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Sayur lodeh is a vegetable curry commonly found in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. The version I grew up with contains cabbage, eggplant, long beans, deep-fried tofu (and sometimes tofu puffs) and glass noodles. I made this for lunch today and it turned out perfect (really!) and so I decided to post the recipe here in case I forget how to replicate the dish next time. Cooking is a bit of trial and error sometimes, especially with Asian cooking. I think I've got the recipe down as accurately as I can, and it's super duper delicious with rice (or even on its own). Malaysian Vegetable Curry (Sayur Lodeh) Serves 6 Ingredients 1 packet (300g) deep fried tofu 1 cup sliced carrots 3 cups cabbage (about 1/4 of a cabbage), cut into 2 inch strips 2 cups green/long beans, cut into 2 inch lengths 2 eggplants (the long and slender type), sliced into 2 inch halves 2 pieces kaffir lime leaves, torn and crushed 4 cups water 1 1/2 teaspoon ikan bilis stock powder 1 tablespoon palm sugar 1/2...

I purchased Gary Mehigan's new book " Favourites " a couple of weeks ago during his book-signing at Costco. I love that he has put together his all-time favourite recipes in one book, because honestly, there are way too many recipes out there that I would love to try. I may be dreaming of cooking chilli crab one minute and baking kouign amann the next, and sometimes I just end up making more that I can fit leftovers in the fridge. So far, I've attempted two recipes from the book. One is the XO sauce, which is utterly, utterly delicious. I was a little skeptical about making a big batch of it, but I'm so glad I did because it means I can eat more of it with more of everything! The other recipe that tempted my tastebuds was the Creamy Parsley and Nutmeg , which I found a little unusual yet intriguing with the combination of parsley and cream. A little like creamed spinach, but with a herby taste, I suppose? It turned out to be one of the most amazing things I've...

  This started with a craving for a Korean-style slaw with a spicy gochujang dressing. Gochujang (as many of you might be familiar with) is a Korean red pepper paste that are sold in tubs and come in varying degrees of "heat". You can usually tell by the number of chillies on the label. I chose one with 3 chillies I think, as these things can pack quite a punch in terms of heat and intensity of flavour. So, I was wondering what would go with Korean slaw, and thought of bo ssam (Korean boiled pork belly with lettuce wraps). I found David Chang's bo ssam recipe using pork shoulder/butt and decided to turn that into a pulled pork burger with Korean slaw. And what's a burger without mayonnaise, especially a spicy gochujang mayonnaise? And to top it off (no pun intended), I baked these wonderful buttermilk buns (or brioche) which were moist, tender and didn't fall apart like most buns do when you're halfway through a burger.     Korean food doesn't just stop a...

  So, I'm not an expert on Burek, nor do I know enough about its cultural background and history to be able to give an accurate account of how it originated. I'm thinking  Wikipedia should be fairly reliable, and therefore I quote a few sections from it which provide some insight into this delicious filled pastry. "Börek (also burek and other variants) is a family of baked or fried filled pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo (or yufka ). It can be filled with cheese , minced meat, or vegetables. Most probably invented in what is now Modern Turkey , in the Anatolian Provinces of the Ottoman Empire in its early era, to become a popular element of Ottoman cuisine . Börek is also very popular in the cuisines of the former Ottoman Empire , especially in North Africa and throughout the Balkans . The Northern Slavic cuisines , historically developed by people living in close contact with the Turkic peoples of Asia and Europe, also feature...

  So, I googled " game meat " and according to Wikipedia, " Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport".  I never knew that duck was considered game until someone told me that it is not commonly served or eaten in the United States for that very reason. Well, it makes sense now that I recall seeing duck hunting on TV (specifically the old Looney Tunes cartoons featuring Elmer Fudd and Daffy Duck - rings a bell?). Maybe because I've grown up eating a lot of Chinese roast duck (and Peking duck during special occasions), and so I can't say that it tastes gamey at all. Or maybe duck just tastes best when it's roasted until the fat has rendered and the skin's gone all thin and crispy. The only thing I don't like about duck is that it's really boney and fatty. If you buy half a roast duck, you'd end up with half of it being bones and fat. The meat and skin however is very tasty. ...

There's been all this hype over kale chips, and how they taste like potato chips, except that they are loaded with vitamins and minerals. I finally bought some kale from the supermarket last Sunday and was pretty excited to make these. It's really easy. Roughly tear up the kale into pieces, and then wash and dry them thoroughly. Lay them out on a baking tray lined with baking paper, drizzle with a little olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch salt. Be careful not to put too much oil or salt, because the kale will shrink to a quarter of its size and you don't want to end up with oily salty kale chips (now how did I know that?). Bake them in the oven at 180C (350F) for 20 minutes, turning once halfway through. They will be turn translucent and crispy, and they really taste almost like potato chips! And totally guilt-free! PS: These make a good substitute for crispy seaweed, the Japanese or Korean type that comes in individual packs and taste so umami with flakes of MSG all ove...

