Are Baby Vegetables Better? - Recipe: Simple Stir-Fried Greens, Chinese style

Stir-fried baby lai pak with button mushrooms

Shopping at Fair Price Finest or Cold Storage here in Singapore, I get the dual sensation of feeling like on the one hand, I could be at any supermarket in the UK, and on the other, right in the heart of Southeast Asia. I've often been amazed at the sheer variety of vegetables that are available here in Singapore. The vast majority of food here, or over 90% is imported. I was talking to B the other day about how I was momentarily excited when I saw a bag of "Earthbound Organic" salad at the store. And then it (and its hefty price tag) hit me that while it was being sold as the environmentally benign choice for eco-aware consumers, in reality, that salad alone probably had chalked up a carbon footprint larger than all the local vegetables (heck, perhaps even combined with the fruit) on the shelves combined. According to one source, a bag of salad that is flown from Washington D.C. has traveled an estimated 9659 miles (15541km) to make it to your store in Singapore, emitting 3477 kgCO2 or 949 kg Carbon. Food for thought, indeed. 

Bicycles were previously a main mode of transporting cargo through the busy streets of Southeast Asia...and are now making a revival in certain cities in the US.

Chinatown, Singapore, 2010

With the expansion in the Chinese economy, there has been a large increase in the numbers and types of Asian greens from China. I do love my leafy greens, and one of the interesting trends these days is that you can find a "baby" or a miniature version of any vegetable at the market, for example baby kailan, baby bok choy, baby spinach, baby potato, baby carrot and so on.  But what exactly are baby vegetables? More importantly, are they necessarily better both in terms of taste as well as nutrition? A cursory search on the internet reveals that they are not, as commonly perceived, necessarily vegetables that are picked before they are fully mature or ripe. Rather they are often specially engineered crops that are cultivated for a specific reason, for example, size. While they are almost always more expensive than their regular sized counterparts, nutritionally they are the same.  I do admit that they are cute and also slightly more delicate in terms of taste and texture, but I find that the difference is minimal. So the jury's still out as far as I'm concerned. For me the far bigger question I suppose is where and how they were grown and harvested, and the times of pesticides and chemicals that were used on the farm. 

If you're going to be cooking Asian food, learning the basics of the simple stir-fry is absolutely essential. (For more wok tips, see previous entry on Chinese fried rice). Yet many people have complained that their attempts at stir-frying vegetables have met with failure because the vegetables have either been undercooked or too wilted. So here I am sharing with you a basic recipe and a few tips on stir-frying greens that I learned from my mother and my own experience as a home chef. This recipe does not have a rich sauce or gravy such as you would find in the dish Broccoli with Oyster Sauce that is often served in Chinese restaurants, thus is best paired with a more substantial meat or saucy tofu dish.

Serves 2-3 as a side dish

1 bunch leafy vegetable such as kai lan, bok choy, mustard greens/sawi, siew pak choy, sweet potato leaves,Chinese cabbage, usually sold in bundles of about 300 g each

2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed lightly

2 tbsp of  vegetable oil such as olive or canola

1/4 cup light vegetable stock
1 tsp Chinese rice wine

1-2 tsp soy sauce

Dash sugar and pepper (optional)

Wash vegetables in a basin in several changes of water. Drain and keep aside. Heat wok over high heat. Add oil and swirl to coat. Add garlic and stir-fry briskly until fragrant. Working quickly, add vegetables, one handful at a time, and toss, waiting for each batch to wilt slightly before adding a new batch. Sprinkle a few drops of stock into the wok with each addition to maintain a steady heat. When all vegetables have been added, add remaining stock, rice wine, soy sauce and sugar and pepper if using and cover the wok with a lid. Lower the heat to medium and let the mixture simmer. Lift the cover of the wok after a minute or so, and stir everything around before returning the cover and simmering for another 2-3 minutes or until vegetables are just tender crisp. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Tips:

• You can build upon this basic recipe by adding additional vegetables such as carrots, mushrooms, baby corn, snow peas - anything you like really. The trick is to ensure that you put in the vegetables that take the longest to cook first, and the leafy vegetables which only need a minute or so to wilt, last. For example, if you want to create a spinach mushroom stir-fry, you are going to need about 3-4 minutes for your mushrooms and under a minute for the spinach.
• You can substitute thinly sliced ginger for the garlic. Or use both. 
• Many chefs like to use a little ikan bilis stock for frying vegetables.
• Use a wok for superior results and get it really hot before you add the vegetables. If the wok is not hot enough the vegetables will not only be oily but will steam, and you will not get the tender-crisp texture that you are looking for in a good stir-fry.
• One of the things that I learnt from my mother about estimating when the time is right to lift the wok cover and give the vegetables a quick stir. I've tried this method myself, and it's fairly accurate. When you cover the vegetables for the first time, place your bare hand on the handle of the wok. When it starts to feel a bit uncomfortable from the heat, lift up the cover and stir around! Repeat as necessary. Not recommended for the faint hearted. 

Baby Siew Pak Choy...does that make it Baby Baby Pak Choy?

