Root Vegetable Crisps with Rosemary and Sea Salt

I've had absolutely no inclination or desire to cook lately. Other than my mechanical forays into the kitchen for my beloved instant noodle soups and bits of burnt toast smothered in butter and dripping with homemade peach and vanilla jam (oh and cups and cups of steaming tea) I've steered clear of the one room in my flat I usually quite like spending time in (other than my bedroom where I'm usually found under my heap of a duvet).

Then one Saturday afternoon, whilst peeking out from under said duvet, I caught a few episodes of Jaime Oliver's 30-Minute Meals (4 back to back episodes to be precise). Good ol Jaime ... Justine finally got her inspiration back! OK so I spent another week or so under that duvet (I quite like it under there - it's cosy) but I've navigated my way out and dragged SM to a supermarket. Poor sweetie .. We haven't done a proper shop since mid Dec (uh huh yeah that long) but to be honest I think we were both secretly rubbing our hands in glee over the amount of money we were saving - ?

The next day I even made it to the my corner fruit and veg stall. Stocking up on beetroot (as I have never cooked with them before, it is rather curious why I even gave them a second glance), sweet potatoes and the usual run of the mill white spuds, I was left with no other option but to slice them up and chuck them into a pot with lots of hot fat. Lo and behold - crisps! Deep fry a few spring of rosemary and scatter over the crisps and sprinkle over some sea salt. Good crunchy all natural goodness.

Malaysia Eats

I thought I should finally sort out my photos tonight, starting with those of Istanbul taken all those months ago back in April. But ... there's always a but ... bloody Windows Photo Gallery and Windows Live Photo Gallery keep crashing my computer so I've given up. I'm too tired to faff around trying to troubleshoot something I haven't a clue about. So I've turned my attention to some of the stuff that never made it to my posts about my last trip home. Just a few photos from various meals. Oh hush my grumbling tummy .........! Enjoy :)

Marco Polo Restaurant
1st Floor, Wisma Lim Foo Yong, Jalan Raja Chulan, 50200 Kuala Lumpur

This used to be one of the places to hold a Chinese wedding banquet when I was a kid. I haven't been back in years. The dim sum is decent - think a step up from your local coffee shop on a Sunday morning and not quite as fancy as the Chinese restaurant at your favourite downtown 5* hotel.

Steamed black pepper chicken balls

Lor mai kai (steamed sticky glutinous rice with chicken, mushrooms and various other bits)

Din Tai Fung
Lot LG-207, Lower Ground Floor, The Gardens, Mid Valley City

Famous for their xiao long bau (Shanghainese soup dumplings) and very popular with my family. The food is pretty good and seems pretty consistent from the two occasions that I've been here. The one thing that grates on me is their insistence of the waiting staff to only speak Mandarin to their customers. Correct me if I'm wrong but Cantonese is the accepted Chinese dialect spoken in KL, so why insist on Mandarin? The waitress is only giving herself more work since she'll have to repeat everything she just said to me in English anyway. Yes, I sound like a spoilt brat and I refuse to apologise for it ..... making me sound even more brattish :)

Xiao long bau ... yum yum yum! Good splurt of hot broth but eat too many and you'll start to notice how fatty each little dumpling is.

Thin slithers of ginger in black vinegar, the traditional accompaniment to xiao long bau.

Deep fried beans with mince. I always thought of this as a Sichuanese dish but apparently it's Shanghainese too.

Braised seaweed topped tofu with Chinese mushrooms

Beard Papa
Lot LG007, Lower Ground Floor, Mid Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur

I haven't had a Beard Papa custard puff in years and it seems like my mum had never had one ever so I bought us one to share. It's still good. And I still not a huge fan of choux pastry.

Ampang Yong Tau Foo (shop next to Foong Foong)
Jalan Besar Ampang, 68000 Ampang

Foong Foong is the family stall of choice when we want Ampang yong tau foo (like so many other families I suspect) but mum broke some rather sad news when I insisted we cross town in mid day traffic to eat here ... Foong Foong is closed. Seriously? Surely not ... it's been there since.... well, since I remember eating yong tau foo. We went anyway and sure enough the shutters were down and the gates firmly padlocked. I hope we went on a day they decided to close for the day or I shall be very upset. So we went to the stall next door. Usually sad and so in need of custom, they were doing a good trade with Foong Foong closed (I don't even know its name ... dearie me). To be fair the yong tau foo tastes (dare I say it .... ) almost the same as Foong Foong but years ago they cocked out and started selling other dishes to entice customers. Imagine ... assam fish with yong tau foo ... impossible!

