I decided on my last day in Japan to retire from food blogging. I’ve been blogging intensively for over two years and have reached the point where I’m mentally very tired and would like to do something different. I have loved writing about food, sharing my eating experiences and most of all learning from readers, whether it’s a suggestion for preparing a dish or a restaurant recommendation. I’ve also immensely enjoyed meeting, both online and face to face, like-minded people who are passionate about food. If it weren’t for my fantastic readers, I would have stopped a long time ago.

Writing the final lines of the Tokyo post was difficult, and I felt a mixture of emotions – sadness that it was my last proper post and also relief that it was my last proper post. My blog has dominated my life for its entire existence and I suppose I always assumed that I would just continue with it. People have suggested writing fewer posts or only writing when I travel, but I’m an all or nothing person. I either have to blog as much as I have done or stop completely. There’s no middle road for me. However, I’ll keep World Foodie Guide live for as long as possible and try to answer as many comments as I can.

As for me, I’ll continue to learn about photography, travel (25 Food & Travel Destinations) and perhaps even write a historical novel. The husband will be able to eat food that doesn’t need to be photographed first and the cats will have more of my attention. And of course I’ll still be enjoying my food!

Thank you to each and every one of you for reading…

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Cloves © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Before I even laid eyes on Jane Lawson’s Spice Market, I knew it was my type of book. And when I finally leafed through the 450 pages, my instincts were confirmed. Apart from offering 250 recipes, the book is a comprehensive guide on the history and culinary uses of over 40 spices from around the world. Like many people, I buy spices on an ad hoc basis, when I need something to make a particular dish. As a result, my collection of spices is somewhat eclectic, to say the least, and there are some that I have used just once. Spices also start to deteriorate if not stored properly (and even then, the volatile oils fade over time, taking with them the spices’ true flavours, colours and aromas). I hope that by using Spice Market on a regular basis, I’ll not only learn more about the background of each spice, but I’ll also be able to make the most of the spices sitting in my cupboard.

Saffron © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

I started by reading up on a few of the spices that I already own, as I thought that would be the best way to tackle this tome and start cooking with them.

Saffron – also known as azafran

My jar of saffron has been languishing in my spice drawer for a few years now, but I could never throw out such an expensive spice. The handpicked stamen from a flower of the crocus family, saffron is grown in Iran, Spain, India, Greece, Morocco and Italy. It is the most expensive spice in the world, but a tiny amount goes a very long way. The recommended recipes in the book include risotto milanese, arancini, seafood paella, poached pears in saffron syrup and saffron buns.

Cardamom © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Cardamom - related to galangal, ginger, turmeric

I bought cardamom last year to make cardamom kulfi and karahi lamb chops, but since then, the pods have just been sitting in their storage jar looking pretty. Cardamom is regarded as the world’s third most expensive spice by weight after saffron and vanilla. There are two types, green and black or brown cardamom, both of which are native to India and Sri Lanka, but most recipes call for the green one. Apart from being commonly used in Indian, West Asian and Middle Eastern dishes, it’s also popular in Dutch and Scandinavian baking and of course in Turkish coffee. I particularly like the sound of cardamom pear shortcake and honey and cardamom biscuits!

Cloves – related to allspice (top photo)

Cloves are ‘the dried and unopened flower buds of an evergreen tree from the myrtle family’, and because they are so pungent, only a small amount is needed. They also form an intrinsic part of spice mixes, including Chinese five spice and Indian garam masala, and are used as a painkiller for toothache (‘biting into a whole clove releases an intense, almost antiseptic taste’). The recommended recipes include Kashmiri lamb cutlets and clove-studded honey-glazed ham.

Juniper berries © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Juniper berries -

Juniper berries are the edible fruit of a shrub that grows in the Northern Hemisphere, and should be lightly crushed before use to release their flavour. I was pleased to read that juniper berries are commonly used in Scandinavian cooking, because I’m going to Sweden next month and hope to find more inspiration from the dishes that I try there. Out of the recipes featured, I very much liked the sound of vodka and juniper cured salmon, duck confit and venison with juniper berries.

