Zucchini and Cheese Bites

I have to say I'm one of those people that don't eat enough of zucchini .  The funny thing is I actually love zucchini but some how I only eat them when someone else had cooked them; which is not frequent.

With this recipe I'll be buying and cooking them in my kitchen this summer and the coming ones. They are great for meatless days!

Zucchini and Cheese Bites

serves : 4

source : No Salty

note : video available on above link 

Ingredients

+/- 600gm Zucchini (I used more)

1 tsp salt

1 pinch of black pepper

1 tsp garlic paste (used granulated garlic)

1 large egg

100gm grated cheese (used cheddar, will use a more intense cheese next round)

4 Tbsp bread crumbs

++ sauté onion

For breading
3 Tbsp flour
1 large egg
5 Tbsp bread crumbs

Method :
1) Grate zucchini into a fairly large bowl. Sprinkle the salt all over. Let it sit for 15 mins.
2) Strain away the liquid from zucchini as much as possible. Return grated zucchini to bowl.
3) Put in black pepper, garlic paste, sauté onion, crack-in the egg, grated cheese and bread crumbs. Mix well. shape into a bite-size balls. and place on a plate.
4) Coat each balls in this sequence first into flour, then egg and finish with a good coating of bread crumbs. shake of excess crumbs. Place on a plate. Repeat coating process until zucchini mixture is finished.
5) Heat up the oil in frying pan. Fry until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Roasted Radish

It is common to eat radish raw. However, in Chinese cuisine, radish is also cooked in soups and also sun-dried. I much preferred the taste of sun-dried radish than raw. Since I am not so adventurous to sun dry radishes myself, I tried roasting them in the oven. The results is quite similar to dried ones but with enhanced sweetness and milder peppery taste.

Roasted Radish
Radishes
salt
oil

1) Pre-heat oven at 170˙c
2) Slice radishes into rounds. Place on oven-proofed dish, drizzle with some cooking oil and sprinkle with salt.
3) Bake for 30mins. until slightly brown.

raw radishes

Spanakopita { Greek spinach pie } with homemade filo / phyllo pastry

When I have spinach and feta available, first thing that come to mind is spanakopita. It's an absolute favourite filling for filo /phyllo pastry for me. Never in my life that I would've imagined making filo / phyllo pastry  though! I gave it a go on and as usual it is not as scary or hard as I thought. What I did was prep. and knead the dough a day ahead and let it rest in the fridge over night. 

Homemade Phyllo Dough

via http://korenainthekitchen.com/2011/06/27/daring-bakers-baklava-with-homemade-phyllo-pastry/

Ingredients
Dry
1 1/3 cup flour (type “00” or pizza flour, if possible – all purpose flour will do, though)
1/8 tsp salt

Wet
1/2 cup less 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Filling
spinach (frozen, with access water removed)
feta cheese
sautéd garlic
salt, to taste

Method
1) Mix together dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine wet ingredients. Then pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour.
2) Continue mixing stirring until it comes together in a soft dough with no dry flour bits left. You may need slightly less water, or slightly more (I had about 1 tbsp of water left over) – just add it slowly, bit by bit, to gauge how much you’ll need.
3) Knead the dough in mixing for about 20 minutes, until you have a soft, silky, smooth dough.
4) Then  remove from bowl, on floured surface knead another 2 minutes, whacking the dough down hard on the counter a few times during kneading.
5) Rub the dough with vegetable oil, wrap it in plastic, and let it rest for at least 2 hours – longer is better.

Rolling and stretching the dough

Divide the ball of dough in half, cut each half into thirds, and each third into thirds again, to end up with 18 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place them on a plate, covered with plastic wrap.

Flatten a ball out with your fingers and place on a well-floured surface. Roll out with a floured rolling pin or dowel until it’s about 9″x5″ (mine was twice as large), picking up the dough and re-flouring the surface underneath it every few strokes. Don’t be afraid of adding too much flour – keeping everything properly floured will make it much easier to roll, because if stuff starts to stick you’re in trouble! Let the dough rest for a minute or two if it starts getting difficult to roll out.

When the dough sheet is as thin as you can roll it, gently lift it and stretch it with your fingers from underneath. Do this very s-l-o-w-l-y and gently, using more of a stroking motion than a pulling motion, and letting the dough rest every so often. Don’t worry if you get some rips and holes – you only really need one perfect sheet for the top layer of your baklava (it took me until sheet number 14 to get a perfect one, and only about two out of 18 had no holes!).

