The Avocado, Carrot and Beet Salad

I am done whale watching. It was an ethereal trip, a much needed one too, before the balls and chains of the good ol' 9-5 comes falling down.

Anyway, back to food postings as I've neglected this blog far too long. I will start with a simple carrot, avocado and beet salad. Ooouff! That's a mouthful, isn't it? Let's just call it the CABS. I guess I could call it SCABS too but that would be a bit gross. :P

A big part of this salad recipe is assembling everything together. But it does involve a little big of cooking.

The CABS salad is healthy and surprisingly hearty. The orange and balsamic vinaigrette gives it a good tangy punch that leaves you pleasantly surprised at just how good everything feels and taste in your mouth :) There is a surprise spice in there that rounds it all off. It's also a best friend to carrot. See if you can spot it.


Carrots, Avocado and Beets Salad recipe:
2 carrots, peels and cut into 3 inch length-wise
2 beets, peels and quartered
Beet leafs, washed and drained (optional, but they are lovely as salads)
1 avocado, skinned and sliced
1 zucchini cut into the same size as the carrots (optional ingredient but I added it in)

Dressing:
1 whole orange juice and some pulp
zest of a whole lime
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted on hot pan for 1 min and crush slightly with the back of your knife
salt and pepper


Method:
1. Heat up a half full pan of water. Season the water with 1 teaspoon of salt.
2. When water boils, add your zucchini to boil for 2 minutes. Take the zucc's out with a slotted spoon.
3. In the same water, add your carrots and beets in to cook for about 8minutes. You can cook the carrots and beets separately but i like the color the beets imparts to the carrots, it becomes a ruby orange :)
4. As your vegetables are cooking, make your dressing. In a large salad bowl, add your quartered avocados in. Add orange juice, zests, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and season with some salt and pepper onto the avocados. Toss to mix and set aside.
5. Assemble your vegetables, hot and steaming, by adding it into the bowl with the marinated avocados and toss together.


Serve with some croûtons and drizzle with a little bit more balsamic.

Tastiest salad ever. And cumin was the surprise spice. It goes very, very well with beets and carrots :)

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.

Icky Sticky Buns

This is a back log post that was suppose to be up before I left. I posted pictures of them before but Sticky Buns are something that everyone should make at least once in their lifetime. The gooey praline type topping is just hard to resist!

I first encountered these buns on TV where Chef Bobby Flay was having a Throwdown with Joanne Cheng, famed for her sticky buns of Flour Bakery and Cafe in Boston. And she has generously shared her delectable Sticky Buns recipe for all here. :D

I followed the recipe diligently EXCEPT for the flour, i only had all purpose and substituted it with the flour required in the recipe. I did make a bit of adjustments here and there, like substituting pecans for slivered almonds. I was making do with what I had because I was craving sticky buns and I wanted to eat them NOW!

But you will see that "NOW!" meant the next day because the dough needs time to rest and rise. The recipe will be divided into three parts - the dough, the goo and the assembly. So here's my version of sticky buns with much respect to Joanne's original recipe:

For the dough:

2 1/2 cups high-gluten flour
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
5 cups all purpose flour
1-ounce yeast
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 cup ice water
5 eggs
11 ounces butter, softened

1. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients, except the butter and beat on low with dough hook for 10 minutes.
2. Add the softened butter and knead for another 20 minutes until dough slaps on the side of the bowl.
3. Place in a container and cover well.
4. Proof in refrigerator for at least 6 hours.
5. Shape, cover, proof for several hours at warm room temperature.

For the Goo:

1/2 pound butter
15 ounces brown sugar
5 ounces honey
1/2 cup cream
1/2 cup water

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together the butter and brown sugar. Remove from heat, let cool, and whisk in the honey, cream, and water. Set aside.

Assembly et. al.:

1 recipe Brioche dough, recipe above
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup pecans slivered almonds, toasted and chopped
Goo, recipe above

1. On a floured surface, work out the dough until it is a large rectangular shape. It will be approximately 1/4 inch thick.
2. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and almonds well and sprinkle on the dough surface. Make sure you evenly cover the surface with all the cinnamon and nutty goodness.
3. Roll up the dough ala cinnamon bun style and cut it into 1 inch thick buns. Leave aside.
4. Spread the goo on a baking pan and lay the buns cut side up side by side until the pan is filled.
5. Let the buns rest for 2-3 hours.

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Bake until beautiful golden brown for 45 minutes. Let it cool for 10 mins before inverting it onto a serving platter and watch the magnificent goo spill lazily on the sides of the golden rolls.

Eat carefully as the goo can be a tad warm :D

The Blueberry Pancake post

Since I was a little girl, I've always been fascinated by the pancakes in American commercials/movies. They were always so perfect and fluffy. My attempts on making pancakes as a child were rather insipid because they always turn out flat and thin. But I have since discovered that I was making crepes instead of pancakes; crepes post for another time..:)

But as time passes by and after eating proper pancakes that looked like the ones I saw on TV I began to mix up my own batches of batter until I came to a perfect concoction without measurements. If that made any sense.

