Tiny's Grand Exit - Part 04

Lately I've been taking more photographs of Tiny... the way I want to remember her. These were taken last week

As you can see Tiny still looks quite pretty, definitely not like someone who's walking around with less than a third of her lungs..

Tiny's Grand Exit - Part 03

Brought Tiny to see Dr Jean Paul Ly at Balestier Animal Recovery Centre today. Indeed he lived up to his reputation. He is good... I felt totally confident with his words. The visit was more for me than for her, I just wanted to be absolutely sure I wasn't missing anything potentially treatable. Tiny has lung lymphoma and based on the scan done a week ago, it had occupied more than two thirds of her lungs. She was hanging on with less than a third of her usual lung capacity!

According to Dr Ly, there was hardly any breath sounds on one side of her chest. That explains the flaring of her nostrils and abdominal breathing pattern that I'm observing. Yet despite all this, Tiny was licking up bits of food (cooked chicken liver, mackeral flesh, crushed kibbles & Brand's chicken essence blended into a ghastly paste in the food processor), cleaning herself and following me from study to kitchen to living room.

"Bring her to see me in 2 weeks. There will come a time when her lungs can no longer support her and she will slowly asphyxiate. It will be a slow painful death if you do not put her down." These were the words of Dr Ly, someone as I was told, who is reputed to go all out to save animals if they had the slightest chance. This is closure for me.

Outside the consultation room, one of the ladies at Balestier ARC said to me... Pets often hang on to this world, not for themselves but rather for their owners. Apparently although we cannot speak to them, there are people who can 'body talk' to animals via touch. She asked me to consider the option, it might help us understand what Tiny wants, and help importantly, help Tiny to understand that time has come to let go of this world, let go of me, and head on to another level. "I'll think about it" whispered the skeptical me.

Tiny's Grand Exit - Part 02

Spoke to the vet Dr Tay again. There was something that I could do ... add injectable steroids to the infusion solution! Two potential benefits: (1) The steroids will stimulate appetite (2) If Tiny's lung tumour happens to be a sort of lymphoma, it may even stimulate remission. So after work I scooted off to the Animal Recovery Centre to get a syringe of Dexamethasone.

Something that made me very happy happened. Tiny tried to eat some of her dried kibbles! That is a good sign. I'm obviously sounding happier than in the previous post. Fingers crossed and clasped in prayer, God please help Tiny get better!

Tiny's Grand Exit - Part 01

It's been several days since I found out what actually is not right with Tiny. Thoraxic scan uncovered a lung mass and she's in her final days. And its day 3 since her self-imposed fast. Tiny has rejected all food and water. Her lean frame is now frail.

The vet had taught me how to administer Ringer's lactate (Hartman's Solution) subcutaneously. "It's really easy" He said "Just lift up a fold of skin, insert an 18-G canula horizontally and put in about 200 mls. It'd slowly get absorbed over 24 hours"

I've been reading a lot of articles on dying cats, coming to terms, coping with bereavement etc. And as much as I thank God for the time I now still have to spend with Tiny, a very small part of me does not want this to be prolonged. How long can she last not eating, even though she has fluids?

Even as I blog, Tiny's on the carpet behind me, not far away. She's always not far away if I allow her to be. Yes, that's Tiny for you.. an unusual cat who'd follow me from the study to the bedroom to the kitchen. It's as though she has an invisible tether. And I know Tiny will alway be not far away, even if she goes.

I dread the day when I be saddled with the question... to keep her alive with daily Hartman's infusion or to gently put her down. Deep inside, I hope that I'd get up one morning and find her in peaceful lifeless sleep, that I would never have to make that painful decision. Yet in many places I see it mentioned, that it's every pet owner's final responsibility.. to ensure a humane exit.

How to Know a Sick Cat Might be Dying

Posting an article.....



How to Know a Sick Cat Might be Dying

written by Kelly Roper (Cats Group Editor)

































You may also visit the actual site here: http://www.anaflora.com/grieving/beloved/index.html




Introduction




Eventually, every cat's life will end. If you're lucky, your cat will have lived a long life filled with great moments of shared affection. There's not much you can do to change the scheme of things, but it can be helpful to recognize the signs of a dying feline friend in order to get veterinary care, or at least offer comfort as your pet leaves this world.




Signs of Dying




According to FelineCRF.org, understanding the signs and symptoms of dying will help you prepare for your cat's exit from this world, and possibly even allow you to make your pet's final moments more comfortable. So, how can you recognize when the end of your cat's life is imminent? The body goes through various changes as it begins shutting down before death finally takes place.




Reluctance to Eat and Drink




As a cat's body begins the process of shutting down, the animal will gradually refrain from eating and drinking. As a result, you'll also notice a reduction in the amount of urine and feces released, and the urine will begin to take on a darker coloring.




