Tomato Relish

"In the orchestra of a great kitchen, the sauce chef is a soloist." so said the great French restaurateur, Fernand Point. What is life without sauce? What are chips without ketchup (and salt and vinegar)? Or hotdogs without mustard? Or god forbid, tagliatelle with no bolognese?!

Wow, it's midnight, and as I typed that last bit my tummy just started rumbling. This is why people should go to sleep 2 hours after dinner; midnight snacks are dangerous.

Anyway, you may ask "What's with the rant about sauce, Nabs?" I'll tell you. I just got back from a short (*sniff*) trip to Melbourne, where every brunch meal I had (I had brunch like every day I was there, oh living the dream) came with a small bowl or a side serving of tomato relish. Le boyfriend informed me that in Australia, people take tomato relish very seriously. Like, don't even mess man, don't go and call it ketchup (omg, Nabs, you friggin peasant fool, you did not just say ketchup!) or ask for ketchup from a bottle, cos tomato relish is the shizz!

I have to admit... as much as a Heinz hoarder as I am - my mum will be the first to tell you how particular I am about always having Heinz ketchup in the pantry - I kind of have to agree with the Aussies. I loved it, every restaurant we went to had it on the dish, but every single one was different. Some added basil, one place had capers, another had roasted tomatoes, and I'm pretty sure one place included garlic while the others didn't seem to.

So the night I arrived in Malaysia, incredibly sad that I had to leave Melbourne at all (I'm coming back for you baby, don't go nowhere), I resolved to recreate the brunches I had there in my own kitchen. Gosh darnit, I will pay the extra 3 bucks for a carton of fresh Australian milk, and I will learn to poach an egg properly, yes, sure I'll make my own sourdough bread too... but most importantly, and here's the thing that ties the whole thing together: I will make my own tomato relish.

Now I have 5 jars of the stuff in the refrigerator, and you know what? I will have that midnight snack (see paragraph 2 in the mad midnight blog rant), and I will slather a spoonful of relish on a piece of toasted sourdough.

Tomato relish is easy enough to make, it just takes a bit of prep time. Or the recipe I went with took a bit more prep time. Remember, there are many different recipes for tomato relish available over the internet, and this was just the one I decided to go with for my first foray into this world. I really like the result, but I'm open to adjusting the recipe to suit my tastes (needs a low peppery note I think), so don't take this as the only recipe for it. If anyone has a personal favourite, please do share, I'd love to give it a try in my search for the go-to recipe.

Tomato relish
Makes 4-5 jars

• 1.5kg diced tomatoes
• 3 medium yellow onions, diced
• 1/4 cup sea salt flakes
• 500ml white wine vinegar
• 500g light brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp mustard powder
• 1 tbsp curry powder

1. Place the diced tomatoes and onions in a large bowl, cover in salt and let it sit overnight. The next morning, remove access water and rinse the tomatoes and onions with water (so it's not too salty) then move it into a deep heavy bottomed pot over a medium heat, add 250ml of the white wine vinegar (or any light vinegar you have on hand really). 
2. Allow it to boil then bring the fire down to a low heat and leave it to simmer for 30 minutes. Then add the sugar and chilli flakes and simmer for an hour. 
3. Skim the top for access water and remove it (I don't like my relish too runny). In a separate bowl, combine the remaining 250ml vinegar with the flour, mustard powder, and curry powder. Add to the pot and stir for 3-4 minutes until the mixture has thickened. Pour the hot relish into prepared jars and allow to cool before covering with a lid and removing to a fridge. This can keep for 6 months in the refrigerator. 

Anyway, serve it with whatever you like, have it on a sandwich, with eggs, with a burger... for me, I decided to finally tackle that big fear of mine: poached eggs. It took me 7 tries over 3 days to finally get it right, and so despite the fact that I was heading out to see my friends for brunch in an hour, I put that poached egg on a slice of toast and smoked salmon, dumped a spoonful of relish on it and enjoyed that little sucker. Then I brought a jar of relish to brunch for my friends so they wouldn't have to suffer ketchup lol. Let me see if I can master poached eggs again and again... if I do, I'll post a video.

