Chicken in Thai Green Curry

Chicken in Thai Green Curry

There was a time when the Hub would ask for Chicken in Thai Green Curry almost every week and we must have eaten so much of it that we got sick of it. But last evening, when he brought a colleague over for dinner, I felt like revisiting the curry and am glad to see that I have not lost my touch. Served it with Thai Pineapple Fried Rice.

At the beginning when I started making this curry, I would blend or pound my own spices to make the green curry paste. It is not a difficult operation, but would be worth doing if I had a freezer to store the paste for future use (which I don't). Later I would find a few reasonably good ready-made pastes and would use them.

Other cooks will probably do this curry differently. But the following is the way I like to do mine.

Curry in the wok

Chicken in Thai Green Curry :

Green Curry Paste :

5 Green Chillies (12 Thai ones if you like it very hot)

2 Shallots

4 Garlic Cloves

Thumb-sized Galangal

Fresh Coriander Leaves

2 Lemongrass stalks (bashed and finely chopped)

2 Kaffir Lime Leaves (chopped)

10 Black Peppercorns

1/2 Tsp Ground Coriander

2 Tsp Shrimp paste

6 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

The Chicken :

Chicken breasts (sliced) marinated with

1/2 Tsp Ground Turmeric

1/2 Tsp Ground Coriander

1/2 Tsp Ground Cumin

1 Tbsp Fish Sauce

2 Tbsp Lime/lemon juice

The Gravy :

1 Onion (sliced)
2 Garlic cloves (sliced)

1 Lemongrass stalk (bashed and sliced in 2)

1 slice Galangal (sliced)

2 Fresh Green Chillies (sliced or julienned)

2 Tbsp Green curry paste

1/2 cup Vegetable Stock/Warm water

400ml Coconut Milk

4 Kaffir Lime leaves (shredded)

1 Tbsp Fish sauce

1 Tsp Palm Sugar

Vegetables e.g. Zucchini, French bean, Red Pepper, Carrot, Thai Aubergine (sliced or cubed)

10-12 Fresh Thai Sweet Basil Leaves

If you can pound the spices, do so as blending in a machine usually discharges heat that could lower the quality of the paste. But of course the latter is faster and easier.

Marinate the chicken slices for at least 30 minutes to tenderise the meat. Heat up some oil in the wok and stir-fry them quickly. Remove and set aside.

Add more oil in the wok and brown the onion, garlic, lemongrass and galangal till fragrant. Add in the green chillies and green curry paste. Fry till the oil seeps out of the paste.

Stir in the stock/water and then the coconut milk. Add in the shredded kaffir lime leaves (for an incredible aroma), the fish sauce and palm sugar (I would insist on this as it really does affect the taste). Return the chicken to the curry and add in the vegetables.

If using French beans blanch them for 10 minutes in boiling water before adding them to the curry.

Ran out of Italian Basil substitute

About 3 minutes before serving, add in the fresh basil leaves. Serve hot with Jasmine or glutinous rice.

I made my own Tagliatelle and Tortelloni

Tagliatelle al Ragu and Lambrusco Wine

I thought I finally had the perfect excuse to buy an Imperia pasta-making machine. But la maestra killed it. We were told this morning that the best pasta has to be made a mano. So that it will not be too smooth and will allow the sauce to stick to it. Hub will be happy to know that. Consider that his Christmas present.

Beautiful day at Il Piccolo Mugnaio

We were a group of mainly Swedish women from the school who attended a Tagliatelle and Tortelloni-making class at Le Piccolo Mugnaio this morning. It is impossible to live in Italy and not at least learn how to make pasta. And it's actually an easy, if a little time-consuming, exercise.

Not an animal-free kitchen

It was good fun doing it with a bunch of friends and I think we spent more time talking among ourselves than listening to our instructor. But we made our own pasta. And after this, it'll be difficult eating industrially-made ones, they really taste different!

