Mee Siam

Spice paste for both noodles and gravy

3 large onions (or for medium size onions, use about 6)

6 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoon dried shrimps

2cm belachan

20 stalks of dried chilli, soaked 

1/2 cup water

Blend the spice paste in a blender and use 1/3 of the paste for frying the vermicelli

Noodles

1 pack of vermicelli, soaked 

1/3 spice paste

2 tablespoons taucho, washed & pounded slightly

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt to taste

1/4 cup chopped chives

Sauté 1/3 of the spice paste in oil until fragrant. Add the pounded taucho, water, sugar and stir the vermicelli well  and dried . Add the chopped chives and salt to taste. Set aside 

Gravy

2/3 spice paste 

1/2 cup taucho, washed and pounded 

1/4 cup roasted peanuts, pounded coarsely or blitzed in the blender for a short bit

1/4 cup tamarind mixed with 1/2 cup water

1/4 cup santan

2 pieces of asam keping (dried tamarind)

1.5 litres water

200g prawns, deshelled and deveined 

1/3 cup sugar or to taste

Salt to taste

Sautee the spice paste in oil until fragrant, add the taucho and the blitzed peanuts and tamarind water. Once you get a nice paste, add water, sugar, dried tamarind and salt. Lastly add prawns. Simmer for about 10 minutes.  

Always add the salt last as different variety of tau cho has different level of saltiness. The taucho here in Jakarta is super salty!! Adjust the sweetness and tanginess you desire as well. I like a good balance of sweetness for my Mee Siam. This is the Malay version of mee siam.. Nonya version uses lashings of coconut milk in the gravy and has a thicker consistency.

Topping

Boiled eggs, sliced

Chopped chives

Fried tofu slices or tau pok slices

Blanched bean sprout

Sliced fish cakes

Lime halves 

Sambal tumis

Sambal Tumis Recipe

2 large onions

A handful of dried chillis, soaked

3 cloves of garlic

A thumb size belachan

A bit of water to blend

A walnut size of asam or tamarind, mixed with water to get the juice 

1.5 tsp of salt (or to taste)

2 tablespoons sugar

Just blend the above items in a blender until smooth. Sauté in about 1 cup of oil and make sure the ingredients are really fragrant and "crispy". Add your salt, sugar and tamarind water. Add a bit more water if preferred but for mee Siam,   a thick sambal is preferred. 

Beef Quiche

I think of all the quiches that I made, this is still the family favourite ...

Pastry dough

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

6 tablespoons iced water

With rubbing in method, add the flour, butter and salt and rub in until you get course grains.... Add the ice water bit by bit until you get the texture you like. Let the dough rest for 5 min. Roll the dough on a floured surface and flip onto your pie dish. Trim the edges and make sure the the dough is nice and smooth 

Poke with a fork and blind-bake them for 25 minutes on 170 degrees. 

Blind baking is to cover the raw pastry with a piece of grease proof paper and top it with beans so that the dough stays nice and flat throughout baking.

300g Minced beef

1 carrot (chopped)

1 onion (chopped) 

1 garlic (chopped)

Salt, black pepper, paprika

Sauté the onions and garlic in oil until fragrant, add the carrots and once a bit softened, pour in the minced beef. Season well with salt, black pepper and paprika.

Pour the minced beef on the pastry.

Quiche sauce

4 eggs (whisked)

355ml milk

(For a richer taste, you can substitute half of the milk with cream or evaporated milk)

Salt, pepper 

Red and white cheddar cheese (grated)

Whisk the eggs, milk and seasonings and pour over the beef mince, sprinkle generously with cheese and bake at 180 degrees for 35 mins or until the quiche is set. Serve with a side salad & dressing! Bon appetit!

Crumpets

I cannot live without salted butter ... And anything that goes with butter... Late last night I craved for crumpets that I had in melbourne... weirdly the ones in England didn't taste half as good so my mind drifted to Melbourne ... lol.. Is that a sign that I should return for the 4th time?? Hmmmmm

So made half the batter before I went to bed and in the morning these luscious looking dough was staring at me 

So the tip is to use egg rings or cutters so you get perfect circles. 

The dough should be thicker than pancake batter... It is like a bread dough after all. Cook on low fire on a griddle (in my case I used my trusty Happy Call) for about 3-5 minutes on the bottom until its golden and the top starts getting holey.

Recipe yields 10 crumpets .. 

All you need to do is mix the batter in a bowl and whisk vigorously with a beater for about 2 minutes. Or if you don't need the workout like I do, use a hand mixer. 

1 3/4 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3/4 cup warm water 

1/2 cup warm milk

1 tablespoon melted butter

That's it... Enjoy your crumpets with butter, jam, marmalade, clotted cream or even syrup!

Basic Bread Recipe

I could never resist bread... I especially love crusty bread fresh out of the oven slathered with lots of salted butter! Yes salted!! Ha ha 

Last night I was feeling peckish and the shops were closed so I had to make my own bread to appease my cravings ! Just 5 ingredients . That's it!

310ml warm water

14g instant dried yeast 

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Mix all of the above in a jug and let it froth for 5-8 minutes.

500g flour (you can use bread flour, wholemeal but I just used plain old flour)

Make a well in the middle of the flour and pour the yeast mixture and slowly incorporate the flour and knead for about 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic. Try not to dust the dough with too much flour but instead dip your hands in flour if it gets sticky. Dust the sides of the bowl and the top of the dough with flour, cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, punch the dough and knead, roll and shape your dough just enough to fit into your baking tin. Cover and let rise for another 30 minutes.

Bake at 190 degrees for 30 minutes or until a hollow sound can be heard when you tap the bread.

Quiche Lorraine (Lazy Version)

Okay everyone loves a good Quiche ... I use Julia Child's quiche sauce but a very lazy version to put everything together. The thing I dread in the morning is to make the short pastry for the base.... especially when you're already starving ! Ohhhhh the wait!!

I'll post the recipe for the short pastry too but in this particular one all I did was layer sliced bread at the base and toast it a little. Remember to butter your pie dish first! Or a casserole dish like I used.

6 sliced bread (I managed to arrange 4 at the base and I cut the rest into strips to cover the sides)

Bake in 170 degree oven for 5 minutes to toast it slightly.

1 onion (chopped)
1 garlic (chopped)
Few rashes of bacon or ham (I used turkey ham)
1 potato (chopped into small cubes)

Sautée the onion and garlic until soft, add the potatoes and ham and season with salt & pepper. Pour over the bread.

I like arranging some sliced tomatoes on top before pouring the sauce, unless I'm making beef quiche. Then ill leave it as it is. Or you can skip it all together. Whatever floats your boat :-)

Quiche Sauce (Julia Childs recipe)

5 eggs
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1/2 tsp salt
Ground pepper
A dash of Nutmeg

Pour the sauce over the ham and then sprinkle with cheese. Whatever you have on hand. Bake at 170 degrees for 30 minutes until the sauce sets and is firm to the touch. Serve with a side of salad.

Short Crust Recipe

2 cups flour
110g butter (chopped into small cubes)
3 tablespoon shortening
1/2 tsp salt
A pinch sugar
5-6 tablespoon cold water

Do the rubbing in method for this. Dry ingredients in a bowl and cut the butter into the dry ingredient to make a coarse crumb.. Then add the water bit by bit until you get a soft pliable dough. Let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes and roll out on your pie dish. Poke with a fork. Blind bake for 5-8 minutes before putting in your quiche ingredients.

Bon Appetit!