Crispy Skinned Salmon with Mango Salsa

September 1, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone and Hello September! I can’t believe another month has zoomed right past so quickly! I hope that you all liked my mini collaboration series for the month of August and I hope to collaborate with my friends and fellow food bloggers again in the near future, or even with some of you guys who are interested in taking part for next year’s series – yes, I’ve decided to make Auguest a yearly thing!

All that aside, I’ve decided that I want to start having monthly themes to my recipes on the blog. So for this month, I’ve decided to share with you some of my favourite seafood recipes that I’ve not shared on the blog with you before! Besides sharing long time favourites, I’ll also be trying out and experimenting with new recipes and sharing those with you too 🙂 To kick of Seafood month, I have a simple, but classic favourite of the family and mine to share with everyone: Crispy Skinned Salmon with Mango Salsa!

We all love salmon, in fact, when I was living in Australia, salmon was always the fish that I had in my fridge at least once a week, and here back at home we have salmon for at least 4 meals a week – we usually have it together with my Neapolitan Casareccia Salad. I know salmon is quite an expensive fish to buy in the markets, but the great thing about this dish is that you can use other types of fish such as swordfish, whiting, flathead, blue-eye trevalla, mirror dory, ling, etc.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 10-12 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

For the salmon

4 salmon portions, skin on
Ground salt and black pepper for seasoning
Vegetable oil for frying

For the mango salsa

2 ripe mangoes, finely diced
2-3 re bird’s eye chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1-2 ripe tomatoes, finely diced
1 Lebanese cucumber, finely diced
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 small-sized lemon, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
Half a bunch of basil leaves, finely chopped
Ground salt and black pepper to taste

METHOD

Combine salsa ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside.
Place the salmon, skin-side up, on a chopping board and sprinkle with some salt. This helps crisp the skin. Season it with a touch of ground black pepper as well.
Heat a little bit of vegetable oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Cook salmon, skin-side down, for 4-5 minutes depending on thickness.
Turn it over and cook for a further 3-4 minutes. To know when it’s ready, test with a fork and if it flakes easily, it’s ready. Salmon is best served a little pink in the centre, but if you prefer it to bee cooked all the way through, keep it on the heat for about 2-3 minutes longer.
Serve the fish with salsa and enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Yeniköy Café and Restaurant

August 30, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone and welcome back to an all new Review Sunday! I have a quick review for you tonight on the blog, and when I say quick I mean that I will only be covering 3 dishes from this place. I was supposed to go back to this place a few more times to try out their lunch and dinner menu, but I didn’t get to before I left Sydney. Hopefully the dishes I cover today will make you want to give this place a try if you haven’t already paid them a visit. The dishes I will be showing you today are quite simple, but packed with flavour, and I really felt like I was in a different place – Turkey? I’m not sure since I’ve not been. If you want to check out their menu a little bit than what I will be showing you today, click here.

If I remember clearly, Jialing, Yvonne, and I were being indecisive on WhatsApp the night before – well, I wouldn’t say indecisive, more like I wanted to go to a certain place (SHUK to be exact in North Bondi), but Yvonne didn’t want to go too far off from the city because she was sick that day. Then we couldn’t agree on a time because again, BRUNCH at 10am was too early for Yvonne, so we finally came to a compromise to meet at 11am instead so that we wouldn’t miss out on Yeniköy’s breakfast menu.

Anyway! I came across Yeniköy by simply just walking along King Street in Newtown – don’t know when it was or why I was in Newtown in the first place (quite possibly to eat anyway). Also, did you know that Yeniköy is Turkish for “new village” which is a pretty fitting name for a café and restaurant to be residing in the hip streets of Newtown. I think I walked past Yeniköy a number of times, but had never actually gone in until this brunch of ours. I was quite intrigued by this place, not by the food at first, but the ambience of the place as I quickly glanced through the huge glass windows – “wood furniture, stone panelling, lanterns, and Edison light globes”, Besides that of course, I was intrigued by their menu that’s Turkish with a Modern Australian twist to mix it up a bit.

Even though we all ordered a dish each, we shared everything together so that we could get a little taste of each other’s dishes – I mean, it’s a common thing that we do whenever we eat out tougher anyway 🙂

BREAKFAST MENU

KIYMALI GÖZLEME: Beef mince and vegetables gözleme with side vegetables ($13.00)

For those of you who don’t know what a gözleme is, it is basically a savoury traditional Turkish flatbread that is filled with various meat (minced beef, chopped lamb, fresh or smoked seafood, sucuk, pastirma), vegetables (spinach, zucchini, eggplant, leek, chard, various peppers, onion, scallion, shallot, garlic), or a combination of both, and/or cheeses, then sealed and cooked over a griddle. The flatbread is made of hand-rolled dough that is lightly brushed with butter and eggs.

This was the dish that I ordered and wished I had all to myself because it was pretty amazing. I’ve had gözleme before, but only at the Glebe Markets, and those tasted pretty great too. The beef mince filling tasted really good and the flatbread was nice a crisp. The “salad” on the side was a bit disappointing though because it was just a mixed leaf salad with cherry tomatoes and cucumber (which I personally don’t like). I guess that doesn’t matter anyway since the gözleme was the highlight of the dish!

