In search of buah binjai

A friend asked if I had ever eaten sambal buah binjai and I said no. She then sent me an article "Now is the season for buah binjai", which started me looking for the binjai fruit.

I recalled one of the morning walkers who walks the McRitchie trail gave me a large brown mango like fruit many years ago but I didn't know what to do with it. It ended up in the bin after it started to rot.

Simple yet yummy!

Here's a dessert that you would have seen on the three food channels we have on cable TV. My initial thought was cool dessert but I never got around to try my hand at it till recently when I had access egg-white sitting in my fridge.

I love the simplicity of the Pavlova recipe. It's relatively guilt free too if you don't go overboard with the whipped cream (for those of you who think may be to substitute the full fat whipped cream for skinny I found it not so palatable). I went to town with the fresh fruit topping, which made it very pleasing to the eye too. Enjoy!

Vietnamese Curry Fish Noodles

It’s kitchen experimentation time. This Vietnamese recipe looked interesting and light. It also featured simple ingredients. If you like this recipe, you can use this Williams Sonoma promotional code as a resource for some more similar ones! This was how the dish turned out.

Brain screeches to a halt after this indulgence

It's Friday and we decided to kick back and indulge at Fat Boy's the Burger Bar. Our order was for 2xBushtucker, 1xSwiss Shrooms and 2xchocolate milkshake. They came pretty fast and the fries that came with the burgers were just the way I like them - thick cut.

Now if only the weather held up for just another day, I would have had an opportunity to walk off the lunch. A nap right now is sounding terrible good.

Halloween - pumpkins of all kinds are coming

Yes, we have pumpkins all year round but it seems like there's more varieties as we approach Halloween in the supermarkets. Recently, I picked fried pumpkin as one of my choices for a cheap $2.50 chiap chye rice lunch. The Chinese style stir fried pumpkin was pretty good. After several slow mouthfuls to analyse taste and possible ingredients. I managed to narrow down the ingredients that accompanied the pumpkin - garlic, oyster sauce and dried krill. It so happen that I had a piece of pumpkin hiding in my fridge for sometime and I decided to try to recreate the dish and I succeeded. A simple delicious one dish meal that goes very well with steamed rice.

Ingredients
A piece of pumpkin (cubed)
1 clove of garlic (minced)
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dried krill
1 tsp knorr's chicken stock
1 tbsp oil

method
Heat wok with oil till hot.
Saute garlic till golden and add dried krill in to brown.
Thrown in pumpkin and saute them
Add oyster sauce and chicken stock
Add water just enough to not let the dish burn
Cook till pumpkin is soft. Add seasoning to taste. (I find that I don't need additional salt in mine)
Enjoy!

Stir fried ridged luffa with egg - a simple one dish meal

It has been three weeks since my housekeeper went home. I’m still trying to figure out if I can juggle my lifestyle, and manage my home as well. So far, I am finding out that I am crap at housekeeping. Feeding oneself is also quite challenging. I’m starting to get a hang of creating simple one dish meals that hit the spot.

This simple dish makes a great one dish meal. Buy a ridged luffa at the wet market or supermarket; make sure that you pick a young fruit. Otherwise, you’ll get more fiber than you bargained for. These ridged luffas have a very sweet and delicate flavor. I created from memory what my mum use to prepare for my brother and me as children – stir fried ridged luffa with egg.

Recipe
1 young ridged luffa (cleaned and sliced up)
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 tsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp oil
1 egg

Method
Place oil into frying pan and heat up.
Add garlic and fry till golden
Throw in the sliced-up luffa fry and then add oyster sauce
Add water and allow the luffa to soften
Once the luffa has soften, add the egg into the boiling mixture and break-up

Homemade Strawberry Preserves

It is peak harvest season for Californian strawberries and prices have been pretty reasonable. I couldn’t resist in buying several punnets to cook up a batch of homemade preserve. The process starts with cleaning the strawberries and cutting them up.

Then sugar and lemon juice are added to the strawberries to start the maceration process.

The mixture is sealed and popped into the fridge over night. The next day, the mixture is boiled to cook it. It is left to cool and restored in the fridge. On the third day, the liquid is drained and returned to the fire to boil down into thick syrup before the strawberries are added back in.

An ideal way of enjoying afternoon tea - homemade strawberry preserve on biscuits.

Rainy Day Fixes

What can you do when the weather keeps you indoors? Sleep, read, watch DVDs or surf the web. The list is endless. Me, I like to potter around the kitchen creating yummy things, which are not necessarily good for the waistline.