Freshly-made Tagliatelle and Tortelloni

Tagliatelle (for 10-12 persons) :

1 Kg tipo "0" Flour

9-10 medium Eggs

You need about 1 egg and 100g of flour per person if you're making tagliatelle. You start with 9 eggs to make the dough as you do not want it to be too humid. You get a yellower yolk especially during winter as the chickens are mostly indoors and will eat mainly corn. And in Emilia Romagna, they don't add salt in their pasta though in Tuscany they do so. The opposite is true for bread.

Basically just mix the eggs and flour and knead for a few minutes till you get a dough. Then pick out a fist-size ball, knead it some more on a flat surface and keep rolling it (this is the part that may get you really obsessed) till you get a really thin flat round.

My Tagliatelle!

Leave it to dry for between 10 minutes and 4 hours depending on the temperature and humidity of the room. Otherwise the dough will stick together as you try to cut it.

Demo from la Maestra

Boil a pot of water with salt in it. You do not add oil or it'll make the pasta too smooth and the sauce wouldn't stick to it. When the water is boiling, add in the pasta. Stir a little. It will slowly come to the boil again and the pasta will start to float to the surface. That's when it's ready. You don't time it like on the supermarket packet, but I timed this and it was between 2 and 3 minutes. Drain.

Has to be this thin...

Making tortelloni is like making wontons - even down to folding the dumpling. But you don't need to seal it with water or egg like we usually do with wontons - the fresh pasta just needs some pressure on it to be sealed properly. Those Italians, they stole more than just their noodles from us.

Filling the Tortelloni

The filling was simple : 500g of ricotta cheese and 350g of parmesan cheese. In some places, they will add breadcrumbs to cut costs - but it wouldn't be as good, of course.

Tortelloni vs Tortellini

Maria made a ragu sauce to go with the tagliatelle : onions, carrots, celery, olive oil, vegetable stock, tomato sauce and meat (a mix of beef, pork, veal and sausage filling) that she cooked for 3 hours.

For the Tortelloni, it was a butter and sage sauce. Simple, fattening and yummy.

Tortelloni Burro e Salvia

Voilà now I know how to make my own pasta. And I do not need an Imperia pasta machine for it. Shucks.

All in a day's work

Shiu Mai on cabbage leaves waiting to be steamed

I went to the gym again this morning - to use the sauna, Turkish bath, hydromassage and read a cookery magazine (while pretending to cycle for 20 minutes and feel less bad about it). Those hot sweaty bodies working out all around me must be wondering what this fat person was doing at the gym pedaling like a grandma (actually the grandmas there are really good) and reading about food.

There was this guy who kept hurrumping as he furiously pedaled behind me, I couldn't help but imagine him irritating his partner with those same noises as he made love to her (or him - you never know nowadays) and felt like vomiting, only I hadn't had breakfast.

Sambonet promotion

I left the gym and drove to Esselunga. I'm buying furiously from the supermarket as I am trying to collect enough stickers in order to buy the cutlery sets they have on offer. It's like eating furiously at McDonald's so that I could collect the stickers for the Monopoly game. Hub couldn't understand why I'm doing this. But I do. It's not even to win (who needs a scooter?), it's just for the sake of participating. He said I put him to shame; I said he has lost his child-like sense of fun. Of being like everyone else. When we were living in the States, I would wait with abated breath for the weekly supermarket flyers to arrive at our doorstep. This week's promotions, cut out the coupons etc. That's immersion. He may grumble, but I was the one who had to spend my day adapting to life in a foreign place, do the shopping.

I rushed home to pack away the shopping and gobble down 8 fish fingers as I was hungry. Was late for the PTA meeting - as usual. Am in charge of the International Buffet again - and had to outline my battle plan. Took some fire over my proposal of giving easy access to the children's table, of even having one in the 1st place actually. I personally would want every kid to be brave, queue up and try every exotic thing on display, but then we all know that there will be those who would still prefer to just eat sandwiches and meatballs (leaving the precious curry on their plates). Since kids do have to pay to eat, I wanted to make sure that they will get their money's worth too. Besides, after 2 years of manning the buffet, I know that they like to zip in and out and will want to just grab something and go.