Distraction/Disorientation




Many cats seem to become distracted during the dying process. They appear unaware of much of what is going on around them, and often will just stare into the distance at nothing in particular. In what appears to be an extension of the distracted aspect, some cats also become a little disoriented. They don't seem to recognize their owners as they once did, and they are sometimes startled by sudden noises or touches. At times like this, it's very important to take a slow and gentle approach with your pet. Speak softly to announce your presence, and touch lightly. If you must move your cat or adjust him to a more comfortable position, do so with great care.




Breathing Changes




A cat's breathing will certainly change as death approaches. In some cases, the breathing becomes rapid and shallow. In other cases, the lack of hydration leads to a gurgling sound in the chest as normal lung secretions thicken. Sometimes the breathing will simply become slow and rhythmic with intermittent pauses between breaths that become more prolonged as the final moments near. Eventually, breathing ceases except for the last agonal breaths that may come minutes apart. In the end, the heart and lungs come to a complete and final rest.




Restlessness




Some cats do not go as gently as others, and some become restless as the time approaches. They may struggle to change positions or may actually try to wander away to a place they feel more secure during their final moments.




Body Cooling




As the heart begins to slow its beats, the cat's body temperature begins to cool, first in the extremities and then the torso itself. As a result of decreased circulation, the cat may lose some or all feeling in his limbs and become unable to move for himself.




Increased Sleeping




Dying can happen quickly, or it can go on for hours and even days. During a prolonged death, most cats will spend a majority of the time in light sleep, occasionally waking up in response to what is going on around them and drifting back into sleep.




Sight and Hearing




As the body grows weaker, a cat's sight will often grow dim until he no longer appears able to see anything. However, even when sight fails, the cat is still likely able to hear what is going on around him, including the sounds of his family's voice.




Being Certain Your Pet Has Passed




It may be difficult to be sure when your cat has well and truly passed away.

1. Watch for a complete relaxation of the entire body.
   



2. Your touch doesn't provoke any kind of reflexive response.




3. The cat's eyes are fixed and dilated.




4. There are no more breaths after at least ten minutes of observation.




5. There is a release of bodily fluids and waste.
   

Saying Good-Bye Is Difficult




Saying good-bye to a sick and dying feline friend is perhaps the most difficult issue cat lovers ever face, but death is a part of the natural scheme of things.







The grieving process eventually becomes bearable, and a new feline works its way into your heart only to begin the cycle again.

Moving to the East

It all started with an innocent conversation at the breakfast table. "Let me introduce my housing agent to you, he's good" a good friend quipped. This was followed by a chorus of "Yea, it's a good time", "The price is right" etc

So in just two weeks, my unit at Rio Gardens was sold.

The weeks leading up till today have been a hodge-podge of different sentiments for me. On the eve of the handover, I stood at the terrace at Rio Gardens, looked at the view of the river for the last time and kissed the place goodbye. It is after all, a place of many firsts for me.

Melancholy was quickly supplanted by the flurry of activities that followed in the next few weeks. The sale of Rio Gardens had somehow triggered a frenzied bid to procure a new place. Together with my agent, we ploughed the island in search of a place that's fit budget and fancy, and finally ended up with a place in the East.

It was a steep climb on the learning curve for me, from purchase to renovation. And I've not even reached the fun parts yet... stuff like choosing laminates, tiles, stones and buying furniture. Right now, I'm plagued by a leak in the yard (Thru this I have garnered considerable, previously meagre, respect for plumbers) and having to decide between two equally promising renovators.

"They have to take turns looking after me"

Today I met a little old lady in the clinic. She has diabetes, chronic renal impairment, hypertension, high cholesterol and ischaemic heart disease (heart vesel blockages)

"Where do you stay, auntie?" I quipped my usual opening line. "I've got no fixed place" was her reply.

"What do you mean?" I probed wide-eyed, interest fanned.

I found out that she has 3 daughters, with whom she takes turn staying with. "They have to take turns putting me up" she earnestly explained.

There're a few ways of looking at this. But I'm so glad I've got a place I can call my own. Yet another reason for me to count my blessings instead of sheep.

Spiced & Liqueured Poached Bartlett Pears

This is yet another breezy dessert that you can prepare one or two days in advance, stuff into the fridge and bring out on dinner day to thoroughly impress your guests. The flavor improves with keeping for a day or two in fact.

Ingredients:
10 very small Bartlett pears or 5 large Bartlett pears.

1 bottle of white wine + 2 heaped table spoons of caster sugar
If you can find a slightly sweet (but not dessert wine sweet) white, you may omit the sugar altogether. I used a bottle of Strawberry Zinfandel and omitted the sugar.

Zest from one orange. Just use a vegetable peeler. You want the zest in broad strips which you would use for garnishing later, not tiny slivers that you get with a citrus zester.

Some spices: You may use anything in fact, from nutmeg to mixed spice to ground cinnamon.

I used:
2-3 cinnamon quills
5-6 cloves
half a star anise
5-6 whole black peppercorns (not type... they really do work here!)

2 shots of cointreau / triple sec / grand marnier or any citrus liqueur

Method:
The trick is in the way you cut the pears. Choose pears with thick intact stalks that are just about ripe for the best results. What I normally do is buy the pears about 3 days before I want to cook them, leave them at room temperature (warm in Singapore) thus allowing them to ripen to the desired degree.

How you should cut the pears:
This is a little tedious but well worth the effort. How you cut depends on the size of the fruit you are serving.

First of all, peel the pears, ensuring that the stalks are preserved and still attached to the fruit.

I normally slice the bottom off each pear so that the fruit is stable upright.

If using small Bartletts (not so easily available), you may use the entire pear, core with an apple corer from the bottom. Push the corer from the base of the pear until you hit the core, twist and remove the core.

If using larger pears, divide each pear into half. To preserve the stalk on each half, I normally slice carefully from stalk end downwards. I find that if I cut a longitudinal wedge off the perfect half, it is more pleasing aesthetically.

Next you need to poach the pears.

Lay the pears tightly in a saucepan, ideally find one where the pears are snugly packed so that you need the least poaching liquid to submerge most of the pears.

Pour in the entire bottle of wine (and sugar if you are using)

Add your spices, cover and start the fire.

Once the wine is bubbling, reduce the heat to a slow simmer.

Poach for about an hour or until flesh of the pear is slightly translucent. By this, I mean the flesh would've turned a slightly darker tone.

With the wine still simmering, carefully fish out the pears with a slotted spoon and arrange in a small shallow casserole so that the fruit sits snugly.

Increase the heat so that wine comes to a rolling boil and reduce till a quarter to a third of original volume.

Allow the poaching liquid to cool in the pan. Once cool, stir in liqueur.

Pour poaching liquid into the casserole with the pears. Cover or clingwrap and stuff in to the fridge to chill overnight.

To serve, sit pears upright in a shallow dish (with a sauce saving lip). I simply used a sauce dish. Spoon over some liquid, garnish with an orange zest strip and a cinnamon quil.

This is especially refreshing and lovely after a heavy main course.

Chocolate Jam Cake

This is a really plain looking cake which I adapted from Nigella Lawson's Store Cupboard Chocolate Orange Cake. Unless you're using a strongly flavored jam, you'd probably hardly taste the jam. The jam gives the cake a slight tanginess and importantly, moistness.

With the blueberry conserve, I had berries studded throughout the cake which gave a tangy burst whenever you bit into them. With Strawberry conserve, all I tasted was chocolate. A friend had suggested that you could probably glaze the cake surface with some melted jam, or even sandwich the jam in between horizontal slices (please wait till thoroughly cool before attempting this. The cake is very delicate when oven-fresh) to enhance the jam flavor.

Ingredients

A 10 Oz (275g) bottle of jam (Ive used Dalfour Blueberry Conserve, Smuckers Reduced Sugar Strawberry ... but you could use marmalade or any other jam)

A 220g (7.7 Oz) bar of good dark chocolate (I used Old Gold)
4 large eggs, beaten
200g self-raising flour
250 g butter (The entire standard block that you can find from the dairy shelves)
7 Oz (200 g) Dark Musvocado


Steps

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg Celcius.

Break chocolate into small pieces. It helps if its not fridge cold.

Melt butter in the microwave till almost all melted, the stir in chocolate pieces and leave to stand till soft. Stir till smooth.

Stir in musvocado sugar, eggs and jam.

Sift in flour, stirring by the spoonful. Be careful not to overmix, stirring just till combined and no more. If you overstir, the flour will turn to gluten and the cake'll be tough.

Line a 20 inch springform pan well with baking parchment.

Lining is very important because the base and sides will burn if not protected (probably due to the chocolate & jam? I once sat a silicon pan on the turntable of my convection microwave and the base did indeed burn) Also, this cake is delicate. Even if you're using a silicon pan, line it so that you can unmold it relatively intact without resulting in bits of broken off surface stuck to the base later.

Pour in the batter.

Bake in the middle shelf for 40-50 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. If the top is done but the skewer comes out still sticky, you might want to place a piece of aluminium foil on top of the cake.

Leave to cool in the pan. This is also quite important. I tried to unmold the cake once when it was fresh from the oven and it was way too delicate to unmold intact. Wait till the cake is thoroughly cooled, then release and serve.

