The very best of British

For the last couple of months all I have been hearing from my son Euan is how excited he is that the Olympic games where going to be on in July.  He's been a sponge absorbing every news tidbit and familiarising himself with all the potential stars that were going to be champions on the day.  Euan is 12 and seems to have a photographic memory for the things he likes and can expound facts at the drop of a hat.  Shame he doesn't seem to think time tables over 12 are important enough to remember the same way.  


Every Wednesday he goes for physiotherapy for a weakness in his left side (diagnosed as hemiplegia when he was a few months old).  It was highly amusing to hear him rattling on the latest Olympic news to Rebecca his physio whilst I sat in reception.  Needless to say by the time we got to Friday night in Melbourne, he had a whole plan to wake up at 5:30am to watch the live telecast of the Olympic opening ceremony.  He was in bed early, set his alarm and went off to bed with anticipation of the next morning.  Thankfully my husband Andrew was more realistic and set the Foxtel (cable tv) recorder to tape the ceremony should we all sleep through the alarm.  


As luck would have it, we did sleep through the alarm but woke up at 7am, snuggled up together under blankets and watched the taped telecast.  And what a telecast it was.  

Way to go London!!!

London 2012 excelled in the spectacle they created for our enjoyment.  It had just enough of whimsy to keep us enthralled in the story telling aspect of the performance.  Who would have thought of recreating a whole village green in the centre of the stadium...... bravo Danny Boyle.

The parade of athletes was much anticipated and when they started filing out as always we debated the choice of costumes, the selection of flag bearers and how we thought the various teams would fair in the final medal tally  It was refreshing to see the number of women flag bearers at these games. 




Of course we could not hide our joy at seeing the Australian team march behind basketballer Lauren Jackson, who held the Aussie flag high without the aid of any harness.  What a champion! 




There were many interesting outfits on display but I will have to give style points to the US team who came on looking crisp, fresh and ever so on point in the fashion stakes with their Ralph Lauren designed team uniforms.

The production team did a great job in showcasing the fantastic array of British music throughout the decades finally ending in a singalong with Paul McCartney.  


It was, at the end of it, a fairly long ceremony so I did not envy the poor athletes who had been standing for hours whilst waiting for the ceremony to be completed.  However you couldn't help but feel this wonderful glow of kinmanship with the rest of the world as you saw sports taking centre stage and maybe helping us forget, if only for just over a fortnight, the ills of the rest of the world.


I will say that after watching the Opening ceremony I was so motivated by my feelings of nostalgia and empire that I dusted the old scone recipe and baked some for afternoon tea.  I have to say they never tasted so good.


The following is a simple and practically fail proof recipe for scones.

Plain scones

Ingredients:

3 cups self-raising flour

80g butter, cubed
1 to 1.25 cups of milk
Extra plain flour for dusting
Jam and whipped cream for serving 

          (Makes approx 16 scones)

• Preheat oven to 200ºC.  
• Line baking sheets with baking paper
• Sift flour in large bowl
• Add cubed butter and use fingers to rub in until the flour resembles fine breadcrumbs
• Make a well in the centre and add milk
• Use a spatula to slowly incorporate the milk. 
• Sprinkle counter or pastry sheet with extra plain flour.
• Gently knead without over handling.  The scones will be too hard if they are over kneaded.
• Roll the dough gently and cut with a scone ring or if you don't have one, a small mouthed glass will do.  Make sure your dip the ring in flour so it wont stick to the dough.
• Place the scones on tray and dust lightly with extra plain flour.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes.
• Serve warm with jam and whipped cream........... and a steaming cup of tea.

      Enjoy!!!!!

Making entertaining easy

Korean BBQ the "Cora" way

The difficult thing about entertaining is that the host is often stuck in the kitchen missing the better part of the fun and frivolity.  One of may favourite ways of feeding guests in summer is my mum's take of a Korean BBQ.  

A typical table setting with communal table top grills

All the work is in the preparation of the food but your guests are invited to cook their own portions on table top burner.  It is communal eating at it's best and easiest.


Although there is no real recipe for the Korean bbq, the following is an outline of what to cook and how to prepare it and the types of accompaniments that can be served as part of the meal.


Popular proteins served are:

• Beef
• Chicken
• Salmon
• Any firm white fish
• Prawns
• Squid/calamari
• Scallops

Must have accompaniments:

• Hot sauce
• Sweet sauce
• Vegetables
• Rice

All the protein should be cleaned and cut into thinnish slices so that it will cook quickly on the grills.  Don't overload the grills with food to cook as that will slow the cooking process down and broil rather than grill your proteins.  Also make sure that the chicken is cooked thoroughly whilst all other proteins can be eaten on the rarer side.  


