Dinner A Deux

One of the advantages of working with the Company is that its employees have the benefit of getting produce from its farm. This time round, bouquets of fresh fresh kailan were distributed amongst the directorate floor. The crisp, fresh green veg made me itching to get back Home into the kitchen to whip up something for the Man of the House when he returns home.

And whip up something I did.
Menu of the night was kailan in oyster sauce, steamed chicken and sesame noodles.

For the kailan, it was cleaned and simply steamed. Mind you, one can also blanch the leaves and stalk in boiling water till tender. Set aside in a dish. For the sauce, heat up a couple of tablespoonsfull of oyster sauce and water with a dash of sesame oil and thicken it up with a cornflour mixture. Once thcken, pour over the kailan and top with fried shallots and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

The chicken was simply marinaded with sesame oil and loads of garlic and ginger. Sprinkle with some salt and steam away for 20 to 30 minutes.

Sesame noodle was one of the dishes that my Korean housemate taught me whilst I was a (struggling) student in Bristol. Blanch two pieces of air dried broad noodles (like pan mee) in boiling water till tender. Toss the noodles and mix it up with a dash or two of dark soy sauce (kicap masin cap kipas udang rocks!), a big pinch of chilli flakes and a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Dish and serve.

Macam gini tak yah pi chinese restaurants.

Lite-ish Lunch

Not having to cook is also an indulgence for this Madame indeed. After not setting foot in the Maju Junction Food Court for lunch for quite some time, I was surprised to find a new stall there offering mini-steamboat lunch set. In a cute little steamboat, one is offered fish cakes, balls and loads of veg in a choice of either chicken soup or tomyam (I chose the soup). This hot piping meal is served with a choice of either plate of rice or a bowl of noodles in soy sauce. Trust me, the noodles were a delicious choice indeed.
The price - RM4.90.

I am so definitely gonna have this again.

Breakfast In Bed

I wish.

Being on leave with one's other (but sometimes, not necessarily better) half gives one the luxury of staying in bed when other folks are rushing out to work. Ah.. sheer bliss. It also means that it presents one with the opporunity to make a nice proper breakfast and enjoying it instead of having one on the run. Breakfast (not in bed) was 'luxurious' scrambled eggs with hot buttered wholemeal toast. Break four eggs in a bowl, splash in some skimmed milk, add in chopped oyester mushroms, dried parsley and ground black pepper. Also add in bits of sliced cheese (hence, no salt needed!) Scramble in a pot with melted butter until the desired consistency. Top with more fresh ground black pepper and serve with hot buttered toast.
Enjoy with the husband and a glass of cold orange juice.
Yum.

Kek Batik – The Cheat’s Method

Sinfully fattening folks, but so yummilicious to the core. A great way of impressing folks the shortcut way. Recipe courtesy from a fellow Bristolian, Ros, but tweaked a little here and there by yours truly

In a (preferably) non stick wok, melt 1 ½ senduk besar margarine / butter. Add in a mixture of 1 senduk milo powder and chocolate powder mixed with hot water to form a thick, gooey, molten chocolate liquid-ish goo into the wok. Let it bubble away (whilst emitting the most loveliest chocolate-y aromas). To add further to the high calorific content, stir in thick, gooey condensed milk until you have a chocolate lava in your own kitchen. Next, stir in roughly broken up marie biscuits into the wok and have a fun time trying to coat all the marie biscuits evenly with the goo. Pour the whole lot in a lined baking tin and refridgerate for a few hours till firm. Whilst waiting, lick the wok clean of goo (please make sure the wok has cooled all the way down!).

Cut.
Serve.

Mind you it is loverly when served slightly warm with soften vanilla ice cream.
Instant gratification. Absolute bliss.

Black Pepper Beef

The one and only adventurous meal concocted for the weekend. Dumped slivers of beef, sliced ginger and garlics by the load in a pot, cover with water and let it simmer till tender. Once tender, add in oyster sauce and thick soy sauce by the tablespoonfuls before adding in a heaped tablespoon of ground black pepper (or more, if desired). Let it thicken naturally (but if still quite runny, expedite matters with the help of a little cornflour mixture). Just before service, stir in some spring onions and lightly sautéed onions which have been cut into rings.

Serve on a bed of hot rice, teamed up with stir fried vegetables (we had French beans and mushrooms that lunch).
Delicious (but I felt that I could’ve put more heart and soul into it. Oh well).

Healthy-ish Carbo Fix

Pasta is carbo.
Carbo is bad.

Yeah, yeah, whatever.
But there’s no denying the fact that it is darn easy, quick and economical meal to fix. Anytime. So, as Madame here is on a health conscious wave, all meals are lavishly incorporated with greens of every kind(and that is why you always see a big bowl of salad in most pictures).

So last night was a quick vitamin and fibre laden carbo meal (mostly due to the funk I was in). A blob of butter, loads of smashed garlic (yeah, good immuno stuff, albeit stinky as hell) and a handful of diced french beans were dumped into a pot. Once softened, 3 cute sotong kurita (K called it sotong katak), all sliced up, were chucked in to sauté before chopped fresh tomatoes were added in. A dash of fresh ground pepper, chilli flakes and dried parsley were thrown in for good measure. No salt as…. a good handful of grated parmesan cheese was added in. Stir well, take it off the heat and serve on shredded salad leaves.

