Braised pork belly with vinegar

INGREDIENTS (serve 3 persons or 2 with some left over)
1 piece pork belly - about 6x6 inch (the size we bought from you).
1 bunch of bok choy - boil for 3 minutes.
2 stalks of coriander - pick out the leaves, wash and set aside for garnishing/fresh herb flavour.

Stock
1 large onion - remove skin, chopped.
1/2 bulb garlic - ie about 6 cloves - remove skin, lightly crushed, no need to chop.
1 cinnamon stick
1 tbsp light soy sauce or tamari
2 tbsp malt vinegar 
1 chilli - cut of stalk only.
About 1.5 litres water - or just enough water to cover all the pork belly throughout 3 hour slow cooking.

Meat marinate juice
2 tsp dark soy
2 tsp light soy
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tsp palm sugar (or raw sugar as substitute)
1 clove garlic chopped
1 tsp sesame oil

Sauce thickener
2 tsp corn starch
2 tbsp water to dilute the corn starch

PREP WORK
Wash the pork belly well, pat dry. Cut into 6 large pieces of equal size ie roughly 2x2 inch square.
Marinate the pork belly with the meat marinate sauce - for at least 30 minutes or overnight is fine too.

COOKING
Pour water into a cast iron pot/heavy stew pot (like a Le Creuset etc).
Put all stock ingredients into the water and heat till boiling.
Switch heat off and open lid - let stock cool off for about 10 minutes.
Gently place marinated pork pieces into the stock and simmer with pot lid on, on low heat for about 3 to 3 1/2 hours. Pork does NOT need searing.
Check water level every hour, to make sure pork belly is just covered with stock. At very low heat, the stock should not dry up below pork belly level, if not, add a bit of water, or turn heat down further. 
Stir once or twice to ensure pork is not stuck to pot.

SERVING
When ready to serve, skim off layer of oil/fat. (We keep the fat stored in a tupperware, refridgerated for use in cooking other dishes another day!)
Then heat up on low to medium heat.
Remove pork belly onto serving dish.
Mix sauce thickener into stock and stir in heat till it thickens slightly.
Pour sauce over the pork belly.
Garnish with coriander leaves on top of pork belly and boiled bok choy on the sides of the plate.

TIP: The slow cooking makes the pork belly really soft and melts in the mouth.
If you love lots of chilli, you can have as dipping sauce for the pork, soy with chopped chili.
You can add an extra tbsp more vinegar while boiling stock if you like the vinegarish taste.  Can add more 1 tsp of sugar if you like it sweeter.

Bon Appetite!

Cucumber Raita

Yoghurt usually helps to "cool" down the stomach when one has some spicy food. Today I made some dhal which turned up more spicy than I had planned to, and decided to make some Indian raita to go with it.

1 huge bowl for 4 people
1 lebanese cucumber chopped into small squares.
4 tablespoon of vanilla bean yoghurt (Vaalia brand is good)
1 teaspoon of sumec.

Mix the ingredients up and serve. I tend to prepare this just as we are ready to eat so that the yoghurt and cucumber tastes fresh.

Bon Appetite!

Oatmeal raisin currant cranberry cookies

Today I suddenly felt like trying to bake cookies. I took a recipe out of the Baking Pan website, modified it, baked it, and it turned out delicious!

I am so pleased with this first attempt!

Chewy, soft and very light on the inside. Crunchy on the outside.

Bake 12 cookies - 1 oven size tray

1 egg and 1 egg white
Slightly less than 1/2 cup self raising wholemeal flour (or self raising plain flour will do too)
Slighly less than 1/2 cup almond meal
80g butter
1/4 compact cup of brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup cranberry, raisins and currants mix
1 cup of brokened walnuts
1/2 tsp of salt

Preheat oven to 170 deg Celcius for fan force oven.
Lay alumininium foil on baking tray shiny side down.
Overlay with baking paper.

Dough
Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, salt and whisk till airy and light.
Fold in flour and almond meal, oats, dry berries and nuts.

Baking
Using a tablespoon, scoop a large scoop of dough. Drop on to baking tray.
Keep at least 1 1/2inch space between cookies.
Bake for 14 minutes in fan forced oven, or till golden brown.
Take cookies out, remove entire baking paper (with the cookies on it) and place on a rack.
Let cookies cool for at least 1/2 hour.

