my world my life my love

Crouching Tiger Hidden Bacon! – Inspired Bacon Bread w/ Black Pepper!

2012-01-10T13:12:00.000+11:00

I decided to bake bread again today. I don't know why, just felt like it.

I decided to make bread and incorporate bacon in it.

So i took the recipe i used for the fluffy dinner rolls and changed it up a little.

What i did different this time:

1. Instead of making 14 balls about 54g each as i did to make simple dinner rolls, i made them into approximately 100g portions, so i got 7 buns.

2. After portioning them out and rolling them into balls, i rolled them out into a long oval shape.

3. On the oval piece of dough, i sprinkled some freshly grounded black pepper and then place a piece of bacon on it. I removed the rind and excess fat on the bacon. The rind would not be able to crisp up and would be tough and chewy if i had left it in. Slicing off excess fat also meant that if you should eat the bread cold, the fat doesn't become chewy, cloying and off-putting.

4. After i layered the black pepper, bacon and more black pepper, i rolled it up, from one end of the oval to the other. Press the seam down to seal and place the seal side down on the baking paper, this ensures that the seam does not pop open during the dough's rising and baking process.

5. Instead of buttering the tops of the dough, i used an egg with 2 tsp of water mixed together and brushed it on instead. Milk with the egg or just milk would work as well. I think both the egg and milk imparts fragrance and a slightly sweet flavour as opposed to the butter.

6. I did accidentally use more butter than the recipe called for, but it seems like it turned out well.

7. I tried to measure the amount of flour i used this time. In addition to the additional 3/4 + 1/2 cup of flour. I think i used an extra 1 1/2 cups. The dough i realized, is quite forgiving. With 1 cup of additional flour, it already came together very well in the mixer and wasn't sticking. When i transferred it to be kneaded by hand, it didn't stick to my hand as well, but there was just a slight sticky feel to the dough, so i added another 1/2 cup of flour gradually. But i should suppose that it would be fine if i had not added that extra 1/2 as the dough was already quite elastic and soft.

I think the bread turned out great! Just 2 things i might do differently in the future:

1. Give the bacon a slight wash and dry. Although i felt that it was ok, fish felt that there was something about the flavour of the bread nearest to the bacon. I couldn't think of what it might be and hui didn't mention anything about it, but i think next time i would wash the bacon to get rid of the slight slimy layer on the bacon.

2. Add cheese! I think this would work well with a layer of cheese and it would make a very nutritiously balanced bread (i think). And i might change it to ham next time as well. Some good quality ham from a good butcher.

3. Oh and.. these bread really do expand, so i might not squeeze all the bread into one tray next time. Although the flavour wasn't affected and they do tear away nicely.

And i realized that the expiration date on the bottle of yeast isn't accurate. I just realized that mine expired March 2010. and i'm still using it right now and it rises perfectly! I store mine in the fridge. but if you're ever not sure, be sure to just test it to make sure it foams. We don't want any disappointment now.. do we?

Please try it! and let me know how you go with it!

Fluffy Dinner Rolls!

2012-01-07T15:17:00.000+11:00

Yum! This dinner roll recipe is from Betty's Kitchen on youtube.

This makes an amazing dinner roll! You have to try it!

I used my KitchenAid to make this but you can definitely make it by hand.

Ingredients

2 ¾ to 3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour (I'm actually not sure how much flour i used at the end)
¼ cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 package (2 ¼ tbsp) active dry yeast
70g butter, softened
2/3 cup warm milk
1 egg (at room temperature)
melted butter, enough to brush tops of rolls

Directions

In your mixer bowl, add in and mix well 3/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 2 1/4 tbsp of yeast.

Add in the softened butter.

After this, gradually add in the warm milk and beat for around 2 minutes or till thoroughly mixed.

Add in the egg and 1/2 cup of flour and mix till it's a thick batter.

Slowly add in more flour while beating it continuously with a dough hook.

Beat it till it forms a smooth and elastic dough.

**This is actually why i don't know how much flour i used eventually because i just kept adding till i felt it was the right consistency. I stopped when the dough stuck slightly to the bottom of the bowl while beating.

**I also don't only knead using the KitchenAid, i always finish it by hand to ensure that i reach the right feeling of the dough. This comes with experience but it is definitely doable. In Chinese cooking books, you knead till you attain 3 types of brightness: your hand, the table/bowl that you are kneading in and the dough itself. What this means is that the dough is no longer sticky, so your hands and table/bowl is clean and in a way, shiny. Your dough should also be smooth and elastic, not sticky.

After kneading, place the bowl in a greased bowl and cover with cling film to rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (Since i always bake at night and it's not very warm here, i preheat my oven for around 5 minutes to get it slightly warm then switch it off and leave the bowl in there to rise.)

After rising and doubling in size, i divided the dough into 14 portions.
*I measured the dough so that i could get equal portions. Each piece of dough was around 54g, but that would differ according to your individual dough.

With each of the portions, roll them into a nice smooth ball.

Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and place them about 2cm apart to give them space to rise.

Cover with cling film and leave to rise for another hour.

Taking melted butter, brush the tops of the dough. I also sprinkled a bit of coarse salt on the tops to give it a little salty burst.

Bake in a 200 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until the tops are a nice brown colour.

Enjoy them warm with more butter!

P.S. The funny shape of the insides of the dough is because of the way i rolled them into balls. But they still taste amazing!!

Thanks Betty!

Easy Drink! – Sprite w/ Lingonberry Jam

2012-01-02T21:52:00.001+11:00

We bought a bottle of lingonberry jam from Ikea a while back and have not used it very often since. but i do love lingonberry, so i had a sudden inspiration to try this out one day and i love it!

Just take a glass of sprite or lemonade and add as much or as little jam into the drink.

Using a straw, stir and get the jam mixed well.

You have to drink this with a straw to suck up the little berries at the bottom!

Yum yum yum. i love drinking this as opposed to plain sprite or lemonade.

Try it one day! It is this simple to jazz up a drink!

Yalla's Prune and Vanilla Yogurt!

2012-01-01T16:56:00.001+11:00

I don't usually like to eat yogurt, but i found this little treasure at the Eveleigh's Markets @ Redfern.

(Picture taken from http://yalla.com.au/YallaDesserts/prunevanillayoghurt/tabid/82/Default.aspx)

This is so good and creamy and delicious!

The prunes add an unexpected flavour which is not at all common and the prunes are a generous amount, not a puny sized topping.

I really love their dips as well as their yogurts and i will be so upset when i return to Singapore and not get to eat this anymore.

So i'll just be getting myself some and eating away while i'm still here. 14 days to go.

I hope they will be considering expanding their business overseas though.

I just finished a small tub of this and i still have a big tub of vanilla yogurt to enjoy.

But just letting you guys know that this is an amazing product and grab it when you see it, cause it's awesome.

YUM YUM.

An outing with Yuki! – Westfield Sydney + The Rocks Night Market!

2011-12-24T14:39:00.000+11:00

Me and fish went out with Yuki recently and we decided to have dinner at the relatively new Westfield Sydney's food court.

I had eaten there with fish previously and on our first visit, i tried the Snag Stand and fish tried .. i don't know what the stall's name is, but they advertise their reuben sandwich quite prominently.

I really like the Snag Stand.

I ordered their Toulouse (Bangalow Pork) – Freshly grilled w/ sauteed onions, rosemary mushrooms and truffle aioli on a toasted brioche roll $10.90

It was sooo delicious! The sausage was cooked perfectly, it was delicious and juicy! The truffle aioli sauce tasted just like a intense cream of mushroom soup sauce. yum yum.

The fries are great too! You have to order them! They are $3.90, made with 100% Tasmanian Russet Potatoes w/ Natural Sea Salt Flakes. They are so crunchy and the sea salt adds a very nice salty edge to the crispy fries.

They also have a range of dipping sauces which you can try. I tried the Wasabi Aioli and Chipotle Mayo but the next time i'll be trying their Truffle Aioli (which was on the sausage) and House Gravy.

Fish on the other hand, got a Reuben sandwich in a plate, so it doesn't come with bread, but with sides instead.

It's a waygu corned beef (i think) with an assortment of roasted veggies and pickles. The meat was really good and the vegetables were well roasted. Only thing though, we were so excited to try their roasted potatoes which were roasted in duck fat, but it was a little disappointing though. nothing special, maybe because it was left out and not freshly roasted.

Now, to skip to our outing with Yuki, i decided to go with sausages again!

This time, i tried their Pork & Fennel Italian sausage – Grilled w/ sauteed tri-color capsicum, sauteed onions, balsamic glaze & shaved parmesan on a toasted brioche roll. $9.90

With fries for sure!

This one is quite nice too, but i don't like gamey meat and this was slightly gamey for me, so i wouldn't order it again but it was still delicious!

Fish ordered from the same place as he did previously as well! but this time, he ordered crispy skin pork instead.

It came with almost the same sides but without gherkins but with apples instead.

The pork was nice and everything is good. but this is definitely a more fine dining kinda feeling since it's price is quite expensive but yet you feel like you're not really getting what you're paid for.

The portion of the meat isn't huge and the veggies are all pre-roasted and displayed.

Now for Yuki! We walked around and she was attracted to a fish dish from one of the stalls. She ordered a grilled barramundi with fries and salad. She didn't complain, so i presume it should be quite okay!

Next, we sat 555 to circular quay as we wanted to go to The Rock's Night Market. On the way there, for the first time since i'm been here, we saw a huge luxury cruise liner!! I so wanna fo for a cruise now!

Then we walked around the night markets and i bought 2 little bowls that i intend to use to as dipping/sauce bowls. They are hand-painted.

After walking, fish was still hungry and we decided to go for dessert at Pancakes @ The Rocks!

I had my favourite drink there – a lime soda!

Fish had Bananarama crepes and me and Yuki shared a Bavarian apple crepe + pancake combo!

It was good!! We were very full after this!

** Thank you to Yuki for helping me get my kitchen gadgets from Japan! and thank you too for your souvenirs!

This is so kawaii! Hello Kitty Takoyaki! I hang it on my camera pouch! Thank you again Yuki!!

Nigella's Butter Cut-Out Cookies!

2011-12-11T15:29:00.000+11:00

Yum! My most successful butter cookies ever! and i've made it twice and it was successful both times! Happy Happy!

It looks really simple. and it is really simple.

Ingredients

85gm butter, softened
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (if you're using salted butter, then just skip this)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Cream the butter and sugar together till pale and creamy, then beat in the egg and vanilla.

In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture.

Mix till it comes together in a dough. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for around an hour.

On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/2 cm thickness. Cut into shapes using a cookie cutter.

For my oven, i baked it for 9 mins. Bake it between 8-12 minutes. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Optional

Other than eating the cookies on their own, i like adding sugar crystals on top. I use raw caster sugar, so they look pretty on their own.

Otherwise, to make it more colourful, place a bit of the sugar in a bowl and mix in a few drops of food colouring. add a drop at a time till you reach the colour you are looking for.

They look colourful and i really do like the sweet crunch the sugar brings. plus it being raw caster sugar, it is not very sweet. so i really like it.

The next i'm going to do is to dip half of the cookie heart into chocolate. yum!

Try it! It is an extremely reliable recipe!

Guzman y Gomez, Bondi Junction

2011-12-09T16:45:00.000+11:00

They recently opened a new branch at Bondi Junction Westfield and i was very keen to try it.

So, one day, we had dinner there and it was an extremely casual but delicious one!

Hui chose the Spicy Chicken Guerrero and Pork Chipotle Quesadillas.

This was what we and fish chose – we chose the same one. Steak Chipotle Bowl w/ Guacamole.
Their Guacamole is delicious!!

And to share, we got a GYG's Famous Nachos. "Corn chips, cheddar cheese, vegetarian black beans, Pico de Gallo salsa, guacamole and filling" We chose the Barramundi filling.

They also have an assortment of condiments and Tabasco sauces.

We also ordered their frozen margaritas. Shi Hui said they were quite good. it was too strong for me though. hehe. but Fish liked it too!

Overall, i really like this place and the food, especially their guacamole is awesome!

Can't wait to go back there again!

Nigella Lawson's Totally Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!

2011-12-07T16:12:00.000+11:00

What a name!

I've really been in a baking frenzy these days and since renting DVDs whereby one was Nigella's, i saw this recipe and i thought that fish would really love it. and he does. so you should try it!

It is so so chocolately!

*Recipe adapted from Nigella's website.

Ingredients

125g dark chocolate (i used dark chocolate i got from Ikea)
150g flour
30g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g soft butter
75g light brown sugar
50g white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, cold from the fridge
350g (2 bags) semi-sweet chocolate morsels or dark chocolate chips
(i really didn't use that much, i only used 250gm and it was more than enough for me)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Melt the 125g dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.
Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.
Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. Add the melted chocolate and mix together.
Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate morsels or chips.
Scoop out equal-sized mounds using an ice cream scoop and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.
Cook for 18 minutes.
They will be very soft when hot, so leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 4-5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

Nigella meant for this to make 12 big cookies, but i think my ice cream scoop wasn't quite as large, so i made 21 cookies, that were big enough for me!

It was very delicious and fish loved it!

Yum Yum Yum!

Nama Chocolates w/ Maker's Mark Bourbon Whisky! Who needs Royce?

2011-12-06T15:00:00.000+11:00

Occasionally we buy Royce nama chocolates and they are delicious, but you can recreate it at home as well! and use good quality chocolate plus whatever liquor you like.

Ingredients

250gm good quality chocolate (dark or milk is up to you)
125ml cream
2 tbsp whisky (i used Maker's Mark) – use 1 tbsp if you don't want a strong alcohol flavour
1 tbsp honey/maple syrup/corn syrup – i used maple syrup (i don't think this affects the flavour)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Directions

Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie.

In a small pot, heat up the cream, maple syrup and vanilla essence.

Add the heated cream mixture into the melted chocolate and whisk well.

Add the alcohol and mix well.

In a suitably sized container, line with cling wrap and pour in the chocolate mixture, cover and refrigerate as long as you can (overnight).

When it's soft-hard, turn it over onto a tabletop and dust cocoa powder over the surface.

After slicing it into blocks, put them into a container with more sieved cocoa powder and toss the chocolate blocks around and quickly refrigerate especially if your area is hot.

Enjoy!!

-> i used dark chocolate and this made it really rich and slightly bitter, i could use 50/50 hot chocolate powder to cocoa powder so that it's not too bitter, but it really isn't that bitter and fish loves dark chocolate.

-> The coating has a tendency to be thicker than you would like it, so remember to shake off the excess before eating or serving so that people don't choke on the cocoa powder.

-> i used slightly less than 2 tbsp of alcohol and you can really taste the alcohol in the chocolates. So if this is going to be eaten by children or ppl who are not that keen on alcohol, 1 tbsp would be good just to give it a little more flavour. or just replace it with vanilla essence if you want to keep it alcohol-free.

Oxtail Stew!

2011-12-04T15:00:00.000+11:00

Oxtail is one of our favourite cuts of beef to make a stew with, it adds so much flavour to the dish and the high amounts of cartilage makes a sticky gelatinous gravy.. so yummy.

This time, we got our oxtail fresh from Colin's butchery, which i order online from and get delivered to us.

I left it in the freezer for a while because a stew always takes time and back then i wasn't in the habit of waking up early yet. but now i am. and other than the long time it takes to cook, the procedure is actually very simple.

Ingredients (These were what i used, but feel free to use more or less of what you like)

1.1kg oxtail (get your butcher to cut it up for you)
2 carrots, sliced
1 1/2 onions, sliced
3 ribs of celery, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1/2 bottle of red wine (i used a $3 bottle)
1 tin of chopped canned tomatoes
200ml water/stock
a dash of Balsamic Vinegar
a dash of Dark Soy Sauce
Flour
Salt & Pepper

Directions

Season your flour and coat each piece of oxtail with it and fry it off in a dutch oven. Remove.

Add more oil and fry the onions till they are nice and brown and soft. Add the garlic and fry.

Add the carrots and celery. Fry for a little while and add in the wine.

Add in the canned tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and water/stock if needed and cook for a little while.

Add back in the oxtail pieces, making sure that the liquid almost covers the oxtail and vegetables.

Cover the lid and place into a 160 degree oven for 4 hours at least.

The liquid will cook down and fish adds some dark soy sauce to add to the savouriness of the dish.

Taste to see if you need more seasoning.

There you have it!

Homemade Crusty Bread

2011-12-02T16:26:00.000+11:00

I made some bread to go with the roasted tomato soup i made in the previous blog post.

Making bread, especially since now with my Kitchen-aid is really quite effortless and i have been successful ever since. so i'm very happy! Making bread just takes time – all the resting… especially since it's not very warm here now (which is good) but the dough rises slowly.

These were good – but i didn't get a crunchy crust. This is a great recipe but i will be tweaking the recipe as i go along to make it even better.

Ingredients

1 cup of warm water
2 1/2 cups flour (either bread or plain flour)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Directions

In your mixing bowl, add the warm water, yeast and sugar. Wait till it is foamy to confirm that the yeast is working.

