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Of Food and perhaps a little about me
December 1, 2007 at 2:52 am · Filed under Food Reviews
Astons Specialties. Does that ring a bell? You might have read about this popular restaurant at East Coast Road from local food blogs. A place that serves good western food at a very reasonable price. You may think that it’s just like any other western food stalls at the foodcourt or hawker centre, but Astons offers a lot more choices, with more sides to choose from as well.. A new outlet was opened at Serangoon Gardens and I’ve been wanting to try their food for the longest time. Every time I am there, I see a long queue. In fact, all the tables at the coffeeshop are occupied by their customers in the evening. I get turned off by the queue of course and that is why I didn’t had a chance to taste their food till recently.
You have to get there early if you’re going on weekends. Be prepared to wait for your food. If you are not going to spend about 15 minutes queuing to order your food and another 20 to 25 minutes before your food is served to you, then forget it.
We ordered a soup and 2 mains. The mushroom soup was served hot with very nice crusty garlic bread (although they’re a bit charred). I like the soup, neither too bland or too salty, just nice. B finds it ok only. Well, perhaps I was too hungry?
B had his Pork Chop and it didn’t pass the test. The meat was kind of tough. Not many places have nice tender pork chops. But a new stall near our place has their pork chop nice and tender. Most importantly, it’s cheap. So, too bad for Astons.
I had the Hickory BBQ Chicken. It’s basically chicken chop with bbq sauce. The chicken was tender and juicy but the bbq sauce is too sweet for my liking. The sides we chose were not too bad, coleslaw, onion rings and pasta salad. I like the pasta salad. You can choose 2 sides of your choice such as baked potatoes, potato salad, fries, mashed potatoes, salad. There are a few more to choose from, but I can’t remember all of them. Other than the chops, they have other standard mains like pasta, burgers and steaks.
So is it worth the time queuing? B says no. He doesn’t like to queue. Oh well.. I was hoping to try their lamb chops.
November 15, 2007 at 5:51 pm · Filed under Recipes: Dessert
This is one easy dessert I’ve been wanting to make since last year. The recipe just got ‘buried’ deep down in my digital recipe folder. B and I had a nice mango pomelo dessert at a friend’s wedding dinner. We wanted more and so we went to get some mangoes the next day. But it wasn’t the mango season, the mangoes we bought were not very sweet. Honey mangoes were not in season then. Anyway, we went ahead with it.
The hotel’s version didn’t have cornstarch added and was more watery compared to the ones I had at the dessert stalls, which is of gluey texture. B sulked when I followed the recipe by adding in the cornstarch to acheive the texture, which he didn’t like. Oh well… note taken. This dessert would have tasted much better if honey mangoes were used.
One thing I realised is that the mango fibre tissues can’t be blended smoothly. Does anyone knows how to solve this problem? Or was it the mango?
Mango Sago Dessert
Recipe from The Lazy Chef which was from Zu’s Kitchen which doesn’t seems to be around anymore)
Serves 4 to 6
600g mango (abt 2 honey mangoes)
400ml mango juice (Peelfresh or any other similar brands)
125ml evaporated milk
80g sago pearls (original uses 300gm pomelo, split into small pieces)
250ml water
2-3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornflour/tapioca starch (optional)
1 tbsp water
extra 100ml water
Method
- Boil 250ml water and sugar till sugar dissolves.
- Mix cornflour/tapioca starch with 1 tbsp water and pour into the syrup and stir over low heat until mixture is smooth.
- Take syrup and cornflour mixture off the heat and leave it to cool.
- Cut the sides of the mango and cube them.
- Scrap the remaining mango and put in a bowl, add 100ml of water to blend, put aside.
- Add blended mango, cubed mango, mango juice and evaporated milk into the syrup solution (from 1) then stir.
- Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add abit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.
- Chill before serving.
Preparation of sago pearls
- Boil about 3 cups of water in a saucepan. Add in sago pearls and bring to boil.
- Once it boils, cover saucepan and turn off heat. Leave for 20 minutes.
- Remove the lid, stir the mixture, turn on the heat and bring it to boil again.
- Once it boils the second time, cover again, turn off the heat and leave covered for 10 minutes. The sago should be cooked by now.
- Drain the sago from the hot water and rinse. Soak in cold water (to stop it cooking further). When completely cool drain again and set aside.
Enjoy!
November 11, 2007 at 5:58 pm · Filed under Recipes: Beverage
Avocado the Fruit. I can hardly think of avocado as a fruit because of it’s rich and creamy flesh. The first thing that came to my mind was guacamole, a creamy dip I use for my plain crackers or as a sandwich spread, and also an essential ingredient in the california maki handroll.
