Quickest 3 Course Dinner to Impress

A presentable one too! Seems like I've been away for a bit, have had so many things happening that need a bit of thinking time ... but I'm back, as usual, this time with an impressive 3 course dinner that takes 40 minutes from start till the end. Good for those who are in a rush with this impromptu, simple classics ...

Inspired by what's seasonal/on offer in supermarkets, I got myself some fresh scallops (8 of them), a pack of rocket leaves, some sweet cherry tomatoes on the vine, baby/salad potatoes, and 2 spare rib chops, strawberry flavored Onken yoghurt and some digestive biscuits (optional).

The beautiful thing about cooking is that you DON'T NEED to be super skilled/trained to cook amazing food! Most of the time, it can be supplemented with super FRESH, QUALITY INGREDIENTS ...

This applies to the starter dish. Was gonna serve Pan-fried Scallops with Tomato and Rocket Salad. Preparing the salad first, simply just mix the rockets and tomatoes with your favorite dressing, I used French dressing in mine, done! Ooh, loving the speed eh?

Scallops cooks pretty quickly, so just heat up 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, and once hot spoon the scallops on the pan gently, preferably cooking them in one go as they have to be serve immediately once done. Bear in mind that they overcook very easily, and full attention to the pan please for 3 minutes maximum, ok? While they are sizzling away, season with salt and black pepper, then flip them over after a minute. Do the same on the other side, season to taste and it should be slightly brown both sides after another minute. Serve with the salad immediately like below:

Beautiful yea? I prefer having them one minute a side pan fried, to be it's just nice, but if you prefer them 100% cooked, you can have them 90 seconds a side, it'll still be fine. All you want to avoid is eating a rubbery, overcooked texture ... It was perfect, P was pretty amazed at the speed and taste for sure ... this is exactly the misconception I'm trying to prove to many out there who are intimidated by cooking - taste does not always equal complicated and lengthy cooking preparations!

Ok, main course next! First, settle the potatoes: bring a pot of water to boil and place the potatoes in to cook. Meanwhile, the meat: this is my random seasoning which I thought up on the minute since I didn't have time to marinade for hours, but thankfully it didn't taste weird, hehe. So I had some leftover tomato puree from the last cooking of spaghetti, some ketchup, balsamic vinegar, paprika. Basically I put a similar seasoning to the BBQ Pork Fillet recipe, so listen up. First season the meat with salt and pepper all over and rub them well. Put 2 generous tablespoon of paprika, 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, about 100g of tomato puree (for a bit of sauce for the meat so it's not too dry), and generous dollop of ketchup. Mix the seasoning and rub it all over the meat, leaving it to rest while you heat up your grill pan. The potatoes should be cooked now, as seasoning of meat probably took 5 minutes, so drain them and set aside.

Once the pan is hot, place both the spare rib chops and let them sizzle away. Note that you would have leftover marinade and use these to spoon on the meat when you flip them later. Since the meat is cooking away, you can afford some time to set up your simple salad on the plates, which is the same as your starter anyways, with the additional potatoes on the side now. Time taken? 1 minute at max :P

So full attention to your meat now, let it cook about 5 minutes on one side and flip them over. Now hopefully you have some professional looking charred lines on it, but if not it's not a disaster either, LOL. Spoon some marinade on top and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Like the scallops, overcooked meat is hard and chewy like rubber, not very nice at all. So avoiding this simply takes a sharp eye and a bit of gut feeling. For those more risk averse, after cooking 5 minutes a side, you can use a fork/knife to put through the meat and if the juice looks clear you're fine. As long as it 's not bloody/red. But that is difficult to gauge with the marinade being of similar color in this case! Hence the gut feel comes in, you know it's almost cooked and perfect when you prod the meat and its slightly springy. Serve immediately and spoon as much of the marinade in the pan on top of the meat. There you go: BBQ Chops with Potatoes and Rocket Salad

There you go, 15 mins for starter, 20 mins for main maximum, and of course 5 mins for a simple easy dessert. Just roughly break some digestive biscuits served with dollops of strawberry yogurt, for a Quick and Healthy Cheesecake Imitation! Surely you don't need a picture for that :P Enjoy!

Mee Goreng Mamak

Empty plate with a lime ... waiting in anticipation for the best dish of all time --> Mee Goreng Mamak! (fried noodles, Mamak style)

All you need is fresh yellow egg noodles, chinese greens (I used bok choy/pak choi), fish cakes, potatoes, chilli paste, tomato ketchup, firm (deep fried) tofu, dark soy sauce, garlic, lime juice and some chicken meat (drumstick/thighs are ideal). I had to do it twice, given the small wok, but personally feel that it produces a better result than mass production...

