Thai Green Curry paste

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

Someone gave me quite a big bunch of Birds Chillies that were grown wild in her backyard. They can't be kept long so I decided to make a Green Curry paste with them.

150g green Birds Chillies, stalks removed
10 shallots, peeled and sliced

20 cloves garlic, sliced
8" young galingale, peeled and sliced
15 coriander roots, chopped
10 stalks lemon grass (use only about 4" from each stalk and white part only)
Grated zest from 3-4 Kaffir lime
2 teaspn black peppercorns
1 1/2 teaspns coriander/ketumbar powder
1 1/4 teaspns cumin/jintan putih powder
2 pcs 1" square belachan/shrimp paste
Cooking oil or coconut oil
2 clean, empty glass jars

Take a blender and put all the ingredients into it and puree until fine. If you have a smaller capacity blender, you might need to do it in two batches. The coconut/cooking oil is to help facilitate the ingredients to be blended evenly and to a fine paste.

Pour out onto a heated wok or pan and stir-fry to precook. Pack them into glass jars when still hot. Seal.

It freezes well. Use within 6 months.

How To Cook Green Curry:
Heat up a cooking pot. Add the Green Curry Paste and stir-fry a little to reheat. Allocate about 1 tablespoon of paste per person and every 1 chicken whole leg (deboned and cubed) for 2 person. Add vegetables like brinjals and ladies fingers/okra.  Add some coconut milk (not too thick) and salt to taste.
Garnish with some fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.

Are You Game for Game?

WILD BOAR MEAT CURRY (INDIAN STYLE)

2 Kg wild boar meat (I use ribs or knuckle, skin removed and chopped into pieces)
5 medium purple onions, chopped
2 whole pods garlic, sliced
1 cup cooking oil
2" old ginger, sliced
3 Star anise
5 Cardamon
8 Cloves
2"Cinnamon stick
80g Meat Curry Powder (I use Alagappa brand)
4 waxy potatoes (optional) cut into chunks
6-8 sprigs Curry Pullay Leaves
3/4 cup coconut milk or Evaporated milk
2 tspn sea salt or to taste

Method:
1.  In a heavy base cooking pot, heat oil and fry the chopped onions and garlic with the whole spices in medium heat. This is the most important step of the whole cooking process. Take your time to do this. The onions and garlic have to be evenly browned and the spices fragrant.
2.  Add in the Curry powder and fry a little while. Add in the meat and ginger slices and stir. If it sticks to the bottom of pan, add a little water and scrap as you stir with your ladle.
3. Stir-fry to seal in juices of the meat. Add the potatoes if you are using them.
4.  Add water to cover the meat and bring to boil. Lower fire, cover and simmer for about 45 minutes or until tender.
5.  Stir in Curry Pullay leaves and salt to taste.
6.  Lastly, stir in your coconut/evaporated milk. Bring to a final boil and remove from fire.

7.  Serve with your choice of either hot rice or Roti Paratha.

IRISH LAMB STEW

250 g thickly sliced bacon*
2 kg roasted lamb pieces, cut into large chunks **
1/2 cup all purpose wheat flour
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 large Bombay (yellow) onion, peeled and finely chopped
150ml water
1 liter canned beef stock
2 teaspoons sugar
500g carrots, cut into 1" pieces
2 Bombay onions, peeled and sliced
1 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into 1" pieces
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
150 ml dry white wine

1.  Heat a large pot and fry bacon until brown. Remove bacon from pot and keep aside. Leave the bacon oil in the pot and reheat pot.
2.  Fry the finely chopped onion and garlic until lightly brown. Add in flour and fry until lightly browned.
3.  Add in beef stock, lamb pieces, bacon, water, sugar. Bring to boil.
4.  Simmer for at least 1 hour or until lamb pieces are soft.  Add in potatoes, carrots, thyme, bay leaf and simmer for a further half hour or until vegetables are tender.
5.  Stir in wine, salt and pepper to taste.
6.  Serve with a bread of your choice like garlic bread or any rustic bread.

*Buy the trimmed ends of bacon that are cut into chunks. This recipe is also a good ways to use up any left over roast lamb from a party.

**If you are using raw lamb, use boneless lamb shoulder cut into 1" chunks. Marinade with salt and black pepper and toss the lamb pieces in the 1/2 cup flour.  Fry in oil to brown. Leave aside and proceed with the recipe above.

