Cooking

RM 62.85 bowl of Maggi Mee with Tiger Prawn, mixed seafood and oyster

by

start

Okay, now back in the days, my parents don’t exactly let me indulge in instant noodles, due to their misguided belief that it will cause your hair to fall off.

I’m now 29 and I have a healthy crown of hair so I can say with all enthusiasm (complete with an I-told-you-so) expression on my face:

tiger prawn me

MYTH DEBUNKED!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, back then my idea of cooking MAGGI® Curry (it’s my favorite flavor) is pretty basic – 2 packets with 2 (or sometimes 3) eggs.

maggi mee

You know that TVC where this nerdy guy cooks it his way and goes out to the balcony to enjoy his supper of MAGGI® and meets this girl?

boil

Well, that didn’t happen to me but I went to university in Australia and as EVERY person who did their undergraduate degree overseas will tell you – instant noodles is a staple in our diet due to budgetary issues.

However, I did manage to come up with some creativity in my cooking while down under (if you eat it every single day, you gotta find stuff to spice it up, so to speak). I started experimenting and adding in stuff and now that I’m not a poor university student anymore, I still enjoy MAGGI® Mee (Curry of course) but with more…premium, shall we say, ingredients.

recipe

You will need:

MAGGI® Mee (Curry Flavor)
Mixed Seafood – mussels, shrimp, crab sticks
Canadian Oyster
String cheese
Large Tiger Prawn
Eggs

MAGGI® Mee My Way circa 2010 costs RM 62.85 per bowl. Heh!

tiger prawn cook

Tiger Prawn @ RM 34. Don’t over boil this – make sure that it’s tender and juicy when you eat it. It’s actually pretty easy to cook, just chuck it into boiling water seasoned with salt.

mixed seafood

Next up comes the mixed seafood (after you take the tiger prawn out) – use the same stock as the prawn will impart a lot of flavor into the broth.

One habit I’ve never managed to break is using my fingers to test the readiness of MAGGI® Mee – I know it’s two minutes but without a timer, and with my Time Tested (TM) method it’s actually quite easy – just take a bit of noodles up and squeeze it in between your fingernails – with enough practice, you’ll know when it’s cooked.

runny yolk

I like my eggs to have runny yolks so this is another thing you should watch out for. I like to think I’m pretty good at this – making a perfect bowl of MAGGI®. 😉

seafood

Okay, this is cheese. Cheese and MAGGI®, you say? Heresy right? No.

cheese

It’s actually pretty good….provided you don’t let it melt in the soup – just heat it up in the hot soup so the string cheese will be chewy.

prawn meat

The oyster on the top is a appetizer of sorts – a way to make MAGGI® Mee a complete meal!

I’m sure you have your favorite MAGGI® recipe right? If you don’t, you’re not Malaysian but I’ll cut you some slack and point you in the right direction – you can view some past recipes here. Wanna join the MAGGI® Mee My Way contest? There are RM 30,000 worth of prizes to give away with a top prize of RM 8,000 + a RM 100 hamper. All you need to do is to record a video of yourself cooking MAGGI® like the one I did above.

slurp

Your video should clock in at 2 minutes coz that’s the amount of time it takes to cook a packet of MAGGI®! Give it a nice and creative title and make sure you feature all the ingredients you used in the recipe, method of preparation and best of all – how you enjoy the dish!

You know all about the Tim Tam Slam right? Now, here’s the MAGGI® Slurp (TM). =D

I’m sure you’ve all done it before. DON’T PRETEND! I know you do it too. 😛

end

Surf on over and do your best on the MAGGI® Mee My Way Contest! Good luck!

Lobster and clam pasta with mango and bacon wrapped French beans

by

lobster and clam pasta with mango

This was originally planned as a yee sang cooking session which somehow mutated into a lobster fest. We were at Cold Storage searching for fish when I saw this awesome looking lobster for RM 59.88. It’s bright, colorful and knobby in all the right places. I stood there marveling at the crustacean instead of looking for fish. I was still staring longingly at it when Eiling came out of the pork section.

lobster

Thus, we decided to forgo the fish and went for lobster instead. I was concerned this wouldn’t fit into my pot and contemplated going for Cambodian lobsters instead. Cambodian lobsters are much smaller than regular lobsters, and doesn’t look like it has a lot of meat in it. There’s a live lobster in the fresh seafood area too, for RM 78 but that monster is definitely too big for my pot.

lobster going into pot

Besides, it’s regular red instead of this wonderfully hued lobster. =D

ingredients

Anyway, when there’s Eiling, there’s always wine – she brought along a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck Champagne Brut and a bottle of Cadet d’Oc by Baron Philippe de Rothchild. This is what we used to cook the CNY (?) meal:

