A story of Pasta, Prawns and the holy Trinity

Just a week ago at the market, my little princess batted her eyes at me and asked me if we could get some prawns. Although a tad expensive, I acquiesced to her request as I know how much she loves prawns. I then had to figure out what I was going to make.

For the longest time, I have had the itch to make Jambalaya - not quite knowing what Jambalaya actually is. I knew the song pretty well though, you know,

jambalaya and a crawfish pie and fillet gumbo
For tonight, I'm a-gonna see my ma-cheri a mi-o
Pick guitar, fill fruit far and be gay-o
Son of a gun, we'll have big fun on the bayou

I knew that Jambalaya had something to do with Creole and Cajun cooking but that was about it. A quick check on google showed that Jambalaya was akin to a Paella. Not really as exotic as I thought it was. So I shelved the plans for a Jambalaya.

Reading on though, I learnt that the Holy Trinity doesn't only exist in Religion and Theology...




If you will permit me to digress a little, The Holy Trinity in Christianity is basically the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit - all in unity of the Godhead. One God though manifested in three. Although born and bred a Christian, I still find this concept hard to explain - but I guess that is what faith is all about.

Hinduism has its own Trinity as well, Brahma, the Creator; Vishnu, the Preserver and Shiva, the Destroyer. Not terribly removed from the Christian trinity - thus emphasising my own religious belief that ALL religions are equal and there is at the end of the day, only ONE God.

That brings me to the Culinary holy Trinity. Apparently in Cajun/Creole cooking, especially in Louisianna, the combination of onions, celery, and green bell pepper is known as the holy Trinity. That was enlightening to me and seeing it a few days later on an episode of Jamie's America where he visits Louisiana and joins Leah Chase in making Gumbo, proved that it was a term in real use and not just something made up.

So now you know all about the different Trinities and I learnt about the Culinary Trinity and I was intent on making sure I used it!

I decided that I would use the holy Trinity in a Pasta dish with Prawns, Mushrooms and Spinach. I'd also use some chilli flakes to give it a bit of bite. This is what I did:

Ingredients
3 Bay Leaves
5 cloves garlic
2 tsp oregano
3 tsp chilli flakes
1 large onion - chopped
1 stalk celery - sliced thinly
1/2 capsicum - chopped (reserve the other half for garnishing)
200g button mushrooms - sliced
200g spinach leaves
400g large prawns - deveined
500g Spaghetti

Method
Fry the bay leaves and oregano till fragrant. Add in the garlic and chilli flakes, mixing well. Add the holy trinity (onions, capsicum and celery) and cook till soft adding a little water if needed. Add in the mushrooms and cook till juices come out and then add in the spinach leaves, cooking till just wilted. Add in the prawns and cook till nicely pink. Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in cooked pasta, mixing well.

This dish turned out to be really tasty with the holy Trinity providing a lovely base of flavour. My parents came over for lunch and it was enjoyed by everyone. This pasta dish is a definite winner and I think the next time I might try it with chicken or even bacon. Or maybe prawns again!



I'm submitting this to my friend Ruth over at Once upon a feast for her 149th edition of Presto Pasta Nights! She's looking for guest hosts too so pop on over and see how you can help!

Tarka Dhall

Lentil based dishes are a staple food in Indian cuisine. I've previously posted about Sambar which is one of my favourite dishes as well as Channa Dhall which is a chunkier Dhall dish.

Lentils are an amazing source of protein and can be a dish all on its own. Tarka, also known as Tadka, is the technique where spices are fried in oil or ghee to bring out the essential oils and flavour from the spices before being poured, together with the oil, into a main component of the dish - in this case the Dhall.

The recipe for this dish, made by The Lovely Wife, comes from 30 Minute Indian by Sunil Vijayakar. This book has yielded many a good recipe and although I scoffed at her when she first bought this book, I have to admit that it has provided some very good recipes and we have all enjoyed her exploits from this book.

This is her take on the recipe.

Ingredients
250g red split lentils
1 litre hot water
4-5 large tomatoes - chopped
2 chillies - chopped
1/2 tsps turmeric powder
2 tsps fresh ground ginger
4 Tbsp fresh coriander - chopped

Tarka
1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 cloves garlic - sliced thinly
1 dried red chilli - cut into pieces
Method
Soak the lentils in boiling water for 10 mins. Drain and put into a large saucepan together with the 1 ltire of hot water. Bring to the boil and spoon off any scum that floats to the top. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes or till soft and tender.
Drain the lentils and process in a food processor. Return the puree to the pan together with the tomatoes, chillies, turmeric, ginger and coriander. Season with salt and pepper and allow to simmer gently.
Make the tarka by heating the oil in a separate pan. Add in all the ingredients for the tarka and fry until fragrant, stirring constantly. Remove the tarka from heat and add into the Dhall. Stir to combine.

Dhall goes really well with rice and also flatbreads - I've probably said that before but its worth repeating. This Dhall is the sort of dish that you can never seem to get enough off and after one serving of rice, I had another smaller one and then another after that! The Lovely Wife didnt stop me from stuffing my face with this Dhall as after all, it is such a good source of protein and healthy, healthy, healthy!




The only complaint that she had was that I had a little too much fun with my princess where I would call out "Takda" and my princess would reply "Dhall" repeatedly like this...

Takda! ...Dhall
Takda! ...Dhall
Takda, Takda, Takda!... Dhall!

You can understand why The Lovely Wife was irritated. I do wonder how she puts up with me sometimes...

BloggerAid Culinary Olympics - Ayam Goreng Sri Wangi (Fragrant Fried Chicken)

The Malaysian Flag is raised at the Culinary Olympics 2010 hosted in Canada...


If there is one thing that symbolises Malaysia, it would be its veritable assortment of food. Assortment doesn't quite give you the right picture though. Think more along the lines of multifariousness, multiplicity, mélange, potpourri, mishmash, range, variation and you get more of an idea. With three main cuisines of Malay, Indian and Chinese, interspersed with Portuguese, Dutch and English, you get an idea of what true Malaysian food is. Throw in a fetish for Japanese, Italian, French and German cuisine and Malaysia is a melting pot for all kinds of food. Want a foodie holiday? Come to Malaysia! Sadly, the same can't be said about our sporting prowess.

That brings me to the BloggerAid -Changing the Face of Famine Culinary Olympics. This cyber event is being held to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Canada. The aim of this event is to promote food (might they make it an official sport?) and BACFF's mission to actively promote the alleviation of World Hunger. This event is only open to members of BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BACFF). Since I am a member of BACFF, I have decided to take part in these the inaugural Culinary Olympics!




Malaysia only ever takes part in the Summer Olympics - for obvious reasons. However Malaysia has never won a Gold medal at the Olympics. We've won Bronze and Silver (for Badminton) but that is all. Our Football (soccer) team hasn't made it to the Olympics since the 80's and our Hockey team, once sure bets for the Olympics, have failed to qualify in recent times. Sad, sad indeed.

Never mind about the Olympics though, we STILL have the Worlds Tallest PAIR of Buildings!! It used to be the Worlds Tallest Building but that has long been superceded most recently by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Good thing we built the towers as a pair...



We also have the Sixth tallest Communication Tower in the World in the form of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.



In deciding what dish to submit, I wanted it to be something distinctly Malaysian as well as something that is well liked in our household. I'd already posted about Satay previously as well as Nasi Lemak. Then it struck me. One of The Lovely Wife's favourite dishes to make and that we all love to eat, comes from Malaysia's very own Chef Wan. I had photographed this dish quite a while ago and so decided to finally get the writeup done for the BloggerAid Olympics!




The recipe comes from Simply Sedap by Chef Wan and this is how it goes:

Ingredients
4 Chicken breast fillets - cut into strips
2 stalks lemongrass (serai)- finely sliced
1 torch ginger bud (bunga kantan) - finely sliced
10 birds eye chillies (Chilli padi)
2 Tbsp Tom Yam paste
1/4 cup water
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 kaffir lime leaves - finely sliced

Marinade
1 1/2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 medium egg - beaten
3 Tbsp cornflour


Method
Combine the chicken with the marinade and set aside for at least 15 minutes. Deep fry the chicken until it is golden and crisp. Drain
In a separate pan or wok, heat a little oil and saute the lemon grass, torch ginger bud, chillies and tom yam paste until fragrant
Add in the water, honey and chicken. Mix well. Remove from the heat and stir in the mayonnaise. Stir in the kaffir lime leaves.

This chicken dish is rather spicy what with the addition of chilli padi as well as the tom yam paste. It goes really well with rice and although it is piquant, you sort of keep wanting to eat more and more...and more still!



Members of BACFF have also been asked to do a little promotion for the BloggerAid Cookbook, available online. All proceeds from this book will go to the United Nations World Food Program. One of my recipes is also featured in that book and I received my order of the book just a few weeks ago. So do what you can for a good cause.

All entries for the Olympics will be posted on the BACFF website on the 5th March so don't forget to check out all the awesome entries!

And when are you coming over to visit this wonderful country of mine?

Tau Miu with Garlic

This is a super easy dish that is really tasty, nutritous and is wonderful when you need a quick vegetable dish. Tau Miu is some kind of sprout. A search on Google produces different answers - and different spellings too (Tau Miew) but that is only to be expected when Tau Miu is really the Chinese name for this vegetable.

As I mentioned earlier, it is some kind of sprout/shoot and I think it is the Snow Pea sprout or at least some kind of pea sprout.



As I mentioned, there couldn't be anything simpler than this as all it takes is to:

Chop up some garlic, fry it, toss in the sprouts, give it a quick stir fry and then season with a little soy sauce and/or oyster sauce.

This dish is a favourite in many local Chinese restaurants. Try It!

A gift of Cheese and a Pasta called Primavera

I'm trying to clear up my backlog of outstanding posts or drafts that I have done where I've uploaded pictures but not the text or worse still not even the recipe! This post goes way back to October 2009 when a close friend, Naomi, came to visit and brought along a slab of Pecorino Cheese for us.

I've never sampled Pecorino before so the gift of cheese was most welcome. My little princess loves her cheese and as soon as she heard that I had some new cheese, she wanted some of it. We ate a little of it with crackers and the cheese was a little strong but very, very tasty.




A few days later, The Lovely Wife asked me if I could make this Pasta dish that she had seen in the California Pizza Kitchen cookbook. The secret to this dish, according to the book, was the roasted garlic sauce. As I never follow recipes to a tee, this is my version of Spaghetti Primavera inspired by the CPK cookbook. Apparently Primavera is Italian for springtime and that is why this pasta is made up of a variety of vegetables and herbs.

Ingredients
1 bulb garlic (about 8-10 cloves)
1 medium onion - chopped
3 stalks fresh oregano - leaves removed and chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
200g button mushrooms
1 red capsicum - sliced into large pieces
1 orange capsicum - sliced into large pieces
1 zuchinni - sliced
2 stalks celery - thinly sliced
200g cherry tomatoes - halved


Method
Cut the end of the garlic and then place the garlic bulb in a small dish. Pour about a teaspoon of olive oil over it and roast in a 200C oven for about 20 mins till soft.
Meanwhile, fry the onion, oregano and thyme together till fragrant. Add in the mushrooms and cook till tender. Add in the celery and zuchinni and mix well. Add in the tomatoes and press them lightly as you stir the mixture to get the juices out. Reserve a few tomatoes. Be careful not to overcook the vegetables as you want them slightly crunchy.
Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of their skin and process together with the reserved tomatoes to make a nice paste. Add in some water if necessary.
Add in the garlic paste to the mixture and cook well. Finally toss in the capsicum and cook till slightly tender. Toss togehter with pasta of your choice.

A most delicious meal and very, very healthy! I grated some of the Pecorino Cheese and sprinkled it over the pasta. The cheese went really, really well with the pasta and The Lovely Wife said she really enjoyed the dish. Who would have thought a vegetarian pasta dish could taste so good!



Thanks for the cheese Naomi - told you I would put it to good use!

I'm also sending this in to Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights. I haven't contributed anything to PPN for a while and this is my first one for 2010! This time around, PPN is being hosted by Sara of Cupcake Muffin. So pop over to her blog on Friday to see the roundup!

Simplicity is Corn on the Cob

I've mentioned before that my kids love Corn - especially my son. His favourite though is corn on the cob, the kind that you find at restaurants that accompany a steak or chicken chop. Juicy, crunchy and packed with goodness!

I recently bought The Lovely Wife an electric steamer and ever since then we've been steaming corn on the cob for the kids ever so often. While Christmas shopping, I stumbled upon a set of corn skewers that were also shaped like corn on the cob and I bought a set as a gift for The Lovely Wife from my son.

The skewers certainly make eating corn on the cob a lot easier - and also a lot more fun!


Making corn on the cob is really, really easy. I normally cut the corn cobs into smaller pieces rather than whole corn as it is easier to eat smaller cobs and there is less wastage. How to make Corn on the Cob? Simple!

Ingredients
Corn on the Cob - as many as you like!

Method
Remove husks and cut each corn into three. Steam for at least 30 minutes until kernels are tender. Toss in butter and season with a little salt and pepper.

Have you seen such a short or simple recipe? Anywhere??



What could be easier or simpler than that?? It's a great way to eat corn, it's filling and its healthy. So what are you waiting for? When are you going to make Corn on the Cob?