Spicy Calamari Salad

It's summer time here in Sydney. My indoor plants start showing some flowers. Very exciting! I really doubted that they would flower this year as I haven't done much except water them when they look a bit floppy.
As summer can be very challenging for me to stay in the kitchen, I tend to prepare salad more often. So, I recently came up with the idea of spicy calamari salad. Thu and I really like it and will definitely prepare this for all the chilli lovers that we know. The recipe below is for 4 servings.

Ingredients:

• 3 pieces of calamari tubes (cut into squares)
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 2 bird's eye chillies (finely chopped)
  
• 2 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
  
• 4 tsp kecap manis
• 4 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• freshly ground peppercorns
• mixed salad (baby spinach, mixed lettuces, and rocket leaves)
  
• grape tomatoes
• a handful of toasted almond flakes and pumpkin seeds

Marinating Sauce for Calamari:

• 2 tbs olive oil
  
• 2 bird's eye chillies (finely chopped)
  
• 2 garlic gloves (finely chopped)
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of half lemon
• a pinch of salt
• 2 tsp kecap manis

Salad dressing:

• 2 tbs tbs olive oil
• 2 tsp kecap manis
• juice of half lemon
  
• a pinch of salt
• freshly ground peppercorns

Preparations:

1. Wash calamari tubes and pat dry with paper towel. Cut into medium-sized squares and marinate overnight with marinating sauce.
   
2. Pan fry the calamari squares (3 mins each side) on a hot pan without any additional oil. Do not overcook the calamari. In the same time, start toasting the almond flakes and pumpkin seeds until they turn slightly brown (my mini oven does this for 5 mins).
3. Wash the salad and grape tomatoes with salad spinner. Add cooked calamari, toasted seeds and salad dressing to each bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese Noodle Salad

My Chinese colleagues at work like to prepare this noodle salad during special occasions when everyone brought some food to share. I always enjoy this kind of gathering and forget about science for a little while. Science is sometimes too mysterious and this really tests my patience. What I love about science is that once you get an interesting result, it's very rewarding. This, of course, makes you feel good.

Anything can be added to chinese noodle salad, depending on your preference. You can have prawns or chicken or BBQ pork/ duck or vegetarian style. I spent last weekend making this salad based on what I had in the fridge. There were Hokkien noodles, cabbage, shallot, coriander, chicken thigh filllets, five-spiced tofu, dried beancurd and toasted sesame seeds. This salad is very delicious and so perfect to enjoy during summer. Give it a go!

Salad dressing:

• 1/4 cup kikkoman soy sauce
• 2 tbs dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown vinegar
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
  
• 3 tbs hot chilli oil
• 1 tbs sugar

This salad dressing is enough for 2 packets of Hokkien Noodle (6 servings). If you only prepare a small portion, reduce the dressing by half the amount. You can adjust the amount of soy sauce and vinegar depending on your taste. 

Salad Ingredients:

• Hokkien noodles (blanch in boiling water and drain)
• shallot (cut thinly)
• coriander (cut thinly)
• cabagge (cut thinly)
  
• toasted sesame seeds
• Stir fry: olive oil, minced garlic, chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips), tofu (cut thinly) and dried beancurd (soaked in water overnight, then cut thinly). Add a pinch of salt, pepper and dark soy sauce.

I prepared my thigh fillets in stir fry to avoid having raw garlic in my salad. You can boil the meat for the salad and add raw garlic. This is easier to prepare but the garlic taste will be quite strong. You can balance it by adding minced young ginger. So, here are some pictures showing my salad preparations.

 

Eskimo Neapolitan Ice Cream

I recently thought of making Neapolitan Ice Cream that my family used to buy from Eskimo Ice cream shop in Surabaya. All of us love this ice cream. The rum flavour in vanilla part and the roasted peanut mixed with sugar on vanilla layer are so unique. I can't find this kind of ice cream here.

So, I did some research on many Neapolitan ice cream recipes on the net and my ice cream book. It took me a while to decide which recipe will give the closest result to what I want. I finally came up with my own recipe. Hah!! This is always the outcome if I got confused. Let's do it my way and I'll take the risk if it doesn't work.

My recipe is very simple but it took three days to complete since my ice cream machine needs pre-freezing. I made one flavour each day, starting with strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. I didn't have high expectations on my first attempt of Neapolitan ice cream recipe but I was very glad with the outcome. It was sooo close to the real Eskimo style.

If you like non-creamy ice cream, then this will be the one for you as I used less cream and avoided egg yolks in my ice cream.

