Thai Green Curry Prawns and Salted Egg Spinach

These were part of Saturday's dinner with my daughter's family.
I cooked braised belly pork in dark soya sauce, fried chicken wings in sweet sauce, green curry prawns and salted egg spinach.

I have a container of green curry paste prepared some time ago. I always make huge batches of different types of spices and freeze them. It makes cooking easy and convenient. I don't have to 'crack my head' as to what to cook as the various spices are ready at hand. Just thaw and cook - sambal, assam, curry, lemak and what have you!


Spices for Thai Green Curry: (approximately 1 1/2 rice bowl)

1 tablespoon coriander seeds (ketumbar), roasted
2 teaspoons cumin seeds (jintan puteh), roasted
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 teaspoons blachan
8 large green chillies
1 cup shallots
5 cm galangal (lengkwas)
12 cloves garlic
1 cup coriander leaves including roots
6 kaffir lime leaves
3 stalks lemon grass (serai)
2 teaspoons grated lime rind
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoon oil

Just place all the ingredients and blend. Store and freeze.

For the prawns, I use 3 tablespoons of the paste and saute in a little oil before adding the prawns and stir fry a little before adding some coconut milk and sliced chilli padi. There is little gravy, so the prawns are cover with the paste. I didn't use salt as the stock is already flavoured.






Salted Egg Spinach

3 salted egg
6 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup chicken stock
600g spinach, use more leaves with the thinner stalks


Boil garlic in stock. Add 3 yolks and drizzle a little egg white. Do not use all the egg whites or it will be too salty. When the yolks are about to cook, add the spinach and boil till just cooked.

What's For Lunch?

What's on the menu for lunch? The usual, would be the retort!

Stir- fried Broccoli, Carrot and Roselle

Stir-fried Leek and Beancake (Taukwa)

Braised Belly Pork in Soya sauce

A bowl of rice, please? I'm famished!

Fried Kangkong with Otah

My family loves this vegetable, kangkong or water convolvulus cooked in shrimp paste chilli.

Whenever we eat out, this dish is always first on the order list. BUT I usually eat very little because the veggie comes to us swimming in oil and tasting very salty! (Guess that's what makes it so tasty!)

Today is one of the rare occasions that I cook this veggie. Reason being, I dislike having the whole house errr.. flat, smelling like sambal belachan. Besides that, the odour clings to the hair and clothes!

However, I have managed to resolve this problem quite significantly. I sauteed the spices on low heat till the oil showed and then added the rest of the ingredients. Tastewise, it's still good and smell-wise, the odour was cut down by more than half! Hooray!

What I Used:

2 packets kangkong (I got them from ntuc)

Spices:

3 teaspoons coarsely ground dried prawns

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 or more red chillies (depends on preference for spiciness)

1 teaspoon belachan

1 packet otah, cut into chunks (bought from jb)

1/2 packet kara coconut milk, diluted with some water (optional)

oil

salt (optional)

What I Did:

1. Grind all spices together.

2. Heat some oil and saute spices till fragrant or till oil shows.

3. Add otah chunks and let fry till 3/4 cooked.

4. Add coconut milk and bring to semi-boiling stage and then add veggie. Mix quickly.

5. Bring to a boil and turn off heat. Do not overcook this veggie.

I gave it extra gravy so that I could drench my rice in it! :)

Fried String Beans with Chives & Egg

There are many ways to cook string beans or long beans. You can stir-fry with dried prawns and chilli paste, add it to sayur lodeh, vegetable curry, fried rice, etc, etc.

A favourite of mine is to fry it with eggs.

What I Used:

6 to 8 string beans, chopped thinly

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

some chives, cut to 2-cm lengths

some prawns, cubed

2 to 3 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned with some salt

oil

salt

a little water

sliced chilli (optional)

What I Did:

1. Heat some oil in a pan and saute garlic, onions and string beans.

2. Add a little water to cook the beans to soften slightly.

3. Then add prawns and chives, stir to mix.

4. Pour egg over and leave it to set, then turn over to cook the other side.

5. Serve with rice or eat it in a sandwich.

Simple Fare - Potato and Bean Curd

Simple fare

Just for the two of us!