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This is a book every home cook should have on his or her shelf, not just for the variety of recipes, but for the wealth of information on spices all in one place. I for one will be using this as a handy reference book before shopping for more spices, particularly when visiting spice markets around the world! Hopefully my spices will be used more regularly in the future…

Spice Market is published by Murdoch Books and costs £18.95. Thank you to Murdoch for sending me a copy.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Buta no Shogayaki © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Buta no shogayaki or Japanese pan-fried sliced pork with ginger sauce is a classic dish that I used to eat regularly when I was younger. While I would be busy making sixteen kilos of tonkatsu for the LSE Japan Society annual party every year, my Japanese friend would make the same amount of buta no shogayaki. So whenever I order it, I always think of her. It’s a very simple but satisfying dish and perfect for a one dish lunch or supper.

This recipe comes from one of my recent cookery book purchases, Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking, although I could just as well have asked my Japanese stepmother-in-law for her recipe. Harumi Kurihara is a Japanese food writer & TV presenter, well known for her ‘home cooking’ recipes and owns a cookware line as well as a chain of shops. It seems that some Japanese women, most of whom now work, find her ‘home-maker’ image a little old-fashioned, but I was glad to have found this recipe in her book, and it worked really well. You may be interested to read my recent review of her latest book Everyday Harumi, which incidentally is a far better book.

Ingredients: (serves 4, but I adjusted the quantities to serve 1)

• ½ tbsp freshly grated ginger

• 2 tbsp soy sauce

• 1 tsp mirin

• 200g finely sliced pork

• sunflower or vegetable oil

Making buta no shogayaki © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

What to do next:

Mix the grated ginger, soy sauce and mirin together and briefly marinate the pork (Harumi doesn’t specify how long for, so I dipped each piece in the marinade for a few seconds using chopsticks, making sure it was properly coated).

Heat a little oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Remove the pork from the marinade and add to the pan, making sure it cooks evenly and doesn’t stick together or curl up.

Turn over after a couple of minutes and cook until both sides are browned. Don’t leave the pork for long, as it cooks surprisingly quickly, but make sure it’s cooked through.

Buta no shoga yaki is delicious served simply with steamed Japanese rice and a small salad.

Harumi notes that she uses pork shoulder or loin as the fat will make the meat more tender, and that the thickness of the pork slices depends on one’s preference. The meat should also be at room temperature when you are ready to cook.

Incidentally, she recommends buying a Japanese ginger grater, which almost pulps, rather than slices, ginger. As you read this, I’ll probably have found one already, on Kappabashi-dori in Asakusa, Tokyo, the restaurant supply area and every food lover’s dream destination…

You may like some of the other Japanese recipes on World Foodie Guide. And 8 Useful Japanese Ingredients would be a useful read for those who are not so familiar with Japanese ingredients.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Cauliflower Fritters © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

I’ve recently started to enjoy eating all kinds of fried things at home. They’re not the healthiest of foods, but once in a while, they’re so delicious and makes a change from all the ‘good’ food we eat, whether it’s soup, lentils or beans. After eating various fried goodies throughout the year, including Japanese tempura, Chinese pan-fried dumplings, Indian cumin & coriander potato cakes, Sri Lankan fish cutlets and Indonesian crabcakes, I found another tasty treat to make – fritelli di cavolfiore or cauliflower fritters.

The following recipe comes from cookery book My Cousin Rosa – Rosa Mitchell’s Sicilian Kitchen, in which the Australian-based Italian cookery writer and chef presents simple, rustic Sicilian recipes from her family life and childhood, utilising fresh ingredients. I own several Italian cookery books, including the classic The Silver Spoon, but I enjoyed Rosa’s style and easy-to-follow instructions and managed to mark many of the pages with little Post-it notes. My personal favourites have to be polpette (meatballs), ragù di coniglio (rabbit ragù), spaghetti al nero di seppia (spaghetti with squid in black ink sauce), pasta e piselli (pasta with peas), finocchio gratinato (baked fennel) and peparelli (honey & almond biscotti).

Vegetarians will also find more than the average number of meat and seafood-free recipes to follow, including schiaciatta (broccoli pie), zuppa di ceci, porri e patate (chickpea, leek & potato soup), orecchiette con broccoli e acciughe (orecchiette with broccoli and anchovies), pasta con le zucchine fritte (pasta with fresh tomato sauce and parmesan zucchini) and pesto siciliano (Sicilian pesto).

Cauliflower Fritters © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

Fritelli do Cavolfiore (Cauliflower Fritters) -

Ingredients: (makes about 20)

• ½ large cauliflower

• 300g (10oz / 2 cups) self-raising flour

• 100g (3½ oz / 1 cup) grated parmesan cheese

• 1 garlic clove, crushed

• 3 tbsp chopped Italian (flat-leaf) parsley

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten

• olive oil, for frying

What to do next:

Break up all the cauliflower into small pieces. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil, add cauliflower and cook until soft. Drain and cool in a bowl.

