THAI GLASS NOODLE SALAD

Glass noodles ~ cellophane noodles ~ mung bean threads ~ su'on ~ tunghoon ~ they're all one and the same. Slippery glass threads that are near impossible to scoop up if they were put into a soup. It's not to be confused with rice noodles.

It's complete transparency and its feel as it slips through your lips, slides over your tongue and slithers down your throat makes it a very unique noodle. 

It is an ingredient in a lovely soup with dried or fresh shrimps  that I used to eat as a child. A soup that's made up of bean curd skin, loofah, wooden ear fungus, golden needles and finally the glass noodles. Delicious. It was a favourite vegetable soup. But it was always the glass noodles that attracted and fascinated me more than anything else. It kept me busy.

But the Thais have made it the main ingredient in a light and lovely salad. Less slithery because it is not in a soup but is a moist salad and very delicious because it is mixed with a spicy, salty, sour and sweet dressing made of fish sauce, lime juice, bird chillies and brown sugar with the addition of some prawns, dried and fresh, and minced chicken. MMMM

My son and I had it for lunch today. It was a healthy lunch. Unfortunately I spoiled the 'healthy' part by gorging on some pineapple tarts I had baked right after. And as if I hadn't sinned enough.....2 hours after that I had a bowl of ice cream. But I redeemed myself by having an orange after.

Shall I'll try again tomorrow?

I have to tell you that it tasted even better after I had some later in the evening after the noodles had absorbed all the flavours of the dressing. Double MMMMMMMM

The recipe ~ the measurements are approximate since I had thrown everything in before remembering to measure them.....

100 gm dried glass noodles

100-150 gm minced chicken

5-6 pieces of medium prawns, shelled and cleaned, left whole season with little salt and pepper

1 cup of chopped spring onions

1/4 cup of chopped coriander

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 T dried shrimps, fried to a crisp and pounded finely (optional but more flavourful if included)

The 

Dressing ~

3 T fish sauce

1 T brown sugar

3-4 bird chillies or use large chillies if you prefer less heat

1-2 T lime juice

Soak the glass noodles in cold water to soften for about 10 minutes. Then drain placing the noodles back into the bowl. Pour just boiled water into the bowl of noodles and let stand for just 3-4 seconds and then drain thoroughly running cold water through to rid it of the heat. Keep aside.

Cook the minced chicken in a frying pan using only 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil. Season with very little salt and pepper. Scoop out to a bowl. Saute the prawns in the same pan. Add a little oil of too dry. Don't use to much salt because the fish sauce is very salty.

Place the fish sauce and the brown sugar in a small pot and cook to a syrup. 

Pound the chillies or chop them. Then mix the rest of the dressing ingredients to the fish sauce syrup. Taste and adjust for sweetness and tartness. 

Combine the noodles, chopped spring onions, coriander sliced onions, cooked minced chicken fresh prawns and dried shrimps in a medium bowl. Pour the dressing over and mix well. Adjust for saltiness by adding salt or a few dashes of fish sauce. Serve. 

DOUGHNUTS ~ FOOD FOR THOUGHT

This is my fourth contribution to Food For Thought. A fortnightly meme, the brainchild of the wonderfully talented Jain of food With Style and of  Once in a Blue Moon. 

If you read a book and love to cook post a post as Food For Thought.

OLIVE KITTERIDGE BY ELIZABETH STROUT
**** and a half

Lives lived are mostly dysfunctional. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout throws that fact into our faces. And I find it hard to dispute otherwise.

Olive is a large woman, solidly built, who lives without apology. She may be illogical, logical, temperamental, perceptive, obsessive, ego-centric, compassionate or abrasive. Or all of them at once. You feel her rage, you connect with her frustrations and her denials but at times you also despise her. Finally you sympathize in her fight to endure.


This is a book about several people, each, neck deep in living out their lives and reacting. Some desperately, some resignedly and some stubbornly to the crap their world has to offer.


This is also a story about the pain of growing old, the feeling of despair and frustration when you watch your stroke striken spouse become blank and distant then relieved and heartbroken when he dies. It is about the anger welling inside of you as you watch your children grow away and who seem intent on breaking your heart. It is about being "done with that stuff" in regards to bedroom life and about "I don't care if I die either....Long as it's quick."

This is a story about spouses who sense the infidelity, each in the other, mentally or physically, but who sometimes choose to pretend otherwise, to appear, even to themselves, to understand, intent on rationalizing the unacceptable or where things happen that alter their perception of each other forever. 

It is about wondering how or why you have become what you are and your marraige what it is. This is a story about life. Take it or leave it.

There is no plot really. Like real life. Strout presents Olive Kitteridge through the stories of uniquely different people each connected to Olive in some way, significantly or otherwise, in a small town of Crosby, Maine, a town by the sea where the waves lap, the seagulls squawk, the wind blows and the flowers bloom.

It ends with Olive Kitteridge feeling vindicated in her belief at the age of seventy four "that lumpy aged and wrinkled bodies were as needy as their own young firm ones."

