My Malaysian Fish Dish Recipe

Instead of queuing up for fresh fish and prawns today, and paying a fortune, I cooked this Malaysian Fish Dish curry for dinner tonight for the two of us, and it was delicious, and there are leftovers tomorrow to look forward to. This recipe is a riff on a family recipe I found the other day, handwritten on a piece of paper in one of my Mother's recipe books. 

Memories of Peru In My Kitchen

 I thought I would share some of our happy experiences in Peru and Chile with you, as part of the In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherry's Pickings. Some photos are from my kitchen, and some are taken in Peru. When we travel we don't take really large suitcases because we have to hump them around ourselves, and we don't buy a lot of gifts for others or mementos for ourselves anymore either as really we don't need a lot of extra stuff anymore. Having said that, a few purchases were made.

This photo is of happy times for us taken at Machu Pichu on a cloudy and wet day, with these amazing cloud shrouded peaks in the background. Of course it's a mistake to think that all there is to Peru is the magical, mysterious Machu Picchu. The Lost City of the Inca is, of course, a standout and never fails to disappoint, but there is more to this land of hidden treasures, and its intriguing people.

We arrived home from our travels to Chile, the Falkland Islands and Peru on 3rd March, 2020, after travelling for 7 weeks. To this very day Mr. HRK and I feel so relieved that we were due to 

fly home from Peru via Chile when we did. When we were travelling we only watched a minimum of British and U.S. television and as far as we were aware at that stage Covid-19 was at pandemic levels in China, with some cases in Great Britain and the U.S. and that Australians were being told to be cautious. On our flights home some people were wearing masks, and as our daughter is a health care worker she was already worried about the Australian situation and encouraged us to wear masks. We went shopping for  masks in Arequipa in Peru but by that stage there were none available. Obviously the population in Peru was on alert by then, but this wasn't being communicated to us. We didn't realise that Covid-19 had the foothold in Peru that it did. The situation escalated very quickly. Thankfully it wasn't peak season for tourists in South America, and most of our tours had a maximum of only four people. Also we missed a couple of tours in our second week because of illness, confined to our hotel room for three days,which in hindsight I look on as possibly a good thing as far as exposure to Covid-19 was concerned. Anyway, on arriving home we self isolated for two weeks, were tested for the virus,  and not a lot has changed for us with all of the restrictions still now in place.

I do like a nice tablecloth and you can't have too many as far as I am concerned. The fabrics and designs in Peru are so colourful and interesting. We bought this one in Pisaq, in a small shop in a laneway off the main street, and after I had gone back a couple of times I bought it for what I thought was a reasonable price however it is so difficult to negotiate when the shopkeeper doesn't speak much English and we don't speak Spanish. We paid 135 sol, which now is approx. $65.00 with the Australian dollar taking a nosedive, it cost less then, but everything is costed for you in American dollars when purchasing so the mental calculation required can be challenging. Anyway I really liked it, and as we were in a hurry because the bus was waiting for us, we bought it and rushed for the bus. Mr. HRK felt we had paid too much for it so his mission then was to find another tablecloth for less, to average out the cost more. Which he did. 

I really liked the pattern, which features the ubiquitous PACHEMAMA. She is the Goddess revered by the indigenous people and is known as the earth mother. In Incan mythology, she is also the fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and presumably causes earthquakes. So this lady has many roles and is represented everywhere. I thought it was appropriate to buy a tablecloth with her symbol embroidered on the cloth and a few Llamas as well.

A brown Llama and an Alpaca. All very photogenic.

Because I couldn't bring a beautiful Llama  home to keep I had to buy one. Llamas are related to the camel and are the oldest domesticated animal in the world.The black Llamas are the most revered in Peru. Llamas have much longer necks and are generally larger than their cousins the Alpacas, which are prized for their wool.

 My very friendly alpaca, and so very cute

A Llama

Tourists feeding the  shaggy Llamas

Their smaller fluffier cousins are the Alpacas, in this photo below. I hope I've got this right about who is who.

This was the very colorful second tablecloth that thrifty Mr. HRK bought at Yucay, from a lady selling them at a table near the restaurant where we had lunch.  He bought this one for 80 Sola or 38 Australian dollars, so that averaged the price out for tablecloths and he walked away very happy with his purchase. All of the vibrant colours are typical of many garments and merchandise on sale in Peru.

I found these  colourful Ceviche Oven mits in a shop near Machu Pichu which are now in my kitchen. I was quite taken with them and they were very reasonably priced I thought. I didn't eat any Ceviche in Peru, but I did in Chile at Valparaiso and it was fresh and delicious with zingy flavours. The Chileans and the Argentinians have constant verbal battles about who makes the best Ceviche. I haven't tried one made in Argentina, but the one I had in Vaparaiso would be very hard to beat.

