Recipe: Sar Hor Fun

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Tonight's dinner was a little trip down memory lane for Dh and I.  When we were going out we used to eat at a local little Asian restaurant fairly often.  It was nothing to write home about, and a peek into the kitchen would have been a tad off-putting for the germ-o-phobes amongst us (I am not one - six years in a third world country cures one of these things if ever they had an issue).  The food, however, was delicious, cheap and plentiful.  It was a mix of Chinese and Malaysian and the owner of the restaurant knew what we loved and could pretty much order for us.  Really, ordering our meal was more about confirming that nothing had changed than actually placing an order.  Dh always ordered Char Kway Teow.  He still does when it is available.  I can't remember what I would order.

One of the dishes served at that restaurant, and one I adored was Sar Hor Fun.  It is a fried flat rice noodle dish with a mixture of meat and seafood with a soupy kind of sauce over the whole thing.  It was completely delicious and tasty and not spicy.  A perfect counterbalance to the Char Kway Teow, which is quite spicy.

Armed with fresh rice noodles and a package of pork balls from our trip to the Asian grocery last Monday this meal popped into my head this afternoon.  Thanks to the internet recipes for such things are not too difficult to find and I chose my recipe based on the pictures that went with it.  This one looked exactly as I recalled it should look and so with a quick trip to Safeway to pick up the three things I needed I set about recreating a meal of my memories.

It was perfect.  I sat there, eating my dinner, saying "Oh, this is perfect - as good as any I've ever had in a restaurant".  I kid you not, it was that good!  How often do you try to make some recipe that you've had in a Chinese restaurant and been disappointed that you can't make it taste the same?  I know, right? Well, this recipe was everything I desired and remembered.  So good!  Dh agreed it was really good.  Our kids wondered what was going on....what is this slop?  what are you making us eat?  what is this odd thing in here?  I don't think they'd ever had pork balls.

This recipe was very simple and not too time consuming at all.  A few little tips that might help you out:

• I soaked the rice noodles in boiling water for about five minutes, drained them and then separated them afterwards.  Because much of the oil had been washed away I added a little back when I mixed them with the soy sauces.
• My packet of rice noodles was 1kg instead of 300g.  I used the whole pack and tripled everything else except the stock...that was 500ml plus a large splash of water from the kettle.  It was perfect for our family of five adult eaters, with a little leftover for someone's lunch tomorrow.
• I fried the noodles then removed them from the pan.  Then I did the garlic, prawns and pork balls.  I added the stock and sauce to this, thickened with cornflour and then added three whole eggs as per the instructions.  Then I added the noodles back in.  It looks sloppy and messy.  Don't be put off!
• I wasn't able to get squid, so I had 300g of green prawns and the pack of pork balls that I had sliced.  I think something seafood and something either pork or chicken will work.  This part of the recipe doesn't have to be prescriptive.
• I splurged on good quality organic chicken stock.  It was worth it, unless you happen to have some on hand.

Go here for the recipe.  Go on...you'll love it!

Curry Night

One of the things I love about travelling overseas is that you come home with delicious things you want to recreate.  Partly because it just tastes yummy, and I think also because we want to hold on to those memories and experiences you got to enjoy.  The other night we did just that, with an authentic Malaysian curry.  I always thought it would be much harder or more complicated or filled with hard-to-get ingredients.  I did have to drive a little to get some of the things I needed for this curry, but a little bit of planning makes those kinds of trips worthwhile, if you combine a few errands together.  I confess I was unable to find the fresh tumeric, but I added some ground tumeric and it was fine.

For the curry I used Poh's Malaysian Nyonya Chicken Curry recipe.  It was easy!  Make the wet paste, fry, add the chicken, potatoes and liquid and let it cook.  So simple!  One thing Poh mentioned in the accompanying video is that belacan (pronounced bel-ah-ch-ahn) is stinky.  And it is...SSOOOO stinky!  But it wouldn't be authentic without it, so in it went.  It kind of gives the curry a unique pungent scent, but you absolutely do not taste that when you eat it.  So if you try the recipe, put the belacan in.  You need it!

