american food...

as u may or may not know, i'm stuck in US of A right now, somewhere in NY state in a little county callsed Oswego. i really really miss malaysian food, and me mommy's cooking. if somebody reads this, please fedex nasi lemak, rojak & cendol (frm tmn megah), roti telur bawang, teh ais, mee goreng, taufufar, gungfuchao yeemin, wattanhor, charkueyteow, wantanmee and muichoi zhuyoke, pls pls pls pretty pls?

i've been here for 2 weeks now... the food here is, by american cafeteria standards, quite good. but if u are a food loving malaysian like me, u'll most likely be half dead by now.

starting with my fav food, pasta... the pasta's all soggy and overcooked, and they only know how to eat it with 2 kinds of sauces, alfredo and tomato paste... actually, it makes me wonder why they bother with having the sauces since they drown everything with parmesan cheese. trust me, when u eat the pasta here, the only thing u can taste is their horrible, horrible parmesan. oh, and their instant mac and cheese tastes nasty...

they put cheese into everything... but their cheese sucks... my french friends are always complaining abt the cheese... they said that cheese in france is ALIVE, with all the delicious bacteria crawling around, and mold growing on top.... hahhaa... yeah, so i met this girl who tells me she puts cheese into her ramen........ omg, like, who eats ramen like that?!?
i havent tried their ramen before (like our maggi mee), but my roommate chantal is cooking it now and it doesnt smell too bad, in fact, i'm real hungry now... i bought 2 packets d, maybe i'll try tonight.

oh, and their rice... tasteless and textureless... what happenned to the nice smelling jasmine rice we always eat at home? the ones that smells real good the moment u open the rice cooker... i mean, what they eat here, is NOT rice. it was the point when i ate the rice here that i decided that i shd go out and get some pots and pans to start cooking REAL FOOD. and lucky me, i found jasmine rice hiding in one corner of the grain section 3 days ago at price chopper so yay, i can start eating rice soon.

ok, so the rice and pasta are my main complains... the rest of the food is quite ok, the tortillas are not bad really... but stuff like salmon and steak are overcooked so everything's really dry. their vegies are only ever eaten in 2 ways, overcooked stir fry with butter, which only ever features broccolli and carrots... and eaten raw as salad, with the same kind of leafy vege everyday, and only with thousand island sauce. sigh...

oooh, but i like their quiche though, but they've only had it once. 3 diff kinds of baby quiche, seafood, spinach, and smtg else i dont remember. it's really nice though...

i cooked pasta last weekend... bacon and porcini mushroom penne carbonara. was sharing the kitchen with four other latino girls and it was damn crammed. we ended up sharing our food with each other. they made plantains with crispy salami. it was kinda nice... oh, and i gave some pasta to my roommate as well and she loved it... so now i'm supposed to teach her how to cook over the semester.

what else? oh, yeah, i ordered chinese take out from Food Chow City III, this szechuan, hunan & cantonese style place voted as best chinese cuisine restaurant by the readers of the local paper, the Palladium times. it wasnt too bad. by PJ standards it would have been pretty bad but at least it tastes ok enough... so, got my first fortune cookie, and it's still sitting on my table. i dunno why, i dont feel like eating or even opening it.

ok, enuf talking abt food for now, i'm damn hungry now and my dining hall has just opened for dinner so i'm going down for some food. there's seafood on the menu today, i hope it's good. like ppl here dont eat seafood, and they live right by the lake. so weird. there was this cashier at price chopper who wouldnt even touch the packet of clams this guy in front of me was paying for.

oh well, AMERICANS...
crazy, but lovin' it...

PS: i miss curry... and thai food... green curry... i think i'm going nuts thinking abt food...

vodka melon punch!

my mom made a virgin melon punch for a party coz there were kids around. i've tweaked it up a bit for a more adult crowd and it tastes fantastic!

you need...
1 large ripe honeydew
1 extra large punch bowl
melon scoop
blender
3 litres ice-cream soda
1 1/2 cup vodka
1/2 cup cointreau
1/2 cup water

this is how you do it...
cut the honeydew in half, deseed it, and start making little round balls of honeydew with the melon scooper. you can drop the load of honeydew balls straight into the punch bowl. now, dig or cut out the leftover oddly shaped honeydew, cut it into pieces and place it in the blender. add the 1/2 cup water to the blender and process until smooth. pour the honeydew juice into the punch bowl, and wash the sides of the blender with a little more water to get all the juice out. now add in the ice-cream soda, vodka and cointreau. mix well and refrigerate until ready to serve. place a large block of ice in the punch bowl to keep the drink cool throughout the party.

* if you're feeling lazy or just dont have the time for melon scoopers, just cut the honeydew into 1cm cubes.
* add the juice of 1 lemon if you fancy it being less sweet.
* alternatively, you can use tequila instead of vodka.
* if you're out of cointreau, replace it with any other brands of triple sec.

Cheese Baked Lobster

for yoon chun...

Ingredients
2 lobster (1.5 pounds each)
1 cup milk
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
½ cup grated parmesan cheese
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp basil, finely chopped
2 tbsp soft butter
½ large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp rice wine
½ tbsp basil, finely chopped
Salt & pepper to taste
Serve with lemon wedges
Chili powder/paprika powder/finely chopped chili

Directions

1. To steam the lobster, bring a large pot of water to a rapid boil, add 1 tbsp of salt to the water. Place the lobsters in a pan, and place the pan (above the boiling water) within the pot. Cover and let boil. Steam for 10-12 minutes. Remove the pan from the steamer. Save the liquids left in the pan.

