Day 16: Pumpkin Fried Rice & Ice Cream Topping

One thing I miss the most from Singapore is my Yam rice with sliced-fish soup. I easily ate this twice a week for a late dinner post yoga. I couldn't find yam here, but this pumpkin rice is a good substitute :)

Pumpkin Fried Rice (2 pax)

Ingredients:
* 1/2 C pumpkin, diced 1x1 cm size.
* 1 shallot, thinly sliced
* 1 garlic, thinly sliced
* 1 tsp oyster sauce
* 1/2 tsp light brown sugar. You can use any sugar you have.
* 2 ebi (dried shrimp), soaked & chopped
* 2 dried mushroom, soaked & sliced
* 1.5 C of cooked rice (I use brown rice)
* chopped green onions & parsley for garnish

How to:
* Heat up some oil and fry the shallot & garlic till brown. Set aside.

* Using the same pan, pan-fry the diced pumpkin. Sprinkle some sugar (to caramelize it) and cook till soft.

* Once the pumpkin is soft, add in the cooked rice, mushroom, ebi and stir. Add in the oyster sauce and mix well. Taste and season with salt & pepper. Turn the fire off.

* Add the green onions, fried shallots & garlic and mix well, then plate up. Garnish with parsley right before serving.

I serve it with pan fry Cod fish and end our very satisfying lunch with vanilla ice cream with home made topping. Thanks Jamie for the great idea!!

2 tbsp coffee beans + 1 tbsp chocolate + 2 tbsp hazelnut grind in food processor

"Aren't you glad to be back at home?"
"Yes!!!!! I miss my wife's cooking... and now I'm going to nap"

H & his wonderbra.
"I'm Tom Cruise in Top Gun"

Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry

Pendant l'absence de H, j'ai vu beaucoup de télé, particulièrement Jamie Oliver's 30 minute de repas. J'etais excite par son fritata, voudrait faire une avec l'impatience. Donc ce soir, j'ai fait un chicken pot pie a la Fritata de Jamie. Avec pâte feuilletée. 

***
During H's absence, I watched a lot of tv, particularly JO's 30 minutes meal. I was so excited about his fritata, can't wait to do one. With puff pastry!

Although we both were very pleased with the result, it ain't pretty looking. Not something that I can bring to a dinner party. I found my chicken cream is tad too liquid, but H seemed to adore the fact he can dip and soak his bread with it. I purposely didn't do a thick creamy version. It's dinner after all, nothing too heavy for us.

I certainly will do it again and again and again until I can fold the puff pastry perfectly.

Chicken Pot Pie with Puff Pastry (2 pax)

Ingredients:
* 4 puff pastry sheets
* 1 medium carrot, diced
* 1 small onion, diced
* 2 celery sticks, diced
* 5 button mushroom, sliced thinly
* 1/2 C shredded chicken breast. More if you prefer
* 2 tbsp flour
* 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp Olive oil
* 1/2 C to 1 C of chicken broth (I used the broth from my green chilly shredded chicken)
* 1/2 C shredded cheddar

How to:

* Preheat your oven to 175 C.

* (Preparing the cream chicken) In a pot, heat up the butter & OO, add in the carrots, onions & celery. Cook till soft about 5-10 mins.

* Ladle in some chicken broth if it's too dry. Otherwise, add in the flour & whisk till incorporated. Then ladle some more broth to your desired consistency. Add in the mushroom & chicken (you can add corn here if you like. H doesn't eat corn). Taste and add seasoning (salt, pepper, etc).

* (Preparing the puff pastry) Prepare a parchment paper with a size larger than your pie plate. I used a 9" plate and hence tear about 11x11" parchment paper. Scrunch it up into a ball, and put it under running water till it soaks up & soften. Using your palm, flatten it on a flat surface.

* Once the parchment paper is flat, lay over the first pastry sheet. Dab some OO all over it. Repeat for the 2nd one. Lay over the 3rd one 2 inches slightly upward & to the left than the first one. The idea is to create some excess with which you're going to fold on top of the pie, and serve as "cover". Lay over the 4th one slightly downward and to the right. Once you're happy with your enlarged puff pastry, lift everything incl. the parchment paper and lay it over your pie plate right in the middle. Push them in and follow the shape of your pie plate.

* Scatter half of your cheddar on your pie before pouring in the cream chicken. Top with the remaining of the cheddar.

