KookyCulinary

As requested, these are some of the pasta that I most commonly use to prepare macaroni & cheese for Lil’ C.

The 2 pasta in front are pre-packed type while the one at the back is the Lil’ C’s favorite flower pasta. However, even though I use the pre-packed type, I usually do not use the cheese powder that it comes with. Somehow the cheese powder is a little yellow for my liking. So I usually just use a piece of cheddar cheese with a little milk and add it to the cooked pasta to make my macaroni and cheese.

Anyway, back to the pasta, 3lilangels, your hubby should be able to find these pasta at most of the grocery stores in NYC. Hope this helps!

It’s not the prettiest looking food but definitely very delicious! Another attempt at making claypot chicken rice. A huge improvement over the previous attempt but still not quite there yet. I think it’s the missing salted fish that is causing this dish to be different from the ones that we eat outside. However ever since the day that I found out how salted fish was made, I have been avoiding it. Oh well, I guess I will try again and hope the third time is a charm. : )

One of my easy pasta dinners - Chicken with Portobello Mushroom Pasta. Add a little bacon and chili flakes for a little kick.

Sorry for being MIA again lately. The weather has been awesome this week and we have been taking advantage of it. We have a very short summer here and so when the sky is blue and the weather is warm, everyone is outside playing. Sometimes I feel like we are just like the bears. We hibernate in the winter and play in the summer. In the winter, the sky turns dark around 4 pm but in the summer, it does not turn dark till almost 10 pm! So we definitely want to take advantage of it while it lasts.

Meals have been very simple this week. we have been eating lots of sandwiches, take-outs or simple BBQ. This is also one of the simple meals that we had this week.

Fish with Tartar Sauce, Rice Pilaf & Corn. The fish is actually panko-crusted frozen fish from Costco. It’s actually not too bad and very handy for those days that you don’t have time to cook. I dress it up with my own homemade tartar sauce.

Recipe for tartar sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sweet pickle relish
1/2 cup minced onion
lemon juice
salt & pepper to taste

Mix it all together and refridgerate for at least 2 hours before serving.

For the past few days, I have been spending my time here . . . .

The Seattle Space Needle! My parents and 2 of their friends are visiting from Malaysia. So now I am the official tour guide. Unfortunately the weather is not cooperating. See the background of the Space Needle. On a nice day, it would have been blue but now it’s all thick clouds. In fact, the clouds have been so thick that I haven’t seen even a hint of blue for the last few days!!! Since I have guests, I have not been spending anytime in the kitchen at all. Fortunately I still have a lot of unpublished photos.

Whenever we have leftovers from our grilling days, I usually try to make something out of them like sandwiches or pasta. This time, we had chicken and apple sausage and also grilled bell peppers. They were added to to fettucini for a yummy sausage and pepper fettucini meal.

The weather has been awesome this past week. So we have been trying to spend a lot of time outdoors, thus leaving me no time to cook. It’s been lots of one-pot meals or sandwiches lately. Here is one of our favorite one-dish meals - Fried Rice.

Fried rice is so simple yet so versatile. You can just about add anything to it except the kitchen sink! For this fried rice, I’ve added Spam (or luncheon meat), carrots, peas and corn. Served with a side of spicy sambal, it always gets cleaned off the plate.

For me, the trick to getting a good fried rice is to keep all the ingredients dry. So if you are adding chicken, pan fry the chicken, remove and drain it first. Then add it back in to the fried rice later when it’s almost done. That way the rice does not get soggy from the liquid from the meat. Of course if you have a super hot wok like those in the restaurants, forget the above tip and just fry everything together.  

Another one of my lazy meals that I brought from Singapore - the Prima Taste Mee Siam. I know there are 2 versions of mee siam - the dry one and the wet one with the gravy. This is the gravy version. Personally I prefer the gravy version.

Anyway, the Prima Taste Mee Siam comes with 4 packets of ingredients. The gravy, sambal for frying the beehoon (rice vermicelli), sambal to top off the mee siam and lime juice.

Add some hard-boiled egg, fried tofu or taupok, shrimp or chicken and you’ll have a delicious mee siam.

A reader emailed me to find out where she can get this in Malaysia. Frankly I don’t know. I bought mine in Singapore. I haven’t seen it in Malaysia before. Anyone knows? For those in USA, you can actually buy it online at HC Foods. There is also a Prima Taste restaurant in San Jose, California. I tried it once and it’s not that good. They don’t sell the Prima Taste products at the restaurant.

Taking a break from bentos, this is an easy dish that I make often

Spaghetti with Crunchy Onion Chicken.

I don’t have the exact measurement but roughly all you need to make Crunchy Onion Chicken are:

• French’s French Fried Onion. (Substitute with Panko or Cornflakes if not available) - finely crushed
• Eggs
• Chicken Breast
• Flour

Method:

1. Coat the chicken breast with flour, then dip it in the eggs and finally coat it with French Fried Onion
2. Bake in the oven at 400 for about 20 minutes.  

One can never have too much nasi lemak, right? I think this is one dish that I can never grow tired of because you can always play around with the sides. You could have it with chicken, rendang, fish or just plain rice with sambal. What is your favorite Nasi Lemak combination?

If you are interested, the recipe for the Nasi Lemak sambal can be found here.

Actually I have no idea what is the proper name for this dish. It is is supposed to be “yao zham yu” which in Cantonese literally translates as oil-dipped fish. Correct me if I’m wrong please? I’m not Cantonese. Somehow oil-dipped fish doesn’t sound too appetizing, so I’m calling it Pan-Fried Tilapia!

Anyway, when I was in Malaysia, it was one of my favorite dish. The whole fish is deep-fried till very crispy. Then remove from oil, drain and a mixture of soya-sauce, a little hot oil and scallion is drizzled on it. Simple yet delicious. In this case, I modified a little. I just pan-fried tilapia filets till crispy. In the meantime, i fry some garlic strips in a small pot with some oil to make garlic oil. Then when the fish is done, I mix the fried garlic strips, garlic oil, soya sauce and scallions & drizzle over the fish. The garlic fried rice is just plain rice, garlic & egg.