As usual, add in a bit of oil on the wok. When its hot enough, stir in the roughly chopped garlic and potato slices (or in thin wedges) for a minute or two. Next is the chili paste (lots of it!), where the heat starts to kick in. Add the chicken, fish cakes, tofu and bok choy next and stir fry quickly for another 3-4 minutes before adding in the noodles. Stir as quick as you can to evenly coat and mix. Finally season with dark soy sauce, tomato ketchup, a bit of salt to taste and its done!

Serve it on a nice hot plate with a wedge of lime. Always gives the dish an extra kick with a tangy aftertaste. Enjoy!

Kamari Beach, Santorini

So I got reimbursed for the wok fiasco in the previous post, LOL :D

Back to Greece: 3rd day, this time renting a car to venture further out! We got a Toyota Aygo (automatic) for EUR 30 a day, quite reasonable. Make sure you shop around before you finalise because there are a lot of rip-offs out there in Santorini, given its a way too touristy island...

And first thing before the road trip is to head to Lucky Souvlaki in Fira for some wholesome kebabs

Thing about the kebabs here is that they are stuffed with fries as well, sprinkled with paprika and good ol' tzatziki, which is a Greek meze made of natural yogurt, cucumber, garlic, salt, a bit of lime juice and parsley. Definitely a healthier alternative than mayonnaise :)

I tried their falafel with pita instead, and my oh my it was the freshest and tastiest one I've had to date. There was something special about their falafel, which I suspect is extra spices in there different from the usual bean filled ones, and the beans is green-ish instead of the usual brown-ish mash in a falafel, perhaps its local beans ...

And off we headed for the most famous beach in Santorini - Kamari, which took us about 20 minutes drive and was south east of the island. And man, it was tough driving in Greece, firstly being the 'wrong' side with a left hand drive, and secondly... Greece itself. The roads were extremely narrow, yet people still drove fast like F1 drivers, with pedestrians ignorant and walking on the dangerous corners as if they own the roads, plus sign board quality was slightly appalling. But I think once you graduate from driving in Greece, you probably can survive in Malaysia pretty comfortably :P

Along the way we spotted many quieter seasides with beautiful beaches as well ...

Kamari was all you imagined it'd be for a popular tourist spot. Lots of straw umbrellas with lazy benches for skin cancer creation, many hotels and bars loaded with pools, sofas, alcohol and food. The ultimate hedonistic getaway most Europeans identify with, which is slightly different from my version at least.

Nevertheless, it was beautiful yet awfully hot, and we retreated to a nice cafe with good shades for some thirst quenchers. P went for the local Alfa beer...

whilst I took the (wrong) risk of trying their local Greek coffee.... which tasted like bleurggrhh with some strange aftertaste and muddy bottom...

A relaxing stroll towards the end of the beach was nice, and also helped out with some dinner hunting given that all the bars/restaurants were laid along the beach and impossible to choose or judge just by walking by. It's always a fine line between being friendly or just plain hassled when you just walk past a place and any slight indication of interest (e.g. exploring the menu) you'll just have a brigade of overly eager waiters pulling you in their restaurants. Definitely an art some restaurateurs have still yet to master...

And so I tested my theory out by choosing a restaurant that didn't have anyone hassling us in when we were checking out the menu. The place was quiet with not many patrons, something of a warning perhaps. Yet we went ahead anyway as the place, like anywhere else, boasts authentic Greek food.

P had Calamari with fries. Simple and nice, seafood was fresh, and fries not overly salted, squeeze of lemon and went down in minutes. Nothing extraordinary though, but fresh seafood sufficed.

I had some local grilled fish with salad. I remember the fish had an awful rubber sounding name, and was skeptical about it. It was fresh but the fish didn't taste amazing, despite the nice simple grill just with salt and pepper. So theory still unproven, so unfortunately no hard and fast rule for selecting good restaurants without back up research. Just look up into the sky, clasp your hands together, say your prayers and follow your instincts :P

Not entirely satisfied with the portions, we went for second round 'dinner' at Gyros Stop. A small family run place serving reasonably priced kebabs. Here's a glam photo shoot of the humble gyros' that made our day :)

Bored and done with the place, we decided to head home early and watch the sunset from our balcony...

Adventures in Athens

After a 3.5 hours flight, we arrived fresh faced and eager to explore the city of Athens for the first day of our Greek adventure. For me, it's the first time venturing further out in Europe and going for a Mediterranean twist in search for a different sort of holiday. And the best bit (probably stressful/frustrating for some) is I decided to do book this holiday in my usual rashed/irrational style with not much planning, never had time to research more of the cultural history and must-see sights given that I was busy working most of the time. Literally just booked the connecting flights and hotels and just headed off! In a strange sort of way it did pay off and I loved every bit of randomness of this Greek holiday ...

