Capellini with Lumpfish Caviar: Lazy Posh Nosh

We had the pleasure of hosting dinner on Saturday for some awesome people who'd played a significant role in my life as I matured professionally.  It was all pretty relaxed, and we had a really nice evening with them.  But since I'd been cooking and baking for a good part of Friday afternoon, and cooking and eating again on Saturday evening, I didn't feel like fussing over dinner on Sunday.

So with some lumpfish caviar we had in the fridge, some fresh basil and chopped garlic, I put together an easy 15-minute pasta for Sunday dinner which still made us feel rather spoilt.

Ingredients
(Note: quantities are estimates only)

130g Capellini (Angel Hair Pasta)
5-6 tbs olive oil
2 tbs chopped garlic
6 fresh basil leaves, sliced/shredded
1 small jar (about 1.5-2 tbs) lumpfish caviar
Salt to taste


Method

Boil pasta in big pot of water with 1 tsp salt until al dente, then drain.
In the meantime, heat up olive oil in a skillet, then saute chopped garlic till cooked.
Toss hot pasta in a large bowl with the cooked olive oil, garlic, caviar, and basil leaves.
If too dry when tossing, add a little of the water which the pasta had been cooked in.

Add salt to taste.

Serves 2.




  

Carrot Walnut Cake: My Favourite Kind of Sugar Rush

Carrot Walnut Cake with Orange Zest (Photographed by my friend M)

I've been in a reflective mood the past couple of weeks, trying to be quiet and still so that I could think.  Every once in awhile, I feel the need to do this to help me regain equilibrium. It helps me ensure that I'm not just going through the motions or going with the flow. Life has too many distractions; so it's hard to remain constantly focused on that which really matters.

I've been cooking, though; I just haven't been blogging. And that one time I wanted to share my new Seafood Hor Fun recipe here, I found that the photographs had vanished from my memory card.  

I've also been baking Carrot Cake. I've been a fan of the Carrot Walnut Cake at Cedele for a long time.  Sweet, moist, nutty and covered with a wonderful cream cheese frosting, it was the only carrot cake I cared for.  Of course I never imagined that I'd be able to produce a cake like that in my own kitchen.  But about a year ago, fuelled by one of my episodic bursts of baking energy, I hunted down a Carrot Walnut Cake recipe which, much to my delight and excitement, enabled me to do just that.

This brought a smile to her face 

The daughter shares my passion for this cake.  She requested I bake one for her birthday earlier this month. But although my previous attempts at it based on the Epicurious recipe for Carrot Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Icing did produce cakes which were literally swooned over, I'd experienced some difficulty and had to make slight adjustments to the oven temperature and baking time.  I also had to tweak the frosting to get it the way I liked. So since I wasn't confident that I would get a consistent result, I thought I should practice and experiment a little more.

Apart from working with the Epicurious recipe, I also tried an alternative but similar recipe: the Hummingbird Bakery Carrot Cake I came across on Food Stories.  This one had pecans and orange zest as added ingredients.  In fact, the daughter's birthday cake was based on this, except that I omitted the pecans and cut down the icing sugar for the frosting (I used only 3.5 cups).

So we've been having plenty of very delicious carrot cake around here.  Over a span of 2 or 3 weeks, I made whole cakes as well as cupcakes and shared them with some family, friends and colleagues, all of whom I believe were happy they could help in the sampling.  A pleasure to the tastebuds, albeit a bane to the waistline. 

Cupcakes for the colleagues

The two recipes vary only slightly. In fact, the difference in the resulting taste could escape some if we didn't have both cakes together for comparison. Overall, the daughter and I prefer the Epicurious one because the cake comes out a little more moist, and a hint richer and sweeter, which I attribute to more sugar and egg. I was also not very keen on the orange zest in the Hummingbird/Food Stories recipe, although the H liked the addition.

Both recipes result in very delicious carrot cake - the sort of cake you can't just take a bite of.  You'll want to eat the whole slice even if at first you didn't intend to.  Trust me.



"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." - 1 Corinthians 10:31

Chicken Wings with 1/2 the Guilt in 1/2 the Time

Crispy Roasted Chicken Wings with Balsamic-Soy Glaze

I rarely make fried chicken wings at home.  Usually, our chicken wings are marinated for a couple of hours before they are baked in the oven.  It's a healthier alternative to fried chicken wings, involves less active time when cooking, and leaves you with much less cleaning up. Plus I dare say they taste as good, if not better.

But we don't always have the time to prepare and marinate ahead.  So over the weekend, I tried a quicker and easier recipe.  Instead of marinating the wings, they were simply patted dry, tossed in salt and pepper, baked on high heat till the skin turned crispy, then coated in glaze.

I tried two different kinds of glaze with them: the first was a balsamic-soy glaze which allowed the wings to remain super crispy while giving them a deliciously sweet coating; and the other was a spicy sauce akin to buffalo sauce, but with an Asian twist because of the Thai chilli sauce that went into it.

Buffalo Wings with an Asian twist

The balsamic-soy wings turned out to be more popular.  While the buffalo wings had a little more kick because of the heat, the glaze was absorbed into the skin, which compromised crispiness. But still pretty good, especially considering it was so easy to do.


Ingredients

For Wings:

2 kg chicken wings
3 tbs olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

For Buffalo Wings Sauce:

1.5 tbs butter, melted
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp salt
4 tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce

For Balsamic-Soy Glaze:

4 tbs soya sauce
8 tbs balsamic vinegar
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp brown sugar
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tbs butter

Method

Pat wings dry and toss with olive oil, salt and black pepper till well coated.  Set aside 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 260 degrees celsius.
Arrange wings on 2 shallow trays (lined with foil), without crowding.  Put one tray in highest and the other in the lowest rack of the oven and bake wings until skin turns golden brown and crispy. If using whole wing, this should take approx 35 minutes. If using only mid-joints (as shown in the photos), then 25 minutes should be sufficient.

