Boo Outdoors

if there has been one bright spot in our lives in Miri, it's this fat fella. I can't tell you how much of a joy he has been since he came into our lives.



I only wish that my parents could meet him more often, which will be the case when we bring him with us when (not if, when) we move.

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

For perfectly good reasons, I try to avoid deep frying as much as possible. The mess, the oil splashed on skin and countertops, the waste of the oil, and of course, ALL THOSE CALORIES.

But as soon as I laid eyes on this recipe, I gave in.

And I'm glad I did. I halved the recipe, more or less, for three drumticks for AK and 2 chicken breasts for myself. I didn't have buttermilk or seasoned salt, so I used milk with the juice of a lime stirred in, and for the salt I used instead sea salt, garlic powder and cayenne. Lots of freshly ground black pepper ground in too, I think, is essential.

We ate our fried chicken, juices dripping down our chins, teeth crunching into the crispy skin, with simply steamed baby corn cobs, watching Law and Order: SVU. Perfect.

My First Baguette

Well, my house, my clothes and even my cat are covered in flour, my oven and my cast iron pan need a good scrubbing (I used it in lieau of a baking stone).

But I am super pleased. Crusty, tasty baguettes with a mild sourdough flavour (thanks so overnight fermentation) with crispy crusts.

My Mum's Spaghetti Bolognaise (for the tomato haters out there)

I love pasta.

I hate tomatoes.

Maybe it's because I have never tried to find a good one, or the quality of tomatoes that we get here. I seriously cannot remember a time when I ever tasted tomato and liked it. Too sour, too sweet, too slimy. Even sun dried tomatoes taste like prunes to me (sorry). Maybe one day, inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow and Skye Gyngell, I will slow-roast a few in the hopes of changing my mind. Surely so many people must be right? But for now, it's no surprise that I shun ordering tomato-based pasta dishes when we eat out. My favourite eat-out pasta dish is actually a Thai crabmeat pasta at the Delicious restaurants (one of my favourite places to eat out in KL by the way). Redolent with chilli, ginger flower, lemongrass, coriander and crab. Best. Idea. Ever. Another of my favourites is a black pepper seafood fettucine at a local (Mirian) joint. Maybe it's my very Asian palate.

Back to Bolognaise.

My mum came up with this genius recipe, which takes about 20 minutes from start to finish, tastes like a dream (to me at least, and all of my brothers and cousins and aunties and uncles). Nowadays I tend to cook a big pot of it on weeknights, dreaming of home and family. I have adapted it slightly from by adding a beef stock cube. Otherwise, it is as she makes it. And while purists might find what I am about to recommend an absolute travesty, I'll have you know that everyone who has tried it has loved it. I have yet to find one person who will not wolf this down. And it's so damn convenient to make. The only fresh ingredients are onions and the beef (oops, not sure if that's good or bad). So, for all those similarly Asian palates and busy folk out there, and also for those (there must be some, right?) tomato-haters out there, here goes:

450g long pasta of choice (spaghetti, tagliatelli or fettucine, not angel hair)

For the Bolognaise:

1 packet Maggie Bolognaise sauce mix
1 cup of pre-made cream of mushroom soup (I use a pack of the single serving stuff that makes 1 mug of soup and added water), or 1/3 cup concentrated soup
250g ground beef
2 large yellow onions, diced
4 fat cloves of garlic, diced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 mild beef stock cube
1 tbsp dried oregano


Handful button mushrooms (fresh or canned, I usually use canned)

Optional - 1 green bell pepper (cut into chunks), and parmesan cheese

For the sauce - in a heavy based pot, soften the diced onions in the oil and a pinch of salt for a good 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir until it releases its fragrance. If using the peppers (I usually don't - a single green pepper costs 5 bucks in this neck of the woods). Add the mushrooms and stir.

I like to brown the meat separately in another frying pan (in a dash of oil, over high heat until really brown), then add it to the onion mixture, but mum just dumps it into the same pot. Either way, they both work. Add the oregano, Maggie mix, the soup, and top up with about 400 mls of water. Crumble in the stock cube. Simmer for a further 15 - 20 minutes. Grind in some black pepper and (maybe) a bit of sugar to taste.

