Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #36: Chicken Kebabs

 AKA chicken yakitori! Mums here so she's helping me with this one.

Slice up!

Sliced up chicken thigh into some chunks.

Slice up!

Somehow managed to find some proper fresh shiitake mushrooms (thanks big tesco!) and a massive leek. So big I halved it as well

Place on the stick!

Avengers assemble!

Grill with charcoal!

I'm not grilling with charcoal I don't have a garden let alone a BBQ. We are grilling with an electric oven grill instead.

Finish!

***

Seems like it would be easily improved with seasoning and marinade, but the combination of chicken, shiitake mushrooms and leek is a distinctive and pleasing combination that i would definitely recommend. I served them with teriyaki and satay dips and they were both SO GOOD. Definitely do that.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #35: Egg Sunny Side-up

 Gonna make a fried egg and put it on some noodles.

Melt the butter!

Yes I have a novelty single egg sized pan that someone got me as a christmas present! We are deploying the micropan.

Break an egg!

White shells today, fancy waitrose eggs these.

Fry sunny side up!

Wait, add water? We're adding water? What are we making some sort of... froached eggs?

Finish!

****
I mean, it works and all. Makes a slightly softer, evenly cooked egg thats a little more like a poached egg. Would make a good substitute if you struggle with poaching eggs.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #34: Seasoned Beef with Potatoes

Japanese take on a beef stew. 

Peel!

I'm doubling up on the ingredients so that I can make a good amount of leftovers for later.

Slice up!

Chopping up into good stew-sized chunks.

Chop up!

Just halfing them and chopping them vertically so you get nice chunks.

Chop up!

I already have some chopped carrot stored in the freezer, so heres the beef as well. The game straight up didnt show the beef preparation, but I bought steak medallions and sliced them up quite thin as the meat looks all thin and wiggly when cooked in the game.

Saute!

Crowding the pan? whats that?

Remove foam!

Remember to use wooden or silicone utensils on non-stick pans! Unless you're me, im allowed to ruin my own pans. Nah but seriously im just skimming and not scraping against the sides so its fine.

Stew!

While stewing we add mirin, soy sauce, cooking sake and sugar. Left this to stew for about an hour.

Finish!

****

Nice! Not so different from a british beef stew if im honest. Maybe a little hint more sourness? but it's meaty, salty, n' well balanced.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #33: Rice Balls

Did this recipe BACK IN TIME again to when my family visited and brought umeboshi. NOICE

Measure and add!

ROICE

Measure and add!

WOIDA

Wash some rice!

My sisters washing the rice thanks sis you can buy her jewellery here: ETSY STORE LINK

Set the timer!

WOOSH that was fast.

Make rice balls!

So we managed to get 2 fun fillings for the recipes, umeboshi (pickled plums) and some smoked salmon flakes. Also we're using their cool rice ball shaper, because nobody told me I couldn't.

Finish

*****

These came out looking great! We topped the salmon ones with spices to tell them apart, there's another plate of umeboshi ones. Really tasty, fresh and filling, perfect for a picnic lunch.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #32: Fried Prawn

Ain't ever find big prawns over here so I thought id be a fancy bitch and buy some langoustines when I saw them.

Peel the shrimp!

Oh my god peeling these is SO HARD!!! They're tougher than prawns and they're absolutely covered in sharp thorns. Feels like a waste to bin the claws so i might try and cook them up separately, make some sort of shrimp stock? idk.

Coat various foods!

Coating them in flour and then egg.

Roll in the coating!

Trying to skimp on dishes so its a lil chaotic.

Deep Fry!

oops I knew i forgot something! These cooked so fast while I was tidying up. You'll just have to wait and see...

Arrange the plate!

One of the arrangement options is a bit of shredded cabbage, so I thought id just lean in hard on that and get this nice salad that will pair well.

Finish!

*****

OK so they're still not as big as Mama's colossal godzilla prawns. Seriously, where's she been fishing? Pangaea? But anyway these were soooo nice wow! Perfectly crispy, with impressively fresh juicy rich flavour. I had them with some gyoza dip i had leftover from some other ready-meal. Maybe this would have been about as good with some cheaper prawns, but I have no regrets these were amazing.

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #31: Pizza

Another one I made when my family visited. They already boast pretty mean pizza making skills but we are gonna let mama decree the rule on toppings and see what happens!

Add the ingredients!

Strong bread flour, olive oil, yeast, and (not pictured) warm water. Same as what we'd normally do.

Knead!

I have a stand mixer so I'm just going to mix it with that mainly. ggez

Roll out the dough!

Not really a circle but good go.

Cut!

I was supposed to slice up pepperoni but it mostly comes pre-sliced round these parts.

Cut!

I can slice you up a tomato though.

Spread pizza sauce!

Since the game doesn't specify, my sister made her lovely sauce recipe with tomato passata, oregano, balsamic vinegar, garlic powder and chili.

Add toppings freely!

The topping options in the game are any combination of: mozzarella, bacon, fresh tomatoes, pepperoni, mushroom, and prawns. So naturally we are doing all of them.

Set the timer!

I mostly use my intuition for pizzas but here's my oven anyway.

Finish

*****

A great pizza, but that's mostly down to us I feel. Mama's toppings are a pretty basic meaty meat flavour, and the bacon & tomatoes make it a little wet. Sun-dried tomatoes are the way to go, Mama!

Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #30: Pork Saute

This one seems pretty similar to the steak dish, but with some different flavours to mix it up. Bought some pork loin steaks again, those always seem to work well.

Remove tendon!

Still don't know what this is about I think they de-tendonize the meat I buy already. Not even going to trim the fat on these cause I think that'll fry well.

Tenderize the meat!

getttt bomked on

Add some flavoring!

Time for some nonspecified "flavouring" again! Even the wiki page doesn't hazard a guess to what mama uses, so i'm just gonna pick out a nice spice mix. I've gone with this Mozambique ginger & chilli mix!

Coat!

Unlike the steaks we also dust these in flour. Which I believe gives them sexual powers.

Pan-fry!

Added some sneaky off-recipe butter to fry these in. And then not sneaky white wine which is in the recipe.

Arrange the dish!

Got some cabbage salad and some sweetcorn for the sides.

Finish!

****

Good stuff! Everything looks kinda small and sad on my hugeass plate but I just have hugeass plates. Nicely cooked, nice seasoning... simple but no complaints.