Pork Stew

About a month ago, the family (3 of us, husband, youngest daughter and yours truly) spent 5 days in Krabi.  We loved it there.  It was relaxing, lazy, lazy and lazy! 

Where we stayed, at Aaonang there was a great German open air cafe two minutes away.  The owner is a German and calls himself Andy.  The Thai food is scrumptious and the German food was dirt cheap and delicious.

I loved the porky dishes which he served and one evening I daringly asked Andy what he put in his pork stew.  He was very accommodating and  rattled the ingredients for me.

Yesterday I tried it out from memory.  I plucked a whole lot of herbs from my garden again.  There was parsley, sage, terragon, cekur, basil and thyme.  The recipe simply calls for pork, chopped onions, mushrooms, carrots, garlic, tomatoes and a can of chopped tomatoes.

I seared the pork in my amazingly great-to-use Green Pan.

 

Then I cooked down the onions and button mushrooms.

 

Then I tossed the herbs and tomatoes together.

Added the carrots and garlic too.

 

Poured a can of chopped tomatoes and about a cup of stock.

 Allowed it to simmer for one hour on low fire.

 

Added some freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste. 

I think it tasted very close to Andy's recipe. 

I shall add some red wine next time!

Dinner for the kids!

Last couple of Wednesdays, I've been cooking dinner for some of the kids in our youth group at Church. I was watching Martha Stewart on TV, on Wednesday morning when I decided that I would make "Chef Bao's" Sloppy Bao!

Check out this funny video:http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao#

The recipe is here: http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao

Below the shallots and lemon grass!

I improvised on the toppings, I just mixed them all together. I topped slices of baguette with this meat sauce and the kids loved it!! It's an amazing flavor!

I also made macaroni cheese today. I used my magic pot to cook the macaroni by putting it aside for 6 minutes (per instructions on the package) only after it came to a boil on the stove.

Result? Perfect macaroni!

Baked macaroni cheese!

Fried some Chinese style meehoon too!

Sarawak Laksa

My friend gave me a few packets of Sarawak Laksa paste and it's been in my freezer for a while. I have no idea how to cook Sarawak Laksa!

Definition from Wikipedia:

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped withomelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added.

Last weekend at the coffee morning sales, my stall was sold out quite early so I had time to sit around to chat with some old friends from Sarawak. Gina who is the grandmother of my Godson taught me how to cook the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked the pork bones and chicken stock in my magic pot one day ahead. I used my 8 L pot, brought the water to a rolling boil, added the bones and kept it boiling for 10 minutes. I left it in the magic pot for more than 10 hours.

The stock turned out excellent and clear!

After clearing the scum, look at the clear soup!

Look here for a similar recipe. I am lazy to re-write everything and this recipe posted by Hochiak! seems similar to how I cooked the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked a sambal which Gina taught me.

1 packet of chili boh

1 cup of dried prawns

some oil from the Sarawak Laksa

Method:

1. Cook the chili boh in some oil from the Sarawak Laksa.

2. Soak and pound dried prawns coarsely.

3. When chili boh darkens to a dark red/maroon color and smells fragrant, add the dried prawns and cook for a while. Add salt to taste if necessary!

Bento 316

This was a bento from this week. Just two home made burger patties sandwiched between burger buns, cheese and some Japanese mayonnaise. There was some seedless grapes and a handful of BBQ chips!

Home made burger patty recipe here.

All boxed up and ready to go!

I had this for lunch, Nigella Lawson's meatloaf which I made from one of the weekend BBQ's!

The white bits are fresh bread cubes. I Googled for Nigella Lawson's website but the recipe I used for this meatloaf wasn't posted up.

Nevertheless, I searched for meatloaf and out came a full page of recipes! Here's the link. This is the closest except for the instant coffee!

Bento 310 and fresh meat patties

Everyday there's extra classes for #3 and I've decided to send her lunch. She's grown a whole lot over the last holidays and looks more 16 than 12!

Her appetite is revenous and a third of her school bag would be filled with food if I didn't send her lunch!

This was her lunch today...(clockwise from the bottom) fried rice with bacon bits and egg. Some chicken nuggets with cheddar cheese, a bowl of hot ABC soup, a quarter of an orange and some Japanese chocolates.

After much cajoling, I finally agreed to make some meat patties for burgers. #2 and #3 helped me make it in the middle of getting dinner ready tonight.

It was really quite easy with their help and we finished it in a zippy.