I measured with my senses for the perfect batter, knowing when to stop adding the flour by instincts....but fret not, dear readers (and Elsie) for I have come up with a good measurement this time for a no fail pancake recipe. Blueberries are my addition of choice but you can make this plain to eat with just butter and syrup if you want.

The perfect pancake batter bettered with blueberries starts with,
the perfect pancake batter:
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of corn flour (cornstarch)
1 tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of milk

Optional: blueberries (but do try raisins and bananas, they are out of this world)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together with a whisk or a fork. Mix until you're sure that everything is combined properly.
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add milk and eggs. Slowly mix until you have a smooth and thick batter. Batter should be as thick as sweetened condensed milk from the can.
3. Heat pan on medium heat until hot. Add a bit of butter and grease the pan.
4. With a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop the batter and pour 1/4 cup's worth of batter onto the hot pan. Add blueberries in and leave the batter to cook for 2-3 minutes before flipping it over for another 2 minutes or until the it is golden brown.
5. Repeat step 3 as needed and step 4 until all batter is used up. You'll get approximately 1o pancakes.

Serve pancakes hot with butter and syrup. Serve it with bacon if you dare because I dared myself and loved it to bits!

This is going to be my last post for a while. I will be flying back to Malaysia for a trip in a few days so if any of you would like to meet up, just let me know yeah? :) My email is on the About Me section on the right hand side - feel free to drop me a line or two, do not leave your contacts in the comment section for security reasons.

Marinated Mushrooms with Balsamic Vinegar and Terragon

This is the perfect condiment, perfect side dish, perfect amuse bouche, perfect appetizer. Marinated mushrooms is currently a favorite of mine because it's so easy to cook and it tastes better with time. I always find cooking food that rewards you in the long run is worth much more in effort than food that doesn't last.

I am a great fan of mushrooms. Any kind of mushrooms and I am there, lapping it up with crusty bread and pasta. The only 'shrooms I haven't tried are the one that gives you psychedelic trips on your parents' old hippie wagon. Although I wouldn't say no to it should the opportunity arise - like a grand opening to an opera, I will cook these shroom in white wine carbonara sauce, slurped with spaghetini as the entre. Whereby my main course would be watching animated vines growing from the floor right before my eyes before transforming my apartment into a labyrinth made out of male harems; where every wrong turn gets me a hawt male. Yes.

But we're not talking about magic 'shrooms today, we're talking about marinated mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and terragon. It is rich and tangy with a hint of aniseed, very delicious and luscious to the taste buds. The flavor of these mushrooms mature, like wine, and it gets better as the days goes by. It keeps for up to a week although I really doubt it'll last that long :)

You'll need:
500g of white button mushroom, washed and halved
2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/4 cup more for finishing at the end
3 tablespoon of good balsamic vinegar
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and halved lengthwise
2 shallots, minced finely
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 stalks of fresh terragon

Method:
1. Heat your pan until very hot and douse the two tablespoons of olive oil in.
2. Add your mushrooms and saute until the mushrooms turns a beautiful caramelized color around its sides. This will take about 5 minutes of tossing and sauteing.
3. Do not let your mushrooms burn but do not turn down the heat as well..it is extremely important to keep your mushrooms on their toes sizzling away. Now, add your garlic and shallots in, saute until all is well blended and the herbs sweat and turns soft.
4. Douse your balsamic vinegar AROUND the pan without flooding your mushrooms because you want the vinegar to evaporate whatever excess liquid it has and reduce to a beautiful and flavorful sauce that will coat the mushrooms. Saute for a minute more.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste and pour the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil to finish the cooking off. Heat for 2 minutes more and take the mushrooms off the stove. Pluck leaves of terragon onto the marinated mushrooms and mix well.

Serve in room temperature or cold. Store it in the fridge for up to 7-10 days. These mushrooms are delicious with bread and/or with eggs and/or with crackers. It's basically a palate teaser that will open up your appetite more.

The Perfect Scramble

The perfect scramble, marinated mushrooms and toasts

If I had a personal chef, I would have him cook me breakfast like this everyday. It's not that it's hard to make, it's just not exactly my cup of tea to be up to my elbows in grease for plate of hot breakfast. So, yes, a personal chef that abides my morning needs gastronomical whims and fancy *jots down in notebook*

Eggs. I like my scramble eggs soft, creamy and gluants, which translates to gooey in French. I never used to like gooey eggs I was used to my mom's quick fire scramble which are nicely formed firm clouds with bits of brown bits from the hot wok. Gooey eggs to me were yucky before because I never had good ones made for me. I actually had scrambled eggs that is gooey in a 5-star hotel in Bangkok once and it was so poorly made, it was sweating liquid on the sides (happens because you seasoned the eggs while cooking a scramble, a big no-no), which makes the whole tray looked like vomit. EUGHH...

