Tom Yam Seafood Pasta Stir Fry

I have certainly been trying to clear my fridge lately. I found this jar of tom yam paste-with only about 1-2 tablespoon left. Since I was in need for a pasta idea, I thought a quick stir fry with some seafood marinara and veges will make a quick and easy meal.

I had a few pieces of kaffir lime leaf and added that in. Oh and birds eye chili of course. The tangyness stimulated my taste buds straight away and I couldnt help but eat more!!

Tom Yam Seafood Pasta Stir Fry 
250 grams of cooked pasta
500 grams of seafood marinara
1 tablespoon of tom yam paste
1 onion sliced
2 birds eye chili chopped
baby corn
mushrooms
peas

Saute onion till soft. Add paste and chili. Cook seafood till done. Toss in veges first then pasta. Toss for around 3-4 minutes. Serve hot!

Sharing this dish with my friends at Presto Pasta. This week, the awesome Ruth from Once Upon A Feast is hosting!

Food from the Heart- Dhal

Time flies and this is the 3rd time I am participating in Babe in KL's yearly Merdeka event. Even though I am Singaporean, hubby is Malaysian-and so was my dad. So in our families, both National Day in Singapore and Merdeka Day in Malaysia are highlighted in our calender.

Babe in KL's theme this year is Food From the Heart. I thought that since Hubby is Malaysia, perhaps he could share with us a dish from his childhood days prepared by his mother or grandmother, and then I could cook it.

Before he gave his answer, I was expecting dishes like "Mum's Curry" or "Sweet and sour pork", "Indian curry"..etc. To my surprise, his answer was a simple "Dhal".

He explained to me that in many ways, his family come together to have dhal. Every Sunday morning, his family will travel to his dad's favourite thosai places and have thosai with dhal. His mother would also make dhal on weeknights for dinner. Given the mixed heritage that he is from, it seems to be a dish that the whole family would tuck in happily. He recall his mum making this dish and often it would be more flavorsome with more ingredients than what was served out in the shops. Looking back, he said it was probably a good dish to have as money was tight (not that his family ever let him know that), and that he was satisfied with a good bowl of dhal with rice.


It never fail to amaze me that the simplest food can be the most heart warming ones. If someone were to ask me what food did I recall as most memorable as a child, I would say "Sweet and sour pork" that my grandmother would make from scratch (From marinating to deep frying to braising!) to a simple dish of fried egg, soya sauce and rice.


I asked our friend (who happened to be my colleague and AR's  high schoolmate!!!) her recipe for dhal that she attempted a few months ago when we went over to their place for dinner. She gladly shared it with me. Thanks J! AR said that this resembles what he used to have-except I added in fresh mushrooms that was not available back in those days in Malaysia.

Dhal 
1 1/2 cups red lentils
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup of baby spinach, rinsed
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 carrot diced
1 fresh tomato diced
2 tablespoons spread
1 red onion, chopped
2 birds eye chili chopped
2 pieces of curry leaves
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon garam masala


Rinse lentils and soak for 20 minutes. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter and saute onions with cumin and mustard seeds, stirring often. Cook until onions are transparent.
Add water, stock, salt, lentils, turmeric and chili powder. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in the spinach and other veges and cook 5 minutes, or until lentils are soft. Add more water if necessary.
Stir in garam masala.

Peanut and Oat Slice

I needed something really simple and quick to bring to friend's place one evening. A quick searched in my "saved recipes" folder found this oat slice that I have never attempted before. It's a melt and mix recipe which makes it sooo easy to do.

I certainly like the texture of this slice as it has a crumbly taste to it. A bit like the peanut cookie that we used to eat when we were kids I added some chocolate bits as well. ;)

Peanut and Oat Slice 
1/2 cup self-raising flour
 1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desiccated coconut
1/2 cup, firmly packed brown sugar
 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup honey
80g butter
1 egg, lightly whisked

Preheat oven to 180°C.
 Line the base and 2 long sides with non-stick baking paper in a slice pan, allowing the sides to overhang.
Sift the combined flours into a bowl Add the oats, coconut and sugar and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre.
Place the peanut butter, honey and butter in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until melted and well combined. Remove from heat. Add peanut-butter mixture and egg to the flour mixture and stir until well combined.
Press the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until slice is golden brown and set. Set aside to cool completely. Cut into squares to serve.

