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Of Food and perhaps a little about me
Archive for Recipes: Quick & Easy
December 16, 2008 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Recipes: Cookies, TWD, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
Tender and buttery with a hint of sweet orange marmalade. Think buttery biscuits. That’s what these cookies taste like. With a cake-like texture, they go best with your favorite tea. Don’t be fooled by the plain appearance, they taste great. I had them for tea with my earl grey. Oh, so buttery.. as much as I would like to resist, I can’t help going for seconds or thirds!
The recipe asked for ¼ cup of apricot jam which I replaced with sweet orange marmalade. You can replace it with any jam or marmalade you can get on hand. The marmalade in the cookies are very subtle, detectable only when I chewed those with the orange peel. I had wanted to add more but I’m left with only that much in the jar. This recipe has to be the easiest among all the recipes in the book I’ve attempted so far. The dough is thick and stay in shape. No more chilling and rolling of the dough like the previous cookies. Simply just scoop them onto the baking sheet with a spoon or scoop once the dough is done. Easy peasy! These cookies don’t spread much in the oven so you can bake as many as you like on one sheet.
Heather of Randomosity and the Girl chose this recipe for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie. I say, this is a good pick!
November 20, 2008 at 12:38 am · Filed under Recipes: Salad, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pasta
Finally, I’m back after a long hiatus. I didn’t realize that it’s been a long 3 months since I’ve last blogged. Laziness and heavy workload made me put off blogging during this period. However, I managed to squeeze in a vacation to Taiwan in October. As I needed to be away for a short week, I had to complete all my work before I set off. Yes, it was only a week, and there was so much to do!! Thanks to a few readers for reminding me that I’ve not been blogging. Haha..
Soy and Pepper is hosting Pasta Presto Nights this week and I thought, why not join in the fun? I cook pasta dishes quite often, mainly as a main course. This shall be my very first submission to Pasta Presto Nights.
Some time back, I was organizing a birthday picnic for a close friend. They requested to have my mashed potato salad for the picnic. It is the one and only salad they wanted every time we have a potluck. Making potato salad is quite time consuming, at least to me. The boiling, peeling and cutting of the potatoes takes up at least half an hour? Pasta salad on the other hand, is so much faster and easier to make. Boil the pasta and toss everything together and you’re done! I’m lucky they weren’t disappointed with the pasta salad. That’s a relief.
This is an easy salad recipe and you can add any ingredients you like to the pasta. For mine, I added yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, ham and Japanese cucumber. Simply omit the ham if you want the vegan way. If you can’t find Japanese cucumber, replace them with normal cucumber or zucchini, anything to add crunch to the salad. I added some leftover cheddar shreds as well, really adds more punch to the salad. The dressing I added to the pasta is just a guideline, adjust the amount of mayonnaise and vinegar to your own preference. The pasta salad looks slightly dark due to the balsamic vinegar. Less is more!
Hearty Pasta Salad
Serves 8 to 10
300g fusilli pasta
1 to 1½ japanese cucumber, julienne
4 slices of picnic ham (or anything ham you like), cut to strips
1 yellow bell pepper, julienne
12 to 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
30g cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ cup low fat mayonnaise (replace with yogurt for the healthier choice)
1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar (add more if you like it sour)
1 tsp dried parsley (1 tbsp if you are using fresh parsley, chopped)
black ground pepper
Cook pasta according to the packet instructions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and set aside in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and black ground pepper to the pasta. Toss to mix evenly so that each fusilli pasta is coated with the dressing. When the pasta has slightly cooled, add in Japanese cucumber, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, ham strips and cheddar cheese, mix well. Taste the salad, add more dressing if you like. Lastly, mix in the parsley. Cover the bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours for the flavors to sit in. If time permits, leave it in the refrigerator overnight.
Quick to make, right? Share with me what kind of dishes you bring to a potluck. Perhaps I can try making them for my next potluck!! And I will share with you my mashed potato salad the next time I have the chance to make them.