Mr. HRK bought this vibrant wall hanging for me on the floating islands at Lake Titicaca which was one of the tours I missed due to illness. He was feeling sorry for me for missing the tour so it was a lovely surprise when he arrived back at the hotel in Puno with this.  Pachemama is featured prominently on this one as well. He watched the local women actually weave this one so that was very special for him, as a lot of the work over there is now manufactured commercially on machines. Weaving is the stuff of life for many of the women here, with the traditional patterns holding the keys to the stories of the native people. It's important that tourists learn all about the ancient techniques of weaving first hand, and help to support its preservation.

If you are into fashion, these local Uros ladies on the floating island at Lake Titicaca were dressed up beautifully for the tourists.



In Peru, altitude sickness at 3,500 feet and higher debilitates many tourists, however luckily I had sought out  Prescription tablets from my GP which prevented the more serious side effects but breathlessness when we arrived in Cusco  made some activities  quite difficult. Unfortunately it also affected our appetite, something I wasn't prepared for. On arrival at any of the hotels, the travel guides and hotel staff encouraged us to drink Muna tea or Coca tea to help with altitude sickness. It was okay for the first couple of days and then all I wanted was a nice cup of English breakfast black tea, which wasn't to be found anywhere. When in Peru do as the Peruvians do I suppose but we soon realised that too much of these aromatic teas causes sleepnessness as well, even though they supposedly helped with the altitude sickness. Mr. HRK really liked the tea though and drank them for the whole time we were there. I became a bit tired of it and moved onto Camomile and other herbals after a while.

We were also given very freshly picked aromatic herbal teas as well when on tour, and this one was very nice.

I would have bought one of these mugs if I had seen them for sale.

Potatoes, corn and quinoa are the staple crops grown in Peru. In Chile and Peru, a bowl of roasted corn seasoned with salt was generally placed on our table to nibble on before a meal. This corn is very different to our corn being a larger variety. Peru boasts thousands of different varieties of potatoes that they grow, and have for centuries. Obviously every meal served has potato, quinoa or corn embedded in it somehow. Because quinoa has recently become so popular in western cultures, it has become expensive in South America for the locals to buy as well unless they can grow their own. This is quite sad really, because it was always such a staple for the poor people who are struggling now to afford it. It used to be so plentiful there that they fed the chickens with it.

Travelling to Cusco in Peru through the beautiful sacred valley

Altitude here is 4,335 feet. It's enough to make you breathless.

 If you are into Ruins - We were told this is the highest existing Incan ruin in South America

Back home in my garden, self seeded Birds Eye Chilli bushes were a surprise.

 We have three bushes growing at the moment, all extremely healthy and prolific but all self seeded. I've frozen a lot of the chillis for my future batches of Sweet Chilli Jam and chutneys, as these are the old fashioned variety of chilli not easily found in the supermarkets now. I think the birds must have spread the seeds for these to grow as the birds love them.

Happy days at home to you all.

Best wishes

Pauline

Very Easy White Butter Cake, a Family Recipe and Never a Failure.

 I'm back to baking this weekend and it feels great. This delicious cake to mind, when ingredients are so hard to come by in the supermarket during this critical period of increased stocking up by so many people, and rationing of the number of ingredients we can buy is the new normal. 

Portabello Mushroom Toast with Goat's Cheese, Pine Nuts and Chives, a perfect breakfast treat

Let's start our day with a delicious and healthy breakfast.  I now think of Breakfast, as an easy way to treat ourselves to something special, tasty and not necessarily expensive or time consuming, and to give us an important psychological and healthy boost to the day. This dish is also a perfect meal  for a Meat Free Monday dinner served with a delicious salad. Choosing Meat Free Mondays in our eating habits and reducing our met intake,  are simple ways to show respect for the mission by many to improve our own health and the health of the planet. 

I'm a cook and food writer, not a scientist, but I was interested to read that the BBC was quoting scientists when it said  that whilst there is no silver bullet to climate change, the humble mushroom has a role to play. The Mycelium, or the vast root systems of mushrooms, play an important role throughout various processes by improving the nutrient content of the soils. Those richer soils then encourage biodiversity by supporting diverse plant life..

Mushrooms make a surprisingly "meaty" accompaniment to anything from a baked potato gratin to a grain salad. Large Portobello mushrooms can be prepared like toast, and that is just what I did with these. Only not toasted, but grilled. This is such an easy way to cook big, flat, fresh mushrooms. Mushrooms, goat's cheese, pine nuts, and freshly snipped chives from the garden, what's not to love about this vegetarian dish for a weekend brekkie? Add a little finely chopped garlic straight onto the mushrooms if you wish. 

