Malaysian Style Vegetarian Fettucine Goreng/ Fried Vegetarian Fettucine

Malaysian Style Vegetarian Fettucine Goreng/ Fried Vegetarian Fettucine 

Ingredients:

Fettucine - 1/2 packet

Shredded cabbage : 4 handfuls

Carrot - 1 (cut length wise)

French beans - 15 ( cut in big pieces)

Fresh bean sprouts:  1 handful

Large ripe tomato : 1

Medium sized onion - 1 

Garlic : 4 cloves

Salt : as needed

Spring onion - some

Vegetable oil - 4 tablespoons

Sambal Paste :

Dry red chilies - 10

Garlic - 7 cloves

small onion - 1

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Method :

1. Finely shred the cabbage and soak in salted hot water for 5 min and discard the water. Rinse off the bean sprouts. Keep everything aside separately.

2. In a deep bottom pan, enough water is added along with salt and 1 tsp of oil. Bring the water to boil and start adding the fettucine. Cook until it is al dente or cooked to be firm to the bite. Drain off the excess water by using a colander and rinse the pasta under the running cold water. 

3. In a pan, pour four tablespoons of vegetable oil and when it's hot, add finely sliced shallots or onion and finely chopped garlic. Fry them till translucent. Now is the time to add diced tomato and 3 to 4 tablespoons of sambal paste. Fry till the raw smell of chili disappears and diced tomato turns mushy.

4. Next, add shredded cabbage, length wise cut carrot and beans. Sauté lightly for 10 minutes as you don't want to over cook the vegetables. Keep the vegetables crunchy. Season your mixture with salt. 

5. Next, add cooked fettucine. Stir the vegetables and fettucine until the sambal paste brings all together. Lastly, add beans sprouts and chopped spring onion. Mix for 5 minutes  and serve hot. 

Abby

Thank you

Simple Stir Fried Pasta with leftover 'Tom Yum' Paste

Everyone knows how to make stir fried pasta but why am I taking so much of the time to post this simple stir fried pasta recipe on my blog. Guess what, the taste was amazing and unlike other pasta or fried rice recipes I have got in my blog, this particular dish doesn't require lots of vegetables as they will ruin the flavor of 'Tom Yum' paste. So, I kept the recipe simple by only incorporating small sized cabbage not the big one. If you use the big cabbage, it will have the tendency to ooze lots of liquid and turn the dish rather soggy. You could also use finely shredded Brussels sprout and that would be perfect for this dish. I had also reduce the amount of pasta but increased the quantity of the bean sprouts twice to cut down the intake of carbohydrate and alleviate fiber intake. The bean sprouts were grown naturally at home as sometimes I'm worried of buying those from the grocery store for some hygienic reason. Don't skip any of the ingredients used and please never try to use capsicum as it dissipates the smell of lemongrass used in the Tom Yum paste. Small dried salted anchovies would be available in Chinese grocery store and it had elevated the pasta's flavor immensely or you could also substitute it with fresh seafood such as prawn or squid. Try this recipe at home and impress your loved ones with your cooking skill.

Stir Fried Pasta with Tom Yum paste

Ingredients:

Organic spiral pasta : 3/4 cup

Shredded cabbage : 1 handful

Fresh bean sprouts:  3 handfuls

Small dried salted anchovies : 2 tbsp

Medium sized ripe tomato : 1

Chilli powder : 1 tsp (adjust to your spice level)

Tom Yum paste : 1 1/2 tbsp

Olive oil : 1 tbsp 

Small shallots : 6

Garlic : 4 cloves

Salt : as needed

'Tom Yum' Paste recipe here

You could always double the quantity of ingredients and the blended paste keep well in the freezer for few weeks.

Method :

1. Finely shred the cabbage and soak in salted hot water for 5 min and discard the water. Rinse off the bean sprouts and soak the tiny anchovies in hot water for 10 minutes and rinse them under cold water twice. Keep everything aside separately.

2. In a deep bottom pan, enough water is added along with salt and 1 tsp of oil. Bring the water to boil and start adding the dry spiral pasta. Cook for 3 minutes or till it is al dente or cooked to be firm to the bite. Drain off the excess water using a colander and rinse the pasta with running cold water. 

