Made this the same day as the egg tarts. So, I was practically in the kitchen the whole day. Not complaining really. I find it therapeutic actually, to be able to potter around the kitchen doing something I enjoy. But what is also important is the end result of all these bustling: delicious and appetizing looking food that my family and I can enjoy. Never mind the heat that cooking always generate. I know I am being fickle minded here, what with all the complaining about being impatient with sweating over an exceedingly enthusiastic wok in the last two posts. But this is the sort of love-hate relationship with cooking I always have. On good days, cooking generates a warm cozy feeling, especially when the kids and the hubby shower me with "Mummy! Yummy!" On bad ones, this activity is relegated to one of those pesky tasks that I have to perform everyday, just worse than the rest because it made me smell like a hawker center. I have nothing against hawker centers. It is just how I associate the smell. On this particular day, the heat took on constructive symbolism. I saw it as a way of prepping the body (read as working off some fats) before I pile on more fats from eating ^_^ And I know too that I am being contradictory. Why am I alternating between a therapeutic pottering and seemingly hassled bustling? That's just how I am. All my kitchen activities always started with a relaxed and rhythmic potter but will inevitably accelerate unknowingly into a whirl-wind bustle. But at least, I take pride in knowing that efficiency is achieved.
Don't be taken in by the picture. It is not a one dish meal. In fact, this is an assembly of three different dishes. The first is of course pumpkin pilaf. This recipe has been lying around on my study desk for ages! Why didn't I make this earlier? It's the spices involved. I can't imagine having bits and pieces of spices in every morsel of rice I would be putting into my mouth. I thought it would taste horrible if I were to bite into one. No, I've never eaten biryani before. Sad to say, I am not that adventurous when it comes to eating out. I'll usually go for those familiar few like dried teochew fishball meepok, kuay tiao soup, fish soup and the most exotic that I would bother to venture, satay beehoon. Yes, I am that boring. Anyway, digress, digress.
Back to the pilaf. So what triggered the interest to make this? I have a bottle of mixed spice hanging around in my pantry waiting to be used up as soon as possible. I can't remember when and why I bought that bottle of mixed spice. Perhaps it was to make meatballs that will be paired with store bought Napoletana sauce and spaghetti, or was it for that spice and honey cake recipe that I wanted to try? Whatever it was, it's got to be used, and the sooner, the better. The spices in the pilaf recipe can be found in my bottle of mixed spice. That saved me the trouble of gathering and assembling the odds and ends of flavoring. And I reckoned if I love the taste of five-spice powder in steamed yam cakes, ground mixed spice in pilaf should be acceptable to my tongue.
Pumpkin pilaf
(Adapted from a recipe published in a magazine titled Young Families, can't remember which issue)
* The original recipe has 600g diced boneless chicken meat. Since I paired this pilaf with seafood grill, I omitted the meat totally. The spice used in the original recipe are 3 crushed cardamon pods, 3 cloves, 2 tsp cumin, ½ tsp cinnamon powder. I replaced all these with 1 tsp of mixed spice.
Ingredients
300g pumpkin, diced into small cubes
2 medium onions, diced (I used shallots, sliced)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp mixed spice
salt & pepper to taste
1 handful sliced almonds, toasted
1 handful raisins
small bunch of coriander, for garnish
1.5 cups rice, washed and drained
300ml water
2 tbsp oil
Method
1. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in wok and sauté garlic and shallots until fragrant.
2. Add the pumpkin and mixed spice and sauté for one minute.
3. Add the rice and sauté for another minute.
4. Add raisins, salt and pepper and toss to distribute raisins as evenly as possible.
5. Transfer rice mixture to rice cooker, pour in water and cook like normal rice.
6. Can be served hot, but would taste better if rested for about 1-2 hours.
7. Sprinkle some toasted almond slices and coriander when serving.
Seafood grill
Recently I borrowed this book called "asianbarbecue" because it was filled with pictures of succulently grilled food that I can prepare using my stovetop grill pan! About three years ago, I bought this stovetop grill pan, kind of on impulse, with some wondrous imagination that I could cook up some delicious grilled dishes. Well, truth is, I never quite did. As said, it was bought on impulse. I was on a crossroad in my life at that time, deciding to quit and stay at home for the kids, or move on to another field. And the act of consolation (perhaps it was more of an act of distraction) that I had done was to buy myself some cooking utensils. Having found this book, the grill pan can finally see daylight and will no longer be shoved into a dark corner of my kitchen cabinet.
I had some scallops left over from a steamboat session I made for the family and my parents. Naturally, I chose a recipe involving scallops. As if by chance, there was one that says "Garlic and red peppers scallops" in which one of the ingredients is five-spice powder! That would have resonance with the pumpkin pilaf. The amount of scallops I had on hand was small, so I added 3 pieces of sutchi fillets.
Garlic and red peppers scallops (and some sutchi fillets too)
(adapted from "asianbarbecue" by Vicki Liley)
Pumpkin pilaf
(Adapted from a recipe published in a magazine titled Young Families, can't remember which issue)
* The original recipe has 600g diced boneless chicken meat. Since I paired this pilaf with seafood grill, I omitted the meat totally. The spice used in the original recipe are 3 crushed cardamon pods, 3 cloves, 2 tsp cumin, ½ tsp cinnamon powder. I replaced all these with 1 tsp of mixed spice.
