Warm Roasted Pumpkin and Aubergine Salad with Modena Balsamic Dressing

One of our favourite salads - easy to prepare yet delicious. Inspired by a salad of roasted eggplant and rocket leaves I once had in a quaint restaurant in Fremantle.

Ingredients :

200gms pumpkin - 2 cm cubes
200 gms aubergine (long) - sliced 1/2 cm thick
50gms baby spinach
1 red onion - quartered
1 tomato - quartered
5 large cloves garlic
5 to 10 pcs of sundried tomatoes (cut to 1/2 cm strips)
50 to 100gms of drained cocktail feta
1 tbsp Modena balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper pepper to taste

Method :
1. Preheat oven to 190 deg C.
2. Toss pumpkin, aubergine, red onion, tomatoes and unpeeled garlic cloves with 1 tbsp olive oil, some salt and pepper.
3. Lay the vegs in a baking pan lined with baking sheet. Roast in oven for 45 mins or until pumpkin and aubergine are done.
4. Once vegs are done, turn off oven and toss baby spinach onto the hot vegs.
5. Squeeze out garlic and mash with fork if necessary. Mix well with 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar and 1 tbsp olive oil.
6. Place vegs onto salad bowl and top with drained feta and sundried tomatoes.
4. Pour dressing over and toss salad. Serve warm.

Gnocchi with Sliced Mushroom and Beef Ragout

We had a lovely dinner of potato gnocchi with hearty beef ragout with sliced button mushrooms and fresh spinach.

When the beef ragout has reached a simmering point, stir in sliced button musnrooms. Turn off heat.

Place spinach on top of the warm gnocchi and spoon the ragout over. Enjoy!

Stuffs I Made...

Lotsa BBQ-ed stuffs since the gas BBQ came... wings, ribs, potatoes, burgers, sausages... so much for telling Barry that I won't really use it... Ha! Ratatouille...just because of the movie... There is a step to it.. I followed this recipe : onions go into the pot first followed by garlic, bell pepper strips, tomatoes, Provencal herbs, pepper, aubergine and lastly zucchini. Et voila! Ratatouille!
Lobster Roll (no picture) - May brought back 2 spiny lobsters from her holiday in Kota Kinabalu. I boiled the whole lobster in boiling water with some salt, bay leaves and garlic added. 8 minutes (lobster was about 500gms each) after water started to boil, it was done. I used very low heat so that it was more like poaching to keep the flesh tender.

I ripped the lobster apart and tore the flesh into pieces, mixed with chopped celery, mayonnaise, chilli powder and freshly ground black pepper, it was good to go as a filling for a nice bun with slices of tomato and cucumber... Classy lunch!

Dragon Willow Stirfry and Hot and Spicy Chicken Wings

To be honest, washing leafy vegetables does scare me a little - am always paranoid about not cleaning them enough and would spend hours soaking and rinsing and soaking and rinsing.... my mom used to tease that if I cook leafy vegetables, the whole family would go hungry because not only would I spend ages washing them but I would also throw away a lot of "imperfect" leaves.

I saw this "dragon willow" veg at pasar malam the other day and I made a mental note to try it out some time because they looked like they have less dirt on them compared to most other leafy vegs. Didnt know it was called "dragon willow" until a visit to Jaya Jusco yesterday where stuffs are labeled unlike pasar malams.

I thought dried shrimps would go with it but checked with an elderly lady who was arranging the vegs then. I was told that garlic would do fine but if want extra kick, some belacan would do the trick. Now, the idea of belacan is great for me but I don't think it will go well with my other half. So, the solution was to stick to dried shrimps and garlic.

And she added that it's good to be eaten when having stomach upsets as it has soothing effects - this I have to study a little before believing. However, I had no luck when I tried to Google "dragon willow". The search produced results related to alchemy and magic and I didn't really have the patience to do further research. So, any info on this is most welcomed by a very ignorant-about-leafy-veg me.

I soaked the whole bunch and washed them well before breaking them into 1.5 inch lengths. I made sure that they were well-drained and separated the stems from the curly beard-like tendrils/shoots (I think).

