Thai Pineapple Fried Rice

Since young, my family and i use to enjoy dinning in Thai Restaurants back home. We even used to drive across the border of Thailand just to have lunch there and come back. We seldom do that now since Thailand has become a little politically unstable.
We used to always order pineapple fried rice as a side dish when we had Thai food.It always came in a nicely carved pineapple and i was perpetually amused with it. I adore fruit and vegetable carvings. A friend of mine was hankering for pineapple fried rice a few days ago. It has been some time since i had Thai food and thought why not. I knew it was quick and won't take much time to prepare.



While i decided to cook the fried rice, he decided to be useful and started cutting the pineapple and scooping flesh of it out.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1 whole pineapple/ 1 can canned pineapple, drained
3 cups of rice, jasmine preferably
1 cup frozen mix vegetables/ whatever vegetables you desire
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
3 red chilli
2 tsp curry powder
1 tbs soy sauce
3 eggs
1/2 cup prawns or chicken fillet
2 tbs fish sauce(for vegetarians u can get vegetarian fish sauce if not just use soy sauce)
1/3 cup cashew nuts (optional)
Cracked pepper(optional)

Method

1. Slice off one side of the pineapple to remove the skin (do no cut off the leaves). Carve out the fruit from inside the pineapple. Set carved pineapple aside.
2. Pound chilli and garlic in a mortar and pestle to make a paste. If you don't own one just use your knife to flatten it.
3. Place oil in wok and turn heat on to medium-high. Add the chilli paste and onion and sautée until fragrant.
4. Add the vegetables, cashew and prawns and fry for about 1-2 minutes.
5. Add the rice in then fish sauce, soy sauce , curry powder and pepper. Add pineapple in after.
6. Make a hole in the middle of the rice and fry the eggs. Taste the rice, if its not salty enough add soy sauce or salt.
7. Serve in the carved out pineapple.

Its a good dish to bring along for a pot luck or to make if you're having a dinner with friends over. They'll be pretty impressed with the presentation!

French Bean Salad with a Twist of Spice

Would you be surprised if i told you i only started cooking about 3-4 years ago? I only started learning how to cook because my mom kinda forced me to learn before leaving home to come to Aussie land! I never actually paid much attention but just went along and sat in the kitchen just because i was more interested in ways to distract myself and spend time chit-chatting with her *cheeky grin*. But the only thing i remember her telling me over and over again is that if you want to cook vegetables, the main ingredients to put in is mustard seeds and urad dhal(black split beans without skin).

So that's all i remembered when it came to cooking vegetables. However, after coming over to Australia, i started cooking and just absolutely loved it. My dad told me once, If you know how to cook, no matter where you are, you'll make friends.'



After discovering Sunita's blog, I came across her monthly spice event of 'Think Spice,' and I was thrilled when she announced mustard seeds being the spice of the month.

I kept thinking about what unique dish i could come up with only using mustard seeds. I didn't want to put up a normal South Indian vegetable dish as its too mundane. Instead, my sister and i decided to dish up an east meets west recipe for French Bean Salad using mustard seeds. Not to worry folks, I'm still keeping up with my quick meal theme!

This dish is soo easy, refreshing and the best part is that it has a twist of spice to it. A good side dish to go with anything that you want. And the absolute clincher is that it doesn't even have to be an Indian meal.

French Bean Salad with a Twist of Spice
Serves 4

Ingredient
3 cups of French Beans, cut into 4 cm pieces
1/4 cup grated carrot(optional)
1 tbs oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 green chillies, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
100g( grated coconut)
70g (1/2 cup) almonds instead pounded
1 1/2 tsp honey
1 tbs honey whole grained mustard (Master food)

Method

1. Boil some water in a pan. Drop in French beans and return to the boil. Or what i did was i just boiled water in a kettle and poured it into a bowl with my beans and covered it for about 2 minutes. Drain the beans and rinse in cold water.
2. Set aside in mixing bowl.
3. Heat oil in a separate pan. Add mustard seeds and fry. Add onion, chillies and grated coconut. Saute for 1 minute and then add the honey. Fry till the coconut turns brown or until fragrant.
4. Combine your beans with sauted ingredients. Add grated carrot, salt, sugar and mustard. Mix well.
5. Best served cold after being refrigerated for about 30 minutes.


Not only did i use mustard seeds, i also used honey whole grained mustard in my salad. Therefore, i think i do qualify to enter Sunita's ' Think Spice, Think Mustard seed' event ;)

Lunch + Dessert in 45mins

I've realised that our young generation these day are very impatient people. They want everything done quickly and with perfect results. I guess with all the vast developmental and technological revolutionary changes that are happening around us, you can't help but try and keep up with the rest of the world.