Loads of love,
Nabsy

The Happiness Initiative

Mountain bread wheat wraps with beetroot hummus, tuna & apple, tomato salsa, and lentil salad

My good friend and colleague, Alena, (hello, it's been a while since she's been mentioned here) and I have decided to follow our other healthier, fitter friends' footsteps towards clean eating. We're really into food, desserts, and cooking though, so we're going to take things one step at a time. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to go all health-freak on you and stop with my cakes completely. This is about making a sustainable lifestyle adjustment, it's not a crash diet, and I hope that it becomes something I can maintain for the rest of my life. I just enjoy food far too much to cut out a lot of it, so instead of a clean eating initiative, we have decided to call it The Happiness Initiative. 

What are the guidelines of THI, you wonder? Well, I'm glad you asked, buddy, cos here they are:

1. Eat well prepared food made of the best ingredients
2. Do something fun and artsy (check out the local music scene, paint a table, I dunno, anything!)
3. If you're going to have dessert, bake a friggin cake and have a bite 
4. Don't sweat the small stuff. Adopt our mantra: It's NACHO problem, you don't have to TACO bout it
5. Wake up, and smile at yourself in the mirror even if you're hungover
6. Oh yea, have a drink every now and then, but don't push it
7. Let's get physical, physical, I wanna get physical (walk, ride a bike, swim, play tennis, have sex, tickle your siblings, dance to corny music) 
8. Do at least 2 things you've never done, in 2 places you've never been in a year
9. Treat yourself, have something to look forward to every month

Easy, right? lol this is by no means a list to follow, this is simply our list of how to be happy. I'm a strong believer that you don't chase happiness, you simply have to be happy, and so these are just a few things I do to make myself happy on a daily basis. 

For our first week of putting the THI into motion, we prepared a few dishes that we can store in the office fridge for our lunches and daytime snacks. Thank the stars for a good pantry, by the way. These recipes are SO easy, and takes about 15 minutes to prepare so it doesn't take anything to whip them up the night before and bring them in to work the next day. Hope you give them a shot! 

Beetroot Hummus

Tahini:

• 5 cups sesame seeds
• 1 1/2 cups of olive oil

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, toast sesame seeds for 5-10 minutes (do not let it burn, a golden brown will suffice)
2. Blend the tahini and olive oil until you achieve a pourable texture

Beetroot Hummus:

• 1 16oz tin of chick peas
• 1/4 cup liquid from the chick peas tin
• 3-5 tbsp of lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 1/2 tbsp tahini
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium sized beetroot, peeled and cooked

1. First, peel and chop the beetroot into small 1cm and cook in a saucepan over a low heat. I just brushed the saucepan with olive oil. Cook until soft, so about 30 mins? lol sorry
2. Blend all ingredients for 3-5 minutes on low speed until thoroughly mixed and the texture is smooth

Apple & Tuna salad

• 1 can tuna flakes in water, no salt added
• 1 Granny Smith green apple, cut into cubes
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon
• Pepper
• Pinch of sea salt flakes

Hello! Just mash it all up in a small bowl, you can eat it as it or use it as a filling for wraps and sandwiches

And a recipe contribution from Alena:

Tomato Salsa

• 3 large tomatoes, remove pulp, chopped into cubes
• Handful of coriander
• Dried oregano
• Olive oil
• Red wine vinegar
• Sea salt
• Pepper

Once again, just mix it all up in a bowl and chill in the fridge

Sorry for the radio silence lately, but so much has been happening and I simply haven't found the time to type up posts worthy of you readers. I'll try to get some time in this weekend, but between a concert on Saturday and fancy dinner cooking party on Sunday, I'm not sure when I'll be able to do it. But no worries, I am a miracle worker, I'll have a post up in a week.

