Hungry Hostelite

Spicy Cheesy Wholewheat Crackers

2011-09-12T20:52:00.000+08:00

I don't have a nice picture yet because the lighting is not good right now. so just some notes in case i forget (very normal for me)

Cheddar Cheese - 200g (shredded)
Butter - 50g cut into smaller chunks
Wholemeal Flour (I used chapatti flour) - 150g
sea salt (fine) - 1tsp
chilli powder - 1 to 2 tsp depending on spice level desired (I used a coarse one from Tajikistan I swapped with a traveller last year)

4 tblsp water

In a food processor, pulse all ingredients except water till combined
then add water and pulse till the dough forms a large lump
remove and chill for abit

wash food processor and prep area to roll out crackers
preheat oven to 160 degrees

roll out chilled dough and cut out small cracker shapes (like the goldfish crackers. I didnt have a goldfish cookie cutter so I used a diamond shaped one. Still equally good)

put pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment

bake for about 15 to 18 minutes till pieces are slightly brown at the edges.

I used a goldfish cracker recipe from smittenkitchen.com and the measurements did not work out so well for me the first time so I made a second batch and used some gram measurements instead so that its easier to measure straight from the package. I'll try a third time with a whole package (250g is the standard here)
Perhaps due to the flour I used the first batch was greasy and chewy instead of crunchy. The second batch is more cracker like. I used white cheddar in the second batch, so it didn't have the cool orange colour at first, but the chilli powder solved the orange colour problem. The first batch was made using a mixture of red leicester cheese and white extra tasty cheddar.

oh yeah, i finally bought a food processor for this recipe so hoorray! more healthy cracker recipes will be forthcoming. I saw a chickpea one... hehhhe.

Just a few more eats, Tafroute, Hassi Labied and Erg Chebbi, Morocco, Dec 2010.

2011-08-29T12:57:00.000+08:00

We arrived in Tafroute on Souk Day

Natural Honey

Honeycomb, bees included.

A sumptuous dinner

Grill Man

After 50kms of cycling through mountains and bad roads. Our host.

Coconut Cake

waiting for dinner, sharing how to use chopsticks.

Coastal Morocco, Essaouira and Mihrleft, Dec 2010

2011-08-29T12:35:00.000+08:00

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The making of Argan Oil using roasted Argan nuts

Home cooked Tagine

Sharing a meal with the owner and some fellow travellers.

Grilled fish shop. Awesome. Just hot coals and sea salt.

Sardines

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Super Awesome coffee at this place in the middle of nowhere. Made at this Italian Gas powered espresso machine.

Oh the morning coffees...

Day 2 in Marrakesh, Morocco, Dec 2010

2011-08-29T12:05:00.000+08:00

Our first Tagine

Vegetable couscous. They don't mention the great hunk of mutton in the menu listing.

Our funny waiter.

Kefta Tagine

Kebabs

Cleaned Up!

Spiced Tea

Some kinda sweet treat, but there were flies and it didn't look very appealing..

And then we decided to look for some sheeps head...

It didn't taste very good to be honest, could have been more flavourful,
I didn't like seasoning and it had a sandy grainy texture.

Hand cut, fresh fried potato chips. Yummy.

Marrakesh, Morocco, Dec 2010

2011-08-29T11:28:00.000+08:00

Paid too much for this pancake, but it was really good. (They overcharge us the second they know we're foreigners)

Olive Section of the main souk

OLIVES... I wanted to buy some but wasn't gonna lug it around the country.

Underground restaurant

Sides, some boiled rice too...

Loved these giblets... cooked in a super tasty broth...

Chicken and frites

The grill man

Poulet

The chicken here is tougher but the flavour is so awesome coz I think its all free range...

Orange Juice vendors

I've seen these on TV so many times. I HAD to try some...

OMG it looks alive...

Yay! It didn't taste so bad. A little bitter.

Our favourite juice man!

Moroccan Fish and Chips. Delicious. Overpriced but delicious.

Blur picture but amazing tomato dip...

Our Favourite Juice Man!

Local sweets.

Fauchon Paris, Dubai, 2010

2011-08-29T11:05:00.000+08:00

I think this was the Mont Blanc. It's been too Long. But the Mont Blanc was really really good.

Vanilla cream was wonderful but pastry was a little soggy

Dubai Dec 2010

2011-08-29T10:50:00.001+08:00

Burj Khalifah

So Pretty. Hummus, and Really yummy too.

Hungry ladies after a long flight and exciting morning

Honeycomb on toast, luxury at the breakfast buffet

yoghurt, honey, pistachios

Food in Dubai was expensive, so we really loaded up at the excellent breakfast buffet. OOOh... yums.
We'd have a huge breakfast and next meal would be dinner.

Camel Milk, tasted salty....

We went to the supermarket and fund some familiar items for a midnight snack.
Cup noodles... never felt like we needed them more. and this was only day 2 in the middle east...

Traditional Sweets, giftboxed, very delicious...and sweet. hehhe.

Happy Homemade Sushi!

2010-11-29T21:40:00.000+08:00

Yums Yums!

I made this tamagoyaki all on my own. With a regular round frying pan. My first attempt. I'm really proud of myself.

Didn't put enough rice to wrap all around. Also rice a little mushy. Too much water. Need to reduce even more.

Happy Sushi

Just one more of the lovely tamagoyaki I made :)

Sushi rice made with good japanonica rice and bottled sushi vinegar, of which the first ingredient is high fructose corn syrup.. hmmmm.... tamagoyaki recipe an approximation of Maki of JustHungry's recipe. I left out mirin. added 3 tblsp water. used 7 small eggs. and a tad too much soy sauce (thats why my egg looks brown). Didn't use a sushi mat, coz the one at the local hardware shop was so expensive! $3.50??? I'll just go to daiso next time. So I just rolled by hand. The trick is to wet your hand. thats about it.

Slurpy Soba Soup

2010-11-29T20:29:00.000+08:00

Soba in Broth with grilled Duck Breast.

I love Love LOVE broth based foods. Hand-made buckwheat noodles in hot broth is no exception. This bowl is from Shimbashi Soba at the basement of Paragon Shopping Centre. It's really awesome, fresh firm noodles and a tasty hot broth. The duck was awesome... grilled rare and sliced. It tasted slightly gamey but with plenty of duck flavour imparted by that lovely thick layer of skin... It's more than $20 I think.. oops... but good for an occasional splurge. I usually put a generous dose of shichimi (japanese chilli powder) for that additional oomph!

Finally... My First Hairy Crab

2010-11-29T20:01:00.000+08:00

Steamed Alive...

It's kinda... staring at me...

It's not mud on the claws, well.. not exactly.. It's like mud matted fur...

The magic part... The ROE (or fat, or whatever u call it...)

My feelings??? It's kinda overrated... I've always wanted to try hairy crab because I am a huge crab fan, but this experience let me realise that what I really love about crab is the meat. The roe is a bonus, and I prefer the hard lumpy roe in local mud crabs. There is a more definitive flavour. This was just creamy and sweet, but it ended too soon.

Also there was some kind of gummy white stuff alongside the roe, kinda like squid roe, or is it the fat? it tasted like and had the texture of a ball of cooked starch. Quite unpleasant. But I ate it all because it was one expensive crab!! Took me close to an hour to pick through one crab.

The flesh was firm and sweet and I quite liked it but there was very little of it. This crab was a treat from a thoughtful friend's very generous mother... Thank You Auntie! It was a lovely experience and much much appreciated.

Lemon Curd Galette? Tart? Cake?

2010-11-29T19:28:00.001+08:00

The good thing about having a smart phone is, during boring lessons, while the tutor is droning on, you can look for recipes, adapt them, plan what to buy on the way home, and EXECUTE when u get home.

It all started when I was reading the New York Times one evening and there was this awesome story with what seemed like a great recipe. The next morning in my boring class, my mind came back to it again and the lemon curd galette still seemed like an awesome idea in broad daylight. Just make the galette, top with some lemon curd.

I've heard of lemon curd, and I like the idea, and my friend let me taste some awhile ago. It was very sweet but intensely lemony so I thought it'd be a nice change from the standard chocolate chip cookie sort of baking I usually do. Of course this also means... I have never make lemon curd before! (but of course such a piddling concern would not stop me..)

The recipe did not include lemon curd, so in the end I found a lemon curd recipe somewhere else and followed that instead. Look at the picture. How do you think it turned out? AWESOME RIGHT??? right! And trust me it tasted amazing... At first it's really sweet and intense but the delicate lemon scent lingers and lingers, and there was no eggy aftertaste in the curd.

I made the galette dough twice, and followed the recipe as accurately as I could but the dough still rose in baking and turned out to be like a super rich butter cake. The crumb was loose and the edges cookie-like.

It still worked because there was a balance of crunchy and soft and sweet. I suspect the rise is due to the double-acting baking powder I used. I need to buy some regular baking powder and try this again. Fortunately it still looks alright. Just a little... different... from the NYT picture.

The curd was really runny because I think the eggs were not large enough. XL eggs from here and XL eggs in the US are from 2 different kinds of birds... The XL here is like a M there... And I had a random 2 tblsp of lemon juice left from squeezing so i just added that in.
I also cut down on the sugar to 1/2 cup and sieved out the lemon rind after stirring it around for a bit because my zest was in too large bits and spoiled the mouth-feel. Maybe its time to buy a microplane zester...

What I really loved, was the intense yellow and slight translucency of the curd. It was really easy to make and turned out fantastic. I might try adding one small egg to the mix next time to see what comes out.

But all in all, it was a very satisfactory batch of curd, it topped two batches of dough, and brought smiles to the faces of loads of people. In fact... I still have a little tart tin, with a little bit of that dough, in the freezer, and just a little bit of lemon curd left.. hmmmmmmm..... :)

Eggs and Pancakes for Breakfast and Dinner.

2010-11-08T23:58:00.001+08:00

officially my first egg benedict. not a bad one too...

ooooh... yolky goodness

of course we need pancakes. with bananas and sabayon and pancake syrup. I wished it were real maple tho...

soft boiled eggs... 2 for $5!! ok got little bit bread and some parmesan powder and bacon. unfortunately, it seems this restaurant is not very consistent... coz the soft boiled eggs were... not soft. normally i try not to waste food. but... then when u pay $2.50 per egg and it can't even be done right.. how to dip the bread inside? spoil my experience. breakfast kaki was so nice and just scraped it out and ate it. unfortunately i was not so nice because i was really looking forward to dipping the bread in the egg so i asked the poor harassed looking waiter to... 'can u please change my egg? just one. Thank you' and he took it. And I peeked when he took it to the kitchen and i think he got scolded by someone coz he looked even more harassed after that. poor man...

But it really paid off because this is what i got.... wah..... so nice..... yums!
The egg cost them max 50cents. my satisfaction... priceless. I was not grumpy anymore after breakfast.

Dinner at a friend's. I cooked a pail of cabbage! but it was worth it.... okonomiyaki. Another lovely Saturday. Peace Out!

Sunday Eats

2010-10-21T00:31:00.000+08:00

ok, not a very nice picture but i wanted to feature one of my favourite breakfast vices. Dark soy sauce on scrambled eggs... next time i'm not putting any cheese on top. that cheese was gross and tasteless.

I have been craving this since Sunday... Island Creamery's Reverso Ice Cream... Dark Chocolate ice cream with oreo cookies. That waffle helped balance it out, and was pretty good despite being toaster warmed...

The mud pie was really good. Reminds me of Prego's but Prego's is more brilliant coz its Kahlua Ice-Cream

Liked how this place looked but bring insect repellent. The open for Dinner at 5.30. La Petit Cuisine is at Cluny Court. They have a limited menu, but prices seem really decent for some real french cooking. No ++ either so u pay whats listed on the menu. I really wanted the chicken liver salad but they were out. So I just had some pasta. A weekend of eating and the earlier ice-cream didn't leave me too many calories for dinner. So thought i'd just have something simple.

Had the spaghetti with ceps, on the recommendation of the cute tubby french accented but asian looking guy who brought me my menu. It was good but.... I craved chilli and garlic. All I could taste was parsley and the ceps... I think it's more my tastebuds than the food itself. It was pricy at $13.50 but I put it down to the ceps being expensive. Next time i will just go with it and have fois gras and a filet of beef or duck. Who wants to be my date?

Thats chef. OMG i didn't shoot the picture properly. he's wearing shorts! and high socks! so cute!!!

Such a lovely food filled Sunday... Ahhhhhh

A Fun Saturday

2010-10-16T20:52:00.000+08:00

A friend caught up with me sometime earlier this week and suggested visiting a Farmer's Market here in sunny Singapore. Ok so it was more "farmer's" market than farmer's market, but there were some really interesting rewards... Held at Dempsey, the Farmers' Market was a good way to spend a Saturday morning. After a really hot morning, original plans to visit the zoo were scrapped and the really hot day continued with a picnic lunch at Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve. Pretty awesome Saturday.

Bacon Buttie. I loved the sesame bun. Even though it looked pretty simple, and you wonder if it's worth the $9.50, it tasted wonderful, with a tangy sweet sauce spread on the bun. Bacon was charcoal grilled and awesome flavour went great with the fragrant sesame seeds

A Paella lauded as an original Spanish paella, not made to suit local tastebuds. I saw it being made and it looked beautiful. It tasted very good too, the rice had a good chew to it. The saffron and paprika gave it a beautiful scent. It was $10 for a large serving. Seeing it being made was half the fun.

Find of the day, Jamon Iberico, I've never had any Jamon before, so it was really good to find it. The taste... incredible... all that piggy goodness... The fig was a twist of brilliance, we bought it from the greengrocer stall.