Add in the flour and salt and mix for 5 mins. Always check on it to make sure that you don't overknead. I kneaded it for about 4 mins and kneaded the rest by hand. I perform the window pane test to know when to stop.

Place the dough into the oiled mixing bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to double in size (about an hour).

Punch the dough down and shape. I'm not too good at shaping yet so my bread doesn't look pretty but it works.

After shaping, place the loaves on a baking sheet and cover and leave to rise for 30-40 mins.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees.

Bake for 25 mins till golden brown.

Careful! It's hot!

Nice and fluffy inside!

Sophie Dahl's Roasted Tomato Soup w/ Thyme

2011-12-01T22:59:00.001+11:00

Recently i started a free trial with Quickflix – an online DVD rental company and one of the DVD i rented was Sophie Dahl's cooking show, which sadly ended only after one season. I really like watching her cook and her voice and demeanour is so calm and relaxing.

Anyway, i decided to try one of her recipe which looks so simple and delicious. and it really is simple! and delicious! and just nice, i used the springs of thyme in my herb garden.

If you know me, i don't like tomatoes and i don't eat tomatoes, but i do like drinking tomato juice. weird. but yah. but i really want to eat more tomatoes. so when i saw Sophie make this roasted tomato soup i decided i should try it! and so should you!

Ingredients (Serves 4-5)

2kg plum ripe roma tomatoes, halved
1 garlic bulb, halved horizontally
2 large red/brown onions, quartered
few springs of fresh thyme
1 tbsp caster sugar
salt & pepper
a few tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
a few drops of balsamic vinegar
dried herbs
(optional) veg stock
(optional) cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 190 degrees.

Place tomatoes, garlic, onions & thyme in a large roasting dish and season well with salt, pepper, dried herbs and sugar. Drizzle in the oil and mix well.

Place the roasting dish into the oven for 45-60 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool slightly.

Squeeze the cloves of garlic out of its skin and remove the springs of thyme.

After roasting, the tomatoes release a lot of sweet juices.

Blend in a food processor. Or else, just place the tomatoes, onions, garlic and the juices in a large saucepan and use a hand blender, it takes a little while longer but it still works really well.

The consistency was perfect for me. but in case you find it too thick, you could always add a little stock or cream.

Add a few drops of balsamic vinegar – it definitely ups the flavour.

-> So simple. So delicious!

To go with this for dinner, i baked 2 loaves of bread and fry up a few country chicken sausages.

And with the leftovers, i placed them into container and froze it for future dinners!

YUM YUM YUM!

Favourite Drinks: Moscato w/ Ruby Grapefruit

2011-11-17T21:00:00.000+11:00

One of my favourite alcoholic drink is Moscato. and i love it with Grapefruit.

So good. Very fruity and refreshing.

Try it sometime!

Chicken Schnitzel w/ Pasta Sauce and Sides

2011-11-16T21:30:00.000+11:00

I bought 3 pieces of chicken schnitzel from Colin's butchery and i usually don't because i've found that ready made chicken schnitzel are usually tasteless. However, the colin's butchery ones are really great and what could be easier than just frying them up and preparing some sides to go with it?

So i fried them up and baked them with our favourite brand of pasta sauce.

I fried the chicken schnitzel. Then made a simple potato mash.

Fish baked a dish of roasted veggies with onions, broccoli, potatoes and carrots.

We had some left-over garlic bread from a pizzeria which i don't like at all but fish makes it good but adding some olive oil and garlic and frying the bread.

It's very delicious but i believe that the chicken schnitzel tastes better freshly fried and crispy. If i make this again, i'll make it using grilled or pan-fried chicken without a breadcrumb coating.

Juanita's Mexican Restaurant, Kensington

2011-11-15T21:18:00.001+11:00

When i wasn't around, Fish and Hui went to Juanita for dinner one night and they raved about it to me when i came back.

So, we went there for dinner one night – it was great! Then when daddy and min came over, we brought them there to dinner and i daresay they liked it to.

We haven't been there since then and decided to have dinner there a few days ago.

YUM YUM YUM!

We chose a nice table with cushions.

We start off with a jug of non-alcoholic sangria – yummy.

This is delicious! Chile Con Queso Dip with chorizos and corn chips. A mixture of chilli and cheese. It's not spicy but its cheesy but yet not sickeningly cheesy like a nacho cheese dip can sometime be.

Chile Relleno. "Fresh green bell peppers, roasted peeled, stuffed with cheese and veggies. Baked and served with lettuce, sour cream and guacamole" Yummy. Our favourite entrees. Daddy loved these too. With all the veggies it always makes me feel like the dinner is much healthy.

This was Fish's main. Beef Fajitas. Comes to the table sizzling! The portion is huge but the meat is just a wee chewier and tough, though edible.

It came with tortillas, chilli, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, guacamole and sour cream.

Fish also asked for some rice to go with his fajitas. Their rice tastes quite good although not a huge of a portion as i liked. but we were so full with this dinner, maybe it was a good thing.

Me and Hui shared Combo 3. This has chicken burrito, beef tostadas and beef taquito (the one that looks like a cigar). It also has rice, sour cream and guacamole. We really prefer the chicken over the beef. I shall try asking if we can get them all chicken next time. Really big portion. Best to be shared.

Juanita's – quite a walk from where we're staying now but loving it so far.

The service is always friendly and you never have to wait too long for food. I have heard not so good things about their all-you-can-eat sundays, so i'm not going to put myself in a possibly unhappy situation by going on sundays.

Yummo!

新上海–New Shanghai, Bondi Junction Westfield

2011-11-10T23:40:00.001+11:00

Recently we went to Bondi Junction and was looking forward to eating Salsa's at the Harbour Room Food Court. However, we found this new stall instead.

New Shanghai. is quite good.

This has to be our favourite! 生煎包 Panfried Pork Bun. The bun is not too doughy. The fry bottom is great and there's soup in the buns! Sometimes the soup gets soaked up by the dough instead, but it is still delicious! Don't bite too hard and fast, soup might spill out all over! The menu only states 8 pieces, but you can definitely just order 4 pieces.

Their 小笼包 is not bad too. it can definitely rival Din Tai Fung. plus no queue!

YUM YUM YUM!

Homemade Granola

2011-11-05T23:01:00.001+11:00

i like mine with granola but i don't eat it often nor i have ever tried making it.

So.. i recently made applesauce and i thought i should make some granola to go with it.

I decided on a simple one.

Ingredients

Dry ingredients
2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cups or more wheat bran
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Some sesame seeds
1/4 tsp salt

Wet ingredients
100ml honey (add more if you want it sweeter – i don't like my foods too sweet, so i added less, but you can definitely add more, it would clump together more too)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 tbsp neutral flavour oil – i used peanut oil
2 tbsp brown sugar

Extra ingredients
1/2 – 1 cup raisins
Othe dried fruits or nuts as you wish

Directions

Mix the wet and dry ingredients well individually.

Then mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

I wore a glove for this – mix the ingredients together pressing and squeezing so that all the ingredients get well mixed with the honey mixture.

Line a baking tray with parchment/baking paper and lay the mixture on evenly.

In a 160 degree oven, bake the mixture for 25 mins.

Take it out, and stir/mix well. Then into the oven it goes again for another 25 mins.

When mixing, you will feel that the mixture is still quite soft and not crunchy, don't worry, it will crunch up when cooling.

I didn't use much honey, so my granola was not clumpy. If you used more honey than i did, keep stirring and separating while the mixture is cooling so that you can determine how clumpy you want the mixture to be.

Add in the raisins/dried fruits.

Yum Yum Yum.

Have it over yogurt with homemade apple sauce. or.. i think i prefer this.. in milk. Ooooo.. on frozen yogurt too!!

I think it's quite healthy, with all the fibre in it but because it has been baked, i think it makes this a little heaty esp if you added in a good amount of nuts. So eat it in moderation ok?

Homemade Pasta w/ Bacon & Leeks

2011-10-23T16:33:00.000+11:00

I bought a pasta machine a while back, but never had the time to try it out.

So today, i decided i should make some pasta for dinner! and i did!

Ingredients

Pasta (I followed the recipe from Gino D’acampo’s book)

Makes 400g – Serves 4-5

300g pasta flour (tipo 00)
3 medium eggs – i used large eggs and they were fine)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Sauce

6 rashers of bacon
2 leeks, sliced thinly
400-500ml cream

Directions

Pasta

I did this in my Kitchenaid, but you can also do this by hand.

Combine the flour, eggs, salt and extra virgin olive oil and work into a crumbly dough. Gather the crumbs together and knead till you have a soft dough.

Keep kneading for around 8 minutes or till the dough is not longer sticky sticky.

Form the dough into a ball, wrap with cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for around 20 minutes.

First, i halved the dough and flattened it slightly into an oval shape. Then i put it through the pasta machine starting at 1 and slowly your way up to no. 3, when you are there, you will realise that the pasta might be a little long to work with, so i halved it again. Remember to continously dusting the pasta with flour to prevent sticking. (I used plain flour since it’s much cheaper than pasta flour and it was absolutely fine)

Keep going through the pasta machine until you reach no. 5 which i feel is the perfect thickness and length. It should be thin enough to see your fingers through it.

Then put it through the cutter, i used the fettuccine cutter. Remember to keep dusting with flour and you will realize that some of the strands stick together, so just peel them apart first before hanging to dry.

I don’t have a pasta hanger, so i just cleaned a chair and hanged it on the back of the chair. Gino says to use the pasta within an hour.

So while hanging, i chopped up the leeks and bacon. i fried the bacon first to get it crispy and flavourful. Then added in the leeks to cook till they have caramelized and very soft. Add in the cream.

While waiting for the leeks to caramelize, cook the pasta in a pot of salted boiling water for around 2-3 minutes. Always try your pasta to be sure.

Add the pasta together with some of the pasta water into the creamy mixture.

Stir to combine. Adjust seasoning. Serve immediately.

I am so happy. Fresh pasta really tastes very satisfying and delicious. It is definitely worth the work. Not that difficult actually, it just takes some learning and time to work the machine but once you get the hang of it, it is really easy.

Try it! :)

Sweets Attack!

2011-10-22T13:30:00.000+11:00

I love ring pops! but it’s not easy to find, it’s an old fashioned sweet which i really really like. i dunno why.

so i managed to find it in a shop in Chinatown a few months back. but it was quite expensive. i think it was nearly $2 for one.

So i went online shopping and after a few days of google-ing, i have finally found it on The Professors Online Lolly Shop. The prices are almost wholesale prices, much cheaper than getting the sweets separately in retail shops.

At first, all i wanted was my ring pops. but. after asking fish and hui, we got something for everybody!

For me, i got my ring pops and a 1kg bag of smarties!!

For hui, she loves these sour straps.

For fish, he likes his mints, so he got a box of eclipse mints.

As a bonus for all 3 of us, A&W Root Beer!!

All these sweets were much cheaper than if we bought them in retail shops. These ought to last for a really really long time.

Yay!

Beef Mince & Tofu Curry w/ Cheese!

2011-10-21T12:57:00.001+11:00

I came across runnyrunny999’s video on youtube and just nice, i had a pack of 500gm of minced beef in the fridge thawing.

Ingredients

300g Firm Tofu
250g Ground Beef/Pork
150g chopped onion
2 tsp flour
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
a knob of ginger (grated or minced)
6 cloves of garlic (grated or minced)
200ml canned diced tomato
1 tbsp sugar
*You could also put carrots into the curry, but if you do, leave out the sugar.
Shredded tasty cheese

(Fish added a little okonomiyaki and yakisoba sauce which made it taste even better – so if you have them, add a little of both!)

Directions

Brown the onions first in a large pan or wok.

Add in the garlic and ginger. Fry till fragrant. *If you’re using carrots, add them in too.

Add in the beef/pork mince and fry till all the liquid has evaporated and the mince is browning.

Add in the flour and curry powder and fry to remove the raw flavour of the flour.

Add in the canned tomatoes, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and sugar (omit if using carrots)

Mix to combine.

Leave it to simmer for as long as you can.

Eat this over cooked Japanese rice topped with shredded cheese.

YUM YUM YUM!

Pepper Lunch anyone?

YUMMO!

Pepper Steak w/ Whisky Mushroom Sauce & Potatoes

2011-10-20T15:35:00.000+11:00

For dinner one night, i defrosted 2 pepper steaks that i bought from Colins Butchery, which is my new favourite place to get meat.

So, i searched the internet and found this.

This is the pepper steak i got.

Whisky Mushroom Sauce

200g-250g mushrooms, thinly sliced

2 garlic cloves, crushed

80ml (1/3 cup) whisky

1 tbs Dijon mustard

100ml thin cream

Fry the mushroom with the garlic.
Add in the whisky, bring it to a boil and cook till reduced.
Add the mustard and cream and cook till the sauce thickens slightly.
Remove from heat and season with salt and pepper.

Pommes Anna

4 (about 600g) desiree potatoes, peeled, thinly sliced
50g butter, melted
1 garlic clove, crushed

Preheat oven to 200°C. To make the pommes Anna, combine the potato, butter and garlic in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Spoon the potato mixture evenly among eight 80ml (1/3-cup) capacity non-stick muffin pans. Use the back of a spoon to press down firmly. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until golden brown and tender.

Yum. Enjoy your dinner!

Stuffed Tofu Puffs – 2 ways

2011-10-18T15:04:00.000+11:00

I made wontons for my party and had some left over filling which i froze.

I remembered this recipe which i had watched on youtube before and decided to recreate it.

Ingredients

A bag of tofu puffs
Marinated mince meat
Dark Soy Sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
Sesame Oil
Spring Onions
Sugar

Directions

It is quite simple really.

Boil a pot of water and blanch the tofu puffs briefly, this is to get rid of the stale oil.

Then run it through cold water so that it is easy to work with.

For each puff, tear a hole on one side and the easiest way is to, as much as it doesn’t sound nice, dig a hole with your finger so that it can accept more meat.

Stuff the meat into the hole using your finger to push meat into the puff till it’s nice a puffy.

In a wok, seal the puffs meat side down. Then add dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oyster to your taste. Add a little sugar and the half the spring onions. Cover and cook down. Make sure you move the tofu puffs if not they might burn.

When the sauce is almost reduced, add in sesame oil and serve up. Sprinkle the rest of the spring onions.

We had this for dinner with rice, with another one of my favourite dishes of all time. Onion egg!

There was quite a lot of tofu puffs though. So keep if when you can’t finish and you can make it into a quick dinner the next day, or next next day.

Directions

In a pot of boiling water, softened the vermicelli noodles for 3 minutes. Then place the noodles in a bowl and cover it with a plate to let the noodles steam.

I boiled a can of chicken stock and a can of water. Add in the tofu puffs and the remaining sauce. Taste to check the seasoning. Add in the vermicelli noodles and cook till soften and chewy. It doesn’t take too long. Add some spring onions.

Serve up. Yum Yum! A simple and quick dinner.

Soft Pretzels!

2011-10-17T15:35:00.000+11:00

I love pretzels but i’ve always thought they might be really difficult to make.

So, when i came across this video on youtube, i decided that i would try it!

It was quite successful. Could be better, but i am very happy with this first batch.

I used the recipe exactly as Laura’s recipe. Below is her recipe but i have added alternate measurements and some notes in brackets.

Makes 1 Dozen

1 ½ cups of Water at 110 degrees
1 Tbsp of Sugar
1 ½ tsp of Salt
1 package of Dry Yeast (7g or 2 1/4 tsp)
2 Tbsp of melted Butter (28g)
4 ½ to 5 cups of All Purpose Flour (i only needed 4 cups)

6 cups of Water
½ cup of Baking Soda

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp of water (use the smallest egg you can find)
Kosher Salt for topping

Process,

1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook, add the water sugar and salt, stir to mix and sprinkle the yeast on top. (Stir to combine) Let it sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast begins to foam.

(I didn’t add the salt together, in case it ‘kills’ the yeast, so i added it together with the flour instead)

2) Add the flour and butter and turn the mixer to low and mix until everything is combined. Turn the speed up to medium and mix for about 5 to 7 minutes or until you have a smooth dough.

(I didn’t turn my kitchenaid to medium, because the manual says to only use speed 2 with the dough hook, so i left it at speed 2 for around 9 mins, keep checking on the dough to make sure that it becomes smooth and elastic but still a little sticky)

(I had to throw the first batch because i kneaded it for too long and it definitely over kneaded because the dough was tough and not at all elastic)

3) Brush the bottom and sides of a bowl with some vegetable oil and put the dough in the oiled bowl. Cover and let it rise in a warm spot for about 1 hour.