Why Jamie Takes the Cake - Recipe: Jamie's Perfect Roast Chicken

Source: really short from NYC, USA (wikimedia commons)

As a new food blogger, I thought that it was only right that  I pay homage to the celebrity chef that has been a constant source of inspiration to me. While I do love a good gourmet meal now and then, I am a home chef by and large, thus, I have tended to gravitate towards real food by real people such as Rachel Ray, Emeril Lagasse, Amy Beh and Nigella Lawson. I have to say that although there are certainly many talented chefs out there, I am an avid Jamie Oliver, a.k.a The Naked Chef, fan. 

So, in no particular order, I present to you, dear readers, 10 Reasons (in my humble opinion) Why Jamie Takes the Cake:

• He was one of the first celebrity chefs in the UK to advocate on the issue of food sustainability;
• He cares about children. I remember watching "Jamie's School Dinners" for the first time and being moved by his enthusiasm and exuberance;
• His recipes capitalize on the natural goodness of food, without being overly seasoned, treated or blasted half to death;
• Moreover, his no-fuss approach to cooking doesn't make you feel overwhelmed. In his words, "cooking has got to be a laugh." The Naked Chef welcomes you into his kitchen, partakes in a glass or two while he prepares the food.  It feels as though he is having a conversation with you, rather than instructing. He assures you that while you may have never attended Cordon Bleu, you can still prepare great food at home;
• His recipes are detailed and personalised. Unlike other chefs that I know that jealously guard their secrets, he's always been open about lessons that he's learned;
• Having dined at Fifteen some years back, I was impressed not just by its mission but how great the food was;
• He loves a bacon sarnie, which indicates that at the heart of it, he's an old-fashioned, solid, British chap;
• He is good to dogs; 
• He is unabashed in his affection towards Jules, and as a die hard romantic, that melts my heart;
• He's just so darn cute, with his impishness and his mop of hair, and a hint of a tummy that is a sign of a happy man. He's probably the only guy that I know that can look adorable dressed like a giant crustacean.

Roast Chicken is one of those dinners I've experimented generously with. I've previously used an old recipe by Jamie that features loads of butter and where you chop up prosciutto and stuff in between the skin of the bird and the meat. I've tried flavouring the roast with oranges, spice rubs, all sorts of herbs, and Asian seasonings. I've also tried the French style of cooking which requires you to turn the chicken over several times to even out the browning process, and to baste the bird with the pan juices every ten minutes. What I liked about this particular recipe (see original here), which was the centerpiece of a recent dinner party, was the ease in which it came together. I did make several minor modifications to it, which I'm indicating below, but overall, I was very happy with the results. Do try to get an organic chicken, as I did this time around - the difference between the results you would get from a chicken from the pasar and the supermarket is like day and night. The roast was tender and juicy at the same time, according to my guests. So thanks, and cheers, Jamie!

Serves 4 

Ingredients:

1 x approximately 1.6kg chicken, preferably free-range, organic or higher welfare

2 medium onions 

2 carrots

2 sticks of celery

1 bulb of garlic

olive oil 

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 lemon 

a small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture 

To prepare your chicken:

• Take your chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven 

• Preheat your oven to 240°C/475°F/gas 9 

• There’s no need to peel the vegetables – just give them a wash and roughly chop them 

• Break the garlic bulb into cloves, leaving them unpeeled 

• Pile all the veg and garlic into the middle of a large roasting tray and drizzle with olive oil 

• Drizzle the chicken with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the bird 

• Carefully prick the lemon all over, using the tip of a sharp knife (if you have a microwave, you could pop the lemon in these for 40 seconds at this point as this will really bring out the flavour) 

• Put the lemon inside the chicken’s cavity, with the bunch of herbs) 

To cook your chicken:

• Place the chicken on top of the vegetables in the roasting tray and put it into the preheated oven 

• Turn the heat down immediately to 200°C/400°F/gas 6 and cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes 

• If you’re doing roast potatoes and veggies, this is the time to crack on with them – get them into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking 

• Baste the chicken halfway through cooking and if the veg look dry, add a splash of water to the tray to stop them burning 

• When cooked, take the tray out of the oven and transfer the chicken to a board to rest for 15 minutes or so 

• Cover it with a layer of tinfoil and a tea towel and put aside. Now is the time to make your gravy.

Serve, carved, at the table, together with gravy and side dishes of your choice. 

Modifications/Suggestions:

• I used a baking tray and placed the chicken on a roasting rack instead of directly on the vegetables, as suggested here. I think it helped the browning process. 
• I bought a 1.8 kg chicken, and roasted it for 1 1/2 hours instead. I roasted the bird breast side up first, for about 45 minutes, and then basted it thoroughly with the pan juices before turning it over on its back. After another fiteen minutes, I turned it back over breast side up, again basting it with the pan juices, to crisp the skin.
• I used a combination of all four types of herbs suggested above - generous bunches of rosemary and sage, with a few sprigs of thyme and a bay leaf and the flavour was great
• Be careful about microwaving the lemon. I had the juice squirt into my eye and it was hot!
• Instead of water, I added about 1/2 cup of light chicken stock to the tray. This not only added flavour to the roast, but provided a good base for the gravy later. 

