The Art of Modern Wifery

I've always thought making ice cream without an ice cream maker is just too laborious. I figured it's one of those that I should just let Häagen-Dazs, Baskin Robins, and their buddies do their best and pay them for a job well done. Then 2 weeks ago, I picked up a "Coles" winter 2011 magazine and while waiting for my coffee, I saw this ice cream recipe. It only has 3 steps and doesn't require the salt and a bucket of ice.

As usual, adapted from Dilmah tea recipe, my version of rose tea framboise ice cream:

1/2 cup boiling water
3 tbs loose rose tea
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
300 ml cream
5 egg yolks (don't toss the egg white, use it for frittata or Chinese egg drop soup)
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp framboise essence - I picked framboise because I have it in my pantry and it is my mission to finish it before October

1. Combine tea and boiling water, cool, strain tea leaves
2. Combine tea, cream, milk, sugar,flavoring essence and egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl, and whisk until smooth. Place the bowl over a big pot of boiling water and stir with wooden spoon until mixture coats the back of a spoon (it takes longer than I expected, i say maybe about 30 min or so)
3. Place mixture in the freezer, check after about 20 minute and keep in the freezer until it's almost frozen. Add vanilla and beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Refreeze for about 1 hour (check every 20 minute or so) then re-beat until smooth. Freeze until firm (at this stage, I actually re-beat it again after 30 minute then freeze it until firm). Serve!

Note: I don't think the 1/2 cup boiling water is essential and next time, I'm going to cut the amount of sugar (I might try sugar free) and add chocolate chips!

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I think fried rice is one of the foods that is just lovable. There are so many versions of it too and it's also so easy to personalized and call it your own.

Msr. Quatre is a big fan of fried rice. Now, I think if I only make french toast for breakfast, pizza for lunch, and fried rice or chow mien for dinner everyday of the week, he will still be a happy man! But not me, I like variety, even with my fried rice. Although I'm pretty sure the Thai fried rice is basically curry fried rice, this is the first time I tried to make it. So as I felt like spicing up my fried rice the other night, I added the curry paste and...I'm glad that I did.

Curry Fried Rice (serve 6)
3 to 4 chicken thigh fillet
1 stalk lemon grass
2 green onions - chopped
1/2 cup chopped brown onion
2 shallots - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1/2 cup red pepper - cut into thin stripe (optional)
1 or 2 red chili - cut into thin stripe (optional)
curry paste (to taste)
fish sauce (to taste, I used about 3 tbs)
soy sauce (about 1 tbs) - Msr. Quatre insisted on soy sauce, I personally like it without
salt to taste
chili powder (optional)
6 to 7 cup of cooked jasmine rice

The night before, cut chicken into bite size and marinade them with some curry paste, lemon grass, and vegetable oil. Also make the rice (word of wisdom from my father, "if you want fried rice now, you make rice yesterday")

Heat oil in a large wok over medium heat (or since I don't have a wok, I use the biggest pan I have), add onion, shallot, garlic, chili, red pepper and curry paste, cook & stir until onion is translucent.

Add chicken and cook for about 4 minutes. Add rice, and stir fry for a few minutes. Use wooden spoon or chopstick to stir the grain and seperate them. Stir in the fish sauce and soy sauce (if using). Mix well and stir in green onions. Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Garnish with cilantro, shrimp cracker and fried egg omelette style to make it restaurant perfect!

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So Mme. SF and I invited some of our friends for an authentic American thanksgiving dinner last November. It was a wonderful feast and everybody was impressed with our turkey that some of my Indonesian friends are going to make an attempt to make one.

The trick to make turkey ready for dinner is to start early, I mean way early. I learned this the hardway; one thanksgiving, I started to cook at 4, and we ended up eating at 10 (HA!) So from the Better Homes Cookbook, here's to turkey!

Roast turkey (serve 12)
1 5 kg (about 10 lbs) turkey
salt (optional)
stuffing (optional)
butter (optional)
Any herb you want to use (optional and I used dried parsley)

Make sure the turkey is thaw and rinse the turkey body cavity (if desired); pat dry with paper towels. Rub body cavity with salt and spoon stuffing loosely into neck and body cavity. Do not overstuffed turkey! Pin turkey neck skin to back.

