A tip or two on how to make vegetables tasty

I recently watched a British documentary titled 'Fast Food Baby' on ABC. The first thought that popped into my head after the show was 'how can parents expect their children to eat those bland plain-boiled vegetables that look like they have had all the vitamines and nutrients boiled out of them'? While my heart goes out to parents who try desperately to get their kids to eat fibre, the reality is if I were a kid, I probably would not consider broccoli or zuchinni that is plain-boiled without any flavours or raw celery sticks as remotely edible. It can only be commonsense that before parents can expect to get their kids to eat veggies without them sticking a tube down their throat, they must first learn how to make them tasty. There are so many delicious child-friendly vegie recipes out there that no kid deserves to be fed tasteless strings of fibre. All it takes is some innovative spirit and basic understanding of flavour combinations to make even the least popular vegies tasty. For instance, while raw cucumber can be quite bland on its own, you can whip up a tangy sweet and sour cucumber salad with chopped cucumber, garlic (or garlic salt), rice vinegar, sugar and a dash of soy. For the adult version, add chopped red chilli for a flavour boost. Eggplant can be tasteless on its own, and take on a slightly bitter taste if overcooked, but it acts as a 'flavour sponge' when cooked with other ingredients. For example,pan-fried eggplant with garlic and balsamic vinegar makes a simple-yet-delicious child-friendly dish. If there was ever a 'most-hated vegetable for children' list, then broccoli would most certainly top that list without a doubt. A simple make-over, however, is all it takes to boost broccoli's reputation. There are so many flavours that go well with broccoli, such as stir-fried broccoli with garlic and soy, steamed broccoli (not the over-cooked broccoli that takes on a poopy-brown colour) with a garlic and cheese sauce, or simply melted butter. I could sit here all day going on about how to make vegies taste good, OR I could urge all parents to folllow this simple recipe: season vegies with a bit of commonsense, creativity and knowledge, and what comes out WILL be eaten!

Quick spicy stew with leftover roast chicken, red pepper, leek and baby spinach-a recipe that makes Coles's $10 dinner campaign look like a scam!

Ingredients (for 4 people):

• ½ of leftover roast chicken ($8 for a whole roast chook from Franklins, so about $4-5 worth of leftover chicken)
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed ($0.20)     
• 1 large red capsicum or 2 small red capsicums ($2), cut into strips
• 1 large leek ($1.5),
• 1-2 birds eye chili ($0.10),
• Salt and pepper to taste (price negligible)
• 2 tablespoons of light soy sauce (price negligible)
• A handful of coriander ($0.50)
• 3 handfuls of baby spinach ($1.5-2)
• 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar (price negligible)           
• 1 teaspoon of sugar (price negligible)
• Olive oil (price negligible)

Total price: approximately AUD$10

Method:

Shred the chicken meat into strips (note: only use the chicken meat in this recipe, minus the skin, as the skin has too much of the roast chicken flavour for this Asian-inspired recipe). Sautee the garlic and leek in a dash of olive oil. Add some salt to help soften the leek. When the leek is softened, add the red capsicum strips, chili and black pepper. Put the lid on, and stew the veggies on medium heat for about 5-6 mins, or until the leek becomes creamy and capsicum softened. Add the chicken strips, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar, cook for 2-3 minutes until all the flavours are combined and chicken heated through. Add the baby spinach and cook with the lid on for 1-2 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted. Garnish with coriander and serve with steamed rice.

This recipe puts Coles’s $10 dinner campaign to shame, as it transforms the humble leftover cold chicken into a well-balanced one-pot wonder that goes a long way (rather than Coles’s $10 dinner recipes that mostly consist of only meat and carb). You can bulk up the dish even more by adding 1 more capsicum and leek, maybe even a few baby potatoes. You can replace the pricy baby spanich with its cheaper cousin English spanich. The carcass and skin can be kept to make a delicious chicken stock. There is no better way to use up the good ol' leftover roast chicken!

Sandy's addictive oven-baked spicy BBQ chichen wings-you will want to make them everyday, trust me.