When the dough is stretched thin enough to read through, place it on a floured baking sheet, and lightly sprinkle flour between each sheet to stop them from sticking together. The original recipe says that the sheets won’t dry out, but it took me forever to roll them out so I covered them lightly in plastic, just in case.

Carrot Salad

Carrot Salad


Ingredients
Carrots, julienned or grated
2 garlic cloves, minced
1cm ginger, minced
a pinch of cumin seeds
a pinch of turmeric powder
a squeeze of lemon
1 bunch of parsley, chopped finely
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste

Method :-
1) In a pan, toast the cumin seeds, then add in some oil. Once oil has been heated a little, add in the minced ginger and garlic. Fry until fragrant.
2) Add in sugar to caramelise. Then turmeric, stir a little.  Put in the carrots, a little water and cook until just crunchy. Season with salt and garnish wit finely chopped parley. Eat warm or cold.

Turnip Dumplings / Soon Kueh / 菜粿

Never in my life I would thought of making these dumplings. But living in a foreign land, over time you'd learn to just stuck into making the street foods that you love. Often times, it is manageable, not that hard to recreate and most importantly gain confidence in your cooking ability ;)

Some notes for this recipe for my own reference:-
1) Halved the recipe. Would yield 7-8 large dumplings
2) Since I ran out of rice flour, I used plain flour to top up the difference. No effect textures wise.
3) Used 1 medium sized kohlrabi in replacement of jicama

Turnip Dumpling / Jicama Dumplings / Vegetable dumplings / 菜粿
Thanks to My Kitchen Snippets

Ingredients for the wrappers:
 
300g rice flour
100g tapioca flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil
600ml water
Some extra tapioca flour for dusting
 
1. Sieve rice flour and tapioca flour into a big pot.
2. Boil 600ml water with salt. When boiled, pour into the flour and quickly stir with a big spoon till flour is well distributed and cooked.
3. Pour cooked dough on to floured table top. Add in 2 tbsp oil and knead well till smooth, adding more tapioca flour if necessary. Set the dough aside to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Wet your hands with water and knead dough again till smooth and pliable. Cover dough with dry towel to prevent drying.
5. Roll dough out thinly and round cookie cutter to cut out some round shape wrappers.
6. Fill each wrapper with 1m- 1 1/2 tbsp of filling and fold into a semi circle. Seal edges by pinching the sides together.
7. Place kueh on greased steaming trays, sprinkle with some water and steam over high heat for 10 minutes. When kueh puffs up, it is ready. Remove and brush with shallot oil.
8. To serve, sprinkle kueh with fried crispy shallots and dredge with some dark sweet sauce and chili sauce.

Ingredients for fillings:
600g bangkwang (jicama)
1 carrot
100g dried prawns (washed)
5 dried mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
300g shredded pork (optional)
3 tbsp cooking oil
5 cloves garlic, chopped
Seasoning:
1 tsp light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 cup water

1. Skin turnip and carrot. Cut into thin strips.
2. Heat oil in wok, fry chopped garlic and dried prawns till fragrant. Add in the shredded pork (if used), sliced mushrooms, carrot and jicama strips.
3. Add seasoning and some water and stir fry till turnips are soft and ingredients are almost dry. Dish up and leave aside to cool completely before using. 

Vegetable Curry { Sayure Lodeh }

Baked spring rolls

On Chinese New Year, my family would make spring rolls; a favourite of mine because I love fried foods. Chinese spring rolls as far as my knowledge goes, is deep fried. The spring roll wrappers could be bought at the wet market or the frozen section of the super/hyper market. These wrappers are moist and must be kept moist until ready to use unlike the dry rice wrappers for the Vietnamese spring rolls.

For this occasion, since the Chinese spring roll wrappers are not available to me, I've used the Vietnamese dried type. Filling for spring rolls for me growing up only consisted of carrots,jicama, dried shrimp stir fried. I've noticed many add mince meat but. that is completely up to you. Just make sure the fillings are not too wet.

Once stir fried vegetable and meat have been cooled. Pre-heat oven at 180°c.
Soak Vietnamese spring roll wrapper one wrapper at a time in cold water, lay flat and fill it up with filling. wrap. brush with cooking oil. place on baking tray with parchment paper. Repeat process until fillings is finish. Once wrapping done, sprinkle sesame seeds on top of each spring roll. Place in oven and bake for 15 mins. check if the skin is crispy. if it is, then it is done. Otherwise, keep baking until skin is crisp.

serve hot with any Asian dipping sauce of your choice.