Cook your pasta as per the instructions on the pack. Drain and add to the sauce, stir for about 2 minutes to allow the pasta to soak up the gravy.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan (a sliver of so-called integrity in this canned, pre-mixed-profuse recipe as I cannot stand the canned parmesan flakes - they smell and taste like puke. See, I have standards :)).

Serves four, or in our case, two, twice.

Weekend Brekkie - Biscuits on a Sunday Morning

Nothing like something fresh out of the oven on a weekend morning. And so quick and easy it is to make too. So quick and easy in fact that I pulled out my cookie cutter and cut out star shapes, just for the fun of it.

I used Dorie Greenspan's basic biscuit recipe, which was super easy and I had everything in my fridge/pantry - fine flour, butter, full milk, baking powder and sugar. Hot, buttery, flaky, we ate these topped with a dark spiced syrup - with cups of freshly brewed South Indian coffee - weekend perfection.

Shortbread & Peanut Butter Crust Lime Tarts

Someone gave us a box of handmade, all-butter Scottish shortbread which unfortunately has gone uneaten. AK and I are not really fans of shortbread, which we find rather bland and slightly too rich for our humbles palates. I also happened to have a pack of roasted peanuts. So I decided to try something out. I whizzed the shortbread and shelled nuts in the processor, added a bit of melted butter and pressed it into tart cases. I baked the cases in the oven at 160 deg C for 15 minutes, and voila, peanut-buttery tart casings.

For the filling, I knew I wanted to make a tart, creamy lime version ala key lime pie. I pored through Dorie Greenspan's Baking: My Home to Yours and Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook, both of which called for condensed milk in their pie filling recipes. I have made desserts with condensed milk before, and really dislike the sickly-sweet, sticky aftertaste, which I find overwhelming. So instead I reduced a cup of milk and a couple of tablespoons of sugar and added this to some beaten egg yolks. I reduced the custard to a thick consistency, and then stirred in the lime juice. I then reduced that further to a thick, spatula-coating mixture before straining the mixture into the tart cases and then baking the whole lot again at a very low heat.

The result? Exactly as I wanted - creamy, tart lime filling juxtaposed against a rich, crunchy peanut-flecked, peanutty crust.

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups shortbread cookies
1/2 cup roasted peanuts
3 tbsps melted butter, cooled

For the filling:

1 cup whole milk
5 tbsps granulated sugar
1/2 cup lime juice
3 large egg yolks

To make the crust, whiz the cookies and peanuts in the food processor. I found that the peanuts started forming peanut butter very fast (another experiment for another time), so pause and stir in between whizzes. Add the melted butter, whiz to mix then press the mixture into 6 tart casings. Bake at 160 deg C for 15 minutes. Cool slightly then pop them in the fridge while you get started on the filling.

For the filling, place the milk in a thick-bottomed saucepan with the sugar and reduce over a low heat until the mixture is about half its volume. Whisk the egg yolks then slowly add the hot milk mixture, whisking all the time. Return the mixture to the pan and add the lime juice, stirring all the time. Reduce the mixture until it thickly coats the back of spoon. Strain the mixture into the tart casings. Bake at 150 deg C for half an hour, or until the custard mixture is firm.

Memento

New look for our living room wall.

Lives of Rajput warriors depicted on this hand-printed piece from Jaipur.

Hand-blown sea-green glass lotus-shaped dish and a solid glass soapdish from Bali (love love love). The soapdish reminds me of a block of ice. White fibreglass vase AK got me from Taiwan that we now use to hold a fat orange-scented candle. Background: carved wooden elephant, also from India. Tower of London collage made of old clock parts, that AK got from, well, London.

One of my favourite pieces (actually,I love them all :)) - this Taj Mahal inspired marble piece inlayed with enamel (I think). While the Taj walls are decorated in vivid garnets, topazes and lapis lazulis, this piece is inlayed with softest pinks and blues.