Lobster
Clams (la la)
Streaky bacon
French beans
John West anchovy fillets
San Remo spaghetti
Garlic and parsley infused olive oil
McCormick Season All Salt
Ripe mango

spaghetti

We started off by cooking the spaghetti until it was al dente with lots of McCormick’s Season All Salt. This is drained and left aside while the other dishes were prepared.

french beans

The bacon wrapped French beans is a concoction of Eiling – she shows how it’s done here. The beans are sliced into hors d’oeuvres sized pieces before being dipped in boiling water. Don’t overcook the veggies or it’ll lose the crunchiness!

rolling bacon

It is then rolled in a raw bacon slice.

bacon rolled

This is how we roll in KL. 😉

bacon rolls

The bacon rolls are then fried with olive oil on low heat until it cooks. It is important not to overcook it, you don’t want crispy bacon, but something nice and chewy that drips with mouth watering lard.

cooking bacon

Next up: Lobster!

lobster pot

Okay, this motherfucker is a bit of a challenge to put into my pot so I cooked it tail first with the head sticking out. The water is seasoned with LOTS of salt so it would impart some into the lobster (or so my rationale goes).

lobster cooking

The lobster needs to be boiled for about 30 minutes or so – we turned it over to let the head cook and found out that after cooking, it is possible to stuff the entire lobster into the pot!

mango

Take a break and dice the mango at this point. Choose one that is firm, yet sweet and juicy.

clams

The clams go in last since they’re quite easy to cook. Make sure your lovely crustacean is cooked before you chuck in the clams. I have no idea how long you should cook it, we just guesstimated and it worked out very well!

You should reheat the pasta at this point – we used the broth from the lobster and the clams to reheat it, and it really imparts some flavor into the spaghetti!

aglio olio

Now it’s time to make the aglio olio sauce for the spaghetti. Remember the frying pan you used to cook the bacon wrapped beans in? That’s perfect as a base due to the flavors imparted by the streaky bacon. Just add in the infused olive oil and pour in a bit of the anchovy fillet grease and you’re set!

fried lala

Dump the clams into the aglio olio sauce, fry it for a bit and pour the mixture onto your pasta!

serve

Don’t forget your anchovies to add a bit of zing (salt) into your spaghetti!

anchovies

Eiling was a bit doubtful about the addition of mangos into the dish but I managed to convince her that it’ll taste great. It did!

lobster and clam pasta with mango final

I really loved the lobster – it came out just nice, and the flesh is sweet and juicy. Digging into the lobster’s head and eating the stuff inside is pure heaven.

french beans rolled in bacon

The bacon rolled French beans were great – the beans are crunchy and fresh while the bacon was done just right. The mango cubes worked very well too, providing a sweet and juicy burst of nectar which goes very well with the lobster and clam pasta.

lobster tail

There’s a saying that all the meat in lobster is in the tail and I agree…but all the taste is in the head of the lobster!

Kung pow fish roe, squid and eel with pig tail omelet

by

kung pow seafood start

I hardly ever cook Chinese meals although I love eating tai chow as much as the next Oriental dude. The main reason for this is coz I don’t have a huge wok and a good ol’ fashioned flame for that elusive “wok hei” (literally wok heat – a reference to the caramelized texture of superheated food). 

kung pow style

I like kung pow (insert meat) so I decided to go back to my China roots and start cooking some Chinese food.

You will need: 

ingredients

Pig’s tail
Dried chillis
Fish roe
Squid
Eel
Kikkoman soy sauce
Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce
Sunflower and canola oil
Eggs
Onions and garlic
Calamansi lime 

pig tail

Kung pow dishes are made with dried chillis, which obviously makes this an essential ingredient. Here’s a detailed (geddit? de-tailed) photo of the pig’s tail. 

fish roe squid eel

We started off by preparing all the seafood items. 

chopped seafood

Eel, those snake like creatures dwelling in the depths of the ocean (talking crap here) should be cut into bite-sized pieces. The squid has to be disemboweled and sliced into rings. You don’t really need to have a ring shaped apparatus – squid is hollow after preparation so just slice it and it’ll produce rings. Calamansi limes were squeezed over it to get rid of the distinct aquatic smell.

Fish roe. Mmm…full of cholestrol, but yet so delicious.

fry onions

My friend decided that this won’t taste very good with normal steamed rice – a point I vehemently disagree – so she added in some cooking oil and chopped garlic into the rice cooker. 

add rice

This is fried INSIDE the rice cooker BEFORE the rice was added in. 

fry rice

She then measured out the rice and started frying it with all the above before adding water and cooking it with several sauces lying around in my fridge. 

add sauce

Now, for the difficult part. Babe’s (not Babe Ruth, Babe the pig) pretty little pink tail has to be chopped up. 

pigs tail

This is more difficult than it sounds. I never knew those damn swine would have tendons/cartilage/whatever you call it as tough as this.