June 2, 2008 at 2:26 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pork
Pork with Basil? Sounds familiar? That’s right, a particular Thai dish may have come to your mind, minced pork with thai basil, a common dish in Thailand. In order to try cooking my first dish with my flourishing home-grown basil, I immediately thought of this thai dish. But my version doesn’t have any fish sauce in it as I didn’t have any in my pantry. Fish sauce seems to be an important ingredient in most Thai dishes. I figured that they use it like how we use soy sauce? I’ve been wanting to buy a bottle but not sure which brand to get. I’m not sure if the taste of basil differs from thai basil. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Since I only had some pork loin in my freezer, I’ve decided to just cook the pork my way (with just some soy sauce), with basil and some pine nuts. I’ve seen NoobCook cooked one of her dish with pine nuts. In another occasion, I had a nice deep fried yam ring at a restaurant, topped with pine nuts instead of the usual cashew nuts. Pine nuts are really delicious. I bought them solely for my hamsters. And I thought I should put them into better use before they expires. I had wanted to make some pesto sauce with my basil and pine nuts, but have yet to make it as B didn’t really like basil that much.
Stir Fry Pork Strips with Basil and Pine Nuts
Serves 2
200g pork loin
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
10 to 15 basil leaves
20 to 30 pine nuts, toasted
Marinade
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp hua teow wine
1tsp corn flour
Use the back of the knife to ‘chop’ the pork loin evenly throughout, this is to make the meat thinner. Then cut the pork loin into ¼ inch strips. Marinate the pork loin strips with the above marinade and set it aside for about half an hour in the fridge.
To start cooking, heat oil in pan. Fry the chopped garlic until they starts to brown. Add meat to stir fry for a few minutes or until the meat is cooked. You do not need to fry the meat for too long as it might gets too tough. Add in the basil leaves and pine nuts. Stir fry for another 1 or 2 mins until the basil leaves wilt. Serves hot with rice.
You can add more basil and pine nuts if you like. Or try out the authentic thai minced meat with basil, by adding fish sauce. Paw paw has got some nice Thai recipes on her blog. Do try them out. It’s definitely tastier with some fats in the minced pork. Gosh.. me and my pork fats. Haha..
May 25, 2008 at 1:07 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pork
Have I enticed you enough from the title of this post? It’s not just any parts, it’s my favorite part, the pork belly meat. Sinful and gross as the pork belly may seems to some of you, especially girls, but it’s heavenly to me.
In my younger days, there were 2 different parts of pork in our frequent braised pork dish (卤肉) that Mum cooked for dinner. They were lean meat（瘦肉）and pork belly meat(三层肉). I love the pork belly, while my brother flicks them away. Be it braised or roasted, it doesn’t matter. I like them anyway. I love how chewy the pork skin are for my braised pork belly meat, but they can’t be too soft, which can be a bit gross to swallow. Mum used to cook them with bittergourd but she has now replace pork belly with chicken wings, which are more well-loved by my nieces. And not forgetting, my favorite bun of all buns, the kong bak bao (扣肉包).
When it comes to roasted pork belly (烧肉), the crispy crackling skin is a must. 三层 means 3 layers. I am guessing the 3 layers means the skin, the fats and the meat. So I detest those with just skin and fats, but no meat at all. There should be a balance, crackling skin, with some fats and meat. Whenever there are leftover roasted pork belly we bought for dinner, they are stir-fried the next day with lots of garlic, mum’s chilli paste and dark soya sauce. B had learnt to enjoy this leftover dish since I brought him home for dinner a few years ago.
Growing up from a family that eats pork almost daily, I find it hard to comprehend the fact that some of my friends do not eat pork. They hate the porky smell and worst of all, the fats. Give me pork any time, I’d take it. I prefer it to chicken, which I get sick after eating too much. The feeling of eating a perfectly cooked pork belly and pig trotters makes me contented. I really enjoy eating them.
As much as I love them, I must say it’s sad that I’ve started controlling the intake these 2 years. When I say “Pork Belly, come Dance to my Belly”, it not as rejoicing as it is 10 years ago. Donkey years back, everyone tells me, “Hey, you skinny bamboo, you can afford it.” I never seems to put on weight since I started schooling. And I really think that it was a blissful thing to not put on weight even when I like eating fatty stuffs. But NOW, people who have never met me for a long time are shocked that I CAN actually put on so much weight. Pants are getting tighter now, metabolism has slowed down A LOT. I don’t think I can afford it now. *chuckles*
However, I still love my pork belly. Everything in moderation should be fine. Below is just a simple dish B taught me. I never had pork belly eaten this way. It’s one of the 陈家私房菜. You can replace them with lean meat. It is light and simple to whip up, yet still satisfying for me.
