Chicken Tajine with Quince

Quince is in season, so it is good time to try a tagine recipe from chef Hassan M'Souli, who runs several Moroccan restaurants in Sydney, Australia.

Fresh ripe quinces

Ingredients


1.6 kg chicken pieces, e.g. 8 chicken thighs
2 tbsp fresh Mint leaves
2 tsp Saffron thread
1 cup Orange juice
Salt and freshly grounded black pepper
6 tbsp Olive oil
2 brown onions, julienned
2 tsp Ginger powder
1 stick Cinnamon
2 cups of water
2 ripe Quinces, cut into 8 pieces with core and seeds removed
Quarter cup Honey
1 tsp ground sweet cinnamon

Method


Wash and dry the chicken with paper towels
In a large bowl, mix the saffron, orange juice and chopped mint together. Season with salt and pepper. Marinate the chicken with this mixture, and leave it for at least an hour.
Heat the olive oil in a large pot ( I use a Le Creuset iron-cast pot), add the onions and cook until it is soft. Add the ginger and cinnamon stick and then the marinated chicken. Pour the marinate mixture in the pot. Add one cup of water, enough to barely cover the chicken. Place the lid on the pot and cook over a low heat for 30 minutes. Take the chicken pieces out and set aside.
While keeping the heat on the simmering stock, add the pieces of quince, the honey, cinnamon and add enough water (not more than the remaining 1 cup) to cover the quinces. Stir gently and bring to boil, then reduce to a smimmer. Cover the pot and cook for another 15 minutes. Return the chicken in the pot and simmer for another 10 minutes. Serve with couscous or crusty bread.

Pasta con Sugo di Funghi e Panna - Pasta with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:
Serves 4

400g Fresh Mushrooms (brown, button, portobello or mixed variety)
1 slice of Bacon  chopped into little tiny cubes (the one with little bit more fat)
2 clove of garlics (chopped)
3 twigs of Parsley (chopped )
200 ml Fresh Cream
3 tbsp of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and White Pepper for seasonings

Pasta serving for 4 (cooked al dente)

Method: 

Pour olive oil in sauce pan, sauteed the garlic and bacon together. Put in the mushroom..
Slowly sauteed the mushroom until it sweat. Pour in the cream, and the chopped parsley, and as it heat up, reduce the heat and stir constantly. Season with salt and white pepper.

Tips:

• Heat up the olive oil gently and put in the garlics and bacon, pour in the mushroom as it begin to brown slightly, careful not to overcook the bacon or garlics
• When preparing the parsley, do not throw away the stalks, chopped them up, they are the most flavoursome, gives the sauce some texture (crunchy)
• When mixing in the cream, the cream is cold so let it heat up and immediately reduce the heat when it start to show that it is 'cooking' and stir gently to mix the flavour into the cream, careful not to overcook the sauce, i.e. sauce too dry
• Overall, watch your timing, do not overcook any of the ingredients, otherwise they loose their moisture and flavour.
• No time measure given, due to the many factors that can vary it, e.g. intensity of fire, moisture content in the ingredients, etc. Time it yourself by observing the food as it cooked. 

Moujaddara - Rice with lentils

One of my friend who is originally from Israel, took us to Wallah, a middle-eastern restaurant in St Kilda. They have some interesting middle-eastern cuisine which I have never tried before, one which I like a lot is Moujaddarra (initially I had difficulty saying the name, but now it comes naturally). This dish has very nice texture (between fluffy rice and biting lentils) and it is so fragrant with the spices and caramelised onions. And it is absolutely nutritious. The next day, I had a go at cooking the dish, and I am hooked. Ingredients: 1 cup of Brown lentils, rinsed 1 1/2 cups of Basmati Rice, rinsed 3 to 3 1/2 cups of Water 4 Onions, sliced 1/2 tsp Cumin powder 1/4 tsp Mixed Spices 1/2 cup Olive Oil Salt and pepper for seasoning Serves 4 Method: Put lentils in a deep pan, bring it to boil for a few seconds. Then lower the fire to simmer for 20 mins. Add salt, pepper, cumin, mixed spices, rice, let it simmer (covered) for another 20 mins. While the rice and lentils is cooking, heat the olive oil in a sauce pan. Fry the onions until caramelised (be careful not to burn the onions). Remove the onions using a slotted spoon and set aside. Add the oil that was used for the onions to the rice and lentils, stir gently in. Scoop the rice and lentils out to a serving dish and garnish with the caramelised onions Serve hot or cold with yoghurt.

