Thai Basil Chicken

One of our favorite meals is Thai Basil Chicken over Rice Crust (a Persian food called Tahdig in Farsi check wiki here). It was a wonderful thing to be able to go out to the back of the house and pick a bunch of Thai Basil from our yard to make the meal!!!

I collected a bowl of the Basil for our recipe. Although, we normally use more basil, but this was all I could take from the plants. The amount worked out okay.

Our Thai Basil Chicken is our own version of Gai Pad Gra Pow. Ours is different in a few ways. First, we cut up the chicken very small and R likes to cook it until it is crusty making the mixture a bit crunchy. We serve it on top of R's fantastic Rice Crust which is both soft and crunchy rice. And lastly, we make our own sauce instead of Fish Sauce which is traditionally used in Gai Pad Gra Pow.

Here's our recipe if you'd like to try it. You can use regular Bastami Rice. Someday, I'll ask R to help me with a post on how to make Rice Crust (or if you are dying to know or try it you can check My Persian Kitchen's rice crust recipe here, although you don't need to use yogurt or saffron for cooking Rice Crust (although Saffron is always nice ;). In fact, you can use potato or bread or other things at the bottom of the pan. But sometimes, it might be best just to make it simply with rice and oil. R uses a different method which appears easier than My Persian Kitchen's). Be warned, rice crust is addictive!

K and R's Basil Chicken

2 Servings

2 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil

1½ -2 Boneless Chicken Breasts

2 Red Chili minced very small

2 Green Chili minced very small

1/4 to 1/2 Head of Garlic minced very small

1 Large Bunch of Thai Basil (cleaned and the thicker stems taken off, you can leave the flowers if your Basil has some)

Sauce (the sauce we make below is a substitute for fish sauce)

1 Tablespoon Sugar

Basmati Rice for two

Instructions:

Start your rice.

Make the Sauce by mixing the following ingredients:

1 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce

1 Tablespoon Fresh Squeezed Lime (or one whole lime which is a bit more)

Set Sauce aside.

Cut the chicken into very small pieces. In a Wok heat up the oil on med-high and add the chicken. When the chicken is nearly cooked add the chilies and the garlic and cook for a minute or two longer. Stir constantly over med-high heat. Do not burn the chili or the garlic. R likes to cook the mixture long enough that it gets brown and crispy. He let’s the mixture stick to the bottom of the wok and scrapes it off forming crispy bits in the mixture. But you don't have to cook the chicken that long.

When mixture is cooked, lower the heat and add the sauce and sugar cover the chicken mixture then add the basil Leaves into Wok. Turn off the heat and lightly toss all items together.

While someone is tossing the basil, someone else should be dishing up the rice on to serving plates. The basil leaves will wilt down to a smaller size and start to look like cooked spinach very quickly. Try to get the mixture out of the Wok and over the rice on the serving plates before the leaves get too wilted (they will continue to cook down on the rice).

Serve with Fresh Lime halves.

My favorite corner near our house. Always in bloom.

The Malaysia Water Company: Sains

This is the second time the Malaysia water company known as Sains has dug a big hole in front of the house. And they have dug holes a number of times in our neighborhood and in the immediate area since we have lived in the house. There seems to be constant water pipe bursts and leaks. I have read about it and heard from others this is a common problem in Malaysia.

So in this case, like the time before, they dig a big hole which looks ominous. Then they look inside the hole for a long time. Not sure what they are doing. Then they fill it back up and a few days later the asphalt team comes and covers it with fresh asphalt. There are tons of fresh asphalt patches all over Malaysia's roads too.

We shouldn't complain because water in Malaysia is cheap. Our bill for a generous amount of water each month including some gardening watering comes to 5 RM (about $1.70 USD) per month. Sometimes a couple RMs more.

I should say that this does not include drinking water because we do not drink the tap water here. We drink bottled water which is a sizable expense of about $30 USD a month.

The Entryway on the main floor and upstairs near the stairs have two empty spaces. I guess you could put closets here and close the space off, but there were spotlights in the ceilings of these spaces when we moved in.

Upstairs empty space

At first we were thinking of adding glass shelves in the spaces similar to these photos.

But after the kitchen was done, we felt like we had so many shelves that we thought we should do something else.

So we have decided to add some sculpture bases to the space to add sculptures or vases. Something like the photo above only in white.

Here is another version. B is going to make them for us. He is very busy, so I don't know when they will be finished.

