Monday: Crispy Fish Burgers
Tuesday: Apricot Chicken
Wednesday: Blow My Coals Steak Rice Bowls
Thursday: Creamy Salmon, Tomato & Spinach Pasta
Friday: Dan Dan Noodles
Meal Plan
Shopping List:
Pepper & Me: Man Grind, Wok Sauce, Blow My Coals, Sesh Oil, Moroccan Paste, Mother Dukkah, Man Rub, Lemon & Herb Crumb
Pantry staples: Olive oil, Flour, Veg Oil, Soy sauce, Balsamic Vinegar, rice, rice flour, chicken stock, rice wine vinegar, baking powder
Dry Goods: Eggs x 6, Couscous, wheat noodles, pasta bows, chopped tin tomatoes, tahini, sundried tomatoes, dried apricots, peanuts, 4 x brioche buns
Chilled goods: Parmesan cheese, frozen beans, tasty cheese, can of beer, heavy cream 500g fresh firm fish, 250g Salmon, 1kg chicken thighs, 500g pork or chicken mince
Vegetables: Onions x 1, coriander, 1 broccoli head, tomato x 2, lettuce, 2 x carrots, garlic, 1 x orange, bok choy, 1/2 bag of spinach, 1 x red onion, 1 x capsicum.
Monday:
- Tartare Sauce
- lettuce
- sliced tomato
- cheese (optional)
- 4 brioche buns
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Place all the dry batter ingredients in a bowl and whisk together
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Lightly sprinkle fish with an additional few tablespoons of flour. This is to help the batter stick
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Pour most of the cold beer into the dry ingredients and whisk to combine, add the remaining beer until you get a milkshake/thin smoothie consistency. This isn't a heavy batter
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Heat a small saucepan of oil over a medium heat. Test the oil buy dropping a drop of batter into the oil, if it sizzles you're good to go. Dip the fish into the batter and place into the oil and fry
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Fry for 3-4 minutes or until golden brown (time depending on the thickness of your fish)
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Drain the crispy fish on a paper towel and season with additional Man Grind
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To assemble your burger warm the burgers buns in the oven and spread tartare sauce on each side of the bun. Layer your chosen fillings and top with the fish and top of the bun. Serve immediately
Rice flour is added to make the batter extra crispy, if you don't have any you can use all plain flour
Tuesday:
- 1 kg Chicken Thigh Cutlets
- 200 g dried apricots
- 1.5 cup boiling water
- 1 chicken stock cube
- 2 tbsp Moroccan Paste
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cup couscous
- Man Grind
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 orange
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 500 g frozen beans
- Mother Dukkah
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Pre heat oven to 180C
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Soak 3/4's of the apricots in boiling water with the Moroccan paste and set aside.
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Season the chicken thighs with Man Grind and brown in oil for 2-3 minutes on each side. Transfer to a casserole dish, preferably with a lid and continue until all the thighs are brown.
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Once the thighs are brown add the sliced onion to the fry pan and saute for a couple of minutes.
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Blend the soaked apricots and boiling water with an additional 1 cup of water until smooth. Pour into the fry pan with onions, add the zest and juice of one orange, chicken stock cube, vinegar and season with Man Grind. Simmer for two minutes (if you like a particularly sweet apricot chicken you could add a teaspoon of honey or brown sugar, however i find it doesn't need it)
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Pour the apricot sauce over the browned chicken thighs and scatter over the remaining whole apricots. Cover with a lid or foil and bake for 35 minutes, remove the lid for the last 10 minutes of cooking
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Towards the end of the cooking prepare the couscous. Place equal parts couscous to boiling water in a bowl or saucepan with 1 tbsp of butter and some Man Grind, Cover and set aside for 5-10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and stir through some freshly chopped parsley if you have it.
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Steam the frozen beans and toss through a tablespoon or two of mother dukkah to serve
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Serve the apricot chicken on a bed of couscous with green beans on the side.
For the meal plan when creating this recipe the most cost effective choice for chicken was bone in, skinless chicken thighs. This cut works really well but the recipe would would equally well with drumsticks or boneless thighs. Diced breast or thighs are another option, but adjust the cooking time accordingly.
This could also be cooked in a slow cooker.
To make this a gluten free option serve with rice or gluten free pasta.