I get alot of my friends telling me to put up quick and easy recipes for them to follow and of course tasty ones too :) With my barrier exams coming up in about 2 months time, i too have not had much time to make anything too complex. Therefore, as I needed a quick sugar fix, i decided to make Portuguese egg tarts today. They're quick and best eaten hot. Whenever i go for yum cha, its a must for me to order their egg tarts.I used to make these egg tarts very often last year after discovering it was so easy to make them.

Portuguese egg tarts
Makes 12

Ingredients

2 sheets of buttered puff pastry
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
1/3 cup of milk
3 drops of vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Lightly grease muffin tray and cut out 12 circles from the buttered puff pastry sheet. I used a round cookie cutter to make my circles.
2. Place your circular shaped ready made pastry in the muffin tray.
3.Use an electric mixture and beat in your other ingredients. Strain it once your done.
4. Fill your pastry with the filling mixture( ~3/4 full).The filling will puff up once you bake it.
5. Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until the filling turns light brown.
6. Eat the egg tarts while its HOT !!!

Note- I found by using 1/3 cup of sugar my egg tarts turn out pretty sweet. I normally cut the sugar down. But if you're a big sugar fan, go ahead!



After making my egg tarts, i had bits and pieces of remaining puff pasty and decided to fry it to make myself some roti canai. It WORKS!! Of course, it doesn't taste 100% like the real roti canai, but i'll say its about 85% close to it! I had my rotis with left over dhal..SUPERB!

Not only did i prepare a good snack, i prepare lunch too! All in 45 minutes :)

Couscous Salad

I bet you know how it feels to make a list of big plans but you end up doing close to nothing on your list of things to do. Well, i hope i'm not the only one! Anyway, i had a long list of things that i wanted to experiment with in the kitchen this weekend but ended up doing nothing *hehe*

I ate out most of the weekend except for dinner on Sunday.Somehow, i don't like going out on Sunday nights. I just like to wind down and just kinda mentally prepare myself for a busy week ahead. I just wanted to make something really simple and quick for my sister and me before America's Next Top Model came on tv. I looked into my fridge and saw a punnet of cherry tomatoes that i totally forgot i had in the fridge.What interesting dish can i make with it i mused? A couscous salad with lots of vegetables and feta cheese was the answer! I ended up making a simple couscous salad which let me tell you, is so easy and quick. I created my own dressing to cater to my own palate.

Ingredients

1 cup couscous
1 cup cucumber(diced)
1 cup cherry tomatoes( cut into halves)
Half an onion (cut into rings)
1/2 cup feta cheese

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbs balsamic vineger
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
1/2 tsp mint sauce
pinch of salt
pinch of sugar

Method

1. Cook the couscous according to the directions behind the box.
2. Cut up the onions, cucumber, tomatoes and feta cheese.
3. Once couscous is cool, add all the ingredients for the dressing and mix.


Serves 2

Note-If you're tired from work and just want something quick try this! For health conscious people, you can substitute normal couscous with whole wheat couscous.

Spicy Tomato Chutney

After my little test on Friday, i just felt so drained and tired even though it wasn't a big exam. I just didn't want to go through the hassle of washing up and cleaning the kitchen. All i wanted was a quiet lazy weekend when i could just sleep in!

Speaking of sleeping in... I had gone out for a few drinks on Friday with my friends, as well as watching Hairspray too which i thought was AWESOME :) and just wanted to sleep in on Saturday. However, a few friends disturbed my peaceful slumber with a wake up call early Saturday morning and said they wanted to come over for breakfast. It was a good day to celebrate as it was our Lord Ganesha's (God of Wisdom and Prosperity) birthday and i thought why not?!

I guess a normal person would have gotten really pissed off but i was happy they did call and turned up at the door after giving me a 10 minute warning. I ended up making a traditional Indian breakfast of Tosai(Indian pancake) and uppuma (a savory semolina dish) with tomato chutney. I have to admit the Tosai and uppama was made using instant packet stuff. Its not that i don't know how to make the real dishes, its just that i wasn't expecting anyone to appear at my door for breakfast ;)

As for the tomato chutney the recipe is at follows;

Spicy Tomato Chutney

Ingredients

2 tbs oil
1 tsp mustard seeds(optional)
1 large onions,finely chopped
5 cloves of garlic minced
3cm (1 1/4 in) ginger, minced
600g (3 cups) ripe tomatoes, blanched
2 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Method

1. Heat oil in heavy bottomed pan and saute the onion, garlic and ginger and mustard seeds until aromatic.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan and simmer over low heat until thick, about 20 minutes

Serves 6-8

Note-It's really easy to make and goes really well with tosai!

