Bacon & Eggs on a Tuesday night

Husband and I were feeling peckish at around 1 am.
Instead of reaching for the usual cup noodle, he asked for the pack of beef bacon I bought on a whim yesterday.

I can't get halal bacon in U.K. Beef pastrami, turkey ham, pepperoni.. yep, you can get them alright but bacon had eluded me. The first time I had halal bacon was when I purchased a U.S frozen pack at Cold Storage Singapore.

Pop a couple of rashes onto a cold pan, turn the fire on and just wait for them to crisp beautifully. The smell is something else. Once they are a little crispy, I pushed them to the side and crack an egg. Fried it in the same pan and turn off the heat when the egg yolk is still soft. Piled them all up on buttered white bread, lashings of ketchup and a little bit of pepper. A messy tower of different textures - runny, crispy, soft, salty and slightly tart

So there we were. Thousands of miles from London, we were eating a traditional English treat - bacon sarnie. Just missing the brown sauce which I hated anyway and gladly substituted with bbq sauce, and a cup of builder's tea.

Funnily enough, if we have the munchies in London, we always long for something like nasi lemak or bbq stingray!

PS. would have uploaded photos but the camera died on me.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

I had been in love with Pecan Pie since I had a slice at Coffee Club in Singapore. What's not to like? Cruncy yummy pecan on top of a sweet, treacly filling. I am such a hopeless baker that I never tried to recreate that at home.

It was not till years later when the chef at my work's canteen whipped up a most gorgeous chocolate pecan pie. One bite and I fell in love all over again. So much so that I asked for the recipe. She told me that she got it out of a supplement from BBC Good Food magazine. I marched straight out and bought a copy. Yes! There on pg. 46 is the recipe for this gorgeous chocolate pecan pie.

I have to say I am such a lazybone that I opt to go for ready-made pie crust. Argghhh.. i am so not equipped to do the blind bake and all that. Big mistake! the recipe was definitely for a 23cm. crust so mine came out eatable but not fabulous. My second attempt 2 years later is much better after some adjustments to the measurements

CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE tweaked recipe

(from BBC Good Food April 2005)

Ready made pie crust

3 tablespoon golden syrup

80g demerara or dark brown sugar

150g bar of plain or dark chocolate (chopped).

40g butter

1 egg beaten

1 tsp grated nutmeg (optional)

80g pecan nuts for topping

Heat oven to 190C fan or 170C gas. Place the sugar and golden syrup in a small pan. Cook over low heat until sugar had dissolved. Stir occasionally and bring to boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Add chocolate and butter and allow to melt. Cool slightly. Add the beaten egg and the nutmeg. Mix thoroughly.

The filling should be deep chocolate and glossy and you will not be able to resist taking a lick. Be careful! the sugar is very very hot! (I know.. I tried..). Fill the pastry case. Tap the side to make it level. Arrange the pecans on top. Bung it in the oven for 20 minutes. Cool the pie first before eating. It is best served warm than hot, with a dollop of vanilla ice-cream.

Wanton Me!

Following Rasa Malaysia posting on shrimp wontons, I just remembered I got some gyoza skins lurking somewhere in the freezer. I love wontons. Scrummy little morsels of heaven packed in a slithery delectable skin. Or have fried ones which crunchy on the outside with a bite in the middle.

Back in the late 80s/early 90s, there was a sudden explosion of halal Chinese food in Singapore, spearheaded by First Muslim Noodle House at Far East Plaza. Muslim tongues more familiar with sambal tumis and rendang get to taste "exotic" new dishes like honeydew chicken, ngoh hiang, carrot cake and char kway teow. And I tasted my first ever wonton.

Alas, there are no halal wonton eateries here so here I am making wontons at home :

Chicken meat and prawn pulsed briefly in the food processor. Add in finely minced garlic, ginger and spring onions. Season with a dash of sesame oil, fish sauce, light soy sauce and white pepper. Mix them well and set aside for the flavours to develop.

Pop a teaspoon of the mix onto a wonton skin. Wet the sides with a little bit of water and fold, either into a moneybag shape or a simple one like...

... this!

I had some prawns in the fridge and decided to make some prawn ones. The wontons can be frozen at this point. Bring water to a boil in a pot and chuck the wontons in. Once they float, they should be ready. I found out gyoza skins are more delicate than the usual wonton and perhaps it would be better to steam them.

