The late Sunday Roast: It's all in the sauce

The Sunday roast is a little late this week as I'm not actually at home. In fact I'm not even cooking. My Mum is. I'm sorry to be boasting, but my Mum is actually a very good cook, which probably explains why I love food. I think in a bizarre and twisted way it also explains why every now and again I crave junk food, but never mind that.

Anyway, Mum's cooking was always very international, what with Mauritius being the island where all the nationalities came together (and not just to make a mean curry). Mauritian food is a mixture of traditional African , Indian, Chinese and French food, mix that all together and you get Mauritian creole food (note that the British who did eventually take over the island and ruled it until 1968 didn't have much influence on the cuisine).

One of my favourite dishes as a kid was mein (pronounced min). Now strictly speaking it's pretty much a stir fry, but my Mum's is always so much better than my stir fry. So here for the first time (on my blog) the secret of the super stir fry mein is going to be shared. Mum says the secret is in the preparation, but I know from communing with me and my wok, that it's actually in the sauce.

Mein

Any vegetables you like, chop them thin and diagonally if possible
any meat/fish/chicken/seafood sliced in thin and diagonal slices too (obviously prawns are exempt from this)
so basically you put in whatever you want, right.
fresh coriander
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
a dash of salt
pepper
2 tsp of (meat use) soya sauce/
(everything else) light soya sauce
2 tbsp vegetable stock
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp seasame oil
2 tbsp red wine/port (alcohol - see, oh no maybe you don't yet, but you will)
medium or fine egg noodles

sauce
3/4 spring onions thinly chopped (keep a handful some aside)
1 lemon juice
1 big clove of garlic crushed
2 tbsp of olive oil
a little bit of water to loosen the sauce
1 green chilli
seasoning

1. Prepare the veg and mix with coriander, garlic and a dash of soya sauce
2. Heat half the oil in the wok until very hot.
3. (Fry meat or chicken until cooked).
4. Put the veg that takes the longest to cook in first, when that starts to soften add the rest.
5. If the wok begins to dry add the stock as necessary, a little at a time.
6. (Add fish or seafood now).
7. When everything is cooked remove from the wok and set aside.
8. Without washing the wok add some boiling water and cook the noodles according to packet instructions, stirring all the time.
9. When the noodles are cooked add some cold water and drain.
10. Add the rest of the oil to the wok until very hot.
11. Gradually add the noodles, veg and meat/chicken/seafood in equal portions. At the same time add the wine and soya sauce to prevent sticking. Keep stirring (don't stop).
12. This is a completely optional thing that we're just hearing about NOW! Make a plain omelette and slice it thinly in diagonals and sprinkle on top of the mein.
13. Sprinkle with the set aside spring onions.
14. Make the sauce.

Eat while it's still hot and I hope you enjoy.

By the way, my mother does not follow recipes. She invents stuff that tastes good, and boy is it difficult to write a recipe following her instructions! She also thinks that the main ingredient is good 'ole TLC.

A Memory: Foucault's pendulum

Writing on Wednesday: Something's gotta give

Chances are some heavenly star spangled night
We'll find out as sure as we live
Something's gotta give, something's gotta give,
Something's gotta give.

Ella Fitzgerald - Something's gotta give

 
On Saturday night as I was preparing to go to bed after the day's NaNo preparation, I realised that November is not going to work unless something goes. I know that I am able to intermittently give up Facebook and all its annoying distractions. I did so in the summer of 2009 when I so beat the Frog at being able to live without internet access. I was not so successful last year, as I then had a smart phone (= Facebook access). Anyway, my point is that FB can go (ish). So the next thing that probably needs to go is this blog! This I baulked at a little because I've only just got back into the damn thing. To be abandoning it so soon, seems... wrong.

But my mind flashed back to a post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, where I had first heard the term scheduled posts. In fact, I have to admit that after reading and investigating the term, the Monday photo feature is a scheduled post. So on Sunday I sat down and wrote four Sunday Roast posts. Then I drafted five Writing on Wednesday posts so that I can keep you guys updated during November. So, although I will be pretty much abandoning the blog during November, it will go on without me. Ain't technology great?

Meanwhile, I have found a location for the November write-ins, which will take place on Sunday's throughout November. And I'm now the official co-ordinator (hee hee). OK at the moment I'm co-ordinating two other people, but it might be more!

