Nutella Swissroll
While being away from the internet and blogging world most of the time for the past 3 weeks, I been actively cooking and baking. In fact I been so busy that I only have 4 hours of sleep everyday, and cooking and baking the rest of the time. No internet connection for myself even... that explains why the lack of post. Its so busy that I barely had time to take pic of the food esp so since they r my new creations.
I squeeze out enough time to bake this for Serene since she is craving for home baked cakes.
I dont know where did I find the courage to bake a swiss roll out of the crazy schedule. Especialy so since I worry very much it will break/crack after rolling.. anyway it was alritey!!!! So excited that I rather be late than to miss taking a pic of it =)
Nutella SwissrollI used nutella since at least if its not fridge it will not spoil so easily. And obviously our dear Serene walloped all ~grin~
QQ Rice?
QQ Rice was liek my daily staple when I was in Hong Kong. I can eat that for bf, lunch, dinner.
So when my Serene and I saw this QQ rice shop in Singapore, we are delighted.. Not for long thou... cos seems like we prefer the Hong Kong ones.
Actually If im not wrong, Q rice originated from Taiwan. So its actually a taiwanese snack.
Anyway, when I ask dear what he wants bento for work tomorrow, he say yes he want QQ rice... tsk.. obviously he doesnt know how good those in HK taste LOL...
So I decided to combine the idea of QQ rice into japanese style.
Rice ball it is... sound like Hainanese rice ball? Ya sort of...
Suzanna gave me the idea when we went shopping a few months back on this. And so here I come presenting my 1st batch of rice balls..
Oh yes.. I even have a cute rabbit egg to go with it.. Easter mood still!!! Thanx E for the cutie mould =)
QQ RiceI added roasted chicken, fish floss, sesame and pickle radish in the center..
The insideDear loves the rice ball hehe... He ate 2 after dinner...I was kidding with him.. that Im putting the rice ball into my Hello Kitty Bento box for him to bring to work =p
Niku-Jaga
I don't know if its the correct name for this dish. But I had it a couple of time in the japanese restaurant, and its nice.. Mildy sweet, and satisfying chewy beef with some tendon attached.
A forum friend share this recipe with us moons ago...
Obviously it took me many months before I finally get done with it.
Its an easy meal.. definitely suitable for me haa...
But I cant get nice beef today and so Dear said replace it with the pork shabu shabu. I guess it was kind of a mistake.. the pork was too soft.. Looks like we still need the trusty beef.
Other than that, it was pretty good.. and I added in 3 carrots so that I dont have to cook a veggie dishes.
Its almost salt free for this dish mainky becos I had used kelp stock for this and adding the onion n carrots help in sweentening the whole soup. Not forgetting a dash of korean cooking wine which is sweet.
Niku-JagaAnd I had prepare sushi rice to go with this dish since I got pletiful of pearl rice at home.
Its a 2 flavour rice with radish topping... yummy!
Moist Carrot cake for the Bunny
Couple of weeks ago, PT asked if I will try out the recipe for her if she attends the class at Shermay's. Of cos!! Why not right? And so while I was away on my hols.. she happily went for the class.. When I met her, she even passed me all her newly acquired cookie cutters nudging me to try out the cute shapes. I dont know what I done to deserve such a friend like her hehe...
But as usual.. I put it off off and off... since dear did not express good impression onc arrot cake.
Finaly the other day K also tell mi bout the carrot cake. and I told myself.. I MUST bake them when I can find soemone to feed it with... and today is the day.. to feed the 'bunnies' haaa
Its easter.. give me some excuses to bake this since after the golf range practice I am gg to meet Angie n Alvin for dinner with Dear at the Seletar airport. They can be my guinea pig haha
With a little hiccup like overflowing batter out of the cupcake holder. I finaly got them all done... Considered for real long time before I finaly decided to post this. As I know my dear friends PT n K will be pleased to see what they motivated me to bake comes on screen.
Dear girls... Thank you for being generous in sharing. And I hope I did not disappoint u =)
Super Moist Carrot CakeWhile I find it on a sweet side, the fragrance of the orange and spices really bring the taste of the whole cake to a different level. I will adjust the sugar accordingly in future. Surprisingly, Dear like this cake =)
Guess it will not be too long before I bake this again *wink*
Happy Easter Day
Last night as we were shopping around the CS at Siglap Center, fiddling with the idea to roast a chicken anot for today...
Since its easter.. no chick.. chicken also can rite? Oki oki.. and so I bought a chicky home.
Since I stand by my rules that my roast chicken should alwasy be tender, even on the breast meat parts, I began the tenderising process despite I reached home near 1am. With the very standard tenderising agent, I did my job with a breeze.
For once I gave my favourite rosemary a miss for the marination. Instead, I chop up some lemon grass, stuff inth e whole lime, sprinkle some oregano all over together with some maltose n seasalt and let the chick sleep in the fridge over night.
Its Public Holiday, and so roasting the chicken after my baking was easy too.. didnt take up alot of time.. just stuff it with some carorts n onions to fulfil the daily veggie intake, pop it into the oven, set the timer and there goes...
The main plan was eat the everythg exceptthe breast meat which I wanna do a wrap with it over the weekend. and thus.. here is our juicy thighs.
Oriental Roast Chicken Dear commented that its nice and juicy.. the skin is sweet and yummy.. just like what the restaurant serve.. bet this time round I hit it right on the nail =)
White Meat day
I chance upon a pretty easy sambal recipe when J showed me a blog. And I thought I would love to make some of those sambal for grilling fish and seafood..
Since im never good with cooking fishes (I onli know how to cook cod, threadfin and stingray), wokking mum did a big help in stating she uses selar for this dish.
So therefore, It didnt take me too long to get into action...
Sambal SelarI even made more of the chili paste to freeze =p
Asparagus is our favourite... and to make use of the left over bacon in the freezer, I cok them together.. rather yum I must say...
Bacon AsparagusWhen I was at the mart.. I saw some fresh lala.. and since there isnt any red meat dishes, no harm having 1 more dish then..
With the most basic method of ginger, garlic and white wine...
Lala with White Wine SauceOf cos.. with such a light meal... Its no surprise we headed off for desert after that. Went to our favourite TCC at Siglap..
Half Past Six
Nono.. its not the time... its my skill LOL
It been weeks since I thought I want to make sushi... eithre I haven got the japanese rice (I refuse to use thai rice) or I haven got the roe.. Finally today is the day.. and also to use my gadgets... hehe
Of cos California maki is 1 of my favourite.. apart from the usual sashimi.
Armed with some ripen avocado, crab meat, pickled radish and sakura denbu aka pinky fish floss, I began my adventure.
Its my 1st time after like errr 7 yrs since I did sushi.. I had some jitters. Since I am constantly under the stress of the Emperor asking why this why that..
I was struggling with the coating of the roe as I donno hw to coat them nicely.. ekkk Anyway.. with my half past 6 skill... hehe.. here I present my Califoria maki...
California MakiThen comes the sushi.
With the Tako I had got...
Using the sushi gagdet I bought years ago... I managed to shape perfect rectangular sushi.
Topping it with some self mix wasabi which was super spicy... then again with my half past six slicing skill, I slice the tako up... n top it on the sushi...
Here I present the
Tako SushiI froze the remaining tako hoping to make takoyaki over the weekend =)
Sticky Spicy Chicken
Im a big procastinator.. not forgetting to add that Im a forgetful woman...
Been wanting to try this chicken recipe out moons ago when Annie shared the recipe with us 5 months ago. Somehow I never got around to doing it till today..
Easy recipe I must say. All I need to do is mix in the liquid ingredients, brown the garlic, ginger n shallot.. stir in chicken.. then the liquid seasoning.. and leave it to simmer till a thick gravy emerged.
Sticky Spicy ChickenThe name for this dish is not call sticky for nothing since it uses quite a bit of brown sugar, resulting it in caramelising at the end thus forming the sticky gravy.
Also, its tangy taste of sourness add a big big thumbs up factor for the dish. In fact I added more vinegar than required since I love sour stuff.
Here's the recipe Annie had shared with us with slight modification on my part:
Ingredients: 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (approximate)
1/3 cup fish sauce (approximate)
1/3 cup water (approximate)
5 T rice-wine vinegar
2 T soy sauce
1 T minced fresh ginger
1 large clove garlic, minced
2 shallot, sliced thinly
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/2 t crushed red chilli flakes (I use the korean chilli flakes)
2 chili padi to increase the spicy index =p
1 T shallot oil
3 scallions (white and green parts), thinly sliced
1 chicken, chop into pieces.
1 to 2 tomatoes, lightly slited across the cross section (optional)
Garnishes
MethodIn a bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, fish sauce, water, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, pepper, and red chilli flakes.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan over med heat. Add the scallions, ginger, garlicn chilli padi and shallot, cook until soft, about 3 mins.
Add the chicken and brown it slightly.
Add the brown sugar mixture. Turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. As soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer, turning the chicken pieces occasionally, until cooked. Add in tomatoes.
Cover pan and reduce the sauce by half or until it is slightly thickened and resembles a bubbling caramel sauce.
The tomato was additonaly added by me, since I want tomake this into a 1 pot meal and dear like tomatoes =)
Serve the chicken with the sauce on a pile of shredded lettuce or any other vege of your choice, garnished with the diced spring onions.
This makes a good 1 dish meal since I fully incorporated the required amount of vegetables as garnishes. The sauce goes super well with the lettuce as such I actualy end up making more sauce than stated =p and not a drop was left ...
Next round perhaps I shall be more extravagrant, adding the korean sesame as garnishes as well =)
Thanx Annie for the recipe =)
Tom Yum Soup for the Cold Weather
Finally I made this.
Couple of moons ago, when I went by Golden Mile for grocery, I grab some bottles of tom yum paste.
While I keep telling myself I must cook tom yum 1 day. The 1 day never come mainly due to lack of ingredient.
Back in Europe, I normaly cook tomyum soup with only the paste and I do not find it satisfying.
My lucky star 'mum' came by, cooked some tom yum.. got me over to tabao for both dear and myself.. WOW.. its shiok... and I thought I really must cook it the same way she did. Now I know why is my tomyum so lousy in the past..
So today finally I pulled myself out of home (im in hibernation mode for days), to NTUC to get all the ingredients.. chicken, tiger prawn, squid , mushrooms etc ... despite the rain..thanx to J who went along with me =)
And here goes... for the rainy days...
Tom Yum SoupThe additonal ingredients like lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves n etc surely make a difference from just tom yum paste alone...
Im smart enough to have steam enough rice for supper =p
Thanx 'mum' for the recipe ... its a keeper!!!!
La Terrine De Caille Aux Cepes
Couple of weeks ago, I got a friend to help me get some pate back from France. I had fell in love with them 2 years back when I 1st tried them .
And I am really shock at the price tag thou.
From the many cans in my pantry, I randomly chose the La Terrine De Caille Aux Cepes.
Caille is quail while Cepes is some kind of mushroom.
Since pate goes well with bread (its too salty for me to eat it on its own), it comes straight to my mind to pair it with my cranberry bread.
La Terrine De Caille Aux CepesThe saltish pate does goes well with the sourish cranberries to my surprise and before I knew it.. Its all gone during supper.
5 Facts bout myself
I have been tagged by
singairishgirlTook me quite awhile before deciding what to do with it.. Laziness is the description haha.
I have to list 5 facts about myself and then pass on the tag to 5 others.
5 facts about me:
And I realise im very much like Deb when I seen her meme.
1) I am like a camel.. i drink alot... So much tat doctor ask me to stop =p
2) I Love to go to supermart.. I spent 1 hour in there if I need to buy just 1 item.. and Iend up with a cartful =)
3) I am money smart.
4) I have a dream of learning everything possible in this world.
5) I am not super neat but I am a hygiene freak
Passing on this to
-1.
kellie-2.
judy-3.
HK choo-4.
chawanmushi-5.
jo
CranBerry Yoghurt Bread
Deliberating between the cheese loaf which Peony had baked, or the yoghurt loaf which sweet tooth had done. Since I have got both in my fridge waiting to be clear... Eventually, I gave in to the yoghurt one, since I am lemming for some cranberries too as Im not feeling too well.
Like I say, Im not well and so i wanted to be lazy. I wanted the Breadmaker to work harder for me and I decided to bake the loaf in the BM instead of with my pull man's tin in the oven. Bad choice.
For 1, I don't know the proper setting and so.. . I choose the wrong setting. Ended up with v hard crust bread... grrrr not forgetting BLACK crust too.
For 2, it shard to remove, mainly due to the blade attached to the BM. The loaf of bread was stuck there. After much lugging, phew.. Finaly the bread came out in 1 piece.. with a hole of cos.
I added loads of cranberry into it.. I tink 120g.. and some korean sesame too.
Taste is good. Soft n fluffy (not sure bout tomorrow thou) and the cranberries is perking me up =)
Yummm
Cherry Cheese Cupcake
I finally pulled myself out of my holiday mood to bake something for my buddy's birthday.
While I am busy racking my brain for ideas, PT shared with me a recipe she had learnt last week.
Pretty easy I thought, and I have all the ingredients at home. Cream cheese been out of stock for quite sometimes and I am glad my kiasu-ism helps when I normally buy alot of cheese at 1 go to stock up. Took me about an hour to get everything done before I fall back into my comfort zone again.
The cherry that was needed was sold at Culina at rocket high price.. and so I thought the Comstock one is as good. After all, they came up with another range with more fruits, at an extra price of cos.. and so I thought why not give it a try.
Cherry Cheese Cupcake
While J and I thought it taste a bit burnt n dry(maybe cos this recipe do not use the water bath method), T said its nice while we were baking the lapis. I jumped with excitement since T have got a difficult tastebud hehe..
And finally today, Dear tried the last of the cupcake... and he loves it. He gave me 8/10. Something which is rare since he have difficult tastebuds too hehe..
Im sure I am going to make this again very soon since I got half a can of cherry left =)
Thanx PT for sharing. =)
Field Trip Food: Part 2
Tea Break is served at 1630 hours daily.
At the top deck, the waited will 'ring' us with his spoon and saucer indicating break time.
We love to sit by the forward of the vessel, with full view of River Nile.
Catching the seagull in action.
Pound cake and Saltish Cookies
Funnily, I like the pound cake. Dear likes the cookies.. The pound cake probably was sliced so thinly, I forgot its heavy and dense... And with the cold wind blowing on my face, the tea works wonder too =)
Me and my cuppa of tea
With Nice view around us.
Now more food from meal time:
Macaroni soup with Lotus flower Seeds
Cruise Style Mini Pizza
Potato with Cous Cous Rice??
Dill Potato Salad
Stuffed Chicken
The other day when We met up with some friends, they comment we had lost weight.. sees like its another round of commando training for the 2 of us... hehe
Aswan Local Market
We were pretty bored during the free and easy Nile Cruise. So i asked if its alright and safe enough for us to go jalan ourselves along the wharves... Our guide offered to bring us out... of cos I am ecstatically happy!!! Afterall it means is safer for us hehe
Little was known where we are going.. I thought it's just a boring walk... and the thought on my mind was just the horse carriages trotting along.
A typical Horse Carriage stand just like our taxi stand
Ahh we came by the Local Market
On the market street
This shop sells some traditional instrument...
Tempted to buy them but.. the angel side of my brain tell me no... no ... NO...
Various MacaroniIts part of their staple
A cobbler shop
A Leather bag shop
A hard ware shop sellign pots n etc.. no luck on finding bake stuf there thou
Sugar cane shop!!!!
they sell sugar cane juice, which is using a huge machine.. push in the canes hard.. and the juice comes out... click on pic to view the details =)
Our guide bought us sugar ane juice.. and well it tasted just like the spore ones..
Just lthe week before we left for the trip I was talking to a potential investor in Dubai and we hit on the topic of sugar cane juice in Dubai... wow... so near yet so far =)
And the sugar cane mainly comes from Luxor field
Naan alike breads are sold openly...
I wondered why don't they mind the 'sand' on the bread? the street are sure sandy....
Came by the butcher. It been years since I last seen meat hanging out in the open by the vendors' stall..
The old lady had a big bag of grocery on her head while shopping..
I avoided going next to her in case the bag drop on me... haha
Dried OkraSaid to be taste as good as fresh once dehydrated.
A typical spice shop
while it is a spice shop, not everythg selling thr is for eating.
This spice shop stuff are label in english for tourist!!the blue item for instance, is some powder... to wash white clothing. to make the clothes whiter. A little resemblance of the blue solution I use to wash my uniform last time =)
Another Spice shop, it also sell the kakadade flowers which I bought alot back for my family.
Inside the spice shopMany times they will probably ask u to pay them tips for photography... with our guide with us.. I can snap all I want hehe
I dunno what is it.. seems like good stuff thou
Any one knows whats that?
Pottery for sale along the street.
we are lucky we went at the off peak hours to the market.. else I probably will get all squashed up...
We hurried bk to the cruise since we are sailing off to Edfu the very evening.
My Field Trip food - Part 1
Finally, I had "undusted' myself enough to make a post here.
Food in Egypt aren't fantastic. I got dear complaining everyday bout the food. While I'm a fussy eater, I need yummy food.. I am quite ok with the food there. With some complaints thou =p
Some food I had on the Cruise for 4 days. Will post the rest up slowly... The rest of the Egypt Photos are
hereIn the cruise, we got a fixed table to sit at, so no worries of no having any seats.
There is another couple sharing table with us but we hardly eat together since we normaly try to eat as early as possible..
Drinks are not inclusive, and so we gotto pay for our own drinks. Thats where a large part of our money goes to during the trip..
Drinks are expensive there
A typical Salad BarPhoto are a little blur since I don't want the ang moh to think Asian are s nuts bout food they we go snapping pictures at the food counter hehe... we are the only asian on the cruise...
While some r under dressed, some are over dressed too.
Some weird looking macaroni in the soup
Vegetable soup
A little salty... but satisfied my tummy on the freezing night there.
Pumpkin Soup alike, but something else they added which I cannot figure out
Tortillas with rice n etc
Some bread crumb looking stuff with Raisin and spices.
Part of my daily breakfast.
Danish Pastry
Thou the standard is a far cry from Singapore kind, still I wallop them.. else I will starve n die in the desert manz..
Marrow GratinSomething old yet new.. I love marrow, I love gratin but never in this form =)
Vegetable Quiche1 way of the cruise reusing left over I noticed, is by cooking the left over from the previous meal to something new. And they also managed to come up with something new. Perhaps the vegetables from this quiche is fr the salad? hehe
KakadadeIts better known as Rosella Tea in Singapore. However, theirs are rather good grade I must say.. This was 1st served as a welcome drink when we checked into M/S Princess Amira. I thought it looked familiar and well.. Im right =)
1 of the rare gems I got back from Aswan. They have the Sudan grade which is not as good since they are not whole flowers.
