Open-Faced Polenta Tempeh Sandwich

On the day I was due to come back from KL, Adrian text me and asked if I had any request for breakfast. Having sent him home with tempeh and organic polenta from Country Farm Organics, I replied with "tempeh and avocado sandwich with polenta instead of bread" enthusiastically. I wondered if I should tell him about marinating the tempeh and preparing the polenta in advance?

While we were on the way back from airport, Adrian told me he bought a bunch of stuffs and he didn't know what to do with my request. Ahhhh..... It is actually a synergy of two recipes that I posted before:

1. I used the marinate from this TLT sandwich for the tempeh, and served mashed avocado on the side instead of as spread.
   
2. The polenta was made fries-like using this recipe. The Garlic Mayo Spread was excellent as dressing.
   

So there you go: An open-faced Polenta Tempeh Sandwich! The original TLT Sandwich recipe was the reason I fell in love with tempeh. Therefore my liking of this dish might have been skewed. Also, my eldest sister, Shiang Ting, once mentioned her lack of confidence for Adrian's food taste because he always has good words for the foods I cook. Make this and judge for yourself. Adrian and I will definitely be happy to have this for breakfast again and again :)

Brown Sugar Fig Cake

I strongly encourage everyone to make this, especially if you are lazy or short of time but want something sweet and easy and yet will win the crowd. It is its simplicity, fool-proof recipe that makes this a keeper. I wanted to give away the leftover but changed my mind when Adrian frowned and scoffed in disbelief.

There's a lot of room to play with the recipe. You can substitute figs with raisins or other dried fruits, or not use any at all. I don't have white flour, hence the use of rye flour with flaxseed and ground almond. It might have been a nightmare dessert if I had used rye flour only.

I served this cake with homemade raspberry jam (it took a mere 15 minutes to make) and fresh blueberry. I imagine fresh cream and custard will be just as good.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
• 1 cup natural brown sugar
• 1 egg
  
• 1/2 cup buttermilk (white vinegar + milk)
• 1/2 cup organic rye flour
• 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
• 1/2 cup ground almond
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence
• 2 dried figs, chopped

1. Preheat oven at 150C. Grease a 7 x 7 baking dish.
   
2. Put all the ingredients, except figs, in the order given in one big mixing bowl.
   
3. Mix together with a electric blender for 3 minutes. Stir in figs.
4. Pour over prepared baking dish. Bake at 150C for 35- 40 minutes. Serve with fresh fruits/ jam/ cream.
   

Avocado and Tempeh Multigrain Salad

I didn't have much expectation for this recipe. I even told Adrian "it's a very simple dinner" when he came home. Hence the pleasant surprise. Adrian thought he could eat this often (by the way I'm making it again tonight upon his consent). It's a plateful of crunch and creaminess thrown together with an intricate taste that vows to please your gastronomical sense.

I added grains to this salad to make it a complete one-bowl dish. I chose to use black quinoa and amaranth seeds. Although I have read about the nutritious benefits of amaranth but its culinary use was new to me. If you are mystically inclined and want to know why this "never-fading flower" was once banished by the Spanish, or what Aztecs did to harness supernatural power from this plant, click here.

Unlike the more commonly available white and sweet quinoa, black quinoa (although this looks more like a mix of black and red to me) is fruity in taste. I have always liked the way it looks when cooked: with a little white, spiral tail. The grain itself is soft and delicate and the tail is crunchy, which creates an interesting texture combination when eating the grain. You can go here to find out why quinoa is called "mother grain".

In case you haven't heard, I love tempeh. so, how can I not throw in some tempeh to this dish knowing that it is sitting and waiting for me in the refrigerator? I was cooking with organic black bean tempeh before. This time it's traditional tempeh made with whole soy beans. I was a little dismayed when Adrian said he didn't think the organic black bean tempeh was great. This non-organic soy beans tempeh, on the other hand, got his approval. I have to admit, this is better than the black bean tempeh. Oh well, guess I can spend less from now: this non-organic tempeh is 3 times cheaper than the organic tempeh.

I like diversity. It shows in my diet. Although there's only two of us at home, I almost always cook at least two dishes (plus a dessert), with more than a handful of vegetables. No wonder I have problem organizing the refrigerator! I digress.