Nasi Dagang with Tuna Fish Curry

I am always fascinated with the food and culture on the East coast states of Peninsular Malaysia, i.e. Kelantan and Trengganu. They are so different from the West coast which are very much influenced by the Indian, Indonesian , Chinese, Persian and Arab. The food and culture in Kelantan seem to be untouched through the passage of time and seem to have parallels with the Balinese.

My own theory is that they represent the traditional food that was once in this region before the huge influx of spice traders from India and the Middle East to this area. And during that time, there was a big change in the culture from a Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms (remember the enormous Borobudur and Angkor Wat structure) to the Persian influenced Islamic sultanate sometime in the fifteenth century. As Kelantan is quite remote from the influence from the Islamic sultanates, much of their culture remained from that time, similarly the Balinese (former subject of the Hindu kingdom of Majapahit) kept their heritage when they are exiled to the island of Bali. You can see the roots of the culture from the characters from the 'Wayang Kulit', a traditional shadow puppet play which depicts the story from Hindu's Ramayana, which is still perform today in both Bali and Kelantan.

Sorry to be carried away with the history lesson, now this dish - the Nasi Dagang together with the Tuna Fish Curry is a traditional dish from Kelantan. Translated, 'Nasi Dagang' means 'trader's rice'. This dish is probably a street food as a quick meal. This combination of the rice with the curry is one of my favourite.

I have cooked on several occasions referencing on Amy Beh's recipe and have modified it slightly to reflect on the ingredients that we can get in Melbourne.

Nasi Dagang (the fragrant rice)

Ingredients

• 300g Red Basmati Rice (or substitute with 200g good grade Long Grain rice mixed with 100g glutinous rice)
• 165 ml Coconut Milk (Small Can of Coconut Milk to make 3/4 cup thick coconut milk and 3/4 cup thin coconut milk)
• 1/4 tsp Fenugreek seeds
• 2 cloves Garlic, sliced finely
• 3 Shallots, sliced finely ( or sustitue with 1 red onion )
• 2 cm young Ginger, sliced finely
• 1/2 tsp salt

Method

1. Wash the rice and soak for five hours. Drain and steam the rice for 20 to 25 minutes or until half-cooked.
2. Stir in the thin coconut milk and continue steaming for 15 minutes until the rice is nearly cooked.
3. Combine the thick coconut milk, shallots, garlic, ginger, fenugreek and salt. Stir into the cooked rice and continue steaming for another 10 to 15 minutes or until rice is fully cooked.

Serve rice with Tuna Fish Curry

Tuna Fish Curry (the curry)

Ingredients

• 400g Smaller species of Tuna or Mackerel, e.g. Bonito, Spanish Mackerel
• 2 eggplants, quartered
• 2 pieces dried tamarind skin
• 200 ml Coconut Milk (Half a Tin of Coconut Milk to make 1/4 cup thick coconut milk and 1 cup thin coconut milk)

Ground the spices below in a food processor to make the curry paste:

• 6 shallots
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cm piece galangal
• 1 stalk lemon grass
• 1 1/2 tbsp chili paste
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin

Seasoning:

• Salt to taste
• Sugar or Palm Sugar to taste (about 1 tsp)

Method: 


Seal the fish

1. Cut fish into 2 cm thick round slices.
2. Season fish with salt and leave aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan until hot, coat the fish with the flour and fry fish for 2 to 3 minutes on each side.
4. Dish out and set aside.

Cook the curry

1. Heat pan with 3 tbsp oil and saute combined ground spice ingredients until fragrant.
2. Pour in thin coconut milk and add dried tamarind skin pieces and egg plants.
3. Bring to a boil.
4. Add in fish slices and thick coconut milk.
5. Add in seasoning and boil for 3 to 4 minutes.