I have since had great gluants scramble eggs and I can't get enough of it. It's the only way of eating scrambled eggs, in my humble opinion, thanks to Gordon Ramsay. The little secret to making perfect eggs is to start with a very low heat and constant stirring, first. No oil is added but a bit of butter is thrown in with the eggs at the start of cooking. The butter helps glaze your eggs and gives it fantastic flavor. Oohh..i can write the whole recipe OR you can watch Mr. Gordon Ramsay help you impress your loved ones ;)



I don't use Crème fraîche on my eggs, I add a tablespoon of milk instead. It's very, very nice too! :)

My breakfast includes marinated mushrooms and toasts. These marinate mushrooms are simply delicious eaten cold or warm. It gets better as time goes by and it keeps well for up to a week. I will post the recipe for marinated mushrooms soon. But for now, scramble eggs takes the limelight.

Ravioli with "orange" Stuffing - Two Ways

One of the different types of raviolis

Raviolis are sold between $5-$7 for a big bag in the supermarket close to where I live. The prices fluctuates according to brand but regardless of brand, taste and quality they all have one thing in common - convenience. The raviolis are nicely pre-made for you and all you need to do is boil some salted water and cook these raviolis until al-dente.

BUT.

I am a masochist. I have always been a masochist. I like the hard, painful and the long winded way. My family and some friends think I am quite a nut. So I made raviolis myself, from scratch - dough, filling, whatever. Maybe I like to bask in the ray of self-perpetuated glory before a plate of ravioli while I look liked I have just fought the war with a rolling pin and some flour. Maybe, I just like things done from scratch so that I can appreciate the culinary splendor better and as such take me another step further into perfecting my ultimate dumpling. Maybe, I'm just a masochist.

Actually, dear foodies, it's not exactly hard to make raviolis. Our Chinese ancestors have been making pot stickers and wontons since even before the 7 kingdoms were united - what's hard about making raviolis except it's tedious and time consuming? So don't attempt ravioli if you're hungry :)

To make raviolis, start with this link ----> Making Ravioli

To make the "orange filling":
1 sweet potatoes, boiled until soft
3 cloves of garlic, boiled together with sweet potatoes
1/2 cup of pumpkin filling
1 teaspoon kosher salt
pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 big sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped *use dry rosemary if unavailable*

Method:
1. In a food processor, put in boiled sweet potatoes, squeeze out the soft garlic from its peel, pumpkin filling, salt, pepper, olive oil, rosemary.
2. Blitz until you get a smooth and creamy paste
3. Use as a filling for your ravioli. Follow the instructions from the link above because that's what I used as my guideline.

If you want meaty stuff, you'll have to wait until i do a meaty ravioli with mushrooms or google for a recipe if you cannot wait :)

This ravioli is not stuffed with oranges, it is stuffed with an orange paste made from sweet potatoes and pumpkin. It is very delicious because I love the savory sweet flavor of the pumpkin-sweet potato filling. I flavored the filling with freshly chopped rosemaries so every pocket of ravioli emanates of rosemary and a light sweetness.

We all know the traditional way of eating ravioli, which is cooking the stuffed pasta until it's done and eating it with your fav. marinara sauce, cream or aioli. But I have a better idea. I deep fried my ravioli into a crispy golden brown and used my tomato marinara sauce as dip :) It's SO wonderful eating it that way. It's also the perfect food to entertain ;)


Remember to sprinkle some salt on the fried raviolis - dip and eat :)

MY LE CREUSET, Oh how i love thee

Oh my birthday, ahem, not too many moons ago, I was presented with a le Creuset cast-iron pot that is almost 25 years old. But because it's so rarely used, it's almost new. Can you believe it??

With a gaping mouth and wide sparkled eyes, I felt like my dream came true. And then I reached out to it to hold it for the very first time and....almost dislocated my elbows. The bloody pot has to be at least 10 pounds heavy. It's a very large pot and apparently they don't make it that large anymore. Unfortunately I don't know how many quartz it can hold but on the cover, it says H. Model H, i think. I googled it and I can't find anything on Model H of Le Creuset's collection. Oh well, I have a Le Creuset now!!!! *grins*

Here's my orange honey:

Here's my orange honey in action, roasting vegetables for my badge of vegetable broth:

The the multi-purpose vegetable broth:
3 large carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
4-5 sticks of celery, diced roughly
2 large onion, diced roughly
1 head of fennel and its leaves
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 400 F or 200 C and prep your vegetables. Wash them and pat dry.
1. Combine all the vegetables together into a baking dish or (the Le Creuset ;)) pot.
2. Add olive oil, salt, pepper in and start mixing them until the vegetables are well coated.
3. Pop the vegetables into the oven and let it roast for up to 45 minutes or until corners of the vegetables are slightly brown.
4. Once the vegetables are done, take your pot out (or if you're using a baking dish pour every bit of thing out into a pot) and add 7 Litres of water. Bring it to a boil, cover and let it simmer for up to 2 hours.
5. Let it cool down and sieve the roasted vegetables out. Pour the broth into individual mason jars or containers. Keep in freezer until needed.