I attempted to do it with a serrated knife. Let me advice you that this is a Bad Idea (TM) and could lead to unfortunate incidents like Slicing Your Damn Finger Off (TM) as almost happened to this narrator. 

chop pig tail

I have a chopper which I forgot I had. Use a chopper instead. You’ll thank me.

Fucking pig’s tail. You almost cost me my index finger. *glares* 

frying pig tail

Anyway, add in the sliced onions and start frying Babe’s tail in extra virgin olive oil since he’s like a nice pig and all and even his tail deserves reverence.

It requires a Great Deal (TM) of frying which translates into 3212999 days in the standard measurements of time. I’m not kidding, it takes ages for the damn thing to cook. 

add eggs

After the piggy’s tail is all nice and cooked, crack six (6) eggs into the frying pan. Oh, before I forget, cooking posts are always meant for two. As in it should have a Serves: 2 on top if this were a proper cooking blog, which obviously it’s not. I just like to cook. 

cooking pig tail omelet

Put it on low heat until the pig’s tail omelet cooks to perfection. 

pig tail omelet

Now, let us concentrate on the seafood. Fry finely chopped garlic (a point I neglected to mention at the beginning – you should have chopped garlic. Heh!) and add in the dried chillis. 

cooking kung pow

You’re going to need a lot of oil for the kung pow fish roe, squid and eel so we got a Sunflower Canola bottle for this (Tesco store brand).

Cook on the highest heat your stove/heating element/whatever can manage (which isn’t very much for my ceramic one). Keep this going for a good 3 minutes or so and start adding in the seafood. Start with the squid (cooks slowest), quickly followed by the eel, and the egg roe at the very end (coz I like it kinda raw).

kung pow fish roe squid eel

Add in some oyster sauce and soy sauce and fry it as vigorously as you can for 10 minutes and then serve. 

flavored rice

The fluffy rice was nicely flavored and the pig’s tail omelet went well with the kung pow fish roe, squid and eel to subdue the spiciness of the dish. 

kung pow seafood end

Verdict: It was a good effort, but it wouldn’t beat even the crappiest tai chow’s kung pow offerings, due to the lack of wok hei (read beginning for definition).

Japanese Curry with Beef Lung, Pork Loin and Eryngii Mushrooms

by

japanese curry dish

I wanted to cook something Japanese this weekend coz Aud got me this souvenir from Mount Hakone in Japan – a pair of chopsticks. It just so happens that my friend had Japanese Curry at home and she came over with a carrot and potatoes while I went shopping for the rest of the stuff.

You will need:

ingredients

Japanese Curry mix
Sumo rice
Pork loin block
Beef lung
Peas in a pod
Dutch mushrooms
Eryngii mushrooms
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Seaweed and sesame rice flavoring

japanese curry chop

First off start slicing/cubing/peeling/dissecting/massacring all your vegetables, meat and fungi (except for the Eryngii mushroom ).

pork loin 

The pork loin block should be disciplined with your knife until they become cubes.

Eryngii mushrooms

Cook the Eryngii mushrooms in a pot of boiling water and set it aside.

japanese rice

Next, start cooking the rice. The Rule of Thumb Index Finger (TM) applies in cooking rice. It is an agarration (TM) method if you lack cups or other standards of measurement.

rule of index finger

Basically what you do is pour in the rice, rinse once with water and add water until it comes up to the first joint of your index finger. It should be noted that the tip of the index finger should be resting on the top of the rice, not the bottom of the rice cooker.

japanese curry prepare

After that is sorted, it’s back to the Japanese Curry! Add some extra virgin olive oil and start frying your ingredients.

frying pan

I added in the pork cubes before frying the onions – a mistake on my part. It would have tasted better to fry the onions before putting the rest of the stuff in.

japanese curry ingredients

Everything you have amassed up to this point (except for the Eryngii mushrooms) should be added into the frying pan in batches and given a good once-over. My frying pan is a bit on the small side so it kinda overflowed.

add water

Transfer the contents of the frying pan into a pot and add approximately 500 ml of water.

japanese curry pot

I eyeballed it and added probably 700 ml or so of water so the curry wasn’t as thick as it was supposed to be. However, I put the leftovers in the fridge and reheated it for lunch just now and the consistency was perfect!

The meat and veggies should be boiled for about 30 minutes with the lid on before the Japanese Curry powder chunk and sachet of chilli powder is added in.

japanese curry done

Wait for the Japanese Curry powder to melt and permeate the pottage before putting the lid on and let it simmer for an additional 20 minutes.

japanese curry serve

It’s now ready to serve!

japanese curry

We scooped the rice into a plate and added seaweed and sesame rice flavoring. The curry is spooned into the side of the plate and decorated with a Eryngii mushroom.

itadakimasu

Japanese Curry tend to be a bit on the mild side but the chewy texture of beef lung contrasted with the lean pork loin and the medley of vegetables makes this dish work out very well.

