easy cucumber and pineapple achar and Mum's Not Cooking giveaway!

Hi all! This is it! The Mum's Not Cooking Book Giveaway starts today 25 May 2012 and ends at midnight Singapore Time (GMT +8) on 4 June 2012 or noon EST ( GMT-4) on 3 June 2012.

All you have to do to win one of 3 copies, is to leave a comment after this post, telling me your favourite Singapore dish, if you have one. If you don't have a favourite dish or don't know any Singapore dishes, just say hello! If you like Singapore Shiok, please go to my Facebook page and gimme me some looove ;)

Only entries submitted between the given dates and times will be included in the draw to determine the winners, who will be chosen completely randomly.

Before you know it, you'll have this little red beauty in your hands. How easy is that?! Remember this is OPEN TO ALL MY READERS, ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD! May the best um, reader win!!!Yaaaaaaay! Now on with today's recipe.

In my last post, I told you all about my new book and shared the recipe for Easy Peasy Biryani from it. At the end of the post, I mentioned Easy Cucucmber and Pineapple Achar as an accompaniment to the biryani, so today, I will share the recipe for it with you.

The word achar which means pickle, is generally thought to have originated from Persia. However, modern day pickles, at least in our part of the world, are almost certainly derived from Indian achar. We love our pickles and what we've learned from the Indians, has been tweaked myriad ways, into hybrids, some of which bear almost no resemblance to their antecedent.

attempt 1 in toaster oven - burnt ombre sesame seeds

attempt 2 in toaster oven - spanish roast sesame seeds 

attempt 3 in a frying pan. moral of this story - toaster ovens are for toast, not sesame seeds

Each community in Singapore has its own version of achar and it's little surprise that pickles are popular here. The soaring heat, engulfing humidity and in the past, the absence of refrigeration resulted in the popularity of preserved food in many forms from salted and dried fish (ikan asin and ikan kering or kiam hu) and eggs (telur asin or kiam neng) to fermented shrimp sauce (cincalok) and tapai (fermented tapioca or glutinous rice) as these foods lasted much longer without refrigeration than they would have in their fresh, unaltered states.

Pickles are arguably the tastiest and most approachable of the brined or dried brigade and can be eaten without preamble unlike many preserved foods which often need rehydration and cooking, hence their widespread popularity. Their ability to add punch and pizzazz to a lacklustre meal and awaken jaded appetites or bored palates has preserved (sorry) their popularity even to this day.

discarding the cores stops the cucumber from weeping and diluting your acar 'gravy'

Malay and Kristang (Portuguese Eurasian) achars tend to stay close to the Indian model and include spices like turmeric, ginger, garlic, cumin and mustard seeds, with the typical southeast Asian addition of belacan (fermented shrimp paste). Examples are Achar Ikan (Malay Fish Pickle) and Eurasian Salt Fish Pickle.

Nyonya achars are very aromatic, seldom use powdered spices and tend to be sweeter, often including lemongrass and galangal in addition to the basic combination of turmeric, ginger and garlic.  Examples are Achar Awak (Mixed Vegetable Pickle) and Achar Huan Cheo (Shredded Papaya Stuffed Chilli Pickle). Vinegar and turmeric are common to almost all versions and used in generous amounts as they aid in preserving and preventing spoilage.

You will find different versions of achar being served alongside dishes like biryani, Hainanese chicken rice, nasi padang, nasi goreng, nasi lemak, Eurasian pot roasted chicken and pot roasted beef. In our home, plates of fried ham and eggs and buttered bread are eaten with piles and piles of this pungent acar, deeply stained with turmeric and almost strident with vinegar, each Boxing Day morning.

There are achars that take an hour to make and those that take the better part of a day or even week. Some last 3 days and some, six months without refrigeration. If the vegetables or fruits are salted, squeezed or sun dried before being added to the pickling spices, they will last longer. Simple achars that don't involve pre preparation of the vegetables usually last up to a week and require refrigeration.

