Memory Trails - A glimpse of childhood (and partly a Kitchen Trail as well)

Yes, even my memories are about food. Tonight I had a simple noodle soup that brought back a childhood memory.

Big part of my younger childhood was spent in my grandfather's shoplot. He had a shop in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman that sold woven rattan goods (from bags to chairs) and big vases and lamps and lampshades. The upper floors of the shop were living quarters, basically a home. I was there a lot in my young ciku days. And when I started schooling, I was there on weekends and during the school holidays.

Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman was one of the main shopping areas of Kuala Lumpur back in the days, way before all the big huge supermarkets and malls were even introduced. I grew up in a vibrant and lively neighbourhood there.

Our neighbours were shop owners and workers from all the businesses in the area, the transvestites and drag queens (back then the word Pondan were used, and none of them took any offense, people were very much less sensitive back then) who ply their trade in their glam and elaborate attires when night falls. These workers of the night's main clientele were the western foreigners working here (or expats as they are now more popularly known), western tourists, and many also came from the ships that were docked at Port Klang. They would have a jolly good time having their happy hour and dinner at the very famous Coliseum Bar and Cafe situated a few doors away, and then continue with their extended entertainment of the night with the transvestites until the wee hours of the morning. Some would even use the alleyway right next to my grandfather's shop.

These entertainers of the night were my friends and babysitters in the day. Out of their elaborate get up and make up, they were ordinary guys who's only outstanding feature is their long hair. Even in my young young age, I could sense their loyalty to each other, their respect for others, and their pride in being part of society and our neighbourhood. And we welcomed them, they were our friends and neighbours. When I grew up, and understood more about life, I realised that with their lifestyle, many of them were drug addicts, and I remember that one of them had died from a drug overdose in the alleyway right next to our shop. I didn't understand back then why there were police around the area, and why my mother didn't let me out of the shop that day. A body lying there, covered with newspaper. A sad and heartbreaking end of someone's life.

I also remember the multi racial and multi cultural community we had. A little further down the road was a cinema, also named Coliseum that showed mainly Indian movies. And the nasi campur stall up the road that sold the best ever beef I've ever tasted, even until today. The Globe Silk Store across the road that sold clothes, and lots and lots of fabric and cloth, and my first ever roti canai further down the road, made extra crispy, just for me. The A&W few doors away with the A&W bear mascot who visits on special occasions. The Hakka men who were cooks at the Hotel/restaurant just across the alleyway from us. They made the best ever pork chops and chips. The Punjabi family who owned and ran the GS Gill sports shop to the rough spoken but kind hearted Chinese man who's bicycle shop where I got my first ever bicycle. Up and down this busy streeet, all these were my peeps back then.

Sometimes when all my uncles and aunts and some close family friends were all gathered at my grandfather's shop, we would make this soupy dish called Min Fun Kueh, or Mee Hoon Kueh, or better known nowadays as Pan Mee. It's a very basic dish, made of a simple broth flavoured with Asian dried anchovies, and garlic and Choy Sum (a leafy green asian vegetable or mustard green). Accompanied with the must-have Sambal Belacan (red chillies and fermented prawn paste piece pounded on a pestle and mortar, seasoned with a pinch of sugar and mixed with calamasi lime juice). The dough consists of egg, wheat flour, salt and water, and hand kneaded until it's springy and boingy. It is then hand torn bit by bit and flatten, and added to the boiling stock made earlier. Served hot with the Sambal Belacan, Min Fun Kueh is a comfort food indeed.

Tonight I replicated the dish, but instead of the doughy hand kneaded and torn pieces, I used Meesua which I recently bought from a seller on FaceBook. I used the same stock, flavoured with garlic and ginger and dried Asian anchovies, a chilly paste - also bought from a seller on FaceBook- to which I added some toasted Belacan and sugar and lemon juice (I didn't have any lime at home).

A taste of my childhood. Comfort food at it's best, 21st century style.

