Carry on Eating, then diet & exercise

Baking your bread

2009-09-13T10:23:00.001+10:00

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

2009-08-15T07:02:00.002+10:00

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!

2009-08-15T06:58:00.002+10:00

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

2009-07-01T07:44:00.002+10:00

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.

2008-08-07T08:01:00.005+10:00

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

2008-08-07T07:44:00.004+10:00

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

2008-08-05T09:21:00.001+10:00

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!

Tiruvalla Fish Market

2008-08-04T22:57:00.004+10:00

I went to Chenganoor, a lovely town in Kerala to attend my first cousin's wedding, the youngest of 4 daughters, I had been remiss (usually short of leave or money or both) to attend the earlier weddings and resolved not to miss this! A tradition is to buy fish at the market as there is a dinner on the night before at the respective houses and my aunty was preparing to cook for the many expected guests, both friends and family.
We went to the market at 6 am, and you can see the multitude of fish on offer just laid out on mats with each fishmonger having their own designated spot.
Some of the fish you can see are mathi or sardines(2nd picture) and karrimeen (a delicacyithird picture) and a marlin on the back of a truck.

Hakka Pork Belly

2008-08-03T20:33:00.004+10:00

Hakka are an ethnic Chinese group that settled in south east Asia and are therefore a very common Chinese community in Malaysia. I grew up in Malaysia for the first 11 years of my life. Our family had a monthly ritual of going to the Hakka restaurant for Sunday lunch, which was then in a Chinese sports stadium. We always ordered the same dishes and my favorite was this pork belly dish called 'Hakka Pork Belly'!

Pork belly is a slab of bacon cooked for about 12 hours in soy sauce and whatever else and a preserved vegetable only available in China. The result is absolutely delicious. I go to the restaurant, now moved to the KL city, and order it every time!

There is another side to this story, I had gone to the Hakka almost immediately upon landing in KL but had forgotten to take a picture so when one of my father in law's acquaintances who is a senior lawyer in Singapore invited him to the Hakka for a meal and I was also invited, I jumped at the chance. The host is quite a guy, I will try and show you his very impressive card to the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs which is, this is taken from the Singapore web site spelling errors and all (he he) 'An international society devoted to fine dinning and the camaraderie of the table. For gastronomes and culinary professionals'.

Anyway I prevailed on him (and he very kindly agreed) to supplement the extensive menu he had planned with a dish of the Hakka pork belly.

Malaysian fruits

2008-08-03T08:54:00.004+10:00

What can I say, just returned from a 3 week holiday in Malaysia and India, both were family events that turned out all great, more posts to follow as I document my travels from a food point of view, this was right at the start, one of the first things we always do when we land up at my in laws place is to find and buy the fruit that is in season. Now I'm not really sure, but a lot of fruits are available year round but some are seasonal. Here are some of the fruit we enjoyed.

Rambutans, Langsat and something called Dhuku (that I really liked). Its Langsat and Dhuku on top and Rambutans on the bottom.

Biriyani Biriyani Biriyani

2008-06-10T09:49:00.003+10:00

On Sunday, we had good friends Sumer and Simone over for dinner so they could also collect some wine they had shared in a case from Primo Estate in MacLaren Vale. Anuka and I decided to try and make a lamb biriyani using a packet mix by 'Shan'.

We were a little worried as Sumer's dad, Amrit uncle makes a mean biriyani.

Followed the instructions, needed to add a lot of water and then reduce but once layered with cooked basmati rice, some food coloring on top, we were hopeful.

It then simmered in the oven on a low heat, Anuka made her world famous eggplant surprise (a vegetable dish almost like a chutney).

We ate with a raita and lime pickle and with a Primo Estate Zamberlan that went very well with it.

Simone brought an awesome pear and cinnamon tart she had baked herself which we had with posh coffee ice cream and cream.

All good here in the mothership!!

Adelaide

2008-05-24T06:57:00.006+10:00

We went to Adelaide for a holiday, my wife for a conference there so I was the handbag and the babysitter!
We stayed at the Hilton (old hotel nice staff), dinner at the Brasserie made famous by the TV chef-Simon Bryant who is the executive chef there. Great food and drank some Rockfords Rod & Spur (glorious) with our great pals John & Sneha and Iman.

During the days we were pretty free so went to the zoo (no culinary adventures there!) and then took off to the Adelaide hills to a beautiful village called Hahndorf. As the name suggested, it was ALL German! Street signs, shops and the people were proud of sticking to their ethnic heritage. Things to do there - first up it was the Kids Farm where there was really quite an instructional school flavor to the way the staff here really wanted to teach the kids about animals etc, really loved it. Helped we were the only ones there apart from a large school excursion there. The Hahndorf Inn is the place for German food and beer and is a beautiful heritage building. It even has a separate play room for kids with toys ! I had a massive German grill and bratwurst and mash for my daughter. I sampled a German beer which didn't really distinguish itself to me other than it was German. After that it was to the Beerenberg Farm to pick strawberries (only in Summer and finishes in May) the strawberries were absolutely awesome and sweet and we ate them by the handful. Recommend that for anyone who goes to Adelaide.
After that a walk through the quaint village, have to be honest, the locals in some of the bakeries weren't all that friendly but the people in the state information centre were really nice.

Chicken on the Weber

2008-05-05T06:06:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone, did 2 butterflied half chickens on the Weber, yummy but left it a little longer than 1 hour and was a little dried out other than the thickest part which was the drumsticks so lesson learnt was to take all of it off and cut the bits that need more time and return them to the weber. I also heated some rolls just before serving, great impact!
Cheers all
Allan

Whazzup Doc?