If you refrigerate the cake cling-wrapped, it keeps fairly well for a few days. Fresh from the fridge, it will be quite hard. Just nuke a slice in the microwave for 15 seconds on high and it will be nice and soft for serving.

Fancy Meatloaf

Mark's Fancy Meatloaf

Basic ingredient:
Ground meat - beef, pork, chicken etc
Half a cup of chopped onions
Enough bacon strips ~ 18 pieces (streaky is best or rindless back if you're too health conscious) for wrapping the loaf

Texturizing ingredients:
Black fungus (wooden ears) sliced into thin slivers
Water chestnuts (peeled & diced)
5 baby corns or half a firm medium carrot (sliced into coins)
Half a cupful of coriander leaves / stems, chopped
Tried using chopped walnut flesh but the flavor clashed

Flavoring ingredients:
Sundried tomatos (cut into strips)
handful of cranberries and / or raisins
2 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 heaped tablespoons of fried shallots
1 teaspoon of italian herbs
Black & sechuan peppercorns (coarsely ground)
Salt to taste (go easy on this as the streaky bacon is already quite salty)
Orange zest

Burnishing glaze:
2-3 tablespoons of tomato (or barbeque) sauce

Garnishing ingredients:
Coriander & Spring onions (chopped)
Orange zest strips

Method

Line a loaftin with baking parchment, then with bacon strips leaving an overhang

Mix basic, texturizing and flavoring ingredients in a bowl, add a little olive oil to facilitate mixing if needed.

Fill the loaftin cavity with this mixture, fold overhanging bacon strips on to mix and bake in a bainmarie at 180 deg Celsius for an hour.

Let stand 5 minutes, unmold & invert onto an oven-proof serving dish.

Brush with Burnishing Glaze and grill at high heat until bacon surface crisps up.

Garnish.

Serve warm.

Grilled Masala Chicken

Mark's Grilled Masala Chicken

1 kg chicken pieces (or one chicken cut up)

Spices: Mix all these with some water to form a paste
2 tsp good quality curry powder
1 tsp coriander powder (ketumbar)
1 tsp cumin powder + 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

Fresh herbs:
4 Kaffir lime leaves, thinly shredded, leaf stems discarded
2 tbsp minced young ginger root
3 tbsp minced garlic
4-5 shallots peeled and minced
1 tsp minced tumeric root (kunyit)

Gravy items:
250 ml plain unsweetened yoghurt
some milk
1 tsp sugar
salt to taste

Enough oil to fry

Method

Heat oil in a pan
Fry fresh herbs till aromatic, add spice paste and fry further.
Add chicken pieces, fry till all the pieces are nicely browned
Add yoghurt and enough milk to almost cover the chicken pieces, stir to combine

Add sugar and enough salt to taste.
Cover and simmer under slow fire till chicken pieces are tender.

Remove chicken pieces with tongs, Reduce gravy in pan until it's consistency of a thick paste.

Place cooked chicken pieces in a large capacity freezer bag, add reduced gravy, squeeze otu air from bag to ensure gravy coats all chicken pieces and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Grill chicken till nicely browned before serving.

Pork Curry

This is yet another dish which is great for weekday dinner parties as it can be prepared the night before and best of all, the flavor improves with keeping.

Ingredients

500g pork (go for streaky bits with marbling and meaty ribs if you want good flavor, but cheaper cuts for braising like pork shoulder works just as well too)cubed into 1.5 inch pieces.

Blend these into a paste. I usually blend the lemongrass separately as it is tougher than shallots and ginger

• 1 stick lemongrass (use only the white end near the roots and slice thinly crosswise to aid blending.
• 4 shallots
• 1 clove of garlic peeled, or several segments if you are using old garlic
• 1 inch knob of young ginger, peeled and sliced to aid blending

3 tsp good quality curry powder mixed with some water into a thick paste (I use a homemade blend courtesy of one of my patients

enough oil for frying
enough milk (or coconut milk if you don't mind the calories but I generally use Marigold high calcium low fat milk)

Dry spices:

• 1 star anise broken up
• 2 sticks cinnamon broken up
• 5-6 cloves

half a teaspoon of sugar

tofu puffs (tow pok)

3 medium potatos, washed peeled and cut into pieces slightly larger than the pork cubes

1 packed cupful of coriander (flat leaf parsley) washed and chopped up for more flavor and some more for garnishing. Reserve the roots (the most flavorful part in fact) for flavoring the curry.



Method:

Heat oil in a heavy based pan, fry blended ingredients till aromatic, add dry spices and stirfry till aromatic. Add curry paste (powder + water) , stir till evenly distributed.

Finally add pork. Now here's the tricky part. You need to ensure that the pan is hot before you add the pork. You need to sear the pork in the hot spice mix basically.