Kitchen Trails - Oven baked Tortilla chips, spinach pesto and Guaca-salsa

I didn't want to deep fry the tortilla chips so i oven baked them, and they are so so good as well. I got some wholemeal tortillas, brushed a very light layer of olive oil on both sides, and stacked them up and cut them into wedges. Plopped them on cookie sheet and baked them in my toaster oven for about 5 mins on one side and turn them over and baked for another 3 mins or so on the other side. My toaster oven is one of the most basic ones, without temperature control and with a timer for 30 mins max. If you were to use a proper oven or a better toaster oven than mine, I would think that it might be at the temp of about 175 C.

I used spinach pesto, but you can use whichever pesto or dip that you want, or hummus works great as well.

As for the guaca-salsa (hehehehe), I mixed guacamole and salsa together. I used:

avocado, 3

cilantro, a small bit, finely chopped

tomatoes, 3

lemon juice, a big squeeze

onion, 1 small one, finely diced

salt to taste

Kitchen Trails - Egg sandwich with Avocado

It's so green!! And no, it's not green eggs and ham. It's egg sandwich with blitzed veggies and mash avocado instead of mayonnaise.

I blitzed an avocado with a bit of lemon juice and some salt. This will be my mayo substitute, and so much more healthier and yummier. I couldn't help dipping in and taking some!

I also blitzed some baby spinach leaves, some kale and and some peashoots (or pea sprouts) with 1 clove of garlic.

1 avocado, remove the skin and pit and squeeze in a dash of lemon juice to keep it from oxidising and turning brown, and mashed into chunks

5 small sized eggs, hard boiled, shelled and mashed

Mix all together, the creamy avocado paste, the blitzed veggies, the chucky mashed avocados, the mashed eggs, a bit of salt and pepper to season. Plop it on bread of choice and ngap! ngap! ngap!

Don't use too much veggies, as it will give off a greenish smell and taste, and could be off putting to some.

Kitchen Trails - Penne with Spinach Pesto and roasted chicken breast slices

I love my pasta, and pasta means carbs! Not very good for my triglyceride levels! I try to eat less pasta now, and I came across this Vetta Hi-Fibre pasta. It tastes the same as your normal pasta, same texture as well. Something to try or to add the the range of whole wheat, or buckwheat or whichever super healthy pasta in the market

This one in the pic is Rollini, and it's a quick cook one as it only takes 3 mins. It's not a very sturdy type of pasta and it would prob work best in a salad or something light. I've also tried their penne and spaghetti. I haven't tried their linguine though. I would guess it's the same as the other linguine on the pasta shelf, judging from their spaghetti and penne that I've tried.

So, for this dish, I used my spinach pesto, Vetta's hi-fibre penne, and some of my roasted chicken slices. And a squeeze of lemon juice to loosen the pesto and to add some ZING!! as I did not put any lemon juice into my pesto when I was making it.

Kitchen Trails - stir fried kai lan (chinese broccoli)

Chinese broccoli or Gai lan/Kai lan in chinese is a thick stemmed leafy green vegetable packed with nutrients. Chinese cooking often stir fry this vegetable with garlic and sometimes a splash of chinese cooking wine.

Chinese broccoli, a big whole bunch for it wilts and shrinks quite a bit during the cooking process

Garlic, about 4 cloves, skinned and sliced

Cooking oil, about 1 TBSP (I normally use olive oil)

Sesame oil, a few drops (optional)

Oyster sauce, 1 tsp (optional)

Chinese cooking wine, a dash, about 1 TBSP

Salt to taste

Heat up a big pan or wok and put in the oil, once the oil starts to heat up, add in the garlic and stir fry, taking care not to let it burn. Once it's golden, scoop up the garlic and set aside.

Throw in the Chinese broccoli and stir fry, mixing thoroughly and scoop those at the bottom to the top continuously. Add the sesame oil, oyster sauce, chinese cooking wine, and salt and stir fry to mix evenly. Dish up. Do not over cook the vegetable as it will get really chewy. It's delicious when the stalks have a heavy crunch to it when you bite into it

Kitchen Trails - Healthy sandwich with chicken breast, pesto and peasprouts

My lunch today. 

Whole meal bread with sundried tomato pesto on one, and spinach pesto on the other. Topped with some roughly shredded roast chicken breast and some pea sprouts/shoots.

simple. delicious. healthy. 