Bon Appetite!

Food That I Love: Orange lemon lime cake

Food That I Love: Orange lemon lime cake

Bon Appetite!

Gary Chen's Steamed Sponge Cake:

Self raising flour 250g
Cooking oil 125ml
Brown sugar 250g
Eggs 3
Fresh milk 125ml
Baking powder 1 tsp
Vanilla Essence (few drops)

1. Sieve flour, brown sugar n baking powder together in a bowl
2. Add oil, milk, vanilla essence n eggs into mixture. Mix well
3. Put baking paper on d base of round baking tray. Pour mixture into tray
4. Steam it for 1 hr on high temperature
5. Leave it to cool

Bon Appetite!

Butternut pumpkin pickle salad

If you like the Thai green papaya/mango salad, you would enjoy pickled pumpkin! I first tried it in a Japanese fine dining restaurant in K.L! I would have never imagined eating pumpkin raw before this, but now that I have tried it, I know I can use it as a substitute for green papaya/mango and it will make a beautiful light salad.

Julienne the pumpkin very thin. Get a not ripe one, ie still crunchy.

Pickle juice:
Equal parts of apple cider vinegar to water
Lots of sugar!
Juice of 1 lime
1 chopped chilli padi

Just make enough juice to cover pumpkin.

I had the first serve just after some 45 minutes of "soaking".

After its duly pickled, to serve, take a chopstick/thongs to gather the pumpkin, and drip off the juice before placing on serving plate. Toast some peanuts and sprinkled on it after peanuts have been cooled. (Dont do it while it is hot, as toasted nuts when hot will absorb the moisture and lose its crunchiness!).

We had it with steam rice, leftover braised mincebeef, and "kylie kwong" fried eggs. The latter is just breaking all the eggs into one bowl, and pour the lot into hot oil. When whites are brown and yolk still runny, take out, sprinkle with fresh "yim sai", spring onion, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and some soy sauce.

I think this pickle salad will go very well with any fried fish, pork chop etc!

Bon Appetite!

Orange lemon lime cake

This is tangy, tasty and moist, mostly gluten free cake.

Ingredients
Zest of 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime
Juice of 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime
80g castor sugar (1/2 cup compact)
80g almond meal (1 cup compact)
80g walnut meal (1 cup compact)
20g flour (sifted)
1/3 cup milk (60ml)
1/3 cup yoghurt
5 eggs, separated
125g butter
5-10g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180deg (or 160 deg for fan forced oven).
Wipe cake container with butter and dust with flour.
Whisk the butter with part of the sugar till pale creamy. Add the egg yolks and remaining sugar, and whisk till pale yellow and thickness such that can draw line.
Add milk and fold.
Add zest, almond and walnut meal and fold into mixture.
Slowly add in the juices and stir to combine.
Whisk egg whites till become foamy and fold over.
Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on your oven.
When cake is taken out of oven, and cooled off a bit, sprinkle remaining almond flakes over the surface and then "snowflake" icing sugar over it.

Bon Appetite!

Adapted from Yumi Kurihara's cyawan mushi

YUMMY is the word. The cyawan mushi is is soft like silken soft tofu,  filled with delicious broth.

For 2p
1 large egg
220c.c. (or ml) jiru (udon stock), OR chicken stock, any stock
2 shitate OR portobello mushroom - diced
Optional ingredients
-steamed pieces of chicken (optional)
-vegetable ( boiled spinach or substitute with chopped fresh herb leaves like parsley)
-fish cake
-4 large prawns, peeled and deveined

Whizz egg with stock till combined.
Blanch shrimp.
Divide up whichever optional ingredients you chose, into 2 small cawan mushi bowls/ramekins etc.
Using a strainer, pour egg stock into the bowls with all the ingredients.
Cover the bowls with aluminium foil.
Straining mixture and covering with foil eliminates bubbles and creates smooth texture.
Place the bowls in plates with water like roasting pan/wok.

Microwave 7 minutes (200w) or 6 minutes (500w).
If not enough, add another 30 seconds. ( I havent tried this option as am afraid to use aluminium foil in microwave)

Or steam on medium to high (ie not high) heat for 20 minutes.

