My little Italian adventure - Part 1: That salad

A conversation between my friend Jules and I a few weeks ago went like this:

Me: Hey Jules, you know that salad
Julie: Which salad?
Me: That salad with tomatoes, bocconcini, and basil in it.
Julie: Oh.. "that salad"..
Me: Yeah "that salad"
Julie: What about it?
Me: What's it called again?
Julie: *pause* uh I don't know.. but it tastes good with lots of salt and pepper in it.. mmmm.
Me: Thanks Jules, that was really helpful.

I was craving for "that salad" a few weekends ago and was hoping that Jules would know the name since I didn't. Then whilst was going through my Wednesday night routine of flipping through recipe books, I found "that salad" in my Simply Italian cookbook by Sophie Baimbridge. Friends, "that salad" now has a name, it is called "Insalata Caprese" or salad in the style of Capri, a little resort island close to Italy.

I can't believe I never thought of looking in that book! This salad is so easy to make and is so delicious that I had 2 helpings with lots of bocconcini and basil. I love the refreshing taste of the basil and the creamy taste of the bocconcini in this salad.

Here are the basic ingredients (and steps). In my little version above I went with some cherry truss and some green tomatoes because I couldn't find any decent plum or roma tomatoes. Knowing the amount of water tomatoes need to survive I can only assume that it is due to the current drought in my little state Victoria.

mmm.. I think I will go make some now...

Insalata Caprese

Some vine-ripened tomatoes (plum tomatoes, or cherry)
Some bocconcini or buffalo mozzarella balls
Extra virgin olive oil
small basil leaves

1. Slice tomatoes and bocconcini. (or in my case, slice the green tomatoes and halve the cherry truss)
   
2. Arrange them in layers of tomato and cheese.
   
3. Scatter the basil leaves.
   
4. Drizzle with olive oil and finish with some sprinkling of salt and freshly grind pepper.

Oh incidentally, this is the start of a 3 post series on my little adventure in Italian cuisine. Whilst flicking through my Simply Italian cookbook I bookmarked two other recipes, one which I had never really tasted before and the other is one I had never attempted outside my Italian repertoire of Spaghetti Meatball (which I should post one day), Spaghetti Matriciana and Garlic Prawn pasta (also made with spaghetti). Stay tune.

Next:
- My little Italian adventure - Part 2: The recipe, the ingredients and the woman
- My little Italian adventure - Part 3: Lime panna cotta

A nostalgic salad

We're in KL (Kuala Lumpur) at the moment, having spent the last 4/5 days prior to this in Singapore. All we've been doing since we got to Singapore on the 16th was EAT EAT EAT and SHOP SHOP SHOP. Such is our "hard life". LOL

Jumped on the bus to KL on Wednesday and since we arrived in KL, the only thing that's changed is that we've not been EATING as much as we were. Just shopping as much.. if not MORE than what we did before.

Ellie over at Kitchen Wench has initiated a once-off event called "Nostalgia", inviting everyone to share with her a nostalgic memory, something from our past that's heart engraved in our memories through a food experience.

For both Alv and I, nothing is more nostalgic for us than returning to our countries of birth.

Alv spent the first 8 years of his life in Singapore, attending one of the famous ACS (Anglo Chinese School) institutions with his older brother Jerome. This marks his second trip back to Singapore, the first one being in 2004, straight after he renounced his Singapore citizenship. It's like trip down memory lane all over again for him. Every where we go and each area we drive through in Singapore brings back many memories of his childhood there. His family left Singapore for Australia when he was about 8 and in a sense, he missed out on a whole lot of Singapore: the experiences of growing up in the Singapore Education system, the food in Singapore (congee for lunch every Saturday after Saturday school) and most of all growing up with his extended family in Singapore.

I on the other hand, spent 17 years in Malaysia. Growing up in the little town of Ipoh. I went through the whole curricular system in Ipoh, got my drivers and motorcycle license when I was 17 (yeah!) and zoomed around Ipoh from one end to another in my mum's little Honda C70 and most of all I made heaps of friends in all those years. I have so many memories of growing up in Ipoh - my first car accident, first motorcycle accident, first crush.. you name it, I've probably experienced it.