Kitchen Trails - Colourful rice

So simple and yet so yummmmmssss!!

Cooked rice

Tomatoes, washed, seed and pulp removed, and diced 

Spring onion, washed and diced

Grated lemon zest from a whole lemon

A squeeze from the same lemon, depending on how much or how little zinginess you want

Salt to taste

Olive Oil, just a tad (but I used the Salmon oil that I got from grilling my salmon in my Air fryer)

In the hot cooked rice, just all all the ingredients together and mix thoroughly

Kitchen Trails - Air Fryer Grilled Salmon

Just look at that crispy Salmon skin!

I used my Philips AirFryer to grill Salmon. No oil, in fact I collected the Omega 3 rich salmon oil that dripped into the drawer compartment of my air fryer to use. I just rubbed a bit of salt on the the salmon slices and grilled using the grill pan. Preheat the air fryer at 180C for 3 minutes, and then grill skin side down for about 8 minutes, then gently turn it over and turn up the heat to 200C and grill for another 5 mins for the crispy skin. Ooohhhh..... so sedap!

Kitchen Trails - Philips AirFryer roast chicken breast

I love my roast chicken breasts! I normally buy boneless and skinless chicken breasts, and marinate them in salt, garlic powder and onion powder, and sometimes I add some dijon mustard as well. I

sometimes marinate and them chuck them into the freezer until I get my airfryer out, or I am turning on my oven for other uses. But I normally roast my chicken breasts or grill my salmon/fish, or roast my nuts all in the Philips AirFryer.

For these 2 pieces of chicken breasts, I preheated the AF for 3 minutes at 170C, and then just used the baking tray to roast for about 15 minutes, then turning over and roasting for another 5 minutes or so. If you noticed the cut in the chicken breast, I normally cut at the thickest part to check that it's done, and is thoroughly cooked through. Eating raw or uncooked or partly cooked chicken is a big NO NO! You can get quite sick from it.

Kitchen Trails - Sundried Tomatoes Pesto

The wonderful mix of sundried tomatoes, garlic, sweet basil and olive oil. 

I came up with this about 10 years ago, and back then, I called it Almost Aglio Olio, or Funkyfied Aglio Olio (bear with me ok, I wasn't exposed to pesto yet at that time) as I wanted an Aglio Olio that's not spicy, and yet needed something to perk up the taste, hence the sundried tomatoes. I used to (and still do) heat it up a little on the pan to bring out the flavours further. Mix with spaghetti, with a squeeze of lemon juice and grated mature cheddar Mmmmmmmm.... Yums! I'm salivating and hankering for a serving right now while typing this out.

Sundried tomatoes (I used the dried ones, not the ones in oil) about 8 pieces

Sweet basil, one cup, packed

Garlic, half a head, skinned

Himalayan salt, 1 tsp

Olive Oil, about 3 tbsp

Blitz the sundried tomatoes, garlic and basil separately

Heat up the olive oil in a pan over low low heat. Add the blitzed ingredients and salt and stir to mix for about 3 minutes. Done.

I normally make up a batch of 3 times the about listed above and let cool in the pan and store in a air tight container or jar and put it in the fridge. It works great with spaghetti like i mentioned above, or as a dip or even on grilled fish or chicken. I also tend to make it a little saltier nowadays as I restrict my consumption of cheese (cry cry cry!! I really love my cheeses!!)

Kitchen Trails - Pasta Puttanesca

Puttanesca. It's a mouthwatering pasta sauce for those who love earthy, pungent spiciness and anchovies. Go google puttanesca, it's pretty funny and racy how this sauce came about hehehehe

Garlic, half a head, skinned and pulsed into small bits

Capers, can leave them whole if it's the smaller type, or pulse into smaller bits if it's the bigger ones

Olives, i used sliced black olives, and pulse a few times

Chili flakes, can be omitted, or according to your own preference, I used about 1 tablespoon

Anchovies, 1 small jar/can or according to preference. I used the anchovy paste, about 1 heaped tablespoon

1 Canned tomatoes in tomato juice

Salt (I normally use himalayan salt in my cooking, and as I omitted the Parmesan, I added a little more for saltiness)

Olive Oil, about 1-2 tablespoon

Pasta, I find that spaghetti works best, cooked as per package instruction

Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat oil in a pan/pot/whatever in medium heat and add the garlic, saute for a minute and add the anchovies and chili flakes.