Making a one-bowl dish is atypical of me. I felt uneasy having just one dish to serve. Therefore, I thought I'd throw in some black beans and wheat berry that I reserved from before. Still uncomfortable, I decided to make a cake. I only felt right and comforted once Adrian proclaimed he wanted to learn to cook this.

Multigrain:

• 1/2 cup organic black quinoa, washed and drained
  
• 1/2 cup organic amaranth seeds
• Cooked, frozen black beans
• Cooked, frozen wheat berry

1. Bring quinoa and amaranth seeds and 2 cups of water to boil. Turn the heat to lowest. Add a generous pinch of sea salt. Let it simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. If there's excess water, you may drain the water away.
2. Take enough of cooked grains that you need to serve. Stir in black beans and wheat berry to mix. Set aside.

Peanut Butter Dressing:

• 1/4 cup organic chunky peanut butter
• 1 glove garlic, smashed and chopped
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• zest of 1 lemon
• 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  
• sea salt to taste

1. Mix all the ingredients together. Add some hot water to thin out the dressing if necessary.
2. Stir 1/2 the dressing to toss with multigrains. Reserve the rest.

To Assemble Salad:

• !/2 cup Balsamic vinegar
• Tempeh, cubed
• 1 ripe avocado, peeled and cubed
• cherry tomatoes, halved
  
• Feta cheese, crumbled
• White sesame seeds, toasted
  
• Sunflower seeds, toasted
• Parsley, stem removed

1. Bring balsamic vinegar to a gentle simmer. Remove from heat when reduced to half the volume. Set aside to cool.
2. Fry tempeh on both sides till golden brown.
3. Place tomatoes, avocado and tempeh on top of cooked multigrains. Drizzle with peanut butter dressing. Top with feta cheese, white sesame seeds and sunflower seeds. Add balsamic reduction and decorate with parsley leaves to serve.
   

Space for My Father

Last few weeks have been an emotionally complicated time. Adrian and I started out with lots of fun in Taipei: exploring the city with the ease of its excellent infrastructure; studying NLP under the grace of one of the creators himself: John Grinder; catching up with long lost friends; meeting friendly Taiwanese; and day-dreaming about moving to Taipei. At the end of our Taipei trip, just before going to Hang Zhou, I was told by my youngest sister that our father passed away of sudden heart attack.

I couldn't believe my ears and made her repeat a few more times; inside my heart, I wished I had heard someone else's name. I was dumb-founded and couldn't speak for what felt like a long time to me. When I uttered again, I was crying, and could barely talk for the next few hours. Adrian was quick to reroute our flight so we flew back to KL the next morning. It all went like a dream from then: I went through an emotional roller coaster of complete stillness to outburst of shock and tears on and off the plane.

My family arranged for my father a Taoist funeral ceremony that spanned three days. Friends and relatives came to pay their final tribute to my father. It must have been very awkward for most people: what do you say to family that just lost a son of 57 years old/ husband of 33 years/ father of 5 children/caretaker of 3 dogs? Interestingly, moment of sadness and tears flow was intervened by laughter and jokes as we shared stories of pass and present.

During the funeral, every time I looked into the coffin, I thought how peaceful my father looked and that at any moment he'd open his eyes and yawn. It didn't happen. When we were told to look at my father for one last time, I had this urge to touch his face but there's the glass panel that separated us.

I came back to Bangkok having spent 10 days with my family. It feels unreal still; somehow my father's passing is not quite registered in the brain. Still, there is this dark hole that haunts me whenever I think of him, his lack of presence: father's day, reunion dinner on Chinese New Year, who to pick me up at airport? And the needs to change from present tense to pass tense when I talk about my father..... And then there's my mother....

I'm thankful one of my sisters, Shiang Fay, is much more homely than I am. She readily gives up her job in Singapore to keep my mother accompanied in KL. I felt overwhelmed by an unspeakable duty as a daughter but I am too self-centered to make the step Shiang Fay does. Bless her filial soul.

Some friends avoid asking me too much about my father, so not to stir up my emotion. The truth is I still feel like crying when I think about my grandfather who passed away 16 years ago. I will probably still cry 20 years from now whenever my grandfather and father come to mind. Perhaps that's the way they stay inside of me.

