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.

Mementos of mum

It's almost two years since my mum's passing, and we're still uncovering things that she left us that included recipes scribbled on pieces of scrap paper. Like my mum, I love collecting recipes. Mine are tucked away  on my hard disk and backed up on a server in the cloud somewhere.

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

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.

Try This Lemongrass Marinade for Beef

Tried this a new Vietnamese marinade using brisket for a friend's BBQ. As with everything to be served at a social gather, a sample portion needed to be cooked first to how the meat turned out with the marinade. Here's the sample portion.These were pan fried just two minutes on each side and the beef slices were done. I liked the way the sugar in the marinade caused some caramelizing to lightly brown some of the edges.It turned out really flavorful and the beef was a hit at the BBQ. The bunch preferred their beef well done, which also worked.

Marinade recipe
2 stalks fresh lemongrass, outer leaves discarded and root end trimmed
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
4 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Preparation
Thinly slice lower 6 inches of lemongrass stalks, discarding remainder of stalks. In a food processor or blender finely grind together sliced lemongrass and garlic. Add remaining marinade ingredients and blend well.

In a large resealable plastic bag combine marinade and steak and seal bag, pressing out excess air. Marinate steak, chilled, turning bag once or twice, at least 4 hours or overnight.

Sunday Lunch Service

I run a small family restaurant on Sundays when my mom isn't having us shuttling back and forth from the hospital. This Sunday was the first Sunday my kitchen was open for service since my mom got out of hospital last Wednesday.
As usual family members get added-on at the last minute and since my pantry is well stocked no problems in turning out extra. On occasions when I am unprepared then they have to supply their own lunch. I just provide the open house for everyone to congregate.
This afternoon, I served up a curry chicken dish, which I had tried earlier to accompany the roti jala that I had learnt to make. I plated this individual serving not for the family but for the camera. As there's usually many people, we eat in two seatings.

The pairing was perfect and the stack of roti jala went in no time. So did the rest of the food.
My pièce de résistance this afternoon was chocolate mousse. The serving glass isn't up to my standard but it had to do for this round. I have to head down to Ikea to see if I can find suitable serving bowls.I made a fresh batch this morning after I got home from grocery shopping at 9 am. Then went on to cook the rest of the food by noon we were ready to roll with lunch. The family left at close to 4 pm, a little cat nap helped to recharge the fading batteries. Thank god for the heavy down pour the air was still and stifling this afternoon.
Recipe
250 g dark chocolate (Valrhona)
3 eggs
60 g sugar
250 ml whipping cream
2 tsp dark rum (Myers's Jamaican dark rum)

Method
Melt chocolate and set aside to cool.
Place eggs and sugar into a bowl, and beat till light and foamy.
Add rum to chocolate and combine chocolate with foamy egg mixture.
Whip up the whipped cream, and combine it with the chocolate mixture.
Dish into individual serving glasses to chill until ready to serve.

Pick-Me-Up

This box may look strange but it's also one of the yummiest desserts that I know of. I made up a batch this evening as I had made a promise to make the dessert.Tiramisu means “pick-me-up” in Italian. It is definitely high energy - eggs, sugar and caffeine from the espresso coffee. It picked me upped alright it had been a long tiring day with a house filled with people till late afternoon. This time I wasn't thinking of presentation but for the soothing comfort of this yummy dessert.

Recipe
Ingredients4 eggs separated
5 tablespoons sugar
300 g Mascarpone cheese
1 large package (approximately 36) ladyfingers
1 tbsp brandy
1 cup expresso
1/2 cup cocoa powder

Directions
Arrange a tight layer of ladyfingers in a 9-by-12-inch serving dish. Using a spoon, drizzle about half the espresso over the ladyfingers.
Combine mascarpone, egg yolks and sugar in bowl and beat well then add the brandy.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
Then fold in the egg whites to produce a creamy mixture.
Cover the ladyfingers with the mascarpone mixture and and dust cocoa powder.
Cover the filling with a second layer of ladyfingers and drizzle with espresso. Cover the ladyfingers with the mascarpone mixture.
Place the dish in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours (the Tiramisu can be made 24 hours in advance).
Top with the remaining cocoa before serving.

Cooking Mentaiko Pasta

This was what I wanted to buy from Meidi-Ya was mentaiko.Mentaiko is walleye pollack roe pickled with salt and chili powder, and is a common ingredient in Japanese cuisine. While walking around in the fresh fish section, I found that the supermarket also stocked raw fugu and all kinds of raw fish. I ended up with the mentaiko, sakura ebi and box of green tea leaves with brown rice.
To prepare the pasta, I had to open up the egg sacks and extract the eggs. What I was left with was a mass of pickled fish eggs.I then combined Japanese mayo, soy sauce, mirin, rice vinegar, ground sesame seed and mentaiko to create the pasta sauce.Recipe
Mentaiko, set some aside for garnish
150 g Angel Hair Pasta
1/4 cup Japanese mayonnaise
1 tbsp Rice vinegar
1 tbsp Sesame seeds, roasted and ground
1 tsp Light soy sauce
1 tsp Mirin
Spring onions thinly sliced

Directions:
Slit open the mentaiko sac. Using a spoon, gently scrap out all the roe and discard the sac.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, cook pasta as directed to al dente.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, using a whisk, combine Japanese mayonnaise, rice vinegar, ground sesame, soy sauce and mirin. Use a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula and gentle stir in the mentaiko.
Drain pasta and toss with the prepared sauce. Transfer to a serving dish, garnish with spring onions and top off with mentaiko. Eat immediately.

