KangKung Belacan

Ooooohh! simply delicious is what this dish is! Spicy, slightly salty and smells great!! At least that is how an asian palate would interprete this dish. For the un-initiated, belacan might smell a tad offensive! Anyway, when I got my hands on a bunch of kangkung from the chinese supermarket, who cares what the neighbouts will think, out comes the belacan and in two ticks, heaven on a plate! yumms!

Irish Stew

Handy one pot dish is what this is. Chop and cut everything, dump into a casserole and stick it into the oven. Although the cooking time may be long, the lack of dishes to wash up really makes it worthwhile! Made with Guiness Stout (hence the name Irish) as one of the ingredients, this is a great warming dish for the colder weather.

Kung Po Chicken

The trick to this stir-fry dish is speed and a very big fire under your wok! So have everything prepared and ready to hand before you start. I like the vegetables to be crunchy when done hence the requirement for speed and the big fire. Also, try not to breathe too deep when frying the dried chillies or you will have a choking fit!

Dhall Curry (with Roti)

We get really good frozen roti canai from the indian spice shop here so no need to make them ;-) They used to come with dhall curry but now you can only get the roti so I had to make my own dhall curry. Like most curry, dhall curry is never good if eaten freshly made, it requires some standing time before the taste develops. Note, no matter how hard I try, there is just no way to make dhall curry look appertizing in a photo, you just have to take my word for it, it was delicious!

Honey Buns (Chelsea Buns)

This is the second time I've tried to bake these honey buns, better known at Chelsea Buns around here. These were made with dried cranberries instead of the usual raisins, just for the simple reason that I had cranberries kicking around and no raisins! Anyway, this is one of my Amah's favourites which she buys from the market along with the day's groceries for her breakfast, this one is for you, Amah!

Fruit Scones

The british love their tea-time and scones are one of the all-time favourite tea-time snack (it is also said scones have a scottish origin). Goes really well with a cup of tea. Scones come in various forms and this one is a fruit scone, the trademark of a good scone is that when baked it has to achieve a certain 'height' and also have a natural horizontal break in the middle. Best eaten warm, scones are broken into two along the natural break (no cutting with a knife) and eaten with jam and cream (clotted cream is heaven, but it might clot your arteries and send you to heaven earlier too!).




The fluffy inside is like a cross between bread and cake

Lotus Paste Mooncake

This year, 2009, mooncake festival falls on the 3rd of October and I am all prepared for it. Last year, we had major repair work in the kitchen so I missed out and couldn't make any mooncakes. After patiently waiting for a year, I finally get to use the funky plastic moulds that mom bought for me. I'm usually all for authenticity but the plastics moulds were easier to manage than wooden ones and the mooncakes turned out well. To learn more about this festival click here

The plain lotus paste

The egg yolk lotus paste


The lotus seeds soaking and the funky plastic moulds

Potato Ikan Bilis Sambal

Friend Iain grew some vegetables in his garden this year and he gave some potatoes to me... so what to do with them? I remembered that I had some ikan bilis (dried anchovies) bought from Pangkor when I last went home that needed eating so decided to make this sambal side dish with the two ingredients. This is another of my favourite so just the sambal alone with steamed rice was enough to make me a satisfying meal!

Artichoke Pizza

Having purchased Jamie's Italy at a bargain, it was time to try some recipes. First choice is this pizza topped with artichokes, proscuitto, black olives and an egg. The base recipe is slightly different from the recipe from Jaime at Home which I've always used, this other base turned out softer which I preferred so this recipe is definitely a keeper!

Char Siew Fun (Rice)

I had some left over pork fillet and decided to make some char siew and ended up with char siew rice for dinner! I used the rice recipe for chicken rice as well as the chilli sauce. And finally to round it all up, a simple cabbage soup.

The all important chilli sauce and cabbage soup

Chocolate Sponge Pudding

Best served warm with it's oozing center, this is an easy to prepare dessert which can be made and frozen for a week prior to baking! I suspect the sponge should be lighter than it turned out as I have yet to get my electric beater replaced after it died and I had to cream the butter and sugar by hand. Needless to say I got a bit lazy and stopped beating before the ideal volume was achieved!

Carrot Cake

Oh so moist! This one is called Yummy Scrummy Carrot Cake and yummy scrummy it is! The first time I tried this recipe I dutifully grated the carrot and added it into the cake mix and the cake turned out like kuih! Oh dear! After a little consultation with an 'expert' I tried it again, this time squeezing out some of the carrot juice before adding it into the cake mix and voila! yummy scrummy carrot cake indeed!

The cake just baked and cooling, and the iced cake ready for serving

Beef Rendang

In celebration of Merdeka (Independance Day for Malaysia), I wanted to make something local for dinner and since it is also Ramadan, it brought to mind Beef Rendang and Lemang. So Beef Rendang it was, but since there was no way for me to make Lemang, I decided to serve the rendang with tomato rice and cucumber acar on the side. For once, I also got the timing right, that is, I made my rendang a day ahead, rendang normally tastes best eaten at least a day later. There is one missing ingredient, the turmeric leaves, which I can't find but the dish still turned out great!

The rendang paste made from scratch and dry frying the desicated coconut (no fresh ones)

Nasi Tomato (Tomato Rice)

Nasi Tomato or Tomato Rice is a rich tomato (no surprises there) flavoured rice. It makes a very satisfying meal when served with a curry or rendang. Although the recipe called for tomato soup, err, it was a cheat's recipe that I was using, I didn't have any so I double cheated and used watered down tomato puree with a dash of tomato ketchup! But it turn out really nice so moh man tai!