No complaints from hubby.
After all, this is definitely lighter than a rice dinner at night.

Curry Canoodles

Grab that hunk of meat and cut it into nice chunks. Trim all visible fat away – using a pair of scissors helps big time. Daging qurban is choc-a-bloc with FAT deposits (I guess we had darn fat, well fed cows slaughtered in Kg. Damansara Heights). For a shortcut to one’s time in the kitchen, boil your cut meat with water in a pot until semi-tender. You will see scum rising to the top when the pot is boiling merrily away, but do not attempt to remove it. That scum is the goodness of the beef. Yum yum.

In the meantime, finely chop up onions, garlic and a little stub of ginger. Mummy recommends blending together the onions, garlic ginger and a small stub of tumeric root. Then all the aromatics would amalgamate better. However, as Other Half has control of the kitchen, it is rusticated chopping at hand (Madame here vetoed the use of tumeric root this time round as she shudders at the thought of yellow stained fingers, chopping board and kitchen units). Sauté the lovely aromatics in vegetable oil until softened and fragrant. Add in the curry powder (for meats) with a wee bit of water and fry until the curry powder smells very very fragrant and cooked (orang-orang tua kata tumis sampai naik minyak.. heh?). Also toss in a stick of kayu manis (cinnamon stick, not to be mistaken with kayu cengal. Hello dearie, that is for furniture, not for curry lah!), bunga lawang (star anise), buah pelaga (cardamom pods), bunga cengkih (cloves), whole white pepper seeds (a wee bit) and whole coriander seeds (if you have any that is). Fry till fragrant for a few minutes.

Once all lovely and amalgamated, add in your semi cooked cubed meats with some of that lovely beef broth into the pot. Pour in coconut milk (santan) as desired and let boil till a semblance of curry has formed. It will look and smell just about right by then. One could add in a piece or two of asam keping (dried tamarind slices) for some kick to the curry. At this juncture, add in quartered potatoes and chunked carrots to the pot. Add water, cover, let simmer on medium low heat, adding some quartered tomatoes in sometime towards the end, till beef is tender, potatoes are soft and cooked or till one just can’t stop salivating over the yummy smells emanating from the stovetop.

Dish up with hot, steaming rice or bread.
Mind you, try not to finish it all as curries taste even better after being kept in the fridge for a day. For such an easy recipe as this, one can replicate weekly and store as convenience food.

Me thinks it will be curry with roti pratha for dinner tomorrow.
Yum.

Italian Incognito

Last night, Madame felt like fasta pasta - literally. However, gorging on pasta tete-a-tete is bound to end up as hip deposits. Trust me. Pasta is something that has to be shared between with good company. And good company came in the form of Arena and Ms. HotShotAuditor.

The creamy pasta we had for our main dish was rather yummy, if I must say so. Just saute some sliced onions, garlic and celery till soft. Add in chopped sausages (or chicken, if you prefer). Open a can of mushroom soup, add it in, put in 1/2 to 3/4 can of water and season with fresh ground pepper. Salt is not needed as there should be enough salt from (a) the sausages (b) the mushroom soup (c) the pasta cooked. So please do not contribute to any existing high blood pressure conditions. Once the sauce looks thick and bubbly jubbly on the stove, toss in a handful of frozen mix vegetables prior to serving for an additional burst of colour, texture and flavour. Serve on pasta with...

Garlic bread! For convenience sake, I do a whole lot of garlic butter in abundance. Mash up whole lot of fresh garlic. Mix it in thoroughly with butter (or margerine, should you have it in tub loads). Spread it on sliced french bread and sprinkle with dried parsley for that ala Nigella Lawson flair. Toast in that toaster grill of yours.

Being ladies, dinner will not be complete with desert (more excuse to increase one's calorific intake for the day). If the BBGals think that Cik Arena's chocolate cake is high heaven, the next heavenly thing would be Cik Arena's creme caramel. Omigod.. dah lah it was so simple to whip up. The lightness and fluffiness of the pudding simply took or breath away... Let me tell you how simple it was to concoct. Whip in a small tin of condensed milk with 5 eggs in a big bowl. Add in (using the same small tin) equal amounts of water. Sprinkle in a dash of vanilla essence (we must try and get fresh vanilla one of these days, babe). Meanwhile, in a little pot, heat up sugar and a wee bit of water till it browns as caramel. Once it has caramelled nicely, coat the bottom of a pan evenly with the yummy stuff and let harden. Pour in the lovely milky mixture on top and set in a steamer for, err.. lets say 30 minutes. Stick a toothpick through to check its readiness. Cool (we dumped it in the freezer as it was too tempting to let it cool naturally) in order to firm it up. Serve and roll your eyes over and over in delight.

Glaze over like little piggies in high heaven.

