Thursday, June 03, 2010

Slack Tea Thursday

I wanted to have chicken breast tenders tonight smothered in garlic cream sauce. With chips. Easy enough to get the frozen tenders on the way home already crumbed, grab some chips from the takeaway and bang up the garlic sauce in about three minutes when I walked in the door. (which is coincidentally about how long it would take to crisp up the chicken bits) Ten minute dinner is still slack if 7 minutes of that is actually procuring the dinner.  But then I had another thought. And that is what gets me into trouble every single  time. Thinking.

Tonight since I wasn't utterly exhausted as usual from THE WEEK AT WORK (work is always referred to in capitals at our place) , and because I wanted something that wasn't a promite sandwich or pickles on a plate and because we're saving money this month,  I decided to give my own shallot pancakes a go. I know I had these a couple of weeks ago but those were store bought from the Thai takeaway.Since then I've been stalking with  my best mate google looking for a recipe. And I finally found one that looked like the ones I get from Stuff You Round Thai so I was totally set.

And Slack Thursday is about keeping it real isn't it?  I mean I could take a picture of all the slack meals I ever have like Maccas, and pumpkin seeds  and breakfast cereal and just post them randomly pretending that's what I ate - but that would be a lie. This is Raw and Real Slack Tea Thursday.

So I made the flour and water dough, chopped shallots  (this took less than 5 minutes) and sat on my behind for 30 minutes waiting for the dough to do it's thing. There really is nothing slacker than flour and water and a handful of spring onions right? So far so good. I rolled out those discs, added some onions and rolled them back up . (This took only another 5 minutes) Then they went for a bath in hot bubbling oil. (As an aside: I'm actually really upset that when I die if they cut me open I wont be able to oooh and aah over the shocking state of my arteries but there isn't anything I can do about that - I know I'm supposed to care but about 99% of the time I don't)

And this is what I ended up with. Not exactly looking like the ones from Stuff You Round Thai but I was confident I had hit the jackpot. I could smell them and taste them even before I had my first bite. Ha ! Take that Thai restaurant. I don't need you anymore.

 


They were sublimely  yuk! Completely disgusting. An unmitigated disaster.  They were hard on the outside and doughy on the inside. I couldn't even taste the freaking shallots. And they weren't light and  melt in the mouth either. I was utterly deflated. And still dinner-less because there was no way I was going to eat them.

After I'd stopped uncontrollably sobbing I realised that like the greatest lemon cheesecake recipe of all time, which took me 10 years to find and about 83 cheesecake making sessions to perfect,  the shallot pancake recipe will materialise just when I've given up hope of ever finding it. It's cool. I survived before I knew of the existence of shallot pancakes (even if it was half a life)

And what have I learned from this experience? Trust your instincts. Sometimes on a higher level of consciousness your stomach knows your shallot pancakes are gonna suck , that's why it suggested chicken tenders  in the first place. And, you can have the dinner of your dreams if the shops are only two minutes away and you don't mind nipping out  at 7pm to get chicken tenders and cream and then coming home and cooking it all.


I am seriously considering re-naming Slack Tea Thursday to Thursday Tea Adventures. There was nothing slack about this dinner. Two dinners actually ,  if you count the disgusting dough balls.....

And now I'm off to do these dishes...and clean my benchtops and look for another shallot pancake recipe. And eat chocolate for dessert. Probably a whole freaking block of it.


17 comments:

GaAm said...

Uh--you had me at garlic sauce. Do you have a recipe? I'm a firm believer you can never have too much garlic. It's great tasting, goes with almost anything, and is excellent for the immune system. (And it has the added bonus of keeping vampires away.)

Marg said...

You left some chips!!!! Typed in disbelief.

Shay said...

whispering "Because I peeled and made 83 potatoes worth of chips, that I didnt show on my serving plate....(dont tell the others...oh no.. did I just type that publicly?) "

Unknown said...