(It’s still quite cold here, so i preheated the oven to the lowest temperature and left it in there – make sure you cover it tight)

4) Preheat your oven to 450 degrees (220 degree Celsius), lay 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and brush some vegetable oil on the parchment paper. (I didn’t brush vegetable oil on my baking paper, it was fine)

5) Add the water and baking soda to a roasting pan and set the roasting pan over a burner and turn the heat on to medium and let the water come to a rolling boil, meanwhile form the pretzels. (I used a wok instead)

6) Once the dough has risen, cut it into 12 equal pieces, roll each piece into a rope and make a U shape, then press the ends of the rope at the bottom of the U shape and pinch the ends. Place your shaped pretzels onto the oiled parchment paper line baking sheets.

7) Carefully place the pretzels into the boiling water for 30 seconds one at a time, remove from the boiling water using a flat spatula and put them back on the oiled parchment paper lined baking sheets. Continue to cook all of them and then brush them with the egg wash and sprinkle each one with a little kosher salt. (Make sure you don’t cook it in the baking soda water for too long, i cooked it for a little too long and the flavor of the baking soda on the crust was quite strong)

8) Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until deeply golden brown.

I really quite like it – especially with butter!! Yum!

Rum & Raisin Ice Cream

2011-10-16T00:03:00.001+11:00

For my recent laksa party, i made a rum & raisin ice cream.

It tasted fantastic.. in my humble opinion. but it is quite alcoholic, so if you love your rum, you will love this. Although, there are ways you can to make this less alcoholic.

Ingredients (4-5 person serving)
2-3 servings if you really like your ice cream. I tripled this for my party.

160ml milk (i used low-fat)
2 egg yolks
90g sugar
200ml cream (any type will do, i used thickened cream)
70g raisins soaked in 70g rum (i used dark Jamaican rum)
Vanilla pod or vanilla extract (optional – but i used it)

Directions

1. Boil the milk with vanilla pods, if using.
2. In a bowl, cream the egg yolks and sugar till pale and creamy.
3. Add the milk slowly into the egg yolk mixture and keep whisking to ensure that the egg does not cook.

*Should you find that the eggs have curdled and you end up with scrambled eggs, don’t worry, get a sticker blender or a blender of any sorts and blend till the mixture is smooth and creamy again. If you were making a cream vanilla ice cream – this would make the ice cream taste slightly eggy, so if this happens, i suggest you change it to a flavored ice cream and there will be no problems.

4. Pour this custard mixture into a pot and thicken it over a low flame.
5. After it becomes nice and thick – able to coat the back of a wooden spoon, strain the mixture into a bowl, cover with Clingfilm. Let it cool before placing into the fridge for at least 2-3 hours, best if overnight. So if you’re having a party, this can be prepared beforehand.
6. Add the cream into the cold mixture and pour it into your ice cream machine and let it churn for 20 mins.

Raisins

For a real alcoholic burst of rum, soak the raisins in rum overnight. The raisins will become really plump and you get a burst of rum whenever you bite into one. Add only the raisins and not the remaining alcohol – it would be much too overpowering.

To cut down, soak in raisins in lesser alcohol and soak it for a much lesser time, maybe just 3-5 hours.

7. Add the soaked raisins into the ice cream and stir well. If you wanted to add the remaining rum, make sure you strain it, as the raisins contain much sediment that you wouldn’t want in your ice cream.

8. Freeze the mixture in the freezer for as long as you can because the alcohol causes the churned mixture to soften.

9. All is left is to enjoy!

**Optional – when we first tried it, it seemed to taste as if there were chocolates in it. So what i did was to roughly chop up some dark chocolate and added them in, just to increase the flavor profile.

Enjoy!

梅菜扣肉 – Preserved Mustard Veggies w/ so delicious pork!

2011-09-30T13:07:00.000+10:00

This is one of my favourite-est dishes in the world. and the last time i ate this was maybe 6 years ago. I used to only eat the version my grandma cooked, and ever since she started getting sick and past away, i have not eaten a good version of this dish ever since.

I wanted to cook it the way she used to cook it, cause that's the one i know best. Her's did not involve steaming or cooking the pork and veggies separately. Hers with all together in one pot with loads of yummy salty sauce to go with rice or porridge. So i get out to replicate what she made. and i am so so so so so happy to say that i have done it! with great success. She will be so very proud.

This is a time consuming dish. but it is totally worth it. the 3 of us ate it for dinner for 3 straight nights.

Ingredients

1. 500g mei cai (you can use a mixture of sweet and salty or just salty – as you can see, i used 3/4 salty and 1/4 sweet)
2. 6 pieces of pork belly – i'm not sure of the weight though. but a good amount of meat
3. Light soy sauce
4. Dark soy sauce
5. 6 cloves or more garlic, crushed
7. A tiny star anise
8. Water

Directions

You have to wash your mei cai really well. The sweet one doesn't really need soaking but the salty one needs. So after washing, soak the salty mei cai for 3 hours, changing the water every hour.

While doing that, you can start to prepare the pork. I don't like hair on my food, so i pick all the hair out of the pig skin. then give it a good wash.

Boil a pot of water, and place the pork belly in. This cooks and gets rid of 'dirty' things on the pork, like excess blood etc..

Taking a few tablespoons of light soy sauce, sorta marinate the pork belly pieces in it, just for a few minutes. This gives it colour and fragrance when we fry it later.

In a wok, place a little oil and fry the pork belly till all sides are nice and brown. Some sides are more difficult to fry, so don't kill yourself if you can't get all the sides. The hot oil stings!

Place the pork, still hot, into ice cold water. and leave it there for as long as you can. This step is what gives you a wonderfully bouncy and melt in your mouth fats. You can leave the pork in here until your mei cai gets enough soaking time.

Then, slice the leaves of the mei cai into bigger chunks – about 1 cm and the stalk into smaller chunks – about 0.5cm.

Fry the garlic till fragrant and slightly browned. Then add in all the mei cai and fry till fragrant and dry. This can take quite long. I was actually watching tv and cooking this at the same time. but i used a really small – medium fire.

Fry fry fry fry till dry and nice. Since it takes a while, you can chop your pork into pieces while frying. Some of them aren't even totally cooked, but it's not a problem at all. Just chop them all up into big chunks. They will shrink slightly, so take that into consideration.

After chopping this up and when you mei cai seems to be done, take out the mei cai and place them on a plate. Adding a little oil, fry the pieces of pork.

It takes time to render the fat and get them all nice and crispy. So i did half a batch and got lazy so i didn't fry the other half. which i think was absolutely fine because these pieces shrunk much more and were harder after the frying and stewing. So half half is good.

Next, i added in 1 cup of light soy sauce and 1/2 cup of dark soy sauce and fried that together with all the pork. When you can smell the fragrance of the soy sauce, add in all the mei cai and mix thoroughly.

At this point, i transferred this mixture to a pressure cooker. You can transfer it to the normal pot and cook for around 2 hours or until the pork is amazingly tender. but i had a pressure cooker and we were hungry, so i transferred it to the pressure cooker and topped it up with 4 cups of water, or until the water covered the ingredients. Then add in the star anise – a tiny one or snap off 3 pieces of a big one – not a few hundred, like they like to do here..

Taste! I decided that it wasn't salty and dark coloured enough, so i added another splash of light and dark soy sauce. This is totally to your taste, but i make it slightly saltier because this is definitely a dish to eat with rice or porridge and not on it's own – although, we do eat it like that as well. haha!

Cover and cook! If you're using a pressure cooker, 30 minutes is great on medium pressure.

Next day tastes even better! Add hard boiled eggs before you keep it in the fridge and it will be perfect the next day!

Yum! Blogging about this has so totally made me crave for it again!!!

Egg White Lemon Cake! aka Angel Food Cake

2011-09-30T02:56:00.001+10:00

I had just made a big batch of ice cream for my upcoming party. and had 6 egg whites leftover. I didn't want to make another egg white omelette, so i searched the net for something else. and i found this!

If you're wondering about the shape. I don't know how to properly line a cake tin. Although i know now, learnt it after placing the cake in the oven. So the shape came out a little weird. but who cares, it still tastes great. It also has a sugary coating on the top and sides of the cake. yum!

It is so good. Light yet dense. Totally don't miss the egg yolks at all! So i guess it is a slightly healthier cake since it has low cholesterol.

and it is really simple to make. as long as you have 6 egg whites on hand.

Ingredients

6 large egg whites
180g + 2tbsp caster sugar (if you like it sweeter, you can add more sugar)
160g plain flour
1 heaped tbsp corn flour
1 tsp baking powder
100g melted butter, slightly cooled
Zest from 3/4 lemon

Directions

In a bowl, add the egg whites with 2 tbsp of sugar. Whisk till the egg whites are thick and foamy, before it reaches soft peaks. When it's there, lower the speed to the slowest for 30 secs to get rid of any big air bubbles.

In another bowl, while whisking the egg whites, mix the 180g caster sugar, plain flour, corn flour and baking powder together. Then fold this mixture slowly into the egg whites. You can choose to sieve this mixture, but i wanted it quick, so i didn't and it didn't cause a problem.

Then fold in the melted butter together with the zest. You can add the zest of the whole lemon or as i did, 3/4 of the lemon which gives it a slight lemon fragrance. I only took the upper top most layer of the lemon, the shiny yellow. Didn't grate the light yellow part that's right underneath, although i think that should be fine as long as you don't get the white parts.

Stir them all together and place the mixture into a cake tin. Bake at 180 degrees for 20 mins. Use a skewer to check if it comes out clean. Leave to cool for a while.

It tastes really good warm too.

You can see little bits of brighter yellow in the cake – those are the zest of the lemon.

Yum! I hope you try it too!

5th Year Anniversary – Lunch Cruise!

2011-09-15T15:20:00.000+10:00

For our fifth year anniversary (which we originally mistook for 4 years), i surprised fish with a lunch cruise.

We couldn't have chosen a worst timing, it was raining extremely heavily in Sydney that week, so 21/07 was the day, and so we insisted.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DARLING! this post is a little late though.. hehe :)

Dome Restaurant @ The Arthouse Hotel, Sydney

2011-09-13T14:03:00.000+10:00

6 months ago, i bought 2 coupons online for this restaurant, which i had never heard of. but i decided it might be quite nice.

So i went there first with fish on his birthday, but the place was too dark and the pictures didn't work out too well. This time, we went with hui and i used flash, so at least you can see something now!

Entrees

I have to say, their best dishes are their entrees. For me, at least.

King Fish & Tiger Prawn Chowder served with garlic croutons. This was delicious! I'll gladly drink more.

Gorgonzola Soufflé served with pumpkin oil & rocket. This was Hui's entree. It was good, especially if you like your blue cheese!

Grilled Queensland Scallops & Gnocchi Medallions with nut brown butter. This was fish's and he loves the scallops. This can also be ordered as a main dish.

Mains

Corzetti Pasta, Pan-Fried with prawns, parmesan, chilli & chives. I ate this the first time as an entree and loved it so much, i ordered it as a main this time round. It's like aglio olio. I like.

Grilled Eye Fillet Of Beef with mash potato, agrodolce onions & béarnaise. The first time fish ate this, it wasn't awesome. He ordered it medium well and it came well, so it was a little tough. This time, he ordered it medium and it was perfect. It was so so delicious! He was very nice to share it with us. :)

Handmade Tagliatelle Pasta with sautéed mushrooms, parsley & pecorino cheese. Hui had this and to be perfectly honest, it wasn't that great. She couldn't finish it all and the pasta wasn't as delicious as i had hoped. So, unless this was below standard, i say skip this and go for mine's or fish's.

Sides

We all need a little green, so a side of veggies is perfect.

Really quite unnecessary for our meal. but fries if you want. i would say though, skip the fries and eat your veggies!

Desserts

Cinnamon Poached Pear with clove ice-cream & tuile biscuit. This was quite nice, a light and refreshing end.

Bread & Butter Pudding with rum & raison ice-cream. If you wanted something richer, this is fish's favourite. It really tastes good. Otherwise, their soft-centred chocolate pudding is great too!

Drinks

We debated a little because i saw all these beautiful drinks being served and i wanted some too! but i'm not a wine drinker and we were afraid the red sangria might be too strong for me, so we tried the white sangria. Very mild, fruity, slightly sweet. Perfect for me. Very easy to drink.

Conclusion

I actually really like it here. It's a place where you can sit down, have a slow meal and a great conversation. I will definitely be back, cause i so like it here. :)

Rocky Road!

2011-09-11T14:28:00.000+10:00

I've actually never been a fan of rocky road. until. i tried some that came with the chocolates i bought for fish on our anniversary.

It was delicious!

and i set out to create my own.

Ingredients

Marshmallows – 4 flavours and cut them up into 4 small pieces each

Desiccated coconut – toasted in a frying pan
Toblerone
Chocolate
and whatever else you wanted, i added corn flakes in another batch

Directions

Melt the chocolate and toblerone over a bain-marie. And leave it aside to cool.

I accidentally added the marshmallows before the chocolates cooled and they just melted into the chocolate. I actually purposely did that the second time because if you melt the raspberry ones, they actually lend a great flavour to the chocolate, but it gets sticky, so just one or two small pieces.

After it's cool, add the ingredients that you want to. Don't worry if it looks like there's a lot of ingredients, it is fine!

Then pour it out onto a tray lined with baking paper or aluminium foil. and leave it in the fridge for around 1/2 – 1 hour.

I like to take it out before it gets fully hardened because it makes it much easier to slice into squares.

And there ya go! so simple so nice.

I like to leave them out a little before i eat them as well, don't like eating them when they're extremely hard.

By the way, Hui just finished all of them.

Fried Bee Hoon!

2011-09-09T14:11:00.000+10:00

One could possibly get sick of eating Fried Bee Hoon in Singapore. You get it everywhere! You get it at almost every single family gathering.. right? with chicken curry.

but. since coming here, i've so far only cooked fried bee hoon once. and so, i had a craving to eat fried bee hoon that day and decided to cook it!

For anyone who doesn't know, bee hoon is basically thin vermicelli noodles. I only like this kind of noodles in fried bee hoon. Not in laksa, not in hokkien mee.

I am so proud of this. I love it.

Ingredients (It's not going to be exact, cause it has been a while)

Dried thin vermicelli noodles
You can really add what you like,
Can of straw mushrooms, sliced into halves (cause i love them)
Finely sliced cabbage
Finely sliced carrots (i don't like carrots, but i don't mind them here, cause i slice them so finely)
Pork, which i thinly sliced and marinated for ard an hour in soy sauce, sesame oil and a little hua diao (cooking wine)
Onions
Garlic

For seasonings (i really just add whatever)

Soy sauce
a little dark soy sauce for colour
oyster sauce
a little sesame oil
LOADS of fried shallots and its oil
ground white pepper. because black pepper just doesn't do it in this dish.

Directions

Slice up everything. and do all the prep beforehand.

Boil a pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add in the dried vermicelli noodles. Let it stay inside till, when tussled with a chop stick, separates. You know like how you cook instant noodles, and you keep poking at the noodles to see if it has separated? yah, like that. just that it does really separate, it just softens and sticks together in a big lump. Pour the water away, don't worry, you can leave a little water in there, no need to drain till dry. Cover with a lid, or a plate and just leave it there to steam.

In a wok, trust me, just use the biggest wok you have. Wok comes highly recommended. You don't want to know the mess you will create without a big wok.

Fry the onions, followed by garlic. Add in the carrots. then the cabbage. then the pork. Then the noodles.

Add in your seasonings. You can lower the fire while adding your seasonings so nothing burns.

This comes highly recommended too – use 2 pairs of long chopsticks.

one pair in each hand, start flipping and tossing the noodles around to get it well mixed. Remember to bring your fire back up.

and here's why it is called fried. you have to keep flipping and frying it. just keep stirring and tossing the noodles.

Add a huge amount of fried shallots and its oil. This will give the noodles a slightly sticky mouth feel which can be achieved by using another ingredient (another time).

Keep Going.

You will reach a stage where the noodles actually look really good, it is tossed well and the colour looks even. Test and see if extra seasonings are needed.

Depending on what you eat this with, usually there's chicken curry somewhere near this dish, so you don't have to make the flavours too strong. but if you're eating it on its own, feel free!

Ta-da! You are finally there, chop some parsley or coriander and eat!

I need some bee hoon right now!

Okonomiyaki!

2011-09-07T13:41:00.000+10:00

Me and a great friend of mine, Yuki, who happens to be a Japanese, were talking one day and we started talking about Okonomiyaki!

Fish loves Okonomiyaki and we wanted to try making it here since it is difficult to find and if we can, it is quite expensive.

So, we bought a packet of okonomiyaki flour. and it was all in Japanese! i forgot to get Yuki to help me with the translation, but luckily, i searched online and someone had the same problem and some kind soul posted a translation.

You can really choose what ingredients you want to add, but the basic ingredient is definitely cabbage!

Ingredients (Stuff i used)

Okonomiyaki flour
Shredded/Finely sliced cabbage – i think i used about 250gm
Bacon
Eggs
Okonomiyaki Sauce
Japanese Mayo

Directions

To the flour, add water according to packet instructions.

This is the amount of cabbage i used, cause that's all i had, the recipe actually called for double the amount of cabbage, but i really don't think you need that much cabbage.