Lovely flavour, but the Fig was abit of a let-down. The ham wasdry and beautifully scented. Ahhh....

The final slice, fat glittering in the sun.

As things turned into a spanish conquest, yummy sangria.

Vegan cold treat. Bottom right hand corner, a beautiful pumpkin coconut flavour... hmm I was too full to have some, but I wonder where i can get some now....

Maybe google Brownice?
It's made from brown rice (I wasn't listening closely enough coz i was looking at something else...)

The late lunch we had later, picnic at Sungei Buloh! friend's had pickles in it 'because it is MY sandwich'

Cheese, tomato, rocket, smoked turkey breast,and mustard on Sourdough bread

Some migratory birds on the mud flats.
Been many years since I went to Sungei Buloh, and it's nice to see the birds are still there.

The mascot at the visitor's centre.

Review - Galley by the Straits

2010-08-04T00:14:00.007+08:00

Not too many words, following pictures were taken at a dinner hosted by Jimmy Sim, Managing Director of Galley by the Straits restaurant.

Located inside the Sembawang SAF Yacht Club, 43 Admiralty Rd West, it is open to the general public, and a really good place to head to for a nice family dinner by the beach. Especially since it is but 4km from my home in Woodlands :p

Prices also not bad, close to regular hdb void deck zi char price, maybe 20% higher, but you pay the premium for the lovely location (live piano music every saturday evening. Pianist played 3 hrs non stop okay....) Also, did i mention, parking is easily available and free?

Lovely sunset view just off the pier

double boiled seafood soup in a fresh coconut ($14 each)
It was really lovely soup. However I've had a soup really double-boiled in a coconut before and there is a difference. This one there is a subtle coconut scent when the soup is placed before you, but the coconut fragrance dissipates after awhile. The large dried scallop in the soup was very generous, but then it was still a little hard. Perhaps a little more double boiling could have brought this dish up a higher notch. A good start to the evening however.

large prawn, fresh and dried scallop, mushrooms

salmon dip with garlic toast ($18) - sounds ordinary, but it was a really pleasant surprise when the dip turned out to be... warm! It tasted really good and was flavourful without being all gloopy or sticky (or worse... freezer burned!) like some versions you might find. A good twist on a simple dish. Yummy!

Just a little one, pity coz i would have had more :p

Really yummy smoked salmon sashimi platter (large one $36). It was huge and impressive, and I was really excited to taste it because I could smell the smokiness but somehow it didn't look smoked. I have to say I wished the vegetables were arranged fresh though, because they were a little wilted. The salmon would have been really good wrapped in super fresh crisp lettuce...

How'd it taste? Like a really fresh sashimi, with a lovely smoky scent. Another coup for the restaurant for everyone seemed to really enjoy this course. The lovely thick slices disappeared really fast.

oooh.... yum....

Maybe i'm an odd one but I didn't like this course that much. The prawns might actually have been a little too big, the flesh was tough because it had to be fried for a little longer. Also, the combination was a little on the greasy side. The wasabi flavour of the prawn on the right was also a little muted... I guess this is for those who like large meaty prawns and less spice in their seasoning. (Yuen Yang Prawns $7/100gms)

Everyone thought it was some kind of yam ring, but it was a sweet potato ring. The flavours were good, but perhaps it is the nature of sweet potato, but it had a slightly gummy texture. Maybe mixing in some regular potato or yam might improve the mouth-feel. I liked the natural taste of the sweet potato though... hmm...

Juicy mango cubes and tender sea scallops were great though... even better if the broccoli was also added in so the colors and textures would contrast out more...

This dish was intriguing, presented in a very chinese restaurant style, turns out it was a spinach tofu in the center. I really liked it, it was smooth and silky and the fried skin a little chewy after being soaked in sauce... delectable texture and flavour.

Fish head curry was served in a claypot, the fish head really fresh and meaty. The curry, thick and rich, chinese style, was almost a velvet cream texture. The spice burned after the initial flavours sank in so you could really taste the balance. I would have happily have had just that and rice... I'm definitely taking my mum back for some.

Of course the meal had to have some crab. My favourite crustacean! I'm not a great fan of chilli crab because many versions tend to be too sweet, masking the taste of the crab. This sauce however was very well seasoned and tasted very good. It was mopped up very well by the fried mantou :)

This beautiful pepper crab was served at the same time as the chilli crab and wawwww... did it beckon... and of course, being the klutz that I am I had to have one fly out of my hands and land on my dress... I love crab and the crabs were good. Pity I was there with a bunch of strangers so i had to have some table manners. Next time, I'm bringing my family and i'm gonna dig in with both hands! promise!

PS. there was also dessert, but by then I was so full, operating my camera was beyond me... but i really liked the yam paste with coconut ice cream... yup... yam paste with coconut ice cream ok! droolzzzzz

Back! Super cute and amazing cupcake!

2010-05-08T01:18:00.006+08:00

cutest cupcake cup

Check out that lovely crumb. I promise, it was a little dense at first but still really light on the palate.... and the scent!!!

A tad sweet, but I think it was my fault. I used too much sweetener.

So a couple of days ago I was just bumming ard this cycling forum I hang out at and this lady mentioned a vegan cookie recipe she liked and linked it. So i clicked on the the link and lo and behold I see these really awesome cookies. Read the recipe and it was excellent. Full of nutritious things to keep me full for longer, and NO FAT!

Well, I know people who know me know I'm not really that obsessive abt fat. I have butter and all kinds of oils stocked all the time. I mean... Kaya toast with real BUTTER is one of my fav things ever. But then again, I really do need to cut down before I turn into a block of butter myself.

So the recipe looked intriguing and I figured if they turned out to be pieces of cardboard, I'd just be out a few bucks.

Turns out, it was not that cheap. The cookies were mighty expensive. Considering I had to go out and buy a lot of the things. maple syrup at $13.90 for 250ml anyone? ouch ouch. Cake was alright, though I just had to buy that 2 litre carton of florida's natural coz that was the only size at the store ($8.something?) Ok so it added up to alot, but I think it was totally worth it. Added up and divided by batches, it's not really that expensive.

I didn't like the cookies so much, I think coz I might have measured the syrup out wrongly. They're really dense and soft, and i'm more of the crunchy cookie sort. Plus they were really sweet. But I'm guessing they'd be good with my breakfast coffee. Instead of using all maple syrup, I went half agave nectar. Need to stretch that bottle...

I love the cupcakes. LOVE LOVE LOVE

They are wholewheat, fat free and would have been vegan had I found soy yoghurt. But I just substituted regular indian mama shop yoghurt and it was AWESOME! Moist and flavourful and the scent of that orange! I added an extra half cup of cocoa powder to up the chocolate punch, but that was all the substitution I did. (oh and I halved the amt of cinnamon, since i wasn't too sure abt the cinnamon, but it turned out fine and so next time i'll just use it)

The original recipe was for a bundt cake, but I didn't wanna deal with cake pans etc, so I just used some really cute muffin cups I found at the store. Strawberry print and polka dots! woohoo!

There was something about the crust too, just out of the oven, it had a crispy sweet crust but I think tmw the crust will be nice and soft. Brother didn't like it coz he said the orange smell was too strong... But then that was the whole point.

Ahh.. definitely good recipes worth trying out.

maple banana oatmeal cookies

Chocolate orange cupcake

please excuse the bad pictures... I'm still using the same camera form when i first started this blog, and I think the technology is a little behind now. I had to use the flash... eww...

*update, brought the cupcakes to work today and handed some out for a taste test. Very positive, they were well liked.

I was really tired last night and I forgot some of the changes I made to the cupcake recipe. In addition to using full fat sour yoghurt, and adding 1/2 cup more cocoa powder, I also used 1 cup each of orange juice and water, instead of 1 and 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup orange juice. Also I used sparkling water instead of tap. It might help to make the cake lighter.

KIMCHI!

2010-04-03T17:07:00.003+08:00

It was a tedious task, but the kimchi was pretty successful.

I followed a recipe for mak kimchi by Maagchi

I've been snooping around her blog for awhile since David Lebovitz linked to it...

I like korean food, but my allergy to gochujang kinda depleted that romance. but now there is hope!

unless i prove sensitive to the fish sauce I used in this recipe...

I halved Maagchi's recipe coz there wasn't enough room in my fridge but I still have extra kimchi paste so i think i am goon go out and buy one more cabbage to use it with.

I'll add pictures to this post later

Life consumed me until this Thosai was found...

2009-05-13T19:33:00.001+08:00

finally a picture of that pesto...I'm not saying more....

2008-10-06T20:45:00.006+08:00

Why I can never be a vegetarian.

2008-10-06T20:37:00.003+08:00

Vegetable soup is one of my favourite things to have hanging about readily in the fridge, waiting to be heated up after a late night ride, or tiring class. Tasty and nutritious. I make mine like a minestrone, but I daren't call it a minestrone for fear of purists. I just put whatever vegetables or beans I have on hand. Some garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and lovely dark red italian tomato paste.

Today I made a giant pot to clear out the wilted and semi frozen vegetables I found lurking in my fridge. I do my marketing but my eyes are too big for my stomach, since I buy enough vegetables for 5 when there are only two of us. And then there are the busy days where I'm just too lazy to use the vegetables sitting right there. So vegetable soup ensures nothing gets wasted.

Use whatever you like. In a large pot, warm some olive oil and chopped garlic, fry the mushrooms to develop the flavour. Then toss in all the long cooking vegetables The soaked beans and cauliflower and things like.. chopped raw chestnuts go in at this time. Add boiling water and bring up the heat. When its beginning to boil again, add the next lot of vegetables. Zucchini, pumpkin, celery, carrot, tomato and everything else, leaving only the quick cooking greens. Those go in at the very end. Now stir in as much tomato paste as you like to get a nice red hue and some goood tomatoey flavour. Salt it now, so the vegetables get tender and have good flavour.

Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing is burning at the bottom. It will bubble away happily.

Once it all smells good, the tomatoes have melted and the zucchini can hardly be found, add in the greens and stir well and simmer for another fifteen minutes. If you like, add in some pasta twists or shells at this point. Just a little to add texture to it when you're eating later. Season with more salt to taste, black pepper and more extra virgin olive oil. (I always end up adding more tomato paste at the end too... )

Then call your neighbours and ask them to help themselves :D

Leftovers freeze well. Refrigerator also works for up to a week as long as you let it cool completely before refrigerating. (If there are any leftovers. Might be better if you set aside some at first.)

Update: The soup turned out delicious, but somehow lacking something.. It was really sweet, but had none of the robustness I'm used to finding in my soup. I finally deduced it was the lack of meat in it. Usually it's made with chicken stock, but this time I just used water and the soup suffered for it.. Just now I decided to do something about it.. I added some mince beef (pan fried with garlic and some potatoes) Ahhhhhhh.... much better. Now it's the soup I know... See the beefy bits in the picture?? ;)

Pratilla

2008-09-21T21:05:00.003+08:00

I wonder if this means something vulgar in spanish.

What happens when you crave a quesadilla but have no tortilla? You use frozen PRATA :D
What happens when you have no meaty thing to put inside? You use more cheese.
What if there is no lettucy veggie thingy? You use grated carrot and beetroot salad.

Ahh.. wonder.. maybe I should go get myself some now..

what I have been up to recently

2008-08-20T00:12:00.002+08:00

No I'm not dead... yet.... I'm just busy with my new toy. Too many things to do, too little time..

Backdated post - Vietnam Part 4

2008-05-27T14:47:00.004+08:00

Steetside vendors are a colourful affair in Vietnam. No one seems bothered by the amount of exhaust smoke being sprayed across their produce. Perhaps its much more practical, since their clientele can stop right in front, get what they want, pay money and then leave, all without getting off their scooters.. It's the 'Drive-up' mentality I'd say..

After gallivanting about all day, and having went so far we did not have a proper lunch, I had to return to one of these roadside shellfish places for dinner. The razor clams were fried with sweet basil and lots of garlic. H loved them, but they were a tad sweet for me.

These clams however, were the best things I'd ever had.. big, juicy and succulent. Steamed quickly, they still had milky clam juice in the shells. Didn't even need a dipping salt. I'm still fantasizing about them right now, months after the deed...

The damage... around I cannot remember now.. but it wasn't that expensive.

Iced green tea to wash it all down

Talk about sheer variety...

Backdated post - Vietnam Part 3

2008-05-27T14:17:00.005+08:00

This has been a post long time coming, but being very busy with work and other aspects of my life, I never had the chance to do it till now, and I definitely need to apologise to all my readers. But since it is my blog and I'm back to putting it up I'm not going to use the magic words.

The first night in Ho Chi Minh City consisted of a trip to eat with some guys we met in the bus crossing the border. No pictures, but a beautiful bowl of noodle soup with chunks of duck and blood cakes. Those things were some of my favourite food when I was growing up. the dark purplish brown cakes in a hot soup... heaven.. Of course, all my compatriots did not appreciate it at all.. Ah well.. more for me!

The next morning it was imperative to have our first cups of vietnamese iced coffee. We followed our noses for breakfast. The wonderful scent of grilled meat filled the air. Asides from the ubiquitous pho breakfast, it seems that sweet marinated grilled pork chops with rice is another very popular breakfast. We followed our noses along the street until we came upon a genial looking old man who was grilling the said meat on an outside charcoal grill. His wife was decidedly less genial looking and ran the other part of the shop.

