A quick appetizing dish for an evening when you feel  not up to making something big. It goes well with Sambal terong and rice.

Ingredients:
Pork Belly (Bacon, Wammerl) from the butcher (crispy baked)
3 Garlic cloves
5 chilly paddies or 5 red chillies
3 Tbsp. Kecap manis (dark, sweet chilly sauce)

Method:
Its definately must easier to buy one than to make the preparations yourself. Of course, you could get a fresh piece of pork belly, and bake /Grill this up. But chances are that you won’t get a realy crispy skin, like they give you when you get it from the butcher.  Ask the butcher to cut the cooked pork belly (wammerl) in slices. At home, slice the pork belly again in bite size strips. Make sure that you keep the crispy skin which is real delicious.  Chop the chilly and garlic really fine. Heat your wok with some oil (not too much as more oil from the pork belly will supply the rest of the oil) Add garlic, chillies, kecap manis and stir frequently until fragrant.
Garnish with sprigs of coriander leaves and or cucumber. Serve while hot.

My favourite! Absolutely and no doubt about it. It was a food my grandma always made for me when I was a little kid and I loved the smell of kafir leaves in a mixture of chilly and garlic. It goes on well eaten with rice, and if you made the sambal too spicy for your well being, just put less spread on top of the eggplant.

Ingredients:
2 medium size Eggplants (Brinjal, Terung, Aubergine…)

Sambal:

10 fresh red chilies
8 shallots
4 cloves garlic
6 tbsp cooking oil
Sugar
Kafir leaves
Belacan
Salt

Method:
Prepare the sambal before you start on the eggplant. If you have them ready made, then you could completely save the time for prepraing for this. I usually have a portion deep frozen in the freezer, so that I can whip up any great meal in a jiff!

Here’s how to make sambal:
If you love to eat your sambal real spicy, use just chilly paddies alone. If not, use the big red chillies to prepare this, or mix them. Cut the chillies in pieces, put all of the chilly in the blender together with sugar, a dash of salt, kafir leaves, belacan and 50ml water. Blend till smooth. Alternatively, you could use the mortar and pestle to pound all the spices finely.  Pour the blended / pounded ingredients in a heated pan with oil, and fry under low heat till fragrant. Once the sambal starts to get “oily” take this away from the heat and leave aside to cool.

The eggplant can be steamed or fried in the pan. I usually prefer steaming the brinjals as they stay juicy, is not too oily and you don’t come out from the kitchen and smell like frittata. Wash and halve the brinjal lenthwise. If you have bigger brinjals, you could cut them in stripes. This will speed up the cooking time. Steam for 15 mins, or fry with some oil in the pan, until the brinjal is cooked.
Place the brinjal on a plate and spread the sambal now on top of the brinjal evenly. Do try first to se how spicy the sambal is, not that you spoil your own fun with a menü too spicy to enjoy. If you are the hard core and have no problems with spicy food, you could spread the sambal on the brinjal generously.
Garnish with some coriander and serve warm.

I must say, I am very fortunate to have friends who care about what i eat and I am a very proud owner of the remaining gramms of PONG’s Laksa paste. Laksa has been a favourite all my life and despite thousands of recipes that I have tried, this laksa paste was the bestI’ve had in years. Authentic, pungent and spicy and easy to make, you feel like you’re in ASia, if only the thermometer wouldn’t show -5°c outside  all the time!

It has not been a regular thing to eat tempeh at home, and I have been avoiding it for a veeeery long time. When my hubby asked me one day, why I never made tempeh, I ran to my Mum and asked her, what the h*** is tempeh.  And she said, why it’s so delicious! Why wrinkle your nose? And I looked back at her with big eyes and said – do you know what tempeh is made out of? It’s a block of fermented fungus!! Urrghh, und why would anyone find it delicious at all. ( I was visualizing the fungus in the gorgonzola cheese before me, and decided that I did not miss anything in my life until today.)

