Super Soup Bowl Sunday

Happy Sunday everyone!  Hope you are having a great time with your loved ones.

I made this dish 2 Sundays ago.  I am at a loss as to what to name this dish.  Listing down all the ingredients will make it long and boring.  Since it's a big bowl of goodness, Super Bowl came to mind :)  Or maybe Super Soup Bowl to be technically correct.  After all that's what it is literally, not American football :)

This dish was inspired by Sonia's claypot luffa gourd, black fungus and fish maw dish that she shared not long ago.  I like this kind of dish with lots of ingredients braised in supreme stock.  Something that one could eat on its own or at the most some rice to go with it for die-hard rice fans (which i have in my house).

Sonia made hers using the traditional Cantonese way of cooking. She used dried sole fish to make the stock which is a widely used seasoning in Cantonese style cooking.  I don't have any of those so i made do with anchovies instead.  To make up for the flavors, i threw in fish, prawns and some meatballs.  I also used a chayote instead of luffa.

It turned out delicious!  Lots of tasty ingredients and soup to go with it too, a typical chinese home style meal that was really comforting.

Recipe

Inspiration: Nasi Lemak Lover

Ingredients

• 1 medium size chayote, peel and cut into wedges
• 40g fish maw, soaked in water for 30mins
• 1 medium size carrot, peel and cut into thick slices
• 10g dried black fungus, soaked in water till soften, tear into small pieces
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 slice white flesh fish
• 1 cup meatballs
• 6 medium size prawns, deveined 
• Salt to taste

Stock ingredients

• 1 cup dried anchovies
• 1000ml water

Method

1. Rinse and wash anchovies in some water.
2. Heat one tablespoon of cooking oil in a stock pot then fry anchovies until fragrant.
3. Add water then allow it to come to a boil and simmer for around 15 minutes until soup becomes whitish.  
4. Strain broth, discard anchovies and set aside.
5. Heat one tablespoon of cooking oil in a claypot, sauté garlic until fragrant. Add in carrot, black fungus and chayote.
6. Add in stock and let it come to a boil.
7. Add in fish maw, continue to cook for 5-10mins till fish maw soften.
8. Add in prawns for 2-3 minutes then add in meatballs followed by fish slices the last.
9. Turn off heat once fish is cooked.
10. Remove from heat, serve hot.

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Let's Chill It

The weather is just scorching hot these days where we are.  To combat this discomfort (preparing, eating and after eating), i make simple meals and chilled Japanese meals is one good option. Hiroshi Chuka, a cold ramen all in one meal is one that we enjoy a lot.  It is a very attractive dish with vibrant colors, healthy, light, delicious and easy to prepare.  A sesame-vinegar-soy dressing which is tangy and savoury is poured over the noodles and all the toppings before giving it a good mix. 

My son can never get enough of this :)  He doesn't mind having it for all meals in a day.

Recipe
Source: Just One Cookbook

Ingredients
Noodle Dressing 

• 6 Tbsp. soy sauce (4 tbsp)
• 4 Tbsp. sugar (2 1/2 tbsp)
• 3 Tbsp. rice vinegar (2 tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp. sesame oil (1 tbsp)
• 2 Tbsp. water (1 tbsp)
• 1 Tbsp. roasted sesame seeds
• ¼ tsp. grated ginger (omitted)
• ½ – 1 tsp. La-yu (Japanese Chili Oil) (omitted)

Shredded Egg Crepe

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 tsp. sugar
• ¼ tsp. salt
• Oil

Other Toppings

• 6 shrimps + 1 Tbsp. sake
• 1 Japanese cucumber (1/3 English cucumber), julienned (1/2 Japanese Cucumber)
• 1 iceberg lettuce, shredded (1 head romaine lettuce)
• ½ tomato, cut into wedges (1 tomato)
• 3-4 slices hams (2 slices)
• 4-6 imitation crab sticks (or crab meat), shredded
• Kaiware radish sprouts (omitted)

Noodles

• 3 6-oz fresh ramen (chukamen) noodles (2 noodles)

For Garnish

• 1 Tbsp. roasted white sesame seeds (sprinkle to hearts content)
• Karashi hot mustard (optional) (1 tbsp chilli flakes)
• Pickled red ginger (beni shoga) (optional) (omitted)

Method

1. Combine all the noodle dressing ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk all together. Keep it chilled in the refrigerator.
2. Whisk together the eggs, sugar and salt. Heat the oil in the pan over medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan and cook on both sides.
3. Cool the crepe and cut it into thin strips.
4. For shrimps, bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add sake and shrimp and cover with the lid. The alcohol in the sake will help remove the smell and tender the meat. Turn off the heat when the color of shrimp started to change and let it cook with remaining heat. Do not overcook otherwise shrimp will become hard. Transfer shrimps to a plate and let them cool. 
5. If you are using uncooked ham, pan fry it.  Cool and cut into thin strips.
6. I blanched the crab sticks in a pot of boiling water to cook it. Cool and cut into thin strips.
7. For the noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil and add the noodles, separate the noodles before dropping into water. Cook according to package directions. Drain the water and rinse the noodles to remove starch. Soak the noodles into a bowl of ice water to cool. Drain completely and divide the noodles on plates/bowls.
8. Place all the toppings and pour the dressing before serving. 
9. Serve with karashi hot mustard and pickled ginger on the side, if desired.