Having had a whiff of it, it's not hard to understand why it was an essential breakfast. What better way to start the day than with some tasty protein and carbohydrates?.. even my not-very-much-meat-eating travel partner (she usually does not even eat pork unless its been chopped into unidentifiable bits) insisted on having the full pork chop! Coffee came from across the street from a smiley lady in the standard floral print pyjama style matching day clothes most vietnamese women seem to sport.

For some reason however, I didn't feel like being suckered into such an easy meal. For some reason I expected more work in finding my first proper vietnamese meal.. thus I had some coffee while H had her pork chop. Then we wandered around the boroughs until I saw a stall with lots of people sitting by on a low tables slurping noodles. Braised beef noodles, the gravy sweet with carrots and thickened from the natural gelatin and collagen of braised beef bones and tendons. The chunks of tendon were not too big to be unmanageble and melted in your mouth. The vegetables balanced out the heady flavours. Really amazing and cherished to the last drop...After breakfast we walked around the Ben Thanh market and saw many many hawkers and vendors selling amazingly yummy looking things, but we were too full from breakfast. I got shooed away for taking some of these pictures. The Vietnamese are definitely not as friendly as the Cambodians.

Quick meals - Coriander Pesto

2008-03-14T14:17:00.002+08:00

My first encounter with Pesto was many years ago, and one of confusion, not really sure what I was tasting or experiencing. It was a truly Italian pesto, with basil, pine nuts olive oil and the like. It was not too bad, but not something I'd volunteer to eat on a regular basis, more of an acquired taste. Recently however, I've been making a pesto that falls into the comfort food category.

Coriander pesto is something I first heard of while watching food programmes on TV. It has all the enticing prospects of regular pesto, except its much lighter and to be honest, cheaper to make in Singapore. I found a random recipe online that had fulfilled my criteria (that I already had all the ingredients). I don't know which one it is anymore, but just to let everyone know, I did get the initial recipe from somewhere, and it was never my idea solely.

Just some points to note - I use the big australian limes because they are big and fragrant and do not have the flowery scent of the calamansi, just a straightforward citrusy pucker-up flavour. These can be found at any regular wet market, not sure about the supermarket. Fresh coriander should be much cheaper at the wet market too, about 1 sgd for a fist sized bunch. Macadamias are the splurge, but that was because I had some at hand. Pine nuts would do if you have them, but macadamias can be bought from the snack section of most supermarkets. I used the plain salted ones. too many additives on the other flavours.

Coriander pesto

big bunch of fresh coriander, roots cut off, rinsed carefully and shake as dry as possible.
1/4 cup salted macadamias
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 clove garlic, peeled
juice of 1 large lime

blend together in a large blender, add extra oil if necessary.

Makes a tangy yummy pesto, perfect on hot pasta with some peeled blanched shrimp and thinly sliced celery, or as it is.

Quick meals - Soba with ham and tomatoes

2008-02-18T00:13:00.003+08:00

It's been a long time since I've last posted and I hope I'll be forgiven. I've been so busy lately I hardly have time to surf the net. Is that even possible? But I'm just sitting here 5 minutes before going to bed, relaxing with a nice, light but comforting meal in my belly. I figure I should start a 'series' on easy meals (I know i still have not finished my traveling posts yet. I will I promise!)

I bring lunches to school everyday, and my colleagues often ask me where i find the time to prepare my meals. I tell them the night before, but what I don't tell them is that I sometimes prepare meals weeks ahead. I don't tell them that because for some very strange reason, people are squeamish about food-keeping. The freezer is not one of my best friends for nothing, and another best friend are the foods that improve with flavor when kept in the fridge.

One trick I've used for many years is cooking starchy staples in reasonable quantities and freezing them in little HDPE bags. HDPE are better than ziplock because they're much thinner and smaller and this I'd say more environmentally friendly. It also helps that they're cheap as anything.. 2.30 for a bag of couple hundred. how to beat that?

Back to the starchy staples.

Rice (brown and white), spaghetti and other pasta shapes and soba (japanese buckwheat noodles) are excellent candidates. They don't change texture from the freezing, and since they do take reasonably longer to cook than instant noodles and are hard to cook in small quantities. Brown rice and soba also tends to keep me feeling full longer, so I don't eat as much and become hungry too quickly, excellent for long busy days at school, and also for the weight conscious. Another trick is to put sweetcorn kernels in the brown rice. very yummy, and I'm absolutely sweetcorn mad.

Ok, so freezing starchy staple in little packets in the fridge means quick quick meals.

here's meal idea number 1

Soba with ham and tomatoes.

1/2 cup cooked soba (frozen better)
several vine tomatoes (tastes better) if not regular will do. (about 1/2 cup worth) sliced.
Half a shallot, thinly sliced and rinsed(removes the extra pungency)

microwave these on high in a bowl for 2 mins

1 slice ham torn up
2 tblsp Soba Senka (soba sauce)

add these to bowl and stir up, then EAT!

super easy, super good, better than instant noodles.

I'm happy, so I'll go to bed happy now. Sweet Dreams!

Cambodia Part 2

2007-12-23T23:31:00.000+08:00

Kirirom National Park was our next destination, and since we were gonna be staying at a resort, we figured food would be expensive and more geared to western tastebuds. Thus breakfast required us to make a quick run to Bayon Bakery with a moto driver, and there we bought nice buns and rolls with local egg custard and cream. The most fantastical however were these unassuming baguettes, slightly longer and thinner than the regular ones, we though maybe they were onion baguettes, judging from the bits of fried green onion on the top. A close inspection upon breaking the crusty baguette was delicious sweet savoury pork floss.

The national park was where we learnt to say.. no salt, no msg. By day 4 we were really terrified of the msg laden local cuisine, which would have been really good if not for the liberal quantities of Cambodians' favourite seasoning. I don't mind msg in small quantities, after all it has been used in Chinese cuisine for centuries. But the way Cambodians, Thais and as we discovered later, the Vietnamese, lash it on is just atrocious.

The park was beautiful, and we took a long hike to big big waterfall, and hung around in relative luxury for a few days. We got bored really soon however, and headed next to Sihanoukville, a popular southern coastal town in Kampong Som. After a lacklustre dinner, (we tried to find a local place to eat, but all the local places had menus with no prices and we had a limited budget) we spent the whole of Day Two walking through the sprawling town.

Took us the better part of the day to walk from Victory Beach, back to Oecheutuel Beach where we were staying, but along the way we uncovered a gem. There were some cambodian standards, fish sour soup with morning glory, some salted vegetables eve, all from a roadside stall very much like our own economic rice stalls. The stallholder lady was sweet and knew a little english even. Local customers streamed by to take away plastic bags of food for their own lunches. Our cheapest meal to date (5500 Riel, about USD$1.30 for both of us), with some culinary surprises hiding in our bowl. Behold the humble stewed pork belly. It looked familiar, like a soy sauce braised pork, even sporting the dark stained hard boiled eggs.

A mouthful however revealed a complicated grilled flavour, laced with a mild sweet sauce. The pork had first been marinated then grilled and then cooked in a soy sauce mixture but with dark palm sugar. It was amazing, the chunks of meat melting on my tongue. It was quite hard to believe, and I actually stood up and went to the pot to dish myself more. (I'm not a glutton though, I need to explain that by this point we had gotten a little sick of meat and the generous portions of meat here, coupled with my travelling partner's limited meat intake, meaning that I was getting overly generous portions of meat. So when we saw the fatty meat we just wanted the eggs in the stew, and were not really interested in the meat and had but one small piece in our bowl, hence me getting up to get more.)

After such a yummy lunch we figured we needed something sweet for a treat, and a sign boasting italian gelato called out to us from another street. It was a hospitality school, and they had some lovely home-made gelato for 50 cents a scoop. suffice to say the lime sorbet was the perfect way to cool off in the crazy heat.

Exhausted we spent all afternoon on the beach, eating barbequed squid, drinking beer and getting mobbed by beach kids trying to sell us useless things. I had a bag of apple wafers and instead of buying something from them I would hand the kids a few. They seemed pretty appeased. Circumstances meant that we had to leave Sihanoukville in the morning and so we decided to splash out a little on dinner, and have bbq at one of the pub/shacks by the Sea. It was nothing special really, just a grilled whole fish and some shrimp and more grilled squid. But the fries were some of the best I've ever had, not frozen, made from fresh local potatoes, they were crinkle cut and coated with a thin batter that made a super crisp shell, with lots of potato flavour inside. Oh lovely, a local woman's take on french fries, very well done. Sometimes another culture's insight does yield some fantastic results.

**Some Photos courtesy of Huiwen and Her Camera

Cambodia Part 1

2007-12-11T01:54:00.001+08:00

First stop after leaving the airport, regardless of the cooked fishballs and fresh tau kwa in my carry-on luggage, was somewhere where we could get a good solid dose of Cambodian food.

Papaya salad, fish amok, beef sour soup and some excellent fried chicken. Amok restaurant however, is a slight disappointment... Khmer Kitchen was much better. It was still all pretty decent tasting, just that I felt that the flavours were a little muted, the sour soup not tart enough, the amok not spicy or coconutty enough. Maybe it's due to the fact that Amok restaurant caters alot to the caucasian crowd. It was good enough though, we were so full after that.

The next day started a little late, so no breakfast and a very ordinary rice lunch with stuffed bittergourd soup and some stir fried long beans. One thing we were quick to notice however, was the copious use of MSG in our food. Something had to be done there, but we let it rest for now.. Our late afternoon visit to Pasar Toutompong distracted us with a delightful aroma...

We had no idea what it was.. could have been dog meat for all we knew. My non-meat-loving friend was drooling... how cool was that?! Served with a super crunchy, hot toasted, light-as-air baguettes, slathered with a sweet butter inside, the alternate mouthfuls of fragrantly sweet barbequed meat, and light chewy crunch was oddly satisfactory. We had four sticks of meat and two baguettes altogether and I think it cost about USD1.50. I cannot remember, but I know it was a ridiculously tiny price for such a wonderful snack. Locals were just coming and going, and it was fascinating to watch.

Walking around after that, we saw a little stall that had, amongst all the other packaged snacks some trays of little sweetmeats, just like the kueh kueh we have at home. These green ones looked fascinating, so we bought one to try for 300riel 5cents USD, they were good, not too sweet, filled with some light brown coconut, the skin like mooncake snowskin. Not a coconut fan, W wasn't too impressed, but I quite liked it.

Walking back to our place, we saw this one shop selling some kind of fritters.. they were huge, and we though maybe it was banana. I was really disappointed though, it was more batter than anything else. i could hardly see or smell the banana. W liked it.. she's a more batter than banana person I guess.. Or maybe it WASN'T banana... I still have no idea.. Anyone knows?

Dinner was a coup.....

I've read about beef Loc Lac, and heard bad things about it too but never really tried it. Fortunately for me the first version I've ever had also had to be the best! Beef cubes were perfectly done medium and the sauce, tasty and peppery, perfect with the steaming mound of rice. One more thing to go on my list of things to eat in Cambodia. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the place, although I can ask my friends if anyone is interested. Definitely worth the find, and the 3 or 4 usd price tag.

I'm Back!!!

2007-12-07T22:28:00.001+08:00

I tried to blog but unfortunately there was too much to do, and too little time, and terrible internet connections. very frustrating since I did not bring my own laptop. Fortunately, now I'm home and have several days to blog about my crazy adventures, and all the fun I had, food and otherwise.

I'll try to do it in installments, probably day by day, with pictures to go with everything. but first, to catch up on some sleep... tataaaa!

Finally, a vacation!

2007-11-19T22:46:00.000+08:00

I know I need to apologise... Life caught up with me and blogging got left behind. Well, I wasn't eating out much and even then there was nothing special to blog about really, except the spectacular barbeque on a certain beach on a certain pulau ubin where open fires, even for barbeques are illegal, prepared and executed by yours truly. Cooking was mostly nothing fancy or special and involved everyday meals, but thats a series I would like to do someday, like a week's worth of meals, budget of course, but nutritious and for 5 people, so that I can share some of my mealtime ideas with my readers. I have managed to confirm an allergy to eating 'outside' food, as a weeks worth of dinner out every night resulted in a scary patchy bloated face even thick concealer would not help. another week of abstinence from delicacies such as fried ikan bilis, barbequed seafood, dried shrimp anythings and other cooked food bought outside of the home, slathered in thick sauces, has resulted into going back to clear normal looking skin with the occasional blemish.

Well, as the post title suggest, I am indeed going on holiday to Cambodia and Vietnam, much deserved I think, after a long year of activities including the all important graduation. It will be 15 days of tramping around with a female friend, getting out hands eyes mouths and stomachs on all we can afford to eat in the way of cheap inexpensive street delicacies. Everything will be extensively noted down this time around, after the last trip's cameraless fiasco. I will try to blog along the way, but no promises there, since the precious time spent blogging would be much better spent hunting down another good meal.

First stop, Phnom Penh, loaded down with dictionaries, stationery and gifts for the lovely children at this Cambodian orphanage I visited the last time I was there. As it turns out, the Cambodian Water Festival will be on the 23rd to the 25th of Nov, so we are there right on time. Then we'll head to Lovely Vietnam. The initial plan was to explore the Mekong Delta region, but recent storms and floods mean that the area won't be the happiest place to visit. Plus I am trying to avoid taking those terrible anti-malarials. So We're going to try to go as far as Hanoi, and the head back down to HCMC by way of all the coastal towns such as Ha Long Bay, Nha Thrang and Mui Ne, as well as maybe an overnight visit to Dalat.

