Cultural Exchange - Malaysian Strawberries and Cream!

How in the world does Strawberries and Cream become a topic for cultural exchange? Well read on and find out!

My son is a great fan of fruits and cream. He just loves it. Even better is Strawberries and Cream! Now Strawberries are rather expensive as they are not your typical Malaysian fruit. You can get the frozen variety but those are expensive as well and end up being quite mushy.

Most of the Strawberries you find are imported. Did I say most? Indeed!
There is a place called Cameron Highlands, one of four well known highland resorts that rise more than 1000 meters above sea level (the others being Genting Highlands, Frasers Hill and Maxwell Hill). At this height, the climate is cool with temperatures rarely rising about 25C and no lower than 12C. So that kind of makes it great for Strawberries!

Cameron Highlands is also where they cultivate tea leaves - and Malaysia is famous for its tea as well!

One of my fave foodie friends, Valli, who is in Canada knows all about Cameron Highlands - or at least her father does! See how small the world really is?



Even though you can get local strawberries, they are still expensive.
Nowhere near as expensive as the imported variety but expensive nonetheless. They are not easy to get either as they kind of get snapped up really fast.

So when I saw a heap of packets down at one of the hypermarts, I couldn't resist picking one up. With strawberries in one hand, I went round looking for cream. The usual assortment of cream seemed to have disappeared and the only option left was a rather exorbitantly priced brand. Bugger it. Maybe I"ll just use some yoghurt. So I bought a large container of yoghurt and made a mental note to check out how to sweeten and thicken yoghurt.


Lovely fresh strawberries!


Later that evening...

After a quick check on the web, I knew what had to be done. I made a thickened
vanilla cream out of yoghurt and it was just superb! It tasted almost like cream although it was much lighter. It was nice and thick and tasted lovely. It could even have been vanilla yoghurt ice cream!
This is what I did.

400ml yoghurt
4 tbsp icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Line a colander with cheese cloth or lots of paper kitchen towels. Put the yoghurt in and let it drain for about an hour so that it becomes nice and thick. Next, add in the sugar and vanilla and whisk together till smooth. Return to the fridge and let it chill until ready to serve.


See? It even Looks like cream!

Cut the strawberries and arrange them on a nice plate - just to make it look nice.



Then bring out the Faux Cream, spoon over the strawberries and enjoy! I really dont have to tell you how to enjoy strawberries with cream...!


Both the kids and the lovely wife LOVED the Faux Cream! As you can see, they polished off the bowl of yoghurt and my little princess asked for more.




Unfortunately, I had used up all the yoghurt. I'll definitely make this 'cream' again and perhaps even experiment with substituting it for cream in other desserts. The possibilities are really quite endless...

So now not only do you know a little bit more about Malaysia but you can also 'wow' your friends with the fact that Strawberries DO grow in the tropics!

Pollo ala Cacciatora

Ever noticed how food with a foreign name not only sounds more exotic but also seems more appealing? Chicken cooked in tomato sauce hardly holds any appeal. Chicken braised with tomatoes and mushrooms adds a bit more interest. Say Chicken Cacciatore and the whole dish takes on a whole new meaning. But call it Pollo ala Cacciatora and the eyes glass over, violins start to play in the background and you might even have to bring out a nice shirt and tie (or your little black dress for the ladies) for dinner!



I was introduced to this dish many years ago but always made it using the shortcut method. The shortcut involved a bottle of Pasta Sauce. Very quick, very easy and rather tasty.

Looking back, its strange that I used the shortcut method. I have never used bottled Pasta Sauce for my Pasta so I wonder why I decided it was okay for a chicken dish. Not sure I know the answer to my own question. I think it had something to do with someone explaining how they made their version of Chicken Cacciatore that included, of course, a bottle of Pasta Sauce.

Well, I don’t use bottled Pasta Sauce for my Chicken Cacciatore anymore. Uh-Uh. No more. Especially not when making Pollo alla Cacciatora. That would be absolutely disgraceful. No self respecting Pollo would allow itself to be Cacciatora-ed with a bottled Pasta Sauce. Just imaging the cluckings of protest!

Usually I sear my chicken pieces before letting them cook in the sauce but this, since I was a tad lazy, I just chucked the uncooked pieces into the sauce and let it stew for a while. However, I’ll give you my recipe the way its supposed to be made!

Ingredients
1 large chicken – cut into pieces
¼ inch ginger – ground
200 g Swiss Brown Mushrooms – sliced thinly
8 rashers back bacon - chopped
5 cloves garlic - chopped
1 large onion – chopped
1 stalk fresh rosemary
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
3 bay leaves
4 large tomatoes - quartered
1 can stewed tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato paste
3 red chilles or 1 capsicum – cut into pieces
2-3 splashes Worcestershire Sauce
2-3 splashes Tabasco Sauce
Black Pepper
Salt

Method
Clean and cut the chicken into pieces. Rub all over with the ground ginger. Season with a little salt and pepper.
Heat oil and fry the onions, garlic, basil, bay leaves, oregano and rosemary. Add in bacon and stir well until bacon is cooked. Add in mushrooms and continue cooking till juices are released. Add in fresh tomatoes with stewed tomatoes. Cover pan and allow tomatoes to disintegrate and form a paste.
Meanwhile, in a separate pan, heat a little oil and sear the chicken until lightly browned. Remove from pan and add into the sauce. Add a little water and cover tha pan. Allow simmer for about 30 minutes.
Add in Worcestershire sauceand Tabasco sauce and mix well. Add in chillies/capsicum and simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes until sauce is thick. If need be, add a little corn flour (mix with water first!)

I served this dish with Couscous and also with rice. We found some flavoured couscous at the local supermarket and decided to expose the kids to something new instead of the regular rice.


This kids didn't really take a liking to the couscous but at least they thought the “Tomatoey Chicken with lots of mushrooms” was really nice. See, that’s what’s so special about kids. You cant fool them with fancy names or ‘packaging’ as I like to call it. They tell you honestly whether they like something or not.

Maybe someday when they are all grown up and someone try’s to impress them with Pollo alla Cacciatora at some fancy restaurant, they will eat it and remember that their Daddy used to make them something similar…

Spicy Sausages ala Pub snack food!

All kids somehow love sausages and most Birthday Parties usually have a large tray of cocktail sausages sitting on the table. I like to serve sausages for my kids birthday's as well - but with a difference. Usually, I cut up the sausages and fry them with tomatoes and some herbs to make it a little fancy.

When deciding the menu for my daugther's party back in February, I decided to make sausages again but this time, I made it somewhat like how they make it in Pubs. Most, if not all, of the pubs in KL serve fried sausages as an appetizer or snack. The way they make them is hot and spicy with a lot of onions and chillis.
I thought I would replicate that and since my kids have no real problem with spicy food, I used loads of chillis, onions as well as black pepper. I also threw in some curry leaves!


This is what you do.

Sautee some chopped garlic and slice onions till fragrant. Add in curry leaves, black pepper and sliced chillies and lightly fry. Throw in the suasages, cut into thin rounds, and mix well. Continue cooking till sausages are cooked through. Sprinkle with more black pepper.



These are delicious eaten on its own or with some bread. Even better with a cold beer!

Daily Tiffin - Themed Birthday Parties

This article at the Daily Tiffin is the Final part of my Birthday Party Series. In my previous two posts, I explained how to decorate Birthday Cakes and how to make 3D cakes.
In this article, I am going to attempt to show you how to host Themed Birthday Parties. Every child loves a Themed Birthday Party. Some adults too! Although hosting a themed party conjures up images of lots of money, it's really not all the difficult.

Read my article over at the Daily Tiffin to find out how!

Leeking Garlic Prawns

I love prawns! I love the texture and I love the taste. Or is it Shrimp that I love so much?? I'm from the Commonwealth so over here it's Prawn. To paraphrase Shakespeare, That which the Americans call a shrimp by any other name, would still taste like a prawn.
I hope the old bard isn't doing cartwheels or somersaults in his grave...

Prawns have their own flavour so I dislike prawns that are soaked in too much sauce. That's not entirely true. Its almost impossible to dislike prawns. What I mean to say is that prawns should be cooked with just a tad of seasoning. Nothing overpowering to completely overwhelm the taste of this crustacean. The only exception to this 'rule' would be Sambal Prawns - but even them the taste of the prawns still come through.

I don't often make prawns for two reasons. Firstly, they are rather expensive. Secondly, the Lovely Wife is a little allergic to prawns although she does love shellfish as much as I do. It get's particularly bad if there is a full moon. Her face gets all dark and screwed up and she starts to howl quite a bit. Sometimes the facial hair gets rather thick too. Oh, but I'm mistaken. That's not the Lovely Wife but me - especially when I dont shave. Seriously though, she does have a mild reaction to shellfish and so she tries to stay away from it.

I made this dish quite some time ago for my daughter's 3rd birthday since we were having an Under The Sea Theme. I dug up these photos since I was writing an article on Themed Birthday Parties for the Daily Tiffin - scheduled to be out this Wednesday.

So anyway, it's really very simple and very delicious. Like most of what I do, I just threw a whole lot of things together and since this happened quite some time ago, I cant recall measurements. But this is how it goes"

Lots of garlic - chopped
Lots of Prawns - shelled and deveined
Some Chilli Flakes
A little Black Pepper
about two stalks of Leek - cut into 1 inch lengths

Boil some water and add in a little salt. Blanch the leek until just tender. Drain and set aside on a serving plate.
Heat some Olive Oil and fry the garlic and chilli flakes. Add in the shelled prawns and quickly stir fry until the prawns turn pink. Turn out onto the bed of leek. Garnish with some chopped coriander.

And there you have it! Garlic Prawns on a Bed of Leek otherwise known as Leeking Garlic Prawns!

Pumpkin Soup

Every once in a while its nice to start of a meal with soup. The kids love it and there is nothing quite as delicious as homemade soup. This is the Lovely Wifes department. She is the soup queen and I never, ever interfere with her soupy endeavours! Well, maybe sometimes...

One of our favourite soups is Pumpkin Soup. Pumpkins are delicious on their own and even more so when made into a soup. This recipe is based on the Le Cordon Bleu Home Collection Soups book.
The actual recipe calls for long grained rice but the Lovely Wife added in some macaroni instead. The kids loved the fact that there was pasta in the soup and it gave a little more 'fill' to the soup.

This is the recipe from the book:
750g -1kg pumpkin
3 large potatoes - chopped
3 large tomatoes, halved and seeded
1 stalk lemon grass, white part only, bruised with the side of a large knife
1.2 litres chicken stock, vegetable stock or water
1 1/2 tablsepsoons long grain rice
pinch of nutmeg
15 g unsalted butter (optional)
3 tablespoons thick cream

Method
Cut a wide circle around the pumpkin stem using a small, sharp, pointed knife and remove the top. Using a large metal spoon, scarpe the seeds from the pumpkin and discard, then either scrape as much flesh as possible from the pumpkin using the spoon or cut the pumpkin into wedges. Slice just inside the skin to release the flesh and chop it roughly.
Place the pumpkin, potato, tomato and lemon grass into a large saucepan with the stock or water. Season with salt and black pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, then reucde the heast and simmer for 25-30 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft. Remove the lemon grass stalk and discard.
While the soup is simmering, add the rice to a pan of boiling salt water and stir to the boil. Cook for about 12 minutes or till tender. Drain the rice in a sieve and risne under water. Set aside and leave to drain well.
Transfer the soup to a blender of food processor and puree untill smooth. Return the soup to a clean pan, add the nutmeg and adjust the seasoning. The soup should be thick but still drinkable from a spoon. If the consistency seems too thick, ad a little milk. Stir in the rice, butter and cream then heat through. Pour into bowls and garnish with freshly ground pepper and some herbs if desired.

It was certainly delicious and to add some 'colour', The Lovely Wife dropped in a dollop of cream in the middle and swirled it. The kids loved this and wanted to keep adding more cream just to swirl it around!


Since there is a little pasta in this recipe, I'm submitting it to my friend Ruth who hosts Presto Pasta Nights over at Onceuponafeast.blogpsot.com