To the cabbage flour mix, add 2 eggs.

Bacon! This brand's not too bad, just don't buy from David Jones – prices are way too inflated.

Fry it off in a little oil in a non-stick frying pan. I cut up the bacon to layer on top. You could definitely use much more bacon!

Almost-final product!

Add the Okonomiyaki sauce and Japanese Mayo and you're done! (Fish is studying really hard at the background!)

There ya go. Really quite simple.

Try it!

Picnic Food – My simplified version of a Muffaletta

2011-09-06T15:14:00.000+10:00

So recently, we went on a picnic to the Japanese Garden at Auburn.

For my first ever picnic here, i made 2 things to have for lunch.

One of the things, was this: A simplified muffaletta.

It is said to originate from New Orleans, Louisiana.

I thought this would make a great picnic sandwich, so this is what i set out to make. It also didn't take much time and effort!

Ingredients

All of the ingredients can be sourced from the deli section of your supermarket easily. And you can also add what you prefer and remove what you don't like.

1 cob loaf – could get 8 wedges. but fish could easily eat 2
Salami – i bought them pre-sliced for convenience
Pepper Mortadella - from the deli
Tasty cheese slices
Canned olives – Green olives stuffed with feta, kalamata olives and black olives
Fresh mushrooms – sliced and fried in a little oil
1/2 large eggplant – sliced and grilled with oil – could get from the deli as well, but i decided to do it myself
1 small zucchini – sliced and grilled
Garlic

Directions

Make an olive mixture. It's actually more complicated, but i just simplified it very simply.

So, in a bowl, i just mixed the different olives, all sliced and grated a clove of garlic in. Definitely could do with more garlic if you like the flavour.

Next, you'd need to grill the vegetables that are fresh.

After that's done, we need to hollow out the cob loaf and the construction begins!

So just layer all your ingredients in one by one, pressing down whenever you can. Then wrap your cob loaf with cling flim and press it down with a few cans, for a few hours or overnight – in the fridge. It was winter, so i just left it out on the counter. :)

Yes, i brought a knife to the picnic. A knife that has it's own sharpening thingy which is quite lousy so i haven't used this knife in years, but it makes a good picnic knife since it has a safety cover.

Slice into wedges.

And, tuck in! :)

Picnic @ Auburn Botanical Gardens!

2011-09-05T17:00:00.000+10:00

There was a sakura blooming at the Japanese Garden at Auburn Botanical Gardens.

We set off on a sunny Sunday morning (28/08) with Shi Hui and Xue Fen.

There was just a small problem: the trains were undergoing trackwork and going there was going to be much more troublesome. It took us maybe 2 to 2 1/2 hours to reach there. but it was beautiful and we finally had a picnic!

Happy Happy Day!

Picnics are FUN!

卤肉饭

2011-09-04T04:42:00.001+10:00

I have done a post on this previously here. but this one. was done using a different cooking method and had a special ingredient in it.

The beauty of this dish is that, firstly, it is simple. Secondly, you can just add whatever seasonings you have on hand.

Ingredients

Pork Mince
Dark Soy Sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Huao Diao Jiu (or Sake, or whatever cooking wine)
Oyster Sauce
酱油膏 (Soya bean paste – entirely optional)
Water
Fried Shallots and its oil (Highly recommended)
Red onions
Pork Skin (optional)
Hard boiled eggs

Directions

In a pot, fry off some onions first to get them nice and caramelized. Then add in your pork mince and fry them. Keep frying them until all the liquid evaporates and you actually get some browning on the mince.

After this, it is really just a matter of pouring in all your seasonings and water and give it a good stir.

Pork Skin – with the pork skin, it helps to thicken the sauce at the end but usually requires a very long cooking time. So, i used my pressure cooker and it was so soft in just 15 minutes!

Hard boiled eggs – just boil them as you would and leave them in the soup to simmer together with the pork so that they get infused with all the flavours.

Best eaten with steamy hot rice and some green onions.

We really love this. Try it!

My favourite simple dish ever.

2011-08-15T14:21:00.000+10:00

If you ask me, what my favourite dish in the entire world is… my answer would be….

i LOVE this dish a lot a lot.

There are only 4 main ingredients in this dish. Spaghetti, olive oil, garlic and chilli flakes.

So simple. so delicious. i cannot wait to eat this again.

All you need to do is cook your spaghetti.

In a frying pan, add good quality olive oil, add a copious amount of garlic (unless you don't love garlic as much as me, then just a suitable quantity will do) and as much or as little chilli flakes as you like. Over a low flame, just infuse the flavours for a few minutes, not letting the garlic burn.

Then, add in the spaghetti, with a little of its' cooking water and mix away. Remember to add salt and pepper.

It is also awesome if you can add some freshly grated parmesan cheese (i didn't have any on hand so i didn't add) – with or without, it is still delicious.

This has to be part of my last meal. Has to.

When Daddy and Min were here..

2011-08-14T02:07:00.001+10:00

Daddy and Shi Min came over for a long weekend recently and we had loads of fun!

We went out, ate loads and basically chilled and enjoyed ourselves.

One day, after returning from Eastgardens – shi min wanted to eat fish and chips – we bought back some food items for dinner.

On that day, i also had a meat delivery from a new butchery that i was trying out. They were so nice, they even gave us a free pack of marinated chicken (it was so good – i will definitely purchase it in the future).

So, this is what we had for dinner.

We had a feast!

There was Char Siu which i marinated for 3 days and cooked that day. (Recipe in a future post)

To make it a little healthy – a bowl of sweet corn kernels – we later dressed it in a japanese sesame dressing.

I also ordered Country Chicken Sausages from the butcher and these tasted delicious! At the side, that black colour thing is the Russian Farmers' Sausage from Emundi Smokehouse.

Daddy fried a plate of unknown veggie. Very simply.

We bought 1/2 kg of prawns. which i couldn't eat (allergy) and fish couldn't eat (general dislike for seafood). i did try one or two though, and it was nice and sweet.

Oysters! Daddy and hui love their oysters! i used to only be able to stomach one or two, but these were so creamy and so good. They were expertly shucked too, so eating them was a breeze.

Fat and delicious. with a squeeze of lemon juice.

We had all these with a bowl of brown/white rice. Yum Yum.

We were all so full after this.

Minestrone Soup (Pressure Cooker)

2011-07-30T14:19:00.000+10:00

Minestrone soup is one of our favourites and i have not cooked it in.. 2 1/2 years!

So i decided one day.. late in the evening that i wanted to make this, since my supply of veggies just got delivered. and if anyone is interested, i order my veggies from Fruit N Vegie Direct.

So i chopped up all the veggies i had and tada!

Veggie Goodness in a bowl!

Ingredients

*You can really use what veggies you have on hand, these were roughly what i used

350g Green Beans
2 carrots
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves
2 desiree potatoes
2 stalks of celery
4 slice of bacon (optional)
1 spicy chorizo (optional)
1 can of diced tomatoes
Tomato Paste
Mixed dried herbs
3 bay leaves
4 cups water
Some white button mushrooms
Fresh corn kernels (frozen would do just fine too)
Chicken stock paste (optional)

Directions

Chop up your veggies into pieces. Not too big and not too small (in case they get too soft and mushy)

Leave the skins of the potatoes on for extra nutrients and they don't really make a difference anyway.

Bacon, if you like them. They melt into the sauce and you can't really bite into a piece of bacon. They're mainly there for flavour.

One spicy chorizo that we bought from the Eveleigh Markets at Redfern. These really made the soup spicy. i was even contemplating putting 2 of these. One of definitely enough. If you don't want it spicy, just use normal chorizos then.

In the pressure cooker, i use the saute function and fry off my bacon first, to render the fats. Then i add the chorizo in as well. When they get nice and brown, i added my onions to caramelize. When my onions are about done, add in your garlic. Fry fry fry..

Then i add in all my other veggies (i added the mushroom and corn kernels last). Give them a good mix around.

Add 4 cups of water. I gave it a good squeeze of my chicken stock paste (just to add some more flavour), add a can of diced tomatoes.

Stir them all together and you get the above picture.

Looks yummy enough already!

Then i cover the lid and cooked it under medium pressure for 30 minutes.

Watched tv for 30 minutes.

Came back, released the steam manually – takes around 2 minutes.

Open the lid and this is what you get!

The veggies have all cooked down and the fats rendered.

At this point, we tried the soup. It was peppery all right! But it's a flavour you get used it and it ain't that bad. but i found it slightly thin, so i added around 3 tbsp of tomato paste.

It definitely upped the tomato-y flavour and made the soup thicker.

I changed the settings to saute and let the soup boil down a little as well.

All it takes now for a complete meal is some pasta!

Any type you like, macaroni or broken spaghetti are all fine! Something you can eat with a spoon.

Yum Yum Yum. Perfect for a cold winter night. Warm and spicy. Healthy too!

*By the way, this can totally be cooked on the stove-top. Just follow the same steps and cook it partially covered until the potatoes and carrots are soft. It will take longer but be just as delicious!

Beer Beef Stew (Pressure Cooker)

2011-07-29T02:49:00.000+10:00

My Fast Slow Cooker's maiden dish.

I had chuck steak and a can of beer.

This is what i decided to try to make in the pressure cooker.

It wasn't the most flavourful, because i didn't use too many ingredients in this to add flavour and i actually didn't have any veggies but the carrots. It was still quite delicious though and we finished it all up.

Ingredients

500gm chuck steak
2 carrots
1 can of beer
2-3 cups of water
Chicken stock paste
(Just sub chicken stock for the above 2 ingredients)
1/4 –1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 onions, big chucks (they will melt down when cooked)
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Dried Herbs and Bay Leaves
a little dark soy sauce

Directions

Chop the onions, i used 2 in this dish because it didn't have too much flavour from a variety of ingredients, so i wanted the onions to shine in this dish. Remember to chop the carrots and garlic too!

Chop up the chuck steak and trim the fats. Very important. I trimmed some, but left a few in and it formed an oily layer on the top of my stew that i wasn't too fond of. So trim off as much fats as you can.

I seasoned my beef was a little salt and placed the pieces in a plastic bag with some plain flour. I covered the pieces in flour and fried them off using the saute setting of the pressure cooker.

I took the pieces of fried steak out. They are totally not cooked yet. just browned.

Then i added my onions and cooked till they were nice and translucent and brown. After that, i added the garlic.

When the onions and garlic all smell fabulous, add in the pieces of fried steak. Careful not to tear off the flour coating.

Add in your can of beer – whatever you have on hand, i don't drink so i have no idea what type of beer this is, i just found it in the fridge, it has been in there for a long time.

Add in the water – around 3 cups. (The pressure cooker needs a minimum of 4 cups of liquid, but i've cheated a little, and it still seemed perfectly fine. The thing is, liquids don't evaporate off, so you're always going to end up with a thin soup)

Squeeze a little chicken stock paste in.

Add mixed dried herbs, a few bay leaves and you're good to go.

Cover the lid and cook for 25 mins.

After it's done. Use the saute setting and let the liquid boil down.

(At this point in time.. the flavour really wasn't enough and it was too oily and liquidy. So fish got to work and he tweaked the flavour by adding some balsamic vinegar, a little dark soy sauce for colour and more herbs and spices – i would say, add the balsamic vinegar before the cooking process the next time.)

And this is what you end up with.

Nice beef stew – the chuck was fork tender.

I cooked some basmati rice to go with this.

Yum yum.

This was not the best maiden dish but it helped me learn the different functions of the cooker. It comes with an awesome manual.

Breville Fast Slow Cooker!

2011-07-29T01:54:00.001+10:00

Hey!

So, fish used his rewards points to exchange me a Breville Fast Slow Cooker!

and… I LOVE IT!

It is my new favourite gadget!

The name says exactly what it is.

It is both a slow cooker (6/8 hours) and a pressure cooker.

You can also use it to cook rice and do steaming.

It is 6 litres. At first, i was afraid that it might be a little large for the 3 of us. but so far, the size is great.

This is how is looks like. It is quite large but it has a space on my limited countertop.

There ya go. A list of everything it can do.

The saute function is great. It heats up really well and browns food really well too.

The bowl insert is non-stick, which makes cleanup a breeze. Since i brown and cook everything in this one pot, washing up really hasn't been that difficult.

These are it's accessories. Some plastic utensils to use so that you don't scratch the non stick bowl, but i seem to have gotten used to cooking in the cooker with a long pair of chopsticks so i hardly use these. There's also the steam tray and trivet.

So far, i'm really liking it. Stay tuned for some action with my new favourite! :)

Japanese Curry Bun - カレーパン

2011-07-10T16:13:00.000+10:00

I decided to make this a few days ago and i am so happy cause it can be considered a success!

I chose a recipe from hidehide's home cooking.

I won't repeat the recipe here – go to her website to check it out!

This is the starter dough before rising.
The dry curry mix. Recipe taken from Sumo Kitchen. I used 200gm of chuck mince. It was just nice for 8 fat curry buns. This is the starter dough after rising. It looks so ugly! The starter dough with other ingredients added in. before rising. After rising. It was cold here, so it took a long time to rise. I left it in a warm oven to help it rise faster. My 8 curry buns after shaping, stuffing and covering them with egg wash and panko. before rising. After rising, i also had to place it inside a warm oven to rise. After deep frying. It doesn't take long. Cutting in!

I have to take a better picture than this. but for now, we have only eaten one and it tasted quite good. I was also quite satisfied with the texture of the bun.

So i'm happy! YAY!

What's for Dinner?! – Mother Chu's Taiwanese Place, Chinatown

2011-07-08T15:59:00.000+10:00

We decided to try here for dinner one day.

I did quite enjoy eating here, except they kept asking if we wanted to order yet and we haven really read the menu yet. Overall the service is quite ok. We got served by a older lady who was quite nice, just don't expect them to be overtly friendly. You also have to pay immediately after ordering at the table.

We ordered 3 bowls of hot soy bean milk. We thought they came in cups, but it was in bowls – which was fine. The milk is not sweetened at all. You can add as much or as little sugar as you like. I didn't add much since i ate it with savory food. It was a nice accompaniment.

We had you tiao. It was okay, not fantastic. Not like the ones we have in Singapore but enough to satisfy my cravings.

Oyster Omelette Pancake. The sauce on the top was really nice. The oyster flavour isn't very strong and fish actually ate the oyster. This was quite nice.

Spring Onion Pancake with Egg. I like spring onions, egg and pastry. This was quite nice. Although i think that they could have add a lot a lot more spring onions. I liked it enough to order another plate. hehe.

Lastly, we had guo tie. It was nothing fantastic. However, fish and hui asked me to try it with a combination of vinegar and soy sauce and it completely changed the flavour. It was delicious with the vinegar and soy sauce. The vinegar isn't the one commonly seen though, it's not black, it looks very light and slightly reddish.

Fish had a bowl of porridge which i forgot to take a picture of. It was very home cooked and made you feel warm inside. I would go back for the porridge and there are a few items i would like to try. So we will return! :)

Gamushara Ramen + Hainan Chicken Rice, Haymarket

2011-07-07T15:48:00.000+10:00

Gamushara was recommended by Yuki when we had dinner with her at Miso because she learnt that Fish liked thick tonkotsu soup.

We went there the very next day. and Fish found his version of heaven.

You can choose a thinner version of the soup – which i did. but i think sticker to the original one might be a better choice.

Tis mine. I had the garlic ramen with an added egg. Yum Yum. I almost couldn't finish it though. and the chasu pieces were delicious! They were very tender.

Fish had his with All Toppings. That mountain there is pickled veggies and it is very spicy. but very delicious. I liked it a lot.

When reading reviews online, i found out that at this same food court, there is also Hainan Chicken Rice that people have said to be quite authentic.

So, hui had that for lunch. It wasn't bad. I think the rice could be slightly improved. The flavour was there, but the rice were a little too mushy. It is expensive though. AUD$8.80

Fish will definitely be back for his ramen again!

Thanks for the recommendation Yuki! :)

Miso with Yuki! + Dessert – World Square, Sydney

2011-07-05T03:40:00.001+10:00

Me and Fish met up with Yuki for dinner. and i decided we should go Miso. It's a Japanese restaurant we have been to many times before but Yuki had not tried it before.

I had the special bento for the day – Crispy Salmon with a butter sauce.

I didn't manage to get a picture of Yuki ate though. but she liked it.

Both fish and yuki had unagi and both said that it was very good!

We had 2 sides to share. This is Nasu Dengaku (if i'm not wrong). It's fried eggplant in a rich miso sauce. Delicious!

Chicken Karaage of course. Fish likes his fried chicken!

We then went walking around in Chinatown and decided to have some dessert at the taiwanese dessert place called Meet Fresh Taiwanese Dessert House.

I couldn't finish mine, so fish helped me finish it. It was called Taro Mania or something like that. It had herbal jelly, pearls, shaved ice, sugar syrup and 2 types of yam.