All in all that is plenty to do for 15 days, wish me luck and I'll be back safe and sound on the 7th of Dec in time for the Christmas season, and more heaps of food. Now, back to packing... to bring or not to bring makeup.. that is the all important question.. hmm...

Who doesn't like a crispy golden crust?

2007-10-21T22:29:00.000+08:00

Shepherd's Pie is one of those one-dish meals that make comfort food category without even trying. Mashed potatoes with a savoury mincemeat baked till it forms a crust, with or without salty cheddar on top. First time I made it in some food and nutrition class using chicken mince, with no cheese. Second time I had it, we were in an Irish bar called the Harbor Inn in Wildwood New Jersey. We went almost every night, and thursday nights the Irish owner's Caribbean wife would make steaming trays of the stuff, a mince base with instant mash potato poured on top. I say poured instead of layered because her pie was so liquid you dished it out with a spoon. Many a Friday morning started with a hangover headache accompanied by a scalded oral roof. Reminders of too much cheap alcohol and salty tasty piping hot shepherd's pie.

This is one of those few times where you can make use of the frozen vegetable trio to great effect, but me being me, and Singapore being the place it is, frozen corn is more expensive than fresh. So despite slightly more work, It was fresh corn sliced off the cob, carrots cubed by hand and frozen peas. I guess it was better that way too because the carrots were sweet and not mushy, likewise the sweetcorn. The peas weren't that great, but i could not get a better brand at the Shop and Save.

It was a little on the dry side, especially the one that i refrigerated for the next day, but my family loved it. Next time more milk in the mashed potato and more stock in the mince. You'd notice I use alot of vegetables in my mince, disproportionately some might add, but I like my vegetables. Feel free to halve the quantity.

Mince base
I used 500 gram beef plus 250 Pork, You could also do all beef or same beef to chicken ratio. But authentic Shepherd's Pie uses Lamb. (apparently with beef its Cowboy pie. I say whatever as long as it tastes good.)
4 cloves freshly minced garlic
1 large onion finely diced
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup sweetcorn kernels
1 cup sweet green peas
1 cup stock or water or 1cup water and a stock cube
pinch of rosemary, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1tsp salt (use less if using stock cube) ground in a mortar and pestle till fine
3 tblsp tomato paste
2 tblsp butter

heat a heavy bottom pan, as wide a base as you can spare, with deep sides.
sweat onions with butter, then add garlic
when fragrant, add pepper mixture then meat
stir ard to break up the mince, and let it brown and cook through till juices dry up. then add the stock/water and tomato paste. simmer for 20 mins till most of the liquid evaporates. add more liquid if too dry and meat still not tender yet.
Add vegetables and cook over low heat for further 10 mins.

Basic Mashed Potato recipe
1kg russet potatoes (or any other white floury potato), scrubbed, skin on (or off, I like it skins on.) cut to large chunks
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 Tblsp Butter (or more) Please DO NOT use margarine. It's worse for you than butter and is not a substitute. If can't eat butter use less, or replace with full cream milk and omit the butter. trust me, else its pointless both taste and nutrition-wise
1 cup milk (or more)

I say or more because some people like their mash creamy, some people like it potatoey, so please, whatever to your liking.

In a large pot of boiling water, add salt and potatoes. They should be done in 12 to 13 mins, do the fork text, they pierce through easily and skins start to fall off easily.
(this is crucial, any longer and yr mash will be gummy or grainy, horrid.)

When done drain and mash immediately, adding the butter first and then gradually the milk. Once again don't over mash it, that encourages a gummy texture, yucks.

When the two components have been prepped, prepare two round shallow pie dishes, I use round glass ones, a square metal one will do if you don't have an attractive pie plate. fill pie dish with mince halfway and top other half with the mashed potato. rough out the top with a fork, top with shredded cheddar and bake in a 220 degree centigrade oven for 15 minutes or till golden brown on top.

When done remove from oven, cool for 15 mins before serving.

*Can be prepared the day before and kept in the fridge before baking. Remove from fridge and straight to oven, but at 200 degrees for slightly longer time. Don't bother bringing to room temperature because condensation will make the potato soggy at the edges etc.

**Serve with fresh greens for an even better meal!

Gutting Sea Cucumbers

2007-10-14T15:49:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, a foodie will go out of the way to prepare something difficult and complicated or do something no one else would do in their right mind, just for the sake of it. When my father asked me to search on the net to find information on how sea cucumbers were prepared, i didn't find much. Yet I figured, what the hell, how hard can it be? Turns out it was alot of work for very little reward.

Firstly, when alive and fresh from the sea, these sea cucumbers look really huge fat and full of delish potential. Once one gains a deeper insight into sea cucumber anatomy however, these things are the great shrinkers. When 'attacked' or 'near death' I'd rather say, these blighters spew out all their innards, alot of which consists of sand and intestines and liver and whatnot. All of which look completely inedible, although i know in Korea and Japan the intestines and other assorted innards are considered a delicacy. (I won't be too surprised at how delicacious* they are.. imagine cleaning sand filled intestines and then curing them without turning them into sieves..) They were so tiny when everything was done I had to supplement the dish with store-bought frozen sea cucumber... 5 weren't enough even though they weighed more than 3 kilos at the start. In the end it was more like 300 grams.

Secondly, the whole process involved the killing, cleaning, boiling, removing the muscles, then reboiling i think (but more on this step later since i didn't do it) and then cooking in preferred way. It was not that bad, except that my sea cucumber had a weird aftertaste even after stewing with dark sauce and fresh duck.. like.. limey in a calcium carbonate, not fresh green citrus kind of way. Not very pleasant. I don't know whether it was my preparation method, or the variety of sea cucumber (for all I know it wasn't even an edible variety, maybe not poisonous just not tasty, but my entire family is still alive and kicking...) It took me 3 hours from the start point till cleanup which meant slipping the prepared sea cucumbers in a box into a fridge because the stewing had to wait. I was too exhausted by then.

(same plate, before and after boiling... compare the size... it got even smaller..)

Well, that said, despite the not so pleasant results, I did learn a few things from this experience. I need to appreciate sea cucumbers more, so much work goes into preparing them and the process cannot be mechanized. Next time I want to cook sea cucumber I will either buy dried or frozen. I doubt I'm up to killing sea cucumber. Technically i didn't kill them, my sister did, but I had to clean the still moving split open sea cucumbers, and hang around for the killing so it was just as bad. Sea cucumber stewed with duck over a charcoal stove is really very great tasting I have to say, and is a definite dish in my extending repertoire of favourites, since now I know what spices my mother uses to flavour the sauce.

*delicacious - word from my personal dictionary. meaning the status of a food item as an expensive delicious delicacy.

my other love... books, and the main supplier of them..

2007-10-10T20:40:00.000+08:00

I have a not-so-food-related confession to make. I am a book addict and I'm staying in Singapore partly for the NLB. Sure, they don't always have all the books, but they make my voracious reading habit alot easier on my pocket, and they're not book nazis like the independent book sellers scattered all over the island. Membership is free for citizens, and an upgrade costs about 25 bucks a year so i don't have to go to the library so often to get new books. Also, they aren't mean to people who damage or return books late by accident. Recently my dog found a library book of mine in the wrong place and by the time she was done with it, the previously brand new shiny plastic covered book look like a shredded rojak salad. I was so embarrassed at the counter where I had to show the book to the librarian. A shredded book cover for a book lover like me is like a guan yin statue with no head for a devotee. Fortunately, only the cover was damaged, but unfortunately it meant that the library could no longer display the book, so I had to pay for it. But the point is, at least they didn't make me feel like some animal who ruins books, they laughed and shrugged at the unfortunacy of it all, and even gave me the book to keep after i paid for the damages. It was a food related book tho, like the massivest tome on caffeine one could ever fine, and now its all mine, albeit coverless.

It seems to me like the National Library Board has recently been trying to come up with interesting programmes and stocking up on more books for the literate foodie. Not content are we just to eat, but also to read, spend afternoons chatting, and even blogging about eating and food in general. I was recently asked by Cheryl of thebakerwhocooks to participate in an event organised by the NLB where they get a few floggers together to chit-chat with some people who come attend the chit-chat session regarding flogging. I know the publicity says famous floggers, and I'm not famous since I have a readership of ZERO it seems... BUT, thebakerwhocooks is famous.. heehee.. So, please come and talk to us about flogging at the National Library. Dates and venues are below, in the programme lineup for this month. Kudos NLB for remembering book loving food lovers like me. I Heart NLB!

Foods of My Ancestors - The Chitty Melaka Cuisine
Saturday, 20 October, 3.00 - 4.30 pm
Programme Zone, Ang Mo Kio Community Library
The Chitty Melaka or Peranakan Indian cuisine is a fusion of South Indian, Malay and Chinese cooking. It is estimated that there are only 100 Chitty Melaka families in Singapore. Don't miss this opportunity to experience and taste the authentic and unique flavours of the Chitty Melaka cuisine at this talk and cooking demonstration by Veni Rengayah-Knight, author of the newly published cookbook Foods of My Ancestors.

Flog Fight!
Sunday, 21 October, 3.00 - 4.30 pm
Programme Zone, library@orchard
Singaporeans are always on the lookout for the next new thing in food. And the latest food guides seem to be coming from outer space…virtually, that is. That's right, food blogs are registering thousands of hits daily and are suddenly influential in the food choices people make. This October, we grill some of the most popular food bloggers at a flog fight to find out the ingredients that make them so delectable to foodies. Hurry! Ringside seats available!

Asian Recipes & Home Remedies
Saturday, 27 October, 3.00 - 4.30 pm
Programme Zone, Bedok Community Library
Herbs, spices and plants were used in ancient Asian civilisations as health remedies and beauty aids. Today, these traditional ways continue to be applied, passed on and practised. Join celebrity chef and cookbook author, Devagi Sanmugam as she presents some of these remedies and recipes at this special programme for the health conscious foodie. This is also your chance to meet the Spice Queen of Singapore with a string of accolades as eclectic and imaginative as her recipes.
Brought to you by Marshall Cavendish.

Passion for Organic: How Singaporeans Do It
Saturday, 27 October, 3.00 - 4.00 pm
Radin Mas Hall, Bukit Merah Community Library
One of our national past times is to check out the latest food fads and new restaurants. As we become more and more spoilt for choice, how do we separate the chaff from the real thing? Organic is becoming the buzzword for health and wellness. Let Ms Tuyet Nguyen (L'Organic) give you the lowdown on the reality of organic living in Singapore, the benefits it offers and the
choices you have to make to incorporate organic into your life.

My Sister went to Paris and brought me back some FDS

2007-09-30T21:24:00.001+08:00

It seems to me so many food bloggers rave about the use of fleur de sel. When my sister offered to bring me back something from her trip to Paris, the first that came to my mind was fleur de sel. But which fleur de sel? I've been reading enough to know its not just any ordinary sea salt, but there are many grades and varieties. I figured, how expensive can salt be right? I'm an avid reader of David Lebovitz's blog, and he says that his absolute favouritest is Fleur de Sel de Guérande.

So after giving several smses to my sister to give more precise instructions, the clever girl found some at Galleries Lafayette (correct spelling?) at about 6 Euro a packet of 250 grams. Exorbitant since thats about 12 Singapore Dollars a bag, when its 60 cents for 250 grams of table salt here. Thats about 20 times more expensive. But it is indeed the loveliest stuff, and being salt, it's not the kind of thing you use by the tablespoon.

I was really excited to use it, so the first thing I used it for was one of the simplest ways I know to appreciate salt.

Yeps, on a nice red juicy tomato. One knows its not easy to find excellent red tomatoes that do not cost an arm and a leg at your friendly neighbourhood supermarket, (and if I do I eat them like fruit without anything on them because its such a luxury). But recently it seems to be tomato season because there's just heaps of tomatoes at the nearby wet market, and being sold at $1.50 a kilogram, meaning about US$1.00 for the equivalent of about 2lbs. If you're careful at the tomato picking from the heaps, you can get good coloured specimens with decent tomato flavour. Compared to the hothouse tomatoes I got from superfresh (when in the US), its wayyyy cheaper for better flavour.

There's just something about the sweet, tart juiciness of tomatoes that suck up the saltiness of.. salt. And this FDS is amazing. I can put a fat grain of it on my tongue and feel the ocean/sea without cringing, wanting to spit, or drink a whole glass of water. Amazing.

Somehow I feel that it will not be suitable for my everyday cooking though, and it will be mighty expensive to use it in my chinese style stir fries etc, I'll gladly use superior soy sauce for that (another rather pricey basic condiment, will save for another post), and somehow they require the harsher but more intense table salt flavour.

I keep a little plastic container of the FDS on my desk at work, to use on my salads on the days I bring salads etc to work for my lunch.

Asides from that though I need to figure out some other ways to use this precious stuff, hand-raked off salt water puddles and brought to me halfway across the world here in sunny Singapore. I used some of it in the tuna salad I made, and it tasted pretty good. (The tuna salad was my attempt at replicating the swordfish mousse starter at le Papillion, I even used homemade mayonnaise and served it with beetroot) But I agree with David that it does this FDS more justice to use it as a finishing salt where you can crunch gently into the soft crystals that did not melt and enjoy the fresh ocean taste in your mouth.

Next up, I will try it on a baked potato.

When the menu has a name

2007-09-22T00:48:00.000+08:00

When a menu does not contain the word menu, we at the table all patiently await our 'Perfect Moments'. As with all other family events, an aunt had a funny story to tell about how our uncle's puzzlement at the pretty gold embossed dinner invitation, and why he felt it was unnecessary since the dinner was going to be held at 'her house'. For a 'humble' house, My Humble House sure spares no expense with the fancy names for their dishes.