Or steam in oven for 20 minutes.
Very yummy! I can eat this every day. It is such a comforting food.

TIP: Cooking timing and  having enough stock is very important to get the lovely texture.
Bon Appetite!

Shanghainese Pork Dumplings

For 4 person

Stock
166g lean pork
166g chicken
7.5g preserved ham
166ml water
Boil and take 80ml of stock

Pork Filling
120g minced pork
Pinch of salt
3 pinch sugar
sesame oil

Dumpling wrap
20g flour
13ml water
Cut into 7.5g ball pieces

Add stock to mince.
Wrap into dumpling wrap.
Steam for 10 minutes.

Bon Appetite!

Orange Lemon Lime Tart

This is when you want a cake dessert which is tangy, tasty and moist, mostly gluten free except for a tiny bit of flour!:-)

Ingredients
Zest of 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime
Juice of 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 lime
80g castor sugar
70g almond meal
70g almond flakes
20g flour (sifted)
4 eggs, separated
125g butter
5-10g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170deg.
Whisk the butter with part of the sugar till pale creamy. Add the egg yolks and remaining sugar, and whisk till pale yellow and thickness such that can draw line.
Slowly add in the juices and stir to combine.
Add zest and almond meal and 40g of the almond flakes and fold into mixture.
Whisk egg whites till become foamy and fold over.
Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes, depending on oven.
When cake is taken out of oven, and cooled off a bit, sprinkle remainding almond flakes over the surface and then "snowflake" icing sugar over it.

Bon Appetite!

Penang Char Kway Teow

This is a yummy Malaysian hawker’s delight. I was very pleased it turned out great on first try. Moist and tasty just like from my favourite hawker’s stores back in Kuala Lumpur or Penang!. We cooked this on our BBQ stove in the garden, and it was great as we didn’t have to worry about the splitter splatter of oil which made the cooking fun!

For 2p
300g of bean sprouts
1 bunch of chives, cut into 3 cm length
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 shallots, sliced finely
4 eggs
400g of thick rice noodles i.e “pho” or “kway teow”
12 fresh prawns
1 chinese sausage
Two cubes of speck or lard, sliced very paper thin.
1/3 cup of peanut oil

Seasoning sauce
2 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of raw sugar

Have all ingredients prepared and placed next to the wok, as the “wokking” process happens quickly.
The dish has to be fried individually, so that the ingredients gets maximum wok surface heat, so that the the ingredients are well fried and flavours released (otherwise, the ingredients ends up being “steamed” and the flavour is not the same). When frying, swirl around the wok surface to get max wok heat directly onto the ingredients.

Use half of the above ingredients for each dish of kway teow.

Add peanut oil to wok and heat up wok on high heat.
Add garlic and shallots, speck and sausages and fry all till fragrant. Do not burn. Speck should turn crispy and fat part translucent.
Add prawns and fry till half cooked. This is to prevent prawns from overcooking by the time the whole dish is cooked.
Quickly add the noodle, and stir for about 30 seconds just enough to get oil to coat the noodle. Then drizzle the seasoning sauce all over the noodle, and stir to combine evenly.
Push the noodles aside, to create a “space” in the middle of wok, crack 2 eggs into the space, and scramble till half cooked. Then fold the noodles back into the centre and fold into the eggs.
Throw in the chives and beansprouts and give it a quick wok, like 30 seconds, they cook quickly.
Turn off the heat, and serve immediately.

Note: I love cockles on my char kway teow, if you can find some fresh one it is great! Deshell it, and then just add on at the last minute as you are folding the noodles into the scrambles eggs. Cockles cooks quickly, and overcooked cockles are not nice. It loses its lovely texture and flavour. Or just replace with pipi or clams.

Bon Appetit!

Dates, Fruit and Nut Cake

This is a yummy moist and healthy cake, mainly fruits and nuts, with almost no butter and less sugar.