Add the canned tomatoes, and break up the tomatoes (mine comes in whole tomatoes in the can). Add a bit of water if it's too thick

Add the capers and olives  and salt, and mix well and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Add to cooked pasta, top with parmesan if using, and mix well. Serve hot

Kitchen Trails - Spinach Pesto

Pesto. Manna from Heaven. There are so many varieties of pesto now, not just the conventional basil, garlic, pine nut, olive oil, parmesan pesto.

Pesto goes best with pasta, but it can be used in so many different ways, On roast chicken, fish, a dressing, a spread, a dip, a topping. So, so versatile.

Baby spinach, about 150g, washed and drained

Sweet basil, about 100g, washed and drained

Garlic, 4 cloves, skinned

Cashew nut, about 1 cup, washed and soaked in salt water overnight, drained and pat dry. Air fried in my Philips AirFryer at 170 C for 15 mins, shaking to redistribute 3 times

Parmesan, grated, about 1/3 to 1/2 cup

Salt to taste, about 2 tsp, add more if omitting the parmesan

Lemon Juice about 3 TBSP

Zest of the Lemon

Olive Oil, about 1/3 cup

Wash and drain the spinach and basil (I used sweet basil, I've always preferred sweet basil. You can use normal basil, that works great as well). Then I use the vege/salad spinner thingy to expel as much of the water as possible. I love the spinner thing! Perfect for more fragile and easily bruised veggies

I don't have a food processor. They are bulky and pretty expensive. If someone/company wants to sponsor/gift me one, I would obviously welcome it, never mind the kitchen counter real estate! Instead of a food processor, I normally use my Shimono blitzer (It's very similar to the magic bullet), but here I used my Moulineux chopper/blender thingy. 

I blitzed them in this sequence:

Roasted cashews, until just chunky, it will be in fine bits at the end of it all, so I want to keep it just chunky for now

Garlic, another 2-4 pulses

The basil and the spinach, pulse until it's quite fine

Lemon zest

Salt

Olive Oil

Parmesan, just a couple of pulses to mix it into the pesto

Notes:

If omitting the Parmesan (I know, I know, I know cheeses are pretty high in fat), add a little more salt and maybe 1 sundried tomato. Other things I can think of right now are possibly Olives, capers, tahini.... basically, anything that can pep up the flavour of the pesto

The lemon juice and zest can be omitted as well, or just squeeze a bit of lemon juice into the pesto for those who would like some. Personally, I would omit during the process, and squeeze some in when serving/eating, especially when I'm storing it.

I've read that the pesto can be stored for up to 2 weeks in a lidded jar in the fridge (put a thin layer of olive oil to cover the top, kinda like seal it in) but truth be told, mine has never made it past the 5 days mark before it's finished.

I used cashew instead of pine nuts as per most pesto recipes as pine nuts are freaking expensive where I am. If using cashews, do research and read up on the dangers of cashews and the oxalate thingamajig. Don't overdo it on cashews, or anything else, for that matter. 

Kitchen Trails - Stir fried Four angled beans with dried shrimps and cilipadi

This is a dangerous dish for me as I can take bowls and bowls of rice with it, and that's not good for my super high triglyceride levels!!

Four angled bean or winged beans are a good source of fibre, folates and nutrients. Try and get the younger pods, as it's crunchier and less chewy.