Preparation for the WIP is continuing nicely. I have written two back stories: Leo's, and today Sam's. I've had a tour round The Timaeus (and also reminded myself why I called the boat Timaeus in the first place). I've outlined a little bit more, and have unfortunately discovered a great big gaping hole in the end. I'm not sure what I will do with my antagonist. I like the tension that not knowing what to do with him creates with the characters, but the problem is that I really don't know what to do with him. I don't want to kill him, yet he needs to be removed as a threat in order to reach a satisfactory end. Maybe he will have to die, but just not at the hand of any of my little intrepid team. Ugh, I don't know, but I think that it would be a really good idea to know before 1st November otherwise it's going to cause a problem keeping up with the NaNo pace.

Finally, in my NaNo preparation, the 1st November and 11th November are national holidays, plus the  weekends are going to have to be intense writing days. That way during the week I can write every day, but less than the stipulated 1667. After all the day job does pay the rent, so I cannot give up on that.

A Memory: The boats

The Sunday Roast: Cheating

When I lived in the north of Paris, there was this excellent Thai restaurant right down the road. I didn't go there too often. Not since the time the Frog and I went there for a little romantic tête a tête. At the end of the meal we asked for the bill and the Frog made some innocent comment about how they were doing a good trade and the next thing we knew the waitress had sunk into an empty seat at the opposite table, her head in her hands and she was bemoaning that fact. "What's the point of making all this money?" she asked. "When all we do is work, work, work." The Frog and I exchanged uncomfortable glances and after that we always got take out.

We also moved south, where a new Japanese opens every month, but there is a dearth of Thai restaurants. So, when I and some fellow mums had the chance to take a Thai cooking course I jumped at the chance. There was only one problem, or four. Babies and cooking courses do not mix. We made Thai green curry paste from scratch. Don't ask me how, I can't remember. We also made Pad Thai and I can vaguely remember what went into it, but I cannot recall if I had any part in making it. At one point all four babies were screaming at the same time and we were simultaneously trying to shove them into baby carriers and fold napkins (don't ask). Anyway, the point is that I still have no knowledge of Thai cooking, but the course was fun and if you don't take your three month old along I'm sure you'd learn something.

Which still left me with the problem of loving Thai food and having no restaurant or take out place close enough. And that's right, you got it, enter stage left BBC Good Food. Now as you may know by now I worship this site, but their Thai dishes, or at least the dishes that take less than 30 minutes to cook, all use curry paste. And I think that paste is cheating. So is curry sauce. My mum always made curries from a mixture of spices. Hell, I used to make curry by mixing my spices. But back then I wasn't so hungry and had longer than 30 minutes to cook a meal, so now I use paste and sauces. But, there is a but. When you cheat you lose out. Curries (be it Thai or Indian) need time. They always taste better the next day because the food has steeped in the spices. And Thai curry paste (unlike its Indian cousins) on its own is not enough. There needs to be a little something else. So although I cook the Easy Thai Prawn curry frequently, the Prawn Massaman Curry is far superior.

copyright, BBC Good Food

And one of these days I may have a crack at the Pad Thai again.

Writing on Wednesday: There has been some progress

 Eleven days ago I reported on the worrying lack of progress on my latest WIP. To remind you this was the progress eleven days ago:

So, number of words written on WIP - 0. Number of ideas jotted down - a few.

With this pitiful lack of progress noted I decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo. I may have mentioned that once or twice as well as saying that I am using this site to prepare. So eleven days later I can joyfully report this:

• WIP word count - 0, but that's OK because those are the Nano rules. 
• One outline done - Green post its are pinned onto pin board (they're not real post its so they are not really sticky).
• Rough plans for some tricky bits of the plot done.
• I've done a drawing/plan for three key locations
• I feel like I have been taken on a very thorough tour of Ella's house. The only thing I don't know is how much the rent is and how much they pay in bills!
• My antagonist now has a name as opposed to initials EOM. He also has a back story, I know what motivates him and he's not completely evil.
• The ending which was holier than a colander, is now more like Swiss cheese.
• I met and got to know Ella a bit more. 
• I wrote the back story that drives all the action to the WIP
• I have now also met Leo and know his favourite things, things he hates and a few other things. But I now realise after a bit of research at the crèche fish tank that he needs to have black eyes.
• I seem to have unofficially taken on the role of Nano coordinator for the French and more specifically Parisian part of the SCBWI chapter! Oh bugger, now I need to find locations for four write-ins!

So, with that I will sign off and will report on more progress soon.