Easy delicious pasta with prawns

I made this the other night when some friends came over and it was a hit. It's doubly great cos it's easy too. To serve 4-6, you'll need:

500g prawns (beheaded and deveined)
3-5 cloves of crushed garlic (my level keeps vampires away for good)
2-4 chopped hot red chillis (adjust for heat)
2 tomatoes, de-seeded and cubed
a handful of basil
1/2 cup of good quality olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste
1 pack of spaghetti

Method:

1. Boil water and cook spaghetti according to directions. While that's happening:
2. Heat the olive oil in a pan (heavy-base is best)
3. Add the garlic and chillis and allow to brown but not burn
4. Add the prawns and let them cook till they go from translucent to opaque and red
5. Add the chopped tomatoes and tear in the basil
6. Add salt and pepper to taste, then turn off the heat and mix the sauce into the freshly cooked spaghetti.
   
7. Serve, sit back and receive your accolades.
   

I guarantee you it's tasty and it'll take less than 30 minutes to make. If you have any leftover (not likely) you can eat it cold the next day and it's just as great.

Optional: if you don't want to use that much olive oil, you could always use a few tablespoons to cook the garlic, chilli and prawns, then add 1/2 cup of white wine instead, and cook until it's heated through and the alcohol has evaporated. If you like a bit of texture, add 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs to the oil when the prawns have cooked, and they'll go crispy and delish!

Other food favourites:

• mussels in white wine, garlic and chilli
• beer can chicken
  

Christmas celebrations round #3: girlfriends

On Sunday night we had a 10 year reunion with a group of girlfriends we had Christmassed with in 1999. Changes between 1999 to 2009:

• 4 out of 6 of us are now married
• one of us currently lives in Geneva although the rest are still in Sydney
  
• we all have our own bedrooms now (10 years ago, only one of us did)
• we all have full-time jobs (actually it was probably only Jenny and myself who lived like hobos back then, but we can't say we didn't have fun!)

On the menu:

Beer can chicken (with roast vegetables)

Quick directions for the beer can chicken: buy a good sized fresh whole chicken (organic if you can). Take the entire lid off a can of beer and drink half (you'll need it to steady your nerves for what comes ahead), or alternatively, transfer half a can or bottle of beer into a mason jar (or clean ex-tomato paste or other glass jar).

Throw a bunch of herbs and spices into the remaining beer, like rosemary, cumin, paprika, cinnamon, Moroccan spice mix (love this stuff), chilli, cayenne pepper and cloves. Separately, create a spice rub using the same spices mixed with 2 tbs olive oil and 2 tbs softened butter. Lay your chicken down and rub the spice mix all over the skin and get your fingers right under the skin to also rub the spices into the flesh. Tip: don't apologise to the chicken. Personifying it will only make it harder. Just grit your teeth and remember that if you cook it right, it won't have died in vain.

Pick up the chicken and impale it onto the can or jar of beer, standing upright on a baking tray. Pop it into a pre-heated oven or BBQ at 180 deg C for 60min. It comes out delicious - 360 degrees of crispy spiced skin and juicy flesh flavoured from the internal workings of the beer.

Moroccan cous cous with roast veg and rocket leaves

Chop pumpkin and sweet potatoes into 1cm cubes and roast in the oven until slightly browned. While they're in the oven, add 1 cup of cous cous to 1 cup of hot vegetable stock, add some Moroccan spice, mix with a fork and cover. Wash some rocket leaves and chop a handful of mint and parsley leaves. Fork through the fattened couscous grains until they separate, then add the baked vegetables, rocket and herbs. It's ready to serve and a delicious accompaniment to any meal.

A side of garlic asparagus

A really simple but delicious side dish is garlic asparagus. Chop off the woody ends, wash and dry the asparagus. Heat a pan, add some olive oil and when it's nice and hot, throw in around 2-3 cloves of chopped garlic for each bunch of asparagus. When the garlic is slightly brown, throw in the asparagus. Toss until it starts becoming a nice bright green, then grind some salt over the top and serve. Easy.

The evening did have a purpose other than eating though... ten years ago we'd written down a list of 10 things we wanted to do before we died and placed it in a very fitting time capsule: a VHS case. After dinner, we sat around with some delicious French pastries and read aloud our lists one at a time. They were hilarious!

The points that had been accomplished included:

• travelling (for most of us)
• Mia owning her own studio
• Glenda meeting the man of her dreams
• I woke up before 6.30am at least once in my life (probably never again after the first time)
• Glenda and Ron watching a live grand slam tennis match
• Jenny conversing with her biological mother

The points we laughed over:

• both Ron and Andie wanted their own rooms (at the time they were sharing)
• Jenny wanted to do something fearless like acting in a movie or interviewing strangers
• I wanted to 'write a best seller.. or at least a pretty decent book... or at least something that gets published'

I can't remember all the points, but afterwards we wrote a list of 5 things we'd like to do, be or have in five years time, along with a snapshot of our lives now. My 5 things:

1. To potentially have another Bloom Training Centre set up, either somewhere else in Cambodia or in another country.
2. To have happy, well-adjusted kid(s) - either our own or adopted - and a great family.
3. To have my own business with freedom and flexibility.
4. To have a good wardrobe I can wear anything from and look good (hey, I'm a girl!)
5. ... can't remember the fifth one. Guess I'll find out in 2014!
   

Christmas celebrations round #2: friends

So after the mostly successful Parkside Family Christmas Lunch on Saturday, we followed it up with our Kris Kringle Friends' Christmas Dinner. Most are married young couples now and there are two kids in the group - one a gorgeous one year old Korindian and the other a terrible-two year old Eurasian. We're a mixed bunch.

