Long Beans Fries

Low carbo fries, anyone ?

Some dishes are planned but many are ‘discovered’ by mistake. This was meant to be a side dish but in the process of trying to be creative, the beans morphed into a crispy snack. Because  I took a long time trying to decide if the beans should be cooked with water or not, the rice flour formed a smoky and  flaky crust , making it into bean fries. Moral of the story - indecisiveness has its merits sometimes.

Ingredients :

6 cups of string or long beans, cut to 2 inches sections

1 cup of rice flour

1 T garlic powder

1 tsp fennel seed

Method :

In a big Ziploc bag, combine the flour, garlic powder and fennel seeds.

In a microwave bowl, cover and cook the beans for 4 minutes.

Leave it to cool, covered.

Drain and toss  the beans in the flour mixture.

Retrieve the beans and shake of excess flour.

In a wide pan, heat 2 T of olive oil.

Sear  the beans until it blisters.

Serve with wasabi mayonnaise though it is great on its own.

Creamed spinach and peas

This is a very simple dish and one of my daughter's favorite.  I have to agree that it looks sloppy with the mix of different shaped vegetables, but the amalgam of flavors from the spices never fails to knock me off. Here's how I did it for 3 persons :

5 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

Olive oil for frying

Pink salt, pepper

Optional - grated parmesan cheese

1 pack of spinach, washed and cut to 1 inch segments

2 cups of peas

1 cup Bulla cream

Heat oil. Fry  garlic until crispy. Reserve to be used as garnish.

Fry onion until softened and slightly brown. Add spinach and peas.

Cover and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove cover. Add cream and continue to cook, taking care not to let it boil.

Season with salt and pepper.

Serve with garlic slivers. Goes well with buttered couscous.

Kangkong or convolvulus with shacha sauce (沙茶酱）

The kang kong or water convolvulus is a semi aquatic vegetable that grows in the wild. Here in Singapore, it finds its way from the tables in homes to restaurants, stir fried with sambal chilli, garlic and nothing else.  With a simple vegetable as such, the skill of the chef , the cooking utensils and condiments  will determine how the stir fried kang kong will turn out to be : limp, overcooked, watery or tender retaining its crunch with the 'breath of the wok' that cooks it.

The sauce can be bought from the Taiwanese shop in People's Park ( Chinatown )

Here, instead of the usual sambal balachan which is  a blend of spices, chillies and pounded shrimp, I use the Taiwanese Shacha Sauce. According to the labels, it contains brill fish, garlic, shrimp, spices, coconut and shallots. Usually used as a dip for steamboat, Shacha gives a similar 'grainy rustic texture'  to the leaves of the kang kong  but does not have the heat of the pungent sambal, an alternative for a milder version of the sambal kang kong.

Shacha or sambal chilli, to  cook a lip smacking dish of kang kong,  always toss the vegtable in high heat, all other ingredients in for 10 - 15 times.Remove from the pan immediately so as  to just wilt the leaves and coat them with spices.

For 3 :

1 bunch of kang kong , washed, drain well.

1/2 cup of Shacha sauce

5 garlic cloves, minced.

Method :

Cut kang kong stem with a pair of scissors, with a leaf for every stalk, at an angle. Discard the lower yellow leafs with thick stems.

Fry garlic in hot oil.

Fry shacha sauce. Increase to high heat.

Add kang kong. Toss quickly and refrain from adding water. If you must, wet your hands and sprinkle water from your fingers.

Great with plain rice.

french beans and wolfberries

Almost every household cooks this. However, I have much satisfaction seeing the bright green beans gleaming from the plate that I thought I would share this, especially for my sister who is plunged into the role of cook unexpectedly. 

I deviate from the usual browning of the garlic, so as not to sully the final color of the dish. Do this for any light colored vegetables, for presentation sake, unless your family members really need to distinguish between veg and garlic, like mine.

For 3.

Ingredients :

1 packet of french beans, strings removed.

4 cloves of garlic, smashed with the back of a cleaver

1 handful of red wolfberries, available from chinese herb shops. Use peppers as an alternative for a western slant.

Method :

Tilting the knife at an angle, cut beans to short sections.

On a hot pan, heat olive oil.

Saute garlic till softened. Do not brown.

Add beans, toss and count to 10.

Sprinkle some water. Toss again.

Add wolfberries. Remove from heat.

Goes with any main dish.

Sweet Potato Frittata

I have never like Gordon Ramsay's reality cook show especially the ones with that foul language. However, I have to admit that  for an intermediate cook, his instructions are concise and easy to follow. Like many good cooks, he can assemble a couple of common ingredients, jazz them up and transform them to a pretty dish.

