Cabbage And Carrot Curry

The turmeric way.

Turmeric is a rhizome that looks like a ginger. They are, in fact, from the same family. It has a deep orange-yellow colour. I use gloves when working with fresh turmeric because it leaves a stain on the hands.

Why am I talking about turmeric today? I lean towards curry powder, blended red chilli and coriander powder when making curry paste. This is one version of curry that I wanted to explore. I went all turmeric this time. Turmeric powder, that is.

Cabbage and carrot? That's what I have left in the fridge. I've made it a habit to clear off whatever I have on hand. I was really tempted to add prawns into this dish, but reassured myself, "Next time."

Cabbage And Carrot Curry

It turned out quite yummy and now, I have a new recipe under my belt!

This is how I did it. I would describe this as mildly sour, savory curry. Best paired with white rice.

Cabbage And Carrot Curry
Ingredients:
- 1 large carrot (cut into chunks)
- 2 medium potatoes (cut into chunks)
- ½ large onion (chopped)
- 4 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 to 2 dried asam keping depending how sour you want this
(aka asam gelugor, sometimes labelled 'dried tamarind slices')
- 1½ cup sliced cabbage
- ¼ cup chopped fresh coriander
- 1 cup chicken stock or use a pinch of chicken stock granules
- 4 to 6 cups water
- 6 dried cloves

Add some water, mix together into a wet paste:
- 3 tbsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp curry powder

- 1½ tbsp dried red chili paste
- Cooking oil
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Heat cooking oil in pan. Saute onion and garlic for a minute or so.
2) Add cloves. Add turmeric/curry paste. Stir-fry until golden brown.
3) Add chili paste and tamarind slices. Mix well.
4) Then, stir in carrots, potatoes and fresh coriander. Mix to coat all the ingredients.
5) Add chicken stock (or granules) along with 4 cups water. Lower the heat and cook covered until carrots and potatoes are tender enough to bite into.
6) Remove cover. Remove tamarind slices (the curry should taste sour enough by now).
7) Add more water (only if there's not enough gravy). Stir the cabbage in and season with salt. Increase the heat and cook uncovered until cabbage is done.

From top-left, clockwise: Stir-fry all the ingredients except the cabbage. Add chicken stock.
Add water and cook covered. Finally, add the cabbage.

Cabbage And Carrot Curry

The one thing I love about home cooking is that it's a very flexible affair. I dish out whatever I want depending on the ingredients I have with me at the time of cooking, making many variations to recipes along the way.

What do you love about home cooking?

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Spaghetti Chicken (Simple Style)

I have a friend who had continued his tertiary education in Rome, Italy a few years ago. And I remembered every time when he comes back for his annual holidays and even in his emails, he would complained loudly about the food over in Rome - that's it's all pasta and pizza. As I'm a pasta lover, I told him, why don't we switch place - I don't mind having Italian's authentic pasta almost every day ... I sure won't complain ! ^_^

I never get bored with cooking and/or eating pasta. But I prefer to cook spaghetti over others as the members in my family are more receptive to it - maybe it resembles my very own Asian yellow noodles :)

Anyway, this home-made Spaghetti Chicken is quite straightforward. I use tomato sauce and tomato puree together instead of making a tomato concasse as my family members aren't really receptive to pure tangy tomato flavour - or else, no one will eat it. :)

Ingredients :

Sauce 

- 3 pieces of medium-size drumstick (without skin, de-bone and cut into smaller pieces)

- Tomato Sauce (about half a 500gm bottle)

- Tomato Puree (one and a half standard can)
- 1 carrot (big size)

- 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes 

- 2 medium size onions

- a few cloves of garlic (chopped)

- a few teaspoons of sugar - according to taste (optional)

- cooking oil

Pasta

- 500g of spaghetti (serves about 4 persons)

- 2 teaspoons of sea-salt

- some butter

- Parmesan cheese (grated or shredded)

- a bit of cooking/olive oil (optional)

How-to:

1) Parboil tomatoes (with skin), then dice it (after taking out the skin & seeds)

2) Parboil carrots & onions (both with skin peeled off), also dice it. 

3) Heat up pan with cooking oil, put in the chopped garlic, stir it until near brown.

4) Put in immediately the chicken drumstick pieces, stir-fry it until near cooked.

5) Add in the parboiled carrots, onions and tomato, continue stir-frying under medium heat. 

6) When the chicken meat is cooked, time to add in the tomato puree and tomato sauce.