2 ½ cups of Iranian dried dates
2/3 cup dried raisins
2/3 cup dried currants
1 ripened banana
1/3 cup of mandarin vodka
1/3 cup milk
50g raw sugar
70g walnut meal
70g almond meal
20g wholemeal self raising flour
4 eggs, separated
1 egg white
1 tablespoon of butter

Preheat oven to 160deg
Grease the sides of a 20cm cake tin and sprinkle with flour, line the bottom with baking paper.
Mash the banana, set aside.
Mix the walnut meal and almond meal together with all the dried fruits (fruit and “meal” mix)
Ingredients should all be at room temperature

Whisk butter and 4 egg yolks, adding sugar progressively, till mixture becomes pale and creamy .
Then add the mashed banana and whisk together to blend.
Stir in mandarin vodka, milk.
Fold in the fruit and “meal” mix. Then fold in the self raising flour.
Whisk all the egg whites till it becomes like a white foam that can fold over when lifted.
Add the whisked egg whites to the rest of cake batter in 3 batches and fold gently till it combines. Do not overfold or the “gas” that leavenes the cake will burst.

Bake in oven for 35 minutes.

Serve with pure cream.


Bon Appetit!

Dark Chocolate Orange Fondant

When you feel like being indulgent, and baking chocolate cake that oozes chocolate in the middle when cut into half, especially when you get the chocolate craving at nite at a whim and a fancy, try this. I just made it, and loved it. Its very light and fluffy and beautiful.

Chocolate fondant

Ingredients for 1 Fondant:
50g good dark chocolate (we use French Callebaut dark chocolate 54% cocoa solids)
5 droplets of dark chocolate
10g brown sugar
15g self raising wholemeal flour
10g almond meal
2 tsp olive oil butter
2 tsp orange juice
1 tsp port
1 egg, separated.
1 egg white.
Some cocoa powder for dusting ramekin.

1 round ramekin, about 10cm in diameters, and roughly 7cm tall.

Preheat oven to 160degF.

Very lightly and evenly wipe sides of a round ramekin with olive oil butter, and dust with cocoa powder. Cut a piece of baking paper to line the bottom of the ramekin, this facilitates taking the cake out when cooked.

Melt chocolate in a pot that is sitting on a pot of hot water. Switch heat off when water starts to boil. Take pot off the heat as soon as melting - do not want chocolate to overheat or it will hardened. Add in olive oil butter and mix together till blended. Add orange juice and liquer and fold in. Add egg yolk into chocolate mixture, and whisk the entire mixture. As egg yolk melts away, add in sugar progressively. Whisk until mixture turn creamy. ("Chocolate and Egg Yolk Mixture")

Whisk the 2 egg whites till it form soft white peaks. Do this process when the Chocolate and Egg Yolk Mixture is done, as the egg white needs to be folded in immediately otherwise it breaks down and turns runny again, if left to wait.

Fold egg white into the Chocolate and Egg yolk mixture. Put the remainder 5 droplets of dark chocolate onto mixture and poke into the mixture.

Bake in oven for 13 minutes. Take out, ease side of cake off with a knife. Gently turn ramekin upside down onto a serving plate. And gently let the cake out. And then turn it back up. The cake is very soft and delicate and goey in the middle, so handle delicately!

Bon Appetit!

Moist Steam Carrot Cheese Fruit Cake

Ingredients - 23cm cake tin
2 grated carrots
1 cup of dried currants and raisins
80g cream cheese
125g butter
50g castor sugar
80g almond meal
70g self raising wholemeal flour
5 eggs, separated
Juice of 1/2 an orange
1 tsp of whisky/brandy etc.

Preheat oven to 160degF.

Melt butter and cream cheese in a double boil pot - switch heat off when water starts to boil. (Note: cheese will not be completely melted)

Separately, add dried fruits to the flour and mix it up.

Whisk egg yolks and sugar till become light pale yellow and creamy. Slowly add the melted butter and cheese, and whisk together till combined into creamy texture. Slowly add in flour mixture with fruits and almond meal, then carrots in several batches, orange juice and liquer, while folding the mixture slowly and combining mixture.

Whisk egg white till form white peaks. Add into egg yolk mixture in batches and combine.

Steam bake (ie put a tray of water in oven below baking dish) in oven for 25-30 minutes, not more than 30 minutes. Take it out and cool for 1 hour before serving.

