The Hungry Orange

Update, kind of.

2008-10-22T13:47:00.004+11:00

No I have not forgotten about this site, but due to unforseen circumstances (namely house broken into and camera and laptop being stolen) I have not been able to capture, edit or post anything. I will however, post up the next dinner I catch on film. Whenever that will be. Til then, here's a picture of some fast food, because sometimes cooking can be too troublesome :)

Crispy chicken chop on fried rice..tasty and filling :D

Episode 7: Curried Prawns

2008-05-17T18:05:00.015+10:00

Oh boo, who would have thought that moving and getting a job would take up so much of my time. Either that, or I've just been too lazy to update and haven't been at home for to catch many cooking sessions. Since today was the perfect lazy, stay-at-home kind of day, I've finally transferred photos from the camera and with hardly any editing, present you this mouth-watering, aromatic addition to the hungry orange. Enjoy :)

So the ingredients:

Garlic and chili,

Tomato and onions,

Prawns...

And potatoes. Boil the potatoes while you're preparing the other ingredients,so that they'll be ready to add to the dish once you're done cooking.

Stir fry the garlic, chili and onions and add some ground cumin...

..the amount depending on how much you like the taste of cumin seeds. As you can see, Kelvin likes the taste quite a fair bit.

By now the dish should look something like this:

I did say this was a curried prawn and potatoes dish, right? So in comes the curry powder:

Again, add curry powder according to how fond you are of the taste. Or guesstimate, like we do :) By now the potatoes should be almost ready, so add them in..

...and a little salt to taste. Or visual effect, in this case:

Oh, and a little sugar too.

Leave to simmer for a few minutes, et voila! Curried prawns with potatoes.

Eye openingly good.

Or so we hope. Try it!

Episode 6: Tomato chicken with spaghetti

2008-03-28T22:20:00.011+11:00

Its been a while since this site has been updated, but now that we've settled into our new place I've finally found the time to upload a long overdue recipe.

Is it just me or have we been cooking a lot of pasta lately...?

As the title implies, the main ingredient in this dish is chicken. Kelv prefers thighs as they are less prone to becoming dry when cooked compared to breasts, but I'm pretty sure it'd work with whatever part of the chicken you fancy. Cut the meat into cubes (or bite sized portions). And the rest of the ingredients:

Chopped coriander. Just a little, but again, optional. Sorry about the blur picture, hungry Aggie doesn't have very steady hands. Neither does full Aggie actually when you think of it..

A couple of spices and tomato paste...

And enough cooked pasta to feed two hungry people!

To start the regular chopped garlic and onion is added to hot oil, and the chicken added once the onion starts turning translucent. Then, add bay leaves, chicken stock in water, fennel seeds and sumac.

Once it starts looking something like this, add the tomatoes.

Mmm...tomatoes. Tangy. Mix it around for a few minutes and when the tomatoes start to lose shape and become one with the sauce (haha), add two to three spoonfuls (or fork fulls) of tomato paste.

Stir...

And we're done!

Season with salt (and pepper) to taste, but I didn't need to tell you that, did I? Serve on top of cooked spaghetti, take fork and dig in! Of course if you're like me and violate anything with pasta and tomato based sauces with cheese then go ahead and do that too. While its hot, so that the cheese melts and becomes all stringy....yumm.

Episode 5: Stir fried veggies with minced meat and scallops

2008-03-01T22:30:00.009+11:00

Yes I'm updating again!

So yeah, the usual ingredients were used for the stir fried veggies; garlic, onions, soy sauce, oyster sauce, a pinch of sugar..and fried garlic and belacan to top it off.

Now for the next dish, minced beef and scallops. Weird? A little, I guess. In case it's not clear (due to the noise from the exhaust fan), the ingredients used to make the base for the dish are garlic, onions, chilies (green), lemon grass and crab paste, from your friendly neighbourhood grocery.

Once the base is well mixed (cook for one minute), add the minced meat, some seasonnel, sugar and curry powder. Ensure that the meat is thoroughly cooked before adding the scallops, as scallops cook much quicker.