I served mine with Beef Rendang and Cucumber Acar

Cucumber Acar

This is not quite an acar but more like a very basic salsa. Normally served as a side dish with nasi kandar as it helps to refresh and cool the palate. So goes down really well with hot and spicy food. I made mine to go with my beef rendang.

Great eaten with Beef Rendang and Nasi Tomato

Ban Jiang Kuih

Ban Jiang Kuih is yet another version of pancake with chopped peanuts and corn kernel filling, asian-sytle of course! The ones I've had are usually made by chinese vendors. It's facinating to watch the seller make them as he will have a number of small kuih moulds arranged in a square with their metal covers over individual fires. It is quite a feat managing the many pancakes cooking at the same time. There are some stalls who have one giant mould which produces a giant pancake which is then cut into smaller pieces. I personally prefer the individual sized ones!

Roasted peanut waiting to be shelled for the filling and the ban jian kuih cooking

Oat Cakes

If you are looking for something special for breakfast that is also good for you, these oat cakes are what you need. Similar to pancakes with oats added into the batter makes it a healthy choice, as for the topping, it's up to you. Keep it healthy with just a light drizzle of honey and lemon juice or indulge with butter and fresh fruit compote or peanut butter...really, anything goes!

Ginger & Brown Sugar Drink

Not unlike the Ginger and Coke served in the Hong Kong restaurant in Tai Pan, I think the restaurant tutup kedai already! There is nothing like ginger to help blood circulation and expel the 'wind' from the stomach! Just take a thumbsize knob of ginger (the older, the better) and and slice thinly, add to water in a small pot and add brown sugar to taste. I added a few shavings of palm sugar to make it a little special. Bring to a boil and keep boiling for a minute. Switch off the fire and leave to steep for 5 minutes.

Warning : If you have a lot of wind, drink alone!!

Bee Hoon Soup

Bee hoon th'ng or rice noodle soup makes a quick and light meal. This is a simple version with a light chicken stock for the soup base. Add some sliced fish cake and 'chai sim' (flowering chinese cabbage), garnish with finely sliced spring onions and fried chopped garlic and the dish is done! Of course, serve with sliced cili padi with light soya sauce!

Chicken Briyani

This is a malay style all in one rice dish, usually accompanied with lightly pickled vegetables. The last time I made this was with lamb, this time I used chicked which turned out just as good. The beauty of this dish is that the meat is buried in the almost cooked rice and baked in the oven to finish. Yumms but be careful not to eat too often else the spare tyres will grow!!

Kenny Roger's muffin

When my sister mentioned that she found good Kenny Roger's muffin recipes on the net to me, it suddenly dawned on me that there are no Kenny Roger's restaurants where I am and so naturally I wanted to eat Kenny Rogers muffins! The recipe turned out well and it also gave me an excuse to use my new silicon cupcake moulds. Thanks Sis!

The fluffy inside with corn kernals & just baked muffins still in the silicon mould

Focaccia

This is the weekend of baking! Since we have just finished painting our kitchen, it is my intention to keep it pristine for a while longer so cooking on the stove is a no, no hence the oven is my new best friend! So for lunch, this yummy italian bread, flavoured with fresh rosemary, olives and sea salt was my choice.

Simply flavoured with 3 ingredients & the uncut bread cooling.

Harissa Chicken with Couscous

Harissa paste is a North African red sauce or paste used to flavour meat for grilling or used simply as a dip. It's ingredients are not unlike the usual Malaysian sambal, just a little more sophisticated with added spices like coriander and fennel. I usually buy it ready made from the supermarket and didn't think it was anything special until I tried making my own. My version of course had a lot more oomphh due to the extra chilli added! Below, the homemade paste used to grill chicken breasts served with simple couscous.

Bak Kut Teh

A friend said to me it's the smell that counts and I agree 100% so you really need a smell-o-blog for this one. I used a ready-made soup mix to make this dish as buying the required herbs is too much of a challenge for me! The soup mix (imported from Malaysia, where else?) came in a large tea-bag like bag which only needed to be boiled in water, add the desired ingredients, in my case, pork ribs and tau pok (deep fried tofu). After 1 1/2 hours of simmering, serve with steamed rice with cut bird's eyes chillies (cili padi laa) in light soya sauce....Blisssssssssss.........

p/s if in Penang, check out the stall in Padang Brown!

Duck in Orange Sauce

This vietnamese dish (as demonstrated by Rick Stein on tv) is sweet, spicy and fragrant..absolutely yummy! After carefully watching Mr Stein make the dish (thank goodness for recorded tv!) and noting down the ingredients, I then went grocery shopping sans the shopping list, smart!! So my version was missing lemon grass and spring onions! But still a good dish served with steamed rice.

The spices - Chilli padi, Palm Sugar, Ginger, Garlic, Star Anise. Missing is the lemon grass and spring onions!

Ham Chim Peang

I tried making Ham Chim Peang over the weekend. A starter dough is required for this and this means I had to start 2 days before the weekend arrived. Having not made starter doughs before I was not sure what it was supposed to look or smell like so lots of peeking under the cover and sniffing before the 2 days were up!

On the weekend, I made up the dough and all was well until the last stage. The oil-saving switch in my brain kicked in and I used just an inch of oil to fry the batter. Now to get the Ham Chim Peng to puff-up, one needs to use a flip and turn technique but because the oil was not enough it was not a great success even though I had reduced the size.

Since it will be a while before I attempt this (oil saving switch is still on),I decided to post it anyway!

Paella

Recently the international market came to town and I finally had the chance to try authentic Paella, the non seafood version that is. It was really nice and since we also bought some chorizo from the market, I could try to recreate the dish at home, below is the result using Delia Smith's recipe without the seafood.