Cream cheese bolognese for pasta

Just can't believe it - I haven't posted a pasta recipe to date and strangely enough, pasta is one of the things I cook quite often.

A good bolognese sauce is just what any pasta needs. Over the years, various ingredients have gone into the basic ragu that I make in an attempt to increase the flavour. Let's face it - the meat and the tomatoes that are locally available are not exactly top quality but bolognese is a particularly forgiving sauce. Beef or a mix of beef and pork would be my meat of choice but more often than not, I find myself using chicken. While chicken ragu is quite flavourful, I never quite get the colour that a good ragu commands. Ah well...

It takes a good hour to cook a bolognese and there are no shortcuts. At the end of the cooking time, what you get is a thick sauce and tender meat that's so full of flavour. I know chicken liver is a strange ingredient but believe me, once the ragu is done, no one will know there's such a thing in it - not if you tell, at any rate. It adds a different dimension to the sauce, more depth. As for the cream cheese, what it does is to take the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes and infuses a certain tangy mellowness to the dish.

This sauce is good with any kind of pasta. When you're done doling the sauce over the pasta, don't forget to sprinkle Parmesan cheese over too. After all, can there ever be too much cheese?

Here goes my recipe:

Cream cheese bolognese

Ingredients
4 tbsp oil
50 gm bacon, diced
2 onions, finely diced
8 cloves garlic, chopped coarsely
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 large carrot, grated
1 bay leaf
1 tsp mixed dried herbs
500 gm minced meat
2 chicken livers, cleaned and minced
1/2 cup red or white wine or sherry
200 gm blanched and pureed tomatoes
1/2 cup tomato paste
6 stalks parsley, remove stems and chop fine
1 cup milk
1 cup stock
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
50 gm cream cheese

Method
Heat oil in a large pot, saute bacon till crisp, remove.
Tip the diced onion, garlic, celery, carrot and bay leaf into the pan, saute till soft.
Add in the minced meat and chopped liver, fry till the juices dry up and the meat is browned.
Add in the bacon, mixed dried herbs, wine or sherry, tomatoes, tomato paste, parsley, milk, stock salt and pepper.
When it comes to the boil, turn down the heat, cover the pot with a lid and allow the sauce to simmer for an hour, stirring the pot every 15 minutes or so.
Switch off the flame, stir in the sugar and the cream cheese.
Serve over a bed of pasta.

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Burritos for a brand new year

Wow!! Where did the last year go? Which also made me realise it's been ages since I posted a recipe. December '14 was a bake crazy hectic time that took me right up to New Year's eve.

Here's some of the stuff I did...

Rich fruit cake, pineapple tarts, mushroom puffs, chocolate date cakes, iced Christmas cake, coffee-misu tart,  chocolate truffle cake, chicken mushroom rolls, cut out Christmas cookies 

... and some more bakes for a Christmas carnival...

More fruit cakes; chocolate and lemon filled cupcakes; chicken& mushroom quiche

One of the things I miss in Chennai is good Mexican fare. Even Tex-Mex will do. A couple of restaurants have opened in the city but the reviews have been mixed so I felt the next best thing was to make it myself. Fortunately, all the ingredients are now available at local food stores and these include tortilla wraps and burrito seasoning. I've done a simple version of the filling which has just chicken strips, coloured peppers and onions and left out the beans. I find ready made burrito seasoning quite mild so I like to spice it up with some additional chilli and cumin. One other thing is that I like a bit of crunch in the veg so I don't cook them till they are limp.

Serve the burritos with salsa and sour cream and it's ole all the way to Mexico!

Chicken burritos

Ingredients
750 gm chicken breasts, sliced in strips
1 pack burrito seasoning (40 gm)
Juice of 1 lime
3 large onions, sliced
6 pips garlic, crushed
1 tsp chilli powder or chilli flakes
1 tsp cumin powder
4 coloured peppers, sliced in strips
1/2 bunch coriander leaves, chopped
Oil
Salt
6 large tortillas

Method
Mix the chicken strips with the burrito seasoning and lime juice, keep aside for about half an hour.
Saute the onions and garlic in a large skillet over a hot flame.
Add in the chilli powder (or flakes) and cumin powder, toss well.
Add in the coloured pepper strips and saute till they are cooked through but crunchy.
In another pan, heat a little more oil and saute the chicken strips till done. Do this in 2 batches.
Mix together the chicken with the onions and peppers; if the filling is too dry, add in a couple of tablespoons of hot water and the chopped coriander leaves.
Check seasoning, add more salt only if necessary.
Warm the tortillas in a hot pan.
Divide the filling equally among the wraps and roll up tight.
Serve with sour cream, guacamole and salsa in separate bowls.