Misadventures in the French Language - Recipe: Le Tian de legumes a la Provencale

In preparation for the upcoming move to Paris, I've just signed up for French language classes at Alliance de Franchaise de Singapour, together with my girlfriend, S. It's been quite a ride, as my poor instructor, Pierre can attest. Languages are one of those things that are so much harder to do when you're an adult! The French language is complicated, what with its insistence on gendering everything, its funny characters and lack of an ordered, systematic set of rules (though on the last point, Pierre said, "Ah, but the Eengglish languahge eez de sayme, no?) He was not moved by my appeal: "Yes, but at least I understand it!" And of course, my mind, wants to remember only what it wants to memorise. So aside from names of food, as well as a long list of ballet terms that I learned from the many years I danced (not that that's going to help me much, sadly), I can now say a range of sentences that revolve around my dog, of all things. But I've made progress, I think, as the following illustration will show:

This was me during my first lesson:
Pierre: Ow doo yooou zay, I avve a male dogg?
Me: I know! Je ..erm...suis ...un chien! 
Pierre: Non. Dat eez, I am a dogg.
Me: Oh, crap.

End of first week:

Pierre: Alorr, Ow doo yooou zay, I avve a male dogg?

Me: Je suis...oh s*it, I mean...J'ai...erm, unne chien.

Pierre:  Your dogg is feemail?

Me: Oh, sorry, J'ai un chien. Je m'appelle Cooper.

Pierre: You are called de Cooper?

Me: Oh, crap. Sorry....erm.... Il s'appelle Cooper.

And today:

Pierre: Alorr, waatt doo yooou zay to your landlord?

Me: J'ai un petit chien ...errm, tres propre (or in plain English, I have a very small and clean dog).

Pierre: Oui! Non probleme.

Mon toutou

In my calculation, I now have the vocabulary to last me all of...well, five minutes, in French. In light of my misadventures in the French language, my mother sent me the link to a hilarious video of an old episode of Medicorp's The Noose, which I've been dying to post. I have to say I can relate to Alvin Ong's "Why must "chut" so many patterns?" It must be frustrating for taxi drivers to remember the names of all the condominiums in Singapore, and there are so many, let's face it. Neither does there seem to be a theme to the naming of these developments. For example, within my immediate vicinity the condos include Hillside, Hillview Heights, Summerhill, Symphony Heights, The Petals, Chantilly Rise...oh, and my favourite, Parq Palais. A real conversation with a taxi driver "uncle" recently: "Hillview got Heights, meh?" One could perhaps be forgiven for forgetting, sometimes, that you were in Singapore.

Here is a recipe for the classic French vegetable tian that I made for the dinner party, which features layers of tender vegetables baked in the oven until just done. Viva le' Chai Tow Kway!

Wash the leek in several changes of water to remove all the grit

Serves 4-6 as a side dish

Ingredients:
2 medium red capsicums
1 large Australian leek
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 smallish long eggplants or 1 larger one
2 small zucchini or 1 larger one
3 plum tomatoes (don't substitute with regular tomatoes)
1/4 dry white wine (such as Sauvignon blanc)
1 handful of fresh thyme
Extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Butter for the casserole

Preheat your oven to 240 degrees Celsius and set on the grill function. Butter a medium rectangular or square baking dish or casserole. Quarter the capsicums, removing the seeds and membranes. Drizzle some olive oil over, lightly season with sea salt and black pepper and pop them into the oven. Grill until skins are blackened. Take them out and place them in a covered dish to steam. When cool enough to handle, remove skin and slice into thick strips.

Halve the leek and slice into thin strips, using only the white portion. Place them in a large pot of water until they separate. Drain and repeat twice more. Slice eggplant, zucchini and tomatoes into thin discs, about 1/8 inch thick.

Preheat oven on bake setting to 190 degrees Celsius. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium heat, add two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and saute' garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add leeks and saute' gently until for about 3-4 minutes or until they are fragrant and slightly wilted. Spread the mixture over the bottom of your baking dish. Season lightly and scatter thyme over the mixture. Now, layer eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes and peppers in turn, slightly overlapping. Press the vegetables gently to make sure they are tightly padded. Season lightly and spread the rest of the thyme over the vegetables. Drizzle olive oil over and sprinkle wine over the dish. Cover with a piece of buttered parchment paper.

Bake in the oven for about 35 minutes or so until vegetables are done and they have shrunk away from the edges of the baking dish a little. (You want the vegetables tender but not shriveled) Serve warm.

A Tale of a Dinner Party

They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot

A pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot

Don't it always go to show

You never know what you got till it's gone ?

They paved paradise, they put up a parking lot.

I've always enjoyed hosting dinner parties. It's such a joy to be able to gather people around the dining table over conversation - there's a certain civility and warmth about the atmosphere that you can't somehow get at a restaurant. And as a budding cook, there's a major plus side for me as well - that is, having a perfectly legitimate excuse to spend most of the day in the kitchen, completely unfettered - humming to music, banging pots and pans, chopping up veggies and with a certain four-legged rascal running circles around my feet. Sure, it's a whole lot of effort, and I've been told that I'm borderline obsessive and a nervous wreck before the dinner (always worried that I forgot something on the list, or that one of the dishes will not turn out right or that people will not enjoy themselves).

