Smokey Dippin Sauce

Everyone has their favourite sauce for barbeque. This is mine.

Diced bacon of 4 strips
A cup of Pineapple Jam
Half cup of chopped onions
A cup of ketchup
2 tbsp cider vinegar

Saute the diced bacon and onions. The bacon should be crisp. Drain the fat on a kitchen roll and set aside. Add the other ingredients in the the saucepan, and cook in low heat for 10 minutes. When the sauce thickens, stir to prevent it from sticking to the pan. Use this as a dipping sauce for your chicken wings or serve over your grilled meats or meatballs.

Sweet Glazed Carrots

Carrots are a good source of Vitamin A. And it is a favourite vegetable of mine since I was a child. I use them in many dishes like stews, soup, stirfries and eat them with dips, raw. But too much of it can cause our skin to turn yellowish.

This is a nice side dish when you have visitors for dinner.

Because the glaze shines so well, your meal looks like from a restaurant. Presentable and glamourous.

Add some other vege for a nice contrast colour if you like.

10 to 12 carrots (baby carrots are great)
1 tbs butter
Half cup of pineapple jam
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest
1/4 tsp of ginger, chopped very fine
Parseley or Peas for garnish


Peel carrots and cut them diagonally into 2" thickness.
Cook them till they are tender but not too soft in salted water. Drain.
Mix the butter, jam, lemon juice, zest, ginger in a saucepan. Add the carrots that have been cut, washed. Cook them in this mixture for 10 minutes in medium heat. Turn them to glaze it thoroughly. Garnish it with your choice of parseley or peas.

Chicken in GrapeSauce

This dish is heavenly. My comfort food and wonderful if you cook it during a festive occasion too. You will need

1 cup of Grape Juice
1 cup of Grape Jam
2 tbsp of cornstarch
1 tbsp of dry mustard
1/4 cup water
4 chicken legs
All purpose flour
Salt to taste
Black Pepper to taste
1/3 vegetable oil
Fresh Rosemary 2 sprigs
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

In a small saucepan, combine the juice and jam and heat. Stir till it is smooth.
Blend the cornstarch and mustard with water to a paste. Set aside.
Dip the chicken in flour, season with salt and pepper.
Brown the chicken in a skillet first. Drain the oil from the pan.
Add the juice and jam mix and cover and cook the chicken till it is cook about 45 minutes.

Remove the chicken and place them on plates in a low heat oven to keep it warm.

Stir cornstarch, rosemary, vinegar into the remaining sauce from the pan and cook till it is thickened. Pour them over the chicken.

DongZhi - A Chinese Thanksgiving

21st December marks the date for Winter Solstice in 2008. Winter Solstice is the mid-winter festival, not just celebrated by Chinese but to others like Jewish (Hanukkah), Kurdish (Şeva Zistanê), Hopi Indians (Soyalangwul), Latvians (Ziemassvētki) and many others of different faiths, cultures on similar or different dates that are associated with mid winter.

The Chinese people celebrate the mid-winter festival with the traditional sweet soup 'TangYuan' or Glutinous Rice Ball for this occasion. In Chinese, it is called the 'DongZhi' festival.



Glutinous Rice Balls represents unity. During this time, many families in China sit down and enjoy their accomplishments of harvest storage. They thank the Gods for their bountiful harvest. Winter Solstice is also a time for them for food offerings to their ancestors that are in the afterlife or heaven. And this tradition is practise by many Chinese families who may reside in many other countries around the world too.

In other words, it is the Chinese way of Thanksgiving. If you celebrated DongZhi festival, wish you a wonderful one.

Hokkien Prawn Noodles

I was in a good mood lately. I received a carton of Prawn Noodle Paste from my sister, who resides in Malaysia. She had been visiting our mom in Penang Island and bought some packs of Prawn Noodle paste and couriered it to me. Two days later, I decided to go marketing for the ingredients needed for a meal of Prawn Noodles ala Penang Style.

From where you are, you may try to purchase a paste that is similar, perhaps of another brand. Among other pastes I have actually tried is the Teans Gourmet brand. However, I still find the one my sister sent me as the closest ever to the real thing sold on Penang Island.


If you get hold of the paste or any in particular, the cooking method is pretty easy. You will need to boil some pork ribs/spare ribs or whichever part of the pork cut (preferably with bones) to make your stock. Add some onions in it. I normally make my pork stock in advance and store in the freezer for many other uses. Follow the instruction on the amount of stock needed for the paste. Boil your stock and when it is simmering, add the paste into it. I added a small piece of rock sugar as most Penangites would in their Prawn Noodle soup.

Penang Hokkien Mee (Hokkien Prawn Noodles)

Ingredients:
Yellow Noodles
Vermicelli
Shrimps (Deveined, Halved and Blanched till just cooked)
Kangkung (Water Convolvulus)
Taugeh (Beansprouts)
Lean Pork / Prime Ribs (boiled till tender)
Hard Boiled Egg (cut into slices or quartered)
Fried Shallot (crispy type)

Arrange all this items in easy to access containers so that if you have guests over, you can let them enjoy an experience of DIY cooking.

Colanders with Kangkung, Beansprouts, Noodles, Vermicelli
Bowls with Shrimps, Eggs, Pork slices/prime ribs, Shallots



Method:
Cook your Prawn Noodle Paste with stock in a pot, left simmering.

