Crab curry, the Senrab Street way.

Crabs can be tricky business, as we found out a couple of weeks ago - the amount of slaughtering and cleaning involved turned everything into quite the operation. However, being such seafood lovers and with the anticipation of the dearly missed crab curry (it's not exactly something you can get easily in London), we quite willingly got our hands dirty.

Armed with a base recipe (once again provided by mum and dad), the girls set out to get the paste right while the boys (literally) tackled the crab.

With the resident strong-man in the house, the crabs didn't stand a chance.

Ingredients:

2-3 kg crabs, cleaned and cracked
tomato puree
chilli sauce
soy sauce
2 eggs
salt and sugar to taste

Paste:
30 gm (1 small packet) of curry powder
6 cloves of garlic
20 shallots
2 cm in length piece of ginger
2 teaspoons tumeric powder
2-3 tablespoons tamarind juice
chilli powder

Blend all of the paste ingredients until it achieves a nice consistency.
Heat oil in a deep wok and stir fry the paste until fragrant.
Add crabs to the paste and mix well, adding water so that they just cover the tops of the crabs. Cover the wok and let the fire work its magic.
When the curry starts bubbling, add tomato puree, chilli sauce and soy sauce. I would suggest adding a bit at a time, tasting at intervals so that you get the balance that you want.
Reduce the heat, cover the wok and allow to cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
The gravy should thicken nicely but for that added thickness, break 2 eggs into the gravy and mix well.


We decided to add the tomato puree and chilli sauce to give it the sweet, tangy flavour that chilli-crab dishes have, making the curry more of a sweet chilli-curry hybrid. Deep fry some mantou buns and you've got a finger-licking good combination. Like most curries, this curry tastes even better the next day as the sweet flavours of the fresh crab would have really made its way into the gravy.

Har Lok

Growing up, Har Lok was one of my favourite prawn dishes - a treat that my dad used to whip up on special occasions. Being one of the more popular dishes in Chinese restaurants back then, the dish was also synonymous with nights out with family and friends. There are slightly different versions of this dish but they all fundamentally have that spicy, garlicky flavour.

This is dad's version (and perhaps quite biasedly, my favourite one) of Har Lok. The simple recipe takes all of 20 minutes to whip up.

Ingredients:
Large prawns, cleaned
1 bulb garlic, chopped finely
Thumb-sized ginger, chopped finely
2 big red chillis, finely chopped
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce
sugar
salt
cornflour
oil

With a bit of oil, fry the prawns in a deep wok until they turn a nice shade of light pink.
Add a sprinkling of salt, give everything a good mix-through and remove from the wok.
Fry the ginger, garlic and chilli until fragrant.
Throw the prawns back into the mix and add light and dark soy sauce (I personally prefer to use the thicker, sweeter variety) as well as sugar - all to taste.
When the prawns are cooked through (and this should happen fairly quickly), dissolve a bit of cornstarch in cold water and add to the gravy.
Stir well, let the mixture bubble for about 2 minutes and you're ready to go!

Of names we cannot pronounce

A night in with take-out, a boardgame and the Nintendo Wii is hardly your conventional 21st birthday celebration but I suppose, we were never conventional to begin with anyway. At the request of the birthday girl, we did away with the restaurant bookings and bus rides to have a mini Lebanese buffet delivered right to our doorstep.

Hungry House is every students dream - a collection of takeaway menus on one website so food a click away. The best part of it all is that payments can be made by card (which solves the issues with liquidity that we always seem to be facing) and the website also offers 10% off orders occasionally. The chosen Lebanese restaurant was one that had already been tried and tested by our boys and came highly recommended.

Nina's Taza Express
322 Burdett Road
London E14 7DL

We left the ordering in the capable hands of Dominic, who seemed to know his way around the menu pretty well - and he ordered up a storm. A variety of Mezza dishes, the Lebanese equivalent to tapas covered every inch of our dining table.

Wark inab b’zeit - vine leaves filled with rice, tomato, mint, parsley and onion, cooked in lemon juice and olive oil. At first glance, we thought that the parcels had to be unwrapped before eating but upon closer inspection, we realised that the vine leaves were soft and edible. This was definitely something new for a lot of us and the mix of flavours did leave us quite bewildered as we struggled to identify the ingredients. Tangy and minty, this definitely makes for an interesting dish. While we all enjoyed it, it's perhaps not for the less adventurous.

"How do they make potatoes taste this good?"
Batata Hara and Fried Vegetables - potato cubes sauteed with garlic, coriander, sweet pepper chilli, topped with fried vegetables.

