Of all the Thai food we ate in Chiang Mai (and we ate a lot), 2 of our favourite dishes were Khao Soi (a soup like dish consisting of egg noodles and meat in a curry coconut sauce) and Khao Kha Moo (braised pork leg on rice). When Adrienne brought home fresh turmeric last week it was a sign to make Khao Soi, and in keeping with the Thai theme I decided to try and recreate the fabulous Khao Kha Moo from the famous “Lady with the cowboy hat” at the Chang Phueak Gate in Chiang Mai.
Category: Pork
pork
Sosatie (pl sosaties) is a traditional South African dish of meat (usually lamb or mutton) cooked on skewers. The term derives from sate (“skewered meat”) and saus (spicy sauce). It is of Cape Malay origin, used in Afrikaans, the primary language of the Cape Malays, and the word has gained greater circulation in South Africa. Marinated, cubed meat (usually lamb) is skewered and braaied (barbecued) shish-kebab style. Sosatie recipes vary, but commonly the ingredients can include cubes of lamb, beef, chicken, dried apricots, red onions and mixed peppers. Source: Wikipedia
I think most South Africans will agree that sosaties are an essential ingredient for any traditional South African braai. I decided to make four types of different sosaties using different marinades and different meats for date night.
To celebrate the month of October I decided to have a German date night. German cuisine is renowned for their Wurst (sausages), Kartofelln (potatoes) and Sauerkraut (sour cabbage).
I thought I would try my hand at charcuterie and start with something simple like bacon. I got a book from a friend of mine called Charcuterie – The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing, written by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. In this book the necessary steps in making homemade bacon are clearly explained.
My date night dish last week was inspired by a meal I had at Arugula Bistro & Bread. I decided to change it a little bit and make Cider Pork Ribs with a Jalapeño and Pistachio sauce.
For the second part of the South East Asian date night menu I made an Indonesian Oxtail Soup (who knew they ate oxtail in Indonesia), a Thai Coconut Fish dish (always a favourite) and a Filipino Pork Adobo which is a dish I’ve been wanting to make for ages.
I could not decide which country’s cuisine to make for my South East Asian Date Night menu, so I decided to make a few favourites from different countries and a few new dishes never tried before. I ended up with quite a lot of dishes, so I’m doing this in three separate posts.
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I recently came back from an over landing trip in Africa that took me a month. This had an impact on my cooking time and I decided to make up for it by creating a couple of dishes. Seeing that it is winter time and very cold in Cape Town currently, I decided to make 5 different soups.
A friend of mine recently gave me a nice cut of bacon. Upon first seeing the piece of meat I thought it was a duck breast. The idea of duck got stuck in my mind and I decided to convert an Angry Duck recipe into “Angry Pork”. This will then be a starter for date night where the two other dishes are Mexican Soup and Lamb Shank with oven roasted veg.