Tom Yum woohhoo!

my quick bung in a pot Tom Yum soup :)

you will need:
- good tom yum paste (yay! yes i cheat)
- pleantyful of vegetables. I had, cauliflower, snap peas, tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, carrots
- meats - prawn, chicken, fish (whatever you fancy)
- good stock (vegetable or chicken) or stock cubes are perfectly fine - flavour enhancers
- extra shallots, lemongrass, birds eye chilies and kafir lime leaves :)
- coriander and wedge limes for garnishing

method:

in a big pot heat in a dash of vegetable oil and tom yum paste and stir for 5 minutes and then add lemongrass, khafir lime leaves and crushed birds eye chilli along with the chicken.

If you are not having any chicken add the hard vegetables (i.e carrots) and stock and once it starts to bubble, add the rest of the vegetables in the order of hardness and longest time to cook.

lastly, add in sliced shallots and leave to simmer for 2 minutes or until vegetables are nice and tender but still have crunch. serve immediately with a garnish or coriander and a wedge lime. yummeh!!

Breakfast - malaysian style

Nasi lemak is not the most conventional way to start your day as the it consists of 5 main parts:

1 – Coconut Rice

2 – Sambal

3 – Sliced Cucumber

4 – Crispy anchovies with Roasted peanuts

5 – Hard boiled egg

Anything else you add on top just makes the meal better.

For breakfast we usually have a small portion wrapped nicely in banana leaf which acts as a takeaway convenience but most importantly, it adds a distinct flavour to the steaming rice. It is served in schools, canteens, corner stalls and the Indians restaurants, Malay and Chinese restaurants all have their own take on what goes into our Nasi Lemak.

You will need

1 x cup (per person) of good quality jasmine rice

1 x ½ cup water (per cup of rice)

1 x Sachet of coconut milk powder or a can of coconut milk (if you use a can of coconut milk please consider less water per cup of water)

1 x ½ teaspoon of salt

Method:

Wash rice in water and drain cloudy water at least 3 times.

In a pot add the rice and cups of water and coconut milk and salt and simmer under low/medium fire for 15 – 20 minutes. Rice should only be stirred once or twice and once cooked through, leave lid on and set aside for rice to become fluffy

For the Sambal, You will need

10 x dried red chillies soaked in hot water

5 x shallots

3 x garlic cloves

1 x onion, sliced

½ cm shrimp paste or belacan (optional)

½ x cup tamarind juice

4 x table spoon vegetable oil

Salt and sugar to taste

Method:

Ground the shallot, garlic and belacan (shrimp pste) in a pastal and mortar or blitz in a blender with a bit of water and set aside. In a separate blitz’er ground the chilie with a bit of water and set aside.

In a pan, add oil and heat slightly. When hot add the shallot and garlic ground ingredients and sauté slowly for at least 10 – 15 minute on a low heat until brown. Once the shallot and garlic mixture turns slightly brown add the chilli and sauté for another 10 – 15 minutes. (the aim is to bring out the sweetness and the caramalisation of the ingredients).

Now add the tamarind juice bit by bit and reduce every time it is mixed into the sambal. Once that has been reduced by a 3^rd, add salt and sugar to taste. Lastly add the sliced onions for a bit of dept and crunch J

The colour of the sambal should be at least 3 shades darker then the chillies you had blitz in the beginning. Sugar is important for this colourisation and make sure you have enough salt as you do not want your sambal to be blend.

At any given time, please always keep stirring your sambal as you do not want it to stick to the bottom of the pan and burn. If you are a little concerned about this, just keep adding water, but not to much just a tablespoon or so every time.

The patience of doing so will be so worth the hard work, I promise you this.

Next slice your cucumber, hard boil your egg (place eggs in cold water and cook on hob for 10 minutes), and set aside your salted peanuts and friend anchovies (ikan bilis).

Enjoy!

xxx

Birthday - Surprises and Eating Out!

I turned 26 this year! yay! and i had the most amazing morning surprise from my work colleague Janine who got me a Soy Chai Latte and 2 cupcakes from Peggy Porschen (Pinna Colada and Strawberry Bellini) yes!! and.. as you do, we went to one of my favourite Vietnamese Restaurant in Soho, London called Cay Tre :)

we had, Vietnamese spring rolls with sweet chili dip to start with, cognac beef,spring chicken with tamarind, flower shoots fried with garlic, Grilled Mackerel with Vietnamese Herbs and steamed rice.. and asa surprise, my sweet darling Jeremy made 26 red velvet cupcakes. I heart him!

Nothing is better then celebrating your birthday with great friends and great food :)

Thank you all for the best birthday ever!! xxx

Romano Peppers in a Fajita!

I have never cooked with Romano peppers and when they were on offer one day, i though hey! Why not give it a crack. A lot of the recipes out there say stuffing them was the best way to eat them. Trust me to try something else with them :)

You will need

2 x Romano Peppers or normal peppers

2 x chicken breast or frying steak or 500g mince beef

4 x Big Portobello mushrooms - sliced

1 x bag of mix leaf salad

100g x grated cheddar cheese

1 x tomato diced

1 x onion sliced

1 x lemon - juiced

1 x zucchini - sliced

8 x tortilla wraps

2 x cups sour cream

Seasoning

1 x teaspoon ground cumin, pepper, salt, sugar, cyan pepper, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground garlic, ground onion, paprika, thyme

Method

prep for romano peppers, wash them and stick them on an open fire on the stove and charcoal them until they turn black and set them aside to cool. Once they are cool, run your fingers through them and peel the black skin off. Don't worry if there are some black skin stuck on it, it give it extra flavour. Cut them in half and take seeds out and sliced them up and set aside.

in a pan add a little oil and fry your onions until soften and add a touch of salt and pepper and set aside.

in the same pan, fry sliced zucchini with salt and pepper and set a side

in the same plan, fry sliced onions until tender and set aside

in the same pan, add a touch of oil and add the meat and seasoning toss until cooked and set aside

grate cheese and set aside in a bowl and set fresh salad leaves in a bowl too

in a bowl, add tomato, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sliced onions and mix and set aside in a bowl

heat tortilla wraps

now, on a plate, place tortilla warp and start loading your wrap with what you desire. Can get messy but hey! if it is good it’s worth the mess.

The romano peppers add such a sweet taste to the salty meaty fajita, mushroom etc. it’s amazing!! enjoy!!!