Post #64

hubby's back for a week and i can already tell the big diff. the home is dust free and the food in the fridge and pantry disappears rates faster!!

last night i used 2 whole hours to cook up a lasagne, a quick salad and a toast. ha, will no doubt fail big time if i'm a masterchef contestant!!

my v first attempt to make lasagne *if i can call it a lasagne...* - its free form, which, in essence, means that its messy. hehe. and of course, i used the leftover wonton sheets rather than lasagne pasta sheets :)


-Free form meatball lasagne-

the cooked wonton sheets were so freaky hot to fiddle with, i kept making jinxing noises as i stack up the lasagne, i'm sure hubby thought i was fighting with food, not cooking food.

inwards - stacks of pumpkin, zucchini, meatballs, bocconcini and parmesan with homemade tomato sauce and wonton sheets in between each layer.



the lasagne was sooo tasty, i'll definitely cook again. but i'll need to find a way to keep it hot without drying it out! maybe i wont spend so much time stacking it and will make even more free form next time! :)


-Smoked salmon with ricotta, creme fraiche + lemon olive oil on sourdough toast-


-Coleslaw-
i always use apple in mine! sweet~

Post #63

so what would happen if one type of starch meets another type of starch?! my immediate reaction was... hm... that cant be v good - way too much carb and way too filling!! but on second thought, it actually shouldnt be so terrifying, especially with this cold winter weather!

the starch combo i had in mind was pasta and potato, not in the form of gnocchi, but a slightly creamy crushed potato with orechhiette. and i liked the idea of using all creamy colours *matching the winter theme perhaps?!* so i chose cauliflower.


-Crushed potato and cauliflower orechhiette-

at first i thought the combo's too blend, but they worked surprisingly well. the clean sweetness of the cauliflower actually cuts through the earthy *but also heavy* potato. and the spiciness of the pepperoni and the chilli flakes gives it a good kick! :) only if i had used better quality pepperoni *i wont mention the brand!*... the skin was way too tough to chew by anyone's standard... might get some good chorizo instead next time.

Post #62

dinner for one.

its pretty hard to get me cooking when i'm just eating by myself, well... other than a quick noodle or a couscous or mum's pre-made wontons. but with my recent discovery of the smittenkitchen site, i was so tempted to try out one of the simple warm salad recipes!

thought i'd get some nice bread to go with the salad to make a decent dinner so i ventured to the central baking depot during lunchtime and got a beautiful loaf of hazelnut and saltana sourdough bread :)




-Warm butternut squash + chickpea salad with tahini dressing-



hm... not sure if i can call it tahini dressing, cos i used chinese sesame paste rather than tahini. wiki told me that tahini is basically a sesame paste, so i'm guessing that the chinese ones taste similar?! i added a good sprinkle of toasted hazelnut on top and it added a good crunch. the salad turned out quite nice, and i love that nutty and lemony dressing! only missing maybe some hot juicy lamb chops?? :p

Post #61

sis came over to be my guinea pig tonight :)

this time i got inspired by one of masterchef Marion's dishes - smoked salmon and creme fraiche tortellini - the one she cooked for the pasta invention test! but with my own little twist :)

i rarely make pasta with fillings, but whenever i do, i always cheat and use chinese wonton sheets! *hehe* not only am i lazy, but i also like how chinese wonton/dumpling sheets are comparatively thin and silky. and making fresh pasta is kinda beyond me... with the filling, i've varied Marion's recipe and used smoked salmon, potato mash, creme fraiche, ricotta, lemon zest, milk (just to loosen up the potato) and dill sprigs.

wrapping in action:


i had no time to get prawns for the dish, so i decided to cook up some braised leek to go with the tortellini. i tried to be v careful to retain the lovely shape of the leek cut diagonally when cooking in the pan *but i still had some burnt bits... =.=* adding a tiny splash of chicken stock and a small dollop of butter, cover the lid and let it slowly cook until tender, then finish with a squeeze of lemon juice.


-Smoked salmon + potato mash tortellini with braised leek-

and a close look at the filling:


loved loved loved the subtle lemon flavour in the filling!!! was a yum and refreshing dish! but not quite enough for dinner... so i whacked up a quick toast using the leftover mash mixture and smoked salmon.


-Smoked salmon, cherry tomato + creamy potato toast-

Post #60 - 22.06.2010

as the clock ticks to midnight, its officially hubby's birthday!!!

its another year where hubbys spending his special day by himself in wollongong >.< so i pre-made a tiny gift for him to take to the gong to unwrap on the day :)

this chocolate cake has now become one of my favourite cakes, and should (fingers crossed) be "tough" enough to survive a 1.5 hr road trip and a few days in the fridge. i'm making a one-serve version this time using ramekins.


my attempt to decorate the tiny cake, not much surface to work with!!! *haha* tiny teddies in choc mousse bath!!


carefully placed in plastic container:


with clear instructions that this can only be opened on 22.06.2010!! *keke*


and heres a spare cake that i cut up - flourless choc cake with a small dollop of strawberry jam topped with choc mousse:

-Flourless chocolate cake topped with chocolate mousse-

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR~! Hope you liked this little pressie! xx

ps. and thanks to sis, we discovered that the cake is also v nice eaten while hot, v light and airy, its almost like a souffle~!