Just a couple of months ago, I discovered a refreshing way of making those asian salads. Instead of using salad cream, or those balsamico recipes, try this for a change. Fish sauce may sound really strange for the salad, but the amount you dash it in makes the difference. You may variate the ingredients with green beans, apple, cooked cabage, etc. And it goes perfectly well with any non-dominant  meaty dishes and steamed white rice.

Here’s something that’s quick and simple, and just a little differant. If you have very little time and you’re looking for a recipy to satisfy and yet is tasty, this is what you could try..

This is one of my favourite dishes. It’s been like that for many many years, and it never failed to keep my appetite up! if you feel like you need some cheering up, try this dish. It’s very spicy, tasty and soemthing for a grey winter day – and some hot days in summer too. if you’re inviting guests over, make sure they eat spicy food, otherwise you’ll be busy serving water or milk or joguhrt to distinguish the fire

Ingredients:

4 x Chicken breasts (cut in 1 cm cubes)
10 dried Chillies
2 Tblsp oil
¼l oil

Marinade:
1 egg
1 EL light Soja sauce
11/2 Tsp Cornflour
1 Tblsp oil

Sauce:
1 Tblsp. rice wine
1 Tblsp vinegar
11/2 tsp sugar
11/2 tsp dark soy sauce
Dash of sesame oil
2 tbsp corn starch dissolved with 2 tbsp water
4 slices ginger
1 stalk spring onions, cut in 5 cm

 

 

Method:

Mix the cubed chicken in the marinade for about 30 minutes. Cut the chillies in 2,5cm , remove the seeds, if necessary. If you’re not particularly sensitive that the food gets real spicy, leave the seeds.

Heat your wok with 2 tbsp of oil and stir fry the chillies for a few minutes till slightly dark. Take care that it doesn’tget too dark. Remove from the heat, drain and leave aside

Heat the other 1/4l oil and stir fry the marinated chicken breasts. When almost done, add the sauce ingredients, the corn starch mixture, and simmer softly until the sauce is thick and creamy. Add ginger, spring onions and chillies. Serve hot and immediately.

Good appetite!

I love soupy foods, especially when it’s cold outside, and also when I’m having a cold! Bringing back all those flavours into your own kitchen is a heavenly thought when you can’t just run to next food stall to get your favourite beef ball soup. Inspired by my last order for Bohpoh Soup (it’s vietnemese) at the restaurant, I wanted to try this too at home. This recipe is easy to make and is mighty delicious.  Makes for 2.

Ingredients:

500g Beef
1 -2 middle sized onions
1 thumb ginger, sliced
4 pimento & 2x lorbeer (laurel)
sesame oil
2 stalks spring onion
1 handfull bean sprouts
5 – 6 basil leaves per bowl
1 teaspoon fried onions (bawang goreng), and fried garlic in oil for garnishing (optional)
160g glas noodle or broad rice noodle (kuay teaw)

Method:

Quarter the onions, slice the ginger. Rinse the beef thoroughly and put this together with onions, ginger, Pimento , Lorbeer (Laurel) in the pot and simmer for about 2 hours. (Pimento & loraul are usually used in german traditional dishes, but I found them a good taste maker) If you have a pressure cooker, you could quicken up the process with just cooking it for 45 mins. Add salt to taste and stir.

In the meantime, clean the bean sprouts, blanche them in a pot of boiling water for a minute. Take them out and place in a bowl. Take your glasnoodles and soften them in a bowl of cold water for about 10 mins. You can also boil them briefly in the beef stalk with a scouper, but be careful that you don’t overcook them. Place them in portions in the respective bowls. If you are using the thick broad noodles, please boil them according to the instructions. Place the bean sprouts on top. Take out the meat from the soup and slice this thinly. Portionize them in the bowls, as much and as little as you like. Add basil leaves (Thai basil leaves) on the side. Just before serving, make sure the soups still simmering hot, pour some soup to cover the noodles. Garnisch with sliced spring onions. Serve with some chilly padi and eat while hot. Optionally, you could sprinkle some bawang goreng and fried garlic over the portions.

