Poached Eggs on Halloumi Cheese Salad

There is something about Nigella that just calls out to me. Her way of talking about food, writing about food and just how she enjoys it. I spotted this recipe on her app and was excited about it straight away. We are having warm summer nights and salads just seem to be enough for dinner these days.

Oozing egg yolks on squeaky cheese is such a lovely combination. Why didn't I think of it before? No dressing needed, just a squeeze of lemon juice.

Poached Eggs on Halloumi Cheese Salad(Serves 3)
4 free range eggs room temperature
250 grams halloumi cheese sliced

4-5 cups of salad greens
1 lebanese cucumber
1 capsicum
cherry tomatoes
mint leaves if you like

squeeze of lemon

Using a cold pan, pan fry halloumi cheese. In a shallow pan, add water and bring it to boil. Add a tablespoon of vinegar swirl it gently. Pop an egg in a bowl first, then gently pour it into the boiling swirling water. I like to spoon some of the egg white to cover the egg yolk.

Mean while, assemble salad, put cheese on top. Pop poached egg on top of salads. Repeat to poached eggs. Squeeze of lemon to finish the dish.

Mango Chicken and Spiced Pilaf

Mangos are in season again. Alas, I didn't use fresh mango in this dish. I used mango chutney! I'm on a mission to clear out some of my jars of sauces in the fridge. You see, I get bored with my meals easily, hence I like a lot of variety. Most weeks, we have 1 rice dish, 1 or 2 salads, sometimes wraps, soup noodles, different ways of using vietnamese rice paper or even a pastry dish. The more variety the better!

Which means I can get over zealous, forgetting that I have only used a 1/4 of a particular sauce or chutney in the fridge before getting another one. So for the past week or so, I have been doing a clear out to make sure that I don't waste any more sauces.

So with a jar of mango chutney at hand, I decided to marinate some chicken breast with it and some curry powder. Simple but effective. Who would have thought, 3 ingredients what it took to make a simple pan fried chicken breast more special? And since I was looking for a shortcut, I sauté some vegetables in my rice cooker, added in rice and water and tadah, a savoury rice dish was cooked.

I made this in 20 minutes which was pretty good I think. Good for our "it has finally hit us summer weather"

Mango Chicken and Spiced Pilaf (serves 4)
2 chicken breast- sliced horizontally to make 4 pieces
1/2 cup of mango chutney
2 tablespoon of curry powder
dash of cumin powder

Spiced Pilaf
2 cups of basmatic rice
1 small onion chopped
2 bay leaves
1 cup of peas
1 large capsicum chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp of turmeric
dash of cumin

Marinate chicken with chutney, cumin and curry powder for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, saute onions, all spices, capsicum, carrot and peas in rice cooker. Then add rice and water. Cook till rice cooker says done!

In between, heat grill pan till hot. Oil pan and pan fried chicken till done. Serve with rice and more veges.

Spiced Guacamole

There is something about dips that is so drool worthy. Its all about texture isn't it. A crispy flat bread or cracker, topped with a soft tasty savoury dip makes a world of a difference. I brought this to a gathering and it was a hit. Surprise surprise, all commented that it was the hit of chill and spice that they enjoyed.

One of my all time favourite dip, other than hummus, it would be guacamole. There is just something about avocado that I love I think. I remembered my mother told me that I probably would not like avocado (something that she liked!). The rebellious side of me decided that well, I will try it and prove her wrong. Yes, I was a teenager then.

One thing about avocado is that it is high in fat- even though they are the good fat. It is still reasonable to eat this in moderation of course. I think it is a highly nutritious snack and a little go a long way.

My secret? I added cumin to it. Not so much a secret hey? Hope you like this as much as my friends did.

Spiced Guacamole (serves a party!)
4 avocado mashed
1/4 lemon juice
1/2 small red onion chopped finely
1 tomato chopped finely
2 chili padi
1 tablespoon of cumin
2 tablespoons of light sour cream
salt and pepper

Mashed avocado with some lemon juice. Using a spoon, fold in tomatoes. If you like raw onions, include the finely chopped onions. However, i cooked them a little in a pan to cut out that rawness. Add in chill padi, cumin and seasoning. Taste and adjust. Serve with crackers or vege sticks.

Spicy Milk Chicken

It felt like Christmas/New Year last week and here we are celebrating CHINESE NEW YEAR!! We are not back with our immediate families this year so it doesn't feel too festive to us. However, the celebration is in our hearts.