* Carefully fold or pleat the pastry sheet and "close" the pie. Brush the top with some oil or butter. Bake for 15 mins or till golden brown. I also tear the excess parchment paper at this stage.

Like I said, I'm not perfectly happy with the pleating and folding of my pot pie, but for home cooking, it works :) H happily did the dishes afterwards. Yay!!

Baked Tuna Wonton

Inspired by Tuna Rangoon here, I sacrificed my wonton wrappers and made some party starters.

Tuna Wonton (yield 12 wontons)

Ingredients:
* 2 tin of tuna, drained
* 2 wedges of cream cheese (I use President)
* 1.5 tsp mayonaise
* 2 green onions/ chives
* 1 small red onion
* 1 clove garlic
* 12 wonton wrappers.  I used spring roll wrapper that I cut into 4 sheets each.

How to: 
* Preheat oven to 175 C.

* Add the green onions/ chives, red onion & garlic in a food processor, and spin for 5-10 sec till they are roughly minced.

* Add the rest of ingredients and spin for another few second. Try not to make the paste too smooth. Some texture is better.

* On your wrapper, dump 1.5 tsp of tuna paste right in the middle. Wet the edges and fold into triangle. Repeat for the rest of wrappers.

* Bake for 10 mins or less, till brown. Leave in wire rack till cool. You do not want to burn your tongue.

Serve with cold beer :)

Personal note: I think I will add some water chestnut, or pistachio or diced prosciutto to give it even more texture as you bite through. Even some mushroom will be good. But H loves it as it is. The skin is very crispy and the tuna is very smooth :) 

They are gone within 5 mins. Watch out, they are quite filling.

Beet Root Chocolate Cake

What do you do when your guinea pig is away for a week and you are excited about a new recipe such as Beet Root Chocolate Cake?

You invite a few friends over. Yeap, that's what you should do.

Beet root is not something that I love on a first sight. But I embrace it because it's something that my in-laws serve on the dinner table. The rest of people on the aforesaid dinner table never touch it, but I need to buy their love, you see. So I do what I do best. I open my mouth and eat. And pull a purple teethy smile for everyone to see.

Ever since that day, I've been wanting to cook beet root in my own kitchen. But when I do, nobody touches the vile purple thing except me. How disappointing. So when I spotted Beet Root Chocolate Cake, I knew the perfect way to squeeze beetroot into H's life.

I did all the needful. The store bought beetroot came in smallish size, so I used 5-6 of them. I peeled the skin, chopped the ends, quartered them, covered them in water and boiled them. But half way through, I started to taste a little bitterness from my beetroot. Like a sap taste. Wot??? How come?? I googled and it brought me to Australian agriculture forum (reason: unhealthy soil, blablabla). How to remedy? If I dial SOS to my mom, it would wake the entire clan up. So I emailed Sala instead to seek her advice. And I pressed on.


I was so relieved to note that on the final batter, I can hardly taste the bitterness and yet there is this amazing sweet undertone from the beetroot. Something that you can't achieve with sugar. Wow. I was blown away. I used a 9x10 inch baking pan that I normally use to roast vegetables. Hell, it is a BIG cake.

30 mins and still not baked in the middle. I lowered down the oven to 150 C and set my timer to 4 minute frequency. I took me at least another 5x of checking, prodding and poking before I'm satisfied with the cake. Ma belle-mere always tells me not to bake a chocolate cake till done. She said that some part should remains gooey. And that's what I did today.

But as I left the cake to cool down, the middle part continued to sink down. Never mind, nothing that ganache can't hide :) And I'm happy to report that the cake was a smash hit. So hop over to Sala's site here or here's my version of the cake. Not that I change any of it, but you know how I like to short cut things :)

Beet Root Chocolate Cake (10 pax)

Ingredients:


[A] Chocolate cake
* 300 gr boiled mashed beet root. See my note above. I did this the day before.
* 85 gr dark chocolate, melted using microwave
* 3 medium eggs
* 300 gr white sugar
* 240 ml vegetable oil
* 1 tsp vanilla extract. I skipped this part for having used all just earlier this week.
* 30 gr cocoa powder
* 200 gr cake flour
* 1.5 tsp baking soda
* 1/2 tsp salt

[B] Chocolate Ganache
* 250gr dark chocolate, chopped in small cubes. The smaller it is, the faster it melts.
* 250ml heavy cream

How to:
* (Preparing The Cake) Preheat your oven to 175 C.