On Jalan Tok Ungku July 24, 2011

Porcelain Blue Disaster

We finally chose Nippon's Porcelain Blue 241A for the 2nd Guest Bedroom on the Main Floor. We picked it over the darker colors because we wanted it to be radiant and rich. But, the painted samples show it is way too bright in a bad Liberty Blue kind of way. Hideous. R and I thought maybe we shouldn't go with Blue at all, but finally decided to give Seclusion Blue 201A (one of our original choices) a try. It is darker and has more of a grey base it won't look like the Blue Mansion in my post here but that's okay. We brought the big 5 liter can so there is no going back now!!!!

Malaysian Dwarf Peacock Tree

My favorite tree in the neighborhood is a few streets over. Every time I drive by I always love looking at this orange flowering tree. It is always in bloom (the photo I took doesn't do it justice, it is usually more in bloom).

Since we planned to have orange as the predominate color in our garden, when I first moved here I thought I should look out for the this plant in the nursery. But, never saw it.

Recently I was driving by and saw the seed pods dangling from it and thought I'd try and get some seeds to sprout. I took a sample flower to a nursery and the woman said it is a Peacock Tree. I did some research online and think that this tree is the dwarf version (let's hope so because the regular trees get much larger). I found out that while it's called Peacock here its botanical name is Caesalpinia Pulcherrima. In other regions throughout the world it is also known as Poinciana, Dwarf Flamboyan, Pride of Barbados, Barbados Pride, Barbados Flower-fence, Peacock Flower, Paradise Poinciana or Red Bird-of-Paradise.

On my first attempt, I followed some directions online. It said soak the seeds for a day or a few days then peel the seeds out of their skins and plant them. I soaked eight seeds for two days, then peeled them and planted them. I had two small seeds that I wasn't able to peel so I planted them in their skins. I marked them and waited. Surprisingly, it was the unpeeled seeds that sprouted, none of the others did! So I went back and got some more seeds and soaked them and planted them directly, no fussy peeling. I now have twelve plants growing. Apparently from what I read online they are easy to grow, and this seems to be true. I will keep growing them and the strongest few I will most likely plant in my front yard along the hedges.

Making Pizza in Malaysia

As I mentioned briefly before, I transplanted some Thai Basil that I bought from Tesco. I put a number of stems in water and they rooted quite quickly with lots of healthy roots. So I planted them in the empty planter at the back of the house. In order to try and promote some basil growth, I picked some of the tops of the stems that were about to - or already - flowering and brought the basil inside. I didn't know what to make with it, and then I remembered I had one last frozen pizza dough bag in the freezer and decided to make pizza!

I should start by saying, I do love pizza. When I grew up in Minneapolis every Friday night my family would have pizza night where we would make pizza and then watch tv together (back in the 70s) we used a rectangular baking sheet because they didn't sell round pizza pans in Minneapolis at the time. I remember we had one specific baking sheet used only for pizza, it was black with higher sides. While we made flat crust pizza at home, we often went to My Pie pizza a well known thick crust pizza place in Minneapoils (the company is from Chicago but had a location in Mpls. Checking their website here it looks like it must still be well known for they ship pizzas throughout the US! http://www.mypiepizza.com/). While we preferred My Pie (sausage and mushroom deep dish) as our favorite, there's always something about making your own pizza once you get the ingredients right that can make you crave the homemade even more than eating out.

Living in New York City for eighteen years, I eventually shifted from deep dish to NY style and the thin crusts. If I had to pick, I suppose Two Boots pizza in NYC would be my favorite (specifically the Bayou Beast - bbq shrimp, crawfish, andouille, jalapenos and mozzarella).

The Middle East also had its styles of pizza... the shark pizza in Tehran was great, until the place closed. But the best pizza was R's mom's homemade individual size pizzas with mushrooms or white truffles (which were available in abundance in the spring in Fars Province if the weather conditions were right... yes I have consumed more truffles in my lifetime then possibly all the citizens of a small US town combined... truffle omelets, truffle pizzas, truffles and Kebabs, truffles with just about anything, I digress sorry).

So arriving in Malaysia we found that there aren't that many pizza places with good pizza. Dominos and Pizza Hut chains are all over the place. I can't complain about Dominos, because even though I don't love their pizza, they actually deliver to our house - the only food delivery co. we know of that does. While we lived here when the kitchen was being constructed, we were happy to get those pizzas. But, about specialty pizzas in Malaysia, I have to say I have not had a good pizza in Kuala Lumpur. Our friends who live there say places exist, but I haven't been to any. Actually, the best pizza we found in Malaysia (to date) is a pizza place in Seremban owned by an Italian who lives here called Pizza Italia (480, Jalan Haruan 4/4. Oakland Commercial Centre, near Columbia Asia Hospital ). There is another blog post about this place here (note that the blogger mentions Dominos and Pizza Hut and also note the price for the meal, by Seremban standards, it is high).