Mostly Improvised: Dedication to Cosmic Bear

Tomorrow begins yet another trip of ours. First stop, 10 days in Taipei, Taiwan. Second stop, 1o days in Hangzhou, China. This time, Yoga doesn't take us there. We are going to attend Adrian's NLP teacher - John Grinder - 's Asia seminar in both locations. Adrian is invited to assist during the seminar while I get to sit, listen and learn from one of the greatest mind of our time for free. John Grinder did ask me to help with the translation, which I quickly turned down. How on earth am I supposed to translate specialized terminologies from psychology/ linguistics/ hypnosis/ neuroscience into Chinese - a language that I once claimed-to-be very good at but is now dwindling into my second language? I can't even teach a Yoga class in Chinese, for crying out loud! Eventually we settled for me to spy on the translation; checking for anything "lost in translation" from between Grinder and the participants. Well, that I can do; I'm pretty good in criticizing people.

Apart from that, I'm really excited to be seeing my Taiwanese friend - Ivy. We haven't seen each other for 8 years now. The last time we met was during my first trip to Melbourne. Or was it when I went to see Ivy in Taipei? I have such fond memories of that trip I always tell people how much I like Taipei when I hear anything negative about that city. Not only did Ivy welcome me into her home, I was also treated like a queen by her family. I wonder if I'll get to see her mother and fun uncles this time.

I always find myself cooking a lot, or extra hard, before a trip; trying to cook up whatever left in the fridge in every conceivable ways. I thought to invite Tam over for dinner for her 26th birthday. Unfortunately we changed our mind - we can be very anal about our schedule and prefer to "stay low" before our flight on tomorrow morning. This meal was meant to be for Tam, a.k.a. Cosmic Bear, George (he lives so close to us it's impossible not to think of him), and us The Coxes.

This is essentially the same as Vegetarian Tortilla Soup. I added to it cooked black beans and sweet potatoes, both of which are leftover.

We had this just yesterday. I added to it cooked wheat berry marinated in the extra Strawberry Basil Balsamic Marinade. I told Adrian to decorate the dish as he wished. He called it the Spring in the Railroad Track.

This was meant to be a birthday treat for Tam. She was always drooling over the Chocolate Pudding I have made several times now. I saw this recipe and thought I'd make mousse for a change. What intrigued me was the use of fresh mint leaves. The weird thing was: neither Adrian nor I noticed the presence of mint leaves in the mousse. The absence of minty taste could mean that the mint leaves were not fresh. But what about the texture? Did it "melt" away somehow? This reminded me of the bar of butter that I picked up from Foodland in Nana. I swear I put it in the backpack that Adrian was carrying. George, too, said he saw me doing that. When we got home, I just couldn't find it! I turned the bag upside down, inside out, non, zilch, Pooof! It's gone! How did that happen? I suspect George sneaked it from the bag when we were not looking. Mystery (to be) solved.

Mint Chocolate Mousse

Next time I may try substituting coconut milk with some strong coffee. I'm so sensitive to stimulant I wouldn't be able to sleep if I had just that tiny amount of coffee.

Ingredients:

• 4 oz dark chocolate
• 80 gram butter
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 Tablespoon coconut milk
  
• 2 egg whites
• 1 tablespoon natural cane sugar
• 3/4 cup fresh cream
• mint leaves, finely chopped
  

1. Put cream and beaters in freezer for 5 - 10 minutes. Beat cream to form stiff peaks.
   
2. Process sugar till very fine.
3. Whip egg whites on low until soft peaks form. Switch to high speed and begin adding sugar, little bit at a time. Beat till stiff peaks form. Set aside.
   
4. Melt butter and chocolate in a boiling water bath. Remove from heat. Fold in egg yolks, one at a time.Stir in coconut milk.
   
5. Fold chocolate mixture into whipped egg whites.
   
6. Gently fold in 1/2 cup whipped cream. Keep the extra whipped cream in the fridge.
   
7. Stir in mint leaves.
8. Cover and refrigerate for a few hours.
   
9. Top with whipped cream to serve
   

Grilled Peach Mango Coconut Tart

There's quite a bit of extra Mango Coconut Custard from the Strawberry Mango Coconut Tart I made for George's 25th birthday. We were going to have a couple of friends over for dinner, and I planned to make the tart again with different crust and topping. There was also the Tempeh and Strawberry Salad with Watermelon Dressing and Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Bake that I thought were going to "rock their boat". Unfortunately Adrian was not feeling well. Hence the dinner was canceled. Nevertheless, the show must go on even there's just the two of us.

For the base, I added to it ground almond.