Note:

Other topping options (as suggested by Nami) include shredded steamed chicken tender, blanched bean sprouts (blanched), wakame seaweed, nori seaweed strips, etc.

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Spring is in the Air - 8 Treasure Rice

Spring is in the air!  According to the lunar calendar that is...i know some of you are still bracing one of the harshest winter out there, my thoughts are with you.  The Chinese will be celebrating the beginning of a new lunar year aka the Spring festival on 31st January this year which is in 3 weeks time!

It is the time where family and friends gather and when we gather we feast! And feast in style we do, we give dishes auspicious names in hope that they will bring us luck, fortunes and happiness when eaten :)  May sound humorous to some but it's part of our culture and i find it pretty interesting to know how/why is a particular food considered  auspicious.  

This dish that i have tried out here is a all in one meal.  This recipe by Chris Wan caught my attention in the recent issue of Flavors magazine.  Upon doing a search, i was glad to find that she has included the recipe on her website.   It's auspicious enough to be included in the list for the reunion dinner (the dinner on new year's eve)  but it maybe too much since there will be many other dishes that will go better with white rice instead. Probably consider making it when you need to dish out something quick during one of the days during the festivity especially when all these ingredients are readily available since these are common CNY gifts.  

The name given to this dish is 8 treasure rice.  We Chinese love the number 8 primarily because its pronunciation sounds like 'to prosper'.  And treasures? I don't think it needs any explanation, anyone in the universe would love landing on some treasures.  So, here are the 8 treasures hidden in it and their auspiciousness (hope i am not wrong):-

• Shitake Mushroom - associated with longevity
• Dried Oysters - its chinese pronunciation 'hou si' sounds like good events ie symbolizing good events ahead
• Chinese Sausage - more of a culture to eat cured eat during CNY and perhaps symbolizing a sweet year ahead i guess since its sweet :)
• Pumpkin - its golden hue for prosperity 
• Sweet Peas - symbolizing unity  
• Dried Longan - associated to bringing forth many sons
• Wolfberries - to sweeten the year ahead
• Chestnuts - associated to bringing forth many sons (yes, again!)

It's a simple recipe, all you need to do is some simple stir frying then mix them into the rice cooked the way you usually do it be it in a rice cooker or over a stove.  I did mine in a rice cooker.

With such an array of ingredients in it, you can be assured it is going to be delicious.

Recipe
Source: Flavors Magazine Jan 2014, recipe by Chris Wan with some slight variations from me in blue

Ingredients

Condiments A

• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 100g sweet peas
• 50g wolfberries (wash, soaked for 5 minutes and drained)

Condiments B

• 100g gingko nuts, boiled for 20 minutes to soften (ready to eat chestnuts)
• 100g dried oysters, soaked 30 minutes to soften
• 50g dried mushroom, soaked for 1 hour to soften, then cut into strips
• 100g dried longans, washed, soaked for 10 minutes to soften and drained, cut into halves
• 100g bacon, cut into 1.5cm strips (replaced with wax sausage)
• 200g pumpkin, cut into diced
• 2 tbsp dried shrimps, washed, soaked for 10 minutes then chopped coarsely
• Some fried whitebait for garnishing (optional)

• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 20ml water

• 300g rice (2 cups)
• 200ml vegetable/chicken stock (enough stock as per instruction on rice cooker for 2 cups of rice)

Method

1. Heat up oil in a small frying pan then sauté sweet peas with wolfberries for 1 minute.
2. Remove and set aside.
3. Heat up another 1 tbsp oil in frying pan then sauté oysters, dried shrimps, mushroom, sausage and pumpkin.
4. Add in salt, light soy sauce and water.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes  or until pumpkin is cooked then set aside.
6. Cook rice in rice cooker.  (Taking a leaf out of the Japanese chestnut rice recipe, I added in chestnut to cook together with the rice).
7. When stock is fully absorbed, add in condiment A, spread out evenly on top of rice and cook for a further 10 minutes. (Left it for 5 minutes only)
8. Once rice is cooked, fluff up the rice and mix the ingredients.   (I added in condiments B before mixing up the rice and left everything in the rice cooker for another 5-10 minutes before serving)
9. Add in condiments B and mix well before serving. (Completed in step 8)
10. Serve garnish with some fried whitebait.

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A Turkish Affair

The one food that left a very lasting impression of our holidays in Turkey was rice pilaf.    My son was still very young back then and every time he hit the buffet table, the first thing he would look out for would be rice pilaf, those plain classic ones with orzo.   That alone made him a happy boy for the entire trip.  His love for it was hardly surprising, firstly being Asians we eat a lot of rice and pilaf being rice cooked in seasoned broth brought it a level higher. 

So i decided on a pilaf to lend my support to the Asian Food Fest blogging event which is featuring West Asian food this month.   I chose to make the eggplant pilaf (Patlıcanlı Iç Pilav),  a dish said to have originated from Ottoman palace kitchens.  A hearty and healthy vegan dish that can be eaten on its own.  The soft and creamy eggplants paired very well with the aromatic rice (if you love eggplants that is).   The addition of some Turkish dried apricots (my own twigging since i had some on hand) gave a hint of sweetness to the dish and an added Turkish identity to the dish, if i may say :)

Although the dish can be eaten on its own though, i made a Turkish style grilled chicken dish to accompany it.  A tangy marinade made from a combination of yogurt, lemon juice and spices was used to season the chicken.