Italian Sausage Hot Pot

For a change, we decided to cook up a storm using chat potatoes. The "healthy" me says that's better for us because we can have the skin too. But really the "lazy" me just didnt want to peel the potatoes! After a good scrub, they go into a pot of salted boiling water.

I picked up a packet of lean italian sausages from Woolworths the other day. Being time tight, I made this one pot dish for some winter warmth. This tastes better the next day for sure! We even freeze some for a rainy day (pun intended). ;p

Italian Sausage Hot Pot (Serves 4-6) 
1 packet (around 6 small size sausages) lean Italian Sausages
1 onion diced
garlic
1 chopped chili
1 zucchini diced
1 cup of diced mushrooms
1 red capsicum diced
1 carrot sliced
1 tin of diced tomatoes
1 cup of water
2-3 tsp of red chili flakes


8 chat potatoes cooked, drained and set aside.

Saute onion, chili and garlic. Add sausages and cook till brown. Add tomatoes and all other veges. SImmer with some water. Add chili and other seasoning. Simmer for around 15-20 mins. Serve with potatoes.

Red Wine Beef and Lentil Soup

Another winter meal for us. I have been using lentils in soups more often because it is tasty, cheap and good for us! The red wine provided a robust flavor to the soup. I like the use of celery and carrots as it seem to add a sweetness to the dish.


Red Wine Beef and Lentil Soup (Serves 4-6) 
200 grams of lean beef chunks
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of mixed lentils soaked overnight
1 ltre beef stock
2-3 cups of water
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 carrot chopped
1 onion diced
1 bunch of celery diced
1 can of diced tomato
1 tomato chopped
1 tsp of garlic

Saute garlic and onion. Add beef. Cook till brown. Add lentils and veges tossing them together. Add stock, can of tomatoes, wine and water. Simmer for 2 hours till cooked through. Serve with crusty bread,

Moist Coconut Cake

You may recall that I have written previously how I was not a fan of coconut till recently. Even so, I'm pretty selective with the recipes using coconut as I'm not 100% custom to it yet- it must be an acquired taste thing!

Babe in KL wrote to say I may like this recipe and invited me to try it out. Funny enough, I was browsing my Womens Weekly recipe book a few days later and saw the SAME recipe (With icing though). I thought..Ahhh... the Lord must be telling me something.

I do love how moist it was. I added some walnuts instead and reduced the sour cream (as the reduced fat version comes in 180 grms container!), adding some soy milk. Thanks Babe in KL!  You were right, hubby loved this!

Moist Coconut Cake
Adapted from Australian Women's Weekly

125g butter, soften
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup castor sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup desiccated coconut
1 & 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
180g lite sour cream
1/4-1/2 cup of soy milk
1 cup of crushed walnuts


Preheat oven to 180C and grease a deep 22cm round cake pan; line with baking paper.

Cream butter, essence and sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time until combined.

Stir in half the coconut and flour with half the sour cream and milk, then fold in remaining ingredients; stir until smooth.

Pour mixture into prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour. Stand 5 minutes before turning on to wire rack to cool.

Red Onion and Prawn Omelette

One of my favourite ingredients of all time is egg. It is so versatile and one can baked, steam, fry, poach,scrambled them into something amazing. Not to mention, it isn't too expensive (or at least not yet!).

I sauté some red onion (ahhh..red onion omelette-but that's another post!) with prawns. Added a few drops of fish sauce and sprinkle of sugar. Pour in the eggs and I thought "this will be ok for dinner", try to flip it and ..

ARGH... my flipping woes are sooo not over yet. (See my adventures over here and here)

Oh well, at least it did set ok... ;p



Red Onion and Prawn Omelette 
1 red onion sliced
4 eggs beaten with around 1/4 cup of milk
around 100-200 grams of shelled prawns
1 tsp of fish sauce
sprinkle of sugar
white pepper

Sauté onion, add prawns. Once it is cooked, add fish sauce and sugar. Add eggs, waiting for it to set for around 3 minutes or so. Try flipping or folding it into halves. Serve with rice and veges.

Twice Cooked Red Wine and Rosemary Lamb Racks

We are very blessed to have a friend who is a chef. On a gathering one evening, he brought gorgeous sexy looking meat for a bbq. Alas, they (and the rest of the crew) wanted steamboat and the meat was kept aside. As we were leaving, C started splitting the meat (I still have 2 pieces of steak in the freezer) and handed us the dorper lamb racks. They are the lamb to have in terms of best quality. The 1. something kg of lamb would have at least costs us AU$40ish if we buy it at retail.