I found the book depressing but from page 203 onwards Strout 's descriptions of situations and characters began to take on the occasional hilarious streak. Some simply made me laugh out loud. 

Olive is a multi-faceted character, like us. And to be able to write about people like us in minute and introspective detail, with clarity, is astonishing and, to read it, is frightening.


This is not a book for everyone. It wasn't unputdownable for me simply because it was mostly depressing or perhaps because it was too raw, uncomfortably truthful and blatant about angry feelings, about growing old, about infidelity, about imperfection, about real life. Perhaps we all live in denial at some point of our lives.


It won the Pulitzer Prize and I can certainly see why.

Perhaps ~

We may be old enough to make choices but we may never be old enough to know if we have made the right ones. 

Olive Kitteridge loves doughnuts. 

Dunkin donuts was where Olive and Henry, her affable husband, would stop by for a coffee, for doughnuts and for the doughnut holes. Doughnuts feature consistently in the book and I knew it had to be either donuts or doughnuts for Food For Thought.

It's amazing how pretty and playful doughnuts can look. I'm not much of a doughnut person and am amazed that people actually make a long bee line for doughnuts from a shop called Big Apple Donuts when it opened several years ago. I must say their toppings simply set them apart. They were gorgeously pretty. You just have to click on their link.They are beautiful! Sorry Dunkin Donuts!

If I had a little bit more love for doughnuts I would probably be queuing up myself.

This doughnut recipe belongs to Delia Smith. These doughnuts are gorgeously delicious, soft and thick. I've never tried any other doughnut recipe but my son says a lady at his university canteen sells doughnuts that are just so good because they are crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. But I don't have her recipe so Delia Smith's it is.

The recipe ~

Makes 8 doughnuts......

8 oz plain flour

11/2 oz castor sugar

2 tsp dried yeast ( I used the same amount of instant yeast)

1 egg, beaten

1 oz butter

1/2 tsp salt

3 T milk

3 T boiling water

Oil for frying

Method......

Measure the milk into a measuring jug and then add the boiling water, a teaspoon of the sugar and the yeast. Stir it and leave the jug in a warm place for about 10 minutes till the yeast mixture froths. Put the rest of the sugar, the salt and the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Then pour in the beaten egg and frothy yeast mixture and stir and mix to a smooth dough. If it sems a little dry add a tespoon or so of warm water. 

Turn the dough out onto a board and knead for about 10 minutes by which time it should feel springy and show slight blisters just under the surface. return it to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place to rise until double in size, about 45 minutes to an hour.

When it has risen tip it out onto a board and punch it down to disperse large air bubbles. Divide the dough into 8 equal parts and flatten to a disc.

At this point I depart from Delia Smith by shaping it into a ring instead of filling the centre with jam. 

Once shaped place on a baking tray and enclose them in an oiled plastic bag or a bin liner as Delia suggests. Let them rise for 30 minutes. Heat up enough oil (I used canola) in a pot to deep fry to about 185 C and fry the doughnuts, turning them frequently so that htey will brown evenly. About 4 minutes frying time.

drain on kitchen paper tehn toss then on a bowl of castor sugar or any sugar combination that you like.

MUSHROOM PIE

Here are some not so pretty pies that I made. Hunks. But they taste so good that I had to post. (The one in the picture above is one of the better ones).

An odd thing about this pie is that it has a front and a rear end. It's twice the size of a curry puff, is not quite a semi circle, is not a round, is not a square nor is it a rectangle. It has an unname-able odd shape. And they're not exactly dainty either.


I used to see these gorgeous hunks whenever the Chinese roti man in a van came honking around in the evenings in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. They were handsomer than mine. The pies.

These are pies or turnovers made with a particular Chinese pastry recipe that I had scribbled down in haste from a tv show while pacifying my year old daughter at the time. A precious layered crust as delicate and as flaky and soft as a thousand year old stack of parchments newly dug from an archeological site Somewhere.

I went through 2 trials to get the crust and shape to look somewhat presentable. It is made up of 2 types of dough. One enclosed in the other and then rolled out. Some lightness of hand is required here to avoid the inside dough from leaking out. 


Often these pastries are filled with kaya, a rich delicious Malaysian coconut jam or a sweet bean paste or a savoury mushroom filling. I chose  the latter.

The filling was delicious, if I have to say so myself. I made it loosely based on the original mushroom filling recipe. I had used button mushrooms the first time and the second time around I used a combo of shitake and enoki mushrooms.

It was simply delicious. My children and even my husband who isn't inclined to play food were nodding with pleasure and I heard some mmmm-hmmmms from crammed mouths of crust.

There aren't a million pictures in this post because I couldn't get any decent pictures, my motivation dying little deaths at each click. 


I have to tell you that I took some shots of the filling as in a dramatic quaking of the pie with the filling spilling out theatrically onto the plate. Well that looked even worse so I'm not posting the pic lest I disgrace myself. 

I know these photos are not going to make it pass Foodgawker or Tastespotting with whom I have a love hate realationship going.

