Post #110

i always cook simple when hubby's on-call. just in case he needs to dash any moment, so best to cook quickly and he can eat as much as could before someone calls.

japanese don is so simple to make but so satisfying! and hubby *for the first time* was surprised at how little washing there was afterwards!! haha.



firstly, boil some japanese rice. then simply chop up onion and carrot in large thin pieces, and briefly marinate some chicken thigh pieces. pan fry the carrot, onion and chicken with chopped garlic in a pan and until the veg and meat are almost cooked, then crack 2 eggs in a separate bowl, roughly stirred, then in they go into the pan. swirl the pan but dont stir. when the eggs are about 60% cooked and there is a little fried crust on the edge, pour in a little dash of konbu dashi stock and chuck in some finely grated ginger, season, then swirl again. when the eggy bits look kinda cooked but still a little runny, its ready!

this is the perfect dinner-for-one dish! but i used a slightly bigger pan as its our dinner-for-two, and filled a big bowl with rice, then place the egg goodness on top. *thats better then cooking 2 separate servings* and we just spoon the rice into our separate bowls, and eat merrily~


-Japanese chicken don-

made a side dish too *to finish off the green beans in the fridge*


-Green beans with peanut + sesame sauce-

Post # 109

saw one of the little masterchefs' recipes - garlic prawns, and i thought to myself, if a kid can do it, then surely that's manageable! and so the menu grew from there. not alot at all, but enough to go from manageable to not so manageable... =.= lucky last night hubby finished work early and gave me a hand!!!

so starting from the garlic prawns, the brainstorming begins - garlic prawns would go well with a lemon linguinni, and what about the prawn shells? why not try a chilli prawn oil so they dont go to waste? and maybe pasta's not enough, should also make a salad? theres a really cool cucumber and pomegranate salad i want to try too!!

and thats how things go out of control...

certainly didnt help when i found out in between all the pots and pans and boiling and frying that i had to do a work conference call last night!!!


-Garlic prawns + lemon linguinni with chilli prawn oil-

i gave up on using fresh breadcrumb for the garlic prawns which could have given it a better texture. lemon linguinni is actually quite simple *so i'm not sure why its taken me so long...* keeping it simple, i only used onion, garlic, stock, lemon juice and zest, lime juice and a hint of chilli. just before dishing up, chuck in a handful of rocket! the chilli prawn oil took a while, and in the end i wasnt sure whether it was worth it, as i could hardly taste it when i only had little droplets here and there =.=

now with the salad, it was a bit more fiddly than i expect. the cucumber had to be shaved into long ribbons. with chopped mint, celery heart and pan fried almond flakes. hubby dealt with the pomegrante and did a great job taking the pome seeds out!! then to find that the fetta cheese in the fridge has gone MOULDY :(


-Shaved cucumber + pomegranate salad-

the dressing is simple enough - just white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. initially i was worried that the salad has no salty and creamy element that the fetta cheese is meant to give, but luckily the salad still tastes really good without the cheese, thanks to the pome seeds!! little bursts of sweetness explodes in the mouth and went perfectly with the crunchy almond. will definitely make this again, and make sure that i have fetta cheese next time!! :)

Post #108

having a chaozhou ancestry means a lot to me in terms of the food we eat. the truth is, chaozhou people eat fairly distinct food compared to people from the other provinces in china. one example is the white congee - not in a runny consistency, but where the rice has soaked up the water and forms a thick gluey consistency. and we would merrily eat that like rice with pickled black olive, dried shrimp with soy, pickled crunchy cucumber, or other nibbles as a meal.

another type of chaozhou congee is to boil cooked rice in stock to form a rice soup, with minced pork or small oysters topped with some dried fish flakes. my type of comfort food :) pity we dont have dried fish flakes :(


-Chaozhou congee with minced pork, dried shrimp + chinese mushroom-

Post #107

we have a brand new blender!!!!! :) a fabulous gift from hubbys parents. i've always secretly wanted a blender, but havent got round to buy one due to lack of storage space. so whenever i come across recipes that require a blender, i would have had to sourly turn the page.

our first test on the blender.



chucking in bananas, blueberries, soy milk, quick twirl of honey and a handful of ice.


