Quinn's Cooking With Love & Passion!

Green Tea Smoked Salmon with Sticky Chilli Dressing

2011-01-13T19:48:00.000+10:30

This is something I have made over and over again. I first saw it in Donna Hay Magazine and love it for its simplicity and has ever since modified and adapted it to my liking. This is really about the technique rather than the recipe, allow 2:2:1 ratio for the tea leaves:rice:brown sugar. Wrapping it with pancetta is optional but would help prevent the salmon from overcooking and keep it moist.

The salmon could be replaced with ocean trouts and the pancetta could be substituted with bacon too without negatively affecting the taste of the final dish. Use good quality green tea leaves and that would make a whole lot of difference. The sticky chilli dressing speaks for itself and elevated the whole dish to another level!

Green Tea Smoked Salmon with Sticky Chilli Dressing

For the green tea smoked salmon:

6 x approximately 120g salmon fillets, skin-on
6 slices pancetta
6 tbsp green tea leaves
6 tbsp raw rice
3 tbsp brown sugar

Wrap each salmon fillet with a pancetta slice. Toss together the green tea leaves, raw rice and brown sugar. In a wok with a heavy-fitting lid, place a piece of foil in it and scatter over the tea mixture. Place a lightly greased wire rack into the wok,making sure it is not touching the tea mixture. Place the wok over high heat and when the mixture begins to smoke, place the salmon on the greased rack and cover with the lid. Smoke it for 12minutes or until done to your liking.

For the sticky chilli dressing:

1 cup white vinegar
5 tbsp sugar
3 long red chilli, deseeded, thinly sliced into long strips

Place white vinegar and sugar in a smallish saucepan and stir to dissolve the sugar over medium-high heat. Add in the chilli strips and continue simmering until reduced for about 5-8 minutes until it is significantly thickened. Set aside and keep warm.

To serve and garnish:

Blanched green beans, enough to feed 2 people
Spring onion curls (sliced into strips and soaked in icy water for a minute for it to curl up)

Place the blanched green beans evenly on each serving plates. Top with the smoked salmon, spring onion curls and drizzle over the sticky chilli dressing.

Serves 6

French Lamb Cutlets....Versatile and quick

2010-10-29T14:55:00.000+10:30

Bought a whole rack of lamb and slice them up to get 8 slices of beautifully marbled French Lamb Cutlets. Could not help but cook it a couple of different ways. This post is really nothing more than sharing ideas rather than recipes...

The previous ones was demonstrated in the orange parsley butter post. You could simply pan fry the cutlets a couple of minutes on each side, depending on how done you like them to be, and resting for half the time of cooking, loosely covered in foil. Dollop the butter and serve.

You could also pan fry them in a mixture of EVOO and seasoned butter and serve it as it is.

I sometimes omit the butter and coat the cutlets with a spiced dry rub. In this case, I have used Creole Seasoning Rub because I like how it is strong and flavour the lamb well.

I let it marinade for a while before pan frying it to perfection. You could do a whole rack of lamb cutlets in the pan, browning on all sides and finishing it off in the oven to your preferred doneness but with lamb cutlets all chopped and sliced up, I did not find that necessary. Just always make sure your meat is at room temperature when it goes into the pan.

When pan fried to your preferred doneness, you could serve it as it is with a dash of parsley. It would look good wrapped in bits of foil if you are serving this as a finger food for a small party so everyone could hold on to the lamb lollipop and eat it easily.

Again, here I have served it with cous cous. Whatever juice that is released from resting the meat goes into the cous cous for a richer and more flavourful side.

And yes, it was very good when simply done...I was having Shingles when I did all these stuffs and I ate them all...The picture below probably could tell you how good they were....

Finally, I also did a Parmesan-Pistachio Crusted Lamb Cutlets. One slice of stale sourdough, a handful of freshly grated Parmesan, a handful of raw pistachio nuts, salt and pepper and they all go into a food processor and pulsed to fine crumbs. Coat the lamb cutlets with Dijon Mustard and press them into the Parmesan-Pistachio mixture. Chill them for a while to adhere it a bit and shallow fry it until done or just bake it into the oven or roast it until it is all golden brown and crispy.

Could not get any easier and they were so so yummy... Lamb cutlets are versatile because they are quick and easy to cook but also benefit from long cooking hours....I really love them in my 'Sup Kambing' (Goat's soup) or just simply cooked like that...

Again, you all must try, at least one of the way that I have cooked it here. You will soon realise how versatile they are.

It is Spring now and the Wisterias are blooming again, forming a canopy over the balcony. The problem is it only will flower and last for 2 weeks out of the 52 weeks in a year and the rest of the time, you really just see twigs and branches or just all green leaves....Beautiful things just never last sometimes...

More cooking with Spring ingredients coming....

Orange Parsley Butter....Many ways with meat

2010-10-17T02:50:00.000+10:30

Overwhipped some cream while trying to get stiff peaks to frost a chiffon cake...A minute or two later...the sound of buttermilk sloshing within chunks of butter could be heard from the food processor...Was also trying to experiment whipping cream with a processor blade. It turns out it was very hard to estimate the stages....stiff peak to you ending with butter is a fine line....

It was a good mistake because I unintentionally made butter. Nothing more luscious like homemade butter. When I was in Paris, the food they serve, steak and chips, nothing fancy but what really makes all the difference was the seasoned butter dolloped over the steak, meltingly sexy and beautiful.

I have used orange parsley combination. They are amazing dolloped on steak or even brushed on Hasselback Potatoes too. Simply whip 2 cups of cream until it separates and starts to slosh away in its own buttermilk. You will end up with a cup or so of butter. Separate them from the buttermilk, drink them as they are or use them in pancakes, muffins or make buttermilk ice cream. Just do not throw them away because they are way better than those stuffs you get from the sueprmarket. Place the butter in a sieve and wash it under running tap water until clean. Water in Australia are generally clean. If you feel uncomfortable, simply place the butter back into the food processor and blitz them with clean cold water until the water runs clear and are no longer cloudy. This way, your butter would last longer in the fridge...

Gently pat it dry and throw in the zest of one orange and half a bunch of finely chopped parsley. Season with salt and pepper to taste and you are done. They are dead easy to make and you could pipe them into rosette and place them in a small dipping dish, a couple of rosettes of butter per person or just place them on a sheet of cling wrap and form it back into a log shape and twist both ends, so they look like little sausages. Firm them up in the refrigerator, remove from the plastic wrap and slice into round discs...Or be all lazy like me, just dollop them away....

I have demonstrated a couple of ways to utilize the seasoned butter. This is just really what I do with it... Lightly salt and pepper some French Lamb Cutlets and pan fry them, 3 minutes on each side, resting them for 3 minutes, loosely covered in foil. Dollop the seasoned butter over them and serve immediately with your favourite side of either a potato dish or a garden salad.

I then realise burnt butter could be very amazing too...I melt them in the pan and use the seasoned butter and a dash of EVOO to pan-fry the lamb cutlets. The EVOO would prevent the butter from burning too quickly before the lamb cutlets are done. Pan fry the cutlets until the butter is at the cusp of burning and remove it from the pan. This also crisp up the parsley bits nicely and some warm Turkish bread would be yummy to soak up the butter....

I also ended up liking the seasoned butter with paprika and chilli. You could do a Fish en Papillote, which really means fish in a paper/foil bag. Simply lay out a baking paper on a piece of foil and crack some pepper on it, a dash of salt and some hot paprika and chili powder over it. Dollop the seasoned butter around, lay the fish on top and smear it with more butter. I seriously am a dairy freak, you do not need to be so generous with the butter like me....Wrap the foil bag up and tuck in them ends to seal the parcel completely and bake it until it is done, mine took 15mins in a hot oven.

Just be careful when you open up the parcel to serve as the steam escaping from it could be very very hot. It looks beautiful served in the bag, partially opened for individual guests. It could easily be prepared ahead of time too...

I have served mine with a minted peas and cous cous as side, sprinkled with a dash of Sumac. I do a lot of cous cous nowadays since I am really just cooking for myself and cooking rice would be too much a bother.

That is about it really....I believe cooking could be very easy and fun and it really is nothing more than going back to basic and make your own butter, season it with herbs and citrus zest (lemon thyme butter is truly amazing too....or you could also do a spiced butter with paprika,cumin and cardamom powder too!) and serve it with basically any meat you like...

Hopefully this will encourage more people to cook. I did not pick up cooking until I was forced to three years ago and have never looked back ever since then...More frequent updates to come...I promise it will be simple.

Good night....

Food From Our Hearts: Tau Yew Bak

2010-08-29T21:03:00.012+09:30

Babe in the City-KL organized a virtual Merdeka Open House for several years already....For this year, celebrating 53 years of independence of Malaysia, I have cooked something in conjunction with the theme, Food From Our Hearts.....

This is one dish I grew up with, very easily pulled together, and we eat it for several days, and the flavour and taste just gets better each passing day. Sometimes, we add more pork belly and dried beancurd sticks into it, other times we add more mushrooms and more hard-boiled eggs for the kids, or even leftover meats such as chicken or duck. Dried beancurds or tofu puffs would be great addition too to absorb the resulting gravy. No fix rule here, it just gets better.

We like it spicy but you can certainly omit the dried chillies if you cannot take the heat. The base of the sauce is made of spices such as cloves, star anise and just minced garlic, lots and lots of them. The pork is marinaded in a mixture of soya sauces, both light and dark, sugar for the caramelization and also a dash of oyster sauce to bind flavours together. The title itself, Tau Yew Bak is in Hokkien. Tau Yew means soya sauce whereas Bak means meat, you really can use any meat though we always use pork belly, skin on....the long braising hours result in a melt-in-the-mouth layer of fat....Some would find it disgusting but I absolutely love it and can eat a lot a lot of rice with just this dish alone.... The picture below is cloves or what we known as Bunga Cengkih in Malay.

I hope you all will like what I grew up eating and try it for yourself. It is so easy your friends and family would have thought you slaved over the kitchen forever to make this, unbelievably easy! The picture below are all the spices used. The beautiful looking spice at the most front is called star anise or known as Bunga Lawang in Malay.

We cook a lot of this...here's what I've done and they taste really really similar to my grandma's one, if not better!

Tau Yew Bak
(makes crazily a lot and enough to feed an army!)

4kg pork belly, sliced into long strips but left whole
3/4 cup light soya sauce
1/2 cup dark soya sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 cup cornflour

Pat the pork belly dry and mix all the marinade sauces together and dissolve the sugar as much as possible. Pour over the pork belly and massage and marinade it, best overnight. Reserve the marinade sauce and pan fry all the porb belly strips with 1/2 cup oil oil, in batches until it is evenly browned on both sides and starts to caramelize. Do not overcrowd the pan. Dish it all up and let it rest.

1/2 cup oil
20 cloves
15 star anises
15-20 dried chillies
2 whole garlic bulbs, separated into individual cloves, peeled and finely minced

In the same pan, with the remaining oil, heat up the oil and add in the cloves, star anises, dried chillies and minced garlic and stir fry the spices until aromatic. When you can smell the garlic and it is almost brown, add in all the reserved marinade sauces, the pork belly strips and all the meat juices from it and cook it for 10 minutes or so, flipping and coating as you go.

Approximately 1.5litres of water or more to cover everything
15 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and left whole

Add enough water to just cover everything. Throw in the hard-boiled eggs and when everything comes to boil, turn the heat to the lowest setting, and put on the lid, braise the mixture for an hour or two hours, adding more water as you go along. The eggs should be well submerged and take on a beautiful dark brown colour. Before serving, remove the pork belly, strip by strip and cut them into bite size pieces and throw them back into the pot. Repeat until finish. When the pork belly pieces are all well coated in gravy and that the gravy thicken a bit, dish it up, as much as you want and serve it with plain steamed white rice.

Just wanna wish everyone Happy Merdeka and despite it not being a public holiday here in Australia and that life goes on as normal, I would happily raise my hand and shout out Merdeka! Merdeka! Merdeka! because I am a Malaysian, and forever will be.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

2010-07-13T19:52:00.000+09:30

Made pineapple fried rice again for lunch. The garnishes are there for a reason, to make the dish look better and to make the whole thing taste better. Remember how I said Aaron used to work in a Thai Restaurant? This dish was on the menu and they always serve it with chicken floss. The only thing missing here is coriander which I have subsequently substituted with alfalfa sprouts because I wanna make our lunch more wholesome by sneaking in more veggies. The sprinkling you see in the picture, right smack at the centre, that's my homemade serunding ayam or chicken floss. They are not flossy at all. I've pulsed them in a food processor before proceeding because I was lazy to shred chicken. Apart from the funny look, it taste all parts like a good old chicken floss. The minted green peas also add a nice flavour to this simple dish.

I adapted this recipe from Ellie of Almost Bourdain and because I have been making this so frequent this is almost a regular in our menu. Also because we always have leftover rice and because I am no where near Zurin who has no problem making fried rice with fresh rice and because we both agreed on pineapple and curry being good friends.

It's best to cook this in small portion to get the lup-lup delight from the rice grain else they'll stick and clump together. I use half the recipe and always cook it for just one meal, enough to serve us two.

Thai Pineapple Fried Rice
(modified from Ellie)
(serves 2)

1 cup rice, cooked in rice cooker and left overnight, fluff and separate grain upon frying
1 piece chicken thigh fillet, cubed
4 medium sized prawns, peeled with tail intact
1/2 cup fresh chopped pineapple (I used canned pineapple but fresh would be great)

1/4 cup frozen minted green peas
1 French Shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1-2 tbsp EVOO

Mix together:
1/2 tbsp heaped meat curry powder
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce

A pinch of turmeric powder
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:
Alfalfa Sprouts or Coriander
Chicken Floss
Chopped fresh chilli for the extra kick

Heat the oil in a large frying pan until smoky and toss in the chopped shallot stir fry until lightly brown. Add in the minced garlic and toss until almost brown. Add chicken, continue to stir fry until it changes colour. Add prawns and stir fry for another minute. Add the rice and pineapple cubes and break up lumps from rice as you go. Pour in the combined seasoning sauce and coat and toss well to flavour rice. Do a taste test and toss in the frozen peas. Heat it thoroughly and dish up. Garnish and serve immediately.

Chinese-Style Creamy Butter Fish

2010-07-04T21:30:00.000+09:30

I call this dish Chinese-Style because the whole 'Nai You' rave was generated and created by Chinese. This is adapted and modified from Food-4-tots. Instead of prawns, I use fish and I shallow fry the fish first until it is golden brown on both sides. Can't use prawns because of Aaron. Seriously, I've given up trying to make him eat prawns. The only Crustaceans he'll eat are just lobsters/crayfish and Moreton Bay Bugs. He might take Crabs occasionally. Expensive tastebud eh?

For this dish, I have doubled the curry leaves because I love it and fried half of them. They give the dish a better presentation and really does taste better. Have you not tried eating fried curry leaves before? They are crispy and very delicious! I also serve the fish over a bed of lettuce which is optional but is good to mop the remaining sauce off the plate.

Chinese-Style Creamy Butter Fish
(serves 2)

For the fish:
2 large fish fillets, cut into large slices, washed and pat dry
Salt and black pepper
Rice flour
Curry powder
Enough oil to shallow fry

Mix the seasoning together and dredge the fish slices into the flour mixture. Shallow fry it on both sides until golden brown and almost cooked through. Drain on wire rack with newspaper lined underneath and set aside.

For the sauce:
3 tbsp butter
6 tbsp curry leaves, fry half and set aside
2 tsp meat curry powder
2 bird's eye chillies, finely chopped
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
Lettuce (optional)

Heat up your pan and melt butter until it is almost brown and nutty. Add in the fresh curry leaves, chopped chillies and curry powder. Stir fry until fragrant. Add in the evaporated milk, sugar and salt to taste. Bring to boil and then simmer until the sauce starts to get thicker. Add in fried fish slices and toss to coat quickly. Dish up and serve. over a bed of shredded lettuce. Garnish with more chopped chillies for the extra kick and the fried curry leaves.

Serve immediately.

Oyako Donburi (Chicken and Egg on Rice)

2010-06-30T15:51:00.000+09:30

We had Japanese for lunch today. This is so simple to cook. I once have a not-so-close Japanese friend told me Japanese cooking is all about its simplicity and using best fresh ingredients possible. This is so true. Oyako in Japan means 'Parent & Child' and Donburi means 'Rice Bowl Dish'. This dish usually consist of chicken and egg as the main ingredients because of its poetic reflection to 'Parent & Child' (Source: Wikipedia).

In fact this whole recipe is based on Wikipedia. I didn't really know what goes into an Oyako Donburi apart from chicken and egg. To be very honest, I don't cook Japanese often but I do love eating them. I quote Wikepedia as below:

The donburi simmering sauce varies according to season ingredient, region, and taste. A typical sauce might consist of dashi flavored with shoyu and mirin. Proportions vary, but usually there is three to four times as much dashi as shoyu and mirin. For oyakodon, Tsuji (1980) recommends dashi flavored with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar.

To make oyakodon, cut chicken and other ingredients into bite-sized pieces. Heat 1/4 cup simmering sauce in a small frying pan. Add chicken (and sliced yellow onion, if desired) and simmer until chicken is cooked. Then add green onions and other ingredients. When all ingredients are cooked, slowly pour 1–2 lightly beaten eggs evenly over the whole dish. When eggs are nearly cooked (edges set), slide the topping from the pan onto hot cooked rice served in an oversized bowl. The hot rice will finish cooking the eggs.

I felt Mirin is very sweet and the soy sauce is not very salty unlike typical Chinese Soy Sauce. So I came up with the proportion below. And then I saw on 3hungrytummies's blog where he kept the egg yolk raw and add it in last. I like how it look and I really love creamy warm yolk so I kept the yolk and only dribble in egg whites. Here is my version of Oyakodon:

Oyakodon
(serves 2)

Enough rice to serve 2 people, scoop into a large bowl and kept warm
2 chicken thigh fillets, cubed into large pieces
2 eggs, separated
1-2 spring onions, finely chopped and remove half for garnishing
2 small brown onion (Mine were as large as my extra large egg ), sliced into half rings

Mix together: This is your simmering sauce

1/2 cup dashi stock (I bought ready made stuffs)
1.5 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp light Kikkoman soy sauce (or Shoyu)
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

Heat some oil in a pan and brown the chicken pieces. Set aside. Repeat with the onion slices and dish it up and set aside. You can omit this but I like to see my chicken and onions sauteed in all the dishes I eat, personal preference.

Heat half the simmering sauce in a small egg pan. Scatter over half of the sauteed onions and chicken cubes in a single layer and simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked through. Add in half the chopped spring onions and let it cook for a minute or so. Beat the egg whites lightly and slowly dribble it over the pan evenly. Cover with a lid and simmer until egg is partially set. When eggs are nearly cooked (edges set), slide the topping from the pan onto hot cooked rice served in an oversized bowl. Make an indentation in the centre and slide in one egg yolk into the centre. The hot rice will finish cooking the eggs. Garnish with reserved chopped spring onions and serve immediately.

Repeat again to get another portion. It's quick, doesn't take long at all. If you have 2 egg pans, that would be great. We cook our own portion and eat at the same time. The creamy yolk is to die for!!!!

Maggi Goreng (Fried Maggi Noodles)

2010-06-26T19:57:00.002+09:30

Maggi is a type if Instant Noodle, so famous in Malaysia that all Mamaks (Hawker stalls) sells their own version of Mggi Goreng. Google Maggi Goreng and you see a gazillion of versions of this fried instant noodle popping up. Goreng means fried.

