I love kitchens. I believe kitchens are the center of one's home. A kitchen that frequently gathers conversations among family members is usually a sign of a close family. When the sweet aroma of food is flowing out of a kitchen, that's the best time of the day to be home. I've been blessed to come from a family of women who are good cooks - my mom, my aunts and both my late grandmothers. I almost feel like cooking grounds me. I've always liked working with my hands. That, combined with my love for food probably explains why I love cooking. I've also discovered that my handsome beau loves cooking with me in the kitchen. So between us and our traveling experiences, we seem to be coming up with quite an interesting Hawaiian, Malaysian, Chinese, American style cuisine.
We had a couple friends over for our very own Hawaiian luau with only Hawaiian food - Laulau(pork and butterfish wrapped in taro leaves and tea leaves, steamed for hours), Kalua pork(shreaded slow cooked pork), tune poke (raw slices of tuna, sliced sweet onions and macadamia nuts in soy sauce and sesame seed oil), salmon lomi lomi ( sliced raw salmon, tomatoes and cilantro in lime juice) and poi (mashed Hawaiian purple taro/yam).
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| From top clockwise: Laulau, Kalua pork, tune poke, salmon lomi lomi, poi in a bowl |
My friends Usha and Peter visited from Switzerland recently and I was treated to one of my favorite the swiss cheeses, tete de moine - a strong smelling cheese, somewhat savoury like the taste of Gouda. I made a simple salad of romaine lettuce, thinly sliced apples, shaved the tete de moine on top and sprinkled with balsamic vinegar. It was divine!
Elton made me porridge (congee) recently. With packaged salty mustardy pickle from China, and some veggies from our garden, it was perfect.
I tried a recipe from my Nyonya Favours cookbook today called Kari Kapitan (Captain's Curry). It's an curry with lots of shallots, turmeric, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and lime juice. We loved it! That spicyness combined with the sour lemony lime flavor was totally appetizing with rice.
Mee Siam - a Malaysian favorite. Turned out the hardest part is making the sauce. And it wasn't as hard as I thought.
Fish head curry. I love this dish no matter which part of Asia I go. A little sour, a little salty, curry soup and lots of yummy fresh fish. Can't go wrong.
Some call it Bubur cha cha. Some call it Bo bo cha cha. Either way, it's a delicious sweet potato, yam, tapioca and banana dessert in a coconut base soup. So decadent.
This is a dish my mother cooks a lot. It's pork belly (chinese bacon) cooked in light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. I usually add chinese Shaoshing cooking wine when I make it. It's one of my favorite comfort foods.
This dish might not look appetizing but it's a very popular dish in the north part of China called Zha Jiang Mian. It actually originates from a Korean dish called Jjajangmyun which is wheat noodles smothered in a black bean sauce with pieces of onions, carrots, cabbage and other vegetables. I made the Korean version which has diced fried bacon. The Chinese variation usually uses minced pork. The dish really brought me back to China.
I was craving a quick easy Malay dish today and thought of making Malay Fried rice. Turns out the recipe calls for anchovies and dried shrimp which I didn't have in the kitchen. So I substituted with Harm-ha (shrimp sauce which smells a lot like belacan) and Bagoong which is a Filipino cooked shrimp paste. Finally, topped up with sliced pieces of fried egg and lettuce. It was a winner! Dontcha love it when a little experiment becomes a big success??? Or is this another crazy recipe only preggies come up with to satisfy cravings??
I made another favorite of mine while living in Beijing today. It's long beans and eggplant stir fried with minced pork in a salty, sweet sauce. Tastes like my Szechuan eggplant dish but adding long beans.
I was craving meat today so I decided to make a Malaysian favorite - Chicken curry. It was Elton's first time tasting it. I toned down the heat level and waited for his response as he took the first bite. "This is delicious!", his words rang in my ears like heavenly chimes...
I baked meatloaf for Elton today. It's a typical American staple every child grows up eating. This was my first time making it. Nothing beats the taste of meat smothered in ketchup when you have a protein craving. Really satisfying.
