Durian Row...and the time I tried to write a poem about my love for the king of fruits.

Oh durian, how I have missed you! 

Your glorious aroma, 

so pungent you are banned from most hotels in the civilised world,

That punctured the hot metal exterior of my boyfriend's car even though his air con vents weren't set to take air from the outside,

Perfumes the memories of my childhood!

Oh durian, how I have missed you!

Your sweet sweet flesh,

That has been compared to a combination of fetid sweaty socks and the oldest of old blue cheeses,

That caused my brother's lips to disappear from sight in a disgusted grimace when he stole a taste,

A single taste is enough to remind me of the comforts of home

(Though let's get real, durian isn't a 'single taste' type food. GO HARD OR GO HOME)

I LOVE THEE DURIAN. 

EVENTHOUGH I CAN ONLY PARTAKE IN YOUR BEAUTY BUT ONCE A YEAR. 

OK, that last bit isn't really true. It used to be. But now you don't really have to wait for durian season to enjoy this thorny fruit. 

If you haven't already guessed, I love durian. Can't get enough of it. Just my luck it's one of those fruits that aren't fantastic for you (high high HIGH levels of cholesterol). It's also what the Chinese would call a 'heaty' fruit. As in eating it warms you up, which would be all well and good in Scotland but not so much here.

All the same, I love love love my durian. A trip home isn't complete without a stop at Durian Row. 

Durian Row in Section 2 PJ is the site of a giant night market that sells almost exclusively, durians. Regulars have their favourite stalls and some even have regular 'durian kakis' (fellow durian loving friends) that they have regular 'durian sessions' with. Everywhere you go, tables will be surrounded by discarded durian shells, chilled coconuts and either laughter or lip-smacking sounds. Some of these places even have all-you-can-eat durian deals. For a flat rate, they keep  bringing fruit to your table till you hold your hands up in surrender (but they don't give you the good stuff, so don't bother). 

The family went for durian a couple of nights ago and we had a feast. Mum picked out some nice D24 durians, and as a special treat we had a 'Musa King' (fox king) durian as well. There're many many many other types of durian, each varying in taste and texture. These 2 are the only ones we've ever tried, but I definitely want to get around to trying the other ones sometime soon! Have you got a favourite durian? Or a favourite place to get them from? Let me know in the comments below!

For now, here is my smushed durian face for your enjoyment: 

Rockin' my plastic glove LIKE A BOSS.

Till next time guys!

White Chocolate Apple Crumble...and the time I refused to believe 2014 was coming.

Seriously though, where DID 2013 go? It cannot have gone by so quickly. There must be something wrong with the laws of physics at play here. I absolutely POINT BLANK refuse to accept that it is only a matter of hours until we usher in 2014.

But if we must say goodbye to the year that barely begun, I am going to send it off in style. I wave adieu to 2013 with one of my new signature desserts, my take on apple crumble. I'm very very proud of this recipe. The apples are extra cinnamon-y and not too mushy, there's ALOT of crumble, and it's all very more-ish. But the thing that really pulls it together is the little bits of white chocolate nestled in the crumble. The chunks on top caramelize beautifully and give the whole thing a slightly nutty flavour, while the chunks underneath just ooze and meld the tender apples with the buttery topping.

Please try this, do. It's super simple, I promise!

White Chocolate Apple Crumble

Filling
~ 4 large granny smith apples; peeled, cored and sliced into small chunks.
~ 2 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
~ 2 Tbsp brown sugar
~ 1 tsp honey
~1 1/2 Tbsp cornstarch

Crumble
~ 1/2 cup butter
~ 1 cup rolled oats, ground fine in a food processor.
~ 1/3 cup sugar
~ 1 cup flour
~ 1/2 cup cashew nuts, chopped up into wee chunks
~ 100g white chocolate, broken up into small chunks as well (you could use white chocolate chips)

You will need an ungreased 8x8 inch baking pan

+ Preheat your oven to 160'C.
+ Mix all the ingredients together for the filling and set aside while you get on with the crumble.
+ In a seperate bowl, rub the butter into the oats, flour and sugar. When it feels like damp sand, mix in the cashew and chocolate chunks.

+ spread your apple filling into the bottom of your baking pan and top with crumble. Like I said, there is ALOT of crumble. This is nice. This is GOOD.
+ Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, periodically turning the pan if it looks like the chocolate chunks are burning too quickly.
+ At the end of 30 minutes, take the pan out and cover it with tin foil. Pierce the top of the foil so that steam from the apples can escape.

+ Turn your oven up to 180'C and bake for a further 20 minutes.
+ Dish up with warm custard, or (my favourite) cold, cold, vanilla ice cream.

And on that sweet note, see you guys in 2014!

Steamed Brocolli with Stir Fried Prawns...and the time I flew home and cooked for mum.

Oh it's so nice to be home. If you can overlook the 30'C heat that is... But the food more than makes up for that. This is totally going to be a recipe for disaster though... Normally I eat carrot sticks and walk an hour a day. That's NOT happening here. :p oh well.. I guess I'll just worry about those few

More kilos when I get back to the bubble. 