Athens feels like a small town living in history, not your typical glamorous and trendy European cities (e.g. Paris, Milan, Barcelona). Buildings are older and less polished, roads are narrow, Greek words and graffiti everywhere (not very English friendly), lots of nuts and olives, and of course, random shops like this ...

Colorful bottles of local liquor called Ouzo (which tastes like mouthwash or some toothpaste actually) ...

And then I saw something totally inappropriate which I thought you all would be interested ... -_-||

But anyways, we headed straight for a famous taverna for seafood called Tou Psara for dinner, which is near the Plaka, but pretty hard to find I must say. Well worth the hunt as you can just ask some locals like we did which will point you to the direction once you're nearby.

There are tables indoors as well as outdoors. You get a pretty decent view of the city like below

Here's a snapshot of the menu, on the starters page. I decided to go for the famous Greek salad for starters, after hearing so much about how its different locally.

And boy were they SO right! The Greek salad I've had all along outside of Greece was a poor attempt to replicate what is originally a refreshing, crisp and fresh salad. The key ingredients that made a difference was the local produce: giant red local tomatoes, fresh capers, olives, cucumber, green pepper and onions, dressed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, topped with a generous chunk of feta cheese... absolutely heavenly! The salad is served chilled and what I found interesting was that the raw onions were sweet and juicy and doesn't give the sharp aftertaste which many find unappetising. Now we know the ones available in the UK is not doing this amazing salad justice at all ...

P had the Grilled Kalamari Stuffed with Feta and Red Pepper, served with a mini tomato salad on the side. And that's what I meant by the giant local tomatoes if you look at the size of it :) He thoroughly enjoyed the dish being a big seafood and cheese fan, and I took quite a liking to it as well especially the crispy tentacles bit ...

On the other hand, I ordered Lamb Souvlaki with Spinach Pie and Rice. Souvlaki is probably what we normally call kebabs, basically pieces of meat grilled on skewers. The big chunky meat was succulent, grilled pink and perfect, with little charred bits on the green pepper which was nice (but cancer causing unfortunately) ;P The spinach pie was something new I've not tried before, but basically spinach cooked with a melted cheese topping, which is unsurprisingly feta I suspect. Pretty balance dish with a bit of meat, vegetables and carbo.
And there was something red, big and local that I would have missed out if it wasn't for the kind host who gave out fruits on the house. The chilled watermelon was great on a warm sunny day, oozing with natural sweetness and juiciness. All in all a great start to the discovery of Greek cuisine!

By the time we paid our bill, it's starting to get dark and even in Athens, the sunset is so beautiful and an event that you actually have to stop doing what you're doing and just standstill for 5-10 minutes to appreciate this natural beauty that is so often taken for granted ... More on this when we're off to Santorini island next!

Tou Psara (Fish Taverna)
Eretheos, 16. Plaka
Athens, Greece

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!

Edinburgh Eats II

Ok, I'm super tired now on a Wednesday night and have to be in office early tomorrow. With about 6 hours left of my precious beauty sleep, let me just briefly show you the best bits of Edinburgh that I was raving about previously...

After the quaint market, we head towards town center (Princes Street), with many beautiful architectures around such as this ...

And I'm determined not to be like one of them, doing typical boring touristy stuff sitting on one of these red sightseeing buses *shudders*

and instead headed straight for the beautiful park where the Edinburgh castle is! Definitely have to be there to see it for your own eyes really: fresh air, good sun, shady trees, green grass and most importantly no crowds, it was pure bliss just lying down on the grass facing the bright blue sky and watching the day go by ....

I really liked this picture taken by P in particular, super focused on the park surrounding and the greeneries, pretty soothing and calming, my new wallpaper now, lol. Apparently its good for the eyes too, especially at work when staring at computer screens the whole day, its best to take a break and look at something green and faraway ... yup that was totally random :P

And I knew I had to show you guys this Mister Potato statue, as I call it, not sure what it is, or what it was for, probably some memorial, but it's queer shape definitely caught my eye

and of course I have to take some Scottish-y pictures for you, here with a man in his favorite kilt performing on the street ... Super keen guy I must say :)

Next, time to grab some FOOD (finally)! There was a shopping mall nearby and I was super excited to check out the local McDonald's, hoping to see the globalised giant have some interesting local specialties just like McRib in Germany or Green Bean Pie in China.

I was hoping there was a McHaggis or something which would make my day for sure ... to my dismay, there wasn't anything 'local' and all I saw was this typical menu, what a let down!