Much love, be happy, and enjoy this amazing painting done for me by the lovely and talented Alena:

Alena is a very talented painter, and she's taking commissions now, so if you're interested in owning a piece of her art, drop her an email at alena.murang@gmail.com 

Garlic Tomato Pizza Sauce

I am not one of those homecooked, organic food snobs, however I do enjoy taking the time to whip up fresh food from scratch when I have the time. Nigella calls it her Italian Mamma mode, which I would love to adopt, but have no Italian blood in my my heritage... so I'll need to come up with something while I knead my bread dough next. 

As I have recently finally found a choice recipe for making my own pizza crust, I needed to experiment on making my own pizza sauce! I prefer heavily tomatoey sauces, have always leaned towards marinara sauce as my favourite, and thought... if it works on my pasta, it should definitely work on my pizza. 

This is a ridiculously easy pizza sauce to whip up, you should have all the ingredients stocked in your pantry already, but even if you don't it's no trouble adapting it to what you do have... or just running into the store for 5 minutes to grab the stuff. You don't even need a basket to carry the ingredients! 

Let's get to it: 

Super Easy Garlic Tomato Pizza Sauce 

• 1 14oz can diced tomatoes, no salt added
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Handful fresh basil leaves (you can use dried basil)
• Handful oregano (I used dried, you may use fresh)
• 1 tsp (or less) dried chili flakes
• Pinch sea salt
• Crushed black pepper

Mix all the ingredients in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil, once it starts to bubble, lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 15-20 minutes. When the flavours have all blended (be sure to season to taste), transfer the mixture to a food processor and whiz for about 1 minute or less, just to get all the big chunks down. You want it smooth, but not too smooth, ya know?

This amount of sauce is good enough for a moderate layer on 4 medium sized pizzas (so double this pizza crust recipe), and will go with most savoury toppings. For Sunday lunch with the family, I made a vegetarian pizza and a pepperoni pizza. With a layer of sauce over olive oiled crust, shaved mozzarella, slices of pepperoni, zucchini, eggplant, and then more mozzarella... my brothers loved it! 

I'm actually quite surprised at how easy pizza is to make from scratch, and now that I know this... I can't wait to recreate some of my favourite salads as pizzas. 

Sweet & Savoury Pizza

The first time we attempted to make pizza dough was a bit of a mess... Al and I had neglected to read the whole recipe and used the wrong type of yeast. We just sorta... rolled with it (gettit?). Yikes. So, as I had a bit of free time this week, I thought I'd give it another shot. This time, I made sure I had all the ingredients needed and read it word for word, and all the comments, and various other recipes to cross check if it would work.

This recipe for the pizza dough is incredibly simple, it only takes an hour minimum to rise, but you can keep it overnight if you would prefer a lighter, softer crust. I usually like my pizza crust a little on the crispy side, but as it was far too late for pizza when I made the dough last night, I decided to let is rest and have it today instead.

My family's always been a bit torn when it comes to pizza topping, as my dad likes the spicy stuff, mum prefers the hawaiian, and my siblings are all over the topping chart. I do think that I'm the only one in the house who appreciates vegetarian pizzas, so today I was on a mission to civilize. I wanted to highlight the freshness of the ingredients, the mix and play of flavours, and just really... to let the fresh toppings speak for themselves. No sauce was prepared for these mini pizzas, and instead I just slathered on various cheeses.

Let's not waste anymore of your time, as you'll be knead-ing (heh) it while you wait for the dough to rise before dinner time.

Easy Peasy Crispy Pizza Crust
Courtesy of thekitchn.com

• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp sea salt

1. In a large heavy mixing bowl, pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and let it sit untouched for around 10 minutes. Then stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the yeast
2. Add the flour and salt, then combine with the spoon until you get a messy-ish, but dry (as in doesn't stick to your fingers to create a webbed look) dough
3. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead it gently for around 5 minutes. Pop the dough back into the bowl and cover it with a clean, damp cloth to let it rest and rise for a minimum of 1 hour
4. If you're not using the dough immediately, then just put it into a ziploc bag, or wrap in clingwrap, then just leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days. Before using, be sure to take it out and let it sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes
5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200C/fan, cover a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle a tsp or less of semolina onto the paper then with your lightly floured hands, spread the dough out using your fingertips into the desired shape and thickness
6. Drizzle with olive oil, and then pop your toppings on. Bake for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden

I'll also share the two toppings I prepared today with you here, but really I just don't wanna forget what I put on so I can recreate them soon.

Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

• 1/2 golden pear, peeled and sliced thinly
• Gorgonzola cheese
• Light mozzarella, sliced
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh rocket leaves
• Balsamic glaze

Spread the Gorgonzola over the top of the crust, then place the mozzarella slices where you want them. Cover with the pear slices, season and bake for 15 minutes. When done, garnish with a handful of rocket and a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

Caprese Pizza

• Salt and pepper
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Parmesan cheese
• Mozzarella cheese, sliced
• 1 fresh tomato, sliced
• Fresh basil
• Balsamic glaze

Drizzle olive oil over the crust, then season with salt and pepper, then rub the garlic over the entire crust. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese, then place the mozzarella slices where you want them, and top with the tomato slices. Go ahead and twist some more black pepper on there if you are so inclined. Bake for 15 minutes, then top with balsamic glaze and fresh basil. 

The pizza crust turned out great, though next time I'm not gonna make it so far ahead as I prefer a crispier base. The toppings were fresh, ingredients tasted beautiful, and it was just enough for an early dinner. I even got my brother to eat the pear pizza! Shocker!

Now that I know how easy it is to make my own pizza, I'm definitely going to have a lot of fun coming up with different toppings for my lunch and dinners. Who knows? Maybe I'll pack some dough and we can make fresh pizza over lunch?

Lots of love, Nabs

Domesticated Day In

On a typical day after a massive rave party, one would drag oneself out of bed around 2 in the afternoon, cursing the daylight and shouting for a nonexistent manservant to fetch one's cup of coffee and a handful of Advil. Last Saturday, however, after an amazing night at the Guetta gig (I never know what to call these things, concerts? Shows? Performances?) Alena and I woke up to watch Disney's Sleeping Beauty while Hodor (lol) tried his hand at the most amazing focaccia bread. 

A lot of Disney-esque (I'd say -esque as I doubt we actually managed any semblance of real singing) trilling and a properly risen dough later, Al and I started preparing the ingredients for our brunch. Despite the fact that it was well into the afternoon at that point, we had yet to change out of our sleepwear and thus still counted it as brunch.

You may recall me mentioning that on a recent trip to Singapore, we tried a Tunisian breakfast dish at a very popular breakfast joint called Wild Honey, and having seen various renditions of the recipe online over the past couple of weeks, we decided to give it a proper go. The recipe is easy enough to whip up in less than 20 minutes, and it's such a full meal that I guarantee it will keep you stuffed until dinner time (though it may have something to do with the fact that we had our "brunch" at 3 in the evening).

World's Most Attractive Siblings

With no further ado, let me share this recipe with you:

Shakshuka (North African skillet breakfast dish) 

• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, sliced thinly
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed/chopped finely
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 1 yellow pepper, sliced
• Salt
• Cracked black pepper
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp sugar
• 3/4 tsp paprika/cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes
• 1/2 cup diced sausage/chorizo (optional)
• 2 cans diced tomatoes (no added salt), drained of the water
• 1/3 cup white wine/water
• 4 large eggs
• 1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
• Fresh basil/parsley

1. First of all, preheat the oven to 200C, and heat your cast iron skillet (or if you don't own one, just use a basic pan and switch to an oven safe casserole dish later) on a medium fire. Pour in the olive oil, and cook the onion until soft and aromatic.
2. Toss in the peppers and garlic and cook until softened, for about 5 minutes
3. Add the spices and sausages and cook for a bit more
4. Pour in the tomatoes and wine/water and lower the heat to a small flame. Allow the mixture to simmer for around 20 minutes (this is where you take your shower), until all that delicious flavour has soaked through
5. Take the skillet off the heat, crack the eggs over the top, sprinkling each egg with salt and pepper then crumble the feta over. Pop the skillet into the oven until the eggs are baked. I prefer my eggs NOT runny, so I leave mine in for around 8 minutes, however if you're looking for the runny egg yolk, leave it for no more than 7 minutes
6. Serve with your bread of choice (seriously, try that focaccia recipe) and a garnish of fresh torn basil leaves or parsley

Enjoy!
Lots of love, The Breakfast Club

100th Post!

I thought long and hard about what recipe I would feature on my 100th blog post; fancy sweets or simple tea cakes, stylish cupcakes or a super complicated iconic recipe? Then I just took a moment to think about why I decided to do this in the first place: I just love to cook. I love baking, I love tasting and playing with flavours, and Laaaawd knows I love eating (my rapidly increasing waistline is testament enough to that). 

I started blogging as a coping mechanism, let's be honest here. I had just started a new, really tough, corporate job, broken up with my boyfriend, and just really needed to get back to what I like to do in my own time. Cooking and baking became the way I had quality time with myself, and blogging was my way of staying connected to the world. 

Sometimes the routine of our daily lives get to us and we forget to just sit back and like ourselves. I got to a point where I really did not like who I was, and I really did not know what I liked. So I started this, and you know what?  It's been an amazing experience the whole way! I never expected to stick to it til this point (I've left a trail of half-started blogs on the world wide web in the past ten years), and I certainly didn't expect to actually have readers. 

So to the friends and family who have given me so much love and encouragement over the past year, thank you so much! I'm going to share the recipe of the first dish I ever made: bolognese sauce! It's nothing fancy, it's nothing new, but it was the first thing I cooked in my life, and it's still my favourite dish to make when I have the time. It's my mum's recipe, and I may have tweaked it here and there over the years, but the premise for the idea is still there. 

Our Bolognese Sauce

• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 6 cloves of garlic, finely crushed
• 400g minced beef
• 1 can of ready diced tomatoes
• 1 can of tomato puree
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup milk or cooking cream
• A handful of fresh basil leaves
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Extra virgin olive oil

1. Heat your pot and pour in enough olive oil to just coat the bottom, then toss in the diced yellow onions and garlic. Just cook until they soften up, you don't want colour or crispiness on them. Toss in the minced beef and mix with the onion and garlic until slightly browned. 
2. Pour in the tomatoes and puree, and what I like to do is fill the puree can with water and pour that in as well. Just get all that tomatoey goodness out. Allow the mixture to bubble and boil before turning the heat down to a low simmer, then pour in milk or cream to add a little thickness to the sauce. 
3. Stir in the hand torn basil leaves, and season to taste. 
4. Serve over your pasta of choice, and grate on some parmesan. 

I can't wait for the next 100 posts, guys, and really excited to share my favourite dishes with you. As you've noticed, I'm trying to share more savoury dishes, as I'm also trying to cut back on my own sugar intake. That doesn't mean I'm not going to still share TONNES of dessert recipes. In fact, there's one coming up very soon featuring Butternut Squash ;) 

Lots of love, 

Nabs

One Pot Chicken Roast

My grandmother calls my style of cooking "masak terjun", which loosely translated means I toss anything I have at hand into my dishes. This is fine with me, and I've started naming dishes "spaghetti terjun", "dhal terjun", "roast terjun", "cake terjun", anything terjun LOL. Terjun, literally translated means "dive".

Here's another dish that I've made frequently ever since my uni days, inspired by a picture I saw in a cookbook when I was in school. I'll call it One Pot Chicken Roast for the purposes of this recipe post, however, friends can refer to it as Chicken Terjun hahahaha

Every single time I make this dish, it turns out tasting different. I have yet to recreate the same dish twice, as my measurements are never accurate, my ingredients differ, and my cooking style changes too. Last weekend, I made it for my extended family's Sunday dinner (a new thing we're trying to institutionalise as family tradition), and while I usually pop the chicken in the air fryer for a bit before roasting, I got a bit lazy this time around. It still turned out quite well (I like to think), so I'll attempt to get the recipe right while it's still fresh.

One Pot Chicken Roast

• 8 potatoes, cut into quarters
• 8-10 assorted chicken cuts (I had thighs and wings)
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
• Sea salt flakes (or normal table salt is fine)
• Crushed black pepper
• 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary, off the stalk
• A packet (say 400g?) cherry tomatoes, mixed colours, sliced in half
• 1 lemon
• Red wine vinegar

1. Boil the potatoes in salted water
2. While the potatoes cook, preheat the oven to 200C, prep the chicken by rubbing down with salt, pepper, and olive oil
3. Once the taters are cooked, pop them into a skillet/baking tray, toss the tomatoes in, squeeze the lemon juice, pour with roughly 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, and give it a few glugs of olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, rosemary leaves, then toss with your hands to make sure all that goodness gets everywhere
4. Pop in the oven for 40-50 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through
5. Serve hot! 

It's a quick dinner recipe, and the taste is explosive! Great for a lazy weekend meal that packs a punch.

Lots of love,
Nabs

Quick and tasty lunch option

There's a bakery in town called The Bread Shop where they serve one of the best lemon tarts I have ever had. Something else they also have on the menu is healthy and light lunch options! We went there for a quick lunch yesterday, and I ordered this amazing tomato and cheese on toast that they have. It was so good, and such a filling lunch, too, that I got cravings for it when I woke up today.

It's a good thing I also bought a load of their "broom bread", which is basically super high fibre bread, to attempt to recreate the lunch I had yesterday! Easy enough, though probably not as aesthetically pleasant as theirs was... I realize now that I should have probably used room temperature sliced cheese, as opposed to pre-grated cheese straight from the fridge.

Anyway, give it a shot, it's good for breakfast, lunch, or even a snack.

2 slices of tomato (per bread)
Cheese of choice (I used grated gruyere, to cover the top)
Thick slice of good bakery bread

Preheat the oven to 200C, assemble the ingredients for the open faced sandwich on a baking sheet, bake for 7-9 minutes. Serve warm.

Cheers!
x Nabs

Eurasian Recipes: Tomato Ketchup Chicken

Last year, one of my parents' friends published a Sarawakian Eurasians recipe book, and have asked our family to contribute some of our recipes for the next edition. HMMPH. What are we, chopped liver?! LOL I'm just joking, of course I'd love to send it a few recipes... but it also gave me an idea of my own: I'll publish our family recipes on here and one day, hopefully, will get the chance to publish my own recipe book! 

The first recipe I'm going to share is a personal favourite, everyone loves it except my teenage brother. Who doesn't like flavours. WEIRDO. It's also hella easy, which is the case with most Eurasian recipes, I'm starting to find... 

Mum thinks this is a great idea too, as our housekeeper/cook is leaving next month (her contract's up, and after 14 years, I think she's had enough of the family) so I can start cataloguing our favourite recipes to whip up whenever.

First up is the tomato ketchup chicken! It's so easy, and I chose this one for ease of adaptation by my friends in other countries (some recipes use more local ingredients). This is great for weekday dinners, or lazy weekends, as it will literally take you about 20 minutes or less to put together.

Tomato Ketchup Chicken 

• 1 whole chicken, chopped into 16 pieces (or 12, as preferred)
• 5 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into wedges
• 1 large yellow/red onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 1/2 inches fresh ginger root
• 4 cloves
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 2 cardamoms
• 250g ketchup
• 1 tbsp chilli sauce (optional*)
• 100-150 ml water

First peel and cut your potatoes, prep and clean your chicken pieces, and set aside.

Peel the onions (I used 2 medium-small yellow onions instead of a large one), garlic and ginger root, then blend until smooth.

What I like to do is take a tbsp or two of the onion mixture and rub it into my chicken pieces before popping them in the oil.

First deep-fry (omigosh so unhealthy, whatever!) the potatoes (as pictured in the POH-TAY-TOE collage above), then the chicken (do it in two batches, so it cooks faster), until they achieve a mouthwatering golden brown.

Next, empty your wok of oil, leaving roughly 2 tbsp with which you will stir-fry the onion mixture and the spices (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom). Check out the picture above, eh? Set your stove on medium to high heat, and constantly stir (it is called a stir-fry, after all) the mixture until it turns soft and brown and the fragrance of cooked onions rises.

Once the onions are done, pour in the ketchup and chilli sauce*, swirl the water in the empty ketchup bottle/container/vessel that you used to keep it before pouring, then add that as well. Stir the mixture until just combined, then add the chicken. Cover the chicken in the gravy. Cover the wok, and lower the heat to a small flame. Allow this to simmer for 15 minutes.

Around the 15 minute mark, add the potatoes (am I the only one who always says potatoes in the Sam Gamgee voice?) and combine with the rest of the ingredients. Leave the wok for another 5 minutes or so.

And you're done!

Serve with white rice and some greens of your choice (pictured here is a mixed vegetable stir-fry with oyster sauce and chopped garlic), be sure to pour the gravy on your rice. I didn't for the purpose of taking this picture.

Notice how there was no salt needed in this recipe? That's because the ketchup already contains enough to allow the taste to seep into the chicken. However, I recommend that you taste once the chicken and potatoes are in, if you feel that salt is needed, then go for it.

Hope this was easy to follow, I apologize for the image heavy post, got a little bit too excited at my first stir-fry recipe!

Cheers,
Nabs

Savouring 2012

It's the first day of a brand new calendar year, however unlike my school days, a new year means little besides switching my desk calendar to a brand new one (I think I'm going with a word a day calendar this year...) as everything else remains the same. Mayhaps I'll start tracking a change in calendar years based on my birthday. Every 22nd September will mark a new year, otherwise it's business as usual, peeps!

However, I do have one thing I'm going to try and promise, or rather suggest... this First of January 2012: Share more savoury recipes in addition to the desserts. I love my desserts and sweet things, but my younger brother called me Jelly Belly the other day... which I don't appreciate. So it's time to cut down on my sugar intake (and make everyone else around me eat more of those) and find alternative, healthy (... ish) staple foods.

For this first time, I'm going to share my go-to lazy pasta lunch or weeknight dinner recipe. This is suuuuper yummy, and contains all my favourite tastes, and I've been whipping up variations of it since my uni days. It can be eaten hot or cold, though I prefer it right off the hob, sometimes I'll pack the leftovers in a container to be taken to lunch at work the next day.

Pasta and butter, trick I picked up from Jess

Roast Vegetable Pasta 

• 2 cups (or thereabouts) of instant pasta (I like Fusilli, though it's your choice)
• 1 eggplant, sliced thinly
• 1 zucchini (though for the pictured dish, I used japanese cucumber due to lack of resources)
• 1 cup of cherry tomatoes (you may use 3 normal tomatoes, quartered), sliced in half
• 2 sundried tomatoes, diced 
• 1/2 cup pitted olives, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, sliced or crushed
• 1/3 cup olive oil (plus extra for drizzling at the end)
• 1/4 cup red wine balsamic vinegar (plus extra for drizzling at the end)
• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 180C 
2. Slice and dice your vegetables of choice, and place them in a baking tin (mine pictured here is ugly and dented and probably as old as I am... which isn't very old at all), pour over the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and salt and pepper
3. Then get in there with your hands (wash them first, you dirty wee scrag) and toss them around to ensure every slice of vegetable gets a good coating of the "dressing" 
4. Pop the tin in the oven and allow it to roast for a good 20 minutes, or until the vegetables get toasty around the edges. Yum. 
5. While waiting for the veggies to roast, boil the pasta in salted water, then upon draining the water when it's done, toss in a sliver of butter to mix with the hot pasta. I assure you it smells SO good, you'll be salivating at this point
6. Pour the prepared pasta into a medium sized serving bowl or plate, followed by the roasted vegetables then toss to mix. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and season to taste
7. In the wise words of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore: Tuck in! 

I've really got to start writing proper instructions, without the constant commentary. On those nights when you've just about dragged yourself home from the office, are too lazy to defrost a chicken breast or even order take out, this is the perfect recipe to quell the hunger with. 

Hope you enjoy it, and happy new calendar year! 

x Nabs