This was Yuki's. I think it had shaved ice, pearls, coconut jelly, jelly cake and yam.

Fish wanted something warm, so he got red bean with black glutinous rice and there's a piece of yam in the middle. He liked it!

That pretty much concluded our day out with Yuki! We had a great time!

Yuki learnt that Fish liked thick tonkotsu soup. So she recommended Gamushara. More about that on my next post!

Fried Shallots!

2011-07-04T16:35:00.000+10:00

Stay clear of the store bought ones. and it’s disappointing to see so many restaurants use those. because they are not nice. not nice at all.

Making your own definitely takes effort but they are so sweet and delicious whereas i don’t think the store bought ones add much flavour except a chewy texture that gets stuck in your teeth. They also give you a chance to make onion oil.

I blogged a while back about my 3 onion oil – and that was great – that’s really just for the flavoured oil whereas this is for both the onions and the oil.

Just use as much shallots as you have. Now.. shallots mean a lot of different ingredients in different places.

What you want for this are small red onions. (image taken from how stuff works).

Then slice it thinly just like in the picture. not diced, you also can’t use a food processor for this. This is really where all the work is.

With onions i had, i made about a rice bowl full and all i got at the end was half a pasta sauce jar of product.

Choose any oil you want. Not olive oil though. i dunno why. i don’t think it would work. would it?

Anyways, i used peanut oil. Add loads of it, especially if you’re in it for the oil. Add a good amount, onions absorb the oil and you still need oil to deep fry the onions. I think i used approximately 2 cups of oil or more.

Directions

So, i used a wok since it is safer as well with the amount of oil.

Heat the oil, not too hot, just warm cause the temperature here is very very important. You need the colour to be perfect. It burns easily.

Onions in. At this stage, just maintain a medium low fire and stir periodically.

Always keep an eye on the colour.

If you wanna play it safe, as soon as you get some onions browning, turn the fire down to low.

Keep stirring.

When a majority of them are a light golden brown, switch off the fire. and let it stand while still stirring it periodically. When the oil cools slightly and you feel that the colour isn’t right, just put it back on the heat and continue cooking for a while.

Don’t cook till it becomes the final product. The onions will continue cooking. Always stop shy of the perfect shade of golden brown so there’s no need to fish the onions out and handle the hot oil.

This is perfect. You can see that the oil is not bubbling or foaming so the heat had been switched off for the residual heat to do its work.

I am extremely proud of this batch. I did it once last year and it burned slightly. so i’m very very happy with this round’s final product.

I store this in a used pasta sauce glass jar. With the oil and onions together. The onions don’t go all soft and soggy. and i believe it helps to infuse the oil even more. I just keep it in a cupboard where it’s dark. My grandmother didn’t keep hers in the fridge, so i don’t see the need to. just remember to always use clean spoons so that there’s no contamination.

We just tried this one day during dinner – over our laska. The sweetness of the onions with the spicy coconut soup. Nothing better. :)

What’s For Dinner Tonight?! – Laska!

2011-07-02T14:04:00.000+10:00

I love Laska! We all love laska!

but i don’t like the laska they have here in Australia. It’s not the same as the ones we get back home and i don’t like it.

So, i turn to Prima Taste!

Sorry for the slightly blurred picture.

The noodles aren’t exactly correct but they’re close. This is another reason why i don’t like laska here. They only have hokkien noodles or vermicelli noodles (米粉). I don’t like them in my laska. The only noodles i like in my laska is thick vermicelli noodles (粗米粉). and it’s really hard to find here.

I found it once, but then i forgot where i found it from. and ever since then, i haven been able to find the right one. So sometimes it ends like the one in the picture, almost the same texture. almost. but not.

Prima taste’s laska is awesome. even fish loves it. i love it. we all love it.

I can’t wait to have it again!! :)

What’s For Dinner Tonight?! – Taco Spag & Creamed Spinach!

2011-06-30T15:14:00.000+10:00

Taco Spaghetti – i made it once with fish a long long time ago at his place.

So i had some pork mince in the fridge and decided to make this again!

I made the taco mince with a package from Old El Paso.

Then i added the spaghetti (around 225gm), a fresh tomato and a little cilantro. It definitely calls for olives which i didn’t have.

I placed it in a pyrex dish and sprinkled mozzarella cheese all over and baked it in the oven till it melts.

I decided to boil 3 eggs. I dunno why. I just did and ate it as it is. I think i wanted to add them to the bake, but decided not to at the end.

I had a pack of baby spinach in the fridge and i suddenly decided to make creamed spinach!

This was really simple. I used 3 cloves of garlic (because i like them), fried them in some butter+oil, then added the spinach and cook till it wilts. Then i seasoned it with salt and pepper. Add a little cream to it and grated a little nutmeg over it.

Served! I loved the creaminess and the slight bitterness i get from the spinach and garlic – i love garlic.

So that was dinner.

Dessert was this which i showed before. My muffin, warmed in the microwave with dollops of Serendipity’s Tiramisu ice cream. Yum Yum.

How was your dinner? :)

Cupcakes.. no.. Muffins.

2011-06-28T15:55:00.000+10:00

One night. i decided to make cupcakes. I found a recipe. and got to it.

So i started making.

This was a simple recipe taken from That’s Noice!

Ingredients

125g softened unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
3 eggs (mine were large eggs)
225g self raising flour
60ml milk

Directions

This is really simple.

In a big bowl, dump all the ingredients in.

Beat the mixture with an electric mixer. Beat on low to combine then on a higher speed till the mixture turns a paler colour.

Fill your muffins cups with the mixture.

*I’m not sure if it was just my self raising flour, mine rose. a lot.

Place into the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. and you’re done!

See how they don’t look like cupcakes? I’m not sure if i did something wrongly, like beating them for too long, but it’s a little weird.

This tastes best warm or just out of the oven (the tops are crunchy). they get really hard when cold.

So when i want to eat this, i pop one into the microwave for 20 seconds. If you wanna replicate the crunch when it first comes out of the oven, just pop it in the toaster for a while.

This is how i ate this yesterday for dessert!

A lone muffin after 20 seconds in the microwave.

Now accompanied with Serendipity’s Tiramisu ice cream. Yum Yum Yum!

Fish had this too.. but with maple syrup as well. and more muffins of course.

So… i would call this a muffin by the taste and texture of my version. :)

I will make it again though. cause i actually quite like it. and i’m not sure if the original recipe used large eggs, but my eggs are always large, so this has a eggy taste and smell. which is nice. but you might be able to just use 2 large eggs and maybe a little more milk instead if you’re not a fan of the eggy taste and smell. :)

Happy Eating!

Aussie Farmers Direct!

2011-06-26T03:35:00.001+10:00

I’ve been ordering items from Aussie Farmers Direct for quite sometime now. and i really love the convenience and quality of their items.

My biggest biggest favourite from them is their Apple Juice!!

I love love this apple juice and we get through this really fast. My delivery days are every Wed and Sat and we basically have fresh apple juice every wed and sat. I love it!

Another staple that i only really use in baking but fish loves it in his cereal etc. is their low fat milk!

I tried their orange juice for the first time this week. and hmm.. i dunno. i’m not into into it. Freshly squeezed ones still tastes better. i think i’ll stick to the apple juice next time! We go through apple juice much much faster, i think it’s easier to drink that’s why – not acidic. i think.

I’ve also been using them to get my free range eggs, they’re my sole supplier of eggs now. We’ve also tried their fruit loaf which fish loves and used it to make a butter and bread pudding which he loves loves loves.

I’ve tried their meats once or twice and they’re ok.

I also always get my cream from them. They have 600ml bottles and they’re cheaper and last longer than those in the supermarkets.

I’ll be getting their new veg box next week to compare! :)

Green Bean Soup w/ Barley

2011-06-25T03:07:00.000+10:00

We love green bean soup!

I was working late one night one my assignment downstairs. and i can’t help but wanna find something to eat. I open my cupboard and i see a pack of green beans.

ok. i thought to myself. let’s find sago. i call hui who has already slept and she says that we should have it. then i call fish who says he thinks there’s none.

and so i go searching. there’s a paper bag filled with chinese herbs, so i thought, why not just take a look, well, i didn’t find it, but i found dried pearl barley instead.

so i thought. why not?

and tada! I don’t need sago in this dish anymore. the barley acts like the sago, it is easier to cook and has nutritional benefits as compared to tapioca balls.

This is it – doesn’t look like much, but it sure tastes good!

and is really simple to make too.

So when it was done, i called fish and asked him to come down to eat.

he tells me that he doesn’t like green beans, he prefers red beans. i force him to eat.

he takes the first mouthful. hmm. tastes like red beans (texture wise). and continues to down a whole bowl of my green bean soup. I had half a bowl and kept another half a bowl for hui in the fridge.

Ingredients

1/3 cup green beans – washed
Handful of dried pearl barley – washed
(you really don’t need too much because they thicken the soup quite a bit and i think my handful was quite enough)
A good amount of water – continually check and refill if necessary
Rock Sugar
(feel free to use normal sugar – i have no idea how to explain why i believe rock sugar is better than normal sugar – but they’re both fine)

Directions

Wash your beans and barley in a pot.

Add a good amount of water. Let it come to a boil.

Occasionally check on it and make sure it has enough water and stir it once in a while.

If i didn’t remember it wrongly, i cooked it for about 45 mins while i was doing my work in front of the stove. I just let it simmer and bubble, till everything’s soft.

Add sugar whenever you like during the process, i usually add a bit before it boils. Then when it is cooked the way i like, then i taste and add more.

Me LIKEY! :)

Kasumi Izakaya, Sydney – Our Current Favourite Place

2011-06-23T16:53:00.000+10:00

We love Kasumi. It nice and cozy and the food is quite good and the only place i get to drink alcohol. haha

So, something that we must order is the Beer Braised Beef Tongue. It is delicious. Ocassionally you get a piece that isn’t as soft as you like it to be, but overall it is great. We always have 2 bowls of this.

Eating this with the leeks, spring onions and seaweed is delicious!

On this day, i decided to try something new – Mimigar

The flavour is good. the presentation is beautiful. However, i didn’t finish this. It’s description says that it is pork skin with spicy shallot sauce. The dressing is very nice, the skin itself is crunchy – i couldn’t help it, but i kept thinking that this isn’t skin, this seemed more like the texture of pig’s ear. So if that’s what you like – you would like this. I liked the flavour, but there was only so much of this i could eat.

This is something we also had for the first time. It’s Cod Roe Spaghetti. and i love it. It is so simple. The roe i believe was just a touch spicy and the dashi and bonito flavour was so strong in this dish and i’m not sure where it was coming from, but it was definitely very flavourful and delicious. Because of the roe i guess, there was a richness and creaminess about it. but it wasn’t gluggy or heavy like a traditional cream pasta would make you feel. It just came with a a few thinly sliced pieces of shabu shabu pork i believe. I really like this. I’m so eating this again!

Kaarage Chicken with spicy shallot sauce (i think – don’t quite remember the exact name of the sauce). I usually don’t eat this – fish eats all of this. but since he always orders this, it must be quite tasty and good!

Teriyaki Chicken Ball w/ Egg Yolk. This is really quite nice. We stopped ordering this in between, but i asked for it this time. The only thing is, it does get a little too salty after a while because of the teriyaki sauce i guess. But i do like it.

We also always order their broiled salmon sushi. I love broiled sushi, or they can also be called aburi salmon sushi. With this sushi, there is no need for wasabi or soy sauce, although they still provide them. All you need is the sushi, with the sauce and the green onion and it is delicious! They put a little pea of wasabi below the fish, but it is hardly noticeable and i believe it adds to the flavour. A must order!

Another must order for fish. Premium Wagyu Steak. The marbling of the steak is delicious. You can taste the fattiness and oiliness of the beef itself and we love it. It comes with an onion sauce if i’m not wrong, and a bowl of rice. The sizzling plate comes really hot, so even though the beef looks really rare now (this is when i will steal a piece), it can be cooked till well done as the picture below – the way fish likes it. This also isn’t as expensive compared to other restaurants. and much more flavourful.

By now, you should know that i don’t eat much meat, so this is definitely a fish dish – i just steal a piece or two. :)

I forgot to take a picture but what alcohol do i drink here? It can be barely considered alcohol. I always drink 1-2 mugs of Green Apple Chu-hi. It is a shochu based cocktail. i’ll make sure to take a picture next time. I describe it as a beginner drink. Very little hint of alcohol. but i like it. hehe

….We love it here, they are open till very late. and on the weekends, they have bands playing. We usually catch a movie around 6+ then head over here to have dinner and this time, we finished at 11pm. it was a sunday night, so it was very quiet.

I do think we will be returning soon! :)

Herbs Update!

2011-06-21T04:26:00.001+10:00

I have not updated my blog on the status of my herbs for a while.

They are not growing very well, because i don’t get adequate sunlight at my house, especially since now it is winter – the very max that they can get is only 2-3 hours a day and usually much less. So i’m looking into adding a grow lamp which will give them the light that they so need. but i’m going to diy that, so i’ll be going down to bunnings soon.

You can really see that they’re not doing well without enough sunlight. The chives, spring onions, thyme and rosemary are not growing much after their initial growth spurt. The only one that seems to be still resilient is the parsley.

This was the parsley about a week ago.

You can see little parsley shaped leaves growing out of the other leaves. AND LOOK! I have an albino parsley at the top left hand corner! It is absolutely white.

I took the next pictures just yesterday.

You can see the white leave obviously is unable to survive and has died down. The parsley is growing bigger and looking quite good. but i do believe that their growth is still quite slow. The rest of the herbs look exactly the same. almost no growth at all. i must get the lamp quick.

You can see next to the parsley is the chives (i think) – but look at how short and weak they look in comparison with the parsley.. they haven grown much and since it’s really cold, dry and windy outside, their tips keep yellowing and drying out. I have trimmed them and they seem to grow a little more. but a little really is a little.

Well. i can’t wait to get the lamp and give my herbs the boost it needs before they die on me. :)

Giovanna, Kingsford – We still love it!

2011-06-12T15:44:00.000+10:00

We’ve been here many times, i think i blogged about it once. and we still love it.

Me and fish decided on here for dinner one night.

We always get garlic bread because i love garlic and i love bread.

We don’t usually have entrees, unless it is to share, i really don’t see how people can eat an entree and a main, when an entree already makes me very full.

So for mains, i got a special ‘Fettuccine with Truffle and Egg.’ According to the lady boss, their family went on a vacation to Italy and brought back 2 bottles of truffle shavings but their sons weren’t too keen on it, so they brought it to be used in the restaurant. So lucky of us!

This is the truffle with egg pasta. Really simple, very rich and good. This is entree size. I really couldn’t possibly have eaten a large sized one.

Fish got a favourite. A rib of beef served with peppercorn sauce. Their sauces here are divine. Fish usually orders 2 sauces, but today he decides to just stick with one. Their diane sauce is great as well. The rib this time was nicely marbled and very juicy and delicious even though fish ordered it medium well.

Fish wanted a pizza. The pizzas here are also classics, there’s no tandoori chicken etc. just plain simple pizza. So we ordered a pizza with tomato, cheese and mushrooms. It was simple and good.

Lastly, a serving of tiramisu to share. A sweet note to end the wonderful dinner. :)

and you know. we will be back.

Ding Tai Fung – My love affair starts all over again!

2011-06-10T15:30:00.000+10:00

I used to love ding tai fung. Fish called it my happy place, cause i will always become really happy after eating here.

However, after an incident when i brought my relatives there, it angered me so much that i didn’t visit for around 6 months i think.

One day, fish was sick when we went to the city. He wanted something light. and xiao long bao seemed perfect. So we decided to give it another go.

We waited for a little while, got seats at an area i really like. We don’t share tables, so we usually have to wait a little longer. but i really like being seated at the platform on the right side of the restaurant, next to the kitchen. It’s nice and cozy and always have many waiters around for service.

Since fish was sick, we didn’t eat much that day, but we still ordered our favourites.

Vegetarian Delight. I love this. This is one of the rare dishes where i will gladly eat my beansprouts.

Fish had a bowl of free range chicken soup. Very light and tasty.

Fish didn’t feel well enough to order a main, so we got 16 xiao long baos and he ate most of it. It’s really good though. I don’t like raw ginger, so i always eat mine on its own. i bite a small hole at the bottom side of the dumpling, then pour the golden soup onto my soup, eat the dumpling and then drink up the soup. No wastage. yum yum.

My main which we couldn’t finish. Fried rice with fried chicken cutlet. yum yum again. Fish didn’t eat this since he had a sore throat so we had to take away the left overs. but it is really good. and i’m a rice fanatic. so i love their fried rice.

That’s all we ate this time. but my love affair has been rekindled. so i hope to be back soon! :)

IndoRasa, Kingsford

2011-06-08T16:17:00.000+10:00

Recently (ok, not so recent), a new Indonesian restaurant opened.

There were always a good amount of people inside, as opposed to the one opposite it.

So we decided we should try it. and it really wasn’t bad.

