Lamb cassarole

In case you haven't noticed, I'm an oven junkie - I love doing things in the oven simply because its minimal fuss. Just prepare, don't even have to leave it to marinate, and just chuck in the oven. Set the timer and off she goes. After about an hour, turn off the oven and let it slow cook in the remaining heat until dinner time.

I saw some lamb on sale and thought that it would be a great way to celebrate my Easter, by treating myself to a bit of lamb. I decided to dunk it with loads to ginger so that it doesn't taste gamey. Unfortunately, it came off tasting like beef, which isn't too bad a result I guess.

Ingredients

400g lamb chunks

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce (I would usually use worchester but I don't have that)

1 cubed potato

1 cubed purple yam

Enough water to cover everything

Method

1) Put everything into the cassarole, except the yam. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Bake at 200 deg C for 20 mins until it starts to boil. Add the yam. (with yam its really very hard to tell, mine 'melted' after the entire time but my spuds were still ok, so it depends on what kind of yam you use)

2) After the first 20 mins, turn down to 100 deg C for another 40 mins. Then turn off the oven and let it cook in the residual heat for another 2 to 3 hours.

Beef casserole

I have wanted to do a beef soup or cassarole for a very long time, but it's only after coming here, where my local supermarket does a pack of stewing beef. It's the cheapest beef I can find, and it's probably the leftover bits that the butcher cuts off (it sure looks that way) rather than cubed stewing beef which is specially cut that way. Other than how it looks, there is an upside. There is a lot of fat, so the beef, once it cooks down, is actually really tender and just falls apart. The fat can be quite easily skimmed off.

What I would add to this casserole? Vegs like carrots, celery and potatoes, but being a single eater, I didn't want to put in that much food. But it would make this casserole more of a stew than the watery soup that my recipe produces.

This is a very simple fuss-free recipe, so I don't even bother doing things like flouring and browning the meat but if you had the time, you should of course do it.

Ingredients

300g stewing beef, cubed

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp wine (either chinese or red wine)

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp dark soya

1 tbsp light soya

Herbs (whatever you like, rosemary, sage, oregano, parsley, etc)

Black pepper to taste

1 to 2 cups of water (sufficient to cover the meat)

Method

1) Marinate the beef. This is not really essential, because the beef will be in the oven for a very long time.

2) Put the meat in a covered casserole, or a dutch oven if you have one. Preheat the oven to 200 deg C and pop in the pot when ready. After 20 to 30 mins, once it has come to a rolling boil, turn down the heat to 100 deg C. Let it simmer gently for 1 hour. Turn off the heat. It is ready to serve, but what I do (to save electricity) is to turn off my oven and let it continue cooking in the residual heat, where it will happily do so for up to 4 hours, and it is still warm enough (not boiling hot) to serve for dinner.

3) Serve with rice, garlic bread, or mashed potatoes - whatever you like!

Cheat's chicken rice

I have been doing a lot of microwaved meals, mostly because it's quick and easy and least amount of fuss, and it's difficult cooking for 1 person. I discovered this chicken rice equivalent quite by accident. You will see why I say 'equivalent' later. Don't expect really premium quality bak zhum gai type of chicken, this is really more about taste than texture, because there's only so much the microwave can do! Whenever I cook this and my flat mate steps into the apt, she never fails to say "Wow, smells wonderful!" and she's a vegetarian!

Ingredients

3 chicken thighs

1 tbsp sesame seed oil

1 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp chopped ginger

1/2 tsp sugar

Black pepper to taste

1 tbsp water

Vegs (e.g. broccoli, cabbage) optional - if adding veg, you need to add more water

1 portion of rice, cooked

Method

1) Marinate the chicken with all the ingredients for at least 1/2 hour.

2) Put everything in a microwave casserole. Microwave at 30% for 20 mins, then turn up to 70% for 3-5 mins. The lower the heat, the more moist your chicken will be but it wil naturally take longer. Each microwave's voltage differs, so you really have to check whether the chicken is cooked, and adjust accordingly. To do this, pierce a fork into the thickest part of the thigh, usually next to the bone, and see if the juices run clear. You can also do it at 10 mins for 50% power if that's quicker. It's all about experimenting with your own microwave to get the best result that works for your microwave.

3) At this point, you're asking, so where is the rice? What happens is that the chicken juices will flow out. You add the rice to this (warmed up if necessary) and it will absorb the juices and it really tastes like chicken rice!!!! See why I said 'chicken rice equivalent'? Because if yo know how chicken rice is really cooked, you know that the rice is usually fried in chicken oil then cooked in chicken stock!

Autumn chicken soup

I have always loved soups, but no where is this more appropriate than during my first autumn in Oz. Somehow its just very nice and earthy to drink warm soup during a cool evening - the feeling of being home once again as the warming nourishing soup fills my tummy. This isn't my usual clear soup, it has a lot more packed into it in terms of seasoning - makes up for the loneliness and emptiness and lack of ingredients!

Ingredients

1 tbsp light soya

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp garlic

1 tbsp ginger

2 cups water

3 pieces of chicken thigh, deskinned

Method

1) Marinate the chicken with the above. I don't have rice wine, so I used oyster and fish sauce to add a different type of flavour, but boy do I miss my chinese rice wine!

2) Transfer to oven cassarole covered dish and bake. It can either be a slow bake at low heat or a quick one at high heat - the outcome is very different! For this one, I used 200 deg C until it boiled, then turned off the heat and left it in the hot oven for the next 1 hr. It was still boiling when it came out of the oven!