Divalicious Pork Curry

Well not so much on the pork curry being a diva but in case you haven’t heard, yours truly is currently one of the contestants for a contest in conjunction of Mother’s Day. It’s called My Mum, My Diva and I’m really excited about it! I really do hope I can be one of the Top 5 Diva Mums, and if I don’t get to be well it’s all for good fun yea :D But still vote for me will ya?

So back to this recipe, I count myself lucky because great cooks are aplenty in my family even my uncle makes this mean wild boar curry. I still remember that he would always cook his curry with a clay pot not to be mistaken with the clay pots used by the Chinese. It looks like this which is more commonly used by the Indians and somehow it just make the curry even more delicious . The whole house and maybe the whole neighbourhood would be filled with the wonderful aroma of the curry. I can even smell it right now! But then again it’s nearly 3 in the morning and I’m hungry :D

There are many ways to make curry thanks to the different kind of cuisines we have so the world of curries are endless! I won’t categorize this dish because it’s kinda like a family recipe and being Malaysian it’s definitely a fusion mix of all the races in Malaysia :)

You Need
1.5 kg pork tenderloin, cut into sizeable pieces
2–3 potatoes, cut into wedges
3–4 tablespoons of oil
1 cup of santan (thick coconut milk or you may substitute with full cream milk)
1½ cups of thin coconut milk

Spices (A) – combined and ground:
15 shallots
4 cloves garlic
2.5cm piece ginger
4 candlenuts
3 tablespoons chilli paste (you may omit with 5 tablespoons of meat curry powder this if you can’t get chilli paste)
2½ tablespoons meat curry powder

Spices (B):
4cm piece cinnamon stick
3 star anise
8 cloves
salt and sugar to season

How To
1. Heat cooking oil in wok or heavy based pot.
2. Add in spices (B), stir fry constantly at low heat till fragrant
3. Add in Spices (A) and continue frying until the oil rises.
4. Add in the pork along with the potatoes and mix well until meat is coated with spices.
5. Stir in thin coconut milk and let it simmer until the meat’s tender and potatoes are soft. It would take about an hour and remember to stir occasionally
6. Pour in thick coconut milk, bring to a boil.
7. Best serve with a piece of toast just like how I like it and enjoy!

Rocket Salad

No it’s not the rocket rocket, I’m talking about rocket leaves or to some you may know it as arugula leaves. A strong flavoured (peppery) salad leaves that is usually used in salad but you can have it with your pasta or meat. Heck the Italians even have it as their pizza toppings! This recipe is pretty simple and easy to make, you don’t have to be a scientist to make a rocket salad (rocket = scientist… get it? LOL, ahem ok excuse me with my lame joke).

Serves 2
You Need
A packet of rocket leaves (washed and spin dry with a salad spinner)
2 hardboiled eggs, quartered
1 cup of crouton
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 tomato, deseeded and chopped (or you can also use cherry tomatoes)

Croutons 
1 slice of bread, cubed and drizzle with some olive oil, season with salt & freshly cracked black pepper Arrange the cubes on a baking sheet in a single layer, cook in a preheated oven at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes or until it turns crispy and golden .
Remember to toss the cubes every 10 minutes for even cooking

Balsamic Vinaigrette dressing
3 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 teaspoon sugar
4 shallots, finely chopped
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
salt and freshly cracked black pepper to season

How To
1.To make the vinaigrette, whisk all the ingredients in a bowl or add all the ingredients in a jar, cover with a lid and shake to mix. You can leave it to chill in the fridge if you like.
2. To make the salad, toss all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl except the vinaigrette. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and lightly toss with your fingers.
3. Serve and enjoy!

Her favourite snack

Balsamic Chicken with Rosemary and Baked Potato Fries

I was going through my blog and I just realized that I forgot to post up two recipes and they were like a couple months back. Sorry!! *sheepish smile*

 

Ok for a couple of weeks I was into balsamic vinegar, almost all the dishes I made has to have balsamic vinegar be it as a dressing, sauce or marinade. I had my first taste of this wonderful liquid at Italiannies where they serve freshly baked bread with herbed olive oil and balsamic vinegar, so being the curious me I quickly went to the supermarket and got myself a bottle of balsamic vinegar not knowing what to do with it.