Broths like these are so handy and healthy. Just pop some noodles in, add your favorite ingredients in and voila, a nice meal. Or you can use it as braising liquid as well as to cook your favorite rice recipes. Roasting the vegetables before hand gives your broth a full bodied and rich flavor, see the beautiful rich brown broth in the picture? It's flavor, flavor, flavor! But you can definitely skip the roasting step during unbearably HOT summer days :)


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A lot of people grade the cambridge diet as the only idiot proof diet. The hoodia diet pill is good too and much better than its adversary, adipex.

A Moroccan Feast for Two

I think I have found another favorite that I will be cooking more often; the 7 Vegetable Stew and Cous Cous meal. Simply delicious, simple and hearty especially for colder climates. Last week was my partner's birthday and I decided to make something different and chanced upon Moroccan food. Although I was very tempted to try their preserved lemon chicken cooked in traditional tajins, I was set back by several factors, 1) I did not have a Tajin, 2) I didn't have any preserved lemons and 3) my partner is vegetarian.

So the best option was the 7 Vegetable Stew and Couscous meal along with some very delicious side dishes. I did not exactly follow a recipe for the stew but I had a fairly good idea how to go about it thanks to the FoodNetwork website. You should just check it out - they have plenty of Moroccan vegetable (and non-vegetarian) meals.

Now, was the meal a success? Absolutely. I can assure you that meat lovers will not even miss their dose of meat in this meal. Three words to describe this meal: Contentment. Heartiness. Delicious. This meal is very easy to make because you cook everything in the same pot and assemble after.

The communal eating style that is common amongst the Moroccan culture is very sexy and romantic, in my opinion. I would recommend it for anyone who wants to share a different and exotic but special evening with one another :)

7 Vegetable Stew:
1 courgette, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 medium carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, sliced
1 small sweet potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
1 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch chunks
a handful of cauliflower
1/2 cup of green peas
2 tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons of black sultanas
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon of fennel seeds
1 teaspoon of anise powder
1 teaspoon of tumeric powder
2 tablespoons of oil
1.5 cup of vegetable broth
1/4 teaspoon of Harissa (optional, that stuff is REALLY hot)

1.5 cups of Couscous (just follow the instructions on the packet)

Optional ingredients/side dishes: String beans, stuffed aubergines, stuffed grape leaves, green olives, black olives

Method:
1. Heat up a large pot under medium high heat with oil. Add onion and garlic, and saute until onion is translucent. Add all the dry spices and continue sauteing for another minute to roast the spices. Add vegetable broth and cover until it starts to simmer.
2. Add your sweet potatoes, potatoes and carrots in first to cook for 7 minutes before adding the other vegetables in.
3. Only at the very end, add your sultanas in. Simmer in low heat until ready to serve.

I wouldn't recommend simmering for too long since the vegetables would turned too soggy and I hate soggy vegetables. But if you don't mind soggy vegetables, then may the force be with you :)

Once your 7 Vegetable stew is done, it's time to serve. What I did was serve it on a large platter - couscous first, vegetable stew on top, string beans on the side, some stuffed aubergines on the corner with some fresh sliced cucumbers and pita bread.

What you have is a very Moroccan dinner for two. Enjoy!

2-Kinds of French Savory Tarts: Spinach with Sweet Basil & Fennel with Sweet Onions

I love making (and eating) tarts, and my favorite is pineapple tarts which are always in an abundance during Chinese New Year. Ahh, fond memories.

But today, these tarts I made are of the savory kind. They are French because of its buttery light base with its filling made from classic French ingredients, basil and fennel.

I love both savory and sweet tarts because they are just so delightful, easy to make and easy to eat.

So here are two different French savory tarts that I made last week; Fennel with Sweet Onion and Spinach with Sweet Basil.

The base for both tarts are the same. Incidentally, the same base can be used for sweet tarts as well. You can adjust the buttery richness of the base by adjusting the butter content but for me, this recipe is perfect. Not too heavy and not too stingy with the butter. The base is somewhat flaky and airy - very light and yet satiety comes unexpectedly. It's perfect for a light lunch or dinner.

So let's start with the base. You will need:
1.5 cups of all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup of really cold butter, chopped into cubes
3-5 tablespoons of cold water

Method:
1. In a large bowl, add your flour and salt in. Mix well.
2. Add your really cold chopped up butter and with the tip of your fingers, just mix and crumble the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs. The little bits and blobs of butter is what gives the base a light and flaky texture.
3. With 1 tablespoon at a time, add your water into the butter-flour mixture and mix the ingredients until they can hold into a ball. Knead very gently so that the dough becomes smoother (do not over knead), and with a knife, divide the dough into two equal portions before wrapping them with plastic wrap. Store the dough in the fridge until ready to use.