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup finely ground almond
  
• 2 Tablespoons natural cane sugar
• 80 gram cold butter, cubed
• 1 - 2 Tablespoons cold water

Start by sifting the dry ingredients together. Add in cold cubed butter and fold in with a cutter, or food processor. Add cold water to hold the mixture together. Shape it into a disk, sprinkle with flour and wrap in a piece of clingfilm. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Proceed as you would to make and bake the crust.

For the Topping, I used canned peach halves.

• 5 halves peaches, drained, dry and sliced
  
• Date honey
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla essence

Heat a skillet or grill over medium heat. Places peach slices over the heated surface in one layer. Flip and grill the other side when it's browned on one. Remove and let cool.

Mix together Date honey and vanilla. Drizzle this over the tart once assembled.

This was meant to be dessert for 4 persons. Adrian and I liked it so much we ate more than half of a 8" tart. I'm glad I managed to stop Adrian when he asked for more, or we couldn't have enjoyed it in the morning after.

Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Bake

Adrian liked this so much he wanted me to teach him. It's really simple but requires some patient and waiting. I liked how the roasted pepper played into the sweetness of pumpkin and sweet potatoes. For ascetic reason, I asked Adrian to pluck a few basil leaves from Josh's. He wasn't sure which one to pluck from and I said "sniff and smell to pick the one you like." The basil leaves actually turned out to be a good compliment.

Ingredients:
(serve 2)

• 1/4 medium-sized pumpkin, seeded
  
• 1/4 large sweet potato, washed and dry
  
• 2 orange pepper
• 1 head garlic
  
• 1/3 cup Parmesan Cheese, grated
• 2 Tablespoon fresh cream
• Spring onion, chopped
  
• sea salt and black pepper
• Parmesan cheese as topping

Preheat oven at 200C. Chop off head of garlic and drizzle with olive oil. Place on a baking tray. Brush pumpkin, sweet potato and orange pepper with just enough olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Wrap in individual aluminum foil. Bake in the oven for 60 minutes. You may need to check on the garlic and pepper so they don't burnt. The garlic is ready when the exposed heads are browned.

When the ingredients are cooled enough to handle, scoop flesh of pumpkin and sweet potato to a mixing bowl. Squeeze about 3 gloves of roasted garlic. Put all the ingredients, except spring onion and orange pepper, into the mixing bowl. Mash to blend.


Finely chop roasted pepper. Stir pepper and spring onions into the pumpkin mix. Divide and pour into two ramekin, or one baking dish. Top with more Parmesan cheese. Bake for approximately 20 minutes.

Tempeh and Strawberry Salad with Watermelon Dressing

I thought this was incredible when I read the ingredients list. The only thing I have problem with is the use of Strawberry Basil Balsamic Vinegar. Does it mean the balsamic vinegar comes with such flavor? If it did, I have no doubt I won't find it here. Perhaps I can concoct my own version of this intriguing balsamic vinegar. Besides, I'm seriously eager to cook with the basil that Josh gave us. He planted a bunch of them and gave me a pot that comes with Lemon Basil, Italian Basil, and Sweet Basil.

I like the idea that I can sniff around the stalks and leaves to identify which species is the one I need. How organic!

Strawberry Basil Balsamic Marinade

• 1/2 cup Olive oil
• 1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
  
• Fresh strawberries, halved
  
• Basil leaves
• Salt and pepper

Blend everything together and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Set aside.

• 6 Tablespoons Strawberry basil balsamic marinade
• Organic black bean tempeh

1. Pour 2 tablespoons of the balsamic marinade to a baking pan. Place tempeh over the pan in one single layer. Pour the rest of the balsamic marinade over. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
2. Remove tempeh from the fridge. Melt just enough butter to coat skillet over medium heat. Place tempeh on heated skillet. Pour the marinade over. Cook tempeh on each side until cooked through. Cut into serving size.
   

Watermelon Dressing

• watermelon, chopped and pureed
  
• 3 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon Strawberry Basil Balsamic Marinade
• 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

Whisk one cup of watermelon puree with the rest of the ingredients.

To Assemble

• Salad greens
• Cooked Asparagus
• Fresh Strawberries, halved
• Onion, thinly sliced
  

Divide and place salad greens onto individual serving plates. Top it with tempeh. Add a thin slice of onion. Layer with asparagus and strawberry. Drizzle watermelon puree over to serve. Sprinkle with a handful of pine nuts if you wish.

