Hot & Sour Soup with Vermicelli

Hot and sour soup

These days, I try to stock up on lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves when I shop at the oriental store, making sure I never run out of them. Lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves freeze well so it is great to have them at hand as it is a staple in most south-east asian food. Lemongrass itself has multiple benefits. This natural ingredient has anti-cancer properties, high in anti-oxidant which also helps prevent cancer, reduces cholesterol, helps rid of cold and fever, and many more benefits. The juice of lemongrass is also used as insect repellent. I know this because each time I visit Tropical Spice Garden in Penang, the staff there would have us spray lemongrass juice on our bare legs and arms. There are lots of mosquitoes hidden between those tropical bushes so to prevent from leaving the garden with dozens of mosquito bites, bare with the smell and spray them all over you if you are going anywhere near a tropical forest or garden. It does help you enjoy the beautiful surroundings than to be annoyed being bitten by those tiny evil creatures.

HOW TO MAKE LEMONGRASS TEA:

Boil about 4 stalks of lemongrass in a pot of water. Make sure you bruise and split them in halves so the lemongrass will infuse a lot faster. I have not measured nor timed this process so depending on how strong you would like the tea to be, add water accordingly. Let it boil and simmer for about an hour. Once ready, pour into teacups and serve with honey or sugar.





HOT & SOUR SOUP WITH VERMICELLI RECIPE
serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 3 stalk lemon grass (bruised)


• 5 kaffir lime leaves


• 2-3 bird's eye chilli


• 15g shallots


• 5 cloves garlic (peeled & bruised)


• 2 inch ginger (peeled & sliced)


• 2 stalks celery


• 2 large carrots


• 2 large tomato (cut into wedges)


• 250g mixed seafood (prawn, squid, mussels)


• 1 litre boiled water


• 1 chicken bouillon cube


• 2 large lime (juice only)


• 1 1/2 tbs palm sugar


• Salt & ground white pepper to taste


• Coriander (as garnish)

• Vermicelli

1. Heat the pot with some oil and partially cook the seafood. Remove from pot and set aside.


2. Saute the onions, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, chillies and ginger in the same pot until fragrant.


3. Add in water and let boil for a few minutes, turn the heat down to let the lemongrass flavour infuse into the soup.


4. The celery, carrots and tomato is then added into the pot, together with the bouillon cube.


5. Let the soup simmer on medium to low heat fora bout an hour and until vegetables are soft.


6. While waiting for the soup to be ready, cook the vermicelli in hot water for 1 minute and drain.


7. Divide the drained vermicelli in separate bowls.


8. Squeeze some lime juice into the soup. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.


9. Tip the seafood into the hot soup to heat them up.


10. Ladle soup over the noodles and garnish with coriander. You can add a few slices of red chilli if you like, just to give some colour and contrast.

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Nyonya Chicken Curry

My aunt cook this chicken curry very often. I remember coming back from school with lots of delicious food laid on the dining table. I would always take a big serving of this with lots of curry covering my rice, and a tiny bit of other dishes like the less interesting vegetables on the side. She made it so well, the chicken is moist and tender, even someone teethless could savour it at ease.

NYONYA CHICKEN CURRY RECIPE

adapted from Rasa Malaysia

Ingredients:

• 1 kg chicken leg (chopped into pieces)


• 200g potatoes (peeled & cut into wedges)


• 200ml thick coconut milk

• 15 dried curry leaves


• 1 cinnamon stick


• 1 star anise


• 2 cloves


• 5 tbsp oil


• 1 1/2 cup water

Spice paste:

• 20 shallots


• 3 cloves garlic


• 2 red chilli (remove seeds)


• 12 dried chilli (soaked & remove seeds)


• 1 tsp cumin


• 1 tsp fennel


• 1 tsp turmeric powder


• 2 tsp ground coriander


• 20g shrimp paste (toasted)


• 1 lemongrass (white part only)

• 1 tbsp salt


• 1 tsp sugar

Method:

1. Pound or blend the spice paste ingredients into a fine paste.


2. Heat some oil in the wok and saute cinnamon stick, star anise, cloves and curry leaves on low heat. Add in spice paste and stir fry until fragrant.


3. Toss in the chicken, mix it around and let it cook for 5 minutes.


4. Add water and cover wok with lid and let it braise until chicken is cooked.


5. Now add the potatoes, coconut milk, salt and sugar.


6. Mix well and let it simmer for about 20 minutes or until tender.

Tips:

• Potatoes are added mid way so they do not break and become mash instead.