Salsa

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Hainanese style chicken rice

Most Singaporeans love Hainanese chicken rice, in fact, many consider it the national dish. It's quite simple to make and to help matters along, there are even companies that package the ingredients in a ready to use format. All you need is the chicken and rice!

Prepackaged chicken rice

Chicken rice involves poaching a whole chicken, saving half the stock to make into a soup and cooking rice in the remaining. The chicken is then chopped into small pieces, seasoning poured over and served with the soup, rice, slices of cucumber, tomato and chilli sauce. For that authentic taste, a few pandan leaves will do the trick. Simple, right?



Here's how I do it-

Hainanese style chicken rice 

Ingredients

Stock

1.3 kg whole dressed chicken, skin intact

6 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed with the side of the knife

2 slices ginger

2 spring onions

3 pandan leaves, torn, keep 1 for cooking rice (optional)

1 tsp Chinese sesame oil

2.5 litres water
1 tsp salt
Chopped spring onion for the soup

Chop off the wing tips of the chicken, give it a good scrub with salt inside and out, wash it. 

Fill a pot with 2.5 litres of water and bring it to the boil. 

Put the garlic, ginger, spring onions, pandan leaves, sesame oil and salt into the water. 

When the water comes back to the boil, immerse the chicken in the water and let the water to come back to the boil for another 5 minutes.
Place a plate over the chicken to ensure it stays submerged.
Skim off any foam that rises to the top.

Place the lid on the pot, simmer for 10 minutes then switch off the flame.

Leave the pot undisturbed for 35 minutes, don't open the lid.  

Towards the end of cooking time, fill another pot with ice cold water and add in some ice cubes.

As soon as the time is up, lift the chicken out of the poaching liquid and immerse it into the ice water. Change the water or add more ice cubes till the chicken is cold.
Drain it well and mop off excess water with a paper towel.
Rub some of the seasoning over the chicken and keep aside.
Strain the stock and keep aside, discard the solids.  

Rice

450 gm basmati rice

1 slice ginger

1 pandan leaf, torn

Salt to taste

625 ml reserved stock

Wash and soak 450 grams long grain fragrant rice (I use basmati) for about 10 minutes. 

Drain it through a colander. 

In a rice cooker, put in the rice, stock, ginger, pandan leaf and salt to taste. 

Switch on and leave to cook.

Seasoning for chicken

4 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
Salt

 Mix together all the sauce ingredients. Add salt only if necessary.

Chilli sauce 
12 dry red chillies, remove stalks and break into halves
1" piece ginger, peeled
4 cloves garlic
Vinegar, salt and sugar to taste

Soak the chillies in hot water for about 20 minutes.
Drain and grind along with ginger, garlic and some vinegar.
Transfer to a saucepan and bring to the boil, add salt and a little sugar to taste.
When cool, transfer into a small bowl.

To serve
Chop the chicken into bite size pieces. arrange on a serving dish, pour over the remaining seasoning. Arrange slices of cucumber and tomato around the chicken.

Boil the remaining stock, season to taste and garnish with diced spring onion. 

Serve the chicken with the rice, cucumber and tomato slices and soup. Don't forget the chilli sauce and some dark soya sauce.

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Roast chicken with sumac and za'atar

While planning my trip to Dubai, my sister in law asked me if there was any particular food I wanted to try. I told her anything but rice and curry. Actually, I wanted to try out Lebanese and where better than where it's made best- after Lebanon, of course!

Fortunately, there was Al-Shami restaurant at Sharjah, a hop, skip and jump away from home. Quite popular with the locals, the place was crowded even late at night. There were just too many things on the menu to try out so the family decided we would try out the must haves over 2 visits.

On the first visit, we ordered sharwarma, tabbouleh and falafel. In a couple of minutes, the hostess plonked down a plateful of olives, pickled vegetables, hummus and another plate of salad vegetables with a bundle of leaves in the middle. There was a whole tomato, lemon halves, halved Lebanese cucumbers, whole chillies, lettuce and carrot sticks. The bunch of leaves turned out to be rocket- my favourite. The shawarma was outstanding- nothing like what I've ever had. We stuffed the pita pockets with hummus, tabbouleh, falafel and the salad and munched on it. Delicious.