I've been meaning to host a dinner party for the people who have, in small but meaningful ways, made a difference to my life in Singapore. These are the friends I've made at the School who noticed when I was down and took me aside to have a quiet word, sat with me patiently while I complained for weeks on end about why I refused to accept that the marginal utility of slippers and shoes were the same, and shared with me the notes (and perhaps, just perhaps, might have signed in for me...hehe) for one particularly dreaded course. :) But I'll admit that I've put it off for weeks now, always citing the crazy schedule at school, or having too many things on my plate, or being overwhelmed. But last weekend, I listened to an old favourite of mine, Big Yellow Taxi, and it dawned upon me that in just a few more months, my life in Singapore will be packed up, labelled and waiting by the door in 20 x 20 boxes as I begin a new chapter in my life. I remembered an old Malay saying, "cakap tak serupa bikin," (Say one thing, but do another) and I realised I too, shamefully, hadn't lived up to my word.

Of course, as luck would have it, I got completely drenched trying to navigate 4 large tote bags of groceries through the thunderstorm this morning, and I may just have fallen down and broken the eggs when I slipped on the floor at the Bukit Timah market, but I'm none the worse for wear. It was a great night - my friends ate, I drank, as the laws of the universe dictated. Recipes to follow, I promise!

No dinner party is complete without the infamous kitchen accident

Nothing like a lovely bowl of salad to start off a meal

Clockwise from left: Herb Roasted Chicken,  lemongrass ice jelly (Thanks, KT), French vegetable tian,  sage and sausage stuffing, focaccia with pesto

Alamak...the aftermath!

"Who Said Cannot?" - Recipe: Vegetarian Mapo Tofu

Perhaps the most common mistake that people make when attempting to adopt a vegetarian or vegan-based diet is to try to recreate vegetarian versions of all their favourite meat dishes. Unfortunately, the results are often disappointing, because to my mind, you can't substitute meat for vegetables and attempting to do so is often an exercise in futility. I've learnt over the years that certain dishes were created specifically to enhance the taste of meat, and you can try till the cows come home, but you'll never find a vegetarian substitute. Take for example, coq au vin, siew yoke or ikan bakar. Likewise, food connoisseurs have told me that attempts  to "halalise" Bak Kut Teh (which literally translates from Hokkien as "meat bone tea") by turning it into Chick-Kut-Teh or Mut-Kut-Teh (chicken or mutton based) have failed miserably.

I feel a bit churlish now, thinking of how, when I first came back from the US, I subjected my poor mother to about 6 months or so of torture when I declared I was no longer eating meat. She truly tried her best, and for that I will always be grateful, to accommodate my new diet, yet she had to oblige the majority. One of the mainstays of our meals at home is lai tong or soup of the day. While many of the home-style Chinese soups include vegetables, the stock is inevitably made from meat, whether it is pork, fish or chicken. I remember the number of hours of research that my mother put into it to come up with a vegan stock. No matter how hard she tried, I remember my brothers showing up for dinner and going, "What is this?" For Muscles and Brawn, as I like to call them, anything vegetarian was immediately suspect, and as a result, they refused to touch it. 

Pigs dressed up like...tofu?

Source: Dan Piraro

However, with a little creativity, you can whip up many wonderful dishes that are completely vegetarian. The trick is to try to find something which is flexible enough to accommodate a complete overhaul (in the sense that changing the main ingredient doesn't destroy the taste of the dish) in the main ingredient. For example, the assertiveness of the tangy Chinese sweet and sour sauce provides you enough cover to substitute the meat in the dish with a vegetable, such as mushroom, that is amenable to being coated with flour or breadcrumbs and deep-fried. For my take on this, see my previous entry.

An alternative approach is zooming in on dishes in which the main ingredient is substantial and plant-based, such as tofu, eggplant or mushroom, and where meat plays a complimentary role. Take Mapo Tofu, or pock-marked lady's tofu, which is arguably the most famous tofu recipe from China. I've been to numerous restaurants where the wait staff have told me bluntly that the dish simply cannot be made vegetarian, because of the minced pork. However, I have discovered, after a few trials and errors, that you can quite easily create a vegetarian mince with superb results. So to all those waiters that have snubbed me, here's saying (insert obnoxious "Aunty" voice here), "Who said cannot?"

Serves 2-3 as part of a multi-course meal

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 large block of silken tofu,  drained of excess water and cut into large cubes

1/2 tsp (just a scant pinch) Sichuan peppercorns (pictured right, omit if desired)

1/2 inch old ginger, peeled and minced finely

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 large spring onion, minced, reserving about 1/2 tbsp for garnishing

4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked until soft and then chopped finely

100 g vegetarian ham, chopped finely

Sauce:

1 1/2 tbsps Sichuan chilli bean paste
1 tbsp preserved black beans, washed and chopped
2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
150ml vegetable stock
1-2 tsps sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tsp sesame oil
salt to taste

1 tbsp corn flour, mixed with 2 tbsps water to form a slurry
Chopped spring onion to garnish

Toast Sichuan peppercorns in skillet over low heat until fragrant. Crush coarsely in mortar and pestle. Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add ginger, garlic and chopped spring onion and fry briskly for about 30 seconds until fragrant. Add mushrooms and vegetarian ham and stir-fry until lightly browned. Lower heat, add the Sichuan peppercorns, hot bean paste, black beans and ground chillies; stir-fry until the oil turns a rich red colour. Pour in stock, stir, and add the tofu. Mix in gently; do not stir or the tofu will break and your dish will look like mush.