It comes in different flavours but making Maggi Goreng with curry flavour ones is pretty famous and they are to me, the most delicious one too. I recreated this version by my years of watching how those Mamak fellows do it. My sisters and I used to really like Maggi Goreng and always buy them on a weekly basis. Among ingredients that goes into a typical Maggi Goreng includes tofu puffs, greens such as choy sum, tomato wedges and egg. Some also add meat pieces to it but I've made a vegetarian one today and I use cherry tomatoes because I don't have whole tomatoes.

You can use two packets of the Curry Flavour Maggi Noodle and add one plain noodle to it (these can easily be bought from Chinatown under the brand name Vitz) or just cook for one and don't use up all the seasonings. Aaron likes his with the whole sachet of seasoning but I find it will be too salty to my liking. It's really down to how salty you can take.

Maggi Goreng
(serves 1)
One packet of Maggi Instant Noodle, curry flavour
1/2 a bunch of green vegetables, cut into 1'' length
3 wedges of tomatoes or a couple of cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 a shallot, thinly sliced
1 egg
1-2 tbsp EVOO

Blanch the Maggi noodle in boiling hot water for just 1 minute. Basically, you want it to be partially cook because you will stir-fry it later. Remove from water and drain well and loosen up with fingers.

Heat up the oil in a pan and when hot, add in the shallots and toss until golden brown. Add in the tomatoes and greens and toss to cook for a while. Add in the noodles and sprinkle over the sachet of seasoning that comes with it. Toss to coat well. Push to one side and pour a little more oil in the wok and crack in the egg. When it is half set, toss the noodle back to the centre and coat and mix with the egg. Dish up and serve immediately.

Maggi goreng, my simple vegetarian version. Easy? If you want to add meat to it, add it when the shallot is lightly browned. Aaron's favourite....seriously, he can eat this every morning and still not get bored!

Classic Nasi Lemak with Chicken Curry Kapitan

2010-06-23T18:51:00.003+09:30

Not long ago, I mentioned here Aaron and I will be hosting a lunch dinner for a handful of good people. Really good friends in Adelaide. I couldn't think of what else to cook up for them apart from something so classical, something that represents the country I came from.

So I made a Nasi Lemak, complete with all the garnishes or topping, whatever you want to call it, except for the peanut because we both hate peanuts in our Nasi Lemak. The recipe could be found here.

The real good and spicy sambal with onion rings

Hard-boiled eggs. This one always finish in any Nasi Lemak party!

Cucumber slices. I like mine unpeeled. Feel free to peel yours.

On top of that, I have also made a Chicken Curry Kapitan to go with the Nasi Lemak. I adapted it from Ellie of Almost Bourdain. She has a very good write up on the origin of this dish and Peranakan culture so do drop by and check it out. Aaron probably chop the chicken int too small pieces. They turn into mush due to the long cooking but it wasn't overpowering nor salty. It is just very full of the herbs flavour that was used to infused it. The lemongrass taste was very strong but yeah...no one hate lemongrass...

So yeah, anyone wanna be my guest? Come find me in Adelaide! I'll do you a 3-course meal! I'm not in an way a good cook but I like playing with flavours so be prepared to be my experimental guinea pig if I were to cook for you!

Ellie, thanks for the awesome recipe, it was great and all my guests love it. And to think I took all the praises, I felt I should just share them with you! Thanks!!!!

Thai Chicken Noodle Broth

2010-06-20T20:11:00.002+09:30

This one makes enough to serve 2 people for a simple lunch. It is quick and easy and full of flavour. Including preparation time, the noodle soup was done in under 30 minutes. I use store bought organic stock and ready made fried shallots or you can make them your own if you have time.

Thai Chicken Broth
(loosely adapted from Woman's Day Magazine, May 2010 Edition)

250g chicken mince
1 tbsp canola oil
1 long red chillies, seeded, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1-2cm piece of ginger, peeled, finely sliced
Seasoned stock:
1.5 cups chicken stock
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1/2 tbsp brown sugar

Thai Herbs:
1 lemon grass, just use bottom white part, approximately 2'' length, bruised well
1-2 Kaffir Lime leaves

200ml coconut cream (1/2 a can)

Garnish:
Enough glass noodles to serve 2 people, soaked in boiling hot water
Sliced spring onion
Coriander leaves
Fried shallots
Chopped red chilli
Blanched beansprouts (optional)

Heat the oil in a pan until smoky and add in the chopped chilli, minced garlic and sliced ginger. Sautee for a minute until aromatic and add in the chicken mince. Cook until lightly brown, breaking lumps as you go along for approximately 5 minutes. Add in seasoned stock and Thai herbs and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and add in the coconut cream. Heat it through, do not boil and turn off the heat. Pick out the herbs. Drain the glass noodles and place it into 2 serving bowls. Ladle over the hot chicken broth and top with garnishes.

Serve immediately.
(serves 2)

Ru Rou Fan (Taiwanese Stewed Pork with Stewed Eggs on Rice)

2010-06-17T14:16:00.000+09:30

This is so lovely I regret I used very very lean minced pork. If you have the waistline to spare, buy pork belly and finely chop them. They taste so much better. Nonetheless, this is healthily good! I couldn't help but throw in some hard-boiled egg into the gravy and stew it for the whole duration! You can also use Tea Eggs if you like. I added in the mushroom later so it doesn't absorb all the saltiness from the gravy. Same goes to potatoes you know, they both absorb saltiness from you gravy.

I adapted this recipe from Chowtimes, probably a very famous site that needs no further introduction. I can safely tell you this taste so good. I've did it twice, once with minced pork belly and can pretty confirm the later one taste better. I like how the Loh Han Guo (Buddha's Fruit) gives it a very distinct sweetness compared to sugar. The recipe calls for half of the Buddha's Fruit. For the other other half, I place it in a pot with water and dried longan and simmer them for 30mins. Cool them down well and semi freeze them. Blend them and created a sort of Buddha's Fruit's Slushie. It was cold and delicious to down with the meal, which was rather heavy.

Taiwanese Stewed Pork with Egg on Rice

A:
680g fatty minced pork or pork belly, sliced when semi-frozen for easy handling
1/2 Buddha's fruit, cracked and along with the shell as well
2 pieces bay leaves
1 star anise
1 small piece dried orange peel

Seasoning:
3 tbsp dark caramel sauce (it's sweet and looks like dark soy sauce)
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon rice wine
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon five spice powder
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1 tbsp rock sugar

2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
6 pieces dried Shiitake mushroom, soak well and thinly sliced

Sautee ingredients:
2 tbsp oil
4 pieces of shallots, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of finely chopped ginger

If you have a food processor, you can save yourself a lot of chopping and mincing. Place the shallots and ginger, both peeled in a processor and pulse until fine. Heat up the oil in a wok and when smoky, add in the ginger-shallot paste and sautee them until fragrant. Add in A and stir and cook, breaking up lumps until slightly brown. Add in the seasoning and 1 cup of water coat well. Let it simmer for 40 minutes or so. f you're using any hard-boiled egg, drop them in now.

Towards the last 10 mins of cooking, add in the sliced mushrooms and cook until time is up. Add in the dark soy sauce and when the colour is up to your liking and flavour. Check for seasoning and saltiness. Slice up the egg and pour over the minced pork and gravy and serve with hot steamed rice.

Bacon and Chicken Roll with Stuffing and Side Salad

2010-06-10T18:25:00.000+09:30

This one is inspired from a recipe from Apples for Jam. From a Pot-Roasted Steak with Spinach and Omelette recipe, I changed it to a Bacon and Chicken Roll with Stuffing.The spinach and omelette stuffing is loosely adapted from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros. It consist of eggs, baby spinach, cheese and sundried tomatoes. I changed the beef to chicken and wrapped it with bacon.

The salad is a baby spinach and carrot salad tossed in a honey mustard vinaigrette. It's raw carrot so make sure you slice it thinly. A vegetable peeler produce thin and long strips beautifully. The roll is lightly browned in pan until the bacon fat is rendered before roasting in the oven until golden brown and cooked.

Bacon and Chicken Roll with Stuffing and Side Salad

The bacon and chicken:
6 slices middle rasher bacons
2 large chicken thigh fillets

Spread out 2 large chicken thigh fillets on a chopping board and slice them horizontally, stopping just before you cut all the way through so that the chicken fillets opens up like a book. Gently use the back of a knife and flatten the meat further so it flattens out, like making schnitzel.

Lay two large sheets of plastic wrap on a clean surface and arrange 3 bacons on each of the plastic wrap, overlapping slightly. Place the flattened chicken fillets on the bacons. Arrange stuffing evenly on both chicken surface and roll up tightly and neatly, guided with the plastic wrap. Chill it in the fridge for 30 minutes so that it holds its shape. Pan fry the roll lightly until brown and that the fat is rendered. Then roast it in the oven for 40 minutes in a moderately hot oven until it is golden brown and that the chicken is cooked through.

Spinach and Omelette Stuffing

1 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 bag (300g) baby spinach leaves, washed and drained well
1 tbsp heaped butter
2 egg
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese
4 pcs sun-dried tomatoes, chopped to small bits

Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic. When you can smell it, add the baby spinach leaves and cook over medium heat until the spinach wilts, turning it over often so that it cooks evenly. Remove from pan and season with salt. Drain well.

Clean the pan well and dollop the butter in. Beat the egs with the cheese and a pinch of salt. When the butter is melted, pour in the egg mixture and swirl the pan so that it makes a flat omelette. Fry until the omelette is just set, spiking it here and there if necessary so that the uncooked eggs runs to the bottom. Remove from heat and set aside.

Lay half the omelette on each fillet and spread the spinach filling over. Scatter over the sun-dried tomatoes before rolling.

Spinach and Carrot Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

As much baby spinach and carrots to your liking

For the honey mustard vinaigrette:

2 tbsp EVOO
2 tsp White Wine Vinegar (use a real good quality one)
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2 tsp honey
Good salt flakes and freshly grinded black pepper to taste

As you could see, the ingredients are very simple so I'd say if you could, use the best and freshest ingredients for all of them. And because the portion is so small, you can everything in a bowl with a whisk. Combine the WWV, Dijon and honey and whisk to combine. Add in the EVOO in slow drizzle and emulsify until it is slightly thickened. Set aside for flavours to mingle before tossing with the spinach and carrot.

To serve, place some of the salad tossed in dressing on a serving plate. Slice up the bacon roll and arrange them over the salad. Serve immediately.

Pasta with Prosciutto, Tomato and Oregano

2010-06-06T18:53:00.006+09:30

Tessa Kiros imparts easy and simple cooking. Even if you have no proper poultry in your freezer, you still can cook up easy and delicious meal, and they're relatively easy and quick to pull together. With just canned tomatoes, cheese and pasta in your pantry, you still can cook something.

Tessa uses prosciutto in her recipe but I reckon any other ham or pancetta works too. I've used bacon here because that is the only meat I have and because I am just cooking for myself, I wanted something quick and comforting.

Tessa uses dried oregano in her recipe but you could easily substitute it with any other herbs such as dried basil, mixed herbs or even dried parsley or thyme. The sauce will be flavoured differently. This is the second time I did this and yes, it is very tasty!

Pasta with Prosciutto, Tomato and Oregano
(serves 4)

5 tbsp EVOO
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 (14 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1 tsp dried oregano or any other dried herbs, crushed between your fingers salt
3/4 (16 ounce) package spaghetti or any other dried pasta
6 to 7 slices prosciutto crudo or just bacon or pancetta (raw prosciutto, cut into thin strips)
Grated parmesan cheese, to serve
Chopped fresh chile (optional)

Heat half the oil in a saucepan and saute the garlic over medium-low heat until you start to smell it. Add the tomatoes, oregano, and some salt, lower the heat a little and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, crushing up the tomatoes with your wooden spoon every now and then as you stir so that it melts into a sauce.

Meanwhile, bring a large pan of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta. Add the prosciutto to the sauce and cook briefly to heat through. If you're using bacon, pan fry it until it is lightly browned on both sides. Do not overcrowd your pan if you want them to brown evenly.

Drain the pasta, return it to its pan, and add the sauce and the rest of the oil. Toss lightly to coat the pasta. Spoon into bowls and serve with grated Parmesan all round, and some chopped chile for those who like it.

Roasted Chicken Rice

2010-06-01T18:20:00.001+09:30

I made roasted chicken rice for lunch. It's been a while since we last had something sinful.... I adapted the roasted chicken recipe from Angie of Seasaltwithfood. It's a little tedious, if you ask me because thee are so many sauces to make to accompany it. Aaron really likes the homemade dark soy sauce over his rice but I absolutely adore the ginger and spring onion dip. I ended up making the garlic chili sauce as well. So 3 types of condiments, cucumbers and corianders as garnishes.

And the rice...I cannot stress enough how important it is to get chicken with fats. Throw the fat trimmings into the rice and indulge....They say the yummiest food often is the most unhealthy one and I truly agree. I don't do this often so it is fine. We had an awesome lunch and saved some for dinner and we're still not sick of it.

Minus all the condiments, this is rather easy to make. You marinade the chicken and bake it and cook the rice with chicken broth and fat trimmings. You can chop up some cucumbers and coriander and also tomatoes if you like while the rice is cooking and the chicken is roasting. Use store bought Kecap Manis and Chili Sauce and just make the ginger spring onion dip if you wish to. Bu I'm just more into making things from scratch because I'm pretty picky. So is Aaron. They're often too sweet or not spicy enough or not garlicky enough. And they could easily be made using cheap stuffs, why bother buying really. If you're cooking for plenty, this is really, very worth making!

I do have habits of making chicken broth and storing them in my freezer because they come in so handy when I wanna make Soto Ayam or just simple chicken noodle soup. Like what Angie said, I sometimes add tofu cubes and Wakame seadweed to the soup. Else if left plain, a handful of fried shallots, finely shredded lettuce and a shake of pepper is good enough. All in all, there is many ways you can eat these. Thanks Angie for sharing such wonderfully roasted chicken recipe. They're so easy and your friends would have thought you've slaved over the BBQ pit for hours!

Roasted Chicken (serves 4 to 5)
Heavily adapted from Angie and Choesf

4 large whole marylands or use one whole chicken, trimmed off fat
1 tbsp Honey
2 tbsp ginger juice
1 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp light soy sauce

Marinate the chicken all the ingredients for 30 minutes. Keep in fridge while you preheat the oven to 200˚C. Drain the chicken and roast in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked and evenly browned all over.

Chicken stock:
2 whole chicken carcass
6 cups of water
1 spring onion, chopped to 3cm length pieces
Salt

Bring all the above to boil and simmer, covered for approximately an hour to 90mins. Skim the surface at the beginning until no foams are visible, only clear liquid stock.

Set aside and use it to cook the rice and the following sauces.

Chicken Rice:
2.5 cups of rice, washed and drained well
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 shallot, finely sliced
3 slices of thick age old ginger, smashed to release aroma
2 pandan leaves, washed, knotted
1 tsp salt
Enough chicken stock to cook 2 cups of rice
All the chicken fat trimmings from the marylands
EVOO

Depending on how much fat trimmings you obtain, add a little oil if necessary into a pan and heat it up. Add in the the chicken fat and when they are rendering, toss in the ginger, garlic and shallots. Stir fry them until fragrant and garlic start turning a light brown colour. Toss in the drained rice and salt and stir to coat well and stir fry for a while to let flavour mingle a bit. Pour everything back into the rice cooker and add enough chicken stock to cook it. Throw in the pandan leaves and let the rice cooker do the cooking whilst you get along and do the condiments.

Garlic- Chili Sauce:
2 large red chilies, seeds removed
5 slices of thick aged old ginger, scraped with the back of spoon to peel it
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 tbsp of lime juice
1/4 cup of chicken stock
1 tbsp sugar or more
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Process everything above until smooth and set aside. If you have a mortar and pestle, pound it first before processing and adding all the liquids. Pour them out on a dipping dish and set aside. Rinse your food processor and get ready for the next dipping sauce!

Ginger-Spring Onion Dipping Sauce:

2 spring onion, green part only, roughly chopped
Large thumb size piece of peeled age old ginger, roughly chopped
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp peanut oil

Process the ginger and spring onion until very fine. Tip them out into a heat resistant dipping saucer. Heat up the oil and when they are smoking, pour them into the ginger mixture. It will sizzle so step back. Stir to coat around. The oil will turn to a light shade of greenish like. Set aside.

Thick Black Sauce or Kecap Manis Dip:

1/2 tbsp oil or chicken fats if you have a lot to spare an are not worry about the cholesterol!
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tbsp sugar
Thickener: 1 tbsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp cold water, stir to dissolve

Heat the oil or chicken fats in a pan and add in the minced garlic. Saute for a while and add in the chicken stock. Bring to boil and boil it for 2 minutes or so. Add in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Thicken with the thickener. Depending on how thick you want them to be, you might not necessarily use all of them. Pour them out into a dipping dish and set aside.

Enjoy!

Barbecued Skewered Chicken (Yakitori)

2010-05-18T16:28:00.011+09:30

We have Suya in Nigeria and Satay in South-east Asia countries. Yakitori is the Japanese answer to it. I have a book, it's called Masterclass in Japanese Cooking by Emi Kazuko. It's been with me for ages and I have not even use it once. You could tell it is so new because when you flip some of the pages in between, they still stick together and smell very new too.

This book has Emi Kazuko assembling 20 leading chefs and food experts with each of them offering three of their favorite dishes. Hidden in page 104 is a recipe for Yakitori or in English, Barbecued Skewered Chicken.

While the recipe only calls for spring onion (and a lot of them) and okra, I have neither in fridge and resorted to using assorted vegetables to clear my fridge. It was a good move. I low how the tomato wedges and onions are charred and caramelized making them juicy and sweet.

Give it a go if you're looking for something easy. You can easily half the recipe if you think it't a lot. It's the Taré sauce that is the real star of the dish. You can use it for other meats as well if you like. Taré literally means 'dripping' and is a general term for thickened sauces, for example, Yakitori Sauce and Teriyaki Sauce.

Yakitori (Barbecued Skewered Chicken)
adapted from Masterclass in Japanese Cooking by Emi Kazuko

For the Taré sauce:

4 tbsp Sake
6 tbsp Shoyu (Japanese Soy Sauce)
1.5 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp castor sugar

Combine all the Taré ingredients in a pot and bring to boil over medium heat. Simmer for 5-6 minutes, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Remove from the heat and set aside. I let mine cook down a bit before removing it from the heat.

For the chicken and vegetables skewers:

12 chicken thighs, with skin, boned
12-18 spring onion (scallions), white parts
24 pre-soaked bamboo skewers (15cm/6in)
24 small okra, trimmed
Seasalt
Lemon wedges to garnish
Sansho pepper and/or Shicimi (seven-spice chili) powder (optional)

Trim the fats from the chicken thighs and cut into 4cm square cubes. Cut the spring onions to about 4 cm or similar length to that of okra. Alternatively, chop all your assorted vegetables (I've used 1 tomato, 1/4 cucumber and 1 small onion) into roughly the same size as the chicken pieces.

Keep the bamboo skewers soaked in water until the last minute. This will prevent them from burning. Alternatively, wrap the ends of the bamboo skewers with foil pieces. It will not burn this way.

Thread 3 pieces of chicken meat on each skewer to make a total of 24 skewers. Thread 3 spring onions and 2 okras alternatively onto each skewer to make 12 skewers. I did a mixture of both, alternating chicken pieces with vegetable pieces. Grill or barbecue on high the chicken pieces for 3-4 minutes. Then turn over and grill 2-3 minutes until both sides are lightly browned. Remove from heat, one at a time, and baste with the Taré and return to the heat to dry the sauce. Repeat this process a few more times until all chicken skewers are golden brown.

