A FOODIE'S CONFESSION

My lack of posts

oreochiu — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 10:06:28 +0000

I’ve been put on a detox diet (sometimes i wonder if it is really a detox) where I have to eliminate alcohol, caffeine, sodas, sugar, dairy, yeast, malt, pork, mushroom and wheat. It isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. I definitely feel a lot better being off a number of food. I had the most shocking headache since going off caffeine but definitely feel good for it.

Will continue to post other stuff soon.

Food and culture

oreochiu — Sat, 19 May 2007 11:11:18 +0000

A lot of people say to me “That’s not like you” when I cook something more western such as pasta, steak, a roast or a simple beef and lentil soup. It amazes me sometimes how people percieve a person’s cultural/ethnic background to what they cook or eat. Saying this, it is definitely universally agreed that a person’s cultural background can definitely affect how a person behaves, react to certain situations and definitely cook and eat.

I grew up in a Taiwanese family where mum usually cooks three dishes and a soup which is usually eaten with rice. The three dishes usually involves a stir fry vegetable, a stir fry meat of some sort and either fish or another vegetable for the third dish. Mum is a fantastic cook (who’s mum isn’t anyways) and she definitely spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen. Unfortunately, after my two sisters left home to go to college mum cooked a lot less and a lot more ‘healthier’. The ‘healthier’ became almost ‘super healthy’ when my dad went for a health check and the doctor told him his triglyceride levels and cholesterol levels were way too high. I still remember her ‘Oil rice’ ( a taiwanese dish where you fry glutinous rice with shitake mushroom, dried shrimp, shallots and meat in a soy based sauce ’Sweet taro’ (taro, sugar and glutinious flour kneaded together and deep fried), stew soy pork (pork usually fatty, stewed in soy sauce; great with rice), ‘ba chang’ (glutinious rice wrapped in bamboo leaves usually eaten in taiwan on the dragon boat festival –> i have no idea what the festival is about really) and the simple but delicious stir fried rice vermicille noodles.

My family eat out a lot and we go to different restaurants and eat different cuisines. Bangkok has fantastic internation cuisine, in fact the best steak i had isn’t in any western country but in Bangkok at the Le Meridien steakpit. That steakhouse has to be the best i have ever tasted! I also remember this French restaurant in Thailand (there are a least a dozen or more French restaurants in Bangkok) called Giovani, they make the nicest soft shell crab and garlic snails. I don’t quite remember my experiences of Indian food in Bangkok but I definitely started eating a lot more and cooking it after I met VJ.

The Hyatt Hotel in Bangkok definitely has one of the nicest buffet. They serve smoke salmon with different condiments, beef, pork lamb roast, a different variety of fresh raw fish for sashimi , sushi, a variety of seafood either cooked in a asian stir fry or in a mornay sauce. I guess what I am trying to say here is people in today’s world are definitely getting more exposure to cusines from different culture.

People usually associate my cooking as more Asian style. However, VJ and myself cook a lot of pasta, steaks and roasts. In fact I have a favorite roast which is a fusion style where i roast the pork in chilli, and was definitely surprised with the outcome!

I have also decided to cook a lot more chinese/taiwanese food after my trip to Bangkok and Taipei early this year. After seeing my parents and meeting the extended family, I felt more foreign than anything! So my mission when I returned to Australia was to try and find/enhance my cultural identity (even though I claim that I find it hard to identify what culture i am really or actually from), hence all these Asian cooking.

Since returning from BKK and TPE I have made so many chinese/taiwanese food compared to what I would have had the last year!

Dinner on Friday night

oreochiu — Sat, 19 May 2007 11:11:01 +0000

I’ve asked Sue if I can post this recipe and she has given me the all okay. We have made this probably 3 times since she gave us the recipe and it never fails to please us. I don’t think there is a name but I will call it Chicken wrapped with prosciutto in creamy champange sauce. It is a very simple dish ( You can make it in less than one hour). Champagne is the choice of wine used for this dish but Sue assured me that white wine is okay too. However, when cooking with white wine, I prefer to use a sparkling wine instead because of the delicate flavours associated with champagne and the bubbles. I think the bubbles add a different dimension to the food. Try it, the next time you are cooking wiht white wine, try adding some sort of sparkling wine instead. You will be suprised. Just remember if you using a dry wine use a dry style sparking and if you are using sweet then use a sweeter style sparkling.