The achar recipe I will be sharing with you today is a very simple version of the achar commonly served with biryani or at nasi padang stalls and restaurants here in Singapore. It takes all of 10 minutes to throw together and makes a tasty and zippy companion to biryani, chicken rice, nasi lemak or white rice and other spicy Malay, Indian or Nyonya dishes. Because it's from Mum's Not Cooking, you know it's going to be painlessly easy but absolutely lip smackingly good!

Be sure to get a very punchy sweet and sour, chunky sauce with lots of garlic and chilli bits floating around in it and a nice sour tang like a good Thai style chilli sauce. If the sauce is tasty enough, you won't need to add anything more apart from the sesame seeds. If the sauce lacks flavour, add salt, sugar and vinegar to taste. If you're feeling edgy and need to work out a bit of aggression, lightly re-toast a large handful of salted peanuts and bash the living daylights out of them before scattering over the prepared achar. Stir the peanuts in only when ready to eat.

I hope you try out this recipe, and see and taste for yourself how easy and delicious it is. Lesson over, let the fun begin! Thank you everyone, for your support and participation, and THE VERY BEST OF LUCK TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!

easy peasy briyani the Mum's Not Cooking Way

Giveaway Reminder : If you read this post or this one, you'll know about the upcoming giveaway I have planned to celebrate the completion of  my second cookbook, Mum's Not Cooking and to say "thank you" to you, my readers for following, subscribing, reading and commenting. I am giving away 3 copies, one each to 3 lucky readers from anywhere in the world, not just Singapore. If you've been a silent reader so far, please introduce yourself during the giveaway - there's no better time to say hello as you stand to win a great prize. Winning  it will be easy, and I know you will loooove this adorable little book! It will hit local bookstores in June 2012, but I am telling you now, because you are special (because you're MY readers!) and I don't want you to miss out, so stay tuned and keep checking back here for details. Today I will tell you more about the book, feature a review and a recipe from it. So read on....

I can't stop talking about my new book because it really is a great little cookbook. Notice I keep saying "little". Well, it's a compact, racy little number, like a tiny red teddy or a little red Corvette, I digress, but you get the picture, I think.

It's called Mum's Not Cooking - Favourite Singapore Recipes for the Near Clueless or Plain Lazy. A lot of  thought has gone into it, eg, it's journal sized and light so you can take it with you to the supermarket and use the ingredients list as your shopping list instead of writing out a separate shopping list. Less time and energy expanded, less paper used, less tree chopping,  less resource depletion. How many publishers think of that?

What you have here is a 128 paged beauty, rosy, luscious and eye catching as a red, ripe juicy tomato, or a traffic light, so you never lose sight of it, even in the hurly-burly of a cluttered apartment or messy dorm room. Seriously, is my publisher brilliant or is my publisher brilliant?

It's packed to the gills with tips, tricks, kitchen know how, quick and handy conversions for all kinds of measurements and more than a hundred scrumptious and ridiculously easy recipes to satisfy every culinary craving known to true blue Singaporeans from Alaska to Singapore to Zimbabwe. This cracker of a book will show you how to equip your kitchen, stock your fridge and pantry, get the best value and quality for your money at the market or supermarket, plan all kinds of menus and even prepare special foods and beverages to nurse yourself back to health when you fall ill. Okay, my publisher is brilliant, but hey, here, the credit's all mine ;)

wait! where's the rice?! 

ala peanut butter sandwiches!! wave the magic spoon and....

ta-dah!! easy PEAsy briyani! thank you! thank you! and thank you!

Whether you're a clueless novice cook who needs to learn how to cook our gorgeous local dishes, a transplanted Singaporean without the comfort of mum's familiar and beloved cooking, a newly wed who wants to impress your partner with your kitchen 'prowess', or just mad about Singaporean food, wherever in the world you may be, this is the book for you. If you can navigate a dinner plate with ease but are hopelessly challenged when facing the stove, this book is calling your name!. It's informative, cook friendly even if you think you're all thumbs in the kitchen, goes far beyond the scope of a recipe manual and is written in a lighthearted, humorous and always encouraging tone - mine!

