marion grasby's thai green curry

When we first moved out, both sets of parents seemed to be immediately concerned about what we were eating and whether we were eating at all. It's been a good couple of months now and to be honest, not a whole lot has changed. Every trip back has us leaving with bags of fresh food, reheatable food and things we can chuck in the freezer. Somehow or other, the parents seem to coordinate themselves too - we rarely get double of the one thing! If that's coincidence or prearranged - we're only left guessing.

And as anyone with a day job will know, it's often tricky to come home and be all that energetic to prepare a meal so those reheatable meals do really come in handy. That's not to say though that we've just been eating reheatable food, mum did suggest a few easy meals we can cook but also suggested, Marion's Thai Green Curry as something we could try - nice and tasty plus being quick too (apparently my auntie; mum's younger sister, is a big advocate of Marion's Thai Green Curry and has been getting everyone to try it out)

Found this on a trip to Coles.

You'll need one pack of Thai Green Curry to which you add, green beans, capsicum and chicken thigh. Everything else you need is in that neat little green box.

Serve with steamed rice and if you are me, a serving of bok choy (because you can never eat enough vegies).

Thumbs up to Marion Grasby and her Thai Green Curry! It was a meal that was so easy to whip up and tasted fantastic (on par with any green curry you might get if you eat out). I've since actually gone on to try her Chicken Satay (mum actually gave me the box on a trip back home) and well, let me save that for another post. There's a Sang Choy Bow and Pad Thai packet in her range which look like they'd be worth trying too.

thai pork with noodles

Whilst the boy and I have yet to find a place which we can officially call our home, our temporary apartment doesn't scrub up too bad. The only thing I'll say is that there's just not enough space in the kitchen; where cooking something a little more complicated involves reshifting things around to create that extra bit of bench space (and yes, with the two of us in the kitchen, it's a bit like us dancing - dancing with two left feet). 

Over the last 4 months, we've been pretty good and have actually cooked most nights (as opposed to eat out). Admittedly exhausting for the first two months but we're now a well oiled machine to the point that we've even cooked tomorrow night's dinner; we can come home and just reheat (is that pretty good or what?) Often it comes down to keeping it simple, just like this Thai pork with noodle recipe from Donna Hay.

Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Add 500g pork mince and stir fry for 5 minutes until golden and cooked through. Place the mince in a bowl and mix with 1 stalk finely sliced lemongrass, 2 long red chillies (seeded and chopped), and 1 thinly sliced red onion. In a separate heatproof bowl, soak 150g vermicelli noodle in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain and toss in with the pork mixture. To make the sauce, mix 60mL fish sauce, 60mL lime juice and 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar until well combined in a jug. Pour over the noodles and top with mint.

Recipe says this should feed up to 4. Reality says that 2 hungry individuals can polish this one off quite nicely.

Can you see in the photos how little bench space we have? And yes, I might've gotten a little excited and purchased a lot of spices and sauces which crowd up most of the bench space (but in my defence, we do use it for cooking!)

david lebovitz's cheesecake brownies

In amongst moving out, getting married, changing jobs and getting our apartment decked out (for a month, we sat on the carpet with our backs leaning against the wall whilst we waited for our couch to arrive), I barely had time to give this blog much thought. Thankfully all the craziness has finally settled down and now I can comfortably sit on our sofa and have a little bit of me time.

I made these cheesecake brownies a few weeks ago when I was invited over for dinner at A's place. The recipe comes out of David Lebovitz's 'Ready for Dessert' which is my go to book for fail safe recipes when you are bringing a dish. I've tried other recipes for cheesecake brownies but always found that the cream cheese would sink to the bottom but that's one thing you don't have to worry about this one.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line a rectangular tin. In a medium saucepan, melt 85g unsalted butter, add in 115g chopped dark chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in 130g caster sugar followed by 2 large eggs. Mix in 70g plain flour, 8g cocoa powder, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp vanilla extract and then 80g dark chocolate. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly. To make the cheesecake topping, in a medium bowl, beat together 225g cream cheese, 1 large egg yolk, 75g caster sugar and 1/8 tsp vanilla extract until smooth. Distribute the cream cheese mixture in 8 dollops across the top of the brownie batter and then, with a butter knife, swirl the cream cheese mixture very slightly into the batter. Bake for approx. 35 minutes.

