The thing I like about the Royal Foodie Joust is that it stretches your creativity. I mean what in the world was I supposed to make with Raspberries, Lime and Almonds? I threw my hands up in frustration. I quite liked the action, so I threw them up again. Then I hit my fingers on the side of the door - Ouch!
No, no, that didnt really happen but it's something that I'm quite liable to do.
Anyway, I was in a bit of a quandary. Heck, even getting your hands on fresh raspberries in Malaysia is difficult not to mention bleeding Expensive! Then Elle, with the kitchen in New England - the winner of last months joust (and the person responsible for the choice of ingredients this month), suggested that I used canned raspberries or even raspberry jam. Thing's didnt look quite so bleek anymore.
The problem was, what to make? What to Make? WHAT TO MAKE??? I threw my hands up in frustration...(refer third line from top). Yeah, you get the picture. I was so bleeding frustrated that I was considering holding a lime, some almonds, puckering up my face, sticking out my tongue and Blowing a Raspberry at the whole Royal Foodie Joust. You know, Raspberry - Pbbbttttt!!
Then I heard a voice.
"Emotions your judgement they cloud. Yourself calm you must. Think. Focus. Feel the Force...."
No, that wasn't working either. Yoda wasn't a very good cook anyway - at least not in his old age.
I closed my eyes and tried to picture something. Then I saw it. A bat. A bat with madly flapping wings. A bat wearing a suit. No, not Batman silly, this was a real bat dressed in a tux. (humour me)
Suddenly - a cloud of smoke, Lightning, Thunder, evil maniacal laughter - Muuaahahahahahahaha!
I had it!
Muahahahahaha! More lightning, more thunder, more laughter.
This is what I did:
Ingredients
300 gm Chicken fillet
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
5 dried red chillies
50 gm almond slivers
5 small limes
8 young corn
1 green capsicum
2-3 tsp raspberry jam
1 tsp corn flour
Black pepper
Method
Slice chicken into strips and season with a little salt and pepper.
Slice onion and ginger and chop garlic finely. Cut chillies into large pieces. Heat a little oil and fry onion till caramelised. Add in ginger, garlic and chilli and a little black pepper. Fry till fragrant.
Add in chicken and cook well. While chicken is cooking, toast the almonds in a hot pan.
Meanwhile cut corn and capsicum into large pieces. Add to the chicken and continue cooking, adding a little water if necessary.
In a separate saucepan, melt the raspberry jam with a little water until smooth. Pour into the chicken and mix well. Cut the small limes and squeeze juice into the chicken and mix well.
Add corn flour to a little water and add to the chicken. Mix well and allow to simmer for a while until chicken is nicely coated. Add in almonds.
I served this with rice but I reckon it would also make a nice pasta dish or even a chinese noodle dish.
How did it taste? Pretty much as I thought it would. It was akin to a spicy sweet and sour chicken and the raspberry taste was there but not overpowering. The lime lent a nice twang although again it wasn't overpowering. Both flavours complemented each other and they were very subtle.
The Lovely Wife liked the dish a lot especially the spiciness of the chillies contrasting with the sweet sour of the raspberry and lime. The kids wolfed it down with lots of rice but then again, they were really, really hungry!
On my part, I was very pleased with how this dish turned out and I now have another original to add to my collection. So thanks Elle for the wonderful choice of ingredients and for spurring me to create this new dish. 
I have to go now and blow a raspberry (pbbbbt) at a certain bat before he flies away ...
MUUAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! *Lightning* *Thunder*
Saturday, 17 May 2008
Oriental Fusion Chicken - or chicken with raspberries, lime, almonds and chilli!
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Just a small Complaint plus two Awards
One of my biggest grievances with respect to the Blogosphere is the lack of time I have to visit all the food blogs that I would like to. Sure, I have a few favourites but even those don't get the time that they deserve. I've met many new foodies and forged many new friendships on the blogosphere and I just want to tell everyone that although I don't visit your blogs as often as I would like to, I DO wish that I could!
Some of you are pretty darned amazing, blogging about food almost everyday - complete with fantastic photos. What's even more amazing are the number of comments that some of your posts receive. 30, 40 sometimes even more - and this happens regularly on some of your blogs! The only time I get into the 30's is when its Daring Bakers time.
So yeah, there's a whole bunch of blogs out there from all over the world. Some of you I know and some of you I dont. It is indeed quite humbling when you see the amount of sheer talent in some of your blogs. More than the talent though is the willingness to share not only your recipes but a little bit of yourselves - your thoughts, your personalities, your stories - with the rest of us.
That is why, I am greatly honoured to be given the following awards by my fellow
bloggers who have also become good friends.
The first award is from Meeta of Whats for Lunch Honey. Her blog is excellent in my mind so if you've never visited her, I think it't time that you did.