Life is Good fresh mini octopus, spicy crab rolls with Jellyfish, Top Shells in Thai Style, Seafood Roll, Crispy Eel in Chef's Blended Sauce

The highly anticipated dinner started with a platter of cold dishes called 'Life is Good'. Well.. according to that platter i'd have to say life is only so-so. Only one item on the plate was worth its salt, the blandest sounding, but tastiest seafood roll. Crunchy sweet prawns in a crisp deep fried beancurd skin, I was glad i saved the best for last. My pet peeve was with the octopus. They looked and tasted exactly like the seasoned baby octopus used in supermarket sushi, probably fresh out of a nice food service sized carton. Also, the crab roll was actually shredded crabsticks. It was rather sad that the starter plate consisted of so many processed things, each little portion was so highly seasoned that towards the end it was kind of hard to tell the difference. Thank goodness there was more to look forward to.

Blessed Treasure Double-boiled Soup with Scallops, Fish Maw, and Bamboo Mushroom Consomme in Young Coconut

Being Cantonese, and totally weary (and wary) of shark fin soup, any soup course would get me excited. This tantalised both with glowing pre-dinner reports from a person who attended the sampling dinner, and the incredible sweet coconut scent that wafted through the room as waiters walked by with massive trays of the hot steaming coconuts. For the uninitiated, double boiling is by far one of the best ways to make chinese soup. A vessel with the ingredients for the soup is prepared and placed in a steamer. The vessel is then steamed for hours until the solid ingredients and liquid inside meld to form a harmonious whole. The relatively slow cooking method extracts the flavour of the ingredients without messing up their protein structures, so solids achieve tenderness without disintegrating and the broth remains sweet and clear. This soup tasted beautiful, except maybe it was seasoned a little too much for my liking, because halfway through, it began to feel really salty. The fish maw and dried scallop were real treasures to find and eat, somehow making you feel delicate and precious. (But dried scallops and the like also trigger my allergies so it's really a love hate relationship). The coconut flesh was fun to scrape off and eat, and had the characteristic coconutty milkiness with an added salty umami dimension. Definitely something to remember.

That Warm Feeling Wok Grilled Half Lobster in Superior Stock

Lobster for some reason is one of those things that never fails to impress. Maybe because its got all the juicy sweetness of prawns exept in a bigger chunk and with greater ease of extraction (from the diner's point of view of course) Consequently however, its bigger chunk means a much higher chance of too much or too little heat and makes for an altogether riskier experience for the cook since lobsters do cost substantiially more. Of course this half lobster was done perfectly, and the rich stock sauce enhanced the sweetness of the tender lobster meat. Pity the bride has a lobster allergy. Lucky those whose diner next chair had lobster allergies. Happy me to have some delicious lobster!

The Sea Calls with Good Fortune Steamed Marble Goby in Foie Gras infused Sauce

Somehow Steamed Marble Goby sounds so much more exotic than steamed Soon Hock. But of course the fish was very well done, moist and tender, a very generous sized chunk, and the light fois gras tasting sauce complemented perfectly. Definitely a great way to do steamed fish. Definitely.

Luck Aplenty, Fortune Found Stewed Sliced Abalone With Sea Cucumber and Spinach

Classic Wedding Dinner dish, the abalone with spinach, except this came along with a lovely tender gelatinous hunk of stewed sea cucumber. Need I say more? my skin feels smoother already.

Little Wonders Crispy Spring Chicken wiith Fermented Bean Curd

Chicken Little Wonders what happened to his best friend you mean... Well.. He/She was marinated in those little fermented bean curd/also known as bean cheese/fu yu wondercubes. The end result, fragrant with a crispy skin yet tender meat. It even had some of its bones in. Very very Chinese. By this course I was struggling to pack it in, so the lucky brother and cousin got some extra. The frisee I enjoyed because it balanced the salty flavours of the chicken's marinade coating. (Yes I am one off those Garnish eaters... Can't help it since they're mostly some greens or aromatics..)

The pictures for the next two courses disappeared... I don't know but maybe they were deleted.

Country Musings Stir-fried Fragrant Mushroom Rice with Chinese Sausage and Assorted Mushrooms came encased in a lotus leaf package so the rice opened up with a gush of lotus scented steam. Otherwise I was not too impressed. It was good and addictive because I'm a rice lover, but the rice was once again rather heavily seasoned, and I always prefer my rice a little plainer so the sweetness of good rice can come through to balance the rich flavours of the ingredients that were mixed in.

Perfect Harmony Chilled Hashima with Cheng Teng was a sweet dessert soup, nothing too special except for the Hashima. Now Hashima is one of those weird Chinese food thingys, purportedly good for your health/complexion/vitality, but of where it originates is pety hard to fathom. First cousin declared it was frog intestines. I remembered the guy at the Chinese herbal shop telling me something about egg nutrition. First Aunt said its definitely not the intestines but some kind of body fat. Internet research has turned up 'hasma is from the snow frog and it is the reproductive gland of this forest frog. Specifically, it is the oviduct of Rana temporaria cheninensis, family Ranidae. So says the Atlas of the Chinese Materia Medica Pharmacopoeia of 1995.' Apparently it is also known as Hasma. I've seen it dried in medicnal shops, very expensive indeed and they look like large yellowish granules. Prepared, it turns into jellylike clouds, completely clear and smooth, slipping down your throat like some elixir.

Ah... Wedded Bliss indeed. now I understand the need to share some of this bliss in the form of an excellent wedding dinner for family and friends.

To an everlasting Love, dearest Cousin J and Cousin-in-law H, and thanks for the Dinner experience at your humble house. :D

Another 'nice restaurant' Dinner

2007-09-17T00:32:00.000+08:00

This evening was a highly anticipated one. I found out that my cousin was getting married and hosting her wedding dinner at Tung Lok's My Humble House. As it turns out, the food seemed rather 'traditional' not really 'fusion' as touted, more like 'modern chinese'. The execution however, was faultless, and a few innovations helped make it a very memorable food evening.

That was the good news.

The bad news is that, the food pics are all in a cousin's camera, and that will therefore take some time to materialize. The ones for this post I took with my dinky little phone camera, really not meant for such high performance tasks such as picturing food. *tsktsk* Thus the actual post will have to wait. Sorry Guys.

Thats the bad news for you all, I have extra bad news for myself, have gotten some hives since dinner 3 hrs ago.. therefore the conclusion is that some of these traditional chinese ingredients I really cannot eat. Sad huh.. *sniff* bye bye conpoy, dried shrimp, abalone sauce... hello antihistamine...

Flogger's Dinner 2007 at Le Papillion

2007-09-02T01:18:00.001+08:00

Amouse Bouche
Marinated Goat Cheese with Pesto on Watermelon

Very nice indeed, even for a goat cheese non-admirer like me. The fresh basil pesto worked wonders to balance out the pungency of the goat cheese, and the watermelon provided a refreshing, light, but sweet contrast to the saltiness of the cheese.

The Butter for our rolls.. just thought they looked real pretty...

Cold Appetiser
Hokkaido Scallop Carpaccio and Barracuda Fish Mousse with Miso Cream

Some bloggers at my table had asked for a no shellfish menu, refering to clams and oysters that they did not like the taste of. Unfortunately for them, scallop (and so is prawn as we will later find out with utmost certainty), is shellfish, so they had a beetroot 'carpaccio' instead. Eager to try a little more, I swapped some scallop with them. The scallop tasted very mild, a little too strongly perfumed by the olive oil for my taste. I actually enjoyed to paper thin slices of beetroot more. The barracudda mousse however was impeccable, with tart and slightly creamy mayonnaise enhancing the fish meat, with an added crunch from some lightly cooked, chopped green beans.

Soup
Jasmine Tea Perfumed Duck Consomme made with Fiji Water
Foie Gras Tortellini

The first few mouthfuls of the soup were very mild, then the perfume of the Jasmine Tea began to filter into the tastebuds and the sense of smell. The clear pristine nature of the consomme helped to balance the rich fois gras filling in the tortellini. The pasta was perfect in texture, firm yet yielding, no gummy or pastey texture, very enjoyable indeed, exceptional vehicle for the fois gras delivery.

Hot Appetiser
Escargot with Herb-Garlic Butter on Button Mushroom Gratinee
Parsley Oil and Arugula Salad

It did come as a disappointment to my table that the chef figured one leaf of arugula could constitute a salad.. Fortunately, everything else was perfectly executed. The Gratinated mushrooms were plump and juicy with the natural mushroom sweetness. The Escargots were so tender they practically melted in your mouth. The only thing I felt I needed for a little lift was some fresh cut chilli, but I think that is just my personal palatte speaking. I still enjoyed it perfectly fine without my chilli fix.

Someone Elses Pasta
Rigatoni tossed with... cooked spinach, some kind of sausage meat and crisp smoked ham, probably fried, topped with a shave of parmesan.

I don't know exactly because I did not taste it... and it was not written down on the menu...
I was so busy joking around I forgot to take a picture of my own.
Rigatoni tossed in Crustacean Oil, Tiger Prawn, Shaved Bottarga and Parmesan Cheese,
which tasted as good as it looked. A pity no picture.... hehe

Fish
Char-Grilled King George Whiting Fillet with Toasted Mustard Seeds and
Saffron Tomato Sauce - My absolute favourite of the night. Amazing...

Fish was flavourful and tender, the mustard seeds adding a little spicy nuttiness against the perfect foil of finely chopped and lightly cooked tomatoes. The flavour of the tomato became more complex from the cooking, increasing in its tangy tomato taste, but not losing its light juicy texture. Extremely well thought out and put together.. I need to try making something like this.

Blood Orange Sorbet

Main
Slow-Cooked Oxtail in Feuille de Brik Parcel with Truffle Butter and Jus Gras

Tender, Crisp and Chewy with every single mouthful, the sauces and pureed potato complimented perfectly, extremely enjoyable.

Dessert
Passionfruit Symphony
Souffle, Creme Brulee and Macaroon(with a passionfruit mousse inbetween..)

Chef used passionfruit puree and mixed it with Marquisa (Lovely Indonesian variety of the passionfruit), the shell of which you can see on the plate, the one with the passionfruit souffle inside. The result was sublime, Passionfruit Perfume, with the crunchy, faintly sweet seeds of the Marquisa, an improvement from the tarter and harder (ok.. crunchier) passionfruit seeds!

I do hope you enjoyed looking at my dinner as much as I enjoyed eating it! Thank you Joone and the people at Le Papillion for a job very very well done. It was also great meeting fellow food bloggers in person. Colin! we're looking forward to next year's event eh!

Tofu Smoothie

2007-09-01T15:48:00.000+08:00

I love tofu, and many other soybean products. I have however, always been slightly skeptical of non-asian handling of the humble soybean. I blame that on Silk Soymilk. No wonder they called it silk, because it was not meant to be edible. Why anyone thinks that adding things to pure soymilk can make it better is totally beyond me. What could taste more simple and complex yet sweet and pure at the same time as fresh soymilk, ingredient list? soybeans and water.

Thus when i saw Alton Brown's Good Eats episode on tofu, I laughed a little at his tofu smoothie idea. But since I had the ingredients all sitting there, i figured why not? I never really drink smoothies outside, since most of them are more sugar than anything else. So if this one proved to be good, it would make for a very good snak when i came home from work, before i go about preparing dinner.

basically, blend silken tofu, the softest you can find in a blender with some fruit juice and frozen fruit.

I tried cranberry kiwi juice with frozen grapes. His version boasted cranberry juice and a small can of frozen fruit cocktail. Then I tried with cranberry kiwi juice and orange slices, and that was really good as well. I might now try a tofu mocha smoothie, with some milo and good strong coffee. Since I usually take soymilk with my coffee, It might not be too much of a stretch.

wish me luck!

Oh, by the way, I use the unicurd silken tofu because it has a softer texture than the fortune brand one.

update: the mocha tofu smoothie turned out very well. Yums

Food Blogger's Dinner 2007

2007-09-01T15:42:00.000+08:00

I am so excited about the dinner tonight, it's my first time at the food bloggers dinner. I'm looking forward to meet other food bloggers as well as taste some really good food. I first heard about Le Papillion from the co-owner, food photographer Edmond Ho (turns out he's the chef's brother) at a food shoot at a restaurant at which I was working. He said I should go give it a try, and I never thought the opportunity would come so soon. Things do work in mysterious ways. I hope I will get to give everyone a favourable update as soon as possible!

Chicken Adobo from my imagination

2007-08-29T12:58:00.000+08:00

I don’t remember ever having a ‘proper’ chicken adobo. Despite having Filipino minders when I was a child, strangely we had little if no Filipino cuisine at home. Sad really, since there is a lot about Filipino food that is robust and flavourful (or so I’ve heard). As it is, Filipinos seem to love food as much as us Singaporeans anyways, so surely there is some correlation to deliciousness of cuisines there.

Last year I had an opportunity to bring Chicken Adobo into my food consciousness again. It’s a name I heard in childhood, and some Filipino acquaintances wanted to prepare that for a potluck party. They had the right ingredients, but unfortunately, very little cooking expertise. The first sign was the lean pork loin, and the jumping backwards when wet chopped garlic hit the oil.

Last night I felt inspired to create that tangy fragrant gravy to consume in copious amounts over rice, almost like a soup. All I could remember was lots of fried garlic and black pepper. The end result was really really delicious, and it made me feel really cheered, even though according to my mother it was.. ‘good, but not according to (her) taste’. Ah well. Can’t please everyone.

