Thai Stir Fry Chicken with Cashew Nut

This dish is not complicated so any person can cook easily. Cashew Nut Chicken, is either a Chinese or a Thai Dish, which I am not sure, but my version has a lot of herbs that I consider as of Thai origin.

This dish is really flavourful, as it comprises of many herbs, which are rich in flavour that simply burst into your mouth. The important thing is to use the right amount of chillies to suit your taste buds. I got the thai bird's eye chillies which is considered quite spicy, well, to suit my Indian taste buds.

I used chicken fillet which I cut into bite size pieces, and marinate with fish sauce and oyster sauce.

The ingredients that you would need are chopped " serai" or lemongrass, red and bird's eye chillies, kaffir lime leaves, mint leaves. lime and of course cashew nit, which you roast. Seasonings that you would use are fish sauce, and oyster sauce. Oops..don't forget the onions

Heat up the wok, put in the onions, chopped lemongrass, chillies and chicken, and stir fry in a really hot wok, Add in fish sauce and oyster sauce, as per your taste. Add on about a tablespoon of lime juice an cook until chicken pieces are tender. Slow down the fire and add the kaffir lime leaves and mint leaves. Switch off the fire and the cashew nuts to maintain its crunch! Serve with steaming hot rice, is the best way to enjoy, this simply flavourful, spicy and yummy dish.

For the next day, if you have left overs, just fry it with egg and rice, and you have a Thai version of fried rice...

Lunch the next day, cashew nut fried rice with deep fried spicy squid! Life cannot get any simpler...

Very, very Simple Thai Fish Cakes

This recipes is very, very simple because I did not prepare the fish paste on my own. I found a simple way getting this done. But before that, just an introduction about fish cakes itself...Thai Fish Cakes are a common street food in Thailand, and are very flavorful compared to most Western fish cake or even the Indian Fish Cutlet. Thai Fish Cakes are purely made of fish, mixed with spices and herb unlike the Indian Cutlets which is mixed with potato.

My recipe is very simple, as it works well, if you are in a hurry. I bought the Otak Otak paste. which you can get in any hyper market. This mixture is already spiced up and ready to be steamed, so it does not need a lot preparation or cooking. You just have to be creative... I added on some chillies, kaffir lime leaves, coriander, 1 egg  and a teaspoon of  sweet chilli paste (as per picture below)

 Let the paste set in the fridge for about 1 hour (minimum) so you will get a batter that you can easily handled. Deep fry them in hot oil, and they should be ready to be eaten. These cakes are best eaten fresh out of the oil while they're still hot and juicy. Served them with or without rice, and accompany with Thai sweet chili sauce, chopped cucumber, fresh coriander, and a squeeze of lime juice. Simply delicious!

Delicious @ 1 U

Delicious in 1 U is also another favourite hangout with my fellow friends, simply for the wonderful dessert and really delicious cuisine. However, the only setback is the service which needs way, way more improvement. So now let's just look into the good part, which is the food....Some of my favorite dishes are :

Crispy Fried Mushrooms with Aioli - RM15.90

The mushrooms are deep fried, and coated which just enough of batter, which keep the insides juicy and the outer part really crispy. I am a huge fan of mushrooms, so this dish is simply my favourite appetizer.

Teriyaki Chicken Burger on Crumbed Doughnut with Coriander Aioli & a side of Fries -RM24.90

A friend of mine tried the teriyaki burger, and commented that the patty was really compact with meat, and the teriyaki sauce had just the right amount of sweetness to it.

Pasta with Shitake Mushroom & Sundried Tomato - RM8.90

The good thing about Deicious is that they have a wide range of vegetarian choices which are equally delicious despite the lack of meat. The above pasta is a vegetarian dish among many more.This pasta, I think is with garlic olive oil.

Mushroom Mascarpone Spaghettini with Lemon Zest, Walnuts & Coriander-  RM25.90

I did not try this spaghettini, but this other vegetarian option is definitely highly recommended by my friend who tried it.

Pan-seared Crispy Skin Salmon served with Coriander Relish, Asparagus & Fried Potatoes-RM41.90

This was my dish for the day, and in my opinion, the salmon here is much better than Friday's option. The mint pesto or sauce was really, with just a hint of tanginess to it. I enjoyed the fried potatoes, which had a crips skin and soft insides.

Teriyaki Salmon Steak with stir-fried Soba noodles, Pea Sprouts & Asparagus - RM32.90

The other choice of salmon dish is under the Easter section, which is served in teriyaki sauce, and soba. I had this dish before, and it was good, but my "like" would go for the Crispy Skin Salmon with the yummy potatoes.

 Another favorite of mone is the Spicy Crabmeat Liguinne which I felt was really flavourful, especially with the arugulla, whihc infused the minty taste into this dish.

Another vegetarian option that we tried was the spagetthi with basil pesto, which is highly recommended.

Coconut Cake with Fresh Coconut Filling covered with Hawaiian Coconut Shavings -RM12.90

Despite the not so good service, a visit to Delicious is not a waste because of the food. Bear in mind, that it is a little bit on the pricey side, but it is okay to indulge yourself in a while.

I would definiitely make another trip for their desserts and maybe the breakfast menu!

1000 Layer Cake from Malacca

To tell you the truth, I have never heard about the 1000 layer cake from Malacca, until my husband made a trip recently. He called me and asked me if I wanted to try the cake.This famous cake is from Nadeje Cafe in Malacca, which specializes in mille crepe, a French cake made of many layers. Mille, means a thousand in French, but I don't know if it really has 1000 layers. Well, count if you can :)

The cake comes in many flavour, where only the top layer is flavoured. The cake is rather creamy,and really filling. I could hardly finish a piece. The interesting this is although there were many, many, many layers, but it held the cake together. Even if you plunge the fork in, the cake does not collapse.

