Vegetarian Curry Mutton One-Plate Meal

Some time ago, we were fancy over a local vegetarian restaurant's one-plate meal. However, their food quality have deteriorated over time. Hence, we no longer dine in the vegetarian restaurant. According to my previous dine in experience, I used to order their one-plate meal with rice, vegetarian curry mutton, and some veggies.

The one-plate meal concept interests me. So, I apply the similar way for my home cooking in preparing our meatless meal. I always have great appetite whenever I see this type of one-plate meal. Funny! :-)

For the vegetarian mutton curry recipe, please refer here.

Purple Sweet Potato Bun

Every time when I step into a hypermarket, I enjoyed myself looking for new ingredients for my cooking. Each hypermarket sure have their unique products. Some have wide variety of spices, and some are more fresh vegetables and fruits.

Last week, I found some fresh fragrant purple sweet potato which I seldom use in my cooking. Since I still have some left over "Pao" flour, I thought of trying to make some steamed buns. I played with the dough and shaped it into different shapes. This is the prettiest among all. 

Purple Sweet Potato Bun


Ingredients:
270gm of purple sweet potato, peeled, cut into chunks,steamed until soft and mashed
60gm fine sugar
500gm pao flour
1 tsp of yeast
10gm Sunflower oil
200ml water

Steps:
1. Put all the ingredients into bread maker follow the sequence of liquid, semi liquid, and dry ingredients.
2. Select "dough" program.
3. When the dough is ready, divide it into small equal portions. Shape it and put on parchment paper.
4. Let the dough prove for 45 minutes.
5. Steam it for about 15 minutes or longer depends on the size.

Leek and Chicken Drumstick Fried Rice

I just got a good quality pro-metal non-stick pan from hubby as a reward to my home cooking. So, it’s more convenient for me to pan-fry meat and seafood from now on with little or without oil. Today, I tried to pan-fry chicken without oil. The natural oil released from chicken throughout the frying process was retained for the rice frying process. That’s our chicken fragrant fried rice for lunch.

Leek and Chicken Drumstick Fried Rice
Serves 3


Ingredients:
1 stalk of leek, chopped (separate the green portion and the white portion)
1 chicken drumstick, deboned
2 eggs, beaten
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
3 bowls of cool rice

Marinades:
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
Dashes of white pepper powder

Seasonings:
light soy sauce to taste
oyster sauce to taste
1 tsp of sesame oil

Steps:
1.Marinate the chicken drumstick and leave for 15 minutes.
2.Heat up a non-stick pan. Pan-fry the chicken drumstick with skin facing down. Brown the chicken skin side and follow by the other side. Set aside the chicken and leave it cool before cutting it into cubes.
3.Mix the rice with beaten eggs.
4.With the chicken oil in the pan, stir-fry the leek (the white portion). Add chicken and garlic to mix. Pour in the rice and fry till golden yellow.
5.Add light soy sauce to taste. Drizzle sesame oil over the rice before dish out.

Coffee Buns (Tesco Bread Maker Recipe)

Since I owned a bread maker machine, I've tried making several types of bread loaf and buns. Not every baking is successful. Supposedly if you follow strictly the steps for the dough preparation using a bread maker, you shouldn't go wrong. But, the secret is in the ingredients, in terms of quality and proportions. For example, the yeast. So far, I tried 2 different brand of yeasts. The first brand results a good raise for dough, and the other one does not. I experimented using both brands of yeasts in several baking for the hypothesis, and it proved that my earlier assumption is right. So, I stick to my reliable yeast.

These coffee buns were made using the poor quality of yeast. Hence it did not raise properly. It's soft and springy while hot, but it's hard while cooled to room temperature. It was a failure. However, I believe with a good quality yeast, you'll get a perfect texture buns. 

Coffee Buns

Ingredients:
300gm bread flour
30gm fine sugar
half tsp of salt
5g of dried yeast
1 packet of 2-in-1 coffee powder
1 packet of raisins
180ml of room temp water
20gm of butter (at room temp)

Steps:
1. Put all the ingredients into bread maker follow the sequence of liquid, semi liquid, and dry ingredients.
2. Select "dough" program.
3. When the dough is ready, divide it into small portions. Mould into balls and put on a greased pan.
4. Let the dough prove for 15 minutes, then flatten slightly and continue to let them prove for 30 minutes.
5. Bake at 190 deg C for 12-15 minutes.

Cajun Pan-Fried Fish with Tomato Salsa

I spotted this in a cafe's menu when we dined in for some cold desserts. It prompted me the idea to prepare the similar meal for the next day's lunch. I'm guessing the ingredients and cooking method via the name of the dish. "Cajun" is what I used to marinate the fish. "Pan-fried" is the method I applied to cook up the fish. And "tomato salsa" is the sauce that I served the fish with. Sounds easy, right?

