Spicy Zespri Kiwifruit, Glass noodle and Chicken Salad

Incorporating fruits in salad adds a little more colour and vibrant to what may seem like an ordinary plate of greens. One of my favourite is adding grapes into cold pasta salad, adding grated apples to coleslaw and orange segments to mesclun mix, or the common som tham, thai young papaya salad..

So adding kiwi into a glass noodle salad, is another smart idea by Chef Rohani Jelani of Bayan Indah.

Pin It

When I knew I was going to make this in the cooking class, I cant help but to jump in delight (inside me, yipppeee) It seems quite similar to the thai kerabu salad by cutting the vegetables into julienne and tossing with a sweet and spicy dressing. So yes, there are quite a number of things to julienne here, but its not too difficult.

Pin It

Im pretty sure I was cutting something (cause I just did that 80% of the time) but how come the board looks empty. Hahaha

Anyway look at the prop room behind!! endless white bowls, plates, cake stands and tablewares! *envious* Ok back to the recipe

Pin It

Spicy Zespri Kiwifruit, Glass noodle and Chicken Salad

(recipe by Chef Rohani Jelani)

Serves 6

3 Zespri Green Kiwifruit (peeled, quatered lengthwise & sliced 1cm thick)
20g glass noodles, blanced for 1 minute and drained
1 cucumber (200g), peeled, seeded and shredded
1 small carrot (100g), finely shredded
1 small onion (60g), half lengthwise and thinly sliced
1 torch ginger bud, finely sliced
4 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced
2 cm young ginger, finely sliced
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1 red chilli, deseed and thinly sliced.

Dressing:
3 tbsp calamansi lime juice
3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp sugar2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1-2 red bird chillies, thinly sliced
Chicken:
2 tbsp oil
200g skinned chicken breast
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
Topping
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
40g cashews, lightly toasted

Pin It

Rohani Jelani shows how to julienne cucumber

Method:

1. Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl, stir well until sugar dissolves. Set aside.
2. Thinly slice chicken breast across the crain. Season with black pepper. I! n a wok or frying pan, heat oil and sear chicken slices quickly until firm (2-3 minutes). Take pan off heat and transfer chicken into a small bowl. Drizzle about 2 tbsp of the salad dressing. Set aside to cool.

3. Julienne (cut into strips) cucumber, carrot, onion, ginger bud, and young ginger. Place in a large bowl. For kaffir lime leaves, roll tightly and chiffonade them.
4. Place sliced kiwifruit, mint and coriander leaves with other salad ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
5. To serve, add marinated chicken to prepared ingredeitns and all the remaining dressing. Toss lightly to combine. Transfer salad into serving plate (without the juice). Sprinkle sesame seeds and cashew nut and serve immediately.

Pin It

When I first added the garlic into the dressing, I thought, sei lo.. so much garlic ah ?? But well, I was wrong. Everything balanced out pretty well and the flavours harmonized each other without anything overpowering. And you see the green bin in the picture above, its compost bin for any fruit and vege scraps. I thought its a good idea for any cooking school to do that, so people can start doing at home for natural organic compost. Good fertilizer for your plants.. Maybe also thats why the herbs are growing faster than Im using them. Oh well, I dont cook that often anyway. I wonder if my sage or basil or rosemary has overgrown into shrubsLOL!

Take the chicken out and maybe look for a vegetarian version of fi! sh sauce , you can turn this into a healthy vegetarian dish!

search

Chef Korn shares his recipes with the world

Senya Grill Sushi Bar @ P Ramlee

KL's P. Ramlee Road might not often entice this city's gastrophiles, but Senya is well worth a stop for folks seeking an evocative setting for Japanese fare.

Climb the stairs up from Menya Musashi to enter Senya; it's clear that these two outlets have more in common than their rhyming names, combining to create a one-two culinary punch with an ambiance that might recall Tokyo backstreet holes-in-walls.

Take a table in the air-conditioned interior, beside the bustling open kitchen, or snatch a seat on the terrace outside, overlooking eternally busy traffic below.

The menu is straightforward, featuring fast-assembled plates of salmon avocado rolls (RM16) ...

... traditional skewers of smoky chicken liver and heart (about RM3 each) ...

... and more obscure but equally order-worthy pleasures like sticky-stinky fried rice mixed with a wealth of natto fermented soybeans (RM16).

For the fear factor fan: marinated firefly squid (RM10.80), squishy and salty.

Lightly torched mackerel, one of Senya's most expensive items at RM22. Prices here are better than reasonable for a Japanese joint in the heart of the city.

Stewed fish cake in a light soy broth (RM4), perfect for a wet evening.

Succulent duck with spinach (RM17), simple but (no need to wait for it!) satisfying.

Sure, there's sake and shochu, but beverages like the Rum Buck cocktail (white rum, ginger ale, lemon juice) and Sudachi citron liquor warrant a full investigation.

Service is excellent, and the restaurant's last orders are sometime past 10 pm.

Is this Senya related somehow to the Senya at Isetan KLCC and 1 Utama? Probably, judging from their similar logos, but the menu here is completely different.

Entry on Senya @ Isetan KLCC: Sept. 17, 2011.

