SMOKE IN MY KITCHEN

Couscous with Roasted Bell Peppers

I was never a picky eater when I was a kid. My mother loved to brag to her friends how easy I was during meal times. She didn't have to be a fighter pilot or locomative engineer when she was feeding me.

While I was working at a diner in Financial District downtown, a Morrocan cook introduced to couscous. Every other week, at the end of the shift  he prepared a simple Morrocan dishes in the diner kitchen for five of us (the crew). The owner of the diner let him used the kitchen as long as we leave the kitchen spotless for the next day business.

Since then, I've been eating a lot of couscous, either with salads or with roasted veggies which I find more satisfying .

Couscous is made of ground semolina flour. So, it is in pasta family.Preparing cousous is incredibly easy. I used the same method to prepare this couscous as I prepare Morrocan couscous.

Bring the chicken stock (I always have chicken stock in my freezer) to boil. Add couscous. Stir the mixture and cover the pot. Lower the heat. After 5 or 6 minutes, the couscous is cooked. I add the roasted veggies which I just removed from the oven.

Sedaaaaapppppp Sangat

Delicious sayur keladi, prepared by Siah, my sister in-law

 

 I forgot the name of this cheap and yet very scrumptious. I had it KL Central the day we returned from  KL/ShahAlam trip.

 Enjoying satay at Tan and Non's house.

And my all time favorite, Roti Jala prepared by my beautiful sister, Kakngah.

Popia Goreng, Cucur Badak, Ondeh-ondeh, Tepung Bungkus at Timah and Mak Nah's house in Gelugor Penang.

 

 

 

Fried nodule and Sambal Petai prepared by Kakngah. Sedaaaaaaaaaaap sangat.

Stuffing Zuchini Blossoms

I've been volunteering at a garden of a private, non-profit agency a few miles from where I live. They serve South Shore communities. Their services include food pantry, thrift shop, career closet . They have a small plot next to the building where the volunteers grow vegetables.

I signed up when I learned that they were looking for volunteers to work in the garden a few hours a week. It's an easy work. Once a week I water the garden and remove the weeds.

Plenty of zuchini and squash blooms. I collected some of the blooms that were ready to fall off the stems.

I made Zuchini blossoms omelete once, this time I stuffed the zuchini blossoms with ricota cheese and placed them on a thin layer of omelet. They came out pretty good. You have to be creative with Zuchini and squash blossoms. They are beautiful , but the taste is bland.

I had them a couple of days before Ramadan.

On the Shelf

After all these years, Malaysia made curry powders hit Asian supermarket in my neighborhood.

Allagapa and Babas's brands

 

And some have been around for a few years......

and the first time I saw belacan on the shelf at Thai's aisle back in 1997

and cencalok

 

Roti

When we live almost 10,000 miles away from home, we always see something that remind us of home. In my case, food is the most powerful tool that bridges the distance.

The aroma of brewing coffee, the smell of hot oil wafting from somebody's kitchen or the shape of  empanadas that my immediate thought was the time I sat down on tikar mengkuang in Mak's kitchen helping her making karipap-curry puff.

Rolling pin in her hands, Mak folded and rolled the dough with burst of energy. The motions were fast and repetitious. Rolled the dough flat. Folded into two. Rolled again.

Fast,  efficient, and yet full of grace. The graceful that you only see mothers have who cook with love and tender.

We talked about everything and nothing. We laughed and giggled when we reminded each other of some silly things we did in the past.

I remember the picture I saw in my head when I had the first bite of ciabatta bread. I was sitting on the front steps at grandmother's house. The cement was still warm from the heat of late afternoon.I could hear Mak's voice from the kitchen calling out my two younger brothers to get ready for evening bath.

I had two fifty cents shillings in my hand. I was waiting for Mamak Roti , an Indian man peddling freshly baked breads on his bike- sort of bakery on the wheels. A dollar in 1964 could get two loaves of bread a bowl of serikaya-egg and coconut milk pudding. Roti benggali, crusty outside and soft inside. Aaahhh....What an aroma, a smell, a scent can do to us.

Dear Ben & Jerry

Sikit-sikit tak cukup banyak-banyak tak habis

 

Sink

My fluffy pancake this time wasn't really fluffy. When I took it out from the oven, I could see the center part was slowly sinking right under my nose. It was like watching the video of National Geography program when they showed a flower bud slowly blooming in slow motion. Only this time I was watching my fluffy pancake slowly sinking.

 But I was still delighted to see my last minute attempt turned out beautiful. I dropped a few drops of red food coloring in the middle of the batter and swirled it with the tip of sharp knife. A quarter cup of milk short the fluffy pancake turned into bingka. Bingka pun bingkalah. 

 
 

Swiss Chard Masak Lemak.

When I was a kid I ate vegetables more than the rest of my family members did. I ate too much vegetables, my dad used to tease me about it. He said, if Mak prepared a bowl of grass, I would have eaten it.