Alternatively, half the skewers can be white-grilled ans sprinkled with seasalt instead of basting. Grill the vegetable skewers in the same way as chicken, but for a shorter time, 1-2 minutes on each side. Arrange skewers onto serving plate and serve hot, garnished with lemon wedge together with Sansho pepper.

I didn't use lemon wedge and serve the skewer over a bowl of piping hot steamed rice together with the remaining Taré sauce from basting.

makes 24 chicken and 12 vegetables skewers

Sunday Roast

2010-05-16T14:13:00.000+09:30

This is my version of Sunday Roast after having watched how Gary did his on one of the Masterclass shown on Masterchef. Sunday roast is typical of UK and is a traditional British main meal. Usually cooked up on Sunday, it consist of a main roasted meat served with plenty accompaniments such as roasted potatoes, gravy, Yorkshire pudding etc. Wikipedia has a darn good explanation on how you define a Sunday Roast.

Here, I've done a roast chicken served with roasted vegetables, individual Yorkshire puddings and a pan gravy. Though roast potatoes is kinda like a must-have in every roast, I don't have it here simply because I didn't have any in my pantry. I've thrown together all the leftover vegetables I have in my fridge and roast that with the chicken. Yes, I know....pretty unhealthy to have the vegetables catching the meat drippings but it also catches the juices. I don't do this often. You can choose to roast the vegetables in a hotter, separate oven but I only have one oven and I wanna do it all at one go just to save myself some hassle.

Talking about accompaniments, this is my first time making Yorkshire pudding and man....they were a success and they tasted great. Absolutely adore hand-me-down recipes or recipes that comes from someone's mum or grandma. Just in case some of you would like to know about the history of Yorkshire Pudding, again, Wikipedia has a darn good write-up about Yorkshire Pudding and it's origin. In a nutshell, the name itself, Yorkshire is derived and originated from a place in England, called Yorkshire. Yorshire pudding is made up of a batter consisting of egg, plain flour, milk and salt. It is chilled and poured into a hot and smoky lard-filled pan. It's the very hot and smoky and very cold batter that puff up the pudding.

Some tricks that I've learnt from watching Masterchef is that when making Yorkshire pudding, bake it at high temperature without opening the oven door because it will completely deflate the pudding. When time is up, quickly flip them over and pop it back into the oven to dry and crisp up the base for a few minutes. Yorkshire pudding done this way is absolutely gorgeous, holds its shape better and is very very puffy and stay crispy for a long time. Try to use lard if possible because it has a high smoking point compared to oil. The Yorkshire pudding is good in soaking up the gravy and deliciously wipe your plate clean towards the end of the meal. Neither butter nor lard are desperately good for you, so you might as well go with lard. I've rendered pork skin and use pork lard. So loving it.....

As for the roast chicken, I've opted to use a dry spice rub. After having seen it at Pei-Lin's blog and how she rave about Tony Chachere’s original Creole seasoning and how Christine braised chicken thigh with it, I figured this must be very very good. I trust food bloggers, they never lie. I did a thorough search on the Internet and it lead me back-to-back to Emeril Lagasse's Creole Essence. Call it what you like, Creole Blast, Creole Seasoning, Bayou Blast, Creole Essence and so forth. Whatever it is, it tasted awesome and I am loving it. I can't wait to try it with Tessa Kiros's buttermilk fried chicken and cook with it and season my dishes with Creole Seasoning in place of salt. I was so madly in love with it that I've used it quite heavily throughout the recipe. You need not follow really, this is just what I ate.

Here's what I've done for our Sunday Lunch....

Sunday Roast
(serves 4)

Creole Seasoning:
(This is Emeril Lagasse's recipe)

2.5 tsp paprika (I used a Hungarian Sweet one)
2 tsp salt
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp dried oregano, bruised between your fingers
1 tsp dried thyme, bruised between your fingers

Combine the above in a small bowl and whisk until very well combined.

Roast Chicken:

One whole free-range chicken, approximately 1.3kg or 4 large Marylands
Softened butter to your liking (optional)
Creole Seasoning

Preheat your oven to 200°C. Wash the chicken thoroughly and pat it until very dry. Working gently but not too delicate, run your fingers and slide it under the skin to loosen it up. It doesn't really matter since nothing will leak out because you're using a dry rub. Of course if you choose to make it richer and would like to place softened butter in it as well, you might wanna be careful to not tear the skin just so the butter will not leak out during the roasting process. Rub it generously with Creole Seasoning. No specific amount, just until when it is evenly coated in a single layer like shown in the above picture. Yes, my marylands are gigantic! Set it aside for now.

Roasted Vegetables:

You can use anything and any amount you like but here's what I've used:

1 large head of broccoli, broken into small florets, chopped the stems smaller
3 carrots, chunked
1 large tomato, wedges
6 cloves of whole garlic, washed, left unpeeled and left whole

Sprinkle just a little creole seasoning over them and toss to coat well. If you find it hard to toss, add in a dash of EVOO. If you have potatoes, please please include them in, they go so well with any roast meat. Place them in a large roasting tray and pop the chicken on top of them so they are sitting on the vegetables. Gather them around (see below) to have them really roasted rather than just baking in their own fat and juices. Pop them into the oven for an hour, checking often.

Yorkshire Pudding: make the batter and chill it in the fridge for an hour or more
(adapted from Masterchef, Gary's mum recipe)

1/2 cup plain flour
1 egg,
150ml milk
30g lard, or more

Place the flour in a mixing bowl and make a well at the centre. Crack in the egg, milk and a pinch of salt. Whisk vigorously until well aerated and well combined. Chill it until needed. Meanwhile, dollop a generous teaspoon of lard into each muffin hole (approximately 1/3 cup capacity). I dolloped 5 holes and the batter was just nice.

Note: Towards the middle of roasting, I changed my roasting method a little. I really wanted a crisp skin so I need to render the fat completely. I place the chicken on a wire rack and place the wire rack over the roasted vegetable tray. I continue roasting it until it was evenly browned and cooked. To test for doneness, when you pierce the chicken on the meatiest part, the juices that ooze out should be white and not red. Remove from the oven completely and pop in the prepared muffin pan for Yorkshire pudding. Turn the heat up to 220°C and let it heat for 5 minute or so.

Meanwhile, remove the chicken to a large plate and let it rest. Remove the roasted vegetables from the roasting tray by straining it. Let it drain in a large wire sieve. Let the pan juices and pan dripping settle. Strain off as much fat as possible into another small bowl. The fat is an obvious red-coloured oil and the pan juices will have bits if broccoli floating in it.

Pan Gravy:

1 tbsp flour
3/4 cup chicken stock
2 tbsp pan fat
All pan juices
Chicken juices released during resting time
Creole Seasoning to taste

Heat up a pan and add in 2 tbsp of the pan fat. When smoky, add in the tablespoon of flour and whisk to form a roux. When combined, pour in the cup of chicken stock and cook until it thickens. Add in whatever juices that is released from the chicken during this resting period and thicken it further to your desired consistency. Season to taste with Creole Seasoning and pour it into a spouted gravy jug.

Now, bake the Yorkshire pudding. Add 2 tbsp of water into the batter and whisk one last time. Pour in the chilled batter into the hot muffin holes and pop it back into the oven. Bake it for 25 minutes and do not open the oven. While that is happening, plate up your chicken on a large serving plate and pop the roasted vegetable on the serving plate too along with the jug of gravy. Let the serving plate keep warm in a warm spot. My favourite spot is to place the whole serving plate on my stove top because I am not using the stove now and my oven right beneath the stove and it is giving it enough heat to just keep my food warm. This is a great time to do all the dishes that have been piling up in the sink!

When time is up, quickly drain off the fat and flip the Yorkshire pudding over so the bottom is up and pop it back into the oven for a few minutes to crisp it up. I used a 12 hole muffin tray because that was what I have in hand. I flipped the Yorkshire pudding onto another ungreased muffin hole. and continue baking. I never actually remove the muffin tray from the oven. I bent down, open the oven door, pull it out, pour batter in, push it in and close the oven door. Same goes to flipping and I believe this helps in achieving puffy and crispy-on-the-outside pudding. It's cold nowadays and the big temperature difference would definitely sink my pudding!

It was a great Sunday Roast and a great Sunday lunch. If I have friends over, I would have served them stuffs like that too. A little more work but when you're cooking for many, it's easy. Let the oven do the job. And it's great on cold, chilly winter nights where you might wanna crank up the oven just to keep warm.

Monthly Mingle: South Africa BBQ Ribs

2010-05-01T11:32:00.000+09:30

This is my contribution to Monthly Mingle, themed South Africa, a monthly event organized by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey? This is the same recipe that I have used adapted from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. You probably would know by now, I am crazy over Tessa and have all her cookbooks as collections. This migh not be very South African to those who are not living there, neither do I personaly think this is very authentic of South Africa but when I hear what Tessa has to say, it just blow my mind away! Here's what Tessa said about these wonderful ribs:

These are those wonderful sweet ribs that you find at the steak houses in South Africa. They bring you just a great big rack of spare ribs and perhaps some garlic bread and you eat with your fingers. I love making this type of thing from time to time. These need a bit of marinating beforehand.

I've made it once here but this time around, I tweaked the method of cooking and added a dash of this and that. I serve it up with seasoned steamed vegetables and a simple parsley mash. I've wrote down the tweaked recipe here and I like this one much better. It falls off bone, not tough at al l and very tender and juicy.

South Africa BBQ Ribs
(serves 4 as main meal)

50 g butter
2 tbsp EVOO
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 large onion, diced smallish
250ml (1 cup) tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) brown sugar
80 ml (1/3 cup) lemon juice
80 ml (1/3 cup) runny honey
1 tsp fine seasalt
1 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp ground chili powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1.5 kg baby-back pork ribs, halved horizontally if large

Heat the butter and EVOO in a wide non-stick saucepan and saute the onion over gentle heat until softened but not browned. Add in the minced garlic and saute a minute. Add the rest of the ingredients except the ribs and 1 cup (250ml) of water to the pan and simmer for 10mins until the sauce has thickened. Immerse a stick blender in it and puree it to a fine sauce. Oh my gosh....absolutely love the wonderful zingy aroma from this. Homemade BBQ sauce, beat that!

Put the ribs in with the sauce and add enough water to completely cover the ribs. Crank up the heat and when it is boiling, turn down the heat to a low simmer, cover with a heavy glass lid and simmer it or rather, braise it for 90 minutes until it is tender when poked with a fork.

Uncover and reduce sauce until it is just coating the meat and probably a little extra for you to baste it later and use as sauce for dipping. Place the ribs in a large ovenproof dish and place them under a hot griller for 10 mins or so, basting often until just slightly charred here and there and that the ribs holds its shape and didn't fall apart.

Reduce the sauce in pan and serve along the ribs, a simple steamed vegetable and mashed potato. Enjoy with your hands and a large napkin.

Japanese Egg Tofu with Minced Pork

2010-04-30T11:56:00.005+09:30

Jo Ee, this is for you. I hope this is simple enough. This is what I grew up eating every lunch and my grandma makes it often. I tried to make it as idiot-proof for you as possible so shoot me with questions if it's still unclear, talk about it being idiot-proof.

It's basically Japanese egg tofu, that's what we call it back in Malaysia. It comes in a tube form and looks like this. I sliced the Japanese egg tofu into thick rings and coat it with cornstarch (also called cornflour or you can use tapioca flour or tapioca starch) and pan fry it until golden brown. Then I mixed all the meat ingredients together and stir fry it and pour it over the egg tofu. Done!

Japanese Egg Tofu with Minced Pork

1 Japanese Egg Tofu Tube, sliced into thick rounds
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced (use 2 tsp if using garlic in jar, mine looks like this)
1/2 cup chicken broth (or use 1/2 tsp No MSG chicken powder + 1/2 cup water)
1 tsp oyster sauce (just estimate, a dash or so would do)
Cornflour thickener (Mix 2 tsp cornflour with 2 tbsp COLD water)
1 egg, beaten (optional)
Spring onions

Minced pork marinade: Mix everything together and set aside for 10mins

100g minced pork (can use minced chicken too)
1 tbsp light soy sauce (just use the spoon you use for eating, doesn't have to be specific)
Dash of salt, sugar and pepper
Dash of sesame oil
1/2 tbsp cornflour (just estimate will do, can also )

Coat the tofu slices with cornflour/tapioca flour and pan fry over high heat until golden brown. Drain it on a paper towel and place on a serving plate.

Heat some oil in a pan over high heat. When hot, add in garlic and stir and cook for 10 seconds. Add in the minced pork and cook and stir nonstop, breaking the lumps as you go along, about 3 minutes. When pork is browned, add in the chicken broth (or water + chicken powder), oyster sauce and bring to boil. When boiling, let it simmer for 5mins over high heat. Give the cornflour thickener a good stir and pour it into the pan. Stir and cook for a minute. Add in beaten egg at this stage if you like. Dish it up and pour it over the tofu. Garnish with chopped spring onions.

Serve immediately with hot rice.

p/s: Spring onions are also known as green shallots or green onions in some countries. Cornflour and tapioca flour are also known as cornstarch and tapioca starch.

Have fun and lemme know your outcome. I know you can't cook a decent meal for live! It's not too late to start!

Avgolemono (Chicken Soup with Egg & Lemon)

2010-04-13T23:07:00.000+09:30

I'm bringing you to Greece with me today! It's a chicken soup, served with a beautiful poached chicken alongside. This dish is commonly made to celebrate the end of the fast for Easter.This is beautiful and is adapted from Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. It's a soup with rice in it, though you can't see it because the rice sank to the bottom of the soup. This is a good way for me to use up all the leftover vegetables in my fridge too. It's an acquired taste but if Aaron likes it, you can bet you'll like it too! Aaron has a very Asian tastebud!

According to Tessa, egg and lemon is very popular as a finish for soups and sauces in Greek cooking and one could easily add some thyme sprigs or other herbs to inauthentically infuse the broth of this classic Greek soup.One can also make avgolemono with lamb instead of chicken. It is rich and delicious, simple and nourishing, and gives you two course from one recipe (the soup and then the beautiful poached chicken).

Avgolemono (Chicken Soup with Egg and Lemon)

1 whole free range organic chicken (approximately 1.36kg)
1 white onion, roughly cut into large chunks
1 leafy celery stalk, cut into large chunks
1 large carrots, cut in half A few parsley stalks
A few black peppercorns 1/2 cup long-grain rice, rinsed 2 eggs Juice of 2 lemons

Rinse the chicken well and put it in a large stockpot with everything else except for the rice, egg and lemon juice. Add a good sprinkling of salt into the stockpot followed by 14 cups of cold water. Bring to boil and skim the surface with a slotted spoon. Decrease the heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 90 minutes, skimming occasionally. Lift the chicken out onto a large plate or bowl with a slotted spoon. Strain the broth through a sieve, pressing down lightly on the vegetables with the back of a wooden spatula to extract flavour.

You should have about 6 cups of broth . Return this to the saucepan and add in the rice. Cook over medium heat for another 15 minutes or so, stirring occasionally until the rice is cooked. Whisk the eggs until they are fluffy. Add the lemon juice. Temper the egg mixture with the broth by ladling a spoonful of hot broth to the egg, whisking vigorously to stop it from scrambling. Whisk in a little more broth, then add the entire egg mixture to the pan. Return the saucepan to the lowest possible heat and let it cook for a few minutes to warm the egg through.

Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately. If you like, shred one of the chicken breast and scatter over the soup. Serve the rest of the chicken as a second course.

Serves 4

I hope you all have had a great Easter. Mine was awesome, seriously.

Sweet Corn Fritters with Avocado and Crisp Bacon

2010-04-02T15:49:00.000+10:30

During the weekends or public holidays, Aaron and I usually get more fancy with food. Apart from the usual poached egg or Weetbix, we'll cook up something for weekend breakfast. And it's Good Friday (and it's gonna be a long weekend since it's public holiday next Monday too!) today so I cooked this for our breakfast. We pampered ourselves to a rather healthy breakfast minus the bacon, haha! We'll be busy going out tomorrow and Monday too since it's a public holiday and it's Easter so meanwhile, have fun with this~

Crisp up 4 rashers of bacon in a nonstick pan with little EVOO until golden and crisp. Divide between 2 plates and keep warm in the oven (preheated at 50°C). With the remaining bacon fat rendered in the pan, pan-fried the sweetcorn fritter (recipe below) over medium heat for 1-2 minutes on each side. Place 2 fritters each onto serving plate. Place a generous handful of washed and dried baby spinach leaves on the side. Serve immediately with a large wedge of avocado and a slice of lemon alongside.

Sweet Corn Fritters
(makes 4 fritters, each approximately of 1/4 cup(60ml) capacity)

1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
2 tbsp (40ml) milk
10g melted butter
1 egg
Salt and pepper
200g drained sweetcorn kernels
1-2 finely chopped green onions

Whisk the first 5 ingredients to combine. Add in corn kernels and spring onions.

Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine, Issue 48, Dec/Jan 2010, page 84.

Son-In-Law Eggs

2010-03-27T22:30:00.000+10:30

Here is another way to cook eggs. Easter is just around the corner. If you haven't tried Chinese Tea Eggs, consider making these Asian-Inspired eggs for Easter because they are way easier. And you cannot believe how yummy they were!

Thai dish, so beautifully known as son-in-law eggs or you want more complicated, Khai Luuk Kheuy. According to a Thai friend of mine, this is usually served as entree or appetizer in Thailand. Noppanat also says Khai means egg and Luuk Kheuy means son-in-law.

You can read a real good detailed history of these eggs here by Ellie of Almost Bourdain. I however used the recipe I adapted from Ju of The Little Teochew, which she nicely adapted from Simple Chinese.

Khai Luuk Kheuy

3 hard boiled eggs
1 tbsp water
2 tbsp palm sugar
2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tbsp chicken stock

Combine all the above except the eggs in a small pan and bring to boil. Cook it a while until it thickens and remove from heat. Cool it down a bit. This would be your sauce to pair with your eggs.

Garnish:

Deep fried red chilies (I just use raw ones)
Deep fried shallots (I use readymade ones)
Coriander leaves

Unlike the Chinese Tea Eggs, you need to remove the shells of the eggs to make these. If you don't know how to make hard boiled eggs, refer to the Chinese Tea Eggs. Once you have remove the shells for all the eggs,deep fry them in hot oil until the outer of the skin crisp up and is a beautiful golden hue. Use low heat and keep tossing the pan to turn the eggs around, they will cook up beautifully this way. Drain them on paper towel and cool lightly. Cut them in half and place them on serving spoon or plate. Drizzle them with the sauce and garnish them with the red chillies, fried shallots and a hint of coriander.

Now, is that is not beautiful and easy, what is? I'll make Aaron cook this dish for mum next time if I ever make him my husband!

Nigerian Suya

2010-03-18T21:16:00.001+10:30

This is what I cooked for Eghosa the last time he came to my house. I promised him something Nigerian so this is it. It's basically marinaded meat threaded on wooden skewers and grilled to perfection.

In Malaysia, we have Satays. In Middle East, they have Kebabs. In Nigeria, they have Suya. The characteristic of Suya is that the marinade includes a must have ingredient, Kuli Kuli Powder. It is at its core, grounded peanut powder, minus the fact that it is stripped off excess oil.

Suya is sold widely in Nigeria. Beef is usually used but I've used chicken here. Suya is served wrapped in foodgrade plastic and newspaper, served alongside raw onions and tomatoes. I'm not a fan of raw onions so I mellow the taste by soaking it in water for 5 minutes or so. I also tossed the diced tomatoes with finely chopped coriander just for more vibrant colour.

Nigerian Suya
(makes a dozen stick)
loosely adapted from WikiHow

Either soak the wooden skewers in water for 30mins or wrap the ends in aluminium foil.