So, it was a Turkish affair for my family that night.  I will remember their reactions for sometime now, they were taken by surprise :)  But i would be honest to say i was the only who enjoyed it the most, my boys don't like aubergines/eggplants/brinjal or whatever name you call them and in whatever way you make them, unfortunately!   Actually it was quite funny when they started picking them out from the rice.  But for those who love aubergine, i am pretty sure you will like this dish, so as they say in Turkish,  Afiyet olsun!  

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest : West Asia hosted by Shannon of Just As Delish

Signing off for the year with wishes for a very Happy New Year to all my friends out there and 
some memories from my holidays in Turkey for viewing pleasure.  It's a beautiful country, enjoy!

The Blue Mosque

The Ephesus

Cotton Castle 

Fairy Chimneys' Mountains

Recipe - Eggplant Pilaf
Source: Food Thought For who adapted from Ghillie Basan 

Ingredients

• 1large aubergine/eggplant (3 medium size ones)
• 1 cup of rice. Long grain is better (2 cups)
• 1 small onion. Sliced (2 small onions)
• 2 cloves of garlic. Slivered (4 cloves)
• 1/2 tsp of sugar (1 tsp)
• 1/2 tsp of whole cumin (1 tsp cumin powder)
• 1/2 tsp of whole coriander (1 tsp coriander powder)
• 2 small tomatoes,  diced (1 large tomato, seeds removed)
• 2 tsp of tomato paste or puree ( 1 1/2 tbsp tomato puree)
• 2 cups of water. Lukewarm or at least room temperature. You can use stock as well (Water, as per noted on rice cooker)
• 6-8 tbsf olive oil. Not extra virgin 
• Salt and pepper
• Parsley for garnish, optional 
• 10 pieces of dried apricot, diced
• 1/2 cup raisins

Steps

1. Soak aubergine/eggplant in salted water for at least an hour but no more than three. Drain, squeeze the pieces and dry with paper towels.  Heat  5 tbsf olive oil ( do not sear the oil as the smoke point for olive oil is low) and  gently add the aubergine pieces. After adding in the aubergine, reduce heat, add a tsp or so of olive oil from the top, mix and cover as they fry gently. Check often.    Drain on paper towel and set aside.
2. Wash and soak rice (if you have the time), skipped. Soften onion and garlic in olive oil. Stir in the sugar, cumin, coriander cooking for a couple of mins. Add the tomato puree and tomatoes. Cook for 3-4 mins. Add the rice. Coat everything. 
3. Add the water or stock. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer. About 20 min. Keep an eye.
4. When rice is done, mix in the aubergine, apricot and raisins. Leave aside for around 15 minutes for aubergine and fruits to soften slightly.
5. Garnish with parsley and cubed tomatoes. Serve warm. 

Note: 

1. My variations are in blue.
2. The original recipe recommended toasting the spices (cumin/coriander) then ground for best results if used in whole.
3. I used a rice cooker for step 3.  Simply transfer everything into a rice cooker after step 2 and add in water as per manufacturer's recommendation.

Recipe - Turkish Style Grilled Chicken

Source: About Home Cooking with source from The Mediterranean Kitchen by Joyce Goldstein (Wm Morrow & Co)

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons cumin seeds (1 tbsp cumin powder)
• 1 small onion, coarsely chopped 
• 4 to 6 cloves garlic, finely minced (4 cloves garlic)
• 1 Tablespoon paprika (1/2 tbsp chilli powder)
• Juice of 1 lemon (1/3 lemon)
• 1 cup plain yogurt (1/2 cup yogurt)
• 12 boneless chicken thighs, about 2 to 2-1/2 pounds, or 4 half broilers (8 drumettes) 
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Lemon wedges for serving

Steps

1. Toast the cumin seeds in a small saute pan over medium heat until the seeds are fragrant and start to pop in the pan. Remove from the heat and grind in a spice grinder. 
2. Place the cumin, onion, garlic, paprika, and lemon juice in a food processor or blender and pulse to liquify. Add the yogurt and pulse just until blended. 
3. Put the chicken thighs in a shallow non-aluminum baking dish or bowl. Pour the marinade over the chicken and toss well to coat. Let stand at room temperature at least 2 hours or cover and refrigerate overnight.
4. Remove the chicken from the marinade (discard marinade). 
5. Place the chicken on a broiler rack and broil until browned on top, about 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F(205°C) and bake until the chicken is juicy and just cooked through, about 15 minutes longer. (Thigh meat will appear dark pink, even when cooked through.) 
6. Serve immediately.

Note:

1. My variations in blue.
2. Skipped step 1 since i substituted with cumin powder.
3. The chicken pieces didn't turn out pinkish in color, probably because i replaced paprika with chili powder and the amount added was not much to suit my son's acceptance level.

