Potato salad with a mint sour cream dressing

I get scared by potato salads that are heavy on the mayo dressing and each bite coats the inside of my mouth with an oily, mayo lining.  I wanted a non-mayo potato salad for a small barbeque I had organised, but still wanted something creamy-ish.  Thus, decided on sour cream, light sour cream if I must add.  It was well received and I've added it to my repertoire for future pot-lucks.

When I first made this, I had planned to just boil my potatoes, but after 2 lots of boiling, the inside was still uncooked but the outside was starting to break away.  Not wanting to be left with potato mash, I cut them into pieces and roasted them in the oven to cook.  The result was lovely roasted and cooked potatoes (plus proved to me that boiling the potatoes first before roasting makes crunchy roast potatoes!).  Of course, if you have much better luck I use a combination of boiling and roasting the potatoes

You can serve this warm or cold.  

Potato salad with a mint sour cream dressing

Serves 5-6

Ingredients

• 5-6 medium sized waxy (eg. Lady Christl) potatoes
• 2 slices of bacon, rind removed
  
• 200 g light sour cream
  
• 1/2 medium red onion, diced 
• A handful of mint leaves, sliced
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. First make the dressing by combining the sour cream, diced onion and sliced mint leaves in a bowl.  Add the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper, have a taste (you want a bit of tang and a bit of onion heat to come through but not too salty).  Adjust if necessary.  Place in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop.
   
2. Wash potatoes well.  Place in a saucepan of cold water (enough water to just cover them).  Add a teaspoon of salt and bring the water to a boil.  Once the water is boiling, boil the potatoes for about 8-10 minutes.  Drain and refresh under tap water.
   
3. Preheat oven to 180oC.  When potatoes are cold enough to handle, cut into 2 cm pieces and place on a lined baking tray.  Place in oven to roast until cooked through (about 20 minutes).
   
4. Meanwhile, dice bacon, and cook in a saucepan until crispy. Add to a large serving bowl.
5. Remove potatoes from oven, and place in the same bowl as the bacon.  Toss.  Allow to cool to lukewarm, and once cool, add about a third of the sour cream dressing tossing so that it's coated evenly on all the potatoes.  
6. If you are serving warm, add the rest of the dressing and allow to coat well. If you want to serve it cold, place the dressing and the potato salad back in the fridge to cool for a few hours and just before serving, mix the rest of the dressing through the salad. 
   

Green chicken curry

When I first started cooking for myself, I used to make curries quite frequently using Mr Lee (Kum Kee's) Portugese curry sauce that came in a glass jar.  I learnt it from my mum, who'd been making it from the days before we came to Australia and I absolutely loved it.  When production stopped in Australia (for whatever reason, I don't know, and can't see why), I also stopped making curries as frequently -- LKK's Portugese curry sauce was the curry sauce I had literally grown up with and had to find other ways to satsify curry cravings.  This is a green curry that I now make relatively regularly, using a Thai green curry paste.  It's flavoursome and has become my standard recipe for a quick midweek curry and usually makes enough to last me for 3-4 meals.  Like all curries and foods packed with a myriad of flavours, with each day, the dish becomes more flavoursome.  The photo doesn't do it justice to the intensity of flavour this dish has -- when I go around to making it again, I might take another photograph of it.

The purpose of frying off the curry paste is so that the fat from the paste is separated and floats to the top (which I learnt off watching too many episodes of Ready, Steady, Cook), thereby allowing the spices that are in the paste to get cooked and therefore to really come out with a punch.  As with the sugar, I've always been told by my mum that sugar enhances and complements a curry, I've never asked why ... maybe I'll find out one day

Green chicken curry

Serves 2-4



Ingredients

• 400g chicken thigh, cut into roughly 2cm pieces
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch, optional
• 2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 medium brown onion, sliced
• 2 potatoes, peeled and cubed into 1.5 cm pieces
• 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoon green curry paste
• 300 mL coconut milk
• 100 mL chicken stock
• bit of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of chilli oil or chilli flakes (as I like a bit more kick in my curries)

Method

1. Marinade chicken in soy sauce, salt and pepper for about 15-20 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, fill a medium pot with cold water and place potatoes and carrots into the pot.  Bring the pot to a boil and turn the heat down so that it is just simmering.  Stir occasionally to ensure even cooking.  Simmer for 15 minutes, drain and set aside.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan on med-high heat, add the oil and swirl around to coat the pan.
4. (Add the cornstarch, if using, to the chicken)
5. Add the curry paste, being careful as it can splatter, and cook for about 30 seconds.  Add the chicken and let it seal on both sides.
6. Add the onions, and once the onions have softened slightly, add the coconut milk and stock.
7. Add the drained potatoes and carrots, and bring to a simmer.  Add about a teaspoon of sugar and the chilli oil or chilli flakes.
8. Cooking for another 10-15 minutes to allow the flavours to develop.  Serve with steamed rice.

Pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti

Baking isn't something that is automatically considered to be healthy, and generally speaking, it isn't.  I mean, who are we kidding when we know exactly how much butter, sugar, flour went into making that cake.  But over the last couple of years where people have become more health conscious, I think baking has become healthier -- there are recipes that have less sugar, less fat, use whole wheat flour or try substitute ingredients to deliver the cake, muffin or cookie as we know it but healthier.   I think it's amazing -- not only in the 'progression' of baking sense but the fact that everyone can still enjoy baked treats a bit more freely.

I was trying to find something to bake for someone who was diabetic, and there are certainly a lot of desserts out there.  However, a lot of them suggested using Splenda in replace of normal sugar.  After researching a few reviews for these recipes, I was a bit skeptical of how it would turn out as most of them talked about an odd aftertaste with Splenda and I had never cooked with Splenda before.  In the end, I went to my trusty recipe source (Taste.com) and found this recipe under a diabetic friendly recipe collection -- a pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti.   The bonus with this is that I didn't have to use butter!

Shelling the pistachios was awfully tedious, but worth it for the bright green colours dotted in the biscotti.  They didn't turn out as crisp as I like my biscotti, but they still tasted pretty nice, and the natural sugar of the figs gave the biscotti enough sweetness.  Having it with a nice pot of herbal tea made it a great afternoon snack.

Pistachio, fig and lemon biscotti

Makes about 30



Ingredients

• 1/3 cup pistachio kernels
• 3 egg whites
• 1/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 tbs finely grated lemon rind
• 3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup finely chopped dried figs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.  Brush a 7 x 25cm (base measurement) bar pan with melted butter to lightly grease.  Line the base and 2 long sides with non-stick baking paper, allowing it to overhang.
2. Place pistachios in a heatproof bowl.  Cover with boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes or until skins soften. Drain.  Peel off skins and dry on paper towel.
3. Meanwhile, use an electric beater to whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form.  Add the sugar, one spoonful at a time, whisking well after each addition, until sugar dissolves.  Add the lemon rind and whisk until combined.
4. Combine flour and figs in a bowl. Use your fingers to separate figs and coat in flour. Fold fig mixture and pistachios into egg-white mixture until just combined.
5. Spoon mixture into prepared pan and smooth the surface. Bake in oven for 30 minutes or until cooked through. Turn onto a wire rack and set aside for 1 hour or until cooled to room temperature.
6. Preheat oven to 160°C. Use a serrated knife to cut loaf crossways into 5mm-thick slices. Place in a single layer on a baking tray. Bake in oven for 10 minutes or until crisp and golden. Cool on tray.

Spicy tomato and capsicum chutney

I always am inspired on a spur of the moment to cook a particular thing.  I would then happily spend the next couple of hours trying to research as much as possible on whatever I intend on making, deciding on a recipe and getting the relevant ingredients.  I love it, and sometimes I wish I could spend more days doing that, and having a kitchen and ingredients at my disposal. One morning I woke up, looked in my fridge and saw tomatoes.  I didn't want to eat them in a salad, nor cook it with pasta so I decided that I wanted to make a tomato chutney / relish.  The rest of my morning went to Googling recipes and poring with the few cookbooks that I had brought down from home.

A lot of the recipes I came across required the use of mustard seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and a whole bunch of other spices that I didn't have, nor could I be motivated enough to go out and buy.  Thankfully, I came across a couple of recipes that received good reviews sans spices.  Sweet.  After reading through a dozen recipes, and getting some idea of the ratio of sweet, salty, tangy and spicy, I decided to just wing the rest of it.  To my surprise, it turned out relatively decent.  There's certainly much room for improvement, say actually going to the effort of peeling the tomatoes (I was simply lazy), and peeling the capsicums if I were to use them again.  I'm guessing it would help to get that more 'paste'-like texture that I had visualised in my mind.  Nonetheless, it was great on crackers and went well with poached eggs on toast.

