Post #157

ok, I think its kinda about time for a western food post. tho I must admit that ive been rather slack nowadays I've really only been cooking chinese food for dinner. a stir fry is always quicker to whack up than anything else. love my chinese heritage. hehe.

this is not by any means any extravagant candle light western cuisine. i've stuck with the quick-to-whack-up theme and made pasta and salad. recently i found some lovely handmade fresh pasta selling at coles, and i couldn’t resist the temptation. i've always wanted to make my own pasta knowing that it would taste a million miles better than the dry packet ones. but the thought of investing another piece of kitchenware and the image of hubbys face when flour is dusted all over the kitchen pulled me back to crude reality. yes, to the extent that i would rather pick up the packet of expensive handmade fresh pasta and dump it in my shopping basket, with no regrets. this one leek and herbed spaghettini!!!

in order to bring out the pasta i kept the sauce as simple as can be. i've decided to cook it with fish, lemon and a touch of cream. so so simple but tasty!! to cook the sauce, i started the pan with finely chopped onion, leek and garlic, sautee and then add a splash of stock and some chopped chilli. place the piece of cod in the broth, then add seasoning, lemon zest and lemon juice. close the lid and let it simmer till the fish is just cooked. then add a dash of fresh cream in, let it bring to the boil again and the sauce is done. meanwhile, cook the pasta in a separate pot. great thing about fresh pasta is they only take 2 minutes to cook!! scoop the al dente pasta across to the sauce, add a sprinkle of chopped mint and toss to combine. DONE!!


-creamy lemon fresh spaghettini with cod-

fresh pasta has an indescribably lovely texture ~ much spring-ier (but not chewy) and velvet-ier than its dry counterparts!!! considering a plate of pasta served in a restaurant would cost more than $20 at the minimum and chances are they also use dry pasta, this is actually not bad for value, as one packet renders 2 servings!!

and to go with the pasta, I also made a salad - yes hell we are healthy!! hahaha… i picked up 2 pomegranates the other day because they were discounted. and i made a chopped cucumber, pomegranate, olive, almond and mint salad with a lemon and balsamic vinaigrette. pome bursts!!!!


-chopped cucumber, olive, almond + mint salad with pomegranate-

Post #156

when our friend suggested that we have hotpot at her place on the labour day public holiday, my mind for some bizarre reason wondered off to wonton and dumpling land. i never ever really had to make wontons or dumplings from scratch because my mum is literally a wonton/dumpling-machine *no kidding* and our fridge rarely falls short of wonton/dumpling supplies. i would only help mum out on the odd occasions, making a batch or two when mum's mass producing them. anyways, i'll save the wonton/dumplings for another post.

reason why i raised this topic is because i had to make wonton n dumplings, i had to buy some pork mince. and i have never bought any meat in any sort of large scale (and yes, 1kg of pure meat with no bone is considered large scale in my household). my method of "measuring" anything that uses the concept of grams or kilograms has always been descriptions of "numbers" (if the item can be counted, e.g. 8 prawns) or "handful" or "scoop" or "half" or "quarter" (if the item cannot be counted). so after i asked for 1 kg of pork mince and saw the huge pile of meat that got shoved into the plastic bag, i thought i should have stuck with 2 handfuls...

so what i'm trying to get at is that i had too much leftover mince, and hubby asked if i could make this well-known shanghai-nese dish called 獅子頭 (lion head meatballs). hubby for once came up with a sensible food idea!!


