Aubergine Mango Chutney Salad

I heart aubergine and I will have them at least once a week …and this time I tried turning them into salad. The tangy sweetness from the chutney blends well with the aubergine though. A tasty dish that can be served as a side condiment for roast chicken or any roast meat. Thanks Zurin for sharing this aubergine salad with me :)

this aubergine mango chutney salad can be

served as a side condiment for roast chicken....

exotically yummy :p

Aubergine Mango Chutney Salad  - adapted Zurin 

Ingredients:

4 small brinjals
3-4 whole green chillies * I omitted the chillies
5-6 shallots peeled and left whole

2 pips garlic, peeled
1 inch ginger, skinned
1/2 inch cinnamon
ground black pepper
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp sugar
1 or 2 tbsp of mango chutney (or other fruit chutney)
1 -2 tsp rice vinegar (I used apple cider) or you clould use tamarind juice (yum)
2 tbsp or sauteed mustard seeds pounded to a paste

a handful of dried anchovies fried to a crisp (optional)

Method:

Pound garlic, ginger and cinnamon bark in a pestle and mortar using some salt as an abrasive.

In a medium bowl put in the ginger/garlic paste, add tumeric powder, some ground black pepper mango chutney, vinegar and the lovely mustard seed paste. Mix tehm all around and add some pepper or cayenne pepper if you like to spice it up.

Cut the brinjals into thickish strips (very much like chunky fries) and deep fry the brinjals, shallots and whole chillies in hot oild briefly just until the brinjals turn light brown. Drain
of excess oil and put them into the bowl of dressing.Add the fried anchovies and mix them up like you would salad. Adjust flavours by adding a little more salt,vinegar or chutney to your taste. Serve

Enjoy !


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Homemade Mango Chutney

I have always wanted to try making mango chutney and I managed to pull out the lazy bones out of me and tada , a bottle of mouth watering mango chutney. I dedicate this to Zurin of Cherry On A Cake.

On July 27, she introduced a dish named Sri Lankan Salad Moju which uses fruit pickle , more specifically mango chutney. It’s hard to find mango chutney off the shelf over here, so I decided to make my own, I searched for homemade mango chutney and I knew that this one will turned out delicious! There are so many variations but I chose this one and I was not disappointed. Good things are for sharing :p This mango chutney can be eaten as a side condiment or use it to make salad as Zurin had done. It can be taken with roast chicken too…yay.. this mango chutney can be used in many ways! Just the thought of it....many dishes come to mind...so stay tuned :)))

cubed mangoes, diced onion, mustard seeds, golden raisins,
crystilised ginger , sugar, distilled vinegar, chilli flakes

are the ingredients used for making this mango chutney

after 1 hour of stirring and stirring the mango mixture,

inhaling this golden richness that so arouses my

salivary glands....mmmmm worth my time standing

over the stove stirring this golden richness !

the above amount was enough to fill up one glass jar

content of 500 gms

I could not resist taking a close up shot :p

you can slurps it off from your screen or try it out and
slurps the real thing...haha juz kidding :) ;)

Homemade Mango Chutney

Ingredients:

· 3/4 cups sugar
· ½ cup distilled white vinegar
· 3 cups mangoes (3 mangoes), peeled and cut in 1/2-inch pieces
· 1 medium onion, diced
· 1/4 cup golden raisins
· 1/4 cup crystallized ginger, finely chopped
· 1 garlic clove, minced
· 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, whole
· 1/4 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes (hot)

Method:

Combine sugar and vinegar in a pot; bring to a boil, stirring until sugar dissolves.

Add remaining ingredients and simmer, uncovered, until syrupy and slightly thickened, 45 minutes to 1 hour. Stir occasionally during cooking.

Pour into clean jar and cool it before keeping it in the fridge .