Spicy tomato and capsicum chutney

Makes ~1.5 cup



Ingredients

• 3 vine-ripened tomatoes, diced
• 2 capsicums, diced
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• 2 tbspn of olive oil
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 tspn chilli flakes
• 1/3 cup red wine (I'm thinking red wine vinegar could be a substitute)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• salt and pepper to taste
• (sterilised jar for storage)

Method

1. Combine the red wine and brown sugar.  Set aside
2. Heat a non-stick pan on med-heat.  Pour in the oil to coat the pan.  Add in the brown onions and cook until transparent (3-5 minutes) and starts to caramelise.
3. Add the capsicums and cook for a few minutes.  Add the tomatoes and cook for a few more minutes.  Throw in the crushed garlic and chilli flakes, and give everything a good stir.
4. Turn the heat to medium / med-low, and add in the red wine and brown sugar mixture.  Allow to simmer for 30-40 minutes, whereby the mixture should start to thicken up.  If during cooking, it looks a bit dry, add a bit of water.  Season to taste.
5. When the mixture is reasonably thickened, turn off the heat and allow it to sit in the hot pan for 5-10 minutes.
6. Pour the mixture into sterilised air-tight jars, and store in the fridge (can be stored for up to 2 weeks).

Yellow split pea 'pudding' (馬豆糕)

Something inspired me while I was in HK to venture into attempting to make Chinese desserts.  Perhaps it was knowing that I wouldn't have an oven for a good chunk of the year in the new place, or that it was simply because the recipes seemed simple, homely and tasty.  One of the things that used to make me less inclined to make tasty Asian things was partly because of the effort needed to actually get the things that were specified in the recipe as it would take a couple of visits to different Asian grocers to find the thing I want, and even if they did, the quality would be questionnable (I once saw packets of red beans with mould on them and they were still on the shelves!).

Anyway, with this new found inspiration, and a trusty Asian grocer, I gave another hand at making a popular Hong Kong dessert.  I came across this wandering the streets in HK and in their display cabinet, there were a variety of 'slices' for what equated to A$0.60 for 1.   They looked too good not to try, and afterwards, I was hooked on all things with that agar-agar / firm gelatinous texture.  This was the easiest to make, out of of all the ones I want to try, and I love it -- it isn't too sweet, I get a lot from not very much, and it lasts quite well in the fridge for over a week.

Yellow split pea 'pudding' (馬豆糕)

Makes 1 9 inch 'pudding'

 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup yellow split peas
• 1 cup cornflour
• 3/4-1 cup caster sugar (personal preference)
• 2/3 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 4 cups water

Method

1. Rinse the yellow split peas until the water runs clear.  Place them in a pot of cold water and bring to the boil.  Make sure you watch it at this stage as it can boil over really quickly!  Lower the heat so that its inbetween simmering and boiling and wont' boil over.  Cook for 15-20 minutes.  Pop on the lid, remove from heat and let it stand for 10 minutes.   Drain and set aside.
2. Mix the cornstarch with 1 cup of water -- it feels like it'll never dissolve at the start, but keep going and it'll dissolve.  Set aside.
3. Put the remaining 3 cups of the water into a saucepan and add the sugar.  Bring to the boil.   Add the coconut milk and evaporated milk.  Bring to the boil again.  Add the cornflour mixture and stir vigourously.  The mixture will thicken up considerably at this stage, so it's important to keep stirring.  Do so for about 2 minutes.
4. Remove pot from heat and add the drained yellow split peas.  Stir for another minute.
5. Pour the mixture into a dish or moulds, and place into the fridge for 4-5 hours until set.

Ricotta hotcakes

I can't remember when or how the hype for ricotta hotcakes started.  It was as if one moment the perfect pancake had only flour, butter, milk (or buttermilk) and eggs, and the next, to be perfect, it had to have ricotta and egg whites beaten to stiff peaks.  And quite rightly so, because ricotta hotcakes are just so damn delicious!   If I didn't find the process a bit too much for when I'm still blurry eyed and I had the foresight to have a tub of ricotta on hand, I would make ricotta hotcakes everytime I went to make pancakes.  Though, making them only once in a while has its appeal too.  I've only tried Bill Granger's recipe for it seeing as his hotcakes are just as famous as his scrambled eggs, and also because I love the guy's cooking.

The batter can be kept for 24 hours in the fridge (covered with plastic wrap).   Bill serves them with a honeycomb butter, though of course, it'll go well with maple syrup or lemon and sugar, a dollop of strawberry conserve... This time when I made them, I really did plan in advance as I had made some lemon curd the day before, and the pairing was absolutely sublime. 

