Authentic, inspiring, home-cooked Israeli dinner for Sabbath

Today is Israel's Independence Day and an opportune time for me to share these pictures with you. Eli, my classmate from the culinary school, invited us over for an Israeli dinner and educated us on some of the Jewish Sabbath practices. See my last post on Eli when he gave us a basic introduction to Middle Eastern cuisine. The last time, I also shared Eli's chocolate cake recipe. I really do like that recipe - it's my go-to recipe for choc cakes now.

I arrived early to help Eli with some prep work and to take pictures before the dinner proper began so I wouldn't appear rude to the other guests as well. I have to be discreet about being a culinary paparazzi at the dinner table!

We were greeted by the aroma of these beautiful Callah bread, traditionally baked every Friday in time for Sabbath. Under Jewish practices, milk is not a permitted ingredient if you are baking Callah for Sabbath. It's unethical to serve lamb and milk at the same table, according to Eli's grandfather.

Look at Eli's overloaded fridge, the mark of a real home cook. This is only half of his fridge.

Beautifully roasted assorted peppers. Sweet on their own when caramelized and added so much colour to the table.

Aubergines roasted and burnt directly over open stove fire....

...resulting in this smoky, oaky, flavourful eggplant dip.

Humuus, a traditional Middle Eastern dip, with good quality EVOO, toasted pine nuts and torn parsley.

Of course, there's freshly baked pita bread at every Sabbath.

Eli and his baking stone lugged from Tel Aviv.

Green and brown olives from Damascus.

Cucumber yoghurt dip.

Beets, another powerful anti-oxidant.

Hyssop, or Za'ata, one of my past Word of the Week.

Pickled cucumber from Tel Aviv.

Ah, the Israeli sambal, I forget the actual name. So cute that he would use a Chinese bowl. So Eli.

Spread on pita dough before baking.

It was such a lovely evening getting to know and experience another cuisine, another culture, and to experience Sabbath over some good wine with new buddies from Israel, Morocco, France and Vladivostok.

Taste Tradition - Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Cabbage a.k.a. Mui Choy

OK, so I think I got some momentum on this now and managed today to capture a third post on traditional Chinese recipes from mom. 

Have you seen or eaten Mui Choy/Mei Cai/Preserved Mustard Cabbage before? It looks like this after soaking for 2-3 hours.

So here's what I managed to download from mom's head. She learned to cook this as a teenager - mind you, we're talking about somewhere around the 1950s. 

Ingredients:

500g Pork Belly (wash it in hot boiling water on the stove for 15 min - see pic below)

300g Mui Choy/Preserved Mustard Cabbage (soak for 2-3 hours)

6 Garlic, minced

Rice Vinegar, 1 Tbsp

Dark Soya Sauce, 1 Tbsp

Sesame Oil, 1/2 Tbsp

Salt and Pepper

Method

1. Soak vegetable for 2-3 hours, then cut into 1/2" thick - see pic.

2. Clean pork belly as above and cut into 1/2" thick - see pic.

3. Heat oil in hot pan, then add minced garlic. 

4. When fragrant and slightly brown, add meat. Stir for 2 minutes.

5. Add seasoning - pinch of salt, pepper, sesame oil, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar.

6. Allow taste to infuse, then add vegetable.

7. Add more dark soya sauce so meat and vegetable are of same colour (optional).

8. Stir for about 10 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

9. Add 2 bowls of water, bring to boil, then allow to simmer till almost dry, then add another 2 bowls of water.

10. Simmer for half an hour, partially covered, till meat is tender.

11. Serve with a bowl of steamed organic brown rice. 

Find yourself a nice wooden bench and enjoy with a pair of chopsticks. As with all Chinese moms, my mom makes enough to last a week. In all honesty, this dish tastes best after a day or two!

Click here to see the first post on Mom's 10-minute whole fish dish and the second on Chap Chye (Chinese Mixed Vegetables).

Speaking of moms, don't forget to wish yours, Happy Mother's Day today!

No-bake cheese cake with strawberry hearts

I made this no-bake cheese cake on Valentine's Day. Strawberry hearts. You can't get more cheesy than this!

Recipe (adapted from Foodista)), method and some photos to share here. You need to do this a day earlier as the cake needs time to chill and form at different layers.

Ingredients


1. For the crust

300g digestive biscuits
150g melted butter

2. For the cheesecake layer

500g cream cheese (softened at room temperature)
1.5 Tbsp gelatin powder
1.25 cup boiling water
2/3 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
12 strawberries

3. For the top jelly layer


160g strawberry flavoured jelly
1.5 cups boiling water
1.5 cups cold water


Here goes:- Break digestive biscuits into fine crumbs, mix with melted butter, stir well to combine and pack mixture tightly into a pan. Chill in the fridge for at least half an hour or until it is hard and tight and not crumbly. You're done with first layer.

To work on second layer, start by mixing gelatin powder and water. Stir well till all gelatin has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

 Mix cream cheese and caster sugar into a mixing bowl and whisk  till mixture is light and fluffy. Add vanilla extract, then add the cooled gelatin mixture gradually. The gelatin mixture should be in liquid form. Whisk well to combine. The finished mixture should be a runny smooth liquid like milkshake. You should be pouring it into the crust rather than scooping it!

Next, remove crust pan from the fridge and prick holes all over biscuit base. Pour cream cheese mixture onto the base. Let it rest for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Mine was a bit harder than milkshake. It should be more runny than this.

Next, cut deep V-shape strawberries and press them into the cream cheese mixture. Cover pan with cling wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

And now for the third layer. Mix strawberry jelly powder into a bowl. Dissolve with hot water, then add cold water and mix well. Ensure the mixture has cooled before pouring it over the cream cheese layer. Pour enough to cover the strawberries.

Look at this very telling picture. I was afraid it may turn out too sweet so I didn't use all the jelly mixture and did not fully cover my strawberries! It's a mistake you must not repeat! This recipe is not too sweet at all.

Chill for at least 4 hours before cutting into individual jelly hearts. You need a sharp knife dipped into a large jar of boiling water to get clean lines of each cake piece. Clean your knife thoroughly after each slice or you get crumbs sticking at the side and strawberry stains on the white cheesecake.

Nom nom, yum yum. I like the taste! Even my mom who doesn't fancy cheese had a piece all to herself! My son's friend came over and gobbled one piece in record seconds and gave me a score of 10/10, LOL.

If you like this post, please . A little Like goes a long way.

Word of the Week: Rempah

Many people, my mom included, believe a good rempah can only be made using mortar and pestle.
A food processor is a strict no-no.

Rempah - I learned this word from a classmate in culinary school during our lesson on Malay cuisine.  Apparently a common term amongst Peranakans (Straits Chinese), Rempah is a Malay word used to describe the spice paste used in many dishes throughout Southeast Asia.

I've never been big on chillies and spicy food but the Chef who specialised in Malay cuisine changed my mind and palate, and I have a much deeper appreciation now for rempah. Here's a typical rempah recipe which I absolutely adore - the die-die-must-try sambal roast chicken. I have tested this dish and received good feedback from family and friends. It's worth every calorie count! See if this picture helps to entice you to try it.

And in view of the coming holidays, let me end on this note. The Little Drummer Boy knew something about rempah that others didn't. Hear ye, hear ye!

Come, they told me, pa-rempah-pum-pum
A new born King to see, pa-rempah-pum-pum
Our finest gifts we bring, pa-rempah-pum-pum
To lay before the King, pa-rempah-pum-pum
Rempah-pum-pum, Rempah-pum-pum
So to honour Him, pa-Rempah-pum-pum
When we come.

Dal Makhani cooked in Chinese home with Dutch oven

My Dal Makhani that smells and looks more like baked beans for Western breakfast

I learned this dish in at-Sunrice culinary school from an Indian chef. Click here to see how he taught us. It's called Dal Makhani meaning lentils stewed with butter and tomato. The cooking method and process is simple and straightforward but the preparation for the ingredients was something else. You can see from the recipe here that there are almost 20 ingredients in this dal. Especially for someone like me in a Chinese home where such ingredients are not common, I procrastinated on this dish just thinking of the massive mise en place needed. Until today.

What you see here are just half of the ingredients needed!
Clockwise from top left: Kidney beans, bay leaf, channa, urad, cumin,
Kashmiri chilli powder (more for colour than kick), tomato paste, ghee
(which I didn't use in the end), cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamon, fenugreek 

The beans are soaked overnight and boiled for a good 2 hours.
My beans were soft but not disintegrated enough.
They smelled good during the boil.

I used my Dutch oven and I tried to do a step-by-step photography and my camera almost ended up in the stew. It almost became Dal MaCanon! 

The beans are still very much in its individual state. Maybe this may look more like authentic dal tomorrow
when I reheat it. The taste is not too bad, except I may have used a little too much tomato paste and it smelled like oxtail stew and looked like baked beans.

I think garnishing is particularly important in Indian cuisine where everything tastes great when they're all mashed together. Here, I pick some fresh basil from my garden.

Need another attempt on this dish and I should be ready for Diwali. Meanwhile, read this on the numerous benefits of Indian herbs and spices and see if you'll be more tempted to try this recipe.

A die-die-must-try recipe: Sambal Roasted Chicken

Sambal Roasted Chicken: already half-cooked using dry, direct heat and now
second half to be roasted in the oven for half an hour at 180C. 

Lesson on dry heat continues today with Malay cuisine. Today's 2 dishes are Sambal Roasted Chicken and Sambal Ayam Bunga Kantan (Spicy Chicken with Ginger Flower). I wasn't super thrilled hearing the recipe and dragged my feet on preparing the mise en place but when the sambal (spice paste) started simmering in the pot, it had my full, undivided attention. The aroma filled the entire school! Our class of 15 agreed unanimously this is by far the best recipe we have tasted since joining this course, and I strongly recommend for you to try it. It's worth your every calorie count.

Here are pictures of most of the ingredients we used.

Galangal, also known as blue ginger or lengkuas.
It's stronger than ginger.

Candlenut or Buah Keras. Looks like macademia. It has no
flavour and is used as a natural thickening agent.

Kaffir lime leaves, also commonly found in Thai cuisine

Dried chilli. Soak in water and boil to soften.

Fresh red chilli

Fresh Garlic

Belachan or dried shrimp paste. Pungent and very salty but will add another layer of flavor to your food.
1 tsp for every 300g chicken

Fresh Shallots

Coriander seeds. We pounded this on the mortar to get coriander powder. I strongly recommend that you buy the powder!

Gula melaka or palm sugar, ie, hard sugar from coconut palm.
Good ingredient to add if your paste gets too salty.

Ginger flower or bunga kantan, also used in local rojak and laksa.
Slice diagonally and thinly. 

Turmeric powder

Top tips for a good spice paste in Malay cuisine from Chef:

1. You must have enough oil to cover all the paste when in pot. This is important in Malay cuisine. Don't be afraid of using too much oil!

2. Heat must be medium to low so as not to burn the paste.

3. Don't stir too often. Stir and let rest. The paste needs time to simmer and release the oil for aroma and taste.

4. Every part of the paste must be sizzling.

Paste is all covered in oil. 

There is a shine in the paste, meaning, oil is released. A good sign.

Don't be afraid to see oil. It gives out good aroma and flavour. " Fat gives flavour, " Julia Child.

I abandoned all notions of healthy eating for this culinary adventure.

It's worth every calorie count.

When half done, we popped it in the oven to roast for another half hour at 180C. It should look somewhat charred and "dried up" after 30 minutes.

It was supposed to be food tasting but there was nothing left after 10 minutes. The class loved this dish!

Moist inside.

I tried to plate it while others were attacking the food savagely.
On the left is sambal roast chicken, right is spicy chicken with ginger flower.

So finally, here's the recipe for both dishes. Perfect for Hari Raya next week. Ingredients are similar but the taste is distinctly different and yummilicious!

A. Sambal Roast Chicken

Ingredient:

One whole chicken cut into half. Use kampung or free range chicken.

2 inches galangal slices

4 lime leaves

2 stalks lemongrass, bruised

200ml coconut milk (or santan)

3-6 Tbsp cooking oil

1 Tbsp gula melaka or palm sugar

1.5tsp salt

Spice paste:

8 dried red chillies, seeded and soaked to soften

6 shallots

3 garlic cloves

1.5 inch ginger

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin 

Method:

1. Roast coriander and cumin to release oil and aroma.

2. Pound all spice paste ingredients together to a fine paste. Set aside.

3. Heat oil in pan. Stir-fry spice paste until fragrant, about 10 min. 

4. Add coconut milk, lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal, salt and gula melaka. Stir well. Add chicken and cook for about 15-20 min over simmering heat, turning a few times until it's half-cooked. (Skin will blister and separate from meat).

5. Preheat oven to 180C

6. Transfer chicken to a roasting pan and pour sauce over it.

7. Roast for 30 min or until browned. Ready to serve.

B. Spicy Chicken with Ginger Flower (Sambal Ayam Bunga Kantan)

Ingredients:

600g boneless chicken legs cut into bite-sized pieces

10 shallots thinly sliced

8 dried chillis soaked in warm water, seeded

6 fresh chilli

8 garlic cloves

5 candlenut

5 lime leaves

4-6 Tbsp cooking oil

2 Tbsp water

2 tsp belachan (dried shrimp paste)

2 stalks ginger flower, thinly sliced

0.5 tsp turmeric powder

0.5 cup tamarind juice (or assam) - for colour, taste and texture. 

0.5 tsp coriander powder

Method:

1. Pound candlenut, chilli, shallots, red onion and shrimp paste in a mortar to fine paste

2. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat, stirring regularly so as not to burn, and until fragrant. Add tamarind juice to fluff up the paste

3. Add chicken and lime leaves. Continue cooking, stirring regularly until chicken is done, about 10 mins. Season with salt and sugar to taste. Lastly, add the sliced ginger flower, cook for 5 mins.

4. Transfer to serving plate. Serve with steamed rice.

Enjoy and Selamat Hari Raya Adilfitri!