Rocket Harvest - Arugula

Hooray for (Hazel) Sim!!!  I harvested my first crop of rocket today.  It took forever to get where I want it to be, but the long wait paid off today.




Ready for lst harvest

What can I say, there was so much of "OMG" like you have never tasted b4!!!  Too much punch ... it was deliciously yuckkkkkky!!!



Deliciously Yuckkkky Rocket!!!

I posted pixs on FB and tagged my BFF and she is green with envy as she tried to grow them in Singapore and they looked shockingly miserable compared to my luscious crop.
I had a quickie salad ... roast chicken (actually stole some from Snowy's chook - yes this dog gets bought a roast chicken every week), spanish onions, tomatoes, chinese parsley from the garden all chopped up and tossed with sweet plums, goats cheese, sea salt and trust me, today it did not need any pepper!!!  I think the saviour in my salad today was the fresh lychees.  The juicy sweetness helped to offset the bitterness and peppery taste of the Arugula - more sophisticated than calling it by its common name, Rocket!!!


Lychees, Lychees, Lychees

The rocket was just wayyyyyyy too bitter and peppery.  I am a "Rocket Queen" as I have been on rocket as my "staple" for more than 18 months now and class myself as an expert!!! 



Well, what does not kill you only makes you stronger!!! So true!!!
Will I continue to grow this rocket??? The answer is YES.  Why??? It is good for my liver and because I did promise Becky I will do what it takes to prolong my existence on this planet.  Unquote my BFF - she said, "God gave you 80 years to eat, but you consumed them in 55, so now its payback time".  Might I also add, she said I should stay home and diligently eat this expensive grass!!!  Rocket is not your everyday source of leafy goodness in Asia.  If you can find it, consider yourself lucky and be prepared to pay top dollars for it.  I was even surprised when I was travelling in some Eastern European countries, that rocket is not readily available or stocked in the supermarket shelves!!!







comparetherocket.com - lol

Lucky for me, I am living in the land of milk and honey plus fruits, vegetables and meat - one of the world's best fresh food producing countries.  Even more lucky, I can grow my own rocket in the backyard.  My home grown rocket is organic and shop bought is no where close in comparison to mine in goodness, but in my case, its yuckiness plus yesssss - size does matter as can be seen in this pix on your left!!!  I will endeavour to eat this Arugula known for its detoxifying benefits and keep my liver happy and use it in my rejuvenating daily salad concoctions.  Super food, healthy leafy green rocket salad, I know you are now a part of my new lifestyle!!!



000's of photos/pixs in my S5 phone

I have been sitting here on and off the past 3 days spending time to sort my 000's of photos/pixs I have in my mobile phone. 

3 days later - I created more space!

The total device capacity is 16.00GB and I have exhausted 10.81GB.  (shame I did not screenshot this 3 days ago!)  The phone is beginning to struggle and feel sluggish so I thought its about time I do something about it and take the opportunity to organise them into individual albums etc. 

Just bear with me as this is a painful process. I started off creating albums and then moving pixs... then I started deleting... then I was jumping from phone to laptop... then I dragged out the hard drive... then I got the USB sticks out... then I popped out the 16GB Transcend chip from my underwater camera ... then inbetween I was merging, then renaming, and before long I got so messed up somewhere along the line as my interest and focus was diminishing rapidly and I lost 3 albums.  The 3 albums some how landed up in the recycle bin but the pixs are not in the albums!!!  I went there looking for them hoping to restore them, and because I am not really super tech savvy, so with my limited pc knowledge, I did the best I could and you guessed right, it got too hard and I aborted mission and decided to blog about it instead. 

Just wayyyyyy tooooooo many pixs and if I was organised in the first place, I would not be in this predicament now.

I rarely sit down and look at the pixs or video clips I have taken  over all these years, but today I really enjoyed flicking back to all the lovely memories captured on my phone... some very nostalgic moments in my life!