Serve with nasi dagang.

Traditional Ethiopian Coffee

Not many people are aware that coffee drinking is originated from East Africa. Coffee was first discovered in Ethiopia. There is a myth or legend on how it came about -
"Once a upon a time, there was a goat herder in the mountains of Ethiopia who noticed that his goats have been extra active after eating the beans from a bush. He took the beans back to the priests and explain what had happened. The priest was not very impressed and threw the beans in a hearth fire. The beans produced a nice fragrant (like in an Italian cafe?). Having been attracted to the fragrance, the priest took the roasted beans and boiled it like a spice and voila he just made the first cup of coffee"

Eventually the use of the beans as beverages were introduced to Arab cities (Mecca?) and then it made it way to Baghdad and Venice. So if you want to be part of the coffee history, try coffee in the traditional Ethiopian way.

The video shows the ambient and the warm hospitality of Harambe, an Ethiopian restaurant in Footscray, Melbourne.  The owner of the restaurant, Mrs Dershaye is preparing and serving the coffee after our meal there. It was a fantastic relaxing Saturday afternoon ( Easter weekend) well spent.

Background music: Medo Hane, by Jump to Addis from the Ethiopiques Vol 15 Album: Europe meet Ethiopia.

Durian Gâteaux

The cake is made in a French style, i.e. sponge cake layers, frosting and filling. The cake is inspired by Elin's recipe , which is simple and easy to follow. It is always good not to mix the fruit pulp (of tropical fruits) into the cake mixture and bake it, the huge flavour of the fruits is usually lost in the baking process. This is confirm in my recent attempt in baking a passion fruit cake. So for this recipe (thanks to Elin) , the raw pulp retains 100% of its flavour. The strong flavour of the durian blended perfectly (in fact subdued to a 'classy' level) with rich cream and the sponge cake.

The Old Raffles Place - Melbourne

I came to know this restaurant many years ago when it was first introduced by my cousin. This little joint is tucked in the corner of busy Johnston Street, which is more known as the Spanish quarter of Melbourne.

While waiting for my food, I approached the owner, Mr. Alan Han, to let him know that I would like to do a blog on his restaurant . His candid response was "Are you going to write something controversial about my place?"  He told me how upset he was with some 'bad review' in the internet about his food. This guy must be quite passionate of what he does to get too upset over it.

When we finished our meals, I complimented him for the authenticity of food served and how yummy they were, especially the 'Hainanese Chicken Rice' (photo above).  This cuisine is originated from the Hainan island in Southern China. Where the folks from this island, the Hainanese, migrated to the South East Asian countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand, they brought with them this traditional cuisine.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice served here one of the best you can get in Melbourne. Every detail is looked into, i.e. the chili sauce that accompanied it and the intricate flavour of the rice (cooked with chicken stock with seasonings, hint of ginger, stock from the boiled chicken) and most important the chicken is tender and 'slippery' in texture. For those who are not familiar with this cuisine, they usually complained that the chicken is not well cooked.

The other favourite of mine is the Char Keow Teow (stir fried flat rice noodles with prawns, bean sprouts and eggs). The menu items have interesting names though they are common dishes . Each item is prefixed with a place name in Singapore where you can find a best stall or hawker centre that serves that particular dish. For example, the Racecourse Char Keow Teow served is in the 'style' that is found in Racecourse (a place in Singapore). Other items are: Lorong Melayu Nasi Goreng, Katong Chicken Laksa.

I have never asked Alan where he is originated from, as I assumed he must have come from Singapore. The restaurant proclaimed that the food served are authentic "Singaporean heritage cuisine". All menu items are street food (or hawker food) that are common in Singapore and Malaysia.

The restaurant from outside looks like an typical Asian takeway with banners shouting for attention, but when you stepped inside, it has an interesting decor, reminiscent of 70's with pink walls and photos of Singapore's colonial days. I quite like the ambient (have only dined here during the day).