Add sugar, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and salt to taste. Cover and simmer gently for 5-10 minutes. Remove cover and thicken with cornstarch slurry. Remove from heat and serve hot, garnished with chopped spring onion.

Sunday @ the Botanic Gardens

Flowers, flowers everywhere! Hellaconia, orchids, jantung pisang and hey, what do you know, Malaysia's national flower, the Bunga Raya (hibiscus)

Cooper and I were out bright and early yesterday for a trip to the Botanic Gardens. I'm always somewhat surprised when people tell me that there is nothing to do in Singapore except shop. Believe me, a great day out doesn't have to start or end with Orchard.  The city state actually has a great number of parks, water bodies, and other sites to keep you preoccupied. There's no doubt that Singapore can't rival Borneo in terms of nature but as I've said before the facilities are clean and well maintained, which I can't say is the case in most parts of Asia. And they definitely get props for allowing dogs in public spaces. Here are some photos from our outing. 

A smoke-free, litter-free, perfectly engineered tropical paradise

Frederic Chopin's guest appearance in Singapore

I "r" Cooper

Family life in Singapore...or at least in Bukit Timah

Recipe: Baby Spinach and Tofu Salad with Sesame-Soy Dressing

This recipe is so healthy it makes me want to reach out for those bag of chips! While I am not exactly one to go on big mamak sessions or to binge on a tub of ice cream, I have a weakness for savoury snacks, namely, in order of preference, i) English-style fries (preferably eaten out of a newspaper package in Trafalgar Square before hopping onto the Night Rider...ah such fond memories!), ii) nuts (cashews, peanuts, macadamia, you name it) and iii) murukku. Unfortunately, my body is no longer willing to cooperate with me, and has decided, upon reaching its third decade, that it will punish me if I do not cease my evil ways. So as part of celebrating the summer, I've decided that it's high time that I start getting back into shape. It's started with swimming, and trying (note the operative word being trying) to eat better. The first few times I hit the pool, I felt like my lungs were going to cave in on me. I moaned and groaned and whimpered. Thankfully, things have gotten somewhat better with the exercising. I've been feeling a little off colour this week (and to illustrate, notice the cucumbers in the picture and the discolouration? Well, yours truly accidentally put them in the freezer when I was putting away the groceries). I decided to put together this salad which was inspired by a meal I had at an organic restaurant in KL. I cut down on the number of vegetables in the salad, instead relying on a few, but well-paired ingredients. I wanted to add sprouted moong sprouts (for a picture, see here) to the dish but was unable to find them here in Singapore, however, the nutty endamame worked just as well in adding texture. 

The hardest thing about exercising is....well, starting.
Source: Wiley by Thomas Vaclavek from Woodstock, USA (Wikimedia Commons)

Serves 2 (Simply double up if required)

Ingredients:

Dressing:

4 tbsp white sesame seeds

1 tbsp castor sugar
1 tbsp mirin
1 tbsp soy sauce

1/2 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tsp Japanese sesame paste (substitute tahini)

1 tsp grated ginger

2 tsp sesame oil

Dash pepper

In a skillet toast sesame seeds over low fire until nutty and golden brown. Grind sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle, and combine with sugar, sake, soy sauce, sesame paste, ginger, sesame oil and pepper. Mix until well incorporated.

Salad:

4 cups loosely packed baby spinach, stems trimmed if necessary
1 Japanese cucumber, sliced thinly
8-10 small cherry tomatoes
Large handful of frozen endamame pods
1/2 block of Japanese Yaki-style or other soft, smooth fresh tofu
1 large spring onion, sliced thinly
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Drain tofu well and wrap in several layers of tea towels on a chopping board for about half an hour to drain excess liquid. Fill a medium saucepan with water and add a pinch of salt. Blanch frozen endamame pods for about a minute and then drain under running cool water to stop the cooking process. (Alternatively, microwave beans, with about 1 tbsp of water on high for one minute) When cool enough to handle, remove beans from the pods and set aside. In a large bowl, toss spinach with about 2-3 tbsp of the dressing, and divide among serving bowls. Top each bowl with sliced cucumber, cherry tomatoes, endamame and tofu. Scatter spring onion and sesame seeds and drizzle additional dressing if desired.

Spiritedness Defined - Recipe: Vegetable Korma

A little heartbeat by my side, Cooper, and his sidekick, Count Grappa

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, what counts is the size of the fight in the dog.- Mark Twain