Rough guide to Chicken Adobo

1 Large Chicken – skin and excess fat removed,
Cut into manageable chunks, bones included.
1 tablespoon black peppercorns – pounded not too fine
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tblsp olive oil

1 and a half heads of fresh garlic - chopped
2 tblsp cooking oil

1 cup white/distilled vinegar
½ cup light soy sauce
½ cup black vinegar (the Chinese kind, I use bulldog brand)

1 heaped tablespoon sugar (ad more or less to taste)
2 bay leaves, or ½ tablespoon dried herbs ( I used spaghetti Bolognese mix and it worked great)
½ tblsp crushed black pepper (again)

In a large bowl, marinate the chicken chunks with the pepper sugar salt and olive oil. Make sure well incorporated, then leave aside for 30 mins.

In a large cast iron skillet or heavy bottomed medium pot, heat the cooking oil. Then brown the chicken pieces in batches. Remove chicken and set aside. In the oil left in the pan, fry the garlic till golden.

At this point, If you’ve been using the skillet, deglaze the pan with a half cup of water, transfer everything into a medium sized pot and continue. Or else, just add half a cup of water into the pot deglaze and continue.

Return the chicken into the pot . Then add the vinegars and soy sauce. Add enough water to that to almost cover the chicken. Leaving ½ inch ‘chicken-berg tops’ are okay. The chicken will shrink a little more during the simmering. Bring the pot to boil then lower to a simmer, add the bay leaves (or dried herbs) and crushed black pepper. Simmer for 20-30 mins until chicken tender but not falling apart. Turn off.

Dish out immediately, served on hot white rice, or cool, refrigerate and eat the next day. Keeping it for a day does improve the flavours a little.

Please be reminded that as usual, all quantities were estimated. You can adjust to fit your own preferences.

Tales from Kampuchea: Part Two

2007-08-04T23:50:00.000+08:00

Fermented fish ingredients seem to be such an ubiquitous part of South-East Asian cuisine. Everywhere you go in the region you will find some kind of variation of fish fermented in salt, either its liquids strained and bottled, or the chunky preparations used in some tasty local speciality.

Personally I've never been put off by these things. It does smell pretty strong on its own, but belachan (wrapped twice in plastic bags and then a plastic box to prevent the jam from taking on a fermented shrimp fragrance), chinchalok and thai fish sauce had always been much beloved staples in my family's refrigerator while growing up, and learning how they were made only made me more appreciative of their precious flavours. I always felt sorry for the guy who has to sort the teeny tiny shrimp from all the other things one can find in the sea and catch in big nets.

Thus Prahoc didn't come as a big surprise to me, and even though friends of mine, Cambodian or otherwise, would talk about it like it was a big joke, dramatically wrinkling up noses and even faces for effect. Instead, it made me more determined to seek out this interesting ingredient and give it a good strong sniff. It didn't take me long. My first visit to the local market, and the shop vendors laughed to see this obvious foreigner sticking her little noise in a barrel full of neatly arranged preserved fish. It wasn't that bad really. Found in varying shades of off white to green/grayish white, the chunks of fish are preserved in salt and packed into barrels. The smell reminded me immediately of mui yu, an oil preserved salted fish with a mushy texture and incredible salty taste used in some Chinese cooking, most often with pork.

Seeing that the smell didn't put me off, the excited G immediately bought some to cook for me, Cambodian style, an excuse for her to indulge in one of her favourite things to eat, fried minced pork with Prahoc, since her husband categorically refused to eat what he describes as 'dirty, smelly and unhygenic' (bah! i say, salt kills all the germies) So the next morning I woke up to the sound of a chopper chopping away (no, in Cambodia the butchers have no meat grinders. mincemeat is a luxury because you need to chop away at it yourself).

That afternoon, at the orphanage we were visiting, we had a very delicious packed lunch of white rice, baby cucumbers, green baby brinjals an green tomatoes (all eaten raw) topped with generous sprinklings of the tasty minced pork fried with Prahoc. **

Needless to say, I had to try my hand at making it too, thus when G made her trip here next i requested for some Prahoc to experiment with. Not content with just prahoc and pork I had to add some other ingredients to the mix, ginger, lemongrass, garlic and chillies. Blended into a fine paste, it was chopped into some pork (I tried to mince pork by myself!!! wow!!!)(Very tedious. Next time I'll just buy it ground)

The end result wasn't taste too bad, but because I was cooking a large quantity, I think it didn't dry out as much as it should have. The pumpkin balanced the flavours and made the mix more palatable for my family, some of whom are much less enamoured of preserved fish products than I am.

Definitely a recipe to try again, albeit with some tweaking. I still have half a jar of prahoc in the fridge. I'm saving it. Hopefully it will turn out better next time. :D

**(Which made me feel bad later when i saw what the children were having for lunch. They came back from school for their lunch break. There were two pots for them on the table. One contained some poor quality boiled rice, and the other a soup made from some bones and green gourd. Two small pots to be shared among 15 to 20 girls. No child deserves that.)

Tales from Kampuchea, part I

2007-07-16T23:06:00.000+08:00

I know i have not blogged in a long time. For the first time in a long time i am not feeling half dead and completely unaccomplished. But less about that and more about food.

Last year when i went to Cambodia, i tasted many wonderful things. Unfortunately I had been relieved of my camera by unscrupulous baggage handlers upon arrival, so I never had a chance to take any pictures. Fat juicy barbecued squid, rice noodles with hot gravy and fresh herbs, sweet chewy fatty grilled beef washed down with plenty of beer are just some of the memories that i brought home with me from Cambodia. As with travelling however, there is only so much time to try everything, and try as i might, many things were left unexplored. On the other hand, some things were so fabulous that I made sure i got to have them one last time before i left.

My kind hosts G and P took me to a lovely Cambodian restaurant. Housed in a double story wooden structure surrounded by the lush greenery of potted plants all throughout the compound, the restaurant managed to bring me back to a feeling of south east asian hospitality with its simple homely feeling. Lounged cross legged on the straw mat in front of the low dining table hearing the fans whirring gently overhead, the madness and anxiety of the streets of Phnom Penh fades away quickly.

The first meal consisted of a beef soup flavoured with tart fresh young tamarind leaves and lemongrass, a steamed spicy seafood dish almost like otah otah*, except it was steamed and had whole chunks of squid and other seafood. There might have been something however, but the most outstanding was the mango salad. Fresh and lightly tart, the ingredients were simple yet produced complex flavours and textures that made me fall in love right away. Crisp but chewy bits of dried shrimp and dried fish added salty umami to the sourish sweet of the julienned mangoes. Chopped roasted peanuts added a nutty flavour with a giving crunch. Lastly, thinly shredded laksa leaves, also known as vietnamese mint, added an inimitable herby spicy fragrance to the tossed salad.

Needless to say the second visit just before i left Cambodia for home included a requisite order of mango salad. Sadly, the second experience was nowhere near the first. This time the salad was coarsely prepared, the cook seemingly more inattentive. The mango julienne was too thick and the fish bits not crunchy enough. The flavours were still exquisite and i left with a firm determination to make the salad myself.

After endlessly quizzing my lovely cambodian host as to all the ingredients that were in it, i established that most could be easily obtained here in Singapore. Except for the dried river fish which was either toasted or fried in oil before becoming an institutional part of the cambodian mango salad. Thus another visit to the very exciting wet market was necessary before I left, and with confidence i picked some lovely dried river fish to take home with me.

I made a huge mistake when i got back to Singapore. My host's husband, so worried that the dried fish would stink up all my luggage, he wrapped it in newspaper and masking tape and a plastic bag. Being a busy busy Singaporean, i just out the entire package on a kitchen shelf when i got home and left it there. A few weeks later when i unwrapped the package, a huge** black bug ran out. I could not throw it away fast enough. And thus i thought it was the end of my mango salad dreams.

Fortunately for this patient cook, my host decided to visit Singapore as a christmas gift from her husband and asked me if i wanted anything from Phnom Penh. Shameless to the core, I not only asked her to buy me some silk shawls, but also 2 wonderfully cambodian items, namely some dried river fish and some oh-so-smelly-and-disgusting-to-everyone Prahoc***

I love how the fish are made to look like they're still swimming upriver or something...

Nice big plate for 3, it is important to know the serving at the restaurant was 1/4 this size. For some people, mango salad is a starter.

Thus all ends well, my story of how Cambodian mango salad graced the foldable dining table in my humble home one hot afternoon near Christmastime last Year, told more than 6 months after the delectable dish was completely devoured, a mountain of mango salad for three hungry people, two Singaporeans and one lovely Cambodian.

*Otah Otah, a spicy fish paste cooked in coconut leaves over hot charcoal.
** Only about 10 times the size of a rice weevil, but still wayyyyy too big for me.
***Fermented fish, Cambodian style.

Now on something other than food!

2007-03-12T18:32:00.000+08:00

Come support us, your presence will be greatly appreciated. If you want tickets, you can also email me, sovaneary@gmail.com. Love u All

Reunion Dinner comes once a year! EAT!!!

2007-03-03T00:09:00.000+08:00

I have for a vast number of reasons, of which reason 1, pure laziness, takes up half the pie, not written anything in the past couple of months. But I'm not going to apologise for that. In real life, too many things take precedence over blogging, and living at home means even less time for such frippery. Perhaps it is because everything i do has been amplified so i have to do it for more people. Where in hostel it used to be for two or three, now it is for 5, with enough for my mother's lunch the next day. Complicated business.

Anyways, there were several brilliant recipes and such that evolved over Chinese New year this year, that i'd try to replicate or keep filed in my recipe memory somewhere. I really should start writing down my recipes. But somehow, when i am cooking, there is no time to take notes, and my memory is just too poor to hold all the information for after cooking when all the cleanup is done. It's so bad that sometimes, in the same week i can cook two dishes and they turn out completely different even though the intention was to replicate. Ah well, at least my family does not complain. They're just so sweet about all my failed kitchen experiments.

By far the greatest triumph this CNY though, were the pineapple tarts, a crumbly crust that melted in your mouth, with the fragrant slightly chewy pineapple jam centers, embodying all that is the tangy sweetness of pineapple. Some complained that the crust was too salty, filling not sweet enough. The greatest compliment however, was that the tarts tasted complex, finger straight to the pulse point of my intentions, despite the comment having been intended as criticism.. hahha.

The satisfaction of making something from scratch is quite indescribable for me, especially a confection with so much tradition and meaning. I've eaten these little treats once a year all my life, and the day I discovers that making some of these delectable wonders was within my culinary ability, I could not wait to try. 2 years ago when living at home i made some but their success was very limited. Jam too hard, pastry nothing impressive. This year i decided to try again. I figured there were plenty of past mistakes i could learn from.

This time round i had some success, but i played by feel, and have no recipe. I promised myself i will try it again and get a recipe for myself this time. but meanwhile, for posterity, I'll list the ingredients I used, in case i forget, which i most likely will.

pastry-
top flour
self-raising flour
baking powder
salted butter
salt
powdered sugar

jam-
pineapples
cinnamon
anise
cloves
cardamom
sugar

Have a good year of the Pig ahead!!

meanwhile take a closer look at the Reunion Dinner spread...

I AM BACK! Happy New Year!!

2007-01-03T00:17:00.000+08:00

It's been an awfully long time since the last post. The break did me good indeed, over the prolonged festive season, i did prepare a few things, and i was also cooking before that, but that was mainly everyday stuff, nothing to blog about. Now that i've made the decision to return home and not live at hostel for my last semester, cooking styles have also changed a little, what with feeding five adults and a dog, instead of one adult and the odd mini-party.

This year's resolutions are largely to find a job, eat healthy, lose weight through exercise, and figure out some way to earn some money.

Until i make something new and exciting, or find time to post some things about old favourites, or clear the backlog ( on second thought there are a few interesting things i want to tell everyone about), here's some of the stuff i ate or did in the past (almost) couple of months

Meanwhile, its MERRY NEW YEAR! LOTS OF LOVE, JOY,PEACE AND LAUGHTER FOR ALL IN A PROSPEROUS 2007!!!

Cooking Hiatus

2006-11-07T23:25:00.000+08:00

Cooking for me has always been an art of love, an opportunity to show people how much they mean to you because you care about what they're eating and how they eat. The downside of cooking however, is the number of calories you always end up consuming. Every trip to the grocery store is a detailed and expensive affair involving picking up things you never planned to buy in the first place. The Supermarket for food lovers is the ultimate orgy. There are so many possibilities in every single raw ingredient you see.

I've been eating so much, that my struggle with extra weight has come to the forefront of my life again and I'm going to need to address that first. As much as I know I need to get back to the exercise, school has been exhausting, and along with several bouts of illness and my injuries, there's a limit to the amount of exercise I can do, so eating a lot less is my only solution. So i've also tried to stop going to the supermarket. Food is involving lots of soup, fruit and sandwiches, nothing special.

I've also gone off standing for hours preparing things in the kitchen. No time for that anymore. When rushed, there is no longer fun in cooking, and when I'm rushing, I get a little snarly and some of the love fades. Food no longer tastes as good. Thats pretty much what has happened to me. Right now I'm going through a period of hating my own cooking.

So please everyone excuse me for the silence on my blog. I hope I'll get my momentum back soon.

Sometimes when the realities of student life hit you, all u can do is chug along...

2006-10-18T00:53:00.000+08:00

When pulling late nights, its not very good to use coffee, because coffee makes you jittery, and as you sit in your hard plastic chair trying to understand Nietzsche, when you realise all your date on this friday night only wants to screw with your mind, coffee will make you think its acceptable to run out into your corridor screaming indiscriminately.