Post #59

i used to make this all the time, but for some strange reason i havent made one for ages.. not till my dear Alice mama asked me to make it for her when she's in sydney and kept "reminding" me for the last 2 weeks!

i was going to try out a new recipe which uses a butter cake base in lieu of the sponge fingers, thought it'd be cool to make something different. then i found my new cooking enemy... butter cake. i was absolutely devastated, having made it twice and still not getting the fluffiness it should have. anyways... i'll definitely come back to it!!

but for my dear Alice mama, i stuck with the good old sponge fingers. hehe...


-Tiramisu-

hehe, the traditional one is always reliable and tastes yum~!

Post #58

clearing up some old food photos~!

this one cooked recently - my continuous love of using fruit in savoury dishes! this time chicken and orange. i'd say orange possibly goes better with pork, but chicken is not bad too! :)


-Chicken wings in orange marinade-
i admit... those 2 pieces of orange look kinda, err... arbitrary and awkward. =.= my bad attempt to dish it up nicely...

second dish cooked a while back - simple stir fry using steamed chinese mushrooms donated by my dearest mum! i must say... the steamed ones taste so so much better than those just soaked up in water!


-Chicken chinese mushrooms tofu and veg stir fry-

Post #57

what have i got myself into?? its been a massive cooking day!

it all started a couple of weeks back, when dad said its fathers day in hk yesterday. and as sis is going to treat us all to expensive french dinner next next week, i volunteered to cook dinner for dad to celebrate dads day! lucky we have today as public holiday, so i had more time to cook a decent meal for 4.

after lunch, i started preparing the food and worked like a bee in the kitchen! sis helped out in the last hour or so. my conclusion is... i work slow in the kitchen =.=

first course:

-Seared scallops on fennel orange + apple salad-

second course - combo of tuna, kingfish + scallop sashimi with snow pea sprout, apple + carrot julienne + shredded cabbage:

-Seafood tartare with sesame + ginger dressing-

side - was a complete failure >.< will not make again.. hehe.

-Grilled bocconcini prosciutto parcels with victoria honey pear-

third course:

-Mediterranean seafood soup-

fourth course:

-Roasted miso rib eye fillet with pumpkin mash-

yes i know... we eat a lot =.= but there's also... ahem... dessert, which we had about 1.5 hrs after the meal.

dessert:

-Caramel pumpkin pudding-

one more.


happy dads day dad! happy dads day next sunday.... *after i volunteered myself to cook, we realised that hk dads day is actually next sunday....* but it was a nice dinner still :)

Post #56

so so so cold... but cooking gets me out of my cosy laptop corner!

thought i have a bit more time this saturday to cook something more fiddly and time consuming. its actually quite simple, but stuffing little capsicum and eggplant with fish cake mixture could take forever...





then these were lightly pan fried till golden. by this time, a handful of the stuffed babies have had the fish detached =.= then separately i cooked a black bean and garlic sauce before popping the stuffed babies back in and stir fry till completely cooked. hehe.. and after a few more stirs, half the stuffed babies had the fish mixture detached... argh!!! all that effort!!!!


-Stuffed capsicum + eggplant fish cake in black bean sauce-

Post #55

another food vision i had the other day (i'm daydreaming about food more n more often nowadays....) - using chinese ingredients to cook italian. its fun to see ideas turning into reality. yummy reality! :)

big pan of risotto:


combining western + asian ingredients - onion, fennel, celery, roast duck (hehe, told you i love chinese bbq shop!), shitaki mushrooms, honshimeji mushrooms and wood ear mushrooms. with the liquid, i used stock from the duck bones, white wine, soy and mirin.

hehe... too much ingredients as opposed to rice :p

-Roast duck and asian mushroom risotto-

Post #54

sorry, another dessert post... but for special reason!

my dear milmil and her hubby came to syd home for a short trip and i invited them over for tea and dessert after dinner. baked this cake especially for her, as she likes earl grey tea :)




-Earl grey tea chiffon cake-

Post #53

felt like baking yesterday and when i saw this easy chocolate cake recipe on citrus&candy, i couldnt resist trying it out! i rarely bake chocolate cakes, cos most of them are dense and sweet and rich. i like my cakes light and fluffy! and playing with chocolate can get quite messy... esp when i'm playing with it =.=

to my surprise, the cake turned out really well even when i thought the egg white was beaten too stiffly... like my fav baked cheesecake, the cake bakes to a point of height looking absolutely glorious, but only takes minutes to deflate. but that's the way its meant to be.... you just have to bear the sight of a beautifully baked baby deflating into an ugly shrunken cake. still tastes good tho.

choc baby just came out of the oven - looking tall and proud:


deflating:


after make up:

-Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse + hazelnut-

Post #52

that night when hubby was home but not feeling so well, we stayed at home for dinner rather than venturing out to the parents. cooked all day that day for the week's food, so had little time to cook an extravagant meal for dinner.

cooked us each a big big bowl of udon. both feeling relaxed and happy sitting next to one another with a big bowl of comforting goodness, merrily digging in whilst watching tv.

hehe.. topping overload:

-Udon in soy broth-

and dumplings donated by mummy:

-Pan fried pork and garlic chives dumpling with soy vinegar-