The Sugar Bar

My mum has ears like a bat. And I, whenever I’m shopping for clothes, cosmetics, or simply groceries, am always found making verbal wishes: Really want some mussels; Fancy some really good warm bread now with just a little bit of butter; I could do with some king prawns for a paella this weekend; Oh wow, the lamb rack is going pretty cheap now!…I think it’s an annoying habit since I sorta do it unconsciously. But sometimes, it’s a good thing since I’ll in some weird spur of the moment remember the things I lusted after, jot them down in a list and stick it up on a 3M sticky note as my new List of Definite ‘To Buys’. Shit. I’m a materialistic, greedy fatty betty. Cursed for life with this horrible disposition.

It so happened that mum remembered my wish for lamb rack and since I coveted it so much, she bought an Australian rack and another from New Zealand. Both were fresh, looked gorgeously red and juicy. The only difference between the two was the colour of the meat. When cooked, both were to die for. Equally succulent and tender. When mum came home with the beautiful cuts of lamb in her grocery bags, I was overcome with a mix of anticipation and absolute fear. I’m just not good with cooking red meat. It simply isn’t my forte. I don’t eat a lot of red meat but when I do, I love it medium to medium-rare if possible. And to others, it may seem like I’m not cooking it for long enough and that may be likely since I am rather clueless as well with red meats. But they always turn out fairly edible and delicious. Thus far, I’ve never given myself food-poisoning either. So I suppose that’s a good thing, huh. Nevertheless, this time’s different. The pressure is on. Cooking for the family is a stressful affair as my parents are quite picky eaters and mum will not be afraid to point out the areas found totally lacking and unsatisfying. Yep, tough love runs in the family. 

I was pretty nervous all day, worrying about how the rack would turn out. I just didn’t want to mess it up and throw about 70 bucks worth of rack into the bin. That would just be awful. I was glad that I had some support from friends on Twitter. Sitting on the stairs (I don’t get no internet connection in the kitchen), nervously documenting the cooking process to friends was simply one of my darker kitchen moments. But thankfully, it all worked out fine. I was little upset that we didn’t have proper carving knives (or at least, the one we had was nowhere to be found) and so most of the crust ended up falling off the lamb as we literally manhandled the rack to split it into individual ribs. Shame. But still delicious. Surprisingly, the honey mustard I used as a marinade and glue to hold the crust gave the lamb a lot of flavour, even if I chose not to marinade it for an hour or so. The meat was extremely tender and succulent. I didn’t think it needed some kind of sauce as I wanted to taste the lamb as it was, thus keeping the dish simple and true to itself.

The crust was seriously, and I really mean like seriously, good. Garlic and cranberry is honestly one of the best combinations of flavours ever. Totally loved the crust. I could eat that shit all day. Munch on it 24/7, giving myself water breaks to wash it down probably. And then carry on. Somehow I’m thinking the crust and sour cream in a jacket potato could be a new heaven for me. 

Dinner wasn’t impressive or restaurant quality, but it felt a little bit like Sunday Roast. Just homely and chilled out. And hey, it’s just me cooking, what do you expect? But I was very happy with my success and I think I got the thumbs-up from almost everyone. Definitely a keeper of a recipe. I have a feeling the dogs felt the same. Every time I opened the oven, the dogs went wild. Dashing about in the garden, barking like the apocalypse was near. Absolute pandemonium. My dogs love lamb, which is supposed to be really good for their bones and fur coat, or something like that. We used to feed them mutton bones (for some strange reason) but it got a little bit of a costly expense so obviously, scrapped that habit pretty quickly. Anyhow, the dogs got all the lamb rib bones and some leftover potato skins. They couldn’t have been happier. I think the rest of the family was pretty happy too. 

Cranberry & Herb-Crusted Rack of Lamb
Ingredients

2 racks of lamb, 8 ribs each
a heaped 1/2 cup full of breadcrumbs
4 tbs dried whole cranberries
a sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped
2 tsp dried thyme
3 tbs honey mustard marinade
3 garlic cloves, skin removed
1 large shallot, skin removed
freshly ground black pepper, for seasoning
crushed sea salt, for seasoning
olive oil
serve with your choice of vegetables

Preheat oven to 220d Celsius.

Combine cranberries, fresh rosemary, thyme, garlic, and shallot in a food processor; Pulse. Remove from processor then add breadcrumbs and season well to taste.

To prepare the rack, wrap the rib bones with aluminium foil to prevent charring. Spread honey mustard over lamb and massage in. When it comes to red meat, be prepared to get down and dirty so make sure hands are clean and nails trimmed. Next, pat breadcrumb mixture into mustard marinade on the lamb. Press on any bits that fall off and it should stay on. Drizzle on some olive oil before placing lamb on a broiler pan, meat side up, in the oven to cook.

