Fettuccine Aglio Olio

My first cooked complete meal since April 24th, 2009. It’s good to be in the kitchen again.

The ingredients - olive oil, crushed garlic, cut dried & fresh chilies, chopped coriander.

Saute olive oil & garlic, later add in chopped coriander.
In a separate skillet, pan fry salmon (rubbed with black pepper & corse salt) - 3 mins each side.
Tomato puree with oilve oil and mixed herbs. Wholemeal pita bread, halved into 4 pcs.

Colourful salad - finely shredded red cabbage, sliced red onions, sliced yellow pepper, sliced cucumber, carrot, romaine lettuce & lettuce leaves, spinach leaves & cherry tomatoes with vinegar, ginger and thousand island dressing.

Table setting.Non-vegetarian for Gilbert. Full vegan dish for moi.
And Swiss choclates for dessert!
Having tough time to decide but at the end go for Mahony, Latee and Pistachio.

Kedgeree (from Khichuri)

The original Khichuri is easily digestible dish (no fish, meat or egg) that is beneficial for all constitutions. Westerners call it Kedgeree. Nigella replaces the earthier Indian flavours with the sharper ones of Thailand. A subtly spiced rice dish, almost original if I may say, but with extra vegetable, Mackerel and egg (my improvised version).

2 cups brown unpolished rice
4 cups water
1 small handful coriander leaves
½ tsp mineral salts (organic)
2 tsp ghee
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 big onion, finely sliced
5 shallots, finely sliced
½ tsp fresh turmeric (grated)
½ tsp coriander powder
½ tsp cumin powder
½ tsp whole cumin seed
½ tsp whole mustard seeds
½ tsp mild curry powder
1 pkt baby Kailan (organic)

2 pcs Mackerel
2 large eggs (free range)
4 stalks Coriander leaves

Wash rice and set aside.

Saute shallots, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin powder, whole cumin seed, whole mustard seeds with ghee for a few minutes. Add rice and stir so that it’s all well coated. Transfer into the rice cooker with 4 cup of water and add salt.

Steam the Mackerel and flake it with the fork.

The eggs required for this dish need to be what French wall mollet – hard enough to peel but with a soft, oozing yolk. In order to achieve this, you must not harshly boil the egg but gently simmer them, then turn off the heat and leave and leave it in the water for a while. Mine did not turn out as expected!

Use clean pan, sauté sliced onion until soft with olive oil and add curry powder, cook for 2 – 3 minutes. Add in baby kalian and flaked Mackerel, toss quickly.

Add the rice and serve hot with eggs and coriander leaves.

A healthy meal in a pot, my dinner for last night. Very delicious actually. Try it out.

Green Salad Rice

Last night, I prepared very simple and healthy meals for few friends. I enjoy being in the kitchen, not just cooking but the whole process itself – from choosing and buying the ingredients, cleaning and preparing the vegetables, of course the cooking, up to table setting, eating the food and all the way to clearing the table plus washing up the plates and utensils.

In Thai language it is known as ‘Khau Jump’ (Pronounce as cow-jump), literally translate as ‘rice with sliced vegetables’ but I re-branded it as 'green salad rice' because the rice is green colour.

Very simple to cook but the main ingredients are very difficult to find, almost impossible to buy over here in KL. It contains of about 15 – 20 different types of leaves, pound and juice. Cook the rice with the juice and add in ‘daun pandan' and 'limau purut’ leaves.

Mix all sliced vegetables, 'kerisik' plus dash of black pepper, fish sauce with the green rice and ready to go!

Slice the raw vegetables - daun kelsom, long bean, cucumber, serai, angle bean, big onion, bunga kantan & ulam raja. I love to add bean sprout as well.







My improvised organic version of 'bubur cha-cha' - tapioca, Japanese sweet potatoes, black-eye beans, sago, ? (the coloured stuff?, not organic at all) and cocunut milk.






Table set for 5.

One for the album - Jamie, Kae Ling and Ming.

Chilled Sake, home-made apple dessert wine and fruits end the evening.