Portobello Mushroom Toast with Goat's Cheese, Pine Nuts and Chives, perfect for meat free Mondays

 I'll only buy mushrooms if they are available to buy loose and not packaged in plastic.  At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the oceans every year, with plastic making up 80% of all marine debris found from surface waters to deep-sea sediments (IUCN). Marine species are suffering severely from ingesting or becoming entangled by plastic debris. We all know this, and yet supermarkets continue to use so much plastic wrapping on their produce. Storing mushrooms them in the refrigerator crisper in a brown paper bag is the most sensible storage option.

I try to cook mainly with vegetables that are in season, and cooking with mushrooms is an easy decision as they are available all year round now in our shops in the Southern Hemisphere. I hope it's the same for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere. Mushrooms must be very fresh or they are not worth cooking,Wash them well, and most importantly, dry them well.  

Portobello Mushroom Toast with Goat's Cheese, Pine Nuts and Chives

Ingredients:

Serves 2

4 Portobello mushrooms 
Slurp of olive oil on each one
60 g soft goats cheese (Meredith Dairy soft goats cheese works well), or choose hard cheese
2 tablespoons pine nuts
2 handfuls of fresh chives, snipped

Method:

Turn the oven grill to high.

Place the mushrooms open side up on the baking tray, drizzle with the oil and season with a pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. 

Place under the grill for 3 minutes.

Remove the mushrooms from the grill, dot on the Goat's cheese and sprinkle with the pine nuts.

Place the mushrooms back under the grill for a further 2 minutes until Goats cheese is further softened and pine nuts are toasted. The pine nuts need to be watched as they will burn if left under the grill for too long.

Sprinkle on the snipped chives to serve. 

Served with homemade spicy tomato relish, or any savoury relish, in my opinion these rival any meal served in a cafe for brekkie. Add delicious bread on the side if you wish.

Say healthy,

Gorgeous German Plum Cake or Mieze's Plum Cake

Ripe blood plums are in season at the moment, however in North Queensland unfortunately they aren't available for long.  Inspired by a delicious Plum cake we ate at the Groove cafe in Annerley on a visit to South Brisbane, and because I was entertaining my Mahjong friends who love a good cake, I made this very special plum cake.

Quick Blueberry Self Saucing Pudding

Need a quick but delicious pudding for dessert just because you want some comfort food in a hurry on a rainy and windy day, or for just no particular reason?  A self saucing pudding always hits the mark. This post is laced with nostalgia, focusing on a pudding recipe that Mr. HRK passed on to me from his Mum Jessie, a long time ago. All of the ingredients were already in my pantry so that was easy. I added dried blueberries to the batter instead of using currants or sultanas, as that's what I had left over from making my Rustic Blueberry Scones. I always try to keep a couple of packets of dried blueberries on hand as they come in so handy.

The Falkland Island's Gentoo Penguins and a fresh Mango, Coriander and Corn salad

Dear Friends,

You can use what you have on hand for this salad but the fresh ingredients of mango, cherry  tomatoes, cucumber, pumpkin, shallots and coriander really pack such a punch of flavour into the rest of the ingredients. No need for a dressing at all. The beauty of a salad is that it can be anything you like, served for main course, a side dish or just a nourishing bowl to munch on. This is the easiest salad ever, it's the many ingredients which bring the flavour to the dish and we loved it.

It's great to be home again after being away for 7 weeks in the Falkland Islands, Chile and Peru and I am embracing the freedom of eating salads. A lot can happen on such a trip and it did, some good and some not so good. I hope to share some of my stories with you over the next few months and once the jet lag settles, and my mojo returns I have lots of recipes to try and experiences to share.

This post is dedicated to the amazing and quite gregarious Gentoo Penguins we visited on the Falkland Islands.

We just couldn't get enough of the Penguins on East Falklands Island, so I thought I would share a Penguin story with you. We drove along the beach in our son's Falkland's inherited Land Rover, to Bertha's Beach, located on Fitzroy Farm, a very large working sheep farm, (and there's a whole book written about the fleet of Falkland Island's Land Rovers if you are interested). People are often recognised by the Land Rover they drive in Stanley, so as we had use of it for the month that we lived in the Falklands, we received lots of friendly and knowing waves from locals, ha, ha.  We saw this gorgeous colony of Gentoo Penguins on the beach and in the moorland. Suzi and Gilberto who manage Fitzroy Farm for Falklands Landholdings gave us permission, via Matthew,  to access the beach (for a bottle of red wine) and along with a few tourist buses we were treated to the beauty, magic, and wonderfully inquisitive personalities of these intriguing animals. Here we are driving in Matthew's Land Rover along the beach towards the parking lot near Bertha's Beach and the penguins.