Pork Belly with Black Dipping Sauce
Serves 2
250g pork belly meat (or any portion you would like to cook)
1/3 chicken stock cube
Dipping sauce
1tbsp dark soya sauce
½ tsp homemade chilli paste or chopped chilli padi
a dash of sesame oil
Boil the whole strip of pork belly with the chicken stock cube for about 10 to 15 mins in a pot (depending on the amount of meat, you need to gauge this yourself).
Once cooked, turn off the heat, remove pork belly from pot. Cut the pork belly ½ inch thick.
Mix ingredients for dipping sauce together in a saucer.
Serve meat with dipping sauce and rice.
Easy enough?
Few months ago, ovenhaven was really nice to pass me the Nice Matters Award. I’ve forgotten to mention it till now. Thanks, dearie.
January 25, 2008 at 3:19 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
How do you like your pizza? Thick or thin crust? Lots of cheese? Or just full of toppings? I definitely like mine with thin crust, lots of cheese with moderate toppings. As much as I like to try making a pizza base myself, I didn’t had the courage to do it, for fear of failing and wasting the cheese and toppings. From my understanding, to achieve a thin crust, you need a very high heat like a stone oven to toast the pizza fast and yet the toppings gets cooked with cheese melting at the same time. Nevertheless, it will still be in my to-make list. It’s just a matter of when I can strike this item off the list.
A promise’s a promise. The long awaited school holidays were here again. We baked chocolate chip cookies last National Day. The intention for this session was to make rolled cookies. I even got the cookie cutters ready. But I gave them 2 choices. So it’s gonna be pizzas or cookies? Pizza sounds delicious and fun to have, and so they decided on making pizzas instead.
Store-bought frozen pizza crust isn’t that bad. In fact, it’s quite decent and affordable. And you can have free-play to use whatever toppings and cheese you like. You can spread a layer of tomato sauce or puree on the base of the pizza. As I had a jar of tomato-based pasta sauce in my pantry, I used that instead. Next, is to grate a layer of mozzarella cheese on the tomato sauce, followed by the toppings you’ve prepared. I used ham and fresh button mushrooms. Lastly, grate another layer of mozzarella and sprinkle some dried parsley on top. And they were ready to go into the toaster! It’s that easy!!
The 2 girls had fun preparing for the pizza, mainly cutting up the ham and mushrooms. These pizza crusts are of personal pan size and takes only 12 to 15 mins to toast. I love to watch the cheese melts and turn brown. Gosh, I am drooling at the of thought that while typing this post.
These pizzas are really not bad tasting! I am quite pleased with the results. My niece said it looked ‘real’. What she meant was the photo of the pizza looks pretty professional. Haha… I thought pizzas are not filling enough for them. So I made some wild mushroom soup for them to go with the pizzas. What a nice auntie I am. Hehe… But my effort was not wasted. They LOVE the soup and gave me both thumbs up!
Sorry for not posting this entire month. I didn’t had the mood to blog as work keeps piling up. I have so many things to blog about!!
December 8, 2007 at 5:52 pm · Filed under Recipes: Dessert, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
How often does one consume fresh blueberries in Singapore? Not very often, I would say, at least for me. These berries don’t come cheap here in Singapore. One small punnet sets you back by $6.50. The organic ones cost about $10.50 per punnet. By the way, this post is way overdue. About half a year back, the cost of fresh blueberries was reduced to almost half their usual price, $3.20 per punnet! I was an elated woman when I saw the price tag. My initial thought was, my hamsters were in for a treat. They love these mildly sweet blueberries! Lucky little rodents. Without further hesitation, I quickly grabbed 2 punnets home.