Cajun Pan-Fried Fish with Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

2 boneless fish fillets, rubbed with salt and sprinkled with Cajun

cooking oil

Tomato Salsa

1 ripe tomato, cubed

half lemon, juiced

spring onion, chopped

3 garlic, peeled and crashed

sugar and salt to taste

Steps:

1. Mix up all the ingredients for tomato salsa. Set aside.

2. Heat up oil in a pan. Pan-fry the fish on both sides.

3. Rest the fish fillets on kitchen towel to remove excess oil.

4. Transfer it onto a plate. Top with tomato salsa. Serve hot.

Pea Sprout Stir-Fry

We've been eating pea sprout for 2 consecutive weeks. It's hubby's favorite veggie that I seldom cook. When I ask him to buy one type of "occasionally cook" vegetable, he'll bring back some pea sprout from the market. 

This time, instead of get it stir-fried with sambal belacan, I stir-fried it with garlic and garnish with fried anchovies. This is a new cooking method to satisfy his tummy.

Pea Sprout Stir-Fry
Ingredients:
Pea sprouts
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
cooking oil
20ml of water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of rice wine
salt to taste

Garnishing:
Fried anchovies

Steps:
1. Heat oil in a wok. Sauté garlic till fragrant. Add pea sprout to stir-fry.
2. Add some water and seasonings. Bring to boil.
3. Dish out and garnish with fried anchovies.

Bowles Mint Cough Remedy

Last week when I pay a visit to my sister's place, I noticed that she grows her potty garden very well. I asked for few stems of Bowles mint leaves (the species that is big and furry type). I used the leaves to boil a pot of natural cough remedy to soothe my cough. Then, the steams are planted.

This type of mint leaves have very strong smell. You'll either love it or hate it. Of course, I like it a lot. It's very refreshing.

Bowles Mint Cough Remedy

Ingredients:
2 liter water
30 Bowles mint leaves
2 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and sliced
brown sugar to taste

Steps:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot.
2. Add ginger and Bowles mint leaves. Leave it simmers for half an hour.
3. Add brown sugar to taste. Serve warm.

Chicken Salad

This chicken salad is very easy to make even if you don't know how to cook. The secret is in its dressing. If you like sourish, spicy, and the smell of Parsley, you'll like my chicken salad. If you don't like Parsley, you can replace it with other herbs of your favorite. Feel free to play around to mix your own dressing to your liking.

Chicken Salad


Ingredients:

1 chicken breast, skinned

Salad Dressing:
1 ripe tomato, cubed
6 bird's eye chili, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 lemon, juiced
salt
sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
Parsley, chopped

Steps:
1. Steam the chicken breast until it's cooked thoroughly. I steam it for 18 minutes. Leave it cool.
2. Hand-pull the chicken breast.
3. Mix up all the ingredients for the salad dressing.
4. Pour the dressing over the hand-pulled chicken.
5. Keep it refrigerate. Serve cold.

Radish and Carrot Soup

It's now a good season to get big, fat and juicy white radish. I grabbed one last week and paired it up with carrot to make it into tasty peppery soup. I played around with the carrot cutter again to get the radish and carrot shaped into star and flower. Don't you think the soup looks interesting? By the way, it tastes really sweet. I like it.

Radish and Carrot Soup


Ingredients:
300 gm of pork ribs
1 radish, peeled and cut into pieces
1 carrot, peeled and cut into pieces
2 liter water
half tsp of white peppercorns, lightly pounded with the back of cleaver
salt to taste
chopped spring onion for garnishing

Steps:
1. Blanch the pork ribs in boiling water and set aside.
2. Bring 2 liter of water to boil in a pot. Add white pepper and pork ribs. Leave it simmers for half an hour.
3. Add carrot and radish and leave it simmers under low heat for another 1 hour.
4. Add salt to taste. Garnish with spring onion just before serving.

Asam Curry Squid

Since I started cooking 3 years ago, I have not tried cooking a squid cuisine. Out of sudden, I miss the asam curry squid my mum used to cook. So, I got my dad to buy half kilo of squid from the wet market. My mum helped to clean the squid and it was delivered home by hubby. So it's ready for cooking. Oh, how lucky I am to stay close to my parents. :)

With the ready made fresh curry paste and some herbs, this dish was easily done. The asam curry is tangy and spicy. Just perfect to satisfy my sudden crave. :)

Asam Curry Squid

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

500gm small-sized squid, skinned and cleaned

1 onion, peeled and sliced

4 Kaffir lime leaves

1 Kadok leaf, cut into thin strips

3 stalk of lemon grass (the white portion), pounded

fresh curry paste

1 ping-pong sized tamarind pulp mixed with 1 cup of water, sieved

cooking oil

Seasonings:

Light soy sauce to taste

Sugar to taste

Steps:

1. Heat oil in a wok. Sauté onion till fragrant. Add lemon grass, Kaffir lime leaves, curry paste and sauté till oil separated.

2. Add squid and quick stir-fry under high heat. 

3. Pour in tamarind juice and bring to boil. Add light soy sauce and sugar to taste.

4. Dish out and garnish with Kadok herbs. Serve hot with rice.