Cheat Eat

Thai Grilled Chicken (Gai Yang)

I have a love hate relationship with coriander. Growing up, I detested the fresh herb and would drive the Mother crazy throwing out every piece of coriander in my bowl. As an adult, I still find the taste of coriander really vile and the Mother has never stopped scolding me for discarding the coriander in dishes we eat.

When I started cooking, I would only use coriander for garnishing. My relationship with the pungent herb only changed when I became interested in Thai food. To be specific, it is the Thai combined usage of pepper, coriander roots and garlic in marinades and stir fries. On its own, coriander smells like a gas leak to me but when pounded into a paste with pepper and garlic, something magical happens. The first time I made the paste, I found the aroma so enticing I could not stop sniffing my fingers. I realised that I like using coriander roots and seeds to season food, just do not make me eat the leaves.

Other than Thai braised pork belly, my favourite use of the coriander, pepper and garlic paste has to be for Gai Yang. David Thompson's Thai Food has a good, authentic recipe and I love to add lemon grass or kaffir lime leaf to the marinade for extra zing. I will roast the chicken in the oven at 200 degree Celsius for about 20 minutes and then use the broiler to crisp up the skin. Not quite like the street vendors in Thailand who barbecue the chicken on a charcoal grill but easy and fuss free for the home cook.

Green Mango Salad

The mango tree outside the house bore fruits! As the mangos are tart and crunchy, the best way to use them is in a salad. I grab whatever I find in the garden and the pantry, and toss everything together. Not exactly authentic Thai but it is delightfully easy to make and taste really great.

Steamed Fish With Lemon Grass

The concept is straightforward enough. Steam a fish on a bed of lemon grass and serve it with a sauce that requires no cooking. The end result is a lemony, moist fish with the savory, sweet, sour and spicy perfectly balanced. Elegant yet so simple and easy.

I wish I can offer a better photograph to do the recipe justice. However, it was a weekday dinner where everyone was coming home at different times. The big grouper was carved into pieces such that individual portions could be cooked and served in minutes after a family member sat down at the dining table. I have to agree with the ever so practical Mother: quality has to take precedence over aesthetics and my blog in this case, steamed fish is best served pipping hot. 

Thai Style Braised Pork Belly

Here's a little secret I will like to share. No, not a dirty secret, more like many fatty layers of goodness, in a big slab of pork belly. I will not admit to liking this artery clogging cut of meat in public. It just seem too unhealthy a thing to let people know when some of my friends do not even eat pork.

A popular way to cook pork belly is to braise it in soy sauce or brine with spices. It is a method  commonly used in East and South East Asia. Different parts of China have variations to the braising liquid. The Japanese add dashi stock and sake. Chinese in Malaysia and Singapore like to use galangal, five spice powder and usually toss in some dry chillies for extra spiciness.

The recipe here is a Thai version and one of my favourite. It features the most basic of Thai flavours: pepper coriander paste and fish sauce. The gravy is sweeter due to the generous use of palm sugar while the melt in the mouth pork belly is savory, sweet, peppery and garlicky. If no one is there to stop me, I would have eaten all the pork belly together with 2 big bowls of gravy covered rice and really hate myself for the rest of the month.

Yati's Sambal Prawns And Eggs

Before Yulia came to work for us, we had another Indonesian domestic help called Zoe, before Zoe, there was Yati who was with us for 6 years. Yati was a very good cook and she made the best sambal prawns and eggs. I did not learn or note down the recipe because duh why bother when there was someone to cook for you. When Yati went back to Indonesia to start a family with her husband, she taught Zoe how to cook this dish. Hah, so I still did not need to learn.

Going Bananas!

Or plantain, I really do not know. I have never been good with names, food or humans or any other things. Whenever I chanced upon these jumbo cooking bananas or plantain at the market, all I can think of is homemade goreng pisang.

Aren't You The Cutest Thing

Rice or glutinous rice wrapped and cooked in leaves is a theme shared by many Asian cuisine. A few that come to mind are bak chang, Chinese glutinous rice dumplings that are wrapped in bamboo leaves, the Nonya version using pandan (screw pine) leaves. Then there is lotus leaf rice, a must have for dim sum sessions. The Malays have pulut panggang which is glutinous rice filled with savory fillings like shrimp or chicken wrapped with banana leaves.

When Yulia told us she needed to buy coconut leaves, I thought she was going to make ketupat which is essential for Aidilfitri celebrations in most Malay homes where the rice cakes in weaved coconut leaf casings are eaten with curries and rendangs.

Not Indian Curry of Lamb

What would you do when you have promise to cook Kambing Kurma (Indian style mutton curry) for dinner but its one of those days when you are not in the mood for fiddly food preparation like peeling and chopping a big pile of shallot and garlic and ginger and onion and chilli? That person being me, I would find another curry that does not require peeling and chopping a big pile of shallot and garlic and ginger and onion and chilli.

Aspic In Progress

More jelly, this time something savory. I have not make pig trotters in aspic for a long time. The Singaporean palate has changed and not many people appreciate this traditional dish. Add the fact that cooking aspic takes a lot of effort and time. It is not by surprising this dish has all but disappeared from hawker stalls and resturants here.

I have decided not to make the traditional Teo Chew style aspic which uses Chinese spices. Instead, I am going to do a fusion pig trotters in aspic by adding soy beans which is a Burmese variation and aspic stock using European herbs. Ok fine, I confess: I ran out of star anise and cloves and I need to use up the huge batch of parsley.

Eating This Will Not Make You Short

The eggplant is a vegetable with many names and varieties. Aubergine, brinjal and my favourite, "ngai gwa" which means short gourd in Cantonese. I was a bit perplexed when I first heard the name as the common Chinese eggplant is long and slender, not the round and fat variety like the American or Italian eggplant. So I asked a friend who is Cantonese why they call eggplant "ngai gwa" and she thought I was teasing her for being short. Hah, so much for my people skills. Not getting an answer from my short, opps I mean vertically challenged friend, I asked the same question to another friend who is also Cantonese and not sensitive about her height. She told me the eggplant is called short gourd because eating too many will make you short. If that is true, my mom must have fed me a tad too many eggplants when I was young.

Now that I am not growing any taller and have since discovered high heels, I can eat all the eggplants I want. Here is a simple and delicious way to cook it. Grill the eggplant with a little oil, then smother it with a sauce made from chilli, belacan (shrimp paste), shallots and garlic.