Our miserly looking 15 piece yong tau foo plate for 4 people ... it just can't compare to my dad's order of 40 pieces for 4 people when I last ate at Foong Foong's in January 2009. This order was definitely enough considering our 4 this time included my 90 year old grandmother who now eats like a bird.


Deep fried sui kow (like wontons but better!)


This is really what I come for ... the soup sui kow. This has got to be one of my all time favourite foods.

Restoran SS2 Murni
Jalan SS2/75, Petaling Jaya

Murni has got to be one of the coolest mamaks around. Run by a Chinese owner (*eyebrow raised .... "really?"), it's frequented by a truely muhibah crowd ... we sat next to a large Indian family finishing their dinner, a Malay couple eating roti and sipping teh ais whilst talking quietly to each other, a young Chinese couple sharing an extra large juice and a maggie goreng as they busily texted friends and practically ignoring each other, a large group of friends who were very possibly in college together. And there was me and my sister busy stuffing our faces, nudging each other and cackling out loud as we watched out our neighbours. I've been coming here for years and it's still as busy as it was when I was in college. The food is insane ... the menu combination is like no other mamak - there's your traditional rotis and rotis with a new twist - roti hawaii, roti seafood, roti salad. There's also the steak and chips, loh shu fun, spaghetti marinara. Brilliant!

The juices are also another reason to drop by Murni. We both got the medium watermelon juice special. Fresh watermelon juice blended with lots of ice, topped with lychee, chopped watermelon and nata de coco. So damn good on a muggy evening.


Candice had a hankering for fried chicken so we got fried chicken. The waiter gave us a choice which was - batter or not batter? Errr .... no batter please. Batterless fried chicken .. almost pointless. It was quite nice though. A whole chicken leg marinated in soy and served with chili sauce.


My must have dish when I'm back in KL - Maggie goreng. Probably not as good as other mamak stalls but it'll do.


Roti Jepun - we're still not entirely sure what was in this but we think it was egg, cheese and condensed milk (or the Malaysian version of dairy free condensed milk anyway). Not sure how this is in anyway Japanese and it wasn't particularly great.


Roti Hawaii - a new twist on the traditional murtabak. Filled with mince beef, sliced frankfurters, tinned pineapple and cheese. Topped with a generous squeeze of the mayonnaise bottle. Served with a blob of red sauce (chili or ketchup?), dhal and curry. What a combination. I oddly liked this. Give me frankfurters and ketchup and I can be very forgiving.

Penang Teochew Cendul
Lebuh Keng Kwee, Off Penang Road, Penang

Part of our search for good Penang char kway teow included a cendul stop (see post here). There was apparently a very good stall that we just had to try. Personally I wasn't too bothered to get to this stall. It was a horridly hot day, I was stuffed from too much lunch and it was too comfortable in the air conditioned car to tempt me out. But hey I was on holiday and it would be mighty unsociable to continue snoozing in the car, which would get baking hot the moment the engine was stopped. So we trudged along Penang Road, not quite sure where we were going until we found it. A dingy little stall down a side street with a crowd of people holding plastic bowls. The sign proudly proclaimed it as the famous Penang Road Teochew cendol. So how is Teochew cendol different from ... let's say the Indian guy who sells it? No idea. This stall does however add red beans to their concoctions. Ergh! Hate red beans.

I just had to be difficult - my special order of no red beans. Good cendol? It was ok cendol.Less sweet than many other I have tried. My mother who has a particularly sweet tooth would have complained they were too light on the gula melaka. Ahhh each to his own I suppose :)

Summer Dinners

Tom Yum Mussels with Garlic and Chili Pasta

The mussels were a spur of the moment purchase from a Chinese supermarket one weekend. I cooked them up with a tom yum spice mix I had brought back with me from Malaysia and tinned tomatoes. Loads of herbs I also picked up from the Chinese supermarket went in - coriander, dill and mint. Served with pasta simply tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili.

