Pickled Chillies Stuffed with Shredded Papaya

My house has 6 papaya trees and they yield a lot of fruits.  I have to give away to my friends and they are really happy that they got the chance to enjoy organic papayas.

One day my mom suggested me to make some papaya pickles.  I never do this before, anyway i will give it a try.  Finally i found a recipe from a Nyonya Baba cuisine book. 

here are the ingredients
2    medium sized green papaya
15  large green chillies
100 g shallots ,slice
100 g garlics, slice
20   g ginger, shredded
20   g turmeric, shredded
50 g dried prawns, soaked and pounded
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
seasoning
2 tbsp vinegar
15g sugar
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt
pickling solution
150g sugar
250 ml vinegar
250 ml water
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt or taste

Peel and shred papaya.  Dry in the sun for 1 day.
Wash and drain the chillies.  Make a slit in the chillies and scrape away the seeds and set aside.

Heat up half of the oil and fry the dried prawns, ginger and turmeric until fragrant.  Add in papaya and stir in seasoning.  Stir fry for about 2 minutes. Remove and let cool.  While waiting for the papaya to be cooled, prepare the pickle solution by heating up the remaining of the oil, add pickling solution and bring to just a simmering boil.

Stuff the papaya mixture into the slit chillies.  Arrange stuffed chillies, shallots and garlics in a suitable glass ware. Pour over with pickling solution.  Make sure that the chillies are completely covered by the solution.  Allow to pickle for 2 days before consuming.  It keeps well for about 3 days at room temperature and can be kept in the refrigerator for about 1 week.

Stuffed chillies in glass container

Pickle chillies stuffed papaya after 2 days.  Serve with a sprinkle of some toasted sesame seed.

Its a very appetizing dish.



Boiled Brinjal

Brinjal also known as eggplant, is one of the most easily available and affordable vegetables.  Today I manages to buy at only RM 1.00 for 1/2 of Kg, very cheap. Brinjal can be cooked in many different ways and provides many essential nutrients that are needed for overall wee-being of the body.  It is a very good sauce of potassium and contains a high content of water and fibre.

I had eaten and had also cooked a few ways of cooking brinjal like roasting, boiling, fry with sambal chili and even in curry.  Today I would like to share how I do the boiling method.

the ingredients

300 g brinjals
100 g shallots (sliced)
1/2 cup oil
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
dash of pepper
1 red chili(sliced)
1 stalk spring onion(chopped)
1 stalk parsley(chopped)
1 tsp salt
water

As usual, I would wash the brinjals then soak in Diy enzyme with water for about 1/2 hour.  Remove from the enzyme water then soak in clean water for another 15 minutes.

Heat the oil and fry the sliced shallots until light brown, remove and set aside.

 In a sauce pot, boil enough water with the salt for boiling the brinjals.  Meanwhile, cut the heads and tails of the brinjal, and peel some strips of the skins.  Boil the brinjals for about 15 minutes or until soft.  Scoop out and drained.  Cut into serving sizes and place on a plate.

In a bowl, put in the light soy sauce, oyster sauce, pepper and 4 table spoons of onion oil mix well and pour over the cut brinjals.  Garnish with crispy shallots and parsley and spring onions.  Serve hot with rice.

A plate of soft and tasty boiled brinjals is served.

Spaghetti

It has been more then ten years since I last cook spaghetti. I can't recall when did I last cook this dish for my family. When I went for shopping yesterday, walked pass the noodle and spaghetti section, picked up a packet of angle hair spaghetti. According to my friend, this type of spaghetti cook very fast like cooking normal noodles.  Picked up a can of tomato paste and some fresh tomatoes and was ready to cook the spaghetti sauce.  Here are the ingredients that I used for my spaghetti.

the ingredients

3 cups diced tomatoes
1/2 packet of the spaghetti
1 can 250 g tomato paste
2 tbsp of cooking oil
basil
oregano
1 chopped onion
3 pips of chopped garlic
300 g chicken breast
salt to taste
2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp corn flour
1 tbsp light soy sauce
shredded carrot and cucumber

Wash and clean the tomatoes.  In a sauce pot, boil enough water so to boil the tomatoes for about  minutes. Remove the tomatoes and put into a basin of ice cold water, this helps to remove the skin of tomatoes easily.

Meanwhile, clean the chicken breast, sliced and minced.  Season with the pepper, corn flour and light soy sauce.  Set aside.

Peel off all the skins of the tomatoes and diced . In a sauce pot, heat up the oil and fry the onion until fragrant.  Add in the diced tomatoes, basil and oregano and stir mix well.  Let simmer for about 1 hour in low fire.  Keep stirring in between the cooking time.  After an hour of cooking, add in the tomato sauce, salt and sugar. Stir well.

In a frying pan, heat up a tbsp of oil, fry the garlic until fragrant, briefly stir in the seasoned chicken breast for about 2 minutes.  Remove and pour into the spaghetti sauce. Cook for another 2 minutes.

Chicken breast spaghetti sauce

In another pot , boil enough water with a tsp of salt and oil .  Put in the spaghetti when the water is boiled. Cook for about 5 minutes or until is soft enough, drained.

Serve hot with shredded carrots and cucumbers.

Looks good and taste good too.  Not bad though it has been a long time.