Wondered into town some three weeks ago to correct my blurring reading vision, meant a visit to my favorite baking supply shop – Sun Lik. Stocked up on Valhorna chocolate and other sundry baking goods and got introduced to a nifty muffin premix. I don’t normally go for premixes but this one bucks the trend. The muffins came out moist and fluffy but being me I chose to be creative even with the premix. Over a number of rainy days, I have pulled out other ingredients from the fridge and pantry to add them into the premix. Strawberries that were hiding in the fridge got thrown into a batch. Dried pineapples went into the next batch.  And Ghirardelli Chocolate chips added oomph to a batch of chocolate muffins for my afternoon tea party of chocolate indulgence.

A friend brought along a bottle of Jeju Tangerine jam from Korea that turned out devine as a topping for the chocolate muffins.

Healthy and Yummy

Finally broke out the packet of rice paper and tried my hand at making Goi Cuon (Vietnamese fresh springrolls). It is so easy and can be very healthy depending on what you put in the spring rolls.
I created mine with crab sticks and I may try filling them with smoked duck breast. In my head it seems to work.

Recipe
10 rice paper wrappers
Lettuce
Cucumber, cut into long slices
Carrot, cut into long slices
mint and cilantro
Glass noodles (soak noodles in hot water and cool under running water)
Crab sticks

Method
In bowl of warm water, dip each rice paper wrapper for about 3-5 seconds (depending on rice paper thickness). Do not over soak your rice paper wrapper! Place on work service and allow rice paper to soak up water and become gelatinous and pliable (about 30 seconds to 1 minute, again, depending on the thickness rice paper).

On top 1/3 side closest to you, lay lettuce on the bottom for added strength to the wrapper. Then place meat, herbs and other vegetables. Roll up spring roll about 1/3 way through, then fold in the sides.

Hoisin Peanut Dipping Sauce Recipe
1 cup hoisin sauce (if sauce is thick, add about 1/4 cup warm water to reach desired consistency)
1/4 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbs rice vinegar
2 garlic, crushed
1 minced thai chili, or more for desired spiciness

Method
In blender, combine all ingredients for the hoisin peanut dipping sauce. Blend until everything combines smoothly together. If it is too thick, continue adding warm water until desired consistency.

Teochew Dinner

A friend and I decided to have dinner together. Our original plan was to head to Central for ramen. However, we had a change of plans, and we ended up at Sin Ming Road at Ah Orh Seafood.The two of us went overboard and ordered a fish head in claypot and the other dish was a simple sambal kang kong.The plate of fried kang kong is quite substantial and the claypot that arrived not long after was huge. However, I had in my mind a Cantonese claypot fish head, which I haven't had in a long while. We got a Teochew styled claypot fish head instead.
The claypot fish head was tasty but also very starchy as in the pot was lots of yam that have broken down into the soup. It was a treasure trove of things - yams, fish maws, shitake mushrooms, chunky pieces of fish meat and pieces of pork fat.
We still managed to finish the two dishes but had to go for a long walk after dinner to digest our hearty meal.

Ah Balling Revisited

My Chinatown guide was hungry and we decided to have a pre dinner snack before heading back to street level to play with our cameras. Hai Seng is her favorite ah balling stall and I was happy to so her where the stall is. It took a while to locate the place as I discovered my mobile was on me. After a little searching we found the stall and we each ordered our bowl of rice dumplings from this similing owner of the stall who still makes his dumplings by hand.The dumpling filling we both like is black sesame. Didn't take us long to empty our bowls.Sated and pretty pleased with ourselves, we went on to explore Chinatown.
Here's where to go for an ah balling fix: -
Hai Seng Ah Balling
Stall 02-059
Chinatown Food Centre
Blk 335 Smith Street
Singapore 050335
12pm to 9pm
Thursday 12pm to 6pm

Mid-Autumn Festival 2009

Thought it would be fun to head down to Chinatown and take in the sights like a tourist since the area is lighted up for Mid-Autumn Festival.
Mid-Autumn Festival is by Chinese, Koreans, and Vietnamese people as a harvest festival, even though it is celebrated by each differently. In Singapore, it is also sometimes referred to as the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival.
What is the festival without the traditional goodies like mooncakes and pomelos. My friend who was my Chinatown guide brought me to the oldest traditional baked mooncakes store - Chinatown Tai Chong Kok Confectionery - which is a household name for many generations. It was my first time at the store and I was fascinated.
I am not much of a mooncake eater but I do love tradition and this store was such a throw back. The ladies of course were equally taken with me when I confessed to them that it was my first time at their store. We still managed to converse with my half-baked Mandarin. I walked away with some great photos and a paper bag of mini mooncakes.