Spinach with Sweet Basil Tart
3 cups of spinach, chopped and boiled for 1 minute (you can go ahead and use frozen spinach as well - use 1.5 cups worth, defrosted)
1 cup of basil leaves, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon butter
a dash of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 egg white

Method:
1. Heat oven at 350 F or 175 C.
2. Take a portion of the dough out of the fridge. Lightly flour your kitchen counter (make sure it's clean) and roll your dough with a rolling pin until it is about 0.5cm thick. Don't worry about the uneven edges, it makes the tart looks rustic :)3. Heat pan under medium heat until hot. Add butter and oil. Once butter has melted, add your garlic and onion and saute until onion turns translucent. Don't let it burn. Add spinach in and saute for another 1 minute to heat through and then add your Parmesan cheese.4. Now you can add your chopped basil and saute them until they wilt (1 minute). Add salt and pepper to taste.5. Take the spinach mixture off heat and add egg white in while stirring the mixture together vigorously to combine. The vigorous stirring prevents the eggs from cooking into a lump :)6. Spread the spinach mixture onto the dough evenly. I cropped my base with a cookie cutter into round little shapes but you absolutely do not have to do that. I just did it because the tarts look cuter that way. Once you're done spreading your spinach mixture, pop your tart into the oven and bake for 30minutes.
7. Serve the tart warm :)


Fennel with Sweet Onion Tart
1/2 bulb of fresh fennel, sliced thinly (will yield you about 3 cups worth)
1 medium white onion (like Vidalias, if you have any. If not, just normal onions will do - red or green), sliced thinly
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste
1 egg white, gently beatened
Method:
The first two steps are the same as the Spinach with Sweet Basil Tart.
3. Heat pan on the stove at medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add olive oil, onion, garlic and fennel. Saute until onion and fennel are cooked down. Approximately 5 minutes.
4. Add sugar and continue saute-ing for about 2 minutes. Add salt and pepper and cook for another 2 minutes.

5. Once that is down, take pan off heat. Your kitchen should smell heavenly by now. Pour egg white into the mixture and stir vigorously so that the egg do not cook into clumps. This allow the fennel and onion mixture to spread evenly on the base.
6. Pour the fennel and onion mixture onto the dough base and spread it with the back of a spoon. Spread the mixture evenly across the base and pop it into the oven for 30 minutes.
7. Once it's done, cut and serve the tart pieces while it's still warm :)

One tray roasted potato salad

It's indeed true when I say you can make delicious roasted potato salad all in one tray. Just cut, season, roast and serve all in one tray. Of course, you can even roll them out into a bowl if you want. But this potato salad is so easy, it's garlic "dressing" is made together with the potatoes right in the oven. And it is delicious!

Here is what you will need:
A roasting pan, heating in the oven at 400F or 200 C.

4 russet potatoes, cut into chunks/wedges with skin on (or without, up to you)
2 tomatoes, halved
1 bulb of garlic, halved lengthwise
2 pickles, chopped
2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 cup of olive oil (approx. 4 tablespoons of oil)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of dried herbs, rosemary and thyme works but put no more than two variety of your fav. herbs in as you not want to overpower your salad.

Method:
1. Put your potatoes in a large bowl and season with paprika, salt, pepper, onion powder, chopped pickles and olive oil. Coat well.
2. Take out the extremely hot pan, carefully, and dunk your potatoes in (the hot pan prevents the potatoes from sticking on it). Make sure the potatoes do not over lap each other. After that, arrange your tomatoes and garlic on the same pan, cut side up. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on them with a quick drizzle of olive oil.
3. Pop the tray back into the oven and roast for 40-45 minutes. After it's done, transfer the beautifully roasted tomatoes into a large serving bowl first. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skin into the bowl and mash it together with the tomatoes to form a paste. It might be a bit hot to handle so use a paper towel to hold the roasted garlic while you squeeze it out of its pockets.
4. Pour the roasted potatoes, basically everything from the pan - oil, bits and pieces of goodness, into bowl and mix well.
5. Serve the potatoes, with your favorite protein, hot or room temperature.

Pucker.

Manicotti Farcito with Fagiolini

Or stuffed manicotti pasta with green beans. Manicotti is basically a large tube like pasta that you can stuff with any yummy things you can think of. You can stuff it with meat, veggies or cheeses but this dish is inspired by my man, Jamie Oliver. In his recipe, he stuffed the manicottis with creamed broccoli and cauliflower with parmesan cheese. I decided to make use of that leftover canned red beans in my fridge and some creamed cauliflower instead, the results were pretty good actually. I did make Jamie's version prior but the pictures did not do the dish justice. So, I'm just going to put this one up instead :)

You would be really surprise to see how cauliflower can give so much texture and flavor. You need to give this dish a try by pairing cauliflower with any ingredients as your stuffing for your manicottis.