1/2 cup of roasted peanuts, grounded and placed between sheets of absorbent kitchen paper
2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp red paprika
1 tsp seasoned mixed salt
1/2 tsp ginger powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2-3 large chicken thigh fillets, cubed into 1-inch pieces or smaller

Marinade the meat with all the ingredients except the peanut powder. Let it sit overnight in the fridge, covered to let flavour infuse, tossing it around every now and then. Upon serving, have ready the wooden skewers and peanut powder. Toss the chicken meat in the peanut powder, coating them evenly. Thread them on the skewer and grill or BBQ them until the chicken meat is done, approximately 10-12 mins.

Chinese Tea Eggs

2010-03-16T01:21:00.000+10:30

I have been so so busy lately and strongly believe I will get more busy as time goes by now that I am no longer a student. I will still post but it will be more about the recipe, short and crisp.

Perhaps some of you might like that better too in fact. I made these some time back. Aaron likes it. It was very flavourful and the picture you see there, I did not even allow it to soak overnight in the tea brine solution. Couldn't wait to eat.

Here's the recipe that I have used. It's given to me by my aunt, roughly. Feel free to add or reduce the soya sauce to your liking. Some are salty and some are not so. I use a sweet based dark soya sauce.

Chinese Tea Eggs
(makes 6 to a dozen)

Bring at least 6 eggs to as much eggs as your pot can fit in a single layer. Pour water in until it just covers the eggs. Bring it to boil. When it starts boiling, let it boil for a minute or 2 and turn heat off. Remove the eggs from the pot and throw them in ice water bath to cool them down. Retain the hot water.

When the eggs are cooled to handle, do not peel them. Crack them on the table. In fact, the more you crack, the better marbling effect you get and the better the eggs will be infused with the tea flavour.

Add the following to th pot of hot water:

6 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp dark sweet soya sauce
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp loose black tea leaves
3 pieces of whole star anise
1 long cinnamon stick, broken into two
8 blackpeppercorns, left whole
a long strip of dried mandarin orange peel from one mandarin orange

Bring to boil again and when boiling, return all the cracked eggs to the pot, cover with a heavy lid. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 2 hours, making sure the simmering liquid covers the eggs, else add water to top it up as soon as it's not completely covering the eggs.

Turn off heat, cool it down completely and let it sit overnight for best result in terms of pattern and taste. Eat it the next day.

This is so yummy. If you can find mandarin orange in your place, retain the skin and dry them. Use them for this. They are so flavourful and the dried peels also taste very good in red bean soup. Not sure if any of you have tried it before though, I grew up with sweet red bean soup boiled with dried mandarin orange peel.

Sticky Lemon Chicken with Champ

2010-02-11T01:27:00.002+10:30

It's hot, it's humid, it's sticky, damp, wet, full of moisture and all here in Malaysia! It's a lot hotter in Adelaide but I don't like the humidity here. We both landed safely on Sunday night. Had so much good food as of now. Aaron went back to Labuan today so I finally have just a little spare time to update what we ate for our last meal before we flew back to Malaysia.

Yes, it's the Champ I've blogged about in my previous post. But this time with a real good sticky lemon chicken. The sticky lemon chicken is quick, sticky, yummy and all you can look for from lemon. Here's a video of Gordon in action:

I love him despite him being so vulgar. I think he is just being really honest and direct, that's how I would describe Gordon. Here is the recipe if anyone wanna try it. Didn't have parsley but can't say no to coriander. We are both great coriander lovers. And substituted fresh thymes with dried ones too. I use fresh lemon too. The zing, the tanginess is just about right. Added in a touch of dark soya sauce too.

Had this for lunch overlooking Adelaide city one last time before I say hello again for a month. I doubt I'll be cooking much in Malaysia. I live so lavishly here, like seriously. I enjoy all the pampering and the attention I get with everyone fussing around me. I am getting so lazy. And I manage to get stuffs and gadgets that I can bring back to Adelaide, everything just seem cheaper here in KL compared to Adelaide. I'll try update this blog again just about a week after Chinese New Year. I'll try dig out some stuffs we ate last time that deserve a mention here. I know not everyone is celebrating CNY and I don't want anyone to feel left out and it is getting a little quiet here.

So, try the sticky lemon chicken with champ and let me know if you like it. I'll be busy. Have fun and check back often for more great yummy food!

Champ

2010-02-03T21:03:00.001+10:30

I told Aaron the other night we'll be eating Sticky Lemon Chicken with Champ. He gave me a glare and said 'Eat what?'. I repeated like three times and he couldn't understand me. We later sorted out the issue, he couldn't understand what champ is. He only know champion. Champignon de Paris, Champ or any other names would be alien to him.

Had a quick chat with Pei-Lin online and she too had a thought. Champ? Well, lemme clarify once for all here about what I know about Champ. If you all remember, I have an Irish friend who's mum gave me a recipe for Barmbrack. This Champ is also an Irish dish. It might not be traditional of Irish Halloween but maybe it's just the friend of mine, they have pennies buried in Champ. Anyone digging within their pile of Champ found it will have good luck blessed upon them all year round. And the pennies are nicely wrapped in food grade cling wrap in case you think it's disgusting!

Champ is creamy mashed potatoes with spring onions added into it at its core. Spring onions, otherwise known as green shallots or scallions are finely chopped and added into the mashed potatoes. Very similar to Colcannon (Irish mashed potatoes with shredded cabbage or kale), this one is delicious. Usually serve with a pool of butter melted at the centre, I stir it through thoroughly into the mashed potatoes. Just my preference.

Recipe? Make a batch of your favourite mashed potatoes, omitting the butter. To 1kg of potatoes, add in approximately 6 generous stalks of spring onions, finely chopped. Don't use the food processor for it. The heat from the mashed potatoes will cook the spring onion a little. If you're worried about the raw taste from the spring onions, feel free to heat the spring onions with the milk and cream called for in the mashed potatoes recipe. When mashed, create sorta like a pool at the centre or just swirl around. Dot butter over and serve immediately. It can be served with butter thoroughly stirred through or a butter pool at the centre or sometimes, puddles of butter around.

Have fun!

Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Soy Bean Paste

2010-01-26T22:29:00.000+10:30

These are what I grew up with. I ate these for lunch almost every week, without fail. If you add in more shallots, a couple of Shiitake mushrooms and a dash of palm sugar, congratulations my dear because you have just cook up a Nyonya Delicacy called Chicken Pong Teh. I personally like Pong Teh with pork belly. Really gotta cook that some time...more on that later.

I cook these with soy bean paste. It's brown, very salty and known as Taucheo to me. I don't know what you call them in English but if you go to any Asian groceries and tell them you want soy bean paste, this is it.

Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Soy Bean Paste

(serves 2-3)

2 whole chicken marylands, chopped into smaller pieces

2 tbsp EVOO

4 to 5 cloves of garlic, finely minced

Large thumb size piece of old ginger, peeled and crushed well into paste

1 tbsp heaped Taucheo or soy bean paste

3 cups of water or more

3 potatoes, peeled and cubed to bite size

1 tbsp or to taste of light soy sauce

Dash of kecap manis or dark soy sauce

Heat up the oil until it is hot and add in the garlic and ginger. Saute until golden brown and fragrant and add in the Taucheo. Stir continuously to mix well until 'pecah minyak' or when oil separates from the mixture and rises to the surface. Add in the chicken pieces and brown lightly. Add in water, potato cubes, soy sauces and a pinch of salt. Bring to boil and let it simmer on low until chickens are cooked and potatoes are soft tender. Remove any fat and scum along the way.

Dish up and serve with hot steamed rice.

Roasted Pork Ribs

2010-01-20T18:58:00.000+10:30

I roast pork ribs for Yann and Desmond when they were here some time back. They have been so nice to me. Yann cooked two dinners and one lunch for us and I decided this is pay back time.

Pay back time with succulent, juicy, fall off bones pork meat. Yann cooked a curry fish head and stir-fried a napa head. Awesome dinner, I love it! Everything was polished off!

I've used a chicken wing marinade for these ribs adapted from Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippet. They are so yummy. Sweetish and spicy. Here's the recipe. Thank you so so much Gertrude. Your recipe always makes me so impressed by others all the time!

Roasted Pork Ribs, lightly modified from My Kitchen Snippet's Oven Baked Chicken Wings
(makes enough to serve 4 or 5 people)

1 kg American spare ribs
3 tbsp of soy sauce
½ tsp of garlic powder
1 tsp of paprika
1.5 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste

Wash and clean the ribs thoroughly. The below step is optional but good if you do it. See step-by-step photos here by Michael Chu.

There is a thin membrane on the inside of the ribs that goes over all the bones. Removing this membrane is optional, but generally a good idea. It can become a very tough sheet that tastes and feels like you're chewing on plastic if you cook it with the ribs. To remove it, just thrust a blunt object (like the blunt tip of a thermometer) in between the membrane and the bones. Wiggling your tool around a little should give you enough room to get a finger beneath the membrane. Once you've got a grip on the membrane, pull it away from the back of the ribs. You'll need to use some force, but if you're smooth about it, the membrane should come away as one piece. Using a paper towel can help you grip the membrane better if you have butterfingers.

Combine all the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Mix well and coat the ribs with it thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate overnight, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 180°C. Cover a baking dish with aluminum foil. Spray it with some garlic infused olive oil. Prop up the pork ribs on its side, coating liberally with marinade if there's any. Roast for 2 hours or until golden brown and slightly fall off bone when pierced with a fork. Flip them over on the otehr sides occasionally. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken with Onions

2010-01-18T11:34:00.002+10:30

I cook this on a day our house ran out of light soy sauce. I flip through a thousand recipes from my collection and can't seem to find one dish that doesn't require light soy. It's hard to do without light soy in your pantry when you have strong urge to eat Asian cuisine and nothing but Asian food! I wanted something to down with steamed rice because it's been a long time since I last had steamed rice.

I chance upon this recipe. It's yummy, sweet and peppery. It's not overly sweet because I cut down the sugar a bit. I added a whole large sliced yellow onion which is quite sweet. Most important of all, it is so simple to prepare and doesn't require soy sauce. Being a Vietnamese dish, it calls for Nam Pla or fish sauce, 1/4 cup of that and I thought it would be overly salty but no, that's what the sugar is there for.

It's worth the try if you want something quick under 30mins for the weekend when you don't feel like going out.

Caramelized Black Pepper Chicken with Onions
(adapted and modified from Chef Charles Phan here)

1/2 cup dark brown sugar (I cut it down by just a tablespoon)
1/4 cup fish sauce (nam pla)
1/4 cup water
3 tablespoons ShaoXing Cooking Wine
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon finely grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
3 fresh Thai chilies, sliced thinly

Combine all the above in a small bowl and mix well.

1 tablespoon canola oil
1 shallot, thinly sliced
1 large yellow onion, sliced into half rings
450g skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into long, thin strips
4 Coriander sprigs for garnish, roughly chopped

Here's a trick I learnt from my previous housemate. Rub the chicken with just a small pinch of baking powder. You'll thank me for that, just do it. This will yield the most tender and flavorful chicken.

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the shallot and cook over moderate heat until softened, about 4 minutes. Add the onions and take it further until soft and slightly caramelized. Add the fish sauce mixture and the chicken and simmer over high heat until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes. Throw in3 springs of chopped coriander, turned off the heat and stir briefly.

Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with remaining coriander. Serve this over a bowl of steamed rice.

Try it!

Baby Spinach with Bacon Dressing

2010-01-10T02:16:00.000+10:30

Have to agree with Pioneer Woman, this is indeed the best spinach salad ever! The warm bacon dressing is a killer. I use cider vinegar but I think any other wine vinegar would have tasted even better.

Crumbled bacon, pomegranate seeds along with caramelized red onions and sauteed mushrooms with every mouthful of bacon-dressing-coated-baby-spinach, it's a perfect yum and was a hit last Christmas!

The hard boiled egg....Jeez, I hate how Aaron spoils my good looking dish sometimes really! Can you imagine 9 out of 10 times he makes hard boiled eggs, they turned out perfecto btu the only time I need it to garnish my salad, he screw it up. I dare not even ask him to slice. I sliced it myself before he makes things worst. But it's okay, it still taste good. Aaron, I forgive you.

Please click on Pioneer Woman's link here for step-by-step awesome photos and funny stuffs. She cracks me up with laughter every time. I love you Pioneer Woman, I really do!

Pioneer Woman's Baby Spinach Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing, Sauteed Mushrooms, Caramelized Onions and Crumbled Bacon

3 nicely sliced hard-boiled eggs 7 slices middle bacon rashers, pan fried and crumbled, dripping reserved 250g baby spinach, properly cleaned and spinned dry
Pan fry 1 small red onion, thinly sliced with 2 tbsp of the bacon dripping. Season with salt to caramelize it until soft and done. In the same pan with no extra dripping needed, sauteed 1 package of white button mushrooms, sliced thinly until very brown.

Combine the baby spinach, caramelized onions, sauteed mushrooms, crumbled bacon in a large mixing bowl and toss around. Mix together the following and warm it over the stove and pour over the spinach mixture. Toss well to coat again. Season with extra salt if needed or to taste.

3 tbsp bacon dripping
3 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Dijon Mustard
Dash of salt

Arrange egg slices on top of salad and sprinkle over a handful of pomegranate seeds and serve immediately. I'd recommend preheating the dressing only when you need to serve. Do not assemble before hand.

My Christmas Fare

2010-01-08T00:40:00.001+10:30

Sharing with you all here some photos I manage to snap for our Christmas Eve dinner last year. Everyone seem too busy ushering in 2010 but I 'm still in 2009. Year 2009 has been a good year for me. Not good, but great. I don't usually put up picture of faces but Year 2009 has been a good year, I felt I've met so many new faces and learnt so much from people I should post up our dinner pic. That's me in Red Santa top with Aaron and our housemates in our balcony.

Here's the dining table at the balcony, overlooking Adelaide city. It's an awesome view and perfect weather though it's summer.

I cook what I'm familiar and have cooked before. These orange tomato glaze chicken by Tessa fitted everyone's tastebud perfectly.

Linguini al granchio for our staple. This is also by Tessa and I have to say, this is something I would make over and over again, not just for Christmas.

Baby spinach salad with bacon, mushrooms, onions, egg and warm bacon dressing. Couldn't agree with Pioneer Woman further, best salad ever! Recipe coming up soon wit more pics!

They look so Chrismassy and tasted absolutely wonderful. Everything was polished off plate but this one is a real winner.

These are the grape tomatoes used for the linguini. They look so beautifully studded with star shaped stalk. Red, ripe, juicy and very very sweet!

Goodbye Year 2009, Welcome Year 2010.

Butter rice

2009-12-29T20:47:00.006+10:30

This is the butter rice I made some time back for us to eat along the roasted chicken wings. It is so simple I actually didn’t measure much. Anyhow, here is a rough guidelines of what I’ve used and what I’ve done:

2 cups uncooked rice, washed until water run clear, drained
½ cup frozen mixed vegetables
½ a small brown onion, diced smallish
2 to 3 tbsp butter
Enough chicken stock to cook rice

Pop everything into the rice cooker and cook until rice is done. Give it a good stir gently and serve with dishes you like. This is a good one, something different than your usual plain white steamed rice.

Cheers,
Quinn

Roasted Honey Chicken Wings with Baby Spinach, Orange and Pomegranate

2009-12-23T23:28:00.002+10:30

I thought I would be dead busy but hey no, because I planned my menu for two Christmas dinners carefully and spread out my shopping list, I have time to cook things off my long to-do-list!

I have wanted to make this Roasted Honey Chicken Wings from Gertrude of My Kitchen Snippets for ages! She not only coo and bake well, she takes beautiful and stunning shots too! I am so lucky to be Down Under now where it is so sunny and I can play around with my food and shots though it is already 8pm! No, we usually have earlier dinner but today, we both had late lunch, hence late dinner.

I was trying to use the 'line' element taught by Neel of Learn Food Photography. But I somehow think the pomegranate seeds are covering the orange segments so I ended up scattering them up like this:

I think it looks more pleasing to the eye now and I could see the colours are more vibrant now. Erm, Neel, care to comment and correct me? Thanking you in advance! Angle is something I could never seem to get right. Up till now, I still can't seem to choose the best picture out of all here because different angles make them look differently. Oppss....I'm drifting! Sorrry, back to the chicken. It was flavourful and yummy. I like how the baby spinach, orange segments and pomegranate seeds completed the dish. It was like eating a healthy no-dressing fruity salad with honey wings.

Will I make this again? Hell yeah.....Thanks Gertrude for coming up with wonderful combinations for chicken wings. There is something ever so magical about wings. They always disappear very quickly on my table! And because we are high on carb and Aaron must have his daily rice intake, I serve this along a very simple butter rice. That's gonna be my next upcoming post!

Roasted Honey Chicken Wings with Baby Spinach, Orange and Pomegranate
(adapted form My Kitchen Snippets with modifications)

6 pieces of chicken wings, cleaned and pat dry
1 clove garlic, passed through a garlic presser or minced finely
1/2 tsp chili powder
Sea salt to taste
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
Dash of pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
Splash of POM juice
Zest of half an orange
1.5 tbsp honey

Garnish:
Generous handful of baby spinach
Orange segments
Pomegranate seeds

Whisk all the ingredients together except for the wings until well combined. Coat the wings with the marinade mixture. Massaged the marinade into the chicken for 5 minutes or so and let it marinade at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking them. Roast them in a preheated oven of 200°C for 40 minutes, flipping and basting them often with the marinade until they are golden brown. Serve this over a bed of baby spinach with orange segments and pomegranate seeds.

An butter rice of course, if you are a Carb freak!

(makes 6 chicken wings and serves 2)

Crash Hot Potatoes with Garlic Aioli

2009-12-19T21:18:00.000+10:30

Made this for a quickie lunch. Adapted this from Pioneer Woman and she got this from an Australia food writer, Jill Dupleix. Yes Ree, I love Australia too!

This one somewhat reminds me of potato latkes but they are just not. These are a lot healthier though it did involve oil, EVOO. It's first parboiled until it's fork tender. Then it's placed on a well EVOO-ed tray. Space them a little and use a fork or potato masher to mash them down so you get potato cookies. That's why it's called crash hot potatoes right? It's crash like this and you eat it hot out from the oven.

I paired this with a Garlic Aioli. This garlic aioli is one I've been using twice and modified from various sources I could happily call it mine. It makes 1/2 a cup so use it to dip them generously or make less.

Crash Hot Potatoes
(adapted from Ree Drummond, click here to see step-by-step photos by Ree)

12 whole baby potatoes, washed and scrubbed clean.
3 tbsp EVOO
Seasalt To Taste
Freshly grinded black pepper to taste
Mixed herbs

Begin by bringing a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in all the potatoes and cook until they are fork-tender. On a sheet pan, generously drizzle over EVOO. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato. With a potato masher or just a fork, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes. You can choose to rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again but I didn't. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more EVOO. Sprinkle potatoes with seasalt, freshly grinded black pepper and dried mixed herbs generously. Pop it into a preheated oven for 230°C and bake it for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.

Garlic Aioli
(makes 1/2 cup or so)

1 large egg yolk
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup EVOO
1/2 tbsp hot water
1/2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tbsp egg mayonnaise or more

I like to use roasted garlic. There is something magical tasting when garlic head is well roasted. Plain raw garlic would do but crushed it finely through a garlic presser. You could also turn this into a bacon garlic aioli by using bacon drippings instead of EVOO or just half and half of both. Sometimes, when I ran out of mayonnaise, I actually added tartare sauce in place of mayo. and cut down the lemon juice a little. It tasted great to us. As I've said, this might not be very authentic of aioli but it's just how we like it. Please don't condemn me....