While living in Beijing, I learnt to love eating freshly made noodles. Now I really miss it. This one is called Laghman (pulled noodles) 拉面. It's a lot like spaghetti style noodles. Since I can't make noodles, I substituted with japanese udon noodles which is very similar. The secret ingredient is white pepper. It's a staple dish made by the Uyghur people from West China. I used to be addicted to this in Beijing! 
I made one of my favorite chinese dishes I like to order in restaurants today - Szechuan eggplant. Main ingredients are garlic, ginger, minced pork and eggplant from my garden. Secret ingredient here is Chinese sweet black vinegar. It was relatively easy to make, to my delight. Will be making this a lot more often for sure.
One of my weird morning cravings with the pregnancy - alfredo pasta salad. It's basically noodle pasta in alfredo sauce tossed with letttuce, onions, tomatoes and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. The saltiness of the cheese, sweetness of the tomatoes and fresh crunchiness of the lettuce was a perfect combination.
Another what we got in the fridge today. Kimchee Fried Rice. Nothing like homemade food to warm the tummy.
I bought a big bunch of okras(lady's fingers) today and was figuring out what to cook with it. Elton suggested gumbo so I looked up some recipes online. In the end, I combined a few recipes to make my own gumbo with a combination of white beans, black beans, red kidney beans, okra, celery, tomatoes, red bell pepper(capsicum) and spicy cajun andouille sausage. It was heavenly. All I needed now was zydeco music to go with the cajun theme and bring me back to Louisiana!
I made an old Chinese favorite today - stir fry wintermelon. Basically, it's skinned strips of wintermelon cooked with green onions, garlic, salt, white pepper and the secret ingredient, dried shrimp. Elton looooved it! He was slurping on it like ice cream.
Ratatouille is a dish I learnt to make after watching the movie Ratatouille. I know. Funny but true. And I return to it every once in a while I'm craving a vegetarian dish that's delicious.
Elton made me a Hawaiian signature fried chicken dish today. They call it Mochiko Chicken. It's made with Mochiko flour which is a Japanese rice flour which is a lot lighter than regular wheat flour and slightly sweet. Basically, it's a sweet fried chicken. It's Mmm Mmm good!
I was craving a dish my mom used to make for me as a kid - Fried Mee Hoon. It's fried thin rice noodles in chilli powder and a little sweet dark soy sauce. Brought me right back to my childhood.
I tried a new recipe I found on a Malaysian recipe site today - Prawn with sweet soy sauce. I took the liberty of adding some minced garlic and shallots for added flavor. Turns out, it's actually a sweet, spicy and sour sauce because of the tamarind paste, sweet dark soy sauce and chilli peppers called for in the recipe. I call this a GOOD discovery. Will definitely be cooking it again.
We love clams and white wine sauce so we decided to put them together today. The secret ingredient was the lemon zest. Beside smelling up the entire room with fresh lemony scent, it gave the dish that extra zing. Such a zippy quick meal...not to mention saving myself money from paying for it at a restaurant!
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| chop the ingredients up, fry the garlic in oil and add a cup of a delicious white wine |
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| add the butter, toss in the clams for 3 minutes, pour the fettucini, lemon zest and parsley in and toss with salt and pepper |
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| In less than 15 minutes...Viola! Clam Fettucini in white wine sauce, just like in the restaurants! |
Elton made my one of my favorite Japanese dishes today, Pork tonkatsu. It's pan fried battered pork with a tangy sweet japanese BBQ sauce. Just delicious!
I was watching Food Network today and saw this Shrimp Scampi Spaghetti in white wine dish that looked easy and delicious plus it was my way of sneaking some alcohol into my system since I'm not really allowed to drink any while pregnant. Elton had this idea to add mushrooms which turned out to be ingenious since it soaked up the sauce. When I bite into it, it was like drinking alcohol! Loved love loved this dish.
My sweet tooth has been kicking into full swing this week. This is one of my sinful creations - chocolate chip mint ice cream topped with strawberry, bananas and chocolate fudge. Pure heaven!