Pork Chops with Blueberry Sauce

This dish is based on a recipe from a popular Italian recipe cookbook, 'The Silver Spoon". I came across this recipe sometime back, and have always wanted to give it a try, however the price of fresh blueberries has been very prohibitive.

I decided to use imported frozen ones from Chile, South America which cost three times cheaper, which I wonder if the fresh berries will make a difference in the taste (will try it with fresh berries next round to compare.)

I served it with some mashed potato and a stalk of blanched brocollini.

Ingredients:

4 pcs Spare-rib pork chops
Plain Flour, for dusting
25 g Butter
3 tblsp Olive Oil
175 ml Red wine
300 g Blueberries
100 g Clear honey
Salt for seasonings

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade.
2. Dust the chops with flour.
3. Heat the butter and oil in a small flameproof casserole, add the chops and cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over.
4. Pour in the wine and cook until it has partly evaporated, then season with salt.
5. Pass the blueberries through a food processor and mix with the honey in a bowl. Spread the mixture over the chops, then cover the casserole, transfer to the oven and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Leave to stand for 10 minutes, then serve.

Appam & Putumayam - South Indian traditional dishes

This scene could have been in Chennai or Colombo. Well no, this is at The Palms food court at Blackburn Road. The hoppers or appam is a pancake made from fermented rice flour batter. These pancake are quite bland and usually have to be accompanied with sambal, a thick chilli based sauce served as condiments and a small side dish curry of your choice.

The appam is served with a choice of two types of sambal, from the three that are offered, i.e. Pol sambal - which is a grated coconut mixed with ginger and lime juice and some garlic, Katta - a sambal made from dried Maldive fish flake with chilli paste, shallot and salt, or Seeni sambal- a spicy caramelized onions and dried Maldive fish flake condiment.

I had this 'Special Hopper Deal' which includes three plain hoppers and one egg hopper with a Pol (yellow turmeric) and Seeni sambal, and a small serve of lamb curry.

You can also order a Jaggery hopper as a snack or dessert, which is simply the same appam pancake except that Jaggery, the palm sugar is added in. Instead I choose to have the Putumayam - a rice flour dough serve with brown palm sugar and grated coconut.

The appam and putumayam is very familiar to me, as I have lived with the large number of Tamils from South India in Malaysia. I practically grew up with these foods, and I considered myself lucky to be able to continue to enjoy these foods in Melbourne.

Wickedly Delicious Patisserie

I am extremely cautious of restaurant with name already complimenting itself before you even step into it. In this case, my skepticism was unfounded, the food was truely 'wickedly delicious'. We stopped by this place for lunch on our way to pick some raspberry and strawberry. We were happy to have found a new place to stopover on our visit to the Dandenong Hills.

The Wickedly Delicious Pastisserie is owned by the talented pastry chef, Helena Panasweycz. Unfortunately we did not get to meet her, instead we met her mother who is helping out at the restaurant and the sous chef, Molly (picture on the left)

We had croissants, a caramelised onion and steak pie and a raspberry cake. The pie was amazing, with fillings that was so generous with big chunky steak pieces and thick gravy, and most important it was flavoursome.

The croissant was well made with the beautiful crust outside and soft centre, however it could have been better if we have come early when it was fresh out from the oven. The cake is made from hazelnut flour and with raspberry sauce dripped over it. The sauce was the highlight, and it did not dissappoint us.


 

Tangyuan - Traditional chinese rice balls in Soup

We celebrated the Dōngzhì Festival or Winter Solstice festival yesterday. Traditionally, this festival is to celebrate the change of the season; it marks the end of the extreme of Winter (in the northern hemisphere) and from this point onwards, the days will be increasingly longer. However, here in the Southern Hemisphere we will find the days getting shorter and shorter.

On the Dōngzhì Festival, we make the traditional Tangyuan, literally translated it means 'ball in soup'. Though ready-made ones are easily available, we prefer to make them from scratch. It lends to the festive spirit and it is simple to make.