Kibbeh Shameyeh - Deep-fried lamb meatballs mixed with cracked wheat and onion, filled with sauteed minced meat and onions. With their crisp, slightly flaky exterior and warm filling, the meatballs reminded me somewhat of the yam puffs one gets at dim sum restaurants. I liked that they didn't just consist of meat, but a nice crumbly mixture of ingredients.

"Who knew falafel could be so crunchy?"
The classic falafel - deep-fried bean and fine herb croquettes served with tahine sauce.

Bastorma - thin slices of smoked beef fillet covered with special spices.

Maqaneq - home-made Lebanese mini sausages flambéed in butter and lemon.

We were introduced to Halloumi Cheese (featured in the picture, behind the meatballs and potatoes) which I immediately took a liking towards. Mild, with a hint of smokiness from the grilling, it was the perfect accompaniment everything else. We also enjoyed the Foul Modammas (boiled broad beans seasoned with garlic, lemon juice and olive oil) and Jawaneh (charcoal-grilled marinated chicken wings served with garlic sauce).

It just goes to show that with the right company, you don't need a fancy restaurant or an elaborate night about town. Of course, good food doesn't hurt either.

Happy birthday, Anu!

Of meat on skewers

If all else fails, we eat - that seems to be the motto for our Malaysian Society. It really doesn't feel at all like it's been a year since the rather disappointing end-of-year dinner in Melur last year. This year, we opted for the safer option - a meal at the tried and tested Satay House.

Satay House
13 Sale Place
London W2 1PX

With the name of the place being Satay House, I suppose a trip to the restaurant would hardly be complete without a round of satay. While not quite like the ones served in my favourite satay place back home, the mutton and chicken meat skewers were still good enough to satisfy the deprived. Served as a starter, we quickly dug into the tender chunks of meat served with peanut sauce. If anything, the little teaser that we got that night has made me miss the smell of satay being cooked over an outdoor grill with a man staying over it, fanning the flames.

"What's lamb mysore?"
I brought this up with Anusha upon going through the proposed menu the day before the dinner as lamb mysore has always been one of those dishes that I see listed on menus so frequently but have never really been able to identify. I quite liked my first real introduction to lamb mysore, regardless of how accurate a depiction of the real thing it was. This one was mainly a tomato-based dish, slightly on the sweet side and with a good helping of spices.

Ayam masak cili api. I have to admit that despite our constant complaints of the greasy food we used to get back in college, one of my favourite combinations was that of ayam masak cili api and salted egg. I remember how the salted egg used to play off the creamy richness of the chicken so well. This was a throwback to those days, except without the salted egg and perhaps with a little less oil involved.

Sambal tumis udang dan petai. This was probably one of my favourites for the night. While most people found it a little too spicy, I enjoyed the kick it had but then again, I've always had a soft spot for anything involving sambal petai.

We capped the night off with banana fritters and ice cream - again, one of those things that just tease your tongue and leave you missing those huge bags of banana fritters sold at the side of the road back home.

Food is generally good in Satay House, with everything being a fair representation of the sort of food we can get back home. The only gripes I have though is that everything is on the slightly expensive side and that portions are rather small. I suppose Malaysia does spoil us when it comes to things like this as a meal out would almost always guarantee leaving one feeling too full to move.

Noodles and ice cream

It's time to break out the flip flops and shorts (or in our case, just find any excuse to do so). Armed with our sunnies and trusty cameras, we joined the throngs of people by the Tower Bridge pier one afternoon to soak up some sunshine. What was initially an idea for a picnic turned into lunch in one of the restaurants followed by ice cream while lounging around on the grass. We were hungry even before we got onto the bus so lunch was the first thing on our minds when we got to the pier. After a quick survey, (and after taking in the unmistakable aroma of vinegar and grease coming from the pub), we decided that a light lunch in Wagamama would be ideal.


Wagamama (Tower Hill)
2b Tower Place
Tower Hill
London
EC3N 4EE

With floor to ceiling windows that let the sunshine in, the restaurant was quiet, quite unlike the over-flowing pub next to it. We put it down to the fact that everyone else preferred to be outdoors instead. With Wagamama being well-known for its noodles, we naturally settled on noodle dishes after a quick look-through of the menu.

Yaki Soba - teppan-fried soba noodles with chicken, shrimp, egg, beansprouts, peppers, onions, garnished with fried shallots, pickled ginger and sesame seeds.

Amai Udon - teppan-fried udon noodles in a tamarind sauce with prawns, egg, tofu, beansprouts, red onion, leek, garnished with peanuts and lime. Always one for the tangy and spicy, I think the words "tamarind", "peanuts" and "lime" were what caught Anusha's eye.

The thing about Wagamama is that the food is always on the lighter side, especially in terms of flavour - perhaps in line with its healthy eating theme. Flavours are generally mild (perhaps, except for the noodles in spicy coconut based soup range) and this includes the chilli oil. I personally don't mind quick noodle stir-fry once in awhile but based on past experience, it's really not the sort of place for someone who's got a hearty meal in mind.

Feeling content, and Sapna with her take-away package in tow, we took a stroll by the river and made our way over the bridge to settle down onto the sunny patches of grass, ice cream cones in hand - because really, that's ultimately what we were there for.


Don't you just love spring?

Little kitchens

At the end of my mini-break in Nottingham, we made a stop at a little diner just off one of the main streets for a quick bite before I got onto the train for London. The unassuming little place, with hand-made signs lining the windows and rows of little tables promised some good old fry-ups.

Gingham Kitchen
10 Lincoln Street
Nottingham
NG1 3DJ

In Nottingham, where bus drivers smile and give you a cheery greeting and where the people seem to be nicer and a lot less harried, one can really get used to the laid-back vibe that the city gives off. Gingham Kitchen seems to really embody that relaxed spirit - a cosy little place where everyone seems to know everyone by name.

Lasagne and chips

Cheese and tomato quiche with beans and chips

While I expected larger portions, the portions that came were deceivingly filling and I found myself surrendering to the chips at the end. I would have appreciated a more generous portion of the main dish, however. The food is nothing fancy, just simple comfort food that's good for a quick fix on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

From the sea

Getting out of bed (and in some cases, not sleeping at all) at 5am to go to a fish market is not exactly your typical student behaviour but that's really how much the thought of food motivates us. Yes, us, who only begin the day at noon any other day. Inspired by some cookout photos put up by some friends, we decided that a trip to Billingsate Market was in order for our very own cookout to celebrate Hanad's birthday. Having been away for the week, I came home to find that the we had purchased enough food to feed the entire neighbourhood - but then again, when it comes to the amount of food we consume, nothing surprises me anymore.

We got right down to business, the kitchen bustling with activity as we pottered about - slicing, dicing, frying, chopping, tasting, tweaking. It's an organised sort of chaos when the whole house attempts to work in tandem in the kitchen and that's perhaps my favourite part of a cookout.

The freshness of the seafood from the market was absolutely worth waking up at the crack of dawn for - a mountain of prawns, crabs that were still moving about on the kitchen floor, oysters that could lick your hand while you cleaned them and huge slabs of fish.

The oysters were exquisite - I don't think any of us had ever had such fresh oysters before. A squeeze of lemon and a drop of Tabasco sauce - nothing has ever come close.

The crab curry was what set the ball rolling when we first decided we wanted a cookout. Sapna's craving for the chilli crab she had once in Singapore propelled her to search rather feverishly for the perfect recipe on the internet. In the end, we went with a recipe emailed to me by mum, tweaked, of course. A generous amount of shallots, chilli powder, garlic and ginger laid the foundation for the dish. With enough crab to fill a whole bathtub (I kid you not), the cooking needed much strategising. From the initial execution of the crabs and the shower that we had to give them to having to separate the crab out into buckets and cooking them in batches, it turned into quite a mission. It's true what they say however, that nothing worth it ever comes easy.

What's crab curry without the fried mantou? First steamed then deep fried (well, as deep a frying as we could do), the buns turned out really well much to our surprise. Dipped into the thick curry gravy, they were delicious.

"This tastes like Malta"

Mediterranean-style squid - this was the dish that provided a little something different to our predominantly Asian spread and it truly reminded us of the fantastic food we had while on holiday in Malta.

We decided to deep fry the squid tentacles in a batter made out of pre-mixed "cucur" flour. Upon seeing how well they turned out, we decided to turn the dish into a snack in the midst of cooking. We munched on the crunchy, golden squid as Sapna went around re-hydrating the kitchen crew with helpings of pineapple juice.

Butter Prawns - deep fried prawns that were tossed into a butter and curry leaf mixture. Digestive crumbs were added to the batter to give the prawns more texture.

Har Lok - another recipe emailed by mum.

Curry Laksa. This took a whole lot of tweaking, stirring and tasting to get just right - and just right, it was. Creamy and reminiscent of home, this was the sinfully indulgent dish that had everyone drinking out of their bowls. My favourite bits were the tofu and fish cake slices that had absorbed the gravy.

The best part about having a cookout at No. 42 is the fact that there's always enough food to last a few more meals after. There's nothing better than knowing you have a seafood feast waiting for you for brunch the next day. We've developed a new-found respect for Chinese restaurants and their busy kitchens and have absolutely no idea how they do it on a daily basis. At the end of the day, I wasn't sure if we had chosen to have a cookout for Hanad's benefit or for our own greedy reasons but whatever the reason was, we sure had a feast to remember.