While wings are baking, prepare the Glaze and Sauce.
For Buffalo Wings Sauce, simply whisk all ingredients together in a bowl.
For Balsamic-Soy Glaze, combine soya sauce, vinegar, sugar and brown sugar, and boil in a saucepan on medium to high heat till thickened and somewhat reduced.  Add minced garlic and continue to boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter till melted and well-combined.

Remove trays from oven and set aside to allow wings to rest for 10 minutes before removing.
Divide the wings between 2 large bowls.  Toss one in the buffalo sauce and the other in the balsamic-soy glaze.

Tiger Prawn Pasta with Sun-dried Tomato and Black Olives

Pasta is one of those things we can whip up with very little preparation time and with just some basic ingredients which we're likely to already have in our fridge.  And dried pasta stores well.  So I always stock up at least 3 different kinds. Certain shapes go better with certain sauces because of the way that the ingredients in the pasta sauce adheres to or gets picked up by the pasta, or because of their texture. But then it does boil down to personal preference.  At the moment, there's some Spaghettini, Squid Ink Spaghettini, Tagliatelle, Parppadelle, Macaroni and Penne in my larder. The egg tagliatelle would go with cream sauces or egg sauces, whereas for aglio olio or white wine sauces, we'd use spaghettini. The kids prefer the shorter pastas, which I assume is because it's just easier to eat.  Those tend to go well with tomato-based sauces.

We had some friends over for dinner last Saturday.  It was an impromptu thing we arranged on the day itself. After our morning picnic at Botanic Gardens (which was adjourned to Hort Park after it began to rain), we dropped by at my favourite supermarket. I'd already planned on making breaded chicken breasts seasoned in herbs and stuffed with bacon and cheese (my take on Chicken Cordon Bleu), with some salad and sweet mango on the side.  But the Tiger Prawns looked really compelling that day - so fresh, large and plump - so I decided we'd have them as well, in spaghettini with a sun-dried tomato and black olive sauce.

This pasta dish is easy enough to prepare on a week night. At the same time, it's lush enough to have with a glass of wine when you feel like spoiling yourself or when you're entertaining. Especially if you have fresh large Tiger Prawns like we did.

Ingredients

500g spaghettini
12-18 large tiger prawns (approx 800g)
2 whole garlic, chopped
4 large shallots, sliced
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (steeped in oil), sliced
3/4 cup sliced pitted black olives
2 cans chopped/diced tomatoes (approx 550g in total), drained
2 handfuls of chopped basil leaves
4 sprigs Italian parsley, chopped
Grated Parmigiano Reggiano (Pecorino or Parmesan is fine too)
2-4 chili padis, seeds removed (2 if you want it mild, more if you want it more spicy) (optional)
1.5 cups olive oil (add a little more as you go, if necessary)
4 tbs butter
Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Heat 2-3 tbs olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
Pat prawns dry, then place on skillet to cook, one side at a time, turning when they are cooked halfway through. Allow prawns to be seared, but reduce heat before they start to burn. Remove prawns with slotted spoon when they are just cooked through, and set aside.
Turn down heat.
Add remaining olive oil, butter, garlic and shallots to the skillet and saute till softened.
Add sun-dried tomatoes and saute till softened.
Add chopped/diced tomatoes, chili and black olives, and cook until sauce thickens.
Stir in chopped basil leaves.
Stir in prawns (including any drippings/juice) and season with salt and black pepper.
Meanwhile, bring large pot of water to a boil, with 3 tsp salt added.  Cook pasta until al dente (tender but firm), then drain.
Add cooked pasta to the skillet and combine with the sauce.
Dish onto plates, arranging prawns on top of pasta, and sprinkle with cheese and chopped Italian parsley.

Serves 6.

Home-made Char Siew

A good day for me is usually one involving quality time with the kids, exercise, and some tinkering in the kitchen.

At the moment, I'm still high on endorphins from this evening's run. I had a pleasant and fruitful day with the kids, and the Char Siew we made for dinner turned out exceptionally well.  So it's been a good day.

I first made Char Siew some years back, when it was part of the menu at a family dinner I cooked to celebrate my mom-in-law's birthday.  Back then, I only had a table-top oven which was relatively small in size. But it was a good microwave-convection combination oven, which in those days didn't come cheap.  It was my first oven, and I have fond memories of learning how to bake and roast with it.  I'm glad it's gotten a new lease of life in another household with someone who also enjoys cooking.  But I digress.

I remember wondering how I should make Char Siew, then looking for a recipe online.  That's when I discovered Lily's Wai Sek Hong, which is a useful resource for Chinese and Asian recipes.  This Char Siew recipe was originally based on Lily's recipe, but I've experimented with it and tweaked it as I went along so the quantities and method aren't the same anymore.  I actually think it's pretty easy to make, and once you can do this, you probably won't want to buy char siew from the neighbourhood roast meats stall again.

There are two ways you could cook this: If you want very succulent Char Siew, but without the charring, you can simply place it in a tray (line tray with foil first, otherwise it'll be hell to clean) in the oven at 220 degrees celsius, first covered in foil for 15 mins, then remove the foil, return to the oven for a further 15 minutes, then glaze it and return to the oven for a further 12 minutes or until it the pork appears shiny.  The Char Siew turns out really juicy and tender this way, but you don't really get any charred bits.  If you like it charred, then place the pork on wire rack fitted over a roasting pan (again, line pan with foil), add some water into the pan (about 1cm depth) and just roast on 230 degrees celsius covered with foil for 10 minutes, then, remove foil, glaze and continue to roast (uncovered) for another 20 minutes, checking to ensure it doesn't burn.