Add flour, cheese, garlic, parsley and some salt and pepper to the cauliflower and mix lightly. Add beaten eggs and mix again. if the mixture is too dry, add a little water.

Heat enough oil to cover the base of a frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add tablespoons of the mixture, taking care not to overcrowd them. Cook until golden, turn over and flatten slightly with a fork. Cook on the other side until golden and cooked through to the centre.

Serve hot or at room temperature as a pre-dinner snack. I can proudly announce that my fritters turned out very nicely and will be replicated for the next set of dinner guests!

My Cousin Rosa © Helen Yuet Ling Pang

My Cousin Rosa – Rosa Mitchell’s Sicilian Kitchen is published by Murdoch Books and costs £25.00. Thank you to Murdoch Books for sending me a copy.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

The monthly summary for October -

It was my turn again to preview the Wikio UK Gastronomy top 20 rankings for October. If you’re a UK food blogger and you’re not on the list of 100 blogs, then all you have to do is submit your blog to Wikio (details on their site).

Out and about, I ate very well at Argentinian restaurant Garufa (although strangely the steak was my least favourite of all the dishes); enjoyed some tasty Straits cuisine at Sedap, and managed to secure a table at new Venetian bacaro Polpo in Soho, London. At home, I made a comforting autumn apple & blackberry crumble using Mark Hix’s recipe; potato soup with bacon & chives, which can be found in the review of the excellent Scandinavian Cookbook and last but not least, a healthy and delicious Japanese tofu steak from Harumi Kurihara’s latest cookbook Everyday Harumi.

Kang of London Eater wrote the very first guest post on World Foodie Guide, LondonEater’s Taipei Tales, with his recommendations from Taipei, Taiwan. There’ll be another guest post next month from Istanbul Eats and I hope there will be more in the future from bloggers located in places on my list of food & travel destinations.

Finally, I was really pleased to discover that Saveur linked to my Chinese hot pot guide in an article on eating at The Little Fat Lamb in New York!

Next week, I’ll be embarking on a two week culinary adventure in Japan, although the Japan posts won’t start until the 23rd November. I’ll write about what to do, see and eat at the various destinations – Japan Alps (snow monkeys, soba making class, kaiseki dinner & private onsen in room), Numazu (fresh seafood from fish market, prepared by friend’s mother & beach), Kamakura & Enoshima (beach & seafood), Kyoto (where to begin? This is the most planned part of the entire trip) and of course Tokyo (chilling out with friends, revisiting favourite haunts & discovering new ones). I’ll be avoiding individual posts on each restaurant, but there is one kaiseki dinner at Rokusei Nishimise in Kyoto that might require its own post. If you can’t take the onslaught of Japanese food & travel posts, then there’ll be a round-up at the end!

Thank you as always for reading…

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Everyday Harumi is Japanese housewife turned cookery writer Harumi Kurihara’s latest book, produced in the UK and photographed by über-food photographer Jason Lowe. I bought an earlier book, Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking, a couple of months ago, and to be honest, wasn’t overly impressed with it. No matter how many times I went through the book, I struggled to find anything that inspired me enough to want to make it. I finally settled on ginger pork or buta no shoga yaki, which is a favourite of mine and the recipe was easy to replicate. When Octopus Books asked me to review her current book, I was therefore a little reluctant. However, I wanted to see what the new book was like and hopefully change my mind about Harumi.

A Japanese friend in Tokyo told me that Harumi was incredibly popular 10 to 15 years ago, but it seems that people are turning to other cookery writers and TV presenters, as her ‘homemaker’ image doesn’t appeal to many modern working women. However, she is still very famous outside Japan, probably because there aren’t that many Japanese food writers published in English, and more importantly, she focuses on home-style cooking that is easy to replicate in the kitchen. If I have time, I’ll do some more research on Harumi when I’m in Tokyo next week and visit one of her many cookware shops.