When I first bought avocados, they were not meant for me but for my hamsters. They love it because they know avocados are good for them. If you are planning a fattening programme for them, you can feed them some avocados every fortnightly. And since they can only eat so little of the whole avocado, I’ve gotta finish the rest. And mind you, avocados don’t come cheap, so don’t even think of throwing them away.
Many researchers feel that avocado is a fruit you don’t feed to your pets as they believe the cardiac glycosides(toxic compound/natural steroids) is in it. The cardiac glycosides is found in the avocado plant, the leaves, seed and skin but not the fruit. Please don’t feed unripe or overly-riped avocados to them. Click here and here to see some info on the effects of avocados on pets. I wouldn’t say feed at your own risk. But if you’re unsure, just leave out avocados in their diet.
I first had my first avocado milk blended at Alexandra food centre. I thought it was nice, but both B and I had a stomach upset after that and we didn’t touch that drink since. And now that I have a blender, I decided to convince myself to drink it again. And best of all, I can easily use up a whole avocado after feeding my hamsters.
This drink is just like any other blended drink you make at home. Simply just blend the flesh with some milk and honey. It’s best to drink it chilled with either blending the drink with ice cubes or leave it in the fridge for later consumption. I like it creamy and thick. It’s up to your own preference, if it’s too thick for your liking, just add more milk and blend again, till you get the consistency you want. As for the honey, like it sweet, add more. If you have gula melaka, it will taste even better!
Nutritional benefits of an avocado
Avocados are the most energy dense and nutrient rich fruit per calorie.
Each calorie is packed with the goodness of:
- folate (eaten uncooked, avocados retain the benefits of folate)
- antioxidant vitamins A, B6 and C
- monounsaturated fatty acids (the good fat which helps lower blood cholesterol)
- potassium. Avocados contain around 50% more potassium per 100 grams than bananas
- protein. Avocados lead all fruits in their protein content
- low in salt, yet high in fiber
- contain NO cholesterol
Selecting & Ripening
Select avocado that yields to gentle pressure. As it ripens, the skin colour is of a greenish brown. To ripen an avocado, simply leave it in your fruit bowl at room temperature. To speed up the process, place it in a paper bag with an apple. Watch color closely. Once ripe, store the avocado in the refrigerator to make it last longer. A ripe avocado will last about 3-4 days in the fridge.
Whether slicing, mashing or dicing, to retain a fresh green color, avocados should either be eaten immediately or should be sprinkled with lemon or lime juice and covered in an air-tight container.
If avocado turns brown on the top after storage, simply discard the top layer.
Avocado Milk Blended
1 whole avocado
1 cup of milk
1 tbsp honey
3 to 4 ice cubes (optional)
Click here to see how to remove the pit from the avocado. This method is really easy but please be very careful with the knife and don’t loose your fingers. In the blender, add avocado cubes, milk and honey. Blend till everything are properly puréed. Taste and adjust the amount of milk and honey according to your own preference. Serve chilled.
November 4, 2007 at 6:14 pm · Filed under Recipes: Soup
Oh, it’s the lovely mushrooms again! As promised in the previous post, here’s a yummy soup recipe. For those who adore mushrooms will love this to bits, well, not all, but at least for me. I literally wanted to lick my bowl clean. It was that delicious to me.
This is a wholesome thick soup for those who are watching their diet. Just replace the knob of butter with olive oil instead. But for those who can afford some fats in their diet, use butter, as it’ll be more flavourful. I read somewhere that adding potatoes will help thickened the soup, thus I omitted the cream completely. But if you like, you can add that dollop of cream during cooking, or simply just stir them in before drinking. If you can make your own stock, that will be even better. I used Knorr’s vegetable stock cube for the broth.
It was a virgin blend for my spanking new blender. I should have gotten a blender earlier to make soups like this. My next few soups will be something like, pumpkin soup, roasted bell peppers soup, etc.
I made some modifications to the original recipe, basically replacing certain ingredients. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
Wild Mushroom Soup
Recipe adapted from Gourmet Food at About.com
Serves 2 to 3
40g butter
1 medium shallot, peeled and diced
250g fresh mushrooms (I used Portobello, white and brown button), sliced
600ml water
1 vegetable stock cube
1 potato, medium size, peeled and diced
1 tsp dried parsley
1/4 cup white cooking wine
salt and pepper, to taste
Add the butter to a large pot and melt over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook until soft (about 5 minutes). Add the mushrooms and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes. Add water, stock cube, potatoes and parsley. Add white cooking wine.
Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook for about 15 minutes.
Puree the mixture in a blender or food processor. I leave about 200 ml of mixture un-pureed, so that I can get to eat the mushroom chunks. Return mixture to the pot. Season with salt and pepper, and stir. Enjoy it with toasted bread.
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!
October 30, 2007 at 3:51 pm · Filed under Misc
An Award? I’ve received the Rockin’ Girl Blogger Award from Ovenhaven some time back. Thanks, girl for passing me this virtual award. It’s a little surprise when I saw my blog mentioned in her post about this award. Ovenhaven’s bakes always make me excited. They look so delicious and sometimes I wish I could eat them off the screen.
I’ve no idea where this blog award came about. Haha… but still I’m passing this award to these fellow bloggers whom I’ve been hooked up with. Most of whom I’ve not met before.
Camemberu – Love her recommendations on where to find nice food in Singapore. She always gives her honest opinions on what’s good and what’s yucky out there.
NoobCook – Her nice step-by-step illustrated pictures for her recipes. They’re clear and easy to follow. I am so tempted to start my own herb garden, after seeing how she makes use of her edible plants for cooking.
Muck-a-Muck – Her gorgeous food pics and recipes! Very nice food styling too.
October 20, 2007 at 3:24 am · Filed under Recipes: Baking, Family
Chocolate is another love of mine, especially dark bitter chocolate. I like the initial bitterness, ending with a slightly sweet note. Absolutely divine. As mentioned in my earlier posts, chocolates are perfect companions with fruits like strawberries, orange, bananas and even durians. They go well with peppermint and various sorts of nuts like hazelnuts, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, etc. I like to try out different types of desserts, unique flavors, like spiced cakes. But ultimately, when there’s a choice, I still want my comfort food. Chocolate-flavoured desserts.
Two months back, on National Day, I promised the girls to having a baking session at my house. They love chocolate too and so I went in search of a simple chocolate chip cookie recipe. I found this recipe at Kitchen Capers Forum. The reviews from the members are that they tasted quite like Famous Amos cookies. The most important factor is that it’s a fairly easy recipe for the girls to handle.
The 2 girls were fussing over how they want to get involved. In a situation where one niece is older, you tend to let her do more, while the younger one watched. Then the young one complained that why she didn’t get to pour the flour and crack the eggs. But I am glad that she’s an understanding little girl as I assured her that the fun time was in shaping the cookies. Both of them sure had a great time singing while shaping the cookies. This recipe is different from the previous ones we made at AC’s house. It’s consists of a drier batter, thus the need to shape the cookies. They did a fantastic job preparing the cookies for baking.
Their patience did paid off. They were so proud of themselves, exclaiming that the cookies were crunchy and super duper delicious. It was a great bonding session with them. Missed the great times with them before I moved out. I’ve promised them another session in the coming school holidays.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Recipe by Connie from Kitchen Capers Forum
Yields about 40 small cookies
125g Butter
70g Castor sugar
70g Brown sugar
½ tsp Vanilla essence
1 Egg
260g Self-raising flour
130g Chocolate chips (Add more if you like more choc chips)
- Pre-heat oven to 180C.
- Sift the flour, set aside.
- Beat butter, essence and sugars using mixer until smooth.
- Add egg and beat until well combined.
- Stir in sifted flour and the remaining ingredients.
- Take rounded teaspoons of mixture and roll into balls.
- Place balls about 4cm apart on slightly greased oven trays or line with baking sheet.
- Bake in pre heated oven for 15 minutes or until browned.
- Cool in trays for short while and transfer to wire rack for cooling.
Cooking and baking is something I want to do with my own children in time to come, apart from the other standard children activities. I want them not to only eat, but to enjoy cooking the food they eat. It’s fun and you can train them to be independent at the same time. And they learn about measurement, judgment and patience. Patience will yield good results. I want my children to be able to whip up simple dishes like fried rice or noodles, fried eggs, salads or sandwiches. Really hope that I can achieve that in the future.
October 17, 2007 at 1:40 am · Filed under Recipes: Seafood
There are times where you just want to shop for a particular ingredient at the market, but ends up getting a whole lot more ingredients after some persistent persuasion by the stall uncles. So when I was buying the prawns, I couldn’t resist bringing some squids home.
I thought of making calamari but detest the idea of having to clean up the kitchen. A dual seafood combi stir-fry will be perfect. And I had better finish up the bottle of teriyaki sauce before it hits its expiry date. The end result is a simple and flavorful dish. I wish there was more rice. Haha..
