New Experiments!

I've been busy experimenting with dehydration!  I've been successful dehydrating large Red and Yellow onions under the hot sun.  I use them when I boil soup and it's really tasty and has a wonderful fragrant smell!

Dehydrated Red and Yellow onions

I'm drying ginger this time round.  I was at Genting yesterday and managed to buy some ginger.  Last night, my maid and I skinned, cleaned and sliced the ginger.  We sorted it out nicely on these large basket like trays (compliments from my mother!). 

Dehydrating ginger

After one morning in the sun, it's a little shriveled up already!

Does this look like an over rated "expensive" mop bucket?

I've also been making "enzymes"!


My God son's mother introduced me to this "expensive" bucket which shortens the fermentation time to a quarter of the time required to "process" the enzymes!  My eldest daughter went on a little 'rampage' and said that I spent a small fortune for a 'mop bucket'!!!!


Hahaha!  This is my second batch of enzymes!  The first batch went too fast!  This has become a fast family favorite!  Well, after enjoying the first batch of enzymes, my children didn't have much to complain about the bucket except that the second batch wasn't ready as yet!  LOL!

This bucket doing it "magic"!

Dinner for the kids!

Last couple of Wednesdays, I've been cooking dinner for some of the kids in our youth group at Church. I was watching Martha Stewart on TV, on Wednesday morning when I decided that I would make "Chef Bao's" Sloppy Bao!

Check out this funny video:http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao#

The recipe is here: http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao

Below the shallots and lemon grass!

I improvised on the toppings, I just mixed them all together. I topped slices of baguette with this meat sauce and the kids loved it!! It's an amazing flavor!

I also made macaroni cheese today. I used my magic pot to cook the macaroni by putting it aside for 6 minutes (per instructions on the package) only after it came to a boil on the stove.

Result? Perfect macaroni!

Baked macaroni cheese!

Fried some Chinese style meehoon too!

Sarawak Laksa

My friend gave me a few packets of Sarawak Laksa paste and it's been in my freezer for a while. I have no idea how to cook Sarawak Laksa!

Definition from Wikipedia:

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped withomelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added.

Last weekend at the coffee morning sales, my stall was sold out quite early so I had time to sit around to chat with some old friends from Sarawak. Gina who is the grandmother of my Godson taught me how to cook the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked the pork bones and chicken stock in my magic pot one day ahead. I used my 8 L pot, brought the water to a rolling boil, added the bones and kept it boiling for 10 minutes. I left it in the magic pot for more than 10 hours.

The stock turned out excellent and clear!

After clearing the scum, look at the clear soup!

Look here for a similar recipe. I am lazy to re-write everything and this recipe posted by Hochiak! seems similar to how I cooked the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked a sambal which Gina taught me.

1 packet of chili boh

1 cup of dried prawns

some oil from the Sarawak Laksa

Method:

1. Cook the chili boh in some oil from the Sarawak Laksa.

2. Soak and pound dried prawns coarsely.

3. When chili boh darkens to a dark red/maroon color and smells fragrant, add the dried prawns and cook for a while. Add salt to taste if necessary!

Bento 309 and Affogato

This was #3's bento for yesterday. Just fried sausages with wholemeal bread drizzled with some kewpie mayo and Oreo. #3 is really picky and hard to please.

Sometimes she can just eat the same food day after day. Admittedly, she's improved this year, trying new food stuff and acquiring new favorites. Problem is, it's at snail's pace and takes a toil on the patience!

This is our latest 'fix'! Affogato! After paying RM8.50-RM12.00 for this sweet taste of paradise, we decided to make it ourselves.

I used " coffee" with a plunger! Yummilicious!

Profiteroles

I made these with #3 for her class party last Friday. I've been making creme puff with this recipe for ages. This is really easy after the first time. I used the recipe from the "Cook's Bible".

This one is almost similar and I'm sure it's as good if you want to try it.

Grocery shopping

If you haven't heard from me or I've yet to respond to your e-mail, know that I'm rushing around a lot lately. There are lots of runs and errands to catch up on.

Today was most fruitful though. Thanks Alice and Celia for all the effort to enable me to stock up my Japanese pantry.

Sometimes thing aren't the way it should be or look the way they should look or even seem the way they are expected to BUT so what! Life is too short to snort or get all hot to rot! Hahaha! I'm happy all the same.

My giant bag of Tuna Katsuobushi.


Frozen Unagi, Ebiko, Natto, Tako and a box of Chuka Iidako.



All the different sauces and condiments, teas and Japanese noodles, seaweed and rice (not in picture) necessary for cooking more Japanese dishes.

Updates!

Long absences and infrequent posts spell trouble for my blog. It's been despairingly neglected.

We've had guests over for dinner a couple of evenings. Between that, I've had to get my darling husband to show me the way to the new JLSM center. I have no idea how to get to Jalan Ipoh and it took three trips before I could find the place. *grin*

My dear friend Alice who moved to Japan permanently was back for about ten days and was facilitating an Obento class and we had scheduled to meet then. I really enjoyed her class and the company. It was fun meeting other 'students' passionate about cooking Japanese food.

