Black Quinoa with Grilled Vegetables

This is the second recipe featured in BSC's reTALE magazine. I was told this Ceres Organics Black Quinoa (pronounced as "keen-wah") which was new in O Gourmet then would be a good option to try on for a recipe. They would love to have these healthy grains to be introduced as many Malaysians may not know what to do with them.

I've taken the white ones in salads and was quite excited to try the black ones out. These highly nutritious grains are light and nutty in flavour, works well in salads and soups. I've read in one of Martha Stewarts magazines that it could be used in replace of breakfast cereals by just cooking the black quinoa, drain and then let it cool. Pour milk over them together with fresh fruits and nuts!

For this recipe, I've actually tested with vegetables roasted in the oven but theyvegetables turned a bit mushy and doesn't look quite appealing. In the end, I grilled the vegetables on a grill pan and they vegetables looked and tasted far better :D

Since I've used some nuts and seeds, I decided to drizzle some extra Vom Fass pumpkin seed oil to enhance the already nutty flavour and some sweetish sour balsamic vinegar to balance things up.

Black Quinoa with Grilled Vegetables
Serves 4 as side dish

1 cup Ceres Organics Black Quinoa
100g asparagus, remove the woody ends
100g eggplant, sliced lengthwise about 0.5cm thick
100g cherry tomatoes, halved
50g red capsicum, remove the core and sliced into quarters lengthwise
50g yellow capsicum, remove the core and sliced into quarters lengthwise
1 tbsp Vom Fass Madonia - Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and grounded black pepper to taste
1 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp hazelnuts, roasted and crushed

Dressing:
2-3 tbsp Vom Fass Basil Olive Oil
2 tsp Vom Fass Aceto Balsamico di Modena Riserva Quality
Salt and grounded black pepper to taste

Vom Fass Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil and Aceto Balsamico di Modena Maletti Riserva Speciale for drizzling


1. Cook Ceres Organics black quinoa according to package instructions.

2. Heat up grill pan. Place all vegetables in a large bowl and drizzle in Vom Fass Madonia - Extra Virgin Olive Oil, salt and grounded black pepper. Toss evenly. Arrange the vegetables in the hot grill pan and grill them until cooked before turning over. Do not keep turning the vegetables around as it may not leave nice grill marks on them.

3. Remove cooked vegetables onto a plate and let them cool a little before slicing them into bite-sized pieces.

4. In a small bowl, mix in all the ingredients for the dressing with a small whisk or fork. Taste to adjust the seasonings.

5. In a large bowl, toss the cooked black quinoa, grilled vegetables and dressing together before placing them in a serving bowl.

6. Garnish with crushed hazelnut and pumpkin seeds before drizzle lightly with Vom Fass Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil and a few drops of Vom fass Aceto Balsamico di Modena Maletti Riserva Speciale.

In this series:
Life is Colourful
Chilli Angel Hair Pasta With Prawns, Scallop, Tomatoes & Basil
Hazelnut & Chocolate Chips Cupcakes

Simple Ways With Avocados

As promised, here are some items I did with the avocados presented to me during A Taste of Australian Avocado event. We were given some recipe booklets and I've gotten the ideas to prepare some snacks and salads. Do check out the wealth of recipes in Australian Avocado.

I did a Tuna and Avocado Sandwich which is so simple to assemble. I've buttered 2 slices of wholemeal bread before spreading some tuna spread on one slice. Next, slice up the avocados and place on top of the tuna spread. Sprinkle freshly grounded black pepper and place the other slice of bread over. As easy as 1-2-3. You could actually put on some cheese and grill this sandwich as well.



Next, I've made an open sandwich of Eggs and Avocado. For one serving, just hard boil an egg. Once it's cooled down, cubed the egg. Then cubed up half an avocado. Mix the egg and avocado with some mayonnaise, I've used Japanese mayo for more eggy goodness. Season with some salt and black pepper to taste. Spread mixture on buttered bread or toast or even crackers. Crazy goodness here. Loved the creamy avocado combination with egg.