2. While the lobster is steaming, heat the milk in a small nonstick pot and bring it to boil. Once boiling, quickly reduce it to a simmer and stir in the cheddar and parmesan cheese until melted. Add the lemon juice and 1 tsp basil. Stir well and remove the pan from heat.

3. Place the steamed lobster on its back and firmly grasp its head. Using a chef’s knife (with a sharp tip), cut the lobster lengthwise from the abdomen (where the head and body connects) to the tail. Then rotate the lobster around and this time hold on to the tail and cut it lengthwise from the abdomen towards the head. You may want to remove the claws and legs ahead of cutting if you wish to serve it without them. You may also choose to discard the stomach sac and feather gills from the head, and the intestinal thread. (Some people enjoy the flavors of the stomach sacs). Please refer to this website for further pictorial instructions on how to cut and clean lobsters.

4. In a sauce pan, heat the butter and stir fry the onion and garlic until fragrant but not browned. Add in the reserved lobster liquids and rice wine. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper and bring it to boil. Add ½ tbsp basil and removed from heat.

5. Arrange the lobsters shell side down on two oven-prove serving dishes. Spoon some of the lobster sauce on the flesh of each lobster. Then spoon generous amounts of the cheese sauce over the lobster. Sprinkle the top with some paprika powder/chili powder/chopped chili. Place in a preheated oven and bake on moderate heat for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and serve with lemon wedges. Serves 2.

ham & mushroom carbonara pasta

my good friend kenneth requested to have another taste of my carbonara pasta before i fly off to the states so we were at bangkung park last night with jojo, sheila and josh, and this is what i served them...

heat 2 tbsp olive oil with 1 tbsp butter in a large skillet and leave it on medium heat. saute 1 roughly chopped large onion for 2 minutes. add 5 cloves of minced garlic and continue to saute for another minute or so until fragrant. add in 8 shitake mushrooms (thinly sliced), season with a pinch of salt and generous dashes of black pepper, and saute for 2 minutes. stir in 5 slices of ham (cut in cubes or strips) and fry for another minute. then pour in 750ml (or 3 cups) of whipping cream, season with salt to taste and slowly bring it to boil. let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in 1 tbsp of finely chopped basil. gently drizzle in 2 egg yolks (lightly beaten and mixed with 1 tsp water), stirring throughout the process. served warm over pasta (250 g) cooked as per packet instructions. serves 5 pax.

* even though i actually used angel hair pasta on this recipe, i recommend using fettucine (flat & thin), fusili (2 or 3 edged spiral) or penne (medium length tubes cut diagonally at both ends) pasta for better sauce retention and maximum flavor. these types of pasta are common enough to find at most supermarkets.

* how not to burn your butter when pan frying: 2 parts vegetable oil, 1 part butter. the butter is for flavoring only so you dont actually need too much of it.

* if you're using dried shitake mushrooms, soak them in warm water at least 4 hours ahead of cooking.

* i used EMBORG brand's UHT whipping cream for this recipe. if you are using ANCHOR brand's whipping cream, you can cut down the simmering time to just 2 minutes as anchor's cream is thicker in consistency.

* you can forgo the basil leaves if you cant get your hands on any. it's a pretty common herb, available in most major supermarkets (although giant is not exactly prompt in restocking their supplies) and at wet markets.

* try to avoid reheating the sauce after adding the egg. you dont want to compromise the smooth texture of the sauce and turn it lumpy.

tsemeiroquai, over and out...

potato salad

here's the thing, potato salads doesnt have to be made up of potatoes only.

assuming that you're not providing this to a vegetarian party, this recipe is the ideal thing to bring to a port luck. easy to make and guranteed to taste good.

1. peel the skin off 3 large potatoes and give it a good rinse. cut them into large bite sized chunks and place them in a pot and fill it with water enough to cover over the potatoes. add 1 heap tsp of salt to the water. place the pot on the stove and bring it to boil. then, lower the heat and let it simmer for 12 minutes or until the the potato is cooked. (test by poking a fork or satay stick into the potatoes. it should penetrate it with ease). once cooked, drain the water off and let it cool.

2. in another pot of boiling water, cook 3 whole sausages for 3 minutes. remove the sausages and let cool. in the same pot of boiling water, cook 5 crab fillament sticks for 1 minute, remove and let cool. cut the sausages into little coin shaped pieces and the crab fillament sticks in approximately the same size.

3. (shortened instructions: boil 2 eggs (hardboiled), let cool, remove the shells, and cut them into rough chunks.)
place 2 eggs (room temperature. if you store your eggs in the fridge, it's advisable to let it cool to room temperature before cooking) in a pot with water enough to cover over the eggs. place the pot over medium heat and stir the eggs continuously until the water boils and cook for another 3 minutes, all the while stirring the eggs. remove the eggs and let cool. remove the shells from the egg and cut them into rough chunks.

4. in a large container, mix the potatoes, sausages, crab fillament sticks, eggs, with a pinch of salt, generous dashes of black pepper, 3 heap tbsp of mayonnaise, 2 heap tbsp of coleslaw sauce, 1 whole stalk (or more) of spring onion. cover and keep in the refrigerator until ready to be served.

serves 4-5 as side dishes. garnish with more fresh spring onion.

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(*the tedious job of constant stirring is to ensure that the yolk remains in the center of the egg, preventing it from overcooking on one side. overcooked hard boiled egg has a layer of greenish grey colour around the yellows. it's still edible, but if you taste it carefully, that part has a slightly sourish taste.)

(*if you like your yolk to be still a little runny in the middle (not recommended in this recipe), cover egg with water, bring to boil, continue to boil for another minute, remove from heat and let sit for another 2 minutes in hot water before removing the egg, all the while stirring the egg)