I prefer the first method, as the meat retains much more moisture, and because the marinade and glaze don't get burnt off as in the case with the second method, there's much more flavour as well.  What I'm posting is the first method, but if you like your Char Siew charred, you could try the second method I've mentioned.


Ingredients

800g pork shoulder or pork loin (or tell your butcher you're making char siew)

For Seasoning:
3 tbs Hoisin sauce
1.5 tsp garlic powder (or finely-chopped garlic)
3 tsp soya sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1.5 tbs Hua Teow Chiew (Chinese Wine)
3/4 tsp Five Spice Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper

For Glaze:
1.5 tbs dark soya sauce
1.5 tbs honey
1.5 tbs cooking oil


Method

Mix all seasoning ingredients together and marinade pork in it for about 1-2 hours.
Preheat oven to 220 degrees celsius.
Place pork in a tray (line tray with foil first) together with all the marinade and cover tray with foil, then put in the oven for 15 mins at 220 degrees celsius.
Remove the foil covering and return to oven for a further 15 minutes.
Mix glaze ingredients together in a bowl and brush glaze all over pork thoroughly, then return to oven for a further 12 minutes or until the pork appears shiny.
Let stand for 20-30 minutes before cutting into slices and serving.

Salmon and Leek with Fusilli: Tasty, Quick and Healthy

During weekends, we usually spend the day out with the kids, and if there are no dinner plans, I usually prefer to cook something simple at home, rather than da bao (takeout).  We used to think nothing of it before the kids came along, but this has become somewhat of an exception now as I've become more conscious of what goes into our diets.

Today, after a morning of go-karting at West Coast Park, we had a fast food lunch as a treat to the kids. So all the more I thought we ought to balance things out a little with a relatively healthy dinner.  Feeling tired and a little lazy, an easy one-dish pasta meal seemed an appealing option. There is usually some Salmon fillet in the freezer, and there is always dried pasta in the larder.

Salmon and Leek with Fusilli is one of the current quick and easy staples from my kitchen.  It's easy to prepare, tasty, convenient to eat if you're in a hurry, and best of all, makes for a healthy meal.  It's not anything special, but I just thought I'd share this as an easy meal you could prepare on a week night.  Takes about 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Approx 600-700g salmon fillet, skin removed

350g dried fusilli (pasta spirals)

1 whole garlic

1 stalk leek

1 cup olive oil

Chopped Dill leaves (either fresh or dried)

Chopped Italian Parsley (either fresh or dried)

Pot of water for cooking pasta

Salt to taste

Method

Put a large pot of water to boil.  Add 2 tsp salt.
Cut salmon into 1 inch cubes.  Season with salt.
Cook pasta in the pot of boiling water. Remove and drain once cooked.
In the meantime, heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium high heat. Cook salmon, first on one till browned, then turning over (adjust heat if necessary), until just cooked through. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.
Turn heat to low. Saute chopped garlic until cooked but not brown. Add leek and saute till just softened.
Return salmon to skillet and toss gently for a couple of seconds.
Turn off heat, add drained pasta to the skillet and toss gently with the other ingredients, adding chopped dill, parsley, and salt to taste. Be careful not to break up the salmon cubes.
If you like, top with freshly grated cheese (I like Pecorino).

Serves 4.

Nonya Laksa Recipe

So here I am with the recipe for Nonya Laksa.  This is an extremely tasty and addictive dish, and although it may sound daunting to make since a number of steps are involved, you will find the result well worth it.  It is one of those dishes you shouldn't rush, and it will definitely taste better with some TLC.  I cooked it in fairly large quantities, so the recipe here is based on a reduced portion. It would make 5 servings.  I really hope you will enjoy making and eating this as much as I did!

Ingredients

620g thick rice noodles (chu mee fen or chor bee hoon)
500ml coconut milk
1.8L water
400g prawns (medium) (approx 4 prawns per person)
2 fish cakes (each of approx 12cm in length), sliced
3 pieces tau pok (about 6cm x 6cm)
150g beansprouts
10 quail's eggs or 3 chicken eggs, hard boiled and shelled
200g fresh blood cockles (with shells) (optional)
10 stalks laksa leaves
Rock sugar to taste
Salt to taste

For the Rempah (paste)

40g hei bee (dried shrimp)
1 whole garlic
8 shallots
1 small piece turmeric (approx 1cm x 1.5cm)
1 piece galangal (approx 3cm x 3cm)
3 candlenuts, finely pounded
1 stalk lemongrass
1 + 1/4 tbs belacan
10 dried chillies
Cooking oil

Method

Grind rempah ingredients in a food processor into a fine paste. Add about 2 tsp of finely chopped laksa leaves (from about 2 stalks) into food processor and whizz for a few seconds together with the paste.

In a wok, heat up 2-3 tbs of cooking oil, and fry paste until its colour darkens.  If it gets too dry before this happens, add a little oil.  Set aside rempah once it is done.

In a large stock pot, bring 1.8L of water to a boil and add the prawns, with shells on, then simmer till the prawns are cooked, remove quickly and refresh with cool water.  Once cooled, shell prawns and return shells and heads into stock pot. Set aside the prawns.  Bring pot to a boil, then lower heat and simmer about 1.5 hours.  Add a handful of laksa leaves to the stock pot (from approximately 3 stalks), and allow to simmer for another half hour.

While stock is simmering, prepare the other ingredients:

Slice fish cakes.

De-vein cooked prawns.

Hard boil the eggs, then shell them, and if using chicken eggs, slice them (quail's eggs may be served whole).
Blanche the tau pok in a pot of boiling to remove some oil, then drain and slice them.