Tada! Spicyminced beef and scallops.

I must say I enjoy Kelvin's minced meat dishes, and this was no exception. It must be the crab paste and curry powder combo. The scallops also add variety to an otherwise rather straight forward dish, which just made me want to eat more and more..so try it if you want to dabble in unconventional food pairings!

Rating:

Episode 4: Prawn Pasta

2008-02-24T15:27:00.009+11:00

Here we are again, with another recipe from our mayhem kitchen. Didn't think I'd post another episode so fast, did you?

Pasta is always a good dish to cook when you're feeling hungry and want something done quickly and easily. Here, we use a mixture of fresh tomatoes and some tomato paste, just to make sure there was enough sauce to feed two hungry people. Also, I prefer tomato-based sauces as to cream-based ones, so that I don't fill up as quickly and can eat more...ahem.

Haha ok after mucking around we got down to the cooking:

Next, the prawns go in. For an idea of how much prawns and mint was used:

The final result? A tangy, slightly spicy tomato based pasta sauce, with juicy prawns. Definitely worth having again, i reckon.

Rating:

Episode 3: Funky Curry

2008-02-23T15:48:00.011+11:00

Yes it's been a little quite here recently, due to me prepping for my new job, house hunting and being lazy to upload. But yeah, here's the next installment which shows Kelvin tackling the very versatile dish, curry. In his own unique style that is, which is why this dish is called funky curry. Not because it tasted bad, ok? Just watch the videos.

But first, a picture of some of the herbs/spices used: chicken stock, garlic, curry leaves, cumin seeds, sugar, curry powder and err...some sort of paste.

For the main ingredients we used minced beef, brussel sprouts and potatoes. There were other things added that I haven't mentioned, and something unexpected too...so just watch the videos :)

So now the dish looks something like this:

Phew that was a lot of videos to go through! Even though we ran out of curry powder and needed a last minute substitute, it still came out pretty decent. Yes, brussel sprouts in curry is..weird, but its not as bad as you'd imagine. Kinda like mini cabbage leaves. The potatoes were cooked through, and although curry isn't normally cooked using minced meat it just made the dish that much easier to eat. You know, without having to remove bones and stuff. Also low fat as no santan (or coconut milk) was added.

Rating:

Start your day with...

2008-02-11T15:24:00.001+11:00

An omelette, if you follow this video. Unfortunately ratios of how much salt, pepper and sugar used was ommitted this time round, but I can tell you that 5 cloves of garlic was chopped in this recipe. How much you want to use is up to you. Can you tell I like garlic?

Morning videos...maybe not such a good idea.

So yes, the garlic was burnt and the egg a little too salty but the cheese and fried garlic and belachan went very nicely, not to mention the quantity of egg was very filling indeed. Might not be everyone's cup of tea for breakfast, but it was certainly satisfying enough to last until two in the afternoon, which was when we had lunch.

Rating:

Kelvin's two minute of thought lamb dish

2008-02-07T11:21:00.000+11:00

The first recipe!

For a little background information, this blog is the result of the dinner conversation that occurred over this particular meal, so that a record of culinary activities can be kept for future reference. We're the sort of people who don't cook with a recipe and forget how it's made by the time we're done eating. It makes recreation of certain dishes a little challenging. Anyway, all videos have been recorded using a Canon Digital Ixus 70 in compact format, so that my laptop can handle the file size.

Part I - the cooking

Part II - finishing and plating

So the rice was tasty and bursting with flavour, and as was the lamb. It was a little on the chewy side, and slightly undercooked (at least he claimed his piece was). Generous portions-as always- meant that I was unable to finish my plate, which means I have leftovers waiting for me in the fridge again. Not that I mind..

Overall rating?

I really liked the tomato rice... =)

Hurrah!

2008-02-06T23:01:00.000+11:00

After almost two hours of photoshop, image hosting and html editing, Kelvin has managed to complete the template for this new food blog. Or flog. Will upload the first video tomorrow, when my brain is less fuzzled.

Stay tuned. The fluboos are coming.