Salads are complimentary

Another day, my nephew took us to Damascus, which he said was the best restaurant in Dubai for Lebanese food.
The mandatory salad plate, pita and hummus made their appearances, along with pickled olives and radish sticks. Man, I could just live here and eat nothing but these salads for the rest of my life! The family was most amused at my scarfing down the rocket leaves. Seems they don't even give it a second look.

Salad, hummus, olives, sliced gherkins and pita

The mixed grill platter we ordered had a bit of everything. The shawarma at Damascus had French fries in it. I think I prefer mine without. If you're wondering what arayees is, it's like a stuffed pita, cut in triangles, crisp and delicious.

Mixed grill platter - lamb arayees, 4 kinds of grilled meat; chicken arayees & the whole served on a flatbread

Lamb arayees

The staff was quite amused at my clicking pictures but by the end of the meal, they posed for snaps and assured me I could go into their kitchen and photograph the chef making shawarmas. So even cameras can open doors??!!

The making of chicken and lamb shawarma

On my last day in Dubai, we went back to Al Shami for lunch. This time, we ordered a plate of grilled chicken mandi- rice with grilled chicken, a light stock, chilli sauce and yoghurt. Really really yummy!

Grilled chicken mandi and the accompaniments 

And kibbeh-  a bulgar croquette enclosing  a filling of cooked beef and pine nuts.

Kibbeh

I just couldn't leave without trying one dessert so we chose mahalabia, made of milk, evaporated milk and cornstarch, garnished with raisins and almond slivers. Nice.

Mahalabia

I came back with lots of sumac and za'atar. I love sprinkling za'atar over breads- what a fabulous taste. That inspired me to try out M'sakhan, a Palestine inspired roast chicken.

Roast chicken with sumac and za'atar

Ingredients
1.5 kg dressed chicken, cut into 4 portions
8 cloves garlic, bruised
2 teaspoons sumac
2 teaspoons za'atar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon allspice powder
Juice from 1 lime
1 lime, quartered
Salt and pepper to taste
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, sliced

Method
Clean and dry the chicken with kitchen towels.
In a glass dish, combine garlic, 1 teaspoon each sumac and za'atar, cinnamon powder, allspice powder, lime juice, salt, pepper and the quartered lime.
Marinate the chicken in this for about 4 hours.
Arrange the chicken in a roasting pan, spread the sliced onion over along with the  remaining sumac and za'atar.
Place in a preheated 200°C oven for about 30 minutes. Baste with pan juices.
Turn over the pieces and roast for another 30 minutes.
Serve with pita and hummus.
And tender cucumbers, olives and rocket leaves.

Delicious sumac and za'atar roast chicken

Served with hummus and pita bread

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Prawn and potato thokku

I've been living in Chennai for the last 17 years. Off and on, I've had maids who claim that they know how to cook. So, naturally, I ask them to cook something to see if it is really worth taking things forward. After all, a little extra help in the kitchen on a busy day is always welcome.

Invariably, the conversation goes like this:

Me: What dishes can you cook?
Maid: Oh I can cook everything!! Mutton, chicken, fish, vegetable...
Me: Can you cook something for me now?
Maid: Oh yes, what do you want me to cook?
Me: We'll try some chicken. What do you need to cook it?
Maid: Chicken, onion, ginger, garlic, tomato, chilli powder, turmeric powder...

What is uncanny is that all these maid-cum-cooks make this basic dish called thokku. So whether they are cooking chicken, prawn, potato or egg curry, the most of the ingredients are the same and the method of cooking is always the same.

I was intrigued by thokku. My mother in law had given me a recipe for tomato thokku which needs onions, tomatoes and green chillies. After cooking, it turns into a thick chutney and is very nice as a topping for bread. Then there is a mango pickle made into a thokku where grated mango is cooked into a thick pulp with tamarind, chilli powder and salt. Spicy and tangy.

But chicken thokku.  And prawn thokku?
Ah well, I had so much to learn. And I did!!

After 17 years of learning from these ladies, I figure a thokku is one of the easiest of dishes to prepare. Also one of the fastest.
I add potatoes in my thokku because it makes the gravy thick. This thokku goes well with rice and all kinds of flatbreads.