I've get weird cravings sometimes with my pregnancy. Today, it was Ikura sushi. It's salmon roe. I love sushi but whenever I eat at a sushi restaurant, I can't eat more than two of them at one time because of its high salt content. Today, bought some Ikura from the supermarket, thinking I'd treat myself to a few. Made some sushi rice, topped up with my favorite mayo in the world - kewpie japanese mayo (with the baby logo on the front), some ikura and wrapped in nori seaweed. I couldn't stop and ate a total of nine at one go!
I tried to make a signature Malaysian dish today - Hokkien noodles. It's thick egg noodles cooked in dark and light soy sauce, chicken stock and slices of meat or veggies. I found this recipe in one of my favorite food blogs and it was absolutely delicious. Elton loved it too.
I had strawberry banana maple syrup on waffles for breakfast this morning. It went perfect with a cold glass of milk. I call it yummy in ma' tummy.
Elton made a popular Hawaiian dish today called Kalua pork. It's slow roasted pork wrapped in banana leaves and tea leaves. It's usually eaten shreaded. It's one of those dishes I call soul food with almost nothing else in it but packed with all the natural goodness of its own juices.
I had one of those hungry but no appetite mornings today. Then a new idea came to me today - banana strawberry pancakes. They were so good, I didn't need to eat it with anything else. The sweetness of the caramelized fruits combined with the chew pancake batter was a match made in heaven.
Since our zucchini plant is flowering with no sign of fruiting, we decided to deep fry our zucchini flowers after Elton learnt online that they can be eaten. When we realized we had extra batter, we decided to throw in more veggies in the garden like okras, eggplants, snow peas and string beans. The zucchini flowers tasted like potatoes. Elton made a simple tempura dipping sauce and it turned out to be a delicious deep fried veggie feast.
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| A fried tempura concoction of zucchini flower, okra (ladies finger), eggplant, snow peas and string beans from our garden |
Sometimes, something easy and simple is all you need for comfort food. Today, it was congee (porridge) with sauteed ginger, garlic and shallots. Flavored with soy sauce, sesame seed oil, cilantro, duck eggs and veggies from our garden.
My favorite dish at Ethiopian restaurants is the cabbage stew. Today, I decided to try making it with a little twist by adding carrots, fenugreek, coriander seeds, salt and a little extra turmeric. Couldn't believe how easy it was!
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| Ethiopian cabbage and carrot stew |
Now that our sweet potato plant has matured and I can pick a big bunch of leaves, I made one of my favorite childhood nyonya dishes - Sweet potato leaves curry. It's the simplest nyonya dish I know and used to love it when my mom made this sweet sour curry. I made it a little different by adding some eggplants from the garden and tamarind peel water.
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| Sweet potato leaves curry (Huan chu heok masak lemak) |
I made two different kinds of dumpling today which brought me back to Beijing. First one was cabbage, pork and onions. Second one was carrots, pork and bamboo shoots. Parboiled for 2 minutes on each side. Not as good as Beijing but good enough.
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| Chinese dumplings |
Elton made Thai curry for me for the first time today. Kitchen smelled like a Thai restaurant and the dish was a little undercooked. Nevertheless, it was delicious. The addition of basil and lime leaves was sublime.
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| Thai lime leaf eggplant and bamboo shoots red curry |
Korean pancake is one of our favorite appetizers at korean restaurants so when we saw the batter at one of our favorite grocery stores Palama Supermarket, we bought it. Adding water to the batter was simple enough. It's usually fried with seafood but since I didn't have much of that, I diced up what I could find - green onions, garlic, red onions, dried shrimp, carrots and shiitake mushrooms. It was surprisingly tasty for a dish that was not seasoned with any condiments. Not even salt or pepper. For entree, we sliced up some salmon and ate it with some sushi rice. Simple and perfect.
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| Korean pancakes |
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| sushi grade salmon and nori seaweed on japanese sweet rice rolls |
I tried making our favorite Indian food again today but since I didn't have enough green peas, I added corn. It was a really good decision. The crunchiness of the corn really balanced well with the softer texture of the potatoes, tomatoes and green peas. Also used 2 fresh red chillies instead of the cayenne pepper. I love the way it takes such a short time to cook. It's our favorite Indian dish right now.
