Zucchini & Cheese Bites

I have to say I'm one of those people that don't eat enough of zucchini .  The funny thing is I actually love zucchini but some how I only eat them when someone else had cooked them; which is not frequent.

With this recipe I'll be buying and cooking them in my kitchen this summer and the coming ones. They are great for meatless days!

Zucchini and Cheese Bites

serves : 4

source : No Salty

note : video available on above link 

Ingredients

+/- 600gm Zucchini (I used more)

1 tsp salt

1 pinch of black pepper

1 tsp garlic paste (used granulated garlic)

1 large egg

100gm grated cheese (used cheddar, will use a more intense cheese next round)

4 Tbsp bread crumbs

++ sauté onion

For breading
3 Tbsp flour
1 large egg
5 Tbsp bread crumbs

Method :
1) Grate zucchini into a fairly large bowl. Sprinkle the salt all over. Let it sit for 15 mins.
2) Strain away the liquid from zucchini as much as possible. Return grated zucchini to bowl.
3) Put in black pepper, garlic paste, sauté onion, crack-in the egg, grated cheese and bread crumbs. Mix well. shape into a bite-size balls. and place on a plate.
4) Coat each balls in this sequence first into flour, then egg and finish with a good coating of bread crumbs. shake of excess crumbs. Place on a plate. Repeat coating process until zucchini mixture is finished.
5) Heat up the oil in frying pan. Fry until golden brown. Serve immediately.

Coleslaw

I have never checked a coleslaw recipe before preparing this post just to compare my ingredient list with what is the norm. It's good to know it is not far off.

Coleslaw

Ingredients
Equal quantity of Cabbage and Carrot, shredded or cubed
Spring onion, slice thinly
salt, to taste
sugar, to taste
ground black pepper
Mayonnaise, to taste
2 tsp of sour cream
a little water

Method :
1) Rinse cabbage and carrot before shredding or cubing
2) In a salad bowl, put in the thinly sliced spring onion follow by salt, sugar and ground black pepper
3) Put in half the vegetables, drizzle with some mayonnaise and a teaspoon of sour cream. Place the remaining vegetables and again drizzle on some mayonnaise and another teaspoon of sour cream.
4) Mix well and let it chill in the fridge for minimum 30 mins.

Roasted Radish

It is common to eat radish raw. However, in Chinese cuisine, radish is also cooked in soups and also sun-dried. I much preferred the taste of sun-dried radish than raw. Since I am not so adventurous to sun dry radishes myself, I tried roasting them in the oven. The results is quite similar to dried ones but with enhanced sweetness and milder peppery taste.

Roasted Radish
Radishes
salt
oil

1) Pre-heat oven at 170˙c
2) Slice radishes into rounds. Place on oven-proofed dish, drizzle with some cooking oil and sprinkle with salt.
3) Bake for 30mins. until slightly brown.

raw radishes

Baked sweet potatoes

The humble sweet potatoes are a luxury over at this part of the world. With the rising food prices, we only buy certain foods when on sale. The sweet potatoes is one of them. Back home, sweet pototoes are either eaten steamed, barbeque, fried or cooked in a sweet ginger soup. This time I've decided to bake it. Though not crispy, it was very good accompanying the stuffed pork.

Baked Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients
Sweet potatoes, as many as you like
drizzle of oil
salt
black pepper

Method
1) Pre-heat oven at 180˙c  at least 20 mins. before baking
2) Peel the sweet potatoes. Then either cut into 1-cm thick match stick, into wedges, or rings.
3)  Drizzle some oil onto baking dish. Lay the sweet potatoes into 1 layer, do not overlap. drizzle a little more oil. Sprinkle the salt and black pepper all over.
4) Put baking dish in oven and bake for 15 mins. after 15 mins. take out and turn over the potatoes to the other side and bake for another 15 mins. or until cooked.
5) Serve immediately.

Spanakopita { Greek spinach pie } with homemade filo / phyllo pasty

When I have spinach and feta available, first thing that come to mind is spanakopita. It's an absolute favourite filling for filo /phyllo pastry for me. Never in my life that I would've imagined making filo / phyllo pastry  though! I gave it a go on and as usual it is not as scary or hard as I thought. What I did was prep. and knead the dough a day ahead and let it rest in the fridge over night. 

Homemade Phyllo Dough

via http://korenainthekitchen.com/2011/06/27/daring-bakers-baklava-with-homemade-phyllo-pastry/

Ingredients
Dry
1 1/3 cup flour (type “00” or pizza flour, if possible – all purpose flour will do, though)
1/8 tsp salt

Wet
1/2 cup less 1 tbsp water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp cider vinegar

Filling
spinach (frozen, with access water removed)
feta cheese
sautéd garlic
salt, to taste

Method
1) Mix together dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine wet ingredients. Then pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour.
2) Continue mixing stirring until it comes together in a soft dough with no dry flour bits left. You may need slightly less water, or slightly more (I had about 1 tbsp of water left over) – just add it slowly, bit by bit, to gauge how much you’ll need.
3) Knead the dough in mixing for about 20 minutes, until you have a soft, silky, smooth dough.
4) Then  remove from bowl, on floured surface knead another 2 minutes, whacking the dough down hard on the counter a few times during kneading.
5) Rub the dough with vegetable oil, wrap it in plastic, and let it rest for at least 2 hours – longer is better.

Rolling and stretching the dough

Divide the ball of dough in half, cut each half into thirds, and each third into thirds again, to end up with 18 pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and place them on a plate, covered with plastic wrap.

Flatten a ball out with your fingers and place on a well-floured surface. Roll out with a floured rolling pin or dowel until it’s about 9″x5″ (mine was twice as large), picking up the dough and re-flouring the surface underneath it every few strokes. Don’t be afraid of adding too much flour – keeping everything properly floured will make it much easier to roll, because if stuff starts to stick you’re in trouble! Let the dough rest for a minute or two if it starts getting difficult to roll out.

When the dough sheet is as thin as you can roll it, gently lift it and stretch it with your fingers from underneath. Do this very s-l-o-w-l-y and gently, using more of a stroking motion than a pulling motion, and letting the dough rest every so often. Don’t worry if you get some rips and holes – you only really need one perfect sheet for the top layer of your baklava (it took me until sheet number 14 to get a perfect one, and only about two out of 18 had no holes!).

When the dough is stretched thin enough to read through, place it on a floured baking sheet, and lightly sprinkle flour between each sheet to stop them from sticking together. The original recipe says that the sheets won’t dry out, but it took me forever to roll them out so I covered them lightly in plastic, just in case.

Salsa Verde

Yummy recipe from here !

We spread it on roti, topped with ricotta cheese and dill.

Left-over Pumpkin Soup as pasta sauce

Horrible photo; but the sauce and pasta combination was so moreish, I had to restraint myself !
The recipe is as per the title, it starts from cooking a batch of pumpkin soup (recipe below) spiced with dashes of curry powder for extra kick. Then use the leftover as pasta sauce for next day's main - just cook and mix in your favourite pasta, some grated cheese, pieces of fried chorizo, and finally sprinkle with chopped parsley - seriously good!
Pumpkin soup

Taste.com.au

serves : 6

Ingredients

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 tsp ground coriander (omitted - didn't have any in the pantry)
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1kg peeled pumpkin, diced
1 large potato, peeled, diced
1L chicken or vegetable stock
1/2 cup (125ml) thin cream (omitted)
*added
curry powder, to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan over low heat, add onion and leek and cook for 2-3 minutes, until softened but not coloured. Add garlic and spices and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add pumpkin, potato and stock and bring to the boil. Turn heat to low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool slightly, then blend in batches.
2. Return soup to pan, stir through cream and reheat gently. Season and add a little more nutmeg if desired.

Asian Spicy Pickled Vegetables {acar-acar}

Whenever I have excess cauliflower I like to make this pickled salad to accompany meat dishes.
To learn about its origin, please read here .
As I intend to eat the salad on the same day that it's prepared, I didn't follow the usual process of pickling. What I did was ...
 
Spicy "pickled" vegetables
 
Ingredients :-
Cauliflower
Cucumber
Carrots
ginger
garlic
vinegar
sugar
turmeric
fish sauce
spicy Hungarian chili paste (erős pista)
sesame seeds, toasted , for sprinkling

Method
1) Blanch the cut vegetable in boiling water. Start off with carrot (longer to tender) followed by cauliflower and finally cucumber. Do not over cooked as you want a little bite to the vegetables.
Set aside to drain off excess liquid on a kitchen towel. Put aside some of the boiling water to wet the salad later.
2) Grate ginger and garlic. Heat a little oil in a pan and saute the grated ginger and garlic. Once fragrant, sprinkle a pinch of turmeric and stir a bit. Next add in the spicy Hungarian chili paste, sugar to your taste and few dashes of fish sauce (not too much , as the sauce is very salty). Set aside until assembling salad.
3) Place drained vegetable into salad bowl, splash a few dashes of vinegar, and add in the cooked spiced mixture . Coat salad evenly. Taste to check the balance of sweet and sour. If needed add the water earlier.
4) Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving

Roasted cauliflower & Curry Soup

A new favourite at our household ... simply delicious! Just follow the recipe at Recipezaar

Roasted Cauliflower & Curry Soup

Ingredients

Servings 4 Units US

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets 
2 tablespoons oil 
1 tablespoon butter
3 onions, sliced 
1 ¹⁄₂ teaspoons curry powder (or your favorite curry mix) 
4 cups water
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons fresh parsly, chopped 
2 teaspoons salt, divided

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 450˙F degrees.
2. Coat the cauliflower florets in the oil and 1 tsp salt, then spread on a baking sheet.
3. Roast cauliflower until it turns brown, about 25 minutes.
4. Melt butter and add onions to medium size sauce pan. Cook onions until soft.
5. Add curry powder, cauliflower, water and broth to pan.
6. Cover and bring to a boil.
7. Uncover, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
8. Remove 3 cups of cauliflower from the pot.
9. Using a stick blender, CAREFULLY blend the remaining soup, adding 1 tsp salt, until smooth.
10. Add the 3 cups of cauliflower back inches Top with parsley.

Steamed pumpkin cake

This traditional steamed cake is normally flavoured with yam; which is not easily available to me. Imagine my joy when I found out that it works with pumpkin as well.

Steamed Pumpkin Cake 
via Babe in the city KL
 
Ingredients :-
4 tbsp oil
6 cloves garlic, chopped
6 shallots, chopped
60 g dried prawns, soaked, rinsed and roughly chopped **substitute w anchovy paste 1 pair Chinese sausages, diced **didn't add
200 g minced pork meat ** didn't add
800 g pumpkin, seeded with skin removed will yield about 600 g, coarsely grated
Salt and ground white pepper to taste
Batter (mix them together):-
300 g rice flour
60 g tapioca flour
1 litre water
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
Garnishing:
Spring onion, chopped
Fried shallots
  Preparation :- In a fairly large pan or wok, heat oil and fry up chopped garlic and shallots till soft and fragrant. Add dried prawns and continue to stir fry till fragrant. Next add in sausages and minced meat. Stir fry until meat is cooked and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Give the batter a stir before pouring into the stir fried mixture together with the grated pumpkin. Add in salt and pepper. Keep stirring until batter became thick. Taste and adjust seasonings. Turn off the heat.
Pour mixture into a 22 cm square or even round tray. Even the surface with the back of a spoon or spatula. Steam on high heat for about 45 minutes. The surface should be quite firm. Remove and leave to cool completely.
Garnish the cake by scattering chopped spring onion and fried shallots on the surface before slicing. Serve with garlic chilli sauce.

Cantonese-style vegetable dish

Last Sunday at the local market I was intrigued by one stall selling something I thought was pak choi ; but the seller told us the origin of this veg. is France. Whatever it is, the taste is good and do remind me of the chinese pak choi.
This is a simple preparation, you only need cooking oil, sesame seeds, ready-made crispy shallots/onions and soy sauce. This method also works well with iceberg lettuce, egg noodles, bean sprouts or anything that you could think of.
Cantonese-style Vegetable dish Ingredients
1 bunch of Vegetable of your choice,
1-2 tablespoon of cooking oil
garlic, optional
light soy sauce, to taste
For garnishing
ready made crispy shallots/onions
sesame seeds, toasted
Method :-
1) Heat water in sauce pan , and blanch vegetable just until wilted to take away the rawness. Drain.
2) In a non-stick pan, toast some sesame seed. After toasting, set aside to be used later as garnish.
3) In the same non-stick pan, heat up the cooking oil, once heated and if you're using garlic as aromatic, start saute until golden brown and remove from heat. If not using garlic, just removed heated cooking oil from heat and pour in dashes of soy sauce to taste. Mix in the blanched vegetable and mix well. And you're ready.
4) Serve on a dish, garnish with toasted sesame seeds and crispy shallots.

Tzatziki

Tzatziki
Ingredients
2 medium-sized cucumber, peeled and sliced thinly
1x175gm yoghurt
few tablespoon of sour cream, or to taste
salt
pepper
garlic powder
parsley, chopped finely
Method
1) Slice or julien cucumber thinly. Sprinkle liberally with salt and let it sit for 10-15 mins. not more
2) Meanwhile, mix together yoghurt, sour cream, garlic powder and finely chopped parsley. Check taste and adjust accordingly. *Leave out the salt for the time being.*
3) After 10-15 mins. squeeze and drain all the liquid from the cucumber and mix into yoghurt, then check seasoning. And it is ready!

Caramelised red cabbage

I have tried cooking caramelised red cabbage a number of times but was never satisfied with the result until this recipe!

Caramelised Red Cabbage
adapted from No Salty

Ingredients
1 medium head red cabbage
1 apple
100g butter (reduced to 50g + vegetable oil)
50-60gm sugar (adjusted to taste)
50ml balsamic vinegar (adjusted to taste)
2 pinches of cumin seeds
salt & pepper, to taste

Method
1) Thinly slice red cabbage and apple, about 1cm width.
2) Heat a heavy duty sauce pan, melt butter (and vegetable oil), sprinkle in the sugar and stir until sugar dissolved.
3) Sauté cumin seed a bit before adding in red cabbage and apple.
4) Season with salt and pepper and dashes of balsamic vinegar, stir well. Put on the lid and let it braise for 30 mins.
5) After 30 mins. remove lid and let it continue to simmer to thicken the sauce. Check seasoning and it is ready to serve.

Vegetables Croquette

Vegetables Croquettes

Makes : 12 Croquettes

Receipe from My Kitchen Snippetsy

Ingredients:

Vegetables to be roasted

800gm potatoes

2 carrots

1 onions

1 Kolhrabi

2 cloves of garlic

1-2 tbsp of regular breadcrumbs (added sour cream as mixture too dry)

3 spring onions – chopped
2 tbsp grated cheddar or parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

For coating:

½ cup flour (omitted)
2 eggs – beaten
2 cups regular bread crumbs 

1. Roast vegetables on medium heat (180°c) until golden and al-dente (30 mins + 20 mins. + 15mins)

2. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor and give it a few pulses. It should not be too fine. 

3. Remove and add in the spring onions, parmesan cheese, breadcrumb (if needed), salt and pepper. Mix well. Shape the mixture into croquettes. 

4. Let the croquettes rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Heat up oil over medium high for deep frying. Dust each croquette with flour, coat in beaten eggs and then roll it on the breadcrumb.

5. Heat up some vegetable oil over medium heat for deep frying. Working in batches to avoid crowding, fry croquettes, flipping once, until golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes total. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. (Adjust heat between batches as needed to keep oil at a steady temperature.)
6. Serve warm or at room temperature with your favorite dipping sauce.

Spinach & Potato Cake

I have misplaced the link to this recipe but I'll look again and give the proper credit when I've found it.


Spinach & Potato cakes
Makes : 10 cakes
450gm fresh spinach, blanch and chopped coarsely, cooled
2 medium potatoes, boiled, mashed and cooled
1 small onion, finely sliced (I used spring onion)
2 eggs
6 Tsp herbs/spices (I used garlic powder, cumin, smoked paprika)
2 fresh green chillies, finely sliced
Fresh coriander, finely chopped (I used parsley)
2 Tbsp flour salt & pepper, to taste
Bread crumbs for coating
Vegetable oil, for frying
Method
1) Mix everything except for bread crumbs until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.
2) After 30 mins. start heating oil. Meanwhile start shaping mixture into balls and coat with bread crumbs.
3) When oil is hot enough, fry until golden brown.
4) Serve hot with yoghurt, chilli sauce or sour cream.

Zöldborsófőzelék, a dish of peas

A dish of peas, that's the result I got from the translator. This dish can be served as a starter or eaten as main meal together with meat fillets. I've always love anything-peas, so it's no surprise that this dish is one of my favourie Hungarian dishes. It's great especially on cold autumn and winter days...I simply eat them with bread, delicious :)

The translated recipe is as follows :-

Zöldborsófőzelek

Ingredients

300gm green peas (fresh or frozen)
Oil , for sauté
Salt, to taste
Marjoram , a pinch
2-3 Tbsp of Sugar or sweetener (you may adjust to taste)
Milk , enough to cover peas
3 Tbsp flour, as thickener (you may adjust to taste, although I find the result thicker than the ones I usually have)
Parseley, finely chopped


Method

1) Heat a little oil on a sauce pan, add green peas and cook for 5-6 mins.

2) Next add salt, marjoram and sugar to the green peas, and stir a little. Pour in the milk enough to cover peas.

3) Mix flour with a little milk and put aside. When peas are soft, stir in the flour mixture. Stir it for a few minutes and remove from heat.

4) Finally add finely chopped parsley before serving.

Mango and Apple Salad

This salad was adapted from salt n tumeric 's recipe with couple of substitutes. The combination of aroma of lime , spiciness of Erős Pista , sweet and soury apple and mango make this a great dish as an appetiser.

Mango and apple salad

Ingredients:-
1 mango , roughly grated or julienned
1 apple , roughly grated or julienned
1 red onion, chopped
1 juice of lime
sugar , to taste
fish sauce , few dashes
Erős Pista (Hungarian sambal oelek ?) , to taste - substitute for Thai chilli
Peanuts , roughly ground

Prepare all ingredients and toss them together. Voila!

Hungarian Ratatouille { Lecsó }

The base or basic ingredients for Lecsó (pronounced - Lecho) are tomatoes, onions and sweet paprika. Today I've included hard boiled eggs in the stew which tasted well together and finally, they're great with crusty bread :)

.

The following recipe was extracted from the internet loooong time ago (sorry, i've lost the link) .

LECSÓ
with sausage
serves 6

INGREDIENTS:

5 large onions (cut them into half and slice them)

6 large cubanell or european style of green peppers (sliced into rings)(Do not use green bell peppers they have a bitter flavor.)

4 large very ripe tomatoes peeled and diced. If the skin is hard to peel put them into hot water for a minutes, then try it again.

150g. of bacon (cut into cubes)

250g. of smoked sausage (cut into rings)

1 Tbs. of tomatoe puree

1.1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. grated black pepper

1.1/2 Tbs. of sugar

1.1/2 Tbs. of paprika
METHOD

Fry the bacon cubes medium brown in a large frying pan. If you didn't get enough fat add a few Tbs. of oil. Sprinkle with the paprika and add the sliced onions. Cook it for 2 minutes and throw all the ingrediens and spices into the pan. Cook it for 1/2 hour with occasional stiring.Taste to see if more salt or sugar is needed.

Crunchy Peanut slaw

Yummy new recipe from here !

Alterations :-
1) I didn't follow the quantity exactly but based the quantity on my own preference. For example, I dislike using too much of sesame oil which I've reduced to only a few drops.

2) Replaced rice wine vinegar with white vinegar. 

3) Replaced corriander with parsley. Not available in the shops near me* sigh* ..with corriander the taste would have been more interesting for sure.
 

Crunchy Peanut Slaw 

serving: 1 big bowl of slaw, serves at least 8

Ingredients
1 medium head green cabbage, outer leaves removed
1 1/2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts
1 bunch green onions
1 cup chopped cilantro (about two big handfuls unchopped)
Salt and pepper
Dressing:
1/2 cup light oil, like canola
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar (or more, to taste)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce (or more, to taste)
 
Method
Shred the cabbage very finely. The fineness of the shredded cabbage is really what makes this salad; you want it in in threads, almost, and with the threads chopped into bite-size lengths. Toss with the peanuts in a large bowl. Chop the scallions, including the green and white parts. Toss the scallions and chopped cilantro with the cabbage, seasoning very lightly with salt and pepper.
Whisk the dressing until emulsified, then taste and adjust to your own preferences of sweetness and saltiness.
Toss with the cabbage. Garnish with a few more peanuts and serve.

Red Onion Relish

We just had this very simple and refreshing relish for the past 2 days.. with our hamburgers. Yeah I know it is not a healthy diet but I was thinking about this relish so much that I had to make the hamburger again for dinner tonight. Of course you can accompany it with other meat dishes but hamburger was the easy way for me ;)

I tweaked the ingredients a little based on what I have in the fridge. Here's the recipe

Red Onion Relish
adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients
juice of 1/2 lemon
4 pickle red chillies (an asian brand-vietnamese specifically) , slice finely
small handful flat-leaf parsley leaves
1 small red onion, cut into wafer-thin slices
a few dashes of fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
freshly milled black pepper

just toss all ingredients together and top it on the hamburger!