SPICEGASM.COM My travel tales and food hunting

When we hear the word curry, we tend to associate the word curry with Indian. I think I read it somewhere before that curry is actually invented by the English. The real Indian dish was too spicy for the British when they were in India. So the British decided to make something slightly mild and named it Curry. Don’t quote me on this but I think I really did read it somewhere.

So my next dish is Beef Curry and I call it my mom’s version rather than calling it Indian Beef Curry. First of all, cow is a sacred animal to the Indian and no way you will find Indian Beef Curry dish. Here’s my mom’s version of beef curry.

INGREDIENTS :-

• half kilo of beef
• 2 potato
• some long bean
• Baba’s curry meat powder ( 2-3 spoonful )
• 6 cloves garlic grind to paste
• 2 onion grind to paste
• 2 star anise
• 5 cloves
• one cinnamon stick
• one packet coconut milk
• salt

COOKING :-

• heat up 6 spoonful of oil
• add in star anise, cinnamon and cloves
• add in grind garlic and onion
• add in beef and mixed well
• add in potatoes
• add in curry powder and continue to stir fry and mixed well
• when is fragrant, add in water and cook in low heat to soften beef
• add in coconut milk
• add in long beans and cook till beef is really soft and oil emerge on top
• serve it with hot rice

Beef Curry with Papadam

I fried some papadam to go with the beef curry and rice. Papadam is some sort of spiced Indian chips. Is really tasty and normally in Singapore, any Indian rice dish they would give you papadam for free. You can top it up as many times as you can for free.

On Sunday suddenly I felt like having some mirienda. Went out to the local sari sari store and got myself a bottle of Mountain Dew. I already had some idea in mind of what to make. There’s some anchovies, onion and flour, that’s all I need to make this simple Malay snack call Jemput Jemput. I had a blast eating this snack while gulping down ice cold Mountain Dew.

Here is how we can make this simple, cheap and delicious snack.

INGREDIENTS :-

• 200 gm of multi purpose flour
• one onion chopped fine
• 50 gm anchovies
• salt
• water
• one egg
• turmeric powder ( optional )
• pepper

COOKING :-

• Put flour in a bowl
• Break an egg
• Add onion
• Add water and mixed it really well
• add in onion
• add in anchovies that are slightly fried ( can be raw )
• add in turmeric, salt and pepper
• mixed it really well till the dough is gooey like and sticky
• heat up oil in wok
• when oil is hot, use a big spoon and put flour into wok
• fry till golden brown
• serve it with Maggi Chili sauce

I remember my mom used to make this a lot for tea time snack. She normally made us hot milk tea when the weather is not so hot and if the weather is hot, she will make us cold ice Milo to go with the Jemput Jemput. When I was really young, I remember I normally dip it with Maggi Tomato sauce. When I was 6 years old, I start to eat it with the Chili sauce and never looked back.

HAPPY TRYING

After making the Cantonese style pancit, I still got the same ingredients available. So I decided to make a different version of pancit and this time around, I’m gonna make the Hokkien style pancit.

Most of the Chinese that I met in the Philippines are mainly Hokkien. Most of their ancestor comes from the Fujian province in South of China and settle in the Philippines. I know for a fact that the SM owner, Mr. Henry Sy is from Xiamen. I love listening to the Chinese Pinoy speaks among themselves as you can hear a mixture of Hokkien language and Tagalog mix together. Pretty much like how the Malaysian born Chinese do it too.

INGREDIENTS :-

• Pancit 100 gm – Soaked in water and drained
• Chicken breast or pork ( slice to bit size )
• Petchay
• Cabbage
• Carrot
• Squid/Prawn
• one teaspoon soya sauce
• 3 spoon of dark soy sauce
• chicken broth/water
• salt to taste
• pepper
• crushed garlic 2 clove

COOKING :-

• heat up 3 spoon of oil
• add in garlic, meat and squid
• add soy sauce and salt
• add vegetables
• stir fry and add dark soy sauce
• add half cup of chicken broth
• add in noodles and mixed well
• let gravy thickens in high heat
• add pepper and serve on plate

This Hokkien noodle will taste better if cook with pork lard. Since I do not have any pork lard, I did not get the taste that I desired. I will have to make some pork lard in the future.

Filipino really enjoys Pancit Canton. Is customary to celebrate your birthday at least with pancit canton. Most likely this is a Chinese culture adopted by the Filipino to symbolize long life. Pancit in Tagalog means noodles and the long strand of noodles symbolize long life. Canton is most likely from the word Canton province or Cantonese. So to translate directly Pancit Canton would be Cantonese Noodles.

Pancit Canton in Philippines is normally dark in color and is used as ulam ( dishes ). Other parts of Asia normally eat it as the main course without rice. In Singapore for example, noodles are normally eaten in breakfast or supper. It can be eaten during lunch or dinner too if you want some alternatives rather than eating rice all the time. Since the Filipino loves rice so much, Pancit Canton without rice is not a complete meal.

Other part of Asia, when you mentioned noodles Cantonese or Canton style, the gravy is almost white in color. When the gravy is dark, we normally call it Hokkien style noodles. So here is a picture of a Cantonese style noodles I made the other day.

Here is my recipe for my version of Cantonese style noodles.

INGREDIENTS :-

• Pancit ( 100 gm )
• Chicken breast or pork ( slice to bit size )
• Petchay
• Cabbage
• Carrot
• Squid/Prawn
• 1 Egg
• one teaspoon soya sauce
• one teaspoon oyster sauce
• chicken broth/water
• salt to taste
• pepper
• corn starch
• crushed garlic 2 clove

COOKING :-

• Do not soak Pancit in water
• Heat up cooking oil ( one teaspoon )
• Put pancit in wok and fry it a little
• Once the pancit is slightly crunchy ( does not have to be thoroughly crunchy ) set it aside
• Cooking the gravy
• Heat up 2 tablespoon of cooking oil
• add in garlic and salt
• add in meat and vegetable
• add in soya sauce and oyster sauce
• stir fry ingredients to mix well
• add in chicken broth 2 cups
• once is boiling hot, add in corn starch to thicken gravy
• off the fire and break and egg and add pepper
• scoop gravy and pour on top of noodle

Is important not to break the egg while the fire is hot as we do not want the egg to be lumpy.

So here you go guys, this is my version of Cantonese Noodles. Tomorrow I will make some Hokkien Noodle. In fact it will looked more like Pancit Canton.