The Occasional Cook

I love this dish. Once in a while, I’ll crave for it. Luckily for me, the Giant hypermart near my place, stocks up on potato or cassava leaves and they cost like 50 cents a bunch. Less actually. My grandmother taught me her recipe to cook this dish. She uses, besides the usual onions and garlic, chilli padi(!) and ikan bilis. And, she’ll add sweet potatoes in. Lovely!

However that day when I made this, I decided to use only one fresh red chilli so that The Little Girl will be able to enjoy the dish too.

IMG00636-20110101-1025 — Blend not too finely ikan bilis, an onion, two to three garlic cloves, belacan, fresh turmeric, one fresh red chilli.

However, before this step, you must boil the cassava leaves till soft in plenty of water and a wee bit of oil. After its cooked (mind you, this can take more than an hour!), drain, wring excess water out, cut into smaller pieces and put in back in a pot. Then, you add the blended spices.

After you’ve added the blended spices, add some water, and then add coconut cream/milk. Add salt. If adding the sweet potatoes, boil them till soft first before adding the leaves and spices.

IMG00635-20110101-1024 — The potato leaves after being boiled.

IMG00642-20110101-1055 — The finished product.

Mind you, these are not sweet potato leaves, the ones you get easily at NTUC. They’re tapioca leaves. For something different and more kampong-style, try this.

Bread and Batter

Salmon on Cream Cheese in a Bagel

February 2, 2011 7shasha7

It’s been ages since I updated this site. Time to renew. Anyway, I feel productive today, having finished marking a few scripts ;p

I’ve been doing a lot of cooking during the holidays. One of the days, I invited my aunts over for my usual year-end luncheons.

For appetisers, I made Bagel Sandwiches. Now, I’ve got my lovely colleague to thank for this, as she brought me all the way to the factories in Woodlands and while there, we discovered this place called Melvados, where they sell the most scrumptious jalapeno and cheese bagel in the world! I love it! They’re the bomb! I cannot get enough of it. I’m craving for it right now.

Back to the simple recipe. Bagel toasted. Spread garlic flavoured cream cheese. Top with smoked salmon. Serve open.

IMG00610-20101223-1049 — I know I said 'serve open' but here, i've added the top on just to show you the lovely hot bits of jalapeno on this bagel. Yummy!

This doesn’t even constitute a recipe but it is a great recipe idea. Grab a bagel and make yourself some bagel sandwiches!

Cakes and Cookies, Desserts, Sides

Cream Cheese Centred Herb Muffins

December 7, 2010 7shasha7

Now, this is a recipe I created. It’s not yet perfect (still sweet for my liking). I wanted to bake muffins and I wanted cream cheese. So I thought, why not do like what those people at Mr Bean do? You know, those circular pancakes with cheese or other filling inside? Tokiwado, I call them.

It’s easy to make muffins when you set everything up neatly.

Using Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate Chocolate Muffin recipe as a base, I started improvising. And then, these were the results:

IMG00501-20101206-1750 — I added some batter, and a triangle of cream cheese (Laughing Cow)

IMG00502-20101206-1755 — Top it up with some more batter.

IMG00506-20101206-1818 — Bake till golden and fluffy.

IMG00509-20101206-1823 — Eat warm so that the cheese is nice and melting.

I still think the batter is sweet; I wonder if I can completely omit the sugar. I will try this again. For now, it’s wonderful enough. If you want to make these, try using 1/4 cup sugar instead of my 1/2 cup.

Shasha’s Cream Cheese Centred Herb Muffin

Dry

1. 1 3/4 cup plain flour

2. 2tsp baking powder

3. 1/2 tsp baking soda

4. 1/2 cup sugar (use 1/4 cup instead)

5. 2 tsp dried herbs (I used Provence Herbs)

Wet

1. 3/4 cup and 2 tsp olive oil

2. 1 cup milk

3. 1 egg

Cream Cheese triangles for the centre. Enjoy! 😀

Salads and Vegetables, Sides

Popcorn

December 7, 2010December 7, 2010 7shasha7

Why buy popcorn when you can make tubs and tubs of it very cheaply at home? I didn’t even know that you can make your own popcorn till I was about 11 or 12. I was visiting my cousin and she taught me how to make popcorn. Then, I taught my friend at her home (I think I brought over some I had made at home) and until today, her mother remembers me for the popcorn.

I use this brand now to make popcorn. It comes in a resealable bag and it keeps for a very long time. It can be popped ‘white’ or ‘yellow’ – I bought the ‘white’ ones.

IMG00497-20101206-0919 — You can easily get this at Cold Storage.

The best part of making your own popcorn is that you can experiment with as many flavours as you want. I’ve been watching the Food Network and in America they are really big on Kettle Corn. You can flavour your popcorn savoury or sweet or even the bizarre (I had bubblegum flavoured popcorn once).

These are some of the flavours I’ve tried:

Caramel

Put popped corns aside. In the saucepan, heat some sugar till caramelised and then pour over popped kernels till coated well. Before that, you may want to add a bit of melted butter over too. My children love this.

Plain Cinnamon

Just sprinkle lots and lots of powdered cinnamon over the popcorn. Very healthy and good for your health. Don’t add melted butter.

Herbs and Salt

This is French-style. Sprinkle sea salt over and Herbs de Provence. Shake well to coat and serve.

Butter and Salt

Melt lots of butter. Sprinkle over popcorn and then sprinkle salt. Very salty, buttery popcorn. Mmmm…

I’m going to try out other flavours when I can. 🙂

Noodles and Pasta, Seafood

Tuna Pasta in Cream

December 6, 2010December 6, 2010 7shasha7

I like cream but it’s expensive. Then one day at Mustafa I saw this big pack at less than $4…

Because The Hubby was hungry and the lamb refused to defrost in time(the microwave oven’s still spoilt), I remembered my friend who makes wonderful tuna pasta. And, also at Mustafa, I saw the brand of tuna she uses – Heinz’ Starkist. In my fridge were leftover boiled pasta from yesterday’s pasta chicken soup so all I did was sautee garlic, add in the cream, tuna, cherry tomatoes, pasta, black pepper, salt and to cut the creaminess, a few sprinkles of Tabasco’s Habanero sauce. Voila! To serve, a sprinkle of black pepper and parmesan cheese. So delicious and fattening. This dish needs to be eaten IMMEDIATELY because once a bit cold, the cream will harden.