Rinse cockles thoroughly in a basin of cool water, changing the water until the water turns clear.  Drain.  Place cockles in a basin or small pot and pour boiling water over them and leave for a minute before draining them.  Refresh with cool water to prevent the cockle flesh from continuing to cook and becoming too tough.  Remove the flesh and set aside. Discard shells.

Blanche beansprouts quickly and drain.

Finely chop the remaining laksa leaves (you should have about 5 tsp)*.

Cook rice noodles in a pot of boiling water, refresh and drain.

Strain stock after it has been allowed to simmer for 2 hours, and return to stock pot.

Add rempah to the stock and bring to a boil, then lower heat and simmer till oil surfaces. Skim. Lower heat.

Add coconut milk (a little at a time), bring to a boil, the lower heat to simmer for a few minutes.

Add rock sugar and salt to taste.

If necessary, add more coconut milk.

Place a portion of the cooked rice noodle into a bowl. Arrange prawns, tau pok, beansprouts, cockles and eggs over the noodles and then pour some gravy over it. Sprinkle with 1 tsp of chopped laksa leaves and serve with sambal if available.

* If you are not able to get the amount of laksa leaves required in this recipe, try to ensure that you have at least 4-5 tsp of chopped laksa leaves for sprinkling over the individual bowls, and omit the laksa leaves in the rempah and stock if you have to.

(Edited 8/02/12)

Hearty Chicken and Vegetable Soup

Our stomachs were never meant to take the abuse of Chinese New Year feasting. I have to admit that it's entirely self-inflicted, but it's what we do. We bond over food.

Tonight, after three full days of feasting - not including the week or so of constant snacking on pineapple tarts, kueh lapis, and assorted other cookies (I so need to intensify my exercise regime now!) - I'm finally rid of the heartburn.  I'd decided we should have something simple for dinner this evening, something to calm the tempest in our bellies.  So I went with some wholesome Chicken and Vegetable Soup.  Easy, healthy and delicious.  I highly recommend this!

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, skin removed, meat diced, carcass reserved for stock
1 garlic, peeled but with last layer of skin left on, top sliced off
2 sprigs fresh tarragon
Handful of fresh Italian parsley
1 stalk lemongrass, white part bruised
1 bay leaf

1 big carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 stalks leek, chopped roughly
1 brown onion, chopped roughly
1/2 small cauliflower, diced
5 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
200g fresh button mushrooms, sliced

2 tbs butter
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp dried mixed Italian herbs
Salt
Truffle oil for drizzling (optional)

Method

Make stock: Put carcass, fresh herbs, lemongrass, bay leaf and garlic in a pot with 2L water, bring to boil and simmer 20 minutes.
Skim off scum, remove carcass, herbs and garlic or strain stock through sieve.

Season diced chicken with 1 tsp salt, set aside 10 minutes.
Add diced chicken, veg and mushrooms to stock and bring to boil, then simmer on low heat until potatoes and carrots are softened.
Add dried herbs and peppercorns, simmer 5 minutes.
Add butter and simmer another 5 minutes, then turn off heat.
Check seasoning.
Scoop into bowls.  If available, drizzle with truffle oil. Serve with buttered warm rolls.

Makes about 8 bowls.

Lemongrass and Ginger Iced Tea for the Scorching January Afternoons

The kind of sunny, scorching weather which January has brought with it, has often made me dream of lounging by the beach somewhere in Thailand, dosing off under the shade of coconut trees, feeling the balmy breeze against my skin, and looking forward to Tom Ka Gai at dinnertime. But since I'm not about to be jetting off anywhere, I thought the next best thing would be to cool off on the terrace with a glass of Lemongrass and Ginger Iced Tea.

Lemongrass is believed to have medicinal properties.  It's used in traditional remedies in Asia, for treating fevers, coughs and colds.  It is also believed to aid digestion, cure insomnia, keep skin healthy, act as an antioxidant, keep cholesterol levels down, inhibit heart disease and even induce programmed cell death in cancer cells!

But quite apart from all of that, I love lemongrass for what it is. I love its fresh, citrus-like fragrance, which always manages to relax me. I love how it lends that tangy, exotic flavour to cooking.  Most of all, I love how a whiff of lemongrass reminds me of luxuriating at spa resorts, where time seems to stand still.

So if you're thinking of beating this heat with a glass of Lemongrass and Ginger Iced Tea yourself, here's the recipe.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

4 stalks of lemongrass, white part only, first 2 outer leaves removed, bruised and sliced thinly
1 gob of fresh ginger (approx 1 inch x 2 inches), peeled and sliced
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water

2 tea bags (any black tea, or you could even try green tea if you like)
1 cup boiling water
1.5 cups cool/cold drinking water
Ice cubes
3 lemongrass stalks for garnish, outer 2 leaves removed and white part bruised

Method

In a pot, boil lemongrass and ginger in 1 cup of water for about 10 minutes, then add sugar.
Cover pot and leave aside for about 30 minutes, or leave overnight in fridge.
Strain the lemongrass and ginger syrup, pressing on the ingredients to extract the flavour.
Let teabags steep in 1 cup of boiling water for 5 minutes, then add 1.5 cups cool/cold water, and remove and squeeze out teabags.
Mix syrup with tea, pour out into 3 glasses.
Put a stalk of lemongrass into each glass and add ice cubes.

Steak and Salmon on a Whim

This was a quick and easy Steak and Salmon dinner we had some weeks back, decided upon on a whim at the supermarket because both the salmon fillet and beef tenderloin happened to be marked for "Quick Sale".  So we grabbed four of each. We actually eat quite a bit of salmon at home because it's just such a delicious fish, packed with Omega-3, and pretty easy to prepare. Anyway, we all thoroughly enjoyed this meal.  And the satisfaction I got out of it was doubled by the fact that it was done on such a whim.  We had a side of boiled potatoes tossed in sour cream and bacon bits too.