Using a small metal colander for blanching (like those used by the noodle stalls), start by blanching your noodles, vermicelli then the vegetables. Place them in an empty serving bowl. Arrange your other condiments like shrimps, pork, eggs on top of the noodles and vegetable. Scoop ladles of soup into the bowl and garnish with lots of fried shallots.

Slow Cooker Barbecue Sauce

A quick and easy recipe when you think the bottled ones are boring.

A ingredients
3 cups of ketchup
1/4 cups of honey mustard sauce
1/4 cups of apple cider vinegar
1/8 tsp fresh ground black pepper


B options
dash of tabasco (optional)
honey (if you prefer it sweet)

Combine all the ingredients A in a slow cooker and stir. Cover and cook over low hear for 1-2 hours. Add the B optional items if you prefer it to be slightly spicy or sweeter.

Simple Red Wine Pasta Sauce

Who says delicious sauce need to be cooked from scratch?

Here is a simple sauce using red wine and cooked in a slow cooker. Takes so much time off and you can go doll up while the sauce is being cooked.

Mushroom and garlic flavoured pasta sauce in a bottle. (750mls)
1/3 cup of dry red wine (75ml)
Pinch of cushed red pepper
Salt
Fresh ground pepper

Put the pasta sauce and the wine in a slow cooker and stir it well. Cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours, if you can wait. Or you can put it on high for 2 hours or less.

Just before serving, stir in the crushed red pepper in. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.


This serves about 4-6 servings.

Roast Lamb Leg with Vegetables

I love lamb and mutton. I buy a small lamb leg once in a while to roast it. I like it a little saltier and I always add more lemon than necessary too. This recipe is from a recipe book and I took it down in a jiffy because it was too big and heavy to borrow and I had my grocery bag with me.

5 lbs (2.5kg) leg of lamb, bone removed
1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary (if you can't get fresh ones, the bottled dried ones will do)
1 small lemon
3/4 cup (200g) butter, softened
4 medium potatoes (use the Russets), cut into bite sized
2 medium carrots, bite sized
2 medium onions, quartered

Preheat the oven to 375 deg F (190 deg C/gas 5)
Lay lamb on a work surface and rub it with peppercorns, salt and rosemary. Fold the meat over and tie with string. Let the lamb rest for an hour.

Place the lamb in a large roasting pan. Rub with half of the butter and drizzle with the lemon juice. Rub the remaining butter into potatoes, carrots and onions well. Place them around the lamb on the pan.

Bake the lamb for about less than 2 hours. I bake mine about an hour and 3/4 which the lamb came out pink. You can bake it for 2 hours and a little if you like it well done.

Deglaze the pan with a tbsp of boiling water and pour it over the hot lamb.


This recipe can serve about 6 pax.

Pesto

Pesto is a wonderful sauce that I use on many Italian pasta. This quantity that I have is enough for serving 5 people. Preparation takes only 10 minutes. I always stir my pasta in a little bit of Pesto before I add my bolognese or pasta sauce because they do make the pasta tastier.

a large bunch of fresh basil leaves (picture)
5 cloves garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons pine nuts
70g freshly grated parmesan cheese
250ml extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste

Combine basil, garlic, pine nuts in a processor and chop it till fine.

Transfer into a small bowl, add in the parmesan cheese. Gradually stir in the olive oil and season to taste with salt.


To use this pesto, once you have cooked your pasta al-dente, scoop a tablespoon of this pesto and toss. It is wonderful with all kinds of pasta or on your pizza or garlic toast.

My Favourite Recipes

I had a look at my favourite recipe book that looks torn and tattered. Like its title - My Favourite Recipes, it speaks on my behalf. For years, I had not been able to get a new copy of this recipe book.



There are no more new prints and the last one was probably printed in the 70s. I checked with many bookstores and they had confirmed that there are no more new prints and probably won't ever. And I was so afraid that this book would one day be lost, too old and tattered that I took down the important or the recipes that I have enjoyed over the years. Hopefully this recipe blog will be the place where I can keep all these compiled recipes and pass it on to my children, grandchildren and all who are keen to drop by this blog.

Fad About Food

Since I started blogging, I've been wanting to share some recipes that I have in a little handwritten book. These are the recipes that have been collected over the many years too. They once belonged to my parents and has recipes written by my Dad, Mom, Sis and myself. Along the years, we have used some of these recipes as a guide, then tweaked them to our own personal tastes and likes. Yet these original recipes are still very precious because when we find something that goes wrong somewhere along the line, we always get back to the basic old fashioned recipes.

Many recipes in the olden days do not use metric system.

Measurements those days include 'chupak' which meant 1 imperial quart. These were terms commonly used in the 19th towards the 20th Century but not being used now.

If only I had known about this blogging thingy years back, I'd definitely have my recipes all placed on a blog and that would have been for more than two decades of recipes. The recipes were collected from the time I have picked up cooking from mom when I was young. Not that I liked it then. Oil splats and all that cutting weren't glamorous. I tried to stay away from the kitchen but my mom always made sure that my sister and I help out in some little way, no mater what. Even if it was just a few minutes of mincing the garlic, pounding on that pestle or even picking at beansprouts. It was good practise of a little bit of here and there. When she stir fried vege, she'd always ask us to stand in for a good few minutes while she goes to the sink to pick up the next ingredient.

This acts as my very own online recipe book and these recipes do not come with pictures as back then I do not own a digital camera. But as I go along, and cook them again, I will remind myself to take the pictures and put them into the existing recipe.

Some of these recipes have been tweaked while some are exactly as those I have taken off the recipe books that I have borrowed over my many trips to the library. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do.