Garam Masala Noodle

This dish was inspired by Neil Perry's pressure test recipe on last year's masterchef " Garam Masala Poached Fish with Semolina Noodle". What a long name ha? But I adapted this recipe from his recipe and make little adjustments here and there. Of course, I don't have the patience to make my own noodle so I just bought the usual yellow hokkien noodle from any asian groceries. It's still really satisfying. A bit of fusion between Indian/Thai flavour. I served this for one of the dinner parties we had at home and my friends loved it too.

I didn't cook it as long as Neil's recipe, and I made some changes to it as well. The colour looks a bit different too from his recipe. Haahahahha... but it's still good. I used Basa fillet, I kinda like this fish as it has nice firm flesh and a distinct flavour to it. I don't need to be afraid of overcooking it really. But you can replace it with any white flesh fish you like. Neil used snapper fillets.

The recipe I made is for about 8 servings. But you can cut it down to half of course.

Garam Masala Noodle with Fish

Adapted from Neil Perry's Masterchef pressure test recipe

Ingredients:

• 1kg Yellow Hokkien Noodle
• 200-300 grams snow peas
• 5 Basa Fillets, cut into 5-6cm pieces
• 5cm piece ginger, shredded
• 1L coconut milk
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 can diced tomato ( you can just use fresh tomato if you want. I was too lazy...=)..)
• 10 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 bunch Thai sweet basil leaves
• 1.5 big piece of palm sugar ( mine was a 5cm diameter piece, you can adjust accordingly)
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons salt

Spice paste:

• 2 red shallots
• 5 cloves garlic
• 5cm piece ginger
• Red chillies, optional ( you can add more if you like it spicy. I didn't add any chillies for mine)

Dry spice:

• 2 heaped teaspoon garam masala ( you can get it at any big supermarket or asian groceries)
• 1 teaspoon tumeric
• 1 teaspoon whole black pepper, dry roasted
• 8 green cardamom pods - dry roasted, cracked and black seeds removed
• 2 cloves, dry roasted
• 2 star anise, dry roasted

Methods:

1. Grind all the dry spices together until fine. Make sure you dry roast the cardamom/cloves/star anise and black pepper first before grinding. And crack the cardamom pods with your mortar and pestle to remove all the black seeds after you dry roast them before grinding.
2. Process the shallots, ginger and garlic into smooth paste and mix in all the ground spices
3. Heat up oil in frying pan, and fry the shallots/spice paste on low-medium fire for 10-15 minutes until fragrant.
4. Then add in the canned tomato and fry on low fire for another 5-10 minutes until slightly dried up.
5. Add in the coconut milk, water, kaffir lime leaves, shredded ginger and boil on medium fire for another 20-30 minutes until all the flavour of the ginger and lime leaves are infused into the stock.
6. Add in seasoning ( sugar, salt and fish sauce). Adjust seasoning accordingly.
7. You can just switch off the fire now if you're not ready to eat yet and put in the fish whenever you're ready to serve the noodle.
8. When you're ready to serve, reheat the stock and put the fish into the stock and simmer on low fire for another 15 minutes until the fish is cooked.
9. Blanch your noodle and snow peas in hot water until soft
10. Arrange noodle and snow peas in a bowl

11. Put all the basil leaves into the curry stock and switch fire off.

12. Pour the stock with some fish on the noodle and serve warm

Bon appetit!

Thai Style Risotto Ball

It's been a great weekend for me. A fun-filled weekend with great company and lots of cooking, just the way I like it. I really enjoy having friends over for dinner actually. We had dinner party at home on Saturday with some of my husband's uni friends and my friends as well. We had such a great time. Was really good to meet up with all of my husband's friends. Such a lovely and friendly group. Also got to meet up with some of my friends which we have not had a chance to meet up for a while. Really nice to catch up with all of you. And on Sunday I invited another group of friends over for dinner. A smaller group this time and I made these risotto balls to serve as started. I was inspired to make this after having dinner at one of the restaurants at Ballarat with my collegues last Tuesday. I loved it so much I had to make this for my friends too. So I made my own variation of it. It tasted wonderful, all of them loved it.