Ingredients

• 1 cup glutinous rice flour
• 4 ounces water
• Fresh ginger, small piece about 3 cm, crushed
• Sugar

Method

1. Place flour in the large mixing bowl
2. Gradually mix in the water until the mixture gains a dough-consistency; you may not need all the water
3. Knead the dough for 5 minutes
4. Pinch off small pieces of the dough and roll them into balls, traditionally it is preferred to have some small and some big ones
5. Put a pot of water to boil
6. Drop the balls into the boiling water
7. When the balls float up, scoop them out and set aside in a bowl with water at room temperature.
8. Prepare the syrup soup by boiling the sugar and ginger in a pot.
9. Serve the glutinous rice balls with the syrup soup.

Things can get a bit more complicated when you start adding colours or putting fillings in the rice balls. It reminds me very much of the commercialization of our traditional food. You can find technicolor balls with myriad option of fillings in the Asian grocery store.

Chocolate Cake Supreme

This chocolate cake is simple to make. It has a nice texture with soft crunch of the fresh walnuts. I pay particular attention to the choice of the main ingredients, going to great lengths to look for the freshest walnuts and good tasting chocolate.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup Thickened cream
• 200g dark cooking chocolate, chopped ( Try Whittaker's Dark Block over standard Cadbury or Nestle cooking chocolate)
• 3 eggs, separated
  
• 150g Castor sugar
• 80g Unsalted butter
• 60g plain flour, sifted
• 60g self-raising flour, sifted
• 100g walnut halves, cut into 3 or 4 pieces
• a pinch of cream of tartar
• 60g Sultanas
• 1/4 cup of Drambuie or other liqueur

Method

• You need a buttered 22cm (81/2 inch) cake tine
• Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F
• Mix sultanas and Drambuie in a bowl
• Bring the cream to the boil in a small saucepan and then on a very low heat add the chocolate to melt
• Beat egg yolks and sugar until fluffy and white
• Whisk butter into chocolate preparation then gently mix in the egg yolk preparation, the two types of flour, the walnuts and the macerated sultanas
• Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form.
• Using a rubber spatula or large metal spoon, fold the beater whites into the chocolate prepartaion and pour the mixture into your cake tine. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.  Cool for  15 minutes before carefully unmoulding onto a cooling rack.
• Before serving, dust the top with icing sugar or ice with the a chocolate ganache.

Orange Almond Cake

We have a few friends over for tea and decided to bake a cake. Looking through my collection of recipes, I decided on either the Orange Almond and Chocolate Supreme cake from Gabriel Gate's recipes. Undecided on the cake to make for the afternoon, I bought ingredients for two cakes and ended up making them both.

I started the day putting the oranges to simmer and preparing the blanched almonds. This flourless Orange Almond cake is basically based on the traditional Sephardic Jews recipe. The Sephardi are originally from the Iberian peninsular (where Spain and Portugal is) where oranges are plenty.

This is truly a slow-food - having to prepare the blanched almond from scratch and simmering the orange for two hours. 
Put on my favourite CD and work on the almond til the last song on the CD.This is the best way to chillout. Alternatively, you can buy ready blanched almond or ground almond meal.

After putting in the Orange cake to bake for an hour, the girls left to go for a walk in the park to work out an appetite, when it is time for to start working on the next cake.

"This flourless Orange cake is moist and had the truly awesome orange flavour. As the almonds are not finely ground, it has a nice texture."

Ingredients

2 Unblemished oranges
1 1/2 cups Blanched Almonds
1 cup Castor Sugar
5 eggs (size 61 gm)
1 tsp Baking Powder
Icing sugar for dusting

Method

1. Buttered or lined a 20cm (8 in) cake tin.
2. Place the washed oranges in a pot with enough water to cover. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for two hours. Drain oranges and allow to cool.
3. Blend almonds and sugar in a food processor until almonds are in quite small pieces. Transfer to plate.
4. In the same food processor, blend the whle oranges to a puree. Add almond and sugar mixture and blend briefly before gradually adding the eggs and baking powder, blend until smooth.
5. Pour the mixture into the cake tin and bake in preheated oven for 1 hour Cool for 10 mins before unmoulding to a cake rack.
6. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Dried Anchovies with Petai

I am taking the opportunity to revisit some of my favourite home cook dishes while my mum is visiting us from Malaysia.. This is a dish I requested from Mum to cook for lunch today. It is a dish of stir-fried dried anchovies, onions and 'Petai'. Petai is a kind of seed or bean that is bitter and have a very strong aroma, which makes this unusual delicacy an acquired taste. It is popular in South East Asia and North-eastern India. This beans are only available fresh in the SE Asia region, it is harvested from stringy twisted seed-pod on a tall tropical tree. They are available in Melbourne in small can, preserved in brine.

