Banana, Cranberry & Choc Chip Muffins

8th January 2012

I love baking muffins for my friends. They are a quick and simple to make but everyone loves them. I like to think that I am inspiring my friends to cook for themselves whilst giving them a delicious homemade treat to enjoy.

My muffin recipe comes from Rodney’s talented mum, Jude who is a wonderful cook. I try to add my own flavour to her basic muffin recipe so I’m not completely stealing her family recipe.

The recipe basically combines wet ingredients of milk, mashed bananas, butter and egg with dry ingredients of self raising flour, sugar and chocolate chips. I then like to add / swap extra ingredients, like berries, nuts or fruit juice, to make my own variations.

There’s always a knock at my door when people get a sniff of me baking these muffins.

Pork Ribs, Mashed Potato, Mango & Corn

7th January 2012

Rodney and I make a great team in the kitchen and tonight is delicious proof.

Together we marinated the pork I bought at the markets yesterday in a combination of olive oil, soy sauce, Manuka honey, red chili and garlic.

We slowly grilled the ribs in the oven until they fell off the bone and accompanied them with creamy mashed potato, grilled chili mango and corn on the cob. An amazing meal which we washed down with some Oyster Bay Chardonnay.

Fresh Market Prawn Soup

6th January 2012

What a great day. I got up early to go to the fresh food markets with my friend Linzi today. It was all indoors and a lot cleaner than I was expecting. We stocked up on fruit and veges first which were very fresh and a lot cheaper than in the grocery store. I was most excited to find passion fruit.

Next we went to the fish area and I bought some salmon and prawns. Apparently they can prepare your fish anyway you like it eg filleted, peeled prawns

The pork area is well out the way of the markets downstairs and again was very clean and educational. The butchers prepare any cut of meat in any way you want it. I opted for some pork ribs and bacon whilst my friend bought a large amount of pork belly and pork chops.

After a good 1.5 hours in a vinyasa yoga class and some more time by the pool I built up a good hunger so decided to cook myself a fresh prawn soup with capsicum, vermicelli noodles and Thai flavours of lemongrass, lime, fish sauce and garlic. It was a delicious meal and there were still enough prawns left to make a garlic prawn entree to accompany the miso glazed salmon with bok choy, lotus root and rice I cooked for our dinner (photos to come)

Grilled Chicken, Tomato, Potato and Creamed Spinach

5th January 2012

First day back in KL for the new year and my last few days on holiday before going back to work. I had a productive day sorting out the apartment and unpacking my holiday luggage. It was a beautiful day outside with unusually blue skies so I decided to make the most of it by the pool before doing some grocery shopping and planning dinner.

Having received so many recipe books for Christmas it was hard to know where to start so I flipped through Jamie’s 30 minute meals and picked the grilled chicken with vine ripe tomatoes and lemon accompanied by roast potatoes and creamed spinach. I also whipped up the cocktail that was recommended but substituted the strawberries with cranberries and added some vodka because I can.

It was a delicious meal but revealed how out of practice I had got in the kitchen with 2 weeks off as it definitely took me longer than 30 minutes to make.

Mee Goreng

My last meal in Bali was at a Greek / Italian restaurant on Jalan Pantai Legion (Legion Beach Road). Although we shared a mezze platter to start I was mainly interested in ordering Bali’s national dish of Nasi Goreng. It’s basically fried rice with pork, veges and eggs with some prawn crackers on the side. This was a very delicious version but it was unfortunately too filling for me so I couldn’t finish it all. Not bad for 45000 rupiah which is approx $5 AUD or $6 NZD

Tuna Bumbu Bali

Today we hired a car and drove out to Pantai Sanur and had lunch at Luhtu’s Coffee Shop. I enjoyed a mango smoothie, macchiato and Tuna Bumbu Bali which was steamed tuna cooked in a Balinese sauce (mildly spicy curry sauce). Another first for my year of eating or cooking a new meal each day.

Whilst here we did a bit of sunbaking, shopping and had an hour massage. Unfortunately someone left the lights on our car and the battery went flat so we are now enjoying a sunset cocktail whilst we wait for the guys to get the battery started again. There’s worst places to be stuck that aren’t by the beach on a tropical island so I can’t say we’re stressed about it.

Green Breakie

A delicious first meal to start the new year off on the right track at Cafe Zucchini in Seminyak, Bali

Scrambled eggs, sautéed spinach, zucchini, avocado & onion with rocket, basil, parsley & olive oil on multigrain toast.