It's basically making risotto and rolling them into balls and covered in panko breadcrumbs. See, I love my panko breadcrumbs, it has never failed me yet. For those authentic Italian food lovers please forgive me for making a twisted version of risotto. =)...it still tastes nice though. A bit of fusion Thai-Western food.

Great as starters or finger food in your party next time round.

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Thai Style Risotto Balls

Makes around 18-20 medium-sized risotto balls

Ingredients:

• 2 cups uncooked arborio rice
  
• 4-5 cups beef or chicken stock


• 1/2 chopped brown onion
  
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 2 tablespoons tomyam paste


• 150 grams mince pork


• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables


• 1/4 cup canned tomato


• 1 egg
  

Seasonings:

• 1.5 tablespoons sugar ( you can use shaved palm sugar if you want)


• 1 tablespoon salt
  

Coating:

• 1-2 eggs, beaten


• Plain flour


• Panko breadcrumbs
  

Methods:
To make the risotto

1. Heat up oil in frying pan. At the same time warm up the stock in another saucepan, keep warm on low fire.
   
2. Once the frying pan is hot enough, add in onion and garlic.
   
3. Fry for a few minutes until soft. Then add in tomyam paste.


4. Stir for 10-20 seconds, then add in minced pork


5. Once the pork is cooked through, add in arborio rice and mix well

6. Next step requires a bit of patience. Add in stock to the rice one ladle at a time, wait until the stock is absorbed before adding in the next ladle. Stir well after each addition and make sure you check the bottom of the pan so that the rice is not burnt. Make sure you keep the stock warm in the saucepan over low fire as well. Cook until the rice is al dente.

7. When the rice is almost cooked to al dente, add in the canned tomato, all the seasoning and mixed vegetable. Cook for another 2-3 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Set aside and let cool. It should be a little bit sticky at this stage.

8. Once the rice is cooled, mix in 1 egg and stir thoroughly. This is to bind the mixture together so it's easier to form.

9. Form the rice into 18-20 pieces of 4-5cm diameter risotto balls.

10. First coat the rice balls in flour, then dip them into beaten egg and then the breadcrumbs. Line them on baking tray and spray with a little bit of olive oil.

Risotto balls ready to go into oven

11. Bake in preheated 200 degrees celcius oven for around 20-25 minutes until the breadcrumbs become crunchy and golden.

12. Serve with Thai sweet chilli sauce.

Cinnamon Rolls

The weather in Melbourne has been really humid and a bit yucky the past few days. Non-stop rain. I'm sure those who live here in Australia have all heard about the flood in Brisbane. Please keep Brisbane in prayer and pray that the rain will clear away soon. For those who are living there, I pray for strength and comfort during this difficult time. It's quite a shock to the whole nation at this stage to have this flood happening but I'm sure everyone's keeping Brisbane in prayer and the sun will surely shine again after the storm.

Back to this post, I believe that if one person would claim her recipe to be the best, that will be HER. Ree, from the pioneer woman. What a genius! I tried her cinnamon rolls recipe and oh wow, they did take me up to cloud 9. It was the easiest bread I have ever made, and they were so tasty and soft. I was just so amazed I could make cinnamon rolls so easily, without using up my biceps and triceps much at all and yet the result was phenomenal.

I love this recipe. I sure am going to keep making them in the future. My husband and brother in law love them too. The only advise I'll give is to make sure you put the pre-baked rolls into a tight fitting pan, like a square pan or round pan. I put some of them on baking tray, and instead of proofing upwards, they proofed sideways. So the buns did end up flat and a little bit dry. The other batch where I put the rolls in a square pan, proofed so well and I guarantee you they were oh so soft and nice. It was not the dough's fault. It was my fault for not putting them in the correct pan. So choose a pan where you can JUST fit the rolls in, of course giving a bit of space in between the pre-baked rolls to have their final proof. When they have their final proof they'll start sticking to each other and proof upwards. I hope you understand what I'm trying to say, I do have the tendency to be unclear sometimes...=)

Instead of making the maple flavoured icing as per her recipe, because I didn't get to buy maple flavouring, I made lemon-flavoured icing. The result was still satisfying. Oh yea, I halved the recipe as well. The full recipe probably yields around 60 cinnamon rolls, don't think my family can finish that much of cinnamon rolls. So half recipe yielded around 30 rolls. Still a lot but trust me, it's just enough for a family of 3-4 coz they're that good.