Chopped up some garlic and soaked some dried shrimps before washing and draining water off the shrimps.Then, I proceeded to heat up some corn oil in the pan before frying the garlic and dried shrimp till fragrant. Added in the stems. Increased the heat and stirfry for a little while before finally adding the tendrils of the "dragon willow". Gave a few shakes of salt.

I liked the stems a lot - for some reason, the tendrils were very much crunchier than the stems even though it went into the pan not too long after the stems. Overall, delicious with steamed rice or porridge.

Summary of ingredients for "dragon willow" stirfry :
"dragon willow"
corn, canola or any cooking oil
garlic
dried shrimps
salt

On a different subject, I also made some hot and spicy chicken wings just because it's weekend and we were craving wings.

The most important thing about making wings is to ensure that they are patted real dry... so that the skin won't be gooey when grilled. Mine weren't THAT dry cos I was in a hurry (as usual).

The wings were then rubbed with some olive oil and seasoned with chopped garlic, paprika, Tabasco sauce (darn, makes the chicken wet again...it was supposed to be chilli flakes but I have been hunting for chilli flakes for months and the nearest I could lay my hands on was chilli powder which I do not like), dried oregano, freshly ground sea salt (more would be better) and black pepper. I left the seasoned chicken in a sealed container overnight. Give it a little shake or two.

BBQ them wings after. Or you can grill them in the oven (with a drip pan below to catch the fat - watching the fat dripped down made me less guilty about eating wings) at approx. 220 deg C for 25 to 30mins or until they are golden. Watch the wing tips though - they burn fast - seal with aluminium foil if needed.

Summary of ingredients for wings :
chicken wings
olive oil
paprika
Tabasco or chilli flakes
dried oregano
salt
black pepper
garlic

Too bad I didn't make any dip (I like blue cheese dip, yum!!!)

Stirfried Snake Beans with Shrimp

Due to our recent loss, I have been a little bit more introspective, thinking about life and such....

I spent quite a bit of time re-organising some papers and stuffs at home..... In addition, I finally sent 2 pairs of Ferragamos and a pair of Escada shoes (been sitting in my car trunk for ages) to get them fixed and polished. Came back near new and I have no excuse to buy new shoes for the rest of the year. Will see....

Work is still as busy as ever but I put off all traveling for whole month of April. Strangely, despite that, it has been a very fruitful month at work (May is set to look good too!) for which I am thankful. It is definitely blessing from above.

My sleep and eating pattern have somewhat changed too....

I couldn't seem to fall asleep nor sleep deep enough, thus having to wake up once in the middle of the night. Probably because Barry is away (Barry is coming back this weekend, after almost a month since he left for home. Yay!)... and I don't like the sound of howling wind and thunder at night when it rains... and man, it has been pouring quite a lot! And I had tonsillitis last Thursday (first time ever!!). It seemed like sore throat but this time the pain was really unbearable. It was nipped at the bud though and recovery was almost instantaneous for I wasn't being my usual stubborn self and went to see doctor immediately. I don't usually get sick but I guess the interrupted rest does mean that my immune system wasn't in tip-top condition.

I have been boiling pots after pots of snow fungus, loquat, dried longan, barley, dried apples combo soup sweetened with organic honey since then. And drank lots of water too! Hope that was the first and last time I got tonsillitis....

On food, I have been eating at home thoughout the month nearly every day even on weekends except for lunch. The exception was Tony Roma's with my niece one of the days when she came for a sleepover. My daily fare had been porridge + 2 dishes - like watercress soup with pork ribs (a pain to wash though), stirfried okra with ikan bilis, yong tow foo, stirfried ampalaya (with eggs) or cucumber or broccoli (with shrimps) or snow pea tendrils with dried shrimps, kailan with salted fish etc... I had lots of greens....I really wasn't in the mood for meats...

And I discovered that pasar malam stalls at Subang Sect 13 are opened by 3pm (could be earlier???)

Here is a pic of stirfried snake beans and shrimps :

It's very easy to make.

Just need some snake beans, chopped garlic, shelled shrimps, Maggi seasoning, some cooking oil.
I like to fry the beans first at high heat for awhile and then cut them into 1.5 inch lengths when slightly cooled. Set aside. Pour away some oil from the pan and fry chopped garlic till fragrant but not browned over medium heat. Stir in the shrimps. Season with Maggi seasoning and stir till shrimps are cooked. Turn off heat and stir in beans. Done.