3. In a pan, pour a tbsp of olive oil and when it's hot, start frying the anchovies till crispy. After that, add finely sliced shallots and garlic. Fry them till translucent and caramelized. Now time to add diced tomato and Tom Yum paste. Fry till raw smell of chilli disappears and diced tomato turns mushy.

4. Next, add shredded cabbage, chilli powder, salt and cook till cabbage ooze out water slightly but without softening the cabbage much. Lastly, chuck in 3 big handful of bean sprouts and pasta. Give a quick toss for 5 minutes because the longer you cook a lot of liquid will ooze out of the sprouts and lose the crunchiness. The pasta shouldn't be soggy so cook till liquid is absorbed into the pasta.

5. Serve hot. 

-Abby

Millet in Yoghurt Magic

Another very quick and easy preparation of millet is by adding thick Greek yoghurt with some Indian spices that turns the dish healthy for the consumption of all. We enjoy eating this millet submerged in the luscious thick creamy yoghurt with a kick of spiciness from the finely chopped small onions and green chillies. Enough talking about the goodness of millet as I have already mentioned about its beneficial in Millet in Tom Yum Soup . Lets check on the recipe and its cooking method. 

"Linking this to Dish it out event hosted by Hasna of Kachuss Delights ; originally hosted by Vardhini of Cooks Joy"

Ingredients :  : 

Yellow Pearl Millet : 1/4 cup

Plain Greek Yoghurt without flavor : 1/2 to 1 cup ( adjust according to your liking)

Small onions : 4

Japanese cucumber : 1/4 cup

Water : 2 1/2 cups

Cooking oil : 1 tsp

Mustard seeds : 1/4 tsp

Asofetida : 1/8 tsp

Small green chillies : 2

Salt : as needed

Method :

1. Add 2 1/2 cups of water and 1/4 cup of millet and let it boil on medium low flame till the millet is cooked thoroughly. Run the cooked millet under cold water and drain the excess water. 

2. In a pan, when oil is slightly hot, sputter mustard seeds. Switch off the flame. After that, with the heat left in the pan fry finely sliced onions and green chillies. Add enough salt and asofetida.

3. Pour the fried mixture to the cooked millet.

4. Next add yoghurt and grated cucumber. Mix well and serve.

-Abby

Chinese Fried Rice

Fried rice is a lazy man's cooking said by my mother but I creatively changed her notion as one of the most versatile cooking that gives me an ultimate privilege of chucking in varieties of vegetables and seafood. I'm constantly amazed with the satisfying end result which can be eaten without any side dish or uses minimal spice ingredients. Although the fried rice isn't emphasizing on its authentic background, yet I called it 'Chinese Fried Rice' maybe because of the touch of Chinese sesame oil which is so robust in a pleasant way. Anyway, one thing for certain, fried rice was absolutely mind blowing.

Chinese Fried Rice

Ingredients :

Cooked rice : 4 cups (refer to the method of preparation in Black Pepper Fried Rice

Shredded Cabbage : 2 cups

Carrot : 1 (grated using slightly wider blade as it gives nice crunch and texture)

Green Peas : 1/2 cup

Finely chopped green chillies : 6

Finely chopped garlic : 6 cloves

Finely sliced small onion : 5

Medium sized prawns : 16

Beaten egg : 1

Chinese sesame oil : 1tbsp

Cooking oil : 2 tbsp

Black pepper powder : as needed

Salt : as needed

Sugar : 1/8 tsp

Method :

1. In a hot pan, add 2 tbsp of ordinary oil. Start frying the sliced onions, finely chopped green chillies and garlic till translucent.

2. Then immediately, add shredded cabbage and grated carrot with salt as needed. Fry till vegetables are slightly cooked but not over cooked. At this stage, you can chuck in prawns and add 1/8 tsp of sugar. Prawns required 3-4 minutes of cooking.

3. Make a well in the center of the vegetable mixture, and now add beaten egg which has been already mixed with little salt, 1 tbsp of Chinese sesame oil and 1/4 tsp of black pepper. Let it cook without stirring for 4 minutes and now you may start scrambling the egg with rest of the mixture evenly.

