Philly mush rump rice

Yes, as you can tell from the title this is a dish of my own creation, a taste explosion borne from an exploration of the nether regions of my fridge.

Left over rice was transformed into........Philly Mushroom Rice. We had some lovely short grain brown rice in the fridge from yesterday's curry. Finely slice mushrooms, and fry in garlicky butter until browned, chuck your rice in the pan and heat through very thoroughly (no food poisoining for me thank you), the rice can even brown a little bit too. Then take it off the heat, dot with blobs of cream cheese (must be full fat!) and add a handful of chopped parsley.

We had this with rump steak and stir-fried brussels, but I reckon it would make a nice light meal just on it's own.

Day 1 @ Ashburton - Smoked salmon risotto

First day at the cookery school....what a day! We covered a lot of techniques. I'll post a pic of each dish and give you a brief run through.

The teaching is fantastic. We had Darrin looking after us today. He has worked in Michelin starred restaurants so I think it's safe to say he knows his stuff. Our group was nicely balanced with really friendly people from a variety of professional backgrounds.

So the risotto......first we had to hot smoke our salmon (as you do)......make a vegetable stock........chop our onion + garlic into teeny tiny pieces......make a saffron infusion. Then began the risotto process adding the stock bit by bit to the rice to a lovely creamy finish. add butter at the end then the peas/dill/salmon. The result was a beautifully balanced dish. A pretty good start to my two weeks of training!

Red fried rice

Hmmm Monday night dinner, always a tricky one. Especially tricky when you crash out on the sofa til 9pm oops! And watching trash TV too........'How clean is your house', I love those girls.

So peeling my eyes open at 9pm and responding to my growling stomach.......modern woman hunts for leftovers in the fridge. Aha some rice (short grain brown, gorgeous texture), red curry paste (made in a large batch last week).

In a big frying pan fry this lot for 5 minutes.......the curry paste, a little coconut milk, pinch of stock powder and splash of fish sauce. Now add the rice, mix mix mix and heat very thoroughly so you don't get food poisoning. for the last couple of minutes add the prawns and some finely sliced peppers. We had this with a pile of steamed kale and a big squeeze of lime juice.