Stocking stuffers and little gifts to make any budding home chef happy

It's that time of the year when you have to make that mad dash and get loads of little useless gifts. Try getting some useful ones this year. Culinary gadgets make the best gifts in my humble opinion!

For the tea aficionados (Found this in World Market)

Beautiful ravioli moulds to get them cooking for you

This food gadget is a beautiful as is useful. Alessi makes great designs!

Nothing better than a homemade gift. There's nothing more special than a big bottle of home brewed apple cider accompanied with a small bottle of brandy. Other ideas: mulled wine and maybe even sangria. This is a perfect gift for the host or hostess. You can also add some nice hand-blown glasses for that extra punch. Thank you P and J for your wonderfully thoughtful gift!

Gingerbread men, cookies...christmas is a great time for cooking with the kids. And a kitchen set for kids makes a perfect gift. You can find kid-sized kitchen utensils online and put together the present for the next budding junior masterchef.

A great stocking stuffer for the little ones - kid training chopsticks.
My three year old holds the chopsticks like a pro

Another great stocking stuffer - Microplane grater. It's not a must-have in most kitchens but it makes a world of difference when grating lemon rind and other small items. It will make a home chef very very happy

I've always gotten compliments on my coffee when I serve them in these Bodum Pavina insulated cups. It could be psychological but it will make any coffee-lover feel good. Trust me.

These lemon / orange squeezers are so jolly looking, you'll want to make lemonade again and again.

I used to use store-bought olive oil sprays and always felt that the packaging was wasteful. This gift is not only healthy but convenient and eco-friendly at the same time.  

10 things to know when cooking Dungeness Crab

It's the Dungeness Crab season in the Bay Area and it's time to cook some crab. There are many recipes but my favorite is the Singapore Black Pepper Crab - crab cooked in a buttery sauce with lots of black pepper!

10 things to know about cooking dungeness crab

1/ It is best to cook freshly killed crab. Put the crabs to sleep in ice or in the freezer for half an hour or more. It makes the process more palatable. You can get the fishmonger to kill the crab but you should cook it as soon as possible

2/ Grab the crab on its hind part to avoid getting pinched

3/ For Asians who like crab eggs, take note that buying female dungeness crabs is illegal (for conservation purposes)

4/ How to tell the sex of a crab? turn the crab around and the shell has a triangular flap which you should pull out (it's called the apron). Female crabs have rounded aprons

5/  Remove the top shell from the crab and discard the leaf like spongy gills on the main body of the crab. 

6/ Remember to break off and discard the mandibles (mouth parts) before cooking

7/ If you're boiling the whole crab, it cooks best in salty water. 

8/ As a general rule of thumb, crabs need 15-20 minutes to be cooked (depending on size) Another good gauge is to notice the color. When the shell turns from green or brown to red or orange, it is probably cooked. The final check is to make sure the flesh is opaque white instead of translucent white.  

9/ If you're stir frying the crab, bash the claws with a cleaver or pestle so that the sauce can blend with the meat

10/ The greenish yellow crab butter or crab gut found in the top shell is considered a delicacy but bear in mind it's also where toxins accumulate, so eat it sparingly

To kill a crab, open the apron, the triangular flap at the bottom of the crab (see picture above). It should open easily. You will find a hole where you should stab with your knife for a quick death.

Removing the top shell from the crab body is the most challenging part. Prise open the crab from below the apron.  Remove the spongey gills on the side of the crab.

What's left of your turkey?

Don't forget to use your leftover turkey bones. This is what I learnt from my stock cooking class at SF cooking school. Roast the turkey bones in pan for 1 hour to brown. brush tomato paste on top and add in all your roasting vegetables for the last 20 minutes. Transfer the meat and vegetables into your stock pot. Deglaze the bottom of your roasting pan with one cup white wine. Scrape off the sticky stuff at the bottom and pour all of that into your stockpot. Add cold water until it covers the meat by an inch. Boil, remove scum and simmer for 4 hours. Season with salt and spices. You've got nice dark stock. Use the stock for soups and sauces. Use it right away or put it in plastic containers and freeze.  

More leftover turkey recipe ideas for post thanksgiving

Tons of leftover turkey post-thanksgiving. What do you do to spice up the meat? I make turkey and fried potato with poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. 

1/Chop potatoes into one-inch cubes. Fry with olive oil. 2/ Add one tsp ground cumin, one chilli (sliced) 4 cloves crushed garlic, salt to taste and a squeeze of lemon. 3/ Top with leftover turkey. 4 Accompany with salad leaves. 5/ Top with a poached egg

Bang Bang Turkey Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson's book FEAST
Dress chicken with a spicy sauce and accompany with salad
Nigella's spicy sauce contains hot oil (4 Tbsp), 3Tbs peanut butter, 2 Tbsp chinese chilli bean sauce(I used laoganmama), 1.5 Tbsp black vinegar and 1 Tbsp castor sugar   

An East West Thanksgiving Meal

This year, for thanksgiving, I've decided to make turkey with an Asian twist. I made a paste with lime leaves, vietnamese mint, basil, olive oil and salt and rubbed it all over the outside and inside of the turkey. I used a turkey bag to cook the turkey for the first hour. Then I opened it out completely and browned the bird for one and a half hours on a bed of vegetables and potatoes. Instead of stuffing, I made Middle Eastern rice with saffron, pistachios and barberries.

I also made Yemenite soup (a staple in our household) This is the amount of beef that went into the soup. Shank, hind shank, beef neck bone and oxtail went into the soup. The spice is purchased from the market in Tel Aviv. Typically, Hawaij spice, is made up of cumin, black pepper, tumeric, cardamon.  There are more elaborate versions which include extra ingredients like cloves, coriander, nutmeg and saffron.   

