Month: October 2011

Slow carb friendly – Peri-peri pork kebabs.

If you’ve made the peri-peri sauce that I’ve blogged about before, this recipe would be super stress-less to make! I made about 1 litre of peri-peri sauce last week and it’s such a superb concoction! Great as dipping sauce as well as a marinade.

# – Peri-peri pork kebabs.

And so….I decided to make these pork kebabs by marinating the meat in the peri-peri sauce overnight. They were delicious! Tender, flavourful and absolutely juicy.

The ingredients:

  • 300ml of homemade peri-peri sauce, recipe here
  • 400 grams of pork, cut into cubes
  • 1 green pepper/capsicum, seeded and cut into squares
  • 12 cherry tomatoes

    • # – First, pour the peri-peri sauce over the pork cubes and marinade overnight, covered.

    # – When ready to cook, pierce the cherry tomatoes, meat, onion and green pepper through with a skewer. Arrange them however your like :)

    # – Heat up a griddle that’s evenly coated with cooking oil. When it’s really hot, place the skewers on it. Cook for about 5 minutes then turn to cook the other sides.

    # – Peri-peri pork kebabs, DONE!

    # – Serve with a side of bean salad & some cumin flavoured yogurt and MORE peri-peri sauce, all good to go :)

    So easy right!?

    RIP Steve Jobs, 1955 – 2011.

    Today Steve Jobs died. Never been a user of any Apple product, the last time I did, it was a Mac and I…hated it. Something about not knowing how to operate the mouse and unable to get used to the GUI. Fast forward years later, the BF started using an iphone4 and after playing with it, I began to understand why so many people practically worship the brand.

    Being an Apple product user for the first time is an unusual experience. First thing to enter your mind would be, “OMG where on earth have I been all this while!?”. Then, there’s the never-ending pleasant surprises of how everything just works. They just work! Not to mention the amazing, mind-blowing, super sleek graphics…..always ahead of its time.

    Even for features that have existed long before in other products, Apple, under Steve Job’s direction still manages to make them sound new, awesome and cool. It’s no easy feat to come up with stuff like that, it took a ridiculously intelligent man with balls of steel and a fucking good taste to make it happen.

    I’m still not a fan of Apple (something to do with Android). But there’s no denial that I felt a little taken aback when his death was announced. There’s no denial that I feel his was a life that ended way too soon. There’s no denial that I managed to feel some melancholy from the news.

    However, I think I moved on about an hour after hearing of his passing, mumbled a little atheist prayer and then went grocery shopping. That’s probably what Steve Jobs would have done for a dead person that impressed him too. Except instead of grocery shopping, he’d make something that kicks your ass so hard you wouldn’t know where it’s landed.

    Vietnamese Chicken with Mint – my best Asian dish to date?

    If you don’t like to eat chicken breast cause they’re bland and tough, this recipe might change your mind. I got this recipe from Chef Wan’s book, “Simply Sedap!”. It’s one of my favourite recipe books! The instructions are clear and the flavours are always bang-on.

    Anyway, I made slight changes in the recipe but they didn’t ruin the recipe so if you have Chef Wan’s book, you may find a slight disparity between what’s posted here and in his book.

    This dish was so good that the BF claimed that it’s my best Asian dish to date. That allegation kind of threw me off a little (because I’m certain I’ve made Asian dishes that are comparably good!!!) but I had to agree with him that it was beautifully fragrant and every morsel was juicy, succulent and full of flavour.

    # – Vietnamese chicken with mint.

    Despite having 10 large red chillies in this dish, it was surprisingly mild! What can I say, the all the ingredients in this recipe really managed to balance one another out brilliantly!

    The marinade, finely ground:

  • 1 large onion
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 inch of ginger
  • 1 tablespoon of nam pla (Thai fish sauce)
  • 1 teaspoon of ground white pepper

    • The spice paste, finely ground:

  • 10 large red chillies
  • 1 tablespoon of shrimp paste (belacan)
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 inch of ginger

    • Other ingredients:

  • 500 grams of chicken breast, cut into thin strips
  • 3 lemon grass, sliced thinly
  • 60 ml of cooking oil
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • Salt & sugar to taste
  • Handful of mint leaves

    • # – First, throw all the ingredients for marinade into a food processor and blitz till oblivion.

    # – Now throw in the chicken slices into the marinade and mix till they’re evenly coated.

    # – Cover and stick in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I left them overnight though :)

    # – When ready to cook, chuck all the ingredients for spice paste into a food processor and blitz till oblivion, again.

    # – Set the spice paste aside while you continue with other tasks.

    # – Heat up the oil in a pan and then throw in the sliced lemongrass.

    # – Next, throw in the spice paste and cook till fragrant. Cook for a little while more till the mixture looks like it’s excreting some oil.

    # – Now, throw in the marinaded chicken slices.

    # – When the chicken slices have cooked through, season with salt and sugar to your taste.

    # – Then, stir in the lime juice.

    # – Turn off the heat, throw in the mint leaves and stir.

    # – Vietnamese chicken with mint, DONE!

    As this is a Vietnamese recipe, I am convinced that the original version of this dish may actually contain pork…and that’s exactly what I’d do next hehehe.

    So…my best Asian dish to date? After 10 months of cooking actively? Guess I have to cook more and practise more!