We Need Some Cheat Meals in our Lives!

No, no.....I know what you're thinking.....but my kind of cheat meal is not one where you're trying to abstain from a certain type of food that will temporarily break the rules of a diet you're following...like indulging in a sweet dessert or eat carbs when you're not supposed to.

Well, my cheat meals have nothing to do with foods you're not permitted to eat in your diet....they're more like cooking cheats that produce cheat meals that look (and taste) the part with little toiling in the kitchen...lol! :D  And we all know we definitely need some of those secret recipes in our repertoire...hehe.

All the cutting, peeling, chopping, slicing and blending some kind of a chilli paste isn't something we want to be doing often (perhaps not even at all).  Why go through all the work and hassle to make our own when we can simply resort to a ready-made paste...especially so when we need to buy so many ingredients (such as chillies, galangal, lemongrass, ginger, torch ginger, turmeric, tamarind, curry powder, all kinds of biji-biji or seeds and spices like cumin, coriander, fenugreek, cinnamon, cardamom, star anise, cloves, etc.) just to make a small portion (not that I know how some of these seeds and spices work anyway as my own-made chilli paste is super simple).

I've always loved food that is a little spicy and a little tangy.....like an assam pedas which literally means "sour spicy"! ;)  An assam pedas sauce is a spicy and tangy gravy which works well with seafood like fish, prawns or squid.

Since I had some prawns in my freezer (and don't know how to nor want to make an assam pedas paste from scratch), I asked my dry goods supplier if he has an assam pedas paste that he can recommend and he gave me this Tumisan Asam Pedas (or Assam Paste for Seafood) by Tean's Gourmet to try.

A 200g ready-made Tean's Gourmet Assam Pedas Paste is good for 600g of seafood with 400ml water, so you just need to follow the packet instructions to the tee to achieve desired results.  I've seen many ready-made pastes sold in the market but I seldom buy as I don't know which ones are good.  Since this one came recommended by my supplier, I dared to try.

To test-cook this paste, I decided to make Assam Pedas Prawns.  I used 300g prawns with the bodies shelled (for easier eating) but I left the heads (for sucking all the good bits + the prawn brains add even more flavour to the dish) and tails (for better presentation) intact.  You can choose to remove all the shells, your call.  Not knowing how spicy the paste would be, I decided to use a little less than the prescribed dose of half the paste (probably about 75g) with less water too (about 150ml). 

The only thing I did extra was that I sauteed about 10 sliced shallots before adding the paste.  In western cooking, there is no such thing as too much butter!  Well, in Chinese cooking pulak, there is no such thing as too many shallots! ;)  I always add extra shallots to any paste or sauce I'm making coz shallots just brings more flavour to the sauce by adding thickness and sweetness with a garlicky hint.  I also threw in a few kaffir lime leaves (from my neighbour's garden) for extra fragrance.

Once the shallots are translucent, add in the paste and kaffir lime leaves followed by the prawns.  When the prawns are almost done, add in the water the amount of which depends if you like your assam sauce thicker or more watery.  As you can see, I wanted it thicker.  Taste-test at this point to see if it meets your savouriness level but I required no further seasoning.

I've to say my first attempt at making assam pedas prawns was rather successful even if it was done with a pre-made paste....lol.  I thought the assam pedas flavours were spot on with its well balanced flavours of spicy and tart.

Seeing that I really enjoyed the assam pedas prawns, I used the balance paste (of about 125g) to make Assam Pedas Fish since I had a 250g piece of Spanish mackerel (ikan tenggiri or kau yue).  I prefer to pan-fry the kau yue first but you can choose not to.

I sliced one onion and cut into two 4 - 5 okras and one tomato into wedges coz a dish of assam pedas fish would not be complete without these vegetables.  I sauteed the sliced onions until soft first before adding the paste and about 250ml water to make a (more watery) sauce as this is assam fish after all.  I then added the tomato wedges and kaffir lime leaves.  Once the tomatoes soften, you can add in the pre-fried fish followed by the okras (which I already pre-steamed ahead to soften).

If your fish is not pre-fried first, then you can add it in sooner to cook with the vegetables (the okra need not be pre-steamed then) so that the fish has enough time to cook through (you may also need a bit more water for this).  Besides Spanish mackerel, you can make it with other types of fish that you fancy like grouper, snapper, stingray (ikan pari) or tilapia but it's especially good with black/white pomfret or Indian mackerel (ikan kembong).

The earlier assam pedas prawns I made were a bit drier and this assam pedas was a more watery version with vegetables and it was just as good, so you can go either way depending on your preference.  Note that there's a lot more sauce than what you see in the photo as I did not scoop all the sauce (or vegetables) onto the plate.

Just remember to season accordingly.  For the dry version, I didn't need any further seasoning and I added just a little bit of salt for the more watery version.  My dry goods supplier even recommended that I add a bit of sugar to round up the flavours (I didn't though).

After a rather satisfying result with the assam pedas paste, I was eager to try Tean's Gourmet Tumisan Kari Ayam (or Chicken Curry Paste) next.  I decided to make Prawns & Squid Curry with Pineapples with 300g (fairly large) prawns, 2 squid and 2 wedges of pineapple cut into chunks.

The package instructions say 250 - 500ml (that's quite a lot, for a whole 1.5 kg chicken, maybe), though I did measure out 250ml but I didn't use it all, I probably used about half (125ml or half a cup).

Saute the paste for just a little bit with some curry leaves before stirring in the prawns, squid and pineapple chunks.  Next, add in the water (I think I added too much actually, so add in little by little to see how much you actually need).  Don't forget that as the pineapples cook, they release water and there's also the coconut milk).  Let it simmer for a minute or two until the seafood turns opaque, then add in 100ml of santan or coconut milk (I used Ayam brand, half a packet).

Taste wise, it's a light tasting curry with tangy flavours but don't under-estimate it's spiciness, it had a good level of heat.  

Although a tangy, lighter version of curry works well in a seafood version of curry, the taste wasn't what I was expecting.  It was ok but didn't exactly bowl me over.

I'd say it's more like a Nyonya curry that's lighter with sourish notes rather than a savoury-creamy-spicy Malay-type curry.  I wondered if it was the pineapples that made the curry sourish.  The next time I make this, I'll make sure to use less water and more santan for a thicker and creamier consistency.

With the balance half of the chicken curry paste, I wanted to try it with Chicken Curry as the paste was originally intended for (as per the packaging).  I used one chicken leg, 2 potatoes (pre-steamed for 10 minutes until soft) and 5 pcs of beancurd puffs (tau fu pok) cut into two.  Cook the chicken in the paste with about 100ml water.  Once the chicken is fully cooked, stir in the santan (I used the balance half left behind from my earlier Prawns & Squid Curry with Pineapples) and (pre-steamed) potatoes.

In my previous seafood curry, I wasn't sure if the lightly sourish flavour was due to the use of pineapples in the curry, so I thought such tangy flavours wouldn't work in a chicken curry....but the paste did work (and it didn't taste as tangy).

Somehow this chicken curry had a much thicker consistency and a more savoury taste than the seafood curry with pineapples.  I could still taste a very slight hint of tang but it wasn't as pronounced as the earlier prawns and squid curry.  The balance coconut milk I kept in the fridge turned into a much thicker state (like coconut cream) that I had to scoop it out with a spoon into the curry.

So, the chicken curry felt a lot more creamier (not sure if it was because of that or it was because I used less water).  I thought it was a very respectable version of chicken curry that came out of a pack.  I thought the paste worked better in a chicken curry.  Looking at the photo now, I realise I forgot to 'steal' some curry leaves from my neighbour (as something green always brightens up a photo).

But the greatest cheat meal of all has to be this sambal sotong I cooked made put together...lol.  You know sometimes when we buy nasi lemak, we'd ask for the sambal to be packed separately...and they sometimes give us too much.  I would make sambal sotong with it by just adding sliced onions and it'd (of course) taste pretty darn good with someone else's delicious sambal...hah..hah.

Ready-made pastes out of a packet is a godsend to busy homemakers and working moms to put out tasty dishes in little to no time at all.  It's the simplest, quickest way to put our favourite Malaysian dishes on the table.  Just open, pour, cook and serve.....what more can we ask for when we don't have to toil and sweat to make the paste ourselves and have someone else tumis sampai pecah minyak (stir-fry until the oil splits) for us...lol!

Everyone needs some cheat recipes in their repertoire that they can whip up in a jiffy.  Mine came courtesy of Tean's Gourmet.  This brand isn't new by the way but has been around for ages...just that there are so many brands of these ready-made pastes in the market that we don't know which ones to get or which ones taste good unless someone recommends it to us.  My dry goods supplier was on point with this one.

Between the two, I thought the assam pedas paste fared better than the chicken curry paste as the former was closer to its authentic taste.  The chicken curry paste was decent too but I think we've all eaten better curries than this though I'd still consider it a respectable one coming out from a packet.

I can definitely see myself using these ready-made pastes again...and would probably try some of their other flavours in due time (their tom yam and prawn mee pastes interest me).  Everyone needs some cheat meals in their lives, don't you agree? ^_~