One of the standard questions that I ask people when I first meet them is whether they like dogs. And then I wait, sort of breathless, for the answer, because quite honestly, I'm never prepared for a "no". Growing up, we always had dogs. Big, small, mutts, pedigrees - barks and yelps were all part of the cacophony of sounds that made family life rich, chaotic and beautiful. One of the best decisions that I have made since coming to Singapore was finding Cooper. Because the breeder had considered him special, he kept him hidden in the back. After he screened me and saw that I was a genuine dog lover, he said, "I have someone very special for you." I picked up the little fuzzy ball of fur and cradled him in my arms, and in less than half an hour, he was in my car and on the way home. I soon discovered that despite his diminutive stature, Cooper was perhaps the most rambunctious puppy I had ever encountered. He quickly developed an affinity for biting my fingers and toes, which I slowly and painstakingly weaned him off. Alas, he seems to have decided for himself that he's not about to extend the same courtesy to anyone else, at least for the time being! To elaborate further, this is a dog that will sneakily fish my underwear out of the laundry basket and hide it under the coffee table, bound up to anyone and any dog without fear or favour, trample all over the flower beds, and squeak at the top of his voice for eight hours straight if he thinks you will cave in to his demands. This is the dog that I watch, every morning during our walks (and who are we kidding, Cooper walks me, not the other way around), tear down the patch of grass lining the swimming pool because he genuinely believes that he can catch the birds. He has not only dismembered B's spectacles, broken my brother’s earphones, but has chewed through my cell phone and computer chargers, my printer cable, and just about every book that I am reading. In short, Cooper is spiritedness defined, and he has found his way resolutely and squarely into my heart.

I sent him for sterilisation yesterday, and was extremely distressed when I brought him home and saw that he was shivering from the pain. He did not move from his position on the couch for several hours, and refused everything but a little milk, even though he hadn't eaten or drank for over 20 hours. Later, I covered him with towels and had a sleepless night listening to him whimper by my side. A part of me was worried that the surgery would change him forever. But this morning, he was finally up and after a meal he was more or less back to normal. In fact he has already figured out how to dislodge his Elizabethean collar (what a fancy name for a funnel, eh?) on his own and by this afternoon, was able to play fetch with his favourite toy, Count Grappa. The resilience of this 1.8 kg package of canine spirit melts my heart, and it was something that I really needed as I was having one of those days today where I just felt like giving up.

Cooper also happens to love sitting by my feet while I prepare food, waiting for bits of carrots, a stray cherry tomato or cucumber to fall from the kitchen station and become his pre-dinner snack. Below I am posting a recipe for Vegetable Korma, which has many of his favourite treats inside. It is a mild, rich curry dish with a nutty flavour that pairs well with rotis such as naan. 

Clockwise from 12 o'clock: Cashew nuts, curry leaves, toasted desiccated coconut, black cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, and almonds

Base paste A:
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
4 cloves garlic
1 2 inch piece old ginger, peeled and chopped roughly

1/2 cup water

In a skillet toast desiccated coconut until golden brown. Grind into a paste together with the garlic, ginger and water in a blender.

Base paste B:
8 blanched almonds
10 cashew nuts
1/4 cup water

Grind cashews and almonds together to make a paste.

Ingredients:
2 medium sized onions, sliced
1 large carrot, cubed
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 small slender purple eggplant, cubed
150 g cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 tomatoes, cubed
3 fresh green chillies, split in half, seeds removed
10 roasted cashew nuts
1 tbsp sultanas
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cups thin santan (coconut milk)
2 tbsp korma powder or to taste
Salt and white pepper to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

Aromatics:
4 stalks curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick
5 cloves
3 black cardamoms (substitute 4 green cardamoms if unavailable)

Heat oil in a non-stick skillet or wok. Add oil. Fry curry leaves and the rest of the aromatic spices until fragrant. Add onions, and fry until wilted and slightly golden brown. Add carrots and potatoes and korma powder. Mix well. Fry until the korma powder releases its fragrance before adding base pastes.  Add half of the coconut milk. Lower heat and simmer for about 10 minutes  Add the rest of the coconut milk, as well as the eggplant, cauliflower, and chillies. Simmer for another 15 minutes or so until gravy is thick and vegetables are fork tender. Remove lid and add peas and tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste and simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes. Prick potatoes and carrots to make sure they are cooked.  Add roasted cashew nuts and sultanas and mix well. Adjust seasoning and garnish with coriander leaves.

Why I Still Bite Off More Chilli than I Can Chew - Recipe: Black Pepper Udon with Chicken

This post is dedicated to the kid in all of us.  In Malaysia, as with elsewhere in Southeast Asia, where spice is king, local culture celebrates the ability to take spiciness as a form of machismo.  Both my parents absolutely love chillies – a bowl of sliced chilli padi in soy sauce always accompanies our meals at home. I still marvel at how my father dumps dollops and dollops of sambal belacan into his bowl of laksa as if it is an ice cream topping, or snacks on the pickled green chilli at the table at Chinese restaurants while waiting for the food to arrive. 

As a child, I was terribly ambitious. I wanted to be able to do all the things that adults could, which in my family meant, cranking up the heat level in my food. KLites might remember the old Raintree Club, one of the first private country clubs in the Klang Valley. Weekends in the eighties for us meant tennis for the parents, swimming for the kids, coconut juice by the pool, to be followed by yong tau foo or curry laksa. On this particular occasion, this author decided that she wanted to have her laksa just like the adults did. Although my sister warned me, I piled on the belacan and in addition, sprinkled chilli  padi all over the noodles. And even though my mouth was burning, my nose was running and my eyes were tearing almost unbearably, I ate the whole thing, including greedily drinking all the gravy. While it’s safe to say that I survived the experience, very soon I found my lips puffing up. A red, angry circle of inflamed skin enclosed my lips. If memory serves me correctly, my sister would have gotten quite a kick out of making fun of me, except she too had decided to follow in my footsteps so we both returned home, tail between our legs, with our very swollen lips that evening.