My family home in Malaysia - Nostalgia

I  know some people think I am obsessed with click click click clicking my phone but it seems to be "the trend" worldwide - to take a pix of everything from food porn to holiday snaps or just of the level of where you have parked your car just in case you cannot remember like me, and every level seems to look the same!!!

Right, I guess the next question is what am I going to do with all this 0000s of pixs I have accumulated over the years?

Should I start an e-pix book instead of blogging in here??? It would be nice to store all my memoirs and seriously, who really reads verbage -- I for one would much prefer to look at pixs.  Perhaps just caption the pixs - nice and easy!!!  Food for thought *smiles*.... something like this below???

Beary Very Special Nic-Nacs



I've done good - it was 7,428 b4 I started cleaning up!!

Whaleshark & Me - if not for this pix who would believe me???






Ham Choy Up Soup (HCUS) - Pickled Mustard Green & Duck Soup

Ham Choy Up Soup (HCUS) is the bomb with my family when I was growing up and even  now in my old age, it is still one of my favourite soups to boil at home.

Ham Choy substitute in a mini can!!!

Obviously, Becky has been brought up on this soup too, so its one of her favourites and since moving out after being married, she tends to request for this soup when she visits for a taste of mummy's cooking!!! Yesssss, she is coming tonight and the soup is on the stove simmering away as I blog now whilst it is fresh in my mind.

The brand that I have normally been buying over the past 30 years, Wu Chun is now obsolete and it is not just the pickled mustard green that is a discontinued line, but I have been told by my Grocer's that the entire brand itself is not being imported into Australia ... fullstop!!!

Luckily for me Sharon recommended an alternative product.  This one is just as good but is manufactured in Thailand .  The cans are tiny so, I have to use 5 cans instead of 1 and so be it!!!  So happy now this humble "festive" soup will still be able to be served on my dining table.

I say "festive" soup because, my mother will have 12 dishes including this HCUS prepared for the Reunion Dinner for Chinese New Year celebrations or for other festivals throughout the year and she alternates this HCUS with the abalone soup.  Abalone soup is yummy too but its such an expensive soup as the ingredient itself is pricey and taste wise, personally I still prefer the HCU soup.

HCUSoup simmering ....

The best way I can describe HCUS is that it is a more "stereo" type soup - like listening to music it is better on stereo surround sound system!!! The HCUS is so moreish and has a slight tang to it as the veg has been pickled, and Becky is just happy to eat her rice mixed in this soup when she was a toddler!!!

Chinese soups are mostly clear base - stock from various meats, but in the HCU soup, as the name suggests itself, duck is normally used but for ordinary days, I normally use chicken or pork ribs, but today is it maryland chicken.

In the HCUS, there is spanish onions, tomatoes, whatever meat you prefer, "ham choy" or pickled mustard green, and after boiling/simmering for about 2-3 hours on low fire, when it is ready to be served, I also some times add in some soft white bean curd aka tau foo to give it a bit more "body"!!!

Fish Sauce

I never use salt in my soups - must be a "mom thing" as my mom uses fish sauce for most water based cooking especially soups, and I just picked up her habits.  I guess you could say in some quirky ways, I am trying to keep up with her traditions.  Soup does taste very different when salt is used instead of fish sauce.  Give it a go and see which you prefer!!!
Soup and 3 dishes (meat, vegetable and fish) is normally served dinner time in my parents home and until today, I still try to do the same for the Choong family when I am cooking a chinese meal at home!!! 

My lst zucchini harvest 30/1/2015 - Da 3Zs

Prime land plot

I never thought I'd live to swear that veggies can taste yummy.  If only Bear knew, he must think that my world is coming to an end!!! I planted 3 zucchini seedlings since I came home from my holidays and it is at most 6 weeks only and now these plants have taken over my so-called "prime land" and is overshadowing my chillie, aubergine and red capsicum.  Before long if it keeps growing at the speed it is doing, the 3Zs will most probably swallow up the rocket that is struggling to take off!!!  Everything seems to have grown at such a fast pace except for the rocket which was supposedly my "main crop" as I am on this rocket diet that is highly recommended by my Liver Specialist and thought it would be nice to grow my own!!! 



