Easy Roast Beef Recipe for Autumn Cooking

What better time of the year to get out the steamboat or slow cooker from the cupboard to prepare for the colder months than autumn with its crisp mornings, cool days and the striking display of autumn colours as trees outside my kitchen make their finale before going to sleep in the winter months ahead. This is also a good time to use the full advantages of the oven for roasting or baking and still enjoy the warmth it radiates to the kitchen while it is being used.
To heat up the kitchen yesterday, I cooked an easy roast beef recipe that I have inherited from Mrs. Otley, who taught me how to cook western dishes when I first came to stay in Brisbane. I could not think of too many more slow food recipes when the cold winter days arrive and appetites swell, some hot favourites still beckon more than others. But I am sure that there’ll be encore for this one.

Easy Roast Beef

1.5 kg silverside beef
1 tbsp flour
1 knob butter
2 tbsp cream
Marinate
5 garlic cloves, crushed
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup red wine
Salt and pepper

Rub the beef with seasoning to taste. Put all the marinade ingredients in a large roasting pan and marinade the beef and leave in the refrigerator overnight, turning occasionally.
Preheat oven to 220 C. Put the beef into the oven and braise for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 180 C and roast the beef for a further 2 1/4 hours. Transfer the beef to serving dish and keep warm.
To make the gravy sauce, strain the cooking juices into a saucepan and bring to boil over high heat. Mix the flour and butter to make a paste and add to the sauce in small pieces. Cook and stir until thickened. Stir in the cream. Cut the beef into slices and serve with sauce.

Happy Mother's Day

Strange as it may seem, it was not the sight of cleverly displayed gifts in the shops, from cards to chocolates bidding everyone to buy for Mother’s Day that brought back fond memories of my late mother, but it was the scorched rice at the bottom of the paella pan while I was doing the dishes after dinner, last night. Like many older Singaporeans, growing up in post war period of World War Two, we saw many parents facing high unemployment, and putting food on the table to feed their families was a daily struggle.

I can still remember our mother scooping out the steaming white rice from the soot-laden aluminium pot on top of the firewood stove to feed her ever hungry mob which often included some extra mouths from the children in the neighbourhood who always seemed to appear on cue at meal time. After she would then add water to the scorched brown sheet of rice that was left to make gruel porridge for her. There were occasions when the rice ration was low to be shared among us; the crust was intentionally left there for us. There was always a mad scramble among us children over the last piece of rice crust.
Together with the flowers we have collected from our garden, we will place a bowl of fluffy white rice for you, Mum.

How to make Aussie Hot Cross Bun

I do not know what a hot cross bun is until I came to Australia to live. Before that, it had never occurred to me, it was referring to the spiced English bun associated with Good Friday known as a Hot Cross Bun. But I can still vaguely remember reciting it in a nursery rhyme. Like many older Singaporeans, we were taught British nursery rhymes in primary school in those days when Singapore was a British colony, but do not know about the significant of this delicious bun.
Although these popular hot cross bun began to appear in major supermarket chains almost at the same time as the post-Christmas sales were in their final discount, offering two items for the price of one to entice their customers to buy their unsold Christmas decorations, cards and puddings, it is not until Good Friday, the traditional day in which Lent ends and the buns are served eaten at Easter but now it seems they are now sold all year round.
Hot cross buns are sweet yeast-leavened bread, made with currants or raisins, often with candied citrus fruits and marked with a cross on the top eaten at Easter time. In Australia, the major supermarkets produce variations on the traditional recipe such as toffee, orange and cranberry, and apple and cinnamon.
The Aussies even have a yummy chocolate version of the bun which has become popular lately. It generally contains the same mixture of spices but chocolate chips are used instead of currants.

Aussie Hot Cross Bun Recipe:

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 4 cups plain flour
• 2 x 7g sachets dried yeast
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 40g butter
• 300ml milk
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

• Flour paste
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 4 to 5 tablespoons water


• Glaze

• 1/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar

Method

1. Combine flour, yeast, sugar, mixed spice, salt and chocolate chips in a large bowl. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add milk. Heat until lukewarm. Add warm milk mixture and eggs to mixture. Mix until dough almost comes together to form soft dough.
2. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead for 10 minutes, or until dough is smooth. Place into a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until dough doubles in size.
3. Line a large baking tray with non-stick baking paper. Punch dough down to its original size. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Divide into 12 even portions. Shape each portion into a ball. Place balls onto lined tray, about 1cm apart. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until buns double in size. Preheat oven to 190°C.
4. Make flour paste: Mix flour and water together in a small bowl to form smooth a paste. Spoon into a small piping bag. Pipe flour paste over tops of buns to form crosses. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until buns are cooked through.
5. To make glaze: Pour water and sugar into a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil for 5 minutes. Brush warm glaze over warm hot cross buns. Serve warm or at room temperature. These buns are best eaten on the day they are made. Otherwise, freeze for up to a week.

How to cross a street in Saigon City

As I was driven from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport into the CBD of Ho Chi Min City by a Vietnamese driver, one image stood fixed in my mind - an unfamiliar urban streetscape of staggering number of motorbikes, constantly beeping and weaving their way through the crowded streets only to be stopped by the pedestrians crossing in a haphazard manner.




The nightmare of crossing the road didn’t begin until the next morning, when I decided to take a short walk to the Ben Thanh market from the hotel where I was staying. I soon found out adherences to traffic signals in Saigon were not always followed; every street user tends to use their "best judgment and discretion". Just remember though that vehicles can always turn right at any time (regardless of traffic lights or signage). Motorbikes often drive in the wrong direction in the least unexpected places and running red lights or even driving on the sidewalks. The streets, sidewalks and outdoor markets are literally taken over by motorbikes, and not yet geared towards pedestrian traffic. Crossing roads and streets in Vietnam therefore can be a real challenge for newcomers who are used to traffic laws and traffic lights.