Thanks Sue for the recipe!

Chicken wrapped in Prosciutto in creamy Champagne Sauce

Ingredients (serves 2)

- 2 medium sized chicken breast

-2-4 slices of prosciutto (you can use pancetta as well)

- few cloves of garlic

- nuts crushed (use cashew, macadamia, almond, pistachio or any other crunchy nut) around 3 tbsp?

- sparkling wine

- cream

-herbs of your choice ( parsley, dill and i am sure thyme will work well) –> use one variety not a mix of each

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2. Season chicken breast with freshly cracked pepper and salt. Wrap the prosciutto around the chicken breast and tie with string.

3. Heat pan with oil and put in the chicken and brown on both sides. Add the garlic and keep in pan till soft and add the sparkling wine ( i added around 1 cup)

4. Put in oven for 30 mins or until chicken cooks

5. Take chicken out from oven and in the pan add cream some more sparkling if you wish and season with salt and pepper. Then add the herbs and nuts. Pour sauce over the chicken

6. Serve with veges of your choice

* What I did on Friday was when i browned the chicken in the pan i added some kipler potatoes and carrots then add the sparkling wine and garlic into the pan then put it in the oven. This way i had a one pot meal (my fry pan is oven proof )! Easy and yummy!

Chicken cooking in the pan

Enjoy!

Thanks Sue for the recipe!

Making Korean Kimchi

oreochiu — Sat, 12 May 2007 13:00:17 +0000

On a recent trip to Melbourne, we went to a fantastic Korean restaurant in Richmond. They brought out pickled appetisers such as Kimchis (korean pickled cabbage) and a range of other stuff. They were so delicious so I thought i have a crack at it today as it will take around 4 days for it to fully ferment and keeps in the fridge for 3 months. I looked on the internet for recipes and also asked this lady at a korean grocery shop on what ingredients to buy. To my suprise she actually printed out a whole recipe from her computer and told me that this is the easiest way to make it. She even mentioned that if i am sucessful wiht this first time she is happy to give me a ‘harder one’ which requires more effort.

All you need is two chinese cabbages or womboks. Take the end off and cut into bite size pieces. Wash thoroughly.

THen you put the cabbage into a clean plastic bag and add around 120 g of granulated salt. Rub the salt all over the cabbage and leave it in the plastic bag for 3- 6 hours until the cabbage is totally wilted.

In the meantime finely chop 6 cloves of garlic a thumbsize of ginger and grate around 3 medium size carrots and slice around 6 green onions.

Take the cabbage out and rinse and squeeze dry ( i just use a salad spinner). Then add all the other above ingredients. Put in a big bowl and add 5 tbsp of korean chilli and 3 tbsp of kimchi base (which basically has chilli ginger and garlic in it). Put on gloves and mix. If the color of the cabbage isn’t red enough just add more chilli powder.

Put into a plastic container and leave in a cool area for 3-4 days.

This picture below is basically what it looks like before all the ingredients are mixed with the wilted cabbage.

Below is what it looks like after it is mixed and put into a container.

Will let you all know how it is like after the product is finished. Any comments on the recipe will be great!

Chicken Biriyani

oreochiu — Sat, 12 May 2007 12:44:04 +0000

This is definitely one of my favorite Indian meal- chicken biriyani. Biriyani is basically rice that is cooked with some sort of meat and vegetable. We use to make Chicken Pulao (basically chicken cooked with rice) which is another favorite of mine. After VJ’s mum came to visit last year, she gave me this recipe which is fantastic and delicious.

