mycookerygarden

A friend had posted pictures of her nasi ulam dish in Penang. The power of suggestion! http://www.foodcanon.com/2016/02/nasi-ulam-it-is-really-simpler-than-you.html So, I tweaked the recipe a little to use what I could put together easily. Rice (basmati) Hae bee hiam (spicy dried shrimp sambal, made by my sister during Chinese New Year) Cucumber Onions The mix of herbs: - Kaffir lime leaves - Mint - Thai basil - Lemongrass As the rice was cooking, I cut all the herbs finely, minced the onions and sliced the cucumber. The last two ingredients are really needed - the onions give the rice mix a nice kick and sweetness while the cucumber refreshes from the hae bee hiam. Yummy!  

A friend gave me a cutting of Okinawan Spinach. Yay, new vegetable to try planting. The leaves can be eaten raw or cooked. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynura_bicolor Gynura bicolor, hongfeng cai 紅鳳菜, okinawan spinach or edible gynura, is a member of the chrysanthemum family (Asteraceae). It is native to China, Thailand, and Myanmar but grown in many other places as a vegetable and as a medicinal herb. Since most of the leaves needed to be removed for the rooting, I made a salad. This was a 'Global' Salad with Okinawan Spinach, Mexican Asparagus, Malaysian cucumber and cherry tomatoes, Argentinian blue berries and NZ salad dressing! In future, if I grow this vegetable successfully, I will stir fry it with sesame oil and ginger. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynura_bicolor   According to Chinese food grouping, Gynura bicolor is a 'cool' food, so the leaves are stir-fried with sesame oil and ginger (both 'hotter' foods) to achieve a balance. After m...

My chives' bulbs from Malaysia have survived from 31 Dec 2017 till now. Keeping fingers crossed and the pot 'dry' - with very little watering. 31 Dec 2017: Plant bulbs and cuttings from Kuala Lumpur - chives, curry and coriander. Curry leaf cuttings did not survive - it was a valiant fight for about 1 month but the bald sticks just rotted in the end. Chives at first potting on the last day of 2017. Do-re-mi 5 Jan 2018: Chives look promising. 17 Jan 2018: Chives surviving on 'dry' soil. It is damp inside. 22 Jan 2018: Final days of this coriander. Another one bites the dust. 8 Feb 2018: Happy chives. Happy gardener.

Homemade chilli sauce. Simple homemade chilli sauce, similar to the chilli sauce served with chicken rice. For blending: Red chillies - 10-15 Garlic - 5-7 cloves Ginger - 2inch For mixing: Vinegar - 50ml to start with, the chilli sauce should not be too watery, the sour, tangy taste should be there Sugar - 1.5-2 tbsp Salt - 1 tsp Unfortunately, in true homemade style, I learnt to make this from my mum without measurements. Just a sense of proportion that there should be more chilli than garlic and less of ginger. Of course, the vinegar, sugar and salt are similarly adjusted to taste. Too spicy - add salt, sugar. Too bland - add salt, vinegar. Just mixing all these ingredients together is sufficient, no cooking is required. The vinegar, sugar and salt are preservatives. But I always make sure the chillies, garlic and ginger are washed and dried before I blend them. Also, discard some chilli seeds, otherwise, it will be very spicy. For slow consumption, I keep the bott...

A slice of apple pie . I used to make a lot of improvised apple pies when staying in the student hostel because the daily dinner apple there was quite inedible by itself. Basically, the skin was really waxy, sometimes the flesh was crunchy, many times it was powdery and at other times, indescribable. This apple pie was made with margarine short crust pastry. A little less short - to be more healthy. So, I didn't measure the flour or margarine - estimated about 2 cups of flour to margarine - crumble until the mixture no longer looks flour-y. This time, I diced the apples - 2 green apples, 2 red apples - and cooked it with a little bit of water, 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder. Not too soft, but just enough to melt the sugar, integrate the cinnamon and 'deflate' the diced apples. Baked the pie shell first for about 10 mins at 180C. Then filled the shell with the cooked apples and covered with the top pastry. Baked for another 10-15 mins at 180C...

The elusive vegetable - Mustard Green - only found in the fresh markets (in Singapore), rarely in the supermarkets. There are quite a few write-ups about this post-Chinese-New-Year brilliant recipe to use up leftover meats. Leftover as in roast meats and pig trotter stewed meats that no one wants to eat anymore after over-indulging on rich dishes for several days. So, a genius person of olden days made a stew of these meats with assam (tamarind), dried chillies and mustard green vegetable to absord all the flavour. https://www.malaysianchinesekitchen.com/chai-boey-mustard-greens-stew/ https://www.rotinrice.com/chop-suey-soup-chai-boey/ https://beyondnorm.com/2017/03/19/choy-keok-recipe/ http://www.msyummylicious.asia/2016/02/hot-and-sour-chinese-mustard-vegetable.html I wanted to make this dish but had no 'leftover meats'. So, I started to collect my meats from the supermarket best buys' section for roast spring chicken and pork. I ate a little of the fresh roa...

Crusty buns. I found some dried up apricots in the fridge. I was thinking of the choices - either a stew (originally bought this for a Moroccan chickpea stew) or a bake. Bake it is - to use up more of the Waitrose DUCHY Organic Strong Malted Grain bread flour and see how the bread will turn out with no diary product. Well, it was harder and drier. So, this bread flour needs more liquid ingredients, somehow .. for the bread, maybe grated fruit or vegetable and a very wet dough to start with. Since the apricots were very hard, I soaked them in hot water for about 15 mins before chopping them up and starting the knead. 1 cup  Strong Malted Grain bread flour 1.5 cup white bread flour 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 2 tsp instant yeast 1 tbsp olive oil Bread flour, salt, instant yeast, apricots soaking. 1st rise in room temperature. After a few hours' rise. After overnight in the fridge. Shaped. 2nd rise. Baking at 230C for 10mins, then 180C for...