Keep stirring till all the pork pieces are all browned before you add milk for braising. Add enough milk to just cover the pork pieces, bring to a boil, cover and simmer under low fire for an hour.

Before covering and simmering, add half a teaspoon of sugar, some salt ( there's no need to add too much salt, you can adjust the seasoning later) , a cupful of chopped coriander stem and leaves, and reserved coriander roots.

After about 40 minutes, add peeled potatos, simmer another 10 minutes, add tofu puffs, simmer another 5 minutes.

Adjust the seasoning (salt and pepper)

To serve, garnish with chopped coriander.

If you're preparing this the night before to reheat on the day of the dinner (highly recommended as flavor really improves with keeping), simmer pork for just 30 minutes, add potatos and simmer just another 5 minutes, add tofu puffs, bring just to boil, adjust the seasoning and turn off the flame.

Let cool a little before ladling into a microwavable glass bowl and stuffing into the fridge. As you keep the curry overnight, the meat and potatos will tenderize further. And when you reheat the next day (just use a microwave) the texture will be perfect!

The Irresistable Urge

Life's getting a little bit mundane... And my greatest respite from it seems to lie in the kitchen... Cooking. I simply dig it. The real challenge is, how to do it without any of the following: (1) Having a whole freezer full of leftovers (2) Gaining weight in leaps and bounds (3) Causing the one around me to gain weight leaps and bounds....

Today I cooked Klang-style buck coot tay (pork rib soup... tea... broth... whatever you want to call it, and I insist on spelling it MY way) for dinner. It was easy. The secret is: oyster sauce and pressure cook.

And after dinner, I harvested some rosemary from the garden. The rosemary plant is robustly growing. Just simply pruning off some stray branches yielded a whole colander of fresh herb. Trimmings are now washed and drying on some kitchen towels on the dining table. Once dry, into a glass bottle with some light olive oil they will go, to steep for a few weeks. And hopefully I get some nice oil for my salads. Yet undecided is whether I should add a sprinkling of salt as a preservative. This is my first attempt at homemade herb oil.

I fed Tortoise some left over Romaine lettuce. And she loved it! Finished every scrap. I've never given her fresh food before. She'd always had specially formulated terrapin pellets. Somehow, the storybooks I've read in the past have always associated Romaine lettuce with two things... Caesar salad and tortoises.

Now I'm going to contradict myself.... there's simply too much to do in my mundane life, and not enough time to do it all.

My French lessons for instance. After learning for almost 2 years, I am but a disgrace with my moth-eaten memory of verbs and conjugations. Then there are the oil painting lessons... and of course, gym. Very essential. Each time I bump into some long lost acquaintances, they'd exclaimed how I've shrunk. But its part of aging gracefully. Even tomatoes in the fridge shrink after sometime, but they do get more flavorful.... And I'd like to think of myself as getting more flavorful by the day... Now if only someone would care to take a bite.... ;-)

Seared Tuna Carpaccio Salad

Seared Tune Carpaccio

This is a good entre, a breeze to do....

Salad ingredients

• a bunch of coriander chopped up
  
• 1 segment garlic, peeled, blanched if you like and finally minced ... choose a fat segment, not a puny thin sliver
• a handful of salad leaves, washed. Mesculun is fine, otherwise baby rocket is good too
  

Dressing

• Good olive oil
• Teriyaki marinade
• splash of sesame oil
• juice of a small lime

Whisk the lot to combine

Tuna Steak Ingredients

• Sashimi grade Tuna steak
• Togarashi powder (this is a mix of crushed sesame, seaweed, salt etc that you can pick up from the Japanese produce aisle in any local supermarket)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

How its done

Scatter salad leaves onto a serving plate.

Toss coriander and garlic in whisked dressing. Using tongs or a fork, pile dressed coriander onto salad leaves as the next layer. Reserve the rest of the dressing for drizzling over the steaks later.

Cut tuna steak into rectangular fillets (I usually cut mine to rough dimensions of 5 x 1 x 1 inches)

Rub fillets with olive oil, salt and pepper. Then sprinkle togarashi powder onto surface of the fillets, turning to ensure each side of the long rectangle is coated evenly. How much to use... its entirely up to you.

Next, oil a heavy based nonstick frying pan. I do this by pouring about a tablespoon of light olive oil onto the pan, then rubbing the oil all over the pan with a small piece of paper towel.

Now the fun part.... searing the tuna...

Heat the pan till hot enough for searing. Sear the tuna fillets, turning to ensure each surface of the rectangular fillet gets seared.

I usually take at most 5 seconds per surface as the togarashi tends to get over-charred especially if you sear any longer.

