Episode 509 - D Gang's Laksa

D gang's highest request when it comes to gathering time. Made this yesterday for an early 'Chap Go Meh' gathering. I kind of underestimated the amount I was suppose to cook but in the end I think everyone enjoyed it. It was a pretty "spicy" night as we also had 'Malap' or Hot Pot Steamboat. Wow! hot, spicy and sweaty but they were all real good to end the festive Chinese New Year Season. Accompanied by friends, games, drinks and fireworks, we had a ball!

This recipe takes quite a bit of time to prepare. The bits of ingredients take the most time. The broth can be done in ten to 15 minutes. It took me whole morning to prepare everything but I tell you, there's nothing like satisfaction to your heart's content when you get to taste this!

D Gang's Laksa

Ingredients:

A:
5 cups of Liza's Laksa paste
6-7 cups of Coconut Milk
1 litre of Chicken Stock
4 cups of water
200g of Prawns; preferably only the heads (cleaned thoroughly)
6 shallots; finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic; finely chopped
3 stalks of Lemongrass; take ends only (yellow part) & slightly pound them
4 Screw pine leaves; torn in d middle and tied into a knot
2 cups of sugar
2 tbspns of salt
1 cup of Kasturi juice

B:
4 packets of Meehon; cooked in boiling water & drained
10 eggs; fried into omellette & cut into strips
8 pcs of fishcakes; fried & thinly sliced
Chicken Breast; cooked in stock for 'A' & shred after the meat has cooled down
2 packets deep fried tofu; sliced thinly or in small cubes (usually available in Supermarkets)
3 handful of beansprouts; blanched
2 Cucumbers; thinly cut into strips

Method:
Add a few tablespoons of oil into a large pot. Caramelise the shallots and garlic alongside with the lemongrass and screwpine leaves and put in the prawns and stir under medium low heat until prawns turn light pink. Pour in the Laksa paste and cook paste until aromatic (or for a few minutes). Make sure to stir occasionally while cooking paste. Then pour in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Add in the water and bring to a boil once again. Next, pour in the coconut milk and kasturi juice and let it boil for 4 minutes while stirring. Lower down the fire and let it simmer for 10 minutes after you have put in the sugar and salt.

Place an amount of meehoon in a bowl, topped with the shredded chicken, omellette, beansprouts, fishcakes, cucumber and tofu. Add the hot laksa broth into the bowl and serve with a slice of kasturi and a teaspoon of 'Sambal belacan'.

Serves: 20

*Tip*: The laksa paste is very spicy thus adding more sugar can lessen the spicyness. Add more coconut milk for a creamier taste and instead of adding water, you can also prepare more chicken stock and therefore need not add water.

To shred chicken, lay cooked breast meat on a chopping board and use a fork to shred out the meat. Use the fork backside up and scrap alongside the chicken veins.

Will post up the pic later on as I forgot to take my camera along with me lastnight.

Happy Chap Go Meh!

Episode 508 - Creamy Potato Gratin

This is an absolute favourite when it comes to my gatherings. I recently learn how to make this and finds it rather easy. Just that the peeling of the potatoes can be a bit tiring though hehe. Anyway, you can just follow the following and try whether it works well and taste as good as it sounds!

Creamy Potato Gratin

Ingredients: 10 large Australian Washed Potatoes; peeled & sliced to 0.5 cm thick, 1 can of Nestle Cream or 225ml of Cream, 2 cloves of Garlic; crushed & chopped, 2 cups of milk Salt & Pepper to taste (around 1 tbspn of salt and 1 teaspoon pepper), 1 teaspoon of dried Parsley, 1 teaspoon of soft brown sugar, 1 tbspn of butter, 1 block of Cheddar Cheese (Kraft brand) ; grated

Method: Place the sliced potatoes in a huge cooking pot. Place all the ingredients except for the Cheddar cheese. Cook on medium low fire, stirring it from time to time so that the potatoes won't stick on the base of the pot. Switch to low fire after 5 minutes and cook for another few minutes until cream and milk comes together with the potatoes. Now, place everything into a large dish (Pyrex or a huge baking dish) and cover it with all the grated cheese. Bake in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes at gas number 7.

Serves: 8

*Tip*: If you like it creamier, place around 20ml more of the cream and another half cup of milk into the pot. A great tip is to simmer the milk & cream with the bits of ingredients first before putting in the potatoes. A dash of grated nutmeg also adds sweetness into this dish. And taste before baking it as it may need a bit more salt than I have suggested. You can also add large onions which is usually what they put in a Gratin. All you need to do is thinly slice 1 large onion and saute under low heat it in a pan with butter till it is soft and then place it in the large pot with the potatoes.