SUCUK BRUSCHETTA: Turkish sausages, tomatoes and eggs on a toasted Turkish bread, topped with melted mozzarella cheese and pomegranate molasses, and served with rocket and side vegetables ($17.00)

This was Yvonne’s dish, and I can’t remember if she liked it or not, but I remember that the only thing I really liked on this plate was the scrambled eggs – light, fluffy, and well seasoned. Again, the side vegetables weren’t anything special, and I don’t know, neither was the bruschetta to be honest. I’m actually not a fan of bread that has been toasted until crisp because then it just becomes too dry for me and too hard to chew, especially the crust – which was what this bruschetta was. I like my bread soft. But hey, the dish wasn’t a bad dish at all, it’s just my personal preference, or I guess, me being picky.

TURKISH SUCUK AND CHEESE PIDE: Traditional Turkish lamb and beef mince sucuk and cheese pide with a crack egg ($14.00)

Jialing ordered this dish, and before I start, I’m going to tell you a story. So, I can’t exactly remember where or when, but on a different occasion to this, I saw ‘Pide’ on the menu and ordered it, unsure really on how to pronounce the word. So when I ordered it, I pointed at it and hesitantly said to the waitress, “can I have the… pide (pie-duh)“. She knew I was struggling to pronounce it, and she said, “one pide (pee-deh), yeap”. So I told this to Jialing and Yvonne when we saw Pide on the menu. I told them that it’s pronounced pee-deh but Jialing insisted that it was pie-duh because one of our mutual friends said so. To end our not-quite dispute over the word, Yvonne told me to say pie-duh to the waitress and see if she would correct me – I wasn’t going to make a fool out of myself again so when the waitress came over to take our orders, I said pee-deh, but Yvonne butted in and said pretty loudly with an exclamation mark PIE-DUH! I started laughing and so did the waitress, and she said it’s pronounced pee-deh.

Anyway, so now that you know how to pronounce pide (pee-deh), on to the actual dish – it was good, but again nothing really that special to be honest.

To be perfectly honest, I was a little underwhelmed with the dishes that we had at Yeniköy, but obviously, this is just one person’s opinion. I really wished I had gone back for lunch and/or dinner because the dishes that those menus looked more enticing than what we had. All in all, we had a good time because even though the food was mediocre for us, it wasn’t bad at all. We shared a lot of laughs and remembered this day as “the time that Yvonne was sick” (a little inside joke between the three of us), and overall just enjoyed each other’s company in a very nice café on King Street. Ambience and service is a sure 10 out of 10, food a 7 maybe because I still enjoyed the food and their other menus looked great too. Value for money, maybe a 7 too – it’s not overly priced, breakfast that is, not sure about the lunch and dinner menu.

Yeniköy Café and Restaurant
480 King Street
Newtown, New South Wales
Australia, 2042

– Ally xx

Ginataang Munggo (Roasted Mung Beans & Sticky Rice in Coconut Milk)

August 28, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Alas, we’ve come to the end of my mini collaboration series for this month! My last post for this Auguest that my Mom has kindly shared with us is another mung bean recipe that she grew up eating during her childhood years.

If you haven’t read Wednesday’s post, my Mom mentioned there that once a year when her whole family went to visit the province that they were from, they would always bring back one 50kg sack of munggo (mung beans) to the city, where they lived, from their farm. Everyday, Munggo Guisado (Sautéed Mung Bean Soup) was what they had for lunch and dinner, and for merienda, they’d have mung beans as well – there was no escaping the wrath of the mung beans – whether savoury or sweet! After lunch, everyone would take a 2-hour break before they’d be back in the kitchen, preparing and cooking Ginataang Munggo for merienda at 3pm.

Ginataang Munggo is basically roasted or toasted mung beans cooked in coconut milk together with some glutinous rice. It is a simple Filipino dish that can be eaten for either merienda (light afternoon meal or an afternoon snack) or dessert that is best served warm. toasted Mung beans and sticky rice are cooked in coconut milk. Though this dish has been a part of my Mom’s family tradition way back when she was still in her younger years back in the Philippines, today is the first time my Mom cooked this dish and served it to my sister Angela and I. Now that my Mom has passed on her two favourite mung bean recipes from her childhood, she said to me that it is but right that I pass them on to my children to be and keep tradition going – hopefully my children won’t be as fussy as I was before when I used to hate munggo!

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 30 MINS | SERVES 6-8

INGREDIENTS

1.5L boiling water water
1 can (400ml) coconut milk
1 cup glutinous rice
1/2 cup mung beans
1/2 cup white sugar

METHOD

First, heat up a medium-sized frying pan over medium-high and add the mung beans. Toast until browned, about 8-10 minutes. Be careful as to not over toast them otherwise they will become bitter. Likewise, you can roast the mung beans in the oven for about 10 minutes at 200C.
Turn the heat off and set the mung beans aside to cool down.
Once the mung beans have cooled down slightly, crack the toasted mung beans using a mortar and pestle, or as my Mom prefers, by using a rolling pin. Set aside.
Add the boiling water and sugar to a large pot over medium-high heat and dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved, add the coconut milk and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add the glutinous rice and mung beans, then give it a good stir. Turn the heat down to low and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until the coconut milk is almost absorbed, stirring once a while to make sure that the rice doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
Once done, turn the heat off and let it sit in the post for a further 5-10 minutes. Then,transfer to individual serving plates.
Share and enjoy! You may serve this either hot or cold. I prefer having this hot with a pinch of salt on top to further enhance the flavours.