Chinese Style Steam Fish

Chinese Style Steam Fish

(Serves 4)

This is a very easy dish but for it to be successful, you have to get a very fresh fish. In the Chinese restaurants, their fish are still swimming and kept in a tank at the restaurant. But you can buy very fresh fish from your regular fish monger. Here is how you choose: For the fish to be 100% fresh and suitable for steaming, the gills of the fish are still slimy and have traces of mud or sand. The eyes are shinny and the body is firm to the touch. The fish should be steam just al-dente and not over cooked or the flesh with toughen and dry.

600 g whole fresh Pomfret, Garoupa or Red Snapper Fish

2" knob young ginger, skinned and julienned

2 bunches of coriander/cilantro/chinese parsley leaves

2 stalks of spring onions, shredded and soaked in cold water

1/4 cup light soya sauce

1 tablspn rice wine (optional)

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 shallots, sliced and chopped fine

3 tbsp cooking oil

Remove scales from fish taking care the corners between fins and the head. Do not cut away the fins or the tail of fish. Gut and wash fish taking care the inside of the abdomen to remove any blood clot or dark membrane. Pat dry and place fish on a steaming plate, preferably porcelain or stainless steel. Line the bottom of the plate with half the shredded ginger and the other half on the top of the fish and some inside the cavity/abdomen of the fish.

Brown the chopped garlic and shallots in a pan or use the microwave oven on High for 2 minutes. Keep aside.

Prepare a steamer and bring water to boil. I use a wok with a dome shape cover and a metal stand placed at the bottom. Water should cover the metal steaming-stand slightly.

When water is boiling, put in the fish and steam for 7 minutes. Use a timer and set the time. Off the fire and leave fish in the wok for a further 5 minutes. Do not open the lid until the 5 minutes is over.

Throw away the liquid surrounding the fish. Top fish with the garlic/onion oil, the light soya sauce and rice wine. Garnish with the shredded spring onions and coriander leaves. Serve immediatley and piping hot.

Banana Butter Cake

Food cost in Malaysia has gone up tremendously; at least by 25%. With the recent removal of the sugar subsidy, our sugar now costs RM1.90/kg when it was used to be RM1.45/kg and not only that, there is always a shortage, with the local stores limiting purchase of 2 kg per customer. With that, all other food cost that are related sugar have also gone up.

Butter has always been an imported item and again the cost has also gone up. We can never buy cakes or pastries that are 100% butter. Somehow, I always felt taste matters! I still make my own butter cakes,simply because it tastes better and I can't buy them from the local bakeries. They have to be pre-ordered from a 'cottage industry' bakery or home-made.

Here, I have a rich Banana Butter Cake recipe to share. It is always a hit especially among the men, and it is full of chunks of banana.

Tips: (1) Use over-ripe bananas;

(2) Living in a tropical country, I would always chill my butter first.

(3) I use canned Golden Churn Butter, unsalted.

(4) Sift flour with Bi-carbonate of soda at least twice, to incoporate them evenly.

(5) Mash bananas COARSELY.

BANANA BUTTER CAKE

(makes 2 loaves of 5"x9")

12 oz butter, chilled and cut into smaller cubes

10 oz caster sugar

2 tbsp condensed milk

2 tbsp evaporated milk

6 grade A eggs

16 oz flour

1 full teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 1/2 cups mashed bananas or 8 medium bananas

1 Sift flour with bicarbonate of soda at least twice.

2 Beat butter with sugar in medium speed until light and fluffy.

3 Beat in the 2 types of milk, alternating with each other, starting with the condensed milk.

4 Increase beater speed and gradually beat eggs, one at a time, until just combined.

5 Fold in flour in two batches.

6 Mix in mashed bananas quickly.

7 Put mixture into two loaf pans of 5" x 9" and bake at moderate oven (180 deg Celsius) for 1 hour.

8. Cool cakes out of pan in a rack.

Hakka Kao Yuk

This is a traditional Hakka dish. The Hakkas are one of the indigenous people of China (there are more than 1000 different dialects spoken in China). This dish is cooked three times before it reaches the dining table: boiled, fried and steamed. The key ingredient of this dish that's found in the sauce is the 'Nam Yee' which is made from fermented taro or yam cubes, rice wine and ground red rice.

