Self Serve Sandwich Toast

Lazy days are happy days. Everyone is out and nobody's coming home for lunch. :D. Unfortunately I still have to prepare something because I have this darn blog to feed. I scrummaged in my fridge/kitchen and I found that I did not have any flour to make cakes or cookies with but I did have the curry chicken filling left over from the curry puffs that I made two weeks ago (I freezed the filling and took it out to defrost). I had a can of tuna, mayo, onions, left over roast, some almost wilted clelery, green chillies from the Thai green curry and the rest, they say, is easy peasy.

I came up with three kinds of filling for sandwiches but the best part is that each person has to make a sandwich himself. And since I was the only person around that of course meant me.

I sliced the roast. I stared at the curry puff chicken and potatoes filling. And I made the tuna filling.

Tuna filling:
1 can of 185 gm flaked tuna in oil or water, drained
3 - 4 teaspn of mayo
salt and pepper

Blitz them all in a food processor and adjust for taste. Blitz until the mixture is fine and smooth that you could spread it with a knife like it was butter. For some reason it tastes so good this way that everybody thinks I had put something really special in it and they keep (annoyingly) asking me to make some more. In truth, that is all there is to it. Swear to God. Perhaps it is just the fact that it is blitzed to a paste that makes it taste good rather than mixing the tuna and mayo roughly with a spoon. I mean it is really good, but you will have to blitz it.



Now that the fillings are done slice some cabbage, celery, onions, chillies and whatever else that you have finely.



Pile everything that you like up on a slice of bread of choice, buttered or not buttered, sprinkle a little shredded cheddar cheese on the top and of course finish it off with another slice of bread. Butter the sandwich on the outside and swipe a mixture of garlic paste and black pepper on the outside top slice of bread and on the outside bottom sliced bread too of you like.



Toast in a sandwich toaster until golden brown.

Eat. That was my lunch and it was pretty good for a bloggered one.

A Bottle of Honey

Haven't we all been perplexed, crippled and thwarted by that cone-shaped bottle of honey? Yes, plain old honey. In a bottle with the pointed tip. That you can't keep in the fridge ( for fear of it solidifying),that you can't keep on a Malaysian kitchen table (for fear of ants), that you don't want to bother to let it sit in a bowl of water to outsmart those ants and that you don't want to bother to cover the tip with a piece of foil to outsmart other bothersome beings like impregnated flies. So what do we do?

Let me not tell you the things that I have done to get that honey out (after refrigerating it). I have soaked the bottle in warm/hot water until the honey, along with the bottle, liquified (which took forever), I have struggled with the feat of making the bottle stand upside down, on its tip, on its own, hands free, for at least fifteen minutes or, out of frustration, I have wrung the bottle and then asked to be resuscitated afterwards from the effort of it all, and sometimes, just sometimes, I begin to wonder if I was, after all, just a stupid cow.

However, after having had one of my sons go to the mini market to get a bottle of honey for the pancakes that I was making for them, he came home with a bottle of honey that I found, after some pain, to be worthy of some blogological dissertation..

It's not the honey that I'm going to tell you about though but the bottle. It was actually labeled upside down. My first thought was how could any respectable manufacturing company have labeled their bottles up side down only to have it exported and have them sit on the shelves all around the world? So silly. I smirked.

But I took a second look and then out of itchy hands (gatal tangan) I turned it the 'right way up'. At least, what seemed the right way up, that is with the label the right way up. When I had done that I found that there was no opening on the 'top'. So I sat there staring at the bottle's bottom but with the label the right way up all the way. Oh God! this calls for some serious use of brain power.

In the meantime I took some pictures thinking that I might have stumbled upon the opportunity to win fifty ringgit from Star for strange, amusing and incomprehensible situations. Plus an evil opportunity to put CAPILANO HONEY LIMITED to shame and out of business.

However, still determined and hopeful to put things right, I turned it 'upside down' again, that is, with the label the wrong way up, with the bottom end at the bottom and the capped end at the top. Then I did the unthinkable. I flipped the cap open and peered inside. I snapped off the little thingy that sealed the opening and scrutinized further.

Ah..... discovery of the century and science at its most useful stared back smack into my flabbergasted face.

The opening was covered with a translucent and concave shield with an X cut across it. That, my dear Watson, was why the bottle was 'upside down' or that 'right side up' was actually the 'wrong side up'.

That little concave screen, with the X cut across it, allowed you to keep it 'upside down' or the 'right side up' (frankly in this here discussion it doesn't matter so long everything is put in inverted commas) for the easy flow of honey when you squeeze the bottle but at the same time it prevents the honey from leaking out when you don't squeeze the bottle inspite of the pressure from the weight of the honey when the bottle is 'upside down'. Why?

Well, the cross does not activate and open up unless the bottle is squeezed (meaning when extra pressure is exerted) and because of its concave shape, or convex shape if you are inside the bottle, it does not give way under all that pressure and therefore remains closed and seals off the opening so long the bottle is not squeezed(that is when there is no extra pressure being exerted).

I rest my case.

However, being the visionary that I am, I have taken pictures of this here bottle of honey so that those of you out there, who are still in an ignoramus state of mind like I was some seconds ago, will not have to go through the puzzling pain, the obtuse scrutiny and whimsical wonderment that I had to go through.

You're welcome.

Preeta Samarasan - Evening is the Whole Day

Apparently point and shoot cameras need some amount of skill too. Here, there's an obvious lack of it.

This is not a food post but I thought it would be an interesting post anyway. It's not everyday that you get to meet a successful writer of international acclaim. This young lady is Preeta Samarasan. Her book Evening is the Whole Day is her first novel and a very successful one. I had attended the MPH Mid-Valley's monthly Lit Addict's Meet.