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Noodles for a Rainy Day-Japanese

I am a total novice when it comes to making Japanese cuisine though we love eating them a lot.   And good Japanese food don't come cheap, it's an arm and a leg to me.  Glad that Asian Food Fest Blogging Event picked Japan as one of the featured countries.  I have learned quite a bit from the sharing by fellow bloggers, at the very least, i have learned how to make dashi stock which is an important base for many Japanese dishes :)

I tried my hands at making this simple but satisfying hot pot meal.  Nabeyaki Udon, a one pot meal commonly served in an earthen or cast iron pot  with Udon noodles and a variety of toppings like seafood, chicken and vegetables in hot dashi broth is a popular wintertime. meal.  One can actually choose to add your own favorite toppings.

I made this on a rainy afternoon and it was indeed a heartwarming and comforting meal in the cool weather.  Totally delicious and very glad to have given this a try!

Recipe

Reference: La Fuji Mama (my variations in blue)

Ingredients

• 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves (obmitted)
• 6 cups dashi (basic Japanese sea stock-see below for recipe)
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons mirin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
• 2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced on the diagonal (medium size)
• 2 leeks, cleaned and cut into 1-inch slices on the diagonal
• 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken thighs (2 free range chicken thighs)
• 21 ounces fresh udon noodles (3 packs single serving Udon)
• 5 large eggs (Did only one for son)
• 5 prawns
• 1 squid
• 5 pieces scallop
• 1 piece tofu, quartered
• 5 baby corns
• 6 fresh shitake mushrooms
• 1 packet 100g bunapi mushroom

Steps

1. Mix the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and salt together in a medium size heavy base pot, then stir in the garlic and ginger. Add the sliced carrots and leeks (half the amount), then bring the liquid to a boil over medium heat.
2. Add the chicken and simmer until just cooked through, about 5 minutes.
3. Add baby corns.
4. While the soup is simmering, wash and cook udon as per package instructions.  I boiled mine for 2 minutes then rinse with cold water to wash off excess starch.  Drain and set aside.
5. Add prawns, squid, scallops, tofu and mushrooms.  Allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes.
6. Add udon noodles.  Add in remaining leek.
7. Gently crack egg, one at a time, into the soup. Cover the pot with a lid, and let simmer for 3 minutes, then turn off the heat and let sit to allow the eggs to finish cooking.
8. Serve while hot.

Recipe-Dashi (First Sea Stock)
Reference: La Fuji Mama

Ingredients

• 4 cups water (i topped it to 6 cups water since this is the amount needed in the nabeyaki udon recipe)
• 16-20 square inches kombu
• 1/2 cup loosely packed bonito flakes

Steps

1. Place water and kombu in pot and let kombu soak for 15 minutes.  Place pot over medium heat. 
2. Right before water starts to boil, remove pot from heat and scatter bonito flakes over the surface of the water.
3. After 3-4 minutes (bonito flakes will have sunk to the bottom of the pot by this point), strain the stock through a strainer lined with a tightly woven cotton cloth or coffee filter.

Note: 

1. You can make Second Sea Stock by boiling 4 cups of water with the kombu and bonito flakes from the first sea stock for another 10 minutes.  Strain and store the stock.
2. Stock can be stored in a tightly covered container for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest #1 Oct 2013: Japan hosted by Alan from Travelling-foodies 

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G Is For Ginger

It's gingery all the way in this post.   A compilation of dishes from a starter to dessert spiced up with ginger for the fun of joining Little Thumbs Up Event of which ginger is the featured ingredient for this month.  I didn't served them all in one meal though, it would have been ginger overload otherwise!

For starters, here's a Pickled Ginger Salad.  I first learned of this popular Burmese salad from the 06/13 issue of the Flavours magazine.  Unfortunately, i am having trouble accessing older issues of the magazine from my online subscription, so this is not exactly the featured recipe.  I surfed around and found another one for guidance and played by whatever i recalled reading in the magazine.  

As in the name, the main ingredient for this salad is pickled young ginger.  It also has an interesting addition of fried lentils to it.  I simply bought them from our regular Kacang Putih seller (i.e. Indian nuts seller). Overall it is a good appetizer, with a sweet, tangy type of dressing plus some heat from the ginger.  It reminded me of the Yee Sang minus the raw fish served during Chinese New Year.

And here's the meal that went with the Ginger Salad.   I made Szechuan Pepper Roast Chicken and Angel Hair Aglio Olio to go with it.   A little bit of Chinese, Italian and Burmese in one meal! Fusion at its best or weirdest, you decide!   It was quite complimentary though and one thing for sure, everything tasted good on its own :))

Next up is this simple and homey Ginger Fried Rice, this is quite a staple for Chinese mothers in confinement.  However, it's simply ginger, egg and rice when it's served to the new mothers.  To make it a balance meal, i added some greens and shrimps.   Don't the shrimps look lovely dovey like the 囍(shuāngxǐ) character on the bowl?   The word means means double happiness, an ornamental motif widely used during Chinese weddings, incidentally that bowl was my MIL's gift during our wedding, 16 years back :)

, 

Thirsty by now? Here's a gingery drink, which is a popular herbal remedy.  From personal experience, it works well for coughs and indigestion.  I had lots of this as an alternative remedy when i was down with a bad cough during my pregnancy instead of downing cough syrups.   It helped soothe my throat and reduce the coughing which would otherwise kept me awake during the nights.    There are some variations out there which does it with pandan leaves and lemon but personally i prefer the version with just lemongrass, ginger, honeycomb/brown sugar plus a little honey stirred into it before drinking.   Drink it warm if taken as a remedy or chill it as a refresher.