You can visit Ree's page for step-by-step instructions which are really helpful. I suggest that you have a look at the step-by-step instructions first actually.

The Best and Easiest Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

Adapted from the pioneer woman's recipe

Ingredients:

for the dough:

• 2 Cups whole milk
• 1/2 Cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 Cup sugar
• 3/4 tbsp instant yeast
• 4 Cups flour
• Extra, 1/2 Cups flour
• 1/2 heaping tsp baking powder
• 1/2 scant tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tbsp salt
  

Filling:

• 1 Cup melted butter
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1/2 Cup cinnamon (or more depending on preference) or chocolate chips ( I made a different batch with chocolate chips. I prefer the cinnamon ones)
  

Frosting:

• 1/2 bag Powdered Sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 cups Milk
• 1/8 cups Melted Butter
• zest of 1 lemon
• pinch of Salt

Methods:

1. Mix the milk, vegetable oil and sugar in a pan. Scald the mixture (heat until just before the boiling point). Turn off heat and leave to cool 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the mixture is lukewarm to warm, but NOT hot, sprinkle in instant yeast. Let this sit for a minute. Then add 4 cups of all-purpose flour. Stir mixture together. Cover and let rise for at least an hour.
2. After rising for at least an hour, add 1/2 more cup of flour, the baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir mixture together. (At this point, you could cover the dough and put it in the fridge until you need it – overnight or even a day or two, if necessary. Just keep your eye on it and if it starts to overflow out of the pan, just punch it down. I just let it rise for another hour and the result was beautiful)
3. When ready to prepare rolls: Sprinkle rolling surface generously with flour. Take half the dough and form a rough rectangle. Then roll the dough thin, maintaining a general rectangular shape. Drizzle 1/2 melted butter over the dough. Now sprinkle 1/2 cup of sugar over the butter followed by a generous sprinkling of cinnamon.
4. Now, starting at the opposite end, begin rolling the dough in a neat line toward you. Keep the roll relatively tight as you go. Next, pinch the seam of the roll to seal it. Finish up the other half of the dough in a similar way.
5. Spread 1 tablespoon of melted butter in a seven inch round foil cake or pie pan. Then begin cutting the rolls approximately ¾ to 1 inch thick and laying them in the buttered pans.
6. Let the rolls rise for 20 to 30 minutes, then bake at 375 degrees farenheit until light golden brown, about 15 to 18 minutes.
   

For the frosting, mix together all ingredients listed and stir well until smooth. It should be thick but pourable. Taste and adjust as needed. Generously drizzle over the warm rolls.

Tips:

• The photo below showed the ones I put in the wrong pan. See how they're quite flat in comparison to other batch on top left corner of my first photo where I put in a square pan? So yea, put the rolls in the correct pan.
  
  
• I used instant yeast for this recipe. If you want to use active dry yeast, then just use 1tablespoon of active dry yeast. The proportion for instant:active yeast is approximately = 0.75 : 1. So 1 tablespoon active dry yeast = 3/4 tablespoon instant yeast.

Make these rolls! You won't regret it. Takes no time to prepare, and I assure you you can even get your ironing done while waiting for the dough to rise. =)

Tofu with Minced Pork and King Oyster Mushroom

I prepared this dish for dinner last Saturday. I had some left over king oyster mushrooms that my mother in law bought when she was here. So I invented this recipe because I was craving for silken tofu and at the same time am a big fan of mushrooms as well. Any kinds of mushrooms will make Leny happy. But king oyster mushroom has really nice texture and flavour to it. Sometimes I even just bake them in oven with some homemade japanese marinade. It's simple and good for health.

I also love all kinds of tofu. It's a great source of protein and tastes wonderful as well. There are many different kinds of tofu that you can get in asian groceries. Unfortunately as we live overseas we don't have the luxury of buying fresh tofu from the market. But I suppose the ones we get from asian groceries which are sold in packets are as good as well. I'm not sure if I can really taste so much of a difference. I prepared this dish with a bit of salted fish as well. Just add that extra taste to the whole dish. Hope you enjoy it too.