Strawberry Mango Coconut Tart

It's George's 25th birthday today (7th May). He has organized and invited us to his birthday party tonight at Mae Kai Dee's Thai Vegetarian Restaurant. I don't know how you feel about it but to me, "part" and "vegetarian" somehow don't click.

Anyway I thought I would be nice and make him a cake of his choice. We went from "something chocolatety with peanut butter" to "monster cookies", and finally settled at Mango Pie. I would have flinched at it because of the pastry but I felt motivated by the pate brisee that I made for this quiche, and immediately said YES to George.

A quick search on internet turned out a whole lot of mango tart recipes but non of pies. "What's the difference between tart and pie?" I could see the "there-she-go-again" look on Adrian's face. He seems to think I'm capable of asking him questions that he has problem answering, which is a rare phenomenon. He told me tarts are small, and asked if I were a tart or pie. I turned to Google. According to Urban Dictionary "tart" also refers to nubile young temptress, who dresses teasingly and provocatively. I'm so tart.

Anyway I decided to make an open-face tart. I managed to pull together ideas from a few different recipe posts to come up with this tart with mango coconut custard filling, topped with fresh strawberries, instead of tart with custard topped with mangoes. How's that?

Sweet Short Crust Pastry

With the success from the last pate brisee, I set out to make this sweet short crust with just the right joyous confidence. I wonder why couldn't I do this before?

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• ½ cup icing sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 125g cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 2 small egg yolks

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt. Process cold butter with dry ingredients until butter cubes are well coated. Stir in egg yolk and blend gently to combine well. Roll the dough out onto a floured surface, and shape it into a disk. Coat disk lightly with flour. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or overnight.
2. When ready, take the dough disk out and let sit at room temperature for 10 - 15 minutes. At the mean time, place aluminum foil tightly over a 9" pie dish. Place dough in the center of prepared pie dish and roll it out to line the dish. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven at 180C. Remove from the fridge and cover with another layer of aluminum foil. Place on top either uncooked rice, beans or weight. Blind bake the pastry dough for about 15 minutes. Remove the weight and top layer of aluminum foil. Bake for another 8 - 10 minutes, until the base is golden brown. You may want to check on it from time to time so the edges do not burn. If it does, wrap the edges with aluminum foil and continue to bake until the base is golden brown. Let cool when done.
   

Mango Coconut Custard

I made lemon curd before, and it wasn't that difficult. Looking at the recipe instruction, there's little room for damage. It's true but not. It all went very well with me proclaiming it's going to be great "if the crust turns out fine". Little did I know..... I must have messed up the ingredients proportion somehow - the mixture wasn't thickening into the consistency I needed, even after a good 10 minutes of stirring (that's 5 minutes longer than required). This morning, I took it out from the fridge and sure enough, it's too liquidy to fill the tart. So I reheat the custard, and added to it another tablespoon of corn flour and egg yolk. After yet another 10 minutes (it felt longer) of constant stirring, it finally thickened up.

The recipe below is the improvised version.

• 2 ripe mangoes, flesh only
• juice of 2 small limes
• 1 Tablespoon sugar

• 1 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup corn flour
• 3 small egg yolks

1. To make mango puree, put mangoes, juice of lime and 1 tablespoon sugar in a blender and process until smooth. Taste and adjust with lime juice or sugar. This makes approximately 2 cups of mango puree.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together 1/4 cup sugar and corn flour. Stir in just enough coconut milk to blend. Fold in egg yolks.
3. In a sauce pan, warm coconut milk, 1/4cup sugar and 2 cups mango puree. Do not boil.
   
4. Pour 1/3 of mango mixture into the corn flour mix. Repeat twice more until mango mix and flour mix are well combine. Return the mixture into sauce pan and heat it for another 10 minutes, stirring constantly. The mixture will thicken.
5. Cover it with clingfilm and keep in refrigerator for an hour or overnight.

To Assemble

• Fresh strawberries, halved
• Almond slivers, lightly toasted
  
• 9" Sweet short crust
  
• Mango Coconut Custard

Pour custard over baked and cooled crust. Top it with fresh strawberries. Sprinkle with almond slivers. The tart may be chilled for a few hours before serving although it's best to serve immediately because the custard may make the crust soggy.