And that about wraps up guest blogging month for this year! Many thanks to Jialing, Brendon, Marissa, and my Mom for participating in my very first Auguest series. I’m actually pretty happy with how this all came together in the end. It was hectic at first trying to find the how ever so many bloggers I had in mind for this collaboration series, but then narrowing it down made it much more simpler and much easier to communicate with my friends and fellow bloggers. If you enjoyed this mini collaboration of mine, let me know in the comments section below and I’ll see to organising this into a yearly series 🙂

my Mom and I at Bondi Beach, July 2015

PS: Back in the day in the 70s, canned coconut milk was not a thing yet and so my Mom had to buy a whole matured coconut and manually grate it. From the grated coconut, she then had to squeeze the milk out of it for this dish. This dish was a lot of hard work for her back in the day, which is why she was so confused as to why this dish took no effort at all for her to make, and then she realised it was because we already had coconut milk readily available.

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Munggo Guisado (Sautéed Mung Bean Soup)

August 26, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmen1 Comment

Hello Everyone and welcome to the final week of Auguest! If you’ve read all the way to the end of my post yesterday, you’ll know that I’ve said that week 4 of Auguest would commence today seeing as I had a special post that went up live yesterday. Today’s guest won’t be communicating with you through the write up only because she’s not that confident with her English writing skills; so instead I will be the one taking you through her story of this dish. But first, who’s my guest for this week? Of course it is none other than the woman who cooked for me throughout my years of growing up and the woman who taught me how cook. Without her, my passion for cooking would’ve probably never existed, and neither would this blog. Today’s guest blogger is none other than my Mother, Josephine, known to many as Mama G!

This dish is a delicacy from one of the Ilocanos provinces, my Mom’s hometown in the Northern part of the Philippines, Pangasinan, but her family grew in Quezon City. Once a year the whole family would travel the province to visit their farm and bring back some of their produce, one of them included one 50kg sack of munggo (mung beans). Munggo Guisado is a common lunch and dinner dish found on their table as it is a healthy and nutritious dish. Her father (my grandfather) would always remind his children that munggo contains the same amount of proteins that can be found in beef, chicken, pork, and other meats. Her father was a little bit on the stingy side, so their Munggo Guisado contain no meat at all, just pure mung beans and other vegetables such as ampalaya (bitter gourd) leaves or malunggay leaves. Her father even planted a malunngay tree so that they could pick their own leaves instead of having to go to the markets to buy it. The dish would then be flavoured with bagoong isda (anchovy sauce). It was a dish that they had for both lunch and dinner, everyday.

This dish was introduced to my Mom since she started to eat solid foods, and has been a part of her daily meal until she came to Brunei. She stopped eating it because she wasn’t in a cooking mood since she moved out of the Philippines to work in Brunei. She started cooking it again when she had a family of her own. My Mom did the same thing by introducing this dish to me when I started to eat solid foods. To her surprise, I hated this dish and she didn’t know why. Even my two younger sisters hated it. She tried everything to make it more appetising for us by adding meat and/or prawns, but still she could not get us to eat it. So, she had no choice but to stop cooking it.

But now, after 20 years, she was able to introduce it back to us again (mainly because for this Auguest post as it has a story to tell of her roots), and apparently we love it! I kept asking my Mom why I didn’t like it in the first place, and she kept answering, “I don’t know with you!” Now Munggo Guisado has found it’s way back into our table as a regular, weekly, meal. The dish is best served with steamed rice and fried fish, as they would say “magkakambal sila” – twins, or meaning a well paired dish.

PREP TIME 1 HOUR | COOKING TIME 30 MINS | SERVES 6

INGREDIENTS

1 cup mung beans
1 cup malunggay (or ampalaya) leaves
250g pork belly, sliced
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large onion, diced
1 large tomato, diced
1 tbsp salted ziganid fish (bagoong padas, or anchovies)
Ground black pepper

METHOD

Soak the beans in water for about an hour or two, this will help soften the beans and lessen the time required to boil and tenderise the beans when it comes to cooking them.
Add the beans to a medium-sized pot together with about 1L of water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, let the beans simmer for about half an hour until soft (or about 50 minutes if you didn’t pre-soak them).
In a medium-sized deep fry pan, add the sliced pork belly and fry until browned, about 3-4 minutes. Move them to one side of the frying pan and add the garlic. You shouldn’t need to add any oil and the natural oils from the pork fat should be enough to sauté the garlic. Once the garlic is golden brown in colour and is fragrant, add in the onions and cook until soft. At this point, you can mix them together with the pork. Add in the tomatoes, season with a bit of ground black pepper, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.
Pour the cooked mung beans, together with the water that it was simmered in into the pork and tomato mixture. Give it a good mix and if it’s looking a bit dry, add more water to make it more into a soup. Bring to light simmer.
Add the tablespoon of anchovies to a small bowl with about a few heaped tablespoons of the munggo soup. Press on the anchovies to get the flavours out and strain the sauce/paste back into the soup. Discard the anchovies.
Simmer for another 10 minutes or so and then add in the malunggay leaves. Turn the heat off and give it a good mix, until the malunggay leaves have wilted into the soup.
Serve with a nice bowl of steamed rice and fried fish. Enjoy!