Ingredients:

• 2 kilos of chicken wings
• 1 cup of tomato sauce
• 1/4 cup of worcestershire sauce
• juice of one lemon
• 2-4 tablespoons hot/mild mustard (depends on your taste)
• 1-2 tablespoons of ABC Extra Hot Chilli Garlic Sauce from Heinz (available from Woolworths and Coles. You can substitute the sauce with minced red hot chilli, sugar, garlic, and salt)
• 1 tablespoon of hickory
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar (you can use normal white sugar or raw sugar, but brown sugar will intensify the caramelization process of the sauce, making the wings extra sticky)   
• 1-2 tablespoons of minced garlic (if you have a social engagement to attend to afterwards, you should reduce the amount of garlic to be socially acceptable)
• 1/4 cup of water
• White pepper to taste

Method:

Pre-cook the chicken wings in boiling water for about 5-6 minutes, depending on the size of the wings. Note: this makes a light chicken stock.

Drain and set aside the pre-cooked chicken wings.

Make the BBQ marinade by mixing all the ingredients together. Marinate the partly cooked wings in the BBQ marinade sauce for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Note: the longer, the better, preferably at least an hour.

Place the marinaded chicken wings on a baking dish, pour leftover marinade over the chicken wings. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180-200 C (depending on the type of your oven) for 15-20 minutes, turn and toss the chicken wings to ensure that they are evenly coated in the sauce. Bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until the sauce has caramelized, and wings become tender. Done!

The wings can be served as a main meal with rice and green veggies, or as a snack. The end result should be tender chicken wings coated in a sticky spicy and smoky sauce. These chicken wings are addictive and finger-licking good!

My love-love relationship with country cooking

I have always had a love-love relationship with the good ol’ country cooking. My mother-in-law is a great country cook, and most things she cooks are as ‘exotic’ to me as Asian food is to her. For instance, her ‘goulash’ consists of chopped meat stewed in gravy, and if she feels extra ‘kinky’, she would throw in a couple of bay leaves. My goulash with hot paprika would prove to be too much on the exotic side for her pallet. I especially love her roast pork with mash potato. It is comforting to have a gigantic plant of meat and potato covered in a rich 80%-fat gravy-while your waist line is secretly cursing you out, your heart knows that you are very much loved.  

While most people would say country cooking is comforting because their mother used to cook that way. Well, growing up in a Chinese family with a mother who can’t cook to save her life, I am not in a position to say that. While I cannot say that country cooking reminds me of home, I can say that it reminds me of love and simplicity of the country lifestyle. Country cuisine is also comforting for someone like me with a larger-than-life appetite. Sometimes the only thing that can make me feel better is a juicy pork roast with hearty potatoes and bouncy peas-all 800 grams of them! The pork might not be seasoned with exotic spices, the potatoes might not be mashed with cream and organic butter, and the only fibre you find on the plate might be a couple of overcooked peas, dwarfed by the size of the roast and the all-mighty pile of mash potato, but you find tremendous comfort in knowing that you will feel fed, and that you don’t have to worry about food for the coming days, as there will be enough leftovers to feed an army. Just when you think you have reached your monthly red meat quota in one meal, you are served the leftover stew on toast the next morning for breakfast. Whenever I visit my mother-in-law, I constantly find myself in a ‘should-I, should-I-not’ situation. My health-conscious mind is constantly at odds with my greedy stomach, and most of the time, the smell of her stew or roast ends up too powerful for the mind to resist. So, during this festive season, enjoy your fat-dripping pork roast and leave all the dieting till next year!

If you like eating, go to a diner!