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Pan Fried Threadfin Salmon With Salted Black Beans

This is a very tasty way to cook Threadfin Salmon aka Ikan Senangin in our local Malay language. We , Chinese called it 'Ma Yau Yue ' . Pan fried it with a little olive oil in a non-stick pan till both sides are lightly browned and cooked. Put the fish aside. Saute some garlic, chilli padi, salted black beans and fermented soybean till fragrant. Dish out the fish and scoop the sautéed black beans mixture on to the fish. Serve it with hot rice….yum yum yummy, the aroma of sautéed black beans mixture will whets up your appetite and it complement the fish well. This is also one easy way to cook a fish for dinner especially when one is rushing for time :)) ME... :p

Mmmmm ...........delicious

with those aromatic sauteed black beans mixture

I love simple preparation...the easiest , the better

and this one takes only 1/2 hour to prepare...

20 minutes to pan fried the fish and 10 minutes

to sauteed the black beans mixture....fast enough?

this was so delicious that I wanted to have the whole fish all to

myself :p...no that would be greedy...:))))

MMMmmmm......slurps slurps slurps

this is the brand of preserved black beans
that I used for this recipe..I bought it from a shop
in Ipoh old town, opp Kwong Fatt Textile

Pan Fried Threadfin Salmon With Salted Black Beans

Ingredients
1 Threadfin Salmon – degutted and remove the scales and rub all over the fish with
a bit of salt and corn starch
3 pips of garlic – chopped finely
1 tsp of fermented soy bean
1 heaped tsp of preserved black beans – washed
1 chilli padi – chopped finely

1 tbsp of olive oil

Method:

Pan fried the fish with a little olive oil in a non-stick pan till both sides are lightly browned and cooked. Put aside the fish. Saute garlic, chilli padi, salted black beans and fermented soybean with the remnant of the olive oil in the pan till fragrant. Dish out the fish and scoop the sautéed black beans mixture on to the fish. Serve hot .

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Stir Fry Tofu With Mint Mango And Enoki

Yesterday, I was in the mood do a bit of cooking, actually I felt remorseful becoz my other half had to endured those one dish meal I prepared for him lately :p . So I decided to go back to cooking rice for him, being the staple food for him…haha I can go without rice for a month but he can’t, he is a ‘fun thung ’ meaning he is rice taker :))) So I pan fried a fish ( cuming up in my next post ) and cooked this savoury tofu dish for us.

I have been cooking tofu the same normal way day in day out , either steamed them with fish paste or baked them with toppings but for this time , I stir fried them with mint leaves, mango and enoki with a dash of paprika and chilli flakes with lotz of chopped garlic and olive oil. Well…the beautiful exotic aroma filled the room as I was frying this dish…Daddy ran to the kitchen asking me “ what are you cooking that even Chaco sneezed! ” The garlic blends well with the paprika and chilli flakes powder and when the mint leaves were added into the dish…mamamia! Perfect combo and thus making this bland tofu into a delicious dish. If you love garlic & mint leaves that is…this is one best way to cook the bland tofu.

I used the firm white tofu and some remnant seaweed tofu
to make this dish

this dish can be eaten alone or with hot rice

bland tofu can be turned into a tasty one with lotz of
chopped garlic and paprika and the chilli flakes will make it
spicy....this tofu dish is tasty and aromatic !

Stir Fry Tofu With Mint, Mango & Enoki

Ingredients:

2 pieces of firm white tofu – diced
½ piece of seaweed tofu – from the supermarket

some mint leaves – washed and drained
enoki
1 firm ripe mango – diced

5 pips of garlic – chopped
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of chilli flakes
salt to taste
3 tbsp of olive oil

Method:

Pan fry the diced tofu with olive oil on a non-stick pan. Push it aside and sauté the garlic till fragrant but not browned . Add in the enoki to the tofu and continue to stir fry till the tofu and enoki and well combined. Add in the mint leaves and mango. Sprinkle the paprika and chilli flakes onto the tofu mixture and stir fry till aromatic. Add salt to taste. Dish up and serve hot.

This dish can be eaten alone or serve with hot rice.