Place the pureed or crushed garlic, the egg yolk and salt in a food processor. Process until smooth and gradually add in the EVOO or bacon drippings and continue processing until thick. Stir in the hot water and lemon juice and process until combined. Finally, stir in the mayonnaise and mix well. Keep warm until needed to serve.

Serve the crash hot potatoes with warm roasted garlic aioli and close your eyes to enjoy moments of rarity and comfort!

Ayam Masak Merah (Malay Style Red Chicken)

2009-12-17T23:41:00.000+10:30

I felt a little ashamed to call this dish Ayam Masak Merah but really, I tried my best. It ended up tasting not very close to Ayam Masak Merah but Aaron insisted it did taste close to it. Perhaps, he just wants to make me happier. After all, this is my first attempt.

For those of you all who are not from Malaysia, Ayam Masak Merah is very typical of Malaysia and exceptionally famous among the Malays in Malaysia. This dish is sweet-ish and spicy. Ayam Masak Merah directly translates to Chicken Cook Red in native Malay.

Ayam Masak Merah brings back good memories for Aaron because this is what his mum cooks often for him when he was in Malaysia and staying with his parents. I tried to replicate it by combining various sources and came up with my own version (recipe below). It ended up not very close to those that I've tried in Malaysia though. Don't get me wrong. The dish was yummy and finger licking good and we polished the plate off. It's just that I think it tasted like a combination of Ayam Masak Kicap (Chicken Cook Soy Sauce) and Caramelized Onion Chicken.

Maybe I complain too much. Aaron likes it. He happily hold it for me to take a picture of it. And we had this for dinner just now. Bright natural sunlight at 7:30pm. It' summer in Adelaide, good or bad?

Ayam Masak Merah
(serves 4)

6 to 8 large chicken drumsticks, cleaned and pat very dry
1 large red onion, sliced into half rings
1 small tomato, chopped into six wedges
1/2 tbsp sugar

Kuah (Sauce):
1/2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp tomato sauce
2 tbsp sweet dark soya sauce
1 cup of water
Salt to taste

Rempah (Spice paste):

2 pips of garlic
3 candlenuts/buah keras macadamia nuts
5 cloves shallots
1 lemongrass stalk, bottom 1 inch only, diced smallish
8 dried red chillies, deseeded and soaked in hot water until softened

Process all ingredients for Rempah until you get a fine paste. In a large nonstick pan (you'll need to hold 6 to 8 chicken drumsticks in it later), heat up 1/4 cup of canola oil until smoky. Add in the processed paste and fry over medium low heat until the oil separates and rises to the surface. The paste would also turn a shade darker and redish now.

Add in the onion rings and the tomato wedges now. Sprinkle sugar over to enhance caramelization. Cook until onions are slightly soft and releases aroma. Add in the chicken drumsticks now and sear on all sides until brown and onions and tomato wedges are very very soft and mushy.

Add in all ingredients for kuah and bring to a boil. When boiling, turn heat down to the lowest setting possible and cover pan with a heavy glass lid. Let it simmer for 30 minutes or more until meat is tender and fall off one but still intact. Gently pierce the meat with fork and you'll know.

Remove chicken drumsticks onto serving plate and top with onion rings generously. Turn up the heat and thicken up the remaining gravy in the pan until bubbly and reduced. Strain off oil if there is too much and drizzle over chicken. You shouldn't get that much of a gravy really because Ayam Masak Merak is rather dry but flavourful. You can add slightly less than 1 cup of water because the purpose of the water really is to help cook it.

Serve with a bowl of steamed hot rice. The Malays in Malaysia generally serve this with Nasi Tomato (Tomato Rice) but I don't quite like Nasi Tomato, just my personal preference. Try it, who knows you might like it (provided you've not tried Ayam Masak Merah before in your entire life!)

Zurin's Sambal Tumis

2009-12-16T20:44:00.000+10:30

I grew up in a small little city called Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Being quite Malaynized due to culture and ancestors, I have a soft spot for sambal. I always have had and I said sambal because I really do meant all kinds of sambals. From sambal ikan bilis you get on nasi lemak to sambal oelek and sambal belachan served alongside Hokkien Noodles,I never seem to get bored with them.

This time around, I've make a large batch of Sambal Tumis. Thanks Zu and you all should see Zurin's post. She explained in detail about the difference and what they translate to in Malay. I know tumis is sort of saute-ish but I cannot translate sambal. The next best thing I would say chilli jam. These are so good in fried rice, in simple stir-fried greens and yummy when eaten along with ulam. Yes, you gotta be Malaynized to understand what I'm saying and I've not gone nuts. It's versatile and keep well in the fridge. I wouldn't recommend you cut down the oil because oil is what preserves it in the fridge.

Here is the recipe adapted from Cherry On A Cak e, owned by Zurin. Thanks again Zu and terima kasih because Aaron loves this. I totally adore it and if only Aaron would let me, I would have hug this jar to bed and sniff and smell the fragrance of belacan in it throughout my sleep. I'm gonna real good night sleeps!!!

Zurin's Sambal Tumis
A real keeper and makes a large jar

50 gm dried chillies
3 medium large red onions
4 cloves garlic
5 candlenuts/buah keras/walnuts/ macadamia nuts
1/2 tbsp belacan, optional

Roughly snipped the dried chillies with scissors to remove all the seeds and pass it through a colander to remove the seeds thoroughly. Soak it in hot water for 30 minutes and then drain them. Toast the belacan in a dry and clean pan until it is crumbly and releases its fragrance. Place all the above in a blender and add 2 tbsp water of water to it and whiz until a fine paste is obtained. Else, use a food processor and process until fine without water.

1 1/2 tsp tamarind pulp
1/4 cup hot water
1 tbsp sugar
salt to taste
1/4 cup or more of EVOO

Combine the tamarind pulp with hot water and let it soak up the flavour. Moments later, use your hand and rub and squeeze the tamarind pulp to fully flavour the water. Pass them through a strainer and rub and squeeze every last bit of water from the pulp.

Heat up 1/4 cup of cooking oil in a small heavy/thick bottomed pot. Saute the blended ingredients, stirring on and off until the paste turns a shade darker, approximately 10 minutes. or longer if necessary. Use low heat at all the time as the paste burns easily. Add the tamarind juice, sugar and salt and stir and let it cook another 15 - 20 minutes more until the oil rises to the surface and the sambal is really cooked and turns a dark red shade.

Done! This is how I do my canning. Don't cool it but pour the hot paste into a clean and sterilized hot glass jar. Sterilize the metal cover and screw it on immediately. I always use jam jar with the little pressure cap on top. When I 'can' it this way, the pressure button just went down and the whole jar is pressurized. It last for more than a month just in the fridge if not opened before. Once opened, I always finish it off within 2 weeks so can't really tell what will happen if you keep it any longer than that.

Thanks Zu and I reckon everyone should have a jar of this multi purpose chili jam in their fridge!

Monthly Mingle: Cauliflower Soup with Cheese and Bacon Toast

2009-12-13T18:55:00.003+10:30

This is my contribution to this month's Monthly Mingle-Soups organized by Harini of Tongueticklers.

I like Monthly Mingle and have not missed one ever since I participated. As I've said, it keeps me disciplined and occupied and gave me something to look forward to.

This month's mingle is all about soups, a comfort food that tops the list as always. I wanted to do a chilled strawberry soup but I don't think it sounds comforting enough since soup always reminds me of winter and I wanted to make something warm and also vegan at the same time.

A simple flip through my recipe collection and I found cauliflower soup. The recipe has an accompaniment of cheese and bacon toast alongside, which I believe with simple modifications could still be vegan.

The soup itself is rich, simple and very much cauliflower soup. Using just water and vegetable stock, the cauliflower flavours shine through well. And I overdo the onion and garlic a little but it doesn't matter because the sauteed aftertaste was dominant in the soup too!

I hope you will try this easy and fuss free soup. This is very typical of Australian food and very filling indeed.

Cauliflower Soup with Cheese and Bacon Toasts
(adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly-Weeknight Favourites Edition)

Prep and cook time: 40 mins
serves 6

Cauliflower Soup

1 tbsp EVOO
1 medium (150g) brown onion, chopped, chopped coarsely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large (300g) potato, chopped finely
1kg cauliflower, trimmed, chopped
3 cups (750ml) salt reduced vegetable stock
3 cups (750ml) water
salt and freshly grounded black pepper
2 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh chives

Heat EVOO in a large saucepan; cook the onion and garlic, stirring until soft but not coloured. Add the potato, cauliflower, stock and water; bring to the boil, then simmer, covered for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are very soft. Blend or process cauliflower mixture until smooth. Return the soup to the pan and stir gently over low heat until hot. Season with salt and pepper.

Cheese and Bacon Toast
(Optional but adds in depth flavour to soup when eaten alongside)

3 thin bacon rashers, quartered (Use mock bacon for vegan/vegetarian)
1 thin crusty Italian loaf (Make sure it is eggless for vegan/ vegetarian)
1 tbsp seeded mustard or Dijon Mustard spread would do fine
120g thinly sliced tasty cheese (Use vegan cheese for vegan/vegetarian)

Place the bacon on a foil-covered tray; grill the bacon until browned and crisp. Slice the bread diagonally into 12 thin soldiers. Grill the bread slices until browned lightly, spread with mustard, top with cheese. Grill until cheese melts, top with bacon right away. Sprinkle with freshly grinded black pepper, if desired.

Serve

To serve, ladle spoonfuls of soup into a serving bowl. Sprinkle with chives and serve bacon toast alongside.

Soup suitable to freeze and microwave. The soup can be made two days ahead but the bacon toasts are best made close to serving.

Chicken Drumsticks with Orange-Tomato Glaze

2009-12-12T01:13:00.000+10:30

This is Alan's recipe, Tess's friend. She trusted him completely with food and wine and according to Alan, this recipe is beautiful with pork, especially the part that benefit from a long cooking time.

I trusted Tessa Kiros.

This orange-tomato glaze is so good!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe simple ingredients and cooking steps can produce such fall-off bone meat. Just look at that sheen, that glaze that adorns the drumsticks.

Apples for Jam is so good that I've been using it over and over again to cook. Tessa can never stop amazing me wiht so many different varieties. I don't think I'll ever be sick of all her cookbooks. Nay, not anytime soon. Aye, recipe is as below and slightly modified by me.

Chicken Drumsticks with Orange-Tomato Glaze

5 to 6 large chicken drumsticks
5 tbsp firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup tomato ketchup
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

Place all the above in a pan except for the chicken and bring to boil. While that is happening, preheat oven to 165°C and line a roasting pan just large enough to fit all the chicken pieces with foil. Spread the chicken drumsticks on a single layer. When the sauce is boiling and all sugar has dissolved, simmer for 5 minutes and pour over the chicken.

Bake for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, basting and turning the pieces every now and then until teh chicken is crispy and sticky and sauce is a thick sticky glaze. Serve warm or even at room temperature.

Done!

Chinese Dumplings

2009-12-10T01:21:00.000+10:30

It took me two years to post this. I've been doing lots of experimentation, playing around with the cooking method like boiling, steaming and pan-frying them. Then I try out different wrapping style and whether it affect the taste. I also tried different methods of boiling them.

Yes, you heard me right! There's a few techniques in boiling too! Some do the triple boil method (Those who make dumplings often enough would know what I'm talking about and no, I'm not mad!), rolling boil for a couple of minutes, and bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins or so.

Same goes to steaming and pan-frying. Pan-fry it and you call it potstickers. It's really because it sticks to the pan and you pour in water to deglaze them. You get a nice crunchy and crispy bottom with soft, not rubbery skin. They are so good eaten plain!

Other issues include wrapping techniques. I find that boiling them is fast and easy however sometimes when your wrapping skills is not good enough, the filling burst out and floats in the water because you've entrapped air pockets in the dumplings when wrapping. In the end, what you get is a sort of diluted taste dumpling with skin all over!

Steaming however can help prevent this. Simply line a steaming tray with a few napa leaves and place the dumplings all over it and steam it until its cooked. Juice retain itself well and flavour comes through better too.

As for wrapping, I really find the purse shape dumplings taste better. Not being psychological, but because they hold their shape better and even if you wrap them lousily, it will not burst open and ooze out meat juice. Because purse shape dumplings have a sort of flat surface bottom it can sit on but the crescent shape on is sort of like invertebrate. It has to be lying in either sides and there's a chance where juice might leak out.

As for recipes, I've tried more than 7 different recipes in 2 years and it's really the matter of not substituting for any of the ingredients and the wrapping method and cooking method all helps in making flavours come through.

If I am pressed on time, I did rather not make dumplings because they are easy but takes time to wrap and to master. And you really gotta make sure you squeeze every last bit of water out from the napa. Heavily salt them and no, your dumpling filling will not be too salty in the end, I assure you! Salt helps draw water out from napa cabbage that is known to be high in water content. And chopping everything as finely as possible gives you a better texture. However, some people like my dad likes them not chopped too fine. He likes to bite into things and be able to tell what's in them and it makes him feel smarter so cook according to your liking and people that you are serving it to.

For potstickers, some people like to precooked the filling first because they'll cook faster and it does taste better. However, I've tried just pan-frying them with raw meat filling and they are delicious too. Your choice.

Finally, did I mention that these dumplings are freezable and they keep well for long. Just flash freeze them in a single layer and then you can place all of them in a large ziploc bag. And when you're in for a quick fix, drop a couple of them in your instant noodle soup and you have the most delicious supper in no time!

For this, I am going to describe all methods that I know and feel free to pick whichever way you like. This recipe is one that I have gathered from many sources and come up with one I feel suit our tastebud the most. If you are not comfortable, always do a taste test first. Simply boil a little of the meat filling and taste it. If it's to your liking, you can start wrapping. If you think it needed a little bit more salt, add it. Be flexible and cook according to your liking. And most importantly, enjoy and have fun!

CHINESE DUMPLINGS
250g pork mince*
160g Napa cabbage
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Chinese Shaoxing Wine
1 tbsp peeled, grated fresh ginger
1/2 tbsp cornflour
A generous handful of fresh chives (try getting your hands on garlic chives if possible!)

*For the pork mince, I would say you buy preminced pork because they usually give use the cheapest cut of the meat to make pork mince for you and we all know cheapest cut means more fat and fat is what makes it delicious. You can go all vegan and healthy 364 days of the year but let this one day when you eat these be a true indulgence and remembrance!

Assemble:
30-40 dumpling skins (Sometimes called gyoza skin)
1 tbsp cornflour + 1/4 cup cold water

Start off by drawing water out from the cabbage. Finely minced the Napa and place them in a large bowl. Add a generous amount of salt and tossed them a bit. Let them sit for 10-15mins.

While that is happening, combine everything else in a large bowl and mixed them up really well. When the cabbage is ready, place a large muslin cloth over a colander and pour in the cabbage. Squeeze out as much water as possible from the cabbage and combine the cabbage into the pork mince mixture. If the mixture is not binding well, feel free to add a little more cornflour to bind it.

Have ready one or two large baking sheets, lined with parchment and lightly dusted with plain flour.

Wrapping time. Remove about five or so of the dumpling skin onto your work table and use the muslin cloth which is damp now to wrap the remaining dumpling skins. It works a little like Phyllo here, the dumpling skin will dry out if exposed to air too long. Wrap it in two ways:

Typical Crescent Shape

Place a scant tablespoon of filling at the centre of each dumpling skin and dab your finger into the cornflour mixture. Gently glaze one half of the circle of skin and fold the skin over to make a crescent shape. Press from the centre outwards to make sure you don't get air pockets in the dumplings. Seal them up well and place them on the prepared sheets. Do not stack them up!

Beautiful Purse-Looking Shape

Place a scant tablespoon of filling at the centre of each dumpling skin and dab your finger into the cornflour mixture. Gently glaze one half of the circle of ski. Now, bring both opposite sides of the skin together. Hold them at the centre an pinch to seal the point.

With your left hand still holding the sealed centre point, use your right hand to gently fold and pleat one half of the skin towards the other unpleated side; sort of like fluting it. Pinch tight. Do 3 to 4 pleats from centre to right and repeat for the other side. This video here is close to what I described but the difference is I only pleat one half of the dumpling skin but what the video did was to form crescent and pleat like I've described. No, don't try what she did, it doesn't work with store bought skin and you must be crazy if you think I'll make my own dumpling skins. Well, I do have crazy moments but I find buying them is a lot more convenient.

I hope my picture helps. All pleats should be pointing towards the centre. I didn't pleat well because store bought skins are thick and because I totally stuff the dumpling, I think it's rather obvious from the picture.

Cooking time. Feel free to do one of the below:

Patented 3-times-boiling method

In a large pot, heat the water until boiling. Add half the dumplings, stirring once in a while to prevent them from sticking together, and when water reach boiling point again, add a cup of cold water and bring to boil again. When the dumplings are boiling for the third time, fish them out. This method, it does taste better to me and I never get burst dumplings and floating skins when I do this.

Boil-like-ravioli method

In a large pot, heat the water until boiling and add in half the dumplings, stirring once in a while to prevent them from sticking together. When it comes to boil, turn the heat to low and simmer for approximately 8 to 10 mins, covered or uncovered is fine. Fish them out and serve.

Steaming method

Line a steamer tray with a few Napa leaves and place the dumplings on the leaves. Steam them on high heat, covered of course for 7-8 mins. Serve straight.

Potstickers (Pan-frying method)

Wrap the dumplings into purse-like shape. Heat up a nonstick pan with some oil and coat the base well. When oil is hot but not smoky, turn down the heat to medium low and working quickly, place as many dumplings as you can fit into the non-stick pan. Make sure there is no room for them to move around and that they all fit snuggly. Sear the bottom until it's brown and crisp. When that is achieved, add in enough water so that water comes up to approximately 1 cm of the dumpling height. Bring to boil and lower the heat to simmer. Partially cover the pan with a lid and let it cook it for 5 mins or so. Reason is because you want your filling to be cook and you also want all the water to evaporate away. Uncover and turn up the heat to medium high. When all the water evaporated and you can totally see that your pan is dry, run a spatula around the sides and the bottom of the dumplings to loosen it from the pan. Turn off the heat and place a large plate over the pan. With one quick motion, turn the pan upside down with one hand holding the plate. Serve the potstickers upside down to reveal it's beautiful crisp and seared bottom.

Serve this with a traditional ginger and vingar soy dip or just garlic oil and chili dip. I hope this write up would be helpful to some of you. Have fun and good night! It's so late now!

Baked Fish Fillets

2009-12-06T20:20:00.000+10:30

This is easy and you don't need to sweat over the stove. Pop them in the oven and get a quick shower and ta-da... your dinner is ready in like what, less than 15mins.

There's really not much of a recipe and no, I didn't make these. Aaron did. So here is his rough guidelines:

Have ready 3 shallow plates. Crack one egg into one plate and beat it with a pinch of salt Have ready approximately 3/4 cup of plain flour in another shallow plate. Throw in some dried parsley and mix well. Pulse one or two squares of stale bread until you get fine breadcrumb, about say 3/4 cup as well.

Cut two to three large fish fillts in half and salt and pepper them, Make sure they are cleaned and pat dry. Coat them in flour mixture followed by egg mixture and finally the breadcrumb mixture. Repeat until you ran out of fish fillets, you get the idea.

Place them on an EVOO-ed baking tray and drizzle more EVOO over it. Bake the fillets in a preheated oven of 220°C-220°C for 20mins, flipping over after 10 or 15 minutes. They will look golden and crisp.

Serve with lemon wedge if you like and no, this one does not taste like it's deep fried like those beer battered fish and chips but this is certainly a lot healthier.