Steamed pumpkin cake

Steamed Pumpkin Cake
via Babe in the city KL

Ingredients :-
4 tbsp oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
6 shallots, chopped
60 g dried prawns, soaked, rinsed and roughly chopped **substitute w anchovy paste
1 pair Chinese sausages, diced **didn't add
200 g minced pork meat ** didn't add
800 g pumpkin, seeded with skin removed will yield about 600 g, coarsely grated
Salt and ground white pepper to taste
Batter (mix them together):
300 g rice flour
60 g tapioca flour
1 litre water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Garnishing:
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots
 
Preparation :-
In a fairly large pan or wok, heat oil and fry up chopped garlic and shallots till soft and fragrant. Add dried prawns and continue to stir fry till fragrant. Next add in sausages and minced meat. Stir fry until meat is cooked and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Give the batter a stir before pouring into the stir fried mixture together with the grated pumpkin. Add in salt and pepper. Keep stirring until batter became thick. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.
Pour mixture into a 22 cm square or even round tray. Even the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula. Steam on high heat for about 45 minutes. The surface should be quite firm. Remove and leave to cool completely.
Garnish the cake by scattering chopped spring onion and fried shallots on the surface before slicing. Serve with garlic chilli sauce.

Cantonese-style vegetable dish

Last Sunday at the local market I was intrigued by one stall selling something I thought was pak choi ; but the seller told us the origin of this veg. is France. Whatever it is, the taste is good and do remind me of the chinese pak choi.

This is a simple preparation, you only need cooking oil, sesame seeds, ready-made crispy shallots/onions and soy sauce. This method also works well with iceberg lettuce, egg noodles, bean sprouts or anything that you could think of.

Cantonese-style Vegetable dish.

Ingredients
1 bunch of Vegetable of your choice,

1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil
garlic, optional
light soy sauce, to taste

For garnishing
ready made crispy shallots/onions
sesame seeds, toasted

Method :-
1) Heat water in sauce pan , and blanch vegetable just until wilted to take away the rawness. Drain.
2) In a non-stick pan, toast some sesame seed. After toasting, set aside to be used later as garnish.
3) In the same non-stick pan, heat up the cooking oil, once heated and if you're using garlic as aromatic, start saute until golden brown and remove from heat. If not using garlic, just removed heated cooking oil from heat and pour in dashes of soy sauce to taste. Mix in the blanched vegetable and mix well. And you're ready.
4) Serve on a dish, garnish with toasted sesame seeds and crispy shallots.

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!

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!

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.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}

Hungarian "Francia Saláta", literally translates to "French Salad", is often served in new year's eve party platter. The origin of this salad is unknown to me, but this year I thought why not make my own instead of serving the store bought one.

Creamy Salad {Francia Saláta}
source : http://www.nosalty.hu/recept/franciasalata

Ingredients (I have halved from the original)
150gm frozen green peas
100gm carrots, diced
1 apple, diced
1-2 pcs of gherkins, diced
185ml sour cream
1 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp sugar, or to taste
1 tsp salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Method
1) Cook diced carrots in cold salted water. When carrots are almost done (al-dente) add in frozen green peas, when both are ready, drained and set it aside to cool
2) When carrots and peas are cooled, start the dressing by mixing mayonnaise, mustard, sugar, salt and lemon juice.
3) Finally mix in carrots, peas, diced apple and gherkins.
4) Keep in the fridge until time to serve. You can serve this as a side to any main meals or cold cuts.

Vegetables croquette

12 golden croquettes ready to be served!

vegetables being roasted

Vegetables Croquettes

Makes : 12 Croquettes

Receipe from My Kitchen Snippetsy

Ingredients:

Vegetables to be roasted

800gm potatoes

2 carrots

1 onions

1 Kolhrabi

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp of regular breadcrumbs (added sour cream as mixture too dry)

3 spring onions – chopped
2 tbsp grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating:

½ cup flour (omitted)
2 eggs – beaten
2 cups regular bread crumbs 

1. Roast vegetables on medium heat (180°c) until golden and al-dente (30 mins + 20 mins. + 15mins)

2. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor and give it a few pulses. It should not be too fine. 

3. Remove and add in the spring onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb (if needed), salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape the mixture into croquettes. 