For now, here's a quick dish I threw together for my second night here. It was really nice cooking for mum again. We had a nice little dinner for 2 together last night, and I can't wait to have a lot more. 

Steamed Brocolli with Stir-fried prawns. 

- 1 head of Brocolli

- 3 cloves garlic, minced

- soya sauce to taste

- 200g prawns, shelled and cleaned

- 1 tbsp corn flour

- 2 shallots, sliced

- 1 inch ginger, roughly grated

- 1 green chilli, cut lengthways

- 2 tbsp oyster sauce,

- 1 tbsp Thai chilli sauce

- 1 1/2 tsp soya sauce

- salt and pepper

- vegetable oil

+ cut up the Brocolli into florets and toss with 2/3 of the garlic and a drizzle of soya sauce. Arrange on a plate and drizzle a pinch of salt over. Steam for 4-6 munutes ( depending on how tender you'd like your Brocolli to be)

+ toss the prawns in the corn flour and season with salt and pepper. 

+ add 2 tbsp of veggie oil to a wok. Heat till just starting to smoke, then throw in the sliced shallots, ginger, remaining garlic and green chilli. Fry till fragrant. Add sauces and stir till combined. Add prawns, stir fry till just turning pink. You may need to add some water to loosen up the sauce. 

+ when the prawns are cooked, pour the whole lot over your steamed Brocolli. 

+ serve with hot, white rice. 

 

ENJOY!

Coconut 'Whipped Cream'...and the time I had hot chocolate weather.

The first snow of the semester came down on our little town about an hour ago. This picture was taken after it stopped, but before that we had big flakes of snow flying all over the place. It was almost like we were in a snow globe.  That's right. We've had our first episode of what I'd like to call Hot chocolate weather. 

Now I like my hot chocolate super dark with whipped cream on top. In Edinburgh I picked up this beauty:

And it is my favourite hot chocolate mix ever. Smooth, dark, and very very rich.

But what about the whipped cream? I didn't have any in the fridge.. So as usual I had to improvise with the stuff that I did have. The 'cream' I came up with isn't quite as thick or fluffy but it produces a nice smooth layer on your hot chocolate that smells faintly of coconut. Dairy free! For our lactose intolerant friends. :) 

It kinda feels like you're drinking a smooth, lighter version of a bounty bar. 

And if you can't find powdered coconut milk, maybe the top layer that forms in the can will work too... I don't know. If anyone does try that, let me know in the comments! :)

Coconut 'Whipped Cream'

- 1 Tbsp coconut milk powder

- 1/2 tsp icing sugar

- 2 tsp hot water

+ Mix everything in a microwaveable cup till smooth then microwave for 10 seconds on high. 

+ Stir again then pour over hot chocolate. 

Enjoy!

Aloo Tikki...and one of the many times I procrastinated on studying.

I really should be studying. 

This is ridiculous. Maybe my desk just doesn't have the right Feng-shui for Psychology. Or Biology. Or anything academia related really.

Ah well, since I'm being horribly unproductive there I just might be able to hammer out a post here. 

Aloo Tikki! Such a cheerful name, isn't it? Try saying it without smiling. Go on. I dare you. Can't do it? 

Told you.

I love these. I first had them when I went over to Mihir's house and his mum made them for us. She has since given me the recipe and I've started making them in Scotland. So simple, yet such a huge comfort food. They are very easy to make and even easier to eat. And everyone who has tried them, have loved them as well. One of my friend's housemates is especially enamored. She once told me that she just randomly starts thinking about them at odd hours of the night!

Aloo Tikki

- 2 large potatoes

- 2 and 1/2 Tbsp bread crumbs

- Chilli flakes

- LOTS of coriander, chopped finely (fresh, please)

- Salt

- Pepper

- Veggie oil

+ Peel the potatoes and cut them into little chunks. Boil until they're tender and a fork easily pierces one of the pieces.

+ Drain out as much water as you can then return the pot to the stove with the potatoes still in it. Stir the potatoes around a bit, you're doing this to make sure as much moisture as possible is gone.

+ Tip your potatoes into a bowl, and add everything except the veggie oil.

+ This bit is key. You're going to mash the potatoes, but you don;t want the mixture to be completely smooth. No potato ricers please. I grab the nearest wooden spoon and start stabbing at the bowl. You look a wee mental at first, but soon enough things will break down and start mixing together. Just remember, you want a mixture that will clump together, but you don't want a puree.

+ When your potato mixture is ready, start forming them into patties a heaped tablespoon at a time. Continue until all the mixture is used up.

+ Refrigerate the patties for at least an hour. Alternatively you could bung them in the freezer and fry them up later.

+ When you're ready to fry, heat up a centimeter of oil in your pan. Wait for it to heat up (I test this by dropping a coriander leaf in the oil. If it starts sizzling immediately, you're good to go) Drop the patties into the hot oil. Fry till golden brown on one side then flip and repeat.

