Thai Glass Noodle Salad

I am so not looking forward to summer..  We were under Perth HOT spells for 3 consecutive days and it is only SPRING... This HOT weather is really wearing me down, zapping my energy and my head will make a 360° spin...

I prepared this Thai Glass Noodle Salad for our Friday BBQ (before the weather turned us to human jerky ...). Thai Glass Noodle Salad is easy on the stomach, it is refreshing with freshly chopped herbs and crunchy vegetables... 

I am whipping up this salad again this Saturday... Yes, we are having BBQ again... I am chuffed... My friends, whom I have not heard any news or met since I left my Primary school ... 33 years ago, are coming over to my place... I am looking forward to catch up with both of them....  

Recipe:

1/2 chicken breast - cooked and shredded
2 cups of glass noodle -
1/4 cup fresh mints - chopped
1/4 cup of coriander leaves - chopped
1 carrot - julienne
1/2 red onion -thinly sliced
1/2 cup of peanuts - chopped coarsely
1/2 chilli (optional)- thinly sliced
2 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tablespoon of raw sugar
salt

1. Soak the glass noodle for at least 2 hours. Drained, place in a heat proof container and pour boiling water.. leave it for at least 5 minutes or until the glass noodle is cooked. Drained of the water then transfer to another container filled up with cold water.
2. Mix everything in a salad bowl
3. Salt and sugar to taste
4. Keep refrigerated for at least 30 minutes for the flavour to develop.

Mini Pavlova

It's been a "quiet-blogging" week, this week...  I was trying to juggle between kids' school activities, family visits, trying to get my  Twitter and Facebook Fan page up and running...Check out the Right Handside Panel for the icons.. if the link doesn't work... and planning for our holiday next month... yippee...

Back to my kitchen...I have some egg whites from Chai Creme Brulee last week... so I decided to make mini Pavlova (as in the next day ... not after a week )

While waiting for Miss E to finish her massage session...I was given heaps of recipe books ...
I picked up a Reader Digest Collection of Recipes book... it was a thick book. Since I only have an hour to spare, gave it a quick scanning... and as I was flipping the pages.. my eyes caught the word Pavlova...

I kept on reading the paragraph explaining ~ how the name Pavlova came about... and where it originated from...

Everyone seems to agree that this beautiful dessert was created to honour the Russian ballet dancer~ Anna Pavlova who visited Australia and New Zealand in 1920's...

But the origin? ~ NZ or Australia?? apparently its a dispute between the 2..

Reader Digest mentioned that it originated from New Zealand... but AUSSIEs beg to differ?? 

What's your vote?? Australia or New Zealand??

Kiwi or Aussie... we thanked you for PAVLOVA!!!

Recipe:

6 egg white
1 cup of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
2 tablespoon of cornflour
cut up fresh fruits (summer fruits)
300ml thickened cream
2 tablespoon caster sugar.
passionfruit pulps

1. Pre heat oven 120C
2. Whisk the eg white until peak... slowly add caster sugar... keep whisking until sugar dissloved. fold in cream of tartar and cornflour... whisk to mix well
3. Place in piping bag and pipe out meringue in 75mm diameter disk and pipe the outer layer to create a 'wall'... 
4. Bake for 1 hour -1hr 20 minutes...
5. Check the meringue should be dry to touch..
6. Leave it to cool in the oven...
7. Transfer to an airtight container.
8. Whisk cream and sugar until peak... Fill the cream into the meringue nests/ casings top with freshly cut up summer fruits...

Chai Creme Brulee

I have been on Chai Brulee quest... ever since watching Jimmy make his, in the last Australian Masterchef series.. Watching the judges.. licking their ramekins clean, and the comments they made afterwards, inspire me to try to make some... 

So there I go... Chai Creme Brulee recipe hunting, I practically looked at all the recipes in here, the MasterChef official webpage ... frustrated that none to be found (you would have thought that they might put the recipe up in the web.. but nah!!!)...

My spirit was not dampened... I 'googled' for Creme Brulee recipes and Chai Creme Brulee and fortunately found one from Gourmet Getaways.

Did my first attempt... was not happy as it turned out to be mushy... I believed I made a mistake by not mixing the egg and creme mixture 'thoroughly'... and it was a bit on the sweet side ...

Second attempt~ I tweaked the recipe a little bit... by reducing the amount of white chocolate and omit the vanilla essence ... and this time round I use my trustworthy Kenwood mixer to do the mixing for me!!

