Spiral Curry Puff - a buttery, flaky reminder of home

i absolutely love curry puffs - deep fried (ok, i love most things that crisp up in hot oil) pastry filled with potatoes and other ingredients such as chicken, onions, hard boiled egg mixed in with an aromatic blend of southeast asian spices. back home, such treats can be found almost everywhere. there's the malay version epok epok, the chain store version and the many mom and pop versions. of course, finding these treats here is near impossible so i took up the challenge of making it from scratch. images of how my terribly failed attempt to make croissants haunted me but i was comforted by the fact i'm in a much drier and cooler country (read: less likely for butter dough to break through to make an oily mess).

i wanted to share my recipe, but due to the lack of pictures capturing the process, i decided to just post the final product

Kimchi Chigae

the korean craze has many countries a decade ago..till today, i catch myself sometimes secretly wishing i was korean..and many times i find kimchi chigae so comforting, so here's how i do mine

slice 3 stalks of green onions diagonally into 2-inch length
slice 1 large shallot
mix 1 tablespoon of gochujang, 1/2 tablespoon of doenjang paste and 1 teaspoon of red pepper powder

Heat some oil in a pot, stirfry the green onions and shallots till fragrant
add in about 1 cup of kimchi and 1 tablespoon of kimchi juice
put in sliced protein of choice - here i'm using thinly sliced pork loin
add in the paste mixture and stir it into the ingredients till nicely coated
add in enough water to cover ingredients and stir to ensure paste is dissolved
bring to a boil, add it the cubed tofu and serve at lava hot temperature

i usually have my kimchi chigae with rice dunked into the hot soup (coz that's how koreans in those k-dramas do it)..yummeh!

breakast, the most important meal of the day

i love the idea of breakfast on weekends. on weekdays, i eat whatever is most convenient, so there's not much interest there. while i'm tempted to shell out $20 to have breakfast cooked for us, i try to make breakfast for us so that I can be sure it is relatively healthy and cheap.

Here's what we had this weekend:

Cranberry walnut bread from picketlane bakery with hillshire farm ham. the bread was yummy, dotted with sweet cranberry and walnuts, even better when toasted.

someone at work mentioned that the south americans like to put avocados on toast and have it for breakfast. i know avocados have good fat that is good for peeps with high cholesterol so decided to make it for him. using rosemary sourdough from costco, i toasted it, drizzled olive oil over it and rubbed raw garlic to give it that wonderful aroma garlicky bite without it being too overpowering.  sliced some avocados and laid it on top and finished it with some sea salt and black pepper. this is so yummy, the crunchy bread with the creamy avocado, accented with garlic, salt and pepper...mmmm...

Haven Gastropub in Orange

Yelp is my new best friend in the States.  After having the wonderful truffle fries at Barracks @ House in Dempsey Hill 2 nights in a row several months ago, I was hoping to find the same delicacy in this part of the world.  Yelp told me I can find it at Haven Gastropub, so when family decided to meet up for a meal, I jumped at the chance to suggest the restaurant.

It being a Friday night, the wait was rather long (40 mins) especially since they do not allow reservations for parties of smaller than 7 (we had 6, boo hoo).  When we finally got in, the restaurant was slightly on the noisier side with it being a pub and tvs tuned to sports.

I was torn about what to order for my main entree, I was tempted to order everything in the snacks section but refrained.  We decided to get the home-made chips and truffle fries to share.  The chips and fries were fried a tad bit too long and were on the dark side.  The chips were also too heavily salted and truffle taste on the fries was not too distinctive.  Nonetheless, I couldn't help but keep eating them coz potatoes in hot oil are my besties!

for the main, i decided to get the margarita flat bread, can't go wrong with it. the tomato paste was seasoned just nicely, not too tart.

the other mains ordered were the lamb burger (which was ordered as medium rare hence the gamey taste was too overpowering), shepherd's pie, waffles and chicken and the scallops.  The scallops were delish, with a caramelized crust outside and the inside was still pinkish!  And it just so happened we just watched masterchef the other day and Gordon Ramsey was so impressed with the well-cooked scallops. I think I know what he's talking about.

not gonna comment on the beverages since I'm not big on alcoholic drinks but must say they have a very extensive list.

I think I was too engrossed in trying the truffle fries and that kinda disappointed.  Overall, this was an okay experience (maybe 3.5 stars outta 5) but i do like the feel of old towne orange...

my bad habit

so, it isn't a surprise to me that i neglected this space for over a month...yeah i can go with the usual work has been busy line, but truth be told i was too lazy to blog! it sux that blogger does not have an iphone app that allows blogging. i can still access the page and blog via the iphone, but the scaling of the page, the formatting aren't available.  i have not been conscientious in taking pictures of the yummy food i've had or made.  i will make it a point to update this regularly..wish me luck!

heading for an much anticipated meal @ Haven Gastropub this weekend!

Jinpachi @ West Hollywood

so the boy was crowned employee of the month several months back and the company gave him a $200 meal budget. so we decided to splurge it on a japanese restaurant in west hollywood after much agonizing research on the delicious life's website (it's tough to decide what to eat!).

we started off with the fried shishito peppers. fried till it blistered and topped off with some lemon juice and bonito flakes, this dish definitely helped to whet our appetite for more yummy food to come.

next up was the spicy tuna with crispy rice. definitely a 1st for both of us, the tuna wasn't exactly spicy but was juicy when you bite into it. it paired well with the sweet sauce and jalapeno pepper on top and the highlight was the crunch from the rice.

our favorite dish for the night has to be the grilled miso black cod. it is ooohhh soooo good! the fish melts in your mouth and you can taste the slight smokiness from the grill and the sweet miso sauce complemented the delicate fish. we were contemplating getting another order of this dish and hating ourselves till this day that we did not.

we ordered several pieces of nigiri and though they were not spectacular, we were satisfied nonetheless. wanting to fully utilize the $200, we ordered other specials such as the sashimi salad which came with 8 pieces of thick cut sashimi, the hamachi with fried garlic and lemony sauce. we rounded up the meal with the blue crab handroll and monkfish liver nigiri. the blue crab handroll was fresh and did not contain any mayo so you can taste the crabmeat itself. avocado gave the same creaminess as mayo and is way healthier for you.

a fantastic meal which was still shy of $200 including tax and tips and so we decided to give them a bigger tip!

Jinpachi
8711 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 358 9134

Pumpkin Kueh (Cake)

I'm sure many of you have had the pan fried radish cake as a dim sum dish. This pumpkin kueh is a variation of that, using pumpkin instead of radish. Pumpkin is considered a superfood given that it is high in antioxidants and especially good for women.

Soak about 6 Chinese mushrooms and 3 tablespoons of dried shrimps.
Dice 4 shallots
When the mushrooms are soft, chop off the stem and thinly slice them
Heat some sesame oil in a wok, add the shallots and stir fry. Add mushrooms and dried shrimps and fry till fragrant and set aside
Add about 2 cups rice flour to 1.5 cups water and mix over the stove till the mixture gets sticky. Add in mashed pumpkin and the shallots, mushrooms and dried shrimp
Transfer the entire mixture into a deep dish and steam for 45 minutes.
After steaming, allow it to cool before serving. What I usually do is to slice them up and pan fry them till it gets crisp on the outside
Serve plain or with your face chilli sauce and/or sweet soy sauce.