I have to admit, I enjoyed Everyday Harumi much more than I thought I would. 18 mini Post-It notes currently mark the recipes that I’m planning to try, including yakitori (on the winter barbecue!), tsukune with teriyaki sauce (tsukune is like a minced meat patty or hamburger), simmered sea bream, rice cooked with sea bream, tuna tataki salad and chawan mushi (steamed savoury custard). The explanations that accompany each recipe are more detailed and unlike the last book, here she finally acknowledges that a few of her dishes are Chinese in origin, adapted to suit Japanese tastes, such as the classic Sichuan mapo dofu. The section on store cupboard essentials is a clear and simple introduction to basic ingredients, cooking Japanese rice, making dashi stock and various basic sauces. This would be a good book for anyone wanting to make some simple Japanese dishes at home.

From all the recipes, I chose to make tofu steak. This is similar in some ways to agedashi tofu, but without the broth. The recipe was easy to follow and the result was a simple but delicous and healthy recipe that is sure to please friends and family. I’ll have to test it on my Japanese stepmother-in-law next time…

Tofu Steak (serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 600g soft /silken tofu

• salt & pepper

• 4-5 tbsp potato starch or plain flour – for coating

• 3-4 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil – for frying

• 2 tbsp grated or finely minced garlic

• 25g fresh grated ginger – to garnish

• 50g chopped spring onions – to garnish

• katsuobushi (bonito fish flakes) – to garnish

• banno soy sauce – to serve

Banno sauce:

• 100ml mirin

• 300ml soy sauce

• 10cm piece of kombu seaweed

What to do next: (my comments in italics)

Banno sauce: in a small saucepan, bring mirin to the boil, reduce heat to low and cook for a further 2-3 minutes to burn off the alcohol. Remove from heat and add soy sauce and kombu. Leave to cool for a couple of hours, remove the kombu, then refrigerate. Harumi notes that this is milder and sweeter than regular soy sauce. This is enough to make a large batch, which can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. (As I only wanted to make enough for this dish, I reduced the quantities of each ingredient).

Drain the tofu (I have to emphasise that this part is really important, otherwise the tofu will not fry properly. So use plenty of kitchen towel to soak up as much moisture as possible. I also used two blocks of the pre-packaged silken tofu that comes in small boxes (350g each)). Cut into four pieces (I cut mine into eight).

Season the tofu on both sides with salt and pepper, then spread with grated or minced garlic.

Peel and grate the ginger. Finely slice the spring onions.

Lightly coat the tofu pieces in the potato starch or plain flour.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan and when hot, add the tofu, cooking until it is crispy and browned.

Serve with ginger, spring onions and katsuobushi on top. Finish by dressing with banno soy sauce.

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Everyday Harumi is published by Octopus Books and costs £20.00.

Other book reviews on World Foodie Guide.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

Crumble is an all-time favourite of mine and yet I’ve never made it before. Boarding school lunches and dinners were made all the more palatable with the anticipation of a large bowl of fruit crumble drenched with an extra portion of steaming hot custard. We would sometimes get seconds too, if we were very lucky. It marked the perfect end to a not-so-great meal. I’m not fussy about the fruit used in a crumble. Rhubarb, apple, pear, blackberry and other berries are all wonderful. The texture and thickness of the crumble topping, as well as the proportion of crumble to fruit, are more important factors for me. I need a lot of crumble and even more hot custard (although some people like it cold!).

I reviewed Mark Hix’s British Regional Food a few months ago and came across his recipe for apple and blackberry crumble, which I’ve been meaning to make ever since. When our ever generous neighbour gave us some Bramley apples from his allotment, the husband wandered outside the house to pick some ripe blackberries from the bushes on our lane, and we were all set to make crumble (if you’re wondering why I still have blackberries, I don’t. This post was written weeks ago when the berries were still fat and juicy!).

Ingredients: (with my comments in italics)

• good knob of butter (I took this to mean a good scoop with a knife)

• 3 large Bramley apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped

• 75g caster sugar

• 150g blackberries and / or any other berries like blueberries or elderberries

• thick or clotted cream, or custard, to serve

for the crumble topping

• 40g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

• 30g ground almonds

• 60g caster sugar

• 80g plain flour

What to do next:

Preheat the oven to 190C / gas 5.

First make the filling – melt the butter in a pan, add the apples and sugar, and cook for 6-7 minutes, stirring occasionally until they begin to break down but are not too soft.

Remove from heat and stir in the blackberries (and other berries). Put in a suitable ovenproof pie dish or small individual pie dishes (which I greased).

Mix all the topping ingredients in a food processor or mixer, or rub between your fingers until they look like breadcrumbs (I did the latter). I also doubled the amount of crumble topping, as it didn’t look like there would be quite enough to form a thick layer.