How about a little sweetness to end it all?  I love chiffons for its lightness, it gives me less calorific worries :)   I thought i will give a shot at a ginger flavored one for the purpose of ending this gingery post on a sweet note.  Was keeping my fingers crossed as i have never tried a gingery one before this.

What i did was to add some grated ginger to my favorite orange chiffon recipe.   There's actually a combination of citruses in this cake.  Firstly, i used the juice (and zest)  of what the fruit seller told me was a cross between a grapefruit and navel orange, then i added 1 teaspoon of lemon zest too.  I am quite happy with the results.  It remain citrusy but with a obvious but not overwhelming hint of gingery fragrance.  

I love this recipe, which was the one i used when i first started learning how to bake a chiffon cake. This recipe never fails to give me a tall cake, baked in a 20cm diameter pan with only 5 eggs.   It was really soft to the fact that it was difficult getting it to stand :)   One can just omit the ginger for a orange flavor cake instead.

I hope you have enjoyed browsing through this compilation!

This post is linked to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY and hosted by Alvin of Chef and Sommelier

Pickled Ginger Salad

Ingredients
Reference : Culinary Musing of a Silicon Valley Mum & 06/13 Flavours Magazine

• 1 small jar pickled ginger, julienned 
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced and fried
• 3 tbsp roasted sesame seeds
• 5 tbsp mixture of fried chickpeas and lentils  (I bought them from Kacang Putih man)
• 3 tbsp lightly toasted shredded coconut (optional and personally i will leave this out the next time)
• 1 tbsp of toasted sesame seeds 
• 1 cup of julienned green cabbage
• 5 cherry tomatoes, halved 
• Half a carrot shredded

Dressing

• 2 to 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp salt or to taste
• 2 tbsp or to taste lemon juice (used kaffir lime)
• 2 tbsp or to taste fish sauce 

Step
1. Mix the salad ingredients with the dressing right before serving.

Note :

1. It is not necessary to follow the exact measurements, play around with the combination according to preference.  
2. Go easy with the lime juice and add on if necessary.

Ginger Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 1 bowl of cooked rice
• 1 medium size egg, lightly beaten
• 4 medium size shrimps, shelled (leave tail intact) and deveined
• 1 inch ginger knob, julienned
• 3 french beans, diced
• 1/2 of medium size carrot, diced
• 2 tbsp sesame oil 
• 1 teaspoon Shaoxing cooking wine

Method

1. Marinade shrimps with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper.  Leave aside for 15 minutes.
2. Heat up wok and pan fry shrimps without oil.  Set aside.
3. Using the same wok, fry ginger until slightly dry.
4. Add in sesame oil and fry until ginger is fragrant.
5. Add in french beans and carrot. 
6. When vegetables are half cooked, add in rice.  Mix well.
7. When rice is hot, push aside rice and pour in egg.  When egg is slightly cooked, push rice back onto egg and scrambled together with the rice.
8. Season with some salt and cooking wine.
9. Add in shrimps and mix well.

Lemongrass Ginger Drink

Ingredients

• 5 stalks of lemongrass (use white part only), trimmed and bruised with back of cleaver
• 2 inch ginger knob, sliced and bruised with back of cleaver
• 1 liter water
• 3 tbsp brown sugar
• Honey

Method

1. Combine lemongrass and ginger with water in a medium size pot.
2. Bring to a boil then simmer with lid on for 30 minutes.
3. Add in sugar and continue to simmer for another 5-10 minutes.
4. Sweeten with  some honey prior serving.

Orange Ginger Chiffon Cake
Adapted from Orange Chiffon Cake by All That Matters

Ingredients

(A)

• 4 egg yolks
• 30g castor sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 40g corn oil
• 140g orange juice
• 2 tbsp grated ginger
• Zest  from 3/4 orange and 1/2 lemon

(B)

• 120g Cake flour
• 1/2 tbsp baking powder

*Sift 2x

(C)

• 5 egg whites
• 40g castor sugar
• 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar (1 tsp lemon juice)

Method

1. In a bowl, using hand whisk, whisk yolks and sugar till sugar dissolves.
2. Add oil and salt, whisk and add orange juice, zest and grated ginger. Stir well.
3. Fold in sifted flour and mix well.
4. In another bowl, using an electric mixer, beat till the whites are frothy. Add in Cream of Tartar and beat till soft peaks.
5. Add in sugar gradually and beat till stiff peaks.
6. Fold in 1/3 of the whites into the yolk mixture using a spatula till incorporated.
7. Pour the mixture to the remaining egg whites and fold in gently till incorporated.
8. Pour the batter into a 20cm chiffon tube pan. Bang the pan on the table to get rid of bubbles.
9. Oil a piece of aluminium foil and cover the pan loosely. Bake at 170C for 10mins.
10. Turn down the temperature to 160C and bake for 10mins. Lift up the foil to check the surface of cake, bake for another 10mins.
11. Insert a skewer to check if cake is done. Remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 150 deg.C and bake for a further 5 to 10mins to brown the surface.
12. Remove from the oven and invert the pan. Remove the cake from pan when it's completely cooled.