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| Spices for Aloo Mater: salt, cumin, fennel, garam masala, paprika, turmeric and coriander. |
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| Aloo Mater with corn |
Spicy eggplant is also one of our favorite dishes so I decided to make Sichuan eggplant today. I really should cook this simple but delicious dish more often.
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| Sichuan eggplant |
I decided to be a little daring and make a quintessential Malaysian dish which apparently takes a whole day to make - Penang Mee or Spicy Prawn noodles. Typically, it takes about 4 hours just to make the shrimp broth but I innovated with creating the flavors in one hour. It was still delicious. I'm glad I tried it. Will be making it more often.
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| Prawn Mee (spicy prawn noodles) |
I recently came off a liquid detox diet for 10 days and felt like something fresh and tasty but not too filling. Salad came to mind. Specifically, mango avocado salad. I wanted to make it special so I looked into the pantry and in went some dried cranberries, onion, tomato, cucumber and sunflower seeds. Then made a simple balsamic vinegar dressing with white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, sugar and olive oil. It was the best salad I'd ever made.
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| Mango avocado cranberries salad |
The detox Lemonade diet we just came off of taught us to want to eat more healthily as a way to alleviate taxing our bodies with too much meat. So we decided to try making one of our favorite dishes - stuffed bittermelon and substituted the pork with tofu, roasted crushed peanuts and fish cake. It was a little weird on our tastebuds but still pretty good. We just have to re-train our food palettes to enjoy different flavors now.
Elton is learning to make Indian food now. His first dish is Aloo Mater (Indian sauteed potatoes and peas). He used Indian spices like garam masla, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin seeds and cayenne pepper. IT WAS DELICIOUS! I love this man!
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| Aloo Mater (Potatoes and Peas) |
I made Elton's favorite today - pansit. It's a filipino style fried rice noodles. I topped it off with slices of hard boiled eggs.
I made one of my all time Malaysian favorite dishes for Elton to try today. - Ayam Masak Merah (Red Chicken). It's basically chicken thighs marinated in turmeric powder and stewed in mashed onions and ketchup. To my delight, he loved it.
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| Ayam Masak Merah on a bed of rice |
This is an old Chinese delicacy - fish soup. Today, I made it with tomatoes, onions, mustard cabbage and taro noodles. The sour and sweet of the broth was Yum! It was like being in grandma's kitchen again.
Selina is going on a vegan diet this week. She shared a new dish with us which we took quite a liking to - soy meat with watercress and tofu in vegetable broth.
Another favorite of mine - mapo tofu. My number one comfort food. Puts me in a good mood everytime I make it.
The quintessential what-we-have-in-the-fridge dish today - fried rice. This time with peas, onions, carrots, sausage and eggs.
My grandmother used to make me this soup as a kid. It's lotus root soup with pork ribs. I added some wintermelon and boiled groundnuts as well. It was not only yummy but I discovered the fiber from this stuff cleared out for the next 2 days. Sometimes, twice a day! Really good body cleanser. We plan to eat this easy to make soup every once a month or so.
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| Lotus root soup with wintermelon |
My mom used to make this for me in my teens. It's vermicelli cooked with lots of shallots and lime juice and fish sauce. Salty and sour. Very appetizing. Brought my mom's presence right into my kitchen!
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| Vietnamese shrimp vermicelli |
Had a craving for home today so I made some egg noodles with black soy sauce. It's sweet with a little salty. Complimented with some garlic chilli on the side, total comfort food.
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| 'Hokkien' fried black noodles |
As simple as this meal was, I was in heaven. The sweet aroma of the shrimp sauce and fresh mackerel taste bought me a free trip back to the kitchens of Malaysia when I closed my eyes. I think the best fish cooked with no seasoning whatsoever are mackerels. If someone told me manna (which fell from heaven) was actually cooked mackerel, I'd believe them.
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| Fried Mackerel, On Choi (Winter spinach) and rice. Mar 13 2011 |
Chili Shrimp paste sauce:
2 cloves garlic, 1 chili padi (small thai chili), 2 tsp shrimp paste, 3 tbs brown sugar, 2 kalamansi lime, 2 tbs fish sauce. In a mortar, pound the garlic and chili to smithereens. Add the rest and eat your heart out! It's the sauce of the gods!!! The only exclusion clause: do not attempt if you're not into spicy.