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Sambal Heh Bee (Dried Prawn Sambal)

My memories of 'Sambal Heh Bee' brings me back to the aroma that came from the kitchen. The pungent aroma would fill up the whole house. There was no escape. Not only did I not escape, I went into the kitchen, the source of all evil. I would watch my aunt patiently pound the ingredients with the heavy pestle and mortar until they become a paste. Then when she toss everything in to the hot wok, the smell starts to build up. Westerners might not like the smell at first but I was so used to the smell, I love it! But please don't be put off by that cause it tastes fantastic!!

Now I have an overload of 'Sambal Heh Bee'!! :D

SAMBAL HEH BEE RECIPE

Ingredients:

To blend finely:

• 300g red onions


• 1 bulb garlic


• 4 fresh red chillies (de-seed)


• 8 dried chillies (de-seed and soak in hot water)


• 4 stalks lemongrass


• 6 kaffir lime leaves


• 2 tsp tumeric powder / thumb size fresh tumeric


• 2 tsp tamarind paste


• 2 tbs water

• 300g dried shrimps (wash and soak in hot water)


• 4 - 5 tbs oil


• 4 tbs sugar


• 1 tsp sea salt

Method:

1. Coarsely pound the soaked dried shrimps or blend it slightly. Make sure they are not fine to give it texture.


2. Set the dried shrimp aside.


3. Blend the onion, garlic, chillies, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, tamarind paste and water into a fine paste. This blended paste will be slightly wet because of the 2 tbs of water that was added to make blending easier.


4. Cook this paste without oil until it dries up. Add a tablespoon of oil and the coarsely pounded dried shrimps into the wok.


5. Slowly add the oil in as you cook to make sure it does not stick to the wok.


6. Let it cook for about 30 minutes, stirring constantly to avoid burning.


7. Add the sugar and salt.


8. At this stage, the sugar added will caramelise so it will burn easily. Remember to stir.


9. Let it cook for another 15 minutes or so until it is caramelised and becomes a deeper brownish red.


10. Serve as is or cook with something else.


11. There will be plenty left unless you have a big family.


12. Let it cool before storing in air tight container and refrigerate.

Tips:

• This can be kept in the freezer. Thaw before use.


• Sambal heh bee is very versatile. Stir fry with vegetables or sprinkle on top of steamed tofu. It is tastes good when fried with rice.

Sambal Heh Bee

Make a simple omelette by stir frying the 'Sambal Heh Bee' with oil until fragrant. Then add in the eggs and cook till just set and flip. Top with a scoop of 'Sambal Heh Bee'. So simple yet so delicious.

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Salmon and Mango Salsa Stack

There was a fat juicy mango sitting in the fridge for the past days, waiting to be eaten. I was just going to criss-cross cut each half, push the cubes out by flipping the skin inside out and devour the juicy sweet meaty flesh, cube by cube off the skin when I sit home and relax, not think about anything but chill on a Friday night.





Instead of just simply enjoying my beloved fruit on its own, she was very carefully prepared to be married with smoked salmon. I came across the 'scallop with gingered mango-tomato salsa' post on DorieGreenspan’s blog and thought I could spread this idea over to salmon. When I surfed further, I found Health Burst’s site on Salmon stack and  thought it looks stunning and delicious.  So I made my version of salmon stack and initiate my attempt to carefully stack the ingredients in the food ring. It looks really impressive. And it looks like it came straight out of a restaurant kitchen!

So easy and no cooking involved! Brilliantly simple.

My similar version of Healthy Burst's Salmon stack.

SALMON AND MANGO SALSA STACK RECIPE
adapted from the Healthy Burst
Makes 1 stack

Ingredients:

• 60g smoked salmon
• ½ avocado (sliced)

Mango Salsa

• 1 mango (1cm cube)
• 1 tomato (chopped)
• ¼ cucumber (cubed)
• ¼ red onion (finely chopped)
• ½ chilli; deseeded (finely chopped)
• ½ lime
• Small bunch of mint (chopped)
• Salt and pepper (to taste)

Lime Chilli Mayonnaise

• ½ lime
• ¼ chilli
• 1 tbs japanese mayonnaise

Method:

1.  Prepare the lime chilli mayonnaise first. 
2.  Stir the mayonnaise with juice of half a lime and finely chopped chilli. Put aside for later.
3.  Prepare the mango salsa by mixing the ingredients together. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to taste.
4.  Place a the cylindrical food ring on the plate you are serving with.
5.  Layer it with the salmon then avocado. Push them down slightly to make sure they are compact.
6.00Top it up with the mango salsa and make sure they are well packed so they keep in shape and will not fall off when the ring is lifted out.
7.  Lift the ring when ready to serve and spoon some of the mayonnaise mix on to the salmon stack.