Trying A Soup Recipe - Thai-Styled Pumpkin Soup

I was sorting out recipes that I collected over 2007 and I decided to give the Thai-styled pumpkin soup a try. This is how the soup starts off.Out came the hand-held blender so that I could blitz the soup up and wah lah pumpkin soup. I even tried my hand at plating and presentation. I then picked up the phone and ordered two family favorite pizzas from Pizza Hut - Aloha and Shroom Garden.Recipe

Ingredients
1 small pumpkin
2 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon red curry paste
coconut milk

Method
Skin and chop up pumpkin
In a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons oil and saute the onion and garlic for 1 minute. Add red curry paste and heat until fragrant
Add pumpkin, and then stock. Put lid on and simmer for 20 mins or until pumpkin is cooked.
Pour mixture into food processor and blend until smooth
Add coconut milk in a steady stream. Serves 6 as an entree or 3 as a main.

Baking Therapy

After a friend who dropped-by left, I jumped into the kitchen to do get some baking therapy as the skies opened up, and it rained elephants and dinosaurs. On my menu are blueberry muffins and molten chocolate cakes.
I bought two punnets of fresh Australian blueberries and they are always lovely in blueberry muffins. See how they burst open and ooze blueberry juices into the muffin. I gave some away to a friend.
I then moved on to make molten chocolate cake. I turned my Valrhona chocolate stock into dreamy yummy molten cakes. I made myself a single serving with vanilla ice cream. Rest of the batter are in the fridge.See how the chocolate oozes out as I cut into the warm cake.Molten Chocolate Cakes Recipe
4 oz unsalted butter

6 oz good quality bittersweet chocolate

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp. all-purpose flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 230C.

Butter and lightly flour four 6-oz. ramekins. Tap out the excess flour and set the ramekins on a baking sheet.
In a double boiler over simmering water, melt the butter with the chocolate. In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolks, sugar and salt at high speed until thickened and pale.
Whisk the chocolate until smooth. Quickly fold it into the egg mixture along with the flour.

Spoon the batter into the prepared ramekins and bake for 12 minutes, or until the sides of the cakes are firm but the centers are soft. Let the cakes cool for about one minute and then cover each with a dessert plate. Carefully turn each one over, let stand for 10 seconds, then unmold. Serve immediately.

Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon soda
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
4 ounces butter
1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen

Method

Sift dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In another bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk and butter that has been melted and browned slightly. Make a well in dry ingredients and pour in liquid ingredients, mixing quickly. Fold in the berries. Spoon batter into greased muffin cups and bake until golden brown. Bake at 200C for 20 -30 minutes. Recipe makes 24 blueberry muffins.

In Scone Heaven

This recipe collector finally pulled out a scone recipe to try. I must say I didn't realize it was that easy. The only times, I've ever loved eating scones were when they were freshly baked in places like Sydney and at the Lodge on Lanai in Hawaii. I still fondly remember the rather civilized afternoon teas that I had at the Lodge.

After this trial, I can serve freshly baked scones for tea. I've even found clotted cream to go with the scones.

This was my experiment plated. Oh! I soaked my raisins in Myers’s Original Dark Rum for added flavor. The scones were so good we were eating them off the baking sheet even though we all just had dinner about an hour ago.

Recipe4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, diced
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup whipping cream
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons water

MethodPreheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking sheets with foil. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into large bowl. Add butter and rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in raisins. Whisk cream, 2 eggs, vanilla and lemon peel in medium bowl to blend. Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir just until combined. Gather dough into ball and knead lightly. Roll out dough on floured surface to 3/4-inch thickness. Using 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out scones.
Gather scraps; re-roll and cut out additional scones. Place scones on prepared baking sheets, spacing apart.
Whisk remaining egg and 2 teaspoons water in small bowl to blend. Brush egg mixture over tops of scones. Bake scones until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer scones to rack and cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

A New Recipe

This was my 7.30am baking project this morning as the skies opened up again. I decided to pull a recipe from the Straits Times, Mind Your Body Supplement as it was simple and had no butter in it.

By 9 am, I was serving freshly baked cake to the mother and the help. It was very yummy and fragrant. I added Belvedere's macerated vodka Pomarańcza, that has orange aromas with bursts of orange blossom. It gave my cake oomph.I made an orange cake, for morning tea.

Recipe from Straits Times

Ingredients
3 medium-size oranges
230g sugar
6 eggs
140g cake flour
100g ground almonds
1 heaped tsp baking powder

Method
Wash the oranges before boiling them whole for around 20 minutes. When cool, puree them in a blender, orange peel and all.
Beat the eggs and sugar together until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is light and fluffy.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold this into the beaten egg mixture along with the ground almonds. Gently mix in the blended oranges.
Pour into a lightly greased cake tin and bake in oven for about one hour at a temperature of 180degC.
Test whether the cake is cooked by inserting a knife or skewer - if wet cake mixture clings to the skewer, then bake a little longer.
Dust top with icing sugar and serve.