Then I myself zipped out and met with the Teenager's English teacher (one of his favourites). We had a good laugh at the boy's expense. Bumped into the boy in the corridor. I must say that he's one handsome boy even with his glasses on. If only he is a little less often off to Outer Space.

This is the week of birthday parties at Opla. CF kindly took the Babies there and I just needed to pick them up before 6:30. Of course that meant I missed the birthday cake. Heard it was good - such a pity. I usually turn up at kids' birthday parties and try their cakes. For future reference.

If Bollywood Beauty were here, she would make us eat at McDonald's after Opla. That would give me more stickers for the collection, but then I had a free-range chicken at home waiting to be roasted.

Steamed (quite ugly)

This evening, I also made Pork Shiu Mai (Steamed Pork Dumplings). Because I had defrosted my last packet of wonton skins last week for the porcini and foie gras dumplings I wanted to make but hadn't. And those skins had to be used now. Hub and the Babies loved them, must say they were simple to make and tasted 10 times better than the rubbish they serve in the Chinese restaurants here. I also made wontons to be fried tomorrow for the aperitive when one of Hub's subordinates come for dinner.

Spent the evening screaming at the Teenager. Am furious with Hub for insisting that the boy continue with his French distance-learning course then leaving me to handle it. Tiger Wood wannabe prefers staring at golf clubs on the Net than working on his French adjectives. English teacher should make him write an essay on TaylorMade vs Callaway drivers. Before I club him on the head with one.

This Evening's Craving

Wat Tan Hor (Rice Noodle with Egg Drop Gravy)

Made Wat Tan Hor (Rice Noodles with Egg Drop Gravy) this evening. Have posted the recipe before. Very satisfying simple meal, Baby Girl was licking the plates and asking for more, but there weren't seconds to go round.

"Ce n'est pas juste!" she said.

What does she know about justice, this child?

Tarte aux Clémentines et au Grand Marnier

Tarte aux Clémentines et au Grand Marnier

One of my anonymous readers gave me the idea to make a Tart using clementines today. We both prefer the less acidic taste of this agrume and I did have a bag of clementines in the fridge waiting to be consumed. The Tarte aux Clémentines et au Grand Marnier turned out really well. It was a relief as I had made modifications to my Lemon Tart recipe and wasn't too sure how it would turn out.

One last slice for the next day

Tarte aux Clémentines at au Grand Marnier :

Puff pastry or Sweetcrust pastry
130g Sugar
3 Eggs

50g Butter (melted)

40g Maizena (cornstarch)

2-3 Tbsp Grand Marnier (orange liquor)

5-7 Clémentines (5 for juice, 2 for the flesh - optional)

1/2 Lemon

I have decided to switch to puff pastry for my base as I have been thinking of the Portuguese Egg Tarts that I used to make very often a few years ago. Plus you get good ready-made ones nowadays so that saved me some trouble.

Beat sugar and eggs till creamy in a big bowl, add in the Grand Marnier. In another container, mix the melted butter, juice from 5 clémentines and half a lemon, the zest from one clémentine, whatever pulp you can get from them all and the cornstarch that has been dissolved in 2-3 Tbsps of water. Pour the juice mixture into the egg mixture and mix well.

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Fit the puff pastry into a mould. If you want a crusty tart, bake the base solo for 5-10 minutes. Take it out, and if you wish, fill up with pieces of peeled clementines before filling it with the clementine custard.

Bake in the lower part of the oven for 40 minutes. After about 15 minutes, the top of the custard may start to darken. Cover with aluminium foil and continue to bake for the remaining time.

Let it cool slightly before eating to allow the custard to settle and become firmer. It's best eaten warm though.

We were late for school this morning as we couldn't get out of the house. The gate still couldn't be opened automatically. But I've been reasonably productive today, managing to change most of the games in the kids' Nintendo DS cartridges. To think that I used to pay someone a small fortune to do it when it's really a simple drag and drop operation. We used to have to manage more than a dozen cartridges and spend time counting/looking for them, and when you have 3 kids, it quickly became a nightmare. Plus what do you do if they all want to play Mario at the same time?

