Post #25

i had some leftover fresh ricotta in the fridge and i found an italian meatball recipe that uses ricotta, so perfect!! let's give it a try!! although to use up the ricotta in the fridge meant that i had to stock up on a bunch of parsley and a bunch of basil... so now i have some leftover parsley and basil in the fridge....

anyways...

raw meatballs - mix of beef and pork mince, egg, ricotta, parmesan, parsley, basil and garlic - ready to be cooked:


cooked meatballs buried in tomato sauce:

-Italian meatballs in tomato and onion sauce-

Post #24

tomorrow is cooking day, so i better clear up some old food photos *v slack of me*...

the butcher shop i go to sometimes have whole scotch fillets on special. i like anything on sale, the thought that i'm buying more but paying less makes me feel gooood! and with a large slab of meat, i would normally cut it up into different shapes and sizes and put them in the freezer for use later! but this time, i didnt have time to go a proper butcher and only managed to get 3 pieces of rump steak, and the meat was not as tender as i expect :(


-Beef cubes with carrots + asparagus in wasabi mayo sauce-

also cooked a veg dish:

-Steamed eggplant with garlic, chilli + soy-

Post #23 - Dinner for 2

hubby and i had dinner by ourselves tonight, which has become a rare occasion now. so tossing between eating out and eating at home, we decided to eat dinner at home and dessert outside. there's a new gelato place near home which does v creamy gelato!

hubby's mum marinated some yummo lamb cutlets for us, so we're having lamb tonight!

lamb cutlets sizzling in the pan. love the pattern formed by the onion circles!! i added a sprinkle of paprika on top of the lamb, but it didnt add to the flavour...


now what goes well with fatty lamb meat?! we've decided on some salad and couscous.


-Lamb cutlets with sauteed field mushroom + onion, salad green with fresh ricotta and tzatziki-

close up of the couscous:


-Couscous with mixed nuts, dried apricot + rocket in lime juice-

then off we went for some gelato! but ended up the creamy gelato shop was closed >.<~ but we settled for some not so creamy gelato. still a good night out tho~ :)

Post #22

some food you need to grow to like them. food that i used to hate eating when i was a kid, i find them quite a joy to eat now. and i wonder if colour has something to do with it?! as all those food i used to hate eating are green (hehe, typical kid i was) - shallot, celery, bitter melon. some i still cant adjust my tastebud to like them, like coriander, goat cheese and blue cheese. i used to treat shallot and coriander under the same "intolerable food" category and still have the world's patience to spoon out every bit of finely chopped coriander!

it works the other way round too - some food i used to like a lot as a kid i no longer like. oh how i loved chicken schnitzel served on a sizzling plate and banana split when i was a kid.

bitter melon is one of the ingredients that i've grown to like and have been cooking quite a lot of.


-Stir fry bitter melon with olive vegetable and minced pork-

Post #21

tried out the hainanese chicken rice recipe from www.christinesrecipes.com ~ it wasnt as hard as i thought!! :) and will definitely cook this again!!!

chicken marylands ready to be steamed:


i dont like messing with big chopping knife, so i've decided to shred the chicken legs rather than chopping them with the bones on.

made my own sauces too - minced ginger and shallot sauce and chilli sauce!! i've made minced ginger and shallot sauce before, and i like my shallot chopped into tiny pieces!! somehow it looks prettier to me, and tastier also (me think...) the chilli sauce was super hot when i tasted it on its own, but was actually ok when eaten with the chicken and the rice!


-Hainanese chicken rice with choy sum and 2 sauces-

excuse the look of the food (esp the veg =.=) as they were 2 days old, and been microwaved...

warning: please remember to wear gloves when playing with chilli (esp the small super hot ones). i had this burning feeling on my fingers for one. whole. night. then i remembered that i've felt this burning sensation before... me dont learn from past experiences...

Post #20

This is going to be a BIG post!! =)

Sis and i went to Taste of Sydney at Centennial Park yesterday. Apart from eating LOTS of great dishes from different restaurants (and spending LOTS of crowns, ie the currency used at the Taste of Sydney :( ), we also bought some awesome stuff!!

da lannnnn - beautiful beautiful heirloom tomatoes!!! we need to make a v nice caprese salad out of them!!

