Morels and Fiddlehead Ferns

When S saw the green spirals, his reaction was "Hey, those look like they are vegetables from an Enid Blyton book!" I couldn't agree more and they even had a name to match - fiddlehead fern. Don't they sound like they belong to the Magic Faraway Tree?

Fiddlehead fern and morel mushrooms appear to be all the rage because they are in season. S and I had never tried fiddlehead fern before and morels are not so common either, so we decided to try them together. I stuffed the chicken I had planned to for dinner back in the fridge since I read that the fiddleheads should be cooked on the same day you buy them.





To prepare fiddlehead ferns, rinse them over several changes of water. Then put them in a pot of boiling water for about 5-7 minutes. These steps will remove the toxins in them. Immediately submerge in a bowl of cold water after removing from the heat, to keep the pretty green color.

I don't quite have a recipe. I just made a potato salad with less dressing. Saute the morels with butter and garlic. Do the same with the fiddleheads. Mix them together and sprinkle with pine nuts and slices of spring onion.

Crab and Asparagus Soup

Life is busy again. And I love it.

I enjoy cooking Malay food which require nine types of spices to be toasted, ground and sauteed. The process of watching over a hot stove for three hours while the dish stews and develop flavors as you stir every five minutes to prevent the ingredients from scorching, may have its therapeutic value. But I enjoy it just as much when my to-do list is long and I am pushed to be more creative in the kitchen because I don't have a whole morning for prep work. So I turn to simple dishes, like this crab and asparagus soup which we had with brown rice.

It barely takes 15 minutes to cook. Less if I omit the onion and garlic. 'Cos sometimes, you just don't feel like cutting onion and garlic. Or, you forget to buy to them. Doesn't matter. The soup still tastes good.

Crab and Asparagus Soup

¼ medium-sized onion, finely minced
1 garlic, finely minced
5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
8 oz. asparagus, cut into inch-long pieces
8 oz. cooked crab meat
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sliced spring onions
1 teaspoon oil

1. Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pot. Saute the onion and garlic for about 1 minute. Add in the stock and asparagus. Bring to a gentle boil and then down to a simmer. Add the crab meat.

2. Break in the eggs into a bowl and pierce the yolks. Stir the soup, making a whirlpool and then slowly dribble in the eggs slightly away from the center of the whirlpool. Let the eggs set for about a minute.

Serve with a sprinkling of sliced spring onion.

Smoked Salmon and Asparagus Frittata

It must be spring – it's hard to walk two feet in the farmer's market without seeing asparagus. I've roasted them, made soup, stir-fried and here, in my favorite everything-but-the-kitchen-sink recipe, added to a frittata. Not only does a frittata absorb leftovers in my refrigerator, it's also easy to make. I like the look individual servings so I used a muffin tin. Good with a salad. We had ours with stir-fried watercress and baby shitake.





Salmon and Asparagus Frittata

4 eggs
¾ cup smoked salmon, chopped
¾ cup asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
½ cup whole milk
½ cup grated parmesan

Pre-heat oven 400°F. Lightly oil a muffin pan.

Whip the eggs and milk in a bowl. Add parmesan cheese, asparagus and smoked salmon. Pour mixture into muffin tin. Bake for about 25-30 minutes.

Makes 6.

Crispy Mushrooms and Squash Soup

The lack of food posts does not in any way indicate the state of my kitchen. The stove has been heating-up but the shorter winter days meant that the light was not cooperating so it was tough to take decent pictures. We've been eating well. We've been having plenty of soup. Like butternut squash soup. My new favorite thing is roasting mushrooms until crispy and putting them in the soup. I've been these throwing crispy mushrooms in everything we eat - salad, fried rice and sandwiches.

But back to the soup – to put it in the OTT category, I also microwave pieces of apple and stir it into the soup. Recipe? Make your favorite butternut squash soup. Mine is about 4 cups roasted butternut squash and 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock mixed with a teaspoon minced ginger and a tablespoon ground cumin. Line a baking pan with parchment paper, then roast oyster mushrooms (salted and peppered) at 425°F for about 10 minutes or until crispy. You have to scrape the mushrooms off the baking pan. Dice an apple and blitz it in the microwave for one minute. Serve both with the soup and dinner's ready.

I've also been cooking with recipes off the internet – I am still amaze at this resource. I have many cookbooks but the recipes in the blogosphere continue to tempt me. Here are a few, tried and tested, in our kitchen:

Oatmeal pancakes from Orangette. I made these the first time only because I had so much oatmeal. But I've made it four times since. It's that good.

Citrus and beet salad. This is a dish inspired by Sassy Radish. I added roasted beets and used honey instead of maple syrup for the dressing. My new favorite way to eat oranges. Three times.