* In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and oil until well incorporated.

* Add in the melted chocolate & vanilla extract, whisk whisk. Put on your apron and slowly added the mashed beet root and continue whisking till it mixes well.

* Sift in the cocoa powder, flour, baking soda and salt. Fold in. Do not overmix or overwork.

* Grease your baking/cake pan with oil or butter and flour it. Tap out excess flour before finally pouring in your cake batter. I used a 10x9 inch baking pan.

* Bake for 30 mins or more, till toothpick inserted comes clean. For mine, it took me about 20 mins more, with heat lowered to 150 C the moment I saw the cake top cracking.

* (Preparing The Ganache) Heat up the cream in a heavy bottom pot over low heat. Do not overboiled them. Half way through, dump the chocolate inside and lift up the pot, to avoid direct heat contact. Using a wire whisk, stir till all chocolate melts.

* Once it's ready, pour over your chocolate beet root cake. Cool over room temperature before putting into fridge for at least 2 hrs before serving.

Verdict? If you're familiar with beetroot, you'll recognize the taint beet flavour. But if you aren't familiar, and not a fan of beetroot, you're in for a pleasant surprise. It's so so moist. Let's just say each of my very nice guinea pigs are bringing 1/4 of cake home for their husbands. Yahoooo! :)

That picture you see above is all I can save for H. It's my welcome home present for him. And some saucisson from France! Thanks Mrs T, you have just made me the most wonderful wife ever.


La betterave et moi, nous t'attendons. Come home quick! 
xxx

Green Chilli Shredded Chicken

Sometimes all you need is a chicken and some green chillies :)

Recipe is courtesy of Nugraha Family here and here's how I did mine.

Green Chilli Shredded Chicken (3-4 pax as a side dish)

Ingredients:
[A] Chicken marinate
* 2 chicken thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 chicken wings
* 3 cloves of garlic, smashed/ pounded
* 1 tsp coriander powder
* 2 tsp sugar (I used light brown sugar)
* 2 tsp salt

[B] Chilli sauce
* 7 large green chilli, roughly chopped
* 5 green chilli padi
* 5 cloves garlic, roughly cut/chopped
* 10 red onion, roughly cut/chopped
* 1 large green tomato (I didn't have green tomato, but used normal red tomatoes but with skin removed)
* 2 tsp salt
* 1 tsp sugar (I used light brown sugar)
* 1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
* 1 lime
* 5 kaffir lime leaves

How to:
* (Chicken) Put all ingredients in [A] into a pot and fill with water until it covers the chicken. Boiled till done and set aside. Do not throw away the wonderful broth, you can re-use it.

* When the chicken is cool enough to handle, use your hand and shredded the meat. Throw away the skin and any other gunk. Set aside.

* (Chilli sauce) Heat up 3 tbs of oil and cook the large green chilli, chilli padi, garlic, onion and tomato till soft. Then using food processor, mashed them to your desired consistency. It's better when it's a little bit coarse.

* Heat up a little bit more oil before you put the mashed ingredients back into the pan. Add the salt, sugar, terasi and lime. Bunch/fold/tear the kaffir lime leaves before adding into the pan. Cook till you can smell the leaves.

* Add the shredded chicken and mix well. Taste and adjust to your liking :)

Enjoy it over warm rice. But just so you know, I overfed myself. This is soooo addictive.

n.b. You can just do the chilli sauce and use it as sauce on the side. Selamat makan!

Monkey Bread Muffin with Dill

As you grow older, live a little and play a lot, there aren't many "first" anymore. They become very precious and scarce. At times, the need for "my first' becomes very complex and sophisticated. No longer one says one's first job, one's first travel abroad. These days one says one's first skydiving, one's first helicopter ride. I myself fall to the victim of trying to cross things in my bucket list. But this morning, I figured, I'm going to leap from the clouds I've been perching myself to some resemblance of earth. This morning, I'm making my first Dill bread. Or my first Dill. Period.

Since I have no stand-in mixer, no paddle whatsoever, I knead everything by hand. Maybe that's why after 30 mins, I feel my bread is still a puny. The recipe said it would yield anywhere from 40-56 balls of 1-inch size. My 30-min dough will yield 20. So I put it back into the oven. I live in a tiny studio-sized apartment. So when I need a warm place, I turn on my oven to 50-60 degrees and put the covered bowl inside.

