Baking your bread

Yesterday, I successfully baked a loaf of bread from scratch (commercial yeast excepted!). Absolutely fantastic experience and the bread was delicious! Stay tuned for my next loaf in pictures. Really recommend to everyone.

Pasta for kids

Even though my first love is indian and malaysian food, I love clean flavours which the italians do as well. Such a contrast to the murky and mysterious delights of the east.
Good pasta need no more than garlic, good olive oil, salt, a dash of wine or cream or butter, rocket leaves blanched at the end and a few prawns grilled in garlic and chilli on top. Shaved parmesan and a dash of olive oil finishes.

However, kids, well, my kid, hates chilli and pepper and anything she decides to call chilli. Sure fire favourites are bolognese, and my bacon and mushroom pasta.
For the latter, go back to my master recipe and fry the bacon in 2 lots, the fat and the garlic until caramelised, add more oil and add remaining bacon. There is always a vegetable, say broccollini, add the chopped stalks with the bacon and finish with the more delicate stalks, or swiss brown mushrooms or brocolli or even zucchini all add their flavour.

Grow parsley, dill and basil in the garden and the variations are infinite!

Long live alessi!

We were given the alessi jcitrus juicer by some good friends as a wedding present and it sat unused in our litchen for many years. Recently, finding some navel oranges, used it and lo and behold! the thing is a marvel!!

Now we regularly make orange juice and it is the best hand juicer. I am not usually a promoter of brand names but have this credit. Photos to follow.

Long time no hear

Hi all,

Its been a while since I have come back to this, a mixture of life, love and some heartache but will start to add some content and remember to take photos.

Live your life, dont wait for tomorrow or next year.

Love your friends your family and yourself and most of all, love your god.

My cousins husbands parents live very close by and I would often say hi as my cousins would come and go and was struck by the warmth and hospitality. The grand old man of the house arranged for some young coconuts (note the smooth skin rather than the hairy nut) a pineapple and other goodies from the garden to be given for the young grandkids and their cousins to enjoy. It is an art to watch someone hole a coconut so that a straw can be placed in it and the sweet coconut juice enjoyed. Once finished, the coconut is shelled and the beautiful young coconut is eaten with a spoon. Enjoy!

Fishmarket to Table

Now behind each fishmonger, at floor level, there are some workers (artists I call them) who for a fee, will clean and cut your fish. You see the general progression from a fish to pieces all in a minute or so. To watch these people work and a lot of the times look away and talk while making these strong and precise cuts is quite amazing to watch. The guy in the picture, does this for about 5 hours in the morning and then goes home to sleep. Nothing else, my uncle reckons he makes enough money to live from this work. The final picture is the fish made as a meen vechithe the following night. There is also a picture of the fish my uncle bought.

Information from Wikipedia

Hakkas form the 2nd largest subgroup of the ethnic Chinese population of Malaysia. A well known Hakka man was Yap Ah Loy, a Kapitan in Kuala Lumpur from 1868 to 1885, where he brought significant economic contributions and also was an influential figure among the ethnic Chinese. There is a large and popular Hakka restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

In East Malaysia, they form a significant part of the Bornean state of Sabah where most of the ethnic Chinese are of Hakka descent.

See the Hakka restaraunt is mentioned in Wikipedia!