Pesto From My Garden Harvest

SLOW DAY..... It's a rainy day today and kind of boring to wake up to heavy overcast skies. I had to find something to do around the house.
I decided to not put off turning my luscious basil plants into pesto. These plants were grown from two sprigs I saved when I last had lunch at Pho House. These plants were from the two sprigs....They made a nice harvest of fresh herb basket that scented the kitchen as I washed and cleaned the leaves. I then prepared the stems for replanting so that I'll have a fresh crop.Add olive oil, pine nuts, garlic, salt and Parmigiano Reggiano, and you have pesto. The little snail didn't end up as secret ingredient for my pesto sauce. It was returned to the garden.We're going to have a nice pasta lunch later.
This was lunch....

Recipe
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
1/2 cup Olive oil
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1 garlic cloves, finely minced

Method
Place basil leaves in food processor and whip until well chopped.
Add about 1/3 the nuts and garlic, blend again.
Add about 1/3 of the Parmesan cheese; blend while slowly adding about 1/3 of the olive oil, stopping to scrape down sides of container.

Sticky Date Pudding

The sticky date pudding is an Australian favourite; you can find it on the menu at cafes, bistros and fine dining establishments alike with many variations. I first tried the sticky date pudding on the Gold Coast when we went around to sample food from restaurants to select a handful for a dine around event. I fell in love with this pudding ever since.

Took me a while to find a recipe but I did in Perth when we went on a food and wine holiday. Since then I've added it to my dessert list. I finally found dates at my regular cake supply place and decided to serve up the dessert for lunch today with vanilla ice cream. Over here I've done a sampling portion for myself.

The best way to bake these pudding is in individual moulds or in a muffin tray. Unmould them and pour the caramel over. Reheat them in the oven or zap them in the microwave for a few seconds to warm them up and serve with ice cream.
Recipe
1 cup dates, pitted and chopped
250ml water
1 tsp bicarb soda (baking soda)
100g unsalted butter, softened
175g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
150g self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup walnut chopped

MethodPreheat oven to 170°C.
Grease moulds or muffin tray.
Place the dates and 250ml water into a pan and bring to the boil over medium heat.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the bicarb soda- the mixture will begin to bubble up. Set aside to cool.

Meanwhile, use an electric mixer to cream the butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Add the vanilla and beat until combined.
Fold the flour and the date mixture alternatively into the butter mixture.
Pour the batter into the prepared moulds, and bake for 30 minutes, or until cooked when tested with a skewer.

Caramel Sauce

250 ml cream

60 gm butter

2/3 cups brown sugar

Cook cream, butter and sugar till melted and simmer till golden brown. Serve hot over pudding.

Fresh Gnocchi

This is dedicated to Chef Lee at Original Sin, who was our trainer last Thursday night when we had a team building event at Bent Fork with a client.

Despite all the morning activities of searching for kingfishers, and the impromtu jungle trek, I still managed to whip up a batch of fresh gnocchi for lunch. It's the damn over achiever streak in me but the sauce came out of a bottle. That is another blog somewhere in the near future when I dust out some of the Italian recipe books in my collection and my basil plants in my herb garden start screaming "Use Me!"Recipe
500g russet potatoes
250g plain flour
1 egg

Boil potatoes with skin on till tender. Mash potatoes.
Shift flour on work top and make a well in the middle. Add the egg and salt to taste.
Add mashed potatoes and start to knead till well blended.
Cut and roll pieces into smaller rolls. Cut and shape gnocchi with a fork.

Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes

Here's a no bake cheesecake recipe and simple to make too. I used my mini cheesecake tray that I ordered from the US as I like bite size morsels.I decided to try a chocolate topping for variation.
Toblerone Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients

1 cup plain chocolate biscuit crumbs

1/2 cup butter, melted

2x250 g cream cheese, softened a room temperature

3 tsp gelatine dissolved in 1/2 cup boiling water

3/4 cup sugar

100 g toblerone Swiss Milk or Dark Chocolate, melted

1/2 cup cream

Method

Mix buiscuit crumbs and butter and press into the base of a springform pan. Chill

Beat cream cheese until soft. Add gelatine mixture, sugar, melted chocolate and cream, blend until smooth

Pour onto crumb base and chill in refrigerator

Garnish as you like

A Cool and Refreshing Dish

This is a perfect hot weather dish and ideal for a day like today. Furthermore, no cooking is required just dice up ingredients and toss them on top of a piece of bean curd, pour sauce and refrigerate.

Century egg and bean curd
Ingredients
2 century eggs
1 block of silken bean curd
1 tbsp chopped spring onions
1 tsp chopped chili, seeded

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

Method
Shell century eggs. Rinse to clean and pat dry. Cut into cubes.
Drain silken bean curd.
Mix sauce
Place century eggs on top of bean curd, pour sauce over and garnish