Zucchinis gal

It must have been those few hot days we had prior to Christmas that set the 3Zs off and ever since just with daily watering, they have turned into monster plants and I harvested my lst freak Z yesterday and he was a big boy!!! 



I had him over two meals!!!  It has to be a him Z, as she Z's surely cannot be that size?!?

I had to harvest the 2nd normal looking one and put them side by side so you can see how freaky in shape and size was the lst Z.
It tasted absolutely delicious!  The flavours and texture was excellent and it was still firm and crunchy after a quick stir fry and even when I popped half of it sliced up just plain into the microwave.

Yummy in my tummy!!

I only started gardening because I had to restore the "jungle look" - overgrown unloved and neglected garden as I have been away for 3 months. 

The prime land area has a history of potatoes being grown there prior to before we moved in, so I thought why not grow something edible just for the fun of it and to fill up the pile of dirt which was an eye sore.
I cannot remember exactly, but I think the punnet of 3Zs cost under $5.00 and now I think I will be eating Zs for the next few weeks if not months to come! 
It has been enjoyable watching the 3Zs grow and now after eating it and knowing it is 101% organic, there is definitely a difference!!!  

The big boy!!!

At the nursery, I did not have a clue and did not know what I wanted to plant and picking the 3Zs turned out to be a good choice.  They are care free and hassle free plants, so you don't have to do much after planting except wait for them to grow and harvesting time!

Little & Freak

Looks like now I will have to take veggie gardening a little bit more serious.  You could say I am "hooked" as it is indeed rewarding when something comes out of nothing if you know what I mean. 
Happy gardening and remember, you rip what you sow.
For me has been a good way to past my time and gardening can be therapeutic and it is a yummy hobby!!!

Mushrooms - Portobello or Flat Browns



5 "men" down and lots more to go!!! I made a mushroom & chicken frittata tonight but Amy gave me a whole box of flat browns and there is no way I can eat it all by myself.

I gave Becky about 16 or so and am still struggling to eat the rest up as fresh as I can possibly store them.

Day 1 for breakfast, I cooked it like a mushroom steak with egg and ham and sprinkled some parsley over it and that was TDF.







5 "men" down - more to go!!!



Frittata



MMM's recipe



I cooked some MMM's way - it was simple, quick and surprisingly very tasty = fried in a generous amount of garlic, ginger, spring onions and rice wine with sea salt and cracked pepper to taste.

Friends have given me various ideas, but I have a fridge full of other food and although this is my favourite fungus, I think I am all mushroomed out for the time being at least today!!!





The garden is coming along very nicely and I can harvest my lst zucchini tomorrow and see if I can make some kind of vegetable lasagne or frittata and use it together with the mushrooms. 

Lesson learnt = next time, I think I will have to half my mushroom order and not get a whole box just because its farm fresh and cheap as Amy buys it from work!!!

Amy & Me with box of brown flats




Mushroom Steak with trimmings

Beautiful mushies from the farm

Picking Blueberries

Yesterday was a lovely day - the sun was shining and there was a stillness in the air, but yet it was cool, exactly the way I like it.

Scenery along the way

I was up earlier than my normal days, and thought to myself why not take a drive somewhere with no particular destination in mind.  Mystery drives are so much fun!!!  Somehow I found myself heading up the Mountain Highway and after winding and turning amongst the giant trees and ferns, I landed up in Olinda.

Folly's Farm - Gateway to berry haven!