Unfortunately, I had gone there without reading her novel which I am sure must have disappointed her some. But I have a signed copy now and a good read tonight. My intention though of attending the discussion was not to talk about the book but rather to talk with her. I had a feeling that the gentleman next to me, whom I believe had arranged the meeting, was a little contemptuous that I had the cheek to attend the meet without reading the book beforehand. I sensed that he ticked me off a little, quite subtly. LOL

But really, I did read a synopsis of the book, we were not about to attend a lecture, nor about to sit for a quiz, so I did not think that we had to prepare ourselves like a bunch of school kids, apart from the fact that life gets in the way very often lately. I have read too some very good reviews of her book and that was enough to make me grab the opportunity to meet her apart from the fact that I was much more interested in the writer and the trials and tribulations that she may have experienced during the writing process.. (Okay, okay, having given all those excuses I have to admit that I did feel a little guilty anyway).

Preeta is a Malaysian now living in France with her equally young husband. She seemed a little nervous, but who wouldn't be, dealing with such success at such a young age. Someone asked her how she would like to be remembered and I recall Preeta being more than a little tickled, feeling perhaps the implication of 'agedness', if there is such a word, by such a question or perhaps just a little humbly embarrassed that she should be asked such. I can't recall her answer though. What I do remember was, her saying, "I'm not that old!" with laughter attached.

I did find out though that the novel had started out with just three characters (as in people not alphabets). That was in 1999 and at the time Preeta said that she had no idea where the story would be heading. She did not have an outline let alone any idea of how the story would end. Apparently she had started on the novel by writing in longhand and had never imagined that the completed novel would finally be written in reverse order. I haven't read the book but I will write a review once I have.

Her writing has been described as rich, quirky and colourful in prose of acrobatic grace. It is a novel of a "vibrant cast of characters" and "of a family struggling to deal with its past" during a time of the crazy uncertainty of a country coming to terms with itself. She writes of the strains and clashes in a country where the different races "vie for their positions in society". Fortunately she has not had any problem of censorship by the Malaysian censorship board because, as someone there was saying, "Malaysians don't read". Most favoured joke on Malaysians by Malaysians who do or think they do.

There were five of us sitting at the table. My son and I, Preeta, the gentleman next to me, and a young lady across from me until Preeta's husband came along and another lady most probably an MPH staff. It surprised me that it was such a small group. I was imagining that the whole book cafe would be used up for the event. I suppose Malaysians really don't read. But the rest of the large MPH store were quite thronged with people. So I'm quite confused to say the least.

Preeta says that she has a very good memory for the unnecessary things, like all the details of a conversation or the colour of someone's baggage perhaps but a bad memory for necessary ones like bills and appointments. Her husband confirmed her claim good-naturedly and lovingly. If this was a perfect world many of us, I am sure, would have had such a claim for ourselves confirmed good-naturedly too. Unfortunately, as mere mortals, we do not live in a perfect world as they do. Such is the world of writers. Successful ones I mean.

My son asked if she wrote for the money. No, that was never her motivation. But she's making some anyway. How convenient.

"Ooops now where did I put the car keys??!! Oh no!...the lights have gone off! Darn! I forgot to pay the electricity bill! Gosh.. I must get the pair of red heels that the young woman in the purple striped t-shirt with yellow hotpants was weraing at Friday's two months and three days ago!".

Hmm... come to think of it I must get that book completed too. Not that I need the money.

It was Ayamas black pepper chicken for dinner tonight. Yay no cooking! Thanks to Preeta.

Tuna and Potato Croquettes

Some of you might remember the 5 potatoes I boiled and abandoned one morning not very long ago. Exactly five posts ago if you care to know. Well it did not go to waste because after leaving them to hibernate in the fridge for two days I made them into croquettes with tuna, chopped coriander, mayo and lemon juice. We had it for dinner with the Thai green curry I whipped up just now.

The children cleaned the platter and I'm a satisfied mother, cook and blogger. Husband doesn't fancy this kind of play food. He dug into the Thai green curry though.

5 medium or 3 large potatoes (about 500 gm)
185 gm can of flaked tuna in oil or water
3 - 4 Tablespn of mayonnaise
1 tsp cumin powder
1-2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped coriander stalks and leaves
salt to taste

About 3 cups fresh breadcrumbs
2 eggs, beaten
About 1 cup of cornflour to coat

Boil potatoes in skin. Leave to cool completely. Peel. Mash.
Add drained tuna, cumin, chopped coriander, mayonnaise, pepper, lemon juice and salt. Mix well until well combined into one large mound.

Shape into a three-sided cylinder using two tablespoons by turning and shifting from one tablespoon to the other. There's a name for this but I can't even recall what letter the word begins with.

Anyway the picture will help I hope. Lay them on a platter before the coating step.



Put the cornflour, eggs and breadcrumbs in three separate platters. Coat the croquettes in first flour, then egg and lastly breadcrumbs and put aside on a baking tray. This is a little messy and I had to wash my hands in between every three croquettes. I made 18 pieces in all.

Heat up 1 1/2 cups of cooking oil in a small wok or medium sized frying pan and fry the croquettes until a golden brown on each side. It doesn't take long at all as there is nothing raw inside. Drain on kitchen paper to rid it of excess oil.

Serve.

TIP : By dipping it first in cornflour, eggs, then breadcrumbs, a thin crispy skin will form giving the croquettes a little more crunch.

TIP : You can vary the ingredients by using 800 gm of white fish fillet instead of the tuna or minced meat or chicken. Personally I have never tried it with beef or chicken so I can't say how much you'll need. Give it a try and let me know. Vary the herbs as well.