Cheap! Good! Easy!

Stir-Fried Potato

2 medium-sized potatoes, cut into strips

1 piece fish cake, cut into strips(leftover from mee siam)

1 large white onions, cut into strips

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 red and 1 green chilli, sliced

1 tomato, wedged

1 tablespoon oyster sauce

a little dark soya sauce

juice of half a lemon or 2 teaspoons vinegar

sugar to taste

water

1. Heat a little oil in a pan, stir fry potato strips till lightly brown and remove from pan.

2. Add a little bit more oil in pan, saute onion and garlic for a while and add the potatoes.

3. Stir to mix and add some water, bring to a boil, then simmer to cook potatoes.

4. Once potatoes are soft, add fish cake, oyster sauce to taste and a little dark sauce for colour, lemon juice, chilli and tomato and sugar. Stir to mix and let fry for a while and it is done. There's very little gravy for this dish.

Stir-Fried Bean Curd(tau kwa) with Bean Sprouts (leftovers from mee siam)

1 piece of bean curd, sliced and fried

a handful of bean sprouts

some chives, cut to 3-cm lengths

1 tomato, wedged

2 cloves garlic, chopped

oil

any seasoning preferred

1. Heat oil in pan and saute garlic for a while. Don't let it turn brown.

2. Add bean curd, stir fry for a moment, then add bean sprouts, chives, tomato and seasoning all at one go.

3. Stir fry till mixed and remove from heat. Serve with rice.

Brinjal and Spicy Dried Shrimps

I love brinjals and I eat them cooked with chilli or coconut milk.

When I was a child, my mum forbade me to eat too much brinjal. Her reason was - "It's bad for the eyes!" I never thought of asking her to elaborate further because I would be deemed rude and disobedient then. Nevertheless, I still eat it and today I have to rely on a pair of 'extra' eyes! LOL!

I Used:

2 purple brinjals (don't seem to see green ones around for a while), sliced to size and leave to soak in salt water to prevent discoloration. Drain water before cooking.

2 to 3 tablespoons dried shrimps (hae bee/udang kering), soaked in water for a while and drain off. Use grinder and just pulse once to get it coarsely ground.

1 large onion, sliced or chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

3 tablespoons chilli paste (for nasi lemak)

Sliced red chillies, optional

Oil

water

What I Did:

1. Heat a little oil and fry onion, garlic and dried shrimps for a minute or so.

2. Add chilli paste, stir to mix.

3. Add brinjals and stir to mix before adding some water to cook. Do not add too much water at one go. Cover to simmer to cook. Check if more water is required from time to time.

4. Taste to find out if salt is required. I didn't add any salt as the chilli paste is already seasoned and the dried shrimps are quite salty.

5. Cook brinjals to your preferred softness. I like mine 3/4 cooked, not too mushy and with a little gravy.

Lunch

This was my lunch with a bowl of plain porridge. I 'm trying to nurse Tummy back to health so that she can return with a vengeance on all that she had been missing. Grrrr............

My thanks to all you dear blogger friends and visitors for your well-wishes. My to-do list gets longer with each lingering day as I can only visit food blogs and drool over the delicious food posted.

But like what Arnold What's-his name said, "I'll Be Back!"

Angled loofah - one of my favourites. I love it in soups or stir-fried.

I simply sauteed 1/2 teaspoon of chopped garlic in 1 teaspoon oil and added in the loofah, followed by some prawn stock (I keep it frozen). While it's cooking, I lightly beat an egg with some salt and drizzle it in and let it cook for a minute or two. I added some leftover tomato and seasoned it a little. And lunch was ready.

Fried Hairy Gourd ('moh kuay')

I love this dish, so does my younger daughter. It's a kind of gourd or loofah. I'm not sure of its name in English. But in Hokkien it's known as 'moh kuay'. It's slightly hairy and dark green. Gee! I should have taken a picture of it before I had it sliced. Anyway it's easily obtainable at the market.


