Affair with Prata

The week was more eventful than normally since my brother is living with us now. Since my parents are here to visit for a while, we have been eating out a lot for the past couple weeks to show the food heavens in the GTA. Last week we were invited to eat the famous crab at Saigon Star .What very interesting about this always full seating restaurant,they presented pratha and french baguette for dipping the crab sauce, an unusual trade for a bowl of rice in a Vietnamese restaurant. 

Eversince I have been wanting to eat those delicious fluffy Prata. During his days in Malaysia, my brother said the norm is to eat Prata/ Roti Canai with sweet condensed milk. Although he did not get to satisfy his sweet tooth, he got a fair share of Prata for dinner ( maybe next time). I took out a bag of frozen Shana Paratha and toast it with a little butter in a pan untill those layers of flour and fat is bubbly and turned golden brown.

To accompany the Prata, chickpea dipping is the way to go. Some left over cherry tomatoes can serve the dipping well too. I bet its not the most authentic Indian style of eating prata with a dal , since my chickpea dipping is thicker almost like hummus. But it was faster to cook and bursting with flavor!

My husband is a carnivore, so does my brother. The meal is incomplete without a piece a meat on their   plate. I decided to make a simple pan seared garlic basa fillet ( if it counts as meat, since I already defroze them). So a meal is complete with a last touch of apricot syrup. I give the sweet portion for my brother sweet tooth ( part of it), well not really. It would be  a perfect marriage of sweet earthiness.

Chickpeas Dipping

A can of chickpeas

1/2 red onions diced

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of turmeric

a handful of cherry tomatoes/ 1 tomatoes if you will

1/2 tbsp of cumin ( if you like more it more spicy you can add more)

salt and cracked pepper to taste

In a pan heat up the olive oil and throw in the red onions untill it softens, put in the spices, tomatoes ,add the chickpeas with the juice. Simmer untill the water is absorbed. You can use a fork to mash the chickpeas, and serve!

Pan Seared ( Garlic) Basa fillet

2 Basa fillet

2 garlic cloves minced,

1 tbsp of butter

Flour , cayene peper, and salt for coating

Make the basa fillet into 4 portions each. Pat dry the the fillet with towel. In a bowl mix flour, cayene pepper, and salt for coating. Coat the fish uniformly ,set aside. Warm the butter in a pan, if the heat gets too hot, add some canola oil so the butter will not get burned. Sautee the garlic so the oil is infused with flavor.Take out the garlic and pan fry the fish 3-5 minutes per side untill cooked. Assemble the meal, dont forget the apricot syrup!

and Have a good Eat!

wednesday awesomeness: birthday cake for the lover

It was a perfect scenario, he went for biking with his pals and there I was on Wednesday night , blasting my internet radio channel in the kitchen, and started making some birthday cake batter for the very first time. All is due to the Mayan Chocolate that my sister brought me from Mexico. Its been staring at me for weeks and I felt bad for not trying to make something good out of it.

 It was right for staring at me and put the thoughts in my brain.

Although I failed the suprise ( he opened the fridge before I attempted to secure and hide the cake), I am glad for the real good suprise:

Velvety.         Smooth    . Yummy.    Chocolatey.     Coffee.      Rich. Orange     . Love.         Creamy. Cheese    .  Dark Chocolate.  Soft.      Tangy.          Mocha.

                                       Love.       Love.  Over the Moon Lover~

So here I share with you my recipe for Wednesday night awesomeness, just in case you celebrate the birthday on Wednesday, or any other day will do!

Adapted from dark chocolate from Allrecipes

Cake:

• 2 cups boiling water

• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoon of instant coffee

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 ¾ cups white sugar

• 4 egg and don't  forget  1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract  for some heavenly goodness

1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 - 9 inch round cake pans. In medium bowl, pour boiling water over cocoa , and whisk until smooth. Let mixture cool. Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt; set aside.

2. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at time, then stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the cocoa mixture. Last put in the instant coffee and mix batter gently and throw it into the 2 greased pans.

3. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes. Allow to cool.

Icing:

• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 table spoon of orange rinds

• 2 table spoon of orange marmalade jam

• In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powder sugar. Put in the orange rinds and marmalade jam the last.Store in the refrigerator after use.

Once you prepared the cake and the icing, take out the cake from the pans and flatten the uneven sides of the cake by carving the cake horizontally. Cover the top with cream cheese icing and put the other cake on top. Cover the whole cake with cream cheese icing and finish it off with shaved chocolate, orange rinds, and coffee!