The second award is from my friend over in Canada, Valli who blogs at More Than Burnt Toast. Don't be fooled by the title though. You'll find a whole lot of gourmet food here. Certainly more than toast - and its never, ever burnt! 
I'm supposed to pass these awards on now but I think ALL of you food bloggers deserve it because quite simple, in one way or another, you are all Excellent and you all have a Great Purpose in your blogging. So feel free to pick up the award! For those of you with multiple awards or for those who may have received these awards before, there's never any harm in getting an award twice. I mean really, would you turn down an Oscar just because you won it the year before??!!!
Monday, 12 May 2008
Making a right Malaysian Mess!
Contrary to what the title says, I didn’t mess anything up. Well, not in the literal sense anyway. I made a mess of things, sure, but it turned out to be a pretty darned good mess. No mess up at all. Okay, okay, I’ll stop messing with you all!
One afternoon, the Lovely Wife and I were flipping through Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie when we came across his recipe for Eton Mess. Now I had never heard of an Eton Mess before but the picture of cream with berries and meringue looked rather lovely. The Lovely Wife remarked that this would be something that our son would love as he really likes his fruit and cream, not to mention pavlova!
The Eton Mess has its roots in (surprise, surprise!) Eton – that famous school in England and reputed to be the most famous school in the world. I wouldn’t know about that although I can vouch that Victoria Institution is not only the most famous but also the best school in Malaysia!
Anyway, back to Eton and the mess attributed to it! The Eton Mess is a dessert consisting of a mixture of strawberries, pieces of meringue and cream. It is traditionally served at Eton College's annual prize-giving celebration picnic on the Fourth of June. Apparently however, these days it is celebrated on the last Wednesday in May. Don’t ask me why that is so but I think it just goes to show how Messed up Eton really is…
You can see I’m having fun with this whole ‘Mess’ thing!
I decided to do a variation of the Eton Mess and use a whole bunch of different fruits. I used Kiwis, Bananas, Watermelon, Papaya and Pears. I also decided to flavour my meringue with cocoa – just for a bit of a change. Granted that Kiwis and Pears are not really Malaysian fruits but Watermelon, Papaya and Bananas certainly are. So that's why I call it a Malaysian Mess!
The meringue whipped up nicely and baked even better to a nice crisp. The cocoa meringue gave it a nice twist as it wasn't as sweet as a regular meringue. It was kind of fun breaking the meringue up into pieces and I wish I had got the kids involved in it. Reason I didnt was because I wanted to surprise them with the dessert.
My Kenwood makes whipping cream really easy now using the whisk attachment although you still have to watch that you don't overbeat the cream and end up with a separated mess (ha! There's that word again!!). I flavoured the cream with lots of vanilla and a little icing sugar and it was really quite delicious.
I took a leaf out of Jamie's book and served the Mess in glasses. 
The kids simply Loved this dessert and asked for more, and then for more again! The good thing about this dessert is that their dose of fruit - although in all fairness, its never a problem getting them to eat their fruit.
I guess this is really similar to a Pavlova, but somehow serving it in a glass makes a difference. Also, I think my meringue making skills have improved as the meringue stayed crispy for quite a while, even when sitting with all the cream over it.
Or maybe its not my skills that have improved but rather my Kenwood that makes the difference...
Friday, 9 May 2008
Baked Cod Oriental Style
One weekend, we were too busy lazing and around with the kids that by the time we got ourselves into gear and went to the market, most of the fish had been sold. There was however some Cod available. Now Cod is rather expensive in this part of the world but sometimes its nice to indulge.
The Lovely Wife absolutely adores Cod as do the kids. In fact, when the kids were just starting to eat solid food, we used to feed them a little mashed Cod as it is believed that Cod is good Brain food. And all along I thought it was my Genes…
So with the purchase of Cod, I now had to decide what make. I don’t have a lot of experience in cooking fish but I am slowly learning to enjoy cooking it. My favourite method has to be experimenting with throwing a whole lot of seasoning together with the fish, wrapping it in foil and then baking it. Not only is this relatively easy, it is also very healthy. The best part though is that you get to enjoy the flavour of the fish itself without having it doused in too much spice or seasoning.
The Lovely Wife was just happy to have fresh fish rather than the Frozen Dory Fish that I usually like to make. The fact that it was Cod was an added bonus of course!
In trying to figure out what to do, I remembered, that in recent times, Chinese Restaurants have started to serve Steamed Cod doused in soy sauce and ginger. I decided to follow a similar route but use just a tinge of soy sauce. I also thought I would add some mushrooms to the fish.
This is what I did.