This dish is inspired by one of his recipes in  his book " Healthy Appetite ".  It is economical on small talk and detailed instructions. But to someone who does not have the knack to follow convoluted instructions, that's the book for me.

Back to the dish : it has all the components for nourishment from a single meal. The salsa offers a refreshing kick to the palate ( that onion is a must but cut back  if it is not your favorite bulb ) and the potato is a huge deviation from the usual sugary pandan soup version. Next time, I will add mushroom and maybe  cauliflower for extra dimension.

A simple meal for 3 :

Tomato salsa :

1 box cherry tomatoes, halved.

1 small onion, cubed.

1 handful of basil, chopped.

A dash of olive oil, cider, himalayan salt, brown sugar.

Toss everything mentioned above and chill until the frittata is ready.

Frittata :

3 small sweet potatoes. 2 purple,  1 orange potato cut into tiny cubes.

3 eggs

Heat non stick pan with olive oil.  Sauté potato cubes until slightly brown and firm to the bite.

Beat egg, season with salt, pepper.

Pour over potatoes.

Cook over medium heat until egg is set.

Serve with salsa over frittata.

Last minute pasta and french beans

The week has come and gone but the cooking never ends.  Saturday lunch is always a bigger event  because everyone is up late and then without  warning gets horribly hungry with nary a warning.  So it is always the ubiquitous pasta to the rescue in half a jiffy.

Here's what I had to prepare a super quick meal in less than 15 minutes for 3  :

250g pasta

2 cups cherry tomato

1/2 bottle stir-in pasta sauce ( roasted garlic and sundried tomato by Leggos )

Put a pot of water to boil, covered. Do not add salt, since the stir-in pasta sauce will be quite salty.

Wash the cherry tomatoes, pour into glass bowl.

Pour 1/2 a bottle of stir-in sauce onto tomato.

Cover. Microwave for 4-5 minutes.

Remove cover. Stir, set aside.

Cook pasta according to recommended duration.

Meanwhile, grate parmesan cheese. Toast a handful of pine nuts, 1 minute. Remove from grill to prevent burning.

Drain pasta. Transfer to bowl of tomato sauce. Toss.

Serve and garnish with cheese, nuts and maybe a couple of basil leaves if you have some.

For some greens to go along with the pasta, here's what I did  with the pasta was cooking :

2-Minute  french beans : wash, strings removed,arranged on microweable glassware, drizzle olive oil,cover and nuke for 2 minutes. Uncover and garnish with bacon bits/fried ikan bilis/pork floss , any condiments depending on the theme of the main dish.

There you have it, pasta and veggies in no time. Another meal solved.

Pear Kimchi

The doctor has repeatedly told me not to take any more fermented cabbage due to my sensitive gut. What should I do when Korean fever strikes and kimchi is very much on my mind the entire week ? Instant kimchi, of course!

I bet any self respecting Korean will be shocked at this, but still, I am happy to get my kimchi fix, even if this is not the real thing.

I make this with the help of the microwave, an indispensable tool in my kitchen. Practically whatever microbes that may be found was nuked and yes, I didn't have the runs this time.

Feel free to add any other condiments eg onions, scallions, radish etc.

Here's what I did to 1/4 head of WongBok :

1/4 head of Chinese cabbage, washed, microwaved covered for 5 minutes.

3 forelle pears, julianned
1 handful sesame seeds, toasted

To be blended ;
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 pear, deseeded
1 knob ginger, washed, skinned
3 T red Korean pepper paste
2 T apple vinegar
2 T fish sauce
1 T honey


Drain cabbage. Cool.
Mix paste, sesame seeds and julianned pear.
Starting from the inner most leaf, apply mixture on cabbage.
Do so under the outer most leaf is smeared with paste.
Serve instantly.

I couldn't finish this and its leftover was used to fry rice. That makes another portion of kimchi rice for me.

Never was so satisfied this week :-)

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiya - the name of the dish that took me a long time to remember and twice as long to pronounce properly. My fondest memory of this dish is eating it in Osaka and Tokyo's Ueno where the cook beckons me with "Oishi ! Oshi !" and I played along like an obliging happy tourist. To me, Okonomiyaki is a word that ends with a smile ( try saying it and you will see! ) because of that happy Japan trip.

And from that, I had many thoughts about the nature of Okonomiyaki, which I will refrain from telling lest I get didactic. Now back to the dish proper.

This is a meal on its own, whether as a snack or a main meal. It is best made when you are clearing the fridge ! Okonomiyaki is a very forgiving dish because there are no standards in the accompanying ingredients that go with the cabbage.

You can have all the major food groups in a single dish and what's more, there's only 1 big plate to wash after the feasting.

