Chinese Chicken Salad and Spicy Ginger Dressing

Design*Sponge has a series called In The Kitchen With, featuring some inspiring recipes.  The series has also introduced me to a couple of great food blogs which are an endless source of inspiration for food and food photography.  For example, 101 Cookbooks' Stuffed Ricotta Pasta Shells - delish!  And now Kiss My Spatula's Chinese Chicken Salad with Spicy Ginger Dressing.

I seem to be on a bit of a ginger binge at the moment.  This salad is a perfect whip-together-in-a-flash Monday night recipe, it's healthy and tasty and the spicy ginger dressing is definitely a keeper for other dishes.

My take on it was much chunkier than the original recipe, with a few ingredient variations (red cabbage, no peanuts, dark brown sugar, celery), but the end result was polished off so quickly it's definitely going to be a repeater - perhaps for the BBQ I'm going to on Sunday.

I have to share their original photos as well because the look so much better than my iPhone snaps.



My chunky version





Image from Design*Sponge




Image from Kiss My Spatula



Ubud - Too Good

Here it is finally, my Bali post.  It's long overdue - I think I was intimidated about trying to summarise so much into a small post without boring you all by resorting to a blow-by-blow account of our mini-break.

My first visit to Bali exceeded my expectations in many ways.  What will I remember?

1. The number of Australians at the airport (almost all heading to Kuta, since we saw very few in Ubud)
2. The number of temples and statues wearing sarongs - literally at least one on every corner, plus a few sprinkled in between
3. The outrageous green of the rice paddies
4. The friendliness of the Balinese
5. The skyline dotted with high-flying kites
6. The traffic chaos that seems to just work and Sander embracing the local traffic customs (weaving in and out, toot-tooting and turning a two-lane road into a three or four)
7. Kids waving and shouting 'hello!' at every turn
8. Rice drying on the village streets

Ubud in Brief

  

Do:

1. A bike tour - learn about Bali coffee, cycle through the rice paddies and finish up with an outrageously good lunch whilst learning about Balinese culture along the way.  We used Bali Emerald Cycling but were also highly recommended Bali Eco Bike Tours
2. Hire a motorbike - explore the outer villages, don't be afraid and, no matter who stops you, keep your licence/registration/passport in your possession at all times.  Also keep a smallish note in your pocket just in case you're stopped.  Or just don't stop.
3. Foot reflexology at Nur Salon (Jln Hanoman) after a long day's exploring (or a numb bum from motorbiking)

Scenes from a Pushbike

Tending rice paddies in action

The Team

Rice paddy scenes

Biking through villages

Weaving demos

Bali coffee tasting

Well-earned lunch after 30km of biking!
(shhhh!  most of it was down hill)

Scenes from the Back of a Motorbike

School kids practicing their marching

Rice paddy terraces

Petrol sold road-side in Absolut bottles

See:

1. Gunung Kawi - both of them
1.  Pura Gunung Kawi is a beautiful temple up near Tagallalang
2. Gunung Kawi is an array of impressive 11th century stone cliff carvings - a must see
2. The Mother Temple

Gunung Kawi

Pura Gunung Kawi 

11th Century Gunung Kawi 

The Mother Temple

 Temple commerce in action

 Saronged statues everywhere you turn

Buy:

1. Visit the markets and haggle to your heart's content for silk goods, jewellery, bags, dresses, art...
2. Carve out some time to wander through the streets of Ubud and pop into the many small boutique stores

Ubud Market Scenes



Fruit seller

Flowers for sale

Stay:

1. Sama's Cottages - a private villa for ~ $80 per day, breakfast on your own veranda, quiet and private



Relaxed Bali mornings: Bali coffee, Bali Scrabble (yes, I'm a Scrabble nerd)



Eat:

1. Dewa Warung - cheap, tasty, communal tables, crazy kitchen.  Make sure you leave yourself plenty of time, try the eggplant curry and the ginger chicken.
2. Ibu Ria Bar and Restaurant - delicious food, beautiful presentation, great atmosphere, not for a backpackers budget though
3. Street food

Of course... nasi goreng

 

Crazy kitchen in Dewa Warung





Bakso Mie Auam - Noodles with Chicken



Road-side seating

Satay with a view

When (not if) I go again I'll take a cooking class at Casa Luna (it was booked out), take some time do walk around the Ubud outskirts, visit a few museums and galleries, book a rijstafel at Cafe d'Artiste and make sure I have time for shopping without Sander.

Ladies Who Brunch: Capella and a Perfectly Girly Singapore Day

What a Sunday, and it's not over yet!