To go with our curry I also made roti canai bread (again, Poh's recipe), for the first time ever.  Why, I ask you, did I not know to try this before now?  This was so easy to make!  There is no yeast.  You just mix and then knead the dough and roll it into little balls and let it sit for quite a few hours before stretching and folding into roti.  The recipe says to let it sit overnight, but I my dough at 6.30 in the morning and stretch and folded it in the middle of the afternoon before I was going to be out for a while.  It behaved perfectly.

And it was perfectly delicious!

As I was eating this beautiful, authentic, delicious meal I thought about how food transports us to other times and places.  How wonderful that, through a meal, we can travel the world without even leaving home!

The great thing about this meal, apart from having yummy leftovers for dinner tonight, is that I made the curry in the morning and after it had cooled for half an hour, I left it in the fridge in its cooking pot to be reheated later.  The roti really needs to be cooked right before eating, but I had done everything before I went to pick the kids up from school.  When I got home at 5.45pm that evening I literally pan-fried the bread, reheated the curry, put on some rice and voila.  Dinner was done.

And I felt just a teensy bit satisfied that it wasn't all that taxing at dinner time.

Asian Grocery Adventures

Our Town is a little out of the way.  In the sense that it takes us half an hour to get anywhere half way useful. You know, to places like a Westpac Bank branch, or a shopping centre, or a Safeway ... oh wait, everywhere else it's called Woolworths ... that has halfway decent stock lines, compared to our glorified milk bar of a supermarket.  Now we don't mind this out-of-the-way life, because it is quiet and peaceful and our air is crisp and clean and fresh smelling.  But when it comes to finding speciality things we have to drive a ways.  On Monday Miss Sunshine and I did just that.

I have always loved Asian grocery stores.  They are such an adventure with shelves filled with exotic ingredients that are somewhat unfamiliar.  And other things we haven't had in years because in our very Anglo area we just can't get things we'd love to have more often.  On Monday we really went in search of Asian green tea, having discovered that I actually like the Asian version.  We came home with green tea, green jasmine tea and oolong tea (because oolong is always our favourite chinese tea).  And as we wandered the aisles we found other things we thought might be worth trying.  The other thing we noticed is that with many things the Asian grocers are cheap.  And I mean CHEAP.

Take the above pictured star anise and cinnamon quills.  These were $1.49 each...which means $1.50 because we no longer of have 1c pieces here.  But still.  A buck and a bit for my 50g of cinnamon.  In Safeway....errrr.... Woolworths (OK, don'tjudge me here...we still have Safeway, the sign on the outside of the stores says so) these little treasures cost $3.39 for just 12g.  Which is why I never buy them - highway robbery!

So as well as the tea leaves I also bought star anise, cinnamon, dried chillis and curry leaves (among many other things!).  Because if you go somewhere and eat something you think you just can't live without eating again soon you get online and find a recipe.  Dh and I adore curry and we had some beautiful curries while we were in Malaysia and I have found a recipe for a Malaysian chicken curry that I desperately want to try.  With roti bread.

I'll let you know how that goes.  If I'm doing really well I'll remember to take photos!

In the meantime, check out an Asian grocery store for spices that does not make you feel like you have to open a vein to pay for it.

Food Lessons from Malaysia

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We had a wonderful trip to Malaysia.  The business portion was very positive, and catching up with old friends was so precious.  Discovering that our friends are in professional positions which we will potentially be requiring is a huge comfort.  They are very protective of our interests!

My biggest learning from this trip:  the way Malaysians honour their guests is to take them to places where the best food is served.  It may not be in the most upmarket surroudings, but that is not the most important aspect!  The photo above is of the restaurant at Fish Valley in Semenyih.  It is south-east from Kuala Lumpur and quite a way out.  Our business associates brought us here for lunch, and really, we weren't sure what to expect.  As it turned out, sitting in an open, covered space was perfect.  It rained, and the wind picked up a bit. It was a relief in the heat and humidity that is normal for KL.  And the food?  Brilliant and delicious.  Worth the long drive. 

When we told our friends, the next night over dinner, where we had been they decided we were terribly adventurous and wondered if we were still well.  Not much knocks our strong constitutions off balance and we were well (and continue to be so) over the whole trip.

Also, Malaysian green tea does NOT taste like Australian green tea.  Our green tea tastes grassy to me.  Theirs tastes quite refined.  I ended up coming home with tea bags that were given to me by one of our friends.  She insisted, so how could I say no?  I continue to be delighted by that discovery.  If Dh goes back in a couple of months he will have a shopping list!