Rich-Moist Brownies

BROWNIESS..how i love brownies!!!The first time i had brownies was when i was about 6 years old and i had them in an Australian family friend's house(the Kings) in Malaysia. I recollect being very puzzled at the texture of the brownie after taking a bite into it. What is it i thought to myself?? It wasn't soft like a cake yet it wasn't hard like a cookie, so what was it i remember thinking to myself...Its a brownie Aunty Debbie uttered from across the room after seeing the look on my face! It didn't bother me much on what it was called as it tasted really good and that made me a really happy 6 year old kid.

I had an exam last Friday to study for and was a bit stressed out. Therefore, after reading and going through my notes for what seemed like the 100th time, i decided to bake something to divert my attention for about an hour. Since, my registrars and consultants in my rotation were really nice to us students and always insisted on paying for our morning coffees and muffins, baking them a batch of rich chocolate brownies was what i decided to do to show them my appreciation.

'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson was where i got my brownie recipe from. I knew Nigella will not let me down. And guess what..she didn't :)

Ingredients

(makes bout 48 according to the book-but i got about 25 pieces)

375g soft unsalted butter
375g best- quality dark chocolate
6 large eggs
1 tbs vanilla extract
500g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 tsp salt
300g chopped walnuts

tin measuring approx 33x23x5.5cm

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.Line the brownie pan
2. Melt the butter and chocolate together in a large heavy-based pan. Beat the eggs with the sugar and vanilla.
3. Measure the flour into another bowl and add the salt.
4. When the chocolate mixture has melted, let it cool a bit before beating in the eggs and sugar, and then the nuts and flour. Beat to combine smoothly.
5. Bake for about 25minutes. When it's ready, the top should be dried to a lighter brown but the middle still dark and dense and gooey.

Note- Keep checking your brownies. It only takes a few minutes for it to turn from a perfect moist brownie to a dried up yucky brownie

Have a good weekend :)

Pandan Jelly Roll

I was craving for kaya( coconut jam) and even more for Pandan Swiss roll. But the thought of standing over the stove for HOURS to make the kaya was a major turn off! However, after Ioyces from Our Cooking Escapades left a message that she made kaya in the microwave, a sudden urge to satisfy my craving overwhelmed me.



The kaya recipe was done following the recipe from Lily's Blog. Its really fast and easy to make. A BIG farewell to the traditional kaya making! Not that i'm mocking the traditional way, but to me personally, this recipe is so much easier and faster.




Having kaya on toasted bread with a little dash of margarine over a hot cup of white coffee..heavenly!!!!

The recipe is as follows :

Ingredients
5 eggs (280 gm)
280 gm sugar
200 ml thick coconut milk
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp of powdered vanillin

Method:

1. Stir and whip all ingredients except vanillin in a glass bowl to break up the eggs. Strain mixture.
2. Microwave uncovered for 5 mins on level 4(i am using 1000 watts) and then stir. Repeat again 5 mins on level 4, by now the mixture will be thicker.
3. Continue to Microwave for 3 mins on level 3, remove from microwave and stir. the custard should be thickened by now.
4. This time, cover with cling wrap and leave an opening for steam, microwave on level 2 for 5 mins.
5. Remove wrap and stir while adding in the vanillin and let it cool.

Note- I used 1/4 tsp drops of Vanilla essence instead of powdered vanillin and it worked for me. I wanted it to be pandan flavoured so i added 2 drops of pandan essence to the recipe


As for my swiss roll, it was my first time making it. I was always under the impression that swiss rolls are really hard to make and therefore the idea of making it intimidated me. But after reading how East Meets West was on the roll with her swiss rolls, i decided to try it out too.

Since i could not find a good recipe for Pandan sponge cake, i decided to improvise.I found a sponge cake recipe on Delicious days. Click here for the recipe. I added a few drops of Pandan essence to the recipe. I don't know why but my sponge cake turned out to be a half cake + half hard jelly. But guess what i really liked it. I remember we use to get Pandan Jelly cakes at the bakery when in Malaysia and this truly reminded me of that.If you can figure out where i went wrong please let me know..Its still a BIG mystery to me. But like they say...everything happens for a reason.

Ps: Iocyes, here's a picture of the pan i used. My housemate bought it from Myers. But i'm sure you can find it in any cookery shop or even woolies.