When the boys are off golfing in Malaysia and you have the good fortune to possess a borrowed car it seems criminal not to take advantage of the situation.  Our solution was to drive to Sentosa for breakfast at Capella.

I don't often go to Sentosa.  It's a reasonable taxi ride (~$30) and I associate it with Universal Studios and screaming kids rather than luxurious breakfast options.  However with a car and a recommendation both barriers are gone so why not?

First impressions of Capella are a beautiful colonial-style hotel nestled in acres of lush foliage.  As you penetrate the exterior you find a modern, spacious and luxurious setting (amazing art - modern and Chinese) with a gorgeous view out to sea (most of the oil tankers are hidden behind the foliage).

We booked for the breakfast buffet ($48 ++) and it was amazing.  Presentation of the delicate little dishes was superb, great service, extensive choice.  Soph said it was one of the best brunches she'd ever had.  We spent three hours sampling our way through the selections - highlights for me were the mini waffles and beautifully presented yoghurts.  The coffee was standard for Singapore but the tea selection made up for it.  Having finally exhausted all options we wandered around the grounds to ease our taut tummies before piling back into the car.

Gorgeous mini jars and a rambutan (delicious but strange hairy Indonesian fruit)

Impeccable presentation

Our breakfast view

Day beds - an invitation for copious cups of tea and a good book
or lounging with champagne

After a quick tour around the Sentosa residential area to see how the 'other half' live, we stopped in at the flower market on the way home.



These tiger orchids are so impactful - I love fresh flowers!



And now it's not even 3pm and the most difficult decision I face is whether to keep sneakily reading Sander's book (Open, by Andre Agassi - really interesting) or to open my newly arrived Dish magazine...

Ripe's Got It Right - Raw Energy Salad

Hands up who's a fan of raw beetroot!  I'm unsurprised if not many hands are waving in the air right now.  Mine wouldn't have been, until I came across this amazing salad from Ripe (awesome deli in from back home with an outstanding cook book).  Beat back your scepticism and try it once - the flavours and textures (chewy raisins, toasted nuts, raw vege crunch) will have you coming back for more.

Ripe's Raw Energy Salad

• 500g beetroot (peeled and grated)
• 700g carrot (peeled and grated)
• 1 C fresh mint leaves chopped
• ½ C raisins
• ¼ C sunflower seeds (toasted)
• ¼ C pumpkin seeds (toasted)
• ½ t salt

Dressing

• 2 T pomegranate molasses
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• ¼ C orange juice
• ¼ C olive oil
• 1 T honey

Dressing:  Place all ingredients in a jar, put lid back on and shake well to mix.

Salad:  Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then pour over the dressing and toss

Yes, it's really that simple!  I had mine with a sprinkling of feta cheese on top and next time I'll have fish.  And I had plenty left over for lunch.

Look at the dressing oozing out - delicious!

Simple Warm Chicken and Greens Salad

Wow, it's been two whole weeks since I last posted and it has flown by in a flurry of Sander's family visits, work events and a long weekend in Bali (amazing - I promise I'll post photos).

After almost two months of over-indulgence (indicative from the number of restaurant posts I've done recently) it's time for a fresh healthy start to get back on track.  And I must admit after two months of eating out (as wonderful as it is) I'm glad to be back in the kitchen.

First up was an adaptation of a chicken and zucchini dish from Epicurious.  When I say 'adapted' I mean the only consistency with the original recipe was the chicken, despite my best intentions.  Zucchini was hiding from me at the supermarket, so I bought asparagus instead, then threw bok choy and ginger into my shopping basket along with two cobs of corn.

I marinated the chicken fillets in lime, olive oil and ginger, sliced and then pan fried.  I parboiled the corn and set aside (because the tap water temperature here is about 25 degrees - too warm to rapidly cool the cobs and stop cooking), then blanched the asparagus and chopped in half.  Heating a large pan over a medium flame, I briefly fried finely chopped shallot, three chillis, a garlic clove and some ginger.  Just before serving I wilted the bok choy, tossing it through the chilli mixture then did the same with the asparagus.  Place the salad on a large serving dish, sprinkle salad with mint and baby tomatoes and serve with corn cobs on the side.  Additional extra: deglaze the chicken pan with a little white wine.

The verdict?  Well I think I overdid the chilli a little, and the thick ends of the bok choy were a little too bitter.  Next time I'll use two chillis and an alternative Asian green - maybe gai lan which has thinner stalks.  This recipe is perfect for the Monday night rush, from go to whoa approximately 20 minutes.