Itadakimasu!

Turkey stew with quail eggs, Portobello mushrooms and apples

by

stew start

The turkey stew is made with half a savory sauce base and half apple juice. It sounds a little weird and we did this as an experiment of sorts but it worked out really well. The stew takes a lot of time to cook (3 hours approximate) but we also made BBQ pork ribs. The hearty stew is served with slices of French loaf topped with Mozzarella cheese slices seared in olive oil.

You will need:

ingredients

  • Turkey drumstick
  • Pork ribs
  • Quail eggs
  • La MASIA extra virgin olive oil
  • Coat & Cook Honey and Soy Sauce marinate
  • Heinz BIG N CHUNKY Stew
  • PEEL FRESH apple juice
  • Mozzarella cheese block
  • BBQ sauce
  • Potatoes
  • Baby carrots
  • Portobello mushrooms
  • Onions and garlic
  • Apple
  • French loaf

turkey drum size

Turkey drumsticks are huge – check out the sheer size of it.

turkey drum slice

The turkey drumstick will be the stock of the stew but we wanted the meat as well so we sliced the turkey drumstick with a knife, going sideways as to maximize the return on investment on this bird.

sliced turkey

Mmm…

apple

We started off by preparing the ingredients for the stew. Chop up the onions, garlic, potatoes and apples. The last two should be cubed and diced respectively. Put the baby carrots into the plate as well.

pre stew

Next up, fry the onions and garlic in olive oil…

fry turkey

…and put in the slices of turkey to sear it for the stew.

stew base

Open the can of stew base and dump it into a suitable sized pot. DO NOT ADD WATER.

stew progress

Throw in the rest of the ingredients except the quail eggs and Portobello mushrooms.

quail eggs boil

Boil 6 of the quail eggs (reserve the rest for the stew) and peel it.

turkey drum

You can also throw in the pasta at this time for the two birds with one stone thing (pardon the lame pun).

add apple juice

Pour in the apple juice in lieu of water – trust me on this. Add about 500 ml or so.

turkey stew

Chuck in all the rest of the ingredients and let the stew…well, stew for 2 hours.

Here’s the video!

marinade

This is where you cook the pork ribs. Marinate the pork ribs with Coat & Cook Honey and Soy Sauce and let it sit for a while.

fry pork ribs

Use olive oil to fry some onions and garlic and put in the pork ribs.

pork ribs done

You don’t want to overcook the porcine goodness so flip every now and then and add BBQ sauce before serving.

thicken stew

After 2 hours (do check on the stew from time to time and remember to turn the heat down) put in a few slices of bread to thicken up the stew.

quail eggs crack

Add BBQ sauce and crack in the quail eggs…

mushrooms

…and the Portobello mushrooms.

stewing

Let it stew (you guessed it) for 30 more minutes with the lid on.

Crack the rest of the quail eggs in at this point. High cholesterol but adds a lot to the taste!

bread stew

Chop up the French loaf to go with the stew and heat it with cheese slices on top of olive oil until the Mozzarella cheese melts.

melted french loaf cheese

Cook some pasta to garnish in the middle of the French loaf with melted cheese…

serving

…and serve with the turkey stew with quail eggs, Portobello mushrooms and apples.

stew end

I’m telling you, it tastes DIVINE. It might be a bit sour but it’ll be nothing a bit of BBQ sauce can’t fix and the medley of sour, sweet and savory notes is something to experience. The stew is thick and full of turkey with quail egg and apple surprises!

Surf and turf vegeroni spiral pasta with homemade sauce

by

Surf and turf vegeroni spiral pasta with homemade cream

I just moved into my new studio apartment with cooking facilities and decided to break in the kitchen by whipping something up. This inspiration made us go to the nearest hypermarket to pick up some stuff for pasta. I wanted a hybrid seafood and red meat dish – squid and beef, so here’s the surf and turf pasta!