This can take under 45 minutes if you are a fairly confident multi-tasker, and you have a big skillet in which to cook all four steaks at the same time:

Boil a pot of water, with 1 tbs of salt added.
Pre-heat oven to 220 deg celsius.
Pat steaks dry with paper towels, rub salt, black pepper and about a teaspoonful of chopped garlic over each steak. (I usually have some chopped garlic in the fridge stored in an airtight glass jam jar).
Rub salt, olive oil and dried dill over the salmon fillets.
Heat skillet with 2 tsp olive oil, over medium-high heat.
Put 4 or 5 potatoes into the pot of boiling water.  Leave them to cook while you deal with the salmon and steak.
Arrange salmon fillets in a oven-proof dish and bake at 220 deg celsius for approximately 8-10 minutes, then turn oven up to 240 deg celsius for approximately 4-6 minutes so that the edges and skin brown (How long it takes depends on thickness of the fillets and also how you like your salmon done. I like mine done medium, with the insides just flaking yet moist. The one in the picture is well-done).
While the salmon fillets are in the oven, you can grill your steak in the skillet.  Cook steaks one side at a time, approximately 3-4 minutes on each side, for medium done-ness.  (Turn down the heat once the steaks are browned if you don't want them too charred).
Remove potatoes from pot once you can prick a fork into them without much resistance, then peel skins once they're cool enough to handle, and halve or quarter them. Toss potatoes in sour cream, top with bacon bits (this was one of those times we used Hormel) and chopped chives.
Sprinkle salt and black pepper over the steaks before serving.
Sprinkle black pepper over salmon fillet.
Serve with mesclun mix and cherry tomatoes, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  We used a Raspberry Balsamic Vinegar reduction from a bottle we got from Jones the Grocer, which was pretty good.

Fish Mee Sua Soup: A Healthy Dose of Comfort Food for the Post-Festive Season

My friend C, who's taking a break from work to spend time with her toddler, has asked that I share some Chinese home-style dishes she can prepare for the family. I know what it's like having to cook dinner while minding a small child, because we only had live-in help about 3 years after the daughter was born. Before that, quick, healthy meals which required minimal cleaning up were the order of the day.

Now weekday meals are usually left to W, our Filipina helper. I go through the week's menu and shopping list with her, and unless we feel like having something special, I don't have to bother her in the kitchen for the rest of the week. As a source of reference for W, we keep a couple of ratty, torn notebooks containing scribblings of recipes I've given her over the years.  Most of the time, it's comforting Chinese home-style dishes which I am grateful to be able to come home to.

One of my comfort foods is Mee Sua Soup.  Pork Rib and Yam Mee Sua Soup and Fish Mee Sua Soup are part of our regular diet at home. Mee Sua is a fine rice noodle with a very delicate, smooth texture.  I especially love the way it glides down the throat so wonderfully when eaten as part of a soup dish.  It  also has a sweeter and more delicate taste as compared to bee hoon.

We haven't had much Chinese home-style cooking in the past few weeks.  So yesterday's lunch of Fish Mee Sua Soup was such a welcome sight to me.

Fish Mee Sua Soup topped with fried shallots and garlic 

This comforting one-dish meal is tasty, healthy, easy to prepare, and entails minimal kitchen-cleaning afterwards.


Ingredients

6 lumps of Mee Sua
350 grams Batang (or Mackerel) fillet, sliced
100 grams minced pork
8 cups chicken stock (or 4 cups chicken stock from a carton, plus 4 cups water)
Fresh ginger, peeled and cracked (approximately 2.5 to 3 inches in length)
1 whole garlic, last layer of skin left on, and top sliced off
2 tbs of Kiam Chye (salted mustard leaves), rinsed and cut into thin strips
1 whole tomato
Handful of Chye Sim or other Chinese green leafy vegetable
Handful of Inoki or Shitake Mushrooms (optional)
Fried Shallots and Garlic, Spring Onion and Chinese Parsley (coriander) for topping/garnish
1 tbs Soya Sauce for seasoning pork
2 tsp Sesame Oil for seasoning pork
2 tsp Sesame Oil for fish seasoning
1 tbs Hua Teow Chiew (Chinese wine)
Salt and pepper


Method

Season the minced pork with sesame oil, soya sauce and white pepper.
Season fish slices with salt, hua teow chiew and sesame oil.
Bring stock to a boil in a pot with the ginger, garlic and kiam chye.
Put seasoned minced pork in a large bowl, add about a ladle of stock into the bowl and quickly stir with a fork or chopsticks to separate the minced pork into loose bits as they cook partially, then pour the mixture into the pot to cook, stirring gently.
Add mushrooms into the pot to cook, then remove and set aside.
Add fish slices into the pot and remove and set aside when just cooked (submerge into the pot a small sieve with a handle and cook the fish over it, so the slices are easier to retrieve).
Add tomato into the soup and simmer perhaps 2-3 minutes.
Season soup with salt and pepper if necessary.
In a separate saucepan/pot of salted boiling water, blanche the chye sim till just cooked. Remove and set aside.
Cook mee sua in a pot of boiling water, one portion at a time, over a sieve, gentling moving the noodles apart with a fork or chopsticks to keep them from sticking together (1 to 1.5 lumps mee sua per portion would be about right).
Once mee sua is tender (which doesn't take long), remove from pot by lifting the sieve (hence draining it at the same time), transfer into a bowl. Put one portion of fish, mushroom and vegetables over the mee sua, in each bowl, and pour soup over it.
Top with fried shallots and garlic and garnish with spring onion and Chinese parsley and serve with a small saucer of chill padi and soya sauce.

Serves 4.

