Seafood Noodle Soup with Pickled Sour Mustard

This is one of my favorite dish to make whenever I have the craving for something sour and appetizing.
Ingredients:
4-5 calamari, sliced
1 piece fish fillet, sliced
Rice vermicelli noodles, pre-soaked in water
1 piece 2-inch ginger, julliened
1 package pickled sour mustard
3-4 cups chicken broth
1 stalk spring onions, chopped
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced
1-2 Tbsp. tamarind powder (Sinigang)
Method:
1. Rinse the sour mustard greens well and squeezed off excess water. In a frying pan heat some oil and fry it with some ginger until fragrant for about 8-10 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook vermicelli according to package instruction. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat chicken broth with rest of ginger and bring to a boil. Add tomatoes, spring onions and tamarind powder. Season to according to your taste. Bring the soup to a fast boil again and add in the fish and cuttlefish to cook.
4. To serve, add noodles into individual bowls and scoop hot broth along with vegetables and seafood on top. Serve warm.
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Baked Apple Tarte Normande

Tarte Normande is unique of Normandy due to the prolific of apples in that area in the region in France. The tart is made with a sweet crust with thinly sliced applies on top. For an impressive and dramatic touch to the tart, you can flambé with brandy before serving.
Ingredients:
5-6 apples (golden delicous or any tart variety)
2 ozs sugar
4 ozs unsalted butter (softened)
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. brandy
½ tsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. flour
4-5 small cubes of butter
3 oz brandy for flambé (optional)
Crust:
10½ oz all purpose flour
4½ oz sugar
4½ oz unsalted butter, softened
2 medium eggs
Method:
1. Make the pastry by mixing the butter and sugar with a wooden spoon. Add eggs and mix together with your fingertips, followed by flour and mix until the dough is a smooth dough. Wrap dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 45 minutes until dough is firm enough to handle.
2. In a bowl, mix the sugar with all the dry spices. Peel and cored the apples and sliced thinly. Add to a bowl with lemon juice to prevent it from turning brown.
3. Chop 1/3 of the apples into small cubes and cook them down into a compote in a heavy saucepan with softened butter, half of the spiced sugar, vanilla and brandy. Cook over medium heat and stir to mix with the apples. Reduce heat to simmer for about 30 minutes until apples have softened and fragrant. Remove from heat to cool. Add a tsp. of flour to apple mixture.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F. Roll out dough and press to tart pan. Pour compote to the bottom of pan and arrange sliced apples in a rosette. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar evenly on top of apples. Dot top with butter.
5. Bake in oven for about 40 minutes until apples and crust are golden brown. Remove and set aside to cool.
6. Serve with whipped cream or ice-cream if you want it simple or flambé. Tips on how to flambé
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Pork Nuggets in Fragrant Sauce

I love to serve this appetizing dish with its spicy and piquant sauce. The pork are deep fried to a crispy brown golden color and serve with the sauce.
Ingredients:
½ lb pork tenderlion or pork shoulder
2 shallots, chopped
some cornstarch, mixed with water
¾ cup all-purpose flour
Oil for frying
Sauce:
¾ cup good quality black vinegar
2-3 Tbsp. brown sugar (3 if maltose sugar not available)
1 Tbsp. maltose sugar (optional)
¾ cup water
¼ cup Chinese hua diao wine
2 tsp. butter
1 tsp. Dijon or English mustard
Marinade:
2 tsp. light soy sauce
2 tsp. oyster sauce
1 egg
1 tsp. rice vinegar
some constarch, mixed with a little water

Method:
1. Wash meat and pat dry. Cut meat into bite-size cubes and put into a bowl. Mix the marinade ingredients and add to meat to season for at least half an hour.
2. Gently heat sauce ingredients, except the wine in a saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until sugar dissolve and add some constarch to thicken. Season to taste according to your taste. When the sauce has thicken slightly add wine and stir for another minute. Remove and set aside.
3. Heat enough oil in a deep pan for frying. Coat a few pieces of meat in the flour, shaking off excess flour. When oil is hot and sizzling, drop meat carefully into the hot oil. Fry until meat turns golden brown and crispy. Remove and drain on paper towels. Repeat the same with the rest of the meat.
4. In another clean pan, some oil and fry shallots until soft and fragrant. Add in the sauce, followed with fried pork. Thicken with cornstarch mixture if needed and stir-fry briefly.
5. Remove and transfer to plate, sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve immediately.
Cook's Tip: When deep frying, the oil should cover ingredients and oil should be heat in high temperature (190°C/375°F). When adding ingredients to the oil, be sure to use a long chopstick or tong and gently add along the pan or wok side. Do not overcrowd when deep frying.
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Steamed Layered Cake/Kueh Lapis