Bhindi Masala (Okra/Lady's Finger Stir-fry)

Bhindi Masala

I love okra. It's one of my favourite vegetables and I am a carnivore as you know. But I can eat okra any time and I cook it at least once a fortnight - or whenever I can find it. Luckily here in Modena you can find it where there are many Africans or Indians, though where I come from, it's a popular vegetable too. I love it in sambal belachan or in assam pedas.

I also love it cooked the Indian way. It's simple and doesn't stink out the kitchen and I do not have to spend time blending anything.

Bhindi Masala :

Okra (washed, sliced and kept in the fridge for a few hours to dry it out)

Onion

Garlic

Fresh green chillies

Cumin seeds

Aniseeds

Ground Coriander

Ground Turmeric

Fresh tomato

Garam masala

Mango powder (optional)

Lemon juice

Salt to taste

I am now in the midst of buying Christmas gifts. And wondering if I should send out a few cards. Thing is I hate going to the post office here, never could meet its opening hours. It's a headache trying to buy gifts and not knowing what to buy. And this year we'll have to carry them to France and back since we'll be spending Christmas with MIL. After last year's extravagance, I think I'll just get books and DVDs/CDs for everyone.

Pork Roast stuffed with Herbs, Smoked Bacon, Cabbage and Bufala Cheese

Stuffed Pork Roast

Truth be told we're not really into Pork Roasts, usually going for beef, even duck. But I had it in mind to stuff my Sunday roast for a change, though not with those minced stuff, I've never liked the look of them. I've bought a big bag of fresh herbs like sage and rosemary and I'm ready to open up anything to put them in. Voilà pourquoi this Pork Roast stuffed with Herbs, Cabbage, Smoked Bacon and Bufala Cheese.

Stuffing

The pork just has to be lean and of a reasonable thickness to justify being stuffed. Open it up like a wallet (en portefeuille), stuff, season (with olive oil, salt and pepper) and then close it up with a few kitchen strings.

All tied up

The cabbage and bacon one can choose to use them raw or lightly pre-cooked. And the bacon can be replaced with any cured ham. Fresh basilic leaves can also be used, tomato slices will add humidity and acidity. Bufala is better than just mozzarella but of course just the latter will do.

I use my Le Creuset cocotte to make my roasts. It is better than the oven because it allows cooking by steaming too and locks in the natural juices and moisture from the meat.

Dans la cocotte

First heat up some olive oil in the pot and brown both sides of the meat. Then cover the pot, lower the heat and cook it for 15 minutes. Remove the cover and add in whole shallots, garlic and other vegetable (cut) like celery or carrots. Cover again for 10 minutes.

Next, remove the cover and add in some white wine. Salt and pepper to taste. If using fresh porcini mushrooms like I did, add them in at this point. Cover the pot and simmer for another 15 minutes. This way you'll get your meat, confit garlic and shallots, some vegetables and a gravy. I served the roast on home-made garlicked mashed potatoes. Hub, missing the Alba Truffle Festival, had black truffles with his.

Hub's plate has black truffles on his mashed potatoes

Tarte au Citron

Tarte au Citron (Lemon Tart)

To continue with my Nice reverie, I made another Niçoise speciality Tarte au Citron or Lemon Tart. I've 2 bags of organic and sicilian non-treated lemons from Esselunga and needed to use them up somehow. Hub's into making cocktails with the lemons recently, but there are so many cocktails one can drink.

This tart is really easy to make but you'll need to watch your oven. I didn't. Roasted a chicken at 220°C in it before and didn't wait for the heat to come down sufficiently before putting in my lemon tart and it burnt (but only on the top) almost immediately. I covered it with aluminium foil at this point to continue with the baking, but aesthetically, it's pockmarked. Still, I do not advocate loving only the superficial, the tart is as good as any other that I've not burnt and I will show it to you as it was.