Note: You could add a tbs of toasted hei bee (dried shrimp) to the stock for even more flavour (and omit the kiam chye), or add some dried seaweed to the soup.

Pork Chops with Garlic Herb Crust

Today my Dad brought me a 4kg Angus Ribeye Roll and 4.5kg worth of French-cut lamb racks.  My heart almost palpitated with excitement as I opened up the bag to take a look at them.  Beautiful!  They are now parked in the fridge together with the 6kg turkey which is thawing.  One would think I am planning to feed 40.  But it's actually closer to 20.  Can't wait to start cooking!

I also learnt something today. You know, other than the Hainanese kind., the H and I are not fans of pork chops. Unlike beef, pork has to be eaten well-done, so it seems that most of the time, pork chops turn out to be somewhat tough.  However, today I discovered that marinating pork chops in a milk brine for an hour before cooking will make them juicy and tender.

As I said, the kids are into potatoes at the moment, so I've been thinking up mains to go with potatoes.  They were so taken by the Chicken Cordon Bleu we had the other day that they were hankering for more.  So I thought I'd do some breaded pork chops today.

Breaded Pork Chops with Sauteed Potatoes and Chinese Greens

I used the Pork Chops and Applesauce recipe at epicurious.com, but I had neither apples nor bottled applesauce so we had it neat, with sliced potatoes sauteed in butter, and Chinese greens stir fried with olive oil.  I knew from the recipe that the pork chops would be flavourful because of the garlic, rosemary and thyme which went into the breadcrumb mix, but we were really very pleasantly surprised at how juicy and tender the meat was.  I think we can attribute this to the milk brine bath.

I had to tweak the recipe since we were only having 6 pork chops.  I also used dried breadcrumbs (panko) instead of fresh, and I upped the minced garlic (doubled it) because that's what I always do - up the garlic.  I also felt the need to omit the butter because, based on the thickness of the pork chops, I thought it would be difficult to get the meat cooked through without burning the butter and blackening the crust.  The cooking time had to be adjusted as well - I cooked them for about 6 minutes on each side on medium heat, which was perfect.  So in the end, this was it:


Recipe for Pork Chops

Ingredients
2 cups milk
3 tsp salt
6 (1/2 inch) pork chops
2 cups panko (dried breadcrumbs)
2 tbs minced garlic
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 tsp dried, crumbled
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried, crumbled
3-4 tbs olive oil

Method
Marinate Pork Chops:
Stir milk and 2 tsp salt in a shallow dish, then add pork chops.  Marinate, covered and chilled, turning over once, for at least 1 hour.

Fry Pork Chops: 
Stir together bread crumbs, garlic, rosemary and thyme, and 1 tsp salt in shallow bowl.
Lift pork chops from milk one at a time, letting excess drip off and dredge in breadcrumbs, lightly patting crumbs to help adhere, then transfer to a tray lined with baking paper, arranging in one layer.
Heat 2-3 tbs olive oil in a skillet over medium heat, then saute pork chops in 2 or 3 batches, without crowding, turning over once, until golden brown and just cooked through, approximately 6 minutes per side. (add more oil to skillet if necessary).

Eating Potatoes

You  know, we say "jiak kentang" (literally, "eat potatoes") when we refer to a Chinese person who speaks only English and hardly any Chinese. Well, we say that of our kids a lot, and now it has actually happened.  After eating steamed rice all their lives, they now say they don't like it.  Instead, they like potatoes. And since I prefer to feed people what they like, I try to accommodate this.

But I'm not prepared to eliminate rice from our menu altogether, because I personally find it hard to get through more than a week or so without a bowl of steamed rice.  When we were holidaying in Victoria this June, I needed a fix after about 10 days, so the moment we arrived in Melbourne, we went across Bourke Street to Flower Drum for dinner.  The H and I had 2 bowls of steamed rice at dinner that evening, at AUD4.00 each.  Ludicrous to pay AUD16.00 to eat steamed white rice, but it never tasted so good!

Anyhow, these days we eat a lot of Russet Potatoes at home.  Baked Jacket Potatoes are in high demand, topped with sour cream, bacon bits and chives.  It's so easy to do - wrap in foil and bake at 240 degrees celsius for approximately 45 minutes - that I am tempted to feed this to them at every meal. My skinny 6-year old keeps going at those jacket potatoes with sour cream long after the meal is over for everyone else.

Boiled Russet Potatoes with sour cream and bacon bits

If I don't have 45 minutes, I boil the potatoes instead.  I put the potatoes in a pot and cover with water, add perhaps 2 tsp of salt to the water for every 6 potatoes, then boil for approximately 15 minutes till cooked. Then I peel, quarter and toss them in sour cream, top with bacon bits and chives (or spring onion).  I prefer to make my own bacon bits, but if I don't have time or don't have any bacon in the fridge, then I use Hormel Real Bacon Bits.  I stay clear of those bottles of purported bacon bits which taste nothing like bacon.

Russets are also good for French Fries.  I'd struggled in the past, making batch after batch of Fries which turned out rigid and crispy at first, but then went limp and flaccid within a couple of minutes, much to my disappointment . During each of those episodes, I'd either used the wrong kind of potatoes, failed to rinse them thoroughly enough, didn't soak them in iced water for long enough, or all of the above.  I've learnt that making good fries takes time.

French Fries

Recipe for French Fries

First of all, use Russet Potatoes.  Peel and cut them into 1/4 inch thick batons (or keep the skins on if you like, just as I'd done in the picture above. The skins are nutritious too). Rinse them about 3-4 times thoroughly in water, changing the water until the water turns clear.  Then put them in a big bowl, cover with cold water and ice cubes, and place in the fridge for at least an hour or overnight.

Heat cooking oil at low-medium heat in a big pot or wok (the oil should be about 3-inches deep).

