cake off!

From left to right: Moroccan orange cake, Chocolate cake, english lemon tea cake.
Courtesy of Emma.

redesign

Hello world!!!

Erm.

Not much cooking going on, but yesterday I had an amazing Japanese meal with fried chicken, scallops, eggplant and lotus root, slathered with lots of grated daikon. It was tender and juicy and divine.

Am currently on the look out for cake recipes with chocolate and lemon... for a special occasion...

Slow down, danger ahead

Sometimes life throws you a couple of curveballs, and it can feel like you've been bounced around a few times too many. I've had a minor life changing moment a few weeks ago, with life holding up a massive stop sign. The realisation that I've been running on empty for too long, trying to keep going while my petrol gauge flashes empty. So I've been trying to slow down to avoid a crash, and catching the flu proved to be a good thing, because I've had to take the weekend off work. It also means having the weekend to rest and not worry about the time or being somewhere five minutes ago, which is an absolute luxury, like 300 threadcount linen. Meals have been simple and sparse, I just don't have the energy to plan ahead. So mostly leftover staples like fried rice, soups, both Asian and Western. I had a really good home-made minestrone at a cafe, so soup for the week ahead is going to be minestrone. I'm not going to bother with a recipe this time because it is quite straight forward, so just a list of the veggies I'm using (again the leftovers and ungainly) - cauliflower, carrot, celery, zucchini, roast garlic (for the flu), pumpkin or sweet potato, finished with a can of beans and tomatoes.

Not too cold for salad

With 4 degree nights and 14 degree days, it isn't the right season for salad yet, but I do miss crispy leaves of rocket, spinach and cos.

Japanese inspired salad

Tofu - marinated in tamari, dark sweet soy sauce and mirin and then grilled or fried
Sliced orange sweet potato - grilled
Mixed leaves
1 cucumber - sliced
Wedges of tomato or baby tomatoes

Dressing
1 part tamari/soy sauce
2 parts brown rice vinegar
1 part toasted sesame oil

Garnish with fried breadcrumbs. I used multigrain breadcrumbs which are uneven and have more texture. Toasted sesame seeds would work as well.

perfect popcorn

It's been a while. I've been cooking - carefully thought out meals one or two days a week, rough one-dish meals rest of the week, which is the story of my life really. (which is another story on the main blog)

But for the moment, here is how to make perfect popcorn as taught to me by Cat.
1 cheap saucepan with lid. You want something that heats up fast. No fancy heavy bottomed cast iron rubbish.
Enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Just enough popcorn to to form 1 layer at the bottom of the pan.
Toss the corn in the oil for a bit and turn on the flames.
I think you can take it off the heat when the popping is fast and furious, and just when it starts to slow down.
A pinch of salt is enough. Heh.

When I've tried to do it before Cat's wonderful advice, I've put too little oil and too much corn, the result - uneven burnt popcorn. I can't believe it's so easy.

praawwnn on the baarbieee?

Last year I was quite excited to get back to Oz, to my little kitchen, and start making yummy meals. This year, argh, it feels like a drag to get back into the swing of things. I've been surviving on one-dish meals and eating out (thanks to the generosity of friends). Definitely feeling like I'm lacking in inspiration. I guess everyone goes through patches.

I did try to make a triumphant return with what I thought was going to be a fab salad - first step fry little bits of bacon, add in some baby octopus (you can chop these up to make them a managable mouth-size). While that is sizzling, assemble sliced fresh mango, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, olives. The dressing is lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, salt, olive oil (my ex housemate used to say EVO, like it was the name of a car, which it is). Plonk the cooked octopus and bacon and all the juices on top of the salad. It was almost complete as I went to sprinkle some pepper as a finishing touch as the whole bottletop came loose.....

It was a very peppery salad. Cue Marlon Brando saying "I could have been a contender."

