Grape Cherry Tomatoes with Strawberry Jam

Burger toppings ~ What we get in burger kiosks here typically includes slices of cheese, tomatoes and some greens. The meat patty is slathered with tomato ketchup and mayo. Ask for a 'special' and the patty comes wrapped in egg!

I just wanted something different for my homemade burger. This was the result : Grape Cherry Tomatoes with Strawberry Jam.

Grape Cherry Tomatoes cooked with Strawberry Jam

It's so easy to do and goes great with plain breads too. I've tried! Taste-wise, this is tangy sweet with a light burst of fresh tomato.

This is just a rough guide. I'm not including any measurements because it really doesn't matter much. The ingredients are cooked together to infuse the flavours.

Ingredients:
- Grape cherry tomatoes (halved)
- Strawberry jam
- 1 tbsp water or more to help dissolve the jam

Jamming with Tomatoes

How-to:
1) Heat pan, no oil required. Add tomatoes, strawberry jam and water.

2) Stir until jam is dissolved into a thick sauce and the tomatoes are slightly cooked. Add more water, if necessary, to keep it from drying out.

To eat, just top burger buns with lettuce, olive oil fried meat patties and this. It tasted so well together that I found no reason to add other condiments.

I'm already imagining the possibilities with other fruit jams...mmm..fresh mango with orange jam, anyone?

Strawberry Jam with a Burst of Fresh Tomato

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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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Tomato Chicken Curry

Tomato Chicken Curry with Finger-licking Tender Potatoes

It's chicken curry day! Cooking curry is usually reserved for Sundays in my family. This is because of the amount of work involved. Mom's a firm believer of the "pound with pestle and mortar" method. She's been pounding chilies, onions and garlic for years! I prefer the electric blender ....shhHhh..

This is my version of yummy Tomato Chicken Curry. It's been sometime since I last cooked tomato curry. I've forgotten what really goes into it so I've come out with this new version, which is not bad either - an aromatic, tomato rich flavoured dish which does not come with an overpowering taste of curry powder.

I am someone who loves curry but I don't quite fancy curries with that powdery taste so I tend to cut down on the powder or add on other ingredients to balance things out.

Anyway, this is the recipe. Quite a number of ingredients in there but very easy to cook and well worth the effort. 

Ingredients:
- Half chicken (cut into small pieces)
- 4 medium tomatoes (quartered)
- 1 large potato (cubed)
- 4 cloves garlic (roughly cut)
- 1 large onion (roughly cut)
- Pinch of ginger
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp meat curry powder
- 1 tbsp blended fresh chili
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 2 tbsp cooking cream (or more)
- 2 one-inch cinnamon sticks
- 2 star anise
- 2 cardamom pods
- 1 tsp light sweet-saltish soy sauce (optional)
- ¼ tsp dark soy sauce (optional)
- 2-3 tbsp cooking oil 
- Salt to taste
- Water

How-to:
1) Blend onion, garlic and ginger together (with a bit of water if necessary), into a rough paste. Set aside.

2) Mix coriander and curry powder with a bit of water, into a wet paste. Set aside.

3) Heat cooking oil in pot. Pour in garlic, onion and ginger paste. Add cinnamon sticks, star anise and cardamom pods. Fry until fragrant.

4) Add curry powder and coriander paste. Mix well, then add tomato puree, fresh chilli, tomatoes, potato and chicken. Stir until all the ingredients are coated. Add water, just enough to cover the chicken. Cook covered until chicken and potatoes are tender to your liking. (Don't be afraid to add more water if you want more curry gravy.)

5) Season with salt, and soy sauce (optional). Lower the heat and stir in cooking cream. Mix well and that's it. Serve garnished with chopped spring onions if you like.

Tomato Chicken Curry..Perfect with Breads and Rice

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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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