Fairy Cake

Again,baking is not my thing. My girlfriend made these, so i dont know how to make these. But it sure is nice. Fairy cakes they are called, with chocolate nutella icing

Rude Birds! (Grilled Quails with Thai Red Curry)

These may look like baby chickens sitting on a plate but they are actually quails the size of a regular chicken thigh. I bought them weeks ago but i wasn't sure how to cook them . So when in doubt ; GRILL! But i curried them first hand.

Stuff you'll need:
8 quails
2 Tbsp Thai Red curry paste
1 thumb sized galangal, sliced thinly
1 lemon grass stalk,bruised
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp tumeric
2 Tbsp lemon juice
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of coconut cream
10 lime leaves
A handful of chives
Salt


What you'll need to do:
Marinate the quails with tumeric mixed with a cup of water and salt
1. Heat oil in a pot and add in the curry paste, galangal and lemon grass and fry until fragrant.Careful not to burn it.
2. Add in the water and salt and bring to a boil and then simmer
3. Add in the quails and cook for 25 minutes.
4. Add in the coconut cream to thicken and the lime leaves and boil for another 5 minutes.

The next stage is to grill the quails. Grill them 10-15 minutes on each side until golden brown and slightly charred.

I was slightly put off by their legs spread so wide apart like frogs so i tied the legs up with strands of chives haha. My OCD kicking in there. It does have a distinct taste compared to chicken. Quite tender and cute. As for the curry, fragrant,hot, sour. Just how a thai curry should taste like

Tongue on fire! (Prawn and egg plant sambal)

Sainsbury's has got jumbo king prawns on offer right now so that was a good enough excuse for me to splurge on prawns. It's also my first time working with egg plants here. Yeah, so sambal, the ultimate malay condiment and the signature malay cooking style. If the british loves to roast, the texans love to deep fry,the indian's love to curry and the chinese love to stir-fry, then the malays especially loves to nyambal! Basically it's a hot chilli paste made with bags of blended caramelised onions and dried chillis. Infused with belachan(shrimp paste) and sweet soy sauce at times.


Got-to-have's:
5 large onions
2 tablespoons of chilli paste
3 Tablespoons of sweet soy sauce
1 Tablespoon of sugar
1 Tablespoon of tamarind paste, dissolved in half a cup of water.
1 Tsp of belachan paste
salt to taste

500g of prawns.
1 medium sized egg plant, cubed.

Whatcha gonna do:
Firstly, chop the onions roughly and mince using a blender or a hand liquidizer.(I prefer the latter because it's more fun and easier to clean). Yeah, so blend the onions But it is ctuciall that you blend it with oil and not water, or it will become runny.

Add in the chilli paste into the blender as well.

Heat oil in a wok, add in the belachan paste and pour the mixture. Fry for around 2o minutes until fragrant and it turns delightfully dark crimson. Next add the sweet soy sauce, sugar and salt and tamarind and stir for 5 minutes..

Lastly put in the egg plant and prawns and stir for about 5 minutes until cooked. Note: It helps remove the bitter taste from the eggplant by boiling the eggplant with a bit of salt for around 8 minutes before hand.

Verdict:
Not for the mild tongued, the faint hearted and the seafood allergy sufferers.haha. Especially good for punishing pottymouthed children.Kidding. But it's quite hot and i wouldn't mind another tablespoon of sugar in there. But any dish with prawns in it, i'm happy with. You could omit the eggplant if it doesn't tickle your fancy. I just added them for volume.hehe

Mee cinta

Love noodles~~~. Haha, just a fancy name with a story behind it.
Anyways, these are egg noodles in spicy chicken curry.

The essentials:

2 eggs
3 packets of egg noodles(approx 700g)
beansprouts
A bunch of coriander
1 Thumbsized ginger,sliced
1 stalk of lemon grass bruised
2 chillies, cut
5 large onions and 1 clove of garlic blended.
3 Tbsp of curry mixed with 1/2 cup of water
4 boneless chicken thighs, deboned and cut into bite sized pieces.
1 Tsp belachan paste
1 Tbsp Chilli paste
5 cups of water
Salt
pepper
1 Tbsp of tamarind paste
1 Tbsp sugar
1 cup coconut cream

The insruction manual:
Boil the egg noodles for 5 minutes with salt and a little oil until cooked and run under cold water.