To check if it is cooked, pierce a knife through the potatoes and if it feels like they are soft, it is good to go. Serve it as a side dish alongside your salad or with your favourite steak and some mushroom gravy.

Episode 507 - My Kitchen Bookclub : Jamie's America

Didn't get to catch all those episodes of Jamie's American Road trip on Travel & Living? Fear no more because Jamie has always placed everything he documented on TV into books. This is a great book to get. It has all the recipes from all the places featured in the series, all written in detail and even bits of comments and Jamie's experience all in one book! In summary, he saw that America has more than the stigmatic food culture of fast food and super large portions of food. The trip made him realize that the US of A has more to offer than what it seemed. With 120 recipes in one book from LA to New York, this is definitely a trip you don't need to pay for - all packed into a book of American Foodie Dreams! And I must say that I love the pics that they take for all his books. This one in particular has so many pics which spoke of a thousand words! As delicious as they looked!

Jamie's America - A must- get book for all Jamie Oliver fans!

Got this in Singapore at BORDERS cost around S$74.00. Should be almost the same over here in Brunei or you might be able to get it cheaper in Miri.

Episode 506 - Singapore Food Galore : Day 2, 3 & 4

And then Day 2 in Singapore came along... Another great foodie experience. My friends and I walked all the way from somewhere at Orchard Street and to Paragon to their food court and had breakfast at this restaurant called Tin Dai Fung. We had steamed Yam dumplings, Beef Noodle Soup and the Egg & prawn fried rice. Superb! However, we got separated during lunch onwards and had late tea at ION's food court. There we tried the barbecued Chicken Wings, Kueh Pai Ti, Char Kueh Tiaw with beef and Oyster fried Omellette. I must say that the wings were just Ok-la (convinced by the super friendly Chef that they were really good) but the Fried Kueh Tiaw was really good and the Omellette was not too bad. The Kueh Pai Tis were great. It's actually cooked shredded turnip placed in little deep fried baskets, adorned with bits of egg prawn and sweet sauce. Best thing about all the food courts were that they have open kitchens thus watching them cook your meal is just a great experience!

Dinner was just assorted buns from a bakery at ION enjoyed at the sidewalk of Orchard road! As the night descended, we strolled along the walkways of Clark Quay. My friends had the chance to enjoy the very cool and highly anticipated Bread Icecream! I didn't try it as I was having sorethroat. Sighs but I totally loved the way the Uncle made those icecreams. So full of passion and commitment!

Beef Noodle Soup - The best Beef broth I've ever tasted

Kueh Pie Ti

Oyster Omellette

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream wrapped in Rainbow Bread

Braised Hard boiled Egg

Came across this at some sort of a Seven Eleven Store, Braised Chicken Egg, Vacuum Packed! - Very interesting as I've never seen this before and it costs S$0.90 each which you can have with your cup Noodles - heard it is actually tasty! I was skeptical to try it but kind of regret now.

Day 3 was just with babe LY. We went to Heeran to catch lunch at Waruka Restaurant. It's a Japanese Restaurant. No comparison with our Excapade Sushi in Brunei. The food weren't that bad and the portions were pretty much alright. I do like the set lunches and those tit bits of side orders you can have with your main dish with a special fixed price. And then came dinner time at Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, Clark Quay. Best Chilli Crab ever! Served with sweet savoury buns called Man Tou. We had several main dishes including Deep fried egg tofu with creamy Mushroomy Sauce, Stir Fried Baby Kai Lan and Egg Fried rice. The hunger kind of made everything so much more than it looked. Definitely a must-try when you go to Clark Quay.

Chilli Crab at Jumbo Seafood, Clark Quay *mouth watering*

Duck & Mango Salad

The last day was more of a tit bits testing, literally from Bugis Street to just any place with interesting food we can get our hands on. We had Beard Papa's Cream Puff. Darn creamy and yummy for sure. We had those soft skin (Mochi) ice cream which were in so many flavours it was hard to choose and that they packed it in such a way that it only melts after an hour! We also had Satay with all sorts of meat. But we did catch lunch at Jumbo again. This time I tried the Mango and Duck Salad. One word - SUPERFABTASTIC!

Beard Papa's Cream Puff - Coming soon in Brunei (hopefully)

That is therefore my food conquest in Singapore. I'd defnitely go back there soon to explore some places I didn't get to go and try the many types of food available! Alright, enjoy the pics and see you in the next post >0,<

Episode 505 - Singapore Food Galore : Day 1

I promised that I would post up my foodie experiences from my vacay in Singapore and this is what I encountered from the first day! I was really excited about this trip cos it has been a really long while that I haven't travelled to Singapore. Nearly 10 years I must say and Oh my has it developed so well with state of the Art architectural designed buildings to Merz taxis! The Airport was da bomb and the services were fantastico! Would definitely go back there sometime soon cos eating there is just one of the best experiences I had ever!

