Whacky Pumpkin Curry Pasta

Yesterday's nice-sunny Sunday was spent with Connie as she wanted to learn something to make for her other friends on the coming week. That said, the whole cooking experience began from buying the ingredients itself. We had to walk our way up to Randwick to get the ingredients, though I think that with the final product, the ingredients could have all been bought around Kingsford area. Anyway, not that I'm complaining as Connie's a good company. By the time we got back to her place, it was already 2pm, far behind schedule as we spent too much time hovering around, hence we had to pull a quickie before it gets too late and the meal end up as a dinner instead. So quickly, we manage to pull the dish off in 45, faster than I thought as I was expecting no less than an hour, but the outcome was pretty good as well...

This time around I decided to throw a bit of West into a wholesome of East, i.e. the pasta base with the Thai curry, which was really aromatic, I should have remembered the brand though, so that everyone else can get their hands on it. Anyway here are the ingredients:

300-500g pasta (any type will do, boil in water until desired softness)
1 large red Spanish onion (finely chopped)
3 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
50g shitake mushroom (chopped, rinsed, seasoned with sugar, salt and dry Basil)
about 300-500g pumpkin (any type will do, you can use butternut as well, coarsely chopped)
2tbsp Thai red hot curry paste (or more for those spice fans, you can use panang curry or yellow curry as well)
about 300g small washed potatoes
200g of tuna flakes
100g of diced tomatoes (just use the canned ones for those who are lazy, they come with the tomato sauce as well)
5tbsp vegetable oil
about 1 cup of milk (you can use coconut milk as well)
grated Parmasen cheese for finishing
salt and pepper to taste
half a bunch of Australian corriander (or use any herb that you like, basil and curry leafs are good options as well)

The methodology is simple, it's like making a curry dish, but add in more of the tomato to make it more subtle. Start of by poaching the chopped pumpkin and potatoes in salted water until the pumpkin are soft and tender, the potatoes will be further cooked in the curry later, so don't worry about them.
Meanwhile, dry-fry (or called toast) the chopped onions and shitake mushroom on a medium-high heat, add in sugar and salt when the ingredients start to dry, followed by vegetable oil and turning to high heat, saute for about 5 minutes or until the onions start to brown. Add in the garlic, saute until fragrant and add in curry paste, followed by diced tomato and half a cup of milk, mix well and simmer until it boils.

Add in the half-poached potatoes and the remaining milk upon boiling, leave to simmer. Meanwhile, mash the poached pumpkin evenly add some salt and pepper to taste. Done with that, add in the tuna flakes into the sauce and mix well, add seasoning to taste and bring to boil again on medium-low heat, add in the mashed pumpkin at last (so that much of the sweetness is retained), turn to low-heat and mix well. Done, serve with pasta, coarsely chopped herbs and finish off with grated Parmesan cheese.

Last note, feel free to add more water to make the sauce more diluted than the dry-pasty version that I like, and you could also substitute the tuna flakes with any other meat, preferably of stronger aroma, like minced beef or pork, or even herb-seasoned sausages, but make sure to pre-roast them to intensify the flavours.

StirFry T- Chicken

Again, this is another back-tracked dish from last week in which I helped to figure out how to cook some 8 drumsticks, it was not very easy as I was quite sick at that moment, and others are falling sick too, thanks to the awkwardly cold weather this year! Anyway, looking at what was available in the kitchen at that point, and what myself and others can actually take (we didn't want something to heaty, as everyone was not in their best conditions), I decided to give the usually tea-curium chicken a big twist. Maybe I should make the tea-curium chicken some time in the future... Haha
Anyway, this dish is not a hard dish at all, and for those who are looking at the pictures and wondering do we (or can we) actually eat the tea leafs, the answer is yes, they are by nature, leafs, and we eat vegetable leafs don't we? Not compulsory though, if you feel that you cannot get over the idea of eating tea leafs, fine, get rid of them. lol The ingredients are as following:

about 25g tea leafs (you can use any type of tea leafs you want, preferably the ones that have a sweet flavour if you are going to eat them), I used Tieh Guan Yin (literal translation would be steel Bodhisattva? lol)
1 brown onion (finely chopped)
1 tbsp soy paste (you can use SaCha or sandy tea paste? haha)
3 tbsp oil
5 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Marinade
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce
sesame oil
black pepper
sugar
oyster sauce
some corn starch
*Note that I did not include the proportion of each, I just got fed up with measuring everything I guess, it's really just as much as you want to use, but try things at your own risk! lol

Just for start, lightly dry-fry the chopped brown onions, add sugar and salt and continue to fry until they are dry enough before adding pre-soaked tea leafs, continue the process until the tea leafs are fairly dry as well, add in oil at this point, followed by chopped garlic, stir fry until the tea fragrance is released.