Ingredients:

• 600 ml thickened cream (whipped, divide to 3 bowls)
  
• Strawberry layer: 1 punnet strawberries + 1/4 cup white sugar + a dash of lemon juice
  
• Vanilla layer: 1/4 cup condensed milk + 200 ml warm water + 1 tbs rum + 1 tbs vanilla extract
• Chocolate layer: 3 tbs Blooker cocoa powder (sifted) + 200 ml water + 1/4 cup white sugar
• 6 tbs Roasted granulated peanuts and 2 tbs caster sugar (mixed)
  

Preparation:

1. Pour thickened ice cream to a large bowl and whip until the mixture holds its shape
   
2. Divide evenly the whipped cream into 3 medium-sized bowls
3. Strawberry layer: Put the strawberries, white sugar and lemon juice in a blender and process to form a puree. Pour the strawberry mixture to one bowl of the whipped cream and mix well. This layer should be slightly tangy.
4. Vanilla layer: Mix vanilla layer ingredients and pour into the whipped cream bowl. Mix well and keep in the fridge. This layer is purely sweet.
5. Chocolate layer: In a saucepan, mix chocolate layer ingredients (If small clumps are present, you can use a sieve when pouring the chocolate mix to the whipped cream). Mix well and keep in the fridge. This layer should have the bitterness from dark cocoa powder.
   
6. Using an ice cream machine, start preparing the strawberry layer. Pour the strawberry ice cream into a loaf pan covered in baking paper. Let it freeze overnight
7. Next day: prepare the vanilla layer using the ice cream machine. Freeze for 2 hours. Add mixed roasted peanuts and sugar on vanilla layer evenly. Let it freeze overnight
8. Last day: prepare the chocolate layer using the ice cream machine. Freeze overnight.
9. Slice the ice cream. Serve with fresh fruits.
   

 

 

Yakitori Chicken

It has been 2 years since we moved to Waterloo, Sydney. I love this suburb as it is close to the city and a reasonably quiet area. There are also many factory outlets around Waterloo. This is very enjoyable during weekends when we have no plans on what to do. Wandering around factory outlets! The recent one that we went was a book factory outlet called "Book Margins". There were plenty of cooking books in this shop and the prices were really good.

As I haven't got a proper Japanese cookbook, I chose "Taste of Japan" by Masaki Ko. Her home-cooking style is very simple and easy to follow. So, I spent last weekend trying a recipe from this book: Yakitori Chicken. I added asparagus salad served with the yakitori sauce. Thu and I were very happy with the result!

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thigh fillets (cut into chunks)
  
• 1 red capsicum (cut into medium-sized squares)
  
• 1 green capsicum

Yakitori sauce:

• 150 ml soy sauce
• 0.5 cup sugar
• 5 tsp sake
• 1 tbs plain flour

Salad:

• 1 bunch asparagus (cut into 8 cm segments)
• half red capsicum (minced)
• alfalfa sprouts
  

Preparation:

1. Stir the soy sauce, sugar and sake in a small sauce pan to make the sauce. Bring to boil and add the plain flour. The sauce should be quite thick.
2. Marinate the chicken chunks with 2/3 of yakitori sauce for 15-30 mins.
3. Blanch the asparagus in the boiling water (with added salt and oil) for 2 mins. Wash with cold water and drain.
   
4. Thread the chicken and red/green capsicum alternately to the bamboo skewers.
5. Grill under medium heat for 15 mins or until the chicken is cooked but still moist
6. Dilute 1/3 of the yakitori sauce with warm water until the sauce consistency is thin. Add this diluted yakitori sauce to salad and the kebabs.

 

 

 

Jasmine Agar with Fruit Salad

This jasmine agar is very easy and cheap to make. Only two main ingredients you need to buy: a packet of Lobo Jasmine Agar dessert mix (available in any Asian grocery stores) and a can of fruit salad. I added some strawberries on the agar for a slight variation.

 

Did you notice my colourful agar moulds? I got them from "Let's Cook" in Melbourne last Christmas. The whole set of 6 costs only $9.95. Very cute and I like the opening at two ends. I saw the giant version in Woolworths recently and contemplated if I should buy it or not. I thought it would be too big for the two of us!

 

Preparation (shown in photos below):

1. Pour agar dessert mix to a small pot with 3 cups of water. Mix well and bring it to boil.
2. Put the mix to agar moulds. Wait until set for at least 2-3 hours.
3. Serve with fruit salad and any fresh fruits.