Ingredients:
1 can (170g) Petai drained - use fresh beans where available
60g Dried anchovies (Ikan bilis)
1 Red chilli, sliced
4 tbsp of cooking oil
3 Big onions sliced
1 tsp Sugar
1 tbsp Black soy sauce





Method

1. Heat the oil in the pan. Fry the dried anchovies.
2. Remove and set aside the fried anchovies, leaving the oil in the pan.
3. Stir fry the sliced onions and chili in the pan
4. Next put the petai to fry with the onions.
5. Dissolve the sugar in the soy sauce, and pour and stir in the pan.
6. Lastly, shut the flame off and stir in the fried anchovies.

Mum's tips:

• Taking care not to overfried the anchovies, as with any food it can impart a unpleasant bitter burnt flavour. Remember to control the heat when anchovies are about to be brown.
• Optionally add a teaspoon of thick sweet black soy sauce ('Kicap manis') for colour
• Do not brown onions until it caramelised as in Western cooking, preferable onions have a little bit of rawness.
• Keep fried anchovies slightly crispy when stirred into the onions and petai to maintain contrasting texture. So drop the when you mix the crispy fried anchovies in.

Outback Game Meat

I have been away on holidays again. It is so hard to keep up with the blog when you are on holidays. I have been ambitious, planning to keep up with the posting with my Netbook, in reality you just cannot focus on the blog while on holidays.

My holidays took me to the Red Centre of Australia. This place is also known as the outback of Australia. We stayed the town called Alice Springs, a remote city surviving on activities from the gas fields, cattle farming, and a major stopover for trucks and trains from Adelaide to Darwin (northern end of Australia).

We camped in the caravan and National parks. While at Alice Springs we get to eat out at Red Ochre Cafe , a local restaurant on one cold and rainy afternoon. Here we get to sample some local fare. We had a camel pie, and a plate of assorted items ('antipasto') which include Emu and Kangaroo meat served with turkish bread and some dips.

Camel is considered a pest or unwanted species of animals, or ferals. They have been imported during the mid 19th to early 20th century to transport goods in the harsh and arid land. During that time, the Afghans were hired as the camel drivers. The camel population has grown steadily and is believe to have reached a million, the government recently allocated $17 million to get rid of this animals. Some of these has been captured and slaughtered in abattoir. So the meat are readily available. Similarly kangaroos has been culled to control the population. These animals ended up on the dining table as game meat. Not too common in Melbourne, but more so in the bush country.
I find the Emu and roo meat a bit tough and chewy. They are usually cooked rare, or alternatively they should be stewed for many hours to tennderise them.

The camel meat pie is excellent. Juicy and mildly flavoured with dried kumquat or orange peel.

At Kings Canyon (National Park) grocery/fuel station store, we came across frozen Kangaroo tails about one and half foot long. I wish they sell these in Melbourne. I would love to cook a delicious stew out of these. At the store, we picked up some camel steaks (and together with some crocodile meat which we bought at the butcher in Alice Springs), we cooked them camp. I must say I like the flavour and texture of the camel meat.

Pasta alla Puttanesca – Whore’s pasta

Puttanesca come from the Italian word 'puttana' which means ‘whore’, there are a few stories on the origin of this sauce. One story goes to say that due to the limited time and the inconvenience to shop at the markets, people in these 'category of profession' (presumably in Italy )  would cook simple pasta using whatever they can get from the kitchen larder, and therefore the creation of this delicious recipe.