Ingredients:

1 hairy gourd ( 'moh kuay' ), skinned and cut into strips
1 egg omelette, cut into strips
2 red chilli, seeds removed and sliced thinly
4 to 6 medium prawns, shelled and diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
oil
salt
200 ml prawn stock or any stock

Method:

1. Heat oil in pan and fry garlic till fragrant but not brown.
2. Add the gourd and stir fry till the garlic is mixed with it.
3. Add prawn stock and cook for 5 minutes and then add in the prawns.
4. When the prawns are cooked, add omelette and sliced chilli and salt to taste.
5. Stir fry to mix for a couple of minutes.
6. Serve hot with rice.

You can add sliced meat or chicken.

Fish and Veggie

Easy to prepare and just use what you have at home - that's how sometimes I come up with dishes for lunch. Makes me sound pretty laid back. But hey! Cooking has its flexibilities and allows creativity. Long ago, mothers simply 'agak'( estimated)the ingredients when it came to cooking. I believe that there are still many mums doing that. I find it quite cumbersome having to weigh everything just to cook a dish. Of course when it comes to baking, it's totally different. The result of your cakes depends on the exact weight of the ingredients required.

I decided to do a fish, a veggie and of course beef rendang which I froze some when I cooked for CNY(a habit to cook extra and stash some away in the freezer for later use).

Ingredients for the fish dish:

A white pomfret, medium-sized, cut into 3 (can be whole fish)
1 large onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
1 red and 1 green chilli, sliced
A few slices of lemon (happened to find it in the fridge)
Lemon juice from 1 lemon
3 tablespoons Buah keluak paste*
About 100ml coconut milk (packet)
Salt and sugar to taste
Oil

Method:

1. Marinate fish with some salt and pepper, put aside for half and hour.
2. Pat dry fish and deep fry till crispy. (You can eat the bones of white pomfret when fried to a
crisp)
3. Heat enough oil in a pan and stir fry onion, garlic and buah keluak paste for a minute or so.
4. Add in lemon juice, coconut milk, salt and sugar. If the gravy is too thick, add a little water.
5. Add in the sliced chilli and lemon slices and bring to boil for a few seconds.
6. Pour gravy over the fish and serve immediately if you want the crispiness of the fish.
Otherwise, you can put in the fish at step 5.



Ingredients for Veggie Omelette:

I small bowl of shredded cabbage
Half a carrot, shredded
1 large onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, sliced thinly
Some sliced red chilli
2 eggs, beaten with some salt
Salt to taste
Oil
Water

Method:

1. Stir fry onion and garlic for a while.
2. Add carrot and cabbage and some salt and fry for a minute.
3. Add a little water to fry the veggies.
4. Add the chilli and then the egg.
5. Turn over the omelette once to cook the other side.
6. Serve hot.

You can substitute cabbage with bayam (spinach) or chinese leek.
There you have it, 2 simple dishes for a meal.

As for the buah keluak paste*, I stock up on this whenever I cook Buah keluak for CNY. This dish is a favourite with my daughters and nephew. I only cook it for CNY dinner. That's why I always prepare extra because I can use the paste to cook different types of dishes as in the case of the fish dish. Even though the same paste is used, the taste and flavour can be different.
eg. I can use tamarind water and laksa leaves with some chilli padi to cook a another fish dish or use coconut milk and limau purut leaves (lime leaves) to cook chicken. The options are plenty. Just dare to try and be creative!

This is my version of Buah Keluak paste which I tweaked a little from my Mum-in-law's.

Ingredients: (does not include other ingredients that are not to be ground with)
This amount is good for about one and a half kg of meat.

Spices to be ground:

450g peeled onions
4 cloves garlic
70g sliced galangal (lengkwas)
50g sliced turmeric (kunyit)
2 pieces 6cm long lemon grass (serai), sliced
40g candlenuts (buah keras)
1 piece belachan (4x4x1cm)

I did not grind the chilli together because I can use the paste to cook non-spicy dishes.