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Thursday, October 29, 2009

Wonton Soup!

Does everyone love wonton? I know we do!

I love making wontons and eating them.. in soup and deep-fried.

So of course, for the latest batch, i did both.

Unfortunately, i didn’t take pictures of the fried wontons.. but.. everyone knows how they look right? so it’s A okay!

To the soup! Which is Fish’s idea …

I decided for dinner to have wonton mee! (By the way.. that dinner.. was a few weeks ago)

DSC02132 (By the way, see my chopsticks! It has Green accents!) (Oh, and the thing at the top of the pic, is roasted chicken from Woolworths – very nice!)

I used dried egg noodles and just cooked them in boiling water.

I also cooked the wontons in boiling water first. I just cooked them for a really long time to make sure they’re cooked, but i’ve just learned the correct way.

When the water is boiling, add the raw wontons. When the water re-boils, add 1/2 – 1 cup of room temperature water. When it re-boils again, it’s DONE!

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So anyway,

i obviously didn’t make the chicken stock from scratch. i just got a 745ml can of chicken stock from Foodworks downstairs.

To that can, i added 2 rice bowls of water. Also, something i learned from Julia Child’s cookbook to add flavour to the chicken stock. I added 2-3 springs of parsley while heating up the stock+water. And Fish added sesame oil – which was a great touch!

After the wontons are cooked, i just transferred them over and into the stock – be careful to not add too much excess water into the stock.

and TADA.. your wonton soup is done!

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Noodles, really simple. Cook noodles in boiling water. To a plate, add whatever seasoning you like. A simple one which i like would be just dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil and pepper. You may add them in whatever proportions you desire, even some oyster sauce.


That was a wonderful dinner. I hope you had a wonderful dinner too.


Coming up: Spinach, Mushroom, Bacon and Feta Quiche. Who would have thought it was THAT simple! Stay tuned!

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Random: Simple Favourite Food!

Hello Everybody!

Hope everyone is having a great great time!

School is nearly over soon.. I can’t wait!

Anyway, i’m in the midst of doing my essay but i thought i’d just share with you guys one of my favourite-test simple food ever.

I don’t have a picture for it. But it has always been a dish that i have loved to eat ever since young and i still continue to love it to this day.

SPAGHETTI W/ PASTA SAUCE & LOADS OF KRAFT CHEESE!

Simple spaghetti, any tomato-based pasta sauce you have available… and the MOST important ingredient…. Kraft’s cheese slices.

Cook the spag, place them in a plate, add your piping hot sauce and for me, tear 2 sliced off cheese into pieces and ‘throw’ them on top of the hot sauce – like art.. haha

The sauce must be hot! This is extremely vital. Although, if the sauce is warm, the cheese will still melt slightly and still be very nice… BUT..

Only when the sauce is really hot and you mix in the cheese, does the cheese disintegrate into the sauce.. and you get cheese bits all over and big stretchy melty cheese all over. Extremely delicious!

Simple? Extremely.. i just had it for dinner.. and i’m LOVING it!

Here’s hoping.. that you love cheese as much as i do! Fish doesn’t like cheese and so he doesn’t find this appealing.. but.. that’s GREAT news.. MORE FOR ME!! haha..

Anyways, Congrats to Eleen for getting a new job…!

Eat well.. Sleep well.. and definitely Play well!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

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I am so excited. Just received my Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the mail today. There is still volume 2 and ‘my life in France’ that is still on their way. But i am so excited.

This is the kind of cookbook that i like. detailed.. wordy.. and practical – since it was meant for the ‘servantless American cook’.

I just read word for word, all the introductions and meanings of words etc.. and a few soup recipes. and i’m loving it.

Julia’s recipe for Cream of Mushroom.. seems amazing.. better than the recipe i have. I am so so so going to try that.

There’s nearly 700+ pages in this book.

I am definitely intrigued to try the recipes, although, after watching Julie & Julia, i know there will definitely be some that i would not try.

There must be a word for the fear of bones. I cringe when i see bones on chicken etc.. That’s why i don’t eat chicken wings etc.. I’m just not the kind you will find sucking on a bone.

So, there will definitely be recipes that i would not attempt. Although, if the temptation is strong enough, one never knows… haha..

Well.. just wanted to put this post up to share my excitement and hopefully i’ll be cooking loads during the summer holidays from this cookbook.