Of course this dish can be an all vegetarian dish just as how my Mom ate it when she was growing up; just remove the pork belly!

While my Mom was telling me the story of this dish, she teared up a little as it brought back many childhood memories. I hope that one day I’ll have kids of my own and share with them the many favourite dishes I grew up with and the stories that come with them 🙂

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Homemade Doggie Treats

August 25, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Hope you had a lovely weekend; I sure did! As hectic as it was, it was pretty great as I got to celebrate my Sister’s 21st Birthday on Sunday with my Mom and close family friends. For those who have been following my blog for a while now will surely say that today’s recipe is a bit odd in a way that it’s not something they’d think I would whip up in the kitchen I guess.

Alas, it’s because today is an important day in the household – it’s Blacky’s 5th non-Birthday! For those of you who don’t know, Blacky is my beloved and well-behaved Mutt. He’s such a character, and a very smart dog I might add! We got him 5 years ago back in 2010 on this day when he was about 2-3 weeks old together with his brother, Browny (yes, we weren’t very creative with names). Unfortunately his brother passed away about 2 years ago because he was poisoned by our neighbours.

Anyway, I realised that for the past 4 years, I’ve never been around to treat my doggie something special for his non-Birthday as usually around this time I’m in my second term of uni in Australia. Now that I get to spend a birthday with him, I thought I’d do something nice for him today and bake him a batch of yummy homemade doggie treats! The original recipe can be found on The Kitchn.

A little note for Vidhya (and for anyone else who skips the recipe part when reading my blog): please scroll down and continue reading, there’s a little story for you at the end as well!

PREP TIME 15 MINS | COOKING TIME 20 MINS | MAKES 15 TREATS

INGREDIENTS

1 cup plain wholemeal flour
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup melted bacon fat (or unsalted butter)
1/4 cup rolled oats
1 small free range egg
Fried bacon bits

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4). Line a baking tray with parchment paper and set aside.
Combine all ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and mix by hand until a dough starts to form. If the dough is still feeling a little bit sticky, add more flour. Likewise, if the dough is too stiff, add more bacon fat, butter, or water.
Roll the dough out onto a floured surface, to a thickness of just under 1/2-inch. This is where you can get creative with your treats; you can cut them into 1×4-inch bars or use various cookie cutters to shape them. I wanted to make the treats bone-shaped but since I didn’t have a cutter, I shaped them each by hand – it took a while but I got there in the end.
Transfer the treats to your prepared baking tray. Bake for approximately 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Once down, turn the heat off, flip the treats, and place back in the oven until the oven cools down (this will further crisp your treats). Remove from the oven and set the treats aside to completely cool.
Treat your beloved doggie with these lovely homemade treats!

These doggie treats can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature. With this recipe, I was able to make about 15 doggie treats, and about 5 small discs with the scraps of dough. I tried one of this discs myself and it was neither good nor bad, it just had no taste whatsoever for me personally. At this point, I was a bit scared that I spent all this time making these treats for Blacky just for him to ignore them and not eat them because of their tasteless state. So when I baked them yesterday afternoon, I tried to feed him two of the small discs. He was outside lying down, being lazy. I was able to put one in his mouth, but instead of chewing on it, he dropped it on the floor. I picked it up and tried to feed it to him again, but he did the same thing. I then put the two little discs on his two front paws and went back inside the house.

Five minutes later, I peaked through the window; he hadn’t moved and the treats were still on his paws. I went back outside and tried to feed it to him again and this time he chewed on them, and it was a sort of oh-my-gosh-this-is-actually-so-yum kind of chew. When he was done with the first treat, he looked for the other treat that I had in my other hand. I fed it to him and he was still looking for more after he was done! So really, I knew before hand that he definitely liked his non-Birthday present 🙂

the rain was coming down really heavily and there was a bit of thunder and lightning which was why Blacky looked scared in the photo on the right – my poor baby. He did appreciate his treats though! He’s had 6 of them today alone!

Also before I sign off from tonight’s post, I am aware that it is indeed week 4 and the last week of Auguest for this year; do not fret! Tune in tomorrow and on Friday for my final guest blogger!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Lemon & Blueberry Layer Cake

August 24, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Today won’t be a Review Sunday as I have a special post for you tonight! Today is my sister, Angela’s, 21st Birthday! I can’t believe that she is my not-so-little sister anymore! How time flies by so quickly. I’m glad that after 4 years of being away, I get to spend today with you! Hope you have the most wonderful of birthdays and hope you like my cake that I made for you! Lots of love, Ate Ally ❤

I have never made this cake before, and unlike the original recipe, she uses plain all-purpose flour while I used plain wholemeal flour. The reason? I didn’t have enough plain flour and I didn’t want to go out to the grocers to buy more, plus I still had a brand new pack of wholemeal flour and decided to give that a go! It still tasted great, but the cake was a bit crumbly when I cut into it, but maybe it was because I may have over measured the flour a bit (as Sally says not to in her recipe… Oops)! Check out the original recipe from one of my favourite bakers: Sally’s Baking Addiction.

