Have you noticed how when the sun is shining and the wind is a gentle breeze and the trees start to bud and flowers bloom and the playground is filled with children’s voices and lawn mowers hum in the background that all of a sudden, things come alive. And I mean A.L.I.V.E! I just love spring. It’s not here yet, but the signs are so telling and oh so welcoming. So not to miss out on the fun outdoors, I whipped this easy yummy fish dish in no time. Some things, like taste, can’t be compromised. And I’m off….to enjoy the rest of the sun, of course!

Ingredients:

2 swai fillets - washed and cut into 2 (total of 4 pieces), dry wth paper towel
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
1 clove garlic - lightly smashed
1 tsp of thyme - remove leaves from stem
1 tbsp of Italian parsley - chopped
1/2 onion - sliced
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Cut 4 pieces aluminium foil and grease it with some butter.



3. Season the fish with pepper and salt to taste.



4. In a saucepan, melt the butter and garlic on low heat. Leave the garlic for a few minutes in the melted butter until the you smell the garlic’s aroma. It shouldn’t brown and the butter should not turn brown either.



5. Discard the garlic. Add the lemon juice, thyme and parsley and a dash of black pepper. Stir and remove from heat.



6. Place each slice of fish on an aluminium foil. Divide the butter mixture equally and pour on the fish slices.



7. Put sliced onions on the fish and then fold the aluminium foil.



8. Put the foil packets on a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.
9. Serve with rice.

Friday was an eventful day which I could have done without. Just as I finished my leisurely breakfast and was planning what I would do next while waiting for the kids to come home from school, my phone rang. It’s one of those calls you’d rather not receive from school. My little one had thrown up while getting in line after recess. Sigh.

In 2 minutes I got a set of clothes, a paper bag and a pair of shoes, my car keys and I was out of the door and on the way to school to right all things that went wrong. The poor kid was in tears, her tummy was feeling queasy and she’d thrown up on her coat, her jeans and boots. Hmmm…my brain went “I suppose I’ll need to put laundry on that list of to-do things I was thinking about”. So I did what needed to be done in the Health Room, got her signed out, collected some of her things which she’d left behind in class and by the time we were in the car, she was in a much better mood than when I first saw her. *pat on mummy’s back*

The problem was, she still had the pain and by the time we got home, she was running a temperature and looking pasty. Well she’s much better now. I suppose some bug got to her poor little tummy. But that meant no milk, no oily food and being the fussy eater that she is, no boring porridge after 2 doses of that “yucky gooey stuff”. But of course, only because she wasn’t complaining of the tummy ache  and the fever had subsided that I relented and decided to try something new that was healthy, without oil and easy on the tummy and tasty. So maybe if you’re looking for tasty-no oil-healthy-wholesome food, you might want to try this.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

3 pcs chicken thigh - boneless, sliced thinly
1 tbsp cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp orange juice
1/4 - 1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 can of cut young corn/fresh young corn cut into 1 inch pieces
2 carrots - sliced thinly diagonally
1 can of sliced button mushrooms - drain the liquid and rinse under a running tap for 30 sec
2 stalks of spring onions - cut into 1 inch lengths
1 tomato - cut into 4 thick discs
1 very thin slice of ginger

Method:

1. In a small bowl, combine cornstarch garlic powder, sugar and salt.
2. Combine the sliced chicken with the contents in the bowl and mix well to coat the chicken pieces thoroughly.
3. Add the orange juice and mix well. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes.
4. Prepare the steamer.
5. Then add the water, soy sauce and garlic powder to the chicken and mix well.
6. Combine the corn, carrots, mushrooms and spring onions. Stir well.
7. Line the sides of the dish/bowl to be used in the steamer with the tomato slices.
8. Half fill the bowl with the chicken mixture. So that the gravy will not overflow when the dish is steamed.
9. Place the sliced ginger on the top of the chicken mixture.



10. Steam for 10 minutes or until chicken is done. Test by piercing the chicken slices. They should be tender.
11. Remove from steamer and stir the steamed dish a little to break the chicken pieces that might have clumped together as well as to coat all the ingredients with the gravy.
12. Serve hot immediately with whit rice.

I’m usually on the ball and know if I need to stock up but lately, I have been lagging. Maybe it’s a subtle sign of aging. But I’d rather believe that it’s because I’ve been preoccupied with the kids. First, and foremost, there’s been quite a lot to do getting the kids prepared for their respective tests and then Quran classes have become a lot more challenging because the kids have to memorize longer verses. Both of which are time consuming and brain draining. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining. On the contrary, it’s been keeping me happily and gainfully occupied and on my toes. The flip-side though is that I’ve not had the time to update my blog nor think about updating my pantry, fridge and cupboards!

