Just try…

My girl was complaining that the commercially-sold wraps, the naan bread variety, were too hard and she was not all that fond of them. So during the week-long holidays, she tried making her own. It turned out very nice but she was grumbling that it did not have those blisters like in the ones one would find at the Indian shops. I told her that it did not matter as long as it tasted great. She cooked some minced meat for the filling using one of the spice mixes that I got sometime ago from my cousin in Melbourne, Australia…

*Archive photo*

…and we wrapped that on top of a layer of lettuce with some chopped tomatoes and a bit of ranch dressing and it tasted great!

The next morning, I heated the leftover naan and we had it with rendang…

…and it went very well with that too. Incidentally, this brand is very good – we like their canned stuff, those that we have tried except perhaps the sup kambing which was very salty and had to be diluted to make it more edible. My girl loves their lamb korma but the problem is they are not easily available. They are not readily found in all the shops and supermarkets here, not like some other brands that we are not particularly fond of and when they are, we may not get a wide variety – just a few and mostly curry…and chicken.

There was a bit of the minced meat filling left too and I used that to fry some mee sua (longevity thread/string noodles)…

…with some thin shreds of lettuce, tomato and chili and eggs. We certainly made good use of everything – nothing went to waste.

Then, my girl went and made some pumpkin noodles…

– her mum bought her one of those noodle maker or roller or whatever you call it. I guess everyone knows what I am talking about – you make the dough and you roll it using the thing and it comes out the other side as strings of noodles…

She and her mum were busy in the kitchen that evening, cooking and serving it seafood aglio olio-style…

…while I only showed my face when everything was ready. Hehehehehe!!!! Of course, it tasted nice – one can never go wrong, cooking anything with prawns…

…but unfortunately, the noodles were too soft and soggy and a bit sticky so we did not think it was anything worth making again. Perhaps it would be nice and firm if we had added the alkaline solution that people use to make noodles but no, we did not want that.

There was some of the noodles left so the next morning , I decided to cook it my own way and I made sure it was 100% vegetarian so I could share this with my vegan friends, Opal and Jennifer in the US. They drop by my blog and even comment regularly but I guess most of the things that I blog about are not all that suitable for them. Still, they always say that they can derive ideas from when they see me cooking and come out with their own versions. These were the ingredients that I prepared…

– clockwise from bottom left: finely chopped garlic, chili, tomato, mushroom, the leftover spice mix/seasoning that my girl used (I checked the ingredients – salt, pepper, paprika, spices…all those things), chopped spring onion and celery.

I fried the garlic in two tablespoons of melted olive oil margarine till golden brown and then I added everything in except the spring onion. I added a sprinkling of the spice mix and a bit of water so as to have a little bit of sauce. Once done, I put that on top of the noodles that I had cooked…

…and garnished with the chopped spring onion.

I tossed everything together…

…and ate and yes, it was very nice. In fact, when my girl got up that morning and had it for breakfast, she wanted to know what went into it. I guess she liked it a lot too.

Unfortunately, the noodles was still not firm and nice, not al dente even though I only threw it into boiling water and removed it even before the water had started boiling again and I rinsed it in water many times to remove the starch and residual heat to prevent further cooking. I think the next time around, I will cook spaghetti or other types of pasta that I can get from the shop this way – I bet it is going to be nice!