4. Let the croquettes rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Heat up oil over medium high for deep frying. Dust each croquette with flour, coat in beaten eggs and then roll it on the breadcrumb.

5. Heat up some vegetable oil over medium heat for deep frying. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry croquettes, flipping once, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. (Adjust heat between batches as needed to keep oil at a steady temperature.)
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite dipping sauce.

Spinach & Potato Cakes

I have misplaced the link to this recipe but I'll look again and give the proper credit when I've found it.

Spinach & Potato cakes
Makes : 10 cakes

450gm fresh spinach, blanch and chopped coarsely, cooled
2 medium potatoes, boiled, mashed and cooled
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used spring onion)
2 eggs
6 Tsp herbs/spices (I used garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika)
2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, finely chopped (I used parsley)
2 Tbsp flour salt & pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs for coating
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method
1) Mix everything except for bread crumbs until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. start heating oil. Meanwhile start shaping mixture into balls and coat with bread crumbs.
3) When oil is hot enough, fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot with yoghurt, chilli sauce or sour cream.

Carrot cottage cheese cakes

Carrot Cottage Cheese Cakes

Ingredients
250gm cottage cheese (or ricotta)
1-2 pcs carrot, grated
2 eggs
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 slices onion, chopped finely
1 tsp fresh parley, chopped finely
cumin seeds, to taste
garlic powder, to taste
paprika powder, to taste
salt & pepper, to taste
bread crumbs, for coating
oil, for pan frying

 Method
1) Mix together all ingredients excl. bread crumbs. Set mixture aside to rest for for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. , start heat oil on non-stick pan. Shape mixture into flat cakes and then coat with bread crumbs. The mixture is a little soft. So, do it carefully.
3) Once oil is hot enough, pan fry cakes until crispy on the outside.
4) Serve warm as a side or with dips. 

Easy baked potatoes

Easy baked potatoes
serves : 4-5 pax

Ingredients
4 large pcs. potatoes, slice thinly
butter / oil to grease pan
200ml milk
4 tsp. sour cream
Garlic paste, to taste
vegetable seasoning (vegeta) , to taste
bunch of parsley, chopped finely
salt and pepper to taste
100gm morzarella cheese
1 slice of cheddar cheese

1) Pre-heat oven at 200°c (400°F, Gas mark 6)
2) Grease medium-sized baking pan with butter or oil
3) Whisk together milk, sour cream, garlic paste and vegetable seasoning. Stir in the finely chopped parsley and set aside.
4) Place a layer of thinly sliced potatoes, tear pieces of cheddar and morzarella cheese and sprinkle over the layer of potatoes , next sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
5) Repeat step 4 until you finish the potatoes (3 layers). Once layering is done, pour the milk-cream mixture over the potatoes.
6) Bake covered with alum. foil for 30 mins. After 30 mins., remove alum. foil from baking dish, lower temp. to gas mark 2 and continue to bake for another 20 mins. until the top layer is nicely browned. Check for doneness, let it rest a bit and serve warm.

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

Simple sweet and sour salad dressing

whisk together
2 Tbsp olive oil
1.5 - 2 Tbsp sugar (brown, white or palm)
5 - 6 dashes of white vinegar (or half - 1 lime, adjust to balance sweet and sour)
a pinch of salt
freshly ground pepper
few dashes of chilli flakes , to taste
1 spring onions, finely chopped - green part only
few leaves of parsley, finely chopped

Salsa Verde

Yummy recipe from here !

We spread it on roti, topped with ricotta cheese and dill.

Leftover pumpkin soup used as pasta sauce

Horrible photo; but the sauce and pasta combination was so moreish, I had to restraint myself !

The recipe is as per the title, it starts from cooking a batch of pumpkin soup (recipe below) spiced with dashes of curry powder for extra kick. Then use the leftover as pasta sauce for next day's main - just cook and mix in your favourite pasta, some grated cheese, pieces of fried chorizo, and finally sprinkle with chopped parsley - seriously good!

Pumpkin soup

Taste.com.au

Ingredients (serves 6)

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander (omitted - didn't have any in the pantry)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1kg peeled pumpkin, diced
1 large potato, peeled, diced
1L chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup (125ml) thin cream (omitted)
*added
curry powder, to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over low heat, add onion and leek and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add pumpkin, potato and stock and bring to the boil. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blend in batches.
2. Return soup to pan, stir through cream and reheat gently. Season and add a little more nutmeg if desired.