PREP TIME 30 MINS | COOKING TIME 30 MINS | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the cake batter

230g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
4 large free range eggs, at room temperature
3 cups plain wholemeal flour, sifted
1 & 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup buttermilk*
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp wholemeal flour
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground sea salt
Zest and juice of 3 medium-sized lemons

*Rather than purchasing a whole carton of buttermilk from the store and worrying about what to do with the leftovers before it starts to go bad in the fridge, making your own buttermilk is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Simply measure 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice (alternatively you can use white vinegar) in a measuring cup and then fill the rest up with full cream milk until you reach 1 full cup. Stir it around, let sit for 5 minutes, and it will be ready to use!

For the zesty cream cheese frosting

1 package (250g) cream cheese, softened
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1-2 tbsp lemon juice

To decorate

Confectioners’ sugar
Fresh blueberries
Lemon slices and zest

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C (about 350F or gas mark 4). With a little bit of butter, grease the bottom and sides of three 8.5-inch cake pans and set aside.
Make the cake batter: Using a electric handheld or stand mixer beat the butter on high until creamy (takes about a minute), then add the granulated and brown sugars. Continue to beat on medium-high speed until creamed, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat on medium for a further 2 minutes until the mixture is well combined. Don’t forget to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Set aside.
In a separate medium-sized bowl, add the wholemeal flour, baking powder, and salt, and toss together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed for about 5 seconds, and then add in the buttermilk, lemon juice, and zest. Remove from the mixer and stir lightly until everything is just combined.
Spoon half of the batter evenly into the three prepared cake pans. If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw as they will bleed into your cake batter. Toss the blueberries in about a tablespoon of flour as well – this way they won’t burst inside and turn your cake purple. Divide the blueberries equally between the three cake pans. Top with the remaining batter equally between the three.
Bake the three layers for about 21-26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine took about 30 minutes, and I even left it in the oven for a further 5 minutes with the heat off. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.
Make the frosting: Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter in a small bowl until smooth. Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar and a few frozen blueberries.
Assemble: Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread with about 1/3 cup of frosting. Top with the second layer of cake and again spread with another third of the frosting. Top with the last layer and frost the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with fresh blueberries, lemon slices and zest, and a touch of confectioners’ sugar. Store in the fridge before serving. Enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Cơm Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Rice)

August 20, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hi Everyone! Its Marissa from Maiyummy back again on Amcarmen’s Kitchen and it’s a pleasure for me to introduce the second and last dish for my week. Tonight’s dish is one that is known to finally endeavour the Vietnamese community through hardship and war, but 25 years ago, it was a dish invented with the idea to save locals through famine.

From generation to generation, we cannot forget this dish as it commonly appears in Vietnamese gatherings and memorial days. The dish is called Cơm Gà (Vietnamese Chicken Rice), originally based in the Quang Nam province where I grew up. Chicken is the cheapest and most available food resource in Vietnam, and therefore it is widely popular and used in many typical Vietnamese dishes.

PREP TIME 20 MINS | COOKING TIME 45 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

For the chicken rice

2 cups jasmine rice, uncooked
2 pcs chicken whole legs (or a whole chicken)
2-3 red bird’s eye chillies, sliced
2 medium brown onions, halved and then sliced
1 lemon, halved
1 medium tomato, sliced
1 stalk spring onion, sliced thinly
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and julienned (reserve the peels)
3 tbsp chicken powder
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp white vinegar
Ground sea salt and black pepper

For the heart/liver sauce

100g chicken heart, washed and cleaned
100g chicken liver, washed and cleaned
2-3 garlic cloves garlic, crushed
3 tbsp chicken stock (from the broth)
1 & 1/2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp chicken powder
Ground sea salt

METHOD

Prepare the chicken: Add the chicken whole legs to a large pot of water together with about 2 tablespoons of chicken powder and the reserved peeled ginger skins. Boil the chicken for about 40 minutes or until it is cooked all the way through. Remove the chicken from the broth and set aside to cool down. Once cool, shred the chicken into small pieces. Return the bones to the broth and add about half of the onions. Keep it at a low simmer.
Prepare the rice: Wash and rinse 2 cups of uncooked jasmine rice and then add to a rice cooker together with a tablespoon of chicken powder, julienned ginger, and about 2 & 1/2 cups of the chicken broth. Let it cook in the rice cooker until done (about 20 minutes).
Prepare the chicken salad mixture: In a small bowl, add the white vinegar together with a few ice cubes and the remaining onions. Mix around and set aside for about 15-20 minutes for it to pickle.
In a medium-sized bowl, add 2-3 tablespoons of chicken broth, about a tablespoon of ground black pepper, half a tablespoon of chicken powder, one red bird’s eye chilli, and juice of half a lemon. Mix around to combine. Then add the shredded chicken, pickled onions, and spring onions and combine all the ingredients together. Add some fish sauce if the chicken salad tastes a bit bland.
Prepare the liver sauce: Heat about a tablespoon of peanut oil in a small saucepan over medium-high. Sauté the garlic for about 2 minutes or until fragrant and golden brown. Then add in the chicken heart and liver and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken broth, chicken powder, and sugar, and let it cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt when it’s ready.
Plate up: Place the chicken salad on top of the rice with the chicken heart and liver to the side. Then pour the heart/liver sauce on top of chicken salad, and serve with a side of the chicken soup and chilli sauce of your choice.

