What are your family’s top 3 favorite meals?
Eating right is important. I watched Supersize Me at uni. Generally, anything eaten in excess is no good. This doesn’t just apply to fast food. Too much carbs would tack on extra kilos. Excessive nuts may cause zits. Load up on fresh milk and you’ll have a runny tummy. And so on. Strike the right balance and have a bit of everything. Fresh salads and fish. Steaks and brown rice. Wholemeal bread and yoghurt. Seafood and leafy greens. Our diet is not spotless. I’m not bragging or lying about what we often have. Just sharing this snapshot to my readers. While these are recurrent, we don’t have spag bol on repeat like that ad. Here are our top three meals:
- Grilled salmon with brown rice and veggies. (Occasionally with ontama)
A healthy choice. Through the years, the price of salmon has shot up. Before gobbling your fish, know the right pronunciation. In Oz, we enunciate it as sah-mon. My dad told me to be aware. Is the fish caught wild or farmed? The former is better, meaning that it was from the ocean.
As per above, we always have our catch with brown rice. Rarely, we’d pair it with white rice. We used to combine it with broccoli, cucumber, or gourmet tomatoes. Sometimes, we’d pair it with a ready to eat salad. At times, the leftover fish would be made into fried rice. Nowadays, it goes with coleslaw and baby spinach.
The biggest issue is getting the right texture. Yes, salmon can be eaten raw as with Japanese cuisine. However, not overcooking is the best practice. Make sure that it’s a wee bit juicy, but not too soft.
Salmon is rich in good fats and collagen. We always grill it; we never fry. As per above, we sometimes pair it with a half boiled egg or ontama. Just like the Japanese. You could add cabbage with sesame sauce. This fish is perfect for supper. Unlike steak, it won’t fill you up.
A friend said that it makes her happy. Another pal says that he used to fish but could only bring home trout. They cooked it as you can’t it eat raw. They returned a lot of the inedible pufferfish to the river. He wished they caught some salmon so he could it devour it on the spot. I corrected him that salmon is a saltwater fish, not fresh water.
2. Stir fried scotch fillet with brown rice and salad. Along with porterhouse steak, scotch fillet is one of the supermart’s more expensive beef cuts. Regularly selling for $40+ per kilo, the meat is very tender. Save yourself the hassle of a knife. It takes a few minutes to cook a slice. We stir fry the fillet, with a good helping of spices. We then serve it with the aforementioned veggies. Lately, we’ve been having more spinach than broccoli. Unlike Popeye, we get the fresh spinach not the canned variety. The jury’s still out if it makes us stronger. Before, we paired it with tabouleh, Caesar, or Greek salad. Why buy those mixes when you can create your own?
Unlike salmon, cooking scotch fillet is more straightforward. After washing the meat, slice them. At the same time, cook the spices. Then dunk the beef onto the pan. Wait until it’s cooked, before doing the same on the underside. After about six minutes, it’s ready to serve.
Aside from scotch fillet, we also prepare rump and porterhouse steak. These portions offer the best value, dollar for dollar. Rib eye and others, at their price, are impractical.
3. Chicken wrap with hummus.
We got the idea by buying wraps from Manoosh. It’s simple, with protein, lots of lettuce and onions, and some tomato. The wrap is spread with hummus, garlic aioli, or tzatziki sauce. It’s toasted. The price has gone up. Trying it at home makes sense. Buy the wholemeal wrap, some lettuce or spinach, plus tomatoes. Don’t forget the hummus or spicy dip. The former is the healthy pick. More nutritious than garlic aioli, and on par with tzatziki, if not better. Put them all together, heat in the microwave, and presto, el wrappo.
Of course, you can opt for the white wrap instead of wholemeal. As they say, ‘Different strokes for different folks.’
For the meat, you can use chicken, whether wings or drumsticks. Beef is not good for supper as it’s rather filling. If you’re having a wrap, it’s best not to drink fruit juice or iced tea as you’ll be loaded on carbs. The same with milk. Better chug aqua or coco water. Or beer, if that floats your boat.
Honourable mention: chicken afritada. We have this with potatoes, spices, and carrots. Heaps of onions. Sometimes, we add capsicum.
