Latest Handiwork

Here is one other thing I got to do when I was in St. Louis last week. It sure does make me happy to make things, and more happy when shared :) Last but one on the right made a wonderful gift to someone who ispired me in her own little way. And I am sure one of my friends back home is gonna be glad she doesn't have to go shopping for earrings with me in 3 weeks!

Nasi Goreng from Indonesia

Rice is one of the staples in SE Asia and I made the famous fried rice (Nasi Goreng) without meat, adapted from We Heart Food's recipe. I did not have all the ingredients listed and so improvised quite a bit. I used my spicy hot sauce instead of sambal, and mixed it with a little bit of maggi oriental sauce (we don't use ketchup). I pressure cooked two cups of rice, just before making this dish. Generally for fried rice, you want the rice grains to not stick, hence cooking the rice the previous day and refrigerating is recommended. However if you add a little lemon juice or oil when cooking the rice, it doesn't get sticky.

So basically it was a lot of cooking on the wok. First heat some peanut oil, add the cubed tofu and cook till the tofu is brown. I also season at every stage of cooking, so the tofu got some salt. Remove it and keep it aside. Then add the chopped scallions, julienned carrots, peas, garlic, red and green bell peppers. Cook till the veggies are soft, add the tofu back, then the sauce mix. Cook for a few more minutes, adjust the spice level and add the cooked rice. Toss till everything is combined well. Beat a couple of eggs, and make a thin omelet on a girdle, cut it into smaller pieces and spread on the fried rice. I used a mixture of cilantro, mint and sweet basil for garnish. The rice was not spicy and went well with the spicy Bicol Express.

Pepper & Crocheting

After a long break, I went back to work on my Afghan a little bit yesterday afternoon. This is a project in the making for a while, since I learned how to Crochet. One of my friend's mom taught me the skill during 2002 Christmas break. I have however failed to produce much albeit starting on a few projects, including this Afghan. Anyways, yesterday Pepper decided that I was having way too much fun with all the yarn and the pretty Afghan (yes, it is a rippled 3-color Afghan being made with really good yarn and is pretty). Hence she climbed down from her cage, on to the sofa, took a closer look at what I had and jumped right in. She was not very happy when I chased her back on the cage. She would go back, tear up some paper and in a couple of minutes be right back to play with the yarn. And I would have totally let her have some fun, if not for her sharp beak that cuts the yarn. I am sure she had shredding on her mind too!

The low quality pics are from my iphone :(

Burmese Spicy Sweet Potatoes

Here is another dish from my SE Asia night: Spicy Sweet Potatoes in coconut milk. This was Shankar's favorite dish of the day, and a friend asked for the recipe! I adapted this from AsiaRecipe.

I used a pressure cooker which fastened the cooking process, but the sweet potatoes got a little mushed for my taste. Basically I sauteed one chopped onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, couple of red hot Thai chilies (sliced), and grated ginger till the onions were soft. Then I added some turmeric, salt and pepper, a tbsp of soy sauce and a tbsp of lemon juice. After cooking for a minute, about a cup of coconut cream and a cup of water were added. Finally sliced regular and Japanese sweet potatoes were added to this mix and I cooked it for about 3 whistles. I think it would be better to cook them in a pan till the potatoes are just tender. I used three sweet potatoes and it was good for about 9 servings.

Kolam on a Kolam

This is one of my kolams to which the picture doesn't do any justice at all. And thats because I used a metallic / pearly lavender coat on top of the first kolam before starting the second one in white. Trust me - this piece looks so good in person, and I have actually gotten some compliments on it too! I am liking how the smaller kolams in the corner accentuates the middle piece. I also like the idea of a background kolam, but I think when I try this next, instead of a full kolam in the background, I will have a partial but bigger one in the background without the dots and a more intricate foreground. Any thoughts?

Prata - Singapore Style!

One of the dishes on SE Asia night was the Roti Prata. It is adapted from the South Indian Parota. Watching the dough get kneaded by my Kitchen Aid stand mixer for this dish was pure pleasure! And I am so glad my life is a lot easier with my kitchen appliances.

Basically I added 2 cups of flour in the mixer bowl, a pinch of baking soda, a 1/4 tsp of salt, 1/4 cup of ghee and started kneading. As the dough got crumbly, I added a little bit of milk to bring in to the doughy stage, then let the machine knead for about 8 minutes. Then I let it stand for a couple of hours.

For making the roti, I followed ChefinYou's method of basically taking a small portion of the dough (I made 8 rotis with 2 cups of flour), flattening it a little, roll it out, then pleated it, then folded the dough in a spiral. Again flatten the dough and roll it into desired size. Check out her site for detailed instructions on the rolling. The roti was cooked on my cast iron girdle to perfection. The roti came out really well, except that I had exactly one piece for each person. Wish I had the time to have made more.

Black Beauty in Hi-Res

Of course, I can never stop with posting a picture of just one baby! Here is Amy looking out the window, wondering if it is too soon to ask mommy to let her out again.

Loving my Baby!

Its been 3.5 months since we brought this big baby home and loving every minute of it! (ok, except when he chewed my laptop cord).... isn't he so handsome?