The ingredients were roughly the following:

1 kg minced beef

500g minced pork

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs

5tbsp of milk

1 white onion - chopped in bits

pepper and salt to taste

8 slices of bacon cut to bits and fried till a little crisp

Method:

Mix all the above well together and pack them in sizes which are suitable for your use.

The two girls had five burgers between them and it was "yummy"!

Home made Pasta

We eat a lot of pasta at home. It's easy to finish 6 boxes of 500g of pasta in a month, sometimes more even. I've tried making pasta a couple of times but never left me wanting to do more.

I was reading an old magazine and came across a simple recipe.

600 g high gluten flour

5 medium eggs


Mix and knead.


Allow to rest for at least 25 minutes.



Roll flat and wide.

Roll them together and cut to the size required.


Nicely falls over the knife when lifted up.

Nice pile of Fettuccini.

Made some Lasagna sheets too.

Freshly cooked Fettuccine. Fresh pasta took less than 5 minutes to cook till al dante.


Can't wait to try the Lasagna sheets!

Nothing tastes better than fresh pasta!
I think Barilla just lost a loyal customer.

Spam Musubi

I hosted a meeting at my home tonight. I made an array of food stuff. Amongst them was Spam Musubi.

I posted the recipe about a year ago and recently I tried a different recipe which I read from Adventures in Bentomaking. I tried looking back to find the specific post but couldn't find it. Anyway I remembered the recipe for the sauce which said half cup sugar, half cup shoyu and half cup water. The best thing was, her recipe recommended 'boiling' the spam in the sauce instead of frying the spam. (saved all the splattering)

Picture below shows the 'boiled' spam.


This is the final outcome. The spam musubi was delicious. I liked it. After I opened the cling wrap, I drizzled some kewpie mayo on the sliced musubi before serving. I liked the added flavor.



For method and more pictures of my previous post, click here.

Bento sabbatical and my Moussaka

I'm taking a sabbatical from posting bentos for #2. She had her braces fit last Friday and has not been able to eat anything other than juices, smoothies, soup and more juices.

She missed a hi-tea party on Saturday because her teeth hurt too much and missed my Uncle's 90th big birthday party last night too. Not only does her teeth hurt, she's in the midst of finals as well. #2 has really been good, complained very little and has been juicing up all her own meals.

I literally filled a fridge full of fruits and vegetables to be at her disposal. I tried to cook some porridge for her but it didn't appeal. Oh well, exams end on Wednesday and she's on term holiday for a fortnight and then back to college. As usual, her holiday is already packed to the brim with activities.

I made Moussaka today. It is something like Lasagna without the pasta sheets but with lots of vegetables. It was delicious but took a long while to make.

This is the ready baked Moussaka hot from the oven.


A view from the side of my glass dish. Visible are the layers of vegetables, beef and cheeses.


The pictures were taken in a hurry because we wanted to dig in and this was the only portion which we managed to capture before it went into the stomachs! Verdict? Delicious, textured, light flavored vegetables and flavorful cheeses drove the taste buds wild!

Yeah! #2 couldn't resist and managed to eat two servings of the Moussaka. Her first proper meal in three and a half days.



This is quite a huge portion so half it if you're trying it for the first time. I made a full portion because we love this!

Recipe:
Eggplants (Brinjals) - 500 grams, sliced slanting 1/4 inch thick
Zucchini - 1 kg, sliced slanting 1/4 inch thick
Pepper and Salt to taste
EVOO as required
3 tsp of chopped garlic
50 grams of fresh basil leaves - torn in bits
1 box of fresh button mushrooms - slice
500 grams ground beef
1 can of crushed tomatoes
Cheddar cheese as required
1 box 250 grams spreadable cottage cheese

Method:
1. Salt the zucchini and eggplant with generous amount of salt in a large container for 40 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, add two tbsp EVOO in a pan and saute the garlic over low fire to soften.
3. Add the ground beef to cook and then add the sliced fresh button mushrooms.
4. Throw in the torn basil leaves and pour in the can of crushed tomatoes.
5. Bring to boil and slowly cook down for about 20 minutes until it gets dry.
6. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
7. Pre-heat oven to 230C.
8. Once times up for the zucchini and eggplant, rinse out well and dry well. Coat vegetables with 3tbsp of EVOO.
9. Lay all the vegetables by slices in a large oven tray lined with wax paper. Put into oven and roast for 20 minutes until soft or brown.
10. Once ready, begin layering a 9 by 11 inch oven proof dish. I used a glass dish so I can see the layers cooking.
11. Layer vegetables first and then the meat and top with a sprinkling of cheddar cheese. Begin the second cycle with the same layering method of vegetables, meat and sprinkling of cheddar cheese until it tops with a meat layer.
12. Give the spreadable cottage cheese a good mix in it's box and spread it out on the top meat layer. Sprinkle generously some more cheddar cheese.
13. Bake for 17 minutes and broil and cook for 3 minutes to brown the top. Allow to cool at least 20 minutes before cutting to serve. Enjoy!