The fun part of eating this way is the camaraderie of sharing food, the mock arguments of who owns the nearly cooked plump prawn sitting on the grill and the teasing over the number of bowls of rice everyone is eating.  It is a progressive meal with no time constraints of food getting cold or having to eat something you don't want.  And if you are feeling a little full, you just sit back and enjoy the conversation until you feel ready to attack the hotplates again.

A close up of the cooking process......
(note the metal chopsticks which are great from a safety and hygiene aspect)

Recipe for savoury rice

This recipe is a guideline and you can adjust your quantities to taste (serves 4-6)

Ingredients:  

3 cups Jasmine or long grain rice

6 shallots (finely diced)

2 pods garlic (chopped)

2 tbs butter

Chicken stock

4 cm knob of young ginger (peeled and cut into 1 cm pieces)

Garnish: fried shallots

• Pre-wash and drain the rice.  Keep it aside to dry in a colander.
• Peel and finely dice the shallots or 1 medium onion
• Peel and finely chop a couple of pods of garlic
• Melt the butter in a wok over medium heat.  Add diced shallots and saute till golden brown.
• Add garlic, continue stirring and ensuring the butter does not burn.
• Add washed dry rice and stir for a minute, coating the rice completely with the melted butter.  Keep aside.
• In a rice cooker, measure approx. 4 cups of chicken stock (this can be adjusted to suite the rice you are cooking with) and add slices of ginger to it.  Add the coated rice to the stock and cook in the normal method of your rice cooker.  (Note:  reduce stock if you like a grainy rice)
• When the rice is cooked, remove the ginger and serve in a large bowl with crispy fried shallots mixed lightly through it.

Hot Sour Sauce recipe

Everyone has their own version of a hot sauce that goes well with this style of cooking.  My mum's version requires the green birds eye chillies.  I have never tried using normal green chillies as they normally are not spicy enough.  This sauce should be hot, salty and sour as it is the main seasoning for the proteins.

Birds Eye Chillies

Ingredients:

Green birds eye chillies

Peeled garlic pods

Yellow soybean paste

Lemon juice

Thai fish sauce

White sesame seeds (lightly dry roasted and kept aside to cool)

• Rinse and dry the chillies.
• Combine chillies and garlic in blender/chopper and pulse process to a slightly coarse paste. 
• Add yellow soy bean paste to the chilli and blend for a couple more minutes.
• Pour combined chilli paste into a bowl and add fish sauce and lemon juice to taste.
• Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top of the sauce prior to serving.

Enjoying the food together

Sweet Sauce recipe

Not everyone can cope with a spicy sauce, so it's always good to have a sweet option.

Ingredients:

1 cup Hoisin sauce

1/2 cup Oyster sauce

2 tbs Sesame oil

1/2 tsp chopped garlic

2 tbs vegetable oil

Water

White sesame seeds (lightly dry roasted and kept aside to cool)

• Heat the two oils in a medium sized saucepan
• Add chopped garlic and saute gently.  Make sure it does not burn.  When soft and golden, add the hoisin and oyster sauces.  Continue to heat through without bringing to the boil
• Add a little water if you feel the sauce is too thick.
• Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top prior to serving.

We do a Korean bbq at least three or four times each summer and find it a wonderfully relaxing way to entertain.  


And at the end of the night we are usually left with everything eaten and only the empty dishes to wash up.   


Hope you guys have as much fun trying this out as we do.

Starting a new life in Melbourne

Why I cook

Early in my life I realised that cooking was a way to make people happy.   I think I was about nine when I made my first jam cookies for my brothers from a recipe out of a children’s magazine.  The joy I received from their compliments and the rest of the family was indescribable at the time.  It would be many, many years later that I would realise that my language of love would be “Words of Affirmation” and cooking  and entertaining was one of the ways for me to receive the pleasure and feeling of love that I appreciated.

Young students in love

Through the years I experimented in the family kitchen but it was as a poor student in Melbourne that I learned how to create good meals out of nothing.  It’s amazing how creative you can be with a can of SPAM.  And regardless of how little we had, we still managed to put together a good party and feed everyone.   