So as I arrived at Singapore Airport, I was abit hungry and thought that I'd grab some snacks over at the many standing kiosks selling coffee and sandwiches and tarts. My first food encounter would be this scrumptious Apple Puff. It was on promotion, hope it's not like old stock or something but regardless it was good, SGD2.90 for 2 puffs.

Apple Puff at the Singapore Airport

Lunch was at Bugis Street! We had 'otak-otak' (fish meat marinated in spices, wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled), 'Nasi Lemak', Duck noodles and 'Laksa'. Pretty pure street food. The best is enjoying the food sitting at the street side, out in the open air. Love it!

Nasi Lemak & 'Otak-Otak' wrapped in banana leaves at Bugis Street

Next would be dinner at Marche situated at Somerset 313 mall. Now, that's an experience. We celebrated our friend Mei's birthday there and had such a great time trying out the many food they had! The restaurant had a real interesting environment to it. Pretty much a bit of European style. The interiors were of wooden furnishings decorated with fresh (very fresh and not the plastic ones) fruits and vegetables. It's really like market style at Marche. I must say that it's one of the best way to order your food, they have small stalls of variety of food like potatoes, pizza, grill, salad, soups and desert. And at each stall, you can tell them how you want your meat or potatoes or salad to be cooked & prepared. Very unique! Before you start ordering, they will give you a card where you can swap at each different counters you ordered and just accumulate and pay at the cashier once you're done! We had everything there. From the pizzas with our favourite toppings up till the grilled lamb ribs *yums*! The dinner finished off with the best ice cream by Movenpick (Swiss Ice cream). You should definitely try the Creme Brule flavour! It blew our minds off!

Creme Brule Ice cream by Movenpick at Marche, Somerset 313

Till the next post on Day 2 in Singapore Food Galore, eat right and stay healthy!

Episode 504 - My Kitchen Bookclub : Cook's Bible, The definitive cook's guide

Cook's Bible - A MUST get!

Hi all! So great to be back online and blog! I just came back from a vacation at Singapore few weeks back and I must say that it was a really great and revitilising trip! Shopped a hell lot and the best thing was to try out all the different types of food! Can't wait to share with you everything that I tried and came across in Singapore! Food galore in the next few posts. For now, I'm introducing a new category for my blog which is 'My Kitchen Bookclub'. It features the different types of cookbooks which I have bought and I'll give several of my views on it so maybe you guys would be interested in getting them too! I came across this cookbook or more like a bible for cooks at BORDERS bookshop which I think is at Wheelock (groundfloor) along Orchard Road for SGD31.90 (with GST).

I think that this book is great especially if you need to know all the minor details on cooking and its definition. It has 2 parts namely, Part One : Introduction which includes the importance of healthy eating, safety in the kitchen, Equipments that you need around the kitchen and even down to the types of cooking techniques as well as preparation methods. This includes like what grind, caramelise or basting is. It's great that the author even provide pictures alongside the definition of each method. I can tell you that this is a great book to use if you need to explain something about cooking cos I've been having a lot of trouble trying to use the right term when I post the method for my recipes.

The second part features the Main Commodities and Recipes. Broken down into 9 chapters which are Chapter 1 - Eggs and Dairy, Chapter 2 - Fish & Shellfish, Chapter 3 - Meat, Chapter 4 - Poultry and Game, Chapter 5 - Vegetables and Salads, Chapter 7 - Rice, Pasta, Pulses and Grains, Chapter 8 - Fruit and lastly, Chapter 9 - Baking. All the chapters in the book do not go straight to the recipes but actually starts of with important info about the food on each featured chapter. Example, if they're talking about cooking meat, the chapter starts with how to buy and store different types of meat, how to choose the meat for the different types of cooking and even provides oven temperatures and roasting times. Similarly, the chapter on baking would include recipes from making bread to mouth watering deserts and also describes techniques to make a good dough and different types of pastries.

My favourite chapter would be the 5th one on vegetables and salads as the book really gave a great range of recipes from healthy soups to one of my very favourite type of vege to cook which is potatoes.

So if you love food and need a basic and thorough interpretation of the many types of gorgeous food, you should definitely get this book to be one of your humble collections of cookbooks.

Alright, do stay around as my foodie experience in Singapore will be on the next few posts with pics for you to drool on.