I embarked on a personal food journey at the start of September last year that would see a swag full of new tastes and experiences never before travelled. The challenge: to attempt a new dish each week until the end of the year and subject them to judgement, humility, tears, joy, laughter, greatness. My side goal was to hold back delivering food poisoning to those dishing out sub par critiques 🙂
So how did the dishes fare? Let’s take a look.
These past two weeks have seen essentially mango everything. On average, I’d say I’d have a mango by itself each day and then I’d later make 3 thickshakes out of another two. The shakes are fanbloodytastic and are mixed with natural goodness: low fat plain yoghurt and a swirl of fresh honey. One of these days, probably before Xmas, I’ll be trying out a mango salsa to go with the ham!
But enough about the mangos, and more about these Middle Eastern sausage rolls.
Most times we go to Hog’s Breath, we usually skip the entrees to ensure we have enough room for the delicious rocky road sundae. Four servings of awesome in one massive glass to share amongst the brave (or dumb depending on where you stand).
Oven baked apple date crumble, served in an oven proof glass, or in some ugly ramekins if you’re me.
The shadow of a full moon greeted Simba and I tonight as the unusual bite in the night’s cold air enveloped around us. The wind quivered branches, swayed trees and howled unceremoniously as it moved between the sharpness of cold, dark flora and unnatural objects. The path ahead was damp from last night’s drenching and puddles of water reflected the ominous mood of its surroundings.
Something was different about tonight…
My first attempt at making an all time favourite took a little longer than anticipated but the results were yummo. The process was similar to the lamb with potato crust dish but this one didn’t have the oats but had more of a sauce in the mixture. I finished the night off with a well craved sticky date pudding.
A good warm heartening soup for a cold wintery day always lifts up your mood as the warmth perpetuates throughout your body. Chicken soup is also known to have some strong anti-inflamatory and immune boosting characteristics so I gave it a go and added some noodles… why? Cause you only live once.
Loved the lamb pie with potato crust we had last week, I made it again yesterday and this time was even better. This time around, I kept all of the juices that seeped out of the lamb rather than reducing it – which retained most of the unique lamb flavour – and baked it for 5 minutes less. This resulted in more moisture that you’d expect out of any pie. But less about the pie and more about the new dish for tonight.
As my brother was going through the psychology section of the book store, I flicked through a handful of cooking books and found the lamb pie recipe. Not only did it look great in glossy print but it appeared easy to make skimming through. I bought the book for a steal of $5, just a little bit more than a large coffee!
So this would become my second lamb dish in this challenge with the first being sizzling lamb koftas. The wraps brought a refreshing change to the beef burritos I normally make. And the use of plain low fat yoghurt added to the fresh healthy feeling. So the lamb pie would need to be convincing to compete.
This week saw three new dishes and one of which I had reminded myself many times I would never. Ever. Try. But the time was right to be bold and daring and I was feeling brave. Later I would realise that feeling bold, daring and brave was synonymous for stupid.
The dish I told myself I would never ever do? A laksa.
“I will never try making a laksa in the chance that I’d ruin a delicious and comforting meal for the rest of my life”.
