Cheese Toasties And Hi

Cheese toastie  (no need for fancy names like croque monsieur) is a simple and quick-to-do cheese and bread sandwich, either toasted or fried.

Hi it's Monday and nothing I cooked over the weekend is interesting enough to tell you about. No. Wait. The stewed soy sauce pork came out better than--a bright blue kingfisher just knocked on my window, and it's 11:41 am, a bit late for calls. They usually come around 9 am--I've ever cooked ever it before. Even Hub said so when Wey shook his head in exaggerated praise. Check here for the revised version of my soy sauce pork. Where were we.

Oh yes, I told you I've nothing to blog about today so this is an excuse to say hi to all readers who check in daily. It still thrills me when readers write to tell me what they've cooked from this blog and how their families enjoy their meals. Cooking at home is without doubt cheaper than eating out (leave that for weekends and special occasions) and definitely tons more hygienic, especially in this part of the world. I know it's a lot of effort for those in big cities with what seems like 12 hours instead of 24 but if you have kids especially, get into the kitchen and cook! Even the simplest meals can be more nutritious than the economy dinners in restaurants that are only cheap because the cheapest ingredients are used. Just check out the oil they use.

My kids aren't hot about cheese toasties probably because that's mostly what they had to eat (and instant noodles, but the boys never got tired of that) while growing up but every time I eat a cheese toastie, I am surprised again at how delicious it is and I can't understand how anyone can get tired of it. So yes, this morning's breakfast was cheese toasties, (or for those who prefer, "grilled cheese sandwich") which everyone knows how to make. Come on you do. It's just melty cheese in the middle (I don't butter) toasted-fried in a frying pan with a bit of melted butter until crispy and golden on both sides (flip once only). If my thighs feel extra heavy, I skip the butter and just toast the toasties open (cheese on top of one slice of bread) under the oven grill. Get gooey cheeses like Gruyere, mozzarella, Gouda, provolone, Emmental, cheddar...so many. Choose the cheese for not just their meltability but also for their taste. I like all those cheeses that I mentioned but not Emmental so yes, be selective. What I used this morning was a combination of aged cheddar and mozzarella, grated coarsely because they came in blocks but slices are handier. If you like some variation, slap on a slice of ham or crispy bacon. For lunch, grilled tomatoes or pineapple or peppers make good sides for the toasties.  Or in cold weather, a thick hot soup. Yum.

Tip: be generous with the cheese.


Tilda vintage cheddar, very tasty. You can get it in 800 gm blocks with a wax covering, from Vic Mart in Melbourne. It's aged, but not too much, quite smooth and not too crumbly or sharp.

That's all for this Monday. I've said hi, now's your turn.

Shanghai Sticky Rice Sticks

Chao nien gao, fried sticky sticks.

Nien gao or sticky rice noodles--I call them sticks because that's what's printed on the packet-- are small pieces of dough made of glutinous rice flour. In China, nien gao are sold fresh and ready-cut or in blocks to be cut according to your liking. Japan and Korea too have their own nien gao and like pasta, they come in different shapes. We can't get fresh nien gao here so if we are lucky to get them from relatives visiting from China, my kids would toast them over fire, like marshmallows, and dip them in light soy sauce for a tasty snack.

I have posted this recipe before but recently I found a better way to fry the rehydrated dried sticky noodles that we get here and the result is so good that I had to re-post the recipe. This is a great dish for days when you want something simple and quick.

The difficult part about frying rehydrated nien gao is getting the rice sticks cooked evenly without sticking together. I was taught by my MIL to add some water or stock during the frying process but sticky rice sticks cooked this way are not evenly soft and the texture is a little bit grainy and starchy.

I like the texture of Fuzhou fried nien gao (bai goh gang) so recently I wondered if blanching the nien gao briefly before frying will soften them evenly. I did just that and voila!--I fried the best plate of nien gao ever. Ever. The blanched nien gao was smooth and homogeneously soft with a gentle el dente bite, just like fresh nien gao. Frying time was shortened since the blanching half-cooked the noodles and the result was the noodles didn't become sticky-starchy.

Eaten with chili oil or my fave lime-bird' eye chilies-Maggi sauce dip, chao nien gao is a dish you won't stop eating until it's all gone. But be careful. Glutinous rice can cause indigestion.