Hopefully this brought back a most authentic Vietnamese experience from where I am from, both culturally and through the experience of food. Thank you and have a lovely week 🙂

~ OH MAI YUMMYYYYY

Sò Lông Nướng Mỡ Hành (Grilled Mussels with Buttered Green Onions)

August 19, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmen1 Comment

Hello Everyone! Hope you have a fabulous weekend so far 🙂 If you haven’t heard from me, my name is Marissa and I am a Sydney-based food blogger over at Maiyummy, where my primary focus is on Asian Street Food. This week I am extremely glad to be given such a wonderful opportunity to guest blog on Amcarmen’s Kitchen for the first time for a mini collaboration series known as Auguest. Allison first launched the idea of Auguest last month, and I am really honoured to be part of her series, reinventing our local street food cuisines into casual dining dishes. While she was staying at my place, we have cooked up multiple storms in the kitchen together where we both showed each other how to make some delicious Filipino and Vietnamese dishes. Later on today you can head on over to Maiyummy for Allison’s featured blog post.

Before I lead you guys into my secret Asian adventure, I should probably give a bit of an introduction to myself. I was born and raised in Vietnam and came to Australia in 2008 and have been living in Sydney ever since. At first I was really amazed by how diverse and multicultural Australia is, especially in food, language, and music, ranging from a variety of Korean, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Greek, Italian, and many more. Back in Vietnam, I could only find authentic local Vietnamese food and some of the popular Asian flavours like Korean and Japanese; but to be honestly the taste is entirely different to what I have been experiencing here in Australia.

I launched Maiyummy and made my first post in June 2015, exactly 2 months ago. A very special thanks Amcarmen’s Kitchen for being such a great supporter and influencer as she continuously motivated me to start up my blog while she was living at my place. We cooked, brunched, and shared our food together, creating memories that will last forever. Even though I am still new to blogging, I cannot thank her enough, and if you have the chance to, please follow her blog, Facebook, and Instagram page for great tips on cooking European food where I learned so much from her. While you’re there feel free to check out all my food adventures over on Instagram.

The recipe that I am going to share with my lovely audience today is a common seafood street food known as Sò Lông Nướng Mỡ Hành, or Grilled Mussels with Buttered Green Onions. Seafood is probably the most common ingredient in Da Nang, a place famous for its coastline, beautiful beaches, and of course a variety of fresh seafood. The idea of this dish originated from this city, and it simple, quick, and easy to cook; it is quite delicate and rich in texture. Not everyone can eat spicy or sour food, but this dish can accommodate the tastebuds of anyone who loves the freshness and the real taste of Vietnamese seafood.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 15 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

1 kg fresh green mussels (or scallops), washed and cleaned thoroughly
100g peanuts, roasted and crushed
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp fish sauce
2-3 red bird’s eye chillies, sliced
1 stalk spring onion, sliced
Cilantro or coriander leaves
Ground sea salt and black pepper
Unsalted butter (optional)

METHOD

Preheat oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4). Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and set aside.
Bring a medium-sized pot of salted water to a boil. Once boiling, turn the heat down to low and place the mussels into the pot for about 2-3 minutes or until their shells open up. Remove from the pot and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Break one side of the shell open and place the mussel onto the prepared baking tray.
In a small saucepan, heat up the olive oil over medium-high and add the sliced spring onions in. Toss them around using a spoon for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat off and add the fish sauce and half of the sliced chillies to the spring onion mixture. Stir to combine and then equally spoon the mixture over each mussel.
Place them in the oven for about 7-8 minutes, then reduce the temperature down to 150C (300F or gas mark 2) in order for the mussels to cook slowly. Keep checking the oven and check till the mussels are sizzling, then immediately turn off the heat (for a creamier texture, I personally add a little bit of butter on the top of the mussels during the last few minutes of its cooking time before taking them out of the oven).
Remove the mussels from the oven and arrange them onto a wooden board. Garnish with some crushed peanuts and remaining chillies. Serve them with salt, pepper and coriander leaves. Enjoy!

HAVE A LOVELY WEEK 🙂

~ OH MAI YUMMYYYYY

PS: This is Allison here writing a quick note to apologise for the late upload – I was busy all day yesterday and didn’t have time to proof read Marissa’s post, do some editing (both photographs and writing) to be able to get this recipe up yesterday. Nonetheless I hope you enjoyed her recipe today and stay tuned for another Vietnamese dish by her tomorrow! xx

Garden Bar at the Grounds of Alexandria

August 17, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmen3 Comments

Hello Everyone and welcome back to an all new Review Sunday! Before I begin, I hope you’ve been enjoying the recipes produced by my guest bloggers, my one true love, Jialing Mew, and of course my new friend Brendon D’Souza, for the past two weeks. I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with them and cooking with them in the kitchen before I left to come back home to Brunei. Stay tuned for the next two weeks, I’ve got another friend who will be guest blogging, and a special someone whom without her, this blog may not even exist!