-獅子頭 *lion head meatballs*-

this was my first attempt. i found from googling that they come in 2 forms - in soup or braised in thick sauce. hubby prefers the latter. and there's this variation i found on the net that i particularly wanted to try with the mince mix -combining pork mince (i used 80% lean and 20% fatty), finely diced onion, chopped shallot, grated ginger, some tofu, corn flour, n the basic seasoning. then grab a small handful of mixture (about size of an egg) and dab it repeatedly from the palm of your right hand to the left - apparently this gets rid of the air in the meat mixture. pop them in the pan one after another to sear the outside till golden. you can achieve better looking balls with perfect round shape and golden coating by deep frying them. then pour in some water, cover the lid and let them bubble away for a few minutes. then surround the balls with bok choy and let it simmer for a bit more, adding seasoning and a bit of oyster sauce and soy sauce. when the balls are cooked through and the veg are cooked, round it off with some corn starch water to make a thick sauce and its done!!

the tofu adds a good softness to the balls. this helps especially when the there's protionately less fatty mince used. and best to chop the onions really small! great alternative to italian meatballs!! :)

Post #155

i've got these beautifully thick pork chop sitting in the freezer for long enough. only reason why they've been abandoned in there is because they're not the easiest piece of meat to play with. and they are so big and thick... it kinda puts you off. but once you're gutsy enough to take them out of the freezer, you dont really have a choice, but to deal with it... hehe.

and with some leftover dishes that need to be also consumed tonight, i couldnt just pan fry the big pieces of meat with a side salad and call it dinner. so i decided to chop them up into smaller pieces and asian-ise it!


-lemon pork chop-

i've never tried this sauce on pork chop... it has always been a friend of chicken wings, but it worked wonderfully well with pork chop too :) and i must say, producing less fat in the sauce as well!! i was a bit worried that the pork will turn out tough as they're so thick! but afterall, they ARE beautiful pieces of meat, they were still tender and juicy.

will definitely make again.

Post #154

its been a few months since my last post, and in all seriousness it was due to diff things that happened - theres good news and also bad news, but be it good or bad, i feel that we've grown to be that little stronger.

and life goes on. so does the cooking.

i'm not sure why, but chinese food seems to be dominating our home dinner menu lately. thing with chinese food is, they are so easy and quick to whack up, fantastical!!


-hoi tong tofu *海棠豆腐*-

my take of this dish which can be found in menus of all chinese restaurants!! steamed egg white custard topped with a bed of diced tofu, prawn, crab sticks and sugar snap peas in a light xo glossy thick sauce. feels like having 2 dishes combined in one, but absolutely delish~!

see the 2 layers! tho it was kinda like topping overload...

Post #153

hubby's mum gave us some beautiful beef steaks. i'm not sure what cut it is, but its got a great beefy flavour and despite overcooking it slightly *my bad :(* it was still v tender n delicious! now, this must be good beef!! hahaha. *whack on the head for overcooking again!!*

but i cooked some lovely veg and made a beee-u-tiful salsa verde *see i watch too much masterchef..* so hope i'm forgiven for overcooking the beef...


-Beef steak with kipfler potatoes, carrots, asparagus + parsley salsa verde-

the potatoes and carrots i simply boiled them with salt. after pan frying the steak with the asparagus, i whacked in the potatoes and carrots so that the veg could scrap off the oily steak juices, whilst the meat is resting - this picks up great flavours and cleans the pan for you at the same time!! ;p

with the salsa verde, i used parsley. and it was the most refreshing sauce you could get!

along with the steak, i also cooked a quick butter bean soup.


-Butter bean soup-

Post #152

is it me or what? this year's winter has been sooo cold, and by far colder than last year *although i tend to complain about the cold when its cold, and about the heat when its hot* when its hot, i'd say its probably better to be cold... at least you can put more layers on. but the reality is. no matter how many layers you put on, theres always flesh here and there thats exposed to the cold air. im yet waiting for some genius to invent a fashionable headwear that covers the entire face but without making the wearer looks like a bank robber...

now back to food. it goes without saying that it must be something that brings warmth and heartiness to the freezing soul. thank you to my wonderful wonderful mum. she saves me the worlds trouble for preparing this ingredient that i always love. chestnut. somehow i associate it with winter. a big pot of braised meat with chestnut, its just a v homely thing to me. let alone a whole box of big fresh ones peeled and ready!! the frozen stuff just cant compare. luv u mum!!