5. Now add cooked rice, another 1 tsp - 1 1/2 tsp of black pepper powder ( adjust accordingly). Give it a quick mix.

6. Lastly, mix the green peas and switch off the stove. Mix the fried rice well. Close the wide pan with a lid in order to allow peas to cook in the heat of the fried rice.

7. Serve hot with some potato chips.

Chinese Fried Rice

-Abby

Char Kuey Teow

Char Kuey Teow is a fried flat rice noodles with zero vegetables, seafood such as prawn, squid and shellfish. This is another Chinese dish which taste amazingly fresh and delicious when eaten piping hot. Vegetables are not required in this fried rice noodles preparation as the flat rice noodles have a smooth, soft texture which may spoil with the excess liquid oozing out of vegetables. The flat rice noodles are cooked on high flame quickly but with delicate care. You can buy this type of rice noodles at any Chinese grocery store or in a wet market. In order to elevate the flavor of the dish, I have used a bunch of chives abundantly and bean sprouts also have given a nice crunch as well as counterbalanced the spicy red sambal incorporated in this fried noodles. This is my style of making fried Char Kuey Teow which is spicy and tasty.

Char Kuey Teow

Ingredients :

Flat rice noodles : 1 small packet

Fish balls : 1 small packet

Prawns : some

Chives : a bunch chopped finely

Bean sprouts : 2 handfuls

Lime : half to 1

Light soy sauce : 3 tbsp

Black pepper powder : 1/8 tsp

Salt : as per your taste

Oil : 3 tbsp

Chives, red sambal paste and fish balls

Bean sprouts or Taugeh

Flat rice noodles

Ingredients for making spicy red sambal paste :

Dry red chillies : 6 (adjust accordingly)

Small red onions : 4

Garlic : 5 cloves

Method :

1.Grind all the ingredients mentioned under 'Spicy red sambal' with enough water. Smooth sambal paste is ready and keep aside.

2. In a wide wok on medium high flame, pour 3 tbsp of oil, add sambal paste, fish balls cut into half and prawns. Fry them until the raw smell of sambal dissipates.

3. Make a well in the center of the wok, pour beaten egg with added salt and 1/8 tsp of black pepper powder and a little oil. Leave it undisturbed for 4 minutes. After that, along with finely chopped chives, you may start to scramble the egg quickly with the rest of the mixture in the wok.

4. Lastly, add flat rice noodles, bean sprouts, 3 tbsp of light soy sauce, salt and give quick stir. Mix well, so that the sauce will coat completely on the noodles. Do not add water and only 3-5 minutes of stirring required after adding the noodles. If you further cook the rice noodles, it will be mushy. 

5. Serve piping hot in a plate with freshly squeezed of half lime.

Char Kuey Teow

-Abby

Black Pepper Fried Rice

I visited the peninsular country of Malaysia two months ago, there were several forms of pepper manufactured either as a whole black or white pepper, crushed pepper, fine powdered pepper and famous black pepper sauce which is so versatile in any Asian food preparation. In Sarawak, pepper is cultivated as a mono crop without shade mainly on gentle to steep slopes. Vines are planted on mounds, prepared after land clearing. Pepper vines are normally brought to first crop at the beginning of the wet season in the second year of field planting. Harvesting is done from March to August. Black pepper is produced by direct sun-drying of fresh berries harvested from spikes which show early signs of maturity.This sauce has light sweetness, sharp spiciness from the fresh black pepper and vinegar as a main ingredient. This sauce could turn any ordinary dish into an extraordinary one. Well, if you can't find black pepper sauce then you could always substitute it with 1 tbsp of Chilli sauce plus 2 tsp black pepper powder. Paneer or tofu could be used as a protein in this fried rice or prawn or bite size chicken chunks will be an addition for seafood or meat lovers. The fried rice which I had prepared use good amount of cauliflower, snow peas and green peas. Don't get frightened by the quantity of vegetables used here as a natural sweetness. The vegetables complement the black pepper sauce. Hence, its a healthy and wholesome meal.

Ingredients for making rice :

Basmati rice : 1 1/2 cups

Water : 3 cups

Screw pine leaves or pandan leaves : 3 tied into a knot

Salt : 1/2 tsp

Oil : 1/2 tsp

1. Soak the rice in the water for 15 minutes. Drain off excess water and rewash the rice. Add 3 cups water, salt, oil and screw pine leaves. If screw pine leaf is not available in your area, then it could be replaced by 3 inches of  ginger chopped roughly for fragrance. 