+ Drain on paper towels, then garnish with lots more chopped coriander.

And you're done!

Drinking Coffee... and the time Elisa taught me about carico, caldo, comodo.

Hello Elisa!!! 

Everyone meet my beautiful flatmate Elisa Bevacqua from Calabria, Italy. Elisa and I are having a bit of a tandem culture exchange. I've introduced her to soy sauce, and she's introduced me to Italian coffee.

Glorious, glorious Italian coffee.

One of the more recent things I've learnt from her is the following 'Italian Coffee Doctrine'

Carico: Strong

Your coffee must taste strong. Drinking overpriced dishwater (and honestly I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. My GOOD coffee years are but beginning) constitutes breaking this cardinal law.

Caldo: Hot

Your coffee must be piping HOT. Lukewarm muck that's been sitting around forgotten and cold is absolutely unacceptable. Although... I don't know the stand taken with iced coffee....better ask Eli later. :p

Comodo: Comfortable

Coffee drinking should be done when you are comfortable. You should be seated through the entire experience. You MUST take your time.Good coffee shouldn't be wasted on someone too busy to properly taste it. Drink with family, drink with friends, drink on your own, hell drink with your cat if that's what makes you content. The point is to enjoy your cuppa, not rush through it.

Now all this is well and good to know, but let's face it. Everyone's too busy to actually do all these things EVERY SINGLE TIME you make a cuppa. Sometimes you need a caffeine shot to carry you through to the dawn before your big deadline. Sometimes your only option is diluted dishwater. MOST times the cafe is too crowded for you to do anything but sip your coffee while crowded into a corner.

The important thing is that, every once in a while you take a little time for yourself. Step out of your busy work schedule. Put down the phone, the pen, the piping bag, WHATEVER. Reserve that little parcel of time to properly embody Carico, Caldo, Comodo.

You'll be all the better for it.

Deepavali on the Causeway... and the time I was a good little Indian girl.

So last week the Malaysian society had a joint event with the Singaporean society! We had a very, very, VERY, belated Deepavali pot luck.

There was SO much food OMG. The tables were just groaning under the weight of all the dishes everyone brought along. To put things in perspective? My friend Siti roasted a MASSIVE chicken. I really wish I had gotten a photo of it sitting on the table in all it's roasted glory. And Siti's roast chicken is the most amazing thing you will ever have the privileged to taste. I was an EXTREMELY happy camper. :p

In between all the eating, we set out a couple of things for people to do. There was the Rangoli station, where people could come and spread some sand to colour in our Uni crest.

I think it's safe to say they got really into it.

It's a beauty, isn't it? SO proud of all the people who pitched in!

For my bit, I wanted to contribute some sweets (cause let's face it, it's not Deepavali without sweets!) so I got Aishah to come over, and she, Elisa and I spent our Friday night making these beauties:

Kesari

(sweet polenta cooked in milk and ghee with cashews and raisins)

Gulab Jamun

(Mini doughnuts deep fried in ghee then soaked in a cardamom syrup)

Badam Burfi

(Almond fudge, spiced with cardamom)

The Kesari and Gulab Jamun were made from packets I brought from home. The Burfi though? I made that from scratch. It's a sweet I started making last year when I spent my first Deepavali in Scotland, and continued to make for my family when I got home. Please try making it. It is the SIMPLEST thing. The only catch is you'll have to keep stirring for 45 minutes. Make it a bonding thing! Make your friends and family help stir too! Tell them your collective labour love will make the sweets taste better! 

And let's get real, that's probably true :)

Badam Burfi

~ 300g Ground Almonds

~ 1 and 1/2 cups Milk

~ 1 cup water

~ 1/3 cup sugar

~ 400g Condensed Milk

~ 2tsp Ground Cardamom

~ 1/2 cup ghee

~ yellow food colouring

~chopped pistachios and cashews to garnish

+ Ghee up a 9x13 inch baking pan.

+ Mix the almonds, milk, water, sugar, condensed milk and cardamom in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Stir continuously over a low flame. You don't have to be vigorous about this, just keep the mixture moving so it doesn't stick.

+ You'll be stirring this for a LONG time. No joke. But it'll be fun! I promise. :)

+ After about 1/2 an hour of stirring the mixture would have reduced to quite a thick paste. It may even be spitting a little. (Please be careful. No kids or pets running around the kitchen, thank you) At this point, start stirring in the ghee a dollop at a time. Allow it to incorporate into the mixture before stirring in more.

+ Keep stirring. Make pouty faces at your significant other so they'll take over stirring.

+Seriously though, that's it. Just stir over a low flame until the paste is really thick. It should be coming away from the sides of the saucepan. To test if it's ready, wet your finger and touch the surface of the paste. If it doesn't stick, it's done.

+Spread into your greased baking tray and sprinkle with the chopped nuts*. Allow to cool. Cut into bite sized pieces (as you can guess, these are very, very rich). 

*I skipped the nuts and sprayed the surface with edible silver after it had cooled.

Enjoy!