Bertha's Beach is located only 6 miles from the Mt. Pleasant Military Base and Airport at Stanley, which is where we flew into on LATAM Airlines, on arriving at the Falkland Islands. Such an interesting part of the world to be driving through a high security military zone, before entering a pristine and protected penguin sanctuary. Besides managing one of the largest sheep farms on the islands, Suzi and Gilberto are also quite self sufficient and very eco friendly on their own farming patch, rearing pigs, chickens, orphaned lambs, and growing what fruit and vegetables they can, weather permitting. The extreme weather at times in the Falkland Islands can be very challenging. Suzi invited us into her lovely home for a cup of tea and then showed us around their farm. Such beautiful country hospitality and an amazing day. Thanks so much Suzi and Gilberto.

We were so excited when we arrived at the beach and saw all of the Penguins. Many hungry Penguin chicks were waiting on the beach for their Mother's to return from the ocean to feed them. Interestingly the adult penguins feed in the ocean close to the shore, they don't venture into the deeper ocean like some breeds do.

Mum feeding her hungry chick.

Beautiful countryside back from the beach near where we had lunch. Matthew's Land Rover features in the background.

We were told not to approach the Penguins and keep a distance of at least 3 metres from them however some were quite inquisitive and approached us. There was also lots of seaweed and kelp on the white sandy beach which is abundant throughout the Falkland Island oceans.

I never thought that I, a food lover, would lose my appetite to the extent I did in Peru. The effects of High altitude in Cusco and Puno, I wouldn't call it altitude sickness in my case, plus a bout of food poisoning which is pretty common despite extreme hygiene and precautions, left me living on boiled eggs and toast, and Coca tea infusions for three days during our last week there, only a week before this last one. We spent our final two South American nights in Santiago in Chile in the beautiful Hotel Cumbres, organised by our tour company Chimu. This was such a panacea before we embarked on our flight back to Sydney, connecting to Brisbane and Mackay. Mr. HRK had a chest infection for some of the trip, and on presenting himself to our local GP on arriving home was of course tested for Corona Virus and many other things. He is now fine. Anyway we are here to tell the tale and I think we should have taken this trip to Peru and Chile 20 years ago. However many of the travellers half our age were suffering from altitude sickness in various forms as well, and oxygen tanks are readily available for use in most hotels and restaurants. The first 10 minutes of usage is free of charge. It helps with the breathlessness. I had organised for medication to take for altitiude sickness from my GP before we left Australia so we only suffered from breathlessness and loss of appetite, not the severe headaches and nausea.

On  our return to Mackay, our good friend Mr. S collected us from the airport and waiting for us in an esky on the patio was a cooked piece of Corned Silverside, a delicius Mango and Coriander salad that I am featuring today, and a healthy quinoa salad made by Mrs. S. Wow my appetite returned on the spot, and our dinner that night will be remembered by me as one of the best I have ever eaten. Eating freshly prepared salads and fruits can be a risky undertaking in Peru and Chile when travelling, because of the risk of contamination and water impurities which I probably found out the hard way. So it was just amazing to be able to demolish this delicious food without any qualms. This is my version of the salad which Mr. and Mrs. S made for us.

.Ingredients:

1 roughly chopped Kite Mango, or any firm mango
1 cup chopped cooked pumpkin
2 tablespoons chopped coriander of more if you really are a coriander fan (to taste really)
1 drained can of corn kernels
4 shredded lettuce leaves
2 cups roughly chopped cucumber
1 chopped red capsicum
2 cups finely chopped carrot
1 cup cranberries
1 drained can chickpeas
1 punnet chopped cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped shallots or more if you like the zing
1/2 cup baby capers

Method:

Mix all the ingredients together and refrigerate. Add the pumpkin, mango and tomatoes just before serving if you prefer so it is all perfectly fresh, however this keeps in the refrigerator very well for a few days.

Thankfully we organised our Peruvian and Chilean tours through a Sunshine Coast travel company named Chimu, who then outsource all of the tours through various South American tour companies. In Peru, Chimu organised for the Tourist doctor to come and visit me and prescribe medication, which is challenging enough when I don't speak Spanish and they don't speak English, however we all did our best and I have survived to tell the tale.

One of the challenges of an extended but still temporary stay in the Falkand Islands is that there is no free WiFi anywhere. Even in the Tourist Information Centre, WiFi access is only available through SURE, the Telco, for a 5 pound minimum. I soon discovered that  creating a Facebook post from there can quickly use up a 10 pound credit. So consequently given our travels, I am very behind with reading my favourite bloggers posts and I may never catch up, so thank you everyone for bearing with me. I am still in the land of the living.

So my friends do you remember after returning from an overseas trip how much you enjoyed your first meal back on Australian soil. We live in such an amazing country here in Australia, despite the challenges we face at times. Peru is after all a third world country, but incredibly rugged and beautiful,  and despite some food and high altitude issues for tourists, the people as a whole are very warm and accommodating. It was an amazing holiday.


Best wishes,

Pauline