All ingredients well packed and supported by the ring

Tips:

• I would try make the mayonnaise with a pinch of chilli powder or curry powder the next time.

You may also like:

Halloumi Fig & Pomegranate Salad

Salmon Ceviche

Watermelon & Goat’s Cheese

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Chilli Ginger Salmon

Friday morning, the last day of the work week. Everyone anticipates for the weekend. Clearly, I was already drifting in my dreams. I was in the train to work as usual. Normally, I would get off at the right station and do that 20 minutes walk to the office but not this day. The iPhone kept me really busy communicating with the girls from the other side of the world. So, I missed my stop! Neither the girls or the phone was to be blamed, but it was the ballet I watched the night before that got me excited and still thinking about it the next morning.

Missed the stop and this is what I spotted! Beautiful morning dew stringed into tiny droplets on the spider web. Do you believe it was taken with the iPhone camera?

The first time inside the Royal Opera House Theatre

At the Paul Hamlyn Hall Bar during the break

That ballet was entitled Polyphonia / Sweet Violet / Carbon Life. They were three separate ballets by different choreographers. Each, unique on it's own but only one stood out!

Carbon Life was my favourite out of the three. It was choreographed by Wayne McGregor with music collaboration by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt. It was a fantastic fusion of ballet, contemporary, futuristic pop, live music, fashion, great backdrop and lighting. The whole choreography was well put together; very inventive. Angular costumes by Gareth Pugh fitted well in the choreography. I liked the spiky tutus although I wasn't sure about te spiky boots.

The opening of Carbon Life was filled with suspense where dancers dance behind a thin, almost transparent screen, dressed in skin coloured body fitted costume. Spot lights that shone on them make them glow like dancing fireflies. There were spots of glowing light above the dancers that looked like some sort of floating spaceship. I would sum this scene up as futuristic heaven with glowing fairies dancing around in their birthday suits. Further into the choreography, the fairies in the wonderland moved into more energetic moves with power and precision yet with fluidity of movements.

Even the exterior looks romantic; the lights of the interior shining through the glass windows and the sparkly light hanging on the naked tree.

When you saw the title of this post, you must have wondered how ballet, spider web and salmon makes a dish. Hopefully pan-fried salmon with sugar snap peas did not disappoint you.

Pan-Fried Chilli Ginger Salmon with Sugar Snap Peas

makes 2

Ingredients:

• 2 pieces of salmon
• 3 inch of ginger (grated)
• 6 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 1 chilli (chopped)
• 2 tbs premium light soy sauce
• 8 tbs water
• 100g sugar snap peas
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• coriander (optional)

Methods:

1.  Descale the salmon skin if that has not been done by the fishmonger.

2.  Clean and pat dry the salmon with kitchen towel.

3.  Wash the sugar snap peas and place in a bowl. Boil some water, enough to cover over the bowl of sugar snap peas.

4.  While waiting for the water to boil, chop the garlic and chilli finely and grate the ginger. Place them aside.

5.  When water is boiled, pour over the bowl of snap peas, making sure the water covers over them. Cover it with a plate.

6.  Heat the pan with oil in medium-high heat. Place the salmon skin side down. Cover the pan and let it cook for about 4 minutes until skin crispy. Turn it over and cook for another 3 minutes. Time of cooking varies depending on the thickness of fish and how cook you like them. The timing above will cook the salmon to how i like it, slightly pink.

7.  Use a thong to take the fish out of the pan and place on plate with kitchen towel to drain the oil.

8.  Use the oil (reduce it if necessary) and stir fry the garlic, chilli and ginger until fragrant.

9.  Add in the soy sauce and water. Let it boil and reduce to about half.

10.  Drain the snap peas, and toss with sesame oil.

11.  Place the salmon on a serving plate, along with the snap peas. Pour the sauce over the fish and serve with some coriander leaves on the side.

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