Tarte au citron :

The pastry base :

200g Flour

100g Butter (softened)

2-3 Tbsp Sugar

Pinch of salt

The lemon curd filling :

3 Eggs

150g Sugar

3 non-treated Lemons
20g Maizena (Corn starch)

30g Butter (melted and cooled)

Using the tips of the fingers mix the flour with the softened butter. Make a well, add in 4-5 Tbsps of water, the sugar and the salt. Mix and knead quickly to form a ball, adding more flour and/or water if necessary. Envelop the dough in clingwrap and keep in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Sweetcrust pastry base

Prepare the lemon curd by whisking the eggs with the sugar till the batter is white and creamy. Add the melted butter, the juice from the lemons, zest from 1 lemon, the melted butter and the cornstarch that has been dissolved in 1 Tbsp of water. Mix well.

Lemon curd filling

Flour a surface and roll out the dough. Butter a round mould generously and fill it with the dough. Pour the lemon curd onto it. Bake for 30-40 minutes in an oven preheated at 180°C. Let it cool before serving. Can be eaten on its own, or with a meringue, vanilla ice cream or chocolate sauce.

A slice

I also like making the Lime version of the tart, and would usually use sweetened condensed milk so as to remain faithful to the Key (Florida) origins of the pie.

Hub has been playing quite a bit of Mario Brothers on the kids' Nintendo DS. He's at it before he goes to bed (instead of making love to his wife as he normally does) and again at it the minute he wakes up (instead of making love to his wife as he usually does). I am not angry or frustrated, on the contrary I find it amusing that he should tell the kids off for spending too much time on the machines, then confiscate and play them himself. This leaves me time to start on a book much suited to the cold, grey and humid weather of the moment : "Observing the English : The hidden rules of English behaviour," by Kate Fox, a respected English anthropologist.

Socca (Chickpea Pancake)

Socca

A friend PN mentioned that she would be going to Nice this weekend and that set me thinking of the fabulous markets in Old Nice where they sell hot crispy Socca or chickpea pancakes. Thinking led to doing and I find myself preparing the batter for it the minute I woke up this morning. Besides, we were supposed to visit the truffle festival in Alba, but gave up on it as Baby Boy had a birthday party to attend yesterday and Hub didn't manage to make any reservations in the Michelin 1-star restaurants in Alba that he wanted to lunch in today. And did I mention that there's something wrong electricity-wise with our gate? We're locked in today, it's not working.

Chickpea flour

Socca :

250g Chickpea flour

150ml Water

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1/2 Tsp Salt

Cumin seeds (optional)

Fresh Coriander leaves (optional)

The batter is easy to make, just make a well in the chickpea flour and pour in the water, olive oil, salt and cumin seeds/coriander leaves if you're using them. Mix well and set aside for at least 30 minutes. Actually you can choose to use more or less water depending on the kind of socca you wish to make and what you intend to do with it later e.g. eat it as it is, make a pizza out of it, have it wafer thin or thick like Spanish tortilla etc.

The batter

Normally, one has to cook it in the oven (like a pizza). You preheat your oven to 180°C, very generously oil a pan with olive oil, spread the batter thinly on it and bake for 20-40 minutes. Whether you bake it on both sides or just one is up to you; Whether you brown some onions, garlic etc in the oil before adding in the batter is also up to you. But it's really best eaten hot, crispy on the outside and eventually soft on the inside, with freshly ground black pepper.

I cooked mine in a crepe pan and they turned out looking very rustic, dry and ugly. Ate them with leftover ayam masak merah which tasted even better 2 days later.

Ayam Masak Merah with Nasi Lemak

Coconut rice, sambal telor, ayam masak merah & fried tofu

I have mentioned before that I have spent the first 7 years of my life living with a Malay family. I was that anak cina who spoke melayu and who balik rumah to makan babi and could no longer speak the language. But every year during the Hari Raya, we would faithfully return to visit Mak - and eat all the goodies that only she knows how to prepare. Mak is very old now and I am no longer in Singapore, but my mom and mèimei (younger sister) are keeping the tradition alive.