Fish & chips. I used No Recipe's, err, recipe. I've made it only once but I used 3 lbs worth of fish so that I could freeze some of the fried fish. I just pop a couple in the toaster oven when I feel like a savory snack.

Ma pu tofu. Userealbutter's version is the easiest and tastiest I've ever made (I use ground chicken or turkey). Made this too many times to remember how many exactly.

Marshmallows. I had all the ingredients so while S was assembling new furniture, I whipped this up. I flavored them with orange zest. And then coated them with chocolate.

Macarons – Ok, I didn't make any. But D did - and they were awesome. Have been meaning to try making some myself but never got round to it. Soon. And other recipes that I hope will be heating up the kitchen in the near future – shrimp salad in wonton cups, morrocan fish stew and chestnut torte.

Fried zucchini flowers - 3 batters and 1 stuffing

Formerly a city girl who traveled extensively, I always believed I was adventurous when it comes to eating. I look forward to trying different types of cuisine and enjoy reading up on any new ingredient or dish. But then I realized my adventurous self did not extend to cooking. After two years of almost daily cooking, my spatula and I remain happily within my Asian food comfort zone. De-seed and slice chillies until my fingers burn? Sure. Stand over my stove to stir serunding for 3 hours? Can. Toast belacan until the whole house is fumed of pungent dried shrimps? No problem. But tell me to cook with 3 pounds of cheese for lasagna, fear strikes. Don't get me wrong - I love cheese, but I'm just not moved to cook with them.

Sometimes though, the desire to taste a dish just based on its description can overcome your trepidation. Everytime I go to the farmer's market in the summer, I look longingly at the zucchini flowers. I had read about how delicious fried zucchini flowers are. But they look so pretty and so delicate, I was not sure I would be successful. Two summers past. I knew of no restaurants that serve them so finally, yesterday, I picked up a box of zucchini blossoms at the farmer's market.

When we got home, I googled for more information. I discovered that the usual zucchini flowers sold and used for cooking are male flowers because the female ones are kept on the plants for zucchini. I also read of at least 2 types of batters - egg and flour, and club soda and flour. Since it was simple enough, I decided to try both. For the stuffing, I noticed some recipes did not call for any. I liked the idea, but since we had some goat cheese and basil leaves, I thought I would try it two ways too.

I did not have any club soda, so I used sparkling water, which worked out well. And while I was cooking with the batter of egg and flour, I decided to try frying 2 dipped only in egg. Verdict - the egg only batter browned very easily - if you look at the picture below, the ones more browned are from the egg only batter. The taste of egg is very strong - it's like eating an omelette with zucchini flowers. The sparkling water and flour batter was thicker than the one with egg and flour. We enjoyed both flour batters; the egg only batter, not so much.

As for the stuffing, I mixed a little chopped basil with goat cheese. It was good, but we liked the zucchini flowers even without cheese. So in a pinch, I would definitely cook without stuffing. Next time, we'd also like to try it with mozzarella. I am also glad I read this hilarious post before cooking and removed the stamens from the zucchini flowers before stuffing/frying. This is common advice in other recipes I had read as well.

I think deep frying would have produced a prettier looking dish, but I just pan-fried and turned over. Pretty or not, we ate our lunch with relish. Afterall, nothing tastes as good as something you have been craving for a while.

The recipe below is based on the various recipes which I have linked to on this page.

Fried zucchini flowers - 3 batters and 1 stuffing

16 zucchini flowers

Batter 1:
½ cup flour
¾ cup sparkling water
(this is sufficient batter for all the flowers)
Mix well until you get a thick batter.

Batter 2:
1 large egg
flour for dredging

Batter 3:
Leftover egg from Batter 1
(not recommended with stuffing)

Stuffing:
4 tablespoons goat cheese
1 tablespoon basil leaves, chopped finely
(This stuffing is sufficient for about 10 flowers. Add more if required)

Salt
Oil for pan-frying

Carefully cut a slit near the base of the flower and remove the stamens. Use a small spoon to stuff about ½ teaspoon stuffing into 10 of the flowers. Then gently dip one flower (with or without stuffing) in Batter 1. Place in medium-heat oil for 2-3 minutes, and turn over and fry for another two minutes. Remove and place on paper towel on a rack. Repeat until you finish the batter, or until 8 flowers. Then dip the next flower in egg, holding the flower over the egg for a few seconds to let excess egg drain. Dredge lightly in flour. Fry about four of the flowers. Finally, dip the remaining flowers in the egg generously and fry in oil.

Sprinkle some salt over the flowers while hot and enjoy!

The Sambal Series - Sambal goreng sayur

I can't say if marriage is what I expected it to be. I think for both of us, it took time getting used to living with someone. I'm sure part of it was because we got married at an older age - we were pretty much set in our ways by then. One minute I am this independent woman running my own business. The next minute I am sitting cross-legged in his living room in another continent, wondering where I can fit all my books. We have had plenty of adjustments to make along the way.

One of the things that fall on both ends of the get-along-meter is food. It is something that unites us and at the same time, causes some arguments. We grew up eating Malay food, so we love the savory taste of Malay rempah (spices) that flavors our food. We enjoy spending time in the kitchen trying to recreate the smell and taste that peppered our childhood and arguing whose mum made a better ____ (any Malay food). But he is also a red meat lover. Those last three words should be capitalized just to emphasis how much he loves red meat, but I am too polite to be shouting over the web. I really have no objection to my husband eating red meat but for health reasons I would like him to eat less of it. We "discuss" this a lot.

So I look for meat-less recipes which I think will satisfy his tastebuds. My mum's sambal goreng sayur recipe is one such recipe. The rough translation for the dish is "fried chili vegetables". She usually makes it with beef but I decided to make it with prawns. I was glad to hear that he liked it just as much. This recipe is a typical of Malay food. Onion, garlic, belacan, lemongrass, galangal and chilli blended into a spice paste and then fried until fragrant. My mum suggested one cup of dried chilli but it was too much heat, so I reduced it to half a cup.






Sambal Goreng Sayur

½ cup dried chili, de-seeded and blended into paste
1 onion, medium sized
5 garlic cloves
3 lemon grass stalks
1-inch square belacan (shrimp paste)
3-inch galangal
1 tablespoon tamarind paste to produce ½ cup of tamarind juice
2 tablespoons sugar
15 long beans, cut into 2-inch pieces at an angle
1 8-oz tempe
1 8-oz baked or fried tofu
(tofu & tempe cut into 1 by 2-inch blocks & lightly fried separately)
1 lb prawns, shelled and de-veined, lightly fried
oil for frying

Rempah (spice paste) - Peel and chop galangal, lemongrass, onion and garlic into 1-inch pieces. You don't have to exact because all will be blended. Use only the white and light green part of the lemongrass. Put the chilli paste, lemongrass, onion, garlic, belacan and galangal into a blender or food processor - grind until mixture becomes paste. Heat 1 table spoon of oil in a wok. Put in the rempah, sugar and tamarind juice - be careful of oil splatter - and fry until fragrant. Stir often so that the rempah doesn't burn. This may take 15-20 minutes.

Remove the rempah and clean the wok. Heat about 2 tablespoon of oil (medium heat). Fry the long beans for about 2 minutes. Then put in the tofu, tempe and prawns. Stir-fry for one minute. Add the rempah and mix well. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with rice.

Serves 4

Baby bok choy no recipe

I've just been befriended on Facebook by several of my former dorm mates whom I have not seen since I left college. That brought back some memories. Now, I don't remember much from that time - just that there was a lot of sharing. Carrying a small basket of your toiletries into the shared bathroom. Rushing out of your second-floor room because you think you heard someone yell your name for a phonecall and running down to the shared phone on the ground floor. And of course there were the meals.

There was one small kitchenette in the whole block and sometimes, we got together to make our meals. I say "make", as opposed to "cook", because little to no cooking was involved. It is embarrassing to reveal, but one of our standard meals consisted instant noodles for carbohydrate, hot dogs for protein and blanched lettuce leaves for, err, nutrients. We simply boiled some water, blanched a few lettuce leaves, set it on a plate and drizzle a little oyster sauce over it.



So for dinner last night, I made a baby bok choy dish that was inspired by those dorm-life memories. It's one of those dishes that doesn't really require any recipe. This time I steamed them instead of blanching them. You'll need two or three bunches of baby bok choy. Cut of the base of the stems - you can leave some of the smaller leaves together intact. Clean them well as they can be sandy. Just immerse them in cold water and rinse a couple of times. Boil some water in a pot - I use a silicone steamer because it's easy to clean. Steam the baby bok choy for about 2 minutes or more if you want them wilted. I like mine with a little bit of crunch in them. Then lay them out on a plate. Mix a teaspoon of oyster sauce with 2 teaspoons of water and drizzle it over the bok choy. Add a few drops of sesame oil and garnish with crispy fried shallots (or onions)*. Serves 3 or 4. It's a simple dish that complements a meal with rich or spicy dishes.

*I usually make a batch of fried shallots and store, but you can buy them in any Indian or Middle Eastern grocery store. They add flavor and texture to many Singapore dishes.