Since I can’t keep these berries for long and my hamsters won’t be able to eat much, I surfed around looking for some nice recipes where I could make use of them. What a coincidence when I went to Cherly’s food blog, her latest post was on Blueberry Muffins! Woooh, the way she described how the blueberries burst in the muffin, the thought of it made me drooled. Alright then, the remaining berries would all go into my blueberry muffins.
As I wanted these muffins bursting with the flavour of blueberries, I reduced the amount of sugar slightly. The word ‘streusel’ for this muffin simply means toppings that form a crumbly top on the muffin. Muffins are one of the easiest to make but make sure that you don’t overmix the batter, else you won’t get the dense texture a muffin should be. Prepare the toppings after you’ve prepared the batter. I made a mistake preparing the toppings first and the butter had already melted a abit, resulting in the not so crumbly, but lumpy look. When preparing the toppings using the rubbing-in method, you have to really do it quickly using only your fingertips(heat from the palm will melt the butter).
The aroma in the kitchen when the muffins were baking in the oven was wonderful. Eat them fresh on it’s own, or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a glass of milk. Perfect for breakfast or tea.
Blueberries are low in calories and packed with anti-oxidants. They are a very good source of vitamin C, manganese, and both soluble and insoluble fiber like pectin. Blueberries are also a good source of vitamin E.
How to Select and Store
Choose blueberries that are firm and have a lively, uniform hue coloured with a whitish bloom. Avoid berries that look dull in color or are soft and watery in texture. They should be free from moisture since the presence of water will cause the berries to decay. Ripe blueberries should be stored in a covered container in the refrigerator where they will keep for about a week. They will be freshest if consumed within a few days. Always check berries before storing and remove any damaged berries to prevent the spread of mold. But don’t wash berries until right before eating as washing will remove the bloom that protects the berries’ skins from degradation. If kept out at room temperature for more than a day, the berries may spoil.
Tips on preparing blueberries
Fresh berries are very fragile and should be washed briefly and carefully and then gently patted dry if they are not organic. Wash berries just prior to use to not prematurely remove the protective bloom that resides on the skin’s surface.
There are many ways to enjoy blueberries other than eating on it’s own. Add them to your breakfast cereals. Use them in your cheesecake, pies, tarts and muffins. Or you can make blueberry pancakes and waffles.
I wonder if the price of fresh blueberries will drop again. Hee.
Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Recipe from Williams-Sonoma Muffins
Makes 12 muffins.
For the muffins:
7 tablespoons (3½ oz/ 105g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup (6oz/185g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2¼ cups (11½ oz/ 360g) all-purpose (plain)flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 fl oz/ 250ml) milk
1½ teaspoons vanilla extract (essence)
1½ cups (6 oz/ 185g) fresh blueberries or frozen unsweetened blueberries, unthawed.
For the topping:
¼ cup (1½ oz/ 45g) all-purpose (plain) flour
2 tablespoons each granulated sugar and firmly packed light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.
Preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit (190 degree celcius). Grease 12 standard muffin cups with butter or butter-flavoured nonstick cooking spray.
To make the topping, stir together the flour, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, cut or rub the butter into the dry ingredients just until coarse crumbs form. Alternatively, combine the dry ingredients and the butter in a food processor and pulse just until coarse crumbs form.
To make the muffins, in a bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each edition until blended into the butter mixture.
In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture in 2 increments, alternating with the milk and vanilla. Stir just until evenly moistened. The batter will be slightly lumpy. Using a large rubber spatula, gently fold in the blueberries just until evenly distributed, no more than a few strokes. Take care not to break up the fruit. Do not overmix.
Spoon the batter into each muffin cup, filling it level with the rim of the cup. Sprinkle each muffin with some topping.
Bake until golden, dry, and springy to the touch, 20-25 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin should come out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and let cool for 5 minutes. Unmold the muffins. Serve warm or at room temperature.
November 1, 2007 at 12:07 am · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Quick & Easy
Focaccia (foe-ca-cha) is an italian flat bread, traditionally baked in a wood-fired oven. Focaccia dough is similar to pizza dough and can be used as a pizza base as well. A simple focaccia bread is brushed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt before baking. There are many toppings you can add to make it more flavourful with ingredients like tomatoes, herbs, cheese, olives or garlic. You can use the bread as a side, eat it with your soup or use them as a sandwich.
