A Chinese Fare

Seafood Soup

It all began one night when mom and I were discussing dinner for Sat and Sun. Yup that's what we do.. plan something special or exotic for the weekend since i don't really get to see her much over the week. So this particular weekend, we wanted Chinese food. Now Mom usually suggests sweet and sour chicken or fish but i thought.. lets be adventurous and do something different.. so we decided black pepper chicken..

Chap Chye

So Sunday came and Mom started prepping for dinner. She did the soup first, then the chap chye and finally (not really the case of save the best for last) the black pepper chicken... the soup was good.. flavoursome with fresh fish, fishballs, Chinese cabbage, carrots and more. The chap chye equally delicious with so many different vegetables .. but mom didn't put in the baby corns that i so fondly remember from all the chap chyes i had in my childhood.. the black pepper chicken was horrible.. yuck.. it was pungent and sweet and yuck yuck yuck and it was all my fault... i suggested that mom use a prepackaged sauce and so we bought one from the supermarket... big mistake.. it was so bad.. none of us could stomach it.. mom had to wash.. literally wash the whole dish and quickly stir fry it again in soy sauce, ginger and dried chillies.. thank god for my mom's quick thinking the dish became more palatable.. i can't believe they still sell that stuff and people buy it.. eeewww .. some people out there have really weird standards.

One rainy day

Rain rain go away come again another day

One rainy rainy day, the air was really cold and all i wanted to do was wrap myself up with a woolen blanky and cuddle my jack russell Josh. Thank goodness it was a Saturday and so i didn't have to go to work. I looked outside and the window sill had beautiful droplets of rain . I just had to take a picture. Then sitting by the window the occasional gust of wind carrying tiny droplets would glide across my face. It reminded me of winter in Australia and ironically it is winter now down under.

Bobbing Marshies

Now i naturally don't like hot drinks. Don't fancy coffee (even if it was cold), tea, milo, horlicks and the list goes on. But on a really cold day, i wouldn't mind the warmth of a cup of Hot Chocolate with tiny marshmallows. This then reminds me of my younger more naive days when mom would use cocoa in her recipes and it smelled oh so good. Good enough to make you put a teaspoon of powder in your mouth and then behold the smoke of brown powder that comes out with some gagging noises and a cringing face. Yup freakin cocoa powder doesn't taste like it smells. Sigh a lesson every child learns the hard way.

Ribbons of White

Well this greedy gal had two cups. I haven't tried making hot chocolate with cocoa powder yet. I just do it the most straight forward way i know and that is one cup of milk to a handful of chocolate (real chocolate and not drinking chocolate powder) Whisk away as the white liquid turns a soothing brown and pour into a lovely mug , Collin's glass or i prefer it in an old-fashioned glass. My first cup was with marshmallows. The marshies were too big and i had to submerge them in the hot liquid with my fingers every now and then to properly melt them. Note to self: To get tiny marshmallows or the cut the bigger ones into tiny pieces. My second cup (i had it only because i remembered we had whipped cream in the fridge) was with whipped cream. I liked em both. No favourites yet.

No more... sobz

Father's Day Brunch

Brunch at home

It's Father's Day today and me and mom started our prep for brunch. We decided the day before what we were going to have. So there were pancakes, apples and celery (Dad's fav), scrambled eggs, hash browns, tomatoes, cucumber, rocket leaves, pickled onions, cold cuts and its condiments.

I made the cold platter and pancakes whilst mom did the eggs, hash browns and apples.

Cold Platter

Cucumbers and tomatoes with cracked black pepper, then sprinkled Maldon salt on both. Laid the chicken ham, rocket leaves and placed the onions in the middle. We had Jalapenos as well but left that to the side for my bro whose more adventurous with his tolerance for heat. Either way Dad and bro really enjoyed the cold platter. The pickled onions go really well with the cold cuts and to top it up - some whole grained mustard. Yum. The morning-afternoon was spent with good food and good conversation.

Soup Course

Supper was prepared at home as well. Initially we thought of having an early dinner since it was Sunday but we were still reminded of brunch by our rumbling tummy (overworking because of all that we ate) that we decided to have supper instead. We had Cream of Mushroom with dinner rolls. Followed by panfried chicken legs with potato wedges and creamed spinach. For dessert we had brownie cake.

Main Course

I prepared the dinner rolls the night before so they were proving in the oven. Soup was done by 7pm and i started pre-heating the oven (without the rolls inside of course !) Marinated chicken marylands (deboned) were to be panfried and potato wedges baked in the oven. Mom started her creamed spinach and it was so quick and delicious.