Tie drumsticks securely to the tail and twist wing tips under the back. (I say that it is as if the turkey is ready for sunbathing :P)

Place turkey, breast side up, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan. Brush skin with butter and the herb. Cover turkey loosely with foil.

Roast in a 160 C (325F) oven for 2 1/4 hours. Remove foil, cut string between drumsticks. Continue roasting for 30 - 45 minutes (or 1 to 1 1/4 hours if stuffed) or until thermometer registers 82C (180F) and if stuffed, stuffing shound registers 73C (165F). Make sure that the juices run clear and drumsticks move easily in their socket.

Remove turkey from oven. cover with foil, let stand for 15 to 20 minutes before carving.

Word of precaution: It always takes me longer than the stated time when I roast turkey. I think it is due to my oven and the fact that I constantly peek at my turkey because I just can't wait for it to be cook. The best way is to invest on a meat thermometer and check the temprature to make sure its doneness.

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Who doesn't love food on a stick? I mean think about it! Hot dog is good but hot dog on a stick is deliciousness. So you may think grill chicken is all that...but put it on a stick aka chicken sate and you'll have a new favorite :)

My chicken sate is my style of Indonesian chicken sate. It's easy to make (even my sister made a good one) and as passed the test from a panel of international judge. As any other Indonesian food, it doesn't have a set recipe. So just like what I said to my little sister, just smell it, if it's smell right, then it'll turn out good.

La famille de numero quatre' Chicken Sate
1 lb Chicken thigh fillet
2 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbs (or more) corriander powder (for food processor) or seeds (for mortar and pestle)
salt to your liking
Sweet soy sauce - the amount of sweet soy sauce depends on the amount of chicken, but I'm guessing maybe 1/4 to 1/3 cup
Skewers!

For peanut sauce
1 clove of garlic
a handfull of peanut
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup hot water
salt
2 tsp sweet soy sauce
1 chilli (optional)

Cut chicken into bite size and set them aside in a big bowl. In a food processor (or to make it more authentic, mortar and pestle) blend shallots, garlic and corriander powder/seeds, and salt to paste.

Add the shallot paste to the chicken and add enough sweet soy sauce to cover chicken. Then smell it! you should be able to smell shallot mix with corriander and the sweetness from the soy sauce

Marinate overnight to 2 days. The day you want to grill your sate, soak skewers in water. Thread chicken on to skewers. Grill chicken until just cooked through.

While chicken is grilling, start working on the peanut sauce, crush garlic, peanut, salt, and chili (if using). Mix peanut butter and hot water (1 tbs at a time) in a bowl until peanut butter reach sauce consistency. Add the crush peanut and sweet soy sauce and mix. You can add more sweet soy sauce or salt or any spices to your liking. Transfer sauce to a plate.

Transfer chicken to a plate, serve warm with warm rice and the peanut sauce. YUMMY!

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So this is the kind of dish I didn't think I would ever make at home. But after tasting Mme. SF' masterpiece, I was convinced that good pizza is basically homemade. Now I admit that I make bread now and then, but I have to say bread making is not my favorite kitchen activity. It's messy and I find it a little bit harder to clean. Nonetheless, my pursuit of good pizza has led me to this pizza dough making experience.

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I tried this recipe a quite sometime ago, and I liked how it turned out although I used the powdered garlic and omitted the ginger. This time, I actually used freshly grated ginger and garlic, and Msr. Quatre and I thought I've made a completely new dish. I served the fish on top of Asian style couscous (instead of the regular butter, and stock, and cumin, I used soy sauce and sesame sauce) and broccoli and onion stir fry, but I think this will be good with just plain rice and bok choy.

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Well summer is coming and that means....BBQ season! And here is one of my favorite side dish for the event. It's easy to make, scrumptious, and best of all, it contains BACON. I had Msr. et Mme. SF tried this salad and now I have been pressured to post the recipe. So it is a safe dish to have to your next gathering as it is guests tested and just watch how it'll be one of the first dish that will be gone at the end of the shenanigans.