-Braised chicken wings with chestnut + chinese mushrooms-

the cooking part is effortless compared to peeling those chestnut. hehe, simply brown the wings, then chuck in some spanish onions, then the chestnuts and the chinese mushrooms, and let it braise. dead simple but soooo delicious.

Post #151

just came back from our little holiday break. am currently battling against the 180 degrees change from sweat. heat. humidity. to freezi-cold. rain. dark cloud. miserableness. brrrrrrrr....

was going to post what i cooked tonight - a quick fix "braised" dish perfect for a chilling cold rainy winter weeknight. but i'll save that for the next post.

as promised, the belated dessert for mums day.


-Serradura-



this is a classic portuguese dessert i first tried in macau. serradura's more widely known as sawdust pudding because of the grounded biscuits that go between the layers of cream. this is one dessert for which i have a love-hate relationship with *if you could have any form of relationship with a dessert, that is...* with the world's simplest ingredients, being pretty much just condensed milk, cream and grounded biscuits, this dessert is the worst layering nightmare! why?! because cream does not stick to a powdered biscuit surface. so understandably, the versions commonly seen have v thick layers of cream. but being a bit of a layer freak, i ended up with quite a number of layers *which took about 2 hours of intense layering* with continuous curses and jinxes flying out every few seconds.

as painful as it is, this is undoubtedly a lovely dessert. lovely in its simpicity in taste. and not a bad way to express my thank u to the mums!

Post #150

it was mothers day yesterday, and i volunteered to host a mums day dinner at our home. bit risky to cook for the mum cooks and cooking for a bunch of ppl is always exciting but also nerve-racking. the idea is to keep things as simple as possible as i have time issues on sundays. with 2 lessons scheduled on sunday, its hard to get a big block of time to prepare and to cook. so i tried to be organised - made dessert and started off a soup base the night before. and of course my secret weapons - da most reliable team members, sis and hubby - to share the pain. keke.

so on sunday, after my first class, sis and i had 1.5 hrs to do some prep work. washing and chopping. and made a cauliflower mash which can be reheated just before serving. then after my second class, we had a bit more than an hour to finish off the meal - and that's when things get hectic. its always the final half an hour...

anyways, so whats on the menu:


-warm bread rolls-

haha, this is really to fill ppl's stomach up in case i didnt have enough food prepared. but still with much love. to serve with the bread, i made truffle butter and dipping aged balsamic vinegar with extra virgin olive oil. thanks to tetsuya for its truffle salsa and to our dear friends who bought us a precious bottle of aged balsamico from italy. 2 effortless condiments to go with the bread rolls!!



see the butter in the bottom left corner! dont have a proper pic of it but it made it in the rocket salad pic!


-Rocket + pear salad with balsamic vinaigrette-


-asian caprese salad-

this is a pleasant variation to the italian version, substituting bocconcini with cold tofu and sweet basil with thai basil. the dressing was simply rice vinegar, soy, sugar, sesame oil and olive oil. a deliciously clean and healthy salad!!


-Roast beef with creamy miso mushroom sauce and cauliflower mash-

if only i could master the technique of making a perfect roast beef. this time it was a tint too raw for my liking - and leaving it in the oven for another 2-3 minutes would have made it perfect. frustrating thing is you wont really know till you carve the meat after its rested, by which time it would be too late to shove it back in the oven... :( flavour wise, it was absolutely delish. creamy miso mushrooms and cauliflower mash - big tick!!!

and a big big bowl of greens:


-Braised brussel sprouts + green beans-

finally, the course that guarantees full tummies for everyone:


-Portuguese seafood rice soup-

you could call this a cheat. with beautiful fresh seafood going into a tub of water, you'd probably get a good soup. and with beautiful fresh seafood going into a tub of fragrant soup with onions, garlic, chorizo, white wine, tomatoes, red capsicum, thyme and bay leave, you're definitely guaranteed a brilliant dish. so it was a safe dish to make *noting that its for the mum cooks, it was better to play safe!!* to ensure we're served with hot soup, i first cooked the mussels, pipis and prawns in the tub of soup, one after another, then cover them to keep warm, before adding in the rice. when everyone's 70% finished with their food on the plate, i had the heat back on again, and cooked the fish pieces last, just before serving.

by this point, everyone's so very very full. was particularly happy to see the mums happy. and its just cosy to have dinner at home rather than eating out.

and after a short break, we had fruits and dessert!!