So anyway, for those who have been following my blog for a while now, or those who just know me personally, will know that The Ground of Alexandria is a place I keep going back to for the food and just the overall vibe of the place… oh and for the cute waiters at the Potting Shed as well *cheeky grin* If I did not already mention this in my previous review on the Potting Shed, there is another café/restaurant as well as various food stalls in and around the Grounds. I’ve been to and had food at the Garden Bar three times now and the food never fails to impress my tastebuds and fill my tummy up with delight. The first time I was here, I went alone for the Christmas Markets back in 2014, shopping for gifts for my friends, eating food, and meeting Santa Claus! Would you believe that that was the very FIRST time I ever got to meet Santa and sort of sit on his lap? Yeah, what a childhood I’ve had right? Anyway, Santa said to me “it must be my lucky day!” referring to the fact that he’s had a couple of women taking photos with him before me.

The second time I came back to the Ground and had food at the Garden Bar was with my family when they came to visit for a holiday and my graduation ceremony in early May of this year. I decided to take them to the Garden Bar and enjoy the eats of the various food stalls. There were a lot of people, as usual, and it was difficult to snag a seat for four, but luckily we were able to find one under the lovely winter sun within 15 minutes of arriving. My Mom and my sisters fell completely in love with the food, as well as the atmosphere and overall vibe of the place – just like me. The third time I came back and had food from the Garden Bar was during a catch up session with Vidhya – well, I had been stalking the Instagram page of the Grounds and found out they were selling waffles that weekend so I HAD to go (and drag Vidhya along of course since we planned to hang out that day). Vidhya, if you’re reading this, correct me if I am wrong, I think I made you fall in love with the Grounds as well!

THE GARDEN BAR BREKKY: BRUNCH BURGER
with halloumi, caramelised onions, and rocket on a brioche bun ($10.00)
add chorizo (+$3.00)

I ordered this burger before when I went to the Grounds by myself during the Christmas festivities. I ordered it with the chorizo, but then completely forgot to add on that as an extra when I ordered it for the family to share. So instead it was a vegetarian burger with extra garlic sauce; nonetheless, it tasted great without, but still would’ve been even better with the chorizo! I think I’ve mentioned this before in many blog posts, and many of my friends know this – I’m not a huge fan of burgers, and even though this tasted pretty good, I am still not a fan of them.

THE GARDEN BAR LUNCH: JUMBO SALT & PEPPER PRAWNS
crumbed and dressed with garlic, lime, coriander or chilli ($15.00)

THIS. That’s all I pretty much need to say about these prawns really; cooked, crumbed, and seasoned perfectly. The prawns melted in your mouth at every bite and tasted so well with the extra chimichurri sauce I drizzled on top! The prawns were by far my favourite dish from the Garden Bar – was sad to find out that they weren’t on the menu when I returned with Vidhya for round 2! (Side note: extra sauce comes at no price! They’re at the collection counter in massive bottles waiting to be drizzled onto your food!)

THE GARDEN BAR LUNCH: CHICKEN WINGS (feast for one, 8 wings)
crumbed and accompanied with fiery chilli or BBQ basting sauce ($12.00)

Another one of my favourites from the Garden Bar; we ordered the fiery chilli wings and though it wasn’t the fiery that we’re used to, it was still deliciously good, juicy and tender! If you’re tastebuds don’t fancy some spicy wings, I’m sure that the BBQ won’t disappoint. There’s also another option if you want more wings, which is 20 wings for $20.00!

THE GARDEN BAR LUNCH: BBQ CHICKEN ROLL
spit roasted over ironbark & charcoal, served with salsa and your choice of sauce ($12.00)

This Vidhya had when I took her to the Grounds; you have the choice between chicken, beef, or lamb as your meat, and you can either have it as a roll or a salad. Vidhya of course, only eats chicken, thus the chicken roll. I can’t remember if I had a little taste of the roll or not – I’m guessing I didn’t since I can’t remember, but anyway, I’m sure the roll tasted really good since pretty much everything on their menu had been spot on for me. Vidhya seemed to enjoy it 🙂

THE GARDEN BAR LUNCH: SMASHED AVOCADO
with tomato, feta, dried chilli flakes, and fresh mint from the garden ($9.50)

I’m usually not a fan of ordering smashed avocado when it comes to eating out. The reason being is that it’s basically just a piece of toast with smeared with smashed avocado and topped with feta, tomatoes, etc. Something that I can easily whip up myself at home to be honest. But alas, I knew that going out with Vidhya for “brunch” would turn into late lunch – and surprise surprise! We ended up getting to the Ground at 1pm when we decided to meet up at 11:30am. Anyway, yes so my instincts were right to have something to eat before meeting up with Vidhya to eat again 😛 So since I wasn’t overly starving, smashed avocado was the only light thing on the menu besides the roll/salad, or burger. Nonetheless, I did enjoy the smashed avocado – I mean, you can’t really stuff that up I guess.

SIDES: SWEET POTATO FRIES ($8.00)

When you see sweet potato fries on the menu, how can you ignore it?! Drizzled with extra garlic aïoli sauce ❤

ORGANIC JUICES: TROPICAL FLAIR
watermelon, pineapple, apple, lime ($8.00)

Refreshingly good!

GARDEN SMOOTHIES: MANGO
fresh ripe mango, dried mango, and natural low-fat yoghurt with the goodness of chia and flax seeds ($8.50)

Though it wasn’t mango season the time I ordered the drink, it tasted heavenly!