So we start with the ingredients:

From top left: chopped tomatoes, diced potatoes, chopped onions, garlic paste, ginger paste, shelled prawns, chilli powder, turmeric powder, fennel  seed powder, salt, oil and coriander leaves to garnish

Saute chopped onions in a little oil till slightly golden around the edges.

Add the grated ginger and garlic, stir till the raw smell goes then add the chilli, turmeric and fennel seed powders. 

Add the chopped tomatoes, saute till they turn mushy and oil starts separating.

Add diced potatoes, a little water, cover and cook till almost done. 

Add in the prawns, cover and cook till done and very thick gravy remains.

Garnish the prawn and potato thokku with coriander leaves.

Prawn and potato thokku

Ingredients

500 gm shelled and deveined prawns

2 onions, diced

1 tsp each grated ginger and garlic

1 teaspoon chilli powder (more if you like it hotter)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/3 tsp fennel seed powder
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 potatoes, diced
Salt to taste

4 tbsp oil

1/2 cup water

Method

Heat oil in a pan, saute onions till they turn slightly golden around the edges.

Add in the grated ginger and garlic, saute till it no longer smells raw.

Add in the chilli, turmeric and fennel seed powders, saute till cooked but take care not to burn them.

Add the chopped tomatoes, stir them around till they turn mushy.

Add the diced potatoes along with the water and salt, mix well then cover and cook till the potatoes are almost cooked and very little water remains in the pan.

Add the prawns. Stir well, then cover and cook on a high flame for 5 minutes.

Lower the heat and cook till prawns and potatoes are done. Check seasoning and dish out onto a serving plate.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

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Fish sambal with coconut milk rice

One of my favorite foods in Singapore is nasi lemak. Many food stalls sell it in banana leaves wrapped into a cone shape. Cut open the raffia tie and the aroma of coconut and pandan escapes. Inside, you will find a mound of fragrant rice, slices of cucumber, fried anchovies and peanuts, a thick and spicy sambal (sauce) and half a boiled egg. The stall near my home includes a crisp fried fish as well.

Coconut milk rice is pretty simple to make, though for an authentic taste, you need to use pandan leaves. Coconut milk adds richness to the rice, I prefer to use thin coconut milk.

Coconut rice

Ingredients
450 gm basmati rice
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1" piece ginger, peeled
4-5 pandan leaves
200 ml thick coconut milk
Water
Salt to taste

Method
Wash and soak the rice for about 30 minutes.
In the meantime, julienne the garlic and ginger.
Wash the pandan leaves under running water then run a fork through them.
Tie the shredded leaves into a bundle.
Drain off the water from the rice and put it into the rice cooker along with the pandan leaves, garlic and ginger strips.
Mix coconut milk and enough water to make a litre of liquid.
Pour it over the rice. Add salt to taste, stir well and switch on the cooker.
(You can add more of the thick coconut milk and less water if you prefer a richer taste.)

This is what the rice looks like at the start of cooking

 After 25 minutes, the cooking process is well underway

 A pot of hot and fragrant coconut milk rice   

After the rice is cooked, allow it to sit undisturbed for about 15 minutes. Fluff up the rice, discard the pandan leaves and plate up.

I served this with fish sambal. This is the same recipe as the prawn sambal, except that I made it with 750 grams of king fish fillets instead of prawns. Marinate the fish with 1/2 teaspoon chilli powder, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder and 1/4 teaspoon salt for about half an hour. Shallow fry the slices in 1/4 cup of oil, drain them well and then carry on with the rest of the recipe.

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Prawn sambal

One of the advantages of of living near the beach is the easy availability of fresh seafood. Five days a week, at about 8.30 in the morning, a group of fisherwomen land up on the pavement of one of the roads near my home. The only thing on their agenda is to sell as much seafood as they can and then take the unsold stock to the main fish market located on the ECR. The group usually consists of about 20 women and a couple of men. On Saturdays, Sundays and school holidays, some of their children tag along.

One group of women own the stuff in the baskets, presumably their husbands are the ones who have caught the fish. A second group buys from the first group. They are the ones who have their stalls on the main road and are buying the morning's stock. A third group, some of them still brushing their teeth, tag along to watch the sales; their homes are very close by so they feel they can take this liberty! One woman maintains the accounts. No money is exchanged at this point of time, but this woman makes a note of every transaction and I guess that at the end of the day, when sales are over, accounts are tallied and justified. Then there are the local buyers like yours truly, who find the seafood at this impromptu market very fresh. The only problem is that weighing scales don't exist. One has to trust one's judgement and ensure the quantity and price are reasonable.

I have never seen any of the larger fish varieties being sold here. Lots of shankara,  mullets, sardines, mackerel and of course, prawns. And for a small cost, the women will clean the fish or prawns for you.
My Tamil is not very good, so the children step in to translate for me. And the men? They are the drivers of the autos who ferry women and baskets to the main road. And an hour later, by 9.30am, baskets and women get into the waiting autos, the place is cleaned up, onlookers and kids go back to their homes and customers too melt away. If you were to come by the area, you wouldn't even know that a fish  market had happened, except for a faint smell of the sea...

My catch for the day was a kilo of big prawns. The day's menu was prawn sambal and rice. For the authentic taste of sambal, you have to use belachan which is prawn paste in a cake form. Wrap the piece in a little foil and pop it under a grill for a few minutes. Prawn paste powder is also available at Amma Nana.

Ingredients
1 kilo fresh prawns, shelled and deveined
3 big onions
6 pips garlic
1/2 " ginger
3 tomatoes
1 tsp chilli powder, more if you like it hotter
1/2 tsp belachan or prawn paste
1 stalk lemon grass
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
Salt to taste
Oil
Coriander leaves for garnish

Method
Wash prawns well and put in a colander.
Cut half an onion into thin slices.
Place remaining onions, garlic, ginger, chilli powder and belachan in a blender and process into a fine paste.
Bruise the bulb of the lemon grass.
Heat oil in a pot, put in the lemon grass and onion slices and saute till onions turn glassy.
Add in the ground paste,stirring now and then till the oil separates.
Grind the tomatoes and add them into the pot.
Cook the tomato till it is thick, add in a quarter cup of water, tamarind paste, salt to taste and bring to a boil with the lid on for about 5 minutes.
Add in prawns, stir and bring it back to the boil and cook it for another 3 minutes.
Check seasoning and serve with steamed rice, nasi lemak or coconut rice.

Prawn sambal with nasi lemak

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Sweet and Sour Chicken

 What is it with Chinese food that it's a favourite with a lot of folks? Is it because of the the taste, or the colour or that it's pretty fast to cook once the prep is over? Or is it because, for a lot of us, a change from what we eat most days?
Of course, in Chennai, authentic Chinese food is about as elusive as the proverbial flash in the pan. It smells like the real thing, looks like the real thing but it isn't quite all there.
One recipe that you can't go wrong with is a sweet and sour sauce. This is because there are only a handful of ingredients and the components of the sauce are available in most store cupboards.
This is my version and it tastes quite like the one from the hawker stall near home. I served mine with fried rice.

Sweet and Sour Chicken
450 gm chicken breast, sliced in 1" cubes
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp Chinese wine (optional)
1 tsp oil
2 tbsp cornflour
Cornflour for coating
Oil for deep frying

The vegetables

1 onion, cut in wedges

3 cloves garlic, chopped1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut in wedges

1/2 capsicum, cut in wedges

1 tomato, cut in wedges or a handful of cherry tomatoes

Coriander leaves for garnish

Sauce

200 ml chicken stock

4 tbsp tomato sauce

1 tbsp chilli garlic sauce

1/2 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp sesame oil

Salt to taste

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 3 tbsp water  

Method

Mix the egg white, salt, sugar, Chinese wine (if using) and oil. Marinate the chicken in this mixture then add the 2 tablespoons of cornflour. Mix well, keep aside for half an hour. 

Heat a wok, toss the marinated cubes into more cornflour and deep fry in hot oil in batches. Remove onto kitchen towels. When all the chicken pieces have been fried, reheat the oil and put the cubes back into the pan. Toss them around and then remove onto more kitchen towels to drain the oil. This helps to keep the meat crisp.

Fried chicken cubes

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce, keep aside.

Reheat the wok to smoking point, saute onion wedges for about a minute, then the garlic. Stir for a few seconds, then saute cucumber and capsicum pieces.

Now pour in the prepared sauce.

When the sizzle dies down, allow it to come to a boil. Toss in the tomato, thicken the sauce with the cornflour solution and check seasoning.

Put the chicken cubes into the sauce, toss well to mix and then dish out. 

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve with steamed rice or fried rice.

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