You will need:

Surf and turf vegeroni spiral pasta with homemade cream ingredients

  • Fresh whole squid
  • Aussie beef steaks
  • Enochi mushrooms
  • Fresh white button mushroom
  • Broccoli
  • Whipping cream
  • Perfect Italiano Mozzarella cheese slab
  • Tatura butter
  • McCormick Garlic Pepper Seasoning Grinder
  • McCormick Italian Herbs
  • McCormick Season All salt seasoning
  • Heinz Garlic BBQ sauce
  • Onions
  • Garlic
  • San Remo Vegeroni Spirals pasta

garlic

My friend started squashing the garlic…

onion

…and chopping up the onions.

marinate beef

While I went to work marinating the Aussie beef with a mixture of Heinz Garlic BBQ sauce…

marinated beef

…before adding in some raw garlic and grinding some McCormick Garlic Pepper Seasoning into it.

massage beef

I also gave it a good massage, Kobe style. This is The Turf (TM).

brocolli

Prepare the broccoli by tearing it into manageable pieces and slice half the button mushrooms while keeping the other half whole.

veggies

Put everything onto a plate – it’s for the homemade sauce. This is supposed to be for the sauce base. Next – seafood!

squid

The squid should be boiled – shake some salt into the water and just chuck the damn sotong into the pot.

desquid

Squid has this cartilage thing inside it so remember to pull it out after you’ve boiled it. This is The Surf (TM).

vegeroni

The next step is to cook the vegeroni spiral pasta in salted water.

stir fry me

While you’re waiting it to become al dente start stir frying the garlic, onion, enochi mushroom, broccoli, and button mushroom in LOTS OF BUTTER.

stir fry

I used ½ a block of butter and if you want your pasta to taste as good as mine you’ll do the same. 😉

italian herbs

Shake in some Italian herbs to add some delicious hints to your sauce.

cream

Add cream to the entire mixture…

eat cheese

…and chop off half the block of cheese into the pasta sauce.

add cheese

I know, this is not going to win any Heart Healthy (TM) awards but it tastes fucking good okay?

add butter

Your pasta should be done by now so drain and put in a healthy amount of butter. Be generous! Go kung fu on the butter block and melt it in the pasta!

fry beef

Got beef? Don’t look at me. Fry the goddamn thing. Put the heat on low and sear it so you won’t overcook it.

Surf and turf vegeroni spiral pasta with homemade cream serve

Now it’s time to chow down! Pour the pasta sauce into the butter saturated pasta, add in the beef and squid and serve!

Surf and turf vegeroni spiral pasta with homemade cream dish

Serving suggestion: Grind some pepper on top of the butter and eat while hot! 🙂

Alfredo Organic Black Bean Noodles with Scallops and Whole Pig’s Heart

by

start

I’m back with a cooking post! Yes, one of the signature sixthseal.com cooking posts complete with lots of alcohol, dubious ingredients and a healthy dose of obscure references!

You will need:
Organic Black Bean Noodles
Pig’s heart (whole – available at the non-Halal section of your friendly local hypermarket)
Scallops
Grozette FORMAGGIO da Pasta powdered cheese
Leggo’s Alfredo Pasta Sauce
Grapeseed Oil
Tabasco sauce
MasterFoods Mixed herbs
Onions and garlic

ingredients

It’s a battle of premium vs. proletariat ingredients! The measly pack of scallops set me back a staggering RM 42.35 while the gargantuan whole pig’s heart retails at a very affordable RM 3.50.

pig heart

Let me clarify – this was supposed to be an angel hair pasta dish, but I forgot to get the pasta and thus we made do with this pack of organic black bean noodles. The texture is surprisingly similar and it looks the bit too. Heh!

drink

Okay, to start off, you’ll need to ingest some ethanol to get you into a righteous cooking mood. My tipple of choice is Absolut Vodka.

cpr

The Tell-Tale Heart. Hmph. I shall give you a heart massage, CPR style.

cook pig

How do you cook a pig’s heart? Beats me, I’ve never cooked one before. I decided to wrap it in aluminum foil and chuck it into a fan assisted oven for 10 minutes.

heart

It turns out that 10 minutes isn’t quite enough so I suggest 20 minutes instead. I also took the liberty of rubbing salt all over the pig’s heart for my version of marinating. Heh!

cooking scallops

Next comes the scallops – scallops are reasonably fast to cook after defrosting so I just dunked it in warm (not hot) water for about a minute before draining.

drain

With the major ingredients out of the way, let’s get to the all-important sauce!

chop

Leggo’s ready made sauces already has bits of meat and stuff inside but we decided to fry some onions and garlic and chopped some sausages into it for a heartier sauce.

stir

We used grapeseed oil instead of olive oil for the frying, no particular reason for the choice – it was just there. The sausages were seared for a bit before the entire container of alfredo sauce was emptied into the mixture.

simmer

Leave the sauce on (very) low heat and start cooking the noodles.

noodles cook

I put in salt and a dash of grapeseed oil in the boiling water, much like cooking spaghetti. Drain the noodles after 3 minutes. I’ll love to inject the word al dente somewhere in here but there’s no way to get black bean noodles al dente. Oh wait, I just put it in twice. 😉

noodles

I emptied the noodles into a high sided plate and liberally poured the pasta sauce with garlic, onions and sausages on top. This is also where you add the powdered cheese and Tabasco sauce.

mix

The sides are important as a barrier against spillage when you start mixing the alfredo sauce into the noodles.

cream

Add a dash (or three) of mixed herbs and toss the pig heart’s on top.

scallops

Arrange the scallops on the side and I present to you:
 


final dish

Alfredo Organic Black Bean Noodles with Scallops and Whole Pig’s HeartIt tastes better than it looks, trust me.

good

You get to bite into the baked whole pig’s heart like a barbarian too. Get in touch with your Neanderthal roots yo!