Note : I baked mine at 180C for 40 minutes, then removed foil and continue to bake at 170 for another 10 minutes.

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And we know where the beef is...

May 5 is the day, the day when Malaysians will go to the polls.   I am sure many of us are already feeling the excitement, I definitely am!  As they say it's going to be mother of all elections, like it or not the winds of change is blowing really strong this time!  I believe in this age, many of us will be making wise choices, we know where the beef is, there is no need to tempt or blind us with some sweets although we will accept them politely.  Oh, and i don't think we need reminders or advertisements on how promises have been fulfilled.

  

Now, let's talk about a real beef dish :)

Like a kid discovering new toys at a toy store, that's how i felt when I saw Wagyu beef being sold at Mid-Valley, Jusco supermarket.  Now, I don't normally shop for groceries there, I am not sure when they started carrying it (so this might be stale info for some of you) but I am pretty sure they don't sell it at the branch that I frequent, hence the excitement.  They come in small packs of 300-500g (if i am not wrong) and at a reasonably affordable price (read can buy some to play with).  When i got home and the excitement kinda settled down, i recalled reading one of my blogger friends mentioning about Wagyu available in Mid-Valley, Junco.  After some googling, it lead me to Yen of Eat Your Heart Out, who did a fabulous looking steak with it.

There's not that much that I know about Wagyu except for the few occasions that I have tried them in Japanese restaurants, indulgence for me at the price that it comes with.  But I pretty well know they are very tender and juicy.    The higher the degree of marbling the more tender and juicy it is.  I am not sure of the marbling degree of the ones that i bought, i dont think it's written on the pack, too low to state probably :)

So, i bought a small pack for stir-frying to lay my hands on.  They were already sliced into small pieces,  a little bigger than bite size though.    I stir-fried more than half the portion with black pepper for dinner and I was pretty glad that it turned out well (Phew, thank god no unexpected disaster that would make the meat come to waste!).   This was what I did with the remaining portion since it was not enough to make it a dish of its own.

Taking a cue from how the beef tasted pretty good stir-fried in black pepper and since we didn't mind an encore, I played along to come up with this black pepper spaghetti.  More like a twist off the Aglio Oglio, some portebellos, romaine and cherry tomatoes thrown in to make it a balanced meal.  It tasted quite good and I love how it turned out looking colourful.

Recipe 

Ingredients

• 150-200g beef
• Spaghetti for 2 pax
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 portebello mushrooms, sliced
• 1 head of romaine lettuce, cut in smaller pieces
• Handful of cherry tomatoes, cut into halves

Seasoning

• Black pepper
• Salt
• Parmesan cheese

1. Slice beef into bite size and marinade with some salt, freshly grounded black pepper and a dash of worchester sauce for 30 minutes.  
2. Cook spaghetti in boiling water with some salt added in until al dente.  Drain spaghetti and mix with a teaspoon of olive oil so that spaghetti will not stick to each other.
3. Heat up olive oil in a pan then saute garlic until almost golden.  Add in the portebellos followed by beef.  Stir fry until beef changes color.
4. Add in spaghetti and toss to mix.   Add in more freshly grounded black pepper and salt.
5. Add in around 1 cup of spaghetti water and grated cheese.
6. Mix in shredded lettuce and tomatoes then toss.

Note : If you notice a pale yellow patch somewhat in the centre, it's shredded mozzarella added to make it a little more cheesy but mostly just for the fun of it and to add colours :)

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It was a Johor Night!

This is the story of Friday the 22nd... 

On Thursday, my sister was teasing me on whatsapp about what noodles I have in mind for tomorrow since I have recently declared to the world that I am into making noodles on Fridays.   I actually had Mee Jawa in mind but when it went across to her it became Mee Jaws! DYAC!  Huh? Mee Jaws, what?  Immediately the theme song from the movie JAWS played in our heads, if it rings a bell you are as old as I am :p  We were literally laughing tears over it.   I always get caught in blunders like this, thank god no damaging ones so far, most of the time end up rolling on the floor more than anything else :)  

Anyways, she suggested Mee Rebus which i think is quite similar to Mee Jaws(oops, i meant Jawa).  Actually I am not too sure if there are differences.  The ongoing Malaysian Food Fest (MFF)  came to mind so I look around for a Johor style Mee Rebus  I was very happy to land on a recipe that credited a Anak Johor (i.e. Johor state born and bred) and I also found that many have tried this recipe including Annie, the MFF host for this month. 

Mee Rebus is a Malay all in one noodle dish with yellow noodles being used most of the time.  Noodles are blanched then eaten with some condiments on top of a sweet and slightly spicy gravy which unique flavors come from spices, meat and sweet potatoes.

All nice and pretty until...

I spilled some gravy on the beancurd while pouring it over and I was lazee... But it does take a lot to make everything look nice and pretty, take photos, change pose, then continue taking more shots especially when you have something like this staring at you and begging you to eat it while it's piping hot!  So, pardon the blots on the photos!

  

And one final shot before digging in! Yum!