Of Stuffed Chillies and Mushrooms...

I had quite a bit of chillies and button mushrooms left in the fridge...and didn't feel like having lunch as Barry whipped up a yummy meal of potatoes, eggs and toast for breakfast (and I don't normally have breakfasts unless you count hot chocolate as breakfast).

And I happened to have minced beef in the fridge too!! Perfect for stuffed chillies and mushrooms.... and Mike is over too for Xbox games - so, everyone gets to snack!

It's so easy to make.

Ingredients :

10 button mushrooms (remove the stems)
6 chillies (cos spicy) - cut a slit lengthwise in each and remove seeds
100gms minced beef (weight watchers' type)
1 egg
2 cloves garlic
1 1/2 tsp soya sauce
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
some cracked black pepper
2 tsp sesame oil
Oilve oil

1. Mix all ingredients except the mushroom caps, chillies and olive oil.
2. Chop mushroom stems finely and mix into the minced beef mixture.
3. Preheat oven to 220 deg C. Oil a baking pan.
4. Stuff mixture into chillies and mushrooms.
5. Brush with olive oil.
6. Bake for 25-30mins (depends on size of chillies and mushrooms)

Stuffed Eggplant

After drooling over the pictures of Stuffed Eggplants in Cream Puffs in Venice's blog, I just had to try them out.

So, I made them with some modifications (with apologies to Cream Puffs in Venice) :

1. 8 Japanese eggplants - no extra big eggplant needed
2. Steamed the eggplants for 1/2 hour in a steamer
3. Omitted the parsley as we are not a fan
4. Substituted Crotonese cheese with just 1/2 cup chopped matured cheddar mixed into the eggplant/breadcrumbs as I had quite a lot of that in the fridge
5. And I coated the stuffed eggplant with breadcrumbs to prevent the melted cheese from flowing out into the oil.

My picture is nowhere near as Cream Puffs in Venice... Since I moved in with Barry, I have been reminding myself to take my plates and bowls out of the carton boxes.

Though they look unappetising in picture, they taste very good.

And being a Malaysian, I love a little kick in my food - so I had it with chillie sauce. I dare say I was appeased!!!

Pesto Angel Hair Pasta

It has been nearly a week since I moved into Barry's... 6 days to be exact; out of which I was away travelling for 2 days.

Strange...been caught by the cooking bug...Bought two thick cookbooks compiled by Woman's Weekly : Food We Love and Great Fast Recipes.

Haven't tried any yet but will do so soon.

Anyway, I made Pesto Angel Hair Pasta for dinner last night - DELICIOUS!!! Am not really a fan of cream in cooking but added sparingly as in this case, tastes yummylicious. My recipe as follows (For 4-5 person) :

INGREDIENTS

1. 3 chicken breasts (no skin)
2. Half pack of angel hair pasta
3. A bunch (encircle them with your tips of forefinger and thumb touching each other) of asparagus
4. 2 bell peppers (any colour) the size of your fist
5. 2 tbsp of cream (I use Bulla)
6. 3 tbsp of basil pesto (I use Agnesi)
7. About 15-20 white buttom mushrooms (I love shrooms!!)
8. Sundried tomatoes (8 slices)
9. Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
10. Some extra virgin olive oil
11. A tsp of chopped garlic
12. 1/2 cup of dry white wine (if desired)

METHOD

1. Cook pasta till al dente in a pot of water with some olive oil - drain and set aside

2. Heat some olive oil in non-stick pan. Lay the smashed chicken breasts and sprinkle some salt and black pepper. Turn after 3 mins and do the same. Remove and leave to cool. Cut into desired size.

3. Roast bell peppers - then remove from oven and put in plastic bag. Once cooled, remove skin and chop coarsely.

4. Break asparagus into 1 inch lengths and slice mushrooms.

5. Heat a bit of oil in a deep pan. Fry garlic and sundried tomatoes till fragrant.

6. Add in asparagus. Then the chicken pieces followed by shrooms and roasted bell peppers.

7. Stir in cream and white wine. Leave to boil. Add in pesto. Reduce heat. Add in pasta. Mix well.

8. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove and serve.

Easy peasy.