This should roast for 35-40 minutes for medium-rare to medium. After removing from the oven, leave lamb covered for 10 minutes. Slice rack into chops to serve.

Baked Potatoes or Student-style Jackets
Ingredients

5 medium-sized baking potatoes or US Russetts, which makes 5 servings
square of salted butter for each potato
dollop of sour cream for each potato (optional)
your choice of filling (optional)

Wash and scrub potatoes, then pat dry with a kitchen towel. WIth a fork, pierce the potatoes all over.

Preheat the oven to 200d Celsius, or you can simply use the already heated oven you’ve got for the lamb rack.

Place in microwave, and on high power, microwave for 4 minutes. Turn the potatoes over and repeat the process for another 4 minutes. You should be able to pierce through the potatoes with a fork with relative ease. If there is a little resistance, microwave for another 2 minutes. Now whack it in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, or till the skin has gone nice and crisp and the insides are soft and fluffy when cut through.

Split open down the middle, throw in some butter, sour cream and whatever garnishes you like. Or if you’re going for a student-style jacket, cheese and beans it is!

I am looking back into the past but I’m not writing about my life’s greatest hits – the food edition. Well, not really. But a plate of chow mein the way my mum used to make it back in the day with tomato ketchup was certainly a fab lunch treat to come home to after school. You see, in primary school, I had 3 out of 6 years of morning session classes; meaning, I got up well early at 6 in the morning to get to school for 7.20, looked forward to my packed lunch somewhere around 10 and then got saved by the bell at 12.50. Our lunchbreak for me, however, was never enough. Not that my packed lunch wasn’t sufficient. Rather, I was a growing kid who needed plenty of food to grow in both mind and body. So by the time I had gotten home and kicked off my dirty school shoes, I was starving.

I remember I’d sit in front of the TV with a glass of juice waiting for lunch and something like Ninja Turtles or Transformers would be playing on the cartoon channel which made life so much better. Chow mein was one of my favourite lunches. Really tasty, good-looking and quick to make. There was nothing I could fault it for. Another thing was, it was perfect for mum’s refrigerator-cleaning days when all the old stuff had to be cooked or chucked out. Sometimes, leftover meats got thrown into the wok as well and wooohooo. I never complained. We all know leftovers taste great the day after anyway! It’s a fact of life.

We used to visit this family restaurant, Baystreet 21, almost religiously every Sunday. It served a range of local and western dishes. It was always busy. The ambience was nice, the seats were comfy and us little kids loved to bounce around on it so it’d make squishy or farty noises. Year after year, as their clientele grew in size, the restaurant got busier and bigger. The kitchen got noisier and the staff got less friendly. But the food was good, the prices affordable and my dad got along awfully well with the restaurant manager. You could say this was our local ‘diner’. It was a place where families could take their naughty children for a good meal out, have a three course meal at affordable rates in a comfy, homey restaurant. And it was always really fun to watch the parents on the other table struggle with their bratty, spoon-banging children (we were always the most well-behaved ones). One of their memorable dishes, other than the fish & chips, was the chow mein. The first time I ordered it, I was quite blown away by the mammoth portion of noodles which were topped with heck loads of shredded lettuce and a sunny side up. But that plate of chow mein swept me off my feet because of that egg. It was like the whole thing was smiling up at me. Cracking the yolk and having it ooze all over the noodles was a little bit of heaven too.

I’ve had chow mein takeaways since then and my own stir-fry noodles on lazy cooking days. Odd as it sounds, however, the chow mein + sunny side up combo has somehow eluded me. I found myself wanting that little bit of heaven. A simple heaven within easy reach.

I admit this chow mein recipe looks nothing fancy but that’s the beauty of it. It’s nothing fancy. Use whatever you’ve got and it still ends up a pretty voluptuous dish. It’s not as soy sauce-ish, oyster sauce-ish as what you’d normally get at an eatery or takeaway but I love this ketchup-version nonetheless. Chow mein is all about the ethic of using what you’ve got anyway and turning the odd bits into a tasty treat.

This recipe serves 3-4. I don’t use a lot of soy sauce or salt in cooking so you might want to have additional salt (to taste).

Chow Mein with Sunny Side Up
Ingredients

3 packets of Chinese egg/yakisoba/ramen noodles
1/2 cup minced chicken, marinated with 1 tsp soy sauce
1 large carrot, peeled and shredded
4-5 leaves of hang bok cabbage, shredded
1 large stalk spring onion, chopped
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tbs ginger, thinly sliced
2 tbs hsao shing wine
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tbs sesame oil
few shakes of shichimi tōgarashi, for garnish (optional)
few shakes of white pepper
vegetable oil, for cooking

For the sunny side up:
1 medium-sized egg
1 tbs butter

You can use whatever noodles you have at hand. Chinese egg noodles are real nice but I prefer using yakisoba noodles because you can get them in handy packets and I prefer slightly thinner noodles than egg ones.