CHOCOLATE AND RED VELVET WAFFLES ($9.00)

THIS IS THE REAL DEAL HERE; basically the main reason why I keep going back to the Grounds. I cannot stress out how many times I’ve been to the Grounds for the waffle stall that left me disappointed on so many occasions. I say disappointed because no matter when, and every time I find myself at the Grounds, the waffle stall was ALWAYS closed. There was one time I even waited around at the Grounds for 2 hours for the stall to open and kept pestering the lady at the dessert stall, asking when the waffle stall would open. I got tired of waiting, and eventually just had food from the Garden Bar and then left. When the Grounds posted a picture of their Chocolate and Red Velvet Waffles on Instagram, I knew I had to make a trip over for them; I was overly happy! Even though I was already so full from all the food I had that day prior to waffle eating, I finished all three waffles (with the help of Vidhya who took one or two small bites because she too was already full). Definitely worth my 9 bucks!

Once again, the Grounds of Alexandria never fail to disappoint me every time I visit. Each time I visit is a different experience; also because I’m with different people whenever I pay a visit to explore the gardens, the markets, indulge in the food. and of course say hi to the various farm animals such as Kevin Bacon the resident pig. The atmosphere and overall vibe of the place is a sure 10 out of 10 for me – it can get very crowded during sunny weekends, but nevertheless, it’s all part of the experience really; I mean, it’s crowded for a reason! Food I’d give a 9 out of 10 (only because I feel I’d be too biased if I gave them a 10 out of 10 for food even though they really deserve the 10). Seating can be a bit of a hassle to find especially when the Grounds is packed with people and kids. Vidhya and I ended up sitting on the ledge of one of the garden beds along with other people, but if you’re okay with that, I see no problem here. The Garden Bar has a good value for money, definitely much cheaper than the Potting Shed for reasons that are apparent anyway in terms of the quality of the food served and the ambience of the Potting Shed in comparison to the gardens. If you haven’t seen my review for the Potting Shed, or want to recap on the dishes from there (the menu might be different from my review and now since seasons have past), click here.

Garden Bar at the Grounds
Building 7A
No. 2 Huntley Street
Alexandria, New South Wales
Australia, 2015

– Ally xx

Brendon’s Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie

August 13, 2015January 16, 2019 amcarmen1 Comment

Hi Everyone! It’s Brendon from Brendon The Smiling Chef again with my second delicious dessert post as part of Amcarmen’s Kitchen’s Auguest series. It’s been a pleasure to be able to share my recipes with you, and next week you can visit my website to check out Ally’s mouthwatering recipes for Adobo and Sinigang.

Here in Australia we often take for granted just how lucky we are to have an abundance of fresh, delicious food whenever we want it. On my travels to developing parts of India or Peru I saw firsthand the immense poverty and malnutrition that many people experience in their daily life. With populations on the rise, food is becoming an increasingly scarce and precious commodity. Back home in Sydney I’ve volunteered for a number of years with St. Vincent De Paul Society in their Vinnies Van appeal, providing fresh meals to people less fortunate. I’ve seen their struggle and this is why find it extremely difficult to hear that in the state of New South Wales alone (where I live) we throw away over 1.1 million tonnes of food each year! It’s a ridiculous amount and we really need to be more careful with our food consumption habits if we are to create a sustainable future for the generations to come.

The recipe I’d like to share with you today is part of a collection of recipes I like to call “Up-cycled Food”. The idea is simple – take your leftovers or parts of ingredients you would commonly throw away (such as parsley stalks or vegetable stems to name a few) and turn them into a delicious meal. At the end of my Cookies and Cream recipe from Tuesday’s post, I promised to show you what you can do with your leftover chocolate chip cookie dough. Sometimes I genuinely cannot be bothered to roll out a million tiny balls for individual cookies. Instead I press the dough into a cake tin or slice pan and bake it as one giant choice chip cookie. It still tastes absolutely delicious and much faster to make. You can either use your leftover cookie dough from Tuesday’s recipe (and simply skip straight to step 3) or make some more dough using the recipe below.

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 20-30 MINS | MAKES 2 GIANT COOKIES

INGREDIENTS

250g unsalted butter, softened
200g dark chocolate, chopped
200g milk chocolate, chopped
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup baking powder
1 free range egg
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste (or extract)

METHOD

Pre-heat the oven to 170C (325F or gas mark 3). Grease two 20cm spring form cake tins with butter and line with a disc of baking paper. Place each onto a baking tray and set aside.
Place the butter and sugar and vanilla into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy. Alternatively use electric hand beaters. Add the egg and beat until combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to form a smooth dough. Add the chopped chocolate stir to combine.
Divide the dough in half and press into each cake tin using your fingertips.
Place the baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until for a soft, fudgy cookie. Increase cooking time to between 25-30 minutes for a firmer, biscuit-y texture. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Cut into wedges and serve. Any leftover ganache from Tuesday’s recipe tastes delicious with these gooey cookies. Simply warm it up then drizzle for a full-on chocolate hit!

That wraps up things for me here at Amcarmen’s Kitchen. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of this Auguest series. You can check out all my cooking and food blogging adventures at Brendon The Smiling Chef. While you’re there check out my Instagram page @brendonthesmilingchef.