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Squid Stir Fry

A couple of Saturdays ago Andrea and I visited the West End Green Markets and then Reverse Garbage. The weekend after that Mum and I did the same thing 🙂

One of the stalls at the markets is a fish shop filled with polystyrene boxes of ice and seafood. I had eyed the local squid off the week before when I went with Andrea. When I went the following week with Mum she had brought an esky along in the the boot of the car, perfect for carting home seafood. I picked a nice looking squid mantle, and proceeded to pay for it at $8/kg, the mantle cost me a whopping $2.50. A bargain price for protein that would give me two meals.

The process of cleaning the squid was an experience but fun. I had watched squid being cleaned before but never tried it myself. It didn’t look that hard and it wasn’t just messy. I had a meal dancing in my mind though so it was worth it.

Squid, Basil & Chilli Stir fry
Squid Stir-fry

Ingredients
Cleaned squid
Onion
Garlic
Capsicum
Nam Prik Pao/Chilli Jam/Chilli Paste in Oil
Kecap Manis
Light Soy Sauce – I used Tamari
bit of water
Asian greens
noodles or rice to serve

Clean the squid and make cuts at a 45° across the squid on both diagonals, taking care not to cut all the way through the squid. Then cut the squid into diamond shapes.

Heat a little oil in a wok and fry the onion, capsicum and garlic for a few minutes. Add a spoon of the chilli jam and a dollop of the kecap manis and the light soy sauce and stir through. Add the squid pieces and give a quick stir. Pour in a little water and place the Asian greens on top and give a quick steam. Toss through a handful of fresh basil leaves and serve on noodles or rice.

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West End Markets

For the last few weeks I have made a trip each Saturday morning to the West End Markets and oh how I loved them more than any of the other markets I have been to in Brisbane. A lot cheaper than the Jan Power markets and more general fruit and vege stalls as opposed to speciality olive and dip stalls, a whole lot more stalls than the Nundah markets. Just the perfect mix of everything.

I can get bananas from a banana grower at Crabbes Creek, near where Grandad grew up. I can get apples and pears from this lovely old Italian (?) man from Stanthorpe. Heritage tomatoes from this lovely lady. Fresh local squid from the polystyrene box fish shop. Turkish bread that is at least a meter long from the Highgate Hill bakery and everything else I need for the week.

The other week Mum came with me and I took these photos of her sitting on the soccer field eating some American cherries after our shared Hungarian spinach thing which we had for breakfast.

Mum

I probably won’t be going the next two weeks as I have weddings on both Saturdays but generally this is where you will find me on a Saturday morning.

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Food

One thing I have truly loved about moving out of the family home is how much more I cook. I do the bulk of the cooking now (it means I don’t have to always wash up :D). Sure I dislike our stove with a passion, it is soooo inefficient, the oven does not know at all what even heat means, it likes burning the bottom of baked goods and it on the small side so finding biscuit trays to fit has been a mission. Still as much as I dislike the stove, I still love it as it lets me cook. The bummer is that I am not taking any photos of what I am cooking, I know I should and that I should start playing with my flashes to provide the lighting as when I have finished cooking it is dark, dark, dark outside and the ceiling lights in our flat leave little to be desired.

Whilst some nights I don’t feel like cooking after coming home from work and I end up having a sandwich or a salad for dinner, most nights the thing I want to do most after a day at work is to potter round the kitchen or sit on the kitchen bench stirring the pot with a cup of tea or glass of water beside me whilst listening to the ABC or some Jazz. One of my staples has become a lamb and lentil dhal of sorts as well as of course a good old pasta ragu.

Last night I made mushroom risotto for dinner and well both Andrea and I had seconds. It was good, so good. Looking forward to having the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow. This morning we had blueberry pancakes for breakfast just because I didn’t feel like having cereal or toast 😀

I have decided that one of the the things I will do when I am flat hunting next time is request a test run of the stove 😀 well at least a thorough inspection of it’s capabilities. 😀

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Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry Bliss

Have you ever bitten into a strawberry and feel your entire mouth start to smile? A smile that starts as your lips feel that first drop of strawberry juice and extends upwards and upwards as your teeth close together after the last bite.