Bear in mind that you're going to sear all 4 sides of the rectangle. So total cooking time per fillet is around 20 seconds. I usually do not bother searing the two ends of the rectangle. The advantage of no searing the two ends is that you can actually see the depth of searing by looking at the ends of the fillets.

Once all the tuna rectangles are seared, plonk them into the freezer for about 5 minutes so that they are firm enough to slice, else otherwise, they'd go to bits.

Arrange sliced carpaccio on top of coriander on your serving plate, drizzle with reserved marinade and serve.

Mark's Twice-cooked Sambal Roast Chicken

This is an adaptation from an Indonesian Recipe - Sudanese Styled Roast Chicken.

Reason for the adaptation: I was simply too lazy to rummage thru wet markets for the individual herbs.. well you do need some herbs but this adaptation does away with buying candlenuts, galangal, tumeric... and still gives you a similar flavor.

This is a great dish for dinner parties as it works as a mains and best of all, I can prepare this the night before, stuff it into the fridge and proceed with the final roasting step the next day.

What you need:

• Coconut milk - about a cup - available in cartons or tins in the supermart (or low fat milk if you're health conscious)
• 1 stick of lemongrass (optional)
  
• 3 teaspoons of minced garlic
• 3-4 table spoons of Nasi lemak sambal - locally (Singapore) you can get this in a jar off the supermart shelf. You can make your own if you've got the stamina. I happen to have some homemade version stashed away in the freezer. The sambal already has sugar, candlenuts, shrimp paste (belachan) and tamarind.... all ground in the correct proportion and fried... See how many steps you're saving here??? ;-)
  
• 2 tablespoons of Curry powder with water added to form a paste
• Salt to taste
• 1 chicken (1 to 1.5 kg)
• Light olive oil for frying
  

Optional spices: if you cook regularly like I do, you'd have these stashed in the freezer too

• 2 sticks cinnamon
• 4 cloves
• 1 star anise broken up

How its done:

Have the chicken cut into desirable sized pieces. Buy precut if you're lazy but its more economical to get whole and section it on your own.

If using, thinly slice the lemongrass (use white parts only) If you've got a blender, take a step further and blend it as well.

You will need a heavy pan large enough to properly fry all the chicken pieces. Preferably non-stick and with a lid... Makes life a whole lot easier, I can assure you.

Heat enough oil, then saute garlic (and optional spices if using) till aromatic. Add lemon grass, curry paste and saute till oil separates. Finally add the nasi lemak sambal, stir till combined.

Add chicken pieces to the pan and stir to coat meat with spice mix. In this step you need to stir fry till the chicken pieces are adequately seared all around (ie till no longer visibly pink) The searing ensures the meat does not lose its juices and become tough. Just keep stirring... you also do not want the spice mix to burn (because of the sugars from the sambal)

Once properly seared, add coconut (or low fat) milk, stir to combine, add salt to taste, bring to a boil and cover, keeping an eye on the pan to ensure it doesn't boil over. The chicken should be quite cooked after about 10 minutes.

Using a slotted spatula, remove chicken pieces from the pan. There should be some gravy left in the pan, and this you would rapid boil, stirring frequently, till reduced to a thick scant paste.

Coat the chicken pieces generously with the paste. At this stage, if your're pre-preparing, you may refrigerate and continue with the roasting the next evening.

Now, if you're cooking this for dinner on the same night, place chicken pieces on a baking pan lined with baking paper (makes cleaning easier) Try not to crowd the chicken on the pan as the pieces would then steam instead of roast.

Roast on the top rack of the oven at 250 deg C till the pieces are crispy. This takes about half an hour to 45 minutes (longer cooking time if the chicken has just come out of the fridge)

I often do not bother with turning the pieces halfway. This results on the top surface being crispy and the bottom portion moist but heck, my guests have never complained.

Once done, remove chicken pieces, arrrange on a plate and garnish with coriander.

You may use the pan drippings as a dipping sauce.

Happy trying.

Banana Pudding

I just made banana pudding.....using some left-over over-ripe bananas.

When it came out of the oven, it looked like it just went to war. However when I flipped it upside down, it looked decent (Thanks to the silicon bakepan)

Here's the recipe..... Ingredients are healthy ... all breakfast stuff

Banana Pudding

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar


• 3 tablespoons self raising flour


• 6 large eggs


• Some milk


• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract


• Pinch of salt


• 3 large bananas, thinly sliced


• 1 large banana mashed


• Knob of butter to grease the bakepan
  

Preheat oven to 200 deg C

In a blender puree together sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla and salt until mixture is smooth.

I think flour should be sifted, rather than spooned in because you'd end up with lumps, which happened to me.

Mash the remaining banana and add milk to make up to 1 cup, and add that to the egg batter.

Butter a bakepan (I used silicon) by rubbing a knob of butter all over the inside.

Arrange banana slices in one layer in a buttered 8 x 8-inch square glass baking dish. Pour pudding mixture over bananas and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes, or until the top is puffed and springy to the touch.

Makes 6 generous servings.

Variation: The original recipe suggested that you dot the top with butter, sprinkle some sugar on the top and then grill it to caramelize the top a little before serving.

You can either eat this on its own or with butterscotch sauce.

More lessons on faith

The past few years have seen several relationships come to their ends. And I'm not referring to couples who've been dating for a mere year or two. I'm talking people who've been together for almost a decade or more, model relationships that others look towards and sculpt their own relationships against....people who are important to me...

Even the practical me who believes in eventuality and never accepts anything as being remotely perpetual has had some faith, at some point of time, in relationships that last.

But the most recent break-up did it. I've completely lost the notion that once one becomes nicely settled in a relationship, one can rest upon one's laurels, take who and what you have for granted.

If I may quote a friend, whose words so aptly penned brought across so readily, what he is going through at this point in time.....

"....I pranced around blissfully, totally oblivious to the winds of change. On hindsight, I should have seen it coming. I guess we see what we want to see. I ignored the danger signs because I believe in fairy tales.

The clapping got softer during the last three years. I did not know, or choose not to know. We were no longer communicating. I guess these matters are now unimportant. The straw that broke the camel’s back is but a red herring. There are more fundamental issues. The two hands have stopped clapping.

There is no right or wrong when you are in love. There is a safety net there. All comments, criticisms, idiosyncrasies are filtered by the safety net. There is no analysis on WHY one said that, WHY one can't let me be.

Love does not follow reason. The day you stop loving someone is the day you become logical in your analysis. What I say/do is then measured /challenged /analyzed. Love, after all, is a feeling, there is no logic to it. You take the other person, warts and all, and cherish him/her till death. When there is no more love, the warts appear red and ugly...."

The greatest folly of all is when we think all is well, as long as there is communication. Communication is not really enough. You need a lot of luck too, and perhaps, a helping hand from the supreme being above. Truth is, communication is often biased. We hear what we want to hear, see what we want to see and ignore all the red flags.

Faith is not always good. Sometimes I think it is faith which is our undoing. For is it not due to faith that so many individuals, romantics or otherwise, once believed that the other person would forever love them?

Regaling Yuletide 2007

The few days leading up to Christmas were memorable. It was mayhem at the workplace. Everyone's cranky from sleep deprivation, having kept late nights wrapping Christmas presents. A colleague took medical leave two days ago and just being one man short slothed the entire office routine.

Yesterday morning, there was evidence of murder in my kitchen. As I was about to leave for work, I saw two cockroach legs. The rest of the roach was no where to be seen. I just hoped it's digesting in the cats' bellies instead of having been pushed under the fridge or somewhere else rotting to attract ants and more creepie crawlies.

That very morning, there is a dead roach on my table at work too, next to the phone under the barcode scanner. And am I to trust my dear friend's marketing spin to the scenario from a feng shui perspective ….

“You are a blessed individual. Good fortune smiles on your new year as the Gods of Fortune smile down on you. As their ever radiant sunshine warms up your cold barren field, its purges all bad things from your life. You will find that all the unclean and unlucky events in your life (represented by the quintessential roach) will come to the forefront and be swept away for good by those around you (both cats and humans beings) instead of remaining hidden and infesting your life. As a result of this cleansing process, you are able to open up these areas in your life and experience the good fortune that the Gods have in store for you. Be prepared for a great year ahead!”

.....so lets hope I leave Year 2007 with its dark deary potholed alleys of weary attempts behind.

Mark's War / Bachelor (Boiled Fruit) Cake

This might seem like a whole lot of complicated instructions, but I tend to ramble and include lots of details, so do forgive me. It is a really simple cake to make. And I've made it so many times in my convection oven that I'm confident of timing it exactly without need to check several times with a skewer. Plus its often well received by my friends

This simpler version of a fruit cake doesn't need to be made months in advance. Its called a Boiled Fruitcake (also known as a War Cake or Bachelor's Cake). Of course, it still has all the necessary fruit cake ingredients, like dried fruits and spices, yet it is very easy to make and can be eaten right away. I've modified enough from the original recipe to feel the right to call it Mark's War / Bachelor Cake; basically reduced the amount of sugar and upped the amount of booze and cocoa (for the benefit of a good friend who's a chocoholic.