Wednesday:
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves crushed
- 500 g steak I used eye filet, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons Pepper & Me Blow my Coals
- 1 can chopped tomatoes
- 1 ½ cups rice like basmati
- ½ broccoli head cut into small pieces
- 2 carrots cut into batons
- 1 capsicum cut into slices
- 1 cup tasty cheese grated
- ¼ red onion finely sliced
- Parsley for serving
- Pepper & Me Man Grind for serving
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Cook the rice as the packet states, I cook mine with 3 cups of water for 15 minutes in the microwave.
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In a large fry pan drizzle one tablespoon of oil and stir fry the vegetables, remove from the pan and pop aside.
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Add the remaining oil to the frypan and quickly fry the steak in batches, cooking on each side for a few seconds just to brown (without cooking through), remove from the pan and pop aside.
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Add the garlic, can of tomatoes and blow my coals, reducing down to a thick sauce, add the steak back in for a minute and season with man grind.
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Serve up the steak over the rice with the vegetables to the side, sprinkle with cheese, red onion and parsley.
Thursday:
This simple pasta recipe is packed with flavour and ready in 20 minutes (or so!)
- 250 g salmon skin off
- 1 red onion sliced
- 150 g spinach
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 200 g farfalle pasta
- 100 g sundried tomatoes
- 25 g parmesan cheese grated
- 250 ml heavy cream
- 1 pinch chili flakes
- salt & pepper
- pepper & me lemon herb crumb
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In seasoned water cook farfalle pasta until slightly al dente
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Meanwhile, season the salmon and using some of the oil from the sundried tomtaoes fry the salmon on medium heat for approx 8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside (see notes)
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To the same pan add the tomatoes, onion, garlic & chili flakes, fry for 1-2 minutes and then add the spinach and cook for a further minute
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Add cream and reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 2 - 3 minutes until cream has reduced slightly. Add grated cheese
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Add al dente pasta to sauce. Break salmon into bite sized chunks and stir into sauce.
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Finish with pepper & me lemon crumb for some brightness and texture and enjoy this easy and tasty pasta dinner!
Essential Tools
- saucepan
- high sided frying pan
- chef knives
- chopping board
- tongs
- grater
- measuring utensils
Tips/Tricks
- don't worry if the salmon is a little thicker and isn't fully cooked after the 8 minutes. As it rests it will cook more and it will also cook within the sauce at the end.
- add more or less garlic/chili as your palate requests
- season season season - don't be afraid when cooking to season the meat or fish generously BUT also remember the other ingredients you are using. Things like soy, blue cheese & parmesan will naturally add more salt to the dish.
- skin on salmon will work if that's all you can get your hands on. Just peel the skin off after the searing process.
Friday:
- 1/4 cup Wok Sauce
- 2 to 3 tbsp Sesh Oil
- 1/4 cup tahini see recipe notes
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp rice vinegar see recipe notes
- 500 g Pork Mince
- 1/4 cup Wok Sauce
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Sesh Oil
- 300 g dried wheat noodles see recipe notes
- 1 bunch bok choy
- 3 tbsp chopped peanuts or cashews
- coriander and/or spring onion to garnish
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In a small saucepan combine all the sauce ingredients
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Mix together over a medium heat and simmer for 2 minutes
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Break up the pork mince into a hot pan with a drizzle of oil over a medium high heat
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Brown the pork, breaking up the mince well with a wooden spoon. You are looking for a fine texture of mince
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Keep browning until the mince starts to caramelize, this takes about 10 minutes
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Add the wok sauce, sesh oil and soy sauce. Cook off for another minute or so
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Cook noodles in a pot of boiling water as per cooking instructions on the packet and drain well
See notes for more info regarding the noodles. We used these noodles from our local Asian grocer
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Chop the bok choy finely. You can either blanch it towards the end of the noodles cooking or you can add to the mince to wilt slightly
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To build the noodles traditionally the spicy sauce is spooned into a bowl
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Then add the noodles and then top with the mince and greens
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The noodles are then tossed through the sauce in the bowl at the table
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You can then garnish with the chopped peanuts and coriander or spring onions
This recipe really benefits from using tahini or you can get sesame paste at an Asian supermarket but if you don’t have tahini you could substitute for smooth peanut or cashew butter
Traditionally Chinese black vinegar is use but we just substituted for rice vinegar or you could use balsamic
For the noodles you need to use a standard white wheat or egg noodle. Do not use rice noodles. You can also use fresh noodles found in the fridge section of an Asian supermarket. Blanch these in boiling water prior to serving