You can just imagine my excitement.

 I decided to marinate these gems with some red wine, rosemary and garlic. Then, I was at abit of a loss. Should I roast it or pan fry them? Luck has it that I under cooked them by around 5-10 mins (hey, my first lamb racks, i wasn't sure how long to cook them for, at least i under cooked it! ;p), and I finished them but quickly searing them on high heat.

Then, I pour the sauces into the pan, stir in some flour and some magic beautiful red wine gravy was born.

Twice Cooked Red Wine and Rosemary Lamb Racks
around 1 kg of lamb racks
1 red onion chopped
2-3 springs of rosemary from the garden
2-3 tablepoon of garlic
2 cups of red wine
sea salt
pepper

Wash and clean racks. Score the meat and marinate with onion, rosemary, garlic, salt, pepper and red wine for around 20 mins or so. Pre heat oven at 200C. Roast meat for around 20 minutes. Rest. Slice cutlets up and sear in high heat for around 1 min on each side.

Gravy-after roasting, keep gravy aside. Pour gravy into pan and add around 1 tablespoon of flour. Stir and stir. When it is thicken, lower heat. Simmer. Serve lamb with gravy and roasted veges.

Sambal Tofu Stir Fry

I was inspired by Noobcook's dish recently and made a similar but totally different version of it. In fact, I cheated so badly that I wonder if I should still link back to her blog! ;p But it was a very quick and easy stir fry with some sambal, tofu and veges. I used oyster mushrooms which I lurveeeeee.

I didn't use belachan and totally regret it. My sambal actually came from a jar! But hey, it works and made a good simple dinner. ;p

Sambal Tofu Stir Fry 
1/4 cup of sambal of your choice
1 tofu cut in cubes

1 red onion sliced
chinese chives a bunch sliced
1 tsp of garlic

Heat oil in pan and pan fry bean curd first. Drawn on some papertowels. In the same pan, saute onion, garlic and sambal. Add veges and tofu. Add around 1/4 of water if too dry. Serve with white rice.

Red Wine Caramelised Onion with Chickpea and Chicken Salad

what do you do when you have some red wine left? I was sautéing some red onions for a salad recently and decided to pour the rest of the red wine in the pan. I was happily surprised by the result as the onions has such a rich flavour to it! Toss it through with chickepeas and some chicken (although I reckon left over roast beef will do very well in this salad), it made a good hearty meal.

Red Wine Caramelised Onion with Chickpea and Chicken Salad
1/4 cup of red wine
1 onion sliced
1 can of chick pea
left over bbq chicken shredded
2 cups of baby spinach leaves

Saute red onions. Add red wine and leave it to simmer for around 5-10 mins till it becomes a nice sticky mess. Toss it through with some warmed up chickpeas and chicken. Pour mixture on to bed of baby spinach leaves. Enjoy!

Vietnamese Style Prawns-Tom Rim

One of my favourite cookbooks is "The Secrets of the Red Lantern-Stories of Vietnam from the Heart"  It consist not just Vietnamese recipes but also stories from the authors. Pauline Nguyen spoke about their journey from Vietnam to Australia, their memories of the refugee camps and the start up of their family business in Sydney. As I read the recipes and their family story, I can't help but "taste" and "feel" each dish from their hearts.

This recipe consist of King Prawns sauted with tomato, fish sauce and black pepper. It actually resembles the way my own grandmother use to cook prawns in-except she uses tobasco sauce! I changed this recipe slightly as I cooked more than 12 prawns which was what the original recipe calls for.

The chili padi adds the kick without the punch. I like the use of ripe tomatoes and tomato paste as it gives such richness to it. It is definitely a recipe that I will use over and over again.

Vietnamese Style Prawns-Tom Rim 
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
2 birds eye chili chopped
2 tsp of tomato paste
I used around 20 prawns shelled and devined
2 tsp of sugar (instead of 3)
crack black pepper
around 6 tablespoon of fish sauce
around 3/4 to 1 cup of water
2 ripe tomatoes chopped
spring onion

Saute garlic and chili. Add tomato paste, prawns and sugar. Toss to combine. Then add fish sauce, pepper, water and fresh tomatoes. Simmer for around 3-5 mins. Once prawns are cooked, remove prawns. Reduce sauce slightly. Pour sauce over prawns. Garnish with chopped spring onions.

