Category: Salads and Vegetables

Salads and Vegetables, Snack, Western

Poutine

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I’ve a cool game I am playing with the children now. Though they are older now, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun, especially in this trying pandemic era.

In the last post I shared that the game involves being blindfolded and picking a country at random. Whichever country the finger lands at, I will learn more about the country and cook dishes relevant or popular to that place.

Last week after picking Mali the previous week, the Boy’s finger landed smack on Victoria Island, Canada. Now, that’s like almost Arctic territory and I scoured the Net but there’s very limited information about Victoria Island. I even borrowed a book online on Canadian cuisine but nothing on Victoria Island. Disappointed, I decided then to make Canada’s national dish of sorts – poutine!

What is there not to like about fried potatoes! But what’s even better is that it’s served with homemade gravy! And what can make it even better? Adding cheese. Goodness. Loaded with all the good stuff, but yes, not a diet friendly dish at all!

The first thing I did was make the gravy. Authentic ones use a combination of beef and chicken stock but I never have ready made home-made beef stock so I used all chicken. It’s so simple to make. Make a roux of butter and plain flour and make sure the mixture darkens to a dark brown. Add black pepper here at this stage. This adds to the fragrance of the gravy. Once it’s a dark brown, slowly add chicken stock and stir furiously. After that, thicken with 1-2 tsp of cornflour that had been mixed with some water. And that’s it! You may choose to season with salt but for me, that’s just too much sodium because I used boxed chicken stock.

For the potatoes, I used Idaho russet potatoes. They were huge, and the perfect length. Twice fry the potatoes. The first at a lower temperature to cook the insides, and the second at a higher temperature to crisp them up.

I don’t have cheese curds. We don’t have a wide range of cheeses here so I read that the best substitute is mozzarella. Use the block kind and tear it up into chunks.

And that’s it. Poutine is delicious but must be eaten hot. I’m glad I am playing this game because seriously, sometimes I run out of ideas on what to make next for the family. This is spontaneous and educational. Travelling vicariously through food and books now since it’s been 1.5 years since we travelled out of our island. 😦

Asian Dishes, Malay, Salads and Vegetables, Singapore

Nasi Jenganan (Rice with Vegetables and Peanut Sauce)

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I love nasi jenganan. It’s a dish which originated in Indonesia but much loved by the Malays here. Nasi means rice but I have no idea what jenganan means. Let me google this later. Is it a person’s name? The name of a place? When I was younger, I remember mispronouncing it as ‘jeng-ga-nan’

My late Papa used to love this dish so much. What is there not to like? Well, I guess if you loathe vegetables then this is not your cup of tea. However, what makes this rice dish so utterly addictive and unctuous is the rich fragrant peanut sauce.

All this time, I have been buying store bought jenganan sauce. It comes in packets and all you have to do is mix it with warm or hot water, and voila! You peanut sauce is ready. But this time, I thought it’s about time I learn to make this peanut sauce myself.

It starts off simple enough. Dry fry 300g of groundnuts till it’s completely toasted. Then grind them to a fine but not too fine texture. Like sand. Soft coarse sand.

And then in the same pan, dry fry about 8-10 dried chillies and 2-3 cloves of garlic in a little bit of oil. The chillies should be crisp and completely fried and hardened. The garlic cloves, browned.

And then in a blender, place the dried chillies and garlic in. Pour about half of the ground peanuts in and then some water, palm sugar, 1/2 a tablespoon of tamarind paste and salt to taste. Blend till all combined. Taste to adjust seasoning. Do you need more sugar? More tamarind paste? The taste should be slightly tangy, spicy and sweet. If you have cekur, or sand ginger, you should blend that in as well, but alas I didn’t have any. The sand ginger is what elevates this sauce from a simple peanut sauce to an AWESOME one. Unfortunately, I did not have any and in my area, there’re no shops selling this. Once you’re happy with the taste, put all the remaining groundnuts in and blend again to combine. Alternatively, you can just place the blended ones in a large bowl and stir the remaining ground peanuts in. If it’s too thick, adjust with a little bit of water at a time till you get a smooth consistency.

This peanut sauce is awesome but what makes this dish nasi jenganan is the accompaniments. You need a variety of vegetables, and in this region, cheap and delicious ones that go with this dish include kang kong, cabbage, long beans, bean sprouts. These four vegetables need to be blanched quickly in boiling water. And then since this is essentially a cheap dish, the proteins include fried tofu and fried tempe. Hey, this is the Malay version of a complete vegetarian and vegan dish!

First step: dry roast the groundnuts
Put them in a chopper and grind away.
The texture of coarse sand.
Fry dried chillies and garlic in some oil.
In a tall blender, add the chillies, garlic, peanuts, palm sugar, salt, sugar, tamarind paste, water. If you can get your hands on some sand ginger, add those in!
Blend away till well combined. Add the remaining ground peanuts and blend all again.
And you should come to this.
Serve with white rice, an assortment of boiled vegetables and fried tofu and tempe. This makes for a wonderful healthy lunch. And completely vegan too!

I can understand why my late father loved this dish. When he was alive, he would get very excited and happy when my mother cooked this dish. And she would make sure at least once a month, this would be on the menu. It actually pairs well with fish singgang, quite similar to the Filipino fish sinigang. Can you imagine eating this rich peanuty rice dish, crunchy vegetables and then sipping on some sourish fish soup together?

I’m glad I finally have learnt how to make this myself and that since this blog really is meant for my children to learn how to cook the dishes I grew up with, one day when I am gone and they are interested to read this blog, they will learn too how to make it themselves, or at least learn what their mother used to eat and like.

I am very sure whichever part of the world you’re in, these are easily available ingredients (except for the sand ginger, which I myself can’t get here!) and that making this peanut sauce the authentic way instead of using peanut butter will be more fulfilling.

Middle Eastern/Turkish, Salads and Vegetables, Sides, Snack

Borek pies

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My version of borek pies is so quick to make and delicious too! I usually make them into spring rolls but because I was too impatient with the dough and it broke, I just turned them into pies.

The filling simply consists of Turkish white cheese or just use feta cheese, a package of frozen spinach, Greek yogurt, one egg and spices (I just used smoked paprika, black pepper and salt). Lots of melted butter and nigella seeds on top.

I love the Turkish white cheese compare to feta because these white cheese is creamy!
Put filling in the pastry…
…And then cover with more phyllo pastry. brush with olive oil and sprinkle nigella seeds.
Bake till golden brown.
Remove from pan, let it cool a bit and then cut.
Last thing to do is to eat!

breakfast, Salads and Vegetables, Sides, Snack

Fritata

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A simple fritata using the two pan method because I don’t have an oven proof non-stick pan. It’s so delicious I wonder why I don’t make this more often!

The secret for me is to really cook the vegetables well first. Make sure it’s caramelized and smells heavenly. I only used virgin olive oil and butter.

I sliced not too thinly white button mushrooms, one whole red capsicum and fried them in garlic with the olive oil and butter. Then I remembered I had some leftover florets of broccoli and added that too after the capsicum and mushrooms have been fully cooked and slightly charred.
And then I poured in 5 beaten eggs that have been seasoned with salt and pepper. And grated in parmesan cheese.
I cooked low and slow on the stove and then used another pan to flip over and cook on the other side. At this point in time, I wished I had an oven proof non-stick pan!
To serve, I grated more parmesan cheese while still hot and a pinch of red pepper flakes. Delicious!
Obviously, this slice was not enough. Two was just nice. ☺️
food, Salads and Vegetables

Vegetarian Dinner Soirée

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So tonight I had the pleasure of hosting some very dear friends I got to know since uni days and what’s more fun is planning a vegetarian menu!

I served:

1. Spinach feta cheese phyllo rolls

2. Focaccia two kinds – one with Marion Grasby’s fried onion and chilli flakes topping and the other dukkah topping

3. Hazelnuts with dukkah

4. Hummus

5. Store bought artichoke dip

6. Shakshuka

7. Tiramisu

And one of my friends brought bread and butter pudding she purchased from a home based baker.

I’m pretty pleased to have come up with a vegetarian menu but more to spend a lovely and safe night in with friends. ☺️