Sprinke the crumble topping over the top of the filling and bake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until the top is golden brown. (Our oven behaves rather erratically, so the crumble was ready in 20 minutes).

Serve with thick or clotted cream, or custard.

I used shop-bought custard from Waitrose. It’s also delicious with some pouring cream added on top of the custard. After two helpings though, I knew I had over-indulged…

What are your favourite fruits for crumble? Do you prefer custard or cream? And do you know the origins of crumble? According to Wikipedia, it originated during the Second World War in Britain, but I thought it was a lot older than that…

Other recipes on World Foodie Guide.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

As I have a long weekend planned in Gothenburg, Sweden in December, it was with great excitement that I read through Danish TV chef and food writer Trina Hahnemann’s The Scandinavian Cookbook. Gothenburg will be the first of several Scandinavian trips for me,  so I was as interested in the evocative photography as I was in the recipes. The photos, taken by Lars Ranek, one of Scandinavia’s leading food photographers, ‘reflect the cycle of a full year comprising seasonal ingredients and dishes, lifestyle and festivals’. I hope that I’ll be able to capture the essence of Gothenburg in winter in a similar way with my little Leica…

The book is divided into the twelve months of the year and focuses on a ‘light, modern version of Scandinavian home cooking’. The four seasons are reflected in the recipes, with much emphasis on fresh local produce. A short introduction accompanied each recipe, explaining the background to the dish, sometimes with a personal anecdote. I find this an essential part of any cookery book, because I like to learn about the origins of a dish than simply be told how to prepare it. For example, Hahnemann describes Skagen, located in the northern tip of Denmark, where the famous Skagen fish soup comes from, and it sounds like a place I would love to visit.

Out of all the recipes, my personal favourites included potato cakes with lumpfish roe and beetroot salad; various smørrebrød (open sandwiches made with rye bread); kartoffelkage (traditional Danish cake which resembles a large potato, but is actually choux pastry covered with cocoa-dusted marzipan and filled with luscious cream); meatballs with thyme, summer cabbage and lingonsylt; langoustines with herb mayonnaise; fruit ‘porridge’ with cold cream; gravad lax with honey mustard sauce; reindeer with anise and pepper, potato-celeriac gratin and Brussels sprouts; cinnamon rolls and småkager (Danish vanilla butter cookies).

I chose to replicate the recipe for potato soup with bacon and chives from the October chapter. According to Hahnemann, hot meals in Scandinavia are usually served with potatoes and her grandparents ate potatoes almost every day of their lives. I love potatoes, so this sounded perfect to me.

Potato Soup With Bacon & Chives - serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1.3kg potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks

• 2 leeks, sliced

• 2 garlic cloves

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tbsp salt

• 1 tbsp whole peppercorns

• 1 litre water

• 100ml double cream

To serve:

• 100g bacon, diced (instead of bacon, you can use crisp croutons of dark rye bread)

• 4 tbsp chopped chives

• grainy bread

What to do next:

Place the potatoes in a large saucepan with leeks, garlic, bay leaves, salt, peppercorns and water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

While the soup is cooking, fry the bacon until crisp and golden, then leave to drain on paper towels to remove the excess fat.

Remove soup from the heat and take out the bay leaves. Purée the mixture in a blender or food processor then return it to the saucepan. Add the cream and heat through. Adjust the seasoning to taste, then serve the soup very hot with the bacon and chives, plus grainy bread on the side.

I made one version with bacon for myself, while the husband had the non-meat version with rye bread croutons. Delicious and just right for autumn weather.

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I’m very much looking forward to visiting Gothenburg the week before Christmas, when I can eat æbleskiver (Christmas butter-fried doughnuts), drink glögg (warm red wine with aquavit and spices), visit the Christmas market and bring back lots of food goodies. And I’ll certainly be turning to The Scandinavian Cookbook for inspiration after the trip. If you have any eating suggestions in Gothenburg, please let me know!

The Scandinavian Cookbook was sent to me by Quadrille Publishing to review and costs £20.00.

Trina’s next book The Nordic Diet will be published in January 2010. It’s all about ‘eating with the seasons, taking advantage of locally sourced seasonal ingredients and eating a balanced diet of protein, carbohydrate and fat’. Please email food@quadrille.co.uk for more details.