Four angled beans - washed and drained and cut into 1cm lengths

Garlic, skinned

Onions, skinned and quartered

Cilipadi, washed, stem removed and cut into 2

Red chillies, washed and stem removed and cut into 4 quarters

Dried shrimp, washed and drained

Using a pestle and mortar, pound the garlic, onions and chillies into fine chunks. A blender can be used to blitz these ingredients, but somehow, pounding them gives it an extra edge in releasing the flavours

In a pan, heat up olive oil, add the dried shrimps and the pounded ingredients and stir fry over a low to med-low heat, stirring constantly and turning over. Fry for 5 minutes. Add the four angled beans and stir fry for a few more minutes, add in a couple of tablespoons of water to soften the beans a little bit. Dish up and serve hot

A little side note: the pestle and mortar is called a lesung tumbuk and somehow food/ingredients that are pounded always tastes better and a little different from those prepared with a blender or a food processor. The pounding is also quite therapeutic. GDONG! GDONG! GDENK! GDUNG! GTOKGTOKGTOK!!!! pound all the aggression away :D

Kitchen Trails - Mixed veggie omelette

This is suppose to be a mixed veggie omelette, but I've added so much veggies that it's now more of a stir fried mix veggies with some eggs (insert laugh until crying emoji here please).

I used broccoli, tomatoes, french beans, garlic (minced), onions (diced) and eggs (beaten with a bit of salt and pepper)

In a pan, heat up some olive oil, and throw in the onions, stir fry for a minute or two until it soften, add the garlic and fry for another minute. Add in all the vegetables and fry for a few minutes, and lastly add the beaten eggs

Kitchen trails - Scrambled eggs with Mash avocado on Marmite toast

This is DA BOMB!!! I've always loved the mashed avocado on my toast with eggs, but this time, I've added sundried tomatoes and pea sprouts 

My cooking style for today:

Eggs - add 1 finely grated clove of garlic, a bit of salt. beat the eggs until foamy to aerate
Pea sprouts, cut into 2 inch lengths
Sundried tomatoes, finely diced
Avocado, roughly mashed
Olive Oil spread - I use Tablelands (the nutrition label at the bottom of the tub claims to use fully hydrogenated palm oil as well. Tablelands also has a lite version of this at my grocer, will try that one for my next buy)
Marmite, can omit or use vegetable yeast spread of your choice
Whole meal bread

I used olive oil instead of butter for my scrambled eggs. Once the eggs are halfway done, i added the pea sprouts and sundried tomatoes.

Spread on a light layer of the olive oil spread, a thin layer of marmite, dollop mashed avocado on one half of the bread, and scrambled eggs on the other half. OR... spread the bread with the spread and marmite, put a layer of mashed avocado over the whole slice of bread, and top with the scrambled egg. OR... make it a sandwich and put another slice of bread on top. However you want lah, correct? :D

Kitchen Trails - Vegetarian Choy Keok (Spicy and sour mix chinese mustard green stew)

This is a Asian chinese dish, traditionally made after a festive season or big occasion as the name Choy Keok literally mean the end of a dish in Cantonese. So the leftovers like roast meat, mushrooms, abalone, basically whatever that was served for the feast are dumped in to flavour the stew/soup (though I very much doubt that there will be abalone leftover in any feast). Chinese mustard green (Gai Choy in Cantonese), chillies and tamarind skin is a must for this dish. The rest of the stuff are pretty much up to you.

This version is not made with leftover, I purposely went to get the ingredients for this dish, and I made it a vegetarian one. This time I used:

Chinese mustard green, I bought 2 big huge heads because they cook down quite a lot. Cut and thoroughly washed as there's normally a lot of soil trapped between the gigantic leaves. I cut the leafy part into maybe 3 per leaf, and the harder stem part into chunks

Dried chillies, cut off the stalk and washed, soak in hot water for 15 mins to soften

Cilipadi (birds eye chilly), washed and stalk cut off (deseed or totally omit if you want because some of these little beauties' spiciness level can go nuclear)

Red chillies, washed, cut off the stalk and then cut into 3s

Tamarind skin, washed

Vegetarian mock drumstick, discard the stick (it's basically beancurd sheet wrapped around a stick and seasoned)

Dried shiitake mushroom, soaked overnight or at least 4 hours. cut off the stems and cut into 2, or more if the mushrooms are big and thick

Light soy sauce

Salt to taste

Garlic, 1 whole head, skinned

Fill a stock pot or a big pot with water, dump in the garlic, all the chillies, the tamarind skin. Bring to boil and then turn down the heat and boil for 30 min. Add the mock drumstick, mushroom, the light soy sauce and salt and the harder stem chunks of the mustard green. Let it cook for 1 hour, topping up water if need be.Check for taste, if it's not sour enough, add more tamarind skin, and if it's not spicy enough, add more cilipadi, not salty enough, add salt, of course. Add the leafy part of the mustard green and cook for another 30 mins. 