Ipoh was also where I last saw my Aunt Lisa, in 1994 when I turned 15. My Aunt Lisa (mum's younger sister) came back from New York for a short visit around the time of my 15th birthday. It was extremely memorable for me partly because I couldn't remember the last time I saw her prior to my 15th birthday and mostly because she threw me the last birthday party I ever had. The last birthday party, because I haven't had anyone throw me a birthday celebration since. ;| (I don't throw parties for me either LOL)

Aunt Lisa threw me a birthday party when she found out that it was my birthday. You could almost say that she forced the party onto me and commanded that I invite friends over to our place for the party. It was so long ago that I can't even remember much of what happened at the party. I remembered celebrating it with about 10 of my closest friends back then of which I only remember 5: Aud, CC, JF, Jacqui and Boon; and the only other thing that I remembered clearly was the salad that my aunt made for the party.

Back then I wasn't as exposed to "western food" as I am now. Western food back then was anything American, like hamburgers, hot dogs, coleslaw, steak and ribs. The salad my aunt made was something we associated with Western type food and I remembered it well because back then western food was like my favourite kinda food. Only because we couldn't appreciate the quality of good local food and it was a novelty thing when you're young because western style food was more expensive and considered a higher standard delicacy compared to the local hawker food.

It's not a special salad or anything, in fact I'm not even sure of the origins of the salad. However, it is the most simple and versatile salad I've ever had as it is made with staple fridge/freezer ingredients. I've never remembered to ask the name of it from my aunt but mum and I have always referred to it as Aunt Lisa's American Salad.

For Ellie's Nostalgia event:

Aunt Lisa's American Salad

Ingredients:
1 small apple (green or red)
1/4 cup frozen peas, thawed*
1/4 cup corn kernels*
1/2 small carrots (or 1 small baby carrot)*
1 hard boiled egg, peeled and chopped
1 small boiled potato, peeled and chopped
1 large slice of virginian ham (or your favourite ham), sliced

Dressing:
approx 1/4 cup of your favourite mayonaise
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and chop the apple into small pieces. Soak chopped apple in a small bowl with cold water and about 1/8 tsp of salt. This will prevent the pieces of apple from browning.

Meanwhile, peel and chop up the carrot. Blanch the carrot in hot water until the carrots are soft but still firm, rinse with cold water and then set aside to cool.

Drain the apple pieces from the salt water. Rinse quickly in cold water and dry before placing the apple into a large bowl.

Place the remaining ingredients into the bowl. Toss salad with mayonaise and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cover the salad and place into the fridge for about 20mins before serving.

Serve with bread rolls.

Serves 2.

Note:
You can vary the amount of mayonaise you use for the dressing.(My dressing measurements are only approximates as I usually don't measure it, I'm pretty sure that I don't use more than 1/4 cup of mayonaise though, so I've used that as an approximate)

***These three ingredients can be replaced with 3/4 cup of mixed frozen vegetables if you have any in the freezer.

It's that simple! The salad would be made simpler if you have some mixed frozen veges in the fridge. I sometimes omit the carrots (because it's not really my favourite vege) and double up on the ham or egg.

I always make this salad when I miss my aunt. It's the only thing I remember about her, apart from her spelling my name with an E as in 'I Leng' instead of I-Ling. I love my aunt, she's a cool aunt! We haven't seen her for almost 13 years since she last threw me that party. She's still living in America, somewhere in Boston with her husband and two little cousins whom I've never met. I hope to see her one day, if not soon. But in the mean time.. this salad is all I have to remember her by...

ps. I was hoping to recreate the salad here in KL with local ingredients which would make it ever more nostalgic! But unfortunately the condominium where we're staying at doesn't come with a kitchen, so I wasn't able to make it hence.. no picture of the salad... :|

Welcome Back and Catch up party for Alicia

Appetisers:
Mini tarts two way:
Garlic Mushrooms and Parmesan;
Roasted Cherry Tomatoes w/ Balsamic Onions