Reminder for next try: Reduce butter to 100g. And increase orange juice to juice of 1 orange or add 1 extra grated carrot.

Bon Appetit!

Tuna and leek pasta

A very simple but tasty one, can be done in 1/2 hour. I suggest either a tuna with leek, or bacon with leek with feta cheese. This cheese gives you a light creamy texture without smelly cheese smell and not too rich unlike cream. Buy a fresh good feta.

Ingredients for 4p:
- Either spaghetti or linguine - Cecco is a good Italian brand. The trick is dont buy those shiny smooth ones, buy the floury/powdery ones, they absorb the sauce better. 1 packet usually feeds 5.
- 1 leek, very very finely sliced.
Use only the white parts ie the stem, the dark green leefy bits are too course which I put aside for making stock for future use.
- 1/2 bulb of garlic ie about - or about 6 cloves - finely chopped or sliced.
- Either 500g of can tuna or 8 pieces of bacon
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh parsley, chopped - maybe 3/4 of a Chinese soup bowl full when chopped.
- Good feta cheese about 60g. Chopped or crumbled into crumbly bits and set aside.

Cooking pasta
Boil water onto pot, make sure covers pasta well so that pasta cooks properly and evenly. When boiled, add a pinch of salt into water, and add pasta to cook. (Cooking time, look at instructions on pasta pack. Different ones/thickness etc requires different cooking time. )
When ready, dish out pasta onto a large mixing bowl together with a ladle full of the "hot pasta water". Then, add generously extra virgin olive oil and stir, for flavour and to keep the pasta from sticking together.

Cooking sauce
Sautee chopped garlic in a bit of olive oil till fragrant - not browned nor burnt. Add the leek and sautee till the leek is softened. Season with a pinch of sea salt.
When leek is cooked, while it is all hot, pour onto cooked pasta. Quickly add tuna, chopped parsley, lightly toss all together. Then add crumbled feta, lightly tossed all the ingredients, and serve.You want to toss with the still piping hot leek, to bring out the flavour of the fresh parsley and melt the feta! Which is why I time my cooking pasta such that it is almost done when my leek is done, so that everything is nice and hot when I am about to toss all together.

Bona apettite.:-)

Tip: If you like anchovies (I call it the kwai loh salted fish) - put 1 o 2 anchovies in when sauteeing garlic and combine together with leek for cooking.
- Fry chopped bacon, and add on to pasta, if you prefer bacon to tuna. Bon Appetit!

Bon Appetit!

My favourite fluorless dark chocolate cake

Bon Appetit!

This is a moist chocolate fluorless cake that has a just nice density yet light texture. Not sweet.

Ingredients
350g dark chocolate
160g almond or walnut meal.
5 eggs, yolks and white separated
2 egg whites
125g butter
80g raw sugar
2 tsp orange oil
3 tsp mandarin flavoured vodka
1 tsp of tawny port
1 orange zest

Steps
Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
Line bottom of a non stick square cake tin with baking paper. (If not using non stick, rub evenly a very light layer of butter on sides). I do this first so that I am not frantically trying to get this done when my batter is all ready to go into the oven!
Pour chocolate into a steel bowl sitting onto a pot of simmering hot water - make sure bowl doesnt touch steel bowl. I used Belgian cooking dark chocolate drops. If using from a bar of chocolate, chop chocolate to small pieces first, for easier melting.
Chop butter. Add to chocolate, and let both melt, stirring to blend both evenly.
When chocolate and butter are melted and no longer in lumps, set aside away from heat, to prevent over heating. Stir in all the orange flavouring and port.
Measure almond meal and sugar.
Separate the egg yolks.
Whisk egg yolk with sugar until it turns pale and creamy.
Pour it into melted chocolate and butter in 3 batches, and fold together.
Add almond meal and fold in.
Whisk egg white until it forms a soft white peak which can fall over.
Add egg white to the other chocolate batter in 3 batches and fold in till even.
Pour mixture into cake tin.
Put into oven for 30 minutes at 160 deg.
When time is up, take it out and cool down for at least 1 hour before serving.

The cake will be moist and melting with chocolate in the middle.

Tip: Cut individual serving piece into 4 cm x 4 cm pieces and microwave about 12 seconds each to "warm up" the chocolate - it makes the cake lighter and softer!

