Made 'suri saag' for lunch with a chapati- but this time, it was made with chicken instead. The recipe can be found in the archives.

Spaghetti Carbonara with Turkey Bacon

Since I am living in the Middle East now, I have had to find ways to make my old classics with substitutes for pork. Here is my attempt at making spaghetti carbonara with turkey bacon. I have to admit, it tasted pretty good actually!

Ingredients:
5 strips turkey bacon chopped
100g parmesan cheese grated
2 egg yolks
4 cloves garlic chopped
3 tbs evaporated milk (or cream)
pinch of salt
spaghetti

1. Heat oil and fry garlic until fragrant. Add the turkey bacon and continue frying.
2. In the meantime, heat spaghetti in boiling water. When cooked, add to the cooked garlic and turkey bacon and stir.
3. Remove from the heat and add the cheese, egg yolks and evaporated milk and stir. Dont cook the mixture as it would turn the egg yolks to scrambled eggs.
4. Season with a pinch of salt and serve.

A close-up of the gorgeous melt-in-your-mouth mutton with hot rice and a side of green beans with oyster sauce.

Mummy's Masala Mutton

I made another one of my mother's classics- Masala Mutton which is served with rice and a side of greens. Mum used to make this dish on Sundays and I remember it being so delicious with sticks of cinnamon and cardamom lending a strong flavour of the meat.

Ingredients:
200 g mutton
2 potatoes quartered
1 tomato wedged
3 onions
5 cloves garlic
thumb sized piece of ginger
2 tbs curry powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbs tumeric powder
1/2 tbs chilli powder
pinch of salt
1 fresh red chilli
1 fresh green chilli
coconut milk- a teacup of thick milk
curry leaves
2 sticks cinnamon
handful cardamom
Bay leaves

1. Pound garlic and ginger and sliced up one onion. This is the marinade for the mutton to be mixed with the meat and kept for one hour.
2. Then pressure cook the mutton with enough water to cover it for 15 minutes.
3. In the meantime, heat oil and fry cinnamon, cardamom and curry leaves in the hot oil until the fragrance is released.
4. Add 2 sliced onions and fry until golden brown.
5. Add the spice powders and fry until fragrant for 10 mins. Add chillies and bay leaves.
6. Drain the mutton in a colander and add it into the pan to fry with the spices. Reserve some of the liquid for flavour and add it in after mutton is well fried together with the coconut milk. Add the potato and tomato, cover and let it simmer until potatoes are fully cooked.
7. Serve with rice

Mummy's Mutton Dalcha

So I finally got round to making one of my favourite dishes from Mum- mutton dalcha. Dalcha is actually a Hydrebadi dish and is made with meat as opposed to the traditional Indian dhall.

Ingredients:
200 g mutton
3/4 cup parpoo dhall
1 onion sliced
3 cloves garlic chopped
thumb sized ginger sliced thinly
1 tbs curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
juice from a thumb sized tamarind
long beans chopped
1 eggplant quartered
1 potato chopped
1 tomato chopped
1-2 cinnamon sticks
handful of curry leaves
1 cup coconut milk
pinch of salt

1. Pressure cook mutton, ginger and garlic with water covering the mutton in a pressure cooker. Cook for 15 minutes after the cooker starts to whistle.
2. Turn off heat and allow the steam to be completely let out and cooled befor adding parpoo dhall to the pressure cooker mutton and allow to cook for 5 minutes before switching off the cooker completely.
3. In a separate pot, cook onions with curry leaves and cinnamon sticks until browned. Add the spices and cook until the aroma is released. Add a cup of water and potatoes and cook until potatoes are half cooked (15 minutes). Then add the long beans, tomato and eggplant and cook. When the vegetables are cooked and the potatoes are soft, add the pressure cooked mutton and dhall mixture to the pot.
4. Add tamarind paste and coconut milk. Season with salt.
5. Serve with hot rice or chapati.

Onion and Coriander Spaghettini

I made this simple vegetarian pasta for dinner tonight- Im getting pretty tired of meat lately and wanted something light and tasty.

Ingredients:
1/2 pkt spaghettini broken in halves
1 can tomato sauce
2 onions sliced
a big bunch of coriander sliced
1 tbs tomato paste
handful of beans thinly chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
pinch of salt

1. Heat oil and fry onion until translucent.
2. Add beans and continue frying.
3. Add the tomato sauce, chilli flakes and tomato paste.
4. Add the cooked spaghettini
5. After mixing it up properly, season and add the coriander. Cook for 1 min slightly before dishing up.

Coriander Chicken Curry

So while I have the best recipe for Green Masala Chicken from my mum (recipe in archives)- I tried to experiment with a new recipe from a website I found: http://www.mariasmenu.com/spicy/coriander-chicken-curry

The difference is that it uses coriander powder as its base and there isnt any addition of potatoes, spring onions, mustard or fenugreek seeds. In the end, I threw in potatoes and chopped spring onions in an effort to get it back to the taste of the Green Masala Chicken I have come to love- this version was just too bland for me. I prefer the addition of curry and chilli powder in the Green Masala version and I find the spring onions to be very complementary in strengthening the flavour of the coriander.

So while it was fun to experiment with a new recipe, I think I'll be sticking to the tried and trusted recipe from Mum :-)

Made my Thai style fried rice for breakfast this morning and used more of the beans together with prawns, onion, garlic and eggs. I prefer Thai style fried rice to its richer cousin, nasi goreng for breakfast because its lighter on the stomach and tastes very fresh with the addition of lemon juice, on top of the saltiness of the fish sauce and the sweetness of palm sugar. The recipe can be found in the archives.

Citron Presse (French Lemonade)

I was watching 'French Food at Home' on BBC Lifestyle and got the inspiration for this drink. This is a sugar syrup with lemon peel made and jarred for refreshing glasses of lemonade. Perfect in this hot weather. The longer you keep the peel in the sugar syrup, the more yellow and lemony it tastes. It acts as a base for a simple concoction with lemon juice, cold water and sprigs of mint.

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
2 cups water
peel of 2 lemons

1. Boil the following ingredients for 5 minutes before jarring. Place in the refrigerator.
2. For a refreshing lemonade, french style- simply use 2 tbs of this lemon sugar syrup to the juice of half a lemon and a sprig of mint, cold water and ice cubes.

Roasted Chicken with Beans Stirfry

This is one of those stir-fries where you can use up leftover meat- in this case, I had a piece of roasted chicken from the day before which I stir fried with beans and served with rice.

And yes, I have moved to another part of the world- the Middle East this time- so its no longer 'The Asian Cook in Denmark' but 'The Asian cook living abroad' :-)

Ingredients:
3 onions sliced
200 g beans sliced
leftover meat pieces- in this case I used roasted chicken
3 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs kecap manis
1 tsp soya sauce
salt and pepper.

1. Heat oil and fry onions until translucent and fragrant.
2. Add the beans and stir fry under high heat. Add 1/2 cup water to soften beans if the mixture gets too dry and starts browning too quickly.
3. Add the meat and condiments and stir fry under high heat.
4. Serve hot with rice.