20 posts tagged “recipes”

I usually cook my lunch as it's a hassle to bring baby to go out to eat or even buy lunch back. It's not economical to cook a meal for one, unless you are a strict vegetarian, but it can be more nutritious than the food serve outside. With a baby, it also means that I have to think of quick and easy recipes to settle my lunch. But I am sick of what I cook and attempting new dishes now and then.

This recipe is pretty much my own and a typical Hokkien (South-east China) dish. My mom cooks this often except that she uses dried mushroom instead of tau kwa. I like mushroom but not when they soak up the salt in the dish.

I think it's fairly easy for anyone to try cooking this dish. When I cook this next time, I am gonna try to make it more flavourful by adding more dark soy sauce and five spice powder. Let me know if you try my recipe~

Braised pork
2-3 servings

Ingredients
Twee bah, 300gm (can someone tell me which part of the pig this is?)
Tau kwa, or dried beancurd, 2 pcs

Marinade
4 cloves of garlic, bruised slightly
3 tbspn dark soy sauce
1 tbspn soy sauce
1 tspn sugar
1 tbspn sesame oil
2 tbspn chinese wine, I used hua diao
1 tspn five spice powder
Some black pepper

Steps

1. Marinate the meat with the marinade and leave in the chiller overnight
2. Add meat and tau kwa in a pot and add water till 2/3 of the ingredients
3. Bring to boil and simmer for 1-1.5 hrs and occasionally give the mixture a stir

Made a lasagna to host a friend last night. Surfed the Internet for recipe ideas as my stash of cook books doesn't provide a suitable recipe. I don't usually follow a recipe to a T and would adapt from about 2 recipes to make my own. Lasagna is tasty, but it requires many ingredients. I didn't know about it! Since it's my first try, I simplified whatever I could so that we would all have a dinner. Well, the taste was quite good, but hopefully I can improve the look next time. :)

Easy Lasagna
Serves 3

Ingredients:
150gm of lean beef, minced and seasoned
3 garlic sausages (you can use minced pork), thinly sliced
4pc of ham, sliced
1 big onion, minced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
100gm of tomato puree
200ml of Italian pasta sauce
30ml of water
6 pc of Non-boiled Lasagna (should use 9pc)
2/3 a tub of low fat Ricotta cheese
100gm of fresh mozzarella cheese , thinly sliced
250gm of mozzarella cheese
1 egg
Parsley
Black pepper
Olive oil

Steps:

1. Cook the meat, sausages, ham, onion and garlic till browned
2. Add Puree, pasta sauce, water and season according to taste
   
3. Bring mixture to boil and simmer till the mixture is moist
   
4. Mix the Ricotta cheese, egg, parsley
   
5. Pre-heat oven to 190°c
6. Spread a thin layer of meat mixture on a baking dish, add ricotta cheese mixture, fresh mozzarella cheese. Lay lasagna noodle on top. Repeat this step.
   
7. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and put into oven to bake for 20 mins
8. Take out the dish, uncover, check whether the top layer of noodle has absorbed the moisture. Spread the packet of mozzarella cheese on top. Put back into oven.
   
9. Bake till cheese turned brown.
   

I made a variation of the Shepherd pie (or cottage pie if you like) and a chicken avocado salad for our little Christmas lunch today. Thought I won't have the luxury to whip up dishes after popping the bb!

Shepherd pie
Serves 2

Ingredients:
3 russell potatoes
250gm minced beef
2 small chicken herb sausages
1 medium size carrot
1 big onion
2 tbspn of minced garlic
2 tbspn of mustard
1 small can of tomato puree
30gm of butter
250ml of beef broth
Black pepper
Oil

Steps:

1. Peel and cut the potatoes in chunks, boil in water until tender (about 20 mins)
2. Mash potatoes with butter add-in
   
3. Heat up the oil and sauté onions and carrot till tender over medium heat (about 5 mins)
4. Add minced garlic and sauté till the fragrance is released (about 2 mins)
   
5. Add ground beef and sausages, then sauté until beef is no longer pink
6. Pour in the tomato puree and beef stock and season the mixture with mustard
   
7. Bring mixture to boil and cooked with cover for 20 mins or till mixture is moist but not dry. If the mixture is still wet, then cook uncovered to remove excess water
   
8. Scoop the mixture into a baking dish and spread the mashed potato on top
   
9. Use a spoon to level out the mash and then use a fork to make some patterns
   
10. Bake the pie at 200°c until the mash is golden brown (about 20 mins)

Verdict: We like this version better than the others I have made, so this dish is definitely a remake! The herb sausage and the tomato puree adds more flavour to this dish!