RAWR. UGG HUNGRY!

eat

I pronounce it Good (TM)!

Project Bleeding Heart: Heart shaped pudding with real human blood

by

Project Bleeding Heart started off innocently enough – my girlfriend found a heart shaped sugar piece on top of a cookie during Hari Raya and (forcibly) inserted it into my mouth, saying that she has metaphorically given her heart to me. Thus, I was coerced to reciprocate in kind and she insisted on me personally making an edible heart for her during our second monthsary.

ingredients

I guess she didn’t know how far I would go. Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it. 😉

You will need:

Field Song Egg Pudding Powder
Arnott’s Tim Tam Love Potions – Chocolate Mud
“It’s love at first bite”
Arnott’s Tim Tam Crush – Mocha Hazelnut
“It’s one Crush that’s sure to end in love…”
Nestle Reduced Fat Cream
Nestle Milo Grab N Go can
Win Vokda Ice Purple XS
Heart shaped molds

Optional:
Razor blade
A few drops of blood from your veins

no heart

The first challenge was getting the heart shaped mold. It was much more difficult than I thought. Heart shaped molds should be everywhere, right? It’s just about the most common design! I thought it would be everywhere. Unfortunately, actually finding a heart shaped mold took us to three (3) different places, to no avail. We found molds in the shape of stars, triangles, circles, and even weird oblique designs…but no hearts.

big heart

The closest we got was this HUGE heart shaped non-stick baking pan…a bit of an overkill for this project. Plus, I don’t think I would be able to bleed enough to fill the pan. I would probably pass out from blood loss or something before the colossal pan filled up.

barbie

We finally managed to get two (admittedly) cheesy Barbie knockoffs molds from a Chinese specialty import outlet (the retail industry prefers the technical term “Cina Mari shop”). It’s made of melamine infused plastic and has a Barbie look-alike imprint, but it was heart shaped and for all intents and purposes, it was sufficient for the single-use, disposable nature of the project.

tim tams

The Arnott’s Tim Tams were procured in New Zealand. My sister just came back and brought back a box of the stuff. I went for the two romance-themed special edition Tim Tams for the project. Tim Tam Love Potions and Tim Tam Crush (as in infatuation, not demolish) are limited edition Tim Tams that I decided to use as a garnish for the pudding.

process

The directions for making the egg pudding were pretty straightforward – the contents of the packet is to be mixed into 500 ml of boiling water and stirred for an unspecified time. I just poured in a little more than a small 500 ml mineral water bottle (to compensate for evaporation) into a saucepan and added in the pudding mixture when it started boiling. The mixture was stirred for about a minute or so before I turned off the heat.

creamy blood

Next, comes the interesting part. I took a razor blade and made a small incision on my left hand at a particularly juicy vein and allowed the blood to drip into the Nestle Reduced Fat Cream – the topping for the pudding. This is of course, rather unorthodox (not to mention unsanitary for consumers who are not already exchanging bodily fluids with you ;)) so it’s a highly optional step.

blood harvest

I also took the liberty of scooping up more blood from the gash and managed to harvest about half a tablespoon of the red stuff in total.

topping

The blood is mixed into the cream by folding it with a spoon before adding a bit of Milo Grab N Go (a RTD – Ready To Drink malt concoction) for flavoring. The cream will acquire a tinge of pink before turning a chocolate hue. The cream topping is set aside…

pour mold

…while the pudding mixture is poured into the heart shaped molds and left at room temperature for 15 minutes. Field Song Egg Pudding Powder sets extremely rapidly. It started solidifying after just a minute in the mold. It still requires refrigeration though, so we transferred it to the fridge and left it in there for 30 minutes.

dallop

The egg pudding turned out to be a perfect heart shape! =D It came out easily from the mold due to the high density of the pudding. It just plopped down when the mold was upended. I added several dollops of the patented Bleeding Heart Topping (TM) on top and garnished it with Arnott’s Tim Tams.

project bleeding heart

This is Project Bleeding Heart – made with blood, sweat and (manly) tears. 😉

Project 3 1/2 Inch: Burgers for brunch

by

ingredients

I spent a nice weekend lazing around at home with Melody and decided to throw together some burgers for brunch. Well, here at sixthseal.com, all our cooking projects requires a catchy name and an irreverent goal, so this was dubbed Project 3 1/2 Inch – to make a burger that would have a height of at least three and half inches. 🙂