To make the curry,
Heat oil, and fry the garlic and lemon grass
Fry the blended onion and garlic until fragrant and caramelised. Around 10 minutes.
Then, add the curry paste,chilli paste and belachan until fragrant as well
Add the water and bring to a boil.
Add in the chicken pieces and simmer for 25 minutes.
Add the tamarind, salt,sugar and pepper
To thicken, add the coconut cream and cook for another 5 minutes.

Serve with hard boiled eggs, chilli,chopped coriander,beansprouts and lime.
Yum.

Richness,tang and heat wrapped into one. Just nice. What would be even more fantastic is by liquidisng boiled sweet potato into the curry to give it that extra smoothness,thickness and sweetness. mmm

LASARNIE~~

This is how one of the foodstalls in brunei spelled lasagna. Funny. An yways, i didn't make this. My girlfriend made this masterpiece on her turn to make dinner. Vegetable lasagna topped with pepproni and tomato. A classic Northern italian dinner in the winter months.

I just made the white sauce and the pepperoni and tomato toppings. Being a student, i suggest Dolmio's ready made tomato sauces. It's equally good and saves you a lot of time. We used vegemince from sainsbury's for the mince, which tasted a bit like bread and chicken. Again, much more convenient and tastes quite nice.

So,
the must-have's:
Red Sauce:
1 kg of vegemince
1 jar of family sized dolmio sauce
pasta sheets, enough to cover the tray.
1 large onion, chopped finely
1 clove of garlic chopped finely
mixed herbs.
2 handfuls of spinach

White sauce:
3 cups of milk
3 Tbsp Plain flour
salt&pepper to taste
dried thyme


Toppings:
1 beef tomato sliced
10 cm of pepperoni sliced
6 spinach leaves
300g mozzarella cheese
500g of mild cheese.

Read the instructions:
1. Heat oil in a pot and fry the garlic and onions until fragrant and caramelised.
2. Add the vegemince and stir fry for a minute
3. Add in the dolmio sauce , bring to a boil and simmer
4. Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste. A chicken stock cube won't hurt either.
Cook for at least 10-15 minutes.

In a separate pan, make the white sauce by heating oil and putting in the flour straight into the pan. No water
Then add in the milk and simmer unti the sauce thickens around 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and thyme.

Next, in a baking tray, spread the red sauce into a single layer and sprinkle the first handful of spinach.
Then, line the pasta sheets until it covers the tray amd press firmly.
Next, the white sauce a handful of mild cheese,sheets. Next, more red sauce, sheets.

Finally red sauce, topped with white sauce and another handful of spinach. The rest of the cheese and top with the pepperoni and tomato.

Pop it in the oven Gas mark 6 for an hour and done!

Never underestimate a slice of lasagna, It is 2 times more filling than the same volume of spaghetti. Quite viscous to swallow so i suggest a another cup of water to the red sauce. The topping looks really colourful and attractive though. Warming and filling nonetheless.

Untitled

Fried Kwetiyau for lunch. I'm not sure how to spell it. A hawker's food stall staple and a favourite among locals.My dad absolutely adores them. It's basically flat rice noodles stirfried in soy sauce and chilli paste with tofu,beansprouts,pak choy and seafood.

What you'll need:
400g of seafood. I used prawns,mussels and calamari.
A 400g pack of broad flat rice noodles
A handful of beansprouts
A block of firm tofu, diced
4 garlic cloves
10 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp of chilli paste
2 Tbsp of light soy sauce
2 stalks of pak choy
5 stalks of chives cut into medium lengths

How to make them?
Boil the rice noodles for 5 minutes until cooked.
Fry the chopped garlic and the chilli paste until fragrant. Careful not to burn it like i almost did.
Quickly add in the beaten eggs and stir quickly
Add in the seafood and tofu and stir fry until cooked for at least 3 minutes
Add in the noodles and the soy sauces and stir fry on high heat.
Lastly, add in the pakchoy,chives and beansprouts until wilted.

Cooking it under really high heat, it creates this charred crust on the bottom, which gives kue tiao that signature smoky,nutty flavour. Something to do with the mythical "wok's breath".So dont panic if the noodles start sticking on the pan. Just scrape the crust and mix with the noodles! Voila! Served best with pickled chillis and sweet chilli. Yum.
Mine was a bit too hot since i put 2 tablespoons of chilli paste.
Have a go at it!