I made dinner last night and the result was rather satisfying. I took some pictures too... (i hate my camera now!) tho in the first place, my dishes dun look that appetising...

Cream of mushroom

Cream of mushroom
Serves 2

Ingredients
6 bown mushroom, sliced
6 shitake mushroom, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
100ml of light sour cream
1 1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 tspn of Thyme
Olive oil
Grounded black pepper
Salt (opt)

Steps

1. Sauté the onion till soft (about 5 mins)
2. Add the mushroom & thyme, and continue to sauté for 10-15 mins
3. Add chicken stock into the pan and bring to boil
4. Using a food processor, purée the mixture
5. Pour back the mixture into the pan and add cream, use low fire to bring to simmer

Seafood baked rice

White sauce
Ingredients
50gm of unsalted butter
50gm of plain flour
300gm of milk

Elevator

Elevator. Someone said you can tell the pace of the city from its elevators. This elevator is very, very slow. I wanted to move on faster but I realised that I have nothing to rush for. Long and steep.

My first solo day without Annie. Somehow my alarm clock which is my mobile was set to 9pm instead of 9am... so by the time I left the house, it was already noon. Winter days are shorted and sun sets around 5:30pm... Shops close early and there is not much to do during night time.

Annie and I tried to look for live band performances around Fitzroy and the city, but there wasn't any on a rainy Monday night!

From L to R: Power Street, Creepy house, Pond near Melbourne Museum, Melbourne Museum, Leaving the Museum

From L to R: Fossil 1 to 5

Kimchi soup

I cooked us dinner! Here is the recipe for a kimchi soup. I added whatever ingredients we have. It is a lovely dish for cold weather!

Check out my grouprecipe page. I think the site is great! It combines two of my major interest, web 2.0* and cooking. If you are an avid cook or beginner chef like me, join the site!

*One of my greatest wish is to gear the websites in my company towrds web 2.0

Dilbert-cooking

Pasta Cabonara

Pasta Cabonara
Serves 2

Ingredients

Pasta
3 tbspn of butter
3 strips of bacon, diced (I used back bacon which is not so fatty)
200ml of cream
2 eggs
1 tbspn of garlic
Salt
Black Pepper
Oil

Steps

1. Boil pasta to al dente in a pot of water added with salt and olive oil, then drain the pasta with a colander
   
2. Heat oil in a pan, add in the diced bacon and stir fry till it starts to turn brown
3. Add garlic into the pan and stir fry till golden brown
4. Mix cream and egg together
5. Add butter into the pan and pour #4 in
   
6. Stir with low fire
7. Season with salt and pepper

I have been cooking non-Asian food for the past few times, so I will cook some Chinese dishes next time! Akan Datang!

Chocolate Caramel Cookies
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's recipe*.

Ingredients
2 regular size mars bar (about 80gm)
1/2 stick of butter
100gm dark chocolate (i used either 50% or 75% cocoa)
1 cup of cornflake

Steps

1. Break up the mars bar into chunks and place the chunks into a saucepan
   
2. Use low fire all the time and add butter (to prevent the chunks from sticking and burning)
3. Add in dark chocolate and stir frequently
   
4. When everything has melted, pour in the cornflake and stir until the cornflakes are well coated.
   
5. Fill the mini muffin paper with a spoon of mixture and place everything in the refrigerator to chill for at least 1 hour.

*The differences between Nigella's and this recipe are that I used less mars bar and added dark chocolate.

Double cheese baked pasta
Serves 12-16

Ingredients:

Easy Mango Chutney Chicken
Serves 4

20061210- Easy Mango Chutney Chicken

1. In a skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat
2. Add in the minced garlic and fry until light golden brown colour
   
3. Place chicken strips in hot skillet and cook until nicely browned
4. Combine the chutney, chicken broth and pour over the chicken.
   
5. Cover; reduce heat to low and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and chutney turn brown.