eggy tomato / 炒鸡蛋西红柿

It never even occurred to me to veganise this very common Chinese dish until my housemate V started attempting to cook it just the way her mum does. Fried egg and tomatoes is common and cheap and fast, and is comprised almost entirely of tomato and eggs, but I decided it was possible and after a couple of attempts I have it all sorted. Since then I've made it several times. It's not exciting but it's easy and it contains some good things, and it's quick comfort food when I'm home late from work.

Don't talk to me about the photo below, I'm so used to the exceptional photographic conditions in my kitchen in Brunswick that I think I'm going to have to make some modifications to get my food photography anywhere up to where I need it to be for the eleven more months that I'm here.



vegan eggy tomato
comfort food

chop two large ripe tomatoes into thin wedges. in a fry pan, heat a large dollop of oil, throw in a tiny bit of minced garlic and then throw in the tomatoes. add a dash of water, and leave to fry for four or five minutes, until the tomatoes are seriously starting to wilt (but not fall apart). mash in 300g of silken tofu, and mix in a dash or three of light soy (or gf tamari for gf) and a tablespoon of nutritional yeast. leave it to simmer on high heat for two or three minutes. garnish with a little pepper or fresh spring onions if that takes your fancy. Makes a nice second or third dish in a meal, or you can eat it on its own with a spoon.

potluck 2: comfort food

Oh dear patient friends, I apologise for the delay in getting this carnival up. But I promise, though it is small and slightly delayed, that it is still a good read. This time the theme was comfort food, and all of these posts are about comfort food! Delicious, comforting food.

If you are one of my usual vegan readers, please note that not all posts linked to today are vegan, but they don't really talk about food specifics and you should read the posts anyway, because they are important and amazing and good.


Oddcellist talks about comfort food:

When I talk about the things I can cook, I tend not to talk about Chinese food—because I don't cook the way my mother does, even though I hear her voice every time I cook (fry the ginger until its flavor blooms, use day-old rice to make fried rice, people here like things too sweet), because I remain incredibly recipe-bound.

Vi writes (and draws!)about small comforts: tāng yuán.

Azuire writes ٹیڑھی کھی, about comfort food that's monolingual (and not):

What I felt when I discovered that اچار was not called that by others (and I know it was اچار because I'd had an argument about it) was shock. Pure and simple. The English names of food-things that had previously existed only hypothetically were now widely accepted as the only names for things. It felt incomplete, inaccurate.

In comfort fooding, Glass_Icarus maps a history of her comfort food.

I've realized that I don't so much rely on specific foods for comfort as I do on cooking and eating with specific groups of people. 火鍋 with my immediate family is different from 火鍋 with my relatives in Taiwan is different from hotpot with all the different permutations of my "usual suspects," friends from ballroom/undergrad. Dim sum with my "American grandma" is different from dim sum with my Chinese family friends (where there's never any explanation involved but the check-grabbing fights remain the same).

Sam Miskiv writes on disordered eating and veganism (and, in a way, comfort food).

Ephemere talks Hapag-kainan, dibdib: My language is one that eats and is eaten. If one is to speak to me of comfort and discomfort -- speak to me of food. And of rice.

Linstar writes about what makes comfort food:

I’ve often been asked what my favourite food is and I have very usually replied with something along the lines of my mum’s laksa or my mum’s spring rolls or something to that effect. My mum’s cooking. It wasn’t until recently when I was sitting down talking to a work colleague that I actually realised some of my favourite comfort foods aren’t necessarily my mum’s cooking at all, but my mum’s cooking brings an association of love and comfort. I’ve actually come to realise my favourite comfort foods are anything that can be shared, and that it’s the company more than anything which makes comfort food comforting.

And a little aside: Counter Culture, a book which collected food histories from the kids that Lifting Voices works with. Their funding deadline is past but the book looks great!