Ingredients

Serves 4

- chicken pieces (use boneless chicken such as the thigh piece or just chicken on the bone cut into pieces.. we usually use chicken maryland) around 800g to 1 kg

- 2 cups of rice washed and soaked

- 1 large onion diced

-2 tomatoes diced

- 1 tbsp of coriander powder, garam masala

- 1 tsp of chilli powder or according to what you like

- 7 cloves and 7 cardamon pods

- 1 green chilli

- 3 cloves of garlic and 1 thumsize piece of ginger
1. Clean and soak rice

2. heat oil in pan add the cardamon pods, cloves. fry for 1 minute then add the onion, garlic, ginger and green chilli and fry for another minute

3. add the tomatoes and powdered spices (coriander, garam masala and chilli)

4. Add the chicken pieces and fry. Cover for 15 minutes

5. Add rice and enough water to cover around 1.5 inch above the rice. You can measure the liquid if you like.. so for one cup of water you use around 1.5 cups of water

6. let the mixture boil and add salt to taste then cover for 25 mins till rice is cooked. lmost ready to

7. When almost ready to eat add in chopped mint leaves and fried onions (basically just heat oil and add onions and fry till golden brown).

I usually add coriander leaves as well.

Enjoy with some yogurt and papadums.

This picture below is when the biriyani was cooked. I didn’t add any mint leaves into the pan as i was going to freeze it.

Instead of the clay pot that I bought in the Asian grocery shop, I used the romertopf to cook the biriyani and added a few extra bits of vegetables (beans and potatoes). When using the romertopf just soak it in water for 20 minutes then make the biriyani liek above but after you fry the chicken in the pan add the whole mixture into the romertopf and put it in the oven for 30 minutes in 200degrees oven. Then take out and add the rice and the veges and the liquid (make sure the liquid you add in is hot or warm) and put back into the oven for a further 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Our first Indian meal at home in ages

oreochiu — Sat, 12 May 2007 11:31:06 +0000

VJ and I have been wanting to make Chicken Biriyani in the clay pot since we bought it a week back. I haven’t been cooking Indian food for the last few months so I thought I do a bit of Indian cooking today. In fact, we even had a South Indian breakfast after I went through the pantry trying to get organised.One friend has said to me once that organisation is happiness (or something along that line…”sorry if i got it wrong”), so off I went and bought a whole heap of Lock N Lock Containers to organise the pantry and fridge. I first got a Lock N Lock container from my mum and I used it in the fridge to keep my vegetables and I swear they last a lot longer, especially herbs. These containers are completely air tight and liquid tight so you can use these containers for soups and not be worried about it leaking especially if you were bringing soup for lunch to work.

Anyways, back to my Indian breakfast. I am not a good breakfast person but i found a pack of Uppama Mix in the pantry and remembered Vijay’s mum telling me to get it when we were in an Indian grocery shop in Melbourne. Uppama is apparently this semolina mix and its got some curry leaves, mustard seeds and chillis in it.

You just have to boil water and add the mix into it which leads something pasty and floury which i didn’t like as much. Made a coconut chutney to go with it which was fantastic. Picture of the meal below.

The one on the left is the uppama the one on the left is coconut chutney. The recipe for it is:

- a handful of grated coconut (dried ) or fresh even better but i only had dried ones

- a green chilli ( i used red today cause i didn’t have green)

- pinch of salt

blend the above with water till it becomes a paste (not too watery but not to pasty)

Then in a frying pan add oil wait till it is hot and add a tsp of mustard seeds (black) and some channa dhal ( u get it in asian groceries or even health food shops) if not just use yellow split peas.

Then add what is in the frying pan into to coconut mixture. Mix and enjoy. You can eat coconut chutney as a dip with crackers.

Clay Pot Cooking

oreochiu — Sat, 05 May 2007 10:42:29 +0000

I bought a clay pot in Melbourne this weekend when we went there this weekend. I had a funny feeling I didn’t buy one cause it was so chaotic and we were in a hurry to go home. But eventually I did buy one.

This clay pot cooking happened when I went to a friend’s place for dinner and she had a terracotta pot she used for cooking potatoes and vegetables. I thought to myself, clay should use more often cause it retains heat, keeps in moistures and moisturises your food. So off I went onto the internet and did more research on clay cooking. That was when I decided to buy my first ever clay baker from Romertopf, then a handmade clay pot from e bay (the seller calls it a terracotta potatoe cooker but i steam my veges in it as well so technically it ain’t a pure potatoe cooker), then a chinese clay pot or some people call it a sandy pot.

