Pakistani Honey Mangoes

What I really love about summer is the availability of some of the best varieties of mangoes you would ever taste anywhere in the world. From April to August, we can buy imported mangoes air-freighted from the Indian sub-continent, which taste better than what we get from a regular supermarket, which are transported via surface, all year round.

The season starts with the availability of Alphonso mangoes from India, from late spring, then to the Sindhri mangoes from Pakistan in early summer, to the best ones available now, and pictured, in mid-summer, the Chaunsa mangoes. I am not aure I spelt them correctly, but I am sure I have seen them available in Malaysia as well.

Over here in UK, they are not available in mainstream supermarkets. I am not sure why, but probably because they do not have long shelf lives and do not have a uniform unblemished appearance, which the major retailers seem to demand these days, at the expense of taste. However, in the large cities, they are widely available at all Asian stores (indian and chinese), and there is always adequate supply to meet the demand from the communities.

The prices have gone up significantly this year (what hasnt?!), to around £3 - £3.50 per 2kg box. In previous years, as recent as 2006, I have bought them for as little as £2 per box. Still, its only available for a short time annually and I have one daily when they are in season and is a truly prolonged culinary highlight for me, every summer!

Here is a pic of a 2kg box


And here is a Chaunsa mango, cut... not the best looking, but most delicious! Not a hint of sourness... just sweet through ad through!



And for the other mangoes that we get all year round, which I have also seen in Malaysia, here is a short review. They are plucked unripe, so that they can survive the long ship journey to the UK. These are not my photos

Tommy Atkins:
Probably the best looking mangoes money can buy, but that's where the loveliness ends! Taste is bland, texture is dry and full of fibres that sticks to your teeth. If you're lucky, you will get one that is more sweet than sour, but still it lacks a "taste" and has almost no smell. I never buy these!


Keitt:
The flesh is smooth and juicy and when ripe, has a dark yellow colour. Not fibrous at all. Probably the best supermarket mangoes you can buy in the UK. Usually sweet when and hardly ever sour. Looks are deceiving because the skin is pure green when unripe, but leave it a week or two and it changes to a blushy orange red.


Kent:
Like a cross between Tommy Atkins and Keitt. Less dark in colour and less sweet, but still ok to eat when nothing else is available. Slightly fibrous, but not too bad.

Garden Fresh Pak Choy

Still on the subject of oriental food here, but with a slight variation. During the summer months when the weather is milder, it is possible to grow pak choy in a greenhouse in the UK. Sometimes, you can grow it outdoors too, but then you expose it to all sorts of wildlife that might destroy it.

Anyway, it grows fast and we have more than enough to have it twice a week over the summer and early autumn months from this small patch in the greenhouse. Furthermore, we can grow them into the shape we prefer too.. I think the leaves are tastier, so the veg is grown close together to crowd out the branch, making it rather thin and allow the leaves to bloom.

Considering that it costs around £4.00 per kg to buy, it is quite a saving, especially these days!

Here is the greenhouse:


And here is the veg:

Prawn Kuey Teow ( Ho Fun)

I am really treading on old ground here. I have previously blogged on homemade Chow Kuey Teow here:
http://malaysiankitchen.blogspot.com/2008/01/chow-kuey-teow.html

This was made exactly the same way, but with just lovely juicy tiger prawns. It's not that I have run out of stuff to blog about, but that I dont have the time at the moment to do a lengthy blog, and yet still want to keep this blog active.

So feast your eyes on this dish. I am not sure if its because of the price of rice at the moment or something else, but the ho fun I have been buying have been very brittle recently. The price has not gone up by much while price of rice has doubled. Maybe they add less rice flour and more water in the ho fun these days. The result is that the finished dish is rather broken up. However, taste is still the same, fortunately!

Beef Fried Rice

Can't believe that a whole month has elapsed since my last post! Where has all the time gone?? Well, fortunately, it wasn't all bad, as I have been mainly pre-occupied with some new toys but mainly, it was Euro 2008! Well, one match left to go tomorrow, and if history is anything to go by, Germany will win it, despite Spain being the better and more entertaining team. Well, w'll see what happens tomorrow!

I have taken so many pictures since my last post, so what do I do, but blog about the humble fride rice! Well, this is actually not as humble and simple as it seems. Normally, we would use cooked leftover ingredients in a fried rice, but to use FRESH beef require the technique to be slightly modified. The reason is because beef is a very delicate meat to cook, especially if you want it to be tender and juicy afterwards, without overcoooking, or having to resort to using tenderised beef that has been marinated in chemicals.

My main ingredients are beef and cooked prawns (mainly to give it a colour balance) along with scallions to garnish at the end. The beef is marinated with garlic, soy and oyster sauce and sesame oil.




The beef is then rapidly fried in a VERY hot wok, till half cooked and set aside.




Then clean wok, reheat till high and half fry a beaten egg.




Then add cold cooked rice on top. Toss and add a sprinkling of stock / water and salt until rice is all separated and fluffy




Now comes the delicate part. Push rice to the side, add the beef with "SOME" of the juices. Not too much that it soaks the rice. Only enough so that it can all be worked into the rice without making it soggy. Then, mix and fry well for no more than another one minute. Any longer and the beef will become tough. If you rice is still soggy after that, then you have added too much juice. Either cook it longer and accept the tougher beef or remove from heat and accept the soggy rice. Garnish with cooked prawns and scallions before removing from heat.




And here is the final result! Enjoy!

Tandoor Fish Fillet

This is a variation of the popular tandoori chicken dish, popular all over the world. Obviously, it was not done in a tandoor oven, instead, it was fried to get the desired texture. As fish cooks quickly and a domestic oven / grill is not hot enough, frying it is the quickest was of cooking without damaging the texture. A grill or oven would overcook the fish.

I did not make the marinade myself .. just bought a packet of tandoori mix, then added natural yogurt, oil and lemon juice. In the mixture, I added white fish (pollock) fillets. It is important that the the fish used is of the firm type or it could break apart during the cooking process.





Prior to frying, I sprinkle one side with flour, then fry that side first.


While frying, I sprinkle flour on the other side. You would only fry each side once. The flour gives the surface a subtle crunch and enhances the charred effect. In this case, I had overdone it a bit!



In any case, I thought it looked alright, served with pilau rice (I used an instant mix here!)

Sirloin Steak

Once in a while, I cook some western food in the home. This is one of my favourite .. been cooking this since my student days, when I used to buy a 300g steak all for myself. Nowadays, being more health conscious, the meat portions are smaller and the veg portions are bigger.

The sirloin steak is best fried on it's own with little or no marinade, as, in order to seal the juices in, you have to fry both sides on very high heat quickly. Sometimes, this can burn whatever marinade you have on the surface, unless it's just plain salt.

After cooking the meat, I fry some sliced fresh button mushrooms in the same pan so it has the flavour of the meat. On this occassion, I have used frozen pre-cooked roast potatoes. Also included is some boiled brocolli. All this is topped with instant Bisto gravy, bring to boil in the same pan that cooked the beef and mushrooms.

Delicious and simple!

Char Siu Pau ( Roast Pork Steamed Buns )

Nothing too exceptional or unusual about this popular Chinese snack. However, it is as good as any that I have ever tasted in Malaysia. Can be easily bought from any Chinese supermarket for around £2.50 per half dozen chilled buns. All I have to do is steam them,and they become larger than the average ones you get from a market stall in KL.



Here's my son enjoying one!