Tofu with Minced Pork and King Oyster Mushroom

Ingredients:

• 1 small block of silken tofu


• 300 grams minced pork
  
• 3 pieces of king oyster mushrooms, cut into long slices
  
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped


• 1 tablespoon chopped ginger


• 1 tablespoon dried salted fish, diced into small pieces ( you can substitute with dried prawns too if you're not a big fan of salted fish, or just omit it altogether)
  
• 1/2 cup water
  
• Mixture of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and a bit of water to thicken the sauce


• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions and a bit extra for garnishing
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons shao tsing wine
  
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  
• 1 teaspoon sugar
  
• pinch of salt and ground white pepper
  

Methods:

1. Steam the whole block of tofu for 5 minutes and set aside. I used a deep pyrex pie dish so that it can hold all the meat sauce without spilling them all over the place


2. Heat up oil in a wok


3. Once the wok is hot enough, add in garlic,ginger and salted fish. Stir fry until fragrant.


4. Then, add in minced pork. Stir fry until the pork is cooked through


5. Add in king oyster mushroom and cook until slightly softened


6. Add in water and all the seasonings.


7. Once the seasoning is done according to your liking, add in the cornstarch/water mixture to thicken the sauce


8. Lastly add in chopped spring onion and cook for another minute


9. Once the meat sauce is ready, pour them on top of the steamed tofu
   
10. Garnish with extra spring onion and serve with rice

Garlic Rice ( Yau Fan)

I made Bak Kut Teh for dinner yesterday night. For my readers who don't know what Bak Kut Teh is, it's basically a soupy pork dish where we usually use premade herbal packet to cook cubed pork meat and add in some mushrooms or fried tofu puffs. Bak Kut Teh basically means "pork bone tea" if you translate it directly from hokkian to english. Why is it called bak kut teh? I'm not sure myself. Probably should do a bit of research around it, but one of my friends told me it's because pork is usually a little bit oily, so after having this dish the perfect accompaniment is to have a cup of hot chinese tea to wash the oiliness down. It does make sense to me. Maybe that's why they always serve jasmine tea at Bak Kut Teh stall in Malaysia? =).....But if you know why the dish is called Bak kut Teh, do share it with me. I'm curious to know as well.

It's a popular dish in Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore. I'm not going to share the recipe for Bak Kut Teh today as it is pretty easy to prepare with the premade packet, which you can get in any asian groceries. There's no rocket science to it, just put some meat and the herbal packet with a pot of water and let it simmer for 1-2 hours. You can add mushrooms ( usually shitake or enoki) and fried tofu puffs. My favourite brand is Seah's Singapore Bak Kut Teh mix.

What I'm going to share today though, is the perfect accompaniment to Bak Kut Teh. The garlic rice or we call it in cantonese " yau fan". This rice is perfect to have with bak kut teh or hainanese chicken rice as well. It's simple to make and it's one of my family's favourite. I can eat bowls of it if I want...ahahha...but I have to watch my waistline I suppose.

Garlic Ginger Rice ' Yau Fan '

Ingredients:

• 3 cups uncooked rice. Washed and drained well


• 2.5 cups low salt chicken stock or if you want to use chicken stock powder, use 1 tablespoon chicken stock powder with 2.5 cups water


• 3 tablespoons sugar


• 1/2 tablespoon salt


• 1/2 cup fried shallots ( I told you I love fried shallots....;)..)


• 1 tablespoon cooking oil, extra for frying garlic paste

Garlic Ginger paste:

• 10 cloves garlic


• Two 5 cm knob of ginger


• 2 tablespoons vegetable/cooking oil

Methods:

1. Process the ingredients for garlic-ginger paste in food processor or mortar and pestle until smooth.


2. Heat up the extra 1 tablespoon cooking oil in wok or frying pan over low-medium heat. Add in the garlic ginger paste and fry over low heat until slightly browned and thickened.


3. Once the paste is ready, add the uncooked rice into the wok/frying pan and mix well.


4. Put the rice into your rice cooker. Add in stock, sugar and salt.


5. Cook rice in the rice cooker as per manufacturer's instructions.
   
6. Once the rice is ready, add in fried shallots.


7. Adjust seasoning. The rice is meant to be a little bit on sweet side. So you might want to add a little bit more sugar/salt if you want


8. Serve with bak kut teh or chicken rice

Tips:

• You can make extra garlic-ginger paste and keep in the fridge or freezer so that it's ready to use anytime you want to cook this rice. You can use the paste to steam fish or chicken as well. Just add a bit of salt and chicken stock powder to the paste and layer on top of the fish/chicken. Add a bit of shao tsing wine and steam. Awesome dish to serve with rice.