Remove potatoes from the fridge, drain off the water and pat them dry thoroughly with a tea towel.

Turn up heat to medium-high and add fries, a handful at a time, and cook in the hot oil till they turn blond, soft and limp. Then remove and drain on paper towels and let it rest for about 10 minutes at least.

When ready to serve, re-heat oil on medium-high, then put the potatoes into the hot oil and fry again, until golden brown, puffed and rigid.

Transfer to tray or platter lined with paper towels and sprinkle with salt, then serve.


Well, no deep-frying is happening in my kitchen at the moment. Our helper is on Christmas home leave, and I am averse to too much cleaning up.

Recently we had some friends come over for dinner, and one of them, KS, began to sautee in butter some of the boiled potatoes we had.  I'd originally intended to just toss them in melted butter and some chopped fresh herbs.  But KS's version was a hit with the kids and we've had it a couple of times since.  For this, I prefer  to use Red Potatoes or what they call "New Potatoes" in the supermarket.


Recipe for Boiled and Sauteed Potatoes

Boil Potatoes with skins on till cooked, then peel and cut into halves or quarters.

Heat a tablespoon of butter in a skillet or pan on low-medium heat, and once foam starts to subside, put potatoes in and sautee, one side at a time until browned on each side.

Add salt to season, then sprinkle with fresh chopped Italian Parsley (or fresh Dill if you like).

Boiled and Sauteed Potatoes

You can cook and serve potatoes with almost anything, including, well, steamed rice. So we try never to run out of potatoes at home. But while boys have the amazing ability to put away potatoes like nobody's business and still stay skinny, the same cannot be said of a grown woman like me.

Pineapple Fried Rice

Reverse-engineering our food is a skill which is somewhat taken for granted in my family. When we try a new dish that's good, Mom is likely to start a discussion on what ingredients had been used and how it had been prepared.  And then maybe a week or two later, that dish would be home-cooked for us. Mom comes from that generation of cooks whose recipes are stored in the head.  Nobody seems to write anything down. You work with gut feel and instinct. And a whole lot of guess-timation, trial and error are involved in the process.  And as far as my mom is concerned, it is rarely too late to rectify whatever it is you are cooking.

It's been pretty much like that for me. I'd eat something yummy, and automatically think about how I'd cook it.  But I haven't developed the habit of making proper notes. So there are times when I actually forget how I'd cooked something previously. And I end up having to re-invent it.  Or wing it.  Depends on how you choose to see it, I suppose. But I am getting a little better. These days I make scribblings of ingredients at the very least. Although quantities still tend to be estimates, they are usually quite accurate.

I love the challenge of experimenting with recipes which are new to my kitchen. I'd suddenly get it into my head that I just have to cook say, Beef Rendang. Or Laksa.  Typically, I'd do a little research and check out a couple of recipes, before I decide on how I'd do mine. On one of those occasions, it was Pineapple Fried Rice.  So I called my fruiterer, and off I went to pick up a sweet, fresh pineapple.

The Pineapple Fried Rice based on the recipe here is very tasty - sweet and savory at the same time, and the rice is soft and moist.  I'm not sure if you can call it authentic Thai Pineapple Rice, but it is delicious all the same.  It's relatively straightforward, not difficult to do, plus the good news is that for this one, I actually made notes while the recipe was still fresh in my head.

Ingredients

4 cups rice, cooked and cooled
250g chicken thigh meat, diced
1 cup diced lap cheong (Chinese Sausage), skin removed
20-25 medium sized prawns
1 cup fresh, sweet  pineapple (from 1 small pineapple), roughly chopped, shell reserved
1/2 a big carrot, diced
1 cup green peas
3-4 tbs chopped garlic
1 brown onion, finely chopped
2 tbs curry powder
3-4 tbs fish sauce
3-4 tbs soya sauce
4 tbs cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste


Method

Heat oil in wok on medium-high heat, fry garlic for perhaps 3 minutes, followed by onions, and cook till fragrant but not brown.
Add lap cheong and cook till edges are slightly charred.
Add prawns and stir fry till they just turn all pink, then add curry powder, fish sauce and soya sauce.
Mix well, add rice, peas and pineapple and stir till well-combined.  With a spatula, press down on the rice so the grains separate.
If desired, add salt and pepper to taste or adjust seasoning.
Serve in pineapple shell and garnish with chilli and coriander.

Serves 5.

Apple Pie

My first foray into baking was either when I made Butter Cupcakes or Chocolate Chip Cookies with my sister.  I can't remember which it was now, but that was some three years back.  It never really took off with me, and it was only recently that I started to bake more regularly. So I consider myself a relative newbie to baking, where measurements have to be precise, and failing to use the proper technique could actually result in disasters of varying degrees. But please don't let me put you off baking, because as with all things, it's really all about getting enough practice. I have tried to stick to tried and tested recipes so far, and save for some small modifications here and there, have yet to reach a level of competence where I can come up with my own.

About two years ago, I chanced upon a recipe for Apple Pie in the Life! section of The Straits Times.  Now, Apple Pie seemed like something so basic.  I mean, how could I metamorphosize into a domestic goddess if I couldn't even make Apple Pie, right?  The recipe seemed manageable enough.  We were having family over for dinner that evening, and so, as an afterthought, I decided to make Apple Pie for dessert. According to the H, this is exactly the kind of gung-ho attitude I have towards cooking which creates unnecessary stress for myself.

Anyway, I found myself at my dining table about two hours later, sweating and swearing over shortcrust pastry dough, which refused to roll out the way it was supposed to, despite my best efforts.  Why was it sticking to the rolling-pin and breaking up into bits and pieces? I blamed it on our humid weather. I blamed it on the fact that my hands were too warm because I was too excited.  I blamed it on the dining table whose surface was just not meant to accommodate the rolling out of any sort of dough. What was I thinking anyway?  In the midst of all this, my friends M and M, twins, dropped by to pick something up. I asked hopefully - desperately, I should say - if they had any idea what I ought to do.  In response, they provided some encouragement and moral support.