Shanghai Chao Nien Gao/Fried Sticky Rice Sticks (feeds 4 to 6)

1 x 500 gm packet dried nien gao

1 small (300 gm) Chinese napa cabbage, in 1 cm strips  

1 cup to 11/2 cups thinly sliced meat (pork or chicken), marinade with white pepper, salt & cornflour

1 small can winter bamboo, cut into thin strips

8 to 10 small dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked & cut into thin strips

1 heaped T finely chopped garlic

4 T light soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee is good)

1/2 t chicken stock powder or a few shakes of msg

salt to taste

veg oil

Note: it's best to fry this amount of nien gao in 2 or 3 batches. If you fry too much in one go, the heat of the wok will be reduced and instead of tasting like it was fried, the dish will taste like it was boiled.

1. Soak the nien gao sticks in room temperature water, running your fingers through to separate them. Soak at least 8 hours prior to using. Once in a while, check and pull apart the noodles that are sticking together.

2. Keep a pot of water boiling while you fry the dish. Put 2 T oil into a hot wok or frying pan and then add the mushrooms, bamboo shoot and about 1/4 t salt. Stir-fry for about 1 minute under medium heat. Add the meat and stir well to mix. When the meat is cooked (no more pink color), push the mixture to the side of the wok or dish onto a plate. Add 1 T oil and 1/2 T  garlic to the wok, fry for 20 seconds and add all the cabbage plus a pinch of salt. When the cabbage is cooked (either still crunchy or soft, depending on your liking), push the meat mixture into the cabbage, mix well and cover for a couple of seconds for the flavors to blend. Remove the cover, stir again and dish onto a plate.

3. In the same wok or pan that's dry, add 2 T oil and 1/2 the remaining garlic. Keep the heat low. At the same time, put all the nien gao (drained) into the rapidly boiling water, stir well to separate them, and immediately use a big slotted ladle to scoop all the nien gao out, tapping the ladle well to drain all the water away. Now increase the heat to high and put 1/2 (or 1/3) of the blanched nien gao into the hot wok, drizzle 1 1/2 T (or 1 T) soy sauce over evenly, sprinkle the proportionate amount of chicken powder/msg and stir well to mix quickly. Now add 1/2 (or 1/3) of the fried meat and veg mixture, stir-frying quickly to mix all the ingredients evenly. Taste and season. Dish onto a serving plate and serve immediately. Repeat frying the remaining noodles and meat mixture.

Beef & Mushroom (& Red Wine) Pie

Beef & Mushroom red wine pie with potato pastry.

Have always loved meat pies, probably because when I was growing up, there was only one western restaurant in town and their pies were to us what pizzas are to kids now.

I balk at making pies because there's so much work, especially since I don't like store-bought pastry. I've told you before about the pastry course I took years ago that made me suspect all pastries. Commercial pastry is made with pastry margarine, a white and waxy fat that doesn't melt easily and so make the crustiest and shortest pastry because it melts only under high heat which separates the layers of dough, unlike butter which melts when kneaded, resulting in tough dough if not properly handled (my English teacher would give that sentence an 'F'). Just think what that hard margarine does in your blood vessels. Plus, if you've made pastry before, you'll know how much fat goes into it to make it short and flaky.

I've never made potato pastry and was surprised at how deliciously short and light it tasted, partly due to the self-raising flour. The potatoes also gave the pastry extra flavor. However, the pastry was soft and crumbly and I couldn't turn the pies out so potato pastry should be used for making pot pies only. If the potato pastry is rolled too thick, the texture can taste rather cake-like so make it about 1/2 cm thin. Since this is not short crust pastry, the texture is soft and crumbly but not very crusty.

As for the meat filling, I halved the wine and it was still too much because the wine flavor was over-whelming and the meat filling tasted very tart. I had to add quite a bit of sugar. I wanted to use ground beef because I knew my mom and in laws would prefer that to beef chunks. Ground beef also cooks much faster. But the ground beef exuded too much oil when fried so I ran to the supermarket to get some beef blade to add to the ground beef. Despite cutting the beef into small 2 cm cubes and cooking until it was very tender, Wey said he found the chunks too stringy for his teeth and preferred ground beef so next time, I will get beef blade and mince the beef myself.

The recipe below is a combination of the beef and red wine pie and beef and mushroom pie recipes in Exclusively Food a wonderful website that I just found and now visit regularly for updates.


