Ah, prawn satay skewers... These weren't bad, actually, I could only eat the one stick however, I'm not a huge fan of seafood. The satay didn't exactly work, but it was something pulled together all cheaty like, so.. well. You get that. I would put up the recipe and how to make them and so on, except my dad cooked them so... it wouldn't be honest! Here's what he used, however, to make the satay;
Peanut paste (butter, crunchy)
1 Tbsp vinegar
1 tsp siracha hot sauce.
The prawns were defrosted, slowly and raw in the fridge, cooked on the day with the satay mix just 'painted' on top. Unfortunately, it wasn't liquid enough to work quite right. The hot sauce left an afterburn, but not much 'lift' in the satay itself. Alternately, you could put fresh peanuts (shelled) in a blender, or if you have a packet of salted peanuts, wash the salt off and they'll do just fine. Oil, a whole chilli (the stem taken out, and the seeds if you don't want it too spicy), and perhaps a bit of vinegar, or perhaps cream... hmm, I'll have to mess around a bit and give you an exact recipe at some point, unless anyone has suggestions...? If you heat that through, then it should work just fine as a satay sauce.
Cook the prawns in a frying pan, watch the colour change rise through the flesh and turn them over. It'll take around five minutes or so, not long at all so babysit your fish. Once cooked, put on a plate and enjoy.
Garden Salad.
This is a really really easy, throw together salad that I adore. I -hate- having blocks of things to eat, like an entire cube of cheese, an entire piece of cucumber or carrot and a whole leaf of lettuce. Pleh. Slather the whole lot in mayonaise to mask the flavour, but that's hardly healthy, now is it?
For this you'll need;
Around 8 lettuce leaves (iceberg)
1/2 cup of green and/or red capsicum (bell pepper)
4-6 fresh tomatoes
A slice of block cheese, around 1 and a half inches thick -- you'll be grating this.
1-2 carrots
1 cup of cucumber
3-4 fresh mushrooms (more if they're button, and this is entirely optional if you don't like raw mushroom).
Peel off the lettuce leaves, layer them in amongst each other, and chop them up roughly, so that the rolled up leaves end up being short strips of lettuce, about 2-4cm or so wide. Dump it into a bowl that will be able to hold this amount of food.
Chop off a 4 inch long bit of cucumber (or so, depends on how many you're feeding and so on) take the peeler and peel off the skin in strips, so you have a striped bit of cucumber in your grip. Cut it into slices, pile the slices ontop of each other, and quarter the whole lot. Put it in ontop of the lettuce.
Top and tail the tomato (though, you mainly have to focus on getting the stem) slice it into thirds, so that you have the oval ring of the tomato. Stack them on the flat side (if you only cut off one end of the tomato) slice down through the whole lot in a cross hatching, so that there are two lines vertically, and another two horizontally. Tada! Your tomato is now cubed. Repeat for the other tomatoes.
Cut off the ends of the carrot(s), peel off the skin with a vegetable peeler (or paring knife if you're especially skilled) get out a grater (hand grinder, grader whatever, a thingy to make teeny little bits of vegetables and cheese) and grate the carrot. Don't fret if your hand goes orange though. Carrots do that. Dump the whole lot in the bowl as well, wash off the grater (just a rinse will do) and leave it to dry slightly.
While drying, slice up the capsicum. If you start from the end -opposite- to the stem, then the fruit (it technically is one, seeds on the inside) will last longer in the fridge. Two to three weeks or so, of it still being 'good', on average, compared to two to three -days- if you cut out the stem and all the seeds. Where was I? Oh right, slice off the end, and take another few cuts, about 1 cm thick, in from the end. It should be flat, if you cut down the side and end up seeing seeds, swat yourself one, as you're increasing the amount of 'waste food' you'll have out of that capsicum. Slice and dice into pieces around the same size as the cucumber, or there abouts.
Now, if you want mushrooms, this is where you chop them up. Slice each mushroom (if you're working with button) into a little umbrella row of slices, and cut those slices in half. If you're working with a larger breed, or non button mushroom, carefully peel the skin off of the cap, break off the stem, give your mushroom a quick rinse/wash over under cold water. Slice and dice to even small pieces, and toss into your nearly complete salad.
Lastly, grate the cheese (cheddar, ideally) and put into the salad as well. Carefully turn it, to stir up the layers and mix it all in, and there you go. A nice, healthy, delicious salad that does -not- need salad dressing. Why? Because you have vegetable juices all through it. If you're really concerned about the lettuce discolouring, or anything of the sort, just squeeze and toss a bit of lemon juice through the thing. The acid in the lemon will keep the cut vegetables 'good' for a few days longer.
Ham!
Ham is classified as a 'side' as all was done to this was carving. In Australia, we cook our ham's completely before they go onto the shelves, and we also serve ham on the bone. So, if you're in Australia, and want a leg of ham, get one on the bone. Then it is -guaranteed- to be Australian (can't import/export bone or marrow due to the stuff it can carry) and safe. Hams from other countries may have diseases or worms or something in them, I'm not entirely sure, but I -do- know that in America the ham has to be cooked/boiled/smoked until the inside reaches a certain temperature to make sure that all those sorts of badnesses don't get into -you-. If you are unsure about your countries particular ah, issues with ham, then please consult the relevant research books, articles and information, since, as of right now, I have no idea.
So! Slice up your ham, put it on a plate. Do NOT, ever, wrap ham up in plastic. It sweats and goes slimy and ew. Instead, get a cloth bag (like say, a pillow case) or a teatowel, soak it in four (or five) cups of water with one (or two) cups of vinegar in it. Pull it out, wring out the excess, and put your plate of ham in that. The vinegar keeps the ham 'healthy' for longer. Remember, you can always freeze the excess and have ham for forever! Well, near enough.
There was also coleslaw, but I'll go into making that another day. That's it! A list of some of the typical foods found in an Australian christmas feast, salad, cold meat (chicken, ham) seafood. It usually consists of the kids going off and doing their own thing (like swimming) while the adults get drunk under the shade, watching the kids to make sure they don't drown, because it is just too darned hot. Someone particularly heat resistant could cook up meat on the barbecue (steak, sausages, fried onions) but well, why bother doing anything other than having a good time on christmas?
Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Happy Consumer Product Placement Day :)
Deliciousness Delivered.
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