After experimenting with various methods (if we can call it that), and getting impatient with the non-cook, non-baker H for making suggestions which I was sure would not work, I took up one of his suggestions and put the ball of dough between two sheets of baking paper and ran the rolling-pin over it.  And that did the trick.  Because, as I have now come to learn, that is how it is supposed to be done.  Duh.

The filling was easy enough, and in the end, the pie wasn't bad at all.  So here's the recipe for all you aspiring domestic goddesses:

Apple Pie

Ingredients

Shortcrust Pastry

(Note: The quantities shown here will produce a very thin crust, and if you'd like something more to bite into - I'm quite sure you would cos the crust is quite yummy - then up the quantities shown here by about 20%)

250g plain flour
4 Tbs caster sugar
150g cold butter chopped into cubes
2-3 Tbs ice-cold water
3 Tbs finely chopped macadamia nuts (optional)

For Pie-filling and top crust

8 large apples, peeled, cored and sliced
2 Tbs water
6 Tbs caster sugar
2 Tbs grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 egg, beaten


Method

Pastry

Mix flour, sugar and butter in large bowl.  Rub together with fingers until pastry resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Add just enough cold water to combine everything.  Knead slightly, form into a ball, then wrap in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or more.

Roll out two-thirds of the pastry dough on lightly-floured surface, reserving the other third in the fridge for the top crust.  (Remember to save yourself the sweat - roll out the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper).

The dough should be rolled out to such a size and shape that will allow it to cover the bottom and sides of a 1.5-inch high, 20cm-diameter round baking dish. Lay the rolled-out dough onto the pan, with sides coming up a little higher than the edge of the dish. (It has to be rolled out pretty thinly to fit).

Sprinkle chopped macadamia nuts onto pastry base.

Place pastry back in the fridge while apple filling is prepared.

Filling

Put apples and water in large frying pan, cover and simmer gently, shaking pan gently occasionally, until apples start to become tender.

Stir in sugar, lemon rind and cinnamon and remove from heat to cool.

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Remove chilled pie case from fridge and pack cooled filling into it.

Roll remaining third of dough into a round the size of the pie dish top.  Brush edges with a little water then press it together with the sides of the pie case to seal.  Cut some slits in the top, and brush with beaten egg, before placing in preheated oven at 200 degrees celsius to bake for at least 30 minutes until top is golden and crisp.

Apple Pie served with ice-cream

Chinese Roast Duck

I've put off starting this blog for long enough I guess.  It's so much easier and quicker to just post a picture on facebook with a short caption. But then this allows me more room to share anecdotes, recipes and thoughts on food, cooking, perhaps even life and love.

Chinese Roast Duck

Anyway, to kick this off, allow me to share with you a recipe for Roast Duck, one of my favourite dishes.

I love duck.  Duck Confit, Smoked Duck, Teochew Braised Soya Sauce Duck - it's all good. But to me, Chinese Roast Duck is hands-down the best.  I'd always wanted to learn how to make it, how to get the skin so thin and crackly, while at the same time keeping the meat moist, tender and juicy. I'd done Confit and Braised Soya Duck, but never Roast Duck. After all, it only takes a short drive out anywhere to get pretty decent and affordable roast duck here in Singapore! But you see, I enjoy the challenge of trying my hand at cooking what I like eating. Just so I know I can do it myself if I wanted to. So yesterday I finally did it. Roast Duck.  It was easier than I'd expected, and what a hit it turned out to be!

This recipe is based on Tyler Florence's Chinatown Steamed and Roasted Duck recipe on foodnetwork.com.  I tweaked slightly the quantities for some of the ingredients but I followed the method exactly.  The end product was a mouth-wateringly sweet, crackly skin, and tender, juicy, flavourful meat bearing the aroma of orange, ginger and spice. My two girlfriends and I were smacking our lips and licking our fingers as we polished off one entire duck. 

Ingredients

1 whole duck (about 2.4kg)

Dry Marinade

1 tbs Five Spice

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

Aromatics (for stuffing into duck cavity)

15 big slices ginger

2 whole garlics, skin removed, cloves separated and smashed

A bunch of spring onion (enough to grab in one hand)

Orange or tangerine peel from 1 orange or tangerine, in strips

For Glaze

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1/2 cup honey (I used half honey and half maple syrup)

1/2 cup light soya sauce

Method

Clean duck, trimming and removing fat, feet, head and neck. Rinse and dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Mix Dry Marinade ingredients together and rub all over the duck, inside and out.  Leave in fridge for a couple of hours, or overnight.

Ginger, garlic, spring onion and orange peel stuffed into duck

Stuff Aromatics into the cavity of the duck, tie the legs together, pierce all over the skin on breast side (using a skewer), place duck on a wire rack breast side up in a wok/steamer filled with about 1.5 to 2 inches of water, then cover, and steam for 45 mins.  This is to render the fat from the duck.  At the same time, steaming shrinks the duck, which also helps get us that crispy skin when roasting.

Steam duck for 45 minutes

Heat the Glaze in a small saucepan till boiling, simmer 5 to 10 minutes until thickened slightly, then set aside.

After steaming the duck for 45 minutes, remove it from the wok or steamer.  Place duck on a wire rack over an oven-proof tray, and baste with the glaze thoroughly, before placing in a preheated oven at 190 degrees celsius to roast for 1 hour.

Baste the duck every 20 minutes while roasting, and tent with foil if necessary to prevent the skin from getting too dark.

Hope you enjoy this!