I wish that I have been able to learn how to cook from her. I still think of this clear fish soup that she made when I was a child that was absolutely delicious. I've never eaten this soup anywhere else and I do not even know how to describe it to her now. Maybe later on I will experiment and make one fish soup after another to try and get it right.

And of course I love her Ayam Masak Merah or Red Curry with Chicken. The Malays usually serve this with tomato rice, but I much prefer it with Nasi Lemak. I cannot claim to be able to do it as well she could, but this is by far one of the versions I'm reasonably happy with - until I work out a better one.

Ayam Masak Merah

Ayam Masak Merah :

The Chicken :

6 skinless upper chicken thighs

1-2 Tsp Ground Turmeric

A pinch of

Ground Cinnamon

Ground Cloves

Ground Coriander

Ground Cumin

Salt

Pepper

The Gravy :

Shallots

Garlic

Ginger

Fresh Chillies

Dried Chillies

Red Onion

Lemongrass (bashed)

Galangal

Cinnamon stick

Star anis

Green cardamoms

Whole cloves

Warm water

Kecap Manis

1 tsp Honey

1/2 tin canned tomato purée

Fresh Tomatoes

Salt

Kaffir Lime leaves

Fresh coriander leaves

Marinated chicken

Marinate the chicken pieces with the ground spices for an hour. Fry till golden, drain on kitchen towel and set aside.

Fried chicken

Blend the shallots, garlic, ginger and chillies into a paste.

Using some of the same oil, fry the red onions, lemongrass, galangal and the whole spices till fragrant then add in the paste. When the oil seeps out, add in the fresh tomatoes and sweet soy sauce.

Then pour in some warm water and stir well. Add in the tomato purée and honey, salt to taste and finally the kaffir lime leaves. Cover and leave to simmer for a few minutes.

Return the fried chicken pieces to the pan and coat them in the gravy. Simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with nasi lemak. There is usually no need for coconut milk in this curry and in any case there is already alot of coconut milk in the nasi lemak.

I didn't make my own sambal this afternoon as the process tends to stink and smoke too much. Used a packet of Prima Taste's Nonya Sambal Chilli and it was quite good. I wish now that I had bought other packets the last time I was home. I cooked the hard boiled eggs in them for my Sambal Telor. Bye bye diet, hello winter.

Grilled Teriyaki Salmon Don

Grilled Teriyaki Salmon Don

I am down to my last few hundred grams of sushi rice. Drove to all the Asian shops in Modena and they have all run out of it. This made last evening's Teriyaki Salmon Don (rice bowl) all the more special - until I can stock up on Japanese rice again.

Miso Soup (with tofu but without seaweed as I can't stand it)

Everyone had Miso Soup (made from red miso paste and ikan bilis stock) to start, but the Babies, who do not eat fish, had grilled Piemontese beef patties and potato croquettes with crema di aceto balsamico. And we finished off with a Fruit Salad filled with lychees that they adore.

Beef patty and potato croquettes with crema di aceto balsamico

Fruit Salad

I served the grilled Salmon steaks with grilled vegetables, seasoned sushi rice and leftover teriyaki sauce from the marinade. If you cannot find the bottled sauce, make your own with light soy sauce, mirin and sugar.

Grilling the vegetables (separately)

The grey, cold weather is getting to me. I do not feel like doing anything - except cook and eat. I went to the gym yesterday though. To use the sauna. The idea of exercising does not appeal to me at all. I just want to laze around, daydream, read Maxi Cuisine and absorb heat. The months ahead will be tough.

Oeuf Mollet sur Lit de Cèpes

Oeuf Mollet sur Lit de Cèpes

I have spent a small fortune on porcini mushrooms this season, but they were so good. And there are so many ways to cook them, it has been fun. One of the ways I cooked them recently was simple and good. It's Oeuf Mollet sur Lit de Cèpes or Poached Egg on Porcini Mushrooms. Makes a good entrée/starter.