Beef & Mushroom Pie (makes 6 large or 8 medium individual pies)
1 kg beef chuck or blade or mince
2 T veg oil
2 cloves garlic
1 T plain flour
1 1/2 T tomato paste
1 T Worchestershire sauce
1/2 t dried thyme (or 1 t fresh, minced)
125 ml (1/2 cup) red wine (2 cups for red wine pies)
500 ml (2 cups) beef stock
1 cup water
1 T sugar (optional)
2 bay leaves
500 gm white cap mushrooms (I added shiitake mushrooms; cheaper), coarsely chopped
salt (about 1 t or more) & freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 T cornflour + 1 T water

egg wash: 1 egg, half the white removed & beaten well

1. In a heavy saucepan, add a small amount of oil and brown the beef in very small batches. If you fry too much at once, the beef will sweat and will not brown. I used a heavy nonstick pan (Circulon, love it) and didn't add oil to the mince and used very little oil for the chunks. Set aside. Spoon off the excess oil.

2. Add 1 T oil to the same pan, add the onion and fry until softened. Add the garlic and flour (I didn't add the flour now because I intended to use a pressure cooker) and the beef and remaining ingredients except the mushrooms. Cover and let simmer 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours (30 minutes in presssure cooker) until beef is tender. If there is too much liquid, remove cover to reduce it. However, I found that upon cooking and standing, the liquid will dry up. Pies are best when wet with sauce so do make sure the stew is really slushy. You may have to add more water if not cooking in a pressure cooker. Season.

If using mince, add the mushrooms at the same time as the beef and simmer about 30 minutes.

3. Add the mushrooms and cook another 30 minutes. Taste and season if necessary. If using pressure cooker, stir in the flour and cook 5 minutes. Thicken the stew with the cornflour water. When cool, chill the filling overnight for easier handling and for the flavor to develop.

4. Remove the bay leaves and divide mixture into individual ramekins (to the brim), or you can line the ramekins or greased baking pans with short crust pastry (not potato pastry; too soft) with the pastry overhanging the rims by about 1 cm.

5. Roll pastry tops out between sheets of pastry paper. I found the potato pastry very soft, almost like mashed potatoes, and preferred roll and then press it thin in my hands like making pizza bases. Cover the pie tops with the pastry, trim and mark rim with a fork (go here for great step by step photos).

6. Brush pastry with beaten egg and snip a cross on top to let steam out. Bake at 200 C for 25 to 30 minutes until pastry is golden.

Potato Pastry 
200 gm self-raising flour
200 gm mashed potato, cooled
150 gm salted butter

--Sift flour into a large bowl, rub in the butter, add the mash and mix lightly until just blended. Chill 1/2 hour before using.
--This amount is enough for pot pies only. For enclosed pie (pie with a base and top), you need short crust pastry for the base.

Puffer Fish

If you've been following this blog for a while, you may have noticed that I've toned down quite a bit. I don't twitter or facebook and sometimes I am tempted to post whatever I like but I'm trying to keep this blog more of a food blog. However, try as I do, I still can't help posting about things that interest me.

I think the youngest child is blessed in many ways: parents are older, wiser, maybe financially better off, but the same pros can be cons too. We've already been there and done that with the older kids. The mountains, the sea, the rivers, the pets, horse-riding, the islands, fishing. And with the large gap between the first two kids and the last, we've lost our energy and passion for things that we used to enjoy doing, like the outdoors and even board games. So we've decided to spend more time outdoors with our youngest, putting aside all things on Sunday noons. We did that straightaway yesterday, by going to the Karambunai Lagoon 40 minutes away, despite some reluctance deep inside because it was a melting, glaring 33 C afternoon.

It was too hot to fish (there's a jetty for that), so while Wey went scooping the many fishes under the jetty, his aged parents dozed under the trees. Karambunai Lagoon is great, I love it there except for the sandflies. There are no red ants and the place is well-maintained by the hotel. The water looked clear but when I got in, the sand wasn't that clean.  

We had lots of bites and Hub caught 2 small lai mung (Yi, was thinking of how you always get the first and most fish). I wasn't fishing. Everytime I dropped my line and drew it up, the bait was gone. I ended up throw the prawns into the sea, just to see the different fishes that came up to nibble. A couple of guys nearby were using fishing rods and drawing in a fish (very small ones) every 10 seconds. Then they caught a puffer fish and left it lying around because they said it'll last 4 hours out of water and they'll throw it back before they go home because they didn't want it to get on their hooks again.