And now, with my spoon in one hand and my chopsticks in the other, I am off to eat my own comfort food, though I failed to blog about it. Thank you for reading Potluck 2! Potluck is intended to be an occasional carnival for multicultural and intersectional discussions of food, including but not limited to food discussions intersecting with disability, gender, sexuality, fat, animal rights, and cultural and racial issues. If you are interested in hosting the next Potluck, please drop myself or glass icarus a line!

wonton noodle soup

You know what I love? Noodles. What a surprise! I hear you exclaim. I can tackle a bowl of noodles from a metre away, and I'm not ashamed of it.

My ultimate comfort food is any sort of soupy noodles. It is unfortunate, then, that Danni is not a big fan of soupy noodles. Last week, after suffering a very large amount of the blahs, I really wanted noodle soup, and so we negotiated: lots of wontons for Danni, lots of noodles for me.

I've made jiaozi before, and I'll confess, my wonton making is remarkably similar to my jiaozi making, except I use different wrappers.



Wontons are pretty straight forward to make. I like to either steam them or boil them, and serve them in a bowl filled with vegetables, noodles and soup. I promise that picture above has soup in it. It is just covered by a lot of noodles.

wontons

ingredients
a palmful of chinese cabbage
a palmful of enoki/golden boy mushrooms
small amount of fresh chives (chopped)
one clove garlic (minced)
half a cupish of firm tofu (approx 100g)
three or so shakes of dark soy
Wonton wrappers

method
Evenly dice the cabbage and mushrooms. In a wok, fry the mushrooms and cabbage with the garlic, in a small amount of peanut oil. After the cabbage starts to soften, add the chives, tofu, and soy. Smush and stir until it is well mixed and evenly coloured, for about three or four minutes. You may want to season with pepper, but this is not my thing. Put this aside to cool.



The wrappers need to be defrosted, but preferably fresh from the fridge. This makes them easier to handle. Please also note that the wrappers do dry out quickly, so don't leave them out for too long. Some people recommend working with the waiting wrappers covered, but I can never be bothered dealing with that.

Separate from the top, one by one. Place a small amount of cooled filling in the centre (about half to three quarters of a teaspoon). Moisten finger with water, and run around the edge of the wrapper. Fold up at the middle. Pinch in at the sides (not pictured), so that instead of being a semi-circle the wonton looks more like a trapezium.

soupening
I like to bring a big pot of stock to boil. My preference is for a soup with a full body, so dried vege stock won't be quite enough. I've got some celery pieces in the freezer, so into a pot (with vege stock in it) I'll throw one of those, plus to top of a carrot or two. This pot simmers away whilst I'm folding the wontons, then I scoop out the celery and carrot so it's just liquid.



Into the pot, by this point boiling, I will gently drop my wontons. For this step (and many of the following), the above pictured cooking implement is key. I don't know what it's called, I just know that it's essential in this style of cooking, and also for steamboats (mmm, steamboats). Anyway, using this golden wire scoop, gently lower four or five wontons into the boiling stock. Let them boil away for six or seven minutes, or until they're floating on the top (mine always float from the very start, which is why I have to time them). Put these aside.

Back to the pot, I'll add my vegies (in this instance, one carrot that has been julienned, and two or three bunches of bok choy that hav been sliced in half lengthways). After a minute or two, I will pull those vegies out, and put them in bowls, and put in some noodles, giving the same treatment.

Serve them up in large bowls. If the wontons have cooled too much or are sticking together, I will sometimes drop them back in the pot for thirty seconds to heat them through. Then pour soup over the whole lot, and serve hot, perhaps with some chopped chilli in soy sauce.


NOM.

char kueh teow + char siu

One of the reasons why I haven't been blogging a lot of food cooked at home is because I've been cooking a lot of high rotation stuff, most of which I've blogged about previously.



If I blogged about char kueh teow every time I cooked it (or even every time I ate it), it would feature on this blog about once a fortnight. I cooked it again tonight - we were supposed to go out for dinner but everyone (bar me) fell asleep and couldn't be bothered leaving the house, so I nipped out to the shops and picked up some kueh teow noodles and whipped this up.