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Udon In Seafood Soup

Our dinners menu lately are mostly all in one…cooking one dish meal is so time saving and less washing :) and it is normally a well balanced preparation . Tonight’s dinner menu was Udon In Seafood Soup. There were veggie , seaweed tofu, fresh Korean mushrooms, enoki , prawns and sea clams. The soup base is chicken flavoured undertone and I added konbu to make it more tasty and aromatic. The soup was boiled for ¾ hour under small fire to allow the flavor from the konbu to infuse into the chicken soup. I added in the prawns and sea clams to make up the soup base. Once the prawns turned red and the sea clams has opened up, I added in 1 tablespoon of sake mirin into the soup for extra flavor. Whoaa..the soup was tasty and flavourful. I included some bok choy , korean mushrooms, enoki and seaweed tofu to the Udon thus making this one dish meal a delectable one! And to make it more complete, I garnished it with some nori strips..YUMMY is the word!

My better half has no complaints….seeing him attacking the Udon with so much enthusiasm made me a happy other half… so more one dish meals in the coming days :p

Udon In Seafood Soup - 2 persons

Ingredients

Soup base

1 cube chicken stock
1 4” X 4” piece of konbu
1500ml water

6 pieces of fresh prawns
10 pieces of sea clams

Ingredient accompaniments for Udon
bok choy – for 2 persons
seaweed tofu – 1 piece - diced
enoki – 1 pkt
some fresh Korean mushrooms

some nori strips for garnishing

* some fried garlic & garlic oil - optional

2 pkts of Udon - Blanch in hot boiling water - drained

Preparation

Boil the above soup base ingredients in a soup pot for ¾ hours under small fire till the flavor of the konbu is infused into the soup. Add in the prawns and sea clams and boils till the prawns turned red and the sea clams are opened up. Add salt to taste.

Turn off the fire and leave it aside until needed.

Blanch the bok choy, seawood tofu, enoki and the fresh Korean mushrooms. Drained and leave aside.

Serve the Udon in a bowl with all accompaniment ingredients , pour the seafood soup over it. and garnish with nori strips ,fried garlic and some garlic oil.

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Quiche Lorainne

First time baking a quiche…and to my surprised it turned out delish! I baked this Quiche Lorainne for Piggy Cuz... for I know she loves quiche :) While it was baking in the oven, the wonderful smell of bacon and cheese filled the air and ‘ Chaco ’ ( my 4 legged son :p ) was eyeing the oven all the time :)) Hoping it will pop out of the oven into his bowl…wishful thinking on his part!

It was quite easy to make and the recipe was juz nice for my 9” tart pan with detachable bottom. I will definitely make this again when the Piggies are home…this is just a try out.

It was a good bake, full of cheese and bacon , less butter and less eggs…no sugar, no salt…a healthy one and I know of one person who will love this and who will not mind paying RM 7 for a small slice of tuna quiche…she is none other than my Piggy gal :)

the quiche was evenly browned and

the aroma was saliva-inducing :p

there are two types of cheese in this quiche :p

mozzarella and cheddar cheese !

cheesy-li-cious!

yum yum yummy :))

Quiche Lorainne

Ingredients:

For the crust
100 gm grated cheddar cheese
120 gms plain flour
120 gms butter ( melted )

For the filling

3 large eggs
80 ml fresh cream
2 red onions – sliced
120 gms thinly sliced bacon
40 gms grated cheedar cheese
120 gms grated mozzarella

Method:

1.Preheat the oven to 200 ̊ C

2.Bake the sliced bacon for 7 minutes in the oven. Take it out and leave to cool.

3.Melt the butter.

4.Mix the grated cheese with the flour , add the melted butter and knead it into a ball

5.Grease the 9” tart pan with a detachable bottom .

6.Put the dough in and press till the whole tart pan is lined with the dough.

7.Beat the eggs together with the fresh cream , add in the mozzarella cheese, grated cheddar cheese and onions to the egg mixture and mix together till well combined.

8.Crumble the bacon slices into the egg mixture and stir till well mixed.

9.Pour the filling mixture on the crust and spread out evenly.

10.Bake the quiche for 30 minutes or till evenly browned. Leave to cool for a few minutes, then serve with salad of your choice.

Happy Baking !

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