New addition to kitchen

After one year of searching high and low for this sauce, just when I'm about to give up, I stumbled upon it at the local organic shop..duh?! As a child, I wasn't a fan of this sauce. I remember my dad love adding anything and everything with fish sauce. But the smell was just too strong. Why then I buy it? , you may ask.. well, I LOVE thai cuisine! I have in my vault many thai recipes that i hope to try out soon with this new gem in the kitchen :)

Simple one pot dish

Watching RickStein's food heroes on BBC has been such a pleasure. He talks about food with such passion. Further, his recipes are straight forward, often so simple its all about letting the natural flavour shine through. This is something I learnt from one of the episodes, I didn't even need to take down the recipe, it's so easy, its in my mind! Err....ok, I did checked on-line to be sure I didnt leave out any important ingredients :DFirst brown the mutton / lamb / pork (spare ribs). Grease a pot with butter, cover the bottom of the pot begining with a layer of potatoes (cut round), followed by slices of onions, next put the browned meat, a stig of thyme, carots, repeat again with slices of onions, seasoning. Finished off with potatoes at the top, again with seasoning. Bake at low heat (gas mark 2) about 1-1 1/2 hours (for pork), 2-3 hours for mutton/lamb.

Simple English HOT POT

Purple vegetables

what else? eggplants a.k.a aubergines. First, please allow the photos to speaks for itself..





Eggplant is not particularly a favourite of mine. It's just that for the lack of varieties of vegetables here, I welcome some colours and different taste. As far as I can remember, aubergines is usually fried over high heat then topped with the spicy chillies. Oh, I love them in curries as well! However, this time round, I'm choosing a healthier method of preparation without compromising on the taste.

Method :-
1) Pre-heat oven at 220°c (gas mark 7)
2) Cut aubergines in to any shapes you prefer, leave the skin on.
3) Place aubergines on baking tray and brush with olive oil, bake each side for 10 mins.
4) Prepare topping - dice onions, tomatoes, paprika (red & green for colours), sauté with some oil, season with salt, pepper & sugar
5) spoon topping onto aubergines, finished off with cheese. Leave in oven for another 5 mins. or until cheese melts.

Voila!

Crazy about beans

can't believe a packet of green mung beans managed to make my day! Moments ago, we went to the organic shop for tofu. This has been the second time I enter this shop. The first was at least eight months ago, for the same intention - to buy tofu. Boy, was I glad that we took time to browse around (B's idea, i was too lazy). My first word when I saw the beans on the shelf was "OMG!!! OMG!!!" I never thought I would react this way over a common staple item from my tropical home and that it can lift my spirit so much. Next of course, I was shocked at the price that they charged! For a 500g packet, the price was about 2Euro, which I think its about 800% higher than what we pay in Msia :o

The green mung beans, as my mom told us, is believe to have a cooling effect for the body. It is especially benefial to boil some as dessert to help reduce the body heat during summer. I must admit the look of the cooked beans is not exactly appetising and may not be everyone's "cup of tea". That said, I do hope you'll try the recipe included below to decide for yourself.

I boil a simple version without milk

Green Mung Beans with Gula Melaka and Coconut Milk
Recipe by Amy Beh (link)

Ingredients
200g Gula Melaka (palm sugar), chopped
1 cup water
300g green mung beans, soaked for 1 to 2 hours and drained
100g castor sugar
1.5 litres water
2 pandan leaves, knotted

Combine and squeeze to get santan (coconut milk):
1 grated coconut
1 cup water
1/4tsp salt

Method :-
Boil gula melaka (palm sugar) and water in a saucepan until sugar has dissolved completely. Strain the syrup and set aside.

Combine mung beans, sugar and water in a deep pot. Bring to a boil for 20-25 minutes. Add syrup to the mung beans and simmer over low heat for 20-25 minutes or until the beans are soft and the liquid in the pan is reduced to half.

Stir in coconut milk, add the salt and bring to a low boil. Serve this sweet dessert either hot or if preferred, cold.

Doughnut .....wannabe

The end result of this recipe should look like the photo in this page! My re-production is flat in shape which seem more like a pan-cake! The texture of the "dough" was watery. I have no idea what went wrong. In an effort to thicken the mixture, more flour was added. Not too much though as you wouldn't want it to turn out hard. With the slightly wet texture, I couldn't possibly wrap the fruit into the dough, so I chose to mash the fruit instead.

Verdict : despite all the alteration to the original recipe, the doughnut turned out to be light and fluffy. Quite addictive, actually ;)

the cinnamon powder has gone missing, so only caster sugar was used for coating the dougnut

see the mushy mixture?

biting into moist of bananas

Apricot Doughnut

Ingredients :-
250 gm flour
50 gm sugar
1 lemon zest
1 egg
50 gm butter
20 gm yeast
250 ml milk
20-25 pcs of apricot, coreless
50gm caster sugar for coating
cinnamon for coating

Method :-
Mix the yeast with 20gm sugar in the milk. Set aside for few minutes.
Next, add flour, 30gm sugar, egg, melted butter, zest of lemon and set it aside at a warm place for 40 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a floured board, cut it into pieces and the fill them with half-cut apricot pieces.
Fry the balls in rich, hot oil and coating the doughnut with cinnamon powdered sugar.

Don't throw away the bread!

Hungarians are extremely fond of their bread. The Hungarian bread is delicious and essential for the kitchen. Most importantly they must be served fresh especially when eating with stew and goulash. That said, we do have quite high wastages in terms of stale bread. Well, to reduce the amount of bread being just discarded, its better to make them in to pudding once in blue moon, don't you think?

Verdict : Considering that I haven't actually tasted this before in my life, it was overall a good experience trying for this recipe. Aside that its too sweet to my taste, the positive is the roasted texture on top combined with moist bread inside..simply Lovely!



Bread Pudding
Ingredients
Serves 8.

12 slices day-old baguette; cut into 3/4-inch
4 eggs; room temprature
1/2 cup light brown sugar; firmly packed
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
pinch Salt
4 cups milk
1/4 cup dried cranberries or raisins
confectioners' sugar; for dusting

Method

Lightly butter an 8-inch square baking dish. Spread the bread cubes in it.

In a bowl, whisk together the eggs, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well blended. Pour in the milk and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the bread cubes. Let stand, pressing down on the bread occasionally, until it is evenly soaked, about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 350°F (Gas mark 4).

Scatter the cranberries evenly over the surface of the soaked bread and press to submerge the fruit. Set the baking dish in a large, shallow roasting pan. Add very hot tap water to the roasting pan to come halfway up the sides of the baking dish.

Bake the pudding until a knife inserted near the center comes out almost clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Generously dust the top of each slice with confectioners’ sugar.

Pita Pizza

Yet another easily prepared snack, Pita bread with pizza ingredients. We had this for breakfast this morning since I'm bored with the usual breakfast items. So, the next time you're in the supermarket, please don't forget to buy the pita bread and try making this at home. IMHO, it is as good as the pizza sold in pizzeria ;)

Let's get started! Preheat toaster/oven. Set bread on baking tray, first spread ketchup (or pizza ready made pizza sauce) as the base followed by shreded cheese (any type of cheese which easily melt). Then top with cuts of sausages and salami. Finished off with shreded cheese and mayonaise. Ready to toast.



See how wonderful it look (below). Remove from toaster/over when cheese has melted. You can put anything for the toppings. I don't think anything will go wrong with this tasty bread :)