Other book reviews on World Foodie Guide.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

(photo taken by Kang @ London Eater in Lille, France. Thank you Kang!)

The monthly summary for September…

World Foodie Guide celebrated its second anniversary this month. The last two years have gone by incredibly quickly and I’ve consumed vast quantities of food, learned much about various cuisines, and developed some wonderful friendships, both online and in reality.

I’ve now decided to focus more on food & travel or ‘traveleating‘, seeing as WFG was intended to be ‘a guide to traveleating’. 25 Food & Travel Destinations: A 5 Year Plan explains my new plan. Meanwhile, I’ve been planning the November trip to Japan, as well as a long weekend to Gothenburg, Sweden and a Eurostar day trip to Brussels, Belgium, both in December.

There will also be a couple of guest posts over the next two months – insider favourite tips and suggestions for Taiwan and Istanbul, Turkey – both of which are on my travel list. I’m really looking forward to reading their recommendations!

I recently tried Japanese restaurant Dinings (the wagyu beef sushi was superb) and new Korean Naru, where each dish was exquisitely presented. Italian Bocca di Lupo was revisited and I had a far more enjoyable meal compared to the first visit.  As a result of the focus on food & travel, I’ll be writing fewer London restaurant reviews and I’ve also abandoned the rating system, which I thought was too subjective to be of any real use.

In the kitchen, my three mushroom pan-fried dumplings were featured in In The Kitchen With on Design Sponge! I also had a go at making Sri Owen’s Indonesian crabcakes and was really pleased with the way they turned out (I’m not usually so adept at forming such perfect round shapes). Last but not least, I met fellow food blogger Kavey from Kavey Eats, her husband and her mother Mamta from Mamta’s Kitchen at the Covent Garden Real Food Market, where they were manning the UKFBA food stall for the day. I can still taste Nana’s Spicy Tomato Ketchup (which I had with the crabcakes!)…

Dan (Food Urchin) won the Eurostar competition for two tickets to Lille. He was chosen by the PR company We Are Social and will be off to Lille very soon! Congratulations Dan!

Please let me know if you have any suggestions for future posts. There are a few more book reviews coming up, some recipes and of course plenty of food & travel posts. You can also tell me what you don’t like, I won’t be offended, I promise!

Thank you as always for reading…

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide

I rarely buy magazines now, whether food, travel, politics or fashion-related, mainly because I have so little time to read them these days. When someone told me on Twitter that I got a mention in BBC’s Olive magazine, however, I rushed out to buy a copy, only to find out that I’d bought the wrong issue. I ended up with copies for both July and August, and it was in July’s issue that I found some eye-catching recipes from Indonesian food writer Sri Owen, who has written numerous cookery books, including Sri Owen’s Indonesian Food, published last year. Out of the four recipes, all from this book  – sate udang (prawn satay), kambing bacem (spiced tamarind lamb), panggang bebek dengan kuah bayem (duck breast with spinach sauce) and aromatic crabcakes, I chose to replicate the last one. The recipe is taken from Olive magazine.

Ingredients: (makes 20 smaller ones as a starter, or 12 larger ones as a main)

• 450-560g fresh or frozen crabmeat, white meat only, or white and brown meat from 2 good-size live crabs to make the same weight

• 225g new or waxy potatoes, cooked and mashed with a pinch of salt

• 3 tbsp finely chopped spring onions

• 3 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

• 2 tbsp finely chopped kaffir lime leaves

• 1 tbsp finely chopped lemongrass (inner part only)

• 1 tbsp finely chopped ginger

• ½ tsp ground turmeric

• 1 tsp (or less) chilli flakes

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tbsp rice flour or plain flour

• ½ tsp golden caster sugar

• ½freshly ground black pepper

• 1 egg, lightly beaten

• groundnut oil, or olive oil, for frying

What to do next:

Mix all the ingredients, except for the egg and oil. Then add the egg to the crab mixture and check the seasoning. Divide the mixture into 12 or 20 portions, mould each into a ball and chill for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in large non-stick frying pan. Flatten each crab ball to make a round, flat cake. Fry in batches, cooking each side for 2 minutes or until golden. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

I served these with a mixed salad and Nana’s Spicy Hot Ketchup. These were absolutely delicious, and really easy to prepare as well. I also made a batch using tuna fish for the husband, who doesn’t eat crab. I’ll be making both types again very soon…

Other recipes on World Foodie Guide.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang @ World Foodie Guide