I normally cook this and and once it's done, I turn off the flame and leave the cover on without opening and eat the next day. I leave it overnight to let the flavours infuse further

Happy Well - Duolingo

Duolingo

This is such an awesome app! Learning different languages and it's free! There's a website (just click on the link above this paragraph), iOS app and Android App as well.

I know that on the iOS, there's a accompanying app called Tinycards as well. I'm not sure if it's available on android yet. It's for younger kids and works like a flashcard. I use it as well, for more practice for my French that I'm currently learning on the Duolingo app.

Happy Well

Health is not just restricted to physical well being. Our emotional and psychological well being is just as important.

It's not just what we put into our mouth - ngap ngap ngap gulp gulp gulp - that matters. It's how we take care of what we have in our head and heart (figuratively speaking) as well. Our mental well being, our emotional health.

I've always been aware of mental and emotional wellbeing. You know, the ones where we do brain quizzes and whatnots so that our minds are active and doesn't rust with non usage and all that, and to do good deeds so we are "good people", etc etc etc.

When I realised that I suffer from anxiety, I know that it's more than just that. What I think about or let myself dwell on and the direction of my thoughts is very important as well. And it's something I have to constantly remind myself to train myself to not go down that path. Don't judge me. That is what works for me to cope. You do your thang, and I'll do what I need to cope.

ALSO..... I need to help myself first and do good deed to feed my soul before I can go and help others.

Correct or not? That was rhetorical. Borderline sarcasm even. I wasn't looking for answers, more like compounding my own coping mechanism. Hehehehehehehe

Kitchen Trails - Vegetable soup with beans and roasted chicken breast

This is a pretty versatile and simple to prepare dish. Basically, you put in whatever you want and just boil and simmer away. This time I used:

Garlic

Onions

Kale

Celery

Carrots

French beans

Tomatoes

Black eye peas (pre-soaked)

Roasted chicken breast slices

Dried bay leaf

Dried sweet basil

Dried parsley

Salt to taste

Water

My personal take on this recipe is that I use whatever vegetables I have in the fridge, or if I intended to cook this soup and have bought whatever vegetables I want to put in along with whatever I have in the fridge.

Sometimes, I add some chicken or fish or soybean products, and sometimes I don't. This time I have some roasted chicken breast, so I added that into the soup as well.

I added black eye peas which I've pre soaked for 6 hours. I normally pre soak my beans or lentils or legumes or nuts or seeds overnight, but this time I only had the urge to make this soup in the morning, so I quickly soaked the black eye peas and cooked the soup in the late afternoon. Black eye peas takes about 1.5 hours to cook to my preferred tenderness. 

When it comes to boiling the soup and which to put in first, common sense applies lah. The harder veggies goes in first, or if I like my tomatoes to be mushy, I put them in the beginning as well. It's up to your own personal preferences.

HuffnPuff

Besides eating healthier, another thing to help myself is to exercise. Longgggg ago I used to run to think, to clear out ideas and thoughts. Now that I am OVERTHINKING, and that is not good for my anxiety, I have to find new ways to occupy my mind when I am exercising.

My doc also told me to concentrate on exercises that keeps me on my feet, to build bone density and all that.

So I walk. I walk (almost) daily IN my home. Up the stairs, down the stairs, into the kitchen, living area, bedroom, up and down and all around. Rounds and rounds. I do this for 30 mins each time. It may seem small to many, but it made a difference to my well being. I also take my kids to the park nearby in the evenings.

Netflix and Iflix is what I turn to to keep my mind occupied when I'm walking. Whatever floats my boat, right?