• Be careful of the type of chicken stock you use. If you use normal chicken stock liquid ( not low salt ones), then i will suggest to add the salt after the rice is cooked. Just so that it's not overly salty. At least you can adjust the seasoning after it's done.
  

Thai Basil Mince Beef

I am actually a big fan of Thai food. Thai food has very complex flavour that somehow works so well together. The combination of palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind and various herbs just makes such perfect combination that the moment you have a bite of your favourite Thai dish you just get immediate satisfaction out of it. Regardless of what dish it is, whether it's green to red curry, tomyam, Thai food is definitely one of my favourite cuisine of all time. I am yet to find a dish I don't like.

This dish is one of my favourite. I remember first having it at one of the most popular Thai restaurant here in Melbourne, Ying Thai. The moment I had my first bite I immediately fell in love with this dish and wanted to recreate it at home.

Hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I do. You can put some chopped red chillies in this dish if you like hot food.

And oh ya, I saw some leaves coming out of my herb garden. So exciting. Hopefully it will start to sprout soon. I planted some sweet basil too. Hopefully it will grow well and I can just take some basil from my herb garden and use them in my cooking anytime I want. =)
Thai Basil Mince Beef

Ingredients:

• 400grams minced beef ( again, if you don't like or eat beef, substitute with any kinds of mince meat)
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1 red capsicum, sliced thinly
• 1/2 cup basil leaves
• 1/4 cup water
• 3 birds' eye chillies, finely chopped ( optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onions
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ABC kecap manis ( thick soy sauce)
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar ( you can use regular sugar as well)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Methods:

1. Heat up oil in your wok.
2. Once the oil is hot enough, add in the shallots, garlic and chillies (if you are adding them)
   
3. Stir fry until fragrant
4. Add in minced beef
5. Stir fry until the beef is cooked. Then add in water, capsicum and all the seasonings
6. When the capsicum is cooked, add in the basil leaves and chopped spring onions, and stir fry for another 1-2 mins until the leaves have all wilted
7. Adjust seasoning.
8. Serve with warm rice.
   

Thai Style Beef Patty

I was in the mood for Thai food yesterday. Just got back to Melbourne from Ballarat and was thinking of what to cook for dinner. Kinda miss having Thai food, haven't had it for a while so I decided to cook Thai basil mince beef and this beef patty. Will post the recipe for basil mince beef tomorrow.

Just for your information, I have just started my herb garden. I actually grow them in pots. Really looking forward for it to grow. Will keep you posted on the progress. Nothing seen yet so far as I just sow the seeds last week. Hopefully will start to see something in the next few weeks.



Thai Style Beef Patty

Ingredients:

• 400 grams mince beef ( you can use mince pork or chicken as well, even fish paste will be nice)
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped and stir fried till soft and fragrant. I always stir fry my garlic to cook it a little bit before mixing them into patties / meat balls mixture because I don't like the raw taste of garlic. So by doing this you will avoid the raw taste from garlic when you cook the patties.
  
• 2 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped spring onion
• 10 green beans, cut to 3-4mm pieces
• 1 stalk lemongrass, white bottom part only - finely chopped
• 3 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoon tapioca starch
  

Seasoning:

• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons ABC kecap manis / thick soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 tablespoon salt

Methods:

1. Mix all the ingredients for patty together with seasoning. You can add a bit more tapioca starch if the mixture is too watery.
2. Form mince beef mixture into small patties of 10-12 cm diameter. You should be able to make around 10-12 patties


3. Pan fry on frying pan until cooked through or you can also use your grill pan if you want.

I made a side dipping sauce for this, but you can omit this. It's actually really nice with thai chilli sauce.

Dipping sauce:

• 1/4 cup ground peanut
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1.5 tablespoons lemon/lime juice

Mix all the ingredients together and serve with beef patties.

Hope you enjoy it. Bon Appetite. Basil mince beef recipe coming tomorrow.