But as always I attended a brief stint at the University of Google and found out that a true balsamic vinegar is sweet and not at all acidic, and a friend who is currently staying in Italy mentioned that balsamic vinegar are usually quite syrupy and very expensive, as they are dark, sweet vinegar aged for many years in wooden barrels in Italy. The longer it is aged, the sweeter, thicker and more expensive it becomes. So the ones available here are those that hasn’t been aged for long but they are still good to use in cooking even though I feel kinda ripped off . Read more about it here. 

Well now that we have learned more about balsamic vinegar, it’s time to use it in our cooking as shown in the recipe below

 

Serves 2  
You Need
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cleaned and pat dry 
1-1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
4 shallots, minced
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar,
2 tablespoons of brown sugar,
2-3 medium sized Russet potatoes, unpeeled and scrubbed then cut lengthwise into 1/2-inch-thick

How To
1. Combine rosemary, garlic, sugar, balsamic vinegar, oil, pepper and salt in small bowl; mix well.
2. Place chicken in large bowl, drizzle chicken with marinade mixture and rub over.
3.Cover and refrigerate several hours.
4.Preheat oven to 180 degree Celcius. Spray heavy roasting pan or cast iron skillet with nonstick cooking spray or you may drizzle olive oil all over.
5.Layer potatoes around chicken in pan; bake 10 minutes. Turn chicken over, stirring in 3 to 4 tablespoons water if drippings begin to stick to pan.
6.Bake about 10 minutes or until chicken is golden brown and no longer pink in center and the potatoes are soft when you pierce using a fork.
7.Transfer chicken and potatoes to plates. Stir liquid in pan; drizzle over chicken.
8. Serve with salad greens and enjoy!

It’s been a while

…since I last posted, gosh time sure flies a lot quicker than I thought. Being at home makes one lost sense of time and date, really. Anyway I hardly do much cooking these days because well, it’s not that I have lost interest in cooking and blogging, no never but I hardly find time to do so now that Ashley is much bigger  and she wants all the attention. The moment I leave her alone with her toys, she would start to look for me so now am trying to adjust her routine and my routine as well so that I can go back to cooking and blogging about it.

Ok back to the recipe, this is something inspired by my favourite dish at one of my must-go dining place during the weekend, Delicious. Each time we go there I am for sure to order this pasta dish, Duck Confit Spaghettini with Sundried Tomatoes and Coriander. Now to be honest I was never a fan of coriander AND tomatoes but when I first tried out this dish, I actually love it a lot, so much that I kept ordering it each time I dine at Delicious. I used to love pasta with loads of sauces but these days I prefer a lighter version , Aglio Olio and this is just perfect; the yummy and tender Duck Confit with a slight tartness of the tomatoes and the fresh taste of coriander comes together in a lightly tossed pasta with olive oil, salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

And even though I would love to go there every week for the dish, we can’t afford to do so on weekly basis, so I tried to come out with my own adaptation of the dish by using seabass instead of duck confit. And to my surprise it’s quite similar with Delicious’ version although I can’t 100% say for sure I’d nailed it :) So here’s the recipe for Pan Fried Fish Pasta with Sun dried Tomatoes and Coriander

Serves 2
You Need
250g of spaghetti, cooked until al dente
300g sea bass fillet
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes ( you can easily get them from the supermarket, they usually comes in a bottle filled with oil and herbs)
2 to 3 cloves of garlic, minced,
3 tablespoons of olive oil ,
1/2 cup of chopped coriander,
salt and freshly cracked pepper to season 

How To
1. Clean and pat dry the fish with kitchen towel and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat oil in a skillet or pan. Fry sea bass, turning once halfway through cooking time. Cook until opaque and moist on the inside, 4 to 8 minutes. Set aside.
3. In the same pan saute the garlic and sundried tomatoes briefly and turn off the heat.
4. Toss hot pasta with the tomatoes and coriander. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Top with the pan fried seabass and garnish with coriander. Serve hot.