You will need:

Beef burger patties
Unbreaded crab flavored claws (this adds bulk and height, as well as taste)
Six (6) eggs
Burger buns
Arrack Putih (local distilled 50% alcohol)

arrack putih

Melody insists that Arrack Putih (translated as “bai jiu”) is meant for cooking. I vehemently disagree, having had more than my fair share of drinking cheap local liquor. It’s RM 5 – RM 10 for a 640 ml bottle containing 50% distilled liquor that tastes like vodka.

down

I have to applaud the local distilleries for marketing a high proof alcohol that doubles as an excuse for cooking purposes so stay-at-home moms can live in denial about their drinking habits. It’s the local equivalent of “just a nip of the cooking sherry”. 😉

drink

To prove my point, I downed a full glass of the alcohol neat, while Melody had 1/4 an inch of the stuff, also neat. She agreed it tasted like vodka too. This begs the question as to why we’re drinking the cheap stuff and the answer to that is simple…times are hard, my friends. 🙂

thaw

Anyway, after being imbued with some Dutch Courage (or Irish Motivation rather), I fired up the gas stove and heated some oil (coz we used up all the butter in the previous cooking expedition) in a frying pan…before remembering that the beef burger patties weren’t defrosted yet. Thus, we waited 30 minutes for it to thaw out and started with the crab claws.

crab claws

There happened to be some debate about how this should be done. I was in favor of steaming it, which she said was ridiculous since the metal instrument was way too tall for the wok to be of any use.

steam

She was all for boiling it in a pot of water with some salt, since that would not only quick defrost the crab claws but we could turn off the gas and control the heat so it’ll still be warm when the burgers are done.

boil

I agree in principal, but boiling will result in an unacceptable loss in the taste of the crab claws. Still, I went along since the ethanol was kicking in and I was in a cheerful disposition. =D

fry

Thus, with the disarmament peace talks reaching a positive conclusion, the beef burger patties were fried in vegetable oil. We fried four beef patties – two for each of us, while the crab claws were being boiled tasteless. 😉

oil

I’m not much of a health conscious person, which is pretty obvious by the way I live my life, but Melody insisted on lining the plate with tissue paper before putting the beef patties in to soak up the excess oil.

egg

However, there is on thing I excel at – The Ancient Art of Breaking an Egg with One Hand (!!!). =D

This is the sixthseal.com guide to breaking an egg with one hand. It serves no purpose whatsoever, but makes you look like you know what you’re doing in the kitchen. Chicks dig it. 😉

egg trick

Anyway, I soon realized that six (6) eggs would not make a paper thin wrap around the burger patties Ramly burger style due to the volume so I decided to just fry it all and make an omelet of sorts.

swirl egg

The sheer volume of the unborn chicken fetal material was a bit too much for the wok to handle, but I have a trick I learned while frying eggs in primary school (I love eggs!) which basically involves moving the liquid pooled inside the recessed wok out to the sides so it’ll cook faster…

eggs done

…and then use the spatula to move the cooked egg back in so more liquid egg can be displaced into the treasured hot surface area to the sides. It’s called The Swirling Egg Trick (TM). I’ve been doing it for ages. You’ll have an omelet up in no time using this method.

drain

Meanwhile, Melody started draining the crab claws. I didn’t have a strainer but she has some tricks up her sleeves as well, and managed to get the crab claws out. She dropped one into the sink though…

crab claws cooked

Crab claws are actually made of fish meat and flavored with crab flavoring – whatever that is. The flavoring industry has made leaps and bounds in their technology and I’m sure they can make an artificial flavoring that tastes exactly like you. 😉

me cutting

The problem with the kitchen at my place is that there’s really no proper cooking implements to speak of…bread knifes were nowhere to be seen. I tried my hand at cutting through the burger buns with a regular knife…

knife

…which didn’t work out so well,

melody cut

so Melody did the cutting instead.

process

The burger bun was sliced in half, and the beef patties layered on top of fried eggs before everything is topped with crab claws, peppered with…er, pepper, and doused with chilli sauce.

burger

It’s a huge gooey burger, but it tasted delicious!

burger project

It’s 3 1/2 inches. We measured. 🙂

eat

I must admit…I had a bit of a hard time eating it though…

Project Monsary – Pasta with roast beef and razor clams

by

ingredients

Project Monsary was initiated yesterday afternoon to commemorate my monsary with Melody. I cooked pasta with roast beef and razor clams for our lunner (lunch/dinner as opposed to brunch). Razor Roast Fusilli is the official designation I gave the dish – not very romantic, but it kinda rhymes. 😉