I recently had dinner at Gecko Restaurant and Bar in Brighton Le Sands (for those international readers, it is in Sydney, Australia). The entrees were grilled octopus and grilled halloumi cheese with tomatoes, and my main was seafood risotto. The food was disappointing, especially given the price tag. I could go on for days, but in a nutshell, the octopus was overcooked and rubbery, the balsamic glaze was too sweet to go with the halloumi cheese, the cooked tomatoes lacked the punch needed to balance with the salty halloumi cheese, and my seafood risotto was under-seasoned, and didn't even come with parmesan cheese! My dining experience at Gecko added another disappointing dining experience to my long list of disappointing dining experiences, and further strengthened my preference for diner food. My advice to all foodies out there: if you like eating, go to a diner! And here is why:

First of all, you actually get fed at a diner. On the contrary, you need to eat before and after going to most (fancy) restaurants. I think there is something very wrong about having to eat before and after a restaurant meal, when you go to a restaurant with the intent of getting fed! I have visited many fancy restaurants, where I pay out-of-this-world prices for a plate of food as big as the bits and pieces you usually find caught between your teeth! Maybe it is just me being greedy, as I do have a more-than-healthy appetite, and am capable of swallowing a whole cow when I am hungry, but I am convinced that most healthy people would agree that anything less than 100 grams should not considered a 'main' unless you weigh less than 50 kilos (or have eaten beforehand). I remember going to Jamie Oliver's restaurant Fifteen in Melbourne a few years ago, and feeling so hungry after the two-course meal that I had to rush to a pie shop afterwards to get a quick fix. While restaurants may argue that quality meals come in small portions, my stomach AND wallet would beg to differ. Compared to restaurant meals, diner meals on average are at least twice the size, and less than half the price. For instance, if you ever feel like a refreshing Vietnamese noodle soup, pay Dong Ba in Bankstown (Sydney) a visit. Both your stomach and wallet would love you for it, as you can get a huge bowl of seafood soup almost the size of a small bathtub with lots of salad on the side for only AUD$9!

Apart from the fact that you get a decent meal out of a diner, you are also more likely to be served authentic dishes in a diner than in a restaurant. You local Vietnamese diner or pizza joint probably serve dishes more authentic than those you will find at their fancier 'cousins', for a fraction of the price. I have been to countless restaurants that have the guts to call themselves “Italian Restaurant”, when in fact they serve a mixture of Thai, Italian, Greek, Mexican…to be continued. I don’t call this fusion food-I call it confusion food. The word ‘Italian’ has been abused to the max in the restaurant industry to the point that as long as you cook with tomatoes, you can potentially label yourself an Italian restaurant. So next time you fancy a bit of authenticity but don't want to spend your entire week's wage, pop into your local diner, rather than some fancy ‘Italian’ restaurant that breaks your bank and serves you curries!

My first work experience in a commercial kitchen

A week ago, I dragged my partner to a cooking class at Alio Restaurant and Bar in Surry Hills. I enjoyed the class so much I invited myself to do work experience there. Random, I know. A degree-qualified (not one, not two, but three degrees!) professional seeking work experience in a restaurant only happens when one’s passion for food dominates the decision-making process. Long story short, I shameless invited myself to do work experience at Alio, and Chef Hughes was kind enough to have me.  Next thing I knew, we locked in a time and date, and I finished the cooking class looking forward to my next cooking adventure.

A week later, I was on my way to Alio again, except that this time, I was going to be in the actual kitchen (not the ‘show’ kitchen where cooking classes are conducted) with Chef Hughes and his staff. I was so excited I almost got run over by a car while crossing the street! I managed to get myself to Alio in one piece, on time. So far so good, I thought. The reservation manager guided me to the kitchen, where I found three sous chefs prepping away alongside Head Chef Hughes for the dinner service. It was refreshing to see the Head Chef working so closely with his comrades in the kitchen. One of the sous chefs showed me to my bench top, where a large pile of herbs and green beans awaited. I was so excited about being in a commercial kitchen for the first time that even picking beans and herbs seemed as thrilling as cooking a 3-course feast for the Queen. After I proved my competency in picking beans and herbs, I quickly moved onto more exciting tasks, from making Grissini and Gnocchi to processing seafood. The honest truth is, while I am keen on eating and cooking, I am not so keen on meeting the ingredients, especially when everything is still ‘intact’, like the head. When one of the sous chefs brought out a bucket of fresh whole squid, my fear of processing whole seafood became a real obstacle I had to overcome. I could feel the heat on the back of my neck when looking at those condemning eyes of the squid. Fortunately, the sous chef sensed my fear of eyeballs and heads, so he kindly ripped the head off the squid on my behalf and handed me the rest. Phew~~…The rest was a piece of cake, as the wings and skin can be peeled off with ease. Deboning a smoked trout was quite an enjoyable task, not to mention a rewarding one too! While my fingers were busy at work, running through the coral flesh of the smoked trout for bones, my mouth was also busy at work, producing saliva at the speed of light. I was following the protocol of ‘most for the bowl, a bite for me’, when I would have loved to follow my own rule of ‘none for the bowl, all for me’ then and there. Making Grissini and Gnocchi was therapeutic, as I found comfort in turning the smooth doughs into the familiarly-shaped bouncy potato dumplings with their signature marking, and uniformly shaped bread sticks.