Enjoy!

Dim Sum is a favourite cantonese “snack” of mine. They come in small portions like those spanish tapas. You can never have enough of these cantonese foodies as they come in small baskets of variety and in many flavours. There’s sweet, sour, or pastry, buns, dumplings or even chicken feet. Most of these dishes are steamed and must be eaten hot. Traditionally, you usually start off with something steamed like har kow, kau chi, siew mai or char siu bao, and then continue with steamed chicken feet, tripes with black bean garlic sauce, spare ribs, spring rolls and finish off with egg tarts, or pancake in lotus bean sauce.
These days, you eat them when you see them on the menu and find a restaurant that makes them fresh! I still remember those days when we would go to Neptune, in Singapore just to specially eat Dim Sum. When you enter the hall, you think you entered a differant world. A night club in the night, a busy teahouse / restaurant during the day. The restaurant gets really loud, you think you’re in the middle of the market. The waitresses would be busy pushing their little wagens around filled with many warm goodies. All you would have to do is to call her, and she’ll come wackling to you. Then you’d ask her what she has to offer. After decideing what your stomach tells you to do, she’ll put just the whole bamboo basket on your table, which takes only at most 2-4 pieces of the food you chose. Of course, you make a few choices. Then after finishing your portion, you wait till the next waitress comes your way, bringing many other kinds of dim sum for you to choose. In that way, you always get them really fresh and warm, no chance for them to get cold. And no way to get bored. It’s a lot more fun if you’re going to eat them with a few more people than just the 2 of you. A 4-som would be almost perfect. And…the best would be to eat them in asia, to really feel the traditional atmosphere of eating your dim sums together with tea.

Well, there’re diverse restaurants here serving Dim Sum. But there also only a few who serves them fresh and tasty. I had been craving for them for quite a while already and just had to try make them myself. Remember I said that you eat usually just a small portion of maybe 2-3 pieces of that kind? Well, this recipe i made makes about 50….and errr.. i finished them up together with my hubby and crowned it to be my main course. And don’t make the same mistake i did. Finish making your wraps, then only start steaming. Otherwise you’ll be busy making, steaming and eating it all at the same time, and your kitchen will look like WorldWar2 . Well, there’s always a first time, but it was very worthwhile and tasty too.

 

Ingredients:

3x Water chestnut (chopped)
300g Minced meat (mixed)
250g prawns (clean & diced)
30g dried Shitaki mushroom
1 stalk spring onion
1 stalk coriander leaves
salt, pepper
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp corn oil
2 tbsp corn starch (mondamin)

1 big red chilly, deseeded (chopped)
1 can crab meat (optional)
1 egg white

250g Wanton wrappings
water

Method:

Pour boiling water over the dried shitaki mushrooms and soak till soft for about 20 mins. Slice and then dice in small pieces. Chop spring onions and coriander leaves finely. Mix them all together with the mince meat and prawns, adding salt, pepper and sesame oil, oil and corn starch. Mix well and cover, and leave aside in the fridge for about 15 mins.

Take about a teaspoonful of filling into a piece of wanton wrap. Wet the ends with water. Fold the rectangle half, making it a triangle. Now take the bottom 2 ends and wet them and press this firmly together. There are videos available to show you how to form them. You could try forming them into a cup by gathering the ends of your round wrap. But I found it much easier to shape them like won tans. Grease your steamer , and steam them for 12-15 mins. This make about 50, so make sure you either have multiple stories of steaming baskets or you’ll have to do them in different turns.

Eat while hot and serve together with the typical Dim Sum chilly sauce. Garnish with Chilly strips or sprigs of parsley or coriander. Honestly, my samples looked like tortellinis, well….i did my best!