Believe me, the first time crossing the street may be a little hair-raising after that you will get used to it quite quickly. If ever in doubt, simply jump into the shadow of a local and follow the lead while crossing the street and just bear in mind of not making any sudden lurches forwards, backwards, or stop for that matter!
It is no doubt a terrifying nightmare for many of us, but after a couple of crossings, you soon learned to walk safely and find them easy to negotiate as long as you keep your wits around you for speeding motorbikes. However walking along the edge of a busy road is easy enough. Any motorbikes behind you will generally beep at you to let you know they're there or telling you to keep moving. During my stay in Saigon and just walking around the city brought back memories of what Singapore used to be not long ago. Seeing people cooked on the side of the street and streets hawkers turned a busy street into eat street of local food stalls every evening in a matter of 30 minutes flat-out, left me in awe and reminisced on how exactly Singaporeans of a bygone era transformed a daytime car park in Orchard Road into a popular open air food court at night in the 1960s.

Pickled Vinegar Green Chillies in a Jiffy

I was pleasantly surprised to find pickled green chillies had been thoughtfully included and served as a condiment with the chicken noodles on board a SQ flight from Singapore to Ho Chi Min City. Sight of pickle green chillies always evokes memories of my childhood. I can see the wanton mee seller piling a spoonful of prickled green chillies to side of the freshly cooked noodle with char siew (Chinese BBQ pork) and succulent wanton as a takeaway from the stall. We knew the pickled green chillies were so crunchy and appetising with the noodle that we usually asked for an extra spoonful from him. As usual, wanton mee uncle obliged without fail but not before reminding us how the price of green chillies was going up in the market. These delicious pickles are not only delicious but so simple to make especially when they only take a jiffy to be ready and served with your wanton mee or sar hor fun.

Pickled Vinegar Green Chillies

300g green chillies
2-3 tbsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
250ml vinegar

Wash the green chillies and cut diagonally into 1/2cm thick slices. Transfer cut chillies to a mixing bowl and sprinkles with sea salt, and let stand for 1 hour. Boil vinegar and sugar to dissolve the sugar and leave to cool before using. Wash, drain and discard chillies seeds before put them in a sterilised jar with a screw-top lid. Add vinegar and leave to pickle at least 2 days before serving.

Political Earthquake and Tsunami struck New South Wales.

A political earthquake struck the state of New South Wales in Australia at 6 pm yesterday after the close of the state election. It was soon followed by a tsunami which none of the residents in NSW have seen in the last one and the half decade. The toll of many defeated Labor politician kept rising as ballot boxes were counted and electorate results televised throughout the evening. The final toll might not be known for sometimes until the search and rescue team of the Labor party go through the election wreckage to determine just who has survived the carnage of yesterday election.

Aftershocks continued through the evening and were felt across the state after Barry O’Farrell led his Coalition Party to a historic wipeout of Labor. As the state’s 43rd Premier, Barry O’Farrell promised his victory speech to “rebuild NSW” once the dust had settled. But if O’ Farrell lives up to his promise, it will be month – not years, before the residents start to see a difference in public transports, traffic congestion and hospital waiting list.

The tsunami caused by Coalition snatched away as many as 29 seats from the Labor and was heading for a statewide swing of about 17 per cent, although the Labor hoped to retain as many as 21 seats – eight more than the worst prediction, Luke Foley, the Labor’s campaign director conceded: “The heartland is gone.”

The outgoing Premier Kristina Keneally survived the earthquake in her electorate but struggled in her seat, suffering a swing of at least 10 percent. She quit as labor leader last night as she admitted in her concession speech Labor had deserted voters.
“The truth is the people of NSW who entrusted us with government for 16 years, did not leave us,” she said. “We left them.” My mind is still preoccupied with her conceding statement while I blog, but at the same time begin to wonder about the coming general election back home. What can we learn from this political earthquake and tsunami?

Adios Summer and Hola Autumn ...

Today is the first day of autumn in Australia, we can’t wait sooner for cooler nights to proclaim the summer done and gone. We just had a bewildering summer of natural disasters brought upon us by the 2nd strongest La Nina weather pattern in Australia since record began. It had brought unprecedented floods and cyclones in northern Australia to the bushfires in Western Australia. In fact the whole country was affected by it. The rain which fell in Queensland flowed into New South Wales and South Australia; inundated and devastated many farmlands and houses along its path. The current La Nina will go down in history as one of the most expensive for Australia, with billions of dollars of flood and cyclone damage and billions more in lost crops and productivity. But Mother Nature has wreaked havoc before. Scientists have identified more than a dozen events since 1950, lasting from several months to more than two years. The Brisbane floods in 1974 which killed 14 people and cyclone Tracy, which struck Darwin that year killing 71 people, both occurred during a La Nina weather event. In any events, the recent Australian summer will be remembered for its extreme wet weather, influenced a La Nina weather pattern in our region that contributed to the establishment of a tax levy and a political debate over carbon tax in the Australian Parliament.

Although it is autumn as of today, the late summery weather still continues and remains the same according to the week-long weather forecast. But as late summer turns into autumn, my summer vegies will be coming to an end of their season. This morning I have harvested some green chillies to use them as vinegar-pickled chillies for my hokkien mee or fried bee hoon. I will post the recipe for the pickled green chillies once I get them from my sister in law.