But let me insist that it was GOOD!

The recipe ~

The pastry....

Dough (A)

240 gm bread flour
120 gm shortening
45 gm castor sugar
4 T cold water
1 tsp lime juice or lemon juice (I used apple cider vinegar because that was  what I had)


Dough (B)
90 gm plain flour
70 gm shortening


Sift the flours seperately in seperate bowls. For dough A put in teh sugar, a little less if you prefer, mix it then add the shortening and using a pastry cutter or 2 knifes cut into the fat and flour until the mixture becomes a coarse meal. Then using your fingers rub until fine like breadcrumbs. Pour in teh liquids and bring the dough together gently until it becomes a smooth mound. Leave to rest for 15 to 20 minutes.


For dough B, add the fat into the flour and using a metal or wooden spoon stir to mix until it becomes a paste and, lightly, using your fingers bring the dough together. This dough is more paste like than dough like.


After resting, divide both doughs inot 10 equal pieces. 


Roll out one piece of dough A into a small thick circle about 21/2 inches in diameter and place a ball of dough B in the centre. Bring up the edges of dough A and scrunch it up at the top, squeeze to seal and roll gently into a smooth ball. Roll out into a longish oval about 5 inches long and 21/2 inches across. Be careful not to let the inside dough leak out. A little tricky.


Place a small mound of filling on one half of the oval leaving 1 cm clean around the edges. Wipe some egg white around the half the edges and turn over the other half of the dough , seal and crimp with your fingers or use a fork. Place on a lined baking tray. Do the same for the rest of the dough and filling.


Brush the tops of the pies with egg yolk. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 25 - 30 minutes.


The filling.......


250 gm of any combination of mushrooms, brushed clean and stalks removed if necessary and sliced,
120 gm of thinly shredded beef or other meat
1/2 large white onion
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cornflour

1 tsp balsamic vinegar
some chives, chopped 1 inch lengths
salt
black pepper
cooking oil


Marinate the beef with the soy sauce, sugar and cornflour. Keep aside.


Slice onion and garlic. Heat pan and add 1 -2 T cooking oil. Saute onion and garlic till soft. Add mushrooms and saute about 3-4 minutes. Dont let the mushrooms soften too much.

Add the marinated beef, salt, black pepper and stir until the beef is cooked, probably about 4-5 minutes on medium heat. Put in balsamic vinegar and adjust seasoning if necessary. If there is some thin juice in the mixture mix 1 tsp of cornflour with a little water and add to mix and heat until the sauce thickens. Allow to completely cool before use.

SWEET COCONUT CAKE ~ KUIH BINGKA GANDUM

I falter at the word cake to describe Malaysian 'cakes' or kuih (pronounced ko-weh). Ours, in culture, are very much more like the Spanish tapas, like snacks, served and eaten at any time of the day.

In taste and texture, most kuih are sweet and when they are sweet they are also sticky, dense and heavy with the heady fragrance of coconut cream and pandan leaves combined. They are very rarely leavened with baking powder. So these are not light and fluffy  'cakes'.

And never are they used as a centre piece to celebrate a birthday, anniversary or other occasion. Never are candles poked into them and never are they decorated with cream or sugar flowers. And I dare say never. I believe the idea of celebrating a birthday came into being with the introduction of a western cake. 

At most our kuih are wrapped in banana leaves and served with a coconut cream sauce or a palm sugar syrup. For amusement we tint them in bright tropical colours and add layers for pain joy and distraction. And never are they served whole. They are always served sliced usually in diamond shapes. And they are, more than not, steamed rather than baked.


Moistness does not factor in a kuih discussion because stickiness and chewiness overwhelms any question of moistness or dryness. We like our kuih dense, sticky and with a good bite to it not crumbly or airy. Good with a heavily sweetened cup of frothed milk tea and the ever popular past time of political bashing.

This kuih made of plain wheat flour, coconut milk and eggs and sugar is one of the simplest of all kuih yet I could not get it quite right. At least not the way I wanted it to be. Normally this is made without the pandan so it would have been a whitish cream coloured kuih rather than green. But I like green and I like pandan.

The best one I have made was more than 20 years ago while we were living in London and I had used a canned oily coconut cream. The whole upper floor of the house that we rented was filled with the sweet fragrance of coconut as it baked and I could do nothing else but take long, deep and sweet breaths and tap my fingers impatiently. It was heady, totally wild and aromatic while the edges rose to become a thick golden, crusty rim.

I have never been able to replicate it since. I wish I knew what I did right. I will try again. But in the meantime this is pretty good in itself.

The reicpe ~


2 cups plain flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
4 eggs
440 ml coconut milk or cream
juice from 3 or 4 pandan leaves


beat eggs and sugar till light. Add flour and mix in until all flour in incorporated. Add in the coconut milk and pandan juice and mix well.


Pour into a 9 x 6 inch rectangular pan lined with baking paper for easy removal.


Bake at 170 for 30 to 40 minutes until firm and the top is golden brown. Remove and allow to col completely before cutting and serving.