-Sis' fruit platter-

these seedless red skin grapes are in season now and they are sooo yum - crunchy crisp outwards and v sweet inwards. we managed to consume 90% of the platter. great effort considering we were all so full and knowing dessert is coming.

dessert - to be continued...

Post #149

i finally managed to persuade hubby to let me buy a plant. it may sound ridiculous that such thing as buying a plant requires permission from the man. but he has his reasons *and quite rightly too* considering my badly failed attempt of nurturing a pot of sweet basil a year ago. the plant was surviving relatively fine until one day the leaves were covered with tiny white dots, which we suspect were some kind of insect's eggs. in the end, we had to give it up, and that was the end of my sad first planting experience.

since that time, i see plants in a whole new perpective. it makes it feel envious when i see friends showing off their healthy plants and fruitful produces; when i see the corner of jamie oliver's kitchen full of perfect looking pots of herbs; when i see jamie trimming off a whole chunk of leaves from his plants and then everything would miraculously "re-grow" themselves to perfection in time for the next episode! envious.

so you see, to me, owning a herb and veg garden seems like a v distant dream. imagine a world where fresh herbs and vegs are just footsteps away in your verandah. imagine a world where you dont need to buy a big bunch of herb with an expiry tag on it. worse still when you need 3 types of herbs for a meal.... and you'd be planning a week's worth of meals to finish off the herbs.

having recently seen a friend's v fruitful harvest, i'm all inspired again!!! this time i'm trying a diff herb:


-Thyme + Lemon thyme-

we're determined to make it right this time! even invested in a lovely clay pot for them. been a few days now and we swear it has grown by a few mm everyday! thats a good sign.

Post #148

here comes the dessert for our dinner for 4. i previously made an 8' cake tin version and this time round i adjusted the recipe to my liking, so as to make it less sugary but lighter and fluffier *whilst still v naughty* its unusual i can spend so much time on a dessert, but it was well worth the effort!! although i may not make these tiny versions anymore and revert to the cake tin version :)

the concept comes from rocky road chocolates, but transformed into cake form.


-Mini rocky road cake-



a chocolate and espresso coffee chiffon cake base topped with a light and smooth chocolate mousse. and in the centre there is a layer of naughty goodness - marshmallows, sugar coated pistachio and almonds, dried cranberries, currants and turkish delight. this cake is so fun to eat!! kinda has a sexy exterior but a cheeky kiddy interior.

the interior:



my first cake attempt:



see the brandy snaps? took me a while to make them look good. and despite the effort, the snaps LITERALLY snapped in the end after a day of refrigerating >.< apparently they wont last for more than a few hours in the fridge. d'oh

Post #147

we had visitors coming over for dinner friday night, and i thought cooking 2 hot dishes and 2 cold dishes plus a dessert for 4 would be plenty... i should have remembered that we have 2 blokes, and feeding them with a lot of veg probably cant fool their tummies that its food they're consuming!! haha. despite the fact that we may be a little down on food, we had a great time with these guys!! ^^

the cold dishes~


-Fig + proscuitto with lemon mint yoghurt dressing-

bought these figs in a pack and they're not bad. this combo is always a winner and so so easy to make!!

now this is special. whenever i watch jamie's 30 minutes meal, i'd complain how he could always get the coolest ingredients and claim that he got them from normal super. heirloom tomatoes, humongous buffalo mozzarella, the thinnest cured meat, odd coloured carrots, zucchinis and broccolini and strange species of micro herbs. envious. we dont see them in OUR super... so you can see how i got over excited when i saw purple carrots on sale at coles. its black outside and has a v dark purple colour inside.