It looked so pitiful, eyes all sepet (slit eyed, like me) and there were teardrop-like things at the corner of each eye.

It started to puff...


...and puff, like it was going to explode. It also made puffing noises and spewed out a jet of water.

I think it looked like a bird, with a 3-D face (fish have only 2-D? You know what I mean) and look, it had buck teeth. It looked almost human, sad and resigned.

I borrowed the fish to photograph it and after a while, I told them I had lost it. I forgot to take a photo of it deflating and swimming back to the sea.

Pasta With Fennel & Sardines

I've only ever eaten canned sardines, never the fresh ones. And I never knew we have fresh sardines in our markets!

The fish monger (seems like such an antiquated word) insisted that sardines taste better than the big-eyed scad (tai ngan chee) and the yellow-tailed scad ( wong mei chee) that I was checking out and that I'd go back for more. He was absolutely right. Sardines are savory-sweet with finer and moister texture than the scads, small fish that we shallow-fry in oil until crisp and dry outside. Small fried fish with rice and a dip of hot chili, lime juice and soy sauce were something I suddenly longed for one day last year when I was on a 2 1/2-month holiday in Europe.

I've been back to the market many times but never found any more sardines because according to the fish mongers, the sardine season is short and most of the sardines are bought by the canneries. I don't give up though, and if I see fresh sardines again, I'm going to buy a ton of them for freezing. Now that I've eaten fried fresh sardines with rice, I can't go back to the scads.

I've been saving my remaining sardines for this classic Sicilian pasta dish but unfortunately, I couldn't get any fennel. Enough of waiting, I thought, so I substituted fennel with celery. One day when I find fresh sardines and fennel, I will cook this again but I will cook the less classic but popular version, the one with tomato paste. That is, if I can save enough sardines for it because I think shallow-fried sardines with rice, soy sauce and lime is still my favorite way to eat small fishes such as sardines and scads.

You can find the recipe for this dish in most Italian cookbooks. I based mine on the recipes from Mediterranean by Jacqueline Clark and Joanna Farrow (which said to use dill, not fennel, and I wonder if it's a lost-in-translation thing) and also Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy. However, I later found another recipe that seems to taste better because anchovies and saffron are part of the ingredients. No wonder Yi said something seemed to be missing in my version of pasta con sarde. The kids, I can't fool them anymore.

The following recipe is an adaptation of the recipe I did, plus some improvements that I think will make the dish better.





Pasta Con Sarde
600 to 700 gm fresh sardines
1 large fennel, bulb finely chopped & feathery tops reserved & chopped
Olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
5 anchovies fillets
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup golden raisins, soaked in hot water
1 heaped t fennel seeds, coarsely bashed up
1/3 t saffron in 3 T hot water (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
2 or 3 small fresh red chilies, finely chopped (optional)
500 gm bucatini or spaghetti
1/2 cup breadcrumbs, dry-fried in a pan until golden

1. Clean sardines, remove the heads and fillet them. If big, cut each fillet into 2 lengthwise. Pat them dry with paper towels. Cut 2/3 of the sardines into 1" pieces. Leave remaining whole. Dry-fry the breadcrumbs in a frying pan until golden.

2. Lightly coat the whole sardine fillets with plain flour and fry them in a frying pan with some olive oil until just cooked. Reserve.

3. Add 4 T oil into the pan and fry the onions, fennel, fennel seeds, anchovies and chili, cooking gently in medium heat low until the anchovies are almost melted, about 15 to 20 minutes. Add the cut sardines, the pinenuts, the raisins, the saffron water,  the saffron water and and cook another 15 to 20 minutes. Season to taste. Mix in a drizzle of EVOO.

4. Meantime, cook the pasta in salted water until el dente. Remove, mix in 1/2 the sardine sauce and 2 T fried breadcrumbs.

5. Divide the pasta into 4 or 5 portions onto individual plates, top with the remaining sauce and garnish with the whole sardines, remaining breadcrumbs and the chopped fennel tops.

You can also add 2 T tomato paste and 3 Roma tomatoes that have been peeled, deseeded and chopped at step 3. This sounds tastier and I will do this next time I cook this dish.