This sauce is very simple to made, and use ingredients that is easily available. I reviewed a few version of the recipes on the Web. I picked up some ideas watching Jamie Oliver on the youtube, which to my dismay was dubbed in German. Once I have an idea of the basic ingredients, I gathered most of the ingredients that were available in the kitchen.

Ingredients

4 tablespoon of Olive Oil
6 cloves of Garlic, sliced
1 Onion, sliced
1 bottle (300g) of Kalamata Olives*
1 bottle (110g) of Capers**
8 pcs of Anchovies
2 Dried Chillies,
2 cans (800g) of Diced Tomatoes
Some Oregano
Sea sal;t and Pepper to taste

*Sandhurst’s Barchetta kalamata
**Sandhurst’s Baby Capers

Method

Heat the olive oil in a pan. Saute the garlics and onions in the oil, control the heat to avoid ‘burning’ the garlics. Put in the rest ingredients in the order above. Slowly adding them to cook without dropping the temperature in the pan too quickly. When all the ingredients are in the pan, let it simmer for 25 mins or so to reduce the sauce to a saucy consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While cooking the sauce, you can start boiling the water for the pasta.

The amount of sauce cooked is enough for six servings. Any excess can easily be kept in the bottle for another day’s quick meal.

Bebek Betutu – Balinese Roast Duck in Banana Leaf

Back from my holidays, this is my first attempt cooking a traditional Balinese cuisine. We have no idea how it will turn up, but brave enough to invite friends over to dine with us.

When we served it, I was thrilled with the result. The flavour was intense and complex with each of the herbs flavour revealing itself, complementing each other so well, not one overwhelming the other. Honestly, we have never tasted it like this in Bali. I am trying to figure out why it is different – could be the fresh herbs and generous time given in the preparation and cooking, e.g. rubbing the herbs on the duck and the one-hour steaming followed by half an hour baking in the oven. Whatever it is, we have the advantage of ample time and fresh herbs, which is always the constraint or has cost implications for a restaurant.

Ingredients:

1 Whole Duck, about 2 kgs
18 Shallots, sliced thinly
6 cloves of Garlic, sliced thinly
1 stalk of Lemongrass, tender inner part of the bottom third only, finely sliced
6 Macadamia or Candlenuts (buah pala), chopped
5 cm Fresh Ginger, peeled and chopped
7.5 cm Turmeric root, peeled and chopped
1 teaspoon Black Peppercorns, crushed
5 Bird’s-eye Chillies, sliced
1 teaspoon Coriander seeds, crushed
2 teaspoon Dried Shrimp paste, dry roasted and coarsely crushed
1.5 tablespoon salt
3 tablespoon Oil
Banana Leaves, parchment paper or aluminum foil for wrapping

Method:
Wipe the duck dry and set aside. Mix all the ingredients above except for the banana leaves in a bowl. Ensure that it is mix well (I use my hand to mix it). Rub the duck inside and outside with the mixture and fill the centre of the duck with the remainder. Close the opening of the duck with satay skewers (I use little cocktail picks). Wrap it in several layers of banana leaves or foil and steam it for 50 minutes. Transfer the duck to the oven to bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 30 minutes.
To serve, remove the duck from the banana leaves and cut into small pieces and serve with the ‘stuffing’.

Tip: Shallots are very expensive here, and 18 needed! I substituted half with onions. Kencur root is unique spice usually used in Balinese cooking. It has the aroma of the camphor. I still have not acquired the flavour. I left it out from the mix - you won’t missed it, unless you are a Balinese.

In Ubud, Bali, some restaurant serve the dish with chicken instead, therefore ‘Siap Betutu’, siap is chicken in Balinese, and betutu is roast or smoked. We had this dish in Bunute Restaurant (photo on the left and below, with my son Aaron). Notice the chicken is too soggy.

Guling Celeng - Balinese Roast Suckling Pig

The Balinese daily food are quite simple. Usually they have rice accompanied by a selection of dishes, which includes vegetables, maybe a small amount of meat or fish and a variety of condiments (sambals). You can get a feel of this simple meal by ordering ‘Nasi Campur’ at a ‘warung’ (small eatery) in Bali.
In contrast, during a festival or ceremony, they prepared lavish dishes and eat together in a community.  One of those traditional dish that is usually served during ceremony is ‘Babi Guling’.