You certainly did a lot of work on Slack Tea Thursday. I would have given up after the shallot pancake fiasco.

Cynthia L. said...

By the way Mrs. P, I tried to get The Baby to eat Vegemite, she said, "You have got to be kidding, I saw that video!" She did smell it and that confirmed that she would never eat it. Her boyfriend has been here for the week and he usually eats everything. He has not seen the video, so I thought he would go for it. He smelled it and declined. I told him it would make him more manly and even showed him the hair that grew on my chest after eating Vegemeinte to prove it - he still declined and then threw up a little in his mouth. I am trying to convert US citizens to be Vegemtie eaters, but am not having much luck. I will continue on the quest!

Lane said...

It hardly qualifies as slack if you have to cook twice. However, I have to say that the tenders look yummy! Good luck finding the recipe. When you do, please share. Shallot pancakes sound like a delicious idea. Lane

Deb said...

Yeah no that one didn't qualify this week, far to much mucking about to be a slack tea. For me it would have been giving up after the shallot pancakes and had cereal. You just put far too much effort into it. Maybe you should have had some of your Aussie FUSH AND CHUPS!!
Hugs Deb

Michelle said...

I'm with JKP, would you mind posting your garlic sauce recipe?

As for your shallot pancakes, look at it this way, now there is one less recipe for you to have to try on your quest for the perfect shallot pancake recipe. And if it had worked, it would have been pretty slack. :-)

Brenda said...

You are going to miss your kitchen when it's torn out! It will be 'slack tea everyday' for weeks! Looking forward to seeing what you come up with!

Paulette said...

Too bad about the shallot pancake flop. Though it would hardly qualify for a slack tea, I think you'd probably like some good ole Southern fried hush puppies. Sub the shallots for the onion and you will be in heaven.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/hushpuppies-recipe/index.html

lw said...

That's way too much work for slack. I came home to find our visiting teenage neighbor had heated up my husband's homemade frozen spaghetti sauce and I only had to boil my own noodles (serves me right for not calling and saying when I'd be here.) I didn't intend it to be slack, but I think I qualify. I'm glad it worked out that way, because I must have walked over 10 miles today, most of it carrying or moving equipment.

Anonymous said...

Mrs. P, I'm behind but Slack Thursday is sacred to me, and yet you mock me, you chicken-eating Chick you. I thought the shallot pancakes looked rather good, but I'll take your word for it. Sometimes you just need a little chicken in your life.

Elizabeth said...

I know it is already Friday there, but it is still Thursday here, well, sort of. I'm up really late. Anyway, I thought of you and Slack Tea Thursday today because I bought a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store tonight and brought it home for dinner. Did you know that a juicy, deliciously seasoned, already prepared for you chicken costs less than a frozen one that you have to defrost, handle raw, season and cook? I made instant mashed potatoes, frozen corn coblets and broccoli to go with it. It was so good, but felt amazingly slack as the whole thing took about 20 minutes to put together after I got home with the chicken. I'm not sure it counts, though, as some of it was actually good for you. In any case, I look forward to your Thursday posts :D. Sorry you had to cook twice.

Baa-Me Kniits said...

What a bugger about the shallot pancakes, they looked nice :-) I would have had to go for cereal after that as well as my closest shop is 30 kms away! Lucky I like cereal and we are well stocked. PS I just ate half a block of chocolate ( had to share the other half with hubby who was looking my way and making gigantic hints ) Yum Yum :-)

Unknown said...

Maybe you didn't cook them enough, but you did eat them, right?
I think many of my meals take less than 30 minutes...
I like the idea of chocolate for desert though!

Kirsten's Cooking said...

yum, on the chicken tenders and chips with garlic sauce!!
boo on the dishes-
thanks for a great post, Mrs P!

Jenny said...

You are totally adorable! I love that non-recipe recipe! I cook like that sometimes and we end up eating cereal for dinner! Your solution was brilliant, though!