Thanks to a post by Tahn I found some mock cha siu at a shop in Preston (Big 8 亚洲食品). The cha siu is average (not terrible but not as awesome as the stuff I used to buy from Lotus), and the shop had a good range of other staples, so it's a good reason to head to Preston more often (as it's right near La Panella)!.

Anyway. Char kueh teow. It's awesome. You can find a previously blogged recipe for char kueh teow here.

char kueh teow + hari merdeka

Aah, Billy at A Table For Two has a totally nomlicious post up for Merdeka Day, Secret life of Street Food in Malaysia, go check it out to see what I'm thinking about when I say 'I love Malaysian kuih.' You have to scroll past the meaty bits, but oh it is worth it for the kuih, it is.

Maybe there will be another post later with sweets for Merdeka Day (I bought a whole bunch of bananas in preparation), but for now I want to talk about char kueh teow.

Don't be fooled by those recipes which might say to use lots of greens, lots of veggies. This is a very simple dish, the flavours are very straight forward and come mostly from the soy sauce and the chili, the beauty of this hawker favourite is in the kueh teow noodles, so there is no need to overwhelm with lots of veggies. A packet of noodles, some chilis, some bean shoots, a little tofu, this is all that is necessary. And a banana leaf, if you've got one, on which to plate it. You can add some carrot (julienned), or a little bit of gailan (not 'and'), but don't go over the top.



char kueh teow

Things about cooking char kueh teow: you need a wok, and the wok needs to be very hot. you will burn some of the noodles to the wok, and this is part of the process. do not double this recipe - if you go for much more noodles than this, it doesn't really work. Better instead to cook two lots of these portions.

ingredients
500 grams of fresh kueh teow noodles
2 or 3 red chillis, chopped into rounds
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tablespoons dark soy
2-3 tablespoons light soy
300ish grams firm tofu
pepper
lots of beanshoots (two cups at least), tails off
a little bit of spring onion/scallion

method
Gently separate the noodles, and soak in warm water for three or four minutes, then drain. Don't oversoak them, or they'll fall apart when cooking.

In a hot wok, add a tablespoon or two of oil (preferably peanut), then the garlic and chilli. Add the carrot at this time if you're adding it. Fry for a minute, then add the noodles, as well as the dark and light soy. Toss the sauce and the pepper through the noodles. Leave to fry for a few minutes, flipping as necessary. Make sure the soy sauce has been evenly mixed through - there should be no white noodles left. Crush the tofu and, having pushed the noodles to one side, add the tofu, then toss through.

Fry for a few more minutes. During this time, the noodles will start to stick to the wok - unless they're burning, resist the temptation to add more liquid. Char kueh teow is very dry, and the charring is part of its deliciousness.

Finally, add the spring onion (chopped) and the bean shoots, and fold the noodles over the top. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

This serves four.


I am submitting this for the It's a Vegan World: Malaysia event.

kuey teow noodle soup

Yesterday afternoon was pretty mediocre, and by the time I finally got home I was grumpy, exhausted, hungry and cold. At times like those, comfort food is the only real answer, and I knew exactly what sort of comfort food was required.

Kuey teow (or kueh teow) is a flat rice noodle that is ubiquitous in Malaysia. You might be familiar with it from Malaysian restaurants, where it is more commonly served as one of my very favourite foods, char kuey teow (which, incidentally, I cooked for lunch today and will blog about soon).

Although it is a rice noodle, kuey teow noodles are not suitable for people avoiding gluten, as they are softened by the addition of wheat. It's not a dry noodle, and it doesn't freeze at all well - the only solution is to buy it fresh, as needed. It will last a couple of weeks, though.