Let the brownies to cool completely in the pan before lifting out.

All packed and ready to take to dinner.

These went down quite the treat! By far, the best cheesecake brownie recipe I've come across and makes me even more in love with David Lebovitz (yes, I'm slowly getting closer to owning all his recipe books!)

kit kat chunky caramel cheesecake

As it often happens, whilst I'm waiting for one thing to bake, I then get the idea to bake something else. And well, most of the time my kitchen is accommodating and has everything I need so it's a bit of a no-brainer, I end up staying in the kitchen cooking up a storm. My last post mentioned a generous gift of Kit Kat bars that I received and why not use a few more Kit Kats whilst I'm at it?! This recipe will require three Kit Kat Chunky caramel bars for those interested (though nothing saying that you can't use more if you want) but I do think three is enough to make a mighty good cheesecake.

I do feel rather guilty whenever I eat a bar of these; so chopping them up and eating it sparingly in a cheesecake makes me feel slightly less guilty. There's no logic there but you get the gist of how my brain works.

I've tried making cheesecake base from scratch but no matter how many times I've tried, I find plain graham crackers/digestive biscuits always work a treat. It's stress relieving too - place 175g digestive biscuits in a plastic bag and crush them thoroughly with a rolling pin (be careful though - the bag can break!). Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Pour the crushed biscuits into a lined springform baking tin. Pour over 75g melted unsalted butter, mix and pat down firmly into the base of the tin. Chill in the fridge whilst you make the cheesecake filling.

A stand mixer comes in really handy at this point (this is my baby the boy gifted me for Christmas and I love it!) Beat together 450g softened cream cheese, 150g caster sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 4 eggs until the mixture is smooth.

 Time to chop up those Chunky bars (and maybe eat a little bit whilst you're at it).

I lined the biscuit base with about 2/3 of the chopped Kit Kats, poured over the cream cheese mixture and then sprinkled the top with the remaining 1/3 chopped Kit Kats.

 Bake for 50 minutes until the top is golden and there is only a slight wobble left to the cheesecake. Allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before running a knife around the edge and loosening it from the tin.

 And what are you waiting for? Dig in!

I think I might be slightly sugar overloaded on Kit Kats but I'll just say that this cheesecake is divine - the texture of the cheesecake light and the Kit Kats give the cheesecake great flavour and texture. I wish someone had told me earlier that I could bake with Kit Kats! Ah well, not too late now, still a few more Kit Kat bars on the kitchen bench for me to experiment with.

kit kat anzac biscuits

With Anzac Day coming up, it only seems fitting to post up my favourite Anzac biscuit recipe; this is a recipe which I've used time and time again and has always worked a treat. I did jazz it up a little this time though as being the lucky person that I am, I was recently gifted with a fair few Kit Kat bars. Not wanting to feel like a glutton chomping away on them, it only made sense to try and bake with them. Anzac biscuits were on the agenda so made perfect sense to throw in some Kit Kats to see how they would go. I tell you now dear reader, they are the best!

You'll need two Kit Kat Bars for this recipe.

For your Anzac Biscuits: Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 1 cup rolled oats, 1 cup plain flour, 1/2 cup caster sugar and 3/4 cup dessicated coconut in a bowl. Place 2 tbsp golden syrup and 125g unsalted butter in a saucepan over low heat and allow to melt. Mix 1/2 tsp bicarb soda with 1 tbsp hot water and add to the butter mixture. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Chop up the Kit Kats into 1cm pieces. Add to your Anzac biscuit mix.

Wearing gloves, roll out balls of the mixture and place onto lined baking trays. Flatten the balls of mix slightly, remembering to allow room on the trays for the biscuits to spread. 

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.

 Take note that the biscuits will be very soft when they come out of the oven but will harden as they cool down. Leave on the trays until they are ready to move onto a wire rack. Makes about 20-25.

This Anzac biscuit recipe is my favourite because it has a crunchy outer and slightly chewy centre which is how I think all Anzac biscuits should taste (the ones you get at the supermarkets are usually crunchy all the way through which I never think is quite right). And well to top that off, add the sweet chocolatey-goodness of Kit Kats and the extra crunch from the wafer inner and you have the perfectly crunchy yet chewy Anzac biscuit for Anzac Day. Have a good Anzac Day everyone! Enjoy the break (and well, why not have some Kit Kats in your Anzac biscuits!)