Ricotta hotcakes

From one of Bill Granger's cookbooks (I forget which one, sorry!)
Serves 4-6





Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups ricotta
• 3/4 cup milk
• 4 eggs, separated
• 1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 50g butter

Method

1. Place ricotta, milk and egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine
2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  Add to the ricotta mixture and mix until just combined.
3. Place egg whites in a clean dry bowl and beat until stiff peaks form.  Fold egg whites through batter in 2 batches with a metal spoon
4. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop 2 tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan (avoid overcrowding!)
5. Cook over low-med heat for 2 minutes or until hotcakes are golden.
6. Turn onto other side and cook until golden and cooked through.

Stir-fried spicy green beans

The first time that I remember having really good green beans was at a Malaysian restaurant where they cooked them with sambal and prawns.  That was also when I fell in love with a good plate of green beans.  I'm always sold by green beans with minced pork, green beans with char-siu, green beans with chicken or green beans by itself.  Cooked well, they are beautifully tender, crunchy and with that delicious vegetable sweetness.  For an unassuming slender green thing, it is pretty impressive.  I have tried replicating versions of this dish at home, and have never been able to get it right.  Having bought a bag of green beans on impulsive because it was on special and then, quite coincidentally, coming across this recipe, I decided to try again, and I think I have found the recipe.

Stir-fried spicy green beans 

Slightly adapted from Baking Addiction who slightly adapted hers from The Paupered Chef
Serves 2 as a side dish



Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon chilli oil (or you could use chilli flakes)
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 350 grams green beans, topped and halved lengthwise
  
• 2 spring onions, sliced however way you want
  
• 2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
  

Method

1. Make sure everything is all prepared and ready to go before throwing things in the pan as it'll only take a few minutes to cook everything.
2. Combine the soy sauce, white vinegar, sugar and chilli oil or red pepper flakes in a small bowl and mix well
3. Place a non-stick pan or wok over high heat until it is nearly smoking.
4. Coat the bottom of the pan with the oil and add the green beans.  Cook until they are tender (about 4 minutes) stirring every 30 seconds or so.  They will get black dots all over them, and look like they're going to shrivel up and burn but be patient, they will cook and they won't burn.
5. Add the spring onions and toss everything around for a minute or two
6. Add the garlic and cook just until it becomes fragrant (few seconds)
   
7. Add the soy sauce mixture.  Cook for another half minute, tossing and stirring while doing so, turn off the heat, and serve.

Sago tongshui

This is one of the first Chinese desserts I learnt to make and which my Mum used to make on a regular basis while we were at school.  It's comfort food for me.  Its simple, quick and delicious hot or cold.  There are many variations to this and you can add sweet potato, mango, mung beans, taro, sweetened corn kernels.  I prefer mine with mung beans and lots and lots of sago.

Sago tong shui

Serves 4-6




Ingredients

• 100g sago
• 150-175g rock sugar (personal preference)
• 2.5 cups water
• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 3/4 cup coconut milk

Method

1. Soak the sago in a saucepan of boiling water for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Drain the sago, return it to the saucepan and cover it with water.  Boil until it's almost cooked, stirring occasionally.  While cooking, the sago will go from white to clear.  Take it off the heat when there's only a small white dot in the sago, and drain while rinsing it under tap water -- this will complete the cooking process and make the sago completely clear.   Set sago aside.
3. Boil the 2.5 cups of water in a saucepan over high heat and add the rock sugar.  Cook until it dissolves.  Turn the heat down to medium and add the sago, stirring until it boils again
4. Remove from heat and stir in the evaporated milk and coconut milk.  Serve hot or refrigerate for 6 hours to serve it cold.

If you want to add mung beans, cook the beans or peas for about 15-20 minutes while the sago is soaking and then add it in at the same time as adding the sago in Step 3.

Slice and bake cookies

Afer seeing the recipe for refrigerator cookies on Smitten Kitchen (one of my favourite food blogs), I had an urge to try it myself.  Usually, I give away most of the stuff I make or leave it for someone else to finish, namely my brother, but sometimes there are no other people to give it to and I end up finishing it to avoid it going to waste.  That said, a slice of cake or a couple of cookies in the afternoon after getting back from the hospital can be heavenly.  So these refrigerator cookies, also known as slice and bake cookies are perfect.  It gets shaped into a log, put in the freezer and taken out on a rainy day.  After baking, they are supposed to last 5 days (if they do last that long).

The recipe is perfect and can be adapted in many ways.  I decided on poppyseeds and lemon zest this time but I've also tried adding dried cranberries and some orange zest, earl Grey tea leaves (quite nice!), and swapping some of the flour for almond meal (which made the cookies a bit more crumbly but nutty) or dessicated coconut.  I've also added some chopped pistachios and walnuts which I thought turned out quite well.  They really are a versatile type of cookie!