Seafood tends to get cooked very fast, so try not to overcook them, as the flesh will get tough.
Stir-fry Squid & Prawns with Teriyaki Sauce
Serves 2
1 medium squid
6 prawns, medium-sized
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce
⅓ white onion, thickly sliced
3 chilli padi, sliced, seeds removed
1 tbsp soya sauce
½ tbsp hua teow wine
½ cooking oil
cornstarch water (for thickening gravy)
Preparing the prawns
Remove shells from the prawns. Butterfly them. To butterfly the prawns, turn each one on its back and, with the point of a sharp knife, make a cut down the centre of each prawn, but do not cut through. Pry open with your thumb like a book and remove the brownish-black vein, scraping it away with the point of the knife – it should also come away easily. Wash and pat them dry with kitchen towel.
Preparing the squid
Pull the head out. Remove the guts and soft bone. Peel the skin(thin purplish membrane). The skin should comes off easily as you pull them off. Cut open the body as it lays flat on the cutting board. At this stage, it might be visually gross because the squid ink will flow out. (You may reserve the squid ink, if you’re interested in making squid ink pasta. Lol)
Wash the squid thoroughly until it’s clean. Next, makes diagonal light cuts(do not cut through) on the squid, with each cuts 0.5cm apart. Then do the same in the opposite direction (intersecting with the previous cuts). This makes the squid looks nicer when cooked, as it will curled inwards and creating a nice pattern. I made mine too far apart, so it didn’t curled nicely. Wash and pat them dry with kitchen towel. Slice the squid into small pieces (approx. 4cm by 2cm).
However, if you prefer to have your squid rings, you do not need to cut open the body. Just slice them into rings. It’s just a different presentation.
- Marinate prawns and squids with teriyaki sauce, soya sauce and hua teow wine for about 1 hour in the fridge.
- To cook, heat pan with oil. Fry onions and chilli until the onions are slightly translucent.
- Add in the prawns and squids, together with the marinade. Keep frying for about 2 to 3 mins.
- Add the cornstarch water slowly while frying the prawns and squids. Approx. 2mins.
- Once the gravy thickens, remove pan from heat.
- Serve hot with rice.
Enjoy!
October 13, 2007 at 10:46 pm · Filed under Bakes
A few months just after our first baking session of the year, we had the second one. This time, we have little Chevelle joining us. I had fun playing with her. I found it rather amusing that we were busy baking in the kitchen and she was in the living room stuffing her mouth full of potato chips. Haha…
As usual, we planned a list of goodies we wanted to bake and head to the supermarket to shop for the baking stuffs. We wanted to take it easy this time, so it’s just muffins and cakes. Since we made orange chocolate chip muffins in the first session, I suggested making savoury muffins instead. So we decided on Bacon and Cheese muffins. AC suggested that we make Marshmallow Cake. And I am glad we did. It was delicious!
Fret not, if you noticed that this savoury muffin recipe calls for more liquid than dry ingredients. It’s not the typical muffin batter where it’s lumpy. I learnt from Gina(Kitchen Capers Forum) that this one has less butter(fat) content and is healthier. Muffins that are made from lumpy batter have to be cooled to room temperature before you eat them. Whereas, muffins(like this one) made from watery batter, enjoy them fresh out from the oven. Once cooled, they don’t taste good. We were worried because the batter was so watery, and added more flour than required. I got the tips from Gina only after we did the muffins. The muffin texture didn’t turn out great, but taste wise, it’s not bad. Something different for a change from the usual sweet muffins.
You can start your day with some Bacon & Cheese Muffins and a glass of milk. I think it’s great for breakfast or tea. You can make some extra muffins and keep them in the freezer. When needed, just heat them up in the toaster.
The Marshmallow cake was buttery, moist and very tasty indeed. And the colourful marshmallows make the cake so pretty looking. Recipe is from AC’s cookbook, so I won’t be posting the recipe here.
I am glad our friendship is going on strong and I wish we could still do this often in our years to come.
Bacon & Cheese Muffins
Recipe Asia Cuisine, from Gina Choong (Kitchen Capers Forum)
Makes 12 muffins
375g self-raising flour
200ml milk
125g cheddar cheese, diced
8 pcs streaky bacon, cut into smaller pieces
60g butter, melted
1 egg
50g light brown sugar
1. In a mixing bowl, add butter and sugar to mix. Add egg and milk to mix together.
2. Add flour to fold in gently. Add diced cheese, stir to mix evenly.
3. Add bacon pieces on top of the batter.
4. Baked in preheated oven 180C for 20 minutes. Serve warm.
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