300g pumpkin, diced into small cubes
2 medium onions, diced (I used shallots, sliced)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tsp mixed spice
salt & pepper to taste
1 handful sliced almonds, toasted
1 handful raisins
small bunch of coriander, for garnish
1.5 cups rice, washed and drained
300ml water
2 tbsp oil
Method
1. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in wok and sauté garlic and shallots until fragrant.
2. Add the pumpkin and mixed spice and sauté for one minute.
3. Add the rice and sauté for another minute.
4. Add raisins, salt and pepper and toss to distribute raisins as evenly as possible.
5. Transfer rice mixture to rice cooker, pour in water and cook like normal rice.
6. Can be served hot, but would taste better if rested for about 1-2 hours.
7. Sprinkle some toasted almond slices and coriander when serving.
Seafood grill
Recently I borrowed this book called "asianbarbecue" because it was filled with pictures of succulently grilled food that I can prepare using my stovetop grill pan! About three years ago, I bought this stovetop grill pan, kind of on impulse, with some wondrous imagination that I could cook up some delicious grilled dishes. Well, truth is, I never quite did. As said, it was bought on impulse. I was on a crossroad in my life at that time, deciding to quit and stay at home for the kids, or move on to another field. And the act of consolation (perhaps it was more of an act of distraction) that I had done was to buy myself some cooking utensils. Having found this book, the grill pan can finally see daylight and will no longer be shoved into a dark corner of my kitchen cabinet.
I had some scallops left over from a steamboat session I made for the family and my parents. Naturally, I chose a recipe involving scallops. As if by chance, there was one that says "Garlic and red peppers scallops" in which one of the ingredients is five-spice powder! That would have resonance with the pumpkin pilaf. The amount of scallops I had on hand was small, so I added 3 pieces of sutchi fillets.
Garlic and red peppers scallops (and some sutchi fillets too)
(adapted from "asianbarbecue" by Vicki Liley)
Method
1. Place scallops in a shallow nonmetallic dish. Combine garlic, chili pepper, five spice powder, ginger, soy sauce and rice wine, pour over scallops. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Drain scallops, reserve the marinating liquid to make into sauce.
3. Preheat stovetop grill pan, brush grill with oil. Grill scallops until their translucent flesh turns white, 2-3 mins, turning during cooking. Remove from grill.
4. Place the reserved marinade into a saucepan, add the water and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 1 minute.
5. To serve, drizzle sauce over scallop.
** Sutchi cooks pretty quickly, so about 5 minutes on each side will be sufficient. Method of cooking is the same as scallops.
Quick broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage stir-fry
This vegetable side dish is almost a no-brainer. Basically, I had some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage left over from previous dishes. They are not quite enough to make up a dish each on their own, so all of them are thus tossed together harmoniously to be make up our fibrous intake for the night's dinner.
Cut out the cauliflower and broccoli florets, and tear up the cabbage into bite size. Blanch the vegetables in some salted water for about 1 minute and strain. In a wok, heat up 1 tbsp of oil and quickly stir-fry the blanched vegetables for about 1 minute, this will retain the color and crunch. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
When serving, simply assemble all three dishes together onto a large plate. Drizzle the sauce over the seafood grill, loosely sprinkle toasted almonds slices over the pumpkin pilaf, casually color the pumpkin pilaf with some fresh green coriander and the only thing left to do would be tuck in hungrily!
1. Place scallops in a shallow nonmetallic dish. Combine garlic, chili pepper, five spice powder, ginger, soy sauce and rice wine, pour over scallops. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Drain scallops, reserve the marinating liquid to make into sauce.
3. Preheat stovetop grill pan, brush grill with oil. Grill scallops until their translucent flesh turns white, 2-3 mins, turning during cooking. Remove from grill.
4. Place the reserved marinade into a saucepan, add the water and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 1 minute.
5. To serve, drizzle sauce over scallop.
** Sutchi cooks pretty quickly, so about 5 minutes on each side will be sufficient. Method of cooking is the same as scallops.
Quick broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage stir-fry
This vegetable side dish is almost a no-brainer. Basically, I had some broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage left over from previous dishes. They are not quite enough to make up a dish each on their own, so all of them are thus tossed together harmoniously to be make up our fibrous intake for the night's dinner.
Cut out the cauliflower and broccoli florets, and tear up the cabbage into bite size. Blanch the vegetables in some salted water for about 1 minute and strain. In a wok, heat up 1 tbsp of oil and quickly stir-fry the blanched vegetables for about 1 minute, this will retain the color and crunch. Lightly season with salt and pepper.
When serving, simply assemble all three dishes together onto a large plate. Drizzle the sauce over the seafood grill, loosely sprinkle toasted almonds slices over the pumpkin pilaf, casually color the pumpkin pilaf with some fresh green coriander and the only thing left to do would be tuck in hungrily!
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