It was a spoon licking good ! if I only could stick my tongue into the ramekins...

  

Add the spices into cream... and bring to a quick boil



Strained the spices

     

Caramelising the top..

 
Recipe:

600 ml cream

1 stick cinnamon

1 cloves
5 cardamon
1 star anise
10 threads of saffron
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
90g white chocolate

extra sugar for caramelising top

1. Pre-heat oven to 120C. Line a baking dish with kitchen towel..
2. Place cream, spices in milk pan, bring to a quick boil. Set aside for the spice to infuse with the cream.
3. Whisk egg yolk and sugar until creamy and pale.
4. Sift the spiced cream through a fine siever and pour into the egg mixture. Gently whisk until well combined.
5. Pour into 6 ramekins. Loosely cover each of the ramekins with aluminium foil. Place the ramekins into the lined baking dish and pour hot water into the dish up to half the height of the ramekins.
6. Gently place in the oven. 
7. Baked for 40-50 minutes until the mixture is slightly set. Take the ramekins out of the bath. leave it to cool...
8. Refrigerate overnight.
9. Before serving... sprinkle sugar... caramelised using kitchen torch or Grill... Serve

 

ooohhh... just can't wait...

Oh!.. where did it all go??? Its not me... honest...

Serunding Ikan Bilis/ Anchovies Floss

What is serunding (pronounce Se-roon-ding)?

It is a Malay word ~ literally translated to Meat Floss... There are many type of serunding... Beef, chicken, fish.. and last but not least... Anchovies.... Serunding is best served with steamed glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk or spread on white bread or eat it with hot steamed rice ... 



Soak Anchovies to get rid off the excess salt

This is my second serunding making in a week... My first was Beef serunding (Beef Meat floss)... sadly my beef serunding could not make it to my photoshoot... it was gone in a blink.

Mr H hardly had the chance to savour ... may be a tiny pinch to taste... The culprits were my 2 hungry teens!! and yet they are whining... 'Not enough' ...' Oh, Mom!! its so little'... bla...bla..bla...

I slogged over the stove again yesterday to make Anchovies Floss ... and off it goes ~ to my make-shift studio for some photography session... before its too LATE....



Chillies and chopped onions in a blender...

serunding recipe is from my mom's old cookbook.... 

Recipe:

500g dried anchovies - soaked to get rid of excess salt.

10 dried chillies - soaked in hot water

1 red onion - roughly chopped

1 tablespoon of prawn granules or belacan

2 handfull of store bought golden fried shallots

sugar to taste (about 1/2 cup to start with)

1/2 cup of cooking oil

Method:

1. Blend the onion and chillies into a smooth paste
2. Blend 300g of the anchovies into a smooth paste and roughly chopped the other 200g
3. Heat up cooking oil in wok.
4. Add the chilli paste, keep stirring until the paste thickened and fragrant
5. Add paste and the roughly chopped anchovies
6. Keep stirring and cooked until all the moisture and liquid dried up.
7. Season with sugar...
8. lastly add the golden fried shallots and stir...

Best serve with steamed glutinous rice with coconut milk or pulut...

Quails with Thyme and Lentils

My quail is sexily perched on top of the mash potatoes...
fork is to indicate that it is Quail....

Having quails for lunch or dinner was a luxury ...  those days... and I guess it still is... There aren't a lot of restaurants in Malaysia that served quails (I stand to be corrected here...).

My first taste of quails was at one of the restaurant in Bagan Serai ~ North of Malaysia (in the state of Perak)... Quails were seasoned with tumeric, salt and deep fried the whole bird... Quail is not like chicken... it has less meat... hence deep frying makes it chewy... and you have to have a good set of teeth to gnaw through to the bones  ...

I chanced on these little babies... in the freezer section ... They aren't cheap little darlings... A pack of 6 quails cost me dearly... .. shh... I am not telling the cost as Mr H might be reading this ...

Based on my previous experience of gnawing and gnashing the quails... I decided not to deep fry !!!

I cassoulet-ed (pardon my French...) with lentils...hoping that the meat will not be too dry...

Well... the meat and sauce were yummy..yay!!! but the kids weren't too keen on quails... they kept thinking

'Oh... those Poor little Birds'... 

 

hmmm... it looks like my blog will not be having quails to grace its pages... all good ~ I will put up 'Twitter' and we can still hear a chirping bird ....