Serve with a dip of light sauce sauce with small cut chillies. You can eat them on their own, serve them in soups or with noodles. I had some blanched wonton noodles, covered with a gravy made of reduced stock and oyster sauce, fresh romaine lettuce and a side serving of spicy chilli in oil.

My Favourite Meatballs

I used to hate meatballs. Hard, dry, flavourless balls of meat deepfried. Loathed them. Then I was flipping through Annabel Karmel's Family Meal cook book and there was a recipe for spaghetti and meatballs. Out of the blue, after years and years not eating meatballs, I had a hankering for it.

Annabel Karmel's book is indispensable for mums here. A mother herself, her recipes are tried and tested on her brood. I love the way she presented the food. Smiley face bagels, snake shaped pizza, bee shaped oat biscuits - that woman is a marvel.

So here is how to make these moreish meatballs (adapted from Annabel Karmel's)

lean lamb/beef mince , flat leaf parsley, stock cube (crumbled) , black pepper and finely chopped onion

and the secret ingredient.... grated apples makes the meatball moist!

Shape into mini meatballs. (look at the lovely green flecks of parsley!) and brown them by batches . *You can freeze them at this point

I boiled a large pot of water for the angel hair pasta and prepared the tomato sauce. Just a simple one with lots of chunky vegetables like carrots, red and orange peppers and mushroom. Once the sauce is on the boil, just chuck the meatballs inside and cook until they are done.



Viola!
Spaghetti Meatballs
with lashing of parmagiano

I'm sick today.....

It's cold. My head hurts. My nose stuffed. Sore throat. Racking cough.
And daytime tv is putrefying my brain.
I only crave this...



Sup kambing.
Hot steamy mutton broth with crusty french bread.
There is no mamak stall round the corner so I had to drag my carcass to get some lamb from the butcher. Arghhhh.... I don't have any Sup Bunjut spice so had to make do with a simple hashed up version with whatever I have in the fridge :

Resepi Sup Kambing Orang Sakit
(Lamb Broth)

Rack of lamb chopped up roughly; with its bones (think rustic!)
**Boil in a large pot with sliced up leeks and a stock cube. Let simmer**

One large onion, 10 cloves of garlic, 2cm. ginger (all whizzed up in a blender)
Cloves, cardomom and cinnamon stick

This is how I did it :

Heat oil in pan. Sautee the blended-up ingredients and the spices till fragrant. Add in the stock and meat. Throw in potatoes and carrots. Bring to boil. Put in oven at 150 deg celcius for about an hour - longer if meat is still not tender and falling of bone. Season with plenty of white pepper and salt. Served steaming, with spring onions, chopped parsley and fried onions (bawang goreng) along with a loaf of crusty baguette

I think I feel better already....

Roti John Recipe

Had another bash at Roti John yesterday and it turned out much better that the one I did on the weekend. Ahhh.. the delights of roti john. This true-blue Singapore Malay dish always hold special memories to me ~ after a rigourous ECA session at RGS in the 80s, we would always trooped down to Taman Serasi Food Centre (now sadly defunct) next to Botanic Gardens for roti john, soursop juice and soto pedas.

The roti john was from Shukor Stall - the birthplace of this dish. Apparently the stallholder's dad created the dish for angmoh customers living/working in the area. Little did he know it would be a legend, with mentions on the Makansutra.

I intended to take photos as I went along but totally forgot to do so. Hope to post some photos later on. So here's my version :

Roti John

Minced meat (about a handful)
Clove of garlic
3- 4 Eggs
2 long Baguette
Salt + Pepper
a tiny bit of curry powder
Chicken stock cube (can omit this)
Spring onions (cut really small)
Chilli (cut small or omit if you don't like it hot)
red onion - sliced
oil (less oil if meat is quite fatty)


Heat oil in pan and throw in garlic. Put the mince in. Season with pepper and fry the mince until quite dry. Set aside. Beat the eggs. Mix in the spring onions, chilli, onion & mince. Season with curry powder, salt, pepper and chicken stock cube.

Sliced the baguette longwise. Once frying pan is hot with a tiny amount of oil, slather the egg-mince mixture onto the baguette and grill them on the pan, egg-mince mixture face down. Press the baguette down so that the egg mixture is well cooked. Flip over to brown the other side of the bread.

Serve hot with sliced cucumber, a slice of cheese in between, sweet chilli sauce or ketchup. It keeps well for a few hours and just need crisping in a hot oven. Sedap!!!!