My 1 hour dough eventually yield 64 balls. I must have made them in varying sizes and tad smaller than 1 inch. I started by greasing my muffin pan, and fill each cup with 5 balls. But soon after dunking the ball in dill butter, there was a pool of liquid butter in each cups. Hence some of the cups are left ungreased.

You'll see that the balls don't have a nice round shape. That's because my hands were over greased with those dunking and shaping the following balls became almost impossible. Never mind. It's for home consumption anyway.

I baked them in 150 C (instead of 190 C) and bake them longer. They didn't rase as much as Ashley's one, but boy, they are so delicious! I couldn't stop at one and ate three muffins, right before I head out to gym. Oh, well done, S!

Anyway, recipe is from Ashley Brower here and here's how I did mine:

The dough:
* 2 tbsp warm water + 1.5 tsp boulangerie yeast + 1 tsp white sugar, proofed about 10 mins, till bubbly.
* 2 1/4 cup bread flour + 1/2 tsp salt, mix well
* 1/2 cup  milk
* 1 egg
* 1 tbsp melted butter
* 2 tbsp dill (i use 2 strands fresh dill and cut them using scissors)

Dill butter:
* 3 tbsp melted butter mix with 2 strands of chopped/scissor-cut dill.

How to:
* Preheat the oven to 50-60 celcius.  Grease a bowl with butter and set aside.

* Sift the bread flour & salt. Add with the yeast and mix well. Gently knead with your hand.

* Add milk, egg and melted butter. Mix well before you add each subsequent ingredient. Lastly add in the dill. Knead about 5-10 mins until the dough doesn't stick to the edges or your hands anymore.

* Put the dough into the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and a wet terry cloth. Put back into the oven for about 1 hour. While waiting, make the dill butter.

* Once the dough has raised (it won't double in size), punch and knead a little. Then start shaping them into 2 cm sized balls. Mine gave me about 60ish.

* Dunk the balls into dill butter mixture, before assembling them into muffin cups. 5-6 balls per cup.

* Put it back into the oven for another 10 mins or so till they rise a little. Afterward, take them out and turn the oven knob to 150 celcius.

* Give the balls another brush of dill butter, sprinkle with some sea salt (I used coarse sea salt) and put it back into the oven for 20 mins or till done.

And the rest is your story. Make sure you wash your hands before. Enjoy!

Sambal Terong Balado

I grew up eating spicy food, in a family who eats chilli padi with tahu goreng (fried tofu) as tea-time snack. So it was with dismay I found myself becoming allergic to all things spicy. My lips will swell and become dry & itchy at the rim. I sworn chilli goodbye for a good 6 months or so. Not religiously, no.

But! That was yesterday.

This morning, I sent H off at 5.30am. And since red chilli is in season I decided to swing my way back to my beloved condiment. Starting with sambal terong balado (spicy egg plant).

Original recipe is from here. And I modify with what I have in the fridge.

n.b. I edited my photos using photovisi.com

Spicy Egg plant (4 pax as side dish)


Ingredients:
(A) The chilli spice
* 5 small chilli, 2 large chilli
* 5 cloves garlic
* 6 cloves shallots
* 1 medium tomato
* 1 tsp terasi (dried shrimp paste)
* 1 tbsp light brown sugar
* 1 tsp salt
* 50ml water
* 5 tbsp oil


(B) The eggplant
* 1 large eggplant, washed & cut into strips, about 5 cm long. You can cut into smaller pieces if desired. Just note that eggplant acts like sponges when fried in oil.
* 5 tbsp oil
* 1/4 cup of water


How to:
* Using food processor, finely grind all ingredients in (A) except the oil till smooth.

* Heat the soy oil, then dump the processed ingredients. Cook till all water has dried up then set aside.

* (Work in batches) Heat up 2-3 tbsp oil, and pan fry the eggplant till soft. To reduce the quantity of oil used, I add some water to help it soften. I'm watching out my waist, you see. Once it's soft, set aside over paper towel and work on the next batch.

* Then add back the chilli paste and mix with eggplant. Taste and season to your liking. C'est tout! 

Best served over plain rice as a side dish. You can substitute the eggplant with eggs, fried fish or anything you like. Or just as a sambal - a chilli sauce to dip or to muck ;) Selamat Makan!