Sausage cassarole

Inspired by bread and butter pudding. The easiest and probably not the healthiest thing to make but its sure fast and instant on a week day night. And highly satisfying too! Ingredients 1 can of Campbells soup (the only canned soup I'll ever drink) 6 slices of bread 1 can of sausages, drained 1/4 cup milk A lot of butter 4 slices of cheese (alternatively, use 1 cup of shredded cheese) Method 1) Mix the canned soup concentrate with the milk. You might want to add more liquid depending on how thin the liquid is. Too thick and its too salty. Too thin and its too runny. 2) This is mostly an assembly piece. Lay half the bread at the bottom. Dot on some butter. Pour on enough soup to cover the bread. 3) Slice the sausages lenghtwise and lay them on top of the break. Top up with more soup and dot with more butter. 4) Cover with the top layer with remaining bread. 5) Finish off with the remaining bread and finally the cheese. Dot on with more butter if you like. Pour over the remaining soup. 6) Leave to stand for 10 minutes for the soup to absorb into the bread. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200 deg C. 7) Bake at 200 deg C for 20-25 minutes, until the cheese has melted and is bubbling. Serve immediately with a side of salad. Note: Its extremely sloppy and hard to wash up, so you might want to line the baking dish or just use a buttered casserole dish.

Banana leaf cream corn or banana jelly

I remember helping my mom to make this whenever my granny had her church group over for song and praise in the evenings. It is a very easy to make dessert, and goes down very well with the crowd.

Recently, my col took up a cooking class and posted pictures of her experiment on FB. Credits to Yeo Li Li (the instructor). I am just happy to have found this long lost recipe!

Ingredients
Slices of banana OR cream corn
pkt (13g) agar agar powder
300g sugar
1500ml water
5 pcs pandan leaves
300ml thick coconut milk
Pinch of salt
100g hoon kueh powder

Method

1. Mix coconut milk with the hoon kueh powder, salt and leave aside for later use.

2. To prepare the banana leaves, cut 5.5 inch by 4 inch, or 6 inch by 4 inch rectangles. Rinse twice. Boil water with the salt. When the water has boiled put in the leaves. Turn off the heat. Remove the leaves and put immediately in cold water. Alternatively, you can ‘seal’ the leaves over a naked flame on the stove.

3. Boil agar agar, sugar, milk and pandan leaves together. When boiled, sieve in the thick coconut milk mixture and mix well. Boil till thickened.

4. If you are using the cream corn, turn off the fire and stir in the corn.

5. Cool mixture slightly and place a tablespoon or two of mixture on a piece of banana leaf. Place a piece of banana on top and wrap up the jelly. Continue the process till the mixture is used up. Let it set thoroughly in the fridge before serving.

Milk poached fish

I found this new item at the supermarket. (I know its new because the sign said so ) So far we've only got cod, so this is a welcome new addition. It brought back memories of my UK days with other favourite British favourites such as cod, sole, or plaice.

I remembered a common recipe called milk poached fish, which basically uses milk to keep the flesh moist. However, most recipes use haddock (either the smoked or the fresh variety), which we (still) don't have here. Ironically, I never tried cooking fish in the UK whilst I was there, simply because I don't know how to prepare it. Thankfully, we now have ready-prepared fillets.

I adapted from a recipe I found online for milk poached haddock, and adjusted with cooking times which I found for halibut. I used the poaching liquid for a bechamel sauce. The result? The fish was indeed easily forked through and flaked and really quite moist without being mushy.

Ingredients
300g fillet of halibut
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp basil (fresh or dried is fine)
1 tsp dill (fresh or fried is fine)
pinch of salt
dash of white pepper
1 cup of warm milk

For the bechamel sauce: 1 tbsp butter, 1 tbsp flour

Method
1) Place the fish in a baking dish deep enough to hold the poaching liquid. Arrange the onion and garlic in the dish, and sprinkle on the herbs, salt and pepper. Pour on the milk. It should mostly submerge the fish. If not, top up with more milk.

2) Bake in the oven for 30 to 45 mins at 160 deg C. The cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fish (my fillet was about an inch thick) but you will know its ready when the fish is easily flaked with a fork. Remove the skin, flake the fish and set aside. Don't worry about lumps at this point. Slowly add the milk, vigorously stirring throughout to avoid the sauce catching on the bottom. It will burn quite easily. Add as much milk as is necessary to produce the 'saucy' consistency you need - neither too gluey nor too runny.

3) To make the sauce, first strain the poaching liquid. You can reserve the onions and garlic if you wish to serve it up. Top up the liquid to 1 cup with more milk.

4) In a saucepot on the stove, melt the butter. Add the flour and stir until incorporated. Don't worry about lumps at this point. Slowly add the milk, vigorously stirring throughout to avoid the sauce catching on the bottom. It will burn quite easily. Add as much milk as is necessary to produce the 'saucy' consistency you need - neither too gluey nor too runny.

5) Serve immediate, drizzling the sauce on top of the fish. Remember, bechamel sauce doesn't keep well. It forms a skin when cool and needs to be reheated over a bain marie, so only make as much sauce as you require.