Good luck : good Eat!

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.

The day after Turkey Dinner

Happy Christmas!

Holiday is the joyous season in the house. A fresh oven baked treats, the fragrant vanilla is perfuming the house. The best part is when the family come together to say grace and be thankful for the juicy turkey and provisions for the year. I am keen on those memories. Over the years I have always been the “guest”-in charge. Besides the pressure to forget the caloric count, nothing much I have to prepare to enjoy the night really. I have been blessed to be in a family of self taught cooks. However, this year is rather special; we finally have a family of our own and a new tradition to follow. I think I understand the glimpse of stress for putting together a decent Christmas dinner. But if you are open to new ideas, Christmas dinner might just be a little easier.

Last week I made my second turkey ever for some who never have any. Lemon pepper seasonings and garlic pampered the turkey with burst of flavour. For sure worth the wait. Also, a crowd pleaser falls to the Spinach Pom Man salad with simple honey balsamic reduction. I am featuring these two on my next blog since my friend has the pictures.

But the real deal is what’s next after the big night? Cinderella is back riding on her pumpkin? I find the meal after such a celebration could be quite tricky. What about left overs?

I specially love the lemon seasonings on my turkey since it is simple and fresh, allowing me to layer more flavour for left over. I sprinkled the meat with some Italian seasoning and  panko  crumbs .Since its already cooked, drizzled with olive oil  I  baked it for 10 minutes under low broil just to give a little texture. In a boiling pan I cooked some “acini di pepe pasta”  any type of pasta meanwhile sautéing some onions, garlic, bacon, sundried tomatoes and broccoli. Once the pasta is half cooked, I incorporate them into my bacon mixture.  Top with just enough chicken broth, salt and pepper, we have a complete stress free yummy dinner!

Make 4 servings

Ingredients

200 -300 grams of turkey meat left overs

½ cup of panko crumbs mixed with 1 tbsp of Italian seasoning

Olive oil, 1tbsp of chopped onion, ½ tbsp of garlic

½ cup of Chicken broth

2 tbsp of chopped sundried tomatoes

1 cup of broccoli

300 grams of pepe pasta (follow cooking instruction)

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.

Sweet Grilled Beef Back Ribs

I am guilty as charged for not updating this blog for more than a week!  I had prepared everything before hand and thought about possible things to write a week in advance, and still with Christmas arriving already for a retailer, I had to be at the front line of my duty for 15 hour sometime in a day putting decorations and making the store as merry as it can be. You know it Christmas is here when Starbucks have their holiday cup! Some of the holiday famous purchase of the week: dried fruits, sultana raisins and more glazed cherries!  Over the chit chat two customers suggested me to soak raisins in gin for a week to battle with any kind of pain.  She said: shoulder pain, internal pains, joint stiffness etc. I hope watching me work was not that painful; I wonder where the suggestions come from. But I had an aha moments seriously thinking, how did this people know what I am dealing with everyday. Ha!

So, this week has been more a survival for the fittest period for me, not to forget the flu season got me too! I am so glad the holiday season prop has been set up well and now is time for me to get back to my real hobby; to write and picture it in 7x11 inch sets of image. But maybe if you are lucky  we will get to a bowl of raisins soak in gin or rum prefferably, oh but it only work with gin if you want to heal any kind of pain ( quoting a customer).

This week food is very far from any merry alcoholic infused dishes. It is just a simple beef ribs marinated in soya sauce and other earthy spices. I served it with tomatillos hot sauce over a bed of rice.

Here are the ingredients:

1 kg of beef back ribs

In a zip lock bag mixed the marinating ingredients:

1tbsp of brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp of minced garlic

2 tsp of coriander powder

1tsp of minced ginger

1/2tsp of cinnamon

1 star anise

½ tsp of black pepper

½ tsp of salt

Lemon juice from 1 lemon

5 tbsp of Indonesian sweet soya sauce

Marinate the beef ribs for at least a day to make sure a flavourful meat.

Preheat the oven for 350 F  cook for  45 minutes ( with the aluminum cover),  open the aluminum cover ,drain the juice and change it to broil  for 15-20 minutes to give a smoky texture . Brush the ribs with the juice once in a while to keep it moist and a layered flavours!

 Hopefully the picture is enough to keep your eyes busy for now.

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.