A few cautions when using the clay pot, whichever type – baker, chinese or pot and that is never use detergent to wash them. As you may know clay is pourous so washing it in detergent means that the clay will absorb the detergent which may 1. make your food taste a little funny 2. possible harmful.. surely you don’t want to be eating detergent

So wash them in either warm water or cold with some bicarb soda or salt.I haven’t tried salt yet as i feel a little safer with bicarb soda as it neturalises foul odours and stuff.

So I bought a chinese clay pot this weekend. They are really cheap from 10 dollars for a very small one to 30 dollars for a good size family size one. I saw one in an asian grocery shop in chinatown melbourne for 17 dollars which is white outside that is unglazed and a glazed interior whcih is black in colour. I didn’t buy that one but it was a great size. I saw an identical one in a Richmond asian cookware shop for 65 dollars! What rip off. I didn’t buy the 17 dollar one but instead but one that was 30 dollars which was glazed both inside and outside. It is still a fantastic deal. The 17 dollar clay pot wasn’t as big as the one I bought.

So after buying this clay pot, I decided to put it into good use, so the first thing i decided to make was clay pot chicken rice. I heard of clay pot chicken but never heard of it with rice so i decided to try it out. I found a few recipes online but decided to adapt it a bit. So here goes the recipe.

(I don’t measure my ingredients so I am just going by the approximate theory)

Ingredients:

(enough for 7 people and suitable for freeze(I think) i freeze it anyways)

- 1 full chicken cut into bite size piece ( i have half of it skin on and the other skin off so it isn’t as fatty)

- oyster sauce, dark soy, sesame oil, sugar, chinese cooking wine ( i use taiwanese rice wine but feel free to use shao shin wine or dry sherry) and soy chilli or skip it if you don’t like the heat

- a bunch of green onions –> t hey are also called shallots

- a bulb of garlic

- 2.5 cups of rice

- a thumb size of ginger

-dried shitake mushrooms (around 8) dehydrated in hot water –> keep the water

- a few pieces of fried tofu (if you can get fried tofu just get firm tofu from your supermarkt and pan fry it in a pan till golden brown. The purpose is so the tofu doens’t lose its shape when cooking in the pan)

- bunch of chinese cabbage (around 200 g)

-half a cabbage (small around 300 g)

Instructions:

1. Marinate chicken wiht the oyster sauce (2 tbsp), dark soy (2 tbsp), sugar (2 tsp), Chinese cooking wine(2 tbsp), sesame oil(2tsp). Keep for around 30 mins. I never have the time so i just marinated it for 10 mins. Clean the rice with water and soak it til you are ready to use it.

2.Heat oil in clay pot and add giner and garlic and shallots. Fry till frangrant and soft -around 5 minutes.

If it is the first time you are using the clay pot, you should apparently start with very low heat and slowly turn it up into high heat.

3. Add chicken pieces and fry till golden brown or till chicken is seared on all sides.

4. Add extra oyster sauce(1tsp) soy (2tbsp) sugar(1tsp) sesame oil (1tsp) and soy chilli (3 tsp–> i use a fair bit cause i love it hot), then add the shitake mushroom.

5. Turn heat down and simmer for around 40 mins

6. Then add the tofu and the vegetables and rice

7. Add the water from the mushroom and enough water to cover the rice (1cm above rice approx)

8. Bring to boil and simmer for around 20 mins or until rice cooked.

Clay pot chicken while cooking in clay pot

Finished product

You can garnish with spring onions or fried shallots!

Enjoy

My first blog

oreochiu — Sat, 05 May 2007 06:55:26 +0000

I am going to try to do some blogging here. Okay, I am a self confessed foodimaniac. Not sure if the word even exist. Aside from my food I also love my wine. I just like to keep a record of the stuff am cooking cause i sometimes don’t use any recipes and end up forgetting how i made the dish. I cook anything from very Asian style food (especially Taiwanese style) to very Indian or Middle Eastern Food to Western food. You probably find a range of recipes that I have acquired or experimented and the types of wines I have drank or am going to drink and some tasting notes. A lot of my cooking is really based on food I grew up with, or had in restaurants, food that I have eaten when at dinner parties.