Good times fly, so they say. One minute, I had just stepped into the kitchen fueled with adrenalin, the next minute, it was past 5pm. While I enjoyed every minute of my 4-hour work experience in a real commercial kitchen, my legs were telling me that they need to be put up, and my stomach was starting to take over the brain. Just when my stomach was about to drive me to pick up the smoked trout containers and tip all contents into the black hole of a mouth that is mine, staff dinner was ready to come out of the oven! That was a close call! It was 4 large pizzas with meat and veggie toppings, made by Chef Hughes and his staff. While I felt privileged to be able to enjoy such scrumptious home-made pizzas cooked by professional chefs, I felt even more privileged to be able to learn from beautiful people like those working at Alio. The kitchen was a very different environment to the one I am used to. Unlike a typical office environment, where you are packed into an office space like sardines but alone in your cubical, the kitchen gives a real sense of comradeship (not to mention, you get to play music out loud in the kitchen too, which is always a bonus!). As I finished my shift, and waved goodbye to my new-found friends at Alio, I knew it was not for good, as I would see them again soon!

My garlic king prawn, mushroom and asparagus salad

Ingredients (for 2-4 people) :

• 12 raw king prawns (give or take, depending on your appetite and financial health), de-veined and peeled (note: you can leave the tail on for presentation)
• A large handful of asparagus (note: you can add more asparagus if you wish to bulk up the dish, or less asparagus if you wish to make prawns the star)
• 1-2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1 large red chilli, de-seeded and chopped finely (note: if you want it extra hot, you can use birdseye chilli instead)
• 6 button mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 small knob of butter (30 grams give or take)
• Olive oil
• 1 lime (for garnish)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon of praprika (note: you can use smoked or sweet praprika in this dish, as both would go well with the prawns)
• 1 small knob of ginger, grated
• Salt and pepper (if you want it extra hot, use white pepper instead of black)

Peel the asparagus and blanch in salty boiling water for 30 seconds. Dump the cooked asparagus in icy water to stop the cooking process. Set aside.

Heat the pan over medium high heat, add olive oil and butter. When butter has melted, add prawns, garlic, ginger, salt, pepper and praprika. Sautee till prawns have changed colour and started to caramelize, it should take about 3-5 minutes (depending on the size of your pan, size of prawns, quality of pan, etc). Add chopped chilli and lemon juice. Cook for another minute or two, and take the prawns out of the pan. In the same pan, cook the chopped mushrooms with a little salt and pepper. You may wish to add a little more butter to the pan at this stage (note: if you cook the mushrooms and the prawns together, the mushrooms would give too much liquid for the prawns to caramelize). Cook the mushrooms till soft.

In a large bowl, mix the prawns, mushrooms and asparagus. Tip the pan juice into the bowl. Garnish the salad with some fresh red chili and a couple of wedges of lime.

Take it up a notch

Keep the prawn heads and shells, as that’s where you'd find most of the prawny flavour. In a hot pan, add olive oil and the prawn heads/shells, and cook them till they turn red. Drain the heads/shells well and squeeze out as much of the prawn ‘essence’ as you can from them before discarding. Use the flavoured oil to cook your prawns, and what you get is a flavour boost!