Slice and bake cookies (with lemon zest and poppyseeds)

Makes 40-50 cookies



Ingredients

• 230 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2/3 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
• Pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoons vanilla or almond extract
• 2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1/4 cup poppy seeds

Method

1. Put the butter in the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat at medium speed until it is smooth.  Add the sifted confectioners’ sugar and beat again until the mixture is smooth and silky.
2. Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the salt and any dried fruits, zest, nuts or seeds.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour, beating just until it disappears (better to underbeat than overbeat - just blend in whatever remaining flour needs blending with a spoon).
3. Turn the dough out onto a counter, gather it into a ball, and divide it in half. Wrap each piece of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 30 minutes.
4. Working on a smooth surface, form each piece of dough into a log that is about 2.5 to 3.5 cm thick (no need to worry about the length).  Wrap the logs in plastic and chill for 2 hours.  (The dough can be wrapped airtight and kept refrigerated for up to 3 days or stored in the freezer for up to 1 month.)
5. Preheat the oven 180oC.  Line cookie trays.
6. While the oven is preheating, slice each log into cookies about 1cm thick with a sharp knife.  Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving about 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) space between them.
7. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes, or until they are set but not browned.  Cool on wire racks.

Tiramisu

Tiramisu possibly rates as one of my favourite desserts, though one that can only be eaten occasionally and in small amounts.  The best one I've tasted so far, in my opinion of course, is one at Starbucks in Hong Kong.  Funny that.  Even Greco here doesn't do it as well.  I've been having on and off cravings for tiramisu over the past couple of months, and I don't know why I've never actually tried to make it myself to cure those cravings -- preferring to just hold it out until it went away.

Last week was when the tiramisu desire hit, and hit hard.  I set about looking up recipes (probably well over a dozen), I compared them, I read about the difference between using Marsala and Kahlua (which is none - the former is cheaper), how much espresso is good, watched videos of it being made, then settled on one that had gotten some pretty good reviews.  I bought all the stuff - sponge fingers, eggs, mascarpone, cocoa powder, cream and marsala and did everything to the dot.  There was no instant gratification from it as I had to wait the next morning.  When I took off the foil on my dish, it was evident that I'd failed miserably.  For some reason, my mascarpone mixture didn't hold up and the next morning I ended up with a mascarpone, cream and egg yolk slurry with partially saturated lady fingers floating in it.  It looked pretty gross.

I still had half a packet of sponge fingers left, so I went out to get more mascarpone and decided to try again, and with a different recipe.  (Usually when I'm cooking, if one recipe doesn't work out right, I try something else -- I'm a bit impatient with trying to go through it again and figuring out what went wrong.)  And this time it was a success!  The sponge fingers were adequately saturated with the coffee, the mascarpone mixture held up, it had just the right amount of sweet to coffee and best of all, it satisifed my cravings.  Have included the recipe below (credits to Lisa) - it's not the 'traditional' recipe per se but what the heck!  It tasted good!

Tiramisu
Serves 6-8



Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• 250 g mascarpone cheese at room temperature
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 3/4 cup cold strong black coffee -- I brewed mine in a plunger
• 1/4 cup Kahlua / Marsala.
• 9-12 Italian sponge fingers
• Sifted cocoa powder and grated bittersweet chocolate to decorate.

Method

1. Brew coffee.
2. In a bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until the yolks turn more pale and the mixture is fluffy (aim for it to double in size, and it will).  Mix in the mascarpone and beat until evenly combined (2-3 minutes).
3. In a separate bowl (and also after cleaning your beaters), beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.  Fold in the egg whites into the mascarpone mixture
4. Spread a spoonful of the mixture in the bottom of a serving dish / bowl evenly.
5. Mix together the coffee and Kahlua/Marsala in a shallow dish. Dip one sponge fingers into the mixture, turn it quickly so that it's saturated but does not disintegrate.  Place on top of the mascarpone mixture in the bowl.  Add additional sponge fingers this way placing side by side.
6. (Optional) Sift cocoa powder on top of sponge finger layer
7. Spoon about half of the remaining mixture on top of the sponge fingers and spread it out evenly.  Make another layer with sponge fingers, and then another with mascarpone (it doesn't really matter how many layers you make as long as you finish up with mascarpone.
8. Level surface and sift the cocoa powder on top.
9. Cover with foil and chill overnight.
10. Sift more cooca powder and sprinkle grated chocolate on top before serving the next day.