Mutter paneer is a popular North Indian dish consisting of paneer ( cottage cheese ) and peas (mutter) cooked in a spiced tomato-based gravy, and it tastes fantastic especially when eaten with boiled basmati rice. I enjoy the paneer for its "bitey" texture that can be described as almost "meaty", and all of this combined together makes a delicious meal that can be quite addictive. I must admit I wasn't really a fan of paneer nor vegetarian food right up till middle of last year when I had some friends visiting from India and we frequented a few Indian restaurants. What an eye-opener it was for me. Indian vegetarian cuisine wasn't just all about peas and lentils, but very much about spices, colours, textures and exotic flavours.   I first tried mutter paneer at Curry at the Rocks, and became an instant fan. I put it on my to-cook list immediately, and was thrilled at how my recipe for this turned out. It tasted really authentic (which Mr G ...

  My Indian friends from work threw a little Diwali party at their apartment last Friday, and I must say it was a very enjoyable evening, with good food, great company and lots of dancing. Moreover, it's hard not to fall in love with the phenomenal view from the balcony of the 33rd floor apartment right in the heart of Sydney. Dinner was a wonderful spread of  home-cooked vegetarian dishes, including pasta, salad and this delicious dish called pav bhaji . Pav (pronounced "pau" as in char siew pau) is equivalent to bun/bread , and bhaji refers to a  vegetable dish. Apparently (or so internet sources say), pav bhaji is a popular Indian streetfood snack that originated in Marathi cuisine. It is basically a dish of mashed vegetables cooked in spices, and served with fried buttered pav . This dish uses loads of butter, which explains why it tastes so good. The bhaji is also topped with chopped onions, cor...

    Asparagus and Prawn Stir-fry   Ingredients   1 tbsp vegetable/peanut oil 2 cloves garlic, sliced/chopped 200g prawns, peeled, deveined and tails intact 2 bundles asparagus, woody ends snapped off, halved crossways 2-3 bird's eye chillies, sliced   Sauce: 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp palm sugar (or to taste) 1 tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce 3 tbsp water   Method   Heat oil in a wok on high heat. Add the garlic, followed by the prawns. Let the prawns cook on one side, then flip them over to cook the other side. When the prawns are almost cooked, remove and transfer them to a plate and leave the oil in the wok. Next, add the asparagus to the wok and fry for 30 seconds, then push them aside. Add the chillies and pour the sauce ingredients down the side of the wok into the centre and bring to a boil. Toss the prawns in with the asparagus and sauce, and stir-fry briefly until everything is w...

In my previous post ( Grilled Beef with Charred Tomato and Chilli Sauce ), I wrote about my visit to Sailors Thai where I had the luxury of savouring an array of creative and exotic Thai dishes and was simply enamoured by the overall gastronomic experience. I attempted to make a mental note of how each dish tasted so that I could recreate the same at home if I ever had a craving for it. And so, this post features a very simple recipe for delicious stir-fried vegetable s in oyster sauce . In the menu, it was actually stated as "stir fried broccolini and sugar snap peas with oyster sauce", but they looked more like asparagus than broccolini, and so I've used asparagus in my recipe here. How timely it was that Ms AC received a bag of snow peas from her neighbour who just harvested them from the backyard, and she brought some to the office for me!     I decided to ramp up this dish by garnishing it with some crispy garlic chips and crispy dr...

  I first tried malai kofta at this Indian restaurant called Curry at the Rocks in Sydney, and was pleasantly surprised at how delicious it was, given that I'm not a big fan of vegetarian-type dishes. My colleague who introduced this dish to me explained that malai koftas are deep-fried potato balls served in a creamy sauce prepared from boiled milk, spices and fresh cream. The first thought that came to me was "I have to make this at home!", and so I looked up some recipes on the internet to get an idea of the basic ingredients that went into this dish. The koftas are usually made with mashed potato and paneer (an Indian cottage cheese) which are formed into balls and deep-fried until they form a crisp layer. The sauce predominantly comprises tomatoes and cream, but I decided to substitute part of the tomatoes with roasted red peppers instead. I was quite happy with how the dish turned out, which I think it was pretty successful for a first attempt. I a...

Brussel sprouts are DELICIOUS ! I just thought I should mention that first before you skip this post. I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten them, and it's just one of those vegetables that I just don't think about, and is easy to miss at the vegetable section of the supermarket because they don't sell a lot of them. They are also seasonal and are usually available around autumn to early winter in Australia. We were hunting high and low for brussel sprouts last December as we wanted to serve them for Christmas lunch, but they weren't in season then.  And so, when I came across them a few weeks ago at the supermarket, I was thrilled and grabbed a pack immediately.   I have never cooked brussel sprouts before this, but I've heard from G that they are great deep-fried and served with bacon. Well, I happened to have some maple syrup in the fridge and I thought, why not serve it with maple syrup instead? Anyway, maple syrup and bacon go together, so...

Even though I've only had Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad once in my life (and many years ago), I will always remember it as being one of the tastiest salads I've had. I'm no salad lover, which is why the crunchy toasted almond flakes and crispy noodles really did it for me, not to mention the deep-fried chicken tenders scattered over the top of the salad which made it a complete and satisfying meal. The "oriental" dressing was fantastic, although at the time, I was more focused on enjoying my meal rather than trying to analyse and figure out the components of the dressing. I googled it and was pleasantly surprised to see a few recipes (bordering around similar ingredients) for this salad. Apparently, I'm only one in thousands of other people who love Applebee's Oriental Chicken Salad, and so of course there are many out there who have attempted to recreate this dish at home. As I am thousands and thousands of miles away from the nearest Applebee...