Recipe
Source : Annielicious and Masam Manis, with original source from Iza Akma

Ingredients

• 300g Minced Beef
• 250g Orange Sweet Potatoes
• 35g Dried Shrimp, washed, drained then finely ground
• 2 stalks of Lemongrass, cut into 5 inch length, bruised
• 8 pcs Star Anise
• 5 tbsp Pre-Packed Chilli Paste (More/less per preference)
• 2 tbsp Curry Powder
• 1 tbsp Coriander Powder
• 1 cube Beef Stock (or replaced with chicken stock powder)
• ½ cup Tamarind Juice  (mix 1 tsp Tamarind Paste top up with ½ cup water)
• 50g Grated Palm Sugar/Gula Melaka (More/less per preference)
• Salt per preference
• 1liter water
• 4 tbsp cooking Oil

Spices for Gravy

• 3 onions
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 inch ginger
• 3/4 inc galangal
• 1 candlenut

Noodles and Condiments

• 500g yellow noodles, wash, blanch in boiling water
• 200g bean sprouts, wash, blanch in boiling water
• 3 pieces fried tofu, sliced
• 3 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
• 4 calamansi, halfed
• Parsley 
• Red and Green Chillies (if preferred)
• Fried Shallots (if preferred)

Steps

1. Boil sweet potatoes (skin on) until soften, remove skin then mashed them.  Set aside.
2. Prepare spices for gravy then grind everything together.  Set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok, add in star anise and lemongrass, fry till fragrant.
4. Add in ground spices, fry until fragrant.
5. Add chilli paste and fry until aroma is present.
6. Add ground dried shrimps and fry until aroma is present.
7. Add in grounded minced beef. (I was greedy, I wanted to try the original recipe and some beef balls like what Annie did...so I added half added in at this stage while the other were made into balls).
8. Add curry powder and coriander powder, mix well.
9. Add water, beef/chicken stock and bring to a boil.
10. Add in meat balls (if made), and stir gently to prevent them from sticking together or breaking.
11. Under medium low heat, add in mashed sweet potatoes, tamarind juice, palm sugar and salt. Continue to stir until the mashed sweet potatoes incorporated into gravy.  
12. Let it simmer for awhile until gravy slightly thickened.  Slightly more water can be added if a more watery gravy is preferred.
13. Prepare noodles and condiments.  Scoop gravy onto noodles, garnish with parsley, fried chillies and shallots.  Savour!

I am submitting this to Malaysian Food Fest Event ( Johor Month ) hosted by Annie of Annielicious Food

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Let's Talk about Fridays

I know it's a bit too early to talk about Friday when she's sitting dragging her feet :) But time flies, she will be here faster than we would have thought :) Friday is my favorite day, i love the prelude to the weekend more than the weekend itself! 

In recent weeks, I have consistently made all in one noodle dishes on Fridays.  Don't know how long this trend will last but it has been fun so far.  I guess it will be until someone in the family screams "Stop, no more noodles!" or until i run out of noodle ideas.  All in one noodle dishes are normally quite easy to prepare and the other thing that i love about it is the family gets to spend more quality time at the table instead of just concentrating on the food  (plus there are lesser dishes to wash)! All in one are no brainers, everything there is to eat is already on one's plate, so one can chat while eating, of course the no food in mouth when talking rule still applies here :)  Noodles Friday it shall be for now!

Mee Siam is common in Malaysia and Singapore as far as i know.  From what I read it was originally a Malay dish until the Nyonyas added their zest to it.  Simply put, it's vermicelli fried in a sweet, savory and tangy gravy.  Two  versions to it, the dry and the wet.    Over in Malaysia, it's the dry version that we are used to while it's the wet one for our neighbors down south.    So, it's the dry one that I am talking about here.  This recipe from a local daily was the one I referred to for my maiden attempt many many moons ago and it was love at first bite!  I don't refer to it anymore since getting mine more or less there.

Vermicelli fried with a combination of  prawns, tofu puffs, chives, bean sprouts and gravy made from a blend of chilli, shallots, preserved soybeans plus tamarind juice, topped with thinly sliced omelet plus a squeeze of calamansi juice and topped with some sambal belacan is simply divine.   Very interesting mix of flavors and how vermicelli does such a good job at soaking up these flavors makes this dish so appetising and difficult to stop at!  

Recipe
Reference : Kuali.com

Ingredients

• 500g rice vermicelli
• 2 eggs
• 3 shallots, thinly sliced 
• 10 pieces tofu puff cut into slices
• Calamansi cut into wedges
• 300g prawns shelled
• 3 tbsp dried shrimps soaked and minced
• 200g bean sprouts
• A handful of chives, cut into around 5 cm length

Gravy (mix all ingredients except tamarind juice together)

• 10 dried chilli (replaced with 5 tbsp of store bought chilli paste to tone down spiciness for little one and is a cheat in way because handling chilli is no easy job)
• 5 shallots, slice and minced
• 2 tbsp minced preserved soybeans
• 3 tbsp tamarind paste mixed with 60ml water (squeezed for tamarind juice)

Seasoning

• Light soya sauce/Fish sauce
• Sugar

Steps

1. Soak rice vermicelli in water until soft.  Drain and set aside.
2. Fry beaten eggs in a shallow pan with a little oil like making an omelet (without stirring).  Remove and cut into thin strips. Set aside.
3. Fry sliced shallots in some oil until golden brown and crispy.  Set aside.
4. Fry gravy ingredients with 2 tbsp oil until fragrant and oil separates.  Add in minced dried shrimps and fry until fragrant.
5. Add in tamarind juice and bring to a boil.
6. Add in prawns and tofu puffs.
7. Add vermicelli and mix well with gravy.  Add in a little water if it's too dry.
8. Add in bean sprouts and fry for 1-2 minutes.  Do not overfry or sprouts will turn out limpy. 
9. Add in seasoning to taste.
10. Add in chives and fry for another minute.
11. Dish out and serve with omelette strips, fried shallot and calamansi wedges on the side.

