Bacon & Pea Omelette with Asparagus & Grape Tomatos

Having decided to cook breakfast at home this morning, forgoing the regular Sunday Bacon & Egg Gnocchi with Truffle Oil at Cafe Morso in Pyrmont, I scoured the kitchen for ingredients. Not finding what I needed for any of the breakfast recipes in Bills Basics, I ran with what was there; eggs, bacon, frozen peas, and grape tomatos. The result has inspired me to rely on cookbook a little less often!

First I cooked the slices bacon rashers and peas in a frypan, with a little bit of Lurpak Garlic Butter. When the bacon was crisp I added six eggs, beaten with a dash of milk, and topped with mozzarella . While that was cooking I slides the asparagus longways, the tomatos sideways, and added to another pan with a little more garlic butter.

I quartered the omelette and served with the asparagus and tomatos on the side. Absolutely delicious!!

Chicken Pad See Ew

Quite a few years ago now I lived in Chatswood. Around the corner from our place, Penshurst Street was full of restaurants and take aways. It was the dirtiest, cheapest looking of those establishments - Thai Noodle Hut - that cooked the most amazing food, and had lines out the door every night. It was there I fell in love with Chicken Pad See Ew, which has since become my favorite Thai dish. It was last night I decided to cook Pad See Ew for myself for the first, and probably last, time.

Finding the ingredients wasn't easy. I headed over to Leichhardt where it took three stores to find the flat egg noodles. The Chinese Broccoli was replaced by something similar looking, and neglecting to check I had Dark Soy meant it was replaced with Light.

After heating some sunflower oil in the wok, in went the crushed garlic, chicken, soy, then sugar, followed a few minutes later by the broccoli substitute. It was here I made a slight error by including both the stalks and leaves, when the recipe called for only the stalks to be added this early. I heated the noodles in the microwave for a few mins, cracked the two eggs into the centre of the wok, stirred, then added the flat rice noodles. A few minutes later it was done.

This was an incredibly quick dish to cook, however certainly didn't taste as good as those from Thai Noodle Hut or elsewhere. Considering both my taste buds and cost of ingredients, I think I'll stick with the professionals in future when it comes to Pad See Ew and order take out!

Laksa!

Despite being one of my favorite take away lunches, I'd never cooked a laksa myself until last night.

I made a slight change to Bill's recipe by adding a chicken breast to the prescribed Silken Tofu, and a couple of unintentional changes in neglecting to add the chilli and spring onion.

First up I butterflied the chicken breast, which was nearly half a kilo, and cooked it in the pan. While that was underway, I added the vermicelli to a bowl of boiling water and soaked for a few mins before draining and placing in our bowls over some bean sprouts.

Next, I added the Ayam Laksa paste to the saucepan the vermicelli had been removed from and heated for while until fragrant. In went about 750ml of chicken stock along with the coconut milk, followed by the bok choy and tofu. After a few minutes the soup was looking a little anemic, so I added the rest of the jar of Laksa paste to give it some colour.

I sliced the chicken, laid it over the vermicelli and bean sprouts, then ladled the Laksa on top.

Definitely a dish I will be cooking again - yum!!

Crumbed Veal Cutlets & Broccoli with Chilli pt 2

Despite being home alone tonight, I decided to press on with my plan of cooking Crumbed Veal Cutlets (page 177) & Broccoli with Chilli (page 213). The original recipe called for broccolini however an abundance of broccoli in the fridge was calling out to be cooked.

After stopping at Coles tonight to pick up two fresh veal cutlets, as I'd left the pair I had In the freezer, I started by preparing the breadcrumbs. I thinly sliced some wholemeal bread which was in the pantry, and after a quick toast, put it in the oven. Once dried, the hand blender finished them off.

Floured, egged, and crumbed, the cutlets went into the frypan, for around 3 minutes each side, per the recipe. I did take a shortcut with the recipe in not flattening the veal and it was evident in the lack of progress with cooking even after several more minutes on each side than called for. Eventually they went into the oven to stay warm while I did the broccoli.

3 garlic cloves and a long red chilli were chopped and added to some oil back in the same pan. After a minute of frying I added the broccoli and filled the base of the pan with water before steaming. 5 mins later I plated veal and broccoli, while boiling some more water with the garlic and chilli which became my sauce.

All in all a tasty dish. The veal was cooked well, and the second plate I made has gone into the fridge for tomorrow.

Crumbed Veal Cutlets & Broccoli with Chilli

After successfully cooking the first of my dinners tonight, Chicken Curry with Lemongrass and Ginger, next up I'm taking on two recipes from Bill's Basics - Crumbed Veal Cutlets & Broccoli with Chilli - scheduled for Thursday night.

In the pantry/fridge:

• 2 x 220g veal cutlets
• 1 teaspoon of sea salt
• 2 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 30g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 red chilli
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch of broccoli
• lemon juice

On the shopping list:

• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 80g fresh breadcrumbs
• handful of chopped parsley

Shopping done. Time to start cooking

I managed to find almost everything I needed, aside from the Red Asian Shallots which I replaced with regular shallots, for my (Bill's) Chicken Curry with Lemongrass & Ginger. Let the cooking begin...

Chicken Curry with Lemongrass and Ginger

Based on what's in the fridge, I've jumped to page 138 for my first meal - Chicken Curry with Lemongrass and Ginger. I'm really not a fan of recipes with curry powder. My taste buds' only memories of curry powder were the curried baked beans I ate occasionally as a child, and the curried anything my grandma used to make, which typically involved large quantities of curry powder, celery, and not much else.

On the shopping list for today:

• 2 red Asian shallots
• 1/2 red chilli
• 1/2 lemongrass stalk
• 2.5cm piece of fresh ginger
• 250g potatoes
• 200ml chicken stock
• 125ml coconut milk
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• rice vermicelli noodles

Already in the pantry / fridge:

• 4 skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon fish sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon caster sugar
• coriander leaves

Off to the shops...