• 6 quails
• 1 can brown lentils- drained and washed
• 1 onion - chopped
• 2 garlics - chopped
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 3 pieces of rashers - diced
• 500 ml water
• 1 chicken stock (cube)
• 3 tablespoon flour
• salt
• 30g butter plus another 30g butter
• 2 tablespoon olive oil

Pre heat oven to 200C.

Washed and pat dry quails. Using a sharp pair of scissors, cut through the back bone. Place flour and quails in a plastic bag, and shake to coat the birds. Shake off excess flour.

Heat up frying pan with olive oil and 30g butter. Pan fry the quails until slightly browned. Put aside. Wipe the pan off the oil. Using the same pan, heat up the butter, and saute the onion, garlic, thyme and rashers for few minutes (or until onion is translucent)... Add the lentils with water and chicken stock. Leave it to simmer for 5 minutes.

Return the birds to the simmering lentils... and bring to a quick boil. Transfer the whole dish to an ovenproof dish and bake for 20 minutes...

Serve with Mash potatoes or Rolls and green beans

Black Pearls and Aloe Vera Jelly Bubble Tea

Bubble Tea Craze... yes.. that's the "IN" thing for Mr H Jr and Miss E... a 'must have' whenever they are let 'loose' in the city (so to speak... )...  Ask them and they will be able to guide you  to the best Bubble Tea shop in Perth... they may even tell you which shop has a good offer for an upgrade... 

Its nothing fancy schmancy really... just a huge size black tapioca pearls, some jelly with some option of flavoured fruity tea... This is my first attempt in making Bubble Tea... some of the ingredients were sourced from local Asian grocer...black tapioca pearls, aloe vera drink and konyaku jelly...

Be creative....~ you can add colorful jelly, fruity jelly... or anything you desire... the only thing that would stop us from enjoying this Bubble Tea is....

Our Imagination ....

 Black Tapioca Pearls and Aloe Vera Jelly...

 Pour in some brown sugar syrup

 Followed by strong Black Tea.. or any type of Tea

 Finally ... add some milk and ice cubes...

I dont have ice cubes tray hence no ice cubes in mine

Get ready for hot summer days with Bubble Tea ... with ice cubes of course... share with me your Bubble Tea experience and creation...

• a packet of dried Black Tapioca pearls
• 650 ml Aloe Vera juice
• 125g Konyaku Powder
• 2 Earl Grey teabags
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• milk or cream

Bring 8 cups of water to boil (in a big pot)... add black tapioca pearls. Keep stirring gently... bring to boil again... then lower the heat to a simmer for 5 minutes. Drain and soak in cold water (to stop further cooking and sticky). Repeat the steps few times and last step is to soak the black pearls in cold water. Put aside.

In another pot... bring aloe vera juice to a boil and add in Konyaku powder. Simmer for 2-3 minutes or until the powder has dissolved. Pour into a tray and leave it to cool. Once the aloe vera jelly has cooled, cut into cubes.

Syrup~ Mix brown sugar with water and bring to boil in a pot... Keep stirring until sugar dissolves..

Black Tea ~ Place 2 Earl Grey teabags in a milk pot with 500 ml water... bring to a rapid boil for 1 minute and leave it to steep until we are ready to have some Bubble Tea....

Spoon cut up Aloe vera jelly, black tapioca pearls, brown sugar syrup in a tall glass. Pour in strong black tea and milk.... Enjoy...

Grilled fish with Chilli stuffing...

I love fish stuffed with chilli paste... mom used to cook this ... but she would used local fish ~ Ikan Cencaru  or Torpedo Scad or its Scientific name : Megalaspis Cordyla (linnaues) ... phew!! a mouthful to pronounce!!.. (just 'Image Google' Cencaru for some idea how it looks like... )
I have not seen any of Cencaru sold in WA... alternative~ Taylor... a good substitute..

Mom would cook the chilli paste first(...I followed mom's way of cooking... :))... then she would stuffed the fish with the chilli paste... (ok ~ I did the same...)... then she would deep fry the fish (oops~ sorry mom ... this is where I stop ...)...The aroma of fish and the twice cooked chilli paste... sizzling in the wok... will make my tummy sing-a-song of 'Hunger'... kriuk-krok...kriuk- krok.... did you hear that???

• 2 whole fish - I used taylor
• 8 dried chilli - soaked
• 3 stalks lemongrass - chopped
• belacan (prawn paste)
• sugar
• 1 red onion - chopped
• some banana leaves

Washed and pat dry the fish. Lightly marinate with salt and tumeric. Put aside.