 

 

 

 

Pastel Tutup (Indonesian Potato Pie)

I remember that my mum used to take me to different cafes as our resting points during a long day of shopping. I often ordered an ice cream or a chocolate drink or "pastel tutup". Any of them was just perfect after we shopped around. I hardly can find "pastel tutup" in Sydney. Not many Indonesians know this food, it seems to be popular only in Surabaya.

I recently got an idea to make pastel tutup faster and easier to prepare. I separated the potato top layer and made them as mashed potato balls. It tasted the same as the original "pastel tutup" when you served the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. You need quite a bit of patience to prepare this dish as there are a lot of chopping required. If you got some helpers, this won't take you long at all. 

Ingredients:

 

Pie filling

• 3 pieces chicken thigh fillet (cut into cubes)
• 3 thin frankfurts (cut into cubes)
• 2 carrots (cut into cubes)
• a handful of dried black fungi (soak in cold water for 2 hours, then slice thinly)
  
• 1 can of garden peas
• 2 small packs of green bean threads vermicelli (soak in hot water and then drain)
  
• a few cloves of garlic (minced)
• a few cloves of dried shallot (slice thinly)
• 3 tbs of margarine
• 1 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp white pepper
• 1.5 tsp nutmeg
• 1 cup of soy milk
• 0.5 cup water

Mashed Potato Balls

• 6 medium sized potatos (peel, cut into big chunks, boil in hot water until cooked but not too soft, drain)
• 0.25 cup soy milk
• a pinch of salt 
• 1 tsp freshly ground blackpepper
• 1 egg 

 

Decoration

• 1 hard boiled egg
  
• parsley

Preparations:

1. After finished chopping the pie filling ingredients, prepare mashed potato balls. I used food processor to soften the boiled potato chunks. Alternatively, you can use a wooden spoon. Either way works fine. Add soy milk, salt and ground blackpepper. Shape into balls and brush with egg. Bake in the oven at 160 deg C for 30 mins or until they turn golden in colour. 
2. While you are baking the mashed potato balls, start cooking the pie filling. Heat the wok, then add margarine, garlic, dried shallot. Stir until they are aromatic, add the cubed chicken thigh. Keep stirring until the chicken is fully cooked. Add water, soy milk, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.
3. Add carrots and frankfurts, keep stiring for 3 mins. Then add black fungi, garden peas and finally vermicelli. The pie filling shouldn't be too dry. If they look dry add a bit more of milk.
4. Serve the pie filling and mashed potato balls on a plate. Add a slice of boiled egg and parsley on the pie filling. Garnish the pie filling with chopped parsley.
   

Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

I have been hunting for large fresh strawberries recently to make chocolate dipped strawberries in tuxedo or bridal dress. This idea was from a video in YouTube. It seemed very easy to make when you watched the video. Honestly, my heart was beating so fast when I was preparing them.

I slightly modified the style of the bridal dress by adding pink chocolate dots (add 1 little drop of red colouring to the white chocolate). I also mixed dark and milk chocolate (1:1 ratio) to balance the brown colour. I made some fruit kebabs to entertain my taste buds.

For all of you who need to have fun, try making these strawberries. You can modify the idea as you like. Let your imagination run wild!

Here are some photos to show you the steps involved:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thai Chicken Noodle Salad

Here is a nice and easy recipe for busy people. I understand how tiring it could be to prepare dinner after a long day of work. As a solution, I always try to prepare dishes that require a small number of ingredients as possible.

I got this recipe a while ago from a cooking demo held in Westfield Eastgardens, 10 mins drive from our place. We tasted the dish and Thu said "Let's cook this tonight!!". Just a reminder that Thai sweet chilli sauce has so much sugar in it. If you're diabetic, please reduce the amount of the sweet chilli sauce.

Ingredients:

• half pack of Wai Wai noodle
• basil leaves (chopped thinly)
• 2 tbs olive oil
• a pinch of salt and pepper
  
• 2 chicken thigh fillets (cut into strips)
• 2 tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
  
• 0.5 lemon
• 200 grams long green beans (cut into small pieces)

Salad dressing for noodle:

• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 1.5 tbs sesame oil

Preparations:

1. Boil noodle for 2-3 min, then drain. If noodle are too long, chop them with scissors before adding the salad dressing.
2. Toss the noodles in a bowl with sesame oil, soy sauce and chopped basil leaves.
   
3. Heat olive oil on the wok, add chicken thigh fillets, salt and pepper. Stir fry until they are fully cooked. Add Thai sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and long green beans. Cook for maximum 3 mins. The green beans should be crunchy.
4. Serve the chicken with green beans on top of the noodles and garnish with basil leaves.