Handmaiden

Floating Markets

Had a great time recently travelling the floating markets just outside of Bangkok.
Sharon

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Beguiling Bangkok

Bangkok - Bangkok, Thailand

Friday photo: Floating market

Plum Sauce

I was recently given a huge basket of plums and decided to make Plum Sauce. It's really think. Perfect for ribs, duck or smothered on lamb.

3kg dark plums

1.5kg sugar

6 cups of cider vinegar

500g onions, chopped

3t salt

1T fresh grated ginger

3tground allspice

2 t ground cloves

1t ground cinnamon

1t cayenne pepper

1t mustard powder

juice of 1 lemon

 

Place all ingredients in sauscepan and stir over medium heat until sugar is disolved and mixture is boiling. Boil for 2 hours until it thickens.

I use a mouli to seive the skins from the pulp. Bring pulp back to the boil then bottle in sterislised jars.

Sharon

 

Lettuce Cups

Great for summer. Mince chicken or beef with asian flavours and roll your own in iceberg lettuce.

Recipes here

Sharon

Asian Table #6 Beef Rendang

Beef Rendang is one of my favourite Asian dishes - coming from Indonesia and Malaysia ( I think both countries are haggling over who it belongs to - a bit like who invented the Pav.

 As always I make double quantities and freeze in portions for another fuss free meal.

 

This is galangal. It belongs to the ginger family but is much harder and denser than ginger and has a camphor or menthol aroma.

 

You will need dried tamarind. It comes compressed with seeds and fibres in clear packaging which you add hot water to. Dont buy pureed in a jar as it is inferior in quality. Asian grocers will sell it.

 

After you add water it turns into a thick pulp which you will strain and use in your recipe.

INGREDIENTS

1.5kg lean stewing beef

2 medium brown or white onions, chopped

2T finely chopped garlic

1T chopped galangal

6 fresh red chillies

400ml coconut milk

11/2t salt

1t ground turmeric

2t chilli powder or to taste

3t ground coriander

1tground cumin

1/2t ground ginger

1stalk fresh lenongrass, bruised

125ml tamarind liquid

2t sugar

METHOD

Cut beef into strips and put into a large, heavy saucepan

Put onion, garlic, ginger, galangal, chillies and 1/2 cup water into blender, cover and blend until smooth.

Pour over meat and add all remaining ingredients except tamarind liquid and sugar.

Mix well and bring to the boil, uncovered.

Reduce heat to low, add tamarind liquid and simmer uncovered until gravy is thick, stirring occasionally.

Simmer for about 2 hours, stirring from time to time

Add sugar

Serve with rice and vegetable dishes

Sharon 

 

 

 

Mmmm Mango

Indian mangos for breakfast

 

Or make my chutney

I will be announcing the SEWN winner later tonight after 4pm AEST.....stay tuned 

Sharon

Asian Table #5 - Mango Chutney

 

1. Vegetable Samosas with Mango Chutney, 2. green mango chutney

INGREDIENTS

8 mangoes, slightly underipe -approx 2.7k

700g soft light brown sugar

1t cummin seeds

2 heaped tcoriander seeds

12 cardomom pods

1t cayenne pepper

1t turmeric powder

110g fresh grated root ginger

1t gound cloves

800ml malt vinegar

8 garlic cloves crushed

2 spanish onions, finely chopped

Preserving pan or large saucepan and 3 x 500ml jars (sterilized)

Begin the night before - Skin mangoes and cut up and place inbowl. Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit and cover with clingfilm and place in fridge.

Next day - dry roast the cumin, coriander and cardomom pods in small frying pan. Then crush in pestle and mortar. 

Next place mango, syrup and and all spices into pan. Bring upto simmer and let simmer for 3 hours, stirring from time to time, until the mango becomes translucent and the liquid has almost evaporated, leaving behind a thick syrup.

Remove from heat, let cool for 15 mins, then ladle into warm sterilized jars using a funnel. Seal whilst the chutney is still hot and label when cold.

Forget about it for 8 weeks to allow for maturation

Sharon

Asian Table #4 - BBQ Singapore Style

We have a number of BBQ pits around the condo that we can use for a BBQ with friends. Gregg marinated the lamb that he had brought back from a trip to Melbourne.

 

I made mango and coconut icecream  and made an ice bowl to serve it in. Simply place one bowl in another and fill space with water. I have added pureed mint to mine, but you can add cut up fruits or leaves to decorate. Wrap glad wrap (seran wrap) around bowls to keep in place and put in freezer.

   

Delicious

Sharon 

Asian Table #3 - Sesame Crusted Tuna

 

This is really super quick

Roll the tuna steak in sesame seeds. I use black and white seeds

Grill on high heat for 2 mins max on each side or to your liking.

I like it raw like sashimi.

Serve with soy and wasabi as dipping sauce

Tip...bring steak to room temperature before cooking so you do not serve it refrigerator cold in the middle.

Enjoy

Sharon

Asian Table #2

I made Kashmiri Lamb Curry last night and the recipe is here. It's delicious and not too spicy. Add more chilli if you want it hotter.

Some of the key ingredients saffron, tumeric, star anise, chilli and cumin

Saffron giving both colour and flavour

Star Anise gives a liquorice flavour. Here you can see the seed pods and then finely ground star anise. Its very hard like cinnamon bark so I use a favourite gadget - my coffee grinder.

We keep this just for spices, especially very hard ones. There is nothing nicer that freshly ground spices - the smell is divine. I especially love grinding up my own spice mix for my Christmas cake... cinnamon and cloves. Mmm!

For other spices or making marinades I use a pestle and mortar

Sharon

Asian Table #1

This is the beginning of an occasional series on Asian ingredients, my favourite Asian inspired recipes, handy kitchen gadgets and anything else that takes my fancy. If there is anything you would like me to write about let me know.

Singapore is the food hub of Asia, an eclectic mix of ethnic influences covering Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisines with a good dose of Japanese thrown in.

So first up we will explore Sweet, Sour, Salty and Hot - this is the basis for all Asian recipes.

Sweet -Palm Sugar

This comes in many forms and I am showing a dark large circular block, but I have seen them much paler and in small tablet form. I find using a microplaner a great tool to use to grate it. I am sure a regular grater would be fine too.

Salty - You will be familiar with Fish Sauce and Soya Sauces (sweet, dark, light, low salt) but not perhaps Kichap Manis a sweet dark soy sauce from Indonesia.

Sour - Coconut Vinegar, Black Vinegar, Tamarind (not shown) and Kaffir Lime

These kaffir limes and leaves have come straight from the freezer where you can store them. I use my microplaner again to zest the frozen limes and then pop them back in the freezer. The leaves should be folded in half with the stalk just ripped out leaving you two parts that you then very finely chop.

Hot - Chilli Pastes, Powder and Jams

 

We love this chilli jam- Reuben Solomon, husband of the cookery writer Charmaine. You dont need much and we mix it with a good mayo as a spread for sandwiches and wraps for an extra kick

Some of these ingredients will be used in the following recipe along with

Coconut Milk/Cream - this is an alkaline that removes some of the heat if there is too much heat and can cool the mouth

Pomelo - similar to a grapefuit, but much bigger and sweeter if its the pink thai version

So this week's recipe is one of my all time favs to start with. Its so simple to make and is a one bowl meal which is even better.

Smoked Trout and Pomelo Salad........see recipe here

Hope you enjoy

Pop over to Chalet Girl who has a fabric giveaway to celebrate her 200th blog post

Sharon