I've assembled this Grilled Chicken Salad which was great for a complete meal of its own. All I did was grill half a piece of chicken breast rubbed with some olive oil, salt and black pepper. Sliced chicken up after letting it to cool down for 10 minutes. Then I shred some carrot and Japanese cucumber with a vegetable peeler; cut tomato into wedges and slice up half an avocado. In a small bowl, whisk some extra virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, a little whole grain mustard, seasoned with salt and black pepper till well blended. Toss all ingredients in a big bowl together with some lettuce. To serve, place salad on a bowl and topped with sliced chicken breast.



Another way of serving a salad of similar ingredients as above is to cubed them up and drizzle in extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and seasoned with salt and black pepper. Toss and serve. As easy as that.



So there you go on my lazy-woman way of serving up delicious and nutritious avocados.

Prawn and Chicken Pomelo Salad

Dad went on a trip to Penang with his qigong clique, they stopped by Ipoh and someone in the group, a datin if not mistaken, gave each of them 2 Tambun pomelos each. Mom gave me one and since there are 2 of us in the house who eat this, so I decided to make a light lunch out of it.



This is my simple version of Prawn and Chicken Pomelo Salad, seasoning to be adjusted according to taste. I broke apart about 4 segments of pomelo (this one is surprisingly very sweet) and kept in the fridge. Then I steamed a piece of butterflied chicken breast and some shelled prawn on separate plates in my electric steamer. Once the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it using fingers into thin strips. Chuck chicken and prawns into the pomelo and return to fridge.

For the dressing, muddle these together in a mortar and pestle:

zest of 2 limes and juice from 3
2 tsp caster sugar
1 chopped red chilli (can sub with chilli padi)
1 stalk finely sliced lemongrass
1 stalk finely sliced bunga kantan (Torch Ginger Flower)
about 3 tbsp fish sauce


Pour the dressing (remember to adjust the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice according to your taste) into the pomelo mixture. Sprinkle in chopped spring onion and mix well. It would be great with some chopped coriander leaves but since Capt'n Hook doesn't like them so I omitted. Actually some chopped peanuts or cashew nuts would bring this salad to a greater height.


Easy peasy... almost as good as the one at Rama V that I had with Miss Sweet 16 ;-)



Technorati Tags: salad + pomelo salad + pomelo

Jamie Oliver's Chicken in Milk

Yeah, I know, it sounded weird... Chicken in Milk but this is Jamie Oliver we're talking about heh. Had wanted to tried this recipe from Happy Days With The Naked Chef for ages cos sometimes I do like to challenge myself with weird stuff at the expense of my home test bunnies (my poor boiboi and hubby hehe).

I got some chicken thighs meant for roasting but kinda bored with the same old butter, rosemary and lemon routine. Since I have four thighs, I made two by stuffing butter, rosemary and lemon slices underneath the skin, well just to be save in case my Test Bunny Jr have nothing for dinner. Placed them over some pumpkin and roasted in the oven.

Next, roughly following Jamie's recipe... and this was the outcome...

With the recipe from the same book, made a simple salad of cucumber and carrot ribbons done by using a peeler dressed with soy sauce, apple cider vinegar and fresh ginger strips to go with the roasts.

Verdicts: Test Bunny Jr and I loved the weird combi of chicken and milk. I think I've poured in too much milk hence you can see lots of "gravy" swimming in the tray, plus it was low-fat milk so it did not have that creamy looking gravy as seen in the book. Test Bunny Jr asked for seconds with loads of milky gravy poured over. Actually me and him were practically drinking away the fragrant gravy.

Test Bunny Sr was curious why one tray has so much gravy and the other had none. He asked me what's inside the gravy. The moment I mentioned milk, his mind went on a shutdown mode. He gave me THE look... nehhh that "OMG this woman I had married had gone NUTS" look. Hehe he's more of a conventional guy, preferred to stick to normal things, so he only liked the usual roast (sooo boring!). However, he did give me a bit of face by trying some.

In the end, I asked both test bunnies to point out which one they liked best... the senior one pointed at the boring roast whilst the junior one needless to say aimed his finger at the milky one! Atta boy!!!