Outside were stalls stacked to the brim with pomelos. I love pomelos and will eat them pretty much all year round when I can get them.Last but not the least what is mid-autumn without the lanterns.

Sugar High!

Impromptu exploration of Chinatown Food Center in Chinatown ended up in take-aways, which led to a major sugar high. The good thing is, the desserts weren't overly sweet.
Found Hai Seng Ah Balling from the transit market, so the stall is no longer missing. This vendor still makes his own glutinous rice balls filled with red bean, green bean, yam, peanut or sesame seed paste. Here's the stall number: 02-059 in the Green Section. As the owner reminds me, he is closed on Mondays when I told him I finally found his stall. Took home two containers of ah balling filled with peanut and yam.The next dessert stall I dropped in on was 一一五塘水 (115 desserts)to buy a tube of black sesame cream and a tube of water chestnut and sweet corn dessert. I did a half and half for effect. Both desserts went well together too. I also added an ah balling into the black sesame paste as they were all complementary desserts. Where to locate this stall: 02-206, closed on Tuesday.To add to the sugar overload were durians. The residents' committee organized a durian night and had ordered basket loads of 猫山王 (Mao Shan Wang) from Johor.Since they were free I can't complain. However, my personal favorite is still the D24.

Sweet Corn Ice Cream In Multi-Colored Bread

This is me revisiting my childhood, going to school on Emerald Hill and looking forward to the after school bell. My mum arranged for me to be sent home in a private school bus as she worked as a teacher. The typical thing was to race out of the school gates and make a beeline for the school bus to dump our bags. Then we all will run off to look for the ice cream man to each get a piece of ice cream wrapped in soft colored bread.
This ice cream man was at the Civic District selling ice cream. Being a hot day, I had to have an ice cream the old fashion way - slice of heaven.
A piece of ice cream is cut from the block of Magnolia Sweet Corn Ice Cream.The ice cream is then transferred on to a piece of bread.

Ah Chiang's Porridge

Last trip to SGH before my mum gets discharged. Took a drive to Tiong Bahru and ended up at Ah Chiang's Porridge on Tiong Poh Road, which is suppose to be quite popular because the stall still prepares its porridge on charcoal fire. I ended up ordering a bowl of mixed pork porridge and a plate of raw fish. How predictable can I be as I am still looking for the perfect bowl of pork porridge for me.The plate of raw fish was very fresh and this stall does not even provide you with a lime to cook the fish.The mixed pork porridge feature liver and done just the way I like it still a little bloody, which meant that the liver wasn't over cooked. What I liked about the porridge is that rice isn't cooked till it is just starch, there is still grains within and has some bite.I'd like to go back again to try some of it other dishes.

Can't Resist ... Char Kway Teow

Still running between home and the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), and I again dropped in at Hong Lim Food Center to sample more hawker delights. Today, it was Outram Char Kway Teow, the perfect comfort food for the weary to help keep the spirits up. For me, I find keeping myself engaged and occupied relieves a lot of the stresses of going through the ups and downs of my mother's health.Tomorrow, we will again be issued with a get out of SGH card. Hopefully, it will be longer than 3 days. Everything has been arranged and my lunch time is also over.Did a little wandering around the Hong Lim area and poked around a TCM shop to see what dried marine creatures they had in the shop. Sea horses - suppose to be good for the lungs.Dried Sea robins.

Tuck Kee Ipoh Hor Fun

Dropped by Hong Lim Food Center again to sample more hawker delights. This time I braved the long queue at Tuck Kee Ipoh Hor Fun to see what the fuss is all about. As it was late the larger crayfish were already sold out so settled for the mid-sized ones with prawns.
The plate of flat rice noodles is doused with a starchy but tasty gravy but it would have been better if it wasn't on a Styrofoam plate. This stall isn't environmentally friendly as it only uses disposable cutlery and plates. Food wise the seafood was fresh, the noodles were silky smooth and tasty coated in the gravy, and easy to eat.

Brown Bag Lunch

Took a drive to Greenwood Avenue to get a takeaway lunch from the Fish Market. Takeaway arrived in a plain brown bag, which is bio-degradable.This is what was hidden in the brown bag - fish and chips.This is the best value meal at $9.50, which half the price of the sit down meal at the restaurant. Two large pieces of fish resting on a bed of fries. Next time, I'm going to get me a bottle of Cider Vinegar to cut through the grease.