You will need:

Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara Pasta and Sauce
Fortune Razor Clams
Libby’s Roast Beef (“Great for Burritos”)
Absolut Vanilia
Wall’s Viennetta Kurma (dates) ice cream

alcohol

New readers of sixthseal.com might be wondering why there’s always alcohol involved in my cooking posts – the rational is simple, it’s better to drink and cook than drink and drive. 😉

You might need to get a mixer as well, I forgot that not everyone is an alcoholic and drinks it neat and straight from the bottle like me. 😉

butter

The Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara is a ready mix packet of pasta with the fusilli and (powdered) sauce in the packet. It’s kinda like the Italian version of ramen (our instant noodles) – just add water (and milk). I also forgot about getting milk and butter for the pasta, so it’s a good thing I manage to scavenge some from the fridge at home.

open

I also couldn’t find the automatic can opener so I had to use a manual one. We started up by opening the can of Libby’s Roast Beef, which comes parboiled and steam roasted in gravy.

exhibit a

I have to admit that Melody’s skillz in using a manual can opener is much better than mine. Exhibit A above shows the can she opened.

exhibit b

Exhibit B here shows the one I did. I’m a “shortest distance between two points is a straight line” kind of guy and I guess it manifests itself in all aspects of my life…including opening tinned food. 😉

razor clams

The razor clams were drained from the brine in the can and placed in an appropriate receptacle. You don’t need to cook the tinned razor clams, it’s ready to eat.

roast beef

This is Libby’s Roast Beef, which comes in nice, huge chunks complete with gravy. You have to heat it over a saucepan before serving, but it’s best to do it when the pasta is almost cooked so it’ll still be warm when served.

melody

I also didn’t have a measuring cup and this is where Melody’s pragmatic brain comes into play – she counted the columns on a standard 500 ml bottle of mineral water and told me where I should pour up to.

milk

The recipe calls for 125 ml of reduced fat milk (it’s a good thing I have low fat milk in the fridge since I neglected to RTFM while shopping for the cooking project)…

water

…and 310 ml of water. I just mixed the two together in the mineral water bottle (which doubles as a not-very-accurate measuring cup) for easier handling.

milk water

The land of milk and honey, I mean, water. I added more milk and less water since I want it to be creamier and also coz I’m not sure “reduced fat milk” is a synonym for “low fat milk”. 😉

polyblah

The recipe also calls for “salt reduced polyunsaturated table spread”. Jesus Christ, why can’t you just say BUTTER! 😉

teaspoon

It requires a teaspoon of the “salt reduced polyunsaturated table spread” (Continental must have very high regards for the English comprehension standard of their consumers) and I could not for the life of me find a teaspoon in the entire house. It’s nowhere to be found. There is no (tea)spoon.

agaration

Melody teaches me agaration.

The results of camwhoring while estimating a teaspoon of butter:

camwhore

1. Butter starts slipping from knife
2. Cell phone falls into butter when mouth opens to communicate
3. Cell phone gets sticky
4. Butter drops to the floor

mixture

Anyway, after the mess was cleaned up, the bottle with the water and milk is poured into a saucepan and the butter (margarine, actually) added into the mixture.

timer

I set my timer for 8 minutes…

p asta in

…and poured the Continental Creamy Bacon Carbonara mix into the saucepan. The saucepan was put on low heat and stirred occasionally.

heat beef

The roast beef should be stir fried in a wok at the 5-minute point to ensure the chunks are nicely heated up before the pasta is al dente.

matching plates

This is Melody with matching Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse plates for our pasta extravaganza.

pasta done

The pasta was done at the 9-minute mark – apparently I put in too much liquid and it needed more time to coagulate with the low heat that I was putting it on.

razor clams in

The pasta was heaped onto the plate and the roast beef chunks added in on the side before the razor clams is mixed into the pasta. The packaging states that it serves four (4) but Melody and I didn’t even find it filling for two!

final dish

This is what the dish looks like when it’s done. The hot pasta will heat up the razor clams so it will be warm and appetizing. 🙂

final dish macro

Here is a macro shot of Razor Roast Fusilli – it tastes more tempting that it sounds. Melody loved it and so did I.

walls kurma

This is what we had for dessert – it’s the limited edition Wall’s Viennetta Kurma (dates) ice cream. It’s only available during Hari Raya Puasa since dates are traditionally eaten during the breaking of fast.

kurma ice cream

It tasted delicious and rounded up a great meal. We shared the ice cream and finished it in one sitting. There are dates in the dessert ice cream and it tastes great with Absolut Vanilia.

kurma macro

I love cooking together with Melody and it was a great Monthsary together.

monsary

Muaks! I love you dear! =D

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...