Dry Fried Beef

I am in Malaysia with friends and doing some food research. Thought I'd post this recipe from 54 to keep you going until I get back. Enjoy

Summer has arrived again and it's too hot to make much effort in the kitchen so I am re-publishing the easiest meal which is delicious either hot or cold

You'll need
4 dessertspoons of sweet chili sauce
some soy sauce
4 salmon steaks (1 per person) skin on or off doesn't matter
pre-hearted oven 200c

Brush both sides of salmon steaks with sweet chili sauce

Place in ovenproof dish and shake over a few dashes of soy sauce

Bake for about 10mins - Cook bit less for very pink and bit more for well done

Serve with salad either warm or cold.

Any leftovers can be flaked and mixed with some good mayonnaise for light snack

Now that's easy!

Chive and Garlic Dip

Friends Iskandar, Nicole and Shein came for dinner and I thought I'd treat them to English roast chicken,  stuffing and roast potaotes followed by lemon drizzle cake. For pre-dinner drinks I made some dips.

Here is the recipe for the chive and garlic dip.

Fast to make a much better than you will ever buy.

100gr cream cheese

50gr yogurt

1 to 2 cloves garlic

salt - about 1/2 teaspoon

white pepper - few twists
chives - about 1 handful finely chopped



METHOD

Peel and crush the garlic, mix with salt and leave for few mitues. The salt will macerate the garlic and instensify the flavour.

beat the cream chees and yogurt together
stir it into the garlic
stir in the chives
check seasoning

Tip - you can use full fat cheese and yogurt or low-fat if you are counting calories
Tip - this is a basic dip mixture to which you can almost anything

Smith of Smithfields Topfloor

Back with John Torode

 for a few weeks at Smiths Topfloor

before my next food pilgrimage to Malaysia!

Coriander Salad Dressing

I am republishing this recipe. It was a big success when I first posted it on 54's website. It is the easiest dressing to make and gives a great Asian flavour. It's a good dressing to use for rice salad too.

5 minute Coriander dressing

Takes less than 5 minutes to make

Make in a screw-top jar – an old jam jar is perfect

Ingredients

• 60mls (1/4 cup – about 2 large limes) fresh lime juice
• 4 to 8 tablespoons oil - you can use light olive oil if preferred
• chopped fresh coriander – to taste – probably about 2 tablespoons
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp sambal oelek * see below
• About ½ inch of fresh ginger peeled and grated (don’t use dry powder - you can get packs of frozen ginger cubes which are very handy otherwise leave it out)
• Pinch of sugar and pinch of salt to taste

Combine the lime juice, oil, coriander, sesame oil, *sambal oelek, ginger, sugar and salt in a screw-top jar. Shake until well combined.

*you can get sambal olek is some Asian supermarkets. If you really can’t find it then pound some chili sauce and a couple of anchovies together.

Tip – in Asia acidity is obtained from limes, not lemons or vinegar, so always use lime juice in your dressing. Fresh is best but bottled is fine too.

Tip – lime juice is like salt - it can be added but not removed so use less rather than more – taste – then add more if needed.

Malay Classical Dance

For those who missed the fantastic dance at Drapers Hall by Shein and Azainin there will be a viedo of the whole performance posted on uTube very soon and we'llpost a llink here as well as on Facebook

The Classical Dance performance was followed by a Gala Malaysian dinner. Azanin will be returning to Malaysia soon to her fabulous dance garden that is the centre of Malay Classical Dance in Malaysia

to have a peek click here  http://azanin.net/lamantari/about.html

Simple Asian flavour coleslaw

Warning! You’ll never buy the ready made again and you'll save yourself a lot of money!

The trick is keep it simple. Forget the carrots and red cabbage. Just use white cabbage and red onions.

You'll need a sharp knife, chopping board, bowl of iced water, white cabbage, red onion, mayonnaise, curry paste (preferably Malaysian but Indian will be fine), salt & pepper.