Here's how I made my manicotti farcito:

6 tubes of manicotti, uncooked
2 cups of marinara sauce (you can make your own or use a store bought one)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

For the stuffing:
1 cup of cauliflower florets
1/2 cup canned red beans, drained well
1 medium sized onions, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
100 ml water
salt&pepper to taste
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Method:

Preheat oven to 350F.
1. Chop cauliflower florets until relatively minced, you want to cook it down so the smaller your cauliflower the easier it'll cook down. Do the same with your red beans, just run your knife through it.

2. Heat pan with olive oil and saute onion and garlic until translucent and aromatic. Add your cauliflower and red beans in and continue cooking for 3-4 minutes. Add 100ml water and let it cook down until most of the water dissipates. Lower your heat.

3. Add parmesan cheese, salt and pepper to taste. Cook under low heat for another 15 mins, take off the stove and let it cool a bit before you start piping it into your pasta.

4. While stuffing is cooling off, in a baking dish, fill it with 1 cup of marinara sauce first.

5. Once stuffing is cooled enough, fill it in a zip lock bag, cut one corner off and use that to pipe the filling into the pasta. Place the pasta into the baking dish filled with marinara sauce and repeat until all 6 is done. Cover the stuffed manicotti with the rest of the marina sauce, top it with parmesan cheese and bake in the oven for 30 minutes or until the crust is browned on top.

Serve with a side of steamed green beans seasoned with some garlic salt and you have a complete meal.

Nasi Kunyit (Turmeric Rice)

Nasi Kunyit is rice dish that transcends two cultures in Malaysia; Chinese and Malay. For the Chinese, Nasi Kunyit is part and parcel of baby's full moon. It's a Chinese custom to celebrate your child's 1 month anniversary since it's birth; sort of a celebration of life. My mom used to tell me that baby's one month celebration signified that the child had crossed the danger period of his/her life. Old wives' tale but during full moon celebration, nasi kunyit, red hard boiled eggs and chicken curry are distributed amongst friends and family. Apart from this, nasi kunyit is also a favorite tea time/breakfast accompaniment. The Malays usually cook Nasi Kunyit during their festive season like during the month of Ramadhan, Aidfiltri, Aidiladha, and during weddings and kenduris (feasts).

There are many ways to cook Nasi Kunyit and one of its key ingredients is turmeric. It's what gives the rice dish a yellow color. Glutinous rice is used instead of the normal long grain rice. The high starch content make Nasi Kunyit a sticky affair but delicious when eaten together with curries.

uncooked.

I made Nasi Kunyit the other day using the traditional method, which is soaking the glutinous rice in turmeric and other spices over night before steaming it for a few hours. As it turns out, it was delightful and not at all soggy..:)

Here's what you will need:
1 3/4 cup glutinous rice
1 piece of dried tamarind skin (asam gelugor)
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
500ml coconut milk (get fresh if you can)
100ml water
1/2 tsp white peppercorns
2 pandan (screwpine) leaves, knotted (optional but encouraged)
4-6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick

Method:
1. Wash glutinous rice thoroughly and transfer it to a big bowl.
2. On a pan, roast white peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon stick for about 2 minutes or until fragrant. You want to activate the oils in these herbs :)
3. Put the roasted ingredients in the bowl with the rice and throw everything else, except the pandan leaves, into the bowl and let it sit overnight or at least 6 hours.
4. Scoop the rice out with a sieve and transfer the rice and all the other ingredients (throw away the tamarind rinds) into a steamer with the pandan leaves and steam for 2 hours or until rice is done.
5. Serve it with your favorite curry :)

I ate mine with lamb curry. Recipe for the lamb curry will be up soon!

ChuChai

I have been eyeing this vegetarian Thai restaurant for the longest time. And with a little research on my part, i have been hearing a lot of good reviews on the food served in ChuChai. One of the more memorable comments i remembered was "I can't tell if it's fake duck if you hadn't told me" lol.

I must say after dropping by for a little dinner with my partner, I can see why. I could not tell the difference by view if my duck in Red Thai curry was in fact mock meat. But, I could tell the difference by taste though, even though it was quite subtle. My partner could not tell the difference at all.