This steamed layered rice cake is a favorite hawker food in Malaysia and it's one of my favorite. I remembered fondly how I would gingerly peel each layer off and eating it with small bites. I've tried several attempts making this over the years and the cake ended up in the trash. My friends told me that it requires some skills in adjusting the batter mixture and steaming each layers. I am not going to give up without another try at it. I stumbled upon Madam Kwong's recipe and it seems to work. I made some adjustment to the recipe and it turns out quite beautiful--but not quite as perfect to the ones back home.

Ingredients: (adapted from Mdm. Kwong's)
450 gm rice flour

150 gm tapioca flour
3 cups sugar
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
½ tsp. salt
2½ cups water
2 screwpine leaves (pandan)
A 9-inch round pan (greased thinly with cooking oil)
Steamer with rack and lid
food coloring (red, green)
¼ tsp. pandan paste
Method:
1.Combine water, pandan leaves and sugar in a saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Stir until sugar dissolved completely. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Discard the pandan leaves.
2. Mix the the 2 types of flours, salt and coconut together. Beat or mix until the mixture is free from lumps. Then stir in the sugar mixture whisk well to mix. The mixture should not be too thick and runny, but just enough to coat the back of the ladle or spoon. Add and adjust water if necessary to make a total of mixture to measure about 4 cups. Strain through a sieve and allow mixture to sit for about 15 minutes.

3. Divide the mixture into 3 portions: ½ cup for red coloring; 1½ cups for green coloring and a tsp. of pandan paste; 2¼ cups, no coloring
4. Add enough water to the bottom tray of the steamer and bring to a boil. Put the baking pan in the top layer and allow to heat up the pan.
5. Measure ½ cup of the white mixture and pour into the pan and cover lid to steam for 3 minutes. When the first layer begins to thicken and set on top, remove lid and pour in ½ cup of the green layer. Cover lid and steam for 3 minutes. When the third layer begins to thicken and set on top, add ½ cup of mixture with no coloring. Repeat the steps and procedure, alternating green and white mixture until all the batter is used up. The final and the last layer is red.
6. After the final layer is set, steam further for another 15 minutes. Remove the lid and wipe excess moisture and cover again to finish steaming.
7. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely before cutting into squares or diamond-shaped pieces.
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Shaker Lemon Pie

I did some research and found the origin of this pie, it was invented in the early 1800’s by the Shakers. The Shakers are a religious group who believes in pacifism and the simplicity of communal living. They believe in giving up all their worldly goods and take up the cross of celibacy. There was an article about this pie by Sue Hubbell who traveled the country back roads with her dog. Her quest is to search for pies and write about them in her book, "From Here to There and Back Again". Here's an excerpt about this pie:
“The Shakers invented this pie back in the early eighteen-hundreds when they began trading goods they grew or manufactured for the few necessities they couldn’t produce. Lemons, which they considered an important item in a healthy diet, were one of the ‘world’s goods’ they needed. Their lemons came all the way from New Orleans and were so dear that the Shakers believed it a sin to waste any part of them, so they devised a recipe that would use the whole lemon.”
I had this tasty and delightful pie at Camino restaurant in Oakland. It has a nicely baked shell made from buckwheat and the inside is a custard-like filling with thinly sliced whole lemons. I am surprised that the lemon rinds didn’t taste bitter at all; instead it is has a tantalizing sweetness with a note of tartness and almost melts in your mouth. I asked the waitress how they make the lemons tastes so good and they told me the trick is to macerate the lemons with sugar overnight. This process allows the lemons to absorb the flavor and the sugar helps breaks down some of the tartness.

The recipe calls for Meyer lemons because they are less acidic and have a milder and thinner-skin than the regular lemons you find in the supermarkets. The Meyer lemon is a reasonably hardy plant and they do relatively well in California's sunny and warm climate. I enjoyed the pie so much as Camino. I thought I would try making this at home. I wasn't able to get some buckwheat flour, so I just have to settle for the basic crust recipe. If you want a gluten-free crust, substitute the flour with buckwheat instead. Enjoy!