I forgot my camera and had to use my hand phone camera. Obviously not a good option! I tried turning the picture around and saved it but it kept coming out on my post this way! Hmmmm...

Japanese vinegared egg yolk with crab stick and spinach

Simmered fried sanma fish curry

Strawberry and red bean roll

There was a second session in the afternoon but we were against time because some students arrived late. We were rushing and I forgot to take pictures. *sad face* Overall, both the sessions were interesting and new skills and tips were adopted.
Thank you Alice for the wonderful fellowship over lunch.


Random:
Below was lunch after my husband bought a bunch of petai from Pangkor Island. Yummy!

Home made Pasta

We eat a lot of pasta at home. It's easy to finish 6 boxes of 500g of pasta in a month, sometimes more even. I've tried making pasta a couple of times but never left me wanting to do more.

I was reading an old magazine and came across a simple recipe.

600 g high gluten flour

5 medium eggs


Mix and knead.


Allow to rest for at least 25 minutes.



Roll flat and wide.

Roll them together and cut to the size required.


Nicely falls over the knife when lifted up.

Nice pile of Fettuccini.

Made some Lasagna sheets too.

Freshly cooked Fettuccine. Fresh pasta took less than 5 minutes to cook till al dante.


Can't wait to try the Lasagna sheets!

Nothing tastes better than fresh pasta!
I think Barilla just lost a loyal customer.

Paella

Since I was still on a Spanish or Hispanic (from #2) dish experimental journey, I tried my hand at Paella. I Googled for Paella and found this recipe.

It looked simple enough and I did have a Paella pan which I had not broken into yet.

To break into the Paella pan, I first washed with soapy water and then dried it. Heated it over medium fire. After that I poured in some oil and rubbed it in. Heated it through for about 5-7 minutes and allowed it to cool down, then washed off the oil with warm soapy water. Ta-da! Paella pan ready for use.

Saute-ing the onions.


In went the red and green peppers.

The chicken cubes with salt and pepper.

In went the rice and liquids.


Added the prawns and crab meat (I improvised a little).

Okay truth be told, it wasn't as great as it should have been. Being first time doing this I thought that I had to cook it the way I cook our local 'one pot rice' and so I ended up with a little burnt bottom. BUT...it tasted pretty good or so from the feedback from my husband and #2. #1 wasn't very excited about it and opted to eat the optional white rice I cooked for 'just in case'.

Next time round I won't worry about 'cooking down' the liquids! I would also add more seafood and meats because my paella pan had 2 cups of rice and had a wee bit too little seafood and meats. One more thing, I like my peppers with a little crunch, perhaps they should also go into the pan later and with less saute-ing time. Till the next attempt...Buen provecho! (Bon Apetite!)

Roasted Bell peppers

This basket of Bell peppers cost RM5/= (US1.55) in Cameron Highlands. I decided that I should roast them before they get rotten. I love roasted bell peppers with sun dried tomatoes and pasta.


I halved them and rubbed some oil on each half and placed them on the oven pan. The seeds I set aside for planting.

After 15 minutes in the oven at 250 deg C. It smells sweet and smokey (heavenly too!).

I scrapped the roasted peppers into a metal bowl and covered it with cling wrap for it to self steam so that the skin will tear off easier.


Skin removed from the roasted bell peppers. The flesh is tender and sweet. Still smells smokey and tastes delicious!!! YUMMY!!


RM5/= worth of bell peppers yielded a whole bottle of roasted pepper. I filled the 680g bottle with Olive Oil to keep the freshness of the roasted pepper.

Bento 289

There's a great similarity in #2's palate and mine. We like strong cheeses, Natto and a whole lot of food that #1 and hubs dislike.

Right now, blue cheese rides high on our fave food list. #2 and I were at Sid's Pub in TTDI, two weeks ago for a drink which later led to an order of blue cheese and mushrooms and a brownie. The blue cheese and mushrooms were absolutely awesomely delicious. The brownie was 'biasa lah' (normal tasting, nothing spectacular).

I'm one who likes to be adventurous and so I indulged a little and bought a block to try experimenting. It's been two days in a row where blue cheese and mushroom spaghetti appears. #2 wiped clean the balance sauce which was in the fridge.

The bento below doesn't need description but if you want the recipe, it's after the picture.



Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic - sliced
5 button mushrooms - sliced or cut into chunks
1 cup of cream
1 tbsp of blue cheese

Method:
1. Add one tbsp of EVOO into a pan.
2. Toss the sliced garlic over low heat to soften and NOT brown.
3. Add the button mushrooms and saute.
4. Pour the cream and add the blue cheese.
5. Mash the blue cheese into the cream (it will easily soften and mix into the cream).
6. Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
7. Once bubbles appear, switch off the fire and serve with spaghetti or toast.

Don't say I didn't warn you, this dish is not for the faint hearted!

Snack from #2

Last Wednesday, #2 finished her mid-term exams. Round about 3p.m. she declared that she was going to cook something for tea. I was busy doing some stuff on the computer and I responded with an "Okay!"

A couple of minutes later, she brought this to me. Salad topped with a poached egg and Parmesan cheese.



A slit in the egg yolk revealed soft runny insides.

Pretty delicious for a first timer.