Sago with pappadums

One of my favourite desserts from Mauritius is sago with pappadums. Normally the sago is cooked with sugar and flavoured with aromas such as cardamon pods and cinnamon stick. It is then eaten with fried pappadums. I really enjoy the sweet and salty combination of both. Eating pappadum alone is too salty, and the sago too sweet. We hence get that perfect balance by pairing both ingredients. 

I learned how to prepare pappadums recently. Instead of frying it, microwave each side for about 30 seconds (1 minute in total). This is a much simpler and healthier option. 

For the sago, cook using the packaging instruction, but add some sugar to taste, and some cardamon pods or any other spices (cloves, star anise, cinnamon) that you prefer. It is quite a refreshing dessert after a heavy meal or great for an  afternoon snack.

Throwback Thursday

I'll try to make it a tradition to post pictures of food and dishes I cooked and ate during the week.

Let's start off with my soup. This is my favourite soup because it is so healthy. There is basically no oil (well yes I do not put any oil at all) and it is rich in vegetables and so easy to cook- one pot dish.

 

This was for Easter Sunday dinner. I stir-fried some portobello mushrooms, and cooked everything else in the oven, that is the salmon, sweet potato wedges and asparagus. This meal was a simply so filling and yummy. I especially liked the potato wedges, crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. A real Easter feast.

 

I have not idea what took me, but I decided to try and make paella. Paella is a Spanish rice dish with spices, saffron threads, seafood and meat. My version is obviously not 'true' to its origins since I did not put any seafood. However it was a tasty dish overall. I have never tried the real thing before, so I cannot tell. I served mine with some red lentil soup on the side.

Sago, coconut milk and pandan is a combination that I absolutely adore and cannot resist. I mean they are match made in heaven, without doubt. Notice there is a bunny silicon cup.This was my Easter dessert.

 

Coconut sago flan

I absolutely like this dessert. I tried it several times and come to the recipe that I am most happy with.
It is like a flan with sago and coconut milk.
The one I did were with pandan flavoured sago- so the jelly turned into a nice greenish colour. I think I said somewhere that I am crazy over pandan flavour, it tastes beautiful.

Sago cooking, nearly ready

In silicon muffin cups

I run out of muffin cases, so I had to put then in this plate. Cooked much more than originally planned

Set and ready to eat

 Recipe!

Ingredients:
100 grams sago (cooked and drained)
 2 packets of agar agar
400 ml thick coconut milk
400ml milk
600 ml water
Sugar (per tasting)

Instructions:
1. Cook sago until transparent. Drain and leave aside
2. Mix agar agar and  liquid (milk and water) in a pan and bring to boil.
3. As soon as the water starts to boil (having bubbles), add sugar.
4. Add the sago to the mixture and leave to boil.
5. Pour into muffin cases or any other plate.
6. Leave to cool and then put in the fridge. (It should be set in less than one hour)

Enjoy :)

Note: If you want the flan to be less rich, feel free to reduce the milk content for water.

Busy day in the kitchen

Yesterday was my brother's birthday. I cooked lot and was so tired after. Did I mentioned that working too much is not good for your health. You should try to rest. Wait, I just questioned myself about brekkie as well. Yeah so because I had to go work early in the day and wake up quite late, and wanted to cook my lunch and this sago dessert. Man I didn't know that sago took that lot of a time to cook. After that I didn't have time to eat my ravishing breakkie and had to make it with milk and weetbix...and I realised that indeed I felt hungry and tired the whole day.

 So I cooked this sago dessert (like I mentioned in an early post, I like doing things on impulse- it works best). It's actually a sort of coconut sago pudding/jelly.

I also cooked my lunch to bring at work. Simple dish: egg omelet with carrots. Try add some thyme leaves, really help to enhance the flavour.

After work I cooked fried noodles for my brother's birthday. A quite easy dish, but quite lengthy in terms of preparation time.

Finally I made a cake, late at night, a hot milk cake. It was my  first time baking a cake, so I wanted to try an easy one. Anyway, the result was quite catastrophic, I don't know what turn bad in the process because the cake was quite compact and thick. It looked decent though:

That bring us to the end of this post. Hope it gives you some idea of what to cook at home.