Now I eat more salads than cooked green leafy veggies. Once in a while when my craving for home-style cooking hits me, I switch or mix the ingredients the best I could.

The other day when I was chatting with Kakngah, she told me she cooked masak  lemak cekur manis (sauropus albicans), with yam and dried bean curd sheet. I was drooling.

I tried collard green before when I craved for sayur cekur. It was not bad, but collard green taste for masak lemak cili api.

So, I picked up swissc chard. Swiss chard  is one beautiful, green, leafy vegetables that I think it should be categorized as elite veggies. Yesterday, I bought a stack of swiss chard with three different colors of stems. Orange, white, yellow, red and dark pink. When I passed sweet potato bin, I knew  I wanted to cook sayur cekur but without cekur.

 

I only used a half cup of coconut milk and diluted with   1.5 cups of water. I have to say swiss chard masak lemak tasted better than collard green masak lemak.

 

 

 

 

Why Take a Boat When You Can Walk On Water?

The title of this entry is not a riddle or a title of some motivational book . After my second Yiu Char Kueh or Chinese Crullers, my brain started to stretch a bit that's all.

I learned to make char kueh from Mak. Mak made a perfect Yiu Char Kueh. Ah Seng, Mak's best friend and a contractor who built my parent's house 44 years ago told Mak the recipe. After a few times trials and errors, finally Mak perfected the char kueh process.

Between 1990-1997, Mak was the main char kueh supplier to three Malay Kedai Kopi -coffee shops in my hometown Pokok Asam, Taiping.

The last time I had Mak's char kueh was in 2002 when I went home for a visit. I haven't had any  since then. There were times when I had the craving, but for some reasons I was reluctant to go through the process of making the dough.  

 
 The first try skin was a little chewy.

Anyho, one day I had this 'aha' moment. "Why don't I  try a store-bought pizza dough?" So, the next day when I was at Shaw's Supermarket, I bought a ready made pizza dough. When I got home put the dough in a wooden bowl, sprinkle a handful of flower and knead the dough.

I folded both end of the dough and worked on it for about fifteen minutes. I cover the bowl with damp towel. I went out running and when I came back 90 minutes later, the dough rose that made me smile from ear to ear. I repeated the kneading process for another fifteen minutes.

 

Using a rolling pin I flatten the dough and cut into six strips. put them aside, and jumped into a shower.

After the shower, I heated the oil and prepared to fry the char kueh. I dipped my finger into a bowl of water, swiped gently on top of one of the strips. Took a second strip put on top of wet strip. Holding  both ends of chop stick, I pressed the chopstick on the double decker dough strip. Gently picked up both ends of pressed dough, pulled gently both ends and dropped into a hot oil.

The first attempt, the outer part of char kueh was a little hard and crusty. It was because I left them uncovered after I cut the dough into strips.

 

 A following week, I tried again for a second time. This time I covered the strips with  plastic wrap.

This time they came out beautifully. Not as good as Mak's char kueh, but they were good.

Stuffed Peppers

The first three years after I stepped on U.S soil, I didn't care much for other seasons except summer. But over the years spring had  slowly edged her way in. It was not an easy journey for spring though. A lot of bumpy roads along the way. You know how unpredictable the New England weather is.

Spring means more colorful fruits and vegetables. The price of yellow and orange sweet peppers slides down a few notches than usual $3.58 (or higher) a pound.

 
Lambert Market in Downtown is one of my favorite spot where I can get a medium size three red pepper for $1:00 and three yellow/green pepper for $1.50 in spring.

As soon as I saw  can't-resist-price tag, I knew right away what I wanted to do with them. My head started to picture the result of mixed peppers stuffing baked in ceramic pan.

For the stuffing, I mix together ground turkey, chopped cilantro, chopped cherry pepper, an egg, bread crumb and a pinch of salt.

For gravy, I diluted a cup of peppercorn parmesan salad dressing with warm water and poured over the ready to bake stuffed peppers

 

 

Time for dinner.

Mangoes Kerabu Over Grilled Mahi Mahi

 
I know what I have here for dinner is bad combination.Some foodies might cringe and twist when they see glutinous black rice sit side by side with Brussels sprouts, mahi-mahi and mangoes. But who gives a crap?

Every other week, Prisca and I take turn to host a dinner for two of us, or sometimes Mark joins us. Mark is Prisca's old friend from university. This week I roasted a half chicken breast which I rubbed with sea salt, red peppercorn, tumeric and coconut oil.

I walked to Prisca's place, about 15 minutes walk from my apartment. Mark was already there setting up the table. I set the chicken on the counter and took out a containter from the bag.

"Guess what I have here?"

"What?" Mark responded.

"Uh.......uh......It is not what."

Mark rolled his eyes.

"Mangoes kerabu!!!!"

Anyho, roasted chicken and mangoes kerabu were well loved by Mark and Prisca.  I left the rest of the kerabu at Prisca, and I brought home some glutinous black rice Prisca prepared for bubur pulut hitam.

So, that was how glutinous black rice ended up in my dinner plate tonight.