Gosh, my stomach was happy, but my poor legs wasn’t when I had to clear the mess in the kitchen!

This dish good be still warm right now. My hubby’s in the kitchen cleaning up the mess I did, but we’re both stuffed from the lovely dinner we just had. So while he’s still working out what we’re going to have for dessert, I’m writing this down already. Its been raining non stop for days. It’s like Petrus decided to wash up the country, and was enjoying what he was doing. The weather forecast was mentioning something like “light” rainfalls, but this is raining cats and dogs. I needed something to cheer me up in this grey, almost autumn day (but it’s summer here….surprise surprise…) This dish is really simple to make. And your kitchen stays almost as it was before, since you’re only steaming it.

(Makes for 2, 15 mins preparation, 15 mins cooking)

Ingredients:
5 cm Lengkuas (Galgant)
3 Kefir leaves
1 stalk Lemon grass
2 tbsp. Fish Sauce
400g Fish filets (best is sweet water fish)
2x Chilly padi or 2 big chillies deseeded

Method:

Chop all the ingredients (aside from the fish) together, then pound them in a mörser till it becomes pasty. Only then add the fish sauce and mix. Wash the fish (I used Heilbut and this was just as good) pat dry, cut in 2.5 cm cubes. Mix the paste and fish together, making sure that the fish is rubbed thoroughly. Put in a ceramic plate and let it steam for 15-20 minutes.

Serve hot and immediately…and yes of course with rice

In the good old days, while waiting for the school bus to pick us up after school, the first thing we did was to run to the hawker stall right in front of the school gate, eager to get the all the sweeties he offered. Hopefully there was still enough pocket money left. Es bandung, es kachang, cendol and everything sweet and cooling was a welcome thing with 33°C and 98% humidity after hours of boring lessons. Cendol has always been my favourite. It’s those green little worms covered with a yummy thick coconut santan , a good dosis of gula melaka and most important; ice shavings on top…. It comes in many variations like with corn or beans or anything colourful, but usually it comes just plain- originally a typical malay or indonesian dessert. Hmmm…it makes you forget all what you learnt a few minutes back.

I think the main problem was to look for a right equipment to sieve those little green “worms”. I have this wonderfull cookbook that I brought along in one of my last trips back to Singapore and it had all the yummies from home. In it, they kept describing that you should get this cendol frame to create them. Easier said than done. I’ve never seen such a sieve before, and in asia…why bother make one when you could get the finished cendol at the market or the next hawker stall? For the first few times, we tried out the schwabian way. That meant putting your cendol mixture on the cutting board, then scraping off an inch into cold water, until the dough is finished. This is…hard work…and what you get is rough little worms that really almost tasted like spätzle. (just that they were green :-/ ) Taking the fact that I never made cendol in my life before, I slurped this dessert within seconds and declared it for almost perfect. Just almost…

The next time round my hubby decided to make it a little more professional. And I’d say, if you’re not blessed with getting to buy that cendol sieve in the next grocery shop, make it yourself:

Cendol sieve:
1 Plastic basin (ca. 20-30cm circumferance)
Drill 8mm

Take that basin and drill as many holes as you can in there to make it look like a sieve. Think of your boss, it may help you work faster. That’s it!

Ingredients:

10 pandan leaves (cut in 3cm pieces)
2 cups water
green coloring
85g green bean flour

crushed / shaved ice

Sauce:
360g Gula Melaka / brown palm sugar
120g sugar
1 cup water
3 pandan leaves
1 can coconut milk (the thicker the better)
4 cups water
pinch of salt

Method:

Blend pandan leaves together with 1 cup of water. Strain this into a pot. Add a few drops of colouring and bring it to boil. Blend the green bean flour with 1 cup of water the stir this into the pandan juice. Continue stirring till thick and transparent.