-Carrot + purple carrot, corn + green salad with herb dressing-

taste wise, purple is just the same as normal carrots but i believe the colour of the food and its combination play a role in food appetite. certainly my appetite! red and dark purple carrots, green leaves, yellow corn and green salsa verde dressing. the dressing i blended together parsley, mint, lemon zest, lemon juice, chilli + olive oil. simple but refreshingly delicious!

the hot dishes~


-Roasted rib eye beef with cauliflower mash-

rolling the beef on some chopped thyme, olive oil and seasoning. then pan fry it before putting it into the oven for roasting. too simple to make, if you know how long it should stay in the oven =.= having made some v raw roasted beef last time, i went the other way this time :( lucky it was good quality meat.... but made it kinda a waste, my bad >.<

but but, i successfully made a cauliflower MASH rather than a SOUP. :)

finally, risotto. i like making risotto, somehow i find it less fiddly than other pasta... maybe there's less pots and pans involved.


-Prawns, asparagus, zucchini + lemon risotto-

add the grated zucchini in last or it will turn grey. all fresh colours and it was beautiful :)

dessert posting next time.

Post #146

i bought myself a little toy - a veggie twister.

when you eat sashimi in jap restaurants, you'd see underneath the raw fish a pile of curly julienne carrots and radish. this little toy does a rustic job of that :) it may not be professionally presentable, but its probably enough for domestic purposes and its fun!!!



and to test it out, i've made a colourful salad~

see the 2 functions of the twister?! curly julienne strips and curly slices:



lovely summer colours - red tomatoes, yellow mangoes, green cucumber + mint, orange carrots and white vermicelli in a vietnamese nouc cham dressing. so refreshing and eye appetising!


-Colourful vermicelli salad with nouc cham dressing-

and a meaty friend of the vietnamese style salad:


-Lemongrass chicken skewers-

Post #145

felt like some simple homely food last night, plus our rice container is almost empty =.= i thought we'd have congee and noodles instead. will need to fill up our rice tank on the weekends...

cooking up a smooth congee can be a real battle against one's level of patience *which was already running low after a long day at work*. you let the rice bubble away in the water bath until it slowly thickens and then gradually starting to break down... what a painfully snailing process!! and when the impatient unit *moi* gave the bubbly hot thickened congee a good stir, the congee reacted most violently and splurted 2 burning hot drops on the finger Y.Y

anyways, it was tasty still...


-Congee with minced beef, pickled veg + raw egg yolk-
-Stir fry egg noodle with bean sprout in soy-
-Pan fried pork + veg dumpling-

congee was v nice. smooth with good flavours from the minced beef and the salty pickled veg, rounded off with a raw egg yolk, stirred through into the congee just before eating. makes such a diff to the congee!!

Post #144

sis introduced us to a tetsuya product called "black truffle salsa", which is kinda like a runny paste containing all the earthy goodness that one can possibly dream of~ mushrooms, black summer truffle, porcini mushrooms, anchovy, garlic in olive oil and water. the bottle says its for butter, which presumably you're suppose to add to butter and eat with bread?! sis made pizza for us using this, it was YUM.

tonight, i was going to cook a steamed egg custard. remember the mushy egg custard with pumpkin mash on top?! well, that was a bit of a taste disaster. this time, i had a much sensible idea. so much more sensible, and delicious~ ;p


-Steamed egg custard with mushrooms + black truffle sauce-

so i separately cooked a thick sauce using some swiss brown mushroom slices and chestnut mushrooms with a big teaspoonful of truffle salsa, then pour it on top of the cooked custard. so so good.

close up:



AND cooked one of hubby's favourites:


-Stir fried water spinach with fermented tofu and chilli-

Post #143

i didnt realise till recently... or maybe i did but only admit it recently, that i like most things layered. cakes especially, for some bizarre reason, the layered ones attract my attention. i find it quite intriguing. does it taste better if a cake is layered?! possibly.. or does it?

a perfect example. the indonesian layer cake. i remember as a child i used to peel the layers when eating it, and its without a doubt, fun, playful and delicious. imagine without the layers...? the fun is gone.

once in a very long while i would make crepe cakes, or be tempted to make crepe cakes. i love crepes, and whenever i see layers of crepes in cake form, i have an urge to try it out. they were never successful tho, and always ended up becoming hard and unpleasant to eat after being fridged. until the other day i came across something called "french crepe cake". the recipe says to prepare the cake in 2 days... and despite this, i was brave enough to give it a try. i was too attracted to the picture of the sliced up cake, a beautiful beautiful 20 layers of thin crepes with thin layers of white cream in between. it was like an angel of a cake!!!

dont be fooled by the boring exterior~


-French crepe cake-

here comes the angel~

Post #142

after we had the mussels, i saved up the leftover broth. that liquid gold full of mussels and vegetable goodness. with a few more mussels left, i decided to cook a risotto using the leftover 'stock' and added pork to add substance and extra flavour to the rice.

so here it is:


-Pork + mussels risotto-

so so so tasty!! i'm glad i commanded that noone can touch the broth when we had our mussels meal!! the rice has an intense mussel flavour *afterall there were 1.5 kg of mussels in that pot* and the pork gives it a meaty sweetness.

on the plate:



and of course we had to invite sis over for this meal!! ^^ and especially so when sis offered to make pizzas for us!!


-Mushroom + truffle salsa pizza-


-Prosiutto, tomato + rocket pizza-

and we cant have a meal without a good portion of veg!!!


-DIY caesar salad-



it was fun to do it DIY style, particularly when we had to use our hands for the pizza anyway. we dont have caesar salad dressing at home, so i just put in the blender cream cheese, mayo, capers, anchovy, lemon juice, lemon zest and olive oil for a quick whiz. not exactly the same thing, but good enough :) it has a lovely lemon-y flavour. v refreshing!

Post #141

cooked a bit of a storm tonight. its saturday!!! and with nothing planned after voting, taking mum to the airport and getting groceries, we spent the rest of the afternoon at home. spent it baking and preparing dinner, whilst hubby cleaned up the home. :)

i wanted to cook seafood tonight since we normally dont get to do so on weeknights. and having had mussels recently, i sooo wanted to try it out myself!!! also made some other dishes, plus sis brought some over. it was a great dinner! and a fabulous way to spend saturday ^^


-Mussels in tomato, celery + mushroom creamy broth-

so so easy to make *altho it does take a while to brush clean the mussels* but sooo rewarding!! basically get the right broth going in the pan *whichever combo and flavour you like*, then simply chuck in the mussels, cover the lid then wait till they open up!

now the other dishes. mussels arent v filling, so i tried out jamie oliver's cheat "roasted" potatoes. ha, roasted without using the oven. it was amazingly delicious!!


-Pan fried crushed potatoes with bacon, marjoram + bayleaf-

being not much of a potato person, this was probably my fav dish for the night, as it tastes much tastier than i expected! will definitely cook again!!

other dishes:


-Prawns salsa-

the salsa had some cubed cucumber and tomatoes, crushed avocado and prawn meat, and the sauce i just randomly mixed together thousand island, lime juice, verjuice, lemon olive oil and tobasco.


-Kingfish carpaccio with apple + lime vinaigrette-


-Korean beef tartare-

and these ones made by sis~ yum!!


-salmon sashimi with salmon roe-


-Scallop sashimi-


-Miso minced tuna ball-

sis also brought us a bottle of moscato!!! YUM~


heheee... we wiped everything clean, just amongst the 3 of us =.= and... we even managed to have this cheese plate 2 hours afterwards:



was a fun night!!!