I've also started incorporating using exercise ball and light, arm weight thingamabobs. This is what I do: Put the ball between my back and a wall, hold the weights in my hands, and do squats, rolling the ball up and down with my back as I do the squats. ALSO..... do the arm exercise movements to tone my arms and chest muscles and try to stop the batwings from getting worse.

I noticed that with my diet change and exercise, I've lost weight and developed some muscles, but my skin has started to lose its tone (I'm no longer 18 or 28, ok..) especially under the upper arms, on the top of my inner thighs, and under my almost non-existent butt. Gotta moisturise those areas well, and incorporate workouts to help those loose skin not look any worse than it is now.

Kitchen Trails - Miso soup noodle with mock vegetarian fish, fishcake and choy sum

I used oat noodles this time. Not something I would repeat. Most asian noodles or even spaghetti or angle hair pasta would go well with this. Not oat noodles. Will try with pumpkin yee mee next time.

Asian noodles or pasta of choice

Mock vegetarian fish slices, toaster oven "fried".  Here's how I prepare and use mock vegetarian fish.

Fish cake

Enoki mushrooms, chop off roots, rinsed properly and drained

Choy sum, or any kind of asian green leafy veggie. cut off stem ends, washed and drained

Miso paste. I used the instant pack ones, with the dried seaweed and tofu sachets



Boil enough water in a pot for servings. Blanch the veggie, and put the veggie into serving bowl. Do the same for the enoki, fish cake and mock vegetarian fish.

Turn off the heat, and let the water cool for a minute or so.

In another pot, cook the noodle or pasta. Drain and add to the bowl. You can use the same pot to cook the noodle/pasta, but I just prefer to use another pot as I don't like the starchiness of the soup after cooking noodles in it. If using non-starchy noodles like glass noodles, then by all means skip the step and just use the same pot for all the cooking. Less washing up as well muahahahaha!!

Add the miso and dried condiment sachets into the first pot used to cook the veggies and all, and steep for a few minutes. Stir the soup and pour into the bowl of goodies

Kitchen Trails - Oven baked Potato, Tuna and Salmon Croquette

As with my aim to eat healthy, there's no butter in the mash potatoes, nor did i use any egg in the mix or to coat the breadcrumbs

Potatoes - skinned and cut into large cubes. Boiled with a bit of salt until just firm, I boiled mine for about 10 mins. Drain, mash and set aside

1 can of tuna and 1 of salmon, both cans drained of the liquid.  If using fresh or frozen fish, do cook it first, either by steaming or baking

Breadcrumbs - I used my Gardenia Canadian purple wheat bread and blitzed the bread slices into crumbs

Fresh dill - discard stalks and finely chopped

Fresh chives - finely chopped

Curly kale - washed, and middle stem removed. Blitz after blitzing the breadcrumbs

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Dijon mustard

Salt to taste

Olive oil

Preheat oven to 180C.

Line cookie sheet/baking tray with baking paper

In a big bowl or a pot, add the mashed potatoes, tuna and salmon, kale, chives and dill, salt, garlic and onion powder, mustard, and a couple of glugs of olive oil. Mix well to combine everything.

Put the breadcrumbs in a plate. 

Take a plop of the mix and shape into discs or cylinders or patties. Put the patty on the bread crumbs and press the bread crumbs into the patty. As there is no egg used to coat, the bread crumbs wont really stick, so some pressing is required.

Set aside on the baking tray. Once all croquettes are shaped and crumbed, you can brush or spray on olive oil if you want.

Bake for 5 mins or so. Flip the croquettes and bake a further 5 mins. Take care in flipping over the croquettes as it might crumble. As there is no uncooked ingredients, the baking is to heat up and crisp the bread crumbs, so it doesn't take that long in the oven.

This can be served as a snack, or with a dip as well

Kitchen trails - mock vegetarian fish

Mock vegetarian fish. Which is basically tightly rolled beancurd sheets with some wheat protein added, wrapped up in seaweed (Nori sheet). Found in the vegetarian chiller section of the grocers. Try to look for non GMO ones.

It can come in slices or in a long block which can be sliced to desired thickness. It can be used in many ways. Asam fish style, with lots of veggies like lady fingers and brinjal, or just pan fried and added to a sauce of choice. Use it as one would use in asian fish dishes.