LOOK the variety~


LOOK how colourful~


by this point i already got overly excited, only to grab this baby out!!! absolutly humongous~


and the finished product:

-Colourful heirloom tomatoes with bocconcini + prosciutto in balsamic vinegar dressing-

hehe... cant get enuf - one more:


taste wise, we have concluded that the heirloom tomatoes actually taste the same as the truss tomatoes... :P

also made other dishes last night~ dinner for mum & dad before their trip to adelaide!!


-Blue eye trevalla with spinach and mixed mushroom in soy broth-


-Waygu beef with mushroom cream sauce and potato + sweet potato mash-

Also bought this at the market:

-Roasted garlic sourdough bread with olive oil-

Post #19

i cooked a few dishes over the weekend, but the one i spent most time, heart and effort cooking, i forgot to take a picture of =.=

raghhhhhhh!!!

it was a chicken and veg curry using the curry paste dad brought all the way back from macau!! the curry paste is really nice and i only needed to put in a tablespoonful of it for a big wok of chicken and veg!

when i cook a dish like curry i always think about the colours when buying the ingredients - making sure that i have a variety of attractive colours! i think that makes the food more appetising :) green veg like zucchini, broccoli or beans, bright coloured veg like red and yellow capsicum and orangy carrot!!

this time i chose a combo of broccoli, carrot, potato and some funky eggplant called "graffiti eggplant"!! they were selling them as a new variety at coles and i thought i'd give it a try!!

at least i took a photo of the graffiti eggplant....

Post #18

thanks MilMil for this fabulous cooking idea~~

i would not have imagined this combination, but as soon as i heard of the name of this dish, i thought... ahhh, this would work!!!


-Grilled chicken wings with fermented tofu and honey sauce-

Post #17

was looking for a new dessert recipe the other day and found one for cappuccino cupcakes!! the photo on the recipe page was soooo tempting cos they had the cake literally baked in a cup and the mascarpone cheese cream on top looked exactly like the froth on a cup of cappuccino!! too cute i had to give it a try!!

my first attempt was successful but i didnt like the coffee cake base - thought it was too moist. so i tried using another cake recipe but modified it to include coffee.

here are the cupcakes! for some bizarre reason they all raised and expanded (this part i can understand from the self-raising flour) and spilt to the same direction to the left... hm.... does this have something to do with turning the oven on fan force... i wonder.... but looks like some cosmetic surgery is required....



then whip the mascarpone cheese, cream and kahlua, slab on the cupcakes and sprinkle with chocolate powder.

da lan.......


-Cappuccino cupcakes-

Post #16

Ha! Sis is definitely helping me to keep up with my cooking skills~~!!

i thought we were going to have instant noodles tonight, then i came home to find that sis bought some fresh king prawns, leek and some green, so looks like it's another night of pasta!!


-King prawn spaghettini with tomato mushroom spinach in bisque sauce-

a bit high in cholesteral, but its such a waste to throw away the prawn heads, especially when the prawns are so fresh!! so i dumped them in the pan to make a prawn bisque sauce! Yum~!!

then we whacked up a quick green avocado salad:


-Green + avocado salad with anchovy lemon butter vinaigrette dressing-

Post #15

another MUSHROOM night!!!

mushrooms are not cheap! especially when it comes to those exotic mushrooms ~ enoki, shiitaki, oyster, Honshimeji, porcini ~ but they are so yum its worth it once in a while.


-Rib eye steak with swiss brown + button mushroom sauce-


-Mixed mushroom, tofu and leek soup-

to make this soup you can basically use any mushrooms handy, but hopefully with at least 2-3 different types. this time we used button, swiss brown, oyster, Honshimeji and enoki. the leek and the mushrooms, particulary the oriental ones, have great sweet flavours, so i only added a few spoonfuls of chicken stock and a tint of cream at the end.

also made a salad using haloumi cheese and pear:


-Mixed green salad with grilled haloumi cheese + pear puree in balsamic dressing-