Can increase or decrease quantum of walnut/almond meal by up to 40g, depending on whether you want the cake to be lighter or more densed:-)

Option: Sprinkle toasted almond flakes on cake with icing sugar.

Option: For less rich chocolate cake, can reduce chocolate to 300g, and use 6 eggs, and 8 egg whites. Can also omit walnut meal, and replace with more butter ie 175g.
Increase oven time to 35 minutes.

Enjoy!

Tuna beans spanish onion n sultanas on turkish toast

As I am writing to this, I am listening to Michael Nyman, "The heart ask for pleasure first". How apt. It has been such a pleasurable sunny cool Sunday afternoon, and I just had a lovely turkish toast with soothing music, and now sipping my cup of hot green tea.

This morning as I woke up and lazying in bed, I thought we will have tuna beans for lunch, but what will complement it well? After trying a bunch of different ingredients on my imaginary palate, I finally decided on this mix:

Turkish bread
500g Sole Marie tuna and beans
1 finely chopped spanish red onion
2 cloves of finely chopped garlic
Handful of of sultanas
5-6 basil leaves, chopped
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt n pepper

To me, turkish bread is absolutely fabulous for toasts with olive oil. Its crunchy soft and light.

On a small non-stick pan, lightly caramelise the onions with sultanas for about a minute with a dash of olive oil, a crack of salt and a touch of balsamic vinegar. Dont overcook. We want the onion to remain crunchy(I dont like raw onions but if you like them raw, go for it). Put aside.
Drain the oil off the can of tuna and beans.
On a bowl, toss the tuna, beans and chopped basil with olive oil ( I much prefer olive oil. It is fresher and healthier than the oil that comes with the tuna).
Half the turkish bread
"Butter" the halved turkish bread with chopped garlic
Grill the bread on a preheated toasted oven, just enough to warm the bread and release the flavour from the garlic.
When done, drizzle olive oil onto turkish bread. Then add the tuna mix, followed by the sauteed onions.
Crackle some pepper.

The crunchy onions and sweetness of the sultanas adds texture and taste to the tuna. And the fresh basil adds a nice refreshing "zing". I think parsley would have complemented these ingredients better , but I didnt have parsley at home today.

Bon Appetit!

Snack, dinner

Some of the colourful meals we made last week.
Garlic bruschetta with fresh tomato and basil in olive oil.
Vietnamese "bun" with spanish chorizo









Bon Appetit!

Stewed pork ribs in chicken and dried honey dates soup

Simple and comforting home cooked meal.

I dont know why, but I have been feeling so dehydrated these days. I havent missed soups lately until now. So I bought 5 pieces of drumsticks to make clear soup, with the packet of dried yellow dates (I think its called "mut cho" in cantonese)I have in the pantry.

Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks
1 stalk of fennel
1 carrot
A dozen of golden/honey dates ("mut cho" in cantonese)
A pinch of salt

We use a le creuset cast iron pot (it seals all the flavours well).

Place chicken into the pot with cold water, enough to cover the chicken.
Turn heat on high.
When it starts to boil, remove the layer of white/grayish foam that emerged. This takes away the impurities of the meat which floats to the surface when boiling.
Put the rest of the ingredients into the boiling water.
Turn heat to lowest heat. Boil the chicken soup for 2 1/2 hours.

The finished clear soup was nice and sweet. The chicken was lovely, falling off its bones. We had it with soy sauce and fresh chilly, accompanied with plain steam rice, and fried choy sum with eshallots and garlic and a dash of oyster sauce.

With the leftover clear soup, with its sweetish flavour, we thought it would make a nice sort of Thai/Vietnamese noodle soup.

I added about:
5 star anise,
another fennel stalk,
1 chopped onion
a chopped tomato
a teaspoonsful of corn starch powder
and boiled the soup for about 45 minutes.

The corn starch powder makes the soup slightly thicker so that it will bind better onto my taiwanese noodles. The fennel stalk gives it a nice licorish taste which blends well with the star anise.

