Stir Fry Sambal Vege

We use Tean's Gourmet Stir Fry Sambal Tumis sauce for this dish, it really saved us a lot of troubles back then so we bought a few packs from Malaysia this time round, to sample different sauces. To conclude, we think they have got more depth in flavours than other sauces in SG. Really value-for-money.
Serve 4

Ingredients:

1. Cut all vege into equal sizes, about 3 inches long for long beans, 2 inches for lady fingers & eggplant. About 400g of vege.
2. De-shell 10 tiger prawns. Season with salt & pepper.
3. 1 Pack of Tean's Gourmet Sambal Tumis sauce.

Method:

1. Heat 4 tbs of oil, fry eggplant for 1-2 min, take out on a paper-layered plate. Use medium-high heat here so that eggplant won't absorb too much oil at this stage.
2. Use the same oil, fry long beans & lady fingers for about 2 min. Then add in eggplant to fry together, for about 1min. Control the heat here (Medium - Medium high) to avoid burning. When you see all vege change to darker colour, prepare the sauce.
3. Add in Sambal base, fry abt 2 mins. Add a little water if need be.
4. Taste & sample your vege to judge doneness. If not, continue frying.
5. When done, add in prawns to the bottom of the wok, do not stir, when prawn turn pinkish, then stir with other vege a few rounds.
6. Serve.
   

Authentic Thai Food @ Silom

When we came back from Pattaya, we planned to visit this Hainanese Restaurant @ Silom for lunch (see below), but unfortunately, when we arrived there, it was closed! Too bad. I missed its signature pork chop very much, it's definitely better than the one I tried @ the renowned Yut Kee, KL.

If you think that only in society dominated by Chinese like SG, HK, Taiwan or China can we find mouth-watering Chinese delicacies, then you are wrong. I strongly believe that this is one of the restaurants that proves it standard above average effortlessly, even if it's not under anyone's radar.

But still, too bad.

Before leaving, I took this picture for remembrance just in case, CY's dad will move back to SG end of this year & so we won't be visiting Bangkok anytime soon.
A few mins away walking distance from the Hainanese Restaurant was this Ta-Ling-Pling Thai Restaurant, what a name.
From the outside, you can see that its really nothing special. But once you step into it, you will be surprised by its cosy atmosphere.

I have had quite a few cups of lemongrass tea since Day 1 & still didn't bother to change my preference. Authentic Thai food was served here. The first dish was this unbelievably spicy petai (below), I was almost choked by its spiciness. I have to surrender eventhough I am a chilli lover.

Following that, we were served by this Thai soup & stir-fry cabbage.

Crispy soft shell crab. Good to go with rice.

Authentic Thai lady fingers with curry. My taste buds were numbed instantly. @_@

This delightful lunch was completed by Steam Thai rice, it's Steam, not electrically cooked. It was steamed on the banana leaf & served fresh. It took so much effort to just cook this rice so I told myself that I shall not waste their effort. I asked for 2-3 times refill & it went well with all the dishes shown here.

My stomach was as round as a ball at the end of the meal. I joyfully snapped this picture of its signboard just in case, I want to visit here again.

Incredible Baked Cauliflower & Broccoli Cannelloni

We like vegetables. All kinds of vege from red to green. It's not only for health reasons that we eat more now, but for the indulgence. Eating vegetables can be fun, if you cook them with your heart. ^_*.

So today, we had Cannelloni with vege (broccoli & cauliflower), so fantastic that I can't forget it's richness in taste. This can be served as a dish for those who dislike vege, to change their bias towards vege.

Wanna try some?

Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Ingredients (serves 3)
1) 340 g broccoli, chopped
2) 340 g cauliflower, chopped
3) Olive oil
4) 5 cloves garlic
5) 1 small bunch thyme, leaves picked
6) 4 anchovies fillets
7) Dried chilli flakes
8) Black pepper
9) 1 can (425 g) tomato sauce
10) Balsamic vinegar
11) 1.5 cups crème fraiche
12) 100 g Parmesan, grated
13) 12 cannelloni tubes
14) 1 small bunch basil leaves, torn
15) 100 g mozzarella cheese
16) Extra-virgin olive oil
17) 3 large handfuls rocket leaves
18) Apple cider vinegar (may substitute with balsamic vinegar)

Steps
1) Boil large saucepan of salted water. Drop in broccoli & cauliflower for 5 min until cooked. Drain in colander, reserve cooking water.
2) Fry garlic in some oil in saucepan. Add thyme leaves, anchovies, anchovy oil & some chilli flakes.
3) Stir in cooked broccoli, cauliflower & 4 tbsp reserved cooking water.
4) Put lid on pan with a small gap, cook slowly for 15 min, stirring regularly. Remove lid during last 5 min to let water evaporate.
5) Take off heat. Use potato masher to crush vegetables.
6) Season with pepper. Leave mixture to cool.
7) Preheat oven to 200 °C.
8) Get a baking dish wide enough for cannelloni tubes to lay side by side. Pour in tomato sauce with some salt & some red wine vinegar.
9) Mix crème fraiche with 1/2 the Parmesan, some pepper, & some reserved cooking water to thin down the mixture to a cream.
10) Use a ziplock bag with a cut corner to squeeze cooled broccoli & cauliflower mixture into cannelloni tubes. Fill the tubes up liberally.
11) Place tubes in a single layer on top of the sauce in the baking dish.
12) Lay basil leaves over cannelloni, spoon white sauce evenly over the top. Ensure that cannelloni tubes are submerged either in tomato sauce or white sauce.
13) Season with black pepper, sprinkle over remaining Parmesan, & tear over mozzarella.
14) Bake for 30-40 min, or until golden & bubbling on top. If cheese is not golden when done, leave in the oven at 250 °C for a few more minutes. Watch it until golden.
15) Dress rockets with apple cider vinegar & about 3 times as much EVOO.
16) Serve cannelloni with rockets.

We used 2 small baking wares as the cannelloni tubes were quite big.

Wordless - Pattaya Cze Char

Steam Fish with Gan Lan Cai & Fermented Bean

Steam Fish with Gan Lan Cai & Fermented Bean , cooked by my mum-in-law.

I was having a bit of sore throat & cough before leaving Bangkok, so my mum-in-law cooked this for us instead of going out to eat again. It was typically her method of steaming fish, just that I had not been eating this for a long time. I finished 2 bowls of rice, but not for CY or his brother. Well, but I still think it's nicely done.

Recipe (Courtesy from mum-in-law)

2 pieces of Batang fish
4 slices of ginger to put at the bottom of the plate
finely sliced ginger
1/2 tsp fermented bean
2 tb Gan Lan Cai (橄榄菜)

Method

1. Prepare the plate with 4 slices of ginger at the bottom
2. Wash the fish, season with fermented bean
3. Cover the fish with finely sliced ginger & Gan Lan Cai
4. Steam for 10 mins or till cooked.

What is Gan Lan Cai?

Gan Lan Cai is Kale or Gai Lan cooked in olive oil with salt till fragrant, then packed in cans or bottles for sale. It's originated from China, typically from southern part of China by Teo Chew or Cantonese.

Attached is what it is looked like when in supermarkets.

Dusit Thani Pattaya, where the beach meets the bay

CY's parent highly recommended this hotel when we stayed in Bangkok. So we took a 2-hour drive to Pattaya, checked in to this hotel & have a nice 3-day holiday in Pattaya.

"Where the beach meets the bay", I read the magazine brought along & this photo showed up, exactly the same place, same floor where we were in then! What a coincidence! So I took this picture with CY holding the magazine.


As a kampong girl, I don't always stay in these hotels. I was truly amazed by its monumental architecture (above).
The sunset was quite memorable too.

Done with the surrounding, now come to the main point - FOOD. We had our breakfast shown below, nice spread of food to choose from.

We had our lunch in the hotel too. Taco, Fried Kwey Teow, Red wine beef with mashed pumpkin & Tuna with rice.

Look how seductive the tuna was. But unfortunately, CY's bro had stomachache after eating it. But the rest of us were OK. So next time even if it's a five-star hotel, be careful when choosing things that go into your mouth.

Fortunately, this trip was not spoilt by this dish.

We continued our plan as usual the next day.

Bangkok Baiyoke Hotel Buffet

First day of Chinese New Year, we went to the highest point of Bangkok to enjoy this unusual CNY Dinner. The best part of this buffet was this guy standing beside me doing stunt with his pan, the end result shown below:

Pancake with mixed fruit & ice cream. Taste wise, quite good.

But from time to time, I was a bit scared that the flame was a little too close to me though. Luckily I didn't get a FOC hair-perm over CNY.

Not that lucky.

This was typical Thai food, Fried Kwey Teow. It was no big deal. Still kind of miss the tom yum gong kick!

Some seafood & salad here, quite fresh.

Steak with red wine. Hmm... ok lar.

This drunken clams were similar to Chinese style, just that white wine was used instead of Chinese rice wine. I had 2 bowls of them. Cheers~!

Another plate of them, can't get enough of seafood!

This was a big disappointment. I thought that it was REAL foie-gra but it wasn't. Can't imagine that they mixed it with some bread & ham. Headache!

Nice view from 72nd floor overlooking the Bangkok city. Not bad huh?

Overall, reasonably aroi (delicious). May be my standard has dropped since I was a bit over the top! Hehe...

CNY Reunion Dinner @ Fuji Restaurant BKK