Mango salad! :)

I decided to make a Thai style Mango salad after a friend of mine mentioned in her blog how she missed mango kerabu from Malaysia. That got me drooling to be honest as I remembered the taste tangy salad. So as I bought some mangoes on Friday which were very firm and unripe, I decided that they would be perfect for me to try out my own recipe. Ppl who don't like mangoes when they are ripe and luscious but can also be rather slippery in texture should maybe try unripe mangoes. They are firmer, crunchier, tangier but without the soft slippery flesh texture. Also less stringy too. Anyways, this was how I made it:

Ingredients:
2 large mangoes- peeled and grated lengthways on coarse sized grater. They are easy to grate when I unripe and easy to grate till the stone too.
2 cloves of garlic- sliced
3 shallots- peeled and chopped
2 birds eye chillies- sliced thinly- I used one green and one red for colour
spring onions- sliced thinly
1 firm tomato- quartered
a pinch of salt

Mix together in a small bowl:
juice of one lime

3 tbsp of Thai/Vietnamese fish sauce (yes, it has to be fish sauce for the unique taste, soya sauce is not really suitable but if u rather use soya sauce, use "Healthy Boy" brand of light soya sauce which is much more delicate in taste and in colour compared to other brands for this salad)

abt 1 tsp of sugar- white or brown is fine. Use more if u think it needs more.

Method:

1) Pound the garlic, shallots and chillies in a pestle and morter till it is quite bruised with some salt. Next add the tomatoes and green onions. Bruised them like you did with the other ingredients.

2) Then add the grated mangoes bit by bit and pound till they go abit limp. Keep adding till all the mangoes are used up.

3) Tip into a large salad bowl and combine the fish sauce mixture to the salad and toss well. Taste. Add more lime juice, fish sauce or sugar if needed. The salad should be sweet, sour, slightly salty at the same and oh yes, a kick of heat from the chillies. :) ENJOY!

4) Serve with grilled chicken or coconut rice or anything you like really. We had ours with Thai syle roast chicken legs with brown rice and stir fried, crisp babycorn and mangetout.

If u don't want to use mangoes, you could use green apples or green papaya.

Also if u don't have a huge pestle and mortar, a big sturdy bowl and a rolling pin will do the job just fine.

Leyna, this recipe is for you when that craving hits you next! :)

Steamed Malay banana cake

I had 3 very overripe bananas to use in the weekend. And I had no butter to make muffins or banana bread, so decided to trawl through Malaysian cookbooks for the cake recipe. Then I remembered a friend who made it recently and found her blog and compared the recipes. Tweaked the recipe to combine both since I was using self raising flour. The cake is light, moist and really good plus I can pretend it to be healthier! Keeps moist when wrapped in the fridge. If you steam the cake in lil ramekins, you get lovely steamed banana pudding type thing. :) But the bananas have to be really ripe for the best results. Don't be put off by mottled skin on banana, nothing wrong with them. Overripe bananas have meltingly soft texture and creamier sweet taste. Perfect for cakes and dessert! :) This cake is known as Apam Pisang in Malay language.

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 cup sugar (I used less than 1 cup to be honest, brown sugar gives you a light toffee coloured result)
3 riped banana, mashed
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tbsp of cornoil or sunflower oil
dessicated coconut to sprinkle on top
a drop of vanilla extract

Method
1. Add the baking soda into the mashed banana and mix well.
2. Sift flour with cream of tartar and set aside.
3. Beat eggs, vanilla extract and sugar together until fluffy, then add sifted flour mixture and mix till well combined.
4. Add mashed banana, oil and a bit of salt to flour batter. Stir slowly to incorporate them into the flour batter.
5. Pour batter into a well greased baking pan, sprinkle some dessicated coconut on top and steam on high heat for about 45 mins or till it is cooked. Insert a skewer into middle of cake to check, if it comes out clean, it is ready. Using ordinary sugar will give you a pale lovely colour whilst brown sugar will give you a darker colour.

ENJOY! This is really an easy cake to make!

Sounding Board for Friday HH

In case u didn't know, from MARCH onwards, social will be moved at New Barracks Tavern near Morrison's. I have been informed abt this recently by someone and thought I should send reminders out in case u don't know. This Friday however, it is still at HH so no fear. But from next week onwards it will be moved to NBT. They do hot food and have a small non smoking room.

I believe this is because they kick out children at 9pm plus the fact they have very little choice for non alcoholic drinks. There is only so much u can drink in a nite with Looza and soft drinks of coke or lemonade or cordial b4 they start pouring out of your ears. Also they were not keen to accomodate possibility of bringing tea back on menu for drivers or whoever who wants hot tea b4 busy times start.

NBT will be a trial, if it isn't good enough, we can always move back to HH.

Hope this helps......