this blog has how to make cottage cheese and pesto with stuff that i could actually get hold of, although i still need to go to the supermarket to get it their ingredients are easier/ cheaper than other options- eg pesto made with sunflower seeds and one type of cheese

Hoping to try making golden syrup dumplings with palm sugar
http://mumsrecipes-m.blogspot.com/2012/03/golden-syrup-dumplings.html

Want to try making pizza things on the stove one day, heres one way of doing it http://www.cooklocal.com/2011/05/30/fried-pizza-a-family-tradition/

today's kitchen experiments include steaming beef with ginger and garlic
and making a banana cake in the rice cooker but using palm sugar instead of white -which makes it extra moist but i'm also using wholemeal flour instead of white, and coconut cream instead of oil/butter

honeycomb made with palm sugar

about 110 grams of palm sugar (comes in liquor form at the market) with about 55 grams of sugar (castor/super fine would be better but i just had normal white)
- boil until it makes hard toffee (drop a bit in some water)
then mix in 2 teaspoons of bicarb

tipped/spooned onto some greased foil on a plate, and into the fridge out of the hot humid weather we have here, later i took it out and smashed it up and put into some air tight containters

The recipe actually used golden syrup but palm sugar is easier to get here, 110 grams cost 500 riel at the market, about 25 us cents.

aka hokey pokey/ seafoam toffee / cinder toffee

choc cocnut rice cooker cake

125g flour
175 g sugar
1/2 teaspoon of both baking soda and baking powder
60 g cocoa

mix then add 2 eggs and 400ml of coconut cream

cook for around an hour in rice cooker

pork meat balls

today i made these, i didn't have lemongrass though, and used saw herb instead of coriander
thai meat balls

pork pasta salad

So the "chicken" i got out of the freezer for my pasta salad turned out to be pork, so I changed dressings- I made one inspired by this dipping sauce that goes with thai meatballs. I say" inspired" meaning i made it but missing some of the ingreidients i didn't have on hand.

1 teaspoon chopped fresh coriander
3 spring onions, chopped fine
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, chopped fine
1 mild chili, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/delicious-thai-style-meatballs-202089?oc=linkback

yeast cooking with no oven!

I recently tried a flat bread recipe, made of same stuff as our pizza base but done in the fry pan. ate it with the pumpkin curry, and lots ofo other things, hoping to try with some while meal flour soon

Yummy sandwich today: cucumber, saw herb and egg (boiled, mashed with mayo, mustard and other stuff). Would taste nice on the french bread sticks they sell here.

Trying out some different food on my day home alone. Nice to have the kitchen to myself.

Chicken with paprika and lime, tastes better grilled than fried. Have boiled some potatos to try frying them with cumin and curry powder, have some saw herb to sprinkle. Mashed hardboiled eggs with mayo and d mustard and some chives.

Aussie dinner

The other day I asked my facebook friends in Aust to tell me what they had for dinner that night, here are the responses:

Grilled chicken marylands, mashed potato, corn on the cob & steamed carrot & broccoli 

Chicken stir fry

 Rissoles darl!

Lamb chops.

We had Indian takeaway

We had salad!

Lamb cutlets, steak, boiled potatoes, steamed corn and broccoli and a leftover cous cous salad and kids had rice. Quite untypical as we usually have Asian.

Leftovers: Corned beef, mashed potato, pumpkin and broccoli.

Chicken and honey roasted pumpkin risotto with tonnes of garlic and herbs.

 glenten free chicken tenders with salad followed by gluten free orange cake with iragne sauce and a touch of sour cream spoilt rootne aren't i coems from livign with a gourmet chef

Maccas

Beef and cashew in oyster sauce wtih tenderstem brocolli and pak choi. George loved it!

Cheese and biscuits and a mandarin

Sausages, grilled sweet potato, corn on the cob (cooked on the BBQ) and a green salad.

 Chicken, fennel, broccoli, zucchini stir fry. With lots of chilli.

cashews

 sausages and rissole with baked potato and corn/capsicum blend (frozen dinner)

we had stir fry chicken with lots veggies soy,honey and ginger and rice

chicken drumsticks, baked potato, pumpkin & carrot, zucchini fried & broccoli microwaved followed with cheescake (did anyone taste marmalade) & yogurt

Juniper Tree food, and back home again

While we were in Cm to have Baby we stayed at the J Tree where we both happily ate. Its hard for us to find food we both enjoy, so it was nice to eat together food we both like. It was Western food cooked by Asians, and Asian food made to suit Western taste.

Since we have been back one of Soeun's fake relatives has been working for us and cooking 5 meals a week, so far Khmer salad, a pumpkin curry she learnt at a cooking class we sent her too, along with tomato and pasta dish, ginger chicken done without bones, fried fish , veg stir fry, tuk groeung (raw veg with a dip made from fish and herbs etc), char greong .. hmm can't remember what else.