The cucumber pickle was a great palate opener

It is not everyday I get to share all my dishes with my vegetarian boyfriend but here, I can. We ordered Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad) and Curry Puffs for appetizers. The curry puff was vegan meaning no eggs and butter. I really don't know how they pulled it off but it was excellent pastry - flaky and light. The Som Tam was too spicy for me, yes I dare say it now. My iron tongue is now infiltrated! I was always complaining about how ridiculously watered down the term "spicy" is here. But not in Chuchai, much to my pleasure :)
For our mains, we order chicken in thai green curry and duck in thai red curry. Since these dishes did not come with rice (my only gripe), we had to order them separately: white rice for him, brown rice for her - perfectly cooked.
The curries were perfect, not too spicy and deliciously spiced. I could taste Thai basil, lemongrass and a marriage of other spices. It complemented my brown rice quite well. I actually found out that my brown rice was in fact red cargo rice - i don't know why they didn't just call it red rice but I guess people are just more familiar if the term brown rice is used. You can definitely notice the amount of care and effort the chef has put into all these dishes. Every morsel of food is cut up identically and beautifully arranged to look like it was not arranged - either way I appreciate the effort :)

To round off a delicious dinner we shared a dessert and I forgot its name :( All i know is it's a combination of 3 chocolate mousse - dark, milk and white as you can see on the picture. That conical sensation in that picture above is really hard to beat. The chilled mousse literally melts as it touches your tongue. Quite simply, it was a delightful roundup to an incredible vegetarian Thai meal at ChuChai.

ChuChai
4088 Rue St Denis,
Montreal H2W 2M5
Quebec
Tel: 514-843-4194

Ambiance: 4/5
Food: 5/5
Service: 4/5
Money: 3.5/5 (it was rather pricey for the portion they served)

Tortizza

Another one of my pizza recipes made from tortilla base. I have made one before using a more Italian type of flavors here. This time, i tried a more Mediterranean style with sundried tomatoes, and tons of herbs. I especially liked this version better because it's so delicious and does not fill you up to the brim. It looks like a gourmet pizza from afar, but like Monet and his art, as you draw closer, everything is but a fuzz. loll

My partner came up with this name, I kinda like how it sounds - Tortilla+Pizza = Tortizza. It's a fitting name because the pizza's so flat, it looks like a savory tort :)

It's pretty simple to make. For the base, you need:
1 floured tortilla
2 tablespoon of your fav. marinara sauce/tomato paste
1 teaspoon olive oil

Rub the olive oil on the base first before spreading your marinara sauce on top. This is so your base won't turn soggy.

Toppings, I used:
1/2 zucchini, sliced
1/2 summer squash (yellow version of a zucchini), sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
5 black olives, pitted and halved
3-4 sundried tomatoes, sliced
fresh basil
fresh oregano
1 tablespoon parmesan
a handful of mozarella
salt
pepper

So start piling your zucchini and squash on top of the tomato base, then start adding your sundried tomatoes, olives, basil and oregano.

Spread your mozarella cheese on top and sprinkle parmesan at the very end to give it that slight crispiness at every bite.

Bake at 375 Fahrenheit for about 30 minutes. Serve.

This is a very rustic, fuss free sort of pizza. You can definitely serve this up for guest as they are very pretty to look at as well as delicious :)

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Of all the detox diets available, the most accommodating one is the alkaline diet. Not only can it be converted into a liquid diet, but it is in truest sense, the fat smash diet.

I've been having lots of greens lately

Yea I'm on a green roll - green curry after my avocado pesto recipe hehe.

My green curry consists of blending fresh parsley with onion, garlic and ginger into a green pungent paste before cooking. I didn't want to use green chilies because I have a guy here who can't really take too much heat *snorts* :P

I have to say that this green curry was inspired by the green curry I had at this excellent Thai restaurant called ChuChai, in Montreal. Eating at Chuchai's is like eating art. Chef Lily has research Thai food artistry from Thailand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and San Francisco and is definitely someone who knows how to present her native cuisine with flair and with flavor. I will be posting about my experience there shortly.

I think I forgot to mention that ChuChai serves vegetarian/vegan food only... :) Although many meat eaters are going to go 'Eww....vegetarian food', let me just say that you won't miss meat eating here..;)

Anyway, my green curry was inspired by Chef Lily's Thai green curry "chicken". The aroma and flavors are just.....Beautiful. It's perhaps the best tasting green curry I had in a while, better than Yellow Light in Penang circa 1997-98, Malaysia ( I know Yellow Light doesn't serve quality as it did before these days for some reason :/ ). Using my taste buds and intuition, I created an almost similar green curry. Not exactly the same but my partner said it was very close :)

Let me share the recipe with you:

Thai Green Curry (add chicken or whatever meat you desire)

Green curry paste:
2 large green onion
4 garlic cloves
1 inch knob of ginger
1 large bunch of green parsley (about 3 cups worth)
100-150ml water

The rest of the ingredients:
3 tablespoons oil
3 cloves
4 cardamom
1 star of anise
1 stick cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 stalk of thai basil leaves
1 stalk of lemongrass, chopped
1 cup of coconut milk
half a red pepper, sliced
1 medium sized potato, cut into chunks
a handful of long beans, cut into 1.5 inch length
1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
1 teaspoon sugar (or to taste)
* it should be balanced, so add 1:1 for salt and sugar.

Kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly

500 grams chicken thighs/breast, cut into 1/2 inch slices (you can use mock meat too)

Method:
1. Grind the green curry paste ingredients until fine. Set aside until read to use.
2. Heat pan with oil under medium heat. Once heated, saute cardamom, clove, anise and cinnamon to flavor oil for about 2 minutes.
3. Add your green curry paste and turmeric powder in and saute further for another 5-10 minutes or until the paste is fried well or until you see oil surfacing around the corner. You can now pour your coconut milk in.
4. Let the mixture come to a simmer and with a slated spoon, scoop the cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and anise out. It's done its job, so you can throw it away.
5. While the coconut mixture comes to a boil, add your thai basil leaves and lemongrass in with your chicken pieces and vegetables. Let it come to a boil and then turn down the heat to low and let the green curry simmer for about 15-20 minutes. On the last 5 minutes, add your kaffir lime leaves in.

Serve with white rice :)

P.S. I used vegetarian "chicken" for this recipe. Betcha thought it was REAL chicken, didn'tcha? :P

Fresh Avocado Pesto and Pasta

I love all things green to eat :)

I love my veggies. I love my green eggs. I love my herbs.

But the one things I don't love as much are Avocados; that is about to change, however.

In my apartment, the only person who eats avocados is my partner, P. He loves them in his milk shakes or eaten as it is with a bit of salt....yeucch! There is a reason why I dislike avocados, I just cannot stand the oiliness of it and the bland taste that it imparts. But I was quite serious about wanting to befriend it and not abhor it. So, I went on a quest online to see what else I can do with Avocados besides dips, salads and *squirm* shakes.
Lo and behold! I found Avocado pesto with pasta. It sounded delicious with all those herbs. The recipe is now lost somewhere online as I forgot to save it, the klutz that I am, and if I remembered correctly, it just called for basil, pine nuts, olive oil and lemon juice.

I didn't just stop at basil since I have my herb garden..:) but I did cut down on the olive oil and added sundried tomatoes instead of pine nuts.

Here's my recipe:

Avocado Pesto
1 ripe avocado
1 bunch of parsley
1 handful basil
a few sprigs of fresh oregano
a few sprigs of mint
4 sundried tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Method:
Put them all in a food processor and start blitzing! Blitz! Blitz! Blitz! Until you have a nice paste. You can stop blitzing now although you'll be tempted to go on. It will yield enough for 4 serving. Set it aside until ready to use. (Do cover it with a plastic wrapper to avoid any oxidization of the avocado which can turn into an unappetizing brown)

Yes, I am aware that I topped it with coriander, silly me forgot to save some parsley for decoration :P

Cook some pasta: Fetuccine, Spaghetti, Spiralli, Linguine, Farfalle, etc etc etc.
When it's al dente, drain the water and add 2-3 tablespoons of your avocado pesto in. Mix well and eat! :)

P.S. I forgot to say if i liked avocados better after (thanks for reminding me wokandspoon!), and yes, I think if all avocados are served in a pesto, I'd eat it all the time! This is so so so good. The addition of sundried tomatoes and lemon juice cuts into the oiliness and blandness of the avocados. There's just a sunny bursting flavor at each bite :)

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The atkins diet works really well with or without phentermine. However things would have been accelerated if you were on a blood type diet, something like the beyonce diet.

Rosemary and Chili Infused Oil

I knew I couldn't stay away for long *looks at the pile of work on the table* Sigh!

There is something I want to share with you guys - a little thing called herb infused flavored oils. It's really the best thing in the world. You can cook with it, or use it as a drizzle on your salads, pastas, or breads to give it a wonderful and flavorful finish.

This is going to be a very short post. I'll get to the know-how immediately!

Rosemary and Chili infused Oil:
1 Cup of corn oil (or *extra virgin* olive oil)
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, washed and cleaned
1 teaspoon chili flakes

Other optional ingredients for awesome oil infusion: Terragon, Thyme, Savory, Bay Leaves, Mint Leaves, Dill, Chives, Parsley, Oregano, Cardamom, Cumin, Star Anise, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Cloves, Coriander, Szechuan Peppers.
*toast dried herbs a little to wake its flavors up for a better infusion :)

Method:
1. Heat the oil in the microwave on high for 30 seconds and add the rest of the ingredients in. Stir. Cover. And let it sit in a cool, dark place for a few days. The refrigerator is a good place to store your infused oils.

The flavors will only get stronger as you let the oil sit. And it does last for a long time when you store your homemade infused oils in the fridge. However, you have to becareful what you put into infused your oil. Things like fresh garlic may give awesome flavors but it may cause botulism if not careful. It is advisable to take the garlic out after a few days. Also, infused oils can get rancid over time with exposure to air so, refrigerate, refrigerate, refrigerate! :)

There is a way to infuse garlic into oil without killing anyone but that would have be for another time.