Gulai Kambing - Lamb "Stew"

What's with the quotation marks on the "Stew"?
Because I didn't exactly stew the lamb ^_^'
I was not in the mood for any stewing, it's a weekday night! I need something quick and tasty.

Spicy Lamb & Shrimp Paste Fusili

Oh my goodness. It's been a while since I've made pasta, I wonder if I could still pull it off. Those who normally read my blog know that I don't do things authentically, nor innovatively. I just do things my lazy way. There were times when I put 2 + 2 = 100, and there were times when I put 2 + 2 = -100, to put it simply, they didn't work. This time, I wanted some Asian flavors on my pasta, so I tried mixing lamb and shrimp paste. Let's see how it goes.

Don't you feel that when you've stopped doing something for too long, when you do it again, it feels kinda weird and you have to start getting a hang of it all over again? (Nooooo I am not talking about THAT. Hehe)

That's how I felt about cooking pasta. Suddenly, I didn't know how to tell if the pasta's cooked just right, I added too much shrimp paste (boy, it's powerful) and had to adjust and adjust. A lot of work, I was glad it ended up great. A tad too tasty, but it worked for me.

Spicy Lamb and Shrimp Paste Fusili

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 1 cup of fusili
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 6 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 red chillis, chopped
- a bunch of fresh corriander, chopped
- 0.7 lb lamb, sliced thinly, sukiyaki style
- 2 tsp shrimp paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- pepper, olive oil, water, salt

Cook pasta as directed in the packet, drain. Saute garlic, shallot, chilli and a bit of corriander in olive oil, add sliced lamb, add shrimp paste and sugar, cook through, add pasta, mix well, serve with freshly chopped corriander.

There's something else I haven't done for really really long time...submitting a pasta dish to one of my favorite foodblog events, Presto Pasta Nights. I miss it dearly. This one's for you, guys. This week's it's hosted by lovely Pam from Sidewalk Shoes. Hop over to her blog to check out the roundup.

Now...there's still another thing I haven't done for a very long time...I wonder if I'd still be good at it. Let's see. ;)

Lamb in Creamy Coconut Milk and Mint

When I saw people posting great dishes using fresh ingredients from their own garden...I turned bright green, full of envy. It gets even worse when I see them submitting their fabulous entries to this fantastic foodblog event called Grow Your Own. I always thought...damnnn!! When do I get to have my very own garden...where I could pluck sprig after sprig of fresh herbs, basketful of fruits and vegetables...with a serene look on my face...and maybe a flower or two in my hair (OK, yuck! My apologies for going a little overboard with the flowers there, guys).

Why can't I grow my own stuff?
I live in Hong Kong. If I told you that I had a garden with a capacity to hold an extensive collection of fresh herbs, fruits, vegetables and flowers..chances are: I am either...a tycoonista/gadzillionairess/married to a gadzillionaire/an heiress/lying to be any of the foresaid people/living in a village so far away from Hong Kong city center...it's probably China. Well, I am none of the above. From my crappy photoshoot post, you can see how teeny tiny my flat is (it can barely contain my huge azz hehe). I don't have a little balcony or an empty windowsill to place even a pot of plant. Sob sob.

And it's not only about the lack of space. I am a notorious plant murderer. When I was browsing through Prince Edward's flower market, it was all "Oh, I've killed this one before, and that one, and that one...and those ones too (basically almost everything)", and I could feel that all the plants were fearing the possibility of going home with me, which would make them my latest potential victims (if they could speak, they'd be saying "pleaseeeee, don't buy me, I don't wanna dieeee!!!").

Nevertheless. I was determined to give it another try. So, I picked a (lucky or unlucky?) pot of mint, and brought it home. I heard stories of raging mint plants taking over food bloggers' whole freaking gardens, and they are almost impossible to stop, let alone kill, yada yada yada. Let's see how they hold up with me. I bet they were either planning a strategy to take over my flat or crying their way to my home. Plus, I love the fresh, fragrant scent of mint, and they normally are not available in wet markets.

I was so nervous that the mint was gonna be dead the moment it arrived my home, I literally looked at it every few minutes, giving it lots of love. I took care of it according to what the seller told me (water when the soil feels dry, about every other day, give it a bit of sun tan every day)...and surprise surprise! It looked like it was dying the day after. HAHA! Sous chef came to the rescue...by giving it more love than one can imagine. The plant was being fed the leftover water we use to wash rice, egg shells, the sun tanning sessions were strictly supervised, the dying leaves were trimmed, and it now has a cute, adorable, Hong Kong nickname, mint jai. It is now a he.

The lack of space I mentioned earlier is true...mint jai is experiencing it first hand. He is pretty much a nomad mint. It doesn't have its own space. On the TV stand near the window? or the dining table next to the laptop? too much radiation. In the kitchen near the stove? Too hot. On the sofa? People sit there. So, poor mint jai shuffles from one place to another, depending on which activity is being carried out at home. When there's no cooking going, he stays in the kitchen by the stove. Otherwise, he has to move to the tiny side table near the window, unless if there's a food blog photo shoot, then he has to move to the dining table, and so on, and so forth.

Our love is not purely unconditional though (hehe, we are selfish bitches after all). We expect mint jai to give us minty fresh leaves for our culinary experiments and gastronomical enjoyment. Here's one:

Lamb in Creamy Coconut Milk and Mint

Recipe
- 1.5 lbs thinly sliced lamb (for sukiyaki)
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 5 cm ginger, crushed
- 1/2 cup mint leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground corriander seed
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 cup coconut milk
- a bit of water, a bit of olive oil
Saute shallot and ginger in a bit of olive oil, add garlic, add lamb, ground cumin, ground corriander seed, salt, sugar, white pepper, add a bit of water, bring to boil, cook until the meat pieces are cooked through, add coconut milk, mix well until heated through, add fresh mint leaves, mix a little, turn heat off. Serve with more fresh mint leaves.

Submitting this recipe to Grow Your Own, hosted this time by Rachel of the Crispy Cook

Hmm, I could probably buy more plants and hang them out my window. But with the risk of killing a passerby, probably not. :p