I won't arborio with the details.

Mode: 1-2 Player
Hardware: Pan
Accessories: Lady Grey Tea

I was going to make a nice mushroom risotto with some mushrooms that I had in the fridge but TWIST they were mouldy.

Sad mushroomy grave.

:'(

I could eat nasty sainsbury's seafood mix EVERY DINNER.

So I had to improvise with whatever else I had. Seafood mix, carrots and beans, half an onion, sweetcorn and of course the risotto rice.

Casually stealing Flander's sandwich materials as usual.

Lots of soy spread, garlic and finely chopped parsley. I melt the butter over the rice before I add the water incrementally.

Not necessary if you aren't this bored.

This is a finely chopped up vegetable stock cube. That also goes in.

Broth it like it's hot. Broth it like it's hot.

Here I add the water and the other vegetables. You can kinda leave it for a while but keep coming back to stir and add more water when it gets soaked up.

The mug says 'PIG'.

Now is a good time to make a cup of tea! I like lady grey tea. Did you know that bergamot tea was invented to offset the nasty taste of northern hard water? FUN FACT.

Grains before prawn.

Once it was nearly ready, I added the pre-cooked seafood mix and frozen sweetcorn and stirred it in for a bit till it had warmed up.

Weeaboo chopsticks not necessary either.

Post-mortem: **** I enjoy this, I enjoy risotto in general, but I also like that 'seafoody' taste that a lot of people really don't like. Some seafood dishes I make are great because they don't taste 'fishy' in that way, but this one really really does. So... uh... yknow... to each his own... different strokes.. and uh.. keep watching the skies.