Which reminds me of people who write short stories (memoirs) only six words long...

cooking by zen

I had a craving for crispy onions, the garnish you find on top of certain foods, so I decided to fry up a batch yesterday. Mum always said that this is one of the "examination dishes" for any new bride entering the household, because it shows your skill with the knife (all the slices have to be even, although you can cheat with a grater), your skill with the wok (can't let them burn), and patience (from peeling the onions till the end takes at least half an hour, depending on how fast you can peel). Unfortunately, onions make me cry so I did resort to closing my eyes and cutting by feel, hoping that I wasn't going to lose any skin or fingers. It went well, pictures to come, and I was getting the rest of dinner ready when my tap came loose and the water came gushing straight out, soaking everything in the kitchen within a 3m radius, including me. At least I know where my water mains was, so I dashed down, winner of the wet t shirt contest Feb 2008, secretly grateful it wasn't winter, screwed it shut and returned to mop up the mess. My landlord is a really sweet guy and he came over later to fix the tap so everything worked out in the end. Hopefully the weather will be nice and hot in the next few days so the carpet dries out...

Back with biscuits

It is ironic that for my first real food post since summer holidays (and my first post for 2008) I have chosen a fiendishly difficult biscuit to make.

It is called kueh bangkit, a traditional biscuit the nonyas make for Chinese New Year. Biscuit making is normally a family affair, the mother (or in law), daughters, sisters etc. This is because it is a lot (no kidding) of work. If chocolate chip cookies are the equivalent of a stroll in the park, kueh bangkit is juggling firesticks and riding a unicyle, backwards. We made just one type of biscuit and it took 3 of us (mom, my aunt bonnie below and me) from 10am to 730pm, when the last tray came out of the oven.

If we were seriously baking, it may be twice that quantity that plus pineapple tarts, love letters and other goodies. The nonyas are very bitchy people and they are always talking about who made the best biscuits this year and other family gossip.



Before you can get to the final product, which is meant to melt in your mouth by the way, you have to start the day by frying flour (try saying that 5 times, really really fast). Mom says this is the hardest part, if you don't do it right your biscuits turn out like rocks. I would disagree, I think every stage is tricky. I burnt the flour once before I got it right (and got flour everywhere, even in my hair).

Thankfully, my mom doesn't rap knuckles with a wooden spoon, unlike what her mom used to do to her when she got it wrong. My grandmother was not born a nonya (she married in) so she actually didn't know any recipes. And nonyas are very proud people, so they would never share their recipes with you. Apparently, my grandma ran a tontine and a nonya lady owed her a lot of money, so she had no choice but to teach my grandma her closely-guarded secrets. I was chuffed to discover that these biscuits had such a history but my aunt told me that our recipe is a more recent one her friend taught her, and the family has adopted it because it was easier.

Easier??? I can't imagine how much more work my grandmother's recipe would involve.

Then we had to squeeze grated coconut for milk, which is really time consuming but you do get nice smooth hands after, possibly because of the coconut oils. It smells and tastes amazing fresh, much better than the antiseptic stuff you get in cans.

Making the dough is intimidating at first, you have to mix a sticky, almost liquid dough with the flour until you get something you can roll out. Cutting out the biscuits is the easiest part, then you have to decorate them with sesame seeds and it is off to the oven. The last thing you want to do is burn them, after having spent so much effort already. Now repeat 306 times. And then it is time to pack your lovely biscuits in jars. Phew. My dad suggested I make them for sale in Melbourne. I shot him a dirty look and said, shouldn't I be studying?

The kitchen still smells sweet, coconut milk and pandan leaves.

in hiberation

Gone shopping. Will blog after x'mas. Take care folks.

tourists are weird, taking pictures of food

Food I ate in china. Breakfast was generally white porridge with lots of pickles, which I love.
And general tip - ask for less oil and salt. The local Chinese palate does favour a heavy hand.

Over an unremarkable dish of xiao long bao (steam dumplings filled with soup - ideally the skin should be translucent and just thick enough to prevent the soup from leaking out), it turns out that the best xiao long bao is in singapore and it is on my list of things to eat...

glutinous rice pudding - finally

This is the very last of the second batch of glutinous rice pudding I made, it almost never made it as a photo. The smiley face of coconut milk is an accident. It is not traditional to put dried longans in it, but my mom and my grandmother have been doing it for ages, so this is the version I like best. As it is a family recipe I am reluctant to put it up here, but email me personally if you want to know what's in it.


Spicy noodle soup. As you can see from the notes on the table, this was exam time. I cheat by using tomyam paste from a jar. Don't tell anyone.