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| Chili Belacan (Shrimp paste) sauce |
Selina introduced me to a local bakery owned by local Filipinos called Liliha's Bakery downtown. They were super sweet! I could have eaten the breads just own their own, they were so fluffy and perfectly baked.
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| Coco puffs filled with chocolate filling, topped with chantilly butter icing |
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| Onion roll and Ensemada (sweet bread coated with butter and sugar) |
Selina prepared Nabe today. It's similar to shabu shabu except it's cooked in a vinegarish soy sauce based soup. Raw veggies, mushrooms, boiled eggs, meats and fish is dropped in then dipped in soy sauce before eating. It was simple but so delicious and healthy.
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| Nabe (Japanese hot pot) Mar 8th |
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| Raw pork |
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| Raw Beef |
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| Fresh salmon |
Fresh udon. This simple meal is such a good comfort food for me. It's wide Japanese rice noodles, pieces of kamaboko(Japanese fish cakes), konbu (kelp), veggies and poached egg in a soy sauce mix. I can have this everyday.
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| Udon (Japanese rice noodles) |
Elton cooked me a dish that brought me back to my childhood days with stuffed bitter-melon. This is a dish my mother and grandmother used to force me to eat. I hated it as a kid but love it as an adult. Many chinese kids weren't spared this experience growing up. The steamed mince is made up of minced pork, mushroom, garlic, green onions and soy sauce. Simplicity in perfection.
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| Steamed mince in bittermelon Mar 5th |
Selina made Shoyu Chicken which is chicken pieces boiled in a soup made of soy sauce, ketchup, sugar and white pepper. One of those home cooked dishes without a real name that's very yummy!
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| Shoyu Chicken (Chicken in Shoyu sauce) |
I'm not much of a fan on cooked salmon as I prefer it raw but was eager to try Elton's pesto and sesame crusted salmon fillet. It turned out a little dry for my flavor but it was delicious with some ponzu soy sauce (Japanese lemon infused soy sauce). I made our favorite greens - mustard cabbage to go with the rice.
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| Fried mustard cabbage, sesame and pesto crusted salmon with sushi rice (Mar 2nd) |
Selina made egg drop broth on beef strips, Gai-lan and rice today. It's a twist on the egg drop broth on beef strips, Gai-lan and noodles ('Wa tan hor') in Malaysia.
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| 'Wa-tan-gnaw-yok-fan' (Cantonese) Egg drop broth on beef strips, Gai-lan and rice (Mar 1st) |
We fried up the Kahuku shrimp we brought back from our trip to the northshore this weekend. They're these giant fresh water white shrimp which are so sweet!
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| Kahuku shrimp fried with butter and garlic (Feb 27th) |
I was a little surprised when Elton said his beef kalbi stew recipe will take and hour and a half to make. When it was done, the meat just fell off the bone and was so tasty. I discovered how difficult it was to wash the grease of the fat off of the pot later! Why are meat that taste so good often so bad for you?!
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Feb 23rd 2011 Korean beef short ribs (Kalbi) stew |
We bought fresh udon noodles today and boiled it, not realizing the starch would make the soup all gooey. Still, it tasted good. Next time we know to cook the noodles separately.
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Feb 22nd 2011 Japanese Udon noodles wiith konbu seaweed, kamaboko and poached egg |
Selina made Chicken parmesan tonight from a random online recipe. I've only ever had eggplant parmesan. The chicken had to first be fried, then baked for 30 minutes but well worth the wait. It was delicious!
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| Feb 20th 2011 Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti |
We had another feast tonight. I was stuffed silly. Had to get rid of the cow in my tummy by going for a 4 mile long night run. I had to wrestle Elton to put some vegetables in the Chilli but he relented. Jesse made his signature Fried Rice dish and steak. They were yummy but also the first time I've had any fried rice made entirely of frozen ingredients including the steak! Selina made a delicious stir-fry of baby vegetables which I could have had all to myself. I finished our dinner off with a frozen fruit smoothie dessert.