Our pizza

Soooo since I found the yeast (see my earlier post here), I have been experimenting with making pizza here in Seremban. OK, we haven't made too many pizzas yet, but we finally got one with the ingredients and the testy oven to work. In fact, the pizza was sublime. Absolutely fantastic. Tasted kind of like a Pizza Margarita only we didn't use fresh tomatoes. The Thai basil (opposed to regular basil) gave the pizza a really rich taste.

So what ingredients available in Malaysia give you this kind of pizza? Here is what we used....

I made the pizza crust following this recipe. I doubled the recipe which made enough pizza for four pizzas. I froze three doughs as the instructions mentioned with olive oil in a plastic bag. The pizza dough was made with Saf Instant Yeast and the popular Malaysia Flour "Blue Key".

I took out the pizza dough from the freezer and let it thaw. Then rubbed some olive oil on the round pizza pan with holes in it (available at Carrefour or Jusco) and spread the pizza out on the pan. Turned the oven on to around 220 C and let the pizza crust bake until it was nearly light brown about 10 minutes.

Then I added the toppings.

Tesco Tomato Puree

Ketchup

Hot Pepper Flakes

Ground Pepper

Salt

Arla "Finello" Mozzarella Cheese

Grozerte Formaggio Cheese Powder

Fresh Thai Basil

I used Tesco Tomato Puree (produced in Italy) for the base. It is much richer than Malaysian tomato sauces or pastes. I also squirted some Heinz Ketchup on to top of that (not too much about 3/4 Tesco Tomato Puree to 1/4 Ketchup). I know, I know, this sounds gross... Ketchup on Pizza? But, we learned it from R's mom. One night she baked us the best pizzas ever and we asked what she did differently. She broke down and told us that she had run out of tomato sauce so she improvised and added ketchup to the base of the pizza instead. So we now follow her lead and add a bit to our pizzas. It has to be Heinz, because the Malaysian Ketchups are too vinegary.

Added the Hot Pepper Flakes, salt and pepper on top of the base. I haven't found Hot Pepper Flakes like they sell in the US here at all. Any hot pepper spices have a different consistency and more usable for Asian/Indian cooking. So I collect the hot pepper packets that Dominos delivers with their pizza and use those.

Then I added Arla "Finello" Mozzarella Cheese (imported from Poland?!?) bought at Jusco. We used about 3/4 of a 200g chunk and grated it because that is all we had in the kitchen. Maybe the whole 200g next time, then again maybe not. This Mozzarella seems to have better taste than the more popular green bag shredded cheese sold in the stores around here. I should mention cheese selections are grim in Malaysia, I will write a post on it sometime. But enough to say, Family Store doesn't even sell fresh cheese and no one seems to complain.

Next sprinkles of the Grozerte Formaggio Cheese Powder. This 'fake' Parmesan cheese imported from Hungary doesn't taste fantastic. But, it's available in Seremban and good enough for the pizza.

Then I added the Thai Basil on top and returned the pan to the oven for 5-10 minutes more. The only thing I might do differently is not add the Basil at first. Wait until a minute or two before the pizza is fully baked and then put the basil on. Because you can see from our pizza photo the basil is pretty baked (although not burnt). But, this is another step and requires taking the pizza out of the oven, and around here every time you open the hot oven the kitchen gets hotter! Plus I think that if the basil isn't added upfront, it might not get to mix in with the cheese and it might not taste as good.

So that's our current homemade pizza we are making in Malaysia!

Guest Bedroom and Bathroom Ceilings Repaired

In preparation to have the second Guest Bedroom on the main floor repainted, we had the ceilings touched up and the holes from the hot water installation plastered up.

One of these days I'm going to go pick out a blue color and pick up a sample to test, then we can get going on the last room in the house to paint!

White Stones Under the Stairway

We Recently bought 11 bags of these medium size white pebbles for the space under the Stairway in the entryway (we had tested smaller grey asian pebbles shown here).

I like the larger size pebbles and the white looks pretty nice and neutral. I was planning to make (or have B make) a piece of wood to paint white that could be inserted at the front to 'hold back' the pebbles and make them look enclosed. But R likes the way they are loose on the floor. He thinks they are more stylish this way. I'm not sure, but will leave it as is for now and see over time.

The Famous Seremban Beef Noodles

Recently we went to Yee Kee Seremban Beef Noodles the famous shop that sells the signature dish Seremban Beef Noodles. Owner Yee Kee is the originator of this dish that started way back before the Japanese occupation. This is the same company selling beef noodles on the second floor of the Seremban Wet Market, but here it is a sit down restaurant in one of the old pre-war shop houses in Seremban.

There were a few beef noodle options I think we got the 'dry' ones. We also ordered some wontons on the side.

Basically, we didn't love the beef noodles. The taste was ok, but the meat was a bit chunky, or it's hard to explain, you'll have to try yourself. The wontons were great though.

Location: Across the street from the main Public Bank Branch in Seremban town. The restaurant is open 8am till 8pm everyday except Monday.

The Case of the Curious Coconut

I was out at the back of the house and found the strangest thing. There is a coconut (I think that is what it is) sitting on the water drain grill.

What is weird is that there are no palm trees or trees with this kind of nut anywhere around the area. No trees up on my neighbor's property where it might just fall down on to mine. And what else is strange is the odd location it has been neatly placed. R and I figure someone or something (an animal?) must have brought the coconut here.

Pseudo-Greenhouse

Truth be told, I always wanted a greenhouse. One of those fancy greenhouses that they have in the UK... where they are separate buildings or attached to the house. Well, I now kind of realized that dream with my makeshift greenhouse.

The idea came to me when I was out in the Wet Kitchen (more info about Malaysian wet kitchens in an older post here.) pictured above. This wet kitchen serves mainly for washing big pans and other cleaning activities. Although the Malaysians use it to cook in. See in the photo above the yellow gas tank under the counter. It is the gas tank that connects to my stove in my kitchen. But, the wet kitchens usually have a countertop hob burner placed on the lower counter in the photo above (where the water bottle is sitting). Anyway, one day I was potting some seeds out on that countertop and looked over to the empty covered patio to the right of the wet kitchen.

When we first moved in I thought we would put some furniture back here and would sit back here. But that didn't really materialize one because the space is just behind the bathroom on the first floor and two because there are upper floor bathroom pipes running above it to the second floor master bedroom bathroom. Third because the neighbor's house in the back backs ours so there is no real view except the wall. So it just isn't the kind of place I want to lounge around, I'd rather go to the front patio.

So I had this idea while potting plants that the space could be a pseudo-greenhouse because the roof on that part is clear not tile. I thought it would be a good place to grow seeds and cuttings for the garden. I made some concrete and glass platforms with glass that was in the house when we moved in and now I have my own greenhouse! It is hot and humid enough here that having a fully enclosed greenhouse in Malaysia, I'm not even sure if that would work it might be too hot. So this clear cover roof with open sides, I think allows for air circulation. It's been working pretty well so far, the space gets good sun but not too much.

I have planted some seeds and some are starting to sprout. I've also taken some cuttings and have them in water bottles some have started to root as well. My thought on that is everything here in Malaysia grows so fast, so some of these plants should root. The greenhouse is more of an experiment to see what I can grow from seed and cuttings. For example, I took some cuttings from the hedge around the front of the house as I'd like to fill it in with some more plants. But I don't think those are going to root. If not, oh well. I've also taken cuttings from the passion fruit vine and some other orange plant vine which grows on my neighbors property. I've got Thai basil attempting to root as well as some Christmas palm seeds, the bunga kantan experiments, chili peppers and peacock tree seeds. There's more I'm forgetting too. I'd like to have an herb garden around this space with herbs I can't get in the stores easily here like tomatillo which I have never seen. Also grow herbs we use a lot of like Thai basil. But it will all be very slow to start.

The clear plastic??? roof

Bathroom Mirrors

The Bathroom mirror is up in the Office Bathroom! We didn't have B make a wood framed one as we didn't want to add another element in there. After looking at all the mirror places we could find in Seremban, where they make mirrors and also windows and window frames, we found one place that would put up a mirror without the standard gold or silver tacky poster frame that all the companies suggested. The compromise is that it has 4 silver round top screws on the outside of the mirror. No one is doing this anymore for large mirror, but well, in Seremban it's all we could find and it looks ok. I'm just concerned the screws will rust over time as everything here does.

We also had the company install a round bevel mirror we bought at Ikea in what is now our Master Bathroom. You can see that there are two doors in the bathroom. One connects to our Master Bedroom and the other to what used to be a slightly smaller bedroom that we are now using as a big walk-in closet (will eventually have B make custom wood closet shelves around the whole room...). Anyway, the bathroom wall tiles are ok in beige. The special tiles are greyish green tint and have a bit of elegant design (or try to be) of course we would have gone plainer, but here we are. The floor tiles are a green color. So what I thought we would do would be try to go a bit more elegant here. You can see that the counter is pretty big for only one sink. I would have put two, but then again when both doors are open (they open into the bathroom), the one sink in the center looks good. The ikea mirror is kind of elegant and I found a small pendant light with little crystal chandelier pieces dangling in it, somehow glamorous but still minimal and modern that we will have put up when we get a few more light fixtures for around the house. That and add an orchid plant on the side of the countertop and some nice spa towels and we should be done.

Not sure we want to add glass around the shower, but might do someday. For now, I was thinking about buying some of that teakwood flooring (something like this) and put it in there with some asian pebbles around the outer parts of it all inside the existing edged parts of the tile floor. Just some thoughts, but not sure yet.

Malaysian Flowering Herb

At the back of the house this herb? which is flowering is starting to grow over the back wall from my neighbors yard. I saw their maid picking some and then cleaning it in their wet kitchen. At first I thought it was basil from a ways away, but now I'm not so sure looking at the photo. Does anyone know what this herb might be? I wonder if it is something used in Malaysian cooking. Please let me know if you have any ideas so I can pick some and try it out.

Electric Boxes

There are two electric boxes in the house, one in the entryway and one on the second floor off on the side of the family room. Both locations are out in the open. The entryway is especially problematic because it hangs directly above where we plan to put a big entry mirror. So how to hide these ugly boxes in a way that we can still easily get at them (because with lots of storms the surge protectors go off once in awhile).

When were were living in the rental apartment the electric box was covered in a white laminate box which didn't look as bad as the boxes in our place. The painters told us they couldn't be painted so we will have B build simple white boxes around them with doors (no handles). It's the only thing we can think of to make them less noticeable.

Passion Fruit

Remember that Mystery Vine growing in my backyard here that blog readers helped determine was a Passion Fruit Vine? Well, above was my first ever sampling of passion fruit. Apparently we have the darker fruit growing in the backyard opposed to the yellow fruit because the fruits continued getting darker on the vine for quite some time.

It took me awhile to actually try this because the long vine I initially photographed with all the fruits went missing one day, just as the fruits were nearly ready. I had to wait for another vine to grow down for me to cut.

The fruit inside the pod shell is soft with seeds. It tastes very nice and the juice is especially tasty.

Back to On Sweet Thai Cuisine in Seremban

I've wrote about our favorite Thai Restaurant On Sweet Thai Cuisine before here. But I didn't post photos. Well, here are a few shots. This place is always good. We've had different things, but our favorite is the Phat Instant Noodle (Maggie) with Chicken and cooked extra spicy.

The ingredients vary but on our recent visit I spotted chicken, broccoli, cauliflower, egg, instant noodle, greens, red chili peppers and carrot. How can you bet a great lunch like this for 4.50 RM (approximately $1.50 USD)?

Oh, and I love that they serve me my noodles in the pretty plastic floral plate and R merely gets a yellow one.

On Sweet Thai Cuisine

1978, Gorund Floor, Bukit Blossom

70100 Seremban

06-012-374-3400

06-012-639-5055

Inspiration for Under Stairway

So after we finished painting the Entryway, my mind immediately started thinking about the useless space under the stairway (okay I was thinking about this before painting too). I don't know who designed this house, but they could have done a better job with the layout in places. The entryway near the stairs is a good example. The space is totally wasted. You can't really put furniture in there because of the angle or hang art. You wouldn't want to close it up as a closet either. So what to do?

Awhile ago, I saw a photo online of a staircase with Asian pebbles near it and thought this might be an option. So I researched online and was initally thinking about adding some plants in the space too. But it doesn't get that much natural light there and plants would require upkeep. Since we are going for contemporary minimalist, and since we are in Asia, R and I thought why not put some asian pebbles in the space? Just simply the stones.

So I get my box of unused pebbles leftover from the landscape design stage (the pebbles I placed in the photo above are not the same darker blueish grey we used outside the house. These are a lighter grey). But after putting them down, R thinks that the pebbles look too small and I think they look too much like the pebbles we have outside the house. I'm going to go to the Rock Garden in Seremban sometime soon and see what else they have. I'd like to get the entryway moving along.

Inspiration photos I found: