Aubergine Parmigiana

Aubergine was on good offer in the supermarket and hence this! Easy and no fuss, only downside I'd say is its slightly time consuming, but beats eating the ones outside as this is definitely healthier, so no more guilt after the 2nd helping :)

All you need is some garlic cloves, 2 aubergines, 1 can of 400g chopped tomatoes in tomato sauce, 3 tomatoes (optional), 200g-300g cheese (I had some cheddar, you can use other nice melt-able cheese) , olive oil, salt and pepper

Firstly, slice the aubergine into round cross sections of about 2 inches thick. Note that I have done it length-wise as per the pictures below, but found that it made serving the dish later more difficult in terms of cutting them into portions. Then, brush some olive oil on both sides of the aubergines and season with some salt and pepper. Get your grilling pan and heat it up for some serious grilling!

Grill the aubergines both sides till almost cook and soft. It took me about 5 minutes each side. Be careful not to burn them too much!

The tomato sauce is up next, quite straight forward. I chopped some garlic and fried them till fragrant, before adding the contents of the can to the pot. Lower the heat and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes till it thickens, finally add a pinch of salt and some basil/oregano if preferred

Then the fun part starts! Don't forget to heat up your oven to 200C for at least 15 minutes beforehand.... With the casserole dish, start with a thin layer of tomato sauce at the bottom to lightly coat it....

... then continue with the grilled aubergines, cheese, sauce, and then repeat again. I added a layer of tomatoes into mine for fun, supplementing the sauce :)

Try not to overflow the dish though! Finish up with a nice layer of cheese and place it in the oven to bake for 30 minutes and its done!

The Ultimate Summer BBQ Pork Fillets

This is something inspired both from Jamie's cookbook and the unexpected good weather on Saturday morning: Blackened BBQ Pork Fillets. Great for parties and ever so popular during summertime since the sauce is just finger lickin' good :) Try it out and see if I'm right!

Ingredients wise its slightly lengthy, as we're gonna create our own marinade pretty much from scratch, so let's take this opportunity to build up your spice rack ...

What you'll need:
500g pork fillets (serves 2-3)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp full of paprika
2 cloves
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
120g good quality tomato ketchup
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and finely chopped
zest of 1 orange, and juiced (or if lazy, just use fresh 100% orange juice with pulp/juicy bits)

metal/wooden skewers (optional)
lemon juice (optional)

So there you go, not too bad eh? This recipe is a good start for you to start dabbing into the world of spice and knowing what they look like and how they smell, what they go well with etc ... bringing your culinary skills to a higher level with more tools in your hands!

Ok, so maybe we need a mortar and pestle, to grind those cloves, cumin and fennel seeds. And since I couldn't find one at the supermarket, I omitted the fennel seeds, bought ground cumin instead, and use all my power and might, with the back of my knife, slamming and trying to crush the cloves into powdery form, with 50% success rate, so not too bad hehe. Best if you have the mortar and pestle to grind it to release the aroma, but if not, don't beat yourself over it yea?

So first, mix the cumin, crush cloves, garlic cloves, generous amount of paprika, thyme, orange juice and zest. Then add the ketchup and spoonfuls of balsamic vinegar and gently incorporate them and you got yourself some mean BBQ marinade there, dip a finger in and taste and see ...

Next up is easy, just put your pork fillets in to marinade, at least 1 hour, preferably whole morning/afternoon for me! Refrigerate and rub your hands (or tummy if you prefer) in glee ...

So after 5 hours, I took them out of the fridge and used wooden skewers to present the pork fillets in kebab style, easier to cook in that sense. But if you don't have them, no worries again, it's not necessary, you can just cook them on the BBQ/grill and flip them around with a tong.

Time to test out my new grill pan, keen to get a few professional charred lines on my meat :P So heat up the grill and start cooking! Should hear a loud sizzling noise right away, make sure you have cut the fillets properly as its quite difficult to cook if it's too thick. You should have extra marinade leftover and use these to brush over the meat whenever you turn sides. Cooking should take about 15-20 minutes per batch on the grill. You should start seeing the marinade getting thicker and meat getting into a nice dark color as below ...

When it's done, leave it aside for 5 minutes to rest, whilst you prepare a very simple salad of your choice. I had mine with plain lettuce, cherry tomatoes on the vine and some sweet corn, with a light lemon salad dressing and balsamic vinegar. Then slice your meat up in serving portions and feast!

The Simple Life back Home

Yes, I'm back from beautiful Greece!

Not that I'm happy that my holidays are over, but its still feels great to come back to London. Yup, I actually missed the weather slightly, as it was just freaking 35C permanently in Athens and Santorini. One good thing about Greek summer is that clouds don't seem to exist there, which proved great for sunsets and spotting shooting stars in the starry starry nights! I'll leave the rambling of the trip to the next few posts as it's still work in progress as I've way to many pictures to consolidate :)

In the meantime, there are a few things about Greece that reminded me very much of home:
1) The obvious hot weather
2) Athens feels and looks like Klang/Petaling Street (no kidding here)
3) The slower pace of life in general

Which brings us to another episode of home cooked Malaysian food ...

This is something I whipped up during the weekend for the housemates since it's been a while I cooked something homey. The beauty about home cooked stuff is that it's simple, no fuss, yet delicious and generally healthier than eating out

This is Stir Fried Pork with Mushroom and Carrots, garnished with some chopped spring onions (could have named it some Dragon/Phoenix related/Funky-Pig-Jumping-Over-the-Carrots or whatever, but sod it, its midnight and it's been a hard week with not much brain juice to spare ...)

Seasoning is simple like the theme: marinade the pork for at least an hour in a bit of corn flour, light soy sauce, sesame oil (for extra oomph!) and dark soy sauce (for color, if you fancy). For the vegetables, just chopped them in whatever shape you like (I did a flower one for the carrots), and sliced the mushrooms thinly and you're pretty much done! Of course garlic is always your base for stir fries, and all you have to do is brown them in oil, and then add the carrots (they take a while to cook) first, and the pork 5 minutes later, and the mushrooms last, adding very tiny amount of water if necessary. Remember to test the flavor and add a pinch of salt if necessary (season to taste).

Bought a 400g loin of cod of the highest grade in the supermarket seafood counter for the classic Cantonese style steamed fish, which costed a tiny bomb, but well worth it as it was fresh and flaky when done. Lay the sprigs of spring onions below the cod pieces, and fine ginger slices on top, and then just add light soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil before steaming it for 10 minutes or less, depending on size/thickness of the fish.

If you squint your eyes properly you could probably see another dish in the top left of the picture that just looks brown. Forgot to take a picture of that, but it's a dish that I grew up with: Steamed egg with Chinese Mushroom and Dried Prawns topping. Judging from feedback, it was the most popular dish of them all that night :D Promise to do one special post on the steam egg dish as I recently learnt a secret to the perfect one from a friend.

Anyways, expect lots of delicious Greek foodie banter next!

Fried Noodles with Fishball

Sorry for the long absence! Just got back from a weekend in Edinburgh and the weather was excellent! Expect an interesting one on Edinburgh this week!

Meanwhile, here's a 10 min recipe on something that I'll always miss from home and can't find it even in London: Fishballs :) Always had homemade ones and definitely not taking those for granted when I'm devouring it at home the next time ...

This is a usual breakfast/lunch item for me at least, where you just need a pack of fishball, some vegetables (I used chinese leaves here), and some flat rice noodles. Garlic or shallots as usual starts up the frying process, makes the dish a little tad more aromatic. Then simply fry the fish balls for a bit and stir in the freshly boiled noodles and stir fry. Season as you wish, mine here is a little light as I usually prefer my food less salty. But if you like a bit of color, dark soy sauce gives it a dark brown color and a sweet aftertaste which some may prefer. Mix in the thinly slices leaves and it'll be done it a jiffy

"Konlo" Noodles

Is my absolute favorite breakfast back home in Malaysia. I think you already know that by now, I've blogged about it twice previously :P Seems like it's an annual affair, lol, check out the ones in 2007 and 2006! The char siu recipe is in there and it has never failed so far :)

It's probably the char siu (BBQ pork) that I'm more keen in, but nothing beats having them tossed with fresh egg noodles! This time, I decided to make some potato wedges for starters since we've got some leftovers ...

Not to difficult to make good wedges, all you need is some olive oil, salt, and even paprika/herbs if you like for the extra kick. Scrub them well and make sure you dry them properly with a cloth or kitchen towels. Slice them into wedges, thickness wise you can refer to the picture below for a good gauge. Important as you don't want them too burnt or undercooked! I had about 6 baby potatoes, sliced and lightly tossed in olive oil and salt, and grilled in the oven along with the marinaded pork for about 40 minutes at 200C.

The pork is crackling well about 20 minutes into the cooking, don't worry too much as it's usually the honey caramelising into the fat and having the burnt edges! When I did it the first time I was always too worried that my dinner will be black charcoal and constantly open and close the oven to check the meat, but this does impact the heating and the finishing of the meat. If the thickness is about 1-2cm, 40 minutes you'll be fine. You can flip the meat halfway through if desired

And the rest was pretty quick to prepare, just steaming some green beans (didn't have the right vegetable at the time, i.e. pak choy or kai lan - chinese style vegetables). But wedges turned out great, brown and crispy skin, but still soft inside. Good with some dipping or finger food. Fresh noodles took a quick 2 minutes boiling and strained under cold water (makes it more chewy, more "bite" so they always say). Didn't toss it with dark/light soy sauce as its naturally slightly salty. One special tip: adding a hint of sesame oil to toss with the noodles does add an edge to the dish - you get an extra nutty aroma and smoother noodles too!

Doesn't it look beautiful?

The Easiest Breakfast in the World

I don't know if this is British, or whether even it deserves to be categorized as a recipe, but it's one of my favorite breakfast since I love the versatility of eggs in cooking. Would have had one everyday if I didn't have this amazing 'ability' to produce extra cholesterol in my body :P

Anyways, its dead simple. Egg, bread and good ketchup. Eggs, any way you prefer, poached, fried, boiled (tho not so exciting this one). I like mine poached, and yes its tricky to get it poached right, but if you're in a rush of time or simply can't be arsed, you can microwave the egg in a minute. Just need to beat the eggs a little with a fork (don't overdo it), and place it in a flat plate/bowl in the microwave for about a minute. The flatter your plate/bowl, the better since it takes less time to cook evenly.

This took me 3 minutes to assemble :)

Every Cook's Dream Dish: Lamb Stroganoff

This dish is probably one of those that I often call misleading ... Why, I hear you ask?

First, the name. Being such a ubiquitous dish in many cookbooks and the British menu, it was a slight surprise to find that it originated in Russia with the beef version, and has been popular in Europe since with many variations of it.

Second, it requires less types of ingredients than perceived. With a name like that, you'd think it involves a combination of millions of spices, ingredients that are in general expensive or hard to get.

Third, the method of preparation is easier than you think! There's no long hours of braising, watching over the oven times, or marinading required at all!

Isn't this essentially what we are all looking for in a recipe? A dish that provides minimal headache over the ingredients, tastes amazing yet so quick and easy to prepare? Not to mention that it's easy to cook in bulk (unlike stir fries), without sacrificing the flavors and results, perfect for a party? Not to mention that for this recipe can definitely fit into the menu of those health conscious too! So here goes:

Ingredients for two
300g Lamb fillet/neck strips/shoulder bits (I personally prefer fillets, as its a whole chunk of solid meat and not too fatty)
Mushrooms (as much as you like, the more variety the better, I used chestnut and closed cup mushrooms)
1 Onion
250ml of crème fraîche/sour cream (I used a reduced fat version)
1 Lemon (juiced and 1 tsp of lemon zest, or if lazy, bottled lemon juice)
3 tbsp paprika (or season to taste)
Salt (season to taste)
1 knob of butter (optional)
Olive oil

So, the meat is first cut into thin slices, about 0.5cm thick or finer would do. Then mix the paprika, and about 1-2 teaspoons of salt for a quick marinade. Mince the onions into chunky pieces, cut the mushrooms into bite size quarters or cross section slices (or whatever shape you fancy) and we're set to go! That probably takes 15 minutes max isn't it?

Time to cook! Heat up some olive oil, as usual. Then fry the onions until brown and soft. Scoop them up and set aside. Do the same for the mushrooms, but add the lamb pieces in when the aroma of mushrooms fills the air. It should be soft and smaller now, given that some moisture is lost. Add the onions back to the pan, and continue stirring them around for a bit before adding the crème fraîche, lemon juice and zest.

Now, the tasting bit. Which you absolutely have to do. Can't imagine a cook who doesn't taste before serving, pretty risky even for the pros. I tried mine, and found it slightly too spicy for a stroganoff, hence leveled off some of the heat with a pinch of sugar. Sugar works to counter a bit of saltiness too, as in this case you shouldn't add water to this dish as its meant to be creamy and thick. If desired, you can add a small knob of butter, it does add a nice creamy flavor to it.

When you're happy with the taste, serve with rice, and eat right away. In this case, I used wild red rice, has more of a nutty taste which I love, a nice change from the usual white rice. The whole process took about 30 minutes or less, great for those of you who are rushed for time yet still want to eat something wholesome and delicious.

There's another venison version of Jamie Oliver's website, with parsley and gherkins to match, will try that sometime soon! Now that summer's here, it's time to bring up the BBQ!

Fresh Homemade Pasta - Part 2

So have any of you tried to make your own fresh pasta yet? Would love to hear how it went or any improvisation suggestion you have!

Anyways, back to the tagliatelle in the previous post ... I wanted something simple, not a over powering sauce since the pasta is the main star of the dish, hence opted for something light and simple, in hope to bring the best of the tagliatelle :)

I decided on Tagliatelle with Cod and Spicy Parsley Sauce. Perhaps something of a random unheard sauce, but it's a combination of my favorite spices - shouldn't go wrong with lots of garlic, parsley, some sliced cod and chili flakes. Here are the prepared ingredients for two:

Cod (2 fillets, sliced in huge chunks)
Parsley (or Coriander will do, finely chopped without the stalks)
1 whole bulb of garlic (or even more if you wish, minced)
Olive oil (abt 3-4 tbsp)
Salt (to taste)
Black Pepper
White wine vinegar
White wine (optional)
Chili flakes (or freshly chopped chilies)
Parmesan cheese

First, heat up a few tablespoon of olive oil for a minute or so. Then add in the garlic and stir fry quickly to avoid overcooking them. As I was lazy and short for time AND hungry (due to all the kneading work with the dough previously), I just added the cod pieces in together to fry, knowing that the fish flakes easily and probably the result will be some sort of mush. My attempt of trying hard not to flip the fish too much isn't effective either, but ah well, stomach rules when it growls :P

Ideally, I intended to grill or pan fry to WHOLE cod fillet before hand and sliced them once they are crisp with the skin. The way to do this is to leave the whole cod fillet as a whole, heat up your grill or pan with a little oil. If you choose to grill, it's best to oil the fish skin a little bit as well so it doesn't stick to the grill pan and make a mess of the beautiful fish skin. 3-4 minutes on each side on medium to high heat should be fine.

For pan fry purposes, you can also pat a little bit of flour on the skin part of the fish to get a nice crispy effect. Put the skin side down on the heated pan with some oil, and let it fry for about 3 minutes before you turn the other side for another 2 minutes or so. Set the fish aside once grilled or pan fried.

Ok, back to my mush :) I added parsley towards the end, with some salt and chili flakes to taste. One important addition is also a bit of white wine vinegar (just a few drops or roughly 1 tbsp would do), somehow I find it adds a little sharpness to the sauce to make it a lil' more exciting than just chili flakes alone. A dash of white wine is always welcomed in this kind of sauce too.

Meanwhile, don't forget to cook the pasta, and if you followed the fresh pasta recipe in the previous post, it'd probably take about 2 minutes in boiling water to cook it. Then, drain it quickly and add to the cod mixture and give it a good toss to coat the pasta.

When its thoroughly mixed, do take a pinch to taste and see if the flavor is fine, or else adjust accordingly. Finally, serve on a nice plate/bowl, garnish with some Parmesan cheese and chili flakes and tuck in!

Phew, after all that ordeal, I'd say it was an interesting experience and nothing beats eating something homemade from scratch :) My pasta definitely still has some way to go in terms of improvement, especially in terms of texture (a bit dry) and thickness (not thin enough, probably about 2mm, as you can see in the pic above). Taste wise was not bad, sauce was not over powering, but there's definitely a difference to the dried pasta, which is usually harder with more 'bite'. Fresh ones are soft, chewy yet retains its al-dente texture giving the best of both worlds. Doing it again? Definitely, despite the tired arms! Gonna try linguine or something more funky like ravioli next time, with a different sauce. Need to be a bit more creative here, no Bolognese , Carbonara or any other sort of sauce that has a bottled version of it hehe. Still inspired by my Da Mario trip, and one day my pasta will get roughly comparable to theirs ...

Fresh Homemade Pasta - Part 1

So it's time for the homemade pasta challenge folks!

I promise you that your week long wait was well worth it, I certainly found the arm busting experience of making my own tagliatelle from scratch worth while! :) It'd be better if you find a nice comfy couch to sit on whilst reading this long post as this is a COMPLETE, step by step and carefully illustrated guide to making your pasta from scratch.

And yes, no machines/gadgets involved whatsoever, simply because ...

Pasta machines are for babies
Real women (men) use rolling pins!

OK, let's get down to business ... The ingredients for making fresh pasta is pretty simple and easy to obtain:

Plain White Flour/Tipo 00 Flour (Around 150g - 200g per person)
Eggs (1 medium egg per 100g of flour - free range preferably)

Yup, that's pretty much what you need. Tipo 00 flour is the finer Italian flour found mostly in Italian delis/specialist shops. I tried with plain flour this time, will let you know of my experiment next on that special flour and see if there's a significant difference. Gadgets wise is simple too: just a sift for the flour and a rolling pin would do, and we're set to go!

Firstly, measure the amount of flour you need, and gently sift them through so you get a nice fine texture to make the mixing process slightly easier.

Using your hands (washed and thoroughly dry!) or a spatula, shape the flour into a mountain structure.

With your fingers, gently make a well in the center of the flour and break the eggs into the well, both the yolks and egg whites.

Using a fork or a knife, stir and mix the egg mixture slowly, incorporating the flour with it bit by bit. Try not to rush this and mix thoroughly as it will save more effort in the kneading process later.

You'll notice that lumps start to form as more flour mixture is added. No worries though, just try your best to even out the lumpy bits and stir in all the flour gradually. Slow and steady :)

When the mixture is very thick and impossible to mix use the fork/knife, this is where the arm busting kneading process starts! Despite the seemingly intimidating process, dough kneading is stress relieving and pretty therapeutic. Depending on how many people you're feeding, it may also be a good idea to split the dough and work with smaller pieces for starters, or split the workload with your dedicated friend/helper :) Thank God I'd P who was willing to help that day, despite being warned that his dinner may be at risk!

Here's a bit of a tip on the kneading technique. Kneading isn't exactly pressing, so you don't need your thumbs or fingers to press the dough. Instead, a more energy efficient and pain free way (it matters when you're kneading for at least 30 minutes!) is using the palm of your hand for essentially the "Push-Pull Technique":

Use the heels of your hands and press firmly into the dough, pushing forward slightly. Then pull and fold the far edge of the dough upwards, towards you, and press it into the middle of the ball. Rotate it slightly, too, and repeat the steps until the dough is well mixed, unlumpy and not too sticky. The well kneaded dough ball should look yellowish due to the yolk, with no trace of improperly incorporated white flour.

Do note that in my first attempt I got the flour measurement wrong, and hence the whole pile of extra flour there now. In fact you probably only have a little extra for some dusting later on. With the 100g flour to 1 egg rule and you should be fine :)

Continue kneading ... ***knead^100***

... till the flour and egg is properly incorporated ... ***knead^300***


... into a light yellow dough ball ... ***knead^500***

Do take a short break occasionally as it's understandable that kneading for the first time is pretty tiring for the arms! Try not to take too long though as the dough will dry out and you'll have brittle pastas, which would be shame after all the hard work!

Just in case, here's a better graphical illustration of the kneading technique:

Use the heel of your hands to compress and push the dough away from you...

then pull and fold it back over itself...

Give the dough a little turn and repeat the previous step. Another handy tip is to utilize the weight of your body into the motion and get into a rhythm so that it's less tiring for the arms.

I definitely had a new found respect for the bakers who still do kneading the traditional way, they probably also have their dominant arms significantly bigger than the other! But as mentioned before, it's probably a good idea to split the dough that you find too challenging to knead into half and work on them separately. Takes longer, but better result than struggling with the large dough alone!

This whole kneading process took me about 40 minutes, but I think it'd probably be less for those quicker and stronger ones of you out there. As long as you see no lumps and the flour is well mixed , it's ready to rest.

And HOW do you know the dough is ready? POKE it!

If the dough gently springs back up once you relieve the pressure of your finger, then it's ready :) If not, just continue kneading and the lumps should be evenly mixed by then, it'd be springy in no time! For those who kneaded the dough in smaller portions, don't forget to combine them altogether at the end to rest.

Reaching this far, it's time to congratulate yourself for the hard work :D The hardest part is probably over and you're closer to your own homemade, authentic Italian pasta dinner ...

You can cover Mr Smiley Dough with a big bowl for a 20 minutes rest, whilst you start off the celebration with a toast to your achievement so far!

Meanwhile whilst the dough is resting, you could also take the opportunity to prepare the ingredients for the pasta sauce of your choice. This would be for the next post, since we're ready to rock and ROLL ...

... with the rolling pin and the dough! Let's start simple with the aim of simple pasta shapes :P So nothing complex, just roll the dough as thin as you can make it.

All you do is keep on rollin' ...

rollin'

rollin' (yeah) ...

... till it gets as thin as you can make it to be, ideally 1mm. Don't rush off trying to get a ruler or something to measure for you engineers out there, you'll know it's thin enough when you can see your fingers and palms slightly underneath the rolled pasta sheet.

Finally, just fold in the sheet from both ends, in 2 inches/5cm each time, until you reach towards the center.

I trimmed the uneven bits at the end due to my lousy rolling skills so that it looks nice and rectangular now - It was just an excuse for greedy me to just test those extra bits right away by plunging them into hot boiling water for roughly 2 minutes, and my my they tasted so soft, slippery yet al dente at the same time! First taste of hard labor and I'm excited and pleasantly surprised at the result :D

OK, OK, we've finally reached the best and most crucial part of all this pasta making mumbo jumbo, haha. This part, equally important with how the final dish tastes like with the sauce of your choice, will not only earn you extra brownie points for the audience you're trying to impress, but probably make you the coolest person in the world too... only if it's executed beautifully ...

I'm talking about cutting the pasta with your hands ...

and for those who thought it was a normal, mundane and even an uneventful task, perhaps these videos can change your mind? This is the key to your 10 seconds fame ... hehe

:P I hope it did for you guys, because it's probably one of the reasons I want to make my own pasta from scratch without the boring pasta maker! Trust me, there'll be lots of Oooh's and Aaah's :P

... Dust the sharp knife with flour beforehand, slice through the pasta sheets with speed and accuracy, lifting up the pasta swiftly whilst watching it roll down in style... *priceless*

Voila! My fresh tagliatelle ...

Tagliatelle was on the menu for me, so I sliced it with about half to 1 cm wide, something finer (say 0.2cm) will give you linguine, something wider than that (2-3cm) will give you parpadelle. It's flexible, no worries...

Wooohoo! We're done and thank God the process went smoothly and dinner is safe hehe. I guess there's no need for the back up dried pasta anymore!

Stay tuned for the next post on the actual cooking with the tagliatelle :)