HAKKA KAO YUK

(STEAMED BELLY PORK WITH TARO)

1.5 kg belly pork with skin

800g taro root

1 tbsp light soya sauce

2 squares 'Nam Yee' with 3 tbsp sauce liquid

2 tbsp thick soya sauce

2 tbsp light soya sauce

4 tbsp sugar

1/2 tspn 5-spice powder

4 tbsp minced garlic and shallots

1/2 cup water

1 cup oil for frying

spring onions and coriander for garnishing

1. Wash and remove any hair from the pork's skin.
2. Bring a pan of water to boil and boil pork for about 15-20 minutes in simmering water.
3. Remove and pat dry with paper towels. Coat pork with the 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce.
4. Peel and halve taro length-wise. Slice taro into 1cm thickness.
5. Heat up 1 cup oil in wok. Fry taro pieces until lightly browned. Remove and leave aside.
6. With the remaining oil, fry the pork and brown on all sides and skin began to blister.
7. Remove and soak fried pork in cold water.
8. In a small mixing bowl, combine 'Nam Yee' , dark and light soya sauce, 3-spice powder and sugar with the 1/2 cup water together.
9. Leave about 3 tablespoon oil in the wok and reheat. Fry the minced garlic and shallots until lightly browned.
10. Add in combined sauce ingredients and bring to boil and let simmer for a while or until sugar has dissolved. Let sauce thicken a little and sauce began to bubble and looks glossy.
11. Dish out and leave aside.
12. Slice pork pieces into 1cm thickness and 2" wide. Coat pork pieces with half the sauce.
13. In a heatproof dish, arrange pork pieces alternating with taro pieces, with the pork skin and rounded sides of taro faced down.
14. When finished, pour all remaining sauce into the arrangement.
15. Prepare steamer and steam the dish for about 1 hour or until pork is soft and tender.
16. To serve, turn over onto a serving plate and garnish with shredded spring onions and fresh coriander leaves.

Mini Chicken Pies

My 11 year old daughter had just started secondary school and school ends at 2pm and sometimes at 3pm if there is extra-curriculum activities. She usually had much time to have lunch or the canteen food was not to her liking and she usually comes hungry and wanting to have a snack. I made these pies for her lunch box or for a snack after school.

MINI CHICKEN PIES
(Makes about 10 pies)

2 chicken breasts, deboned and skin removed
1 carrot, diced
250g button mushrooms, quartered or smaller
300g cauliflower, cut into small florets
2 medium Bombay onions, diced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tspn parsley flakes
1 tspn dried oregano
2 tbsp oyster sauce
salt and pepper to taste
2 tspn cornflour mixed with 1/4 cup water
10pcs x 4" diameter aluminium foil disposal pie dish

400g frozen puff pastry
(I use 'KAWAN' brand ready-rolled puff pastry, 40g x 10pcs pack)
1 egg, beaten for glazing

1. Dice chicken breast into 1cm cubes.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Saute onions until transparent.
3. Add in diced chicken, carrot, mushrooms and cauliflower. Stir-fry until chicken is lightly browned. Stir in dried hearbs, oyster sauce, salt and pepper.
   
4. Add in about half-cup water and cover for about 1 minute or until carrots are soft.
5. Cook further, stirring until liquid has been reduced to about 1/3 of the total mixture.
6. Stir in cornflour mixture.
7. When sauce has thicken, dish out pie-filling mixture onto a bowl and let cool until just warm before using.
8. Roll out pastry to fit pie dish. Using pie dish as a template, cut out 10 pcs that are 1cm larger than the diameter and 10 pcs that are of the same diameter of the pie dish.
9. The larger ones will the base and the smaller ones will be for the top.
10. Spoon in filling after the bases have been fitted into the pie dishes. Add in about 2 teaspoons of gravy to every pie.
11. Wet the edges of the cut pastry and place the smaller rounds of pastry on the top of the pies. Press with finger to seal edges together. Use a fork to make patterns around the edges of the pies.
12. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. Brush pies with egg wash and bake for 35-40 minutes

Note: Unbaked pies can be kept frozen and packed in freezer bags for up to 1 month. Thaw in fridge before cooking as usual.