Couple Debut to Asian Foods

Adrian has been helping me with breakfast. This, however, was our "official" cooking together, AND it's a venture into unfamiliar territory: Asian Foods. Whatever the outcome, I really enjoyed cooking with my husband. On our second attempt at Asian foods, I was overwhelmed by love and happiness when he sent a SMS to me, saying "wait for me. I want to cook with you. be back in 5." He's the sweetest :)

I forget how it started. I remember asking Adrian "shall we cook nyonya?", followed by "will you cook your favorite Penang Char Kway Teow?" He told me to send him a recipe link. Hence our first Asian attempt began to unfold into a dangerously ambitious project. I am not posting the recipes here as, although there were a few recipes that turned out good, they were not good enough that I would share.

I found enough recipes for two meals. For first meal we had Char Kway Teow, Sze Chuan Vegetarian Balls, and Corn and Zucchini Coconut Milk Stew - the latter was the easiest and simplest to make. With coconut milk and hot spices, how could it go wrong?

The Vegetarian Balls was quite a challenge. Maybe I didn't get the proportion of ingredients right - I kept yelling to Adrian "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SHAPE THIS MUSH INTO BALLS?" I kept adding flour until the consistency was more or less desirable. They looked pretty good at first. Once baked, they began to lose their shape.

I was quite happy with the taste of the Sze Chuan sauce that I made anyway.

Next came the noodles. These was a tough one . This was the dish that prompted Adrian to ask "how many more days do we have to be in Asia?"

We started with soaking the rice noodles in water, longer than what the sales person told us to do. We even covered the noodles, hoping they would go softer under steam. Still, it's a al dente Char Kway Teow. It's not terrible, it just wasn't Char Kway Teow. I didn't think Adrian was proud of it but the more I ate it, the more I liked it although it was no where close to Char Kway Teow.

Despite the noodle-misadventure, my spirit was still high. I wasn't going to surrender the Pad Thai plan despite the weariness on Adrian's face. Although Adrian was positive that the sales person said to soak the water in water, not hot water, I decided to follow my heart. I soaked the noodles the night before, checked them in the morning. Nope - softer but not good enough. So I put them in boiling water. After 10 minutes, DONE! Good to go!

Once again, Adrian was in charged of the noodles. He mentioned he has not seen Pad Thai cooked with coconut milk (but that's what the recipe uses!), and what makes Pad Thai Pad Thai and not just another fried noodles, is tamarind (but the recipe uses none!). The noodles turned out white, and nothing like the Pad Thai I've come across with. They were, however, good noodles. Quote from Adrian "it's like a GOOD Pad Thai you get in America.". That's a pass?

Last year when we went to see my family for Chinese New Year, I told my father to buy me some Sambal Belacan because I had plan to cook Malaysian foods. It took a good one year to materialize the plan. Better late than never. I have always liked Kangkung (morning glory) Belacan. I thought it would be nice to add my favorite tempeh.

I wonder if it's fortunate or not: 5 minutes before we started cooking I found out I was supposed to make a chili paste to blend the belacan in before I could use it for cooking. Luckily I have a leftover red chili paste from a panang tofu dish that I made long ago. This last minute adaptation must have shaken me quite a bit - I began to get disorganized: I was supposed to fry the tempeh but I didn't. As a result, they sort of fell apart looking like a kind of spicy bean sauce. Sigh. Can't believe I wasted the tempeh.

White Pad Thai and a failed Tempeh? I vouched to make the last dish GREAT! It's a Pineapple Sweet and Sour Vegetarian, like Gu Lou Yok (sweet and sour pork). I will always remember once someone told me when meats (about to) go bad, restaurants will use them in Sweet and Sour recipe. Nevertheless, they were so good especially those with deep fried chicken/ pork. Ahhhh, the good old meat-eating days. I digress. It's incredible how easy it was to make. I used walnut in place of pork. This turned out really good. Not only did we approve of it but our visitor, Jessie, too, liked it a lot.

To me, the challenge of cooking Asians was tasting. I can now taste and adjust western foods as I see fit. Not with Asians; I knew something was missing, but what? how? I thought our debut to Asian foods may be our one and only tribute. However as I'm typing this, I began to feel more drawn to the intricacy of Asians. Yesterday while coming home in a taxi, I announced to Adrian "I think we should get more into Asian foods." I thought I saw a dark cloud hovering over his face.