Spinach stir fried

Finally the season for spinach is here!! Because my husband's favourite way of eating spinach is the Hungarian style főzelék, i.e. in sort of a thick pureed soup, I've cooked it that way most of the time.

On this occasion, I've cooked my portion separately and simply since I'm getting signs of lactose intolerance.

Spinach stir fried
Serves 2 or 1 x 2 meals

Ingredients
200gm Spinach, fresh with stalk
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 piece of dried chilli, flaked
cooking oil
seasoning :- salt or soy sauce, pepper
toasted sesame seeds, for garnishing

Method
1) Wash and dry spinach thoroughly. Set aside.
2) Heat a little oil in a wok. Sauté garlic & chilli flakes until fragrant.
3) Quickly throw in the spinach and stir fried until wilted. Add seasoning and cook for just a few seconds and dish up.
4) Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, and eat while it is hot!

Quick Pork & Noodle soup

A rather quick noodle soup for when the days you want something really simple.

Quick Pork & Noodle soup
4 pax

Ingredients

Soup base
1 inch ginger, bashed
1 stalk spring onion, bashed
1 garlic, bashed
a little oil
Root vegetable (I used parsley root, celery root)
1.5 litre water
salt, to taste

Noodle
4 pkts x 60g pho instant noddle
2 sachets seasoning from instant noodle

Protein
200g Pork liver, sliced thinly
200g Minced pork, seasoned and form into meat balls

Garnish
toasted sesame
spring onion , chopped

Method
1) In a soup pot, saute bashed garlic, ginger and spring with a little oil for a few minutes. Peel and chop up root vegetable in small pieces for faster cooking. Add water to the soup pot and the root veg., Let it boil and simmer til root veg. is soften.

2) Prep. protein. When soup base is ready, throw in the meat balls to cook. When it is cook, start putting in the noodles. and liver. Be careful not to overcook the liver.

3) Serve immediately  sprinkle with toasted sesame and spring onion.

Happy Easter!

Pastry with Peach

I wanted an easy snack for the guests this Easter. For me, easy always equal to ready-made puff pastry. After googling around, I finally settled on the following recipe. You can always substitute the jam in the recipe to custard, for a fancier result.


Pastry with Peach


Ingredients
Puff pastry, best quality you could afford
Peach, canned in syrup, thinly sliced
Apricot jam
Egg yolk, for glazing
Powder sugar, for dusting
Ground cinnamon, for dusting

Method :-
1) Defrost ready-made puff pastry and pre-heat oven according to packet's instruction.
2) If the raw pastry hasn't been rolled out yet, then roll it to about 4mm thickness. Cut into squares or whatever shapes you fancy. Score the pastry (not too deep) about 1cm away from edge, around the shape. Then use a fork and poke  the middle of the pastry where you're going to place the fruit.
3) Spread jam in the middle, next place the sliced peach on the jam. Glazed the edge with egg yolk.
4) Bake according to packet's instruction. Mine too about 12mins @210°c.
5) Sprinkle some powdered sugar and ground cinnamon before serving.

You can see a pictorial of how to prep the pastry from here.

Tzatziki

Tzatziki
Ingredients
2 medium-sized cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
1x175gm yoghurt
few tablespoon of sour cream, or to taste
salt
pepper
garlic powder
parsley, chopped finely

Method
1) Slice or julien cucumber thinly. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let it sit for 10-15 mins. not more
2) Meanwhile, mix together yoghurt, sour cream, garlic powder and finely chopped parsley. Check taste and adjust accordingly. *Leave out the salt for the time being.*
3) After 10-15 mins. squeeze and drain all the liquid from the cucumber and mix into yoghurt, then check seasoning. And it is ready!

Sticky Yellow Rice {Nasi Kunyit}

Sticky rice or Glutinous Rice is commonly featured in SE Asian cuisine. It could be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. As the rice could be quite rich, we consume only in small quantity, and even on special occasions.
I followed the easy instructions given in the video below. I think I added too much water; hence, a bit too sticky. Since I didn't have a proper steamer, the result is satisfactory for now.

Yellow Sticky Rice

For soaking overnight :-
Glutinous rice
turmeric powder, to taste
tamarind pieces (sub. with lemon juice)

Seasoning
white pepper corns (sub. with white pepper powder)
coconut milk (see video)

1) Clean and soak rice in soaking ingredients with enough water to cover rice, overnight.
2) Drain rice, place rice on steaming dish. Heat up steamer.
3) Cook rice as per video instructions.

Pineapple Tart

recipe coming soon..I need recall which recipe and filling did I use..

Caramelised Red Cabbage

I have tried cooking caramelised red cabbage number of times but was never satisfied with the result until this recipe!

Caramelised Red Cabbage
adapted from No Salty

Ingredients
1 medium head red cabbage
1 apple
100g butter (reduced to 50g + vegetable oil)
50-60gm sugar (adjusted to taste)
50ml balsamic vinegar (adjusted to taste)
2 pinches of cumin seeds
salt & pepper, to taste

Method
1) Thinly slice red cabbage and apple, about 1cm width.
2) Heat a heavy duty sauce pan, melt butter (and vegetable oil), sprinkle in the sugar and stir until sugar dissolved.
3) Sauté cumin seed a bit before adding in red cabbage and apple.
4) Season with salt and pepper and dashes of balsamic vinegar, stir well. Put on the lid and let it braise for 30 mins.
5) After 30 mins. remove lid and let it continue to simmer to thicken the sauce. Check seasoning and it is ready to serve.