Senya Grill Sushi Bar,

Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur.

roasted apple spice sheet cake

Yesterday, our little bear turned three which, you know, is impossible since we are unequivocally certain that we just brought him home from the hospital yesterday. Seriously, right here, through the door to my right and we put the carrier that he was sleeping deeply within on the table. It looked strange there [Also, we were hungry and unsure of the logistics -- is it rude to eat lunch while your newborn is on the table? Isn't it worse to place him on the floor?] Sure, there were one or two hundred fewer fire engine parts, stuffed hedgehogs and train tracks scattered across the living room carpet, and maybe we looked a little younger and better-rested; I probably didnt have my iPhone wedged between sofa cushions the way I do right now so that my talking-walking-doing things mini-human couldnt co-opt it to watch Elmo videos again (how does he find them?), but otherwise, nothing has changed. Nothing! Dont say it. Didnt your mother teach you never to argue with crazy people?

I know a lot of people who have had babies lately and I feel like I should say something wise here because I understand how utterly hectic the first few months can be, not because newborns are particularly difficult but because youre terrified youre going to break them,! or mayb e just a little shell-shocked in general. One minute theyre slumped over your shoulder snoring the tiniest snore ever emitted and you feel utterly centered, a sense of all the generations that came before this one gathered invisibly around their squished faces in beaming admiration, and the next theyre red-faced and full of rage, their squawking mouths in a perfect open circle, and you and your significant other are frantically running through the checklist you keep in your heads (hungry? cold? tired? wet?) which grows more complicated every few months (is your swaddle loose? did you roll over in the night again and cant get yourself back? so help us, did we put you to bed with the little George and you wanted the big one?) and more complicated still (Mommy, we have to take Ernie, Bert and Twacktor back to the park. Jacob, its 2 a.m. Please go back to sleep.). I also have a bunch of friends who are quite close to deciding to have babies but theyre so understandably freaked out by everything they read about the crying and the not sleeping and the life will never be the same ever ever again that theyre terrified to move forward. But I cant. I have no wisdom to impart, no pithy catchphrases that will cause it all to make sense. I can only say LOOK AT THIS. I can no longer imagine life any other way.

... Read the rest of roasted apple spice sheet cake on smittenkitchen.com

smitten kitchen 2006-2012. |permalink to roasted apple spice sheet cake | one comment to date | see more: Apple, Celebration Cakes, Fall, Photo

Nana

Irish Eggs

I met Nana, P.s grandmother, during my first visit to Ireland in the summer of 2001. She was eighty-six years old.

She lived with Papaher husband Williamin a neatly-kept house with a manicured garden in Malahide, a quaint coastal town near Dublin. I remember how amazing they both looked for their age.

Nana, in particular.

Right away, I had noticed how well she carried herself. It was impossible not to.

Nana belonged to a different generation, one that takes great pride in making sure men and women always look presentable. She liked to keep her hair and make-up always neatly styled, no matter what day of the week it was. And she gave a lot of attention to the way she dressed. In her bedroom, various pots of Clarins beauty creams were carefully lined up on her dresser. It showed: she looked stunning.

The family had told me how difficult she could be, but truth being said, I only met a charming Nana.

When, to everyones utter surprise, she decided that it was an excellent idea to fly to France at the age of ninety five, so that she could celebrate Lulus christening with us, she managed to enchant every guest. Especially my dad with whom, it was obvious, she liked to flirt.

Nana was known for her obvious force of character and solid opinions. There was always a lot of talk in the family about her, and what was going to happen next. Who she would upset, who she would make smile.

Nan a was just like that. Full of life and strong ideas about things. An amazing gardener. A regular to drinking a glass of sherry every evening before dinner. Known for her excellent potato bread too.

In May of this year, we unexpectedly had to travel to Ireland because sadly, Nana passed away. She was ninety seven years of age.

Beside being P.s grandmother, Nana was une grande dame to me. The queen of Ireland as I jokingly imagined her in the Irish role of Maggie Smith playing in Downtown Abbey.

I still dont know how she did it, but it turns out that the week we gathered in Ireland for her, the weather was unbelievably beautiful. As I had never experienced it before. We could eat barbecues outside and swim; we took long evening strolls and visited Bloom, making new friends along the way; we cleaned peas and beans while sitting on the garden bench.

We wondered. Maybe she had kept that in storage for us all?

Ive had these images since May. Without the proper time to devote to them.

I wanted to keep them for Nana. To show her how beautiful Ireland, her country, is.

How much we all love her.

And how truly lucky I feel to be part of her family.

We all know that she had a good life.

We are so thankful.

A Special Visit to Ireland

The other day, while I was thinking about her, I suddenly felt like eating something that would take me to IrelandI love Ireland, and I love that Lulu is Irish too,

So I thought about potatoes. Because every one in the family loves their spuds. We do too.

And I imagined a dish with finely sliced potatoes with pretty pink turnips and onions. Irish cheddar, of course, and cream. A dish with Irish and French touches combined.

This is so good! P. exclaimed that evening at the table after eating the first bite.

I smiled. Agreeing.

It made m! e feel w arm inside because I knew that Nana would have enjoyed this dish terribly too.

Scalloped Potatoes and Turnips au Gratin Recipe, with Onion and Sage

For 4 to 6 people, according to appetite

You need:

• Butter for dish
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 8 leaves of sage
• Sea salt and pepper
• 2 pounds (900 g) Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
• 9 ounces (250 g) small pink turnips, finely sliced
• 1 medium red onion, finely sliced
• 2 ounces (60 g) Irish Cheddar, grated

Steps:

Preheat the oven to 400 F and butter a 10.5 x 7.5-inch baking dish; set aside.

In a small pot, combine the cream, milk, and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, add the sage, and stop the heat; set aside.

Arrange the vegetables in the dish in layers: 2 potatoes, 1 onion, 1 turnip, and repeat until you run out of ingredients.

Add the cheese between the layers, and pour the cream/milk mixture on top.

Bake the gratin for about 45 minutes. Serve warm as a side dish.