Today, it is quite common for this dish to be served in restaurants all over Bali.  One of the more well known restaurant serving this dish is ‘Ibu Oka’in Ubud.

This restaurant only serves this dish in various configuration. Business starts at 10am and usually sold out by about 3pm. I was told they can sell about five pigs a day. When we were there, we ordered the ‘special’ option which includes some crunchy bits of the roasted tribe and intestines. The standard option is just a plate of rice with a few slices of the pork and a small piece of crackling. The sauces from the marinade are poured over the serving. The marinade are made from ingredients which include garlic, shallots, fresh ginger, candlenuts, turmeric root, coriander seeds, galangal, bird’s eye chillies, lemongrass, black peppercorns, kaffir lime leaves,  dried shrimp paste and salam leaves (balinese herb).

I find the serving quite small, with a small piece of the pork. Lots of rice though, with generous amount of sauce poured over it. It is not like 'Wow, this is really good!' response. The sauce is very gritty with the residual of the spices.

Malaysian Satay

Note: I am currently having my vacation in Malaysia and Bali. Therefore I am taking the opportunity to write about the my culinary experience during my travel.

 
This particular way of preparing meat on the skewer is unique and prevalent in this Region (South East Asia). You will come across this cuisine when travelling in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. However, the flavour and style in the preparation differs between Malaysia and Indonesia (Singapore’s is similar to Malaysia). The proportion of spices used is different and the peanut sauce that accompanied this dish is usually more starchy and glazed in Indonesia.

After we landed at the KL International Airport in Sepang, on our way to KL (about 80 kms) we stopped over at Kajang, a town famous for its satay to the extent that the term ‘Satay Kajang’ is used by restaurants throughout the country to suggest the excellence of their satay.

The satay is accompanied by raw onions, peanut sauce and ‘Ketupat’- compressed rice cakes. The rice cakes are prepared by packing uncooked rice into a cage weaved using cocunut leaves. When the package is boiled, the rice inside starts to cook, swelling and compressing itself into cakes.

Back home in Melbourne, when the mood permits, we sometimes have a satay party. The preparation of satay takes a lot of effort and time, starting the day before the event. We would prepare the marinade from scratch using lemon grass, ground coriander, garlics, onions, turmeric etc., The meat is cut into little cubes. We then marinade the meat and leave it in the fridge overnight.

Next, we will have to prepare the peanut sauce. As the satay is best served hot from the grill, we cook them over the charcoal fire and served hot. This is typical of ‘slow food’ cooking; with many stages of preparation but well worth the trouble. 

Though there are restaurants selling satay in Melbourne, they are pricy and not as common as in Malaysia. As my palate has changed after living in Melbourne for 13 years, I like the quality of the spices and meat here, and the details we personally put into the home-cooked satay. I find it difficult or rare to find satay of a matching to our standard in Malaysia.

Chadian Pasta

This simple dish is inspired by Rob Barrett who has a cooking channel on youtube. When I first saw his video on Chadian Pasta, I was all fired up to cook the dish. However, it took me a while to find a time slot when I can cook the dish. Most of the daily meals have been planned by Lynna (my dear wife). So I have been heckling her to find a slot when I can cook this dish. Finally on a Friday evening, opportunity knocks on my door.

Ingredients

I picked up some of the ingredients, i.e. a can of chunky tuna in oil, two sweet corns and  a truss of tomatoes, while I already have the two eggs and a pack (500g) of pasta in the larder.

Preparation
Put the sweet corns to boil with some salt. When it is ready, take them out and put it aside. In the same pot of boiling water, cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, chop up the tomatoes, open and drain the can of tuna. Cut out the corn kernels. When the pasta is ready, drain the water and keep aside a bowl of the water just in case you need some moisture for the pasta. Break two eggs into the drained hot pasta and stir it. Next stir in the tuna, tomatoes and sweet corn. Season the pasta with salt and pepper. And Voila!, we have a delicious healthy meal.

Note: Chad is an African state in the centre of the African continent.