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Have you ever found yourself with super - super ripe bananas in your kitchen? Well apparently, while I was gone on my vacation, Msr. Quatre is hooked to fried banana and has been buying ripe bananas. So when I got home, I found 6 overripe bananas. I am too cheap to toss them but I just hate (I repeat HATE) the smell and the taste of overripe banana.

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Love frying but don't like the lingering odor it left behind? I know I do! Fried food are one of my favorite thing to eat (for me if it's deep fried then I'll eat it - and trust me, I had farm cockroach in Thailand, and the reason I had it was because it was deep fried!) but frying is definitely the last thing I want to do in the kitchen. Thinking about the mess and the stale oil it left behind, usually makes me take out the steamer and convince myself that I need to be healthier by eating steamed food.

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Do you remember what is the first recipe you tried? Well as for me, I think this is one of my first recipe I tried and actually wrote on an index card. It passed in-laws and guests inspection and it has always been a good people pleaser. I've made it with regular chicken but I find that the smoked chicken will actually give your taste buds much more satisfaction.

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So I've wrote more about my cooking on this blog but I am trying to get it to cover everything about the art of wifery (is wifery even a word??). To start, here is a useful tip that might come in handy.

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I used to think that it is just easier to buy bread than to make one. Thinking about the mess from kneading, flour dust, sticky dough all around the kitchen, it'll create usually make me run into the store and buy the most expensive loaf. But then I get to know Mme. SF here in Melbourne. She made gourmet pizza for lunch one day and the fact that Msr. no Quatre once proclaimed that bread is one of his favorite foods other than pizza (yeah I say it's same different), the tiny voice in my head screamed at me that I should at least try bread making.

I got this recipe from www.steamykitchen.com which is adapted from mark Bittman from the NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery which has been adapted again by Rose L Beranbaum (it's like saying the sister of a sister in law of a friend of a friend haha).

No Knead Bread

3 cups bread flour

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp table salt

1 1/2 cup warm water (my water was about 125F/50C)

Combine ingredients and mix with wooden spoon until dough just comes together. It'll be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit on the counter for 12 - 20 hours.

With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. With wet hand, fold the edges of dough and form into a ball-ish shape. Generously dust flour on a cotton towel (don't sneeze or the little mess part is history) and set dough seam side down on top of the towel. Cover and let sit for 2 hours

Place covered pot (make sure your pot and its cover are oven proof!) in the oven and preheat to 450 F/230 C . Remove pot from oven, and dump dough into pot. Cover and bake for 30 min. Uncover and bake for 15 - 2o minutes or until the crust is golden. Remove from pot. Now the hard part: let it cool in the wire rack. Happy eating!

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Of all ways you cook your food, I say my favorite will be grilling. Of course, outdoor BBQ is the ultimate grilling experience, but since a BBQ cost an arm and a leg here in the land of the down under, a stove top grill is an excellent substitute. I love my grill pan, got it at Costco a while back and I use at least once a week. So last week I made sweet grilled chicken (Indonesian style), it was delicious and quite easy to make. Although Msr. Quatre thinks it was a long process for the dish, I said it was well worth it. I forgot to take a picture, but it was "guest" tested and just yummy!

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Lately, I've been having fried banana fever. I think it is one of my favorite desserts of all time. It is easy to make, cheap, contain no sugar, yet very delicious. Through out years of experimenting, I've found my favorite technique of frying my bananas. The trick is to press (or I say massage) the banana lightly before putting it on the frying pan.