450g Cod Fish, cut into steaks
4 cloves garlic – chopped
½ inch ginger – chopped
200 g swiss brown mushrooms - quartered
2 tbsp Sesame Oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce (or more to taste)
Black Pepper
Method
Heat Sesame Oil and fry garlic and mushrooms. Set aside. Mix together ginger and soy sauce. Rub the fish with the mix. Arrange the fish steaks in a pan lined with foil. Make sure there is enough foil to cover the fish and form a package.
Mix the the remaining ginger and soy sauce with the garlic mushrooms and spread over fish. Sprinkle with Black Pepper. Fold the foil over to make a package, folding over the edges to seal. Bake in a preheated 200C oven for about 20 mins.
Part of the fun in baking in foil is serving it as it is on a platter and then opening up the package to reveal the goodness inside!
The cod turned out very nice baked like this. The flesh was firm and juicy with just enough sauce created by the fish oils and juices from the mushrooms. Very tasty indeed! The kids couldn't get enough of the Cod while the Lovely Wife gave it full marks. Looks like I'm getting the hang of cooking fish...!
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Daily Tiffin - Outshining Mommy
Being a Dad is never easy. Kids always seem to prefer their Mom. I suppose I can understand that in some ways. After all, I’m the one that is the disciplinarian. I’m the one that does all the nasty things like pointing to the corner and telling them to go stand there. How many of you remember the old cartoon series Wait till your father gets home? Yeah, some things never change. My Lovely Wife, although playing a large role in disciplining the kids, still leaves the bulk of it to me and the phrase “Shall I tell Daddy what you did?” is often the trick in getting the children to behave.
There is one thing however where I will always outshine Mommy. And it's NOT cooking coz the Lovely Wife is a fabulous cook too. Too see what it is that I do best, read my article over at The Daily Tiffin!
Monday, 5 May 2008
Peace Cake
A friend of mine celebrated her 30th Birthday recently and she asked if I could bake the cake for her. She wanted the cake decorated with a Peace Symbol and she also mentioned that her favourite flavours are chocolate and orange.
I contemplated making an orange cake covered in chocolate icing – something along the lines of the Bostini Cream Pie – minus the cream of course. The one issue I had however, was time. The birthday party was being held midweek and that meant I would have to make the cake on a weekday – after work!
With that in mind, I decided to stick to something that I was sure would work. Well, I wasn't really SURE it would work but I reckoned I couldn't go too wrong by modifying my usual chocolate cake. For the orange flavour, I added in some orange marmalade, a little Cointreau and some orange essence. For the icing, I melted some belgian chocolate and whisked that together with icing sugar, cocoa and butter. A little cointreau was added into the icing as well as a dash of orange essence.
For the peace symbol, I pressed a round bowl to leave an imprint of a circle on the chocolate icing. I then piped stars to form the circle and the two lines. For those that may be interested, the Peace Symbol was actually designed in 1958 and adopted as the badge for the Committee for Nuclear Disarmament. It eventually became the international symbol for the anti war movement in the 1960’s. The meaning of the symbol is Nuclear Disarmament as the symbol represents the semaphoric signals for the letter D (the straight line) and the letter N (the inverted ‘V’ shape at the bottom)
I guess I'll need to explain Semaphoric too now...! Semaphoric is the visual system for sending information by means of two flags that are held - one in each hand. It uses an alphabetic code based on the position of the signaler's arms. So for the D, the signaller would hold one flag up and one down, forming a vertical line. While for the N, the signaller would hold the flags downwards, making roughly a 45 degree angle.
I made an extra bit of cake in a small loaf pan too - just so that we could taste it. I liked the subtle orange flavour that nicely complemented the dark chocolate. The Lovely Wife like the orangey chocolate flavours too.
I had wanted to go a little overboard and further decorate the cake with sugar paste flowers but after piping on the peace sign and the birthday greeting, there wasn't much space left - and I thought it may have looked to crowded and busy. It didnt matter though as I didnt have the time to make my planned sugar paste flowers!
My friend loved the design anyway and it seems the cake went down really well at the party. So it looks like I've 'discovered' a great variation for my chocolate cake!
Sunday, 4 May 2008
Stir Fried Snow Peas
One of the things I like most about Chinese food is the vegetables. They are always still crunchy and just lightly flavoured, allowing you to taste the true flavour of the veges. Granted, some vege dishes are doused in sauce but not this one. The other thing that is really great about making Chinese Vege dishes is how easy they are and how quick they are to whip up!
Snow Peas with Garlic is absolutely simple and quick to make. It doesnt require a recipe coz its simply tossing in a bit of this and a bit of that. Well, actually, a load of garlic and a dash of Oyster Sauce. Thats it!
Cut or chop the garlic and fry it with a little sesame oil or vegetable oil/corn oil/peanut oil. Add in the snow peas and quickly stir fry before tossing in some Oyster sauce. Add some salt and pepper too if you like.
Try not to overcook the snow peas or they could become a little limp.
See? What could be more simple!