Kuey teow noodles really soak in the flavour of a dish. They need to be softened first, either with a minute or two on the stove in some water, or soaking in hot water for five or six minutes. Once they are prepared, though, they make a quick and easy food, so they are very popular noodles at hawker stalls. I prepared this noodle soup the hawker way (except the carrots), no more than blanching the ingredients, keeping them crisp and delicious.



kuey teow noodle soup

A full-flavoured homemade stock is best. If you don't have the time, bring the stock to a simmer, and add the base of the bok choy and the top of the carrot (ie, the bits you usually throw out) into the pot, and simmer for about half an hour. If you do this, you will need extra stock, but it is worth it for the flavour.

ingredients
1 pack fresh kuey teow noodles
1 clove ginger (minced)
1 short stalk lemon grass
1 cup bean shoots, detailed
2 hot red chillis, sliced
dark and light soy sauce
7 - 8 cups vegetable stock
1 bulb bok choy (leaves detached, stalks in fingers)
one quarter carrot (julienned)

method
Bring the stock to a boil, add the lemongrass and garlic, and reduce to a simmer, lid off. After ten minutes, add the carrot, and continue simmering for another ten minutes, then add the bok choy stalks.

In the meantime, soak the kuey teow noodles in hot water, and then drain and separate. In a small bowl, mix the chillis with a little bit of dark soy sauce, but a few shakes of light soy sauce. Set aside.

After two or three minutes, the bok choy will have just started to soften. Add the kuey teow, bok choy leaves, and bean shoots. Stir through, and remove from heat.

Serve, and mix through a spoon or two of the chilli-soy sauce mix.


I am probably going to submit this to the It's a Vegan World: Malaysian blogging event, but I have one thing planned that I definitely want to share for that (PISANG GORENG) so I might not. We shall see! I always feel a bit awkward when I submit too many things for blog events.

claypot noodles

It's been cold and rainy and I've been on my own, so I indulged in one of my favourites, claypot noodles. I'm not sure why I continue to order claypot in restaurants, they never taste quite right. This time it was deliciously soupy (I used a bit more stock), a little over-soy sauced, but so very delicious. And it's so great to make a whole lot extra, and then be able to eat comfort food at work.



I have previously blogged about claypot here

kari kapitan - nonya (mock) chicken curry

My childhood memories are filled with spices: eyes watering as my mum added too much chilli; ears echoing as she pounded spice using mortar and pestle; hiding in the front room as she made blachan.

Nonya (from the Malaysian Straits) curries are heavy with chilli and coconut and simmered for hours. The smell weaves through the house and you know deliciousness is ever so slowly nearing. There is a comfort there, still, in curries on all days, no need to restrict them to only cold days.

Kari Kapitan is one of the first things I learnt to cook, I was reluctant to leave my mum's daily provisions without being able to provide it for myself. After we went vegetarian, I did not even try to convert this, because the way the chicken falls from the bone is such an integral part to the dish's flavour, I thought I would not be able to replicate it, and I wanted to leave it perfect in my memory rather than mess it all up.

In January, in preparation for a curry party (which I will blog about eventually), I took a leap of faith and gave it a go, using mock meat (which I never use), and I was so excited as the smells started to float through the house, the chilli and the potato and the garamasala. When I sat down I tried my own curry first, such a slight but I couldn't wait, and it was just as I remembered, the bite of the chilli and the gravy, coconuty and sour and just perfect.

It's so important to me that after all this time, I am able to have one of my favourite foods, something that I thought I wouldn't get to eat ever again. This is the first time I've posted a recipe with mock meat, as I try not to eat it too often, but in this instance there is nothing that will give quite the same texture and result. And it's such a wonderful result.



kari kapitan (Nonya mock chicken curry)

This is a very simple version of an old favourite. It can get more complicated than this, but this is a great way to indulge in an old favourite without too much trouble.

Mock chicken is not for everyone. It's made from gluten, or soy, and occasionally dairy, so check the packet.

ingredients
1 shallot
1 clove garlic, minced
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 heaped teaspoon garamasala
3 curry leaves
3 lime kaffir leaves
3 medium to large potatoes, peeled and diced (some small cubes, some larger)
1 cup mock chicken pieces
a large handful snake beans (cut in thirds)
1 tomato, diced tiny
1 large can coconut milk
1 cup vegetable stock


method
Using a thin-bottom pot, fry the shallot (sliced) in some peanut oil with the garlic, until it starts to discolour. Mix together the chilli and garamasala with a little water until a thick paste is formed, and add this paste, as well as the mock chicken, to the pot. Braise the chicken, and coat well in the paste. Add the potato, tomato, lime kaffir leaves and curry leaves, as well as the stock. Add extra water so that the ingredients are almost but not totally covered. Simmer on low heat with the lid on for about thirty minutes, then add the snake beans. Add extra water if necessary, and replace the lid. Simmer or another twenty minutes, then add the coconut milk. Leave to simmer with the lid off for ten minutes. Smother rice in the gravy and serve.