For the chilli paste: Blend the lemongrass, onion, chilli and belacan into a fine paste. Heat up 5 tablespoon of canola oil in the wok, add the blended mixture in. Bring to boil and let it simmer until the paste thicken. Add sugar to suit your taste bud... it should be on the 'sweeter' taste... leave it to cool.

Stuffed the cooked chilli paste into the fish's opening (where the gut used to be!!) and the head...
Wrap the fish with some banana leaves...Grilled for 10 minutes on one side.... Turn the fish over and continue to grill for another 5 minutes and cut opened the banana leaves ... and grill for another 5minutes ...Serve with steam rice...


note: grilling time is very much depending on the size of the fish...

Spicy Beef Noodle

I can't think of what to write at the moment... everything went blank...eversince I heard that my niece has gone into labour... yeah... I will soon be a 'GrandAunt'... a 'young' energetic grand aunt ;)... 

hmmm... time flies... it was 27 years ago...I was holding, cradling and singing her lullabies... 

... got to go and check my FB  :)
update 10th November ~ niece is still in labour....   she just gave birth to a baby Girl (11-11-10)... 4 generations of ladies/females will be under the same roof : great grandmother, grandmother, new mom and baby... :)..

• 1 packet of rice sticks or kway tiow *
• 500g beef - thinly sliced
• 1 canned baby corn - cut in half
• 4 tablespoon red curry paste
• 1/2 cup roasted peanuts - coarsely grounded
• 1/2 cup of fresh coriander leaves
• 2 tablespoon of fish sauce

In a wok, stir fry half the sliced beef with 2 tablespoon of oil for 2 minutes, transfer to a plate. Repeat for the other half. With the remaining oil, add the red curry paste, cook until fragrant. Then add rice sticks with 1/4 cup of water or beef stock. Cook until the rice sticks is tender. Then return the beef to the wok. Stir to mix well. Then add in fish sauce, peanut and 2 tablespoon of sugar. Garnish with fresh coriander and lime.

*note: soak the rice sticks in cold water overnight or soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes. The later will give a slightly mushy texture....

Trifle

Re-visiting my first post on Trifle which was published in April 2009...click here (be warned!!!...detrimental to your eyes!!!). 
I was tempted to click on the 'Delete' button... (especially the photo ~ it was Blech..!!!),  ...

I am a sentimentalist  about the things I write (eventhough...some of it ~ is gibberish), photos taken and so forth .....Its kind of "Report Card" to chart my progress ....and its good to look back (on older posts), have a good laugh  and see how much progress I made along the way ...
Hey I am not saying my photos have that WOW factor...far from it my friend...;)  

My second post on Trifle... I'll be re-visiting some of my older posts and will link it to the new post as we go along .... and I promise you a good LAUGH!!! ...

While shopping at my local grocer (actually I was trying to get out of the intense heat of 37°C ). I found this COLD WATER JELLY by COTTEE's...



Its amazing... just mix in COLD WATER!!! and voila your jelly is ready... at least our cut-up fruits will not be 'semi- cooked'.. Furthermore ...it is suitable for VEGETARIAN...

Put the cut up fruits in a container/s and pour in the Jelly and straight to the fridge....

While waiting for the Jelly to set ... I prepared the custard... I prefer the custard in my earlier post... but I was being lazy ... so I opted for custard powder instead..

place a 'Glad wrap' on the custard to avoid 'skin' forming. Set aside.

Spoon the custard onto the jelly layer... and back to the fridge...

Final stage with cream....

Everything done within 1 hour plus chilling time...

Jelly Layer

• a packet of Cottee's cold jelly - as per packet instruction
• strawberries- washed and hulled

Custard layer

• 2-3 tablespoon of custard powder
• 500 ml milk
• 2 tablespoon of sugar (add more if you want to have the sweet custard)

Mix custard powder with 1/4 of milk... stir into a smooth mixture... Pour the remainder of the milk into a saucepan, follow by the custard mix. Place on the stove on low heat... Keep on whisking to avoid having a lumpy custard. Custard will slowly thickened...and will stick to the back of spatula... transfer to another container....

Top layer

• 300ml cream
• 2 tablespoon of caster sugar

Whisk both until peak..

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Wishing my Hindu friends and Readers

a

Happy Diwali..