Entrees:
Tori Karaage
Beans Salad w/ prosciutto and Roasted pine nuts
Spaghetti w/ Garlic Prawns

Desserts:
Lychee Jelly
Assorted Biscuits from Marks & Spencer (courtesy of Ali)
Earl Grey Tea truffles
Camembert Cheese w/ crackers & muscatels

Special Drink:
Pims & Lemonade Cocktail (courtesy of Ali)

After chomping down the club sandwich at Cafe Fiori, Ali and I strolled down Chapel Street and did a bit of shopping before we headed to Richmond to stop by Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder for some cheese and muscatels and then braving peak hour traffic back to the 'burbs to do some shopping for the dinner party that we were hosting that night at my place.

Ever since she moved to Sydney to pursue a career at Qantas, we have always had catch up brunches, lunches or dinner whenever she comes back to Melbourne for a quick holiday. So even though she changed status from Sydneysider to a 'Londoner' this year, it was only natural that the little catch up party routine remained unchanged. We had a farewell dinner in the city before she and Ange left for London, so I suggested that we should have a dinner at my place for a change as that would be a more intimate and private affair plus it would give her a better chance to 'flirt' amongst the crowd . :P

She was quite happy with the idea and (Ali being Ali) even wrote down a list of food she wanted me to make: Fried chicken, Baked Potatoes Ala TGI Fridays and I added the Lychee Jelly because I knew it was also one of her favourites. (Baked Potatoes never made it to the table because we forgot about it)

So the call went out and in less than a week we had a firm 10 to attend, 1 for tbc and 1 gate crasher who didn't RSVP (;p).

As I was cooking for about 11 people, I decided to go with only well tested recipes to avoid any unwanted disasters from happening. The appetisers were the same ones that I had made for HHDD#5, the recipe for the Tori Karaage was one that I have made a number of times from Jane Lawson's Yoshoku, my favourite Beans salad was adapted from Marie Claire's Kitchen and the Spaghetti with Garlic Prawns was straight out of Bill Granger's Bills Food (plus the pasta of course).

Mini Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Balsamic Onion tarts

Tori Karaage w/ Kewpi Mayo and Sweet chilli sauce

Beans salad w/ prosciutto and roasted pine nuts

Spaghetti w/ Garlic Prawns

For dessert, I chose to make the Lychee jelly, which is a party favourite of mine and we bought some camembert cheese from Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder. The Earl grey truffles was probably the only first timer in the list. It was pre-prepared Sunday night when I got home from our Sydney getaway. I found the recipe on a November 2004 Christmas Edition of Vogue Entertaining, not realising that the recipe was infact from Claudia Fleming's Last Course. My mum had picked up the magazine from her workplace and gave it to me on one of the weekends that I went home for dinner. I only realised that the recipe was in fact from the Last Course when I went through the 'parcels' my courier from London brought back for me :)

It was like Christmas in September that Monday, I had received my Swedish BBM parcel from Clivia of Clivia's Cuisine and Ali brought back all the gifts that she and Ange had bought me on their weekend trips away and their shopping trips BUT most importantly, she also brought back ALL the books I ordered from Amazon UK via free delivery hehe. (It worked out to be too expensive to have them delivered to Australia so I hired a courier and paid her wages by hosting her party hehe)

Ali also brought back a bottle of famed English liquor Pimms and a box of assorted biscuits from Marks & Spencer to share. She and Ange had both been raving on about Pimms and it was only natural that they bring me back a bottle hehe. Ali's contribution for the night was to make the Pimms cocktail and oh.. did I mention she funded the dinner party??

Dinner was a bit slow that night (I'm sorry everyone!! I blame Ali and shopping) but it turned out well because everyone was too busy chatting away (had to be ordered to eat before the food got cold) but once I got the appetisers out of the way I managed to concentrate on the rest of the cooking. All in all a great success! A belatd "Welcome Back" Ali!