I am posting this for the WYF Cuisine Event.

Single Penguin Food – days one to four

D was away in Tasmania last week for lca, so I had seven days of Single Penguin Food. I had the best intentions of lots of new to me things, and I managed to pretty much stick to this, but I also had the best intentions of no take out or restaurants. This last was not so strictly adhered to, as I was distracted by family members, pizza with C + E, curry with my sister, noodles with my parents.



I spent Sunday curled up on the couch, mainlining Merlin. What a ridiculous show! I ventured out of the house at the last minute, as I realised I had no noodles suitable for claypot (which I blogged about in detail here).



Monday night I tried this Moroccan cauliflower recipe. It was not great. The steamed cauliflower was okay, but the flavour wasn't as strong as I'd thought it was, and in the end it was just some steamed cauliflower with a bit of cumin. I added a side of aloo muttar, because I'd been worried the cauliflower wouldn't be sufficient, and I was glad I added it. Mixing the potatoes together with the cauliflower made dinner pretty tasty.



Tuesday night I hung out with D's brother C, his partner E, and E's brother and brother's girlfriend. We played my new favourite game, and had pizza from East End Pizza, in East Perth. East End lets you make your own pizza, and on Tuesday nights all MYO large pizzas are $12, and that was pretty awesome. I had eggplant, chili flakes, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and spinach. The flavour was fantastic, though a little dry, and I wish I had added normal tomatoes. It was pretty great though!



Wednesday night I was suffering from cramps and feeling sulky, so I had my #1 comfort food, noodle soup. It is the best, easy and it has been my favourite since I was a child, it brings me such delight and comfort.


Stay tuned for days five through seven!

(cheater) claypot noodles

My sister loves claypot. I am amenable to claypot, but I’ve not had it a lot, always having given preference to chicken rice and laksa and noodle soups and things. A week or two ago I had claypot at Utopia and it was disappointing, the soup thickened with cornstarch and the flavour sort of bland. Claypot is at its best when the soup is rich and well-flavoured, but not strongly flavoured.

This is more of a cheater claypot than anything, and I had planned to submit this to No Croutons Required, except by the time I was finished it was more like noodles and vegetables in sauce than the required vegetables in soup.



(cheater) claypot noodles

The joy of a claypot is in the soaking, as the claypot bakes, the juices and sauce soak in to the contents of the claypot, covering and filling everything with a thick, tasty gravy. To that end, I like to use wonton noodles because of the way they soak in the sauce. Try to avoid rice noodles, as they will fall apart during extended soaking process.

ingredients
half a pack of wonton noodles
one shallot (sliced)
one cube of ginger, minced
one clove garlic, minced
one red chilli, sliced
handful of snake beans (tops and tails removed, cut into halves or thirds)
one carrot (julienne)
quarter capsicum, in fine slices
half bunch of kai lan or bok choi (or both) (stalks off, leaves halved)
100 to 200 grams of firm tofu (or fried tofu)
two cups of stock
three or four dashes of dark soy
five or six dashes of Vegetarian oyster sauce
pepper
sesame oil
bean shoots (tailed)


method
Prepare the wonton noodles. Don’t over cook them! When they are ready, remove from heat, submerge in cold water, then drain. Put in claypot, put bean shoots on top, and shake in a dash or two of oyster sauce and a little pepper. Mix through.