Just returned yesterday from 2 weeks in China, at least half was spent eating vegetarian food (not by choice). I did end up singing the meat song - which has only one word and goes like this meat meat meat meat meat meat (to the tune of any song). Thankfully, Xiamen is a food paradise not for vegetarians and you'll be glad to know that my Mandarin is at least good enough to avoid the stalls selling dog soup.

Will blog once I've organised pictures.

making the most of leftovers

Spent my second last night in melbourne making fried rice and having a few friends over, there was champagne flowing, so all in all it was a good night. However, there are still leftovers so tonight is going to be fried rice night part deux.

Been listening to heaps of bossa nova music... it is good dinner party music, although I much prefer to cook to Al Green. One of my favourite albums is the Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook, which the very first boy I dated introduced me to, back when I was 19. I lost the boy after a couple of months, but I still have the album.

I have time to cook, just no time to take pictures

I was going to post about making black glutinous rice pudding, or pulot hitam, but it got eaten before I remembered to take pictures. Then today, as post-exam relief, I made chocolate raisin oat cookies and discovered something else I took pictures of a month ago but forgot. Scones with homemade jam and cream. (Don't worry, the scones are not a month old, they've long since been eaten.)

Strawberry jam
1 punnet strawberries - this is a great way to use up overripe strawberries. Cook in a saucepan over a tiny flame with no water as the strawberries will become watery with cooking. Add honey or rice malt to sweeten at the end. Most of the time strawberries are quite sour.

Scottish Scones (from orangette)

½ c milk (I think I used non dairy milk)
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ stick (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
3 Tbs sugar
raisins, orange peel

Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.(220C)

Beat together the milk and the egg and then set aside. In a large bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, working until you have no lumps bigger than a pea. Add the sugar and whatever additions you choose, and stir or toss to mix. Pour the wet ingredients into the dries, reserving just a tad of the milk-egg mixture to use as a glaze. Bring dough together gently with a wooden spoon.

Turn dough out onto a clean counter and knead it no more than 12 times. [Apparently, twelve is the magic number here; surpass it at your own risk.] Pat dough into a round approximately ½-inch thick, and cut into 8 or 12 wedges. Place on an ungreased baking sheet or a Silpat, if you have one. Using a pastry brush, glaze wedges.

Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack.

And for the chocolate chip oatmeal raisin cookies, I made them the same way I did with the soy cornflake cookies, but replacing the soy flakes with rolled oats.

Dainty treats

I've always been a fan of middle eastern desserts, no matter how sweet they are, but these are an exception. Ghouraiba is simply a dainty biscuit perfumed with cardamom and rosewater and they were meant to last me through the exam period but it looks like I will be baking again. They are just small enough for you to have two without feeling greedy, the perfect size to serve guests alongside tea or coffee. Additionally, I put crushed walnuts in the mix but if you want to be traditional, use crushed pistachios.

GHOURAIBA

2/3 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons sugar
1 cup ground almonds
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon rose water
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease cookie sheets and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar.
(Note: I was lazy so I melted the butter and sugar over a low flame and the biscuits still turned out fine.)

Whisk together flour, ground nuts and cardamom. Add flour mixture to butter in thirds, mixing well after each addition. Stir in rose water.

Shape into balls the size of large marbles.

Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool for 2-3 minutes and roll in powdered sugar.

Carrot salad

I was treating mr-embarrassed-about-saying-the-word-tart (osteo rawks) and I'm just used to feeding people who come to the house (standard greeting in Singapore: Hi how are you? Have you eaten?) so I made this carrot salad from Claudia Roden. I really liked it, it's a keeper.