I could talk all day about how much I love this book, or how I wrote it, bearing my experiences as a younger and much less savvy cook in mind, or how I made sure even my teenaged son could cook easily from it, and put a really tasty meal on the table just using the book as a guide, no maternal intervention whatsoever. But then, of course I would have nothing but good things to say about my own book right?

photo from Think Tank Tingkat

So, you know what?  I'll spare you the long spiel *wink* and let Trish of Think Tank Tingkat, a London based Singaporean blogger, tell you more about the experience of cooking from my cookbook.

But before you  hop over there, let me show you the results of Think Tank Tingkat's delicious effort on my Hot and Sour Szechuan Soup recipe from Mum's Not Cooking. Not bad at all eh, for a newbie cook? Just looking at it makes me want to have an early lunch!



Because a good food blog post is one that makes you smile and your tummy growl, with yummy recipes and  pretty pictures, I have also prepared for you today, a  recipe from Mum's Not Cooking - Easy Peasy Briyani. It's my pared down but still droolworthy and delicious version that a kitchen novice can put together with a handful of ingredients in almost no time. You probably know most recipes for biryani look like a dissertation or an annual report and take the better part of a morning or afternoon to prepare.

Of course such a recipe will produce magnificent results in the hands of a kitchen expert or professional chef. But I promise you, today's recipe, while very easy and novice friendly will make you look like you've been cooking all your life. It's more an Indian spiced basmati pilaf with chicken and vegetables, than a classic biryani, but the flavour profile and method of cooking are similar enough to that of biryani , so go ahead, take a little licence. When you proudly serve this, lay it on the table with a theatrical flourish and tell your lucky guests that it's your "BRIYANI" and that it's delicious, because it is!

Make an easy and refreshing accompaniment  by coarsely chopping up tomatoes, cucumbers and a little  red onion then mixing everything up with a little salt, lime juice and chopped coriander.  Serve in a bowl alongside the biryani and a tall pitcher of  lime drink with pandan, then sit back and lap up the applause and compliments.

I hope you enjoyed this little show N tell for Mum's Not Cooking. In Singapore, biryani is eaten with achar on the side, and I've also recommended it in my cookbook (see end of recipe below) so for my next post, I'll show you how to make an easy version of the usually intricate and involved achar or pickle. See you then!


Easy Peasy Briyani (Spicy Chicken & Green Pea Basmati Pilaf)

Prep 15 minutes       Cook 25 minutes         Serves 2 – 3

1 large onion, peel, halve and slice thinly

2 Tbsp ready ground ginger paste (I made my own)

1 Tbsp ready ground garlic paste (I made my own)

2 chicken breast halves, cut into large cubes

1 rounded Tbsp medium hot curry powder

150 g (2 level cups) basmati rice, washed and drained in a colander or large sieve

600 ml (3 cups) low fat canned chicken stock or broth

1 ½ tsp salt 

90 g (1 cup) thawed and drained frozen baby green peas (I used mixed veg - no peas in the supermarket freezer!!!)

Heat 5 tablespoons vegetable oil in a heavy pot until hot but not smoking.

Fry the onion, ginger paste and garlic paste over medium heat until golden and fragrant.

Add chicken and sprinkle over curry powder.

Stir around, until the cubes brown.

Add rice and stir until coated with oil.

Pour in stock, add salt and stir to dissolve salt.

Bring to the boil, watch until liquid is almost gone and holes begin to appear on top of rice.

Reduce heat to minimum, cover pot securely so steam doesn’t escape and cook for 10 minutes.

Open pot, add peas, cover immediately and turn off heat but do not open for 15 minutes.

Open pot, gently fluff rice with fork and serve with Easy Cucumber and Pineapple Acar. 

epok epok sardine (sardine curry puffs) ala nona nona

Giveaway Reminder : If you read my last post, you'll know about the upcoming giveaway I have planned to celebrate the completion of work on my second cookbook, Mum's Not Cooking and to say "thank you" to you, my readers for following, subscribing, reading and commenting. Without readers, blogs would be unheard voices in the wilderness. I am giving away 3 copies, one each to 3 lucky readers from anywhere in the world, not just Singapore. If you've been a silent reader so far, please introduce yourself during the giveaway - there's no better time to say hello as you stand to win a great prize. Winning  it will be easy I promise, and you will loooove this adorable little book or I will cook it and eat it! It will hit local bookstores in June 2012, but I am telling you now, lovely readers because you are special (because you're MY readers!) and I don't want you to miss out, so stay tuned and keep checking back here for details. And now, it's Nona Nona time!