In the meantime, in a little peanut oil fry the shallot and the ginger. Add the garlic, chilli, capsicum, beans and carrot. After frying for a minute or two, add a teaspoon of water to the wok, then cover with lid. After five or so minutes, or when the beans have started to soften, add the kai lan stalks and some extra water if necessary. Cover again with lid for another few minutes, then add kai lan leaves and tofu, as well as a dash or three of oyster sauce, a dash of dark soy, and some sesame oil. Add lid again, leave for five minutes. Pour entire mixture into claypot, as well as about a cup of stock. Mix all ingredients together.

Bake in oven at 190C for 20 minutes.

sunday night curry with my parents

"I'm getting much more adventurous with vegetarian cooking," my mum said, which was news to me, because she's already pretty fantastic with her vegetarian cooking. This bodes well for me and D, especially as we are now at T-19 sleeps until the big feast and mahjong party on the eve of Chinese New Year.



Wandered out to my parents' house on Sunday afternoon, stopping for an icecream at the Junction Icecreamery on the way. I got passionfruit soya and chocolate soya, which is always the best. It's nice to be living that little bit closer to my parents, but I did need to stop for the snack because it's still a forty minute drive!

Mum as always cooked a lot of great dishes, all of which were vegan! The pumpkin curry is one of my favourites, sometimes quite spicy and sometimes just flavoursome without a heavy bite, usually heavy with potato and snake beans. The gai-lan and mushroom dish featured three sorts of mushroom. The roti was the usual delicious flakiness. Finally, there was a moderately spicy eggplant curry, very creamy in texture and super tasty. Dessert was a fruit salad of melons, stonefruit and grapes, with an assortment of icecream from the Junction.

Then I had to do the dishes, but it was worth it.

curry mee (or curry laksa)

Laksa is a Malaysian staple, but there are several variations across the regions. In Penang we have the curry mee, and also a style of assam laksa called Penang laksa. I've spent years of my life sipping the soup of the curry mee, or sitting opposite my mum as she steals my vegies to add to her mee, and I was so delighted earlier this year to nom a whole lot of curry mee, which I rarely get to do if I don't first make it myself.

I am pretty easy going with my curry mee, but then, so are all the hawkers: I put potatoes in it this evening (nobody tell my mum, the addition of potato definitely wanders in to curry rather than laksa territory), and didn't have a chance to go see my Chinese grocer so didn't end up with any doufu (tofu) in it, though it usually does.

Curry Mee

This is a very simple curry mee. You can subsitute the galangal for ginger if you really can't find any.

paste
3 red chillis (with seeds) sliced
1 shallot, sliced
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1 small piece of galangal, minced
1 tbl coriander seeds
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cumin
4 cashews
some dried chillis

soup and so on
stalk or three of lemon grass
lime juice
1 can coconut milk
1 can coconut cream
1 cup and a half of stock
1 carrot, julienned
snake beans (halved or in thirds)
snow peas
bean shoots
tofu
choi sum (leaves shredded, stalks in lengths of five to ten cm)
capsicum
faux prawns and fishballs

yellow mee (like the noodles you get in maggi packets) and beehoon (rice noodles)

method
Pound together the paste ingredients.

Prepare noodles. I like to soak the beehoon in hot water until soft, and boil the mee on the stove.

Over medium-high heat, fry the paste until fragrant. Add lemongrass, carrot, capsicum and snake beans. Continue to fry for about five minutes, then add coconut milk, stock, coconut cream, and lime juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for fifteen minutes, or until all the vegies are soft and tasty. Add the choi sum stalks. In the meantime steam the snow peas. Add snow peas, bean shoots, tofu, choi sum leaves and any faux seafoods to the pot. Heat through.

When you serve your laksa, remember to drown your noodles! The only reason my noodles aren't drowning in this picture is because it was the second serving, so I didn't have the proportions quite right.

moon festival

As a child, on moon festival my house was filled with people and our tables were laden down with food. I remember our procession, a line of little children of varying heights, our tummies full and our lanterns lit and carefully held before us. We paraded around my parents’ property line, around the back and down the side until we came full circle, our lanterns held for the moon to see. Afterwards, there’d be more food, and perhaps some sulking if a lantern had caught fire. I went through so many lanterns this way, burning little holes in the cellophane of my butterfly (it was always a butterfly), but it was okay, because there would always be next year’s lantern.