While the soup was simmering, I boiled some taiwanese noodle and blanched some lettuce and placed them onto a bowl. To keep the noodle separated I tossed it with a dash of sesame oil and tiny weeny bit of oyster sauce for flavouring. When the soup was ready, and the ingredients drained, I then poured it onto the bowl of noodles. I hesitated whether to put in some fesh basil leaves, but opted to leave it out, so that I can enjoy the pure simple sweet taste of the soup. As this was meant to be a fast food nite, we opened up a can of chinese stew pork ribs (Gulong brand), heat it up in the pot, and put the ribs on top of the noodles (minus the juice that comes with it in the can, as I didnt want it to change the flavour of the soup) I must say I enjoyed the soup very much. The soup was clear but tasty with the natural sweetness of all the fresh veg and dates.

The best way to describe it is to imagine a fusion between a taiwanese brisket soup noodle and a indochine beef soup noodle, just minus the beef :-)

Bon Appetit!

Chicken and enoki mushrooms noodles

In my last blog we made claypot chicken with corn and oregano. We had the drumsticks, thighs and wings for dinner. We were deciding whether to have chicken apple salad like a waldorf salad with the remaining chicken pieces, mainly breast, but opted for something warm so we made dry noodles ie a "kon loh mee" instead. We had dry taiwanese noodles with chopped enoki mushrooms and fennel. I thought of the enoki as it has a nice crunchy bite to it. The enoki was fried with the fennel. Separately, I fried some eshallots. The noodles were tossed with thick soy sauce, sesame oil and oyster sauce. Then I just combine all of it together. Overall, the noodles was not great, but good for a "fast food". The touch of soy sauce with extra hot fresh bullet chilli made a huge difference. Well, we still have a whole packet of this zinging hot chilli in the fridge, so it will be spicy hot food for a while I guess :-)

Bon Appetit!

Claypot Corn Chicken

This was the dinner that Andrew made last night! It's simple, uses one pot, no oily splitter splatter, we make full use of the whole chicken, AND importantly, it's yummy! When the chicken is cooked, the whiff of roasted chicken, garlic and herbs smell just floated in the air filling the house with a heavenly smell.
The chicken tasted like steam chicken and more, with a good "roasty" flavour. The claypot sealed all the flavours beautifully giving an intense and aromatic chicken with rich broth. We often add potatoes and last night we experimented with fresh sweet corn as well. The potatoes having absorbed all the rich broth while cooking was so flavourful. We used a few of the large potatoes we had in the pantry, but if buying them, we'd use several new (ie baby) potatoes instead as baby potatoes hold together better in the heat since the skin need not be peeled.

Cooked in a Rometoff clay pot.

1 Whole Chicken (corn fed if available).
2 large fresh cobs of corn (or a 4 pack of small ones), cut the sweet corn off the cob and put both aside.
2 large potatoes, quartered (or several new potatoes).
1/2 cup of white wine.

Marinade / rub
4 cloves of garlic, crushed.
1 or 2 teaspoons of salt.
1 tablespoon or so of olive oil.
2 teaspoons of chopped oregano (dry if no fresh available).

Mix marinade well and push under the chicken skin with a teaspoon, and spread around. Rub the remainder on the outside of the bird. Fill the cavity with the corn cobs. As an option you could also put a few lemon wedges into the chook as well, plus more garlic cloves and fresh oregano.

Put the chicken into a soaked claypot. Spread the potatoes around, then add the white wine. Put the lid of the claypot on and put into an unheated oven for 1 hour at 220. After 45mins, scatter the corn all over the chicken, then return to oven for another 15 mins. Remove and let rest with lid on for 10 - 15 mins.

To serve, cut the chicken as preferred and scoop corn and juices over the meat and potatoes. If you don't have potatoes, use white rice - this is especially delicious with the left over corn and juice!

This time we had the chicken thigh and wings and potatoes for dinner, with plain white rice. The remaining chicken breast we may save for making sandwiches or noodles the next day.