(Recipes to follow)

Au revoir Wendy

Today our dear friend Wendy leaves Melbourne for Vancouver, enroute tothe famous Columbia School of Law/Columbia Law School (whichever is correct), Columbia University NY to complete her Masters in Law. As a farewell celebration I offered to cook her a feast before she commences her 'poor overseas student eating habits' in NY. Since W is a vegetarian, I came up with a simple menu focussing on desserts hehe..

Farewell Dinner for Wendy
Sunday, 30 July2006
Alv's Place

Entree:
Beans salad w/ grape tomatoes and haloumi
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Main:
Chilli Linguine w/ a ragout of oriental mushrooms (Tetsuya Style)
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Dessert:
Jaffa mousse w/ Cointreau orange
Balsamic strawberries

Being a non-vegetarian I had a bit of a hard time trying to figure out a menu that would appeal to the three of us and since we all love desserts I figured that I should make that the prominent dish of the day. When I was discussing the idea with TH and some of my colleagues at work they all said something along the lines off.. "That's easy, just make a salad". Luckily, I chose the right salad because that day W told us that she didn't really like/eat 'raw vegetables'. We were like "SHOCKED" and then I was like "phew" because the only raw ingredient in my beans salad was the tomatoes. The three of us had a discussion on why/how the general perception of non-vegetarians were that 'all vegetarians eat salad.. ie. lettuce/leafs, tomatoes, carrots etc' and that W was weird. That turned into a funny discussion full of "whats", "no ways" and "you're nqr" and loads of laughters. Unfortunately, I have no photo of my beans salad because the SDcard on my camera decided to report that 'the card has not been formatted and requires formatting' before I could use it again. Photo of Beans salad courtesy of W. (Thanks W!)

Entree

The beans were flat beans and green beans, sliced, blanched and dressed with EVOO, 2tbsp lemon juice and S&P, haloumi cheese was pan fried and the salad was assembled with the cheese, halved grape tomatoes and dressed with the dressing from the beans and mint and basil leaves. The salad was very refreshing albeit salty, this was my first time cooking with haloumi cheese and boy did I get a salt attack from that. Other than that it was good, W surprisingly loved the salt in the cheese so we fed her the rest of my cheese and all the left overs.

Main

I bought these chilli linguine at Macro, the new organic shop at The Glen. They're freshly made and then frozen. Sold in packs of 300g for $8.95 each. Doesn't look much here but boy was it delicious. You could even taste the chilli in the pasta. Sweet. A while ago I was a friend's place and saw Tetsuya Wakuda's Recipes from Australia's Most Acclaimed Chef and copied the recipe for Mushroom Ragout with Linguine. The ingredients looked interesting at that time. Shimeji mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, a bit of mirin, sake, soy sauce and chicken stock. When I saw the chilli linguine at Macro I knew at once what to make for W. Substitute the chicken stock for vegetable stock and it'd be perfect.

I was a bit disappointed with the end result though. It was rather tasteless?? It was not what I expected it to be, I wonder if it's because I substituted the chicken stock with vegetable stock? Or because I tripled the pasta amount? (but then I tripled the rest of the sauce amout too) Hmm I think, I will have to give this another go next time.

Desserts

On to desserts.. yay! About the only thing that turned out right that day. hahah.. Ok perhaps I'm too harsh a judge on myself but about the only thing that perfect in my opinion was the strawberries! (If I stuff even that up I'd probably hang up my apron hahah)

Jaffa orange mousse with cointreau infused oranges. Melt about 140g of chocolate with 2 tbsp of Cointreau, add 4 egg yolks one by one and let it cool meanwhile whip cream and fold in 4 tbsp of cocoa powder into the cream. Once thats done, fold cream into chocolate and mix well. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours. Peel oranges, slice and marinate in about 3 tbsp of cointreau until serving.

Sounds pretty simple isn't it? I even got the mousse texture right this time because I whipped the cream properly. Except I was too lazy to sift the cocoa powder before folding into the cream, so there's bits and pieces of cocoa powder in it. hahah.. oh well.. It was still delicious, I love the Cointreau infused oranges.

We had a great and late night. Chatted, drinking, eating and laughing. Will miss W, she'll be in NY for a year, so it's only me and TH left. W, see you in 12 months time!