On the AFL Grand Final day in 1981, my flat mate and I decided to host a house warming party for our friends.  It was our first home outside living with our parents so we were feeling very “grown up” about it all.  I spent the whole day in the kitchen cooking and it was that night, through a haze of catch up drinking, that I met a young engineering student that I would end up marrying years later.  Andrew will always say that I wooed him through his stomach as I cooked for him whenever the budget allowed and introduced him to the family recipes which are still favourites in our household today.

Taking the big leap

One of the difficult decisions about moving to Australia to be married at the tender age of 23 was the fact that I would be leaving behind my family, in particular my mum.  This was in the early 80’s when snail mail was our main way of keeping in touch and you only really called long distance when you had an emergency.  Needless to say I made sure that before I left I got as many recipes as I could from my mum so I could survive and not miss the comfort of home cooking.  And through the years, memories of my mother’s graciousness as a hostess, drove me to try and emulate her hospitality and open my kitchen to friends and family.

I may not always love the work that goes into getting ready for a party, but I love the whole enjoyment that the sharing of time, food and company that a party provides.  It’s an opportunity to share in so many ways and keep traditions alive for the next generation.  

Having come from a big extended family who are very wide spread around the world, Facebook has become a wonderful way for us to keep in touch with the ever changing landscape that our family is.  We are only half way through 2012 and we have already had two new additions and are expecting two more within the next couple of months.

My cousins from around the world congregating in Malacca in 1993

Over my 27 years in Melbourne, many of my cousins have migrated to Australia as well so we have created our own little “kampong” (village) in the North Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, meeting often over a spread of delicious home cooked meals.  It is heart warming to see our children growing up together and having that same feeling we used to have when we congregated as a family in my youth.

15 years later in Melbourne and the cousins now have children of their own
(Family vs In-Laws rounders/cricket match Dec 2008)

At the end of the day we love, we argue, we eat, we play, we give, we are loud, we are opinionated, we are strong, we are judgemental, we are fun and MOST of all we are FAMILY.

How I got here

My mum, Cora

Growing up as a young girl in Malaysia, I was exposed to a wonderful melting pot of cooking styles and I was lucky enough to have a mother who was an adventurous and enthusiastic cook, who instilled in me the love of good food and good cooking.

I was born in the Kuala Lumpur to Eurasian parents and a very large and close-knit extended family that celebrated every occasion with raucous get togethers centered around good food.  At an early age we moved to Malacca to live with my maternal grandparents as my father’s job in the armed forces took him away on postings every two years and he wanted us to have a more stable school life rather than keep moving from school to school.  It was this move that was instrumental in my mum honing her culinary skills and blossoming into the fantastic cook that she will always be remembered as.

A “Eurasian” in Malaysia, is usually someone with ancestors who were Portuguese, Dutch or English who had married the local Indians, Chinese or Malays…….. or all of the above…… a veritable Heinz 57 Varieties.  As a result the cuisine cooked in most of our homes stole a little bit from each of these cultures and gave us a wonderful array of dishes that where traditionally considered “Eurasian”.

As a young girl, we travelled to Australia for a year whilst my father was at an Officer’s Training Course and lived in Point Lonsdale, an idyllic coastal town in Victoria.  It was that trip that would plant a seed in my father’s mind that would end up with my two brothers and I returning to Melbourne years later to take up our tertiary education.

My family:  Olivia, Andrew, Euan and me

It was during this time that I met my husband Andrew, an Australian of Scottish, English, German and French ancestry.  After a long distance courtship I moved back to Melbourne, we married and then had our two beautiful children, Olivia and Euan who are truly “Eurasian” in every sense of the word being born from one parent who was predominantly European and one who was predominantly Asian.

I was extremely lucky to marry into a family who appreciated food as much as my own and through my mother in law, Deidre I was able to master new cooking styles that I had not previously tried.  She was renowned for her soups and desserts which will hopefully appear in the blog.

Unfortunately for my children, both their grandmothers were taken from us too early and part of this blog is to document the style of food that we enjoy in our household and also to pay homage to the memory of two wonderful women who brought great joy to us all with the food that came out of their kitchens.

The title of the blog “Just add a pinch of…..” is something that I would hear them both saying to me when I was trying out a dish and it didn’t seem to be tasting right.  When I look back on it, just adding a pinch of salt, pepper, spice, love or effort could have been one of many ingredients that would turn the dish around.

The blog will also highlight events in our lives, the way we celebrate them, the places we celebrate at and any thoughts that might cross my mind.

This is my first blog so I hope you will stick around and watch it, and me, evolve.

Cheers