And while we were gone our children had a marvellous time with an older cousin and his wife.  None of them were any more sensible than the other, and our children really didn't need babysitting since they are quite old enough and self-sufficient.  Miss Sunshine is 19 and able to transport and organise the others.  But it worked well for balance and their sense of security.  Our nephew and his wife declared they should be glad to come if we needed to travel again.  Our house is much closer to their work, so it was incredibly convenient....not to mention the cousin-party each night!

Suitcase Update:  We took two.  Mine was small, Dh's was larger.  His was a mess, and mine was not.  We were both very happy!

A suitcase question: To share or not to share?

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Our lastest conversation in preparation for our trip:

Dh:  I think we could get away with one suitcase for both of us.
Me:  NNNNOOOOOO!!!!!!

The last time we shared a suitcase was approximately 17 million years ago.  Well...maybe just 17, without the million.  But a long time.  As I recall it, we were camping (in a tent) and it was torture.  My side of the case was nice and neat and tidy.  His side of the case looked like a bomb had gone off and it just spread across over my stuff.  Every single time he went to the case I had to go back and tidy it up - for my own sanity, you understand, not because I was being all loving and serving or anything so virtuous.  I vowed, then, that we would never share a case again. 

Oddly, this mess thing only happens while travelling.  At home his clothes are put away (not by me, in case that's what you're thinking.  I'm not that nice) and it doesn't hit my radar as something to deal with, because it just isn't there.

Personally, I'd be content with my small case (a bit bigger than carry-on size) and he can take the case the next size up, for his shoes and the coffee he wants to take with us.  I'm not so keen on making the smell of coffee my signature scent.

Do you share a suitcase with your spouse/partner when you travel?  Why or why not?

Is what you're living for....

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I have been watching a whole bunch of stuff online this week.  Ted Talks, sermons, McLeod's Daughter's (it can't be helped...good Aussie drama is always my gig).  Somewhere through the week I saw a video that asked this question in the background of whatever it was I was watching:

Is what you're living for 

worth Christ's dying for?

 What a great question!  Salvation is the most beautiful gift, but it isn't something that should be received and then stuck up on a high shelf for later.  The Giver of this gift intended for us to use it every single day.  It comes with responsibility.  The give of salvation is so enormous and so life-changing that it should propel us to live lives characterised by gratitude.  We should be sharing this gift and letting its purfume scent every aspect of our lives. 

That means using our gifts and talents for the good and benefit of others.  It means forgiving generously because we have been forgiven of everything.  It means loving others with an unconditional, immense, immeasurable love because Christ loved us like that all the way to death.  It means being gracious under fire, because trials are part of this life, and Christ showed us how to do this too.  It means aligning ourselves with God's purposes and his work instead of setting out to do our own thing.

Challenging question, huh? 

And then Miss Sunshine died of laughter....

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Dh and I have been talking, quite a bit, about what we want to do while we're in Malaysia, because seeing the cup manufacturer won't take too much time.  We know quite a few people who were once students here in Melbourne and attended our church whilst they were here so there will be a bit of catching up over yummy meals, I'm sure.  But they all seem to suggest shopping.  Dh assures me I will be dumbfounded at the cheap prices.

But shopping?

Last night we had Miss Sunshine in the car with us and Dh was saying he didn't plan to pack much because he would just buy stuff there.  To which I responded:  "I am not going to spend our three free days shopping because you can't be bothered packing.  Just stab me in the eye right now because it would be less torturous".

And Miss Sunshine just rolled around the back seat laughing til her sides hurt.  For a long time.  "Stab me in the eye..... ha ha ha".  I didn't think it was that funny, but it certainly tickled her.

I don't get it.  We've been married nearly 25 years and were together 5 before that.  You'd think after 30 years your husband would know that shopping is not your thing.  My kids have it figured out.  Miss Sunshine can time it to the minute - I have a two-hour limit and then I keel over with brain fog and exhaustion.  Last Saturday when we had to go and buy Mr Busy's birthday present we were gone for so long Miss Sunshine sent us a text:  "You've been gone a long time, is Mum still alive?"

I reckon we can get any and all shopping required or desired out of the way on the evening of the day we arrive.  We land around 4pm.  It could all be overwith before we go to bed that night.