Add in the marinated drumsticks at this point, followed by soy paste, mix the ingredients well, add water to cover all the ingredients, cover with wok lid and bring to boil before turning to medium heat to braise with covered lid for about 10-15 minutes. Remember to open the lid once a while to allow the ingredients some breath and stir about the un-cooked bits.

At the end of the braising, the chicken meat should fall loose from the bones easily, otherwise, consider to continue braising so that the drumsticks are cooked thoroughly, add water occasionally if the gravy starts to dry up, add seasoning to taste prior to serving. Done. Serve hot or warm.

Chicky Belacan Chicky

I thought it was really about time that I post this dish up before I forget how to cook it, so here you are, a dish that I made...about a week ago or maybe even more! Haha It is not very often that my housemates agree to spend a bit of fortune on extra sauces and ingredients for cooking, and it was during this rare opportunity that I managed to chuck a packet of Belacan (Made in Malaysia!) into the shopping basket, all thanks to Randwick Oriental's special discounts! Those who are wondering what discount is that can message me and I'd be glad to tell you how to get those discounts...

Anyway, with the cheaky (chicky) title and the short story introduction, I believe everyone should know that there is no big secret to this dish, basically Belacan (or dried shrimp paste) is the main ingredient, and our beloved Penang back in Malaysia is one the places that comes out with loads of this kind of product. There are two types of shrimp paste in the market (at least the ones from Malaysia that I know), one is in a dry form while the other is literally in paste (liquid) form, both of which are dark brown or black in colour and have a very intense (some say smelly) aroma when sniffed, and even stronger when being cooked!


Ingredients:
500g chicken breast (sliced to fillet size, can have more if desired)
5tbsp water diluted Belacan (about 1/8 of a packed dried Belacan, dilute with warm water bit by bit)
1 carrot (thinly sliced)
1 brown onion (finely chopped, feel free to use red ones also)
4 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
3 slices ginger (about 1cm, finely chopped)
3pc dried chilie (soaked in water and finely chopped)
corn starch, salt and pepper, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar.


Method:
1. Marinate the chicken breast fillets with a dash of salt, pepper, light and dark soy sauce, corn starch, dark soy sauce, Chinese shaoxing cooking wine, and lastly sesame oil (do not add too much cooking wine and sesame oil otherwise the taste will contradict the belacan flavours). Leave to rest for about 15 minutes.
2. Brown the chopped onions using a dry-clean frying pan (add in a dash of salt and sugar, fry lightly before adding oil to further saute). Bring the oil to its peak heat, add in dried chili, chopped ginger and garlic, lightly fry for a minute or two until fragrant, add in sliced chicken breast fillets.
3. Stir fry for about 3-5 minutes, while the fillets still present slight pink-ish, add in diluted belacan at this point, continue to stir fry for until all fillets are thoroughly cooked (adding water ocassionally when almost drying up). Bring stir fry ingredients to a boil, add additional sugar, salt and pepper to taste if necessary. Done. Serve hot with heaps of rice.

Spicy Buttered Chicky-Corn Soup

It was my turn to cook again a few days back and one of the tasks was to have a soup, I was trying to 'think out of the box' as I didn't want to cook just 'yet another typical soup', hence I eneded up with this soup, hopefully everyone enjoys this experimentation of mine....

To start off with, cut out 3 corn cob worth of corn kernels (keep the cores), prepare 1 red spanish onion (finely chopped), 3 cloves of garlic, 3pc dried chilie (coarsely chopped), 1tbsp hot paprika powder, about 8 drumsticks (you can adjust this accordingly), 2tbsp of butter, 1tbsp golden syrup, 5tbsp light soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste.


To marinade the drumsticks, lightly draw a few knife cuts on the meat, season with additional light soy sauce, black pepper powder, a dash of Chinese shao xing cooking wine, and some sugar, leave to sit for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a soup pot, lightly sautee the onion with 1tbsp of melted butter. Add in garlic when the onion starts to turn brownish, continue to sautee for a minute or so, stir in the corn kernels and sitr fry over medium-high heat. Add in golden syrup at this point, followed by the hot paprika powder, salt, pepper and continue to stir-fry until the corn kernels start to brown. Cover with water and bring to boil with lid covered, add more water to allow it to simmer off later on. Add in the drumsticks and corn cores as soon as the water boils, stir throughly, add in 5tbsp of light soy sauce, bring to boil again and cover with pot lid to allow to simmer over low-medium heat for about 30-45 minutes or even more if desired. Remove lid, add in the remaning butter, add seasoning to taste if desired, done, serve hot.