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| Feb 17th 2011 Beef Chilli with onions, kidney beans, sausage and celery |
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| Fried Rice with Lap-cheong, bacon, eggs and vegetables |
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| Baby pak choi, baby bok choy, snow pea stirfry |
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| Beef steak |
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| Frozen strawberry, banana, blueberry, papaya, lemon, yogurt smoothie |
I've never had Corned Beef Cabbage before. I guess everytime I saw it on the menu in an Irish pub, I got the lamb stew, guinness beef or something that sounded more sophisticated. This simple dish that was boiled for an hour and a half was worth the wait. I'll be ordering this on our house menu again next time I can afford some serious carbo comma.
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| Feb 16th 2011 Corned beef Cabbage |
My Valentines present. Shrimp scampi pesto linguini. Fresh shrimp is so sweet I couldn't stop saying Mmmmm!!
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| Shrimp scampi Pesto Linguini |
We cooked quite a big meal tonight to finish up what we had in the fridge before leaving for Kauai tomorrow. We boiled giant shrimps then used the broth to make tom yum soup from the spices we had in Selina's garden - Viola! Home made tom yum soup! Then I made white wine manila clams with a Riesling Jesse had in the fridge.
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| Feb 11 2011 Tom Yum Soup |
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| Thai Basil, Kaffir leave, Green Onion, Mint and Cilantro from Selina's garden |
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| Boiled prawns |
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| Steamed White wine Manila clams |
I picked fresh sweet basil from the garden to make caprese today. It's an Italian salad made up of a layering of fresh buffalo mozarella cheese, tomato and sweet basil drizzled with an olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Simple but oh so yummy!
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| Feb 9th 2011 Capresé salad |
My beau made me Korean saimin noodles (dry ramen noodles) with this new type of spinach from our garden I'd never had before. It's about 3 times thicker in texture than the store bought ones but melts once in the pan. It was a little gummy, slightly bitter but no yucky after-taste like the store bought ones. I forget sometimes that simple dishes can be so delicious...or maybe it was because of the person making it.
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| Thick leaved Spinach strain |
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| Feb 8th 2011 Korean Saimin Noodles |
I made Sambal Prawns tonight with shrimp paste (they call harmha here), chili paste, lime, garlic, mirin, sugar and cilantro. I loved it but it's definitely not for those who don't like spicy.
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| Feb 7 2011 Sambal Prawns |
I made the beau Stuffed portabello mushroom last night with minced pork, garlic, onions, celery, egg, parmesan cheese and cilantro. Today, he turned it into a sandwich for lunch. It wasn't quite as delicious as yesterday but was definitely a feast for the eyes. I'm slowly turning into a raw foodist I think but still wish meat always tastes as good as they were freshly cooked the first time around.
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| Feb 6th 2011 Stuffed Portabello mushroom Sandwich |
The beau cooked me his signature mahi mahi dish today. It was so good, I made him promise to me make it for me once a week. Cut in long thick sticks and marinated in sour cream and mayo, he then dipped it in egg, mochiko flour (sweet glutinous rice), panko bread crumbs and then deep fried for a couple minutes. It's dipped into a ponzu sauce before melting in the mouth. I've never liked mahi mahi before. The ones I've eaten on the mainland USA tasted dry and hard, almost like paper. The fish is so fresh here, the oil is literally glistening off its skin. Eating fish fresh makes all the difference.
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| Feb 5th 2011 Mahi Mahi before removing the middle red slivers |
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| Deep fried panko Mahi Mahi |
I cooked what's called Chow Fun here this afternoon. It's sort of like a cross between hor fun (flat chinese noodles) and Japanese udon noodles. In typical Chinese style, I threw in whatever I could find in my fridge today so chopped garlic, sliced vidalia onions, parsley, white cabbage and mustard cabbage then seasoned with shoyu (soy sauce), garlic chili, oyster sauce and black pepper. Of course, the secret ingredient - sakura ebi (dried shrimp).
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| Feb 4th 2011 Vegetable Chow Fun |
Elton cooked me Turkish lamb curry with spices he bought from Istanbul. To the lamb, he added carrots, onions, japanese eggplant, parsley and bay leaves. and It a was delicious!
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| February 1st, 2011 Turkish Lamb Curry |