The carcass, we used to make stock, adding the bones, skin, corn cobs plus one onion and a couple of bay leaves to a stock pot, bring to boil then simmer for a few hours, cool & skim. It's placed in freezer in tubs, and to be used another day for making soupy noodle, or simply used as stock for cooking. Its good savings considering a carton of 500g Campbell chicken stock costs about AUD3.50. We ended up with over 2 ltrs of stock, plenty to use fresh and to freeze for later. We made a few ice cube trays of stock so I can just use as many or as little cubes as I like :-)

Bon Appetit

Hot Spanish chorizo and leek pasta

I have not been posting any blogs the last few days. I made some good food, but none of them seem WOW enough for me to want to put on the blog. But today, Andrew made me this pasta that blew me away. It was a pretty blue day, and he blew the blues off with this pasta. Of late, we have been into experimenting cooking with leeks. I did make a pretty good leek, tuna and feta cheese pasta a few weeks ago, but I am not putting it into the blog till I next make it.

Today is about Andrew's SUPER YUMMY pasta. As those who love chilli will understand, this has a great "kick" to it. Not for faint hearted, for this is HOT. I took my 1st bite, it was yummy. It was so hot, my tongue burnt, but I just wanted to go on eating. My tongue is still burning now, 2 hours after dinner, a hot chamomile tea and a hot milo. No regrets:-)

The trick I have learnt about good pasta is that once the sauce and ingredients are cooked, it is best just to toss and mix the pasta in the sauce, with the heat OFF. That way, pasta doesnt get overcooked.

Serves two.
Pasta (chitarra) for two.
2 chorizo sausages, sliced.
1 leek, sliced.
2 cloves of garlic crushed, 2 cloves sliced.
1 or 2 small chillies, as hot as you dare.
2 large mushrooms, coarsely chopped.
Half cup of white wine.
Handful of grated cheese, a soft mild cheddar or havarti.

Cook pasta and set aside.
Heat a little olive oil in pan.
Add sliced chorizo and crushed garlic, fry over medium heat until chorizo cooked.
Add sliced leek and fry until leek separates and softens.
Add mushrooms, sliced chilli, sliced garlic, cook until mushroom softens.
Add salt and pepper as desired, then turn up the heat and deglaze pan with white wine.
Turn off heat, add cheese and mix in then add pasta, mix together well and serve

Bon Appetit!

Tuna turkish roll with greens and sundried tomatos

Last week, Coles was promoting 10 cans of GREENSEAS tuna for AUD10. We got 10 of the brine and oil flavoured ones.

I made a great tuna pasta with it, but since that happened a few days ago, I am too lazy to write up that recipe now, and shall just post my most current tuna creation.

The key to a yummy tuna sandwich, is GOOD fresh turkish bread and GOOD flavoursome olive oil. Tony, our delightful deli around the corner, has great turkish bread - crusty on the outside and soft on the inside when toasted.

Ingredients for 2p:-
Good olive oil. We use Coriole's (Season 2008) First Oil Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Balsamic vinegar. We just used Tetsuya's balsamic salad dressing, as I have yet to fine a real good balsamic oil.
Baby spinach - enough for generous layers of leaves per sandwich
4-5 basil leaves or parsley, finely chopped.
2 pieces of sundried tomato, shredded into small bits.
Easily meltable cheese of your choice
Good turkish bread
Sea salt and pepper, cracked
Tuna in brine, 65g

STEPS FOR 1 serving of sandwich

Preheat toaster oven/grill (so that it is nice and warm by the time you are ready to put bread with ingredients and cheese in. Cheese then takes less only about a minute to melt beautifully, bread is warm but not overtoasted, greens not wilted)

Cut turkish bread into halves

Onto 1 half of the bread, layer spinach leaves and chopped herb leaves on bread. Then the shredded sundried tomatoes. Spread the sundried tomatoes out so that you dont get the overintensely sour flavour in 1 mouthful. Tomato on top so that it gets slightly grilled, and protects spinach leaves from wilting.

Onto 2nd half of the bread, place cheese pieces/bits.

Toast in preheated grill for about 1- 2 minutes - ie when cheese is melted should be done.

Put tuna once out of toaster.

Drizzle GENEROUS amount of olive oil on greens, and then drizzle balsamic vinegar.

Crack a little bit salt and pepper.

Eat while its hot. Enjoy the burst of juicy greens, sundried tomatoes and olive oil on crunchy turkish bread.

Bon Appetit!

Finally, I started my foodie blog! Its work in progress, and coming up soon!