Bento 289

There's a great similarity in #2's palate and mine. We like strong cheeses, Natto and a whole lot of food that #1 and hubs dislike.

Right now, blue cheese rides high on our fave food list. #2 and I were at Sid's Pub in TTDI, two weeks ago for a drink which later led to an order of blue cheese and mushrooms and a brownie. The blue cheese and mushrooms were absolutely awesomely delicious. The brownie was 'biasa lah' (normal tasting, nothing spectacular).

I'm one who likes to be adventurous and so I indulged a little and bought a block to try experimenting. It's been two days in a row where blue cheese and mushroom spaghetti appears. #2 wiped clean the balance sauce which was in the fridge.

The bento below doesn't need description but if you want the recipe, it's after the picture.



Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic - sliced
5 button mushrooms - sliced or cut into chunks
1 cup of cream
1 tbsp of blue cheese

Method:
1. Add one tbsp of EVOO into a pan.
2. Toss the sliced garlic over low heat to soften and NOT brown.
3. Add the button mushrooms and saute.
4. Pour the cream and add the blue cheese.
5. Mash the blue cheese into the cream (it will easily soften and mix into the cream).
6. Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
7. Once bubbles appear, switch off the fire and serve with spaghetti or toast.

Don't say I didn't warn you, this dish is not for the faint hearted!

"Yan Yat"

Last Saturday was "Yan Yat" - every body's birthday! That was the seventh day of the Chinese Lunar New Year where everybody grows one year older!

My local neighborhood Catholic community (BEC) organized a BBQ. I marinated the Lamb, bought fish from the North Port fishmongers and made a topping for the potatoes.

There is a block of Philadelphia soft cheese, mayonnaise, chopped white onion, chopped celery, mustard, freshly ground black pepper and salt in the tub below.


Fried some chopped bacon.



Crispy and fragrant bacon in a bowl.



Added the fried bacon bits to the cheese mixture.

This was the first to go at the BBQ!


UPDATED
Recipe:
1 block of Philadelphia soft cheese
1 1/2 cups of mayonnaise
1 large white onion (Chopped)
1 1/2 sticks of celery (Chopped)
1 tsp of English Mustard
6 pcs of back bacon (cut in bits and fried)
Freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Method:
Mix everything up well.

Long bean tamagoyaki

#2's having exams and hours at college are over 1 1/2 - 2 hours. Too short to warrant a bento.

Last week, I made sushi again and this time when I made the tamagoyaki, I added chopped long beans and some chopped Chinese pickled radish (sweet choi poh).

It was basically 2 large eggs, 3 strands of long beans (chopped), hand ful of chopped "Choi Poh", 3 tbsp dashi and 1 tbsp of sugar. Below are some pictures.

After one layer:

2nd roll:


Long bean tamagoyaki sliced and ready for use in sushi:



I was surprised, everyone liked it and was finished in no time!

Meat loaf

I was bored last night and tried my hand at making meat loaf. I browsed through several recipe websites and finally figured that I had to improvise on the recipe because I didn't want to shop for the unavailable stuff.

This is a good reference for the cooking method although I didn't follow the ingredients to the tee. As you can see the picture below, the ingredients I used was minimal and available at home.

My recipe:
250 ground beef
250 ground pork
1/2 cup cream
1 tbsp Lea & Perrins
2 tbsp tomato sauce
3 heap tbsp bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp Oregano
1 tsp Celery
1 large yellow onion (chopped)
1 red capsicum (chopped)
Salt and pepper to taste.


Method:
Saute the onions and capsicum in some EVOO. Allow to cool. Set aside.
Use hands and mix the meats and the rest of the ingredients together well.
Mix the onion and capsicum mix with the meat mix last.


I didn't have a small loaf tin so I used this round glass container.
I set the oven for 180 C and baked for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Below was the outcome.



Not only looks nice but tasted absolutely delicious!! First time and a great success too! Love the taste and texture.