After our wildly successful ( :P ) first joint Nona Nona post, Biren and I decided we had to do it not only again, but at least once a month from now on. Who am I kidding? We had so much fun, trying to second guess each other and crossing our fingers hard enough to crack a walnut, that we both wouldn't post the same thing, we knew we had to keep doing this! 

Nona Nona is a celebration of our friendship, our love for food and culture and the camaraderie and fellowship that arises from the confluence of both. The choice of  the name Nona Nona (Ladies) for our little cooking circle is particularly apt for Biren and myself as it is a term commonly used by both the Nyonya and Kristang communities and hints at the single origin of both groups, Malacca.

So here we are again, barely a month later, this time, each putting our kitchen spin on a familiar favourite in the south east Asian kitchen, canned sardines. Before you even think, "cat food!", let me tell you that any domestic feline would be a pampered and ever so lucky little kitty to find these in her dinner bowl....*meeeeeoow*

As always I haven't a clue what Biren, my partner in crime is up to, with her little fishies, but I give you today, a perennial favourite on afternoon tea trays in this part of the world, the humble but incredibly tasty and devilishly moreish morsel, the epok epok sardine. 

Epok epok (ay-pohk ay-pohk) is what we call these little parcels of delight, which are traditionally filled with curried potatoes (epok epok kentang), meat (epok epok daging), sardines or stir fried shredded vegetables (epok epok sayur). My favourite is of course the sardine version, though I sometimes stuff them with a pan fried mixture of canned corned beef, onions, red chillies and pepper (epok epok serani?), when my boys crave a richly savoury tea time treat.

In Malaysia they are known as karipap, so don't go there in search of epok epok or you would be laughed right out of town. While essentially the same thing, epok epok are usually smaller than karipap or curry puffs and are a two bite deal; two bites and they are gone. Oops! Just ate three more! Did I tell you how moreish they are? ;)

What makes a good epok epok? Different people may tell you different things, but we all like a generous filling, nicely but not overly spiced, a brittle, perfectly salted crust peppered with bubbly blisters (a sign of light, nicely layered and flaky pastry) and a good crust to filling ratio, which means as thin a crust as possible to hold it all together.

Epok epok are a culinary contribution to our local foodscape, courtesy of the Malay community, no question about it, so everyone else, hands off please, unless you just want to eat them ;)

Their true origin though may be British (the Cornish pasty), Arabic and Indian (the samosa) or Spanish and Portuguese (the empanada) but let's not split hairs, not when there's cooking and more importantly, eating to be done!

When Biren suggested we do something themed on sardines, these IMMEDIATELY came to mind, and I did not want to do anything else, even at the risk of duplicating Biren's dish.

You see, about 80% of the canned sardines swimming around in Singapore and Malaysia, end up stuffed into epok epok! No, I'm kidding, but say "sardine" in Singapore and chances are the rejoinder will be an enthuthiastic and lusty "epok epok!!" We do love our food.....

I never thought about the meaning of epok epok, as growing up surrounded by them made me impervious to such musings; these things are made for eating, not getting philosophical or pedantic over. But as a food blogger, I do owe it to my readers to find out these things, so off I went asking every Malay person I knew, and making a nuisance of myself in the process. It turns out that "epok" means, 1) to fold, alluding to the way the pastry is folded over the filling and 2) a small stringed pouch, often woven out of pandan leaves. Homework done. Do I get a gold star ? :D

I love eating epok epok, but making them, to use a pretty euphemism, is a labour of love, so when I do make them, it's my mum the pastry pinching phenom who does the pinching and twirling of the pastry edges into a beautiful braid like edge. This intricate procedure, called fluting, makes me want to pull my hair out but I decided that to present these for you, here, it's time I became a big girl and did it myself, so what you see now is all my own honest but clumsy handiwork. One day, I'll get it right mum......one day!