This has to be the highlight – Tauhu Telur – deep fried omelette (so crispy and fluffy) and deep fried tauhu all drenched in a great peanut sauce. I love this dish!

Nasi Goreng was what i ate. It was good, as good as how i had expected fried rice to be. But it didn’t exceed it.

I can’t remember what this is called, but it came with a variety of side dishes such as fried chicken, beef, some chicken livers i think and fried egg. Shi Hui said it wasn’t too bad. The chicken was dry though, but had great flavour. The chilli that you see on top of the cucumber, is extremely spicy. you have been warned!

Soto Ayam. Fish liked it and said it was good. Only downside was that the soup didn’t come piping hot.

This was good. Ayam something. It’s grilled chicken in spices. We got the thigh so it was tender and delicious! yum yum!

This place really isn’t bad. The food is up to scratch.

The only downside is the service. They are prompt was water and menu. But have horrible attitudes. They menus are flopped on the table. No smile, no hi, nothing. Service is there but to the most minimal level required. The food comes and the waitress just places it on the table and leaves. and we’re left there staring at the dish wondering what dish that it.

But i shall return, because i can deal with such service if i get to get Tauhu Telur!!

EDIT! – This has become one of my favourite restaurants in the Kingsford area. We still order their tahu telor but our favourite main dish is now their mee goreng, only beef balls and to make it a little spicy. yum yum yum.

and.. their service has improved a lot! everyone is now quite friendly and smiles a lot more, so that's good! :)

Fish is awesome!

2011-06-07T13:59:00.000+10:00

I love it when fish cooks for me. cause he’s great. he just doesn’t know it. hehe

One night, me, fish and hui were downstairs watching Babylon 5. and i had a late night hunger craving.

One of my favourite food that fish makes is a pizza bread. So i leaned over and whispered that i would like some pizza bread. He thought for a while and got to work. yay!!

It’s quite simple.

Just normal white bread, with spaghetti sauce.

He made 2 versions for me. The one in front is with bacon. and the one at the back is with japanese arabiki sausage (which are amazing – get yourself some!). Both are topped with an insane amount of mozzarella cheese!

I got so full eating these 2 breads. but they were delicious and lovingly made.

Thank you fishie!! :)

Garlic Butter Basa Fillet!

2011-06-06T16:54:00.001+10:00

Hey peeps!

So, a long time ago, i ordered 2 basa fillets from butcher2u.

There is some controversy surrounding the basa fish, but i think it should be fine and it is really quite a nice fish to eat. So, whatever.

We found a recipe online for this and really liked it. So i adapted it slightly when the three of us where sick and didn’t want to eat heaty food.

And it is really simple as well.

Ingredients

2 basa fish fillet
50gm butter, melted
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced (i love garlic, so i definitely put a lot in there)
1/2 lime/lemon
Chopped coriander
Salt & Pepper

Directions

1. In a pyrex dish, i mixed the melted butter, minced garlic, salt and pepper together.

Good amount of garlic eh. I love garlic.

2. Place the fillets of fish in the dish and coat both sides of the fish with the butter mixture.

It’s quite cold here already so, if a matter of minutes, my melted butter hardened – hahaha – and mine was more of a paste then liquid. but it’s fine, just get the fillets coated.

3. Cover the dish with an aluminium foil and bake in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes. Take the dish out and switch off the oven.

4. Carefully open the aluminium, avoiding the hot steam. Sprinkle over the fish the lime/lemon juice and the chopped coriander. (At this point, you can totally see in the picture below that the fish is not totally cooked yet – it’s still slightly translucent and a little pink)

5. Place back into the oven to let the fish continue cooking in its residual heat for 8 minutes.

6. By then, the fish should become totally white and flaky.

7. This is best served with basmati rice.

The website where i got this from served this with coconut rice – which is awesome. But i wanted to cut down on the fat a little. So instead, we served it with plain basmati rice.

The butter might seem slightly excessive, but if you eat this with rice, the garlic butter would go fantastic as a sauce for our rice.

If you decide to have this on its own, then either cut down the amount of butter, or just get rid of the excess.

In any case, this was a really simple meal that we really enjoyed.

Progress on my Herb Garden!

2011-05-27T02:30:00.001+10:00

So. a few weeks back i started a little herb garden. I started them out from seeds and i grew 5 different herbs. On their little packages, most of them state that they will take about 2 weeks to germinate.

It has been 2 weeks 5 days. and i’m so happy to say that they’ve grown through the horrible weather here. We’ve had wind, rain and cold temperatures. I also don’t get much sun here at my front balcony. so i’m very satisfied and happy at their progress.

After 1 week

I totally forgot where i planted what. so i was so happy that these on the left hand side grew out first – but i have no idea what they are until they grow big.

Nothing much going on on the right hand side.

After 2 weeks 5 days

I took it opposite – so this is where the right hand side was. I have a feeling the long long stems should be spring onions.

This is da centre. So we have a little growth there too. I think it should be rosemary? Cause they grow the tallest, so i kept them in the middle. Not 100% sure though.

The left hand side – little sprouts with little leaves.

Had to bring them inside the balcony instead of nearer to the pavement, where there is more sunlight, but unshaded, so when it rains, i think it gives them a little too much water. I had to run out and save them on tuesday.. haha!

And to suit the green thumb!

Green nails! The colour’s not too right though. This is really green. the classic green. grass green. rich vibrant green.

Okie! So i can’t wait to see them grow even more!

Pork Belly. An easy way.

2011-05-18T01:02:00.001+10:00

Maybe about a month ago, i ordered 2 strips of pork belly from butcher2u, it wasn’t exactly what i wanted. I was used to ordering a big slab of pork belly but they didn’t have it on the website, but they had pork spare ribs (belly) with a little bone in them. It’s like shao rou – you know where you have the little white bone at the bottom. No harm really. I was intending to braise them but never got around too.

then one day, not too long ago, i remember something i ate with my mum a while back. I think we were in a hurry and we needed lunch, so we had to cook something to eat. it was so simple and yet, so delicious.

The fast way is to just boil a pot of water and simmer the meat in it, no marinade, nothing what so ever, just meat and water. Simmer till the meat is tender.

In my case, i had class that day from 4-6pm. So before i left the house, i washed meat and plucked the hairs and placed it into my rice cooker with adequate water covering the meat (i used it as stock for another dish). I used the soup setting and set it to cook for 2 hours.

When i returned home, the meat was wonderfully tender.

All you then need to do is slice the meat up into little chunks. It’s a little messy cause it’s so tender. you could always just have the whole piece to yourself, then you don’t have to cut it.

What’s the other most important thing? Your dip.

And it’s simple too. Just dark soy sauce and sliced red chilli. I like mine spicy.

If you wanna make it a little more fancy, add some grated garlic.

This is so so so so delicious.

The 3 of us just ate this was bowls of rice and a plate of veggies. Hui actually took a second bowl of rice – she usually doesn’t.

Sorry there’s no pictures. but it sure was delicious.

Time to head back to butcher2u to get more pork belly!

Wantons/Wontons (Recipe)!

2011-05-16T12:19:00.002+10:00

I love wantons. especially deep fried wantons. who loves wantons? me!
Last year, fish and i had classes in the afternoon. He has class in the morning but i didn’t, so i sometimes make him a little lunch. This one day, i decided on making wantons. deep fried of course. and he loved it.

Crunchy Crunchy!
My mixture really is quite simple.
Ingredients
Pork Mince
Hua Diao Jiu
Cooking Sake
Spring Onions, finely chopped
Oyster sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Sesame Oil
An egg – i didn’t have an egg on the day i marinated the meat, i only added this right before i wrapped it.

The Hua Diao Jiu gave it an amazing flavour. I didn’t manage to cook it as soon as i wanted to, so i marinated it for around 2 days.
The oyster sauce i only ever use is this:

This is Lee Kum Kee’s Premium Oyster Sauce. The first ingredient on the list is 40% oyster extractives instead of another one of Lee Kum Kee’s panda oyster sauce which first ingredient is water and oyster extract is 4th on the list.
This however, is double the price of most oyster sauces. Over here, this bottle costs AUD$7+. But i won’t stop using it. for one, i love the flavour of this oyster sauce.
secondly, this was the oyster sauce that my grandmother used. i never knew what brand it was, or what it was called, but when she needed us to buy this, she would tell us that we have to make sure that we buy the oyster sauce with the boy and the girl. She was adamant that this was ‘the one’. So this is ‘the one’ i will be using.

Wantons really aren’t that difficult to make.
First: Put the wrapper on your palm.
Second: Place a good amount of meat mixture in the centre.
Third: Wet the edges of the skin with water.
Fourth: Press the diagonal corners together. then push the sides to stick together so that it looks like that on picture no. 5

The skins that i bought this time, was slightly thicker than what i usually use.
so when i deep fried this, i double fried it, so as to ensure that the skin gets nice and crispy and that the meat is cooked inside.

I just ate this simply with japanese mayo. and it is so crispy and delicious.

I ate this with noodles. The meat was quite juicy and very flavourful and delicious.
Yummo!

Maple Walnut Ice Cream!

2011-05-15T21:33:00.001+10:00

Fish loves his ice cream and maple syrup. So one day, i chanced upon this recipe and decided that we could make it. He was so excited, he dragged me out to buy the ingredients.

Making ice cream using a ice cream maker, really isn’t difficult. This has a few more steps than making a normal ice cream (like chocolate or vanilla), but not more difficult.

Not the prettiest picture i know. but fish eats it usually out of the tub instead of scooping it nicely into a bowl.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole milk (i used skim milk)
2 tablespoons sugar (keep it if you like your ice cream sweet – i would omit sugar cause for me, it was too sweet)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
3/4 cup maple syrup (i didn’t have enough maple syrup – a little less than 3/4 cup)
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Wet Walnuts

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp maple syrup
1 1/2 cup roughly chopped roasted walnuts
1/4 tsp coarse salt

*Don’t use maple flavoured syrup. It is totally different. This is the one i used.

Directions

Warm milk and sugar in a saucepan.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Add the warm mixture slowly into the egg yolks – we do not want to cook the egg yolks here, so continual whisking while pouring the warm mixture in slowly.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, stirring continuously over a low flame. Don’t leave it for a moment, don’t even think of switching off the fire and walking away. It will become scrambled eggs. I only not stirred for a moment, and i got scrambled eggs.

*If by any chance, you get scrambled eggs, don’t fret. get angry. as i did. but don’t worry. we can still save it. If you have a hand blender, just blend the mixture out till it gets smooth again. I think there’s only once downside to this, which is the smell and flavour of cooked eggs – so the flavour of the egg intensifies. but it really is quite ok. don’t worry if you don’t get all the little lumps, we will sieve it later.

The mixture should get thicker and coat the spatula.

Add cold cream which will cool the mixture right down. Mix well, then strain the mixture into a bowl. This would get rid of all the little lumps that you might have missed. Cover well, then refrigerate for as long as you can. I only refrigerated it for 30 minutes.

*Another thing. when you use a hand blender on it, this creates a lot of foam, so when you strain it, press it down using the spatula.

After that, make the ice cream as per your manufacturer’s instructions. Add the wet walnuts at the last few minutes of the churning cycle.

Wet Walnuts

Toast the walnuts in a frying pan or in the oven.

Heat the maple syrup in a saucepan till it comes to a boil.

Stir in the walnuts and salt. Cook till the mixture boils again, stirring the walnuts around.

Remove the saucepan from heat and leave to cool completely.

The nuts will be wet and sticky when cooled.

*It is very cold here right now in Sydney, so when cooled, the walnuts actually become a hard block – if this happens, just put the saucepan over a low flame for 20 seconds and the heat would softened the hardened maple syrup and then you’re able to stir the mixture again.

Herbs in a Container

2011-05-12T02:33:00.001+10:00

I’ve been wanting to grow herbs for a long time. but we used to stay in an apartment with no balcony and fish and hui said no.

so. i didn’t.

but now. i have a front porch and a front balcony. and so i set off to get my herbs growing.

i am growing them all from seeds. i praying really hard that they will grow. considering that it has been really really cold these days. and the sun doesn’t really get into the balcony that much. the sun shines on the other side of the road, not mine. We’re also going into winter time soon, so it’s really quite cold these few days.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the 7th of May 2011. the sun was out shining. so i decided to start.

I used yates premium potting mix and a self watering trough. I poured the soil in and mentally divided the pot into 5 sections – for my 5 different herbs.

These are the herbs that i will be growing – these are the ones that i use more often. Parsley, thyme, rosemary, chives and spring onions.

Here are pictures of the seeds close-up. they are really tiny!

Really small seeds.

They take around 2 weeks to germinate. so i am crossing my fingers. i am slightly afraid though, cause i might have overcrowded it with too many seeds. We’ll see how it goes, if they manage to grow perfectly, i’ll weed out those that aren’t growing too well to thin it out.

For now, i’m just anxiously waiting. it’s like a baby. because we don’t get much sunlight and when we do, it moves across the porch, so i have to leave it nearer to the pavement at night, cause that’s where the sun hits in the morning, then move it into the front balcony when it’s late morning/afternoon for it to get as much sunlight as possible.

Today was really cold and cloudy though. and there was no sunlight at all. and i decided to bring the pot into the balcony instead of in the open where the sun would hit it, cause the wind was really strong and i didn’t want my growing seeds to feel too cold. (sounds weird eh.)

but yah. i’ll keep you guys updated on the status of my herbs. hopefully they grow soon!

Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Holes!

2011-05-09T12:20:00.000+10:00

This was done purely on a whim.

I was watching youtube – betty’s kitchen – you can see her wonderful video here.

I had all the ingredients at hand, so i decided, why not?

Fish really liked it. It was a more dense doughnut than if you compared to krispy kreme etc. but delicious all the same.

How delicious does that look?!

I didn’t eat much though – have been feeling quite heaty these days.

The cinnamon sugar was delicious!

Oh. do not. drop these on the floor. fish being the clumsy fish, dropped 2 on 2 separate occasions. He got so angry. The sugar coating flies everywhere and you get sugar everywhere! so don’t drop it.

Here goes the recipe!

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon (i don’t think there’s a difference, but i used dutch cinnamon)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp melted butter
1 beaten egg
1/3 cup milk + 1 tbsp fresh lime/lemon juice (or 1/3 cup buttermilk)

Coating

1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions

You need 3 bowls.

In the first, combine all the dry ingredients and mix well.
In the second, combine all the wet ingredients and mix well.
In the third, combine the sugar and cinnamon to make the coating and set aside.

Add the dry ingredients (1) to the wet ingredients (2) and mix to form a soft dough.

*My actually came out a little sticky and wet. I’m not 100% sure what the dough should have been like. but i added a little more flour to make it not so sticky.

Place the dough into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

The recipe makes 48 doughnuts, so you could divide the dough up as betty does to ensure that the balls are relatively equal. but i was lazy. i just rolled them into balls of all sizes – just not too big.

Deep fry them. till golden brown and they tend to burst a little – but that’s no problem.

Place them onto paper towels to absorb excess oil, then into the cinnamon sugar coating (3). You have to do this step while the ball is still hot.

Then back onto the paper towel to cool. and you are ready to eat!

By the way, i didn’t fry up the whole batch. i rolled them into balls and placed them into the fridge. this is a good idea if you know that you’re not going to finish the whole batch. especially if where you are is hot, the sugar would melt and become all sticky instead of being crunchy sugar bits. so i would say, cook only as much as you wanna eat at that point in time.

Fish said it was nice both warm and cold.

So, there you go! I hope you try it cause it really is, very very simple.

Yesterday’s Dinner!

2011-05-08T05:03:00.001+10:00

Yesterday, we decided that we would have leftovers. So we dug up whatever we had in the fridge, and i made us a happy happy dinner.

This makes me hungry. Let’s see.. what do we have on this plate.

We have, counterwise from the left, fried tofu bits, sweet potato leaves in sambal chilli, a hard boiled egg and fried fish. In the centre is cabbage rice with saya lodeh (vegetable curry).

I made saya lodeh the day before and we had leftovers which included the egg. I also had 3 pieces of tofu leftover, so i chopped them into little cubes and coated them in seasoned tapioca flour and deep fried them. The sweet potato leaves were dying, so i plucked the leaves and fried them in sambal chilli.

Cabbage rice was from the day before as well. I couldn’t replicate the flavour the way my grandma used to cook it. But it wasn’t too bad.

So, this is the mixture i fried for the rice. It has dried shitake mushrooms, loads of cabbage, onions and garlic. Seasoned with light and dark soya sauce and a little sesame oil.

You could add meat etc to this mixture. So i cooked the rice in the rice cooker till the water gets nearly absorbed, then i place the mixture on top of the rice to continue its cooking process.

This was the rice, we added more dark soya sauce and sambal chilli.

Now, for my favourite part! Saya Lodeh!

I make this using Prima Taste’s Saya Lodeh pre-mix. I just add more veggies than recommended and more water, sambal chilli and coconut milk to make more curry sauce. I have in here, hard boiled eggs, carrots, green beans, fried tofu and cabbages. I love love love it.