So lo and behold, while I was clearing the fridge today, only because I found a small bag of dried up curry leaves and realized I’ve been neglecting my usual routine, I found 9 apples looking very sorry. 1 of which was beyond hope while the rest needed immediate attention. They didn’t look very well. There was a certain weariness about their appearance and I doubt if anyone would want to go near them. Doing a quick assessment of their condition, I figured the best solution to save the day was to make the best of their state and bake an apple pie. The decision proved to be more that satisfactory. Not only were the apples happily tucked in their pie shell revived by the syrup, the kids were jubilant that they got to eat ice-cream with their apple pie and I was patting myself on the back for a very successful mission executed to perfection.

Ingredients for apple pie filling:

8 apples - washed, peeled, cored and sliced into 1/4 inch slices (baking apples would be good. I just used whatever I had which I believe was a mixture of Gala and Braeburn and some other…)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp butter
1 heaped tbsp of cornstarch

Method:

1. Place the sliced apple pieces in a large bowl.



2. Sprinkle both sugars, salt, cinnamon and lemon juice and mix well.



3. Leave it for about 2 hours until you get at least 1/2 cup of juice from the apples.



4. Strain this juice into a small saucepan. Combine it with the butter and bring to a boil. Continue to boil until the juice thickens into a syrupy texture and reduces to about 1/3 cup.



5. Leave the strained apples in the big bowl. Add the cornstarch and mix well.



6. Combine the syrup with the apples.
7. Place the filling in your pie shell only when your oven is preheated and the pie shell (both top and bottom) is ready.
8. Bake your apple pie in a pre-heated oven at 425deg F for 55 minutes or until the the filling is bubbling and the apple feels tender when a knife is inserted into the apples.
9. Remove from the oven and let it sit for 4 hrs so that the apples will absorb the moisture.
10. Serve it cold or warm with vanilla ice cream or on its own.

Original recipe from here.

Tips:

• The recipe will fill a 9in pie plate perfectly.
• Pouring the filling into the pie shell only when everything is ready will prevent the bottom of the pie crust from being soggy.
• If you’re wondering what happens if you can’t wait for 4 hrs, this is what I did. We were too impatient to wait for 4 hrs. We cut the apple pie 1 hr later so there was still quite a lot of liquid. But it tasted awesome and we drizzled the liquid over the ice cream. Mmmmmm…yum!

Some brands have become synonymous with the product for example, Kleenex for facial tissue, Pampers for diapers and Dettol for antiseptic liquid disinfectant. Nestum to me is synonymous for a hot breakfast cereal. I mean how can it not be? It was a staple in my family when we were growing up. Mom made sure that we had either toast, cornflakes or Nestum for breakfast before she sent us packing to school. More often than not, we’d find our Nestum prepared and waiting for us on the table to gobble. My brother likes his mixed with a little warm milk so that it’s consistency is chewy but I preferred mine with a bit more milk and mixed until it had a custard like texture. But if one has had it almost everday for 5 days a week for  approximately 18years, it would be shocking if it didn’t become synonymous with something! Surprisingly, I have not been able to find Nestum here in Seattle and I do wonder why it’s not available here. So if you know where I can find it, pray tell. It would definitely make it easier for family members who come to visit us if they could lighten their baggage by not having to bring bags of Nestum for me.

Besides the breakfast regime, you’d want to try Nestum Cereal Prawn. It’s a dish that’s sure to be a hit with anyone. If you ate at a restaurant which had this on its menu, it’s coming close to a crime if you didn’t order it. But if you lived in a place that didn’t have Nestum in its stores, then it’s not surprising that it’s a dish you can never find here, and you’ll have to be your own chef. So maybe the next time your family and friends come visiting and you’re in No-Nestum-land, it’d be a good idea to request that as a souvenir.