I was reminded of this episode from my childhood the other day when G and I were tucking into the Black Pepper Udon that I had prepared:

G: Pass me the chilli, can?
Me: Mad, ah, you? It’s pretty spicy as it is.
G: I know, but cannot resistlah.
Me: Hehe...same here...aiyo, die, die, die.... damn hot!
(Chomp, chomp, coupled with “ssss” and “ooh” and “aahhh”)

There are only three things that I know that can cut the burning sensation if you’ve had too much heat: i) white bread, ii) a spoonful of rice and iii) a glass of milk. I’m convinced that water actually makes it worse. Seeing as I had none of those things on hand, I gravitated toward my trusty sauvignon blanc to do the trick. What can I say? There’s something about the simultaneously pleasurable and painful experience of biting off more chilli than you can chew that is just too good to resist. As they say in Singapore, so shiok!

Most Asian noodle dishes are pretty flexible so you can substitute the vegetables according to what you have handy – the only thing I would insist upon is grinding the black pepper in your mortar and pestle or spice grinder specially for this dish.

Ingredients:

100 g chicken fillet
Dash Maggi seasoning
1-2 tsp soy sauce
Pinch of salt, sugar and white pepper
1 tsp Shao Xing rice wine
1 tsp cornflour

In a bowl, marinate chicken fillet with Maggi seasoning, soy sauce, salt, sugar, pepper and rice wine to taste. Add cornflour and mix well. Set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients for the noodles.

Sauce:
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
½-1 tsp dark soy sauce for colour
¾ tsp sugar
½ tbsp Shao Xing rice wine
2-3 tbsp water

In a bowl mix together sauce ingredients and set aside.

Noodles:
2 x 200g packets fresh udon noodles, at room temperature
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3-4 thin slices young ginger, peeled
3 cloves garlic, minced
¼ head (about 100 g) of a medium round cabbage, tough centre core removed, leaves sliced thinly
1 medium carrot, sliced into desired shapes
4 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked until soft, and sliced thinly
80 g button mushrooms, sliced
½ red capsicum, sliced thinly
½ green capsicum, sliced thinly
Handful of small bean sprouts (optional)
10-15 black peppercorns, coarsely crushed
Chopped coriander leaves and chilli strips to garnish

Heat wok or non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. First prepare chicken. Add about 1 tbsp of oil and swirl to coat the pan.  Mix chicken in the bowl and add to the pan. Stir-fry for about 5 minutes or until just cooked. Dish up and set aside. Add additional 2 tbsp of oil and sesame oil to the pan. Add garlic and ginger and fry for thirty seconds or until fragrant. Add carrot, shitake mushrooms and button mushrooms and stir-fry briskly for a minute. Add capsicum and fry for an additional minute. Add cabbage and udon noodles. Scatter pepper over and pour sauce ingredients into the pan. Lower heat, and toss well. Add  chicken and bean sprouts if using and fry noodles for an additional 3-4 minutes or until just done. Garnish with coriander leaves and chilli strips. Serve hot.

The Art of Reciprocity - Recipe: Linguine Aglio Olio e Peperoncino

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” - Albert Einstein

One of the important things that I learnt from my parents was the art of reciprocity. Human relationships, when broken down and analysed at the basic level, are built on reciprocity. We aren't always as complicated as we make ourselves out to be. At the most fundamental level, we all yearn to feel appreciated and loved. My parents have always set an example for us in terms of reciprocating acts of kindness and thoughtfulness. I remember every Chinese New Year where my mother would pack individual packages of treats, including "lucky" ingredients such as mushrooms, oranges, nuts and cookies, for each of our relatives based on their preferences. Or my father, who has always been pro-active in hosting dinners to show his appreciation to colleagues.

I have tried to make this a principle in my own relationships with friends and loved ones, and I've discovered that it isn't as easy as it seems on the surface. It requires consistency of purpose and conscious effort. But I'm always grateful by the unsolicited and surprising reciprocal gestures that I receive in return. I say it is an art rather than a science because there is no one way to do this right - sure, it can take the form of gifts, but equally, it could be in the form of a well-crafted note, a hug, or quality time. Take my friend, G, who always brings her copy of Hot! Magazine when she visits because she knows that I don't support celebrity culture but am nonetheless a sucker for couture gowns, or who, despite being tired, will slap on an apron with me and help me with the dishes when I am hosting a dinner party. Or my ex-colleague and good pal, Johnny No Stars, with whom I shared breaking news stories every morning, lame jokes about Malaysian politicians, and piping hot vadais when we were working late. Or JT, who ironically is sometimes nicknamed Inconsistent, who has been an unfailing source of support for me and has always cleared his schedule to meet me for lunch when I'm back in KL, despite all that is going on in his life. And there's B, who during his recent trip to Italy, and knowing what I would value, brought me a bottle of fantastic olive oil and spice blends, rather than the latest fashion item from Milan. I am a lucky gal.  Charm and personality may attract friends, but it's the art of reciprocity that will ensure that these bonds endure over time. 