Depending on how many you are cooking for, this serves 2 -3 as a side dish.
half a carrot, cut into matchsticks
1 small apple, matchsticks (her recipe didn't have apple but I just bought a huge bag so am trying to use them. Apple lends a sweetness that is not in the original)
1 teasp ground cumin
2 tiny cloves of garlic minced
mint leaves
salt to taste
a squeeze of lemon juice, like from a quarter or half a lemon (I added this to the apples so they wouldn't change colour)
1 tablespoon of olive oil ( I used sesame cos I already had olive oil in a tabouli type salad)

Fry the garlic in oil till fragrant, then toss in the carrots and cumin. You don't want to cook them fully, sort of half cooked so that they are still crunchy. Turn off the fire and add in the apples, mint leaves, lemon juice and salt. You can serve it warm or cold.

dumpling party

I guess the wisdom of having already turned 30 is that you don't have to get drunk at your own party and you can organise something more sedate, like making dumplings. Getting a good party going is like getting a fire started, you need to give it enough fuel at the start, fan it so that it gets just enough oxygen, so I was too busy getting soup ready and serving snacks (and drinking beer) to take any more photos. Take my word for it, it was a good party, maybe a bit too much work to do it all again (and a big thank you to all the friends who came early to help out, contributed extra stools and chairs, and without which the party would have been impossible).

salty bread and salty tears

You know the feeling when you go back to a favourite food place but it is no longer there? Or perhaps it is there but the cook has changed and it tastes different...
a much more eloquent account of that here.

There must be an elegant way to say this in French, like how esprit de l'escalier (French for spirit of the escalator) refers to a witty comeback that only occurs to you when its too late.

September is a time for birthdays and this weekend is particularly busy - have a picnic in the afternoon and then late night drinks for another friend, plus a third friend is celebrating his at a guy club late late late into the night (don't think I will be going for that one).

So in the same order, happy birthday to Lachlan, Catherine and Jeff. May the coming year be better than before (and definitely better than my shitty run of luck last week). And a happy belated to Shravan, who I dobbed that it was his birthday yesterday and he had to do 25 rolls during training, the poor chap. Ah well, it was funny.

Mum is visiting, so I haven't been cooking but I whipped out this trusty tofu dish when I volunteered to cook for one night last week.

Ma po tofu
(It means pocked marked tofu dish, not sure why. This is a vegetarian adaptation of the one in Fuchsia Dunlop's book)

Chopped garlic 2-3 cloves
sliced cloud ear fungus (soaked)
chopped carrot
chopped caulifower
chopped spring onion
about half a block of tofu, cubes
2 tablespoons of sesame oil

Fry in wok. Add a couple of spoons of stock or water till the veggies are cooked.

For the sauce
1 teaspoon of salted black beans, crushed
3 tablespoons of chili bean sauce (you can get this in a bottle at most asian shops)
1 tablespoon of black chinese vinegar (this is the equivalent of chinese balsamic vinegar, it is more mellow than rice vinegar)
soy sauce to taste if it is not salty enough

Add sauce to stir fry, toss for a minute or so and it should be done.

sundays are for soup

In the orange corner, we have day-old sweet potato, parsnip and rosemary soup. I wasn't going to make a creamy soup until I smelt one of my neighbours making potato soup... I couldn't resist.

In the green corner is the beginnings of another soup. I've been craving a spicy korean hotpot soup, which actually comes in a tetrapack, but the shop that stocks it is a million miles away (okay, boxhill, but it is out of my way). So I am improvising with hatcho miso and some chilli paste. Not sure what the results will be.

You can never have too much soup in winter (even though the flowers say spring is finally here).

sweet potato, parsnip and rosemary soup
Qualities are for 2 - 3 serves.

A 5 inch length of sweet potato, diameter is about 8cm. You can also use regular potato, about 3. Chopped.
4inch length of parsnip
2 sprigs of rosemary
half an onion

Fry everything lightly in 2 tbsp olive oil, add about 2 bowls of water when it is sizzling. Let it cook over a low flame for at least 30min. Blend. Salt to taste. Because I am trying to go dairy free at the moment (except for yoghurt), I haven't added any cream or milk but you could.

little green giants

Last year I grew cabbages, this year, looking at the price of veges, I decided to grow broccoli. Organic broc goes for $8 to $10 per kg. It took forever to grow, at least 3 months from seedings, and they are still pretty tiny. Then again, I am growing them in an overcrowded recycled styrofoam fruit box, so I guess I can't expect giants. I'll just eaten the last of my store-bought broccoli, so I'll probably harvest a few of my own in a week, so that the rest have a bit more room to grow.

Another big welcome to another pickle sister, the person who gave me the idea for the title of this blog, Mon. Mon is an amazing and inspiring cook and will be posting soon!