Along the way, its pretty as well as scenic as wild flowers and lots of hydrangeas dotted the road for miles on end.  A short drive is a good get away to break up the mundane days - blast up the music and just drive!!!  Passing quaint tea houses like Miss Maples famous for their Devonshire teas ... scones & jam in a Tudor style thatched roof building, the shops along the streets are "English" inspired looking, several escape retreat cottages are scattered everywhere, artsy fartsy type galleries, etc and obviously a blueberry farm too. 

Screaming - Pick n Eat me!

I landed up at Folly's farm and Blueberry Guru, Belinda who is the owner was very friendly and helpful but said picking was by appointment only!!!  Well, I managed to get in and she handed me a pail and a tray and led me to the designated trees where I was to start picking. 

Eye candy - I was overwhelmed with so so so so many clusters of delicious fresh blueberries on all the trees surrounding me.  They all looked so yummy I did not know where to start picking.  I was more interested in taking pixs first and posting it on Istagram, but thought I should make a start to fill the bucket.

This private farm is on 10 acres, but only blueberries are for picking and the best time of the year is between January to February.  Remember, you have to book for an appointment if you want to pick blueberries here.



Showing off the blueberries

My pick for the day

I know the sign says NO EATING but who adheres to signs???  Most times, aren't rules made to be broken?   The first 20 minutes or so I was a law abiding citizen, but temptation got the better of me as I started to get into the hang of picking the blueberries.  It was too easy to flick the ripe berries into my tray and it was filling up fast, but suddenly I found myself popping them into my mouth instead of the bucket!!! I must have eaten close to a kilo but my "buy out weight" was just over 2kilos.  Did I have blueberry bellyache??? Nope, I guess I was getting all the antioxidants my body has been lacking!!!  Apparently, blueberries are also known to have powerful medicinal values for lowering your BP.

Little tubs are for my chia pods

The almighty small indigo coloured blueberry is berry berry good for you.  It has more disease fighting antioxidants than almost any other fruit.  I know when people think of berries, they think of strawberries but although blueberry does not rank number one in most peoples mind, it does in mine!!!

I use it a lot lately in my chia puddings, and you can freeze them up to a year and they are still "fresh" in a vacuum bag with a couple of spoons of castor sugar.  This lady that was picking blueberries next to me has been picking them for the past 20 years and this is her tip for freezing them.  She uses it in her baking and breakfast, but I don't cook my blueberries in cake or muffins.  Most of the time, I just like eating them raw or on top of my chia pods as I like to be able to taste its true flavour and goodness of the blueberries and I believe this way, I can maximise its nutritional benefits.

My Blueberry baby bush

I have a blueberry plant in the backyard, and although it is still young, it has started to fruit - I ate the first picked berry and Ann was lucky to try the 2nd fruit.  It tasted berry good but for me to harvest enough to pig out on blueberries, I might have to wait a long time.

Buying it from the supermarket is the normal thing to do, but if you do have some time, and want some fun with friends, family or even the children, go pick your own!!! So much bigger, better and firmer and I cannot say enough for the love of tree freshness.



Handpicked in foreground vs Supermarket

FYI - Blueberries in Canada are the bomb.  I have never seen sooooo much at any one time and sold from the back of a truck.  The whole truck was filled with millions if not billions of blueberries!!! My bear friend bought me a huge tub for CAD$10.00 and every time I have blueberries, I never fail to remember this bear treat and it was the most blueberries I have had in one go until yesterday when I picked my own!!!

Satay ala Sim

Cooking chicken satay

Satay!!!   Satay!!!  Satay!!!   Satay!!!
I am not exactly sure where this all time favourite originated from, but have an inkling its from Indonesia.  Satay is one of my favourite "treats" when I was growing up in Malaysia.

Satay is marinated sliced meat grilled or we bbq it till it is a bit charred and served with a spicy peanut sauce.  Most times Satay can be found eaten with compressed rice aka ketupat and fresh cucumber together with spanish onions.

