Papaya Salad

Sabaidee..

Another greeting in Lao language, sounds just like Thai and this word it's very common used in Thailand as well.

Som tam or papaya salad, one of the dish that I made recently and one of the most popular dish in Lao and Thailand. I miss this food so much. Sometimes I just want something that feel like home even if I'm not there.

It was not easy to find green young papaya here and even if they have, the pice are pretty expensive. After few days looking for this thing, at the end I managed to find it in the Asian grocery store not far from our new place.

PAPAYA SALAD

Ingredients;

1-2 cup shredded green papaya
10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2-4 Thai chilli
2 cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon shrimp paste
1 teaspoon dry shrimp, optional
Palm sugar
Fish sauce
Lime juice
Toasted crushed peanuts

METHOD;

- Take the chilli and garlic and gently bash with mortar and pestle, or food processor.
- Add shrimp paste, dry shrimp and continue bashing.
- Add shredded papaya, tomatoes, and season with palm sugar, fish sauce and lime juice.
- Stir and pound a bit more to blend with the flavoring and seasoning. Taste and adjust flavors to the desired hot sour sweet and salty taste.
- Sprinkle with crushed peanut on top.

Egg Fried Noodles

Bonjour,

I love to cook egg fried noodles since I was a teenager. Until now, I make fried noodles quite often for my family back in my hometown because this dish it's something everyone can enjoy together. Fried noodles are always been my choice especially during afternoon tea with family.

When it comes to Asian cuisine itself, in many event, in the restaurants or in the street food stalls, the two main dishes are often rice and noodles.

This simple mee goreng telur or egg fried noodles are one of my all time favorite noodles. Everyone can do it, so let's cook this simple fried noodles.

EGG FRIED NOODLES

Ingredients;

1/2 packet dry chinese noodles (for 1-2 person) prepare as per package direction
I onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1-2 red chilli, optional
1 egg
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat up little oil in a wok or saucepan and fry onion and garlic until fragrant.
- Add chilli and crack the egg, let it cook a while and scrambled.
- Add the noodles and stir-fry for a minute.
- Season with light and dark soy sauce and taste with salt and pepper.
- Stir well and cook for another minute.
- Serve with another fried egg on top and voila, mee goreng ready!

Bon appetite!

Fish in Spicy Soy Sauce

Hello,

I've not been eating mackerel for a couple of months now. Perhaps I'm missing something, so last few days, I bought some fresh mackerel and I ate it alone. I just fried them, eat with spicy tamarind sauce and it happen I have some leftover fried mackerel and for the second round, I cooked them with some sauce.

Fish in spicy soy sauce or we called it ikan masak kicap pedas is a Malaysian style fried fish cooked in spicy soy sauce but for those who dont't eat spicy, just skip the chilli, as simple as that. For the certain food like this, fish, prawns or vegetables with gravy and so forth, they are nothing more than of individual preference, no rules. We can choose to add in more or less seasoning and sauce depend on our preference.

FISH IN SPICY SOY SAUCE

Ingredients;

1-2 mackerel or any kind of fish
1 onion, sliced
4 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
5-6 dry chilli, soak in hot water/ or fresh chilli
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 cup tamarind juice
2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Prepare the fish, rub with turmeric powder and salt, then fried. Set aside.
- Blend together shallot, garlic, ginger and chilli, set aside.
- Heat up little oil in a saucepan and fry blended shallot until fragrant.
- Add coriander and cumin powder and cook for few minutes.
- Add the slice onion, tamarind juice, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and let the sauce thicken a bit.
- Lastly add fried fish and season with salt, sugar and pepper if needed.

Thai Egg Fried Rice

Sawadee ka...

Hello in Thai language, a basic Thai words that everyone should know whenever we are in Thailand. When I was working in Laos few years ago, both Thai and Lao language have something in comman. They understand each other just like Indonesian and Malay language. We understand each other even the accent was a little bit different.

I love to hear when people talk in a different language and their language is so beautiful. It's not easy to learn, speaking other language was difficult for me but to know a few words from other country is quite amazing actually.

Now, back to the food and my appetite was on the hunt for Asian food to fulfill. There is more Asian food that I have been having lately. One of those are Thai food and yesterday I've made a simple and quick Thai egg fried rice.

THAI EGG FRIED RICE

Ingredients;

1-2 cups leftover cooked rice
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 Thai red chilli, optional
1 egg
Thai fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Heat little oil in a wok or saucepan and fry onion, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
- Add cooked rice and mix well.
- Season with fish sauce, oyster sauce and pepper.
- Push the rice to the side and add egg. Let the egg cook for a while, scramble and stir with rice for a second and voila, the fried rice ready.

Taan-ah-haan hai a roi!

Fried Prawns With Spices

Bonjour,

Prawns and prawns again, but there was a time when I feel I don't know what to cook or what to do with prawns. At the same time, I still want to do something with it because prawns are my absolute favourite, all the time.

I recently felt like to eat a little bit of something with spices. To cook as simple as possible, I begin to marinade my prawns with some spices and let it sit for few hours in the fridge. And there is my simple fried prawns with spices for dinner.

FRIED PRAWNS WITH SPICES

Ingredients;

200g prawns
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2cm ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder or paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 onion, sliced
1-2 red chilli, sliced (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD;

- Marinate prawn with garlic, ginger and all spices, chilli, cumin, coriander and turmeric powder and let sit for 1-2 hours.
- Heat little oil in a pan and fry onion and red chilli until aromatic.
- Add marinated prawns and cook until the prawns are cooked through.
- Season with salt and pepper and serve while they are still hot.

Bon appétit!

Kek Batik

Salut,

It has been some time since I made batik cake and today I made this cake again to fulfill my cravings. Kek batik is something I miss terribly and these cake doesn't need to be a fancy or complicated thing to do, just a simple cake and something to satisfy my sweet tooth. Argh, it feels so good now...

I still remember the last time I made kek batik, most of my friends likes these kind of cake, I do too! A simple and light cake, not to heavy and suitable for those who love chocolate.

KEK BATIK (BATIK CAKE)

Ingredients;

200g butter
1 can of condensed milk (or less)
200g chocolate milk powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 packets of 'petit beurre'/butter biscuits (200g) broken into small piece

METHOD:

- Prepare baking pan, greased with butter or lined with plastic or aluminium foil to be easy to take it out.
- Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat and add condensed milk.
- Add in chocolate milk powder and cocoa powder, continue to stir until the mixture smooth and no lumps.
- Turn off the fire and add the biscuits. Stir with wooden spoon until biscuits are well coated.
- Pour the mixture into prepare pan and press the mixture. It should feel firm.
- Cover the top with plastic and chill in the refrigerator for at least 4-5 hour before serve.

Couscous

Bonsoir,

One of the most popular food from Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia is couscous. Almost everyone in France like to eat couscous. At home, we cook couscous once or twice a month eventhough it takes a little time to cook it, but that doesn't matter, it's worth it and it's delicious.

Generally, couscous served with meat and vegetables, but we prefer our couscous without meat. The proper way to prepare couscous could be complicated but there was also an easier way to make the couscous, just like we did. We cooked couscous once in my hometown and my brother loves it. He even ask me to buy the couscous curry spices every time I going back home.

COUSCOUS

Ingredients;

For vegetables stew;
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 zucchini, cut into pieces
1 carrot, chunks
2 potatoes, halved
2 turnips, halved
1 bell pepper, cut into pieces
1 stick celery, diced
1 cup cooked chickpeas or canned chickpeas
2-3 tablespoon ras el hanout or couscous spices
1-2 tablespoon harissa
2-3 cups water
Olive oil, salt to taste

For couscous;
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup couscous

METHOD;

- Heat a little olive oil in a large saucepan and add onion, garlic, zucchini, carrot, potatoes, turnips and bell pepper.
- Cook and cover over medium heat for 10-15 minutes.
- Add celery, couscous spices and 2 cup of water and let it boil for 20-30 minutes.
- Add chickpeas, harissa and taste with salt. Add more water if desired and cook until vegetables are tender.
- Meanwhile, in another saucepan to prepare couscous, mix water and butter and bring to boil.
- Remove from heat, stir in couscous and cover. Let stand for 5 minutes before serve.