Post #51

thought i'd make meatballs again, but with a diff sauce. i felt like something more gutsy than a cosy homemade tomato sauce, so i started jotting down a few ingredients and food friends that might go well together. turned out to be a hell lot of chopping =.= for some reason i had a vision of all the complimenting elements (other than the meatballs) to be v finely chopped as i didnt want a thick sauce, so that the tiny pieces themselves would form part of the sauce. but it was so worth it! must have been one of the tastiest sauce i've made!

aside the chopping, this sauce took so long to cook, just because i kept taste testing, then adding this and that to achieve the right taste. hehe, that's why i can never write recipes with precise quantities of ingredients....


-Meatballs in pepperoni, red capsicum and lemon chilli sauce-

started the wok with onion and leek, then some pepperoni. let them caramelise a little before putting in some stock, then chilli, then pop the cameralised but half cooked meatballs back in the pan, add tomato paste, paprika, white wine, then lemon juice, capers, lemon zest and the usual salt, sugar and pepper. once you're happy that the meatballs are cooked, throw in the red capsicum and parsley and its done.

served with linguini or rice - YUM.

Post #50

wow~ this is the 50th food post!! *pat on the back!*

saw an interesting recipe recently and thought i'd give it a try - ginger powder puffs with strawberry jam:


the recipe requires gem-scone tins which i dont have at home, so the alternative was to spoon the mixture onto baking trays lined with baking paper. the result should be "feather-light bite-sized sponge cake" but mine turned out to be soft biscuits.. hehe, the texture is a bit like the traditional chinese biscuits 光穌餅, but with ginger powder flavour =.=

strawberry jam bubbling away:


the finished product served with strawberry jam and whipped cream with a sprinkle of ginger powder:


-Ginger powder puffs with strawberry jam-

hm... i think i prefer the real 光穌餅, it was one of my childhood favourites, but they dont sell the proper ones here Y.Y

Post #49

i candied some almonds just for fun last night. i originally wanted to make a relatively thick caramel coating but i didnt have the patience, and ended up having a sprinkly sugar coating. it was still yummy tho. :)

i used half the candied almonds in a salad and the other half in a yoghurt dessert. both simple and fast for moi cooking for moi-self!


-Fennel + orange salad with candied almonds-

the salad was so fresh and tasty it was almost like half a dessert. i made the vinaigrette dressing a tint sweeter for a more balanaced overall flavour - mixing verjuice, honey, mustard grains, orange zest, olive oil and a lil pinch of salt. it went well with the candied almonds! ;p~~


-Fig and yoghurt with honey + candied almonds-

Post #48

hehe. havent been a v creative cooking week this week. i cooked the hainanese chicken rice again, but with some little improvements this time. Lessons learnt from the last around, like, i bought some bay leaves to put into the rice and i didnt score the chicken maryland this time cos they actually steamed ok without scoring, and i was able to hand shred larger pieces of chicken meat. :)

its interesting how a lot of our daily cooking is driven by what leftover we have in the fridge. many occasions i would irresponsibly stock up diff ingredients because i want to try out a new recipe. then i spend the whole week or two trying to use up the remaining ingredients in a meaningful way, working my way through whats the next thing that will go off if i dont cook it soon...


-Stir fried pork + chicken vermicelli with pickled vegetables-

hehe *slightly embarrassed* i dumped a lot of due-to-die ingredients into this vermicelli dish. chicken pieces from the congee, the neverending packet of pickled vegetables (still some more sitting in the fridge...), chinese celery (ahem.. the last 2 stems since the last vermicelli dish), and shitaki mushrooms i used on the same day to make udon (at least this is fresh!!)

a veg dish:


-Stir fried chokos with dried shrimp-

chokos is one of my fav savoury melons! as much as i love eating them, i dont like cooking them all that much. i mean, when you look at it, you're kinda put off with the whole prep work! look at its bumpy shape, and you know its not easy to peel. also, chokos release some slimy substance when you peel them, so make sure you put on a glove! then there's a stone inside the melon, which you need to cut out before chopping! but i guess its worth the effort, cos they have such clean sweet flavours in them :)

Post #47

hubby got the flu :(

so i cooked him a chicken congee - using the chicken drumstick bones to cook the soup base.


-Chicken + dried scallop congee-

Post #46

still had half a pot of the pumpkin veg puree left, so on monday i took the whole pot over to mum's and cooked a ham and pumpkin risotto (well, 3 part arborio rice plus 1 part risoni as i ran out of rice... =.=)! or else i would probably need to have pumpkin soup every night for the whole week to finish it off!!

stole sis' fresh ricotta. hehe. love love love that golden orange colour! oh, the orange bits are carrots by the way...


-Pumpkin and ham risotto with fresh ricotta-

also made a quick salad. i like having a salad to go with risotto, because risottos are quite heavy stuff, so it's good to have a salad to lighten up the taste buds.


-Fennel, green + pear salad with white wine vinaigrette-

Fennels are selling quite cheaply at this time of the year! and i found that the bigger they are, the stronger the liquorice flavour! i quite like this unique taste, and as long as you have something citrus or some fruits or some mixed green to go with it, the liquorice taste would not dominate :)

Post #45

i "cooked" for myself tonight. i actually wont post what i "cooked" tonight but i just wanted to share my findings! i had some leftover ma po tofu in the fridge but no rice. as it takes time to cook rice, i was looking around the kitchen searching for alternatives. something thats kinda like rice which i can eat with to finish off the ma po tofu. and i ended up making couscous. it worked surprisingly good especially the dollop of xo sauce i added in the end! haha. my lazy attempt ended up to be quite an OK meal for one. :)

now, back to proper posting.

i ran out of cooking ideas on the weekend. usually i would have had a good idea of exactly what i want to cook before i go grocery shopping. but this time, i was just wondering in the chinese grocery shop and ended up picking some oyster mushrooms and button mushrooms. with some beef and leftover fresh cream at home, i'll just cook a simple stir fry using oyster sauce - the good old reliable oyster sauce when you run out of ideas~!


-Beef and mixed mushrooms in creamy oyster sauce-

this time, apart from using the normal garlic and eschallot to start the wok, i chucked in some of the white part of the shallot, chopped diagonally, and i found that added a lot more flavours! will save them up from now on and wont waste them on garnishing!!