Well. that was my dinner. i made dessert after dinner. as per fish’s request.

a maple walnut ice cream. Will be posting that soon! :)

Smothered Pork Chops!

2011-05-01T01:28:00.001+10:00

What drew me to this recipe was the sauce really, i’m not much of a meat eater, so it really was the onion sauce that was divine. This recipe was taken from Food Wishes. Chef John has some really great recipes!

This is my take on it. Almost the same, just a wee different.

Ingredients

2 Pork Chops, butterflied into 4 – i got these from butcher2u.com.au
1 1/2 – 2 Onions, sliced – i used more cause we love our onions
5 cloves Garlic, chopped – i like my garlic
A piece of the white part of a spring onion
1 rounded tbsp plain flour
1 1/2 cup chicken broth – do not replace with water, i’ve tried.
1/4 cup buttermilk, or sour cream in smaller qty
A few whole peppercorns
Salt and Pepper

Directions

I am using our Le Creuset a lot these days, cause i like it loads.

So, in a pan, preferably non-stick or cast iron, or something along those lines, fry/sear/brown your pork chops in a little olive oil.

And sooner or later, your pot/pan should have those little brown bits stuck to the bottom – and that, is what we want!

So, when the pork chops are brown and maybe 80% cooked, you can take them off and onto a plate.

and now. onto the onion sauce.

After all the slicing and crying over the onions, dump them all into the same pot patterned with the little brown bits and a little oil.

Fry and fry and fry. We want the onions to caramelize and go really brown and soft – as brown and soft as you can get them.

When they’re nearly done, add the garlic in and let them fry for a little while.

Then, add in the flour and fry to cook off the taste of the flour.

Add in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. If you find the sauce too thick, add a splash of water – i found that i didn’t have to. At this point, i also added a few whole peppercorns (fish really liked it) and a white part of a spring onion, just to add a different onion flavour to the sauce.

When it boils, add in your pork chops and the juices that are on the plate into the sauce to warm up the chops. Add in also the buttermilk or sour cream. This slight acidity is to counter the sweetness of the onions.

Once they are cooked to your liking and heated up, serve!

I served it over freshly cooked basmati rice. I’m really loving basmati rice now. Although, when i cook it over the stove, there’s always rice stuck to the bottom, i’m not sure how much water to put if i’m using my rice cooker though.

I really liked this sauce and have used it over minute steaks as well. I think it would be awesome over mash potatoes, just add a little cornstarch to make it thicker and more peppercorns as well!

I hope you try it!

My Beef Stew this time!

2011-04-14T19:30:00.000+10:00

A while back, i ordered chuck steak from butcher2u.com.au

that was meant for making my beef stew.

It was a free day and i went out to buy veggies and more meat because i decided that the amount of chuck steak might not be enough + hui had melissa over for dinner.

Out i went. (remember to bring my trolley next time)

I bought ox-tail. some carrots, onions etc.

Here goes, my version (still subjected to changes though)

It is actually, really difficult to take a good picture of beef stew.

Ingredients

1330gm beef – 680g chuck steak 650g oxtail
175g bacon – leave it whole
2 medium sized onions
2 carrots (hui requested for more)
6 large white button mushrooms
3 potatoes (fish didn’t like them)
4 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 dried bay leaf
Dark Soy Sauce
for starters: (more will be added later, as per your discretion)
500ml red wine
500ml water

Directions

While chopping the ingredients, boil a pot of water.

When it comes to a boil, add in the diced chuck steak and oxtail (or whatever meat you’re using) and cook for 10-15 mins to get rid of any gamey-ness and excess fats.

Drain and leave aside.

In a cast iron pan, or a Le Creuset in my case (Fish bought one when i wasn’t around last year!) fry the bacon. I said to leave them whole because after the cooking process, it can be discarded, there was absolutely no flavour to them after all the stewing.

After the bacon, add in the onions, garlic and mushrooms.

Let them slowly cook and reduce in size.

Layer the beef on top of the mixture and add in half of the wine and water.

Add the chopped carrots on top then add the rest of the liquid. (Potatoes were not such a good idea. they almost disintegrated by the time the stewing was done)

Cover and simmer for 30 mins, then give it a stir to combine the veggies and stew till it’s time to eat. A good 2-3 hours would be great.

Within the 2-3 hours, we added more red wine and more water when it was needed, whenever it looked like it was drying out. so just add according to how your stew looks and tastes like.

When it’s done. it will be quite sweet because of all the red wine and carrots. so add a tablespoon or two of dark soy sauce to give it color and saltiness.

It really is very difficult to take a good picture.

We bought a bag of instant mash potatoes from our trip to Ikea, so we cooked it all and fish added a good amount of spring onions in it. And thus, formed our dinner!

yummy!

pork chops coming up soon! with a delicious but really simple sauce!

abcafe. kingsford.

2011-04-13T14:25:00.000+10:00

Ooooo.. i just realized that i forgot to blog about ab cafe. one of our current favourite places for dessert.

It’s a short little walk from our home and it has a really warm feel to it – which i really like.

It has sofas, but we’ve never sat on them – always just tables and chairs.

the guy is always the same 2 guys. i should think they run the place. but it seems like at night (which is when we go), it’s always manned by the same guy.

They had waffles. which is what drawn us in the first place. but we’ve found many little gems since then.

Instead of waffles now, fish enjoys a good plate of pancakes with expresso ice-cream.

He loves it. that’s exactly what he eats every single time.

As for me, the guy recommended a panna cotta that is made in-house. and i love it. it’s not too sweet plus the tartness of the fruits are awesome.

one thing though. the second time i ate this. there were much less berries. still nice though. the syrup has a hint of red wine. i really like this.

Another time, when they ran out, he recommended a mixed berry cheesecake. it was heavenly. It was light. the biscuit bottom was delicious and the berries were perfect with it. About 1/3 into my cheesecake. i declared to fish. ‘my birthday cake' it has to be. it’s awesome, it’s so light, i could keep eating it all day long.

Shi hui has found a favourite drink (i don’t have a pic of it though). it’s green tea frappe. She loves it. it tastes great.

though. the second time we were there, it was nearly closing time, so i guess it was a little rush, but her drink wasn’t (i dunno what the word is – ah – blended) well. There were still ice cubes in it. She still did enjoy her drink though.

hmm… what else.

yup. the banana smoothie was good. fresh bananas. great tasting, nice thickness and richness and the sweetness was just right.

They serve a good range of ice cream flavours too – i don’t think they make it themselves. Fish likes the expresso with his pancakes. I actually quite like the … i think it’s vanilla with brownies.. or something like that. The black glutinous rice ice cream is not though, if you’ve ever ate the real thing, this is not going to satisfy. at all. the black sesame is not too bad.

well.. this is all i can think of at the moment.

we’re really busy with uni these days so we haven’t been there in a while. we walked there last sat but they were closed. we shall try again sometime soon!

yummy desserts!

Meat Delivery!

2011-04-13T02:01:00.001+10:00

Well. Well. I had a meat delivery today. Yes. you will be surprised to find out that we basically get home delivery for everything. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not lazy (i think) or anything like that but sometimes, home delivery is great. and shopping online means i get to control the amount of money i spend, hopefully get a good deal and get it delivered!

We’ve stopped the fruits and veg delivery for now because it delivers way to much for us to consume in 2 weeks. This was around $60/mth and it is great value considering that previously, every time we went to the supermarket, we would run up a bill of $100+.

As for meat, i don’t eat much meat, but fish loves his meat. He doesn’t like the smell of the butcher and for me, the butcher is a little far away – i don’t mind if it was like something that i wanted to cook today and went out to buy it but otherwise.

So i found www.butcher2u.com.au on the internet, it’s a butchery run by Gary who is really nice. I’ve ordered twice and my delivery day is a tuesday and for both times, i only confirmed my order through email after 12midnight and he still gets them all packed for me and delivered to my house.

What i like it that he’s a real butcher – you know those that you watch in shows where you can go in, have a chat, get your butcher to do things for you.. well, the supermarket can’t do that. so for that, i look for Gary. the best is, i can tell like i want 4 chicken thighs and i want them to be separated into 1 in one bag and 3 in another bag, and he does this happily and vacuum seals it for me. Then he sticks on the price tag with what meat it is, when it was sealed and how heavy is it. The previous time, i think i gave him a little more notice, so he froze the meat for me as well. Today, not so much time, so it didn’t come frozen – but not a problem.

I was watching Maangchi on youtube and came across a cut of beef called the LA Galbi. and i really wanted to try making that dish. so i sent an email to Gary with a picture and he said he could cut that for me. awesome!

So i ordered 1.5kg of LA cut.
6 chicken thighs – kaarage in the making!
3 minute steaks – all separately packaged
and beef mince.

I wanted to make hamburgers but the mince that he had on the website was an extra lean one. and i don’t like extra lean. i like fats.

so i asked him if he could mince up 600gm of chuck steak for me. nice amount of fat on this mince. i can imagine how they would taste at the end….

that was all i got today.

and tml. we are expecting another home delivery from another company for our eggs and milk. I was drawn to their milk since it has no permeate in it – i wanted to try and see if there was really a difference.

i’ll let you guys know tomorrow. with pictures i hope.

tada!

(By the way, i just realized, if i were talking to you about this – this would be almost exactly what i would say. oh god. my dad would say that i’m naggy. i think i agree. i should go now. bye)

Dim Sum – at the Fish Market!

2011-04-10T16:01:00.000+10:00

I love dim sum! who doesn’t? even my dear fish who doesn’t like seafood likes dim sum. It’s like the only time ever that he eats prawns. haha.

This going to be a picture heavy post. One of the best places to have dim sum in sydney in at the Fish Market. It was so crowded the day we went, a sunday afternoon but we managed to get a good seat with loads of natural lighting so i think the pictures look good. We went with fish’s parents since they were around for his graduation.

First up!

Steamed dumplings. If i’m not wrong, it was with chinese chives and prawns, together with the chilli sauce, it was awesome!

Chee cheong fan – with char siew and prawns (the plate at the back). It was good. I think i don’t have to mention my reaction to each dish. cause it was all good!

Up close with the prawns. very fresh and delicious!

More prawns!

More prawns! Har Gow!

Shi Hui’s favourite. Chicken feet!

Fish’s favourite. Beef balls!

Siew Mai. very nice. we have seconds and thirds.. i think.

Deep fried something. It had to be good.

Deep fried prawn sushi.

Egg tarts. slightly oily though.

Takoyaki! Nice nice!

Peking Duck! We each had a plate. It was good. the meat was tender and there was no gameness. very very nice.

Radish puff. not something i like. so, meh.

Fish liked this. It was mango with cream.

Eggplant, prawn paste and tofu in a black bean sauce. yum yum.

Porridge. not the best. but we found a good one just down the road from our house. and to think we’ve never eaten there in 3 years!

and to end the great day, fish and his parents went for a beer while me and hui went for Chatime! Milk tea with grass jelly. my favourite.

After eating, we went for a walk to the Sydney Opera House. but before that, we bought a vacuum cleaner. Here’s fish:

hahahahahaha.

Have a good one! :)

Yay! New house!

2011-04-09T18:16:00.001+10:00

So, we had to move. we got the notice just as semester started. it was frantic looking for a house.

there were silent requirements that had to be met. some requirements people won’t understand why we are insistent on, but by a stroke of luck, we managed to get one, that wasn’t too bad.

a little messy. hehe.

what i love is that we have flyscreens on all the windows. the kitchen’s a little small – but workable. and there are no carpets. i like.

It’s a landed property – right in the front of the road, so we get a small door at the pavement, then a few flight of stairs and then the main door with the balcony. and i couldn’t be happier.

Some mornings, i just sit on the sofa, with a cup of tea and biscuits, open the balcony door and just let the fresh air circulate. very nice.

Taken from the stairs. The main door is on the right side.

Yes, if you noticed, we have 2 fridges, basically 2 of everything. cause we used to live separately and when we moved in together, we had double of almost everything.

On the left side, where you can’t see, is the laundry room and a toilet. There is also a flight of stairs leading down to where we call the ‘dungeon’. haha. it basically is the basement garage, where we have our own secured parking garage.

A closer look of the kitchen. The oven is great. never been used before. There are a lot of cupboards in that small kitchen, which is ironic since there is little to none elsewhere, where we really need it.

But for now.

I love our new house. i’m almost glad we have to move. our rooms are smaller, but we can live with that.

oh. and we don’t have to wake up when there are deliveries. we agreed with the postman that he can just leave our parcels at the door. awesome. since the post office is now a 20 mins walk away – my speed. I just sit a bus there now. lol. only had to go there once, so hopefully. no more!

i’m just happy i have to nice cozy home to come home to with fish and shi hui. :)

Love ya all!

My Internet’s back!

2011-04-08T02:58:00.001+10:00

Hello everyone!

Many many things have happened since the last post. and i have been kept busy and happy. :)

I’ve got much to share and loads of pictures to let you guys see. I’m just going through them all now and editing them. and boy! does my eyes hurt. well. it’s late. but there’s a good amount of food and some of my new home (which i love by the way).

I’m rather busy with assignments this week, but i’ll be back on track soon enough and upload all those pictures and document all the wonderful happenings.

I hope you have been well and i pray that you have been as happy as i have been.

Loads of love! :)

Entertainment Quarter Famer’s Market

2011-03-15T16:00:00.000+11:00

Second time there. the first was a while back if you check the post.

So we’re here to top up some supplies.

Portuguese chilli. Very delicious. They have varying heat. We chose the Hot one. This goes really nicely on burgers or just grilled chicken. We bought the larger bottle previously but it took us quite some time to finish it, so we decided that just a small bottle this time.

Parmesan cheese. we all love it freshly grated. yes. but i’m lazy sometimes. and the grated parmesan that the supermarket sells is hmm.

so when i saw this at a cheese stand, i grabbed it. $4 is a little pricey, but it’s grated and it’s good quality. So it’s worth it i guess. :)

I also bought a small wedge of Fontina, a nice melting cheese. This one i got is sharper in taste and very creamy. We had it over mashed potatoes.

It is also great just shaved over crackers, with black pepper. Great like that, or just pop it into the oven for a minute and the cheese melts nicely.

I LOVE butter. in case you didn’t already know. so i’ve been reading up a little on butter. and found that cultured butter, like the one above are made from sour cream instead of cream. therefore, the butter has a slightly sour taste. This is expensive butter. I found it at a cheese store. i think it would go great with sourdough bread. which unfortunately i don’t really like. not really keen on sour. but i will try again.

Shi Hui bought a small tin of chai tea. Instead of the usual powder ones, this one has real tea leaves and real spices in there. cardamom seeds and all. i don’t like chai, i can’t stand the smell of the spices. but i love curry. so i guess it’s just chai.

2 chocolate croissants.

2 brioche.

I’m ashamed to say that we forgot to eat them. so they’re hard and dry now, from being in the fridge. but i’m going to save them but making bread and butter pudding with all these pastries. :)

and of course. we are hungry. so we bought 2 gozleme. One vegetarian, one with minced meat.

Delicious with lemon squeezed over it. Fresh and piping hot. Only me and hui went so we nearly couldn’t finish it all. Hui left one slice of her minced meat and i managed to finish all of my vegetarian. :) yum yum. feel like eating that now.

Well.. that’s about all our adventures from the EQ farmer’s market.

Till next time!

Kobo e-reader

2011-03-13T15:31:00.001+11:00

First the tablet pc next the e-reader.

I got my tablet pc a few years back and i love it. simply because after 3 years of undergrad studies, i don’t end up with a huge pile of paper notes which i really don’t need anymore but can’t bear to throw them away because of the time and effort put into them. I got all these safely stored in my external hard disk – which is perfect.

I’ve been buying a good amount of books to read since being here and although i could have read the books on my tablet, it just isn’t as convenient and as easy. So i’ve stuck to paperbacks.

So when fish got me an ipad for christmas, it was perfect, i downloaded an app and started purchasing ebooks instead. and the ipad is great. there’s color, i can connect my books to facebook and the page turning is interactive. the only problem with the ipad is that although it is light, it is still of a certain weight and reading it on the bed makes my hand a little sore. though i still really like it.

The app i downloaded was called Kobo. and they have their own e-reader, much like a kindle but it can also read any generic epub and pdf files. which is why i chose it over the kindle. Borders.com had a reduction in the Kobo e-reader’s price and since US dollar and Aus dollar was almost at parity, i decided why not? It was cheaper than buying a second hand Kobo through ebay and borders au was selling the Kobo at AUD$179. I bought mine for USD$100 + $9 shipping. A second hand e-reader on ebay was selling for even more expensive than this.

Enough talk.

They have 2 colour schemes in the borders US shop, either black or white. I chose the black version – i dunno why. maybe it’s easier to clean. or maybe i had thought to test drive it for my dad and if it is not too bad, i can give it to him. but. i’m liking it too much now. so we might just get another one. hehe

So the screen is e-ink. and the screen you see above is when the reader if switched off. yes. it does not go blank.

One of the books i’ve just finished reading.

The screen flickers every time you turn the page or try to access the side bar. It isn’t too big of a problem, but there is a slight lag, so don’t expect instantaneous action.

The best thing about this is that since it isn’t a kindle so i can purchase ebooks from any site – i usually just use www.kobobooks.com since it’s most convenient, but i can also read loads of free ebooks. Without getting into whether it’s legal nor not – that is an option that is available with using this instead of a Kindle.

I also tested it with chinese pdf files and a picture brochure. Both were obviously in black and white since the e-reader does not support color, but they worked. You could zoom in at the pdf file and change it from landscape to portrait. and the e-reader remembers your choice if you’ve changed it, the next time you read it, it will be exactly as how you left it.

So overall, i’m loving it. Only downside (well, not actually a downside), is that i can’t read at night. This is e-ink which means there’s no backlight. You have to have external light to read it. I like to read in the dark using the ipad. but i can’t with this, so i suppose it is good for my eyesight – so not really a downside.

Oh. and it can sync with my ipad, so if i’m reading a book on both devices, and i sync them through the computer they would ‘inform’ each other on which page i’m at.

Happy reading! :)

Peanut Butter Truffle Cookie!

2011-02-27T16:10:00.001+11:00

Who loves the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. *raises hand* i do! and i should think that many people do too.

I found this recipe on an app i downloaded on my ipad. I made it once and brought it to work and they loved it. Some requested the recipe from me, which i was more than willing to share, but since it was on my ipad, it wasn’t a simple case of printing it out. So finally, i will be sharing it on my blog!

Using the same picture from my last post – see the cracks on the dough? what lies beneath is the chocolate truffle!

There was a problem with this dough – my dough was too soft and i could hold it’s own shape and kept cracking even before it was baked. I think i can attribute that to daddy and feng guang who kept asking me to put more and more and more peanut butter!

Ingredients

1. 125g plain dark chocolate (either a whole bar where you chop, or choc bits)2. 150ml double cream (this could have been the cause too, i used a normal thick cream, so maybe it wasn’t thick enough. Double cream is higher in fat content. It can be found in more obscure supermarkets like the one @ Tanglin Mall.)
3. 125g butter, softened
4. 125g caster sugar
5. 125g crunchy or smooth peanut butter
6. 4 tbsp golden syrup (i guess you could substitute honey for this – so just make your own over a stove with sugar and a bit of water, stirring till the syrup becomes a thick golden colour)
7. 1 tbsp milk
8. 225g plain flour
9. 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Chocolate Filling

Place the chocolate, which should be in small pieces, into a heatproof bowl (i used a pyrex bowl).

In a small saucepan, pour in the double cream and bring it to a near boil. Immediately pour it over the chocolate. Leave it to stand for a minute or two then stir/whisk till smooth. Set aside to cool until firm enough to scoop.

* It is at this juncture that i must assert that double cream be used. I used a normal thickened cream/pure cream that can be found in NTUC and the chocolate did not hardened on its own. I had to refrigerate it overnight for it to harden. I guess it’s ok, but it just threw my schedule off.

Peanut Butter Cookie

Cream the butter and sugar together using either an electronic hand whisk or a standing mixer until the mixture is a pale yellow and fluffy. Blend in the peanut butter, followed by the golden syrup and milk.

Add the sifted flour and bicarbonate of soda. Mix well and knead till smooth.

* At this point, you can take the dough out and knead it by hand and have wonderfully peanut buttery smelling hands or change the hook on your mixer to help you knead the dough.

Taking an amount of the dough, flatten it out and place a spoonful of the chocolate mixture into the centre of the cookie dough, then fold the dough around the chocolate to enclose completely into a ball.

* I had a lot of trouble here where the dough just kept breaking off and there was no way i could enclose it completely. I instead, took 2 pieces of dough, both flattened, place the chocolate on one of the dough then covered it with the 2nd piece of dough and sealed the edges. It roughly worked. Still, the flavour is great and no matter how it turns out, people still liked them! :)

If you are lucky and managed to get it in a ball shape, just place them on your baking sheet and flatten them slightly. If you had to resort to my method, just place them as they are on the tray.

Bake the awesome cookies you are able to eat in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely and serve.

* Careful now, my cookies came out of the oven hot and soft – so be gentle in case yours are and you break them.

The cookies turned out to be soft and chewy cookies and not the hard and crunchy ones. I was afraid people might not like them as much but it doesn’t seem that way. Sadly, this seemed to have been better received than my brownies. :(

Sorry for the very wordy post :) wanted to note down everything.

Classes are starting tml and … wish me luck! :)

Steamboat Dinner!

2011-02-23T01:51:00.001+11:00

I love steamboat! Don’t always eat them at restaurants but we always have them at Reunion Dinner during CNY. That was a way larger scale though.

We have a mini steamboat here and i decided it would be nice to have a steamboat – just the 2 of us.

So, we set out today to eat steamboat for dinner. Simple ingredients.

Last week, i made an online order at butcher2u.com.au – they package the meat however you want to and deliver it to you on specific days. I got some chicken thigh, chicken breast, sausages, chuck steak, Basa fish fillets, pork chops and minced pork. Taking for example minced pork, i usually buy around 600gm at the butchers and take home and split them up into smaller bags. On the website i can specify exactly how much meat in total i wanted and how to split them. They would all come frozen and vacuum packed nicely and labelled with the product name, date, weight and price. So i always know what i am looking at. :) You know sometimes you go into your freezer and find this piece of frozen meat and you have no idea what meat that is? yup.

So today, i got out ard 250gm of chicken thigh (i bought 500gm and asked them to be split into 2 bags) and 100gm minced pork.

Steamboat aint difficult, just needs preparation and marinating (not long if you it was a last minute meal like mine was).

These are the ingredients of what we had tonight:

A 300gm packet of sliced waygu beef that fish bought from the supermart downstairs. He marinated the beef in sake, mirin, soy sauce and ginger paste (we buy fresh ginger then grate it using a ceramic grater).

This was actually not originally meant for steamboat. I had brought it out earlier in the day to defrost cause my tummy wasn’t feeling too well and i thought i might make myself porridge to eat. but since we decided to have steamboat, i just lightly marinated the minced pork in sake, soy sauce, sesame oil and a little ginger paste. I didn’t know what i was going to do with it until the last minute. I just used my chop sticks, grabbed a small amount and put it into the soup. Almost like meat balls – irregularly shaped. :)

Chicken of course – after hui’s awesome chicken at our reunion dinner. I used the chicken thigh meat after removing much of the fat and sinews. then sliced them into thin bite sized pieces. marinated them in soy sauce, sake, sesame oil and ginger paste too. (By the way, it looked like a really small amount in the bowl and when i finished cutting it – but it’s deceptive. We couldn’t finish all the chicken. granted that fish preferred his beef and chicken and pork were mostly for me.)

We went downstairs to get noodles and i got a pack of oyster mushrooms. cause i love mushrooms. and it was an absolutely right decision. I love these mushrooms after they’ve had a good soak in the soup. It absorbed all the lovely flavours. and i had a great time eating them – cause fish didn’t appreciate them! :)

Hmm. i should have stuck to normal hokkien noodles. these were. not the best.

What was seriously lacking was chilli! and not just any chilli! sambal chilli – and i don’t believe in the ones sold at supermarkets. So the sauce master – fish – came up with this dip that was amazing. It had dashi powder, soy sauce, japanese 7 pepper spice, hua diao jiu, sesame oil and a little water. Yum yum yum.

We didn’t have those spoons we usually use when eating steamboat, and it was difficult to hold on to a piece of chicken waiting for it to cook. so i remembered the colander and it fits perfectly. so the mushrooms and veggies are on the outside, and the meat and noodles can be cooked within the colander. The best thing, the handle of the colander doesn’t even get the slightest bit of heat. so it’s absolutely safe! and my meat won’t disappear!

So this was our little spread tonight.

If you look carefully, there are 2 ingredients that i did not mention – on the bottom right hand corner. It is a piece of egg tofu and a pack of fuzhou fishballs. – which under normal circumstances, i love.

The tofu tasted off – Shi hui…..
The fuzhou fishballs were EWW! They smell really really fishy. but i ignored it and put 4 balls into the soup. and when it was ready, i tried one and it was disgusting.

you know the nice thing about these balls is the springy texture and the soup you get from the pork inside the balls. these were hard and rubbery. there was no soup, instead it was all oil. and not even pork fat which might have tasted better. It tasted like i broke open a pill of pure fish oil. it was so so so so so so fishy and disgusting tasting. I threw the rest of that ball, took out the other 3, the rest from the freezer and down the bin it went. Eww. just in case, i don’t remember the brand – but it writes there in red – first in Australia – i think the last would be more appropriate.

Onto much better tastes….

the soup!

we just took a pack of Campbell’s Real Chicken Stock and added the same amount of water. Fish added 2 carrots, 1 big onion, a whole lot of corn kernels, spring onions and cilantro. Just boiled it together for a while for everything to soften.

The soup was very sweet and tasty – just one carrot next time ok fish?

it was just enough for the 2 of us in our small little hotpot and we started dinner around 2030 and ended (including the washing up) at a little after 2230.

yum yum.

This is the leftover soup and veggies – fish ate a lot of veggies which made him very full. This soup is now a thick and delicious smelling soup – you can smell the veggies, the beef, the pork, the chicken all in it.

It is one invincible soup too. The eww-ness of the fuzhou balls and the slightly spoiled tofu didn’t mar the soup one bit.

But the soup is very oily now obviously, with the fats from the wagyu beef and the sesame oil used in marinating.

So it’s in the fridge now, and when it cools down, the oil will coagulate, forming a layer of white fat on top of the soup, which we can then proceed to remove easily before heating it up when we need it. :)

i had a great great dinner with fish tonight and i hoped you have had a great one too! :)

Foggy’s kinda cranky today. :p

I’m back!

2011-02-20T22:53:00.001+11:00

Hello!

I’m back after a very long break. I’m back in Sydney for my masters.

Holiday in Singapore was… good. Had to work, got a new oven (i can’t even bear to look at the oven we have here in sydney after getting the Gagganau).

but now, i’m back and will blog more often. :)

Let’s review a little about what happened in Singapore.

We had another laska party!

Delicious! Made with Prima Taste Laska Paste. Added more onions and dried shrimp.

I also made more brownies before coming back to Sydney!

A little more cracked on the top but delicious all the same.

I also made it in a rectangular dish since my relatives were going to have a gathering at my house the day after i left. and it looked like a volcano. haha.

Cool eh. It will flatten down when it cools.

My mum has been going for vegetarian cooking class at the same place where we take guzheng classes. One of her first dishes she learnt was to make 发糕. So since it was chinese new year and we had to pray, so we made up a batch of coconut 发糕 – a big one and many small cute ones. :)

Dinner one night with just me and feng guang. so i cooked up a simple fried tofu with leeks and kaarage chicken!

The chicken was great. Only thing is that i should have added a lot more ginger and garlic. Yum Yum. Have already bought chicken thigh to make this soon soon! :)

I made cookies too! This is a delicious delicious peanut butter soft chewy cookie. What’s with the cracks? Can you see the chocolate oozing between the cracks? hehe.

ohhh… how pretty is this… i wish i could bring this oven over with me!

Other than these pictures.. i still have some more about places that me and fish and his family and my family (in different combinations)..

This is all for now though! :)

O week starts tomorrow so i’ll be going to join in the fun!

Foggy says hi!

Hello!

2010-12-19T03:53:00.001+11:00

I know it has been really long. and i don’t really know why i don’t blog when i’m in Singapore.

Anyways, I recently went to Marks & Spencer with Fish and we had a mini haul from there and some little things from Takashimaya.

Before i go into that – my dad’s birthday was on 16th Dec and we bought him a cake. This is a pulut hitam cake we bought from Pine Garden’s Cakes. It was first introduced to us by my cousin and we love love it.

I’ve recently been reading this book which i borrowed from the library. I know it can be very difficult, but i am trying to make a conscious effort to be more eco-friendly – like using my favourite Built NY market totes whenever i can instead of getting plastic bags. I’m very happy to say that back in Australia we hardly take any plastic bags when we go shopping.

Something i’ve also learnt a little about is the term ‘fairtrade’.

From wiki - “Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards.”

I don’t mind the higher price on occassional products since they are also not that commonly found in Singapore.

This pack of biscuits – what really drew me in were brazil nuts – i love them freshly cracked!

This costs $9.90 at Marks & Spencer, not sure about the flavour yet – have not opened it yet.

It has labels that tell me what materials are used in the packaging of this food item. Although i am quite sure that Singapore might not have the facilities to support this yet.

Some of the main ingredients are fairtrade such as the sugar and brazil nuts.

I also bought a pack of delicious looking lasagne sheets. This was $6.50 and what drew me in was that these pasta sheets had free range eggs in them. and if you know me, you know i love my free range eggs.

I tried eggy lasagne sheets before and i loved loved them. though i can’t seem to find them here in singapore. and so when i saw this – i literally grabbed it.

I also got a nice bottle of carbonara sauce. It is actually a first for me. I never buy bottled cream sauces cause i don’t believe that they’re any good. but i’m a sucker for good packaging and the description reads amazingly plus the sauce actually looks yellow and thick. As compared to some cream sauces you get from the supermarkets that kinda look smooth, watery and have this weird greyish tinge to it.

It was down to Takashimaya next and i remembered Chris (a guy from work) who said that the champagne chocolates were good. and so i bought 2 boxes – 1 champagne and 1 cherry liquor. Tried a little of the champagne and i have to say.. they are good. which reminds me.. i should go and have one now. :)

I’m eating them right now. they are good. i hope i dun finish the whole box…nah. i won’t. hehe

I also bought a bag of black tea. which smells amazing. have not gotten a chance to try it yet. but i will. soon.

Last and definitely not the least, fish bought this bottle of wine as a birthday present for daddy. I’ve read good things about this – so it will be drunk. soon as well. :)

well well.

that’s all i have at this moment.

I made sausage bread a while back and i loved it. i will be making more in the near future.

cause.

i’m only working till 31st Dec. and that gives me a whole month.

to play

with our new Oven!!

It’s a Gaggenau BO220 single oven. I cannot wait. The reviews for this oven has been relatively fantastic. and i can’t wait for it to arrive so i may start having a proper oven to cook with!! :)

It’s coming in on Tuesday – my off day! Perfect.

Now.. all i have to do.. is think about what its maiden dish is gonna be.

Excited excited excited.

Dad’s Beef Stew.

2010-08-07T20:31:00.001+10:00

One of the best things that happened on my parents’ trip here was that my dad decided to use this piece of beef that i bought a million years ago – i had no idea what that piece of meat was. It was a beef brisket with bone.

He decided to make a stew and there was no definitive recipe for him to use – so he made up his own. We loved it so so much, we went to the Butcher’s the next day and got 1.5kg of ox/beef tail.

Using nearly half a bottle of Brown Brothers Tarrango.

Here’s the recipe i got off him. – not 100% accurate – just play around with ingredients. It’s not 100% western, nor is it 100% chinese.

Ingredients

1.5kg Ox tail – get the butcher to chop it for you (or beef brisket w/ bone and fats – which is cheaper but has a lot more fats)
1/2 bottle of red wine (any quality is ok. there is a difference, but it’s ok. we used a $5 bottle the 2nd time)
Dark Soya Sauce
1-2 roughly chopped carrots (the carrots we had were really sweet)
Onions
Leeks
Celery
Spring Onions
Potato
*You can see what veggies you have and use accordingly – we didn’t use celery the first time and didn’t use leeks the second time. It was ok.

Directions

In a pot of boiling water, add the ox tail/beef and let it cook. This is to get rid of any gamey taste the beef might have. Let it cook for approx 10-15mins.

Discard the water and place the beef back into the pot. Add around 1/2 bottle of red wine. and the veggies. Add water enough to cover it generously. Cover and let it gently simmer for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The beef should be extremely tender and the soup flavoursome but.

It will be very sweet – because of the wine and the veggies.

my dad then came up with the idea of adding a little dark soya sauce which was a great idea – it added richness, colour and saltiness to the dish.

*Make sure it is dark soya sauce – which is much darker in colour and less salty than soya sauce itself.

The dish is now ready to be served. Perfect!

The stew is sticky – from the fats and the wine, the meat is tender and very flavourful.

That day, we also took out of small little steamboat pot – instead, we ended up preferring to bbq our food instead. We bought salmon and thinly sliced those, there were vegetarian tofu, prawns and marinated pork slices.

Fish even ran down to get a pack of VB to accompany the dinner. and to cook
some of our food in. See the aluminium foil in the bbq tray, we would place the slices of salmon, prawns and tofu there to cook – adding a good amount of VB and salt. Adds a great fragrance to the food.

A very very good dinner. and i hope it happens again soon. =)