Coffee is also more expensive, seeing that you can't stretch 50 cents worth of ground coffee beans like you can stretch 2 nano cents worth of tightly rolled green tea leaves. Tell me again why transnational corporations are outsourcing to China? Coz it's CHEAP! Thats Why.. Duh. Or maybe its cheap coz i had no idea how much the tea cost because i erm.. relieved it from the hostel fridge last semester?

Coffee is my breakfast drink. I finish it, wake up, then run to class, huffing and puffing all the way, stressing my little head over whether or not the caffeine in my coffee will prevent the absorption of the vitamins in the vitamin pill i swallowed with the coffee because i was running late and had not woken up yet enough to remember to get water. I figure in my stomach the coffee and water will be all mixed up anyway and the real worry is the coffee.

So tea is the drink of choice. Even then though, there are two sorts for two different purposes. I like my tea really watered down, slightly warm, not scalding hot. On days when the work just involves reading stacks of monotonous journal articles, and one has to option to go to sleep or go next door for a little chat, one dips into the jar of individually tightly rolled green tea leaves.

The tea is light but fragrant, the flavour clean and sweet, a grassy aftertaste, with no bitterness whatsoever. Topping up the mug with warm water can yield endless cups of tea, warm water with a tint of green, and constant strolls to the toilet breaks.

No one needs an introduction to the noble earl grey tea, fragrant but with enough caffeine to keep a steady buzz without causing jitters of the potential-to-face-evictment sort, Earl Grey was my chaperone of choice in the past few endless evenings with freidrich Nietzsche.

I found out he had syphilis and died a madman, and since i've already gotten what i needed out of him i asked darling Nietzsche to retire to his countryside villa in France for a restorative. maybe i'll visit him again if i need him again before the end of semester exams....

The fumes are gone now, but it's not like we minded...

2006-10-18T00:41:00.000+08:00

Several posts ago i left a little teaser regarding a dipping sauce thingy that my friends and i love. Well, the way we eat it, its almost a salad. I don't know what the whole dish is called. But we refer to it by way of its main ingredient. The super stinky, pink, umami, heaven-in-a-bottle...CHINCHALOK. Ok, don't ask about word origins and all that. I was eating it for years before i even knew what it was called. Its basically minute shrimp, salted and fermented, or the other way round. There ARE some processes you do NOT want to inquire too much about.

If you look really closely at the picture, you can see the teeny tiny shrimp, just looking at you in all it salty glory, waiting... just waiting... to be devoured.

This chinchalok side dished is usually served with barbequed fishand seafood, and is really originally a sauce. The onion is still sliced but the chilli is usually chopped up small, there is a lot more liquid, because the salt draws out all the liquid from the chillis and onions.. see! cooking is all science. The crunch from the freshly sliced shallots with the fire of freshly sliced chilli padi is set off perfectly by the salty umami flavour of the chinchalok and generous quantities of calamansi juice.(for the uninitiated, the local lime with deep yellow insides) A little bunch of the mix on a spoonful of warm white rice, is a micro-orgasm just waiting to happen, nevermind the micro-organisms staring at you.

Stuff is wonderful freshly prepared, sliced shallots, chillies, and a wallop of chinchalok from the bottle. Lots of limes squeezed over, seeds strained to prevent inconvenience during devouring exercise of course. Sometimes the delay and extra work is essential to the experience. Now don't you wish you can smell it? ;)

Reformatted Food

2006-10-08T23:21:00.000+08:00

I have a very bad habit when it comes to food and eating. I need variety, and i definitely cannot bear to eat the same thing day after day, or even alternate day after alternate day now that we're on the topic... Therefore, I'm always happy to have friends over to share food with me, because there are just some things you cannot cook in small quantities. Imagine making chicken curry with one thigh and 2 tablespoons of coconut milk. Even the blender will cross its arms, pout, and refuse to blend the half a garlic clove, 2 shallots, one dried chilli and two fresh green ones into a paste. You couldn't buy it.

Thus another thing that appeals to me, is reformatting cooked meat into a whole different dish. From a student's point of view, you can save money because you buy in economies of scale, and the meat will last some time. From my point of view, i will not have to eat the same meat dish everyday for a week, and from the point of view of this pasta sauce, it lends an incredible sweet tenderness, there can be no other way to make a dish this easy and quick when you decide to invite a couple of friends over for dinner to save yourself the trouble of going out since you promised to meet up with them.

This dish started with the desire to have some braised duck. So i managed to hunt down a whole duck for $10, and after some wrangling with the chopper with the help of a dear friend, the duck became six pieces that could fit into our small pot. Braised with lots of garlic, black peppercorns, sugar, soy sauce, a pinch of five-spice powder and water, it quickly became so tender the meat just fell off the bone. Paired with some firm tofu cooked in the sweet dark sauce, it was an amazing result for a whimsical experiment. Well trained in the fickleness of female tastebuds however, i quickly froze two thirds of the braised duck, intending to defrost and eat them as they were in a week or two.

The impending dinner party had me head-scratching the night before, it had been a busy week, and i didn't have anything in the fridge that would be proper for a farewell dinner for another dear friend. I figured a kenyan might appreciate the homely subtleties of fried ikan tenggiri and white rice but making him come all the way to campus, i figured he'd be a little disappointed with that.

The sauce was extremely simple. I defrosted the duck and shredded the meat. I had about three cups worth. a cup of french beans/ or haricot vert - 2cm pieces, a cup of cooked radish (boiled for soup for lunch, but was too much)- diced 1/2 cm cubes, a package of oyster mushrooms - shredded, 4 medium tomatoes - seeded and diced. a few chopped shallots and minced garlic cloves. Also one cup of tomato paste or more if you like more.. tomatoey flavour..

Heat some EVOO, then add shallots, garlic, mushrooms. 1 minute, then add tomatoes, then the rest of the veggies and the shredded meat. Add some of the braising liquid (there's surely sauce at the bottom of the box you used to freeze the meat) some water (i cannot remember how much... add the tomato paste, then see how liquidy it is? need to be rather thick) Add salt, pepper and more EVOO for taste.

The sauce will bubble, and be rather thick when the meat begins to really disintegrate. This wouldn't take more than 10 mins. You can add sliced red chilli padi directly into the sauce if everyone likes spicy food, or just do like I did and offer a dish of sliced chillies to adjust to individual desired fire levels. Serve warm with pasta. Paired with a simple salad, this dish makes for a great get-together dinner, with just the right touch of sophistication, and enough to ensure a steady flow of easy conversation. Of course some red wine will help tremendously as well. Oh and the pot served 5.

basically any soft, mild flavoured vegetable will do peas, or even frozen corn. Celery might not do so well, unless everyone who is eating will like the taste. Or bell peppers for that matter, but its something that can be tried. If anyone decides to try it, please tell me how it goes. Meanwhile my hands have stopped burning from preparing the chillis for the stuff i made tonight. While i won't say what it is just yet, i'll leave a tantalising picture just to whet some appetites.

eat your quinoa

2006-10-05T16:31:00.000+08:00

I first read about quinoa in Gluten-Free Girl's blog. Curious about this interesting grain, i never really thought i'd get to try it in Singapore, so it got filed away at the back of my head in the "things i will try when i get a chance" folder. It is rather abit easier to file things away if all you see are photographs and written descriptions.

The next time i met quinoa was in class. A classmate took out her salad lunch in a plastic bowl. When opened, it had this curious slightly herby nutty smell. From a salad? being the food crazy girl i am, i decided to ask her what was in her salad. And she was like.."you know quinoa?" i got quite excited and asked her where she got it, but she said she didn't know. So i figured that was the end of the Search for Quinoa part II although the scent of it added on to my mental description of it.

Search for Quinoa Part III lasted all of five seconds. Was browsing the miniature organic food section of Clementi NTUC (was not on the specific lookout for quinoa, just browsing for interesting stuff) when i saw a clear plastic bag labelled 'organic quinoa' sitting between 'organic brown rice' and 'organic rolled oats'. My friend never really understood why i was suddenly euphoric. At $6.50 for a 500 gram pack, quinoa is a rather pricey carbohydrate form for a struggling uni student. But then where's my spirit of learning?? What the heck i figured and took the plunge.

The first thing i did when i got back was surf the net to find out how to cook the precious stuff. Two and a half things for sure, you have to wash it properly (coz its coated with some very bitter tasting naturally occurring chemical to prevent birds from eating it), and cook it like rice, and it tastes better with a pinch of salt. Easy enough for the "i-do-not-own-a-rice-cooker-because-its-easy-enough-on-the-stove" school of cooking i'm at.

I can't remember how exactly i ate my first batch of quinoa, but i remember burning the second batch, and turning the third into porridge. Very typical of me. But now, i've more or less gotten the hang of cooking the stuff so it turns into the wonderful fluffy chewy nutty herby grain it is. Wonderful texture, great flavour. Paired with refreshing salad greens, sweet broccoli, some ham or cooked chicken if you have some, and apple slices, it makes the most delightful lunch on a hot day.

Today i felt like i would have some for lunch, but did not have many salady things, all i had was some baby romaine, and broccoli (is it just me or is broccoli an awfully expensive vegetable these days? at $6 a kilo and being able to put away a third of that at every meal sitting can be quite heavy on the pocket no? but its so lovely. sigh. less shopping more eating i suppose) I didn't even have any ham or sausage or salty thing like that to team it up with. Eggs would have to do, but look how lovely they turned out.

I have a secret to add on. I could not think of a dressing i wanted on this salad. It was going to be rather bland, with no ham, and people who know me know how i try to avoid dressing because i prefer tasting the sweet or bitter flavours without all that masking, and some days balsamic and oil just does not appeal. Usually some ham would sort out the balance in flavours. Today i went totally local (i'm not sure how local is local. i only know that it's found all over the region, i.e. Singapore and Malaysia, often enough.)

I will definitely write about this "add-on" soon, because my friends and i are rather obsessed with it, and its been seeing mealtimes with us rather often. In fact its so good, that the only reason why i am not yet posting about it is simply because i destroyed it before i had a chance to remember my camera. Meanwhile, just to leave a hint, i need to open my door and window to air the fumes out from the room.

posting backlog clearance I = Spring Onion Pancakes

2006-09-29T12:21:00.000+08:00

There's an immense backlog in the posts i've made as opposed to the food i have cooked. granted not everything i make is worth blogging about, but there has to be a semblance of normality so people don't think that as students we all seem to eat damn well. hehhe. well we do, but thats more creative genius than an increase in student budget. In fact, the budget will have to be further decreased since my cellphone got stolen from the kitchen yesterday, so I'll need to channel some of the grocery budget into the telecommunications budget. Next time i'm not going to answer calls in the kitchen. Coz i always get busy, then i leave the phone behind.

One night last week, my friend and i got bored at work, so i got started on some lovely spring onions, and she saw the fun going on in the kitchen and decided to join in. Spring onion pancakes sprang to mind (excuse the pun), never mind that i've never made a single one, or seen a recipe for a single one in my life.

Due to the estimation method, the dough was so wet that by the time it was the right texture, we had a basinful. But who would mind? Extras got thrown in the freezer ready for a quick toast in the toaster. yummylicious.

The wonders of corn soup

2006-09-23T11:06:00.000+08:00

Sweetcorn is a wonderful thing when its fresh and sweet. And corn soup is a gift when the weather is weird. This post is a little late, but i made this gorgeous soup when it rained for days, and it was actually cool enough outside to walk to class in a long sleeved shirt. Corn soup sustained the people in apartment 9 at the MAG2 when they were trying desperately to adapt to the chilly weather.

A light savoury soup, fragrant with the sweetness of corn sliced off the cob, swirled with floating clouds of soft yellow egg, nothing can compare with the golden goodness.

Its dead easy too.

4 cobs corn, kernals only sliced off the cob
2 chicken stock cube
8 cups water
2 eggs, beaten in a bowl, just to combine

in a pot, boil water, add stock cubes and corn, and let it simmer for 20 mins
just before serving, turn up to a boil.
gently pour in beaten eggs, count to three, then gently stir around.
serve with white pepper or none :D
enjoy

A culmination of food desires

2006-09-14T09:35:00.000+08:00

apologies for the lack of new prose on this blog. Close friends would know how busy i was, no time to sit down and sift through the stuff i wanted to blog. I had definitely started on the note of the knife though.. wanted it for my 22nd Birthday. unfortunately the price tag is a little out of reach for myself or any of my equally impoverished student friends. I even went as far as going and physically checking out the knives, and realised the 6-inch version is better for me, as opposed to the scarily long 8 inch.

One thing about knives is that they're severely underestimated in the kitchen of the average home chef. I've had the fortune of learning to cook with good knives at home, so on the occasions i had to use *erm*, i loathe to say cheap knives, but thats what they are really. okay.. cheap knives, i've inevitably managed to hurt myself. either wrist pain, nicks on fingers, and in one case, blisters.

My little red handled henckels' paring knife was beginning to get blunt, and the tip had been broken off thanks to me using it to pry apart frozen sausages one too many times. so as one of my many birthday treats to myself, i bought a new Henckels TWIN grip black handled paring knife. The cutting sharpness is ggreat. But the blade is thin, so bends alot, thus feeling really flimsy... and is very slim, so chopping is even harder. I know i have no business using a paring knife to chop, but in a hostel kitchen, its hard to have so many knives. Also i'm still a knife snob, so find it hard to use one of the cheap knives. I figure its all about getting used to the knife size and shape.