Oh, by the by, Other Half was also party to the pigging out session. Madame here is so glad that she has a husband who does not mind frequent female invasion to the Home. Well, as long as he gets to partake.. yeah, why not?

Saucy Saucy

Bolognese sauce is one of the best basic sauces one can concoct. It is also easy to whip up and can be transformed into a variety of dishes. For starters, it’s a yummilicious pasta sauce. It can then take on the identities of…
Shephard’s pie.
Lasagne.
Meat pie filling.

It’s really easy peasy to chop up carrots and celery rather finely and sauté it in a oil-and-butter mix until soft and fragrant. Remove and using the same pot , brown minced beef (or lamb) with finely chopped red onions and loads of garlic. Once the meat has been browned through (please ensure this as we don’t need any salmonellic invasion whatsoever!), add in the sauté-ed carrots and celery to the mixture together with a can of tomato puree or a half-and-half mixture of tomato puree and chopped canned tomatoes. Also mix in quartered canned mushrooms. Cover and let it simmer before adding in mixed Italian herbs, salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Dish up with pasta and cheese.
Make sure hubby wipes off the tomato infused drool from the tabletop.

For the shephard’s pie, one can add in frozen mixed vegetables to the (leftover) sauce mixture. Dish out the sauce onto an ovenproof dish. Top the dish with mashed potatoes and cheese. Brown in the oven at 250 degrees Celcius for around 15 minutes or until nicely golden on top (whichever preferred).
Ensure that there is leftover sauce before attempting this meal – hence, hide a significant portion prior to making the pasta dinner.

“Claypot” Chicken Rice

Marinate chopped chicken thighs in loads of oyster sauce, loads of dark salty soy sauce, ground black pepper, loads of ginger, loads of garlic (to ward of those vamps), some dried shrimps and a wee bit of honey (one can omit this is you want to). Meanwhile, reconstitute some (washed) dried shitake mushrooms in hot water. These can be done preferably overnight – in which case, dump both chicken and mushrooms in the fridge so as not to spoil the raw chicken and prevent unwanted guests from visiting the kitchen.

Get out that non-stick pot with lid.

Ceremoniously dump the well marinated chicken, the chicken marinade, mushrooms (with the water et al) and washed rice in the pot. Add in more water (if necessary) and some chicken granules with some salt to taste.

Cover and cook over medium heat.

Serve once the rice had dried out with some garlic bits as garnish.
Watch hubby tibai most of what you cooked.

Rendang Raya

Blend together chopped red onions, garlic, ginger, galangal (lengkuas), lemongrass (serai), tumeric (the fresh akar kunyit ya… not the powdered stuff) and dried chillies (that have been earlier pre-soaked till reconstituted).

Once fully blended, grab a huge non-stick wok (these are lovely inventions, these. Invest in a really good, expensive one like Tefal. You will never go wrong nor destroy any food cooked in them) and fry the blended ingredients in a wee bit of oil until fragrant. Once the chillies smell cooked (trust me, fully cooked chillies will smell different once fully cooked) add in a couple of tablespoonfuls of curry powder (the once made for meat curries, aight…) and cook it further till it smells delish to high heaven.

Add in the cubed beef chunks into the curried mixture and then pour in life’s Asian artery clogging ingredient – santan pekat (thick coconut cream). How much? Err… stop around 1 ½ inches away from the top of the wok. Cook for a couple of minutes and stir in the kerisik.

Kerisik?
What’s that?
Ahh.. if one is too lazy, kindly go to the nearest pasar and procure it from the makcik there. Alternatively, dry fry fresh grated coconut in the same non-stick pan over very low flame. The coconut will turn a lovely roasted brown colour and exude the most delicious smell. Take care that it does not burn. Once uniformly brown and toasted, cool it before you pound it in your pestle and mortar into a very fine powder. For lazy gits like yours truly, take the dry mill of your food blender and utilise it (however, as Mummy warns, jangan blend sampai keluar minyak dia. Rather tricky this. Found out that you could blitz it for 3 seconds, shake, blitz again for another 3 seconds, shake and blitz again. Wallah!)

Once kerisik has been stirred in, put wok on very low flame and be prepared to let it cook until:-
1. the beef is fully cooked and tender.
2. the rending is dried to your favoured consistency.
3. it smells so yummilicious to the point that the husband abandons all work to bug you at the stove.
Oh, don’t forget to add in salt to one’s desired tastebuds.

Serve to all.
Bask in the glory of husband’s satisfied smile and thumbs up.

Izreen's Incidental Indulgences

Yeah.. this is going to be the portal for all Mr. and Mrs. Other Half's culinary indulgences. We work hand in hand - Madame here cooks, Other Half eats.

Crap intro, I know, but well, hey, it's and intro nontheless.

By the way, Madame here will not be putting any exact measurements as...

Madame does not measure her ingredients at all.

Heh heh.

Good luck in finding the precise measurements, people. Apologies in advance.
Should any other kind souls wish to share their culinary capabilities, please give them to me so I can test them in my test lab for my very own guinea pig (i.e. Other Half la tu...)

Enjoy you people!