Anyway this last week the family have been staying, so Soeun has got to have lots of treats, the yummy food he likes. The smell of his food makes me NOT hungry. I used to try to eat with the family, the first 5 years, but found myself still getting hungry. I guess I didn't eat enough as it was hard to eat- lots of bones andhard bits and fermented things that are hard to swallow. Dried fish, fermemted bamboo shoots, various types of fermented fish dips, things that are a cross between snails and shellfish that get cooked when pp wheel the carts around town, dried veg, dried frogs. Soeun got a bad tummy ache this time last week and we rushed off to hospital. They took him to emergecy and it turns out he probs has the same thing his sister has, some kind of tum infection.

While they were here they mostly cooked and ate their own food, while I kind of tried to join in but ate some bread later.

A few meals i did- one lunch we had sandwiches, another time we had pasta (spag bol.)

Today he and his sister are eating dried fish and rice, when they heat it up it makes the whole house stink.

For lunch I made myself a potato salad with potato, mayo, a bit of mustard, chopped up sandwich ham (had all these from when i made the family eat sandwiches! ) with chives and hard boiled egg (things we usually have in fridge).

For dinner I put some tom. paste on bread, with more chopped sandwich ham, sliceed tom   and grated cheese. Will attempt to use grill setting on microwave.

rice cooker banana cake

i didnt really follow the method, this photo i s mine but words from a blog

Rice Cooker Banana Cake

3 eggs
110g sugar
110g melted butter
200g banana (weight without skin)
160g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
a pinch of salt, less than 1/8 tsp

Method

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a big bowl, set aside. Melt the butter and sugar in a non-stick pot and set aside to cool a while. Mash the bananas with a fork and set aside.

2. Add in beaten eggs to the melted cake batter from (1) and mix well using a manual whisk or spatula.

3. Add in mashed bananas, mix well using a spatula.

4. Finally fold in sifted flour mixture (over 3 times) using a spatula.

5. Pour the cake batter into the greased rice cooker bowl. Press "COOK" and allow it to cook for at least 1 hour. (In my case, I pressed "COOK" 3 times. Each time my rice cooker has finished cooking, it will beep and automatically switch to "KEEP WARM" mode, so I just have to press "CANCEL" and press "COOK" again. It took me 30 min + 17 min + 17 min = 1 hour 4 min in total. This is a cake that works in a rice cooker without the cake-baking function. Note that cooking time may vary based on the capacity of your rice cooker. Mine has a 5.5 cup capacity. )

6. Allow the cake to cool for a while, before turning out. (My cake flipped out easily in a split second even without using a knife to loosen the edges. And look at the crust, how I love the crust of a rice cooker cake!)

rice cooker cake!!!!

http://everybodyeatswell.blogspot.be/2013/06/rcc-6-rice-cooker-moist-chocolate-cake.html

making a cake by steaming... used to try it on the stove, just got the idea to use a rice cooker, first try it worked out well, i didn't use evaptorated milk, also i didn't have vanilla and i used oil instead of butter, and normal sugar, took about 45 min

Ingredients 150g of unsalted melted butter or corn oil (reduced from 175g) 175g castor sugar (reduced from 1 cup which is 225g) 1/2 can evaporated milk, about 200ml 2 eggs, lightly beaten 1 cup plain flour, about 125g 1/2 cup cocoa powder, about 60g 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 3/4 tsp vanilla essence

Method 1. Combine sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla essence and butter in a saucepan.

2. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved.

3. Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cooled evaporated milk mixture and stir till well-mixed.

4. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl then pour the egg mixture over the flour and stir till well-mixed. (cake batter should be runny).

grease pot, cook for an hourish, pushing down "cook" lever every 5-10 min

Chicken soup

Chopping galangal 

Lime leaf, whole garlic cloves "smashed" , green bits of lemongrass, chopped galangal 

Added oyster sauce, sugar, salt, fish sauce

Chicken

Chicken

and in goes the chicken

chopping "saw herb" (tastes like coriander)

After its been boiling for awhile (when the chicken is cooked I guess) he added the finishing touches, the saw herb...

...and lime juice.

And then time to eat! We had the candles on the table in case the power went off, but we didn't need them for this meal.

the bits you don't eat!

Soup- 3 mushrooms and sa om

dinner food we can both eat- brainstorming for meal planning

trying to think of food both Soeun and i like, that we can cook on the stove with stuff we can buy mostly from the nearby market, some stuff from the supermarket, would love to have microwave and /or oven one day, been looking at them in the shops, not sure what the next few years will be like and if it will be worth it to spend a few 100 usd on more stuff, often it just makes moving harder!

stir veg
stir fry spey, stir fry drucon,
stir fry veg with pork/chicken/beef
omlette
squip
fried marinated beef/fish
tuk groeng,
char groeung
pasta with basil pesto n raw veg

raw veg- carrot, cucumber
fried rice, sushi rolls
ginger chicken