Ghetto gourmet with the simmer trick

Notice the pans, this technique has been adopted to stop the burning whilst simmering at a low heat for extended periods of time. Although this is nothing new and is used in beumarie's allover the world, the use here has resolved an issue caused buy using cheap thin pans as the heat does not spread evenly enough over the base of the pan. A patch of food directly under the heat will burn if you dont move the pot frequently and stir. The method of using water to transfer heat to the saucepan slower and protect the bottom frying pan means you can let the sauce simmer for more than 5 minutes, more like 35 minutes. This is great for reducing stock or creating thick chocolate topping.

In this instance i have created a fix to a tasteless dinner in 15 minutes. The rice cooker takes 15 minutes to whip up a fresh batch of sticky rice, generally adding more water to the recommended instructions gels it together better. A chopped brown onion in olive is fried in the sauce pan alone, when translucent; setup the simmer station with red kidney beans ( you can use mince meat here aswell ) and fresh carrots which end up warm through but still crunchy, so add some water ( 1/4 cup ). Enter simmer sauce i used el paso from the jar to speed things up, stir and let it simmer until the rice is done.

Prepare the plate with spinach leaves, a dash of balsamic vinegar and some peaches. I had 5 minutes to spare before the rice was done and i was eating.

Ghetto gourmet is when 90% of the ingredients come from the cupboard ( tins and jars etc.. ) not how i usually like to cook but as a full time student it's good enough mofo's.

Pond Life!

Sure it's pretty ugly at the moment, but the idea is to get some water into them and the rest will follow. Oh like what? well how about a duck or two, and some frogs to eat the mosquitos (which havent yet arrived). The ponds are at 50% capacity at that was from this morning down poor. I know my house is water tight after that onslaught of torrential rain! The flooding seems to have been fixed as there was a huge mass of water a couple of weeks ago pass through the back of the unit.

Eggplant toasties

First cut some egg plant into 3cm thick slices, Then place into a strainer and add salt liberally, try and arrange them so the white inside can breathe and bleed out. The salt should draw out a puddle of brown juice that is not necessary kept, so use a container to catch the run off as you will need to let this sit for 30 mins or overnight. Keep in mind you could always skip this step to speed up the process.

Turn the oven on real low for a slow cook, place the cut pieces onto an oiled tray, chuck in the oven until the tops are real firm and dry, about an hour later they should be done although during that time you would have prepared a delicious topping of your choice. Remove the eggplant from the oven and cut the skin off with a knife, Turn the oven off, I suggest you take some hot salsa and spread it on the soft side of the eggplant then apply some thinly cut tasty cheese, whack into oven until the cheese has melted, ready to eat. While eating the eggplant should be firm not soft or flimsy. I hope you enjoy these as much as i did.

Already old & turning vegetable

Sorry to announce that the blog has matured already, the fun youthfull blog as it was has gone.

Today i gardened, something that i vowed never to do.

Although i feel fantastic and look forward to tackling the rest of the day i have however disappointed my inner child, ...but fun play in dirt.

This blog will now be converted to a hydroponic gardening information website, on how to grow delicious fruits and vegetables all year round; i just got to figure out how first.

Stay tuned for vegetarian recipes once i get the crop producing of course!