Week 5: Guest blogger

This week we have a very special guest blogging for 52&52. We are privilaged to have the world renowned author of Urban Biodiversity, Jamie, doing the writing;-) Actually I was to lazy to cook but I did pick one of the new recipe so it still counts.

Go for it Jamie.

Oh, thank you for that lovely introduction.  I will try to ignore the hint of sarcasm.  This week we had on the menu, spicy garlic green beans and Orange sweet potato and noodle salad.

Spicy Garlic Green Beans (from Van. Sun)
1/2 tsp of sambal oelek
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp of sugar
2 tbsp of veg oil
1 pound of green beans (trimmed)
1 tbsp of fresh ginger
4 green onions
1 tsp sesame oil

Combine the sambal, soy sauce and suga.  In wok heat 1 tbsp of veg oil and cook beans until they start to shrivel and turn brown in spots (about 5 min).  Remove.  Wipe out wok and add remaining oil, ginger and green onion.  Stiry fry until they sizzle.  Add beans and sambal mixture.  Cook until beans are heated thoroughly and soy sauce has evaporated.  Remove from heat add sesame oil and salt (if necessary).

Orange Sweet Potato and Noodle Salad (this is from a cook book called Asian Noodles, it is from Australia so measurements are non-standard)

Okay, well we had squash we wanted to use, so substituted that for the sweet potato. 

1.25 kg of sweet potato (or squash) cut into 2 cm cubes
2 tbsp of veg oil
200 gram of roasted cashews
1 cup of finely chopped cilantro
100 gram packet of fried noodles 

Dressing
3/4 tsp of red curry paste
90 ml of coconut milk
2 tbsp of lime juice
1 1/2 tsp of brown sugar
2 tbsp veg oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger


Mix sweet potato (squash) with oil, salt and pepper and roast in oven until tender.  Approx. 30 min.
Make dressing by combining ingredients and blending.
Heat oil in small frying pan, cook garlic and ginger 1-2 min - add to dressing.
Place sweet potato (squash), cashews, and cilantro (I used only about 1/2 cup) in bowl with noodles, add dressing, toss and serve.


Sorry there are no photos this week.  Mark was convinced he was going to make something better than this....but he didn't get around to it.


Jamie's thoughts.  Green beans were super yummy, like chinese green beans that I enjoy when eating out.  Squash salad was okay.  Dressing was super good.  We also didn't have the right type of noodles (need the orange fried noodles) so we substituted with Mr. Noodle which weren't quite as good.  But overall quite yummy.  I would try it again.


Mark's thoughts:  Very tasty.  Beans..just like Tony's  (shout out to FL).  Salad was also tasty but overall it felt like a meal of starters...needed a main.