The week was spent eating out mostly, hawker centre favourites, showing an Irish friend the tasty side of Singapore. Kitchen activities were limited to morning coffee, some simple food to stave off hunger in the afternoon. But everything culminated in two huge ass dinners, one cooked by me mammy, and the other by me for my friends. I totally let myself down by forgetting to charge my camera before going home for the birthday banquet my mother organised and prepared. But just for posterity's sake. There was...

deep fried grouper
tom yam tilapia
steamed promfret
tomato prawns
chilli crab
pepper crab
deep fried marinated pork
braised chicken with nam yu and lap cheong
"New Year" soup (always made for reunion dinner and first day of the chinese new year in my family. Pork and chicken bone base, with chinese cabbage, canned mushrooms, fishballs, stuffed foochow fishballs, fish maw and some other stuff my mammy puts in when she feels like it.)
stir fried bittergourd
stir fried chinese kale
beetroot salad
Bubor Cha Cha
and i honestly cannot remember what else.

see what i mean by "pity i forgot my camera" ?
everyone was there, grandma, several aunts, kid cousins and of course my very own immediate family. absolute madness. But meals like that are great, because then everyone is too full at the end to run and jump. even the children.. hhehhe... all just sit around to digest. Peace and Quiet at last :D

For the birthday dinner i made, it was just an excuse to get my best girl and some other friends to come to my hostel and stuff themselves. Chicken curry, dry fried curry prawns (as requested by a friend who saw the earlier prawn post) some vegetables. eating out of disposable plastic bowls and paper plates, on a straw mat on the ground. (my new favourite way of 'entertaining' guests, but more on that later)

But the point of this super long post is, that the cumilation of all the birthday frenzy resulted in a most wonderful gift from aforementioned best girl. Last year i got a big fluffy pillow 'cause i complained i had not enough, and this year, she bought me proper white corelle crockery so i could eat off a proper surface! Don't you just love a practical best friend? But most importantly dear reader. This also means, i'll be able to take more pretty photographs of the things i cook to eat!

cheers! and.. Happy Birthday to ME!

when the weather gets freaky, take comfort in pumpkin soup!

2006-09-01T02:57:00.000+08:00

The past few days have been overcast and rainy. Consequently, its been quite cool, and the body uses this opportunity to crave warm comforting food. I had a wedge of beautiful orange pumpkin i bought during last week's grocery run, and it had been sitting in the fridge since, waiting to be turned into sweet goodness. I had contemplated just stir-frying it with some dried shrimp and garlic, but the weather gave me a chance to make pumpkin soup.

It looks really unassuming in the plastic tub, more like a sweet mango sorbet than the warm liquid gold it really is. Pumpkin is one of those things that i never really saw on the dining table at home as a kid. When i first cooked it, what surprised me the most was the very short cooking period, compared to the time needed to soften other similarly hard vegetables. Separating the flesh from the hard rind is very dangerous too.. first time i cut pumpkin, i cut my finger. I remember that because i've hardly ever cut myself in the kitchen. These days, i cut them into big cubes first before i remove the rind from just one side in a singular swift move. much safer.

To make this soup, i used whatever i had, some onions, carrot, the pumpkin, and potato, in a plain chicken stock. olive oil and garlic too. when everything falls apart when u poke at it with a fork, blend it with a trusty immersion blender. I added skim milk, but you can use cream. salt and pepper to taste. I had ready boiled chunks of lotus root and some beans, and added that to the bottom of the soup bowl before topping up with piping hot pumpkin soup. eat with plain toast, or cheese toast.

A nice warm dinner ready in less than an hour, after a long day of classes, and walking back carefully in the rain, straining not to slip on wet tiles, images of a dislocated left shoulder looming in an overactive imagination.

National Dish If there was One!

2006-08-28T23:10:00.000+08:00

Sunday i had this. absolutely gorgeous innit? chilli crab for lunch. Such a luxury. Did I say my mum is a genius cook as well? But yes. The flavour was perfect, not like the starchy versions you find at some seafood stalls. The only problem was that the crab shrivelled up in its shell after being cooked. So i wonder how to select crabs? short from buying those that require a mortgage, we usually buy the medium priced ones. sometimes i have luck. other times, like this past sunday, they turned out to be water crabs, i.e. full of water that melts into the cookpot. I'm pretty certain there's some kind of skill to this selection process, and i'm super determined to figure it out! I'm such a crab fan, the complicatedness of crabmeat extraction cannot deter me from the sweet delicious flesh. Even allergies don't stop me. Just pop an antihistamine and i'm good to go!

Somehow, i like food in large family size quantities. Just feels so much better:D More lOve!

It has truly been a good weekend foodwise. And my extended eating weekend (just had steak, potatoes, salad, corn, chicken. very embarassing so no pictures) is ending right now! Tuesday morning will be marked by a 7 am run. I just had a steak and all sorts of accompaniments. I cook so often here, and with this new neighbour who's happy to eat with me at all times, i forsee some problems. Thank goodness S is happy to exercise with me too. hence, the 7am run. Hopefully it materialises.

Today i heard what has to be the most flattering compliment ever. I met a friend of mine who last semester was living in the same block as me, on the same level. But she was on the other wing at the far end. We got talking about our living arrangements this year, and i told her i was back in the same place. and she was like "ahh! my friends always tell me your food is very nice!" i was kinda puzzled coz i didnt know we had mutual friends. So i ask her who, and she told me, all her neighbours who used to smell all my cooking. They all knew who was in the kitchen then. hahha.I'm so touched, that people actually are impressed by my cooking just from the smell. Guess i hide my mistakes very well. I wish i knew all these girls, then i could have cooked for them. no need just to smell the cooking. poor things. But whoever said my cooking smells good. Thank you so very much!

recipe: Dry Curried Prawns

2006-08-23T11:50:00.000+08:00

Alrighty, so some friends have asked for the recipe for the dry curry prawns. Yes. I've been shamelessly making everyone read my new blog. Well. Its my baby! why not?? proud mother syndrome here obviously.

For 1 kilo of prawns

2 tablespoon - finely chopped shallots
2 tablespoon - finely chopped ginger
1 tablespoon - finely chopped garlic
1 big handful - washed curry leaves, removed from stem
2 tablespoon - meat curry powder
1/2 tablespoon - salt (If using saltwater prawns, you can actually omit the salt.
or use half this quantity.
1 tablespoon - sugar

heat big pan, kwali, or if in a pinch, a big pot.

add oil, you'll need a little more oil than you feel comfortable with, i believe in old school, you need oil to bring out the flavour and fragrance of the spices in the curry. So for one kilo of prawns, about 4 tablespoons of oil, more if you feel like it.

once its smoking a little, add ginger, shallots and garlic, and stir around.

when fragrant, add curry leaves, and fry a little, stirring around.

Then add prawns. remember to keep heat high, you don't want the heat levels to drop too dramatically, else the cooking of the prawns will be uneven, especially since most people, like me, would use the prawns from the fridge. Overcooking will totally kill this dish.

When prawns are half cooked, i.e. prawns are half grey and half pink, toss in curry powder, salt and sugar. Stir ard.

Please don't cover the pot when you're cooking this. Too much steam will accumulate in the pot. The prawns will lack that glistening bright look.

When its done, pour onto a nice dish and serve :D

Ok. This question will definitely come up, and people are going to wonder if they can use shelled prawns. Sure thing, just make sure the prawns are drained well of water before cooking, and reduce the oil by 1 tblsp. and use half the salt and sugar. without the shells the prawns will absorb too much flavour. The idea is not to overwhelm the sweet prawn flavour.

that plastic stuff in plastic they call cheese

2006-08-23T08:55:00.000+08:00

And thats a picture of the Half Sandwich i had for breakfast.

So i don't understand whats the deal with the processed cheese that we've been eating out here forever and ever. As a kid, that was all the cheese i knew, and i would think its still the same for lots of children out there. I know its not as nutritious as its supposed to be and try to avoid it, but sometimes its really easier, and cheaper of course. Some would say leave it out, but what is a ham and cheese sandwich wwithout cheese? I'll deal with the plastic.

Cheese here, is expensive, and its a hard thing to experiment with on a student budget. I like brie and camembert well enough, and american sliced white, chewy mozzerella on a tomato pizza, and fresh buffalo mozzerella in a good caprese. But at 6 bucks for a small yummy ball, you can imagine how it has been missing from my shopping list for quite some time.

Also, cheese eating is rather subjective to the nose. At home at my parent's there's been a wedge of roquefort sitting in a corner double wrapped in clingfilm for 4 months.

The only one who would eat it is the dog.

But.. there's too much salt in the cheese, so we've been holding off. It smells. I tried to eat it, several times, but it still smells, and the smell lingers, though for lovers of roquefort that would be a good thing i expect. and that little thing was like.. 12bucks. no one wants to eat it, but no one wants to throw it away.

I think in everyone's culture there is a smelly food item or two, but whether or not one can eat it, depends on what you've been brought up with. I mean, we eat tonnes of smelly things, durians, prawn crackers, fish crackers, dried fish and all other manner of dried salted seafood, chinchalok, belachan, just too name a few. In cambodia, i really liked prahoc, which is fermented fish.. the chunky type. looks like vomit. But i loved it. not because it looked like vomit doh... wish i brought some home...

So my point is, while half is acquired taste, some smells just register as inedibles. To me, lavander panna cotta is just wrong. tastes like underwear. nothing gross or kinky mind you, just that i used to scent my underwear drawers with lavender. so you can imagine my puzzlement when i ate a mouthful of that lovely dessert. It was beautiful, but i just was unable to disassociate the two. I've yet to try lavander flavoured anything else, though maybe its time to give it another shot.

and i better get back to my breakfast. class begins in an hour. today we learn about...infectious diseases and antibiotics. no i am not a medicine major.

Cheers!

What better start than a party post?

2006-08-22T18:49:00.000+08:00

After two years of obsessively reading all manner of food blogs,(erm, it is really obsessive, 12 hour food blog reading marathons with all mannner of papers due. an embarassing addiction when at my age i should be handing in submissions late because of excessive partying. "no sir. I'm sorry sir, It's late because i have been busy this past week looking at pictures of food people make, and blogs of how these foods have been made.") i have finally decided to start my own food blog. I figure it would be a good use of my camera to take pictures of the food i make and eat. Also, this semester has started off on a really broke foot, so i have been cooking everyday and eating in. It cheaper and better than canteen food. And in Singapore, that is really saying something.

We're talking SGD$2.90 for a plate of rice and meat and veg, which is all really good you would think. But i think of the quality of food i am feeding myself, and i wonder if it is really worth getting fat for? Well, not really get fat, but is it even worth eating? so for the same amount of money, granted, the way i shop in the wet market, maybe a little more money, i eat much much better.

Last night, i cooked a little food party for a good friend. not too many people 'cause his landlady is a fusspot, so five people and some gorgeous food. We were good kids though, no alcohol. All the sin was in the form of chocolate. Like earlier mentioned, i was dirt broke, so it had to be cheap too, so no shark's fin or abalone, and buying in or dining out was out of the question. A little thinking and a visit to the wet market over the weekend conjured a menu for this monday night dinner.

Birthday boy requested a pork dish so of course i complied, and cooked a pork stir fry i adapted from the traditional soy, ginger, sesame versions i ate since i was a child. At my local wet market, the fishmonger has been bringing in cheap freshwater live prawns... i think the phraseology makes little sense. I mean, farmed freshwater prawns that were live when the fishmonger bought them, so the freshness is guaranteed. And it was ridiculously cheap, $10 for a kilo. Haaha, happy days. So the prawns made dish two. The planned flavours were going to be pretty rich, so dish number three had to be more complementary, and we were still short of vegetables. I needed something easy and quick, so stir-fried cauliflower and carrots was perfect. Another friend made chicken adobo, so there was plenty to go round.

Dry Fried Curry Prawns

Stir Fried Pork (i know. i am a little unimaginative. I'll try to come up with a more sophisticated name in future)

Duh... cauliflower and carrots

how does it look?

The dish topped with eggs was the chicken adobo, also extremely delicious, brought by another friend. on top of the spread, we had rice of course, and believe it or not.. we finished EVERYTHING! I was surprised. It was one boy, four girls, one of whom declared as resolutely as she could bring herself to sound before she tucked in. "OH NO! i'm MODEL! I am on a DIET!" she really is a photographic fashion model(dead gorgeous 19yr old from Poland. Birthday boy's housemate). But she ate as much as all of us. She felt so bad but it was all sooo crazy. The housekeeper came to ask for the recipe for the prawn.. Irony coz it was fried in a dry curry, and the housekeeper was an Indian lady. Haaha. (I find this funny because i am a SINGAPOREAN chinese girl.Geddit?)

Dessert was the #2 chocolate gelato from The Traveler's Lunchbox.

I've made this amazing dessert so many times since i found it. It never fails to amaze the people i serve it too. And is even more amazing during the exam period. Can't be a better destresser, i'm always mixing up a two quart batch before examtime to last me throughout. No picture though. i was too lazy to spoon it out nice. Well, with my right hand in a splint, it can be a little complicated. We ate it from the box, with the very very good cake. Some hazelnutty, absurdly chocolaty thingy, with crunch centre. From a very nice cake shop at a discount from a very nice friend's friend. Students only eat well on charity as u will see.

Just to let everyone know though. I'm chronically unable to follow recipes. So if people actually begin to read this blog, and want the recipe, i will try to figure it out. (using the opportunity to make the dish again of course. great excuse for some excesses. heehhee) Just send me an email.

And thaT is the end of my historic first post. I promise more will follow.