Now, as the name implies, the sugar, water, butter, spices, and the dried fruit are, in fact, "boiled". Once this boiled mixture has been left to cool, the next step is to stir in cocoa powder, self-raising flour, vanilla extract, zest and alcohol (no eggs). And that's it. Just pour the batter into the pan and bake. Now, if possible, do try to resist eating this cake right away. Although it does not need weeks to age, it does benefit from being stored, at least a day or two. Spices can also be adjusted to your taste, adding more or less of each.

Instructions

Weigh / measure out the amounts of water, butter, molasses and dried fruit. You might want to slice the larger pieces of fruit into smaller slivers and this is most easily done with a pair of kitchen scissors.

Put molasses, water, butter, spices and dried fruit in a pot or large saucepan. Do adjust the amount of molasses according to how much of a sweet tooth you are. The dried fruits (especially sugar infused dried cranberries), cointreau and marmalade do contribute a great deal to the eventual sweetness of the cake, so I've actually made the cake once without the molasses. If you're intending to do without sugar, you might want to reduce the amount of citrus zest, as the bitterness might get unmasked and show thru.

Bring to boil, covered and simmer in low heat for five minutes, remove from heat, and let cool.

While the fruit mix is cooling in the pan, line the inside of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) non-stick loaf pan with double layer parchment and finally baking paper. The parchment and baking paper should rise about 2 inches above the sides of the pan to ensure the cake is well protected and a crust doesn't form on the outside in the baking process.

After you're done lining the pan, zest the orange (or lemon) You may use a zester (I just use a grater, but be sure to rinse the grater immediately after using, else the remnant bits may dry up on your grater and you'd have helluva time scraping them off!) Also, please ensure you avoid grating too deep and incorporating the bitter citrus pith.

Stir into the cooled fruit mix the following ingredients in this order; vanilla extract, alcohol, marmalade, citrus zest, cocoa powder. The alcohol will evaporate if your fruit mix is not adequately cooled.

You should get a dark fruit mix with some liquid left in the pan still. If the dried fruit has absorbed almost all the liquid, you might need to top up with an extra shot of either orange juice, water or more brandy. I usually use this as an excuse to add more alcohol!

A note about the alcohol used: Forget cheap cooking brandy. It'd spoil your cake. You won't regret using good alcohol for the cake. Cordon Bleu is expensive but that'd be best. Otherwise, use no less than Black Label.

Finally stir in the self-raising flour and you should end up with a lumpy batter which still drops off the spatula (you may not use all of the flour, depending on how much liquid you have left in the fruit mix)

Pour into the prepared pan and bake in a water bath for 2 hours in a preheated oven at 160 deg Celsius. If you insert a skewer (if you don't have a skewer, just use a use a stick of uncooked spaghetti like I normally do) , it won't come out totally clean, it would be stained chocolate actually.

Remove from oven, ladle a few more spoons of brandy over the hot cake and let cool on a wire rack. Wrap in baking parchment and store, if possible, for a few days before serving.

Makes one - 9x5 inch loaf



Ingredients:

• 50 grams molasses
• 1 cup (240 ml) hot water
• 1/4 cup (56 grams) salted butter
• Spices: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground star anise
• 450 grams of dried fruit: seedless golden raisins, dark raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, dried apples (I used 100g each of golden sultanas, jumbo raisins, cranberries & dried cherries, and made up the rest of the weight with dried apples)
• 150 grams self-raising flour + 1 level teaspoon of baking powder
• Citrus zest: Zest of 1 orange (may use lemon too) If you're omitting the sugar, go easy on the zest, as the bitterness may show thru.
• 6 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 shot glassful of cognac (use good, not cooking quality brandy; you won't regret it!!)
• 1 shot glassful of cointreau
• 2 tablespoons of marmalade

Scone Recipe

I've got a great weakness for scones..

Saving this Basic Scone Recipe for future use. Its apparently got rave reviews...
Variations: add whatever you wish to it; grated cheese & chives, cranberries, chocolate chips, sultanas etc. You may also add some bran to make it healthier.

Makes 16

Ingredients

• plain flour, for dusting
• 3 cups self-raising flour
• 80g butter, cubed
• 1 to 1 1/4 cups milk
• jam and whipped cream, to serve

Method

• Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly dust a flat baking tray with plain flour. Sift self-raising flour into a large bowl.
• Using your fingertips, rub butter into flour until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
• Make a well in the centre. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix with a flat-bladed knife until mixture forms a soft dough, adding more milk if required. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead gently until smooth (don't knead dough too much or scones will be tough).
• Pat dough into a 2cm-thick round. Using a 5cm (diameter) round cutter, cut out 12 rounds.
• Press dough together and cut out remaining 4 rounds. Place scones onto prepared baking tray, 1cm apart.
• Sprinkle tops with a little plain flour.
• Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden and well risen.
• Transfer to a wire rack.
• Serve warm with jam and cream.