If you wish for some color, toss in shredded carrot and some corn. In Japan, they paint Worchester-like sauce onto the pancake before adding the topping. Whatever the arrangement, its riot of texture is sure to please even little children ( especially mine ).

Prepared Okonomiyaki powder comes seasoned and no additional salt need be added. Season according to preferred taste when using plain wheat flour. Traditional preparation uses wheat flour and freshly grated mountain yam ( called Huaisun in Mandarin, yamaimo in Japanese ). I have tried using both types of flour and frankly speaking, other than the level of saltiness, the outcome is similar.

Here goes. Makes 2 big pancakes, as a main dish.

1 cup plain flour or okonomiyaki flour from any Japanese / Korean store
1 cup grated mountain yam ( optional ). Add 1/2 cup potato starch if this is lacking. The stickiness holds the cabbage and meat together.
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup water

2 handful crab stick / octopus / prawn /sliced sausages / pork or any ingredients you fancy. The options are inexhaustible!
300g shredded cabbage

Topping - optional :
Mayonaise, bonito flakes

Mix flour, water, yam, seasoning until smooth. Beat in eggs.
Add meats, cabbage into mix.
Stir well but do not over handle batter. In 2 separate batches, ladle mixture onto well oiled pan and fry for about 3 minutes for each side. Use a plate to help flip the pancake if the task gets intimidating.

Remove pancake by sliding it out from fryingpan onto a serving plate. Paint top with Worchester sauce or shoyu .

Sprinkle with toppings of bonito, seaweed flakes depending on the artist in you.

Serve immediately to enjoy its crispy texture.

Minestrone soup

Minestrone soup, the what-to-cook and what-to-do-with-veggie-odds-and-ends soup has just moved up the soup social ladder. This, I did by adding cubed beef for dimension and sour cream for richness. To increase the repertoire of texture, add a handful of spiral pasta 30 minutes before serving for an interesting twist to the otherwise predictable dish.

For 4.

2 carrots, cubed
1 cup fresh corn
3 stalks of celery, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
100g beef, cubed
1 onion, chopped, sauted
1 T tomato pasta

Put everything into the slow cooker, add 4 bowls of boiling water and set to high power. Cook for 3 hours. In the last 30 minutes, throw in a handful of spiral pasta.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

Sayur Lodeh, truncated version

This dish is a last minute decision. With the hot, hazy weather, I intend to hole up at home and enjoy a home cooked meal of all things Malay. What better way to use up that half a head of cabbage than to cook some Sayur Lodeh. It has all the ingredients highly approved by the family - tofu, cabbage, carrot. The full blown version includes long beans and turnips which is lacking in my actual cooking due to zero inventory.

The challenge,however, is in making the rempah. Though lacking lemon grass and ginger, the following rempah ingredients still scored a high rating. It was so good I reserved the leftover gravy for a Lontong dish the next day!

The rempah takes a little more effort but the cooking part is plain sailing. Make additional rempah before hand to keep in the freezer for the occasional sayur lodeh or lontong fix.

For 3 :
Vegetables -
1 C cabbage, cut to bite size
1 carrot, cut to wedges
2 pieces tofu, cut to triangles
10 tofu puffs
1 C long beans
1 C turnip, cut into sticks

Sayur Lodeh Rempah -
1 t tumeric powder
1 t chilli powder
1 medium size onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 t belachan
1 handful dried shrimps, soaked in hot water

Pound all of the above into a paste.

Fry tofu ( optional ) until it is has a nice crust. This prevents it from breaking when it is reintroduced into the vegetable curry.

On low heat, fry the rempah until fragrant, taking care not to burn it. Add 2 cups of water and 5 tablespoons of coconut milk. Add the cut vegetables and tofu when the curry starts to boil. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. The curry should be served hot ( with rice or rice cakes ) and leftover curry should be discarded or frozen if meant to be reused.

No slime okra ( ladies fingers )

Okra was never my favorite except for vegetable printing art classes .
It's a nightmare to eat especially with its oozy slime. Okra dishes never looked so sexy until I had it at Little India's vegetarian restaurant.
The secret is to avoid handling the cut vegetable with water , if possible.
Better still, deep fry whole with batter and it becomes a fancy side dish.
The best dishes are made with short, young, dark green tender okras.

For 3 :
2 C okra, washed and dried. 1 onion
Garam masala
1 T oil

Method :
Cut okra to break up the fiber.
Heat oil and gently fry onion until it is about to caramelize.
Add your favourite spices, taking care not to burn it.
Add cut okra and toss.
Count to 30 and it's ready to be served !

Tip :
Instead of garam masala, use powdered prawn mix ( belachan ) for a touch of Malaysia.