Prep 45 mins                   Cook 20 mins                  Makes 20

Filling

2 large onions peeled and thinly sliced (see photo)

3 large green chillies, thinly sliced

2 small cans sardines (Ayam brand preferred)

2 tbsp meat curry powder (my secret for good fish curry)

½ tsp cumin powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp sugar

Juice of 1 calamansi lime (limau kasturi)

Pastry

300 g (3 cups) plain or all purpose flour

2/3 tsp salt

100 g (2/3 cup) cold firm butter

120 ml (slightly over ½ cup) chilled water

·        Heat 4 tablespoons oil and fry the onions and green chillies until fragrant and beginning to brown. Add sardines with the tomato sauce and stir for 2 – 3 minutes.

·        Break up the sardine and mash them into the onion mixture. Sprinkle over the curry powder and cumin and stir over moderate heat for about 3 minutes or until fragrant. Add salt, sugar and lime juice and stir well.

·       Turn off heat and set aside until cold, while you make the pastry.

·       To make pastry, combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir with whisk to distribute salt.  Cut butter into the flour with a blunt tipped knife until in small, rough cubes.  Keep tossing the pieces of butter with flour as you cut so nothing sticks.

·        Use your hands to rub the butter into the flour, squeezing the pieces of butter to get them smaller. Keep rubbing and tossing the butter pieces until the mixture looks like very coarse crumbs, with bits of butter still visible here and there. The mixture should be very rough.

·       Pour in the water all at once and stir quickly with a spatula until a rough dough forms. Push everything together but don’t knead the dough or you will toughen the pastry.

·        Divide dough into 5 large equal pieces, cover and chill for 15 minutes. Divide each piece of dough into 4 equal smaller pieces to make a total of 20 pieces.

·        Roll out each piece of dough into a small circle the size of an espresso saucer. Put 1 heaped teaspoon of cold filling on the lower half of each pastry circle. Fold pastry over to cover filling and press down on edges to seal.

·        Pinch and twirl the pastry edge to form a rope like design.  Repeat with the remaining pastry and filling. When done, cover epok epok and chill for 20 minutes.

·        Heat enough oil for deep frying and when hot, gently lower in the epok epok in batches of 4 or 5 depending on the size of your pan or pot. I use a small deep pot to reduce the amount of oil used and fry 3 at a time. Don’t crowd the pan. Control the intensity of the heat so inside of pastry is cooked though in the same time that the outside turns crisp and golden. 

·       When golden and blistered, remove from oil and drain on crushed kitchen paper. Serve warm with coffee or tea for breakfast, afternoon tea or as a snack at any time.

cinnamon brown sugar muffins for mum & an upcoming giveaway

I am elated to announce that all the work it takes to get a manuscript off to the printing press is finally finished for my second cookbook and as you can see if you kindly turn your gaze to the right sidebar, it's called "Mum's Not Cooking". Many, many thanks to the wonderful team at Epigram Books, Singapore's coolest publisher, by far! I'll let you know all about it very soon and you don't want to miss it because it's an a-do-ra-ble little book, but more importantly, there'll be a....... GIVEAWAY!! Boy, where are the happy dance emoticons when you need them?!? I'm feeling generous so, it will be really easy like a umm.. GIVEAWAY, no epic Iron Chef battle type cook-offs, to get your hot little hands on a copy  of Mum's Not Cooking and....there'll be not one, but THREE copies up for grabs! The giveaway will be open to all readers, local and international, (yes, you silent lurkers, I know you're there, and I would especially love to hear from YOU!) so, please stay tuned and keep checking back here for details.

Now, to the business at hand. Today it's all about mothers here. What can I say except that they/we are an under appreciated lot. I'm sitting here, writing, stuffing my face with the fabulous muffins I'm going to give you the recipe for later and all the ways I never appreciated my mum are tumbling out of the annals of  my misspent youth and washing over me like a tsunami of guilt.

Of course the realisation only began to haunt me once I had myself become a mother and felt the sting of sometimes being treated like a disposable tissue by my own children. But, it's a rite of passage, like falling off a bike, cutting your wisdom teeth or having your heart broken for the very first time, all painful and unpleasant but necessary and educational, if I'm going to be philosophical and euphemistic about it.

Our children teach us strength, how to love selflessly and unconditionally and make us indomitable. Though I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit to sometimes fantasising about karma finding them and biting them in the behind, hard. That's right my darlings, it's coming for you too. Better watch your back! ;)

I'll try not to get too sentimental or mushy, but my mum didn't have it easy, not in her childhood, not in adulthood, nor in marriage or motherhood. She was a single mum in the singlest way possible - my dad left us without looking back very early on in my life and she remains even today, a dedicated (you can relax now mum, I'm 44) and still single mum and grandmum. Eh! What are you gonna do about it? Get up, dust yourself off and keep walking. 

She taught me all about courage, strength and how to cook a curry devil that could scare the horned and hoofed one into repentance, still worries that I'm hellbound (yes, mum, I'm still going to church), tells my boys, "are you trying to send your mother to an early grave?" when they get out of hand and still let's me raid her china cupboard when I'm having a fancy dinner for friends, or want to make my table pretty for a blog post shoot (see tiered cake server, teacup /saucer and cake plate for this post)

So, mum, thank you for everything you've ever done, in the name of motherhood, for me, your sometimes unthinking and unappreciating daughter. Your's is still the first name that comes to mind, when I manage to get myself into a fix (finally realise where my talent lies).  I guess what I'm trying to say is "you'll always be my mummy" even when I'm 64 and have grandbabies of my own.

If you haven't called your mum because you know she'll say the same thing she always says, go on,  pick up that phone this Sunday and let her tell you that you should be a) attached b) married c) pregnant d) adopting or e) promoted. Of course you're not going to do what she expects, when shes expects it, but she's earned the right to tell you anyway.

Get her a nice gift, take her out to dinner or if she appreciates the small, personal gift above big gestures, make oh, I don't know, some cinnamon brown sugar muffins, and put them in a pretty box for her...maybe?

Happy Mother's Day!

Cinnamon and Brown Sugar Muffins with Salted Butter Glaze

Prep15mins                  cook20mins                  makes8

Muffins

200 g (2 cups) plain or all purpose flour

150 g (11/4 cups) soft brown sugar, sifted if lumpy

2 tsp cream of tartar, sifted if lumpy

1 tsp baking soda, sifted if lumpy

2 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 egg

100 g (2/3 cup) butter, melted and cooled

100 ml (1/2 cup) milk

Glaze

6 heaped tbsp confectioner’s sugar, sifted

3 tbsp melted butter

1 tbsp milk

1/3 tsp salt

Ground cinnamon for finishing

·         Preheat oven at 185 C (370 F) and line a muffin tray with paper muffin cases.

·         In a large dry mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and cinnamon until thoroughly mixed.

·         Make a well in the middle of flour mixture and set aside.

·         In a small pitcher or measuring jug, whisk together the egg, butter and milk until very thoroughly mixed. Strain this into the well in the flour mixture. Straining removes the strands of egg white that remain whole in very fresh eggs, which I hate biting into. If it doesn’t bother you, skip the straining bit.

·         Give the mixture as few stirs as possible with a whisk, until you have a thick batter the consistency of soft serve ice cream. Whatever you do, do not stir more than necessary, to get feather light muffins.

·         Put one ice cream scoopful of batter into each muffin case and bake for 20 minutes. Do not overbake. Test after 15 minutes with a fine skewer or tooth pick. If it comes out clean from centre of tallest muffin, remove immediately from oven.

·         Transfer muffins to cooling rack. When cold, stir together the glaze ingredients until thick and smooth. Plop and swirl a heaped teaspoon of glaze over each muffin and leave to set slightly before  sprinkling over a little cinnamon. Serve when glaze has set.