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When Mum Gets Even Lazier...

Of late lunch boxes seem to becoming an 'in' thing. A trend worth catching up with for all the goodness that comes along, healthy and easy on the pocket.  Noticed quite a few recipe books featuring dishes for lunch boxes in the bookstore too.  I love browsing through these recipes, simply because they are normally simple, fast and catch all (if not as much as it can) nutritional needs.  Just the type for lazy me :)

I came across a dish with green beans, pumpkin and chicken while browsing through one of these books.   I looked at it and thought it was quite simple, no problem remembering it (instead of buying the book)...so I thought.  So, that weekend, I bought some pumpkin.  It was also my first experience with pumpkins.  I never quite like the taste but I was captivated by the photo of the dish that I saw in the  bookstore.  Then, came the challenge, I couldn't quite remember the ingredients used!  So, when in doubt, one googles!

There are not that many dishes that comes with this combination.  I used this as reference. Surprisingly, it turned out very well despite an interesting combination of  eastern and western ingredients, butter, sherry  vinegar with fish sauce and soy sauce?? Clashes or complimenting, give it a try to find out...:)

Ingredients

• 500g pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 30g butter
• 500g chicken
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 3/4 tbsp ginger
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 onion
• 300g green beans
• 1 1/2 tbsp rice wine
• 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp thick soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 200C.
2. Cut pumpkin into 1’’ chunks. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper.
3. Place on a baking pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the pumpkin is tender.
4. When there are about 10 minutes left on the baking of the pumpkin, heat up the wok.
5. Add in butter and let it melt.
6. When the butter begins to bubble and lightly brown, add in the chicken and brown it.
7. Add in garlic, onion and ginger followed by fish sauce.
8. Add in green beans, rice wine and soy sauce.
9. Squeeze in the juice from lemon once beans are cooked.
10. Remove pumpkin from oven.
11. Add pumpkin to the beans and chicken.
12. Dish up and serve with rice.

Notes: 

1. I didn't use as much butter as the amount called for in the original recipe.  The recipe added butter in 2 steps.
2. Recipe stated soy sauce, not sure if just normal or thick.  I added 1/2 tbsp thick soy sauce, didn't like the pale look.
3. I used homemade rice wine instead of sherry vinegar or rice wine vinegar.
4. Instead of sprinkling raw onions (I don't like raw ones), I cooked it together with the garlic.
5. Obmitted basil leave because I had none!

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Cheeky Meals

Did you smile at the little 'chick' up there?? I hope so, it looks kinda cute nestled in its nest doesn't it?  This was another fun lunch that I made for little one.  I first saw it at Angie's blog.  Angie, if you happen to stop by, thank you for the beautiful photos that captivated me and also the simple and doable recipe.  I added a little 'chick' to fill the nest to make it less lonely maybe? :)

Making this was easy, all it took was 30 minutes minus cutting the beaks and crest for the chicks, but that was all for the fun of it.  I intended for them to be little birds but little one said they look like chicks, so chicks they will be :)

"Here, meet my brothers and sisters! There are 7 of us altogether!"

"Oh, did i tell you there's another 2 of us who are soundly asleep in their cosy shells still? Hmm, maybe I should wake them up!"

Recipe
Source : Angie's Recipe

Note : Variations in red

• 200 g Spaghetti
• 3 tbsp Parmesan, grated
• 2 tbsp Breadcrumbs
• 2 Large eggs
• 3 tbsp Whipping cream
• 1 Tomato, diced
• 50 g Prosciutto, diced  (ham)
• 125 g Fresh Mozzarella cheese, diced
• 3 tbsp Chives, chopped (1 stalk of celery, diced)
• Salt and pepper
• Served with some tomato sauce 
• Quails Eggs, Lettuce

1. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, according to pack instructions. Drain pasta. Return to same pot and toss with grated Parmesan and breadcrumbs.
2. Use a fork to stick into the spaghetti and bring up a heaping forkful. Turn and twist the pasta to form a nest. Repeat until you have 8 nests (or according to preferred nest size). Place them on a baking tray lined with paper. At the same time, preheat the oven to 200C/400F
3. Stir together the eggs and cream until just blended. Season to taste. Add in diced tomatoes, ham, Mozzarella, and chopped chives  (or any other greens). Divide the mixture and spoon them in the center of each nest. Bake the spaghetti nests on second rack from the bottom of the oven for 15-18 minutes (I baked mine for 12 minutes only, dependent on oven heat and I preferred it slightly wet).

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