A whale watching hiatus!

Havin' a whale of a time

Dear faithful readers (yes, all 3 of you :P),

I am writing live from a wonderful place upper north of Quebec called Charlevoix. I will be on a hiatus until further notice because I am currently on a whale hunt! Not to kill but to observe. This trip will be a memorable one because it's my first time going on a whale watch and I do hope to catch a sight or two of belugas or perhaps the endangered blue whale near the coasts of Charlevoix where the great St. Lawrence river and the Atlantic Ocean meets!

Apparently it is the best time of the year to be whale watching because the weather is not too cold but the waters is still freezing and is thus perfect for whale watching. The whales usually swim against the currents to feed and it is this time of the year that they feed and bulk up.

To be quite honest, I haven't exactly been eating excellent food at all since I got here. It's the usual eggs, bacon and ham for breakfast and meats and potatoes for lunch or dinner. It's pretty boring gastronomy if you ask me. BUT i did get to taste some excellent cheese and will probably buy one of the 400 available cheeses in that region when I get back! Oh, they eat meat pies as breakfast here too, which I thought was rather heavy but I had it twice so far because they're included in their breakfast platters!

Alrighty, I'll post more about the trip +pix when I get back but till then, i'm on a whale watching hiatus!

Limon Tiger Cheesecake

This is quite simply an homage to the 70s recipe books where they are written by "women who love their families". While that line may have a double edge meaning (with the quotes and all that between the lines pun), I would like to focus on the good part of a 70's cookbook - the no-bake cheesecakes!

I was at an excellent pub eating pub grub the other day and fell in love with their slice of heaven called Limon Tiger Pie. It's basically lemon cheesecake with a fluffy creamy top, a rather light but denser middle set on a chocolaty base. I think the reason why they called it a Limon Tiger is because of the stripes caused by a marbling effect on the crumbs and the generous sprinkles of chocolate crumbs splashes over the top. It's simply amazing to eat because of it's lemony fluff texture. To be quite frank, I never thought I would like unbaked cheesecakes this much that I would try to recreate it at home days after. Successfully. Because it's easy. :)

In the 70's, people ate raw eggs wantonly like Salmonella and E. Coli never existed. Today, I'm not so keen on having raw egg yolks in my cheesecake unbaked. And I suppose vegetarians and lacto-vegans will be please to know that I didn't use any eggs in this recipe.

Without further ado, here's Limon Tiger Cheesecake -

For the base:
2 cups of crushed chocolate chip cookies (use your favorite brand) + some for sprinkling
1/4 cup butter

Cheese filling:
500g of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened in room temperature
1 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of lemon zest, zest and finely chopped after
1/2 lemon juice
1 cup of densely packed icing sugar + 1/4 cup for heavy cream


Method:
1. Prepare the base first. Use an 8inch round cake pan and coat it with butter.
2. In a food processor, add your cookie crumbs and butter in. Blitz until you get a pebbly wet texture that is easy to form and mold.
3. Press the buttery crumbs into the base and the wall of your cake pan, slowly even it out with your fingers until you get a pretty crumb base.
Put it into the freezer, while you prepare your cheese filling.

4. In a large mixing bowl, cream your cream cheese until it's creamy and fluffy (about 3 minutes with an electric mixer).
5. Add your lemon zest, lemon juice and icing sugar in and start mixing it again until everything is well incorporated. Continue beating the mixture for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. In another bowl, pour your heavy cream into a bowl with 1/4 cup of icing sugar.
7. Beat with an electric mixer until heavy cream forms firm peaks (about 3-4 minutes)
8. Pour the fluffy cream into the cheese mixture. This time use a spatula to gently fold the two mixtures together until they are well incorporated.
9. Take out the base from the freezer and pour your cheese content in.
10. Sprinkle with remaining crushed chocolate chip cookies and let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hours.If you're feeling decadent, forgo the chocolate chip cookie topping and pour a can of preserved cherries on top.

This cheesecake is extremely easy to make despite it being 10 steps. You don't need to turn on your oven and that, hands down, makes this the most excellent recipe for hot summer days. What I like about this recipe is that it's melts in your mouth, almost like ice cream :)

Green bean stew: a brunch of tomatoes, beans and eggs

I have made this for breakfast thousands of times before and it's always fulfilling, healthy and yummy. Today, I'm going to share with you a breakfast creation of mine that can feed 1 up to 10 people depending on how many times you go "crrraacck".

In this series of kitchen experiments, I am stewing a bunch of green beans or, fancily, haricot verte in a pan filled up with marinara sauce. So basically, it's a tomato based green bean stew where you finish off with a crack or two of eggs that will gently cook into the sauce. The yolks will still be gooey and it's the most incredible thing in the world when you tuck in by soaking the sauce up with some bread.