Poached Egg :

Boil water, add a touch of vinegar.

Break an egg into the boiling water and cook it for 4-6 minutes (depending on how soft or hard you want your egg yolk). Scoop out and cool in cold water. Drain and set aside.

Porcini mushrooms :

Brush the soil off the mushrooms and slice them. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and lightly brown some sliced garlic. You can be generous with your garlic, it goes nicely with the mushrooms.

Add in the mushrooms, a sprig of fresh thyme or rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Cook till the mushrooms are soft and fragrant. pour in some white wine or port. The smell at this point should be really quite good. Stir in a tsp (per portion of mushroom) of crème fraiche.

Serve hot in a plate with the poached egg on top. You can also use other mushrooms like chanterelle, champignon de Paris etc.

I took Hub's F500 to the petrol kiosk near my house today. The guy serving at the station told me that this wasn't my car, that mine's the Phedra in Burgundy. Wow, how did he know that? I haven't been to the station with my new car thus far.

I saw you driving past. Can't miss you. You're beautiful.

He made my day, of course. And that's a surer way to earn a faithful client than that AGIP card that I never remember to bring with me.

Carpe Diem Today!

1 Carat tw Rhodolite Eternity Ring in 18K White Gold

Hub said over dinner last night that times are bad so who knows if he would be the next to lose his job. And how would I feel if this should happen?

I do not want to sound nonchalant about serious things like this, especially when I have parents back home partly depending on me for their retirement, but what can one do about it? When you think of people dying of war or hunger elsewhere, others living in the streets, people working 2 jobs already and still not making ends meet, you know that we couldn't be too badly off even if he should lose his job tomorrow. We would have to downgrade everything, eat less well, stop going on holidays, stop spending frivolously. But we should get by. And I've known hard times, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in the mouth after all.

Having said that, while the salary still comes in at the end of the month at the moment, I thought I should seize the day, this day. Especially when we're nearing the festive season and I'm already in the midst of preparing for the Winter Fair with the PTA. Starting to think glitter, see glitter - so I bought some glitter.

Saw a pretty pink semi-precious eternity ring and bought it. It's composed of 30 rhodolites (1 carat in total) set in 18k white gold. Made in France.

I used to be quite irritated when one of Hub's pleasure-seeking pals used the phrase "Carpe Diem". Must say that it doesn't have such a bad ring to it when I start employing it myself.

Roasted Sweet Potato

Roasted Sweet Potato

It took me half a matchbox to light my BBQ. It was cold and windy outside. And know what? They don't seem to sell matchsticks in the supermarkets here. Afraid that we would burn the place down while shopping? It is actually quite frustrating when you remember that my BBQ came with that lighter function but after the cleaning lady hosed it down last year, no sparks ever flew from the machine again. Now you have to turn on the gas and throw in a lighted matchstick to light the BBQ. Or in my case, half a box of lighted matchsticks.

Anyway, I roasted this sweet potato. The part near the skin is extra sweet when it's cooked (almost directly) on the fire.

Next, if I have the courage maybe I'll make Steamed Sweet Potato Cakes, but for now, I have other fish to fry.

Meat Woes

A Vermont slaughterhouse, Bushway Packing Inc. of Grand Isle, was ordered closed for inhumane treatment of animals after hidden videos showed several days-old male calves culled from dairy herds dragged, kicked, shocked, skinned and cut while conscious.

What is even scarier is that Bushway Packing was certified as an organic processor. Organic rules currently are geared mainly toward ensuring that meat labelled organic comes from animals raised without hormones or chemicals, it doesn't deal with how the animal is treated or slaughtered.

I didn't know that male calves in dairy farms are often slaughtered almost immediately after birth and that if they were mistreated during slaughter it is often because they were too weak to walk or stand on their own due to their young age. Meat from days-old calves ("bob-veal") usually ends up in hot dogs and luncheon meats. Meat sold as veal usually comes from animals raised to about 4 months old. It's sad thinking of the cows carrying their young for months, having a hard time birthing, instinctively licking their young after birth only to have them not live for more than a few days or months.