2008-04-29T22:29:00.001+10:00

Did you know that one coffee is equal to three teas?
Coffee is a diuretic, that is it sucks the water out of you. It is better to lower your coffee intake rather than increase your water intake to counter more coffee drinking. You should drink more water anyway...

So...try to limit your coffee to 1 or 2 a day, drink tea or like the Chinese do, drink warm water all day!

Crab curry Malaysian stylie!

2008-04-21T07:00:00.003+10:00

The picture tells a thousand words, this was made by my step mom who is a legendary cook. Malaysian crab curry is hot and spicy and seems to get the crabiness into the whole dish. I'm not into crabs (too much hard work) in the shell but shelled I love the flavour.

Crab curry is devoured at our place, Im happy to soak up what we Malayalees call "arrappe" with rice or bread

a little bit of cardomom: Meat Feast

2008-04-14T13:39:00.000+10:00

a little bit of cardomom: Meat Feast

Who makes great coffee in the CBD?

2008-04-11T20:04:00.004+10:00

Well, as a regular coffee buyer let me say there are many great coffee places all over town but I am concentrating where I work which is north of Wynard Station so up towards the northern end of the CBD and relatively close to the Rocks etc.
2 faves, one that has been a fave for nearly 15 years and the other, a newcomer. Lets start with the newcomer, Panzerotti on the corner of Margaret Street and York Street is a segue into Italy. The barista, Francesco is an absolute legend, great barista super fast and a quintessential Italian. The coffees are really really good and I'm told the foods great. Funky interior and quirky staff.

La Rennaissance on Argyle Street Rocks is a segue to Paris. Fantastic cakes and French lunches with brilliant coffee, the rear courtyard is my Sydney secret, go there I guarantee you will wonder why anyone apologises for Sydney. It has everything. During the day, you can see the expert cake makers at their craft as the kitchen is pretty open. A must see and if you are ever needing to buy a cake and you're in town I guarantee you wont be dissappointed if quality is important.

Kikas Tapas

2008-04-06T08:26:00.002+10:00

OK last night we met a pair of desparate housewives Anuka and Jessy had been in town for a work conference and spent the last bit of the afternoon on some retail therapy in Paddington, I did feel my credit card shuddering from time to time...
The husbands Aj and me with trio of kids all slightly frazzled met at this Tapas place in Victoria Street behind Vinnies that they loved. I was worried thinking kids and black skivvies but surprisingly very short on attitude in the streets and kids looked at as cute rather than oh how daggy....

The Tapas was surprisingly flavoursome and whilst a bit pricey we ate well and for me the surprise was a Spanish coffee called the bon bon. Basically a shot of expresso with a layer of condensed milk at the bottom!!! Very nice but in Malaysia it is called Kopi O and comes in a massive glass made with Chinese instant coffee-also very nice!!!!

After that, walking up Victoria Street honestly a gelato place called Messini great traditional gelato and what looked like awesome Italian gelato cakes-looking very handmade. I had the malted chocolate, just like Milo but ice cream!

Topped off an excellent dinner with more calories......

All you men out there who think they cant cook

2008-04-06T08:05:00.002+10:00

You know who you are, easier to just say you dont know? Well, this blog is the culmination of someone who watched and watched and ate and ate and thought how cool if you could create something?

The Womens Weekly Cookbooks are great as they have pictures and sensible recipes, the first one you should get is the Basic Cookbook, turn to page 88 and whip up some pikelets!!!

Fresh lemon sugar and honey and you have breakfast that you will put a smile on anyone!

If you want to get posh, find some nice dark chocolate and shave some as they are cooking!!

Oh weber! How I love thee

2008-03-31T21:44:00.000+11:00

I decided to throw a surprise birthday party for my wife, by inviting 4 of her good friends for a small dinner.
The menu was:
Charcoal grilled Turkish Bread and Garlic Paste (A Lebanese speciality)
Prosecco and wine
Spaghetti and home made pesto (basil from our garden)
More wine
Moroccan leg of lamb in the Weber (put in 1 and a half hours ago)
Corn grilled in the husk and fresh asparagus and a salad of leaves, toasted pine nuts and walnuts, and pears and grapes.
Blueberries, Raspberries & Strawberries in Prosecco jelly and Belgian chocolates

All went well, but the Weber was the star of the show. Get the coals going (about 40 minutes) then anything just cooks beautifully.

Well I probably get credit for about 2 weeks!!!

New way to enjoy Easter Eggs!

2008-03-27T22:38:00.000+11:00

Hows this for a great way to refresh all of those Easter Eggs you have in the fridge?

Cut the top off and stuff full of ice cream, you have a great dessert for kids and the adults can try all sorts of combinations.

Cheers

Al

What to eat for lunch?

2008-03-25T22:02:00.000+11:00

I don't know about you but I have to go to work in an office in the CBD of Sydney each and every day other than weekends! Usually the options are fast food, take away places or restaurants or pubs. All of which costs money and usually calories.

I try to take lunch from at least 3 times a week with the other 2 being something bought and another being either a work lunch or meet some friends or colleagues at the pub-usually Friday!

We usually cook and keep the left overs for lunch the next day and not much longer than that. The other option is to make a sandwich and then I buy a salad or eat some fruit.

One great option is to make some pesto - basil, olive oil and parmesan and salt and a little fresh chilli is great-beat the living daylights out of it in a mortar & pestle. Boil some spaghetti and bring them both to work separate. Mix and microwave and shave fresh parmesan, chopped rocket and salt and presto!!!!!! Verrry nice and cheap.