Otak otak telur ikan

Ingredients:
6 shallots
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
1 stalk lemongrass
2 tbsp ground chilli
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
1 tsp coriander seeds
250g grated coconut
3 tbsp coconut paste
Salt to taste

400g fish roe
1 tbsp tamarind paste (optional)

Banana leaf (optional)

Method:
1. In a bowl, mix the tamarind paste with 1/2 cup water and soak the roe for abt 10 min to remove the fishy smell. Then drain off the water.
2. Put all other ingredients in the food processor and ground to a smooth paste.
3. Add in the fish roe. Mix well to break the egg sac and ensure the eggs and paste are well incorporated.
4. Line a hot pan with banana leaves and place enough roe mixture till it is abt 1cm thick.
5. Place another leaf on the mixture and cover the pan. Bring the fire down to low.
6. After 5 min (or the leaf has some char), turn it over and cook for another 3 min.
7. Repeat till all the paste is cooked.

Alternatives:
1. If you dont have banana leaves, use pandan or just plain baking paper.
2. You can choose to broil it in the oven instead of on the stove.

Mussels with creamy dill sauce

Ingredients:
500g Mussels
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cream
2 tbsp dill cut fine
Salt and pepper

Method:
1. Clean the mussels
2. In a pot, melt butter then add onion. Stir till wilted.
3. Add the dill and fry for a few min
4. Add the stock and cream and stir till incorporated.
5. Add mussels. Steam for 5 to 10 min. Add sat and pepper to taste.

Shell Out: the seafood craze

In a deep pot, boil aromatics in a sufficinet amount of water

2" ginger, bruised

2 bay leaves

4 lime leaves

1 tumeric leaf

Once boiling, add the crabs:

2 crabs (whole) 

After 8 to 10 min, add:

500g prawns

About 400g mussels (cleaned)

Cook for another 5 to 8 min and separate seafood from stock. Reserve 1 to 2 cups of stock and keep the rest (its delish!)

In a separate pot:

Boiling Water

Salt

2 corn

1 broccoli 

Put the corn in first and the broccoli after 10 min. Drain once cooked.

In a wok, fry the following:

100g butter (melted)

8 cloves garlic, chopped

1 yellow onion, sliced,

1" ginger, sliced

2 tbsp each of chilli, smoked paprika and cayenne pepper powder (inc or dec as desired)

1 

2 tbsp oyster sauce

Optional: lime and coriander leaves

Salt to taste

Once it tastes about right, add a cup (or 2 if you prefer ir soupier) of stock. Bring to a rolling boil and add veg and the seafood (if you want to use squid, add it here as well). Stir well and we are done! 

Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Ingredients
50g butter
1 onion chopped
3 cloves garlic sliced
1 small carrot sliced
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
3 roasted peppers*
1 cube chicken stock
2 tbsp parsley chopped
2 cups water
80ml heavy cream
Salt and pepper

Special Equipment: (immersion) blender

Method:
1. In a pot, melt butter. Add the chopped onion and garlic and fry till wilted.
2. Add the spices and veg, fry for a few minutes before adding the stock and water. Let it simmer till the carrots soften.
3. Bring the soup off the heat. Then, blend the soup.
4. Put the pot back on low heat then add the cream. Once incorporated, turn off the heat. Add salt and pepper as needed. Eat!


*Note: you can buy roaster peppers at abt $8 per bottle which has 1 to 2 peppers or spend about 45 min making them.
1. Preheat the oven at 200deg
2. Place some olive oil and salt on the pepper.
3. Bake the peppers for 30 min. Turn the pepper in 10 min intervals.
4. Once the peppers are charred, cover the pan with aluminium foil for 10 min.
5. Once slightly cooled, peel off the skin.

Cheesy garlic swirls

I got inspired to do this by DNA. Recipe looks easy enough and it turned out awesome. I've been playing around with this recipe and made awesome variations lol.

Ingredients for basic dough

300g bread flour
100g plain flour
30g sugar
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
250 ml milk
30g butter

Method:

The queen of efficiency (thats me) says dump everything but the butter into a mixer, let it do its thing for 10min before adding the butter and letting it mix for another 5.

Leave it to rise for 1 hr.

Filling:
50g softened butter (add pinch of salt of using unsalted)
1 tsp dried/fresh parsley or chives or spring onion (make sure pieces are small n dry)
2 garlic, mashed
1 tbsp parmesan or any dry cheese

Mix everything up.

Once dough has risen, roll it out to abt 1cm thickness, spread the filling before rolling it (think swiss roll) and cutting it up into 3 cm pieces. You can arrange the pieces into any pan or into muffin cups.

Let it rise for another 15 min while you preheat the oven at 160C and bake.

Cheesy garlic swirls

I got inspired to do this by DNA. Recipe looks easy enough and it turned out awesome. I've been playing around with this recipe and made awesome variations lol.

Ingredients for basic dough

300g bread flour
100g plain flour
30g sugar
1 tsp yeast
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
250 ml milk
30g butter

Method:

The queen of efficiency (thats me) says dump everything but the butter into a mixer, let it do its thing for 10min before adding the butter and letting it mix for another 5.

Leave it to rise for 1 hr.

Filling:
50g softened butter (add pinch of salt of using unsalted)
1 tsp dried/fresh parsley or chives or spring onion (make sure pieces are small n dry)
2 garlic, mashed
1 tbsp parmesan or any dry cheese

Mix everything up.

Once dough has risen, roll it out to abt 1cm thickness, spread the filling before rolling it (think swiss roll) and cutting it up into 3 cm pieces. You can arrange the pieces into any pan or into muffin cups.

Let it rise for another 15 min while you preheat the oven at 160C and bake.

Wak Eton's Roti Jala / Roti Kirai with chicken curry

Roti Kirai/ Roti Jala is  a comforting staple. Beautiful and soft latticed pancakes. Theyre awesome.

Wak eton (my mum's eldest sister with her angelic cooking hands) does it like this:

Ingredients:
500g flour
2 eggs
1 can evaporated milk
Pinch of tumeric powder
2 tsp salt (to taste)
Water as needed
Oil to cook

Equipment:
Flat pan/gridle
Roti jala scoop
Fish slice

Throw all this in a food processor and let it do the hard work. It should have the consistency of pancake batter. Once its ready, grease the pan, use the scoop/bottle to form a lattice (google it yo!) And once cooked, fold it in eighths and youre good to go.

Traditionally, we have this with curry. This is my aunt's curry

200g shallots (ground)
7 cloves garlic (ground)
1 inch ginger (ground)
1 tsp each cardamom, star anise and cloves
1 stick cinnamon
2 stalks curry leaves
4 tbsp curry powder
500g chicken
3 potatoes
2 carrot
3 tomatoes
1 bunch coriander leaves/stem
200ml yoghurt
500ml water
Salt
Oil

1. Grind the shallots, garlic and ginger to a smooth paste.
2. Mix the paste with the curry powder.
3. Add the chicken into this paste for at least 30 min while you prep the rest of the stuff
4. Peel and quarter the potatoes and carrots
5. In a large pot, heat the oil.
6. Add the cardamom, star anise, cloves, cinnamon and fry at low heat till fragrant. Be careful not to burn!
7. Add the curry leaves before adding the chicken. Mix constantly to make sure you dont burn it!
8. Once the chicken is 3/4 cooked and the spices are fragrant, add in salt, water and vegetables and let it simmer. Do stir occassionally.
9. Once the gravy has thickened, add the yoghurt and coriander. Mix thoroughly and thats it!