We hope you like our simple dinner. These are what we eat alongside a simple EVOO pasta or just hot chips.

Cheers!

Spaghettini with egg and toasted parsley bread crumbs

2009-11-30T22:59:00.006+10:30

It's a meatless day because we were so busy with zoo volunteer trainings and stuffs that we didn't have time to go grocery shopping. It was a Sunday, 4 pm and all major supermarkets were already closed. Welcome to Adelaide!

Great! Couldn't be anymore impressed with Tess's pasta dish that doesn't require meat. With Apples for Jam, I really could still cook something if I have a can of tomato and pasta. Everyone's a chef with Tessa's cookbooks!

I've made a spaghettini with egg and toasted parsley bread crumbs . You could see the recipe here but I've attached it below too. Have fun and remember, you don't need meat to cook all the time. This is simple and delicious. I did add in quite a fair bit of EVOO for the slurpy effect. And it did keep us full for quite some time. A couple of hours....

Spaghettini With Egg & Toasted Parsley Breadcrumbs
(adapted from Apples For Jam by Tessa Kiros)

4 eggs, at room temperature
4 tbsp EVOO
300 g (10 1/2 oz) spaghettini
60 g (2 1/4 oz) Soft White Bread, broken up into coarse crumbs
2 anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 heaped tbsp chopped parsley
Finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
Olive Oil, to serve
Grated Parmesan Cheese, to serve

Method

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the eggs and boil for 4 minutes. Fish out the eggs with a slotted spoon, run under cold water and peel off the shells. Put the eggs in a large serving bowl and mash up into small bits with a fork. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a little salt.

Add the spaghettini to the boiling water and cook, following the packet instructions. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick frying pan, add the breadcrumbs, anchovies and garlic and saute over medium heat until the breadcrumbs are golden and crisp. Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley and lemon zest.

Drain the spaghettini, keeping some of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the egg with a few spoonfuls of the cooking water. Toss through very well and serve immediately. Drizzle each serving with some olive oil and scatter parsley breadcrumbs over the top. Pass around the parmesan, and some black pepper for those who like it.

serves 4

Soto Ayam

2009-11-28T23:40:00.001+10:30

Made these really delicious Soto Ayam again and manage to snap some shots. Thought I'd share with you guys just in case you people don't know Salt and Turmeric yet. She guest blogged over at Rasa Malaysia and shared with many a to-die-for Soto Ayam.

Aaron and me, we both love it so much and we had it for lunch and dinner for today. I like eating this with nasi himpit actually but the first time round, I made that, I could see my picky pie prefers vermicelli. So this time, we had it with vermicelli again.

We had lotsa chicken bones left from crabbing. Yes, we're only allowed to use chicken bones as baits for crabbing and nothing else to be fair to everyone! I throw in a couple of boneless chicken thighs and 1-2 large chicken carcasses. I simmer that a while before adding in the sauteed ingredients.

Salt and Turmeric, if you are reading this, I'm sorry but you lied. You said your recipe serves 8-10 but in actual fact, it only serves 4! The two of us finished it for lunch and dinner today. And it's been rather gloomy with constant shower here in Adelaide today so this one was the real deal of what I would reckon as comfort food so thanks again!

Soto Ayam (translated to chicken noodle soup in Indonesian Malay)
(adapted from Rasa Malaysia with modifications by me)

Ingredients:

2 whole chicken bones
3 boneless chicken thighs
7 cups of water

Bring the above to boil and skim off as much fats and scums as possible. Cover and let it simmer while you proceed to prepare other ingredients.

2 big red onions
5 cloves garlic
2'' ginger, peeled

Blend the peeled red onions, garlic and ginger until you get a fine puree.

Combine the following in a small plate:

4-spices (1 star anise seed, 3 cloves, 3 cardamon & 1-inch cinnamon stick)

1/2 cup coconut cream
Salt and sugar to taste

Garnish:

Blanched vermicelli
Blanched beansprouts
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced into half each
Fried shallots
Finely chopped spring onions
Finely chopped bird's eye chili

In a large pan, heat up 3 tbsp oil until smoky and add the 4-spices until fragrant. Add in the blended ingredients and stir continuosly until fragrant. Pour everything into the big pot with chicken bones and chicken meat. Bring to boil and let it simmer, covered for approximately 30 minutes.

After 3omins, fish out the chicken meat and bones and let them cool enough for your hands to handle. Add coconut cream into the pot together with salt and sugar to taste. In the meantime, shred the meat of the chicken bones and use two forks to throughly shred the meat off the chicken thighs. Return them back into the pot together with the bones. Let it boil for another 15-20min.

Now, prepare your garnish and base. Divide the blanched vermiceli evenly into four large bowls and top with blanched beansprouts and hard boiled eggs. Top with ladleful of the hot soup with chicken meat among the 4 bowls. Garnish with fried shallots, chopped chili and spring onions.

Tuck in and enjoy the bowl of comforting chicken noodle soup!

Sweet and Sour Chili Crab with Deep Fried Mantao

2009-11-28T14:46:00.000+10:30

I've not been cooking much new recipes lately. But I thought there is no harm in letting old dishes reappear on the dining table, though I personally don't exactly like eating the same dish twice.

The few of us went crabbing yesterday. We headed to Henley beach at 11pm and came back at 3am the following morning!!! Not too bad, we caught 5 medium large crabs. It's a mixture of blue swimmer and mud crabs and some other species that I don't quite know. Yes, I'm bad with crab names. And the picture below, NEVER EVER DO THAT TO A LIVE CRAB! Aaron is crazy!

Nah....actually we put the crab to sleep in the freezer for an hour or so, so it's practically harmless. He thought it looked pretty funny! I reckon too!

To please everyone's tastebud especially my health freak housemate who is 'allergic' to oyster sauce, we couldn't do 'kam heong' style crab. I really love 'kam heong' style cooking. If you don't know what's that, google it up people. It's the most delicious combination ever invented!

I really don't mind sticking back to this same recipe though people always cook this with mud crabs. The secret ingredient here is taucheo or black bean paste. It's typical in Asian houses and I bought it to cook Pongteh style for Aaron.

I tweaked the method a little because it seems all recipe for crab require deep frying before hand. I don't want to because it's unhealthy and if I were to use EVOO, I'll be broke. Aaron cleaned them well, chopped them up and we steamed it over high heat for 12 mins or so. Works fine for us.

Here's the recipe that we've used:

Chilli Crabs:

2 mud crabs or 4 blue swimmer crabs

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
3 fresh red chillies, seeded and chopped
A couple of tablespoon of EVOO

Sauce:
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup chilli sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
2 teaspoons salted black beans (optional)

1 egg, beaten
4 spring onions, finely chopped

Start off by cleaning the crab and chop them up into smaller chunks. If necessary, put them to sleep in the freezer for an hour or so if they are alive. Steam them on high heat for 12 mins or so. Retain any essence or juice from steaming.

Heat up the oil until smoky in a pan large enough to accommodate all the crab pieces. Turn the heat to low and fry the ginger, garlic and chillies, stirring, until soft and golden. Add the sauce mixture and bring to boil.

Return the crab pieces to the wok and let them simmer in the sauce for 5 minutes, with the lid on. Uncover and dribble in the beaten egg, toss in the spring onions, and cook without stirring until the egg sets. Serve with steamed rice.

We hope you all will enjoy it as much as we did when eating this finger licking good crabs. Just get your hands down dirty and eat with no etiquette to truly enjoy the sweet flesh!
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Being a Hokkien, my house treated the 8th day of the Chinese New Year as a Grand Day. How grand you ask me. This grand:

That's my long dining table all full with practically everything edible!

That's my marble table used for kneading breads and buns, also full!

Right outside my house, all these edible food are arranged. They must have a certain sequence and so forth.

This the the mother of all Piggy. We'll usually get my Aunt to chop this up and we give generous slices of this 'siew yuk', some red eggs, mandarin oranges and angku kuihs to neighbours and relatives.

That's the other end of the long prayer table. I really dunno what's that huge paper sculpture is for. We just burn it but I don't know to whom and what's the purpose behind doing all these. In my house, we are not allowed to questions all these. All I know is I actually hold the joysticks twice every year, once on Chinese New Year's Eve and once again on this 'Grand Day'.

Prayers are usually lead by Dad and Ma Ma. Just look at my dad, he's even wearing a red shirt which symbolizes prosperity!

This dish is whipped up by me, using the two sacrificed crabs for prayers. They're poached before hand and hence the redish shell. This is in fact a Peranakan originated dish. I wouldn't wanna start arguing with you people if any of you comes up to my face and start claiming titles. For me, this is a Peranakan dish!

I paired this with deep-fried mantao, just like how they always do it in the restaurants. These little bun would soak up all the yummy gravy of the crab. The gravy was flavourful, strong distinct crab taste and is good on both rice and mantao.

The mantao was really soft upon deep frying. You need to serve this immediately. It turned stale and a little hard when it's cold. 30 secs in the microwave revived its fluffiness. I've used this chilli crab recipe and this steamed mantao recipe. I love Susan Chua's site. See? Told you it's a Nyonya dish!

Pearl Dumplings

2009-11-27T19:10:00.002+10:30

I've made these sometime back and finally made it again yesterday! This time around, I use Florence of Do What I Like's recipe. Can't get black glutinous rice so I stick to white only. And sorry Lydia but I like Florence's one better. The chestnut which to me really shouldn't be optional gave it the extra crunch in the mouth. And I like how the egg white bind and makes it easier to roll. It's not very gummy to my mouth in terms of texture.

We have these for lunch yesterday and they made a lot, approximately 20 to 30 walnut size dumplings. I like them spicy but didn't have any store bought chili paste to use as dipping. I simply sprinkled some chili powder over the pearls and garnish them with celery leaves.

I steamed them on some napa cabbage leaves and placed them in tiny ceramic soup spoon to steam. They look very adorable and fits perfectly into the mouth at one bite. They are really not that big, the picture made them look big.

I will definitely make these again because they are so yummy and like what Florence said, if I were to bring this to a potluck or party, it will definitely be a hit with the crowd. So thanks Florence!

Florence's Pearl Dumplings
(yield approximately 20-30 walnut size pearls)

150g glutinous rice, soaked overnight, drained and set aside

Combine all of the following except the egg white:

300g minced pork
5 pieces Shiitake mushrooms, soaked and diced smallish
3 stalks of spring onions, use just the bottom 3 inches only, washed and diced smallish
Some diced water chestnuts
1 heaped tsp grated ginger
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Chinese wine
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp 5 spice powder
dash of white pepper
2 tsp cornstarch
1 egg white

Method:

Let the combined pork mixture sit for 15 mins or so to allow it to marinade and deepen its flavour. After 15 mins, add in the egg white and using a pair of chopsticks, stir it in one direction to blend in the egg white and to create a sticky mass of pork. Chill for an hour or so in the refrigerator before using.

Wet your palms and use a melon baller to shape the meat mixture into equal size and use your wet palm to compress it so it won't fall apart and roll it into rounds. Work with a few at a time and roll them in the glutinous rice. Press the rice onto the meatballs to ensure that the rice sticks all around them.

Steam it on a napa cabbage lined tray on high heat for 15 -20 minutes and serve immediately.
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Made pearl dumplings for dinner. First heard of it from Florence's blog but have made these using the recipe by Lydia of My Kitche n. According to her, those pearl dumpling made with no egg white taste better. Gotta try out Florence's one to confirm this, since Florence's one contain egg white.

Made these for dinner so pardon the bad shots. Will make it again very soon because Aaron like them. Plus I probably can beautify it with a tad of garnish and like Florence, use black glutinous rice too. I dunno, but I always thought black glutinous rice are for desserts only, no?

Pearl Dumplings
(makes 6-7 balls but I'll probably make 8-9 balls next time so they are smaller and fit into the mouth perfectly)

70g glutinous rice, rinsed, soaked for 3-4 hours, drained
200g minced pork

A:
1 shiitake mushroom, chopped finely
2 stalks spring onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2-3 slices ginger, chopped

B:
1 tbsp corn flour
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp shaoxing cooking wine (optional)
Pinch of ground white pepper
Pinch of sugar
Salt to taste

Methods:

Blend A together using a food processor and add in minced pork (I use diced pork stir-fry since they are leaner) and B. Blend until fine paste is form, but not gummy. Stand aside for 10 mins.

Meanwhile, preheat steamer and line steamer basket with napa cabbage. Wet hands and form the paste int 6-7 balls of approximately the same size so they will cook evenly.

Roll mince balls in glutinous rice to coat. Arrange coated balls in steamer basket and steam in preheated steamer for 10 to 12 minutes.

Simple and pretty filling. This one definitely taste good, eaten just by itself or serve dipped in Lao Gan Ma. LGM is so so versatile. We use this as dipping sauce with garlic oil and fried garlic added. Very awesome. We sometimes add this when making fried rice and they're equally delicious too. Finally, we use this to make Mapo Tofu and also to flavour our bland porridge on chilly nights.

Food porn for pearl dumplings very soon, I promise. Wait and drool!

Linguine al Granchio

2009-11-25T17:06:00.003+10:30

This was our lunch for today. Including washing, it took us under 30mins to do this. I have chopped parsley and garlic finely chopped and crushed in my refrigerator so it did save me some time here and there.

I use frozen blue swimmer crab claw meat (Sorry Tess) but the taste was not compromised. Mine was really sweet and juicy. The pasta in overall was delicious. I cut down the EVOO by 1 tbsp and use 5 ounces of pasta instead.

Pretty fail proof I would say. Recipe time! I adapted this from Tessa's fifth and latest book, Venezia. This is the first recipe I've ever cook from this book of hers. A lot of them uses ingredients like Scampi and scallops which is not often available in Adelaide and pricey but still, I believe I could do us a treat once in a while. Frozen crab meat is not cheap either. Priced at AUD30 per kg, I really procrastinated long enough before I bought it.

Linguine al granchio : adapted from Tessa Kiros's fifth book, Venezia
(Crab Linguini)

5 1/2 ounces linguini
4 tbsp EVOO
2 garlic cloves, finely crushed
8 ripe cherry tomatoes, cut into quarters
2 tbsp chopped parsley
about 5 ounces fresh crab meat

Bring a large saucepan of water to boil and add salt. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package. When the pasta is nearly ready, heat 3 tbsp of the EVOO and garliv in a large skillet (it will hold your pasta, too, later). Add the tomatoes and half the parsley. Cook for a minute or so, then add the crab meat and cook for another minute or so with a pinch of salt.

Drain the pasta saving a little of the cooking water. Add the pasta to the skillet and heat for a minute, adding a little of the cooking water if necessary to bring it all together.

Turn off the heat and add the rest of the parsley and EVOO. Serve immediately with a grinding of fresh black pepper.

Serves 2

Tava Revisit

2009-11-19T17:14:00.000+10:30

This is so awesome I'd have to make a post just for its revisit. This is the second time I'm making this and this time around, I really simply throw spices in without any measurements whatsover. Remember my previous post of grilled chicken with garlic, rosemary, thymes and EVOO that I was complaining about ending up with too much basting sauce for merely 6 drumsticks? Well, you would have guessed it by now, I too out a large bowl and throw all the washed cleaned forequarters in there, throw in the remaining basting sauce from my lunch chicken, generous handful of parsley and a stingy drizzle of EVOO as my forequarters was on the fatty side.

I like how the meats are kept moist underneath the vegetables so I put that in first. Look at how beautiful they are!

I then pile on the red onions and potatoes. That's essentially all remaining stuffs in the large bowl.

Top it off with rings of Roma tomatoes.This was when disaster happened. The knife was on the blunt side it didn't penetrate the tomato skin well. Instead of piercing through the waxy tomato sorface, it pierced through my letft thumb, all the way from the middle of my nail towards the outer nail, which is my skin of course. It bleed profusely and we need to change the plaster twice! Talk about kitchen disaster, so be careful people!

Next up, dot them with butter generously and sprinkle over salt generously. This is how mine looked like in the end. Splash them with water and cover them with foil. Pop them into oven for 3 hours or so, rotating the tray once in a while to distribute the pan juices. In the final 45mins, unfoil them and blas the heat so the meat charred a little here and there but don't overdo it. Mine was a little overdoing but Aaron prefers the tomatoes this way. Yes, we both have issues with tomatoes!

Recipe is here and I hope I manage to persuade you in making one today!

Grilled Chicken Drumsticks with Garlic, Rosemary, Thyme and Orange

2009-11-17T15:23:00.001+10:30

These grilled drumsticks are what we had for lunch today. I baked it first before grilling it to make it a lil' charred. Simply because Aaron likes everything mushy and fall off bone. So, i baked it for 40mins or so and grilled for 10mins. Way more than well done but that's just how we like it.

I dont know is it me or the recipe, I reckon there was way too much EVOO called for in the recipe and it makes way too much marinade for 6 drumsticks. I whisked and emulsify it for like forever but I still get two layers of separation.

The EVOO just somehow refuse to be blending into the garlic-orange-herby mixture. And using 2/3 cup of EVOO for this recipe certainly don't come cheap. Priced at AUD12.99 for a 500ml bottle, I have always used it sparingly. Oh well, I guess cooking is all about guesstimating unlike baking, where everything as to be as precise as possible in order for chemistry to react.

I like how it taste though. We both love it and finish everything. We like how the EVOO kept it moist and we certainly retained the oil for cooking purpose. It's like a herb-infused garlic EVOO. Very awesome! So, try it some day!

Recipe adapted from Elinluv, click here for recipe.

2009-11-17T00:25:00.000+10:30

These shots were taken last year. I reckon there's nothing much so special about them but this was the first time Aaron and I both organized a BBQ with friends over and stuffs. It was really merry and we liked how everyone left with a smile on their face.

Unexpectedly, being the typical Asian, we overestimated the number of people coming. We had plenty of food let but no complains really, each guest gets to take some portion home for themselves. Yes, my mum and dad are strong believers of always having more than enough to serve up to your guests!

We had chicken rice, nasi lemak, chicken wings with 3 different flavours, satays with beef and chicken to chose from and a honeydew sago dessert. And yes, I planned the menu and prepared all the marinades and ingredients with help from housemates, chopping up stuffs and hard boiling the eggs and threading chicken cubes onto bamboo sticks.

It was heluva fun and I miss those times in Melbourne.... Exams are over and I'm heading to Chinatown tomorrow. I'll probably be dishing up something very soon so check back often.

I'll end this post with a shot of these tomatoes, I thought they look really good. Ripe and soaking up the sun. Good night Adelaideans...

Malaysian Chicken Satays

2009-10-22T16:32:00.004+10:30

Me and Aaron both felt pretty adventurous the other day to cook up something more complicated than usual. We made chicken satays, along with all the proper condiments! After Hainanese Chicken Rice and Pastitsio, I daresay this is the next toughest thing to do. The steps are just so long!

Oh well, I guess that is also what makes satays so delicious because apart from the longlist of ingredients needed and many other condiments and side dishes, this one has been made with lots of effort, love and passion. I guess that's what makes it extra delicious and has the extra kick and oooommmppphhhh-factor compared to those sold outside. I've adapted the recipe from Y3k book and have listed down my opinions such as the type of chicken meat to use and the lemongrass brush and how exactly I've done it (Recipe after jump!).

I did not use the ketupat recipe listed as I could not find suitable thermal plastic bags that are large enough and could be placed in boiling water for hours. Hence, I have made nasi himpit to accompany the satays. Nasi himpit is very much like ketupat and has often become ketupat substitute.

Adapted from from: Y3K Recipes Issue No.7 – July/ August 2002
(Fuss-free barbecue section by Catherine Chia)
No Catherine, it's really not that fuss free after all but definitely delicious so I'll credit you for that!