Soak the noodles in cold water for a minute or two and use your fingers to ruffle through it to separate the strands, think of yourself washing someone’s long hair in a wash basin full of water. Drain away the water then set aside.

In a hot wok over medium heat, heat up some cooking oil and the sesame oil. Add the ginger and onions and sauté. Add the minced chicken and stir fry. Now add the carrots, hang bok cabbage, hsao shing, white pepper and stir fry. Cover the wok with lid, turn the heat to low-medium and let cook for a bit.

In a small bowl, mix together the 2 tbs soy with 1 tbs ketchup. Remove wok lid and add the noodles, chopped spring onions and mixed seasoning. Stir to coat well, making sure the noodles are completely cooked through. When done, serve hot with sunny side up on top. Garnish with shichimi tōgarashi if you like.

For the eggs:
In an egg pan or frying pan over medium heat, add some butter. When the butter is hot enough, crack the egg onto the pan and lower heat.

The egg will start cooking rather quick so be careful. Cover the pan with a lid for 2-3 minutes whilst the egg cooks over low heat. Check on it to make sure the edges don’t get too brown and crisp. If it does remove from heat and shake the pan to loosen the egg from the pan. To get the top nicely cooked, baste the top of the egg with the melted butter in the pan.

When done, all the whites should have cooked through and firmed up. The top of the yolk should be a matte colour, without its uncooked glistening sheen, and warm to touch.

Serve on top of your chow mein.

I have a disease and it’s not curable. And when it worsens, my financial health goes plummeting as well. This sticky situation one may be familiar with and call it the Shoppers’ Syndrome. I believe the release of the film ‘Confessions of a Shopaholic’ is an overt sign from the heavens to me. In other words, flippin’ sort my life out. Cut up all credit cards, debit cards, throw away VIP shoppers accounts, leave your Kate Spade wallet at home, ban yourself from getting on the train into town, ignore magazine adverts (this is going to be hard since my language paper focuses on beauty adverts) and so forth. Generally, practice self-restraint!

What a bummer.

Just when I was having fun, I now have to be very careful with my awful spending habits. And therefore, cooking becomes a little more exciting too. The task of the month? 1) Using ingredients to the max, i.e. cooking dishes that can last me forever. Right, I do exaggerate. But last me long enough so that I can delay the next trip to the supermarket. 2) Cooking dishes that I can keep for the next day. Given, I am a lazy arse. But this time that isn’t my excuse. Staying in the library working on my paper for 7 hours straight can really take it out of me. Living away from my parents, specifically from my mum, makes me miss home-cooking very much. Makes me miss coming back to mum’s dinner and eating with the rest of the family. A little tired, a little dizzy, cooking dinner for 1 is something I’m starting to feel a little restless and annoyed about. So it’s an easy way out when I can take out a pre-prepared meal (by myself, not by Tesco’s or Sainsbury’s or M&S), whack it in the microwave or oven and then tuck in.

Pre-prepared meals, especially if storebought, are usually rather boring. And in my dictionary of cooking/food, dishes can be as quirky, weird, special, and most importantly as fun as possible. This curry was created in a rather haphazard way, the process sort of like a try and error. A little special, not very aesthetically appealing. Very different from the usual Chicken Korma, Lamb Jalfrezi, etc. However, this was tasty as! And with the spices, it kept me nice and warm in front of the telly for Comic Relief, warming me-self well and good.

From now on, when I’m feeling a little dead inside, a little in need of comfort food, my advise? Eat curry!

What sort of curry? Get creative. Be special.

This makes about 2 large servings.

Tuna, Apple & Raisin Curry
Ingredients

1 can tuna, in springwater
about 3/4 cup water
1/2 can chopped tomatoes, with juices
1/2 a red onion, chopped
2 tbs balti curry paste
1/4 cup raisins
1/2 a Pink Lady apple, chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp hot chili powder
pinch of ground cinnamon

Heat some oil in a deep pan or wok. Add the onions and sauté. Now add the apples and sauté. Add the paprika and cumin and fry. Add the tuna followed by the balti curry paste and cook for about a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, water and ground cinnamon, turning the heat down and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste curry a little in between the cooking process and should it need more spices, add a little by little to taste.

Serve with naan bread or rice. If kept til the next day, I suggest frying this with rice for an amazing curry fried rice!