Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Heston Blumenthal - The Perfect Poached Egg
Always wanted to cook poached egg but hit and miss each time you try? Well, Heston Blumenthal has a fool-proof and interesting method to a perfect poached egg.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Rice Cooker "Claypot" Chicken Rice
This is the kind of food I love- tasty, easy, one-pot meal! I opted to use my rice cooker as my claypot was too small for 3-4 people and moreover, it is definitely more healthy to use the rice cooker as the rice would get charred and stick to the claypot. So in the end, you will be eating the crispy burnt bits of rice and wasting lots of rice (though I have to admit, I love the crispy bits).
Ingredients (for 3-4)
- Dried Mushrooms (9 small ones)
- one whole chinese pork sausage finely sliced
- half chinese pork liver sausage finely sliced
- 6 chicken wings (cut to separate the wing from the drum)
- ginger (about size of 2 thumbs)
- rice
There are some who do not like to eat the pork liver sausage. My hubby and children do not like too, that's why I add only half a sausage. It really makes the rice more flavourful. So I suggest if you don't mind trying it but scared that you will not be able to take it, you can cut them really fine and small so that you can't see the sausage when it is cooked with the rice. In the end, my hubby and children just slurped up the whole thing without complaining anymore about pork liver sausage as if they didnt know it existed. Woo hoo!
Steps
1) Marinate the chicken wings with 1-2 TB of dark sauce and 1TB of oyster sauce. Bruise the ginger and try to squeeze whatever juice you can for the chicken. Then dump the rest of the ginger with the chicken.
2) Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of water
3) Wash your rice in the rice cooker. Use the water of the dried mushrooms to add to it after you washed your rice and when you are done soaking your dried mushrooms. So instead of the usual water for cooking your rice, I used the dried mushrooms water and if not enough, you can either top up with water or chicken stock.
4) Then place all your ingredients inside.
5) And once your rice cooker says its done, it is done!
Enjoy! Your children will definitely love this!
Ingredients (for 3-4)
- Dried Mushrooms (9 small ones)
- one whole chinese pork sausage finely sliced
- half chinese pork liver sausage finely sliced
- 6 chicken wings (cut to separate the wing from the drum)
- ginger (about size of 2 thumbs)
- rice
There are some who do not like to eat the pork liver sausage. My hubby and children do not like too, that's why I add only half a sausage. It really makes the rice more flavourful. So I suggest if you don't mind trying it but scared that you will not be able to take it, you can cut them really fine and small so that you can't see the sausage when it is cooked with the rice. In the end, my hubby and children just slurped up the whole thing without complaining anymore about pork liver sausage as if they didnt know it existed. Woo hoo!
Steps
1) Marinate the chicken wings with 1-2 TB of dark sauce and 1TB of oyster sauce. Bruise the ginger and try to squeeze whatever juice you can for the chicken. Then dump the rest of the ginger with the chicken.
2) Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of water
3) Wash your rice in the rice cooker. Use the water of the dried mushrooms to add to it after you washed your rice and when you are done soaking your dried mushrooms. So instead of the usual water for cooking your rice, I used the dried mushrooms water and if not enough, you can either top up with water or chicken stock.
4) Then place all your ingredients inside.
5) And once your rice cooker says its done, it is done!
Enjoy! Your children will definitely love this!
Thursday, November 21, 2013
Italian Sausage Pasta with Cream Sauce
This dish was shared to me by my friend, Shawn who worked for a while in an Italian Restaurant owned by an Italian chef. It's easy and delicious! I have tried this with my children and they all loved it!
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
200g Italian Pork Sausage (you can get this from NTUC Finest from the counter)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
50g spinach, chopped
100g grated parmesan cheese
150g fusili/pappardelle/tagliatelle
cream
black pepper
Steps:
1) Boil a pot of salted water
2) Remove skin from the sausage and cut into bite sized portions
3) Heat a medium sized pan and add the sausages first
4) When the sausages are brown, add the onions and give it a stir
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
200g Italian Pork Sausage (you can get this from NTUC Finest from the counter)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
50g spinach, chopped
100g grated parmesan cheese
150g fusili/pappardelle/tagliatelle
cream
black pepper
Steps:
1) Boil a pot of salted water
2) Remove skin from the sausage and cut into bite sized portions
3) Heat a medium sized pan and add the sausages first
4) When the sausages are brown, add the onions and give it a stir
5) Then throw in the chopped spinach and toss
6) When the sausages and onions are soft, add a ladle of stock/water and cream. Then lower the fire to simmer.
7) When the pot of salted water is boiling, add the pasta.
8) After 5-8 mins, check if the pasta is al dente
9) When the pasta is cooked, drain it from the water and toss into the pan with the sauce.
10) Season with black pepper and cheese and bring the sauce to a boil.
11) Finally, serve immediately while hot!
Enjoy!!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Herbed Garlic Bread
Making your own garlic bread is a point of no return- once you learnt how to do it, you will never want to buy those frozen garlic bread from supermarkets or from any pizza fast food restaurants. It is not only easy but the taste and crunch is so much better and fresher. The best thing is that you can make the garlic bread paste and store in the fridge for breakfast spread as and when you like or even for grilling your prawns or marinating your chicken/beef.
So each time I make, I will make lots of it to store. It will come in very handy!
Ingredients
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 250g of butter (whole block)
- chopped parsley (best if its fresh. I couldn't find. So I used dried)
- olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
- grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Steps
1) Peel the garlic and add into the blender together with salt, parsley and olive oil. Just add enough olive oil to smoothen and blend the mixture.
2) Blend the above ingredients first
3) Then add the unsalted butter in, batch by batch and blend
After that, you will just add up like margarine texture but with the garlic and herb taste and smell. Really yummy.
Then you just spread it on your french loaf or any kind of bread, top with parmesan cheese (optional) and toast it!
Serve this with a warm bowl of soup or just simply for breakfast! So easy with only 3 steps, you've definitely got to make it your own!
So each time I make, I will make lots of it to store. It will come in very handy!
Ingredients
- 10 cloves of garlic
- 250g of butter (whole block)
- chopped parsley (best if its fresh. I couldn't find. So I used dried)
- olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
- grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Steps
1) Peel the garlic and add into the blender together with salt, parsley and olive oil. Just add enough olive oil to smoothen and blend the mixture.
2) Blend the above ingredients first
3) Then add the unsalted butter in, batch by batch and blend
After that, you will just add up like margarine texture but with the garlic and herb taste and smell. Really yummy.
Then you just spread it on your french