I must say that I have never liked veal and I prefer pork sausages. And the more you read about how chickens are treated or pigs are fed, how cows are slaughtered and how prawns and fish are farmed etc, the more you wonder if you should keep eating meat and farmed seafood. I am probably romanticising things here, but I get the impression that in the past when people hunted for their food, they had more love and respect for their animals then we do today. Truth probably is we're heartless sauvages through and through.

Actually I've almost stopped eating chicken unless it's free-range. I'm sticking to the occasional Argentinian or Piemontese beef and will try to educate myself about their ages. I usually buy pork ribs just to make soup and have almost no occasion to eat suckling pig. I've cut down on the prawns (MIL has been scaring me with her stories of how prawns are being farmed in Thailand and elsewhere). Farmed fish doesn't have much taste.

I'm trying to get most of my protein from free-range chicken eggs. Problem is that I'm not a fruit and vegetable person, I'm a carnivore. Or I love carbo and it loves me too seeing that it prefers to stay in my body and transform itself into fat.

Whatever it is I will try to eat lesser but better and especially manage my waste better. When you know that there are so many people dying of hunger in this world and your neighbourhood supermarkets probably have lots of unsold fresh produce everyday that will go to waste, I feel bad. I have educated my children badly as they have bad food habits. Will I manage to help them change for the better?

Spaghetti Rebus

Spaghetti Rebus

The Hub asked me yesterday what those ugly roots were. There I remembered that I've forgotten about my basket of sweet potatoes. I bought them 2 weeks ago thinking of having them roasted on the BBQ or making a soup out of them. But since last night, all I could think of was Mee Rebus. Since I do not have any fresh yellow noodles, I made Spaghetti Rebus in its stead. And instead of going to the gym, I stayed at home to cook.

Sweet potatoes were what grandma dug out of the ground to eat during the war as mom liked to tell me. And in Singapore the leaves are stirfried and served in some restaurants. I rather like them actually. Sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene (especially the orange-fleshed ones), vitamin C and B6. I usually like them steamed or roasted.

This is comfort food. So nice when it's so cold in the house (even when you pay nearly a thousand euros each month for gas). Use to have it at Rahim's almost every week. He added satay sauce when serving to make his mee rebus more sedap, but I actually prefer my rebus simple and did not bother to thicken the sauce too much.

Sweet potato root

Mee Rebus (Curry Noodles with Mashed Sweet Potatoes) :

The rempah

Tau cheo (salted soy beans)

Dried shrimps (soaked in water and drained)
Roasted peanuts
Candle or macademia nuts
Shrimp paste (toasted and pounded)
Ginger
Galanga
Garlic
Lemongrass
Shallots
Dried red chillies (softened in hot water and drained)

Ground Coriander

Ground Turmeric

Curry Powder

Sweet potatoes (boiled/steamed and mashed)

Prawn or meat stock

Cornstarch

Salt

Sugar

To serve with

Fresh yellow noodles or spaghetti

Green chillies

Beansprouts

Prawns
Hard boiled eggs
Fried beancurd
Fried shallots
Chopped spring onions and fresh coriander leaves

Lime juice

Kecap Manis

To make the gravy, pound/blend the ginger, lemongrass, galangal, garlic, shallots and dried chillis into a paste. Fry the peanuts and macademia nuts in a little oil and blend with the tau cheo, dried shrimps and toasted blachan into another paste.

Heat more oil in a pot and fry the dry spices until fragrant. Add in the ginger paste and then the nut paste. Fry till aromatic and the oil seeps out.

Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes. Pour in a litre of warm/hot stock. Let it simmer.

Add salt and sugar to taste. Thicken with a cornstarch solution.

Cook the noodles, scald some beansprouts and arrange them on a plate. Pour some gravy over it. Garnish with egg slices, cooked prawns (if any), sliced green chillies, a cut lime, some taupok (if any), fresh coriander leaves and fried shallots. Dribble some kecap manis over it.