Chedder Stuffed Burgers with Courgette Crisps

I stupidly didn't consider the size of my roll when I shaped out these patties. Amateurish mistake! I was so focus on getting the meat to encase the ball of cheese I forgot about everything else. The patties turned out pretty darn good though - oozy melting cheese. Yum. The meat was flavoured with a myriad of different things I found in my cupboard, which is possibly why none of my food ever tastes the same twice :) The courgette crisps were made by deep frying thin long strips of corgettes coated in cornflour.

Full English

Well, not really a full English since I decided against eggs and bread but I got the hash browns that I had been thinking about. I won't take any credit for this meal as Stuart knocked it up in about 10 minutes flat.

Bacon Fried Rice

I had some rice sitting in the fridge, a pack of bacon I couldn't find room for in the freezer and a whole load of bits and bobs lying around. So fried rice it was and bacon just goes so well with just about anything, doesn't it?

Sweetcorn Fritters with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Someone mentioned sweetcorn to me in passing one day and I just knew I had to have sweetcorn fritters for dinner that very evening. I mixed up a batch of batter of flour, corn flour and an egg, seasoned it and added some cayanne pepper. I then added as much sweetcorn as the batter could hold. On hindsight I should have defrosted the sweetcorn before I added it to the mixture to avoid the huge sweetcorn clump. Yes, I know it's summer with an abundance of sweetcorn but sometimes I just want a pain free evening that frozen food offers. Served with a simple salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumber topped with olive oil and chili pepper flakes.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken Legs

I marinated a batch of chicken legs in teriyaki sauce, honey, black pepper and spring onions overnight. All I had to do the next day was to shove it all into the oven and dinner was ready 40 minutes later. Served with steaming hot rice, of course.

Grilled Mackeral with Thai Inspired Salad

The mackeral fillets were quickly grilled (about 3 minutes each side) and served with what I like to call a Thai inspired salad (thinking along the lines of the Thai papaya salad, som tam). Long shreds of courgette, carrot, red onion, tomatoes and coriander tossed in a dressing of fish sauce, chili, lime juice, sugar and garlic.

Macaroni in a Fresh Tomato Sauce with Burger Patties

I love summer for it's abundance of fruit and veg and none makes me smile more than the tomato. My tomato love affair is intensely passionate and if I could, I would probably add tomato to all the dishes I cook. I bought a huge batch the other week and I'm desperate to eat them before they go bad. What better way than a fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and basil. I also added some spinach to my boiled macaroni and fried up some sun dried tomato burger patties (cut up into bite size chunks) to serve with it.

Fried Kway Teow (Thai Style)

My food is frequently Thai style but never truely Thai. I just like borrowing elements from Thai cuisine - I love the freshness, the herbs, the flavour. This is a lot like phad thai but minus quite a few of the essential ingredients like tamarind juice, crushed peanuts, lime juice, etc. I boiled up some flat rice noodles (which I love over and beyond any other kinds of noodles and know it as kway teow or hor fun), fried up some chinese leaf, thinly sliced tomato, spring onion, shredded chicken, prawns and egg. I added the softened noodles to the mixture before flavouring the dish with fish sauce, oyster sauce and my secret ingredient, ketchup. I guess I'm just a big kid who never outgrew her taste for ketchup with almost anything :) Some rough torn basil leaves went in just before the final toss of the noodles for extra flavour.

Sunday Morning Breakfast

I thought I'll have a little sunshine on my plate this morning - mashed avocado and tomatoes on toasted sourdough sprinkled with salt and black pepper. I was all cheery until I took my first bite - no, there was nothing wrong with it - it was just then that I fervently wished I spread the toast with a thick wedge of butter and topped it with a thick spread of bramble jelly instead.

It's absolutely miserable today -the down in the dumps sort of overcast day. I was going to lock myself up in the gym and sweat out all that chocolate badness that I consumed yesterday (ooo that reminds me, I still have some of that ultra gooey cake left in the fridge - chocolate always makes things better) but I think I'll go for a little walk instead. A bit of fresh air ... maybe down Oxford Street ... turning into Selfridges .... retails therapy always makes things better too ;)

Asian Inspired Coleslaw

I made this last week as something a little different from the usual green salad that I make. Stuart's very fond of coleslaw but I'm not too big on the heavy mayonnaise so I came up with this version - Asian inspired, like most things I cook - where would I be without my ever reliable bottles of soy and oyster sauces?