This dish is my little experimentation of using curry leaves and spices. It was inspired by a recipe called "Spicy Buttermilk Chicken" but the recipe itself does not call for buttermilk! I play around with the ingredients and came up with this. It's a fairly light dish, and I wouldn't call it a curry per say. However, the curry leaves made it so fragrant.

The other thing I like is the generous use of dried shrimps. Makes a world of a difference I say!

I know this isn't particularly a festive dish, but I hope it is a good one to try it out with your relatives and friends during this wonderful season.

Happy Chinese New Year!! Gong Xi Fai Cai! May this Dragon year brings lots of prosperity and joy!

Spicy Milk Chicken (Serves 4)
600 grams of chicken thigh pieces chopped
1 tablespoon of margarine
4-5 stalks of curry leaves
handful-maybe around 30 grams of dried shrimps

2 chili padi
1 normal big chill
3-4 shallots
small piece of ginger
1 generous tablespoon of garlic

100 ml of evaporated milk
100 ml of water

Chopped chili padi, shallots, ginger and garlic. Heat 1 tablespoon of margarine and cool chopped ingredients, together with dried shrimps and curry leaves. Then brown chicken in pan. Add in evaporated milk and some water (not all, add gradually in case it became too wet). Season and serve with rice.

Walnut Red Bean Cookies

I know. Here am I still blogging about what I did for Christmas (and the left overs) and Chinese New Year is just around the corner. Again, this year, we are celebrating it in Perth with Hubby's extended family members and it is just NOT the same without the festive feel around us.

While many bloggers have already started blogging about their CNY bakes, I have only just began. This recipe comes from Patisie Chong, a well known cook back in Singapore/Malaysia. I love how unique some of her cookies are and this one is no different.

Bite into one, and you will find red bean paste. You can also use lotus paste but I couldn't find any in our local stores. Probably because it isn't moon cake festive. However, I think red bean suits CNY more yeah?

Walnut Red Bean Cookies (Makes around 10)
200 grams plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
130 grams margarine
70 grams icing sugar
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk

Decoration
60 grams of walnuts
1 egg yolk whisked

Filling
80 grams of lotus seed paste

Preheat oven to 180C and lined a baking tray.

Knead all ingredients (other than decoration and filling) till it become soft dough.
Measure filling into 8 grams balls. Wrap dough around it. Brush with yolk and decorate with a small piece of walnut. Bake for around 20 minutes.

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!! May the Dragon Year bring you closer to your wishes!! 

Christmas Cake Chocolate Balls

What do you do with leftover Christmas cake? I blogged about my hazelnut Christmas Cake last week and due to the massive amount of cake I baked, we had a few slices left. Christmas cake keep well and it would last forever in the fridge really. However, I was looking at a recipe for rum balls and thought, hey, I could probably make a version of it using christmas cake rather than cookie crumbs or store-bought chocolate cake!

I did not add rum, but you could if you have some. I used some milk to moisten the mixture instead. Then I rolled in with some chocolate sprinkles. I would have used nuts, but I realised my granulated nuts wasn't fine enough. However, I am sure you could rolled it in some cocoa powder to make it truffle like or even some coloured sprinkles!

I love to see my friends reactions when they bite into these. They were probably expecting rum balls and on first bite, they realised it was filled with kalua soaked fruit!!! They taste better after resting a day in the fridge.

Christmas Cake Chocolate Balls 
Any quantity of cake you have left
around 2-3 tablespoon of milk or more if mixture appears dry. You can add rum or any liquor
chocolate sprinkles or cocoa powder

Crumble cake. Then moist it with milk. Using clean hands, roll it up into little balls and rolled it on a plate of sprinkles or cocoa powder. Rest in fridge for an hour or two or even overnight before serving.

Curried Egg Celery Salad

One of the first dish that my mother taught me was egg sandwiches. She taught me how to peel eggs, mashed them and mixed them up with creamy mayo seasoned with salt and pepper.

When I was in university, a uni mate looked at me in amazement when I asked her what was curried egg. You see, she was having some and I asked what it was. I had a taste and was hooked. Who would have thought that mixing some curry powder to a simple egg mayo would change the dish?

I could never find or could anyone tell me where does curried egg come from? Is it an Aussie thing? Nevertheless, it is a good light meal for a quick dinner. I paired it with some crunchy celery for that added texture.

Curried Egg Celery Salad
4 eggs hardboiled
2 tablespoon of low fat mayo
1 tsp of curry powder
salt and pepper
few stalks of celery (from the heart of celery) chopped

Mashed eggs and mix it with mayo, curry powder, seasoning and celery. Serve with some salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and avocado for a light meal or in between fluffy bread. I had some stuffed capsicum with tuna and couscous.