2. Cook in the rice cooker. Fluff off the rice after cooking.

Cooked rice

Ingredients for making black pepper fried rice :

Small onions : 8

Garlic : 5 cloves

Fresh small red chillies : 8 (adjust accordingly)

Small cauliflower florets : 2 cups ( I soaked the cauliflower in hot water plus salt for 5 minutes and blanch it )

Snow peas : 2 cups

Green peas : 1 cup

Salt : as needed

Black pepper sauce : 2 tbsp

Oil : 2tbsp

 1. Heat oil in the pan. Grind small onions, garlic and red chillies into coarse paste. Fry the ground paste till the raw smell dissipates. At this stage, you may also add any kind of seafood except fish and small chunks of chicken.

2.  Then add cauliflower and snow peas and cook for 5 minutes. I do not prefer to over cook the vegetables. 

3. Later, add black pepper sauce and salt. Mix them well.

4. Now add the cooked rice by removing the screw pine leaves knot. Mix and fry till the sauce it well incorporated. After stirring for 10 minutes, switch off the stove and lastly add the green peas and give it a quick stir. The peas will further cook in the piping hot fried rice.

5. Now the black pepper fried rice is ready for serving.

Happy Cooking !

-Abby

Spicy Tasty Tomato Biryani

I have tested and tried various recipes of Tomato Rice or Tomato Biryani but today the delectable food was made from scratch. I was getting rid of old stocks of vegetables which only left with some carrots, cauliflowers and thindoras. I somehow managed to clean my refrigerator and at the same time created my own tomato biryani at a very short period of time. It was a hearty food accompanied by a simple cucumber and onion raita. My mom complimented for its delicious taste.Now, with a cup of piping hot tea settled next to my computer with several shots of photos taken to share with viewers my coincident triumph. Lets not waste the time and straight way move on to the ingredients and method of preparing the Tomato Biryani or Rice. 

    

Tomato Biryani

Ingredients :

Basmati rice(used India Gate brand) : 1 rice cooker cup
Onion : 1 big
Tomatoes : 2 and 1/2
Green chillies : 2
Grated carrot : 1/2 piece


To Grind: (grind into a smooth paste using little water)

Ginger : 1 inch
Garlic : 4 cloves
Cumin seeds : 1/2 tsp

Masala Powders:   

Chilli powder : 1 tsp
Coriander powder : 1tsp
Garam masala powder : 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder : 1/4 tsp

To Temper:

Ghee : 1 tbsp
Cinnamon : 2 inches stick
Cloves : 2
Cardamon : 1
Shahi Jeera or Black cumin : 1/2 tsp
Bay leaf : 1

Method :

1. First wash the basmati rice and soak in  a sufficient water for at least 20 minutes. 

2.  Chop the onion length wise, dice the tomatoes into small cubes, grate 1/2 piece of carrot and slit the green chillies. Mix all the masala powders with 1 tbsp water and ground ginger, garlic and cumin paste.

3. Add 1 tbsp ghee to the hot pan and start frying all the tempering ingredients mentioned above.

4. Next, fry the onion by adding 1 tsp of salt until it oozes some of its liquid and become slightly transparent.

 5. Then gradually, add in the diced tomatoes and cook till they are mashed.

6. At this stage, you can also incorporate all the blended masala powders and ginger garlic paste. You need  to fry until the raw smell disappears.

7. Lastly, drain off the excess water from the soaked rice. Add rice to the rice cooker pot with fried masala and grated carrot. You may need to add 1 cup of water measured using the rice cooker cup which I used to measure the rice.

 8. The end result was a lip smacking Tomato Biryani or Rice made in jiffy. You can even garnish the rice with a small bunch of coriander leaves chopped finely but since they were out of stock in my fridge, I didn't use them. I pair the dish with raita made of one cucumber chopped roughly, 1 large onion cut length wise and 2 finely chopped green chillies mixed with a cup of thick curd.

Tomato Biryani

                                          

Do give a try and I promise this humble dish will not let you down.

-Abby