When thinking about the dishes that I've come to regard as favourites, I often think about the quote above by one of the greatest thinkers of our time, about finding the right balance between plainness and complexity. The Italian Pasta Aglio Olio e Peperoncino, which I tasted for the first time in Rome, is one of those dishes that manages to bring out the natural flavours of its base ingredients - pungent garlic, fruity olive oil, chilly and al dente pasta - in a wonderful way. Key to this dish is the quality of the ingredients. Use the best extra virgin olive oil that you can afford, be sure to use fresh garlic and invest in quality pasta and the rest is relatively straightforward. I decided to  mix things up a little using vegetables I had on hand - mushrooms and asparagus - and although I was unsure about the results, I was pleasantly surprised. The mushroom liquid, described below, adds depth to this meatless dish. A generous pinch of B's magic spice blend was all that was needed to complete the dish.

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

250 g linguine

4 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

100 g slender asparagus, tough stems snapped off and stems peeled, sliced into 2 inch pieces

100 g button mushrooms, quartered

80 g buna shimeji mushrooms, roots removed and separated

1 fresh red chilly, minced (substitute 1/2-1 tsp red pepper flakes)

Large pinch of dried black trumpet mushrooms (optional)

1 dried shitake mushroom  (optional)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Chopped basil and Italian parsley to garnish

In a small bowl, reconstitute black trumpet and shitake mushrooms in hot water. Leave aside to soak for about 1 hour. Drain, squeezing excess liquid out of the mushrooms and reserve soaking liquid. Chop mushrooms roughly.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a generous pinch of salt and a lug of olive oil. Add pasta and cook according to package directions.

In the meantime, heat extra virgin olive oil in a non-stick skillet over low heat. Add garlic, and sauté gently until lightly fragrant, about a minute or so. Add chilly and reconstituted mushrooms and fry for another minute or so. Add button mushrooms and buna shimeji mushrooms and season with sea salt and black pepper. The mushrooms should be just about ready by the time the pasta is done (Otherwise, keep warm on the stove on very low heat).

A few minutes or so before pasta is ready, tip asparagus into the pot with the pasta. When cooked al dente, drain pasta and add to the skillet.* Toss well. Add about 1/4 cup of the mushroom liquid and mix well. Adjust seasoning. Garnish with basil and parsley and serve immediately.

*Tip: If you can work quickly, take the skillet off the heat. Otherwise, maintain a very, very low flame while you are mixing your pasta to help the ingredients blend.

Recipe: Rainbow Sweet and Sour Dish

The bright colors of the rainbow

Trace their way across the sky

Granting peace after each shower

Like a touching lullaby

An emblem, marked by the beauty

Found within each stunning hue

Shall remain a lasting treasure

‘til our time on earth is through.

It is hard to imagine that the famous Sweet and Sour dish, always served with generous chunks of pork or chicken, can be delicious when made vegetarian. But I attempted to make a vegetarian version without the use of mock meat yesterday, and I must say it turned out pretty well. I adapted it from a dish by Amy Beh for crispy fried mushrooms, and eliminated the second round of deep frying by gently baking the mushrooms in the over over low heat to keep warm after the first round of frying. I don't have the stock of flours such as rice flour and tapioca flour in my kitchen here in Singapore that I used to keep handy, as I don't do much pastry or baking. A mixture of different types of flour might work well here. My only gripe about using oyster mushrooms is the shrinkage - the mushrooms will shrink to more than half their size when they lose their moisture, so you will need about two packets of 150 g each for a dish that serves 3-4.

Ingredients:
300 g oyster mushrooms (substitute 150 g abalone mushrooms, stemmed trimmed)

Flour mixture:
1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
4 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp plain four
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 150 degree Celsius. First, pat dry the mushrooms with paper towels. In a plate, mix ingredients for the flour mixture together with a fork. Coat mushrooms lightly with flour and leave to dry for about 1/2 hour. Heat oil in deep fryer to 180 degree Celsius. Coat mushrooms for a second time in the flour mixture, shaking off excess. Working in batches, deep fry the mushrooms until lightly brown - it will take less than five minutes per batch. Drain well. Transfer mushrooms to a baking tray and keep warm in oven while you prepare your sauce ingredients.

For the sauce:

1 tbsp light soy sauce

3 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp Thai chilly sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

1-2 tsp rice wine vinegar or to taste

Dash pepper

1/4 tsp salt or to taste

1-2 tbsp sugar to taste

1 tsp vegetarian oyster sauce

2-3 tbsp water

In a small bowl, mix the sauce ingredients and adjust taste to your liking. It should be tangy, sour and slightly spicy at the same time.

Vegetables:

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, cubed
1/2 green capsicum, cubed
1/2 red capsicum, cubed
1/2 medium carrot, sliced thinly and cut into flower - shapes
10 sugar snap peas, stringed
1 Japanese cucumber, cubed
1 firm tomato, cut into wedges
2 cloves garlic, minced
Sliced red chilly to garnish (optional)

Heat non-stick skillet with oil and add minced garlic. Fry lightly until fragrant. Add onion, capsicum, carrot and sugar snap peas and stir-fry briskly for a few minutes. Add sauce ingredients, bring to a boil and add cucumber and tomato. Mix well.

Take oyster mushrooms out of the oven and place in a large serving bowl. Pour sauce ingredients over. Serve immediately.