Satay ala Sim

There are all kinds of satay, Thai, Indo, Malaysian etc, but if you've never had the real stuff, then you will fall in love with the succulent taste of Satay ala Sim supposedly "one of my specialities".  As much as I like to eat it, making it is quite time consuming.  After cutting up the meat ie: chicken, beef or pork (some street hawkers in Malaysia even use "spare parts" aka offal) choice is of personal preference and I guess you can just about satay anything under the sun!!!  There is the marinating process, and then to skewer them onto bamboo sticks.  Making the peanut sauce, everything is made from scratch.  I like to use raw peanuts and roast them in their skin myself before slowly husking the peanuts by tossing it up and down in my tray and blowing it in the air and watch the skin fly away and then pound or grind it down in my blender. I do not use peanut butter!!!!


Satay sauce

Ingredients

Growing up, we used to eat satay more at supper time, as the satayman will come on his motorbike right to your doorstep.  My dad loved his food (I must have got his genes) and back in the days, we eat at least 5 times a day and breakfast is just as heavy as dinner time.  Malaysians tend to have noodles, or nasi lemak (fragrant rice made from pandan leaves cooked in coconut milk) for breakfast which is 1000 times heavier than a slice of toasted bread with jam!!!

Back to the Satays ... for us da Choongs, its a great party food which can be made well in advance because its time consuming and doing it alone making big quantities is not much fun.  As the satays and the peanut sauce freezes well, so everything can be dragged out of the freezer on party day itself and makes entertaining life a breeze!!!
I do not have exact quantities as I am a "guesstimate type of cook", but here's all the ingredients I use to prepare my chicken satays.  I recommend you Google a proper recipe to get a rough idea on quantities and method and compare my ingredients with theirs and in this way, you will get the best of both worlds!!!
SATAY ala SIM MARINADE
Cumin, coriander, turmeric, pepper, stair aniseed, clove, cinnamon, fennel, lemongrass, nutmeg, sugar, soya sauce, garlic salt and full cream milk.
Mix all the spices together and marinate in enough full cream milk to cover all the meat, but ensure you don't drown the meat in it!!!
SATAY ala SIM PEANUT SAUCE
Shallots, garlic, lemongrass, dried chillies, galangal, cinnamon, coriander, fennel, blachan, tamarind pulp, coconut milk, sugar, roasted peanuts, oil,
For the peanut sauce, you blend all the ingredients together and fry it in the oil till it separates, then add in the tamarind pulp, coconut milk, sugar and salt and crushed peanuts last. 
NOTE:  Beware that the tamarind pulp might be way too sour, so add it in slowly and taste as you go.  Also, it might be best you fry the ingredients till dry first before you start adding the oil, so there is less splattering!!!

Last but not least I reckon the secret to a yummilicious stick of satay lies in the cooking technique!!!  Make sure your Satayman knows how to cook the satays.  My Satayman has well over 35 years of experience.  We started making satays back in the student days living in the UK where satays were not on the restaurant menu and when you could find it, it was either expensive or not authentic or both and that is how we started making our own satay.  Some times when we had the craving and felt "homesick" we would even make satay in the middle of winter!!!

The Satayman back in 1984!!!!

For Rebecca's "full moon" (one month old) celebrations we also had a satay party!!! 


I spy with my eyes .. satay sticks to left on table

Tip - the outside of the satay is charred but the inside of the meat is juicy and succulent --- so he must cook it on high heat quickly to seal in the juices, and then lower heat to let it cook evenly and turns the sticks 
often to ensure they do not burn and dry out and in between, he bases it with a mixture of oil and water and uses lemongrass cut at the ends as his brush for basting the satays!!!

If you have not found the ultimate satay skewers yet especially if you are living in a foreign land like us, have a crack at making your own.  Like me, living in Melbourne, you might be surprised yours might turn out tasting way better than what you can find in the local restaurants.  Satay is a food that never goes out of fashion with the old or young, and is a party favourite with all my family and friends.

30yrs on - satay is still being served!!!

Satay ala Sim seems to rock Ann's world!!!