Chicken Satays:

Ingredients:
600g chicken fillets, thighs preferred with skin on and do not trim off fat
Bamboo picks/skewers, soaked in water for at least 30mins or longer doesn't matter.

Marinade:
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chicken powder
A pinch of pepper
1 tbsp turmeric powder
4 tbsps sugar
3 tbsps oil

Pounded Ingredients:
10 cloves shallots (100g)
4 candle nuts or buah keras (macadamia or almod could be substituted)
4 stalks lemongrass, bottom white part only, chopped into smaller pieces
1 tsp belacan paste, dry-toasted on the stove for a while

Do not discard the upper part of the lemongrass. Tie them up together with rubber band and use a sharp kitchen knife and keep making random cuts all over, lengthwise. Tie the top part and cut at the bottom more fragrant part of lemongrass. Soak the lemongrass brush in 3 tbsp oil and let it stay there for as long as possible. Hard to put in words, easier done though. See picture below and you'll understand.

Method:
Cut the chicken fillets into small cubes. Mix in marinade and pounded ingredients and mix really well with clean hands until all combined. Keep aside for one hour but I did mine overnight.

Heat up charcoal till red hot. I line my griller with foil and generously drizzle oil over it. Thread the chicken cubes onto bamboo skewers. Charcoal grill or grill it until well cooked, basting with lemongrass oil frequently in between and turning them around often so that they will brown evenly.

Peanut Sauce or Kuah Kacang
This one makes a lot, I'll probably half this next time. Below is a complete full recipe of peanut sauce.

Ingredients:
400g peanuts, dry roasted in a wok until skin comes off and peanuts are very fragrant
800ml water

Seasoning:
1 tbsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp lime juice

Pounded individually:
15 cloves shallots (150g)
6 cloves garlic
2 stalks lemongrass
*25 dried chillies, seeds removed and soaked till softened up
2 slices galangal

1/4 cup oil

* dried chilies could be substituted with 2 tbsp store bought chili giling (don't think I can get that in Australia, chili giling is just different from sambal oelek)

Method:
Blend the frgrant peanut until very fine. Transfer to a large pot and add water. Whisk well to combine and cook it, on simmering heat over the stove for about 20 minutes until thick. Add in seasoning and turn off the heat. Set this peanut sauce aside for now.

Heat up 1/4 cup of oil. Saute pounded shallots. Add in garlic and stir fry. Add in lemongrass and the rest of the pounded ingredients. Stir-fry on high heat until oil is red, separated and floats to the surface. Dish it up. This is the chilli paste.

Pour some peanut sauce into a bowl and dollop chilli paste over. I just mix the chili paste and peanut sauce together and stir until it's combined. This sauce is made in heaven, really. A little too spicy for Aaron though, point to note, use 20 dried chilies next time instead.

Side dishes or condiments:

1 cucumber, chopped into cubes
1 red onion, chopped into cubes
Nasi himpit, as much as you like but below is what I find just nice to accompany this recipe.

Nasi Himpit (adapted from Amy Beh)

Ingredients:
220g rice, washed, drained well
600ml water
1/4 tsp salt
2 pandan/screwpine leaves, teared to release flavour and knotted

Mix all the above together and cook using a rice cooker. Once done, use a wooden spatula to stir the rice until it form a mass that will clump around the wooden spatula. Stop when you reach this stage and place all the mixture into a small 7'' round tray. Use the wooden soon and run it around as if you're leveling icing on a cake.

Place a large sheet of cling wrap over and compress further to level it with your hand. Place raw rice (this is my pie weight when blind baking) on top of cling wrap and wrap it up with the sides of cling wrap so it sorta form a bag of weight.

I dunno how others do it but here's what I did to compress it. I place the tray with rice weight on it underneath my flat bottom rice cooker. Fill up my rice cooker with water to the brim and let it soak overnight for easy washing tomorrow. There you have it, I killed two birds with one stone! Cool it overnight and cut it into cubes the next day.

Now for the fun part, eating! Fill small bowls with satay sauce. Dip satay into sauce before eating, munching alongside the raw red onions, cucumber and nasi himpit cubes.

Enjoy!

Ham and Egg Cup

2009-10-17T14:20:00.000+10:30

I specifically requested for the deli boy to get me the largest slice of honey ham he could. He shaved 4 slices on the spot just for me. You should have seen each slices. They're approximately 17cm in diameter, imagine that for yourself!

We've got some leftover chicken stuffings that no one exactly fancy. But when turned into cups like that, it was whooped down in less than 5mins! Have to be creative sometimes and try come out with new dishes using leftover and not let everyone know they are actually eating leftovers!

Butter a 1/2-cup capacity ramekin and gently flare the slice of ham in. You could make as many ramekins or as little as you like but general rule of thumb is 1 slice of large ham to 1 egg per ramekin per person. If yours are small, use 2 slices overlapping them a little. Spoon in 2-3 tablespoon full of any leftover chicken stuffing or dried pulled pork would do too. Bake them for a while in a preheated oven just to warm up the stuffing. Else, just nuke it in the microwave if you're running out of time.

Crack an egg on top of each. Throw in a couple of grape tomatoes and season generously with seasalt and pepper. Place them under the grilled until the whites are set and the yolks are still runny. If you pop it in the oven, you'll get an overly cooked egg. All the time, the yolk is done and the whites are still raw and uncooked. You could tell I am talking from experience, can't you?

Serve this for a fancy morning breakfast. You could prepare the buttered ramekin, ham and stuffing and keep it in the fridge the night before. Looks complicated but in actual fact, it's as easy as peanut. Your spouse will never know and will be so grateful that you've put in so much effort just to please him!

Hasselback Potatoes

2009-10-16T20:31:00.004+10:30

Hasselbacks are gorgeous looking and are crisp on the outside and soft and smooth on the inside. All you need is good round fat, oblong potatoes, EVOO, seasalt and pepper, butter and a good pinch of oregano.

Simply preheat oven to 200°C. You can choose to peel or not peel the potatoes. Cut each potato in half, lengthways. Place a wooden chopstick in parallel with the potatoes, flat side down. With a sharp knife and using the wooden chopstick as guide, slice the potatoes as thinly as possible (as evenly too if you can!). Continue making slits on all the potatoes halves, about 1-2mm apart.

Gently arrange them on a baking dish and spray them with EVOO and brush them with butter. Season with seasalt and pepper and scatter the dried oregano across the potatoes.

Bake them for an hour or so until theyare very tender. Brush them with pan juices from time to time and bake until golden brown.

Serve immediately.

Chee Cheong Fun I

2009-10-14T22:22:00.001+10:30

Made Chee Cheong Fun some time back and took me quite some time. I've only got one steaming tray and I have to repeat many times. And I also like it while it's still hot. Ended up, we both stand and ate by the stove after every batch is out. Made the sauce and the batter the night before. The following day is all about steaming only.

I'll be trying out a microwave version soon that does nto require wheat starch or any hard to come by corn flour. Stay tuned!

This recipe is adapted from Sinner of The Waitakere Redneck's Kit.

Chee Cheong Fun

(Makes 500gm)

Ingredients:

150g rice flour

1.5 tbsp wheat starch (Tang Mien Fun

2 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp Oil
450ml Water
0.5 tsp Salt

Steps:

Mix the rice flour, wheat starch and corn flour together. Add water slowly and stir continuously. Strain it once and add in the oil and salt and mix thoroughly. Set batter aside for at least an hour or overnight would also be alright. Heat up the steamer with an oiled shallow tray placed inside. When the water comes to boil, ladle and spread a thin layer of batter onto the hot tray. Steam for about 4-5 mins on high. I only steamed mine for 3mins each for a small 8'' round layer, probably less tahn 3mm thickness. Remove the plate from the steamer and use a scrapper to roll up the chee cheong fun.

Garnish with a generous drizzle of the sweet sauce (recipe below), fried shallots, roasted white sesame seeds and store-bought chili paste along the side.

Sweet sauce

(can be easily diluted with more water and eat alongside Steamed Yam Cake)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup water

7 tbsp Hoisin sauce (Will probably just use 6 tbsp next time, it was a little too salty to my liking)

3 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp black soya sauce

Mix all ingredients together in a small pot and cook over medium flame until slightly thick.

Enjoy!

Tava (Cypriot Baked Lamb & Potatoes with Cumin & Tomatoes

2009-10-11T23:30:00.006+10:30

I make Tava a couple of nights ago. This is adated from Tessa Kiros book, Falling Cloudberries. Despite making lotsa substitutions such as using grape tomatoes, less potatoes and using cumin powder, the tava still came out good.

I agree with Tessa and quote her:

This is so simple. It's a very typical Cypriot all-in-one-meal. You just need the time to prepare the lamb and vegetables, then you can fling it in the oven, go out for a (Greek) coffee and come home to a ready meal. You could use lamb chops and leave them whole instead of cutting them into chunks, which makes it even simpler. And it doesn't need much by way of accompaniments, perhaps a salad or some simply sauteed vegetables.

Tava (Cypriot Baked Lamb & Potatoes with cumin & Tomatoes)

2 red onions, roughly chopped
1.2 kg potatoes, cut into large chunks
1 kg lamb, cut into chunks
4 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
3 heaped tsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup olive oil (I think it's a lil' to much, will cut down next time)
4 0r 5 ripe tomatoes, cut into thick slices
50g butter (there can never be too much butter)

Preheat your oven to 180°C,Put the onion, potato and lamb in a 20 cup-capacity casserole dish or a deep baking dish. Season with salt and pepper. Add the parsley, cumin and olive oil and mix thoroughly very well with your hands. Put the tomato slices on top in a single layer and season lightly with salt. Dot the butter over the top and pour about 1/2 cup of water around the sides of the dis. Cover with foil and bake for 2 hours, tilting the dish from side to side a couple of times and spooning some of the pan juices over the top. The lamb should be very tender, and the potatoes soft.

Remove the foil, increase the oven temperature to 200°C and cook for another 45 mins or so, turning the lamb halfway through, or until the meat and potatoes are a little browned and the liquid has reduced. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Serves 6

Barbecued Spare Ribs

2009-09-21T14:38:00.004+09:30

These are those wonderful sweet ribs that you find at the steak houses in South Africa. They bring you just a great big rack of spare ribs and perhaps some gralic bread and you eat wiht your fingers. I love making this type of thing from time to time. These need a bit of marinating beforehand.

Quoted from Tessa Kiros, Falling Cloudberries, South Africa Section, page 239

Serves 4

85 g butter
1 onion, minced in a food processor or very finely chopped
250ml (1 cup) tomato ketchup
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
4 tbsp (1/4 cup) brown sugar
80 ml (1/3 cup) lemon juice
80 ml (1/3 cup) runny honey
1 kg baby-back pork ribs, halved horizontally if large

Heat the butter in a wide non-stick saucepan and saute the onion over gentle heat until softened but not browned. Add the rest of the ingredients except the ribs and 1 cup (250ml) of water to the pan and simmer for 10mins until the sauce has thickened.

Put the ribs and the sauce in a large ovenproof dish so that they fit quite compactly and leave them in the fridge for at least a few hours.

The ribs are best cooked over a barbecue. Either heat a gas barbecue to medium-high or heat your coals, If using coals, let them begin to die down, making sure there are no flames as you don't want to burn the meat. Scrape off any excess marinade and barbecue the ribs until they are deep golden on both sides and charred in some places. Check that the pork is cooked all teh way through to the bone. If there are any really thick ribs, cut them up individually and put them back over the coals.

Remove the ribs from the grill and put them back into the marinade in the dish. Add 125ml (1/2 cup) of water to the marinade. put the dish on the barbecue and cook until the sauce boils and become sticky, thick and dark (the sauce must come to a boil and boil for a few minutes). Turn the ribs over a few times while you are reducing the sauce. Serve immediately either cut up individually or in their racks.

My experience with this:

Worst come to worst, if you have neither gas barbecue nor coals one, bake the ribs in a moderately heated oven for 2 hours, basting and turning often. When done, place it under the grilled to charred some places. Place on serving racks.

Pour the remaining marinade sauce in a large shallow tray and place it under the griller. It'll take just minutes for your sauce to turn into a dark, rich, sticky mass of BBQ sauce. Serve that along side the ribs.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

2009-09-15T13:41:00.000+09:30

Hainanese chicken rice. What can I say apart from yummy, delicious, artery-clogging and totally satisfy my cravings!

A small twist from the normal chicken rice balls gave this Hainanese Chicken Rice a fusion look but the taste is definitely not affected!

A drizle of the kecap manis sauce over the rice and you're good to go! We like lots and lots of rice to go with this, what about you?

Soem poached it some steamed it. I opted for the later because I felt the chicken could preserve its juiciness this way.

This might not be very authentic and not Hainanese at all in fact but this is certainly what I'll do again in future. Th skin of the chicken might not look good, the chopped pieces are all smashed and flying around and even the shallots are a little overburnt, however this was really yummy and apart from theh fact that this one is very very time consuming, if you do have some time to kill, do try it.Corianders and spring onions are a must have garnish but I couldn't get hold of any coriander on that day so I really gotta make my spring onion as awesome as possible though if you don't mind eating a piece of work-of-art.

Adapted and greatly modified from Happy Homemaker88's Virtual Home, Masterchef and Christine's Recipe

Spring Onion Curls: some call this green onion/green shallots

Washed the spring onion and cut them into 3cm pieces. Use a pair of sharp kitchen scissors and make random cuts all over one end of the 3cm piece. Plunge that in cold water and let it curl up by itself.

Cut up some fresh red chilies, from centre onwards and have about 4 slices of chili rounds with seeds removed. Stuff the chili ring through the spring onion piece and use scissors and cut up both end this time. Drop that in the cold water as well and let it curl up.Now, get busy doing something else.

Chicken stock:
1-2 chicken carcass
6 cups of water
1 spring onion, chopped to 3cm length pieces
Salt

Bring all the above to boil and simmer, covered for approximately an hour to 90mins. Skim the surface at the beginning until no foams are visible, only clear liquid stock.

Set aside and use this in the following condiments.

Hainanese Chicken:

4 chicken drumsticks, trimmed off fat and retain the fat
1 spring onion, roughly chopped
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
5 slices of thick age old ginger, peeled
2 garlic cloves, skin removed

Wash the chicken thoroughly and drain well. Blend the garlic and ginger to form a paste. Use your finger to go in between the skin and the flesh of the chicken and slowly move your way in to get sorta like a pocket in there. Stuff the ginger-garlic paste evenly into these pockets. Be careful not to tear the delicate skin. Rub the cooking wine, soya sauce and sesame oil all over the chicken evenly. Lay some chopped onion at the base of the steaming plate. Place the chicken drumsticks on top and top up with remaining spring onions. Steam this in a hot steamer on:

High heat for the first 10 minutes
Medium heat for another 25 minutes

Do test the doneness by pricking a wooden skewer on the thickest part of the meat. If juice runs clear, then you are done. Immediately remove it from the steamer and plunge it in a large bowl of cold icy water. Let it stay in there for 20 minutes or so.

1 clove shallot, thinly sliced
2 tbsp oil

You really need to get the shallots thinly sliced for them to cook and be done at the same time. Heat up the oil and saute the shallots until golden brown (not too burnt like mine!). Dish out and set aside.

Chicken Rice:
2 cups of rice, washed and drained well
2 pandan leaves, washed, knotted
1 tsp salt
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 slices of thick age old ginger, smashed to release aroma
Enough chicken stock to cook 2 cups of rice
All the chicken fat trimmings from the chicken thigh
Oil

Depending on how much fat trimmings you obtain, add a little oil if necessary into a pan and heat it up. Add in the the chicken fat and when they are melting away, toss in the ginger and garlic. Stir fry them until fragrant and garlic start turning light brown. Toss in the drained rice and stir to coat well. Pour everything into the rice cooker and add enough water to cook it. Throw in the pandan leaves and let the rice cooker do the cooking whilst you get along and do many more other stuffs!

Dipping Sauces:

Garlic- Chili Sauce:
2 large red chilies, seeds removed
5 slices of thick ge old ginger, peeled
6 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 tbsp of lime juice
1/4 cup of chicken stock
1 tbsp sugar or more
1/2 tsp salt or to taste

Process everything above until smooth and set aside. If you have a mortar and pestle, pound it first before processing and adding all the liquids. Pour them out on a dipping dish and set aside. Rinse your food processor and get ready for the next dipping sauce!

Ginger-Spring Onion Dipping Sauce: I would definitely double this the next time!

1 spring onion, green part only, roughly chopped
1-2 cm piece of peeled age old ginger, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp canola oil

Process the ginger and spring onion until very fine. Tip them out into a heat resistant dipping saucer. Heat up the oil and when they are smoking, pour them into the ginger mixture. It will sizzle so step back. Stir to coat around. The oil will turn to a light shade of greenish like. Set aside.

Thick Black Sauce or Kecap Manis Dip:

1/2 tbsp oil or chicken fats if you have a lot to spare an are not worry about the cholesterol
1/2 tbsp minced garlic
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 tbsp sugar
Thickener: 1 tbsp cornstarch + 3 tbsp cold water, stir to dissolve

Heat the oil or chicken fats in a pan and add in the minced garlic. Saute for a while and add in the chicken stock. Bring to boil and boil it for 2 minutes or so. Add in the sugar and stir to dissolve. Thicken with the thickener. Depending on how thick you want them to be, you might not necessarily use all of them. Pour them out into a dipping dish and set aside.

Chicken Soup:
Remaining chicken stock
All the leftover pan juices from steaming the chicken, skim off fats
Chopped spring onion
Ready-made fried shallots
Dash of salt and pepper

Heat up the remaining chicken stock and the pan juices and season with dash of salt to taste. Pour into a bowl and season with dash of pepper, handful of fried shallots and the chopped spring onion. Keep warm.

Assemble:

Use a large round china and place a large scoop of moulded rice on one side. Plae some cucumbers on one side. Place chicken on lettuce leaves decoratively. Drizzle them with the shallot oil. Garnish with spring onion and corianders.

Unless you wanna be fancy, use the rice to make molded rice balls, your lup-lup delights. Here, I use the Winnie the Pooh rice mould that Ellena generously gave me. Thanks Lena!

Finally, with whatever remaining chicken stock you have, reheat that and season with dash of salt and soya sauce. Mine was already quite up to taste without much seasoning.

Pour the soup into two bowls, sprinkle it with more salt and pepper, handful of fried shallots and chopped spring onions.

Serve the Hainanese chicken rice with the soup along side the 3 dipping sauces.

Aaron likes it best: a little bit of each sauces with a bite of chicken and lotsa guilty rice!

Have fun trying, if you ever do try!

My Savoury Malaysia: Nasi Lemak AKA Coconut Rice

2009-08-29T23:40:00.002+09:30

I wish Babe in the City- KL would also host a My Savoury Malaysia. I made this for dinner yesterday. I think if there is a My Savoury Malaysia, nothing beats Nasi Lemak if you wanna expose Malaysia to the world. This coconut infused rice is usually served with side dishes as you could see from the picture. The sambal is a must, with things like cucumber, kacang putih (which we all hate so you don't see it here!), hard-boiled egg slices, deep-fried ikan bilis or anchovies and sometimes with things like Achar with toasted peanuts or some meat dishes to make this more complete as a one wholesome meal.

Sambal is an acquired taste but I believe every Malaysian would love it! It has got belacan or belachan in it which to some, are stinky prawn paste. They are very fragrant and you need to toast them before using them.

The thing about Nyonya cookins is that it always call for a lot of ingredients and you need to get the proportion right. You need a lot of spices for Nyonya cooking and certainly a lot of cooking need to be done separately before they can be assembled together to form the final product.

The recipe below is very forgiving and could be modified to suit one's taste and is what I've been using for some time. It originated from my Grandma as well so do try with no worries.