Finely slice the onion and drop into iced water for 5 to 10 minutes (bit longer if you have time). This takes the sting out of the onion and makes it incredibly crunchy. Pat dry with kitchen paper.

finely slice the white cabbage


Next step is to add the spice paste to the mayonnaise, stir thoroughly and mix with cabbage and red onion and there you have it. Wholesome delicious coleslaw with a difference.

QUANTITIES - sometimes you'll make for this just a couple of people and another time you'll make it for a a party so think 'ratio' rather than measurements.
Ratio red onion to white cabbage is just under a quarter so 100gr cabbage to 20gr red onion
Ratio spice paste to mayonnaise - about 1 dessert spoon paste to about 5 dessertspoons of mayonnaise. Some spice pastes are hotter than others and it depends on how spicy you want it.

TIP add small amounts of paste to mayonnaise because like salt, you can add more but you can't take it out.

TIP if you want to make the dressing lighter replace some mayonnaise with yogurt or low fat cheese

TIP any type of onion left in iced water for 10 mintues or so will have less sting and become very crunchy

Think courgette is boring? Think again!

Last week, on a wet and windy day, a group of us went bowling in Brick Lane. I met up with my old colleague Marco Schnepf and as chefs always do we got to talking about food. The subject of courgette came up and Marco gave me tip to turn them into something unusual, simple to prepare and guaranteed that everyone would like them and probably most wouldn’t guess what they were.

I tried it and it’s true. Simple, quick and surpisingly good. Thanks Marco!

You need 2/3 courgette, soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil and frying pan or wok

Rinse and pat dry 2/3 medium courgette.Top and tail them.

Or slice finely in long strips or ribbons – potato peeler is great for this

Get frying pan very hot. Have ready soy sauce, oyster sauce and splash of oil.

Splash some oil into pan. As soon as oil is smoking drop in the courgette, stir for a second or two then add splash of soy and a dollop of oyster sauce (about desert spoon)

Stir another few seconds then tip into warm bowl and serve.

You could cut the courgette into chunks if you prefer and cook for a bit longer.

Cut into julienne or matchsticks – either by knife or by julienne slicer

Nina's cumin oil for salad dressing

I was at my friend Nina’s the other day for dinner and she made the most delicious salad dressing and is the easiest thing to make. Put olive oil into a pan (about 1 cup) and when hot drop in a dessert spoon or so of cumin seed. As soon as the seeds start popping take the pan off the heat to cool. Once cold trickle over salad. You can pass through a seive to remove the seeds if you prefer.

Malaysian Weaves

Your last chance today to see the beautiful collection of Royal Malay fabrics woven painstakingly by hand

Lemongrass tea made easy

Bunga Kantan - Flower of the Torch Ginger or Galangal plant

pandan

When you pass Asian shops, see green cakes and desserts and wonder ‘what chemical made them green?’– think again. The colour is natural and comes from pandan leaves.

Pandan (screwpine pandanus) grows profusely in tropical areas of Asia. The leaves have a sweetish unique flavor integral to Malaysian cooking. The plant has long green leaves which release their aroma when broken or crushed.

You can buy the leaves in most large Asian supermarkets. Fresh is best but you can get frozen as well. It’s available in paste form (very intense and lasts ages so use sparingly) though it’s easy to make your own. Simply cut the leaves into about 1 inch lengths, pack into a saucepan, just cover with water (as little as possible) and simmer until the leaves have turned to pulp and the water evaporated. Then whizz in a processor. Keep in the fridge.

One very good and simple use of pandan is to take a couple of leaves, line them up then tie into a knot. Drop into a saucepan of rice which you are about to cook to add a beautiful delicate aromatic flavor to the rice.

Handy tip Not only edilble pandan has excellent de-odourising properties. Simply leave a few leaves in the fridge, or place under a foot carpet in the car or leave in the boot and you’ll always have a fresh smell. Replace every couple of weeks.

cup cakes - chocolate with pandan topping

These delightful cupcakes are easy to make and have the Asian twist of pandan flavoured topping. Don't know what pandan is? Have a look and by the way most large Chinese or Vietnamese stores sell it.


For this recipe you'll need

Malaysian cooking demo at Selfridges

 

Fabulous Cakes