A few years ago, Gardenia’s focaccia bread caught my eye in the supermarket. I could smell the nice olive oil and herbs aroma, so I bought a pack to try it out. It’s so good that I can even eat it on it’s own. All you need to do is to toast it lightly and spread some butter or olive oil on it. Yummy!
Since we were still in our ‘lazy weekend’ mood, we bought some focaccia bread, cheddar cheese, tuna and butterhead lettuce. We took a can of potato leek soup to go with our sandwich meal. This is a very easy, fuss-free sandwich. I mixed in some lemon juice and olive oil with the tuna (water drained) flakes. Sliced some cheddar cheese, prepared the butterhead lettuce and tomatoes. Sandwiched all the ingredients nicely on the toasted focaccia bread, and viola! We ate them with the potato leek soup, which was thick and nice.
I’ve yet to try baking focaccia but I am so tempted after seeing Camemberu baked her cheese focaccia. There are a few recipes sitting in my computer folder. I might try baking it soon, or maybe not. Hehe…
Stay tuned for a yummy soup recipe that will go very well with a sandwich meal or even on it’s own.
October 30, 2007 at 6:00 pm · Filed under Bread, Recipes: Quick & Easy
Lazy brunch. How do you define lazy meals? It used to be instant noodles or packet lunch, and it’s always the same old stuffs, like chicken rice, laksa, fishball noodles, etc. Lazy meals to me would probably mean cooking with minimum fuss. There are days when you get sick of rice or noodles. That’s where you find other alternatives to get those carbohydrates you crave for.
During my usual grocery shopping, we saw packs of pita bread at the hams section and thought that we could make some really simple stuffed pita for brunch the next day. We grabbed a pack along with some bacons, fresh button mushrooms, bell peppers and green coral lettuce.
To prepare the stuffing for the pita bread, I just sautéed the bell peppers, mushroom and bacon with some olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper. I also prepared some green salad with the green coral lettuce and tomatoes to go with the stuffed pita bread. I toasted the pita bread before stuffing in the ingredients. You can stuff whatever you like, really. If you prefer not to cook at all, just open a can of tuna with mayonnaise to eat with the bread. It will be lovely to just roast some vegetables like bell peppers, aubergine to go with my bread. Healthy and all full of goodness.
As you can see, I made a silly mistake of cutting the bread at the top instead of halving it. Thus, the stuffing made an ugly slit on my pita bread. Haha… To get more crunch, I stuffed in some of my salad as well.
For readers who have been following my blog for some time, you might have noticed that I like adding bell peppers to my pasta or roasting them. Bingo to those who have guessed correctly. It’s partly because of my hamsters. I’ve sometimes run out of ideas on what to feed them. At times, they can get so fussy over the fresh food I give them. So I have to get creative. B complains that he gets the leftovers instead. Oh well…
Bell peppers have a crunchy texture, ranging from green, red to yellow. Yes, they resemble the traffic light colors when packed together. Although termed as the peppers family, bell peppers are not hot at all. In fact, they are also called sweet peppers. They are a good source of vitamin C, vitamin A, beta carotene and folic acid. Yellow and red bell pepper have more time to mature, thus they are sweeter compared to the green bell peppers, providing more vitamin A and C and are full of cancer-fighting carotenoids. I learnt this only when I start researching on bell peppers. Green, yellow and red peppers are the same, being the green ones are the least mature. When the green peppers get matured, they become yellow, and then to red, being the most matured ones.
Preparing Bell Peppers
To prepare the bell peppers, wash and scrub them well. Cut them lengthwise and remove the seeds from the inner cavity (including the white spongy parts). Cut them in any way you like, diced, juliennes or chunks.
How to select and store them
Choose peppers that are vivid in colours and without any bruises, taut skin and firm to the touch. Their stems should look fresh and green. You can store them in your vegetable compartment in the refrigerator for up to a week.
You can try adding chopped bell peppers to your appetizers or salads. Other than the beneficial nutrients, simply stir-fry them with chicken or pork to liven up your dish with their beautiful colours. You can even purée roasted peppers to make a soup.
Share with me what are your favourite lazy meals. I would love to hear them!