The above is Praline flavoured cake.

This is the Mocha flavoured cake., alternate mocha crepe and sweet cream.

TGIF Mozzarella Stick...Right off the freezer

Sometimes a working mom just gets tired and the demands of a13 year old is just too much. So on a day like that, I will just go to the freezer and pick something easy-peasy. On this night, I found the TGIF Mozzarella Sticks.

These mozzarella stick are a gift from heaven which can be ready in a jiffy for my son cravings. Not much of a recipes, so here it goes...

Although the recommended method is to bake them, but mozzarella stick are meant to be fried.

Look at the ooowy gooowy goodness.... yum yum...yum Can it get more sinful?

So we ended up with a happy son and a happy mom...

Ponnagatti Leaves..Yummy and Healthy Indian Vegetables

Ponnaganti or Water Amaranth is a leafy vegetable mainly available in South India. These leaves are rich source of iron. An old aunty told me once that these leaves are comparable to 'Gold', because there are tons of health benefits. These leaves are specifically very good for our eyes. 

I was in Brickfileds the other day, and found this leafy vegetable in one of the Indian shops. For RM1.00 per bundle, it would definitely make not only a healthy but affordable Sunday lunch. 

These leaves needs to plucked off the stems, and it was indeed a tedious job.

This is how the leaves look like....

I made a simple stir fry of the veges. Start with onions, mustard seeds(a pinch), urad dhall ( a pinch)  and dried chillies, fried in about a tablespoon of oil. Then add on coconut.

Fry the coconut until fully coated and then add in the vegetables. Fry them well, as they tend to be a little bitter when undercooked.

And yum yum..served with steaming hot rice, and maybe a curry...goes mighty well !

Desserts in One U

One U will no longer my lunch hang out very soon, and what I am going to miss most is my desserts. There is no shortage for dessert hang outs, and girls being girls, we love our desserts..so here it goes.

Hui Lau Shan Healthy Desserts

It is all about mangoes . The desserts come in small servings and gives a chance for us to divulge ourselves in variety. The first is this threesome, which forgot the name, a mango cake, mango and glutinous rice in mango juice and mandolin cubes, slices of coconut with mango ice cream. We were told that the mangoes are from the Philippines.

The mango cake is simply lovely with the crust and a layer of icy cream and chunks of mango slices in between. 

Next,the combination of mango chunks and glutinous rice is good where the mango are sweet and  the chewiness of the glutinous rice goes hand in hand.

 Mango which is served together with coconut flesh  as well as a scoop of home-made mango ice cream is a simply divine.The ice cream is quite milky but each of every bites really comes with the tasty munch of fragrant mango taste.

The other trio that we had also had the two option, but instead of the mango cake, we got the mango mochi. The Mango Mochi was not sticky but it also had a little jewel of mango cream inside.Topped with shredded coconut made the overall delights even more tempting. For a mango fiesta head down to Hui Lan Shan.

Chocolate Brownie @ Vivo.

Vivo is the famous joint for Pizza for me and my buddies, but we managed to save a shot was our dessert. The chocolate brownie was nothing to shout about, but nothing to complain too. Aa fine ending of meal, it did play its part...

Petite Millie

Petite Millie is a European style dining place that is not heavy in your wallet. My post is about the desserts we had there. We had the mascarpone, Creamy Italian style soft cheese with Manfredi coffee soaked sponge fingers. I cannot even begin to tell you how amazing this version of Tiramisu is – soft 

lady fingers soaked in strong coffee nestled in rich mascarpone cheese cream lightly dusted with dark cocoa. And the macaroons, oh...yum ohh yum....the rainbow colored macaroon, where a little confusing, as we tried guessing the flavours... But they were great ! 

Vietnam House, One Utama

Vietnam House is located in One Utama, and one of my favourite places for lunch. It is  not easy to find a good Vietnamese restaurant in KL and I seriously believe this Vietnam House is one of it. They serve ala carte and set meals.

On our first visit, with only 3 of us, we ordered the set meal which is more worth for money(RM16.90) as it comes with the soup, salad, appetizer and a dessert. The set meal comes with Vietnamese wanton which is what I look forward to (below)

 I had the set with sweet sour fish fillet, which  was very good. It was sweet and slightly spicy and goes hand in hand with the steamed white rice served in a very cute clay pot :). Some might find it a little dry, though...

 The soup has a clean, fresh. light taste with tofu bits.

Chicken with Lemongrass is one of the recommendation of the restaurant. It was a curry chicken with lemongrass and chillies is being served in the claypot. A friend opted for the bamboo fried rice. The fried rice is being stir fried and it is then being served in the bamboo. The ingredients includes prawns as well as the quail egg makes the rice even perfect.

The 2nd time we went with a bigger group and had the opportunity to try out ala carte dishes. We ordered 2 types of appetizers, Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Prawn Skewers.These appetizers came authenthic baskets.The spring rolls are refreshing and consist of of some carrot,cucumber,white carrot and prawn, and served with a special dip.

We had the Claypot Chicken Curry, which was quite good. Being an Indian, with our famous fiery tasting curries, I expected a bland curry from Vietnam but they amazed me. Though not spicy, it was aromatic and flavourful. The chicken was cooked tenderly and tasty.

   We had some other dishes, mixed veges and tofu with minced meat which I did not get a chance to get a photo..too bad.

But I made sure I got a shot of the authentic original traditional old school Vietnamese drip coffee.

Vietnam House is somewhere you would go to if you wanted to feel and taste something different, tasty, interesting and somehow light...