For this dish, you’ll need to clean prawns by removing whiskers, legs and devein but keep the shell intact. Do you know how to do this in 1 min? I’m wondering if I should do a video on my prawn cleaning technique and post it. [Updated 18 April - I finally got to making this video and posting it]

Ingredients:

1lb prawns - clean prawns i.e. remove whiskers, legs and edge of tail and devein. Keep shell intact.
1 egg - lightly beaten
2 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp evaporated milk
3 tbsp salted butter
2 birds’ eye cili - sliced fine
1 garlic - chopped fine
a handful of curry leaves - washed
1 cup Nestum cereal
salt (as required)
oil

Method:

1. Pour half of the beaten egg onto the prawn and mix well. Then add the corn starch and mix the prawns until lightly coated.
2. Heat a pan with oil and deep fry the prawns until pink. Remember to turn over the prawn.



3. Remove and set aside.



4. Add the evaporated milk into the egg and mix. Set aside.
5. In skillet, melt 3 tbsp of butter and add garlic, curry leaves and cili. Stir fry until garlic browns and it starts to become fragrant. This won’t take very long.



6. Push the ingredients in the pan to the side and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Quickly scramble it then combine with the rest of the mixture.



7. Reduce the heat and add in the Nestum. Mix with all the rest of the ingredients. Fry for about a min.



8. Add in the fried prawns, mix well and cook for another minute. Remove from heat.



9. Serve hot with rice.

Tips:

• Make sure the oil is hot when frying the prawns to give a crispy shell.
• Add more cili if you prefer it spicy. The amount of cili here gives a very very very mild flavor. To my tastebuds, it’s non-existent but my kids have yet to develop a taste for cili and so for now I will have to content with mild dishes.
• When buying prawns, make sure it feels firm to the touch and the shell is not coming off. It should not have a stale smell.
• Use fresh prawns for this dish. The flavor does change if using frozen packed prawns.
• Use medium or large prawns for this dish. The small ones leave you very dissatisfied.
• I’m using salted butter so I didn’t add any salt to the dish. You can add a little if you like.

I don’t always think that I have lots to do but the truth is I do.  It’s probably a  coping mechanism but whatever it is my brain is doing to me, it helps to make the mountain of chores a manageable molehill. And so the last couple of days, more accurately, weeks, I have found myself getting busier and busier and by the time I find some time to update my blog, I am either too tired or it’s just too late to be updating my blog. So today I made a pact with myself. I had to stay focused and complete the list of chores for the day by tea time and I’ll reward myself with time to get this blog moving again. I wonder how others do it.

Here’s an easy one meal dish which is enjoyed by the family. The glass noodles make a simple dish look fabulous and gives the mouth an easy time - not much to chew. They just slide down the throat and probably land with a thump in the stomach! If you’re into human anatomy, you’ll probably balk at this but that’s how I feel when I’m almost done with the meal and savoring the last morsels of this slippery, colorful mouth-watering dish. Ahhhh….some dishes just have that effect of creating an aura of absolute bliss when all that surrounds you is impossible mayhem.

Ingredients:

3 bunches of glass noodles - soaked in hot water until 3/4 soft and translucent
8 cloves garlic - chopped fine
2 - 3 pieces boneless chicken thighs - sliced into 2 inch strips
12 prawns
3 cups cabbage - shredded
10 young corn - cut into thirds
1 small carrot - sliced
3 cups chicken stock
white pepper - to taste
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1 tsp cornstarch
3 tbsp oil

Method:

1. In a wok/pot, heat oil and fry garlic until fragrant and brown.
2. Add the chicken slices, carrots and corn. Stir until the chicken browns.
   

   [There should be a pics for the first 2 steps but I forgot all about the camera till I hit Step 3. It happens. And I'm sure it won't take too much of your imagination to know how step 1 and 2 look like. :P]

3. Add the prawn and oyster sauce. Stir and fry until the prawn starts to almost turn pink but not completely.



4. Add the chicken stock and white pepper. Bring to boil. The prawn and chicken pieces should be cooked by now.

Don’t worry if it looks like there’s too much soup. The noodles will work their magic when they start soaking it up



5. Add cabbage and noodles. Stir and let the noodles cook for a few minutes until it easily breaks when cut.



6. In a small bowl, mix a little of the gravy from the noodle with cornstarch and mix well. Then pour the cornstarch mixture into the noodle. The gravy should thicken slightly. Remove from heat.



7. Serve hot.
   Tips:
   • Don’t soak the noodles for too long. You don’t want the noodles to be soggy when you add it into the pot/wok.
   • You can also crack an egg into the hot gravy to thicken instead of using cornstarch.
   • When buying glass noodles, it’s easy to get these confused with rice vermicelli (soo hoon) and rice sticks (bee hoon). Look at the ingredients. It should be made from mung bean flour, starch and water. Also look at the noodle strands. They should be thicker.