Until then.. “small helpings, no seconds, no snacking, and a little bit of everything.”

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

滷肉饭!Stewed Minced Pork w/ Rice

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE this.

It is so simple. and can be used on many dishes. On top of rice, on top of noodles, or on top of plain vegetables.

I made this last week, i think. It was very well received and we loved it.

To make it more Taiwanese, i cooked sushi rice instead – which is closer to the type of rice eaten in Taiwan, but i washed the rice around 5-6 times to get rid of its starchiness, if not the rice would be way to sticky. We also had fried chicken chops, but they weren’t the most successful ever, so i won’t be sharing that today.

Anyway, for the highlight…!

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Doesn’t that look delicious? I’m getting hungry just looking at it!

Here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

400gm Minced Pork
1 Brown Onion, chopped
5-6 cloves Garlic, chopped
1/4tsp Five Spice Powder
100ml Oyster Sauce
50ml Dark Soya Sauce
25ml Sake (or any other cooking wine)
400ml Water
5g Rock Sugar

Directions

1. Chop the onions. and fry them in a sauce pan. Fry till they softened and become translucent. Add the chopped garlic and fry till fragrant. The reason for adding the garlic only when the onions are nearly done or done, is so to ensure that the garlic doesn’t burn and turn bitter.

2. Add the minced pork into the garlic and onions and fry till cooked and separated.

3. When the pork is cooked (all turns white), add in the five spice powder, oyster sauce, dark soya sauce, rock sugar, sake and water. Let the mixture come to a boil.

4. For best results, transfer to a claypot to cook for at least 1 hour, simmering on low heat. (We don’t have a claypot, but we do have a korean pot which worked perfectly)

5. Simmer away for at least an hour. The liquids should have reduced and you should end up with a nice slightly thick consistency to the sauce. There should be sauce – don’t simmer till there is none left. If you want a little bit more sauce, then add more water and simmer again (i did this for the next day).

Notes: It should be salty enough, definitely. Always taste. 
           Try to use pork with a little fat on them. Fats are extremely important.

To change it: Instead of buying ready minced pork, you could get 五花肉 with skin on and make your own minced pork, but to wash and blanch your pork first before mincing.

!!!!!!

This is how to make this wonderfully simple dish. We had it for dinner over rice. The next day, i cooked more rice and fish and hui had this over rice again in their lunch boxes. As for me, i cooked myself a bit of egg noodles and it over noodles. Delicious!

Do Do Do Do Do try this! I’m sure you will like it as much as we did!

There are a lot of other variations to this dish and i’ll post them as i cook them!

KEEP SMILING! =)

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Julia & Julie

We went out today. Watched Julia & Julie. I enjoyed it a lot. and it definitely made me interested in French cooking, although there are definitely foods that i would not touch. hehe.. killing a lobster?! i don’t think so. haha

But it got me inspired enough. I’ve already placed an order from fishpond.com – the cheapest online shop. I purchased ‘Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1& 2’ and also Julia Child’s autobiography ‘My Life in France’.

Can’t wait for the books to arrive and see what interesting recipes i can try from them!

I’ll keep you guys informed.

BTW, we ate seoul ria tonight. Got pictures, but they’re not with me. Delicious! Share the pictures next time!

In the meantime, eat well and be nothing but happy!

Sausage Cheese Rolls & Lasagne

Hello Everybody!

It took a while, but i’m finally blogging about this.

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This obviously wasn’t the most perfect looking one.. but aint it looking delicious?

I’m so happy that i am finally able to successful bake bread!

It’s slighly time consuming because of the time needed for it to rise.

Some suggestions of future reference:

- Not use Kraft’s cheese
- Find a better sausage
(Both of these together overwhelmed the bread and was quite salty)

Sausage & Cheese Rolls

This recipe was taken from dailydelicious and adapted for 6 rolls

Ingredients

150g             Bread Flour
2.5g              Instant Yeast
5g                 Sugar
3g                 Salt
15g               Softened Butter – I used salted ones
110g             An egg + Milk
6 pieces       Sausages
3 slices        Processed Cheese Slices, sliced into half

1/2 egg + 1 tsp water (for glazing)

Directions

1. In a bowl, place the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Mix to combine.

2. Add the egg+milk mixture into the flour mixture and using a spatula, mix everything to combine.

3. It will come together rather messily – but no worries.

4. Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a floured surface. Start kneading the dough. The dough will be slightly sticky and will stick to your hands and the surface, so remember to keep lightly flouring your hands and tabletop.