7) Stir evenly until all ingredients are covered in the sauce, add in sugar.

8) Add some water if you need to create more gravy for your pasta, bring it to boil. 

9) On another stove, bring to boil a pot of water that is big enough to submerge the pasta. 

10) Add in the salt, then slowly dip in the uncooked spaghetti.

11) Add in a little cooking oil if you like, stirring the pasta occasionally thru out the cooking.

12) Let it boil until 10 to 20 mins, depending on whether you like it al-dente (firm) or soft.

13) Drain the pasta, and toss it in a bowl, mix/toss some butter into the cooked pasta.

14) Serve a portion of the spaghetti on a plate, add in the sauce & sprinkle some Parmesan cheese on it.

Options:

- If you can take the acidic/tangy tomato taste in the sauce, you can leave out the sugar or/and you can even add more of the tomato sauce.

- If you like 'firm bites' of onions, you can leave out the parboiling process.

- After adding water into the sauce, if you like, you may add a bit of corn flour to thicken the consistency of the sauce.

- You may not need to add in oil while cooking pasta, but for me I still think it does help in preventing the pasta from sticking together in a clump, plus I like that it glistens the texture of the pasta.

- Instead of Parmesan, you can use Mozarella ... but it wouldn't have the same pungent taste and aroma - which I favour. ^^ 

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Stir-Fried Celery with Black Fungus

Stir-Fried Celery with Black Fungus, Carrots and Dried Shrimps

A bunch of celery? That's a lot for this small family. I cooked five dishes out of it. Yes, five! And ...I'm glad to discover that it lasts, sitting two weeks in my fridge without signs of rot. Now that's what I call a sturdy vegetable.

This is one of the dishes I made, celery stir-fried with black fungus - mildly sweetish. I hope you like it.

Ingredients:
- 2 stalks celery (sliced small) 
- 1 pc (or more) dried black fungus soaked in water until soft (30mins or so)
- 1 medium carrot (shaved)
- 1 tbsp dried shrimps (soak briefly)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 tsp cornflour (mixed with 2 tbsp water)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 2 tbsp water or more (for that bit of gravy)
- Salt and pepper to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in pan. Add garlic and fry until a fragrant brown.

2) Add dried shrimps. Give it a quick stir before adding the rest of the ingredients, that is, black fungus, carrots, celery and a bit of water.

3) Season with salt and pepper. Stir until all the vegetables are cooked.

4) Once cooked, stir in the cornflour/water mixture to thicken the gravy slightly and that's it.

Best eaten with rice in a typical setting of one meat, one vegetable, one soup kind of meal.

Stir-Fried Celery with Black Fungus

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Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

The wet weather has been prompting cravings for hot soup to alleviate the chilliness I feel.

I have kiam chye boey, that sour spicy "leftovers" stew, on my mind but cooking that would take three hours at least! Surely too long a wait for this poor soul....and so came about the inspiration for a shortcut, using only some of the key ingredients from the traditional kiam chye boey dish and without the long stew.

Here's what came out of the pot at the end of it all - a clear sour and spicy soup with robust flavours that zapped my senses alert. This was so delicious that I had seconds...SECONDS! Just the perfect thing to have in this cold weather. BrrRrrr...no more!
    

Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

Hot and Sour Seafood Soup

Ingredients :
- 3 pcs asam keping (tamarind peel)
- 2 pcs sour plum (bottled) 
- 6 green bird's eye chili (seeded and halved)
- ½ large carrot (cut into medium cubes)
- 1 large tomato (quartered)
- 1 rib celery (chopped)
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 1.5 L water
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- Fried fish cakes (2 varieties - the kind for soups)
   ~ 1 palm-sized flat square piece (cut into smaller squares)
   ~ 1 rectangular roll, about 3 inches long (sliced)
- 10 baby squids  
- Salt to taste

How-to:
1) Heat oil in electrical cooker (that's what I'm using). Add garlic and give it a quick stir-fry.

2) Add tomatoes, carrots, bird's eye chili, tamarind peel and sour plums. Mix well.

3) Add water and bring to a boil. 

4) Once it boils, add the ribbed stem parts of the celery into the pot (leave the leafy parts for last).

5) Cook covered until tomatoes and carrots are tender (which was between 30-45 minutes for me because I wanted more flavour in the soup). 

6) Then, add fish cakes and the remainder of the celery. Season with salt and stir well. Lastly, add the squid. You are done when that is cooked.

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