Technorati Tags: roast chicken + Jamie Oliver

One Chook, Five Ways

Fancy cooking one chook and from there milk the chook right down to its bones? Yeah I did just that... can you imagine it? I roasted one chicken and got a lot of leftovers that I had to be creative to finish them up. I guess I must have bought a rather huge chook for the two and half of us!!!

I was browsing Ruth's blog when I came across her post of Perfect Roast Chicken. I read on and I was intrigued by the simplicity of the recipe and method of cooking she had adapted from Joy of Cooking, Neil Perry & Thomas Keller (does French Laundry ring a bell?). I also delved into the steps Thomas Keller had posted in Epicurious. Click here for the simple instructions.

Like Ruth, I did not use any butter or oil. I dried my chook as dry as possible with loads of kitchen towels plus I hung up my chook for a couple of hours with a tray beneath to catch the liquid dripping off it. Next, I merely rubbed the chook with sea salt and stuffed 2 bulbs of garlic in the cavity. Trussed the chook then stuffed into the oven. Voila... a really perfect roast of crispy skin but tender meat!



I was really amazed by its simplicity without any butter or oil rubbed on it, no herbs, no need to turn over the chook and best of all no need to even baste the chook!!! Woohoo and I got juicy meat and crispy skin as opposed to what was published in the latest copy of Flavours magazine where oil or butter is needed to prevent the chook from drying out!

My only issue is that whilst roasting there were so much oil dripped out onto the pan and they splattered all over my oven!!! It's really a tough job to clean the oven up as I have trouble reaching the nooks and corners plus those spots above the heating element. Anyone out there have tips to clean up a normal oven without self-cleansing function???

Anyway, on a separate tray, I've roasted some vegetables ie. pumpkin, onions, bell peppers (capsicum) and carrots. Just cut them up, sprinkle olive oil and sea salt all over in a baking tray. Place them inside the oven the same time as the chook but they need a shorter baking time though depending on the size of the vegetables.

We only managed to devoured the thighs, wings and part of the breast. With so much leftovers, I got a wee bit creative and came out with the various ways to finish them up.

First, the easiest was to come out with was a roast chicken with mayonnaise. All I did was chopped up the meat into tiny morsels, mix in some mayo and freshly ground black pepper. Once done, I topped up onto a bed of greens and some of those roasted vegetables and the roasted garlic too. Drizzled in some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I've also stuffed them into pita breads to make roast chicken mayo sandwich.





I've also made another salad but this time I thinly sliced the breast and on the bed of greens, I've some fresh capsicums and cubed pears. A simple drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar completes this simple and refreshing salad.



Four down and one more to go!!! The last one was a very unconventional and unimaginable way of using up a roast chicken leftovers. I made a chicken rice porridge with the bones of the chicken cavity!!! Devoid of meat after making the salads, I added the bones whilst cooking up the rice porridge which provided a very sweet and garlicky taste since I've stuffed some garlic in the cavity. When the porridge is almost done, I added in some shredded chicken meat and chopped salted duck eggs. Adjust seasoning of salt and white pepper. Topped up with more white pepper and a dash of sesame oil when serving to complete the porridge.



So that was my story of one chook, five ways... hoped you had enjoyed it and thanks to Ruth for highlighting this wonderful recipe.

Technorati Tags: roast chicken + leftover

Lunch Box Salad

This is one of my backlog post.

Sometimes I get very bored with the availability of food around the office, so I packed myself lunch. This was one of them...



A very simple salad of lettuce leaves (from Sime), roasted peppers and cubed pears, served with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Strangely enough the balsamic vinegar brought out the sweetness of the pear. Lovely.

The roasted peppers were made by roasting them either in an open fire or in the oven until blackened. Place them in a bowl then cover with cling wrap or inside a plastic bag and tie it up. The steam will loosen the skin where it can be easily removed after doing so for 5 minutes or so. Be careful though, they can still be very hot. Once done, cut them up and remove the seeds. Next drizzle olive oil all over and sprinkle on some sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Usually I'll make a batch and keep them in the fridge in a sterile bottle. I've used them in salads and sandwiches (really yummy). Really handy and jiffy for a quick snack or meal.