5. After kneading for 2-4 minutes, the dough should become much more manageable.

6. Add the butter onto the dough, and continue kneading. Slightly messy as well, but preserve, it will become not messy later.

7. Keep kneading for 10-15 minutes. Knead by using the heel of your palm and your body weight to press the dough down and out, then folding it back onto itself, repeat the down and out action for the entire duration. At the end, your hands and tabletop should be relatively clean from all the kneading. You should end up with a smooth looking dough that is soft and pliable. 

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8. Put the dough in a lightly buttered bowl. Place the bowl in a warm area for approximately an hour to an hour and half to rise and double in size.

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9. After the dough has risen, take the dough and slightly flatten it.

10. Slice the dough into 6 equal pieces., roll into a ball shape and let them rest for another 10 minutes

11. Roll a piece of dough into an oval shape. Checking with your sausage to see how long your dough needs to be. Using a knife, cut both sides of the dough into equal length strips.

12. Place a half slice of cheese on top of the sausage.

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13. Crisscross the strips one over the other. Try to press them firmly together if not they might become slightly undone when baking.

14. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the sausage rolls on a baking sheet and let the dough double in size again.

15. Brush with egg wash.

16. Place into oven for 5-8 minutes. (My oven was too hot and it took really quick – so keep checking on your rolls)

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Serve and Enjoy Hot.

 

Lasagne

I won’t be going through the whole process. Just mainly the meat sauce. Measurements are approximate.

Ingredients

500g – Ground beef
1 can – Crushed Tomatoes w/ Herbs
3/4 bottle – Pasta Sauce
1 – Brown onion, chopped
3 cloves – Garlic, chopped
Italian Herbs
Salt and Pepper

Directions

Fry the onions in a saucepan till they are fragrant and soft.

Before adding the ground beef, add the garlic first and fry for a short time (to prevent them from burning)

Add the ground beef and fry till cooked and separated.

Add in the can of crushed tomatoes and 3/4 pasta sauce.

Simmer for a while and do a taste test. If necessary, add more pasta sauce for flavour. Add Italian herbs for flavour as well and salt and pepper as necessary.

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Simmer for as long as you can, or until the liquids have reduced – you don’t want a watery lasagne.. do you?

You’re done. Just layer the lasagne and bake in the oven.

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To this, i also added roasted eggplant. A favourite in our family. Just slice eggplant into rounds, place on a baking dish, drizzle liberally with extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle a good amount of Italian herbs, pepper and salt on each eggplant. Roast in the oven on 180 degrees for as long as necessary. I just kept them in there, slowly roasting while i made the meat sauce. Just check back to make sure they don’t burn. VERY DELICIOUS.

Enjoy everybody!

Next up! Taiwanese Mince Meat Sauce. Simple and Delicious over rice or noodles!

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Mood Swings!

Haha..

The previous post was about how angry and cranky i was. and this. is about how happy, absolutely happy i was yesterday!

I have pictures.. but i haven got about to uploading them yet. I will do that asap.

What made me so happy you ask?

HAHAHA!

I finally baked a bread that was successful!!! After 3 times of trying (i think)!

I’m so happy. Happy Happy Happy.

Dinner was great too. Shi Hui and Fish both said it was good.

I baked Sausage Cheese bread rolls.

And i baked lasagne for dinner!

Both were really nice and successful.

I AM SO HAPPY!!

Haha.. i will post the ingredients and pictures as soon as i remember to upload them.. hehe..

I hope you guys were and is still as happy as i am!

Oh by the way, a side note, another thing that i’m happy about is my sleeping pattern. It is now in prime position. I sleep at 1130pm everynight and wake up anwhere between 7-8am. I am amazed! It’s so weird when i only sleep for 8-9 hours now when if i had slept at 4am, i would sleep till 4pm and still wake up really tired.

I really like the feeling of being very tired when i fall asleep. Some say that’s not good.. it shouldn’t be a flop down and sleep thing. But for me, i’ve been having sleeping problems for so many months that i have had enough of lying in bed and thinking if i am going to fall asleep tonight or not.

So, double YAY for me! I think i shall celebrate and eat somewhere nice for dinner. Hmmmm… maybe Miso or Ding Tai Feng again.. hmm…. hopefully Fish wants to go out.

Keep smiling everyone!