Makanning

Very Dry Beef Curry

2011-12-17T15:45:00.002+10:00

In my last post I cooked a recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks titled, Easy Curry Cookery. I also cooked this very dry beef curry as my main dish. Like the potato and pea curry, it was chosen for the convenience of having all ingredients. I really don't like to cook from recipes that called for me to purchase an ingredient which I'd only have the chance to use a little of and probably only once. I've often been left with expired ingredients or those that are past it's use by date - what a waste.

This recipe has, in my opinion, the least ingredients in all the recipes in the book! I did add some of my own flavors because the taste wasn't really quite what I imagined it to be and I tweaked it to make it taste the way I wanted. The only negative comment I have was the time it took to cook this! Almost 2 hours! I had planned on using the pressure cooker but I changed my mind for the reason that I wanted to try it out by cooking it over the stove the normal way to see what it would taste like first. Maybe I'll use the pressure cooker the next time.

Ingredients:-

2 tbs peanut oil

2 large brown onions, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbs grated fresh ginger

1 tsp ground turmeric

1/2 tsp chili powder

2 tbs chopped fresh lemon grass

1.5kg chuck steak, cubed

1 1/4 cups water

Method:-

Heat oil in large frying pan. Cook onion, garlic, ginger, spices and lemon grass stirring for 3 minutes or until onions are soft. Stir in steak, cook over high heat for about 5 minutes or until steak is browned all over. Stir in water and bring to boil. Reduce heat, simmer, covered for about 1 1/2 hours or until steak in tender. Remove lid, stir over high heat until liquid has evaporated.

Here are my tweaks: I added salt which the recipe didn't include, increased the 1/2 tsp chili powder to 1 1/2 tsp and I also added about 2 tbs curry powder and a 1/2 cup of evaporated milk. As for the water, I only stirred in about 1/2 a cup.

The cooking instructions were a bit off in the sense that because I used a cast iron pot, I managed to tenderize the beef faster and I didn't need to simmer it covered for 1 1/2 hours. Getting the beef curry to become 'dry' was a lot longer. There was too much liquid so the whole pot had to sit over a high heat for longer to dry out the curry. In the end I was very pleased with the taste. I'd say it wasn't spicy enough for me or my guests but it was definitely well received and I got a few compliments on the dish. I'm rather proud of this curry I cooked for the fact that curry is always made using pre made paste in our house! Cooking a curry from scratch is definitely a level up!

Potato and Pea Curry

2011-12-17T15:18:00.001+10:00

When I added this dish to the menu for a party at the last minute I wasn't expecting a fantastic dish. All I really wanted was a serve of potato to make the range complete. I picked this recipe for the reason that I had the ingredients in the pantry and I also had most of the spices which is important when cooking curry.

The recipe comes from The Australian Women's Weekly Cook book titled, Easy Curry Cookery. I also cooked a very dry beef curry from one of the recipes but that will be in my next post.

The ingredients are easy enough because they are staples but the spices are another thing. Unless you regularly cook curries or use the more exotic spices like garam masala, cumin and ground fennel, the spices are not something you'd have readily available. I had all but ground fennel.

Ingredients:-

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 medium brown onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground fennel

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp garam masala

4 medium potatos, peeled and cubed

425g can peeled tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 cup frozen peas

Method:-

Heat oil in large pan and cook onion and garlic, until onion is soft. Add spices and potato, cook 2 minutes. Stir in undrained crushed tomatoes and the water and bring to a boil. Simmer, stirring occasionally for about 20 minute or until potatoes are tender. Stir in peas, stirring for about 3 minutes or until peas are heated through.

The recipe called for this dish to be served with parsley yoghurt which is basically 1/2 cup plain yoghurt mixed with 1 tbs of chopped fresh parsley. I chose to leave this out knowing that a lot of my guests are not fond of parsley. I did have a bowl of chopped coriander leaves for those discerning guests who like me, prefer adding that pungent herb to my dishes.

I seriously liked this dish though I think I'd rather not to call it a curry since it was more tomato based. I am not sure which of the spice it is that makes the dish taste so savory yet tangy and with a bit of spiciness. I know for a fact that the peas I used made a difference. When I checked the packet of frozen peas David buys, they were mint flavored! I wasn't sure about it but now I think that it was the mint flavor that made the difference. It gave the overall taste a lift and made it very appetizing.

This is really an easy recipe (if you have all the spices) that you can cook up in a hurry for a daily meal.

Cuisine Cuisine, IFC, Hong Kong

2011-09-07T11:46:00.002+10:00

cold white cooked chicken with foie gras as entree

stir fried porcini mushrooms with XO sauce

stir fried beef with broccoli

deep fried tofu with crabmeat sauce

glutinous rice dumplings

sesame seed glutinous rice balls

almond paste soup

It was our last meal and I think I can speak for my friends that it was the best meal of the trip. It was also the most expensive!

We enlisted the help of our hotel concierge to recommend and make our bookings not really expecting such a high end dining for dinner but we had no regrets. We had actually spent almost all our HK$ and my friend said she had only HK$130 left for dinner. When we looked at the menu, we had a laugh at the prices and realized we could only afford fried rice if we were paying cash!

We enjoyed the meal tremendously with a glass of wine and we had a great view of part of the Hong Kong skyline and night traffic from our by the window table.

We toasted yet again to our friendship and to our holiday celebrating our 40th. As I am writing this, that meal and the trip seemed so far away - almost like it didn't happen. I am glad I have this blog and pictures from the trip or else we'd never be able to recall those happy memories.

Yung Kee, Hong Kong

2011-08-17T18:39:00.000+10:00

Finally on the last day in Hong Kong, we had roast goose. Yung Kee is apparently 'the' place to eat roast goose. It was actually recommended by my friend, Eliza who has relocated to Hong Kong. She did warn me to make reservations or else it'd be a long wait for a table.

We set out to eat Hong Kong's best on our last day since we'd practically shopped out of cash and were quite tired of walking. I was very eager because I was more interested in the food as opposed to shopping. We set out from the hotel after enlisting the concierge at Lanson Place to help us make reservation for lunch as well as dinner.

We got waylaid on the way to Yung Kee so we were a few minutes late. Good thing they weren't that fussed. The place was pretty empty but when we left about an hour and a half later the place was filled and there was a long queue for lunch.

The service I must say was excellent and the menu consisted of several pages of accolades and awards before the food listing. It was obvious what we were going to have and it wasn't cheap. We were also attracted to the suckling pig offer. We thought we'd have their signature dish and have dim sum but were disappointed to learn that dim sum service starts at 2pm - a bit too long to wait. So we decided to order roast goose, suckling pig and a stir fry vegetable to have with rice.

Luk Yu Tea House

Everything was excellent! I savored every mouthful and by the end of that meal we were all stuffed. You can really trust the Cantonese people to do a good roast. There was no way we could make our way to Luk Yu to eat another meal of dim sum! We sure were greedy. We did take a walk to Stanley St to see the facade since it was just the next street and it was good to work off a heavy lunch.

Another Hong Kong Coffee Shop

2011-08-16T18:37:00.000+10:00

This is yet another Hong Kong coffee shop where we had breakfast. It was pleasant enough because of the quick service and fast food. I ordered a coffee and French toast. This has to be the weirdest French toast I've ever had for the reason that it was served like a sandwich with peanut butter in between and a thick cut of butter melting on the top. Lilian scraped hers off while I let mine melt into the bread :)

The local coffee was not too bad but a bit too milky for my liking. The cup was cute though - an advertisement for evaporated milk brand.

Margaret's Café e Nata, Macau

2011-08-15T12:01:00.000+10:00

If it wasn't for the fantastic Portuguese egg tarts hot from the oven, our visit to Margaret's Café e Nata would have been a waste of time. In fact, my impression of Macau is based solely on these lovely custard cups of heaven.

I have to impress upon you that Portuguese egg tarts is not in my list of favorite foods. They sell it in Malaysian bakeries and I have only ever had one - that was enough to put me off it. I also don't know why people prefer it over the traditional egg tart.

I had this opinion until I tasted them at Margaret's. Maybe it was because of the anticipation. We walked left, right, round, back again, U-turned and straight and pretty much got lost for a long while before we found the cafe. I dragged my 2 friends there and I am sure they weren't that interested to eat egg tarts. When we finally found the place tucked behind some buildings and in an alley, it was such a relief.

My opinion could have changed also because we got fresh tarts, hot from the oven. It tasted really yummy. I bought 2 each for the 3 of us and we walloped everything in one go.

I was secretly hoping to buy a few more for later but I really didn't want to brave the ordeal of ordering and paying again. You know how there is a correlation between how good the food is and how bad the service can get? Well it happened at Margaret's. I got scolded a bit too many times - for taking milk tea from the cooler without paying, for not queueing up at the right line, for not speaking up, and for getting in the way. This is the price to pay for good food. Verbal abuse to whet your appetite.

They do have throngs of customers who order mainly tarts and you can tell that the staff were working hard (ordering clueless people like me about) and the trays of tarts kept on coming as the tarts were sold continuously. But seriously, would it pain them to be a little nicer? The lady who served us had such a sour face and the cashier was very gangster like - I wouldn't mess with her.

Well the bad experience is just a faint memory compared to the memory and taste of the tarts. I wish I could have some right now - maybe I can try to bake some myself...

Happy 40th Birthday!

2011-08-15T10:18:00.000+10:00

Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin was Carol's gift to us to toast our way into another decade. 3 friends flew from 3 different countries to meet in Hong Kong to drink French champagne bought from Moscow airport. We made do with wine glasses and a tumbler but we didn't mind. The pop of the champagne cork in our hotel signified a start to our holiday, a toast to our friendship and a reunion of sorts. We should have been drinking champagne in a Tokyo hotel but that we ended up in Hong Kong didn't change the fact that we succeeded in planning a holiday together despite the distance, family and work commitments.

HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY!

Hong Kong Coffee Shop

2011-08-14T18:06:00.000+10:00

David would have disapproved of me eating spam! Especially when we don't know where it comes from but this classic Hong Kong noodle dish is hard to resist because it is like comfort food to some of us. It is basically instant noodles in soup with an omelette and a slice or two of spam with some vegetables - rather something we'd eat at home. I paid HK$30 for this! Ouch. Funnily it was quite appetizing for a breakfast meal. The ambience was lacking as in most places in this vertical city. Space being a premium we were cramped into a corner table with little elbow space. I happened to be traveling with my two best friends who are both left handed so I inevitably ended up elbow fighting with either one at all meals :)

Then came the ubiquitous milk tea. Thick milky tea served cold because it is summer. It was cooled without watering the tea down by placing the takeaway container in a bowl of ice. I was quite curious to see this ice bowl at every table we passed on our way to our corner table. It is quite ingenious but I wonder how much energy and water is wasted when it could have just been cooled in the refrigerator?

And finally the space saving storage for utensils found in a drawer which slides out under our table. I couldn't help being a curious tourist, snapping a photo to the bemusement of our fellow patrons.

Nasi Lemak

2011-08-13T17:02:00.000+10:00

I can't quite make a visit back home to Malaysia without savoring our national dish of nasi lemak. My favorite is nasi lemak with squid sambal. I was on the quest to find the famed Cikgu Nasi Lemak in Kelana Jaya. It must have moved already because we couldn't find it. We ended up at a restaurant serving Malay cuisine and there we found nasi lemak. I had my nasi with nescafe tarik or pulled coffee, translated directly. The idea behind 'pulling' the beverage is to create the creaminess hence the froth and also to cool it so that it is just the right temperature to drink.

Chili Pan Mee

2011-08-12T20:51:00.000+10:00

All I could think about when we first confirmed our holiday back to Malaysia was that I was going to get to eat Chili Pan Mee!

This is a pretty recent tweak to the traditional pan mee we used to eat. The real Hokkien version is a flour dough hand kneaded and torn into small pieces. My mom made the small pieces really thin whilst my mother in law's prefers the thick version. The pieces are then cooked in a pot of stock which can be made from anchovies or chicken. The garnishing makes all the difference and I like mine with deep fried anchovies and fried shallots. We used to have pan mee alternate Sundays. The other weekend favorite would be rice porridge.

Then came the version where the dough was run through a pasta machine. I remember loving the thin noodles which were cooked then drained and mixed with dark soy sauce. I had it at least once a week while studying at university - a poorly students' staple diet!

Over the years I would still like to eat it whenever it was available at coffeeshops. It was my first preference over the other hawker food fare.

Then the chili pan mee version exploded into the food scene a few years back. I'd say exploded because it does pack an oomph when you eat it - it sorta explodes in your mouth with spiciness.

This is now my utmost favorite version of the pan mee.

There are quite a few restaurants that offer this but I believe that it originates from a coffeshop in Jalan Raja Laut. We were near there once and I tried to persuade David to park the car and walk a few hundred metres in the hot sun to explore and find the shop. Needless to say that I wasn't very successful and so we've had to eat the versions offered up in other suburbs.

Restoran Super Kitchen is located in USJ near my mom's house. A convenient location for us and it is to us the best version :)

David likes it so much that he attempted to persuade the proprietor to sell him their special chili so that we could recreate Chili Pan Mee back here in Brisbane. He was told that the chili has no preservatives and would only last 3 days. If we attempt to put it in the fridge it will clump and congeal and the result wouldn't be the same. The proprietor told him that they cook up batches of it every few days. Too bad for us.

The combination of the noodles, deep fried anchovies, minced pork, fried shallots and several teaspoons of the special chili together with a poached egg creates a wonderful mouthful. Every mouthful is infused with taste and a fiery finish. I added a teaspoon more of the chili this round and almost couldn't feel my tongue after. David reckons that I put too much :)

Restaurant Super Kitchen

No.47-1 Jalan USJ 9/5S

Tel: 80230530

Hot Pot

2011-07-10T12:28:00.000+10:00

We had hot pot with a twist yesterday night at Fiona's. We used Sarawak Laksa paste to make a soup base for the spicy portion. It was quite a feast. We had thinly sliced pork and beef meat, egg dumplings, lots of fish balls and fish cakes, 3 types of fresh vegetables, salmon, prawns, and straw mushrooms. We ate and ate and ate.

It was a cold night so we were dressed warmly and then when the hot pot eating was underway, we started taking off clothing because it was getting hot. David said we were having strip hot pot which made us laugh so much.

A note about the sarawak laksa. I have had this craving for it for some time and even went to the extent of contacting the manufacturers of the paste in Malaysia to try and import some! I got a few friends together to see if they wanted to share the carton with me but when I got a quote, it was way too expensive to order even if we shared the cost. Luckily my sister managed to find a retailer who sells the packets. She got me a few and passed them to Sarah who made a trip back to Kuala Lumpur last month. I never did get round to cooking the proper laksa so I came up with the idea to use the paste as a soup base for hot pot. It was pleasantly different.

Sour Cherry Cake

2011-07-09T12:16:00.000+10:00

I have been itching to bake something but haven't found the time. I made time today because we are going to a friend's house for hot pot and there's no better reason to bake than baking for friends. This recipe comes from a book I borrowed from the library, Cakes & Slices - reliable recipes from the Murdoch Books Test Kitchen. There are quite a few cakes I'd like to try but the Sour Cherry Cake was chosen because I had morello cherries in my pantry. I also had ground almonds which I bought from the markets last week.

Everything turned out well.....

at least until I tried to get the cake out of the tin. It looked so promising but the cake broke into sections when I tried to tip it over. At least now I could taste it - bits fell out and I could try the cake. I must say that it is quite nice. Sweet yet sour - the right kind of dessert to have after a heavy dinner!

Ingredients:-

125g unsalted butter, softened
170g caster sugar
2 eggs at room temperature, lightly beaten
95g ground almonds
125g self raising flour
60g plain (all purpose) flour
125ml milk
680g pitted morello cherries, well drained
icing sugar, to dust

Method:-

Preheat oven to 180˚C. Lightly grease and flour a 23cm fluted baba tin, shaking out the excess flour. Beat the butter and sugar using electric beaters until pale but not creamy. Add the eggs gradually, beating well after each addition. Stir in ground almonds then fold in the sifted flours alternately with the milk. Gently fold in the cherries. Spoon mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.

Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

2011-07-07T18:30:00.000+10:00

There are some things that stick. This is one. A song sung to the tune of Old Smokey. I find out that there are 2 more verses to this but I could only remember these:

On top of spaghetti

All covered with cheese

I lost my poor meatball

When somebody sneezed

It rolled off the table

and unto the floor

and my poor meatball

it rolled out the door

it rolled into the garden

and under a bush

and my poor meatball

it turned into mush.

This is the first time I am attempting to make meatballs. I figured that it was no different from making a hamburger patty except that I seasoned it a bit differently. Besides the essentials like an egg and breadcrumbs (I used panko), I added grated parmesan, worcestershire sauce, paprika, cumin, nutmeg, some chopped garlic and basil plus salt and pepper to taste.

To cook, I rolled them into balls sprayed some canola oil over the surface and grilled them in the oven for about 15 minutes. My mistake tonight was turning the oven off and leaving the meatballs inside. It turned out a bit dry after that but wasn't so bad when eaten with the sauce.

To cook the spaghetti, I followed the instructions on the packet. For the sauce I browned diced onions then I added some fresh tomatoes. Tomato paste and cream is added after the tomatoes are 'mush'. I like to add a bit of cream to my pasta sauce. I didn't season the sauce at all tonight because I think the meatballs had loads of flavor.

I taught Micah this song as we ate our dinner! We found a video on Youtube and he found it quite funny and he also ate quite well.

Mild Pork Curry with Cashews

2011-07-04T18:07:00.000+10:00

This is a mish mash of things I threw together but it ended up worth a post and a recipe I'd like to record. It is a slightly tangy and mild pork curry with potatoes and cashews.

I marinated cubed pork fillets with natural yoghurt, turmeric, curry powder and coriander powder. I threw in a few cardamom pods and seasoned with ground black pepper and salt. I also added a few cloves of minced garlic.

To cook, I fried up some shallots until soften then added a few potatoes which had been sliced thinly. When the potatoes had softened, I added the pork mixture to bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for a good while. I added a dash of soy sauce for a salty finish, threw in some cashews and lots of fresh coriander leaves.

The result was a really nice meat dish that even Micah liked. I think I'll make it spicy the next time I cook this - all it needs would be a teaspoonful or more of chili powder or even fresh red chilies.

Pretzels

2011-06-25T15:42:00.000+10:00

I was really hungry last night and I dreamt up a few things I wanted to eat. One of them was pretzels. I remember Auntie Anne's Pretzels. This franchise burst into the Malaysian scene more than 10 years ago and I think it is still going strong. You'd find their stalls in almost every mall in Kuala Lumpur. It is something I'd pick up after gym or if I am just hungry for a snack.

I found the recipe here and judging by the many reviews and the fact that over 52,000 people saved this recipe, it must be a winner. And a winner it is!

I was thinking specifically of cinnamon pretzel so I started making the cinnamon sugar first. As the dough progressed, I was not happy. The dough was really tough and wasn't as pliable as I'd like. I knew I had a task ahead trying to make the pretzels. It took a lot longer for the dough to rest and rise. It is rather cold now so I am guessing this affects it. I pulled some out and rolled it to test bake. Not too bad...

When I felt that the dough had doubled in size I rolled up my sleeves and worked hard to make 2 small pretzels. I then dipped it into the baking soda solution and sprinkled cinnamon sugar. Baked and tested. It was funnily good! Crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I am glad I tried baking it first instead of giving up and chucking the whole batch.

So I managed to make a tray of about 12 small pretzels with a variety of flavors. Cinnamon sugar, sesame seed, sea salt and grated parmesan cheese.

I am not really good with my hands especially at cooking. The pretzels were all odd shaped and with varying thickness. David was impressed with the taste. He was very pleased with the sesame seed version which was at his request. He has visions of me baking up a batch to sell at the markets! They aren't that good but it is nice he appreciates them.

I like all the flavors! I have half a batch of dough which I will give another go tonight.

Cinnamon Sugar

2011-06-25T12:20:00.000+10:00

This cinnamon sugar is for my next post.

1/2 cup brown sugar with 1 tbs of cinnamon powder. Blend well.

Steamed Chicken with Salted Fish

2011-06-19T18:22:00.000+10:00

I made this simple steamed dish for dinner tonight. Marinade diced chicken tenderloins with ginger, shao xing wine, sesame seed oil, sugar, soy sauce, mirin and some vegetable oil. Add a handful of finely diced salted fish. An easy and appetizing dish to eat with steamed rice.

Burgers

2011-06-18T18:47:00.000+10:00

The burger buns were a bit burnt!

Half and hour was what it took from preparation to eating. This is my 2nd attempt at a homemade patty for burger. I can't really remember what I put as seasoning into the first one except for the basics like breadcrumbs, an egg and worcester sauce.

Today I threw everything together in a record time because we were quite hungry. Having been out all afternoon, I didn't have time to prepare this earlier. So it was lean beef mince, half a finely diced brown onion, a handful of breadcrumbs, lots of worcester sauce, salt, black pepper, a pinch and a bit of mustard powder and a few gratings of nutmeg*, all nicely mixed and then form a patty. I used my pie cutter to form the patty. It was the perfect size. This time I didn't make the patty thick enough so it was a rather thin version and David had to eat 2 burgers to be satisfied.

*Nutmeg is the latest addition to my spice cupboard. I've seen it used in a few cooking shows and thought to buy some to keep. I figured it wouldn't hurt to add some to the patty. For the discerning few, you can actually taste it. David was oblivious!

Lemon Chiffon Cake

2011-06-17T14:40:00.000+10:00

I have been itching to bake a chiffon cake for the longest time. My first attempt at baking this was at age 10. The cake was not a cake. It was a crispy egg biscuit! I never tried it again until now.

I found my recipe from Poh's Kitchen. I only baked the basic cake without the ganache, filling or the hazelnuts. It probably would have been decadent. I also modified it a bit. I used lemons instead of oranges.

My friend Ling bakes this regularly and to much success and she usually bakes a pandan chiffon.

We used to get a chiffon cake almost every month from my aunt. She frequents this bakery at Jalan Ipoh and they also do a very nice custard cream puff. So a box would be sent over with cream puffs and chiffon cake and it was almost always an orange chiffon. As a kid, we'd play with our food - I like to break pieces off the chiffon slice and squeeze it into a ball to pop in my mouth. The texture was so nice to play with so it was fun eating it as well.

I made one tiny mistake in this attempt. I put 1/2 a teaspoon more of cream of tartar with the egg whites. I am not sure if this was the reason my cake is denser than what I know chiffon to be. It also took much longer to bake than specified.

I am not totally happy with the results but as long as it is edible, everyone else is happy. The tangy lemon flavor is a change from the usual.

I hope I am not waiting another 30 years to bake another chiffon!

Fish Sprinkle

2011-06-16T17:31:00.001+10:00

I bought this spice blend from the markets and it goes well with seafood. I marinade fish with it for grilling. David bought some barramundi for dinner tonight. I mixed bread crumbs, grated parmesan, black pepper and this fish sprinkle to cover the fish after dipping it in egg wash. The grilled fish turned out really nice. I might have set the oven heat a bit too high - the fish was a bit too brown.

Cha Soba Noodles

2011-06-14T14:49:00.000+10:00

We made wontons and had some leftover to freeze. This is a simple anchovy soup with cha soba noodles, wontons and seaweed. David was happy with this hot meal for lunch but Micah wasn't. Well you just can't please everyone!

Choux Puffs

2011-06-14T12:53:00.000+10:00

What a disaster! My puffs turned out to be biscuits.

I must have been out of my mind to borrow a book on pastry and definitely crazy to try one of the recipes. I flipped through the recipe book several times trying to decide which I should attempt. Today I decided to try choux puffs. Dreaming of cream puffs with whipped cream centers, I measured out all the ingredients. I halved the recipe because the original yields 40-50 little choux buns and that was way too many for us.

That was probably the reason why everything went wrong. It took forever to boil the butter, milk and water combination and I took it off the stove impatiently when it looked like it was going to bubble. I mixed all the other ingredients as instructed but didn't get a smooth and shiny paste with a thick ribbon like consistency. And I didn't pipe the batter - I just spooned dollops and baked them.

It looked like it was bubbling and rising but it was just an illusion. I turned out flat biscuits in the end. I ate some and felt that it wouldn't be too bad served as hors doeuvres if I can figure out what to put on top of it. I had some with ice cream and it was nice.

Micah's little fingers were grabbing some too. He really wanted ice cream!

I got the recipe from Michel Roux's Pastry book.

Ingredients

125 ml milk

125 ml water

100 g butter, diced

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp caster sugar

150 g plain flour

4 eggs

egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp milk)

Method

Combine milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and set over a low heat. Bring to the boil and immediately take the pan off the heat. Shower in the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until completely smooth. Return the pan to a medium heat and stir continuously for about 1 minute to dry out the paste, then tip it into a bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating with the wooden spoon. Once the eggs are all incorporated, the paste should be smooth and shiny with a thick ribbon consistency. It is now ready to use. (If you're not using it immediately, brush the surface lightly with a little beaten egg to prevent a crust forming.)

For small choux buns, put the paste into a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm plain nozzle. Pipe small mounds in staggered rows onto a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper for preference, or directly onto a greased baking sheet. Brush choux with egg wash and lightly mark the tops with the back of a fork. Bake at 180°C for 15-20 minutes until the outside of the buns is dry and crisp but the inside is still soft. Cool on a wire rack.

The recipe can easily be adapted to create a savory version. Just add a little cayenne or paprika.

Pan Fried Yam Cake

2011-06-03T12:33:00.000+10:00

Another rice flour creation!

I made steamed yam cake but without the condiments it was rather bland. I didn't have the energy to fry the shallots or chop the spring onions and chili to top the cake. The taste was passable ie it tasted like steamed yam cake. The most important part of this dish to me is the sweet sauce. When I buy this from the markets in Malaysia, I'd ask for lots of teem cheong (sweet sauce) and it goes well the savory and sweet. I was missing most of the ingredients for the sauce so I left that out and made do with chili sauce.

David prefers the pan fried version which I don't ever remember eating. He decides to cut up the yam cake into slices to pan fry them to a crisp. It turned out delicious and goes well eaten with chili sauce.

A most satisfying lunch!

Steamed Rice Cake with Preserved Radish

2011-06-03T11:55:00.000+10:00

There's a lot you can do with rice flour! And I seem to be using it to cook delicacies offered up at morning and night markets in Malaysia - the simple food I miss.

I made this following a recipe I found here. It was a delicious supper that night ;)

Sichuan Peppercorn & Salt Roast Chicken

2011-06-03T11:41:00.001+10:00

Remember this? Well I used the flavored salt and made Sichuan Peppercorn Salt roast chicken drumsticks. Just rub generous amounts of the salt and some olive oil on the drumsticks and let it marinade. Roast it in the oven and you have flavorful roast chicken for dinner.

I was a bit worried about using too much of the flavoring for fear that the peppercorn may be overpowering but Jaden's advice is to be liberal because 'the roasting mellows down the salt'. It is true and we had a delicious dinner.

Bang Chang Kuih

2011-05-28T15:34:00.000+10:00

I grew up eating this for breakfast on Sundays. Mom would go out to the market and buy us lots of goodies for our weekend brekkie. You will also find them sold at night markets.

It may be called apam, mee jian kuih, mang chang koh depending on the language or dialect. There is the thin crispy version with some creamy corn filling or desiccated coconut sprinkles.

David loves eating bang chang kuih. He likes to buy it the night before and keep them in the fridge overnight and then toast it the next morning for a crisp pancake for breakfast.

I had loads of crushed roasted peanuts leftover from our Popiah Party and have been dreaming of bang chang kuih. I attempted the recipe this afternoon and is very pleased with the results.

I am only afraid that learning the ingredients needed, I will be put off from eating too much of this. It contains loads of sugar, butter and peanuts - no wonder they taste so good.

You can get the recipe by googling 'Bang Chang Kuih' and along the way I found Piggy's version. I think Lily's version is the most authentic with the honeycombed texture which no doubt will make the kuih a bit chewy. We like it chewy.

I didn't have the solution of potassium carbonate & sodium bicarbonate solution at hand and I really didn't want to use it in my batter so used Piggy's version.

Batter all set to go

Sprinkled with a generous amount of crushed roasted peanuts,
more sugar and some butter

A successful half flip

All in all a very satisfying afternoon tea offering. David wants to save a piece to keep overnight. He'll test to see if it stands the toast test tomorrow morning.

Popiah Party @ Redcliffe Kite Festival

2011-05-26T13:57:00.000+10:00

We managed to source a supply of fresh popiah skin!

Fiona picked them up that morning.

Taiwanese style filling made by Fiona.

Jicama or yam bean filling cooked by Sarah.

I sliced and blanched green beans.

I made this spicy braised mushroom with prawn filling.

Crushed roasted peanuts and Chinese sausage.

Finely sliced omelette by Sarah.

Tofu cut and fried by Ling.

Bean sprouts lightly blanched by Ling.

Fine chopped cucumber by Ling.

What was not in the pictures are the home made sweet sauce by Sarah, chili paste by Ling, inari sushi by Sam & Fiona, yam cake by Grace. What a spread!

To make fresh popiah: Spread one popiah skin onto plate. Brush with chili and sweet sauce. Place jicama in a rectangle shape on the skin. Add whatever condiment you choose - everything is best! Add some crushed peanuts over the top and some fried shallots. Fold it or roll it or wrap it however you want. Big or small, bursting or petite, we ate and ate and ate - well at least I did.

When It Rains...

2011-05-25T22:25:00.000+10:00

Eggplant and lentils lasagna

it definitely pours - at least with enthusiasm in my kitchen today. I only meant to try a pie recipe I saw from Better Homes & Gardens on TV but I ended up cooking 3 very different dishes and there was no pie in sight! All of the cooking required a few steps and methods unlike those easy recipes I like. I guess I have been inspired by watching Masterchef and thought I should give myself a pressure test today! On steroids that is!

Funnily I had very little sleep yesterday night - somehow my afternoon caffeine kicked in a little later than usual and I was wide eyed and tossing almost the whole night. Then surprisingly it was easier to wake up this morning even though I am THE snoozer of all snoozers! I did some chores as I do every Wednesdays while Micah is at childcare and now I wonder why I refer to the days when he is at 'school' my off day when in fact it is more full on than ever! After a leisurely breakfast I went to the shops to get supplies for my cook off :)

I started after lunch - at about half past 2 and I was on my feet cooking from then until half past 7! I have an eggplant and lentils lasagna, curry puffs and a chocolate chili panna cotta to show for all my hard work!

I found the lasagna and dessert recipe from the $120 Food Challenge blog. It has some interesting recipes and what caught my eye was a vegetarian lasagna - one with lentils. I've been meaning to include lentils in my diet for the iron as I am anaemic. I saw the recipe last week and somehow decided that I'd attempt this at the same time as the pie I originally wanted to make.

As I was going to prepare the ingredients for a spinach and ricotta pie, I thought why not make curry puffs as well since I'd be working with pastry! I'd have to cook the filling first and so I set out to prepare that.

I had a few pots and pans going at the same time this afternoon. The lasagna was pretty easy but I tweaked the recipe a bit because I didn't want to use carrots. I used zucchini instead. The rest I followed as closely as possible. Oh, I left out the béchamel sauce because I was lazy.

Puff pastry (cheat) curry puffs

So while the layers of lentils, eggplant and pasta sheets were nicely cooking in the oven, I cooked the curry filling for the puffs. I used diced potatoes and diced chicken tenderloins and cooked it with some curry paste. I cooked the curry in a pot too small and I burnt the bottom! Just don't scrape at it and it was fine ;)

By now the lasagna was ready and we could have dinner while the curry was cooling.

But if you think I was done... you are wrong! My craving for dessert was ever so strong tonight so when I saw a recipe with dark chocolate and cream, I really couldn't resist. I had almost all the ingredients. What piqued my interest was that it called for the use of chili. I was very curious to find out how it would taste in a dessert and cooked with chocolate. I didn't have a fresh red chili so I used a dried chili instead and I think it worked (not knowing otherwise). This chocolate chili panna cotta recipe can be found at the $120 Food Challenge blog.

It was a super easy dessert recipe. My problem was my impatience. I didn't let the cream and milk mixture cool before mixing with the melted chocolate and I didn't mix it well so there was very mini choc chips in the panna cotta as I eat. In a way it gave it texture which I liked. As I am writing all the details down I realize that I forgot to add the vanilla in the cream! Now I am wondering how it would have tasted...

I had my ramekins filled with the chocolate mixture and chilling in the fridge before I had my dinner. I ate while working with the puff pastry for the curry puffs! I cut 4 inch rounds and placed some filling in the middle, fold it in half and used a fork to press down along the perimeter to seal it. I put about 10 in the oven and the rest I am keeping to freeze.

I let the cooked puffs cool while I went to attend to Micah.

After Micah went to sleep, it is me time and time for supper! We have dinner about half past 5 in order to get him to bed by half 7 and by the time I get him to sleep, I am hungry again. So I sit down and savor my first curry puff. It was heavenly...

The 2nd was satisfying and then I tried the panna cotta...

It was pure pleasure.

The zing starts to work it's magic just a moment after you roll the rich chocolate flavor around your tongue. At first I thought it was the spiciness from the curry puff but as I continue eating the panna cotta, I enjoy the spread of the flavor of the chili.

It was so rich that I could only manage a few mouthfuls. Even after sharing with David, we couldn't finish half of the ramekin. I have more to savor on another day. Yum!

Oh! The 3rd curry puff was greed! And all I prepared for the original reason (the pie) for this post was blanched baby spinach. I'd have to figure out how to use it tomorrow.

Wontons

2011-05-09T13:17:00.000+10:00

I don't know how it happened but I got conned into helping to cook up a feast last Saturday afternoon. Ling called and asked me over to her place to lepak which by definition means to hang out and do absolutely nothing. We ended up cooking up a storm!

It was mid afternoon and she suggested for us to have dinner at her place - she was planning to cook dry egg noodles or wonton noodles as we call it. She didn't have enough for all of us for dinner. Meanwhile Sarah said she had choi sum and a small piece of char siu and Ling was trying to dig through the freezer for homemade wontons, Fiona gave us some time ago but she couldn't find it.

In the end, Sarah and I were tasked to go food shopping at Darra for the missing ingredients. We couldn't find any frozen wontons or rather what we found weren't very appealing so we decided to make wontons ourselves. We really didn't have the recipe but figured it out.

We minced pork, prawns, water chesnuts and seaweed together and then seasoned. We had no idea how to wrap but managed somehow. Good thing Ling knew to get a bowl of salted water ready to wet the edges of the wonton wrapper to seal it.

While Sarah and I were wrapping the wontons, Ling cooked up some minced pork with dried mushrooms. She also prepared the noodles and blanched the choi sum. Then Ling boiled some ikan bilis stock to cook the wontons.

Dinner was a feast of dry egg noodles with choi sum, minced pork, char siu and wontons. Everything was homemade except for the noodles and wonton wrappers! Even the pickled green chilies were homemade courtesy of Ling!

Pan Fried Radish Cake

2011-05-09T12:41:00.000+10:00

Slices of pan fried radish cake

My first attempt at stir fried radish cake was a success and we thoroughly enjoyed dinner that night. In a little over a month, I am craving it again.

Today's effort was a massive undertaking by my standards because I made 2 plain cakes for stir frying and 2 with stuffings and seasoning for pan frying. A lot of grating, preparing, steaming and cooking involved - took me the whole afternoon to get 4 huge radishes into cake form.

The pan fried version of the radish cake is a little different to prepare. It involved frying all the ingredients except the rice flour batter. I found the recipe after scouring the internet.

I can't quite decide which is my favorite now - it used to be this pan fried version over the stir fried but that is because most of the stir fried radish cake I've eaten were at hawker stalls back in Malaysia and I think they use more flour than radish ratio in the cake. In the home made version we are more generous with the radish making the cake more delicate and less floury.

The pan fried radish cake is a must for yum cha. I judge how good a yum cha restaurant is by how the prepare this! There are of course some other criteria but a good pan fried radish cake is priority.

It took a lot of effort for me to remain patient and leave the cake in the fridge overnight to set. I was tempted to cut and pan fry them for supper - David made me wait.

Grated, steamed and stir fried radish with
dried scallops, dried shrimps, dried mushrooms and chinese sausages
set in a cake to be cut into slices for pan frying.

For lunch the next day, I managed to remove the cake from the glass dish without much effort but realized almost instantly that it was way too soft. It was almost coming apart when I pan fried it. It somehow retained its sliced form after frying.

For my effort I was rewarded with a satisfying taste of pan fried radish cake! A bit too soft for commercial purposes but great for a home cooked meal.

Dumplings

2011-05-06T18:23:00.000+10:00

I didn't seal the pastry tops properly
and the filling is peeking out.

Dumplings with rice vermicelli and soup.

I had in mind to make dumplings many many months ago. The dumpling skin has been in the freezer ever so long but I just never made the effort until today.

There wasn't any recipe - just some basic knowledge - and an idea of how I'd like the dumpling to taste. I minced chicken, prawns, carrots and some seaweed together. Then I seasoned with black sesame oil, mirin, salt, white pepper and some soy sauce.

I have this plastic dumpling mold or press which I bought from one of the dollar stores which sells Japanese products. It made making the dumplings very easy. After using up the dumpling skins, I found that I had loads of the filling left. I couldn't refreeze the meat so David suggested that I cook all of it somehow.

So out came the puff pastry from the freezer to thaw a bit and I ended up making pies with the filling.

Buddha Raksa

2011-05-05T12:21:00.000+10:00

Pad Thai

Crispy Vegetables

Beef Green Curry

A simple and satisfying meal while we were in Sydney over the weekend. Buddha Raksa was a pleasant discovery, just a 100 mtrs away from the Comfort Inn where we were staying - convenient. I found the listing under 'nearby' on Urbanspoon and one night when we were tired out from the activities, David walked over to takeaway a fried rice. It was good. So we made another visit to eat at the restaurant proper.

The dine in menu was a tad more expensive than the takeaway but I think it is worthwhile paying that extra bit. It was supposed to be a quiet Sunday night, we were told but it seems that Buddha Raksa is pretty popular because by the time we left, almost all their tables were occupied. Judging by the quality of food and great service, it is definitely on my recommended list.

We had to order rice and noodles so that we have a variety for Micah's fussy palate. You never know when he'd prefer one over the other. I selected Pad Thai without hesitation. Then we ordered crispy vegetables not really knowing what to expect. It was a selection of vegetables and mushrooms, lightly battered and deep fried to a crisp, served with a sweet, sour and spicy dipping sauce. It was delicious.

To please David, we had to order a curry and my choice was green curry. Everything tasted really good and satisfying. The curry was too salty for my taste but it was alright if eaten with rice.

Thai food taste didn't agree with Micah's tastebuds so he had plain white rice for dinner! And that was after taking a bite out of each crispy vegetable and putting them back because he didn't like the taste.

We definitely recommend this restaurant!

Spicy Tamarind Potatoes

2011-04-24T17:44:00.000+10:00

If you like your spud and like things spicy then this is really a dish for you. It is so addictive. I got the recipe from The Little Teochew while I was googling a side dish for tomorrow's barbeque.

It might be a bit odd for this to be served at a barbie but I think our Malaysian friends are not going to complain when there is something spicy in the menu. I did get a request for my creamy potato salad but I've made it too many times and as much as I like it myself, I can't help being a bit sick of it!

This potato dish is so easy to cook. The only trouble I had was the time taken to peel, cut and fry the potatoes. It took longer because I had to double the portion. I added a few other ingredients to my taste - salt, a few dashes of fish sauce and some chopped coriander leaves to add flavor and color.

I just hope this will serve well, cold!

Savory Pumpkin Rice

2011-03-31T12:41:00.004+10:00

We've now got the hang of shopping locally and being very economical & efficient with grocery shopping. We buy and eat what's in season because the prices is competitive. We also buy what is on special and if they are dry items we tend to buy bulk. Shopping for fresh vegetables for the whole week takes a bit of planning. We buy and eat leafy greens on the same day because they are normally very perishable. As for the hardier or root vegetables, we can take our time. I plan my menu around what needs to be eaten. I've become quite innovative.

So we bought a Japanese pumpkin from the Rocklea market last Saturday. It was only a dollar! I had no idea what to cook with it at that moment but I knew I'd figure it out.

David suggested that I make a pumpkin stir fry with salted duck egg yolks. This is a dish we've eaten countless times in restaurants in Ningbo and we love it. I did find the recipe but I didn't cook it today - I'll do that with the other half of the pumpkin.

Instead I decided to try my hand at a rice cooker dish that my mom used to cook. Savory pumpkin rice.

It is a fairly simple recipe. Fry shallots and some choppped onions until fragrant. Add small dried shrimps and continue frying until the aroma of the shrimps stink up your kitchen. Then add meat of choice - I used chicken. Add the pumpkin last - that will take a while to soften so let it cook for longer. Lastly add uncooked rice which have been washed and drained and mix it all up. Season with fish sauce and dark soy sauce.

Transfer everything into rice cooker and add water to just cover the rice then boil as usual. I had to check a few times and add more water because the rice was undercooked.

I am pleased with the outcome. A savory and sweet offering with rice.

Japanese Cheesecake

2011-03-29T15:09:00.007+10:00

It is really timely that I chose to try this today. My Philly cream cheese block is almost past its best before date. I am pleased that it didn't go to waste.

The recipe used is that from The Little Teochew - my new favorite resource for great food and great photography!

I was off to a bad start when I was preparing the ingredients. Separating the eggs gave me hypertension. I kept getting broken yolks and getting the whites contaminated with bits of yolks.

When I was about to line the baking tin, I was lazy. I decided to use cupcake liners and set them in individual mini pastry tins. This wasn't such a bad idea after all - at least there'd be less washing up. Later I discover that I had enough batter for 2 trays of individual cakes but when the first tray came out of the oven, I forgot to do as was told - to let it cool slowly in the oven with the door ajar. I was too eager to bake the 2nd tray. Cakes fell flat. They had such nice muffin tops to begin with!

My before picture turned out nicer than....

...the final product!

I had such hopes for the 2nd batch. I thought to take a nice photo for posting. Sadly even after leaving it to cool in the way instructed, they still fell flat! Boo hoo!

The only positive note is that Micah loves it. David liked it too and before the 2nd batch were baked, we had polished off quite a few mini cakes. Taste wise it was exactly as it should be so I am pretty happy with the outcome.

Fried Radish Cake

2011-03-28T15:01:00.007+10:00

I personally prefer the pan fried version you get at Yum Cha restaurants. In the cake you'll find lap cheong, dried shrimps and dried mushrooms.

I chose to try this version because I didn't have the other ingredients! This is the version served at hawker stalls in quite a few coffee shops or sold by vendors at night markets in Malaysia.

The recipe is a guest post on Rasa Malaysia. The guest blogger is my new found favorite, The Little Teochew. There I found more than a few recipes I'd like to try. My greatest find so far is almond cookies - the ones I had when I was a kid - which they don't seem to sell anywhere nowadays. Then there is a Japanese cheese cake recipe which is a light and airy cake loved by Asians. I've got to pace myself....

Nice and firm

There were no mishaps making the cake itself. It was simply grating radish, steaming it then adding the rice flour mixture and steaming it again to form a firm cake. I did that last night, leaving the cake in the refrigerator overnight according to the recipe. It does make the cake easier to handle and when you cut it, it doesn't stick to the knife.

Today I cut the cake into small squares ready to fry. The method is pretty simple - go to the post title link to the original post on Rasa Malaysia for detailed instructions. I may not do justice with the recipe here. The only difference I made to the ingredients was to omit spring onions. I used a lot of coriander leaves instead.

It turned out very nice if I may say so! David gave me a 10/10 rating. I couldn't quite get the charcoal taste on a electric stove top but everything tasted just like it should. One craving satisfied. I wonder what is next...

Chinese BBQ Pork

2011-03-11T14:05:00.006+10:00

We are attending a church event called, 'Dinner for 8' which I think it is a fantastic idea. Someone will host and another 6 people will attend a dinner where we get to fellowship with other church members.

I've been asked to bring a main. The host will be cooking a chicken dish and she will also serve rice. I asked my friends on Facebook for suggestions and my Malaysian friends are quick to respond as it concerns food! That exchange left me with a few great recipes and a headache because I had to choose from many. My choice would have been spicy pork spare ribs but we decided to do Chinese BBQ pork instead because we aren't sure if everyone can eat spicy food.

When I think of char siu, I think of Meng Kee Char Siu back in Kuala Lumpur. I also think of Eliza! I've eaten her homemade version and it left an impression. Eliza shared her recipe and we have it for keeps now. Her secret ingredient is maltose sugar.

This dish is a team effort. I prepared and David did the cooking on the Weber.

The result is flavorful, succulent char siu! There are some sinful slices where it is a bit more fatty - those are the best pieces.

Egg Tart

2011-03-09T22:22:00.003+10:00

I really didn't expect egg tarts to be this easy to bake. It was just amazingly so that I am sitting here, eating the tarts and blogging in just over an hour.

Baking pastry and all that hands on work is really not for me so I am quite surprised that I was this gung ho and started baking at 9pm. I was already in my pyjamas!

I also can't believe that I am baking some form of custard again - it must be some weird craving. The good news is, eating all these eggs will be great for my anaemia; iron rich food is what I need but my sugar intake these past few days isn't.

So back to the recipe. I found it when I was rifling through a cook book my mom copied for me. It is actually recipes to cook with the AMC pots she bought me. I couldn't fit a lot in the pot/pan so I baked the tarts in the oven.

Ingredients:-

Pastry

1 small egg

125g butter

50g icing sugar

250g plain flour

Rub butter, icing sugar and flour until even then add egg to form a dough. Divide into 1 inch balls and press each into a mold. It is very pliable and easy to manage.

Custard

100g sugar

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup whole milk

Melt sugar with water in a pot over medium high heat. Remove from stove and let it cool. Whisk eggs, add milk and then strain.

Pour custard into mold and then bake in oven at 200C for about 20 min.

If you google for the recipe, you'll get variations where one will use evaporated milk in place of whole milk. There is also the Portuguese egg tart version which I am not too fond of.

My favorite egg tarts has to be from Tong Kee Confectionary. Mine doesn't even come close to the taste because firstly, the pastry is wrong. Tong Kee makes a kinda puff pastry but it is more flaky and more crumbly than puff pastry. This one is more like shortcrust pastry. Secondly, the Tong Kee egg custard is so smooth. Some of mine look curdled - in fact, some are! Sigh! The consolation is what I've baked are egg tarts - just a different version.

When I said they were ready, David practically ran down the steps!

The soft pastry was easy to press into molds

which Mom gave to me.

All aboard!

Egg tart!

Three Cup Chicken

2011-03-08T11:01:00.007+10:00

Three cup chicken is a Taiwanese dish and I tasted it at a pot luck party we had recently. Fiona cooked her hometown dish and it was delicious with steamed rice. I had several helpings!

I also liked that there is sweet basil in the recipe - it is a herb I like in my food. David is not too keen but he'd have to eat anything I cook so...

Anyone would have guessed from the name of the recipe that there are 3 main ingredients and they are dark sesame oil, soy sauce and shaoxing wine. Fiona sent me a link to the recipe but I googled anyway to see other variations and I find that Rasa Malaysia has a post on this.

I am trying Fiona's version because she added some baby corn spears and carrots and I am fond of one pot dishes. I made some minor changes by using sherry instead of shaoxing wine and cooking it all in one go but first marinating the chicken with the 3 ingredients plus the ginger slices.

I am happy with the result and the taste although the basil is a tad overdone!

Easy Peasy Pie

2011-03-07T14:17:00.005+10:00

I have a pie maker and by that I mean I have this appliance which is so easy to use and 'bakes' me almost perfect pies every time.

I'll let the pictures do the talking....

Electric hot plate appliance with a ready mold

I use ready rolled puff pastry then cut out

1 big circle for the base and a smaller circle

for the cover with the plastic cutter that came with

the pie maker. Fill it with anything you want - I made

a sardine filling with lots of browned onions.

Place the pastry cover over the pies and close the pie maker.

In less than 10 mins you get your pie.

My pie maker has seen better days.

It has lost bits of its body during

transport from Malaysia to Brisbane!

And it is wonky - the clip to keep it shut

doesn't fit anymore so when the puff pastry,

puffs up it flips open. I had to use something

heavy and place that on top of the appliance to

keep it shut.

Sardine pie for lunch!

Just Poppy's

2011-03-05T14:42:00.006+10:00

Burgers, burgers and more burgers. 61 'bloody great' burgers to be exact!

I am not that fond of burgers and I haven't eaten one in ages but after reading through Just Poppy's menu, you just want to try some of their interesting combos. They don't call their burgers, 'Burgers with Attitude' for nothing.

There are chicken burgers, fish burgers, pork burgers, lamb burgers, rib fillet burgers, meat free burgers, chip burgers and burgers with a twist! It takes a while to decide what you want and the names are witty and some, downright funny.

Here are just some of the names:-

Bride's Nighty (Comes off a treat)

Kermit's love (Pining for Miss Piggy)

The Chauvinist (Trotter in Mouth Disease)

Nemo's Big Brother (Don't be a Moby, Try it)

Whykickamoocow (Good name for a town)

David chose the Queenslander (Another day in Paradise) and it has meat pattie, pineapple, cheese, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, onion and a choice of sauce - they have 17! David wanted hot chili.

I had Noble Nibble (Yummy) under the burgers with a twist and it was a BBQ pork riblet with melted cheese, onion, lettuce, tomato with sweet chili and mayo sauce. It was good! And huge! The burger bun was a whole wheat bun with sesame seeds.

I can understand why there is a caution on the menu: 'May cause permanent addiction!'

Just Poppy's

Riverhills Plaza 4/20 Bogong St

Ph: 61 7 33766418

Creme Caramel

2011-03-04T14:32:00.003+10:00

Creme caramel was one of the first things I tried making when I was about 10 years old. I found the recipe in one of my mom's cookbook. It was a hit with the family. Now I discover that there are just so many versions of it - Panna Cotta, Flan and Creme Brulee.

I tried making this one night but the caramel failed me and I gave up. Today I was hit by a sudden craving for a simple sweet dessert and it motivated me. Finding an easy recipe was the way to go.

I turn to a few favorite blogs for recipes and Rasa Malaysia has never failed me. This is one blog with a mix of Western and Eastern recipes that will satisfy anyone. Her flan recipe I find out is not her own and she didn't actually make it but no matter - I still find what I need.

So as I am writing this, the creme caramel is ready and I ate it hot! Ok! So the caramel hasn't cooled and set yet but heck - I am not waiting.

I am using the same aluminum container (as ramekins)

I used so many years ago. David transported them

here for me - a gift from mom :)

It should look a lot better when the caramel has set!

I have bigger molds but these are just the right size

for a little something sweet after dinner.

Flavored Salt

2011-02-26T14:27:00.003+10:00

I asked for sichuan peppercorn and I received a lot of it. All 500g of it! Remind me to be more specific when asking David to buy me anything :)

You never quite forget the smell or the taste of this spice. The first time I tasted it was in Beijing in 2005. I ate Mala hotpot and it was a meal that can only be described as numbing. The distinctive taste of the peppers remained in my memory for a long time. Although I can't really say that I love it but I do want to eat it occasionally - it is just a taste that rocks - especially when you need to shake up your taste buds every once in a while.

I had in mind using the spice for hot pot but it has been too hot - it will be much nicer to eat this in winter. It is officially autumn next Tuesday so we don't have long to wait.

Another way to add this spice to everyday cooking would be do add a dash to a meat stir fry. I am cooking beef tonight and I am using some.

I'd still have 498g of it left after my stir fry and I decided to try making flavored salt. I got the idea and recipe from Steamy Kitchen. Jaden has got some other ideas on how to use the peppercorn plus a few other flavored salt recipes.

Rafute

2011-02-23T13:47:00.007+10:00

Some recipes are just gems and this is one. Pork belly, Okinawa style. Japanese food never ceases to amaze me! Thank you, Maki for Just Hungry - because of her blog, I am able to cook Japanese :)

Again I have to emphasize that I only try recipes which are easy and this is - only time consuming. I have to say it was all worth it. Delicious, flavorful, tender pork belly. It is like Dong Po Rou - only better! At least that's according to my taste buds. This is going to taste great with rice.

Click on the post title to get to Maki's recipe.

Pineapple Tarts

2011-02-21T21:49:00.003+10:00

This has got to be the toughest and most tedious of all the food I've tried to cook/bake. I thought cooking the jam was back breaking (at least for me) but dealing with pastry - rolling, using the mold to cut out the shapes, placing dollops of jam in the centre and baking it, almost made me give up, if not for my craving.

The idea of making pineapple tarts was supposed to be a group effort. I was the one with the recipe and it's my mom's recipe from cooking lessons she took when we were kids. I grew up eating them and they are the most delicious, melt in your mouth, pineapple tarts I've ever tasted. I have not eaten any that comes close.

So I volunteered to cook the jam and then get everyone together to help with the pastry bit. We didn't get round to making any and the pineapples were used to make rojak!

I knew that it will take some months before I get everyone together to make another effort so I decided that I should try it on my own. I told myself that the moment I spot pineapple at the market, that'll be the time I will make the tarts. Last weekend we visited Rocklea Markets and came back with lots of vegetables and fruits. I also bought a really sweet pineapple.

It takes a lot of effort on my part to do much nowadays as I am constantly tired but today I had a little burst of energy. Funny that I did because it was a really hot and muggy day. While cooking the jam over a hot stove, I wished it was winter - it was so tiring, stirring all the time. It was rewarding though, when the pineapple mixture started caramelizing and thickening. For all that effort, there was only a small bowl of jam. I figured that I won't need much on each tart - the amount should yield quite a lot of tarts.

I then decided to keep the jam and make the tarts another day. I cooked the jam round about lunch time but by the time it was evening, I just couldn't wait. I really needed to taste pineapple tarts.

I measured everything and got the pastry ready after dinner. I set it aside as the recipe says and took that time to get Micah ready for bed. He took a long time to finally sleep and I was so impatient with him because I was just so eager to start baking.

It was 9pm by the time I started rolling the pastry and that was another tedious effort. The pastry was too flaky and I had so much trouble trying to get the shapes whole. After filling up 3/4 of the baking tray, I gave up and decided to put the pastry in the fridge - I think it will set better, cold.

It took me half and hour to roll, cut, fill the pastry with jam. Another 25 mins to bake them and I have to show for it is all of 17 pineapple jam tarts. They don't look professional but they tasted heavenly! It was the same melt in the mouth, very soft and flaky pastry with just enough jam, pineapple tarts! I ate one straight out from the oven! Burned my tongue :P

David is very impressed!

It is now too late to bake more. I will finish the rest tomorrow because I know whatever I've baked tonight won't last till tomorrow!

Here's the recipe:-

Ingredients:-

Jam

1 small pineapple, cut into cubes and then blend/crush roughly

1 cinnamon stick

2 cloves

2 cups sugar

1 tsp lemon zest

1 tbs lemon juice

Pastry

600g flour

340g butter

4 egg yolks

1 1/2 tbs cold water

To cook the jam, bring to a boil all the ingredients except for the sugar. Keep stirring until it reduces and almost dries. Add sugar and keep stirring until it caramelizes and thickens to paste. Remove cinnamon, and cloves and let it cool before using.

To make the pastry, rub in butter with the flour. Add water to 3 egg yolk and beat lightly. Add that to the pastry and keep rubbing until you can form a ball. Set it aside for at least 40 mins in the fridge.

Roll out the pastry to about 2/3 mm thick. Cut out the shapes with a mold. Then fill the indent with some jam and then brush with some mixture of the last egg yolk which has been mixed with a little water and beaten lightly. Bake in the oven at 180C for about 25 mins.

Stir Fry Luffa

2011-02-21T18:10:00.002+10:00

My friend, Fiona, gave me a giant luffa which she harvested from her garden. I contemplated making soup but decided to do a stir fry for tonight's dinner. It was so huge that I can save half to cook soup another day.

It is such a simple dish and appetizing.

Fry some chopped garlic until fragrant. Add some peeled prawns until almost cooked. Throw in the cubed luffa and fry until it softens and turns a bright green. I threw in some Japanese fried beancurd which is used for inari sushi to give it the sweetness. Last I added a few beaten eggs.

A huge luffa

A simple stir fry

Cold Soba

2011-02-09T15:05:00.004+10:00

I am never ordering cold soba noodles at a Japanese restaurant, ever!

It has to be the simplest dish to cook in the Japanese cuisine! Boil soba in rapid boiling water, drain, rinse with cold water then serve with the dipping sauce. To think that I've been paying too much to eat one of my favorite Japanese food all this while.

After discovering that I can buy the dipping sauce in a bottle from the Japanese grocery store, I tried this dish one hot summer evening.

I cooked soba noodles according to the package then drained and rinsed it well under cold running water. The only difference I found was that my noodles weren't as cold as it is served at restaurants but I can easily remedy this by using ice water to rinse those noodles the next time. It would taste a lot nicer if the noodles were icy cold.

I added nori flakes and a bit of shaved bonito flakes to my dipping sauce plus a dollop of wasabi mixed in - gives every mouthful some oomph!

We slurped away so very loudly and quickly in order to get most of the noodles and the sauce into our mouths. A friend actually said you have to do an airy slurp. I understand what she means now :)

David says he could feel the noodles digesting as he ate! Good thing I made some teriyaki chicken to go with the noodles - that filled him up a bit more.

Laksa Hut

2011-02-09T14:37:00.003+10:00

We would never have found this restaurant if we didn't have the exact address and directions from Urbanspoon. There was no sign board - only a small A4 laminated paper stuck to the side of this eatery showed that this was Laksa Hut.

It is so reminiscent of a coffee shop in Malaysia except that it is a lot smaller and less bustle but with the similar settings with fold up table and chairs.

We had the signature dish of laksa. David ordered chicken and I had mine with roast duck. The menu was extensive - serving a range of rice, noodles and dishes, Malaysian and Chinese style. I spotted a sign that showed that they serve claypot rice! I love claypot rice and I am dragging Ling with me for another visit since she especially likes it served with salted fish and chicken! Interestingly they have claypot rice with sambal chicken, black bean pork and pumpkin, taro and potato to name a few.

David thinks the laksa isn't too bad. For him it has to be really spicy then he'd give full marks. I am more easily satisfied and we both agreed that for Brisbane standards, it had to be the best laksa.

Laksa Hut

51 Sherwood Road,

Toowong, 4066

Ph: 07 33714638

Map

The Menu Restaurant

2011-02-05T14:37:00.005+10:00

A sign that says, 'Yum Cha' at the most unlikeliest places definitely caught my attention. I was about to mention it and get some friends to join us to try it out but Rachel was a step faster. She gave it a 8/10 rating which gave us all hope for good yum cha this part of Brisbane.

Yesterday we did an all girls outing and visited the restaurant. We gave it the thumbs up and felt that the price was also reasonable. The restaurant had a lunch menu with the usual noodles and rice offerings and from a sign at the front door, we saw some set menus for dinner which offered salt and pepper crabs and lobsters. I think most of the patrons were after yum cha.

Couldn't quite get an angle without the ladder.

The Menu Restaurant

19 Darra Station Road, Darra

Phone: 37137949

It is the usual fare and it was pretty good. It is definitely a place we will be frequenting often and we hope our patronage keeps the place in business for a long time to come!

Figs, Pate & Cheese

2011-01-24T21:43:00.007+10:00

I had my first taste of figs last June when I was in Geneva. We had it with cheese after dinner and it was really good. I think it was the combination of the taste of everything that I ate that one dinner at Caroline's house that left such an impression on me. You would not believe how simple that meal was.

We basically had toasted baguette with pate served with some sea salt and rhubarb preserve. Then a few different cheeses with the figs and bottles of rosé to keep us very very merry!

It was, to me, a great dinner because I love pate and can eat loads if not for my cholesterol but that night, I said, 'to heck with it'. It was also great company that kept us eating and talking until late. So late that I think we went to bed without clearing the dinner table because we were all so tired.

Now back in Brisbane, I have been on the look out for figs. I bought some from Wooly's yesterday with some Camembert. I had some Camembert with my toast this morning and had more with the figs after dinner. I also talked to Caroline who was having lunch at home in Geneva while eating the figs which brought back so much memories. How timely!

Too much flash!

The camembert looks so washed out but the flash

does make the figs look much brighter than it is.

I remember the figs in Geneva to be so much sweeter

than what I just had tonight.

A whole slice of pate just for me.

Savory, salty and sweet.

Rhubarb preserve

2 of 3 different pates we had that night.

More pate

Now that I am reliving that dinner while eating figs with cheese and writing this post, I am tempted to run out to buy some pate tomorrow. I love liver!

Sun Sun Delicious

2011-01-22T22:41:00.005+10:00

It is always the impromptu outings which turns out to be the best fun and today was no different. It started out to be a most boring day for Micah and I - we were going to stay in - no plans whatsoever when I got a call at about noon. I had just dished out lunch for Micah when my phone rang. It was Fiona and she's just nearby with Sarah and they asked if we would like to join them. I fed Micah quickly and he cooperated fully, hung my washing up and changed and was at Mount Ommaney Shopping Centre in a jiffy.

We'd already had lunch so while they ate theirs, Micah had some french fries from McD's. We walked around Target for a bit and then decided to head to Sarah's for a swim. The boys had fun and so did we. Then the time came when we asked, what's for dinner? Poppy's came to mind and since I still haven't tasted their burgers, I was quite excited.

We pored over the takeaway menu and I was all geared up for it until Sarah couldn't reach them on the phone to order. Our hearts were dreading the inevitable - that Poppy's was flooded last week. We decided to drive over to check and found the place dark. Our hearts go out to the establishments there. I hadn't even tried Poppy's but I was sad.

So we had to quickly think of another place to eat as it was close to 7pm. Fiona and Sam suggested Sun Sun at Sunnybanks. Now I haven't also eaten at this place but was game to go along for the 20 mins drive for dinner. Micah fell asleep within minutes and I was wondering how I'd manage with him if he continues to sleep.

I was expecting the restaurant to be at some commercial complex but was surprised when we entered the suburb and turned off onto a street with a row of about 5 or 6 shops. The surrounding was so quiet and so was the restaurant. It was expected as it was pretty late. Micah was still asleep and I decided to leave him in the car since we were parked right in front of the place and the area brightly lit. We sat at a table by the front and everyone kept looking out to check on him :)

Fiona did the ordering - all in Mandarin. I could catch a few familiar words. Chef is from Guangzhou and Sarah spoke some Cantonese to him. I was very hopeful because I love Cantonese food. It turned out to be a great dinner at an even better value. I was full up and it was (Sun Sun) delicious!

This was our feast:-

Stir fried beef with bitter gourd and black beans.

This was my favorite dish - the slightly sweet

stir fry was done so well with the bitter gourd cooked well

but still retained that slight crunch. It is something I've

been trying to achieve with my bitter gourd.

Mixed vege with tofu was Ben's favorite.

Salt and Pepper pork spare ribs.

This dish is very tasty! It was deep fried and

was just salty and peppery enough :)

Free range steamed chicken with shallots and ginger.

This is a dish that we know and we eat in KL.

There is a slight difference in the taste - this was more tangy.

If you order off the menu, you don't get free range so

remember to request for it. Served cold, this is a house specialty.

Stir fried luffa with prawns.

I remember stir fried luffa with eggs from mom's kitchen

but this is a nice change and also very appetizing.

They didn't hold back on the prawns.

Chicken and sweet corn soup.

This is a surprise - not a clear soup as I expected.

It is more like the sharks fin type - starchier with egg.

I would have thought we ordered too much - the portions were huge. Somehow we polished off everything and only had to takeaway a small portion of the chicken. There were 5 adults and 1 kid. All this while Micah was asleep in the car!

He did wake up just as we were about to leave but he really didn't want dinner - I guess the piece of cheese he ate before we set off did it's job by staving off the hunger!! He only wanted prawn crackers which he got piece by piece after pleading with Ben to share.

What a day we had and all impromptu - a most 'happening' Saturday night for me. I can't wait to tell David and take him to try the food there.

Go Go Mart

2011-01-21T22:04:00.003+10:00

Finally a place to buy a comprehensive range of Japanese products. A bit far to travel on a regular basis but definitely worth the trip once in a while to stock up.

Ever since I found Just Hungry I've discovered that it is possible to cook Japanese food at home. A few essential ingredients is all you need and a bit of modification on my part because I am not really one to follow the instructions and recipe! Somehow with miso, mirin, sake, dashi and bonito flakes plus some seaweed, I can create an almost Japanese dish :)

Slowly but surely I am learning and hopefully after my trip there in May, I'd know more - I am going to Japan to eat the 100 Japanese foods in Maki's list :)

I just wish I could read and speak Japanese.

Springfield Garden Restaurant

2011-01-18T09:04:00.003+10:00

It is very difficult to take pictures of food when we eat out with friends because I am busy catching up with them and when the food arrives, everyone just wants to dig in. Some friends actually find it frustrating or amusing that no one is supposed to touch the food until I take a photo. I eventually gave up on taking any unless we are by ourselves.

On this occasion it was the excitement of chatting that I absolutely forgot about taking some pictures.

Springfield Garden Restaurant serves Malaysian & Chinese food. We find out from our friends that the owner is Malaysian and his wife is from Guangzhou hence the cuisine. The menu is pretty extensive. I picked up a leaflet menu for takeaway and see a lot of dishes I'd like to try. Distance wise, I would say it is nearer to travel there to eat rather than to go to Sunnybanks and David found the food good.

We ordered a few dishes to share. There was fried rice (a staple if you have kids around), nasi lemak, fried kuay teow, mee goreng and cantonese fried noodles. I remember the mee goreng most as it is something I haven't eaten for a while. It was not bad. Unfortunately the nasi lemak was disappointing - the 'sambal' was actually turmeric chicken curry which I don't quite like. It is the sort of curry I'd find in China!

Overall I think the company and the conversation at a round table took priority over the food! It was good to share personal stories of the flood and more importantly to know that our friends are all ok.

Braised Yee Mee

2011-01-17T22:35:00.006+10:00

If you google images of, 'Yee Mee', you will see the many ways this air dried noodle can be cooked. My favorite is braised with dark sauce!

Ling cooked us dinner tonight because I am alone with Micah for a few days while David is away. She's been telling me that she's perfected this dish - she learnt the method from her cousin who is a chef and owns a restaurant in Tanjong Tualang, Perak, Malaysia. I have to agree with her after tasting it tonight. It is as simple as she described it.

She started by digging through her fridge for 'meat' and came up with some frozen prawns, some fish tofu and some leftover cooked minced meat. You can use just about any meat. Then for the vegetable, she found half a wombok. Of course the main ingredient is the dried noodles.

First off, fry some chopped garlic and shallots until fragrant. Then fry the meat until cooked. Then add chicken stock (or bouillon) and bring to a boil. To season, add sesame oil, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and some salt (if needed). Then add the noodles and let it soften - this might take a while and the idea really, is to let it braise and soak up the nice flavored stock. Add the wombok last after the noodles have been braising for a while and then serve when the vegetables are cooked.

It was delicious and Micah's testament to that was he wolfed down his dinner in record time! I was pretty quick too :)

I love yee mee and it is so versatile in the sense that it tastes good however you cook it. The noodles tend to absorb all flavors which is why it is delicious. I am now craving for sang har yee mee, Hokkien yee mee, claypot yee mee .........

Trusty Weber

2011-01-14T21:13:00.004+10:00

I was already impressed with the Weber after tasting those great steaks Paul cooked for us and I had more good things to say after buying one for ourselves and seeing what a good roast we can do with it but now I am almost astonished at what it can cook up.

After power was cut with the floods in Queensland, we turned to the Weber to cook. Somehow grilling or roasting wasn't really appealing and I had to figure out how to cook rice for Micah.

Like most Chinese, I think I can say that we can't cook our rice without a rice cooker! I have never boiled or steamed rice on the stove before and now I am supposed to cook it over a gas barbie!

In the end the Weber did that - steamed rice and let us cook up some Chinese dishes :)

My pork slices with spring onions and ginger.

(This is the uncooked photo of the dish)

Cooking method had to be revised of course -

I put everything into a oven proof dish and

seasoned it with all the necessary ingredients.

Then made sure I covered it and then David placed

on the Weber on low for about 20 mins.

Chicken stew was easy. Cut up all root veges

and place in oven proof dish - I used my corning ware -

then place chicken in as well, add dash of worcester sauce

and rosemary and covered with foil since the cover would have

been too high for the Weber. This took almost an hour on low fire.

This is how we cooked with the Weber.

I couldn't help being impressed!

Look at how nice and fluffy the steamed rice turned out!

I used the same amount of water as I would

cooking with the rice cooker and covered with foil as well.

David says it takes exactly 30 mins on low fire.

This was a mix of potatoes, inari beancurd and diced chicken.

Seasoned with some mirin, soy sauce and black pepper - it turned out

quite a nice appetizing dish to eat with rice.

Micah liked it :)

Tan Thanh

2011-01-10T15:58:00.004+10:00

It is time I wrote about our favorite Vietnamese Restaurant. I was introduced to Tan Thanh by Rachel and discovered that it is a much better noodle shop than the one we frequent in Darra.

The servings are larger, it is slightly cheaper and the overall taste much better. I usually have spicy beef noodle soup and sometimes the cold rice noodles with grilled pork and spring rolls.

We make a trip there when we need to pick up some Asian food supplies and we've not eaten anywhere else!

A very generous serving of grilled pork

and fried spring rolls on top of cold vermicelli.

For a change, I had beef noodle soup with brisket.

Tan Thanh

Shop 16/57 Inala Civic Centre

Cosair Ave

Inala 4077

Tel: 3278 8883

Open 8am to 8pm 7 days

Rojak

2011-01-02T19:59:00.004+10:00

I wouldn't have dreamed it possible to make rojak or rojak sauce but at Sarah's suggestion that I tried making it for a cooking class we were supposed to teach, I did some research.

I googled for recipes of the sauce and found that the main ingredient is black prawn paste. I decided to substitute black prawn paste with molasses. It isn't an original idea - I ate the organic version of rojak using molasses at Country Kitchen in Kuala Lumpur. I modified a few recipes and came up with my own version.

I couldn't forgo prawn paste or shrimp paste completely so I added some for taste. Using molasses means that you can omit sugar found in most recipes. Molasses has a natural caramel flavor but lacked the depth of taste that is needed for fruit rojak. I used black soy sauce to give it a bit saltiness to complete the range of taste.

The first time I made this for the class session I used very little shrimp paste because I didn't want to frighten my church members who are mostly Australians. Giving them a whiff of the paste was enough to make some take a few steps back. Not all were willing to try the fruit rojak :) The more adventurous ones were pleasantly surprised by the tangy and caramel taste of the dish. I think they liked the nutty flavor of the chopped peanuts as well. I used only green mangoes and pineapples for that first try.

Today I had another opportunity to make this again. This time I didn't hold back on the paste and even added some chili padi at everyone's request. There were no green mangoes for sale so we used pineapples, green apples and some cucumber.

We had a Malaysian feast at Celia's this afternoon. Rendang, sambal udang, kuih dadar, fish & potato cutlets, fried mee hoon, nasi briyani, wonton noodles, ice kacang and rojak!

Here is the recipe for rojak sauce:-

Ingredients
3 tbs molasses (original recipe calls for black prawn paste)
1 tbs black/thick soy sauce
1 tbs chili paste
1 tsp dried shrimp paste
1-2 tbs roasted peanuts, pounded. I think I used a lot more than this!

Oops! Only took the picture much later after most of the food were gone!

Herbal Chicken

2010-12-30T17:33:00.004+10:00

Inspiration comes suddenly and when it does, I get cooking.

I can't believe that I threw together this dish on a whim. We were about to go out for the day when David reminded me to take the chicken out from the freezer to cook tonight. I thought it would be best to marinade it straightaway since we didn't know what time we'd get back.

I have been meaning to try steamed herbal chicken and I had all the ingredients. I sliced some ginger, threw in some slices of angelica sinensis (dong quai), a few red dates, a handful of wolfberries and some slices of American ginseng. I had no recipe and I didn't search for one so my measurements were just by feel. Then for the seasoning, I used mirin, some sherry, some shao xing wine, a bit of sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce. I mixed everything well with the chicken and let it marinade for several hours.

By the time we got back, it was time to cook. I put everything into a big bowl and put it on my electric steamer uncovered. We could smell the aroma of chinese herbs as it was cooking - David said it smelt good. I had a taste of it after I steamed it for about 50 mins and it was strong and very herbally but good! I can't wait to eat this with some steamed rice.

More Leftovers

2010-12-29T18:49:00.005+10:00

We are not eating pork for a while after tonight's dinner! I cooked more of the leftover roast pork from Boxing Day.

Whenever we had leftover roast pork, my Mom would fry it again the next day with lots of garlic and shallots. It would be all dark with thick soy sauce, oily and so delicious. I tried to recreate this dish tonight.

Ling reminded me to add some sugar - the secret ingredient to her Mom's version.

My dish had a twist - I cooked the roast pork with spring onions. I fried some slices of ginger in oil until it was fragrant and then the spring onions until the white root parts were just tender. I set those aside, added a bit more oil to the pan and fried chopped garlic and shallots until they were nice and almost going to turn brown. Roast pork went it next - I had sliced them up into small pieces. Give everything a good fry then season with some sesame oil, dark soy sauce, sugar and a dash of shao xing wine. I added the cooked spring onions last and gave it a good mix.

It was really good, I must say, but it sure was oily! I made myself a cup of hot pu erh tea after dinner to ease the horrid feeling of having had too much fatty food.

It was rewarding when Micah said that it was yummy.

Guinness Gingerbread Cupcake

2010-12-28T20:24:00.004+10:00

When I stumbled upon a recipe titled, Guinness Gingerbread Cupcake, I found it hard to resist baking it. It was a recipe in David Lebovitz book, Ready for Dessert, which I borrowed from the library. I picked a few that looked interesting and scanned them for keeps, waiting for the right occasion to bake.

Today we met up with some Malaysian friends and my contribution was this cake. Instead of making cupcakes, I baked it into a loaf. This took a bit of tweaking with the time - almost double the time in the recipe to get baked.

As usual with my first attempt - I made a mistake. The recipe called for 1/4 tsp baking soda whisked into the wet mixture which will foam up and settle down. I assumed it goes with the dry items so that got measured and mixed in with the flour. By the time I read the recipe again, I had to add another 1/4 tsp to create the foam - just in case the 'foaming' was essential!

I also omitted ground cloves because I didn't have any!

It turned out to taste like a fruit cake - that was the consensus. At first bite, it tasted a tad bitter but later the moistness of the cake and the flavor of the ginger took over and with the tangy lemon frosting it was indeed like how the author described it - if you make this, you are likely to have some deranged fans!

I didn't take such a good picture today.

In fact I was running so late that I grabbed the cake in the loaf tin, straight from the oven,

placed foil over it, put it into a bag and left for our friend's house.

I didn't even frost the cake until I got there!

Here is the recipe:-

Ingredients

1/2 cup (125 ml) stout beer, such as Guinness

1/2 cup (125 ml) mild-flavored molasses

1/z cup (125 ml) vegetable oil

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/a cup (170g) packed light brown sugar

1 3/4 cups (185g) all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup (50g) finely minced candied ginger (I used uncrystallized ginger)

Frosting:-

4 tablespoons (2 ounces/60g) salted or unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2cups (180g) powdered sugar, sifted

2 1/2 tablespoons (40 ml) freshly squeezed lime juice, or more to taste

1 tablespoon whole milk

Method:-

Preheat the oven to 350F (175C). Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners.To make the cupcakes,in a very large saucepan, bring the stout, molasses, and oil to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and whisk in the baking soda until dissolved. (The mixture will foam up, then settle down) Stir in the brown sugar, then let cool until tepid. Into a small bowl, silt together the flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Whisk the eggs into the stout mixture, then whisk in the flour mixture just until incorporated. Don't over mix. Gently stir in the minced candied ginger. Divide the batter among the cupcake liners and bake until the cupcakes feel just set in the center - 22 to 24 minutes. Let cool completely. To make the frosting, in a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on high speed until smooth, about 10 seconds. Decrease the speed to low and, with the mixer running, gradually add half of the powdered sugar. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl as needed to make sure the ingredients ate being incorporated. Add the lime juice, then add the remaining powdered sugar. Once the sugar is incorporated, add the milk. Beat the frosting on high speed until completely smooth and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Taste, and add a few more drops of lime juice, if desired. Transfer the frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. Remove the cupcakes from the muffin tin. Pipe rosettes of frosting in the center of each cupcake. (If you don't have a pastry bag, you can spoon a mound of frosting decoratively in the center.) Garnish each with strips of candied citrus peel or a piece of candied ginger. The cupcakes can be stored in an airtight container for up to 4 days at room temperature. For kids, feel free to use apple cider in place of the stout.

Roast Pork & Leftovers

2010-12-27T14:23:00.005+10:00

Did I tell you that David has perfected his roast pork - cooked on the barbie? Well he has. In fact he was somehow conned to roast one for his own surprise birthday party! I have no idea how I pulled that one off but it was pretty hilarious when he turned up for his own party bringing roast pork! We jumped out and shouted and he was standing there flabbergasted - good thing he didn't drop the dish! We had a good laugh and it will be party he won't forget - also because it was his 4oth!

Well it seems that roast pork is David's specialty. He's been practicing a few times for our own dinner but he really got it right when Lilian and Lionel visited us end November. My 'pork loving' friend, Lilian, wasn't disappointed because the week that they were staying with us, saw us eating so much meat and mainly pork!

Well besides satay, David made roast pork for our Boxing Day dinner - and a lot of it too! I wasn't fazed at having big chunk of it for leftovers. For lunch today, I made porridge with it.

I boiled some rice with loads of water and put in leftover meat which I had chopped into tiny bits. I added 2 salted duck's egg which I had beaten up. Then seasoned with a bit more salt, white pepper and added some sliced spring onions. It was yummy! The smokey flavor of the meat made the porridge delicious. There is a big pot of it to last us throughout the day :)

Satay

2010-12-27T14:03:00.003+10:00

David attempted to make satay a week ago. He skewered slices of beef and marinated it with ready made satay sauce overnight. Then he grilled it over the barbie. It was delicious. For the dipping sauce we used Brahim's satay sauce.

So when we had friends over on Boxing Day, he did all the hard work with the meat but I tried making satay sauce myself. I followed Rasa Malaysia's recipe but tweaked it to my taste.

I was taking my first taste of the sauce and found it too pungent - I think I put a bit too much galangal. Trust me not to read the recipe properly. I added more crushed peanuts to even out the taste but then found that it wasn't sweet enough so I added more raw sugar until it tasted just the way I prefer. All was well except that my sauce was a tad dry.

Incidentally we were talking to a friend from Indonesia and he was telling us that they don't marinade the meat. They just grill the skewered meat over a charcoal fire and baste it with soy sauce! I wonder how that would taste.

It was a good dinner with close friends and we think they enjoyed the satay and were, I hope impressed that the satay sauce didn't come out of a bottle :)

Satay sauce dry enough to form a ball!

Sirromet

2010-09-12T09:52:00.005+10:00

3 of us finished a bottle that afternoon!

Mixed cheese and antipasto platter for two.

Nothing can be more relaxing than having lunch al fresco with a bottle of chilled white wine and live music. This is what we enjoyed yesterday when we visited Sirromet, a winery at Mt. Cotton.

It was just 45 mins drive away from our place and as we approached, we could see manicured grounds and grape vine covered hillsides. It was a really bright and clear day - a bit hot for my mom who isn't fond of the sun but perfect for us.

We went straight to the cellar door where there is a cafe serving light meals and platters. We got there just in time for lunch. Mom ordered the chicken schnitzel and David and I shared a mixed cheese and antipasto platter. We wanted to order glasses of wine but David said it was more economical to get a bottle. I am more a white wine fan especially the sweeter ones. I asked for the dessert wine - a 2008 Late Harvest Viognier Pinot Gris.

There was live music to entertain patrons. At the same time there was a private garden party whose guests were all dressed up lending to the atmosphere.

We enjoyed a leisurely lunch while Micah had fun exploring the grounds and made 2 new friends. He really didn't want to leave!

Pavlova

2010-09-05T18:42:00.004+10:00

Patience is definitely not one of my virtues and in making this dessert, I've had to test it more than once.

First off, I was supposed to add sugar to the egg whites when they hold soft peaks. I added them a bit too early and my meringue was too liquid. It did hold it's form enough for me to spread on the baking paper and stay but was not stiff enough to form a well. All I got was a teeny indent in the middle.

Baking time was less than the recommended period because I notice that it looked like it was sweating with tiny beads of syrup started forming. According to the recipe, this means that I've overcooked it. I turned off the oven and open the door a bit to let it cool.

Then I started on the whipping cream. Everything was going ok until the electric mixer got a bit hot and then the stiff cream just became watery! I exclaimed so loud that Micah asked me, what's the matter! When I told him I messed up the cream, he asked if he could kiss it better :) That sure made me feel much better.

The meringue looked alright after it had cooled down - just a bit flat. I then attempted to transfer it to a serving plate. That didn't turn out so well! It started cracking up so I ditched that idea and left it on the baking paper.

As the cream didn't turn out, I just arranged the strawberries on top of the meringue and took a picture. To serve, I dished it out into a bowl and poured the cream over! The meringue actually turned out alright - crispy on the outside and soft and marshmallowy inside. Taste wise it was superb - satisfied my sweet cravings for a while.

I guess the only thing that didn't go wrong was the strawberries!

Strawberry Picking

2010-09-04T21:26:00.004+10:00

It's strawberry season - smack when it is cheapest or so we thought! So we went a picking at a farm on the way up to Sunshine Coast. It was a really pleasant day's outing and since Mom is here, we thought she should have this experience. In fact, it was also our first.

It was surprisingly near. Google maps estimated it to be an hour and half but it took us just an hour. There are a few farms around but we chose the nearest and the one that offered fresh strawberry ice cream!

They charge AUD8 a kilo (there is a minimum charge of a kilo) for this period. David didn't think it was that cheap and for the price we still have to work to pick them ourselves! But we were rewarded with the sweetest strawberries - worth all the work :)

We asked for 2 baskets. We didn't even attempt to go further than the first corner because there were just so many ripe ones already. Plump and red and looking really inviting. Micah was the first to pluck one and stuff it into his mouth. His favorite fruit is strawberries but he actually has an oral allergy to it. From what I've read, there would be less reaction if he eats them fresh after picking and it seems to be true. There has been no red patches around his mouth this time.

It didn't take us long to fill the basket. Micah sure committed a crime! He just couldn't help himself.

I was thinking of whipping up some cream to go with them for dessert after dinner but in the end everyone decided that it was sweet enough to just eat it as it is. I have another kilo in the fridge and I am itching to make dessert out of it - a pavlova comes to mind - might just attempt that for tomorrow night's dessert.

Hot & Sour Mustard Greens Soup

2010-09-03T11:07:00.005+10:00

I am making use of my Mom's visit to tap her recipe resource - especially the kind that she used to cook while we were growing up.

One of my favorite is hot & sour mustard greens (gai choy) soup. It is a dish usually cooked when you have loads of leftover meats like duck or pork bones. For ours, we bought 2 roast pork trotters and used some leftover roast pork meat.

This is a super easy recipe. Bring to a boil water and the trotters. Once it is nice and bubbly, add dried chillies and then some tamarind. Once that is brought to a roiling boil, add the mustard greens - you need loads of it because when it softens, there is just so little left. Then just let it simmer for a long time until everything is almost mush! Add salt to taste - I used fish sauce as well.

It turned out very nice and spicy because the chillies were dried bird's eye chillies! We've cooked such a huge pot of it - that should keep us happy for a few days!

Dragon Cookie

2010-09-02T14:31:00.005+10:00

I have an antique cookie press! A Sawa Cookie Press - it's been in the family for as long as I can remember and Mom recently passed it to me since she's not baking anymore. We used to eat loads of butter cookies Mom baked.

I didn't take a picture of the press because it is so old that it is discolored but I found an etsy seller who has one for sale. The link above leads you to the page so that you can see what the press can do.

Only the other day my cousin sent me a recipe for dragon cookie. I thought I could use the cookie press to ease the work but as usual, my first attempts are fraught with mishaps.

The dough was so flaky and dry and it wouldn't come out of the press no matter how much pressure I applied. There was no way I'd be able to use the press. I was about to dump the whole batch but I just couldn't waste the effort. I then used a measuring teaspoon for a makeshift mold.

All I can say about my effort is taste wise, the cookie turned out to be a cross between kuih bangkit and the dragon cookie. Thank goodness I have a son who didn't really care what the cookie looked like! He enjoyed it a lot. So did David.

Ingredients:-

Butter 120g

Icing sugar 120g

Egg yolks 3

Cornflour 360g

Vanilla Essence ½ tsp

Red coloring for the eyes

Method:-

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy

Add egg yolks and vanilla essence and mix

Fold in cornflour till dough is firm

Put the dough into the mold and press out to dragon shape, dot eyes with colouring, wait 20 mins before putting into oven (baking tray to line with baking paper and brushed with butter)

Bake in 180C oven for 15 minutes, turn the tray to bake evenly.

Gai Choy Rice

2010-07-31T14:14:00.003+10:00

I find out that Gai Choy is Chinese mustard leaf - a leafy green vegetable which my mom put in her one pot rice dish. It is also used in making spicy sour vegetable dish which is traditionally cooked with leftover meat. I love both these dishes and since I found the vegetable at the local supermarket I am going to attempt to cook it.

Since I don't have any leftovers to use, I'll start with the rice first.

I steamed the gai choy for about 5 mins and set aside. Then boiled rice. Whilst the rice was cooking in the rice cooker, I stir fried some marinated chicken slices with minced garlic and ginger. I added sliced shitake mushrooms and seasoned the stir fry well.

I added the stir fry and the gai choy into the rice cooker even though the rice wasn't cooked and mixed it well. Then I let the cooker do its work.

Cooking dinner can't get easier than this. A simple one pot dish which is great for feeding Micah. The downside is having to use a lot of black soy sauce to make the dish tastier and that contains sodium. I do try to use less but it will just leave the rice dish very bland.

There were 2 unpleasant factor - I should have bought more gai choy and the rice wasn't cooked enough. The gai choy softens when cooked and what I thought was a lot of it, turns out to diminish in the cooker.

My rice had little chewy bits - which is actually the brown rice grains which doesn't cook at the same rate as the jasmine rice. In my pursuit of healthy eating, I mixed a bag of jasmine rice with some brown rice to add some unpolished goodness to our diet. We haven't enjoyed the rice I've cooked since. I think I'll just stick to either next round.

My gai choy rice didn't taste exactly like how mom used to make it but I still enjoyed it. Next up would be to get a whole roast duck for dinner and then cook the leftovers with more gai choy and make the spicy and sour dish I like so much.

Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry

2010-07-28T21:29:00.002+10:00

I really wanted to cook beef with spring onions and ginger but as it turns out I had broccoli so change of plans.

I marinated some sliced beef rump steak with black bean sauce and some mirin and cut up the broccoli into smaller florets for the preparation.

I decided to try a different method of cooking. A method I know and a method everyone should use. I am usually just too lazy to do it. The method is cooking different ingredients at different times and not all at once. So I stir fried the beef partially with some minced garlic and ginger - I could see that the meat was still rare to medium rare when I set it aside.

Then I added a bit more oil and more minced garlic back in the pan to fry the broccoli. David reminded me to make sure that the broccoli was cooked properly - I tend to either overcook or undercook them! I kept checking and testing that the broccoli was cooked right and I burnt my tongue a few times.

Just when the vegetable was just right I put the beef back in, turned off the stove and closed the lid. You can only do this if you are using a heavy bottomed pan/wok which retains heat. After 2 mins and a bit more, I removed the cover to find the best stir fried vegetable and meat dish I've ever done! I am not tooting my own horn - by my own standards, it was the best.

For seasoning I sprinkled some sea salt on the broccoli and a dash of chinese cooking wine and malt vinegar when I had added the meat. Even Micah said, 'Yum'!

Casserole

2010-07-28T20:56:00.003+10:00

To me, a casserole means a hodge podge of ingredients scrounged from the fridge and pantry to create a one pot dish for the family in a jiffy (that is if you don't count baking time).

Like I said in some earlier post, I was going to try and finish what I have before I buy more. So with 2 carrots, 2 potatoes, a neither here nor there amount of spiral pasta (which had been cooked in a pot of boiling water), a can of undiluted chicken soup, a splash of milk, a dollop of light sour cream, some smoked shaved ham and half a block of frozen chopped spinach which I had already defrosted for my spinach pie (in my earlier post) and some ground black pepper and grated parmesan cheese, plus a sprinkling of italian herbs, I made a casserole!

It didn't look at all nice before I baked it but it turned out delicious! I was actually afraid I might have been a bit heavy handed with the salt when I realized that the ham and the chicken soup plus the parmesan cheese would already be seasoning enough but it was fine and just right - at least for or taste buds. It might be a bit bland for most.

The baking time was long. It took about an hour on 200C. I didn't use the top heating element which was wise - I covered my casserole with a layer of grated parmesan cheese and that would have burnt if I did. And when I bake or roast potatoes they always turn out still a bit raw or burnt but this time it was really soft through except for some bits at the top.

Now my fridge and pantry are emptying pretty fast and I can't wait to stock up on some new stuff to cook.

Spinach Pie

2010-07-27T13:53:00.003+10:00

I have this new policy in my kitchen - finish everything I have first in the fridge and pantry before going grocery shopping because I am guilty of buying too much and then forgetting about the food.

I found 2 packs of filo pastry in the freezer. It has been sitting there for a good half year and I decided it was time to try it out. This being my first attempt, I used the recipe at the back of the box as reference and rummaged for similar or substitutes as ingredients. I used eggs, mascarpone cheese (which was also in the freezer!), milk, onions, frozen chopped spinach and seasoning to form the filling. Whisked everything together first before pouring it into the prepared pan of arranged filo pastry.

You really can't go wrong with the pastry, taste wise - it goes well with anything and it is so light and flaky. It is also delicate and easy to line the pan with it but I had trouble trying to seal the ends together.

I baked it for about 40mins but found that I had to shut the top heating element in my oven because the top layer was a bit burnt. Otherwise this simple pie turned out alright and great for a light lunch. Micah found the crispy, flaky bits nice.

I am not fussed about the way my food looks anymore because

I can't seem to make headway with food styling!

I'll just enjoy the food as it is and present it here as such ;)

Roast Pork

2010-07-27T13:02:00.003+10:00

We practiced roasting with the Weber last week. David bought pork all ready to be roasted. I just seasoned the meat with some salt and pepper and some spice rub. Then it was all up to the barbie to do its work.

It was super easy but that was because of the thermometer and receiver we bought with the Weber. It is preset with cooking temperatures for all types of meat and how well done you want it. With pork, there is only the well done setting and the roast is cooked when the temperature hits 77C and that took roughly an hour and 15 mins.

We could smell the aroma of the roast for a good half hour before we could try. It was good that we could could the roast outside the house or the whole house would be smelling long after the plates have been cleared.

The roast turned out excellent! The skin was crackling and delicious, I must say. The meat was tender and moist and surprisingly flavorful even though we'd only seasoned it a mere half hour before cooking.

The downside to our dinner was that I'd put in root vegetables to roast together and left it to cook for the same amount of time as the meat. It was almost all burnt! I should have known better!

We now need to try cooking fish and chicken on the Weber. We can't wait to invite our friends over for dinner!

Gotta get the vegetables right before we can invite ppl over :)

Glutinous Rice

2010-07-26T17:44:00.001+10:00

Sticky and filling is how I'd describe glutinous rice and I like the savory versions. I bought some glutinous rice for David the other day - we ate steamed glutinous rice for breakfast spread with some coconut jam (kaya) at a friend's place and David has been bugging me to make some for him. Instead of doing that, I decided to make some for dinner.

I combined a few recipes and came out with my own. The most important part about the preparation is the need to soak the rice overnight so that it will be soft enough when you cook it. I only managed to soak the rice the morning itself but it was sufficient. I also marinated some chicken tenderloins which were cut into bite size pieces. Shitake mushroom is essential to this dish and you also have to soak them before use.

Cooking was pretty simple. I fried some minced garlic and ginger until fragrant. Then add the chicken and fry until cooked. Sliced mushrooms go in next. Add the drained glutinous rice and fry until it is coated with all the other stuff. I also added some frozen peas for color and as a vege. For seasoning, use sesame oil, soya sauce and dark soya sauce. Once everything is well mixed, take it off the stove and dish the rice mixture into a bowl or a suitable container, add water until the mixture is covered and steam for 30-40 minutes depending on how soft you like the rice to be. If it becomes too dry, add water by the tablespoons.

Mine turned out just a bit too soft but it was pretty tasty and a satisfying dinner. The only problem with eating glutinous rice is that I can only take a bit at a time - I feel full quickly but then become hungry again later! I had another serving for supper - David too!

Aussie Barbie

2010-07-17T14:20:00.006+10:00

We bought a Weber Q today. After shopping around for while, we settled on the Weber Q 200, thanks to Michelle's recommendation. I think we made an investment for life with this gas barbie.

David was quite excited - in fact, he rushed out to get some steaks and stuff to bbq for our dinner. We were very eager to test it out and see if we can grill a steak as nice as the one Paul did for us when we visited him and Michelle in Melbourne some years back - they were great steaks we had! We are convinced that it is partly skill and partly the equipment.

Hopefully we get our bbq skills right and then we'll invite some friends over. Our patio is unfurnished at the moment but since it is winter, we'll just cook outside and serve it inside the house. Our aim is to have a decently furnished patio by summer so that we can eat out more often.

I must give tonight's dinner a thumbs up. David cooked the steaks almost to perfection. Almost because the meat was a little bit too bloody so he popped them back for another minute and then, it was perfect. We had arugula for salad dressed with caramelised balsamic vinegar and some corn on the cob with it.

Layalina

2010-06-16T20:11:00.003+10:00

I can't believe I have no pictures of this meal. To be honest I just wanted to dig in because the moment the hommus hit the table I was lost. I could say, "You had me at hommus!"

My friend Mei Lin suggested and made reservations at Layalina. It was timely that another old school friend who lives in US happened to be in London the same time as I was so the three of us arranged to have lunch. I had great time catching up and in between mouthfuls we filled each other in on our lives.

We shared a main and had a few mezzes, one of which was chicken livers! Mei Lin wasn't a fan but she let us have our choice. I kept going on and on about how good it was and she attempted a taste but still wasn't a convert :). I was left to finish the rest since Lisa was a small eater.

I've had Lebanese before - in China but food pales in comparison, just judging my its hommus. And i must say that my palate fell in love with baba ghannuge. My interest in aubergines just increased manifold.

I think I won't do the dishes justice with my photo taking abilities - go to link for the menu. I can't get this meal out of my mind!

Dim Sum

2010-05-15T18:30:00.003+10:00

At my request we went back to Xiang Wan Tea Restaurant. This time it was lunch and we asked for the dim sum menu. Everything was in Chinese so we had to figure things out and ask the waitress. They were very helpful and some recognized us from a few nights ago.

We were seated at a booth so it was easier to manage Micah as he was hemmed in. We could enjoy our food much better this time. My pictures are horrible - took them with my mobile and this was the best with editing.

Excellent egg tart! There was a long wait for it

so the waitress put the order through first.

David wanted to pack some and we were

fortunate that they had some extras available

without us having to wait.

More siu mei - this time only pork and duck.

I assumed these had shredded radish inside.

It turns out to be durian!

They were nice - pastry was really light and flaky

Micah didn't like it :)

Pan fried radish cake was so so.

Maybe the stir fried version with XO sauce would have been better.

Hong Kong style milk tea

I know it as teh see and my uncle nicknamed me that

because it sounds like my name.

Fried hor fun with beef.

Extra oily and not much beef.

Xiang Wan Tea Restaurant

2010-05-14T00:50:00.004+10:00

I had a good dinner - the food was excellent and I even had cremated meat (see photo below) as one of the dishes! This newly opened Cantonese restaurant is in Ningbo's latest hotspot of restaurants, bars and retail outlets. We heard that it is mirrored after Xin Tian Di of Shanghai. It was fairly deserted because a lot of outlets weren't opened yet but this restaurant was packed and we had to wait.

It was worth the wait if you are like us, craving for some nice Cantonese food and dim sum. Unfortunately I didn't get to taste any dim sum. We were told they have not launched the menu but Steven and Magie got a sneak preview by virtue of them being frequent patrons. I really wanted lo mai gai - a few days ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with my stomach growling in hunger and I wanted to eat just that!

My disappointment was salved by the dish of siu mei . The roast duck and pork with crispy skin was excellent. I just had to come back and pop my little white tablet of statin! The signature fried rice was good too. We were debating - whether it was glutinous rice or just normal but couldn't decide. It was somewhere in between and it was just the right texture.

Then everything else was a blur. Micah was very difficult and kept running around, sometimes screaming and sometimes heading for the exit. David and I tried to stuff ourselves as fast as we could. I couldn't even take photos - besides the fact that I forgot my camera - it was impossible with a misbehaving toddler.

I only managed this photo with my phone before dinner started and it will be my last Chinglish encounter!

I have a strange feeling that we'd end up there again before we leave Ningbo in 3 days time!

Zhoushan

2010-05-06T20:19:00.017+10:00

I went to Zhoushan, ate seafood and came back with live crabs and rice cakes. I love crabs but have no idea how to cook them. I was told that the best way to cook was just to steam the whole crab for 10 mins. No killing involved! Just place live crabs in the fridge overnight and then put them whole in the steamer and steam.

I cooked crabs! Ningbonese style - just steamed.

As for the rice cakes, they come frozen in discs about 9 inch in diameters. Steaming was also the way to prepare the rice cakes. They were really nice like fatt kueh 發糕 but much finer.

Garam Masala

2010-04-27T19:43:00.003+10:00

This is my new kitchen staple - garam masala. It is such a versatile spice. I once put a teaspoonful of it into my macaroni and tuna. It just adds a whole new flavor to a standard dish.

I was low on groceries today and I had only beef, carrots and onions. I started out making a stew but decided to add garam masala and a few tablespoons of coconut milk to see how it would taste as a curry. The carrots made it a tad too sweet for a curry dish but I, somehow, like the taste. It had a hint of spiciness but it wasn't too hot for Micah. I dished out some for his dinner and then added a few teaspoons of curry powder into the rest to make it hotter for our taste. Micah finished his dinner in record time so I guess he likes a sweet curry too.

Ningbo's Seafood

2010-04-23T12:54:00.006+10:00

This is what people in Ningbo like to eat - a pot of seafood! It was an unusual combination of items. Crabs, prawns, potatoes, nian gao (thick rice noodles), spring onions and chicken feet! We ordered the spicy version and it was quite peppery. I am not a fan of chicken feet. In fact I don't eat it at all but decided to try it yesterday. It wasn't unpleasant and quite tasty but I don't think I'd be crazy for it. We'll try the rice porridge version next.

Bitter Gourd with Eggs and Natto

2010-04-20T20:28:00.004+10:00

I had planned to stir fry bitter gourd with eggs but the dish was getting boring. I would have added chili or sambal but then I would have 2 spicy dishes for dinner since I cooked black pepper beef with onions. And I really wanted to eat natto again.

So after frying the bitter gourd, I turned off the heat and added natto which had been mixed with the bonito flavored soy sauce and mustard sachets that came with the box. I had imagined that it might well not be edible but it didn't turn out too bad. In fact the goey, gossamer-like strings of natto and the pungent cheesy taste gave the boring dish new life. I enjoyed the bitterness of the gourd which surprisingly didn't clash with the cheesiness of the natto. Even David agreed that it was different.

I've got another 4 boxes of natto in the freezer. What else can I cook with it?

Banana Bread with Maple Syrup

2010-04-20T16:45:00.003+10:00

It was either bread or cake. David wanted me to bake a chocolate banana cake but I like to try new recipes so I went with bread.

I checked Allrecipes and found one where maple syrup is used instead of sugar. Now you must be wondering why I got this thing for maple syrup (I used it too cook noodles yesterday). It's not an obsession or anything. It's just me trying to finish off all the foodstuff I have in our food cupboard seeing that we're packing up by mid May.

I have bananas ripening and I had to hide them from Micah! This morning I caved and he bluffed! He left a peeled banana uneaten on the table - I salvaged that for my bread.

It was easy peasy but I didn't have maple extract so I substituted with vanilla and after reading the reviews found a few others who did the same. I have to agree with the majority of reviewers - it is a nice recipe! Oh! I used almonds instead of walnuts.

Unfortunately, as is the case when I bake, there is always some sort of disaster. I used a silicone loaf pan - I love that it was so light and flexible that I managed to stuff it into my overloaded suitcase on our trip back here. I used it the other day when I baked biscotti.

So it bulged on its sides when I put the batter in and it doesn't cook well in the middle! The same thing happened with the biscotti but I didn't mention that because I didn't need to take a picture of the loaf. So I had soft runny batter in the middle whilst the sides were already well done and crispy. I removed the loaf and put it on a baking sheet and stuck it back into the oven to properly bake.

I have a disaster of a bread loaf for a photo op! No point showing you then.

Surprisingly the taste is satisfactory. In fact, it is quite quite good. Wish you could have a taste ;)

Spaghetti Pad Thai

2010-04-19T17:54:00.009+10:00

Sweet, savory and spicy is a combination of flavors I like and it is prevalent in Thai cuisine. Eating rice with such flavors is most appetizing. I can easily finish 2 bowls of rice at any one sitting if I am eating Thai.

Then there are those times when I just want a single dish of noodles and my favorite has to be pad thai. The use of a salty spicy peanut sauce is fantastic with flat rice noodles and I like my pad thai with big juicy king prawns!

I am allergic to fish sauce, oyster sauce and prawns/shrimps (especially the dried kind). I break out in huge pimples on my chin and scalp. I've always thought it was hormonal or that I was using the wrong skin care but now discovered the cause. So I've eliminated these from my diet. (I've been doing trial and error testing myself) Great news is that I am not allergic to all crustaceans. I am fine with crabs - I had some on my last trip to Kuala Lumpur and was still clear faced. Hope to add clams, lobsters and oysters to my 'clear to eat' list.

So I digress to tell you that I don't use fish sauce anymore which makes my pad thai so unThai! I used to love using it because it made my stir fry vege tastes so much better. I have to settle for soy sauce to flavor my dishes.

I have bean sprouts, cabbage, some sliced fish cake, chopped garlic and spaghetti which was cooked and drained. For the sauce I mixed peanut butter with soy sauce, mirin, maple syrup and a bit of sambal chili. Most recipes use honey or I guess a dash of sugar while frying would do but I wanted to see how it'd turn out with syrup. The verdict: tastes about the same if I had used sugar.

I heat the wok and add oil (I use extra virgin olive oil but I think peanut oil would be more fragrant). Fry mince garlic and then add cabbage. When the cabbage is soft, add fish cake. Fish cake is already cooked so I added the spaghetti next with the sauce. Then I open a well in the spaghetti and throw in some eggs I scrambled. Lastly, bean sprouts - they add texture.

Note: I have never been successful frying eggs well, in a well! I've been advised often enough that I should fry the eggs and set aside then add it to fried noodles or rice at the end. I don't seem to listen :)

Using pasta instead of rice noodles was a better choice because they don't break as easily. David gave me the nod of approval so this recipe goes into my list of recipes I cook on a regular basis.

But - and this a big but - my spaghetti pad thai is nothing like pad thai! It tastes like normal fried noodles with a hint of peanut sauce. And we all know why - it probably needs fish sauce! Or a better cook :)

ps. by the time I finished cooking, it was dark and I didn't want another photo with bad lighting here!

Gnocchi with Roasted Garlic & Cream Sauce

2010-04-14T17:44:00.010+10:00

This is a recipe born from a combined experience of eating out and cooking at home.

I acquired a taste of gnocchi in China - I first had it at O'Reilly's pub. Their version is served with traditional tomato sauce. They added the cream sauce version recently and I tried it last Sunday. It was really good. Micah liked it too and ate a lot. So when we went grocery shopping after lunch that day, we threw in some gnocchi to cook at home.

The other day I did some roasting. I made a foil pocket and filled it with potatoes, carrots and some unpeeled garlic cloves. I drizzled a generous amount of extra virgin olive oil and added a few dashes of mixed herb. Roasting took a good 45 mins but the result was fantastic. The pocket ensured that the juices didn't evaporate and in fact partly steamed cooked the vegetables. The roasted garlic was really delicious. I am a fan of the bulb and tend to use loads of it and since discovering its roasted version, planned to use it somehow in my cooking.

* Just a note about roasting/cooking in a foil pocket - remember to be cautious when opening the foil. The steam can really be intense!

So when I decided to cook the gnocchi today, I also thought of roasted garlic and decided to make a sauce out of it. I didn't think I'd be the first to come up with this recipe so I checked out similar sauces - one recipe instructed blending the roasted garlic with the cream to make a smooth sauce but I think I'll just chuck the roasted cloves into the sauce. I like a bit of a bite out of my garlic.

I rather like cream based or plain extra virgin olive oil sauce. They don't drown other tastes like tomato sauce! David would disagree so we know which he prefers. His idea of home cooked pasta sauce is opening a can or a bottle! I prefer sauce from scratch. Well, not always since I use tomato paste.

So this recipe is pretty simple if you like to wing it, and I do!

Roast some unpeeled garlic. Make sure you drizzle loads of olive oil, extra virgin is preferred. It is done when it turns a dark brown and becomes opaque. Some of mine were actually burnt. Cool and then peel. Set aside.

Heat some extra virgin olive oil, fry some minced meat but it is really optional. Add cream sauce and keep stirring until it boils. Add roasted garlic and then let it simmer. For seasoning I used black pepper, some salt and a dash of dried basil. I think fresh basil would be great with this.

Lastly I added the gnocchi which was boiled separately and drained to the sauce and made sure everything was coated properly. I couldn't wait to try - the aroma from the garlicky sauce was making me salivate.

I don't know how to say this without it sounding like I am blowing my own horn but it was delicious!

David was impressed thinking that I came up with it myself and in a way I did :) Now I am thinking of all sorts of roasted garlic sauces for pasta. I could do aglio olio with it and add some dried chili flakes or try a version with it and some almond slivers in cream sauce. Ah! The possibilities.

Roasted garlic

Gnocchi with roasted garlic & cream sauce

Vanilla Almond Biscotti

2010-04-12T17:14:00.004+10:00

The recipe seems easy enough - mix everything together, form a log and bake. Then after cooling completely, cut logs into 5mm thick slices and bake them again for another 10-15mins till crispy.

This butter free biscuit is great for snacking. They might be a bit dry but dunking it into coffee makes it really nice. Micah sure loves them. Only problem is that there are crumbs all over the floor!

Ingredients:-

2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 cups sugar

3/4 cups whole almonds

3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract

Oven temperature 160C and baking time is approximately 35 mins.

Pizza Pino, Ningbo

2010-04-10T16:41:00.004+10:00

We love Pizza Pino restaurant!

We are there every weekend since a friend introduced it to us. Not only is the food good, there is free babysitting services! Well, we call it babysitting but it is in fact Mickey Mouse or another costumed cartoon character hired or played by restaurant staff to entertain kids in the kids corner.

It is such a great idea and we can see that other parents think so too because the restaurant is packed with other like minded families enjoying their meal peacefully while their kids are occupied playing and having fun.

I was going to try the pasta today but in the end shared a pizza with a friend. She chose a vegetarian styled pizza which had everything I had wanted to eat in the pasta version. Artichoke was what I was after and I wasn't disappointed.

And the Americano coffee is great. A nice cuppa on a weekend.

Wood fire oven

Bread and breadsticks served with butter.

I would have preferred olive oil and balsamic vinegar - it is by special request.

David ordered a hamburger - a rather weird thing

in the menu of an Italian restaurant!

The patty looks more well done than medium!

Nancy had the salmon lasagne.

I forgot to ask her how it was.

Vivian and I shared a Vegetarian pizza with

eggplant, broccoli, zucchini and artichoke.

I was totally satisfied and a dash of tabasco on a slice makes it perfect.

I encouraged Nancy to have tiramisu for dessert.

She enjoyed it as much as I did when I tried it on our first visit.

Here's Micah with the unofficial babysitter.

Mickey was a bit slack today - he sat down most of the time.

Cheese Crackers

2010-04-09T12:30:00.005+10:00

Guess who likes this snack! :)

Stealing one before I could snap the picture

Ok! The crease on the table mat is definitely a no no for styling!

I attempted to bake cheese crackers for a healthy snack!

I indulge in potato crisps or chips every once in a while. I know rice crackers are the healthier option but I still need that spud pick me up. Sometimes I crave for something cheesy and when I stumbled upon this recipe, I really had to give it a go.

I don't really know if it should be termed a healthy snack but I guess if it is homemade, it will have no preservatives and I am assured of the ingredients I put in.

After all the effort which got me like just a handful of bites, I don't think I am going to be making this regularly!

* click on the post title for the link to the recipe

Seaweed Porridge

2010-04-08T14:43:00.002+10:00

I love rice porridge even when I am not sick! I grew up eating it on weekends. Mom will cook plain rice porridge which will be eaten with a few dishes. Deep fried anchovies with peanuts, omelette with onions, pickled lettuce, salted eggs or salted fish.

Then there is the Cantonese style rice porridge cooked with minced meat and other condiments. You can just about cook it anyway you like to make an easy one pot dish.

Today I wasn't feeling all that good and was looking for some comfort food. I use a rice cooker to cook porridge leaving the cover open and adding loads of water so that the rice will boil to a smooth consistency.

I added miso, seaweed, bonito flakes and some chopped up firm tofu. Japanese styled rice porridge. Quick and delicious!

Our Entertainment Area

2010-02-19T13:14:00.003+10:00

David is hard at work knocking down a water feature left by the previous owners so that our outdoor entertainment area becomes a little bigger. Our main objective is to create an al fresco dining area where we can have a BBQ or have our meals outdoors when the weather is right.

We have an outdoor dining set which is now being used indoor. It will be shifted out when David is done on this DIY project. It might take a while so in the meantime I am sourcing for ideas on how to decorate.

I came across a site that sells kitchenware and picture frames which are just what I need to complete the look I have in mind. No interior design is complete without accessories.

The range is pretty extensive but I have to choose the right type of dinnerware and silverware for the entertainment we do. I prefer the hardy over fine dining type of dinnerware for obvious reasons - with Micah around, fine dining is out of the question and it makes sense because we are only interested in BBQs.

Then there are linens - some themed linens for the festive season would be necessary.

It does seem like a lot to do and to buy. I hope to be ready for Christmas this year. We'd like to have a BBQ to celebrate or a sit down dinner. I do have a lot of time to think of the the food and to experiment.

Vegetarian Chai Choy

2010-02-14T12:55:00.004+10:00

I never thought I'd go to so much trouble to cook a dish. My preferred dishes are those that are simple and no trouble but for this dish, I had a lot of preparation. And I must say that I have been rewarded. Oh! The taste of chai choy on the first day of new year is something I've missed but my attempt to cook it today has paid off. I shall start our own family tradition and serve this up during the festive season.

My craving started this quest and as the Chinese New Year drew nearer, I checked a few trusted websites for some recipes. In the end, I contacted my cousin who is the bearer of the family recipe and the person in charge of cooking reunion dinner. I had some idea of what the ingredients were but being a noob at chinese cooking, I was almost at a loss. Thankfully I had Ling go shopping with me and we could get everything from the Asian grocers - all except for black moss (nicknamed: hair by the kids!).

I followed the recipe almost to a tee not wanting to make any mistakes. I couldn't afford to mess up because I had said I'd cook this dish for my portion at a pot luck tonight. Some of my Malaysian friends are getting together to celebrate this roaring new year. David gave me a affirmative nod after his first taste and having tasted it myself, I must say it comes close to the chai choy my aunts and cousin cooks. Success! Can't wait to pig out tonight.

Have a Roaring New Year everyone :)

Testing

2009-12-13T22:14:00.000+10:00

Just testing out an apps. It would be amazing if app will allow me to blog and bypass the Great Firewall!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone