Vacuum Pack

Considering how often I freeze food, it should come as no surprise that one of my most used kitchen gadget is a vacuum packing machine. I believe it was my friend Helena who first introduced me to it. I can't believe how much I rely on it.

The one I have sucks out the air as well as seals & uses regular freezer bags. Other than soups which I freeze in plastic containers, I use this to seal & bag just about everything else - vegetables, meat, mushrooms.

All these mushrooms which I collected last week, after cleaning & preparing, got sealed in individual packs that you see below. Because they are packed flat, they take up less space in the freezer & much easier to stack.

Tempura Shrimp

When making shrimp tempura, I could never get it to be straight like those served in the restaurants. They curl up almost immediately I put them to deep fry.

Internet to the rescue - I googled & this is what I came up with.

Remove the shell leaving the tail intact. You can also remove the vein but when making tempura shrimp I don't do it cos you'll see why later. Besides the vein is not harmful & you can bet when eating in restaurants, they don't remove it either.

Cut small slits across the belly of the shrimp making sure to not cut through the shrimp. If I cut the back to remove the vein then this gets a little tricky.

I usually make 4 slits even for a medium size shrimp. I used to do only 3 & it doesn't seem to work as well. More for bigger shrimps.

Next turn them around & press down lightly to straighten them up.

When done, make your tempura batter & heat up enough oil for deep frying. Once the oil is hot enough (drop a little batter into the oil & if it comes up immediately, it's ready), dip the shrimp into the batter & deep fry.

It should come up looking nice & straight like this.


Other than serving it as a tempura dish with tempura vegetables etc , we also like to use it in sushi rolls. Which is another reason why you would want it straight.

You're gonna love this

For the uninitiated, ikan bilis is what we call anchovies where I come from. It's normally eaten as a snack or fried with sambal as a side dish with nasi lemak (steamed rice with coconut).

If you've been deep frying ikan bilis, well I'm going to teach you a new oil-free way. I learnt this from a mum at a forum I frequent & I've not looked back since.

First of all, wash & rinse the ikan bilis. Lay them out on a microwavable plate - just enough to cover the plate without over crowding. Put on high for 1.5 minutes. Remove & stir them around a little bit. Put them back in for another 1.5 minutes & repeat until they are crispy. It usually takes me in total between 3- 4 minutes for each batch.

So much better. No oil, no messy splashes & healthier too.


When done, you just need to store them in an air tight container. I'm not sure how long it can keep cos I never have to worry about it, it doesn't last very long in our family.


I usually eat them just like this or with a squeeze of lime & cut chilli or of course, as sambal ikan billi (which I will post another time). How do you like to eat them ?

Fig jam

Finally. I have enough figs to make jam. As I'd already said, although the tree bears tons of fruits, most of them are not accessible & whatever few we can get our hands on, goes straight into The Girl's tummy. Seriously I sometimes wonder where all that food goes to cos it's certainly not making her any bigger.

Every summer I'll usually make strawberry jam but this year I didn't because we still have left over bottles from last year & I want to finish those first. So I thought I was going to be jam-free this year till now.

Needless to say I've never made jams until I came to France. But over here, jamming is a big part of summer. I started about 3 years ago under the guidance of X's mother. Before I post how we do it, I would like to preface it by saying that this is how she & most everybody around here has been doing it for years. It's best that you read up about sterilisation & jamming to determine which method you're most comfortable with.

Another thing about making jam is the amount of sugar. Most recipes will have 1:1 amount of sugar to fruit so if you are making 1 kg of strawberries, you'll need to add 1 kg of sugar. That may seem like a lot but the sugar is necessary to preserve the jam. To counter the sweetness, you can always add a little bit of acidity in the form of lemon juice. I decreased the amount of sugar I used for the fig jam cos it's only 2 bottles & I doubt it's going to last us for very long anyway.

How to make Fig Jam

1. Remove the stem & roughly cut up the figs.

2. Add in sugar & let sit for 1/2 day.

3. Pour sugar & fruit into a pot & bring it to a boil - making sure to stir often so that it doesn't stick to the bottom. I used a special type of sugar so I only cook it for 5-7 minutes but you can also use regular sugar & it would take about 20 mins.

4. If foam appears, you can skim it off but it's harmless so sometimes I just leave it.

5. Now this is very important. While the mixture is still VERY hot, pour them into the jars. Screw them tight & turn them over. Quickly pour the rest. If you're doing more than 5 jars, the mixture would have cooled considerably after 5 so make sure you re-heat it to boiling point before you continue pouring.

6. Once they are cooled, you can turn them over. Store them in a cool place.