Ingredients: (inspired and adapted from Fannie Farmer Cookbook)
3 large Meyer lemons
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten
1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. melted butter
8-inch pie dish
Dough: (8-inch pie)
2 cups all-purpose flour (or buckwheat)
½ cup shortening
6 Tbsp. ice cold water
½ tsp. salt
some flour for rolling
Method:
1. Wash and scrub lemons thoroughly, dry with paper towels. Slice lemons thinly and discard seeds. Add the slices of lemons in a bowl and add sugar. Gently mix to incorporate the sugar with the lemons, cover and leave to mascerate for at least a day in the refrigerator.
2. After a day's of mascerating, the lemons are now ready. In a bowl, mix together egg, melted butter and flour until mixture is free from lumps. Pour this into the lemon mixture. Combined gently to mix and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 450 °F. In a large mixing bowl, add flour, shortening and salt. Cut shortening with a pastry cutter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add water a litte at a time until mixture begins to stick together. Note: It is ready when dough holds together when pinch with fingers. Add more water if the dough doesn't hold together. Gently knead dough to form into a ball, remove and place on a lightly floured surface.
4. Divide dough into 2 equal portions. Cover and let it sit at room temperature for about 5-8 minutes. Dust rolling pin with some flour and roll dough into 10-inch circle. Carefully place onto a 9-inch pie plate. Trim the extra dough around the pie dish. Pour the lemon-sugar mixture onto the pie dish, spreading out the lemons evenly.
5. Roll out the second dough, as before. Place this over the top of the lemon filling in the pie. Pinch top and bottom of pie rounds firmly to seal around the edges. Flute and decorate the edge of the crusts. Using a fork poke some holes on the top to allow steam from the cooking to escape.
6. Brush pie surface with egg wash, sprinkle some sugar lightly on top. Bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375°F (350° if using glass dish) and bake further for another 25-30 minutes until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and set out to cool completely before serving.
Cooks tips: I left my lemons in the fridge for two days and it's still okay. I took a small teaspoon of the mixture and add some water and ice to it and I have a refreshing lemonade.
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Almond Jelly

Over the weekends, while cleaning in the garage where most of my cooking and blog supplies are stored. In the process of doing that, I found a couple packets of almond flavored agar mix. Agar agar is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweeds. This brought to my mind of the new molds I bought at an antique store.

This is one of the simplest and EASY things to make or should I say a no-brainer dessert. You can serve it with chilled fruit cocktail. I serve mine with some green jelly to resemble grass in the meadows. It would be fun to present it to a fellow who likes cow--might I need to say who?
Ingredients:
1 packet Almond jelly mix (Golden Coins brand is my favorite)
food coloring (if prefer)
1 can fruit cocktail for garnishing
All you need to do is open the box, pour the contents into water. Bring to a boil and pour into rinsed jelly molds. Chill in refrigerator to set and unmold to serve with canned fruits.
Chef's tips: I used a cup less water to get a firmer jelly.

Pasta with Wild Fennel and Sausage

This afternoon, I took a walk down to the creek near my house to pick some wild fennel fronds. Wild fennel are different from the ones you buy at the supermarket or farmer's market, as they do not produce a large edible white bulb and the fronds have a distinctive flavor of anise. Note: Be sure to pick them away from the roadside and in areas that are not expose to traffic, smog, or dogs. For my sanity, I steep the fronds in water mixed with a teaspoon of salt for about 5 minutes and rinse it well.

Ingredients:
½ lb penne rigatoni
A good handful of wild fennel fronds
½ lb fresh Italian sausage (hot or sweet)
4 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
1. Rinse and drain fennel fronds well. Bring a large pot of water to a fast boil with enough water to cover the fennel. Add the fronds and boil for about 10 minutes to remove any insects. Remove and drain into a colander. When cool enough to handle, chop and mince the cooked fennel. Reserve the water to cook the pasta.
2. With a knife slice open the sausage casing and break the meat into small clumps. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and fry garlic and sausage meat over moderate heat. Cook the meat until it is no longer pink and begins to brown on the sides. Break into smaller chunks with a wooden spoon, add fennel greens and stir well to mix with the oil. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.
3. Add a tsp of salt into the strained fennel water and cook pasta according to the instructions on the package. Drain pasta and add it to the pan with the sausage and fennel. Continue to cook over low heat for about 2 minutes to allow the pasta to absorb the flavor of the sauce. Add some pasta water if you prefer more sauce. Serve warm.
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