I will always remember my mother saying that we should eat as many different coloured vegetables as we can, not just the green. I'm not sure what nutritional significance this may have but I think she would be very happy to dig into this - red (looks more purple to me) cabbage and orange carrots. Ahh if only the colour of carrots were not modified by the Dutch, this would have been a purple on purple dish (I remember reading about purple carrots awhile back and even saw some sold in Fortnum and Mason a few years back but I guess its comeback didn't quite takeoff. Read about it here)

Putting it together:
1/2 shredded red cabbage
2 shredded medium carrots
1 1/2 inches grated young ginger
1 large garlic clove grated
juice of 1/2 an orange (I didn't have any oranges so I used the juice of 1 satsuma)
2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1tsp sesame oil
1tsp mirin
2 tsp black sesame seeds

• Put the shredded vegetables in a large bowl.
• For the dressing, put the rest of the ingredients, except the seeds, in a clean jar/bottle with a lid. Close the jar/bottle and shake well to mix.
• Pour over the vegetables and toss well. Sprinkle the sesame seeds over and give the salad another quick mix.

Verdict?
A very light version compared to the coleslaws available commercially. It's easy enough to put together especially if you have Japanese mandolin but I shredded the vegetables by hand, which is quite fun if the knife is very sharp but terribly time consuming (I wasn't quite prepared to lose the top of a finger!). The flavours are safe (tried and tested) and clean but perhaps the juice of a satsuma is not the best thing to use, as it was a little too bland.

Sweet and Spicy Tofu and Beans

I fell in love with this dish after an Indonesian ex-flatmate made it for me. She actually first made this dish with tinned sardines (yes.. and just as delicious!) and it's so utterly simple! Alright, not as simple as making Maggi instant noodles in a cup ... but you get the idea :) However......unlike the sardine version, making this dish with tofu does have an extra step...deep frying the tofu. Or if you can just buy ready fried tofu from the supermarket. As the only deep fried tofu I can readily get my hands on would set me back more than 2 quid for a disgustingly small amount, I slaved over the stove a little longer.

Putting it all together:
Tofu, cut into small pieces
Green beans, topped, tailed and cut in half
Tomatoes, cut into small chunks
Chili - lots or as much as you can handle (my flatmate used to use a small handful of bird's eye chillies - ouch!)
Garlic - lots or as much you like
ABC kecap manis - a thick sweet Indonesian soy sauce (Chinese thick soy sauce might be an alternative)
Oil for deep frying

• Heat the oil in a pot. Fry the tofu pieces in batches. Fish them out of the oil as they turn golden brown and drain on paper towels. The tofu will get darker as they continue to cook a while longer out of the oil.
  
• Once all the tofu is cooked, heat a touch of oil in a pan on a medium-high heat. Add the garlic and chillies to the oil, letting it sizzle and colour but be careful not to let it burn.
  
• Add the tomatoes and let it soften slightly. Put in the beans and toss with the other ingredients to mix. Let it cook for about a minute or two before turning the heat down.
• Pour in the kecap manis. Use as much or little as you like. If your chillies are a little too hot, add a bit more kecap - it will soften the blow from the chillies. If you don't like your food too sweet, add less. Simple.
• Add the tofu to the pan and coat with the sauce. Cook for another five minutes or so. This is to allow the beans to soften and the tofu to soak up some flavour from the sauce.
• Served with hot steamed rice. Rather good with brown rice as the nuttiness really complements the dish.
  
  
  

A Meal to Last The Whole Weekend ... For One

Autumn is definitely not my favourite time of the year. Actually, I hate it! I have spent the last 8 years despising it's arrival and hating the months of October and November. September's not too bad...with the odd English weather, it usually turns out to be the nicest month of the year :) Last weekend Stuart headed up north for a conference. Holed up in a nice hotel can't be all that bad :) as I was in London tucked up on the sofa, under the duvet trying to meet a Sunday night deadline. Yes, a Sunday night deadline! 3AM counts as Sunday night, right???

With no Stuart to turn his nose up, I bought some cauliflower. I'm not a huge fan of this vegetable myself, unless I have it roasted. Yum! Cut up into florets, tossed with oil and into a hot oven until lightly caramalised on both sides. I added broccoli to the roasting tin, which was a huge mistake ;) Live and learn I guess. The broccoli was a little too burnt and the cauliflower a little too waterlogged for my liking. Oh well! Also added some tomatoes sliced fresh tomatoes at the end, which had a nicely intensified tomato flavour. I also roasted sweet potatoes, cut into small chunks, with some pork sausages in another tray. I served this with sweet potato vermicelli (picked up from Chinatown), a dressing made from oil, soy sauce, Japanese vinegar and grated ginger, and a sprinkling of black sesame seeds.

Verdict?
Not the best meal I've cooked, not bad though. Cooked enough for a small army = roughly about 2 meals for me :D

Leftover Coriander and Parsley (Green) Sauce

Ahhh the versatility of the green sauce! I have found a batch goes a long way... or just whip up another, it only takes up all of 10 minutes (yes, I'm that keen on it:) But this also a chance for me to try out another gadget I found in Vietnam. A peeler cum knife called dao bao, which I used to cut long slices of courgettes. I did try it with some carrots but it seemed a little more dangerous... too hard you see. I had lots of fun experimenting with my new toys.


Stir fry some pieces of chicken, add some assorted vegetables - this is where my sliced courgettes and carrots went in, and in with the green sauce. I liked the texture of the vegetables - both carrots and courgettes had a nice bite to them without being too crunchy.


Still hankering after the green sauce, I made another batch and this time paired it with some salmon. I cut up some salmon into large-ish cubes and fried it up with some more of those long sliced courgettes and some spinach leaves. Just as delicious. All that fish sauce and lime juices really makes my tummy growl for more!

Roasted Vegetables with Coriander and Parsley Pasta

Cauliflower is a one of those vegetables where I don't hate but I don't quite like either. The broccoli's poor cousin... until I had it roasted. Oh wow, I'm now officially in love! Sadly, it's still only with the roasted version.

The green pasta ... well, another successful experiment. With lots of coriander, parsley, garlic and fish sauce, it's almost a Thai version of pesto... yum!

Roasted Vegetables
Your choice of vegetables - peppers, aubergine, cauliflower, courgettes, tomatoes..
Olive oil
Squeeze of lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Cut the vegetables up to your preferred size - the smaller they are, the faster they cook. Coat the vegetables with olive oil. Squeeze on some lemon juice, a teaspoon or so will do. Roast in a medium to high oven until the vegetables are cooked through and slightly charred on the outside. Season well.


Green Sauce
a small bunch of coriander
a small bunch of parsley
1-2 cloves of garlic - if u like your garlic put more in (not too much though), if you hate the stuff then leave it out
fish sauce
Thai sweet chili sauce
lime juice
lime rind
kaffir lime leaves
flavourless oil - sunflower or groundnut

Coarsely cut up the coriander and parsley - leaves only. Remove the hard stalk from the kaffir lime leaves and slice finely. If your lime rind is in large pieces, slice it but quite as finely as the lime leaves. Put all the above ingredients into a food processor. Add the garlic and oil. The oil is really there to help the blending along. Whizz until all the ingredients are blended together and you have a thick-ish green paste. Add in the lime juice, chili sauce and fish sauce. Blend well. You should have a bright green sauce that is not too thick nor too runny. The amount of ingredients really depend on how much you like certain things - if you dislike coriander, replace it with basil. For a nice fresh zing, add mint. Hate garlic? Leave it out. Can't get your hands on limes? Use some lemons instead. This sauce goes really well with battered seafood or just stirred into boiled rice.

Putting it all together
Just before the vegetables are ready, cook your pasta - I used linguine - according to the direction on the packet. When the pasta is done, drain it and mix some of the green sauce in - use it like you would pesto, coating the pasta. Top with the roasted vegetables. For me, there's always room for a bit of meat so I sliced up some left over salami and tossed it in with the vegetables before they topped the pasta.