It has been years since I celebrated Moon Festival, but I really wanted to celebrate it this year, so as the fifteen moon of the eighth lunar month approached I invited a dozen friends around and D and I spent a day in preparation, cleaning and cooking and buying new outdoor furniture.

I was rushing around, cooking things, and D was flitting about chatting with people, so neither of us had a chance to take any photos of the food. I’ll probably put up some of the recipes for these eventually. There are no specific foods that are served at Moon Festival – the emphasis is just on the having of food, its abundance, and the sharing of it with your friends.

On the table: laksa, lontong, gado gado, satay mushrooms, char kuay teow, nasi goreng, chickpea rogan josh, potato rendang, yao chao guai and gai lan in a garlic soy sauce. After dinner snacks were passion fruit melting moments, mooncake, oreos and kuih bangkit.

It was so delightful being able to share this with my friends, even though most of them only knew what google could tell them about it.

homemade birthday food

It was my birthday recently.



On Friday D’s mum tried some new things, a green split pea soup and a kumara peanut coconut thing. I saw her recipe books lying around but I forgot to note down which ones they were, so I can’t tell you where these were from. The peanut thing was really tasty. This doesn't mean that the soup wasn't tasty also (I know that she will read this and fret)! But the peanut thing was the highlight.



On Sunday my mum cooked a whole lot of my favourite food, a sweet pumpkin curry, a chunky dahl (filled with vegetables) and pad thai. Not pictured: delicious, flaky roti. For dessert we had a fruit salad filled with my favourite fruits, watermelon, papaya, banana, lychee, orange, mangosteen. Not exactly fruits that are in season, but fruits I love a lot. If only there was also rambutan! We also had some lime sorbet and some mango sorbet from a local store. The lime had this delightful, tart taste, I really liked it.



Then we played mahjong, and I felt really lucky to be fed all this food and then able to play my favourite game (which is played at birthdays, weddings, etc, so appropriate to the day).

malaysian gourmet

I was so excited when Malaysian Gourmet first opened, they made all my favourite comfort foods like laksa, kopitam, and char kuay teow. Then I went veg, and all those wonderful home foods were so close but so far, like taunting me.



I can still get a good kuay teow, though, and a fantastic Singapore maifan, so all is not lost. The beehoon was loose and sweet, and the kuay teow was char just right, just enough sauce and the choy sum just tender.

Price was a bit of a shock, it's been at least six months since I was last there and it's now $8.00 a dish, but it's still so tasty. I really do hope I can find a random Malaysian place when we move, or I'll be venturing back here more often than I might otherwise.

Malaysian Gourmet
Broadway Fair
Nedlands

very simple noodle soup

There are many habits for which my mother would scold me: in this particular instance, I am referring to my use of pre-prepared stock. I love, on cold afternoons, to set vegetables to boiling on the stove, filling the house with the smell of stock and the warmth from my kitchen. My mother making stock, long afternoons with the smell permeating the house, is a constant from my childhood.

My mother would use the stock for many things, for curries and rice and for various soups; but this here is my favourite. This is my comfort food, what I eat when I am ill, or when I am sad, or when it is cold and stormy outside. Sometimes, though, I just want to eat it because it is my favourite, and it is at these times that I cheat and use a packet stock. I use the Massel cubes, as they are vegan and gluten-free.



very simple noodle soup

ingredients:
4-5 cups vege stock
1 carrot (sliced into thin circles)
2 bok choy (stem sliced widthways; leaves chopped in half)
various other vegies prepared appropriately
noodles of choice (I like to use rice noodles, or the instant noodles like you get in indomie)

method:
Set the stock to boiling; add the carrots, and leave to simmer for ten minutes. Add the sliced bok choy stems and simmer for another little while (about ten minutes, maybe a little less). Continue adding vegetables as appropriate. At the same time, cook the noodles. Finally add the bok choy leaves, blanch, and add the cooked noodles to the broth just for thirty seconds. I usually like to add some bean shoots at the same time. Serve, and smother in soy sauce.