I normally buy the long block ones and cut them up myself. Instead of pan or deep frying the slices, I would brush a thin layer of olive oil and put the slices in my toaster oven and toaster fry them about 10 mins each side.

I would use them in my dishes, or added to my noodles, or braise them. They are pretty versatile and there's lots we can do with them.

Kitchen Trails - Air fried fish bites, veggies & chips

To make this a healthier option, I used the air fryer for the cooking and substituted bread crumbs with oat flour (so simple, just get rolled oats and pulse blitz, don't blitz too finely, some texture is good. I used the magic bullet to blitz).

Fish - use your fav white fish fillet. Pat dry and cut into fingers, season with a bit of salt and lemon juice. 

Potatoes - washed properly, cut into chips, and soak in water for 30 mins, drain and pat dry with kitchen roll, toss in a bit of olive oil and a bit of salt (I used russet potatoes, skin on)

Carrots and zucchini - cut into chips size and toss in a bit of olive oil

Oat flour - mixed with half a teaspoon of himalayan salt, some garlic powder, some onion powder

Dunk the fish pieces into a bit of olive oil, and then press the oat flour mix into the fish, taking care to press the oat flour into the the fish so that the oat flour bits don't go flying into the heating element of the air fryer. Don't over crumb the fish pieces, especially if the fish pieces are thin

Preheat the air fryer (mine is the Philips air fryer, the normal analog one, not the XL or digital) for 3 mins at 180 C, air fry the carrots for about 5-7 mins using the grill pan. Do the same for the zucchini

Change the grill pan for the basket (set aside the grill pan, no need to wash, will be using it for the fish after this). Heat up the air fryer for 5 mins on 200 C, put in the chips. Air fry for about 15 mins, opening the drawer and tossing the chips every 4-5 mins. Do not over crowd the chips, do it in batches.

Change back to the grill pan, and arrange the pieces of fish on the grill pan. I did about 5-6 pieces per go. Air fry at 200 C for 10-15 mins, depending on type of fish and thickness of the cut of fish

Roasted tomato pesto recipe is here

Done. Can eat.

KitchenTrails - Roasted Tomato Pesto

Roasted tomato pesto

- Tomatoes, choose less juicy ones like plum or Roma tomatoes if possible. I used normal beefsteak tomatoes here

- Sundried tomatoes, a few. To add depth of flavour, makes a distinct difference (optional)

- Basil, couple of bunches or so. I used sweet basil 

- Almond, toasted. I used a mix of almond and sunflower seeds, soaked overnight in salt water and oven toasted

- Garlic, about a small bulb

- Olive oil, a couple of glugs, plus a dash for roasting the tomatoes 

- Salt to taste, I omitted the traditional Parmesan cheese, so I added a bit more Himalayan salt 

Quarter the tomatoes, toss in a bit of olive oil, roast in oven

In a food processor or blender (I used the magic bullet, so I had to do these in batches. Not a good idea), blend the roasted tomatoes, Basil, garlic, salt,  nuts/seeds. When the ingredients are still quite chunky, drizzle in the olive oil to emulsify. DO NOT BLEND TOO FINELY. A bit of tiny chunks adds to the texture.

Add to hot pasta, or as a spread on toast, or as a dip, or even on proteins like fish or grilled chicken. Yums.

Storing:  put in a air tight container and pour a thin layer of olive oil on the top. Keeps in the fridge for about 4 days, or freezer for up to a couple of weeks.

My Kitchen Trailssssss

My kitchen trails are my recipe collection of healthier eating and healthier way of preparing my meals. 

In my recipes, I do not give out measurements of how many spoons of this, and how many grams of that.... etc etc etc.

It's mainly for my own references in case i wonder, "what shall I eat today?". I can look at my recipes and tweak them with whatever i have on hand. More like an idea kinda thing lah.

So, for those of you who stumbled across my blog and wonder why am I so lazy to write down the amount of the ingredients, here you have it. Moreover, the amount i cook could be just for one or two, and you want to cook for the whole kampong, and vice versa (actually, more of the former, as i rarely cook for more than 4 people)