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I know that eating vegetable is supposed to be good for you, let you live long (and prosper hopefully), and bla.bla..bla..but for as long as I ever remember, I've always a steak kinda gal. Sure, I had a "I'm going to be a vegetarian" phase during college, but that only last until I drove pass Phil's BBQ or about 2 weeks. I had to go to that Albertsons (a grocery store) where it happens to be about 2 blocks away from Phil's (haha)

Anyway, as I have more information on how healthy veggies really are (and lost my ability to lose 4 lbs just by skipping lunch for the 1st half of the week), I've been trying to include more veggies in our diet. And Tadaa...now we have vegetarian night. So far it has been good and I've tried several veggie recipes that are not my usual vegetables stir fry (the soy sauce and sesame oil magic). The good thing about this culinary expedition is I get to try Indian and the Mediterranean cuisine.

Learned from mon amie', also a self-proclaimed chef de cuisine, friend, I managed to whip out tomato curry and aloo gobi (thanks to www.manjulaskitchen.com)

Tomato Curry
1 onion
10 tomatoes
1/4 tsp (or less) fenugreek seeds (use very little or your curry will turn bitter)
1 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional & use at your own risk)

Heat oil until it's hot (Test it by adding 1 cumin seed to the pot and if it's start to crackle, then you're good to go). Add mustard seeds, fenugreek, and cumin seeds until they're crack (a little warning: do add onion right away or you might find mustard seeds around the kitchen 1 week after you make this)

Add onion and cook for 5 minutes/ until translucent. Add tomato & curry powder. Stir and cover. Cook until tomatoes are soft. Add salt & mix well. If tomato curry look dry, add a little water or milk. Serve hot

Aloo Gobi
2 cups cauliflowers
2 med. potatoes (cubed)
1 small onion
3 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
3 tbs water
3 tbs oil
pinch of asafetida (I don't have this one and it turns out fine)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
green chilies & ginger (optional) - shredded
2 bay leaves
1 tsp salt (to taste)
2 tbs chopped cilantro
water as needed

Deep fry potatoes until golden (So I tweaked this part, but I just love how the final textures of the potatoes. Beside who doesn't like fried potatoes, I mean french fries, that's right french fries not chips, are delish!)

In a small bowl, mix shredded ginger, coriander powder, cayenne pepper, turmeric, and 3 tbs of water to make paste.

Heat oil in a pan until it's hot. Add asafetida & cumin seeds, after seeds crack, add bay leaves, onion, and green chilies. Stir until onion become soft. Add spice paste & stir ' til spices start leaving the oil

Add cauliflower. Add salt & 2 tbs water. Mix well. Cover & cook until veggies are soft. Add potatoes and stir

Turn off stove, add cilantro, mix well. Let stand for 1 min. Serve hot with a roti on the side.

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I think Mac n Cheese is a very American dish; in fact, I didn't know its existence until I got to live in America. The first time I had the box Mac n Cheese, I thought that it was OK and didn't really care for it. Several years later, a group of us went to a restaurant and they told me how good their Mac n Cheese is, so I gave it another go, started to open up to this dish, and now it's in our occasional week meal (not because i don't like it, but face it, I don't want to get fat).

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As msr. no. quatre is the one who is responsible to provide weekend meals, we mostly end up in restaurants. So this Monday, I decided to make a light simple dinner. I came up with fresh tomato basil soup with a side of samosas and turkish bread. And since the husband was finishing up work and gave me the "I'll be done in a sec" response, I decided to make my meal a li'l bit pretty.

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As my husband is so into smoothies right now, we've been storing a lot (and I mean A LOT) of fruit. The beauty of smoothie is that you could just throw any fruit imaginable (sans banana) add a little ice, blend them together, and it'll always turn out refreshing and OH-SO-VERRY-YUMMY. So this morning, in an effort to use all of our "should we toss it or eat it" fruits, he made what I call "BERRY PASSIONATE SMOOTHIE"

Here is what how I imagined our über juice bar menu would say

BERRY PASSIONATE SMOOTHIE
We take a handful of fresh strawberries, blueberries, and passion fruits and passionately mix all of those nature goodness with a cup of milk and a hint of orange sorbet.

Here's how a sensible wifery would write on her recipe card
12 fresh strawberries
1 cup of blueberries
4 passion fruits
1 cup of milk
1 scoop of orange sorbet
ice

Direction: Mix everything in the blender and blend. TADA!

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