The menu was pot luck, and the dishes I brought to the table were:
Mussels in white wine, garlic and chilli for starters.

Quick directions: buy 2kg fresh mussels (local ones are best) and pull off beards just before cooking. In a large pot, heat up some oil and add around 6 cloves of chopped garlic and 3-4 small red chillis (less if you can't handle the heat). When it starts to get fragrant and a little brown, add the mussels into the pot. Pour a can of chopped tomatoes and a cup of white wine over the top. Stir and put the lid on. When the mussels start to open, add a good handful of chopped continental parsley, a little salt (not too much) and stir again. Replace the lid. When all the mussels have opened, served in a nice big bowl with plenty of broth. It's delicious and a surefire way to get the party started.

Turkish Lamb Pizza

Quick directions: fry up one chopped onion, 3 green chillis and a dash of cumin and paprika in a little oil. Remove from the pan and cook 500g lamb mince until brown, and drain the juice. Add the fried onions and chilli to the minced lamb and add 2tb of tomato paste.

Spread the resulting lamb mince mix thinly onto any base you like: pre-bought or home-made pizza base, Lebanese bread or Greek pita bread. Chuck it into a pre-heated oven at around 160 deg C for around 10-15min until the edges are browned. Serve with wedges of lemon. Yum!!

Also on the table were really delicious and naturally sweet prawns with a lemon dipping sauce, marinated chicken, a complicated but beautiful Chinese chicken salad, fresh sashimi salad with a yummy sesame-base dressing, and for dessert, tiramisu and black forest cherry cake.

It was a good night on the whole and fun for everyone - especially when the kris kringle gifts came out - but some lessons learnt:

1. Ambience is important. Consider lighting, music and mood beforehand to set the scene and make it feel 'Christmassy'. Break out the candles and when desperate, pull out Mariah Carey's Christmas CD.
   
2. Punctuality makes a difference. There were some stragglers and it just kind of deflated the mood that night. One or two coming unavoidably late is ok, but when most of the party is late... it's just a bit lame. Answer: don't serve dinner too soon - start with drinks and a few snacks and go as long as it takes until everyone's arrived.
   
3. Large groups need something to hold it together. If it's a massive party then it's totally cool when people break off into smaller groups to chat, but when it's a cosy one, try to keep the group together. Board games or charades or something that keeps everyone laughing together work great, even if it takes a little persuading to get everyone involved.
   

Christmas celebrations, round #1: family

Christmas celebrations started off on Saturday 19th December with our Parkside Family Christmas lunch (my sister Glenda is now a Chang and I'm a Gomez, but we can't forget our Park roots). Attendees: my parents (who squeezed it in between a funeral and a wedding - they're so popular), Simon and Liz (brother and sis-in-law), Glenda and Juan (sister and bro-in-law), nephews Christian (15) and Reuben (13) and niece Hannah (3), Nathaniel, myself and Elena (sis-in-law).

On the menu:
Seafood platter

The traffic going to and from the Sydney Fish Markets was CRAZY but the resulting seafood platter was worth it. By the way, the platter pictured is a representation of my intended presentation rather than the actual presentation, which was much better but I hate to boast. Not. On the platter: fresh salmon sashimi, Sydney rock oysters, and delicious grilled prawns.

Quick directions for delicious grilled prawns: 30min before cooking, take prawns out of the fridge and marinate with chopped garlic, chopped continental parsley, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Let it sit before grilling on a BBQ or hot plate. Yum.

Sirloin roast with gravy spread

Quick directions: Buy a good cut of beef (mine was a 2kg sirloin which cost freakin' $80!! More than any of the presents I'd bought for my family! Tip: ask your butcher how much per kilo before asking for 'the best cut for roast' and blithely agreeing like you know something.

Take the meat out of the fridge around 1.5-2hrs before you plan to roast to bring it down to room temperature. Rub spices all over it (I used a Moroccan spice mix, paprika, cumin and whatever was in the cupboard), sear in a hot pan (or better still, in the baking tray) and place in a pre-heated oven at 220 deg C for 30min. Lower to 160 deg C and if you can manage, ladle the pan juices over the roast, then back to the oven for another 15min per 500g.

Brief directions for gravy spread: Make the gravy as per usual while the roast rests, using 2 tbs of the meat juices, 1 tbs flour, 1 cup of beef stock and salt and pepper. Then let your husband take over the cooking while you go upstairs to do your make up. By the time you come down, he'll have added another tablespoon of flour thinking you read the recipe wrong, and voila: gravy spread. Seriously, you couldn't even shake it out of the gravy boat (which is really a milk jug but who really knows the difference, right?).

I also served my famous ('famous') Thai-influenced marinated chicken skewers, with recipe to come.

A platter of summer fruit
There's nothing better than summer fruit like watermelon, mangoes, strawberries and cherries. Yum!

Everything was eaten in fast forward because everyone came late and my parents had to rush off to a wedding in an hour and we all wanted to get to the gifts.

So when we were done, my parents took their new GPS and personalised calendar chocka block full of pictures of their kids and grandkids and toddled off to their wedding. Christian wouldn't take off his new sneakers and Country Road bag. Reuben insisted on 'testing out' his new iPod speakers so we had Blasting Benjamin or My Chemical Romance or whatever blaring over the top of the Christmas music. Hannah immediately put on her inflatable floatie and hugged the in-built palm tree (to provide shade) and wouldn't take it off despite the fact that it squished her sideways on the beanbag. Then she and Glenda had a deep and meaningful conversation:

Hannah: Hannah doesn't have a penis. Isaac has a penis.
(Isaac is Hannah's friend, also aged 3)
Glenda: Where is Hannah's penis?
Hannah: (thinks for a while) It's at home.