Thailand - The Cookbook, by Jean-Pierre Gabriel

I love Thai cuisine and I was searching high and low for an authentic Thai recipe book. Thailand, The Cookbook, by Jean-Pierre Gabriel is a comprehensive collection with recipes from all the main regions. The author travelled 16,000 miles across Thailand to document the different dishes around the country, prepared by Thai cooks. You will find typical Thai recipes known to Westerners (pad thai, tom yum soup, green papaya salad) but you will also find many atypical dishes; some, I'm sure you'll never try out - like fried crickets with herbs and spicy red ant egg salad. The main thing is that the dishes are authentic and the pictures in the book are beautifully photographed.  

 I remember frequenting a Thai restaurant in Singapore called Thanying. It was very good in the 90s. The chef of the restaurant used to work in the palace kitchen. There was a dish that I loved very much and I found it in this cookbook. It is spicy dip with rice crackers. The dip is actually made of prawns and minced pork, cooked in fragrant coconut milk. I made it successfully and it really reminded me of that dish in Thanying. 

I also made the red curry paste, which is a good base to learn as it can be used for multiple dishes. From the red curry paste, I did a stir fry pork curry (right) and steamed seafood in banana leaves. The first dish had to be adjusted a little bit as it was pretty strong in flavor. The second dish was fun to make and simply delicious. 

Seafood at Half Moon Bay (this weekend is the start of the dungeness crab season)

Make a nice field trip to Half Moon Bay. Enjoy the beach and a seafood lunch at the ever-popular Sam's Chowder House and then, visit Pillar Point Harbor (1 Johnson Pier) to get fresh seafood off the boats. Mornings are best. You may get lucky and spot a friendly seal swimming amongst the fishing boats, pleading for fish. 

Find the fresh catch of the day advertised on white boards on the pier. This weekend (15th Nov) is dungeness crab season. 

Can't find anything you want on the boats? Head down to Princeton Seafood Co for a selection of seafood. 
Half Moon Bay Fish Market (99 San Mateo Road) has a better selection of seafood. We bought Prawns at $16 a pound, a dozen fresh oysters at $12 flat and freshly caught sea bass. It's not the cheapest but it's fresh!

Enjoy the sunset at Crystal Lake, near Half Moon Bay

Take a stroll at Half Moon Bay state beach. Parking is $10 but you can always find street parking and walk in. 

What to do with pumpkins

So you're just finished with halloween and you have an enormous amount of pumpkins in your pantry. What do you do? Besides making pumpkin soup, here's another way to use up the orange squash. 

Steamed Fish with pumpkins

1-2 big banana leaves (you can get this frozen in the asian supermarket)
1 Trout, cleaned and descaled
2 Shallots
2 cloves garlic chopped
3 cilantro roots, chopped
1Tbsp soya sauce
2 lemongrass stalks, halved crosswise and crushed
8 thin slices galangal
200g pumpkin, cut into wedges
1 handful of basil to garnish

1/ Rinse the fish and rub the inside and outside with salt

2/ Coarsely pound shallots, garlic, cilantro root in motar and pestle

3/ Add soya sauce and stuff mixture in fish cavity

4/ Lay banana leaves in a shallow bowl and place the bowl in a steamer

5/ Put lemongrass and galangal on the banana leaf. Lay the fish over and arrange pumpkin around it

6/ Steam for 20 mins

Recipe adapted from Thailand, the Cookbook, by Jean-Pierre Gabriel)

Stir fry tips

Stir fry tip: To save time, pre-cut your vegetables and keep it in the fridge. When you come back from work, you just have to stir fry (just 5 minutes) and you have a piping hot meal.

Black pepper beef stir fry anyone? Make sure the beef is still pink inside and loads of cracked black pepper! 

My Wok

Time to maintain my cast iron wok. Put in a tablespoon of oil, heat over high heat, throw in some fragrant chives and fry for a few minutes, pressing the chives against the surface of the wok. I usually throw away the first batch of chives and throw in another handful, so I can add it to my laoganmama noodles (godmother noodles) and that's my lunch! What you have left in the wok, is a nice brownish black patina, which will build up over years of cooking. Just add another protective coat of oil and store until next stir fry session.

Bruschetta Breakfast

This simple assembly brings to mind my travels in Andalusia, spain. It's super-easy to whip up, for a quick snack. 

Here's how:

Take two slices of bread and spray with olive oil. I used to use store-bought olive oil spray until I had enough of the packaging waste. Now, I use my Misto spray a lot. Place toasts in broiler and toast till brown on the edges.

Take one tomato...and yes, I'm using a bread knife. Apparently, bread knives are good for cutting tomatoes. Slice tomato in half

Place one half tomato facing down on chopping board so it is does not move about. Carefully place your fingers on top and firmly hold down tomato; and slice across (making about 4 slices)

Slice the same tomato horizontally and then, vertically across. 

Slice a small piece of garlic and rub it on the surface of the toast (I observed this technique in the coffee shops in Andalusia)

Drizzle (good quality olive oil) on top of chopped tomatoes and sprinkle some fresh cracked pepper and salt. Assemble your bruschetta and sprinkle with some chopped parsley

Pomegranate Season

It's the pomegranate season and these ruby jewels are filled with vitamins. Scoop it into anything - your granola, yoghurt, salad and blended drinks. How do you pick these tiny jewels without staining your clothes? Cut the fruit carefully and immerse the segments into a bowl of water. Then, continue to pick the fruit within the water. The juice will stain the water pink leaving your clothes pink-free.