That is what these strawberries pictured taste like. Strawberries that you are eating mere hours after they have been picked. Strawberries that you have seen grow and grow since they were first planted a few months ago. Strawberries that are sweet but with a slight tang and the texture is just right.

This is what strawberries should always taste like.

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Cherry Tomatoes

I started writing this post a few weeks ago but I didn’t get a chance to take the last photo for the post till today. So now I present a tale of Cherry Tomatoes. At the moment, each time we visit the farm one of the things that I do or I do with Mum is pick the Cherry Tomatoes and now I give you a photo-documentary of the process.

Picking the little red balls. Some weekends we do this in near dark other weekends like yesterday we did it in the winter sun. When I took these photos we had not picked the tomatoes for three weeks we had a bounty on our hands.
Tomato, Tomato, Tomato more tomatoes in the sun

We pick the reddest, ripest tomatoes we can find, knowing that they will pack a whole lot more punch when they are dried.
Mum picking those little red balls of sweetness

After filling our buckets and trying to avoid the cobblers pegs and pea weed, it is time to clean them. The sink is filled with water and the tomatoes are poured in, washing off the dirt.
Mum picking those little red balls of sweetness

We stand there, on either side of the sink, methodically picking up a tomato, plucking off the stalk and putting the tomatoes on a rack to dry.
Drying in the sun after washing and cleaning

After they have tried it is on to the fun stuff. Cutting each and every tomato in half and placing it on the rack to go in the food dryer.
Chopping up the Tomatoes

Then they dry and dry and dry some more till we have little red discs, typically a bit smaller than a 5c piece. Then we feast on them in salads, pasta, dips, cous cous, sandwiches etc or take photos of them in a vase on the balcony….
Dried Cherry Tomatoes

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bit of a wrap up

Yesterday was the Queen’s birthday public holiday and I spent most of it at my parents sewing, I have finally finished the top of my 21st birthday quilt. I turn 23 in September…… IT looks so good and I can’t wait to see it on my bed.

Today is Tuesday and I flexed the day off to give me a four day weekend 🙂 What a day I had, I started off with a long list of jobs to do this morning and now at 21:40 I can cross most of those jobs off. I have changed the address on my drivers licence, bank account, organised insurance (I’ve only been here a month and a dew days…..), re-arranged my wardrobe, did some shopping, took a bunch of cracked lids back to Tupperware for replacing. The only thing I haven’t done is my ironing which I am about to do and to process the photos from the two most recent gigs I have gone along to.

Tonight for dinner I made a delightful salad. It was fennel, salad leaves, beans, carrot, dried cherry tomatoes, some lightly fried capsicum and toasted walnuts with a lemon and Shiraz vinaigrette and a rasher of bacon. It looked good and tasted good, the only thing I might have added was some apple for a bit of sweetness. Since moving out I have experimented a lot more with my cooking as if is a flop it is only a flop for one person or maybe two if Andrea is eating with me. The pork/ginger rissoles were not the best but the dhal I made last week was soooo good. Andrea commented tonight that I am so good always making dinner and as I said to Andrea, it is just because I am too cheap to buy takeout. Friday night I made a tasty apple and walnut loaf which I will make again in the coming days and tweak the recipe a bit before posting it here.

I am very slowly getting used to having the internet again. It is not weird I just don’t have the desire to check out all the sites that I was checking out before I moved out.

Oh I also should probably mention I got my hair cut two Wednesdays ago, I had about 3″ taken off it, about half my hair or more thinned out and I have a bit of a side fringe. It is so weird, my pony tail is sooo skinny compared to how fat it used to be. I like it just not used to having so much lightness with this sort of length.