Sunday Cook Up

On weekdays the moment I get home, I fling my bag down and head to the kitchen to start dinner. I’ve been feeling all shades of guilt so in a bid to divert precious time to baby and not in the kitchen I decided to cook up major dishes that will keep and freeze. I wanted proper heart warming dishes as we are officially in Winter(1 June).

Here’s what I spent my Sunday cooking:

Organic Pumpkin, Tomato & Cheesy Rice Porridge (for baby)
Porkball & Pumpkin Curry
Herb & Lemon Chicken breasts (Nando’s marinade)
3 C’s Vegie Stir Fry
Classic Beef Mince Pie
Cheesy biscuits

This was my mad method of kitchen multi-tasking. Chop up the ingredients start boiling the rice porridge, start the curry at the same time. Make the porkballs and simultaneously stir the 2 dishes on the stove. Finish the porridge get dm to feed baby, start on vegies and fry the chicken breasts. A little later in the day start on the mince pie & cheesy biscuits.

Organic Pumpkin, Tomato, Celery & Cheesy Rice Porridge
About 200g diced (Japanese) pumpkin
1 cup rice
½ tomato finely diced
1 tbps finely chopped celery
200g Cheese, grated.
1 tbsp butter
(All organic)

1. Wash rice, place in pot with 3 cups water. Boil and stir occasionally for 5 mins on medium heat. Add pumpkin, tomatoes & celery. Boil down to a porridge. Pumpkin will start breaking up. Will take about 30 mins.

2. Add about 1 cup of water and boil for another 10 mins. The vegetables rice grains should have broken down by now. Take off heat, add the butter and cheese and stir through. Cool it a bit before serving.



Pork ball curry with Pumpkin
Makes about 4-5 serves. Freezes well.
Pumpkin is delicious in curries, it adds a velvety texture and sweetness. Dm’s grandaunt makes a indian-phillipino style porkball curry, this is my version.
Porkballs
500g mince pork
1 onion, finely chopped
1 pinch of ground cumin
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
The rest
1 pkt A1 Curry paste
¼ Pumpkin (Japanese) roughly chopped
100ml coconut milk/cream
1 Cassia stick
1 stalk curry leaves (optional)

1. In a large pot, add a tiny bit of oil and curry leaves and cassia stick. Fry till fragrant. This wakes ups the curry leaves and the cassia stick. Add the curry paste and stir it up. Add the pumpkin and 500 ml of water. Let it simmer while you make the porkballs.

2. Mix the porkball ingredients in a bowl. Heat up a pan with a dash of oil and start forming the mince into balls and placing them into the pan. I threw in the ½ tomato leftover from the rice porridge because I didn’t want to put it back in the fridge because I never end up using it and it just goes bad.

3. Brown the porkballs, (brown bits adds flavour) and dump them into the pot with the curry paste. Simmer for about 10 mins. Add a can of coconut milk and stir through. Done!


Herb & Lemon Chicken breasts (Nando’s marinade)
1 large chicken breast
3 Tbsp Nando’s Herb & Lemon marinade

Marinade the chicken breast the day before. Heat a dash of oil in a hot pan, throw in the chicken and brown on each side. Serve with salad. I made this to have for lunch today with a bit of salad. Done!

3 C’s Vegie Stir Fry
3 Celery Sticks with leaves on, chopped
½ cauliflower cut into florets
1 cup of Frozen Corn
2 Cloves garlic minced
Dash of soy
Dash of sesame oil
Dash of water

1. I used the celery leaves as my Mummy says it lowers cholesterol, make sure to chop the leaves finely. Heat pan and throw in the garlic, fry till fragrant. Add the rest of the vegetables and a dash of water. Stir fry. Add dash of soy sauce and sesame oil. Cover and let it cook for about 5 mins or till vegies are tender. Done!


Classic Beef Mince Pie
I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe from his “Ministry of Food” and tweaked it a bit.

500g Mince beef
1 Tbsp English mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp Marmite ( I didn’t have any so used the BBQ sauce I had in pantry)
500g Frozen Winter Vegetables (or any veg you prefer. I used frozen as I was fed up with cooking by now)
1 onion roughly chopped
1 Stock cube dissolved in 1 ½ cups hot water
1 hot chilli padi chopped up
2 sheets of ready made shortcrust pastry

1. Heat a dash of oil in a casserole pan or pot. Chuck in the onions and brown them. Add mince and break it up with a wooden spoon. Add Mustard, Marmite, W Sauce, chilli and stir it up then add vegetables and cook slightly. Add stock and simmer for 5 mins. Take off heat and transfer to a casserole dish. Let it cool slightly so you can put the pastry on safely.

2. Place pastry on top and brush with milk. Put in preheated oven for about 20-30 mins or till the pastry s cooked through and browned nicely. Done!



Cheesy biscuits
1 sheet ready made shortcrust pastry
50g (small handful) Grated Cheese

I had leftover pastry so I made cheesy biscuits which will accompany my left over soup as a topping. Yummy. Or as an afternoon bite for baby.

Cut pastry to desired shape. Or just slice it in strips. Place on baking tray. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake for 15 mins. Done!

I honestly thought I’d never stop chopping + stirring + washing.

Will post photos soon