HAPPY SINGAPORE NATIONAL DAY!!!! =) 

Orange and Poppy Seed Loaf

Are you the type who enjoys collecting recipes from different sources? Perhaps one from the magazine, or another from a newspaper? I remembered my mother in law who had a drawer full of recipes she collected over the years but alas, had to throw most of the away as it didnt interest her anymore.

Around 2 years ago, I started putting a file together with recipes that I have printed out (Thank you all who inspired me!) and clippings from various sources. Recently, I pulled this one out to give it a go. Donna Hay writes for The Sunday Times- a weekend newspaper here in Western Australia. I was intrigued by the orange slices resting on top of the loaf.

The slices didn't disappoint but I thought the loaf was a tad too dry. Certainly, the syrup went really well with it.

I didn't take any photos with the syrup as I brought it to a gathering and only pour the sauce over it when guests arrived. Still, I think the orange slices look mighty enticing to me. All the slices could be eaten as such which adds a nice tang to it.

Orange and Poppy Seed Loaf 
125 butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp poppy seeds
1 tablespoon orange rind
1/4 milk
1 cup self raising flour

Orange Syrup
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
1 orange thinly sliced

(Ps- I sliced another orange as my first orange wasn't neatly sliced up)

Pre heat Oven 160C. Beat butter and sugar till creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Stop beating, fold in poppy seeds, rind, milk and flour till combined. Spoon mixture into lined loaf tin. Bake for 50 mins till done.

Syrup- place sugar and water in saucepan. Stir till sugar dissolves over heat. Add orange and cook for 10 or so minutes. Set aside to cool. Top loaf with orange slices and pour syrup to serve.

Pea and Ham (bacon?) Soup

I am sooo into soups at the moment. Every week, I attempt to make a new type of soup. One of my recent one is a classic Pea and Ham soup. I think there is a version that uses fresh peas, but most pea and ham soup I tasted had green split peas or lentils in it. So in this soup, I used a packet of McKenzies mix soup pack which has barley and a mixture of split peas. Some recipes calls for the use of smoked pork hock but I didn't like the way it makes the soup oily, so I used smoked pork bones instead. Then, I chopped lean bacon into the mixture.

One thing about this soup is that it demands lots of patience. I started preparing the soup at 5pm, and it was properly done probably at around 7:30pm. I left it to simmer more (just taking out a portion for AR and myself) and then we went back for seconds at around 8ish 9pm. That was when the texture was perfect! I probably could have done myself a flavour by using the crock pot or just cooking straight for around 2-3 hours.

This soup freezes very well. I made a huge pot and we enjoyed the soup for at least another 2 more meals.

Pea and Ham (bacon?) Soup (Serves around 8-10) 
1 packet of Mckenzies soup mix (i think it's 250grams?)
2 smoked pork bones
2 ltre of beef stock
around 2 litre of water
lean bacon chopped (around 150 grams)
3-4 stalks of celery
2 red onions chopped
garlic chopped

Soak lentils night before.
Add pork bones for around 2 minutes till slightly brown.Saute onion and garlic till done.  Add lentils and celery. Stir for around 2 minutes. Add beef stock and 1 ltre of the water. Simmer for around 2 hours or so. Stir every 20 minutes. Top it up with water if needed. Add lean bacon bits towards the last 30 minutes. Serve with hot crusty bread.

Thai Style Pineapple Fried Rice

What I like about Thai food is the flavour. It's strong but not overpowering. I like how they incorporate the use of fruits and nuts in simple dishes like fried rice- making it ultra special.

I adapted this Thai style fried rice by asking my Thai friend, tasting the fried rice we had at a restaurant recently and reading some recipes online. By no means it is authentic but it certainly adds a bit of Thai flair to normal every day cooking.

I served this with a Green Chicken Curry.


Thai Style Pineapple Fried Rice
2 cups of cooled cooked rice
around 150 gram of pineapple chunks
1 cup of small prawns
1 tsp of garlic and ginger
2 bird egg chili chopped
2-3 tsp of tumeric
3-4 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of white sugar
1 cup of frozen peas
1/4 cup of sultanas/rasins
1/2 cup of cashews
2 eggs lightly beaten
seasoning

Saute chili garlic and ginger. Add prawns in. When done, remove prawns and set aside. Cook rice till very hot, adding pepper. Adding seasoning and frozen peas after around 5 minutes. Dont forget the prawns! When rice is done, add beaten eggs into the pan, only tossing it when the egg is nearly set. Then toss pineapples, sultanas and cashews through. Taste before adding salt. Serve hot.