-Banana + blueberry smoothie-

one deliiiiish healthy smoothie, and great natural flavours too :)

Post #106

got a big carton of buttermilk in the fridge initially for the sweet muffins. on the side of the carton theres a super easy recipe for blueberry pancakes. and its almost magical that i so happen to have fresh blueberries in the fridge *they were discounted at coles ~ 2 punnets for $6!!* and even an orange in the fruitbowl, so that i could add some orange zest as suggested by the recipe!!


-Blueberry pancakes-

perfect brekkie to take to work tomorrow - one stack for hubby and one for moi :)

Post #105

my very first pork chop!! haha, i've always been reluctant to try them out because they're so thick! gives me the wrong impression that they are v tough. so i've always only cooked pork in asian style.

with the pork chop, i still used the asian method to "tenderise" the meat, i.e. by bashing it with the back of the knife. not sure if its necessary... then i poked little holes into the meat and stick little sprigs of rosemary through, roughly season with salt + pepper - like so:



looking great so far.

i also attempted to make some sort of a pear relish, which only consists of pear dices, sugar, maple syrup and a pinch of salt. the result was... err... a bit too sweet. =.=

pan frying the chop took quite a long while as it needs to cook through. about 2 min after flipping the chop, i added some garlic and a small knob of butter into the pan. when the chop is cooked and placed on a dish, i added a sprig of rosemary, some water and chicken stock into the pan, and some corn starch water to make a quick gravy - absolutely delish~~


-Pork chop with rosemary, sweet pear relish + white wine jelly-

the white wine jelly we bought the other day from a market - sooo beautiful~ perfect with seafood and white meat. also went v well with pork!! made the pear relish unnecessary =.=

to go with the chop, i made couscous with currant and a squeeze of lime juice, and a cabbage, carrot + pear salad with balsamic vinaigrette.



so satisfying~~

Post #104

i've re-established a love and excitement for baking muffins. they are just so fabulously easy to make but also fulfilling and yummy~ after baking the savoury ones, i came across a few sweet muffin recipes, and this is one of them that i'd love to give it a try.


-Mixed berries, white chocolate + macadamia nut muffin-

these are so good, they make the perfect breakfast!! i think i like sweet muffins over savoury muffins, but will probably give another savoury muffin recipe a go again later!!

then, the other night, the sis in law came over for dinner, and brought along this pancake mix:



you simply pour water, whisk, wait for 5 minutes, then pan fry! mum gave me some dried currant, so i sprinkled some onto the pancakes while pan frying :)


-Pancakes with currant, banana + maple syrup-

so convenient! but i think pancakes starting from scratch taste nicer~

Post #103

its so warm today, but got cooler as the sun set.

i have always wanted to try making my own vietnamese cold noodle salad, but its been so cold, i've delayed and delayed trying it out. so finally, it would be perfect to make this dish today!! :)

i had problem finding the right vermicelli - in fact, i was surprised that i couldnt find any vietnamese vermicelli. the right ones should be thicker than the chinese vermicelli but still quite thin. in the end i snatched a packet of chinese thick vermicelli.

getting all the cutting and chopping done - cucumber, carrot, mint, lettuce, chilli, peanuts and fried garlic:



going with the noodle salad, i marinated some chicken thigh fillets with lemongrass, ginger, garlic and fish sauce, to be pan fried to golden. absolutely delicious~


-Vietnamese noodle salad with lemongrass chicken-

Post #102

been sick, so was in no mood to cook :( just been whacking up the simplest food from whats in the fridge.

bought some beautiful large portobello mushrooms, so i slice them up into big thin pieces, which would go nicely with fettuccini. portobello mushrooms must be the big brother of swiss mushrooms because they have the same firmer texture compared to field and button mushrooms.


-Beef + portobello mushroom fettuccini-

in with the mushrooms there are some beef pieces, asparagus, chopped rosemary, a few dollops of sour cream and a sprinkle of grated parmesan. nice n easy~

Post #101

breakfast. i must confess, i dont pay much attention to breakfast, esp on the weekdays. the most i do is ensure that i eat something for breakfast, but i'm not fussed with what i eat - a banana, instant oat microwaved in a cup, or a piece of bread...

on the weekend, i baked some savoury muffin for breakfast! muffins are so easy and quick to make :)




-Bacon + leek muffin-