Breadstew

What do you do when you have alot of bread left over?? The most common dishes which utilise stale breads are bread and butter puddings, fruit charlottes, crutons and breadcrumbs....the loaf I wanted to use up was the traditional country style type...with a chewy exterior and not that suitable for desserts i thought...and due to the sheer volume, i wanted to find a recipe which will use up the whole loaf easily....

and guess what i found???

Poor man's food from Protugal...BREADSTEW!!!!

It's very simple, really....pan fry onions in olive oil, add bread, enough water to make a mush and top with eggs. Finito!!!
It tastes very much like chinese rice congee if you let it simmer long enough!!!
Cos i had the audacity to invite friends over, i tot i had to make it more special.......so i rendered some bacon instead of using olive oil...and used fish stock and added mixed vegetables, campignons and spinach to make it more robust....
very comforting food and i guess, it would be great for small children?? Hardly requires any chewing... :) and people did like it by the way...

Tapenade!!

Got the recipe for this incredibly tasty tapenade from V's blog...

Quick and easy!! My favourite type of recipe!

Reckon it would be great as a pasta stir through as well...and a good gift for olive lovers...Michelle, I will bring you some when I come back to Singapore, ok??

update: I brought the dip back to Singapore..to three different parties and was inundated with requests for the recipe!!!

the following picture was taken at Shalini's place..

Sweet Potato Casserole

recipe from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS
5 sweet potatoes, sliced
50g butter (omitted accidentally, opps!)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 pinch ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 (10.5 ounce) package miniature marshmallows

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Place sweet potatoes in a large saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, drain, and mash.
3. Place mashed sweet potatoes in large bowl, and use an electric mixer to blend with the margarine, brown sugar, vanilla essence and cinnamon. Spread evenly into a 9x13 inch baking dish. Top with miniature marshmallows.
4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until heated through, and marshmallows are puffed and golden brown.

comments: Did you know that sweet potatos can be cooked this way with marshmallows?? I honestly didn't!! Once again, this is a 'clearing pantry' recipe!! :P But it turned out pretty well...maybe! Before baking, it looked really pretty with the tri-coloured marshmellows, and everyone who saw it was quite eager to grab a piece! It didn't look that appetising after cutting up cos it was all mushy! But reviews were still on the positive side! And!!! We found out something surprising!! Mashed up sweet potato (i used the purple skinned ones) has an uncanningly similar texture and taste to lotus nut paste...the stuff which is inside mooncakes!! (and I didn't even have to add half a gallon of oil!) Plus, sweet potato is way cheaper and much easier to prepare than lotus nut paste! No soaking overnight and then cooking in a pressure cooker..and then frying in oil for almost an hour.....(see the last post about complicated chinese cooking!!)..
So perhaps this year, we might just have sweet potato mooncakes instead...!!
Oh! and coming back to this recipe, i think the brown sugar can be omitted altogether actually...the marshmellows were sweet enough... :)

Asian Carrot Cake aka Chai Tow Kueh!

If you mentioned 'carrot cake' to a Singaporean or Malaysian, chances are that we'd think immediately of the savoury version with lots of egg and oil instead of the sweet nutty version so loved by Americans.

After making it today, i wondered how it was first invented. It never fazes me how complicated/ time consuming Asian cooking is!! First, you've got to grate the carrot (raddish, but in Mandarin, it's called 'white carrot'), then you've got to fry it til tender, mix it into a rice flour water mixture, steam for an hour, cool for 1.5 hours and then leave it in the fridge for at least 8 hours! And that is only half the job...then you've still got to stir fry it in a copious amount of oil and egg for around 10 more minutes and in the process, infuse your home with oily fumes. (I really do feel sorry for my housemates sometimes!)

Ok! No more whinning! The result is relatively authentic i think...though I'd follow the recipe more closely the next time (if there is a next time! I only cooked chai tow kueh today cos I had half a daikon i had to finish before leaving for placement tomorrow!) and stir fry it for at least 8 minutes..I was impatient and remembering the hawkers back home, I thought that it can be cooked in a jiffy! (Most probably, the hawkers have already stir-fried the carrot cake once through, that's why they take a much shorter time! Thanks Peter for the tip!)
Most pieces came out a tad too chewy but on the whole, was still acceptable! Oh...and I think it is not advisable to cut back on the oil....otherwise, it won't be crispy or fragrant enough....Eat this only occasionally ok!!

Got the recipe from Epicurious.

PS: Actually I like the 'white' carrot cake much better...if you've got a good recipe for that, please share with me!! Thanks!

the perfect shape of a potato chip!

Did you know that potato chips have a 'perfect' shape for maximum crispiness??!!
This article made me laugh out loud!! :) So...that means Pringles potato chips are all prefectly shaped...but cos they are made from dehydrated potato powder, they don't taste quite the same to me...what do you reckon?

Otah (Asian style fish pate!)

ingredients:
500g white fish
1/2 cup coconut cream
2 whole nutmegs
1 small piece balanchan
1 tbs chilli powder
1 inch piece of ginger, (around the size of a thumb), minced
1 inch piece of galangal (blue ginger), minced
1/2 cup of shallots
1 tbs rice flour
1 tbs oil
1 tbs sugar
1 egg

method:
preheat oven to 200 C.
Blend all the ingredients in a food processor.
Grease a baking tray and spread otah mixture on it.
Bake for 20-30 minutes.
Serve as an appetiser or with coconut rice (nasi lemak).

comments: My mom first tried this recipe last year...and I remember my younger sister, coming home late at night and after tasting the otah, said to me, "Ting ah! Donno which restaurant Ma buy this otah from...it's very very good leh!!"

When I told mom about my sister's comment the next morning, she positively glowed with pleasure. I think the recipe my mom used was from a 25 year old newspaper clipping. My version is not as mouth watering as my mom's...perhaps it's due to the substitution of onions for shallots...or maybe, food always tastes better when you don't have to prepare it yourself!

Lip lady's granola

Melissa from the Traveller's Lunchbox is one of my favourite food bloggers. Not only does she write thoughtfully, produces inspiring pictures but she will actually experiement for as long as SEVEN years to get a recipe right!!! I think that even if it took her a seven more, she will still gladly do it ... and the most beautiful part is her generousity in sharing the results of her toil!

And they do not disappoint!!!

I was really impressed with the granola...it's excellent with yoghurt and it's so addictive that i feel really guilty eating it!! ha....but oats are supposed to be good for you right?? All that insoluble fibre...!! *wink!*