Place a basin of ice cold water with some ice cubes in it. Now place your newly made cendol sieve over this basin and pour the pandan mixture into the sieve. Press the mass lightly until all the mixture is through. Make sure that the water is really cold so that these little droplets or “worms” don’t stick to one another. Drain the water and refigerate for 15 mins.

In the meantime, melt the chopped gula melaka in saucepan together with1 cup of water. Strain this and let it cool.

To serve: Put 3 tablespoons of cendol in a bowl. Pour some coconut milk over and add palm syrup according to your taste. Serve with crushed or shaved ice.

Anyone for a share?

Stranded in the land of a foreign tongue, where cultural food disorders are common and McDonalds in every corner, it gave me every reason to miss my food way back home. Even if you would try to still the asian hunger by going to an asian restaurant, you will never ever find good old chicken rice in the menu. I wonder why? Is it too cheap to sell? Is it too infamous? Is this too strange for the foreign tongue to eat? Till today I have not found the reason.

Chicken rice is a favourite in asia. This food is a must sell in every coffee shop in the corner. Without it, how would you want to have your lunch, brunch, dinner or supper….or breakfast? And it’s yummy. You would find variations in white cooked chicken, baked/grilled chicken, duck and char siu hanging mercilessly on their necks on those metal hooks, just waiting to get all chopped up when the next guest come to peer over that chopping board to see what part of the chicken he would want to have. The cook behind that giant chopping board nods, grabs the chicken neck from the hook and starts chopping that bird into fine bite peaces. Within the next 2 minutes, you’ll find a tasty full course meal that is served with a bowl of chicken soup, your chopped bird or char siu and chilly sauce mixed with ginger in front of you….an absolute asian delight…**sigh**

No doubt about it, there are quite a few ways to prepare this dish. There’s a very traditional, complicating way, a very simple way and a moderate way to create this actually very simple dish. A few must have ingredients like the coriander leaves, sesame oil, and cucumber are compulsory to make the meal round. If you’re missing on those, I’d suggest you pull off the idea of trying to make them at all.

My grandma told me once that the real way to prepare this dish was to take the chicken, holding the chicken at it’s neck over a boiling pot of hot water, take a soup spoon and scope that hot water gently over the chicken until it gets cooked. In that way, the chicken meat would stay tender and …well, put it this way, in this period of time, you might risk getting avian flu and cramps in your forearms. Who knows? I have a much easier way to handle this and I would like to share this with you.

Ingredients:

4 chicken drumsticks with thighs or 1 Chicken, cleaned and cut in 4
5cm Ginger, sliced roughly
1 Stalk scallion, sliced in 10cm piece
1 tsp. Vegetable stock

Rice:
3 cups of rice
6 cups of water (depending on rice quality)
chicken broth / oil (from the soup)

Garnish:
1 stalk scallion
1 stalk corainder leaves
1/2 cucumber, cut in wedges
Chillypadi, sliced
Lemon
Soy sauce
Sesame oil

Method:

Fill a pot of water and bring it to boil. Once it’s bubbling, put in your cut chicken, ginger, scallion and turn down the heat. Cover your pot and let it simmer gently for about 45 minutes. Take care not to overcook your chicken as the longer you cook, the more the meat will just fall apart.

Somewhere after 20 minutes, you can start cooking the rice. Either steam it or prepare it in the rice cooker. Instead of using water, scoop out the top layer of the still simmering chicken soup, removing and transferring the oil and some soup to the rice cooker. You could add some mashed & grinded ginger into the rice – to taste. Sprinkle a dash of salt and start cooking.

After 45 minutes of simmering, take the chicken out of the soup and let it cool down. Add salt to taste to the soup, or a tsp. of vegetable stock. Once almost cold, cut the chicken into the pieces you would find comfortable to eat. Add a dash of sesame oil over the meat and garnish with sprigs of coriander leaves. Spoon out the soup into a bowl, garnisch with some finely chopped scallions and sreve this together with chicken rice, and a bowl of chilly lemon soy mixture.

There you go….I’m getting hungry already again!