Spinach-Chicken Tortilla Wraps

Hubby used to call me the ‘sandwich girl’ during our courtship :) That’s because my typical answer to his “what did you have for lunch/dinner today?” question was more often than not – sandwich! I was living on my own in KL, away from my family in Melaka, working 9-6 and managing a really long-distance relationship (which included phone calls and being online at odd hours !). At that time, the last thing I’d want to do was spend precious time preparing a three-course meal and then spend time cleaning the dishes.

Although my Cheras apartment was surrounded by eateries, eating out became a little too mundane. So I used to stock-up my fridge with various ingredients so that I’d have the option of creating a sandwich whenever I wanted.

What’s there not to like about sandwiches? It’s easy to prepare and so it’s time-saving and can be made as healthy as you would like it to be. It’s kind of a convenient comfort food. Plus if you whip up a sandwich meal at home, there won’t be too many dishes to do afterwards :) But seriously, sandwiches are the quickest and fastest way to have an all-in-all meal or a hearty snack.

These days, there is always a stock of rolled, uncooked tortillas in my refrigerator. Warm ‘em up a couple of minutes on a hot griddle and they are good to go as an alternative to bread in sandwiches. It makes it easy for ‘the sandwich girl’ to pack hubby a sandwich or two during the days of the week when he has to rush and commute from his office to the school campus for his MBAPM classes.

These Mexican flatbreads (almost similar to chapathis) are so versatile and especially wonderful for making warm sandwich wraps and the possibilities are simply endless. For the wrap featured here, first I cooked up some baby spinach leaves with garlic, pepper and some canned chicken meat and a few roasted almonds.

Then I pulse them a couple of times in the food processor with a little fat-free ranch sauce for the tanginess and creaminess.

Spread, wrap and chomp!

Scallops in Green Curry Sauce

The influence of Thai cuisine in Malaysian (Malay) cuisine is pretty strong particularly because Thailand is our northernmost neighbor. The uses of what are considered to be exotic ingredients in the U.S such as kaffir lime leaves (daun limau purut), galangal (lengkuas), lemongrass (daun serai) and pandanus leaves (daun pandan), are interchangeable between Thai and Malay cuisine.

Exotic-schmexotic….back home, when mom needed some kaffir lime leaves or lemongrass or even pandanus leaves for her cooking, all she had to do was get them from the backyard! Almost all my neighbors (mostly Malays) have these plants at their homes. Here, I paid a rather ‘exotic’ price for these imported ingredients – all frozen mind it!

Paying ridiculous price for an ingredient so easily found at home aside, it is always fun to cook using ingredients that I don’t regularly use. I followed the ingredients as listed in the green curry recipe I had bookmarked online. Green curry paste are sold for a much easier task and I have tried those but this time I wanted to make it from scratch especially because despite the long list of ingredients, it is rather simple curry dish actually.

We always use ‘light’ coconut milk for any recipes that call for it but the actual twist to my dish here is that I added a handful of roasted cashew nuts while making my green curry paste and the result was a creamier curry!


Scallops


Although a seafood lover, I never did like any of the molluscs species in my food when in Malaysia. Yes, I steered clear from dishes involving clams, mussels, oysters and scallops too. It could be because the only place where I have seen these being sold are at the wet markets and jeez, they are definitely not appealing to the sight in their natural form. In the markets here, all I see are these fresh looking, clean, white meat! :)


The first time I tried scallops here was when hubby took me to a seafood buffet. I tried one and I asked myself why I never tried it before! Since I love shrimps and prawns, it was easy to enjoy scallops as they share a kind of the same texture and taste. The cooking time for scallops are also the same as for prawns/shrimps – they cook fast and overcooking can make them rubbery.


Overall, adding scallops to my green curry sauce was indeed a good move. A scrumptious seafood fare!

Stir-Fried Baby Bok Choy

Vegetables, including leafy greens, are indispensable in Indian cuisine. When I was growing up, leafy greens were served at my home almost daily.

Most Indian recipes involving leafy greens require a longer cooking time and while this is necessary in some recipes, it may cause the leaves to lose their vibrant green color and deplete their vitamins and minerals content in the process. That’s the reason why I like using the Chinese style of stir-frying my leafy greens: cooking on high heat (with less oil) for a shorter period of time. I remember eating at Chinese restaurants back in Malaysia where usually an order of leafy greens hits the table almost immediately.

Baby Bok Choy, with light green stems and dark green leaves, are perfect when stir-fried as the stems stay crunchy and leaves succulent that way. I add a handful of garlic slices to my hot oil to infuse the dish with its wonderful aroma and taste before hitting the pan with a couple of dashes of oyster sauce.

No salt necessary here as the oyster sauce gives enough saltiness and flavor to this simple yet healthfully satisfying dish.

Cabbage Fry – South Indian Style

I know many who only prefer to have their cabbage in the form of the coleslaw served up at KFC restaurants :) That’s because on its own, cabbage may not be tastefully appealing. Cabbage, especially the Napa variety, is generally used in soups or in noodle dishes in Malaysia. On a bigger scale, one can find cabbage being used as the topping on their Ramly burgers :D We sometimes use shredded purple cabbage to add color to our salads.

Actually it’s worth taking the effort to create a nice cabbage dish especially since it has pretty good medicinal properties namely an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and dietary fiber. Adding the right spices can create a rather wonderful flavor to the otherwise ordinary cabbage.

The entry here showcases thinly cut cabbage, fried with sliced onions, ginger and garlic, some chana dhal (split chick peas) and grated coconut with a hint of turmeric for the vibrant color. This dish is special in its own way: a hint of sweetness and crunchiness from the cabbage topped with the crunchiness of the chana dhal and not forgetting the texture added by the grated coconut, makes it a nice side dish especially in an Indian vegetarian meal.

Cumin-Peppercorn Chicken

The one thing I have realized since I started cooking regularly is that simplicity in cooking always brings out great taste. This is of course not applicable for those special dishes (especially traditional dishes) that require a long list of specific ingredients and detailed preparation. Most often than not, one would need to stick to the original recipe to create the exact traditional flavor. Otherwise, I find simple steps and fewer ingredients usually help in enhancing the taste of a dish.


This delicious chicken entrée is one such dish that can be prepared almost effortlessly. Pepper chicken is something that I have tasted regularly at my home in Malaysia but I have recreated it in my kitchen by making cumin the star ingredient alongside its counterpart, ground black peppercorns.


Chicken pieces (coated with needed amount of cumin powder and ground peppercorns) are cooked to perfection with a generous amount of diced up shallots, ginger and garlic. A fulfilling lunch/dinner entrée indeed!