Just a side tip, if the sambal is too hot for you, don't go running for cold water, try a glass of cold milk instead. It's been scientifically proven and it works for me all the time! The chilies proportion in this recipe could be easily modified anytime. I sometimes use 6 and I've tried using up to 20 of the dried chilies. I have also occasionally substituted the bird's eye chili or chili padi with normal red chili and it was very great too.

Finally, the golden rule of sambal is to pound them to let flavour come through. Blending them is just chopping them up fine. The best way is to blend them and transfer them to batu giling or just mortar and pestle would do. Pound them even just for 10mins makes a whole lot of difference. I really might consider buying one from Ikea. They have it but they are not those heavy stone type ones which was why I procrastinated.

Sambal must always be made with lotsa sugar and little salt so make yourself comfortable by being generous with sugar and stingy with salt, you get the idea. Below makes enough to serve four to five people.

Sambal Ikan Bilis:

10 dried chillies, seeds removed, soaked in hot water till very soft
3 chili padi or normal red chilies
5 cloves of shallots, skin removed
1/2 tbsp of turmeric powder (optional)
1 stalk of lemongrass, use the bottom white part only, chop it finely
1 ping pong ball size of belacan (I use approximately 1 tbsp)
1/2 a golf ball size of tamarind paste (I use approximately 1.5 tbsp)
3/4 cup hot water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup ikan bilis/ anchovies2 large onions, thinly sliced into half circles
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt or more

Toast the belacan in a hot pan with no oil until it is crumbly and fragrant.
Transfer that along with the lemongrass, shallots, all chilies and turmeric powder into a food processor and blend until smooth. Add a little water if necessary.

Mix the water with tamarind paste and rub and squeeze it to infuse the water with tamarind flavour. Strain it and discard the seeds and remaining.

Heat up the oil until very hot and fry the ikan bilis until they turn golden brown. Dish them up and drain them on a paper towel.

While oil is still hot, add in all the blended sambal paste and cook it over high heat until flavour comes through, oil is red and rises to the surface of the pan. Stick to high heat and stir often.

Next, add in the sliced onions and half the fried anchovies. I like using yellow onions because they are sweet. Stir them and coat with gravy until they soften up a little.

When you see them softer, add in the tamarind juice and let it simmer until your desired consistency. I sometimes like mine dry and sometimes wet so simmer for 5 mins or so and add in the sugar and salt.

Do a taste check and when it's done, dish it up.

Coconut Rice:

2 cups or rice, washed and drained
1 can coconut cream
4 cloves of shallots, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
Water
3 pandan leaves, washed and knotted
1 big thumb size of ginger, bruised
Remaining of the lemongrass (the top part)

Mix well the coconut cream, rice and shallots. Add in enough water to cook rice like you normally would. Place the ginger, lemongrass and knotted pandan on top. Cook it with a rice cooker and let it keep warm.

Assemble:

1/2 a cucumber, sliced into rings
2 hard boiled eggs, sliced into 4 each
Remaining ikan bilis
Coconut Rice
Sambal
Kacang putih (if you like them in yours)
Beef Rendang or any chicken curry would do (optional)
Banana leaves, washed and pat dry

Place a banana sheet underneath the serving plate and spoon 1 cup of rice, slightly compacted onto the leaves. Scoop a little of everything and serve.

This is a plate of Nasi Lemak that I've made previously and you could see that the sambal is more red and dry for this. I also served this with butter style fish and a little Sambal Hae Bee(this is really good, more about that when i make it!).

Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves can keep up to 2 days without going bad. Finally, if you wanna be a little adventurous like me, do try Nasi Lemak Goreng. I know it sounds weird but it's really yummy.

It all happened as an accident when I told my maid to reheat my pack of Nasi Lemak for breakfast and she was busy. Being busy, she throw the whole packet into a wok and toss them until well combined and she serve that to me. Ever since then, I always would love to have Nasi Lemak Goreng. I would on purpose save some for this!

Happy Merdeka Malaysians!

Seafood Penne in Rose Sauce

2009-08-09T19:50:00.000+09:30

Rose (pronounced rho-zhe) sauce is something new to me and my love-hate relationship with tomato is about to end. I used to like Carbonara a lot until I found this beautiful orangey, pinky Rose sauce. This is not as filling as Carbonara and is equally yummy.

In fact, I think this is a lot healthier compared to Carbonara. This is my first time making a complete stir fry myself and I have to admit it is not that terrifying after all, apart from the few splatters of garlic on my hand which felt a little uncomfortable. I have adapted the sauce from Tessa Kiros's book, 'Apples for Jam' and greatly modified it to suit my liking.

Seafood Rose
(serves 1 big eater)

The following seafood ingredients could be modified to suit your taste:

8 uncooked prawns, shelled, peeled with tail intact (about 150g)
1 small fresh fish fillet (about 100g), sliced thinly
3 to 5 medium size frozen clams

Rose Sauce:

20g butter
1/2 cup of diced canned tomato, pureed
125g penne pr any other pasta
1 tsp olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced finely
1 tbsp dry white wine, brandy or Calvados
1 heaped tbsp cream
1 tsp dried parsley
Dash of salt and pepper

Melt half the butter in a smallish pan and when it starts to sizzle, add in the tomato puree. Season it with salt and pepper and a good dash of dried oregano. Cook over medium heat for about 10 mins until it is thick and reduced.

In another pot, cook the pasta in boiling salted water, according to the packet instructions. Multi-tasking, heat another non-stick pan with enough capacity to accommodate the tomato puree and all the pasta. When the pan is hot, add in the olive oil and remaining butter. When it is sizzling, add the prawns, fish and garlic. Over the highest heat possible, cook the prawns and fish until they are bright, crusty and golden in places. Toss and turn them often and when they are cooked, scatter them with salt. Add the white wine and cook until it evaporates.

Drain the penne, retaining the water. Add the tomato puree and cream into the pan and heat until just bubbling. Add the pasta and toss to coat well. If it seems like you need it, add a little of the retained pasta cooking water to help the sauce coat the pasta.

Serve immediately with a grind of pepper and a sprinkle of finely chopped fresh parsley.

Yochana's Steamed Yam Cake

2009-07-23T15:57:00.000+09:30

Made this for a potluck gathering so no cross section view. I've used Aunty Yochana's recipe for this. The only changes I've made was to omit the siew yuk from this to make it halal. I've used chicken lap cheong if that's what you're wondering. I dunno how they made chicken lap cheong but it's got a halal sign so that's fine with me.

I'm very generous with the topping. I've also cheated by using readymade fried shallots because raw shallots are so expensive in Australia! They easily come up to AUD14.00 per kilo. And I've done the maths, readymade fried shallots are indeed cheaper.

I've steamed it in a springform pan because that's whtat I've got. I remove the sides so it'll cool faster as I was actually running late. I steamed it longer because I think I did not cook it till the desired thickess in the wok.

If you wanna know, this yam cake travelled for an hour in the car and by the time it reach the destination, it was room temperature already and cutting was a breeze. Just remember to use plastic spatula. I serve this with Sriracha chili sauce and Hoisin Sweet Sauce. Yes, I've also made 'Chee Cheong Fun' there as well! Posting that very soon!

Thank you Aunty Yochana for sharing the recipe with us!

Pastitso

2009-07-21T19:44:00.000+09:30

Pastitso is the Greek's version of lasagna. Instead of having lasagna sheets, the pastitso consist of 3 layers, the bottom layer being the pasta compressed and binded by cheese and eggs, the middle layer which is the meat sauce layer usually with tomato base sauce and the final layer of bechamel white sauce. Sometimes, a layer of breadcrumbs will be sprinkled on top to give it extra crunch for each mouthful.

The picture you see above is a frozen version of pastitso. This freezes really well and could be kept for weeks. However, it must be reheated back in the oven to achieve that crispy crust and soft gooey filling effect.

Recommended pasta would be small macaroni since they tend to be compressed easily due to the nature of their shape but as I've said before, I have issues with pasta so I've used small spiral here. You could also use penne, it's entirely up to you.

This make a lot. I cut mine into 6 large squares but this could easily serve 8 petite eaters. For the middle meat layer, I've used lamb mince here but you could also substitute that with chicken mince or a mixture of veal and pork mince. This is also a matter of preference. Lamb mince was on special in the supermarket so I basically just grab what I saw.

This is when it's just hot out of the oven. You'll need to bake it till it's golden brown before serving. The layers are prepared and are actually cooked before hand however this still require an hour of baking time.

Pastitso or sometimes spelt Pastitsio
Adapted from the Australian Women Weekly Cookbook, Winter edition
(serves 6 to 8 people, freezable, not microwavable)
Can be made a day ahead, keep covered in fridge and bake when needed

Start off by preheating oven to 180°C and grease a 10cup capacity deep casserole.

Pasta Base
250g uncooked macaroni
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup (60g) Parmesan cheese, shredded

Cook the macaroni according to package instructions until al dente.
Drain well and add the warm pasta to all other ingredients.
Stir to combine thoroughly and press over the base of the greased baking dish.

Meat Sauce Layer
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium (300g) brown onions, finely chopped
750g beef or lamb mince
1 egg, beaten

Combine together in a large jug the following:
1 can (400g) undrained diced tomatoes
1/3 cup (95g) tomato paste
1/2 cup beef stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
Dash of nutmeg powder

In a large non-stick pan, heat the olive oil until hot and add in the onions. Cook until onions are soft. Add in all the lamb mince and cook, stirring often until beef is brown. Here, a silicone whisk always works best for me in order to break up the lumps quickly. Pour in the jug of tomato mixture and stir well to coat meat. Simmer, uncovered until thick on medium heat. Cool the mixture for 10mins and stir in the beaten egg. Set aside to cool further.

Bechamel Sauce Topping
90g butter
1/2 cup plain flour (75g)
3.5 cups whole milk
1 cup (80g) Parmesan cheese, shredded
2 egg yolks

In a clean non-stick pot, melt the butter and add in the plain flour. Stir to form a paste, over low heat until bubbling and remove from heat. Add in the whole milk and stir over medium low heat until sauce boils and thickens and lump free (refer to the pasta bake, white sauce making here).
Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese. Stir until all melted and cool it for 5mins. Finally, stir in all the yolks and combine well.

Assembling:
1 stale square bread, processed in food processor until very fine (1/4 cup bread crumbs)

Now, pour all the almost cooled meat sauce on the pasta. If your pasta is pressed well, the sauce will not leak through to the pasta base layer. Smooth out the surface of the meat sauce and carefully pour over the bechamel sauce to cover the whole surface of casserole. Smooth that out as well. Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs evenly and bake, uncovered, for about an hour or so, until lightly browned. Stand 10mins upon serving.

5-spice chicken wings

2009-07-21T19:11:00.000+09:30

This was a dish made when I first started cooking in Melbourne. Back then, we always do a one dish meal because we find cooking a tough thing and we need to eat to live. But we wanna eat good food because I'm rather picky.

Hence, we always resort to instant sachets like the one shown above. Easy and yummy.

Hey, I think apart from the lightning and the fact that I serve mine straight from the wok, my shots and the illustrated picture looks pretty similar!

I hope this shot is clear enough for you people who wants the recipe else just email me alright?

p/s: you need to buy this paste in order to cook this. I've tried using normal 5-spice powder and cook this but they just don't taste the same. Perhaps, I could have added more bay leaves, star anise, coriander seeds, cinnamon and all spice since those were the ingredients used in this sachet.

Sayur Lodeh

2009-07-16T15:40:00.000+09:30

Being a Peranakan, this is one dish I can cook without guidance and recipe. The Malays claim it's theirs but I think this is a truly Nyonya dish, using pounded rempah.

I've jot the recipe down after multiple times of making this according to 'feel' for my future reference.

1/2 head of a small cabbage (I never measure mine and quantity is not a big issue here)
2 carrots
Handful of okra or brinjals

Just use any vegetables you like. Wash them clean and chop them into small chunks and tear the cabbage into pieces.

Pound together: I've cheated and use a food processor here
50g dried shrimps
1 red chili, deseeded
2 dried chillies, soaked till soften, deseeded
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 shallot, peeled
1 lemongrass, use the white prt only, bruise it and chop into smaller pieces.

Dry fry the pounded ingredients until you smell the rempah fills the air.
Add in 2 cups of thin coconut milk and all the vegetables and simmer until vegetables are cook.
Season with salt, pepper and sugar to taste and serve hot.

p/s: I always use whatever leftover evaporated milk I have in the fridge and top up with coconut milk to make 2 cups of liquid. I think too much coconut milk is pretty unhealthy. I know, not like evaporated milk is very healthy either but it's healthier than coconut milk in term of cholestrol :)

Happy trying if you ran out of idea to cook or don't know how to handle leftover vegetables!

Braised Pork Ribs

2009-07-16T10:48:00.000+09:30

We have had so much western dishes and mashed potatoes for the past few weeks that I guess it's time for me to make something Chinese. Something us. Something that Aaron loves! Anything that can be downed with lotsa rice is what Aaron loves!

These are garlic rice, not plain rice. The mildly scented garlic rice added a nice touch with the braised ribs.

After braising for an hour, the meat was so tender that i practically just falls off bone!

We both love this a lot and polish every single bits!

Very Garlicky rice (serves 2 to 3)

2 to 3 tbsp minced garlic
About 1 to 1.5 cup of uncooked rice, washed well and drained
1 tsp fine sea salt
Enough chicken stock for cooking rice (I happen to have some reserved from poaching a whole chicken!)

Stir fry the minced garlic with enough oil until they're about to turn golden. (I usually peeled 2 whole bulbs of garlic and pulse it in my food processor. They are good to last me for a week or so)

Turn off heat and let it cook itself further with the heat in the oil and pan. This is garlic oil and is good as topping on blanched greens.

Add in salt, rice and toss to coat well.

Transfer them to rice cooker and add enough chicken stock to cook rice like you normally would and let the rice cooker take care of everything from now on!

Braised Pork Ribs (Courtesy of MyHomeKitchen & Y3K, Issue No. 38)

1kg of babyback ribs
2 tbsp minced garlic
2 tbsp chili sauce (I use my favourite spicy Sriracha!)
2 tbsp oyster sauce
Generous sprinkling of black pepper
2 tbsp of dark soya sauce
1 tbsp sweet caramel dark soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp cooking wine

Mix all the above in a large bowl and coat the ribs with the marinade sauce.

Place all in a large resealable bag and leave it in the fridge overnight, giving it a good shake around everytime you couldn't stop yourself from opening the fridge to pop food in your mouth.

Pan fry the ribs for about 10mins or so until they are all brown on both sides.

Transfer them to another large pot and add in:

8 cups of water (yes, you need to use the largest pot you have in your kitchen!)

Bring to boil and lower heat to bring it to gentle boil only and simmer until sauce thickens up significantly.

I usually simmer, covered for an hour and when I check on the meat and they are all tender, I blast the heat to high and boil it uncovered to reduce the sauce further.

Remove them from pot and dish them up on a bed of lettuce and serve them piping hot.

Happy trying!

Sandwich Kebab

2009-07-16T00:47:00.000+09:30

This is what I did with my leftover sushi filling! As usual, trying to clear up spaces for my fridges, I took out lotsa unwanted stuff, a couple of still-good cherry tomatoes, slices of ham and almost expired cheese! I should really stop myself from buying so much unwanted stuffs sometimes!

I used 2 sandwich bread, trimmed off sides and spread then with:

chicken + avocado + Japanese Mayo + lettuce leaves
Cheddar squares + sliced ham
Mashed hard boiled eggs + Japanese Mayo + lettuce leaves

I also added salt and pepper to taste for each and every one, thread them on a skewer and had sliced cucumbers between them. Was planning a quick picnic by the river but it was raining on the day I made these! :(

Anyways, I think it is pretty challenging to use up leftovers and turn it into another dish without realizing you're actually eating the same thing yet again. And the most important part of all, they are healthy and on many occasions, taste good! That's a challenging task! Beat that!

What Quinn does on typical Sundays

2009-07-15T01:02:00.001+09:30

Every Saturdays and Sundays are very treasured and much appreciated in my house. This is the time we chose to hang out with fellow housemates in the balcony. The balcony is a nice place, overlooking a large piece of garden that is big enough to have another house fitted in there snugly.

It's usually me, Aaron and Su En. Together, we make a good brunch for ourselves. Su En did the bacon, Aaron did the pancakes and I made these scrambled eggs:

I made pancake batter from scratch using Nigella's recipe and had it stay in the fridge overnight so it is more convenient for Aaron to use right away the next day. My two cents, any pancake batter with baking soda cannot be kept overnight in fridge. Any pancake batter calling for baking powder only can be kept overnight. Surface will turn a little greyish but it is definitely alright to use. I've used wholemeal flour instead of plain flour. I'm pretty into healthy stuffs lately :)

And this is what we did after meal! We challenge ourselves to board games. Monopoly was the theme last weekend!

Bolognese Sauce with Small Rigatoni

2009-07-15T00:39:00.002+09:30

Made this 2 days back I think and it doesn't matter. Taste gets better as time goes by! Brought half over to Adrienne's place to share with her....kinda sad it got a little dry over time. Would have added more dry red wine when reheating it if I have any in hand...

I do agree bolognese taste better with spaghetti but I like them with rigatoni....I like how the sauces filled up the holes of every rigatoni. Yes people, I have issues with pasta, if that's what you're wondering. I only like very few pasta types, rigatoni being one of them.

This was made when Aaron went camping. As you could see from the picture, I took all the effort to make each and every rigatoni stand upright for the sake of my blog. I thinkthey look very picturesque, somewhat like beehive, apart from the fact that it's not hexagonal!

I shared this with housemate, Su En too and she got all ecstatic and told her colleagues ''my very nice housemate is making something really good for lunch and she said it's pretty time consuming!" and when they ask her what's all the hoo-ha about and she told them it's bolognese, they kinda responded in a sarcastic tone, '' hey, that's not tough!''.

People, know your stuff! I kinda don't blame you people since Prego's is so easily available nowadays but bolognese, as far as I could recall, takes up lots of cooking time and lots of ingredients. I cook mine for 2 hours and some did theirs for 4 hours! Tell me about not being time-consuming! (p/s: pic above is the sauteed mirepoix with butter)

My secret recipe includes chicken livers and rindless bacons added into it to give the extra ooomph! I was also self-taught that nothing breaks up lumps better than using a whisk in making bolognese.

It's a messy affair making them, don't talk about eating! Top it up with a handful of parmesan and you're ready to spoon in!

p/s: it's a total of 18 ingredients making them if you consider the 2 types of oil used in the picture! Also added a dash of nutmeg and dash of grounded cloves!

Mirepoix

2009-07-11T00:58:00.000+09:30

Mirepoix (pronounced as Mir-pwa) is a French (if I'm not mistaken!) term to describe a combination of onions, carrots and celery. It is commonly used as a base ingredients to add flavour to soups, stews, and sauces, either used raw, buttered or roasted.

The other combination consisting of capsicum, celery and onions is known as Trinity. It is not so common in comparison to Mirepoix.

For both cases, you can use any types of onions but I chose red onions over others because it has a stronger taste and mildly sweet unlike yellow onions which are too sweet but good for onion soups. Celeriac could be used in place of celery and there is of course no substitute for carrots.

As for proportions, many said that it is a 1:1:1 ratio but I have always use a 2:1:1 ratio. As simple as it might sound, all you need is a food processor or a blender to make this. Believe it or not, 1 celery and 1 carrot each is half the weight of one red onion!

So, in my opinion, the 1:1:1 ratio is not referring to weight, but the number of each of them is used.

That's just my two cents and now everyone knows what's mirepoix :)