Cookbook of the Moment: "It Tastes Better" by Kylie Kwong

Tidying our bookshelves recently I rediscovered several great books that have been languishing on the shelves as I increasingly "google" recipes or get them from other blogs. I decided I would choose one book at a time and cook my way through the best of it.
Thus it's Kylie Month at our place!
The book is "It tastes Better" by Kylie Kwong. It was a Christmas Gift from Mia. It is all about the suppliers from whom she sources her sustainable and organic ingredients for her restaurant (Billy Kwong's) and a mix of her own and their recipes using the produce. They are very inspiring. It makes me want to leave the city and grow and make my own everything somewhere quiet - perhaps in retirement!!

Tonight was the highlight of the recipes so far - The Chicken Pho. (The "almost" in the blog title kicks in here)

It was a pretty big job to make but was delicious and loved by all. I made a second pot with all the ingredients except the chicken for Mia - and it was just as delicious - so maybe we'll do that version again. I think I'll blog this meal in another post it was so good!


Other highlights have been:-
* Dry fried green beans with miso sauce
* The soba noodle and marinated tofu salad (this may become a regular in our house - fantastic)



* the mussel omlete



* Beer battered flathead with a potato aioli



* Deep fried Silken Tofu with lemon sauce



* Fried cauliflower and spices (the original had chickpeas but as mine weren't ready we went without and loved it) and served it with Beetroot, Fig, Cumin and yoghurt salad



* Slightly Disappointing was the quinoa salad.

* I also set out to make the spring vegetable salad with ricotta - but the weather turned cold while I was cooking and I modified it to be a pasta dish with fresh ricotta, sauteed fennel, sugar snap peas and herbs and it was great, I'm sure the original salad would also have been good on a summery day!



Still to come over the next 2 weeks we have
* Corn Fritters with dill dipping sauce
* pickled eggplant
* steamed blus eye cod with cloud ear fungus and sweet and sour dressing
* Egg with pickled carrot and beetroot
* stir-fried chickpeas with blackbean and chilli
* seared tofu with caramelised tomatoes
* Kylie's fried rice
* Potato and egg salad with tamari and roast garlic
* Lentil, goats cheese and roasted tomato salad.


I have used more lemons, soya sauce/tamari, sesame oil, szechuan pepper and ginger in the last two weeks than I have in have ever used before - but love them!


Her book also contains amazing looking meat dishes that we would rarely use now - two of hers have been past favourites though - a lamb shank braise and her red braised pork.


Red Braised soya beans are also a favourite of ours from Kylie, though not in this book.


I'll let you know how the rest go.

Nicola