The brownie cake from Polar Cakes was quite a disappointment. It was really hard even after bringing it to room temperature. And the cake was dry. It was too bad we didn't have ice-cream. But luckily Dad was too stuffed for dessert, so he had a tiny weeny slice and didn't complain.

Happy Father's Day Dad !

Weekend Pasta

Angel Hair Pasta with Anchovies and Pangritata

T'was the weekend and i was sitting at home pondering if i should just get a take-out for lunch or make it myself. Since i don't really get the opportunity to cook during the week, i thought i'd cook.

I was looking at Jaime's cookbook yesterday cos i wanted to make bread for Father's Day tomorrow. And i happen to chance upon the recipe on spaghetti and anchovies. Similar to the Ceaser Salad, i had the urge to use the anchovies sitting in a tiny container in the refrigerator.

I was super fast .. seriously. I boiled some water in a kettle (to save time). Poured the hot water into a deep saucepan. Added salt, a little oil and the angel hair pasta.. suffice for one hungry girl.

Pangritata

1 toasted bread, crushed
1 clove garlic, sliced
a good lug of olive oil
fresh thyme
salt and pepper to taste

For the Pangritata, Jaime called for breadcrumbs, which i couldn't be bothered to check if we had any. So i toasted a slice of bread till crispy and crushed it with my hands. Presto breadcrumbs.

In a hot pan, pour the olive oil. Fry the garlic and when fragrant add the breadcrumbs. Then add the thyme and taste for salt and pepper.

Pasta with Anchovies

Angel Hair Pasta (I prefer them)
A good lug of olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
6 anchovies
lemon juice
salt and pepper

Cook the pasta till al dente. In a frying pan, add the oil and garlic. Then add the anchovies and they will start to melt and disseminate into a thick paste. Add the lemon juice and then the pasta and coat the pasta in the sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

To serve

Place the pasta on a plate and sprinkle the Pangritata on top. Nice. (I would have prefered more anchovies though)

Breakfast Fit for a King

Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich

Sitting at home right now too sick to go to work today. Sigh. I feel so drained but Mom said i had to have breakfast. Walked into the pantry and saw the bright blue Skippy jar staring at me, looked around somemore and there were some bananas too. An Elvis sandwich perhaps...

So toasted my bread, spread my peanut butter and laid the sliced bananas for breakfast. Easy, breezy, beautiful breakfast!

Ceaser Salad

A different Ceaser Salad

I had got some romaine leaves last Friday with the intention of making ceaser salad as the week before i had got some anchovies. I had got the recipe whilst watching Jaime on TV in Australia. I haven't combed through his books yet but i'm guessing the recipe should be there somewhere.

I didn't have chicken, bread or croutons. Jaime's recipe called for baking chicken legs over a bed of torn bread so that the juices from the roast would be soaked up by the bread. Anyway i did it with what i had. Into a bowl i through in the romaine lettuce (washed and dried of course), some tomatoes (usually not in Ceaser's), mom had made lamb that day so i tore a few pieces of that into the bowl and that's all the items i wanted in my salad.

Now the salad dressing. In a pestle and mortar, i put in a whole clove of crushed garlic (my mistake .. the correct amount was half a clove. i had the taste of garlic in my mouth the whole afternoon..sigh) Then i added six anchovies and mushed them all together. Then one heaped tablespoon of yogurt (the actual recipe called for creme fraiche) and 1 part white wine vinegar and 3 parts olive oil. Salt and pepper and mushed it all up. Taste test and it was yummy!!!

Poured it over the leaves and tossed it around. I didn't have parmesan or all the trimmings the recipe called for and yet the salad was really good. So with the trimming it would have been out of this world i reckon !

Lunch Today

Lunch for me

Mom didn't cook today so i had to make my own lunch... and as i was rummaging through my fridge i found salmon steaks. Usually i would have made pesto, top the salmon steaks with that and bake that... mmm.. but since i had no basil .. i opted for the easy way.. but i was really hungry and salmon alone would not have been enough.. so i boiled some potatoes, i cut mine first as they cook faster that way. While the potatoes were boiling i fried some breaded scallops and after that, i sprinkled salt and pepper on both side of the salmon and then floured the skin. Once the scallops were done, i placed the salmon skin side down onto the skillet. After about 5 minutes or so, i flipped it over. By this time the potatoes were done, so i removed the salmon from the heat and drained the potatoes. To dress the potatoes i added a heaped tablespoon of sourcream, a good sprinkling of bacon bits and salt and pepper to taste. What a yummy lunch and it only took me about 20 minutes. Talk about food that's fast...