Nevertheless, we walked around and spotted this really nice looking place called 'The Garden Cafe', which offers alfresco dining, perfect for the sunny weather. You know you can't say know when you get such a nice atmosphere like this....

P ordered Haggis, Neeps and Tatties with Brandy Sauce ... Come on, how can you not order that when you see that funny name?! I couldn't stop laughing at the word Neeps, its probably a Scottish word for mashed swede. Tatties on the other hand is just mashed potatoes, just an old English way to say potatoes I suppose. More importantly, something very Scottish and probably the traditional dish is Haggis - to put it simply its minced animal intestines with spices, something like Christmas stuffings, but the method of cooking is unique, in the sense that it is boiled in animal (usually sheep's) stomach for a few hours.

Sounds gross? But it actually tastes pretty good. Only thing is that I can take it in small doses as the strong flavor of offal is not really my cup of tea. But P absolutely loved it, especially with the brandy sauce ....

Me ? I ordered a Seafood Pizza with Watercress as there were no other interesting Scottish things I'd like to try and the menu is pretty general (pasta, pizza, sandwiches, steak). Pizza was great with the chewy and cheesy texture, a large portion too, unfortunately diminishing marginal returns sets in as I get less satisfaction out of each extra bite, as the pizza loses its chewiness as it gets cold ...
Yes I'm ashamed of myself not having found a fried mars bars place yet and ate a French breakfast and Italian lunch in Scotland, WoooT is THAT?! But I love Edinburgh all in all for its quaint, peaceful and beautiful town, getting all the balances right with a bit of city and a load of countryside :)

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

La Paradeta in Barcelona

Man, just when I was boasting about how good the weather was last Saturday, this week I'm blessed with the irony of heavy rain throughout ... and Barcelona just lost to Man U in the Champions League too!

Ah well, let's forget about the football for a moment and cheer ourselves up with a bit with some more good foodie pictures in the Barcelona dining scene :P In Barcelona, seafood is the thing to go for, period. In a land deprived of fresh and reasonably priced seafood (Britain, fyi), La Paradeta, located at the heart of the trendy La Ribera area, is the place worth queuing for , for the marisco lovers out there.

This seafood restaurant has a unique fish market concept to it, in the sense that the crabs, squids, prawns, etc are all displayed in huge plastic tubs as below. In the true market style, you order your seafood by weight, and then simply select from a few simply styles of cooking: deep fried, grilled, steamed etc. What's great that you don't often get the unpleasant fishy smell of markets, which is a good sign as it means the ingredients are TRULY FRESH.

I was brought there by K, who has roamed Barcelona so many times that he's as good as a local. We had to queue outside before it opened at 8pm, and there was already a little queue outside of enthusiastic fans of the place. Never a bad sign! :) So there you go, we chose some mussels, prawns, squids and many other interesting stuff that I never knew roamed in the sea :P

And when the dishes came, I knew we, or rather I, had overdone the ordering since I was so excited to try so many things! Look at this gigantic plate of fried goodies! Haha, starting from the left, its fried baby anchovies, then fried baby squids and fried calamari. My favorite was the baby squid, though it was a pity that the calamari was a little too rubbery for my liking. Could have been better grilled, or I've just been eating them from left to right and just got tired of them. Despite best efforts, 3 of us couldn't finish that platter, whole heartedly agreed that there was way too much fried stuff. :P

And of course we had salad, artichoke heart salad to be specific. It was definitely great to do something towards the 5 a day intake, and it's probably a hit or miss for some on the bitter/sourish artichoke hearts, but I do like them, feels like sauerkraut and its very appetizing.

Mussels in tomato sauce was good too! Never was much of a mussels fan, but the sauce was great with some crusty bread ...

Highlight of the meal was definitely the grilled dishes. The giant succulent prawns and long bamboo clams, lightly grilled with salt, pepper and a little gentle squeeze of lemon juice ---> heavenly! Cannot emphasize enough how easy cooking is as long as you have fresh ingredients, the simplest methods will suffice for an amazing meal. So its not about the fancy kitchen gadgets at all, and cooking only becomes necessarily complicated mask poor quality ingredients really.

Always a good idea to end the meal with some funky desserts too! K brought us to this little shop (forgot the name unfortunately) nearby for some designer desserts. All I remember was both were chocolate and nuts based mousse (almond and hazelnut) as everything was in Spanish and it was simply just looks based choices, :D

So if you're a big seafood fan visiting Barcelona, do pay La Paradeta a visit - they do seafood good justice. Enough said.

La Paradeta
Comercial 7
El Born, Ciutat Vella
La Ribera

Nearest metro: Arc de Triomf
Opening times: 8-11.30pm Tue-Fri;
1-4pm, 8pm-midnight Sat;
1-4pm Sun