I don't even know if I can actually write a proper recipe for it because it's such a off hand meal but I'll try. Oh did i tell you that this recipe is so simple? :)


Green bean stew with soft-boiled eggs recipe:
Serves 1 or 2 (double or triple or quadruple recipe at ease)

1 handful of green beans, cleaned and ends sniped off
1.5 cup of marinara sauce (store bought ones are fine)
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: a bit of parsley and shallots for garnish

Bread for soaking the awesome sauce up.


Method:
1. In a deep pan, bring marinara sauce to a boil. Add your green beans and let it simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat. Do not cover the pan yet.
2. Crack in two eggs into the pan and watch the eggs fall nicely in between the cracks of tomato sauce and green bean goodness.
3. Cover to cook for 3 minutes or until eggs is done to your liking. I like my eggs to have a nice white sheath covering the yellow yolk. Season with some salt and pepper.

Serve with bread.


** this is a lacto-ovo vegetarian friendly recipe :)
*** apparently there is a similar Tunisian and Israeli dish like this called Shakshouka where it's cooked with different vegetables. :) One thing I've read about this dish is that the possibilities are endless.

Khanom Paeng Na Moo (Thai pork toast)

This is an extremely tasty snack that I stumbled upon. I would love to tell you where, if I can only remember where. But Khanom Paeng Na Moo is basically Thai pork mince on toast. It is very similar to the familiar French toast except it's coated with meat instead of just eggs. What makes this recipe delicious is the crispiness of the pork coating and the soft fluffy center after it is cooked. It's a perfect balance of flavors and an utter delight to the taste buds :)

This is one of the simplest recipe to do and I recommend that you try it for a little snack with some leftover unused minced meat. Or make a batch for entertaining - your guests will be pleased by this easy to eat food. It is also good served in room temperature as well. And I assure you, this recipe takes less than 30 minutes from prep to ready.

What you need for Khanom Paeng Na Moo (Thai pork toast):
(double, triple, quadruple recipe when necessary)

150g of mince pork (or any of your favorite minced meat)
1 egg (use two eggs if you're tripling/quadrupling your recipe)
2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly into a chiffonade
1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch/cornflour
a pinch of chilli powder, more if you want it spicier (optional)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional, use soy sauce if you have none)
a large pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices of bread

Garnish: Lemon slices


Method:
1. Combine all the ingredients together except for the 4 slices of bread. Let it sit for 10 minutes to marinade while you heat a lightly oiled pan under medium heat.

2. Your meat mixture should resemble a thick paste that is easily spreadable. With a spoon, spread 1 spoonful of mixture evenly on each side of the bread and pan fry each side for 3-4 minutes.

3. Repeat for remaining slices of bread. After your Thai pork toast is done, let it cool for 5 minutes before cutting it into bite size piece and squeeze a bit of lemon juice on top before serving.


Best eaten with some chilled milk tea OR iced coffee.

Childhood flavors - Wantan et. al.

One thing I love about Malaysia is the fact that food is in abundance 24/7. It's a known fact that Malaysians eat all day and their favorite past time is also, eating. All that pot belly has to come from somewhere since Sin tax for alcohol is rather high in that country.

Anyway, I would like introduce you to two of my favorite side walk hawker food from Penang. I know everyone raves about the awesome seafood (me included), the curry noodles, Laksa, Hokkien mee and char kuey teows but I rave about the wantan noodles in Penang.
When I was a little girl running around barefoot in my grandparents' abode, i remember my grandmother carrying her rattan basket as she walks to the wet market early in the mornings. I was asleep most of the time when she heads out but I am almost always awake to catch her walking back with fresh produce and breakfast for everyone. She would either buy Bah Cheang Kueh (a crispy pancake filled with peanuts, creamed corned and sometimes grated coconut) or Wantan noodles back. And as a child, those foods left a deep impression on me ...up till today.

There was nothing sweeter than the bah cheang kueh dripping with rich butter and cream corn hot on my hands. I just loved every bite of it and my grandmother would vicariously live through my eating of the pancakes because poor grandma had diabetes. Since she passed away i haven't really had good Bah Cheang Kuehs, at least not exactly as I remembered it. Maybe tastebuds changed as we grow older, nevertheless I still crave that orgasmic sweetness of my first Bah Cheang Kueh.
However, I did find wantan mee that is sort of a replica of the ones my grandma brought back years ago. The noodle is translucent and bouncy to the bite. The sauce is dark enough with a hint of bitterness that is just proportionate to its sweetness. I said it sort of replicate the one I had years ago from the market because its wantan is not deep fried.
This wantan dish hails from the corner of Heong Giam Si temple, which incidentally is where both my grandparents ancestral tablets are resting.


I am afraid I don't know an exact address except the sidewalk hawker is right next to this temple. There is a primary (or was it secondary school) opposite this temple though. Hm... this is definitely one of those cases where I know how to get there but I don't know the address.