Chana Masala

My husband loves chickpeas (not me!)
To get me eating them, he has been researching the right recipe to cook and finally decided on trying the Chana Masala (popular dish from the Punjab region of Pakistan and India).

Here it is...his 1st attempt at Chana Masala.

We didn't manage to get amchoor, so we used lime juice instead. Also, there were many variations of this recipe which calls for certain spices to be added first before the rest. Pretty confusing since we personally have not tried authentic Chana Masala before. Also, the recipe said that the ingredients were supposed to be blended, but we didn't.

We still have much much room for improvements.

Egg Tofu with Minced Pork and French Beans & Grilled Honey-Pork

We've been cooking a lot, almost everyday in fact. It not only saves money but the time spent together cooking is priceless:) I think I'm better with Chinese dishes while hubby's expertise is with grilling and barbeque.

I made egg tofu with minced pork and french beans for dinner, while hubby grilled the pork with honey.
This is a relatively simple dish. First cut the egg tofu into slices and then coat with flour. Fry them in pan until golden brown. Set aside. With remaining oil, add in garlic and once slightly brown, add in the minced pork and stir-fry until cooked. Add in the french beans and continue to stir fry. Add about 2-3 tbsp oyster sauce and 50 ml water. Bring to a boil. Sprinkle pepper and sugar to taste. Pour mixture over egg tofu.

Egg tofu with minced pork and french beans

The grilled honey pork need no introduction. Marinade with wild honey (we got this from Pahang), black pepper and salt (optional). Then grill on pan until cooked. Towards the end pour some liquor (langkau) for glazing. Voila!

Grilled honey-pork

Garlic-Lemon Pork (Adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe)

Here's what I made for dinner today, which was adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe

Mine was with more gravy since it was supposed to be eaten with pasta.Quite nice for my first attempt, although the gravy was rather on the salty side since I added too much chicken stock (told ya..I don't follow instructions), but since the pasta was not salted it kinda blend in quite well with the gravy.

Garlic-lemon pork

 The garlic-lemon pork was served with a simple salad with homemade vinaigrette.

Miam Miam @ Gurney Paragon

After much hype about the newly opened Miam Miam at Gurney Paragon, I managed to pester hubby to have lunch there today, after church. Just within seconds I stepped into the restaurant, I saw throngs of people outside waiting to be sitted. In case you didn't know Miam Miam means Yum Yum in French. The food served here are of mixed French-Japanese fusion.

Specific areas where different kinds of food are prepared.

We were greeted and ushered to our table by pleasant waitresses and proceed to browse through the menu. There were limited choice of food on the menu, and I could see hubby's expression as he kept looking back and forth on what to order. For drinks, he ordered the Miam Miam Special  Blend Iced Coffee.

Miam Miam Special Blend Iced Coffee (RM 9.80)

Hubby ordered the Pot baked soufflé (pronounced sou-fley) doria with beef. Presentation wise, it looked really good and tempting, but the taste is just mediocre. The rice lack herbs, and I think there were only like 3-4 pieces of beef inside. Not worth the money one has to pay. Hubs kept showing his displeasure over the food.

Pot Baked Souffle Doria (RM 26.80)

I ordered the Lobster Bisque Pasta which came in a really huge portion, with 3 succulent prawns, rich creamy lobster sauce and  generous sprinkling of cheese. While I think this dish is yummy, hubby kept saying that it is incomparable with the one we had at Koh Lipe.

Lobster Bisque Pasta (RM 29.80)

We also ordered their Crème brulee which came with vanilla ice-cream. 

Creme brulee (RM 12.80)

Overall, while the staff were very attentive and are kind, we find that the food lack flavour. Perhaps hubby and I have different taste buds than others, which inclined more towards Italian, Thai and Indian food that we did not thoroughly enjoy these overly expensive (the total bill came to RM 91.80 inc. 10% service charge and 6% tax) French-Japanese fusion food.

Managed to get a nice gentleman to snap a pic of us:)

Grilled pork & vegetables, and pumpkin stew

Hubby seemed to enjoy grilling pork, and they always turn out delicious. I made pumpkin stew, with shredded chicken breast and herbs (bay leaf & rosemary). The secret to good pumpkin stew is putting generous amount of curry powder, as well as some chicken stock.

Guinness Beef Stew

I love stews, and anything  with beef inside.
There were so many recipes on beef stew with Guinness that finally I took a little from this, and a little from that to come up with my version of Guinness beef stew.

This dish is not difficult, and since the beef I bought was fresh (not frozen), the total cooking time was about an hour.

The ingredients listed below is enough for 2 people:

1/2 onion
1 carrot chopped into cubes
1 large potato chopped into cubes
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp of rosemary (from bottle)
200g beef
250 ml Guinness stout
200 ml water
1/2 piece chicken stock cube
1 tbsp tomato sauce (or paste)
Few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt, sugar and black pepper depending on your liking

Steps:
1. Coat the beef in olive oil.
2. In another bowl, mix flour, salt and black pepper.
3. Coat the beef in the flour mixture and shake off excess flour. Set aside.
4. In a heated pot, sauté onions until slightly brown.
5. Add in beef and stir fry until they're browned.
6. Pour in the Guinness and let it simmer  for about 5 minutes.
7. Add in potatoes and carrots, bay leaf and rosemary. Continuing stirring.
8. Add in water and chicken stock.
9. Let the stew simmer under low fire for 1/2 hour.
10. Add Worcestershire sauce and tomato paste.
11. Taste and see and add salt, sugar and  black pepper to your liking.
12. Continue to simmer for another 1/2 hour. Ensure the beef, potatoes and carrots are soft.


Please bear in mind that I don't usually follow the exact measurement in recipes. Lots of trial and error in my cooking.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this dish as much as we did.

Italian Spaghetti Carbonara

When we were at Pisa, Italy last year, I ordered spaghetti Carbonara at one of the cafe's. When my order came, I was shocked because it certainly did not look or taste like any of the Carbonara's I've ever seen/eaten. You see, I was so used to the creamy Carbonara that I wondered what did the waitress just serve me.

We ordered Carbonara in Athens, and this was what we got. Yeah, creamy Carbonara.

Then I did my research, and found that cream is not used in Italian Carbonara. In fact, Italians use eggs instead.

So last week, I decided to attempt the Italian version of Carbonara. I substituted guanciale/pancentta for normal ham. I also added garlic (since I like them). The tricky part is to add eggs into the pot of spaghetti and letting the heat from the pot and the spaghetti to cook the eggs. The end result should present a nice creamy egg sauce rather than scrambled eggs. I added also lots of parmesan and black pepper.

I still think that my favourite pasta is the Aglio Olio. Nothing beats its simplicity, the garlic, chilli flakes in olive oil:)