The Dumpling Festival came and went during the days when I was on my vegetarian diet. So I didn’t get to join my family sitting around on the outdoor chaise lounges at my Dad’s house to savor these goodies.

Luckily for me though, my dear neighbor slipped me some of her homemade bachang, or rice dumplings across the fence. I kept them frozen till recently when I took them out, resteamed them and mmmm, words can’t describe.

There’s 3 different types here - spicy sambal bachang (top left), rice dumpling with wobbly pork chunks, chestnuts and dried shrimp (top right) and the pea version of the rice dumpling (bottom).

Dang, these dumplings are so tasty I wish I knew how to make them myself. The filling takes quite a bit of work to make. As for the banana leaf wrapping, I admit I’ve just never mastered the art of getting the filling to stay inside the banana leaf while I’m trying to get the string secured.

The ones I make are not foolproof. I can never be sure when my painstakingly wrapped dumplings will pop open and come loose in the pot. It’s like they’re wearing a swimsuit that’s a size too big and wo-oosh, the swimsuit slips right off in the water ! OMG, how awful when I have to go fishing in that pot for those naked bachangs, hahaha!

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I made a huge pot of hak lor mai chook, or black glutinous rice porridge as a treat to myself last weekend since I’m on a 30-day vegetarian diet and can’t eat meat. Quite a mouthful to say but it’s such a luscious dessert. Actually I eat a couple of bowls of it and it serves as my lunch .

The ingredients are simple.

* 2 cups black glutinous rice
* 4 cups water
* 1 cup of sugar, or to taste
* 1 cup thick coconut milk, to be kept in fridge till ready to serve

Place black glutinous rice and water in a large pot on medium heat and leave to boil for about an hour, or until the grains soften and open up. Add sugar to taste. Serve warm.

Add a pinch of salt to the coconut milk and mix well. Keep the coconut milk in the fridge until the black glutinous rice porridge is ready to serve. Drizzle about a dessertspoon of coconut milk onto each bowl of porridge and dessert is ready!

I always have a stash of instant noodles in my pantry for ‘emergencies’ like when I need something quick to eat before I head out to Chinese wedding dinners which typically start like 2 hours late !

Instant noodles are convenient and they’re sold at the Asian grocer. But I find the flavoring overly salty sometimes, so what I usually do is not use all of the flavoring provided, or pour away some of the soup and add more water to dilute it.

I came across these non-fried instant noodles the other day. I’ve never noticed them at the store before but apparently they’re healthier than the ones that are fried and therefore contain more saturated fat.

Anyhow this is the jumbo pack I bought which comes without the packets of flavoring inside. Control freak that I am, I’m going, great, now I get to call the shots on what goes in !

Right, so this is what I made - a nutritious kon low, or dry instant noodle. For the seasoning, I put these into a bowl:

• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons of light soy sauce
• a good drizzle of cooking oil
• a good drizzle of sesame oil

In a pot of water, I blanch a few stems of choy sum, or mustard greens. When done, put it into my bowl with the seasoning.

Using that same pot of water, I boil two different types of fishballs (the small round ones and the larger fried ones) and seafood tofu and throw those into my bowl as well. The seafood tofu is actually pretty tasty and come in small rectangular pieces.

I bring a fresh pot of water to boil and leave the noodles in for 3-4 minutes to cook. The instant noodles come in thin rectangular blocks (see first photo). Two blocks is enough for a meal for one person.

Scoop the cooked noodle into the bowl and mix well with the seasoning and other ingredients. Top generously with chopped spring onions, cilantro and fried shallots, and we’re ready to dig in. Oh, and don’t forget the fresh chopped bird’s eye chilly or jalapeno.

Sometimes I dread weekend grocery shopping because of the cart collisions, crazy checkout lines and long faces. The past few weekends have been surprisingly pleasant though. I don’t see anyone tearing their hair out and needing treatment for hair loss !

Okay, so that’s that. On with my answers to this week’s questions .

#1. What’s your favorite cereal?

Quaker Oatmeal Squares. I think it’s made with shredded wheat, very yummy even without milk and I love that it fills us up. The kids love to crunch on them as a snack when we’re running around their school activities.

#2. What do you use to flip food on the stove?

No prizes for guessing……… chopsticks.

#3. What’s your favorite type of donut?

Er, the kind that isn’t laden with sugar .

#4. Share a rice recipe.

I often make this very simple pan-fried fish fillet with butter rice for lunch. It’s got a bit of everything and it certainly looks much more appetizing than white rice.

Want to play Four Foods on Friday? Simple, go over to valmg’s blog at Fun, Crafts and Recipes and grab the details.

Our school day lunches have been rather run-of-the-mill of late due to our hectic schedule. So I try to spice things up during the weekends and school breaks. This time I decided to surprise my daughters with Thai green curry for lunch.

This is a dish I can only prepare when I have ample time because it requires quite a lot of ingredients and preparation. Glad I got to use fresh basil from my own garden and lemongrass from my neighbor’s garden .

For the curry paste, I blended these ingredients into a paste:

• 5 large green chillies, or jalapeno, seeded and chopped
• 1 knob ginger
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4-5 medium sticks of lemongrass, chopped
• zest from 1 lime, grated
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
• ½ cup fish sauce
• 1 Tsp sugar

The other ingredients are:

• 2 boneless chicken thighs, cut in 1” pieces
• 2 cups thickened coconut milk
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 egg plant, diced
• 6-8 long beans, diced
• 1 bunch basil
• 1 cup chicken stock, or water
• a few drizzles of soy sauce
• 1 Tsp lime juice
• 3 Tsp cooking oil

First I heat up the pot with cooking oil to fry half the green curry paste on medium heat for about 5 minutes till fragrant. Then I add the coconut milk and chicken stock followed by the long beans since they take the longest to soften.

I let it simmer for about 5 minutes before adding the remaining green curry paste and coconut milk, followed by zucchini, eggplant, chicken, soy sauce, lime juice and basil, then for another 5-7 minutes on medium to low heat till the veggies are softened.

As usual, I add just enough salt to taste. Remember the fish sauce and chicken stock are salty in themselves, and you don’t want to end up with a sodium overdose.

Thai green curry is the best thing ever eaten over rice. I’m am not a big rice fan though so I prefer mine over noodles. You can see from the first photo that my curry is not too thick so there’s more than enough sauce to make a noodle soup.

If you’re craving a wonderfully exotic curry, there’s no need to wait till the next time you visit a Thai restaurant or go on vacation at a hotel, try cooking this at home instead. It’s not hard but it needs quite a bit of prep time .