Thai House Restaurant Curry Sauce
Updated on 4th Aug 2009 Thai House Restaurant curry sauce is available at Safeway, Choices, Save On Foods and Urban Fare. A source from the Thai House Restaurant Group told…
Sambal Nasi Lemak
Ben picked up this ready to serve Sambal Nasi Lemak from Smart & Save to try out. We simply love spicy food and nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk) is very simple to prepare.
This package costs around $2 plus and it serves 4 to 6 persons as printed on the package. All you need to do is to heat up the sauce and it’s ready to eat. This sauce is great as condiment for curry laksa and prawn noodle.
The nutritional value indicates the sodium is on the high side which I’m always on the look out. (more…)
South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors
I had promised Minoo and Stella to visit the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors since it was established in January 2008. The South Arm Cooking Club meets on the second and fourth Tuesday. Unfortunately, Tuesday is my cake meet day with Polly because she is off on Tuesday. As all the cooking clubs are coming to an end in June for the summer break, I decided to cancel my cake meet in order to visit the cooking club for seniors on their first meeting in June. I was lucky as this will be the last meeting to cook for the club as they decided to go out for lunch instead of cooking for the last meeting.
It was a huge turn out that day. There were thirteen in the meeting including me, some had shy away from the photo session. The young lady at the far left, Stella is the coordinator for senior programs in the South Arm Community Center while the lady at the far right, Minoo is the coordinator of all the cooking clubs in Richmond.
The group made a scrumptious meal that day. We had Basmati Rice Flavoured with Saffron, Meatballs with an Italian Tomato Sauce, Spinach Salad with Orange Sesame Dressing, Sesame Baked Tofu and Baked Sweet Potatoes.
The group was divided into 3 groups to work on different recipes. Above are the salad and tofu groups.
The group here is working with the meatball recipe.
After labouring in the kitchen, the group is enjoying the food they prepared.
After lunch, the group is divided into two groups. One group is to divide the leftover food for them to take home.
While another group is in charged of cleaning up. This is team work. I truly enjoy this cooking club.
The meatball recipe we used is the one we made in the Gilmore Park Church kitchen.
Click on the link below for the recipe of the Italian Tomato Sauce we made to go along with the meatballs.
Shallot Pork Sauce
On the last cooking meet at South Arm Community Kitchen in 2007, Julie demonstrated two Chinese dishes. The first one is a very traditional Taiwanese dish called Shallot Pork Sauce.
The Shallot Pork Sauce is very fragrant as it has lots of shallots in it. The shallots are first fried to crisp and braised with the ground pork.
This Shallot Pork Sauce is great with noodles or rice. Kids will love this.
Ingredients
- lean ground pork
- shallot (use about 10 to 12 shallots for each pound of ground meat)
- dark soy sauce
- salt to taste
- sugar to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- water
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Beef Stroganoff
Nothing improves the taste of pasta more than a good appetite.
~ Italian Proverb
Ben went with me for grocery shopping two weeks ago and saw Stroganoff sauce in a bottle on the shelves. He asked that I try this out. The instruction on the bottle seems simple and does look like something that the boys would like.
Beef Stroganoff, in its simplest form, is simply tender beef with a mushroom and sour cream sauce served over noodles, or even rice. The current accepted history of this dish dates back to the 1890s when a chef working for Count Pavel Alexandrovich Stroganov, a famous Russian general, invented the recipe for a cooking competition in St. Petersburg.
I used egg white pasta to go with the Beef Stroganoff.
Ingredients
- 1 bottle (400ml) of Stroganoff cooking sauce
- 1 package (340g) of egg white pasta
- 1 lb sirloin steak
- 1 can of mushroom pieces
- cilantro for garnishing
For those who loves beef stroganoff, you will like this Hamburger Stroganoff from scratch too.
Beef Rendang
All is not butter that comes from the cow.
~ Italian Proverb
Rendang is a dish from Malaysia which in some ways resembles a purely meat curry. In Malaysia, it is prepared by the Malay community during festive occasions.
Rendang is often served with a ketupat (a compressed rice cake) and lemang (glutinous rice barbecued in bamboo tubes). However, it goes equally as great with steamed rice, or even bread. It is not very spicy hot but is very heavily flavoured in spices.
Rendang is normally made from beef (or occasionally chicken or mutton) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, leaving the meat coated in the spicy condiments. The spices may include ginger, galangal, turmeric, lemon grass and chillies. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender. That sounds daunting, right?
Things are much more easier these days because we can just buy all the ingredients mixed in a box.
We bought the Claypot brand Beef Rendang Mix (see box above). To prepare this dish, we only need 750g (1.5 lb) of cubed beef. The stuff you see in the two bowls and measuring cup are prepared out from the box. (more…)
Laksa
There is no love sincerer than the love of food
~ Geoffrey Neighor
Rachel gave us a box of Laksa paste and premixes which they brought for us all the way from Singapore. This was what is rightfully called Laksa Lemak because there are many varieties of Laksa. This version of Laksa is of Peranakan origin, that is, born of the intermarriage of Chinese and Malay cultures.
Laksa lemak, also known as nonya laksa, is a type of laksa served in a rich coconut gravy. The presence of the coconut cream (the pressed “milk” of the grated flesh of a fresh coconut) which adds a distinctive richness to the dish. Laksa is traditionally garnished with laksa leaf, also known as Vietnamese coriander or Vietnamese mint.
Here are the ingredients we use to prepare the Laksa for lunch.
 The Laksa box contained four pouches:(1) the Laksa Premix,(2) the Laksa Paste, (3) Sambal Chili and (4) Dried Laksa Leaves. |
 For noodles, we use the shanghai thin noodles. |
 We also had some fried beancurd (tofu-pok). |
 For meat, we use fishballs and prawns. Cilantro is used to garnish the dish. |
The Laksa can be used to make two-three servings. (more…)
Char Siew Wonton Noodle (Without the Wonton)
My mother’s menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it.
~ Buddy Hackett
Suanne and I had a big debate over how to name this dish. I mean, how can one call this a wonton noodle where there is no wonton. Anyway, it’s her dish and she gets to call it what she wants. The star of this simple dinner is the CHAR SIEW (roasted red pork). Suanne made the Char Siew herself. To make perfect char siew, you need pork shoulder butt. Suanne used some Thai made seasoning mix. She can’t recall where she bought it but should be in one of the many Asian market along Kingsway or Metrotown area (we hang around that place a lot because there is where I work, Arkensen and Nanzaro’s chinese school and our church). Here is the picture of the Roast Red Pork Seasoning Mix:
Anyway, to cut to the chase (i.e. without showing you the whole roasting process because we did not take pictures), below is what the char siew looks like. I really like it a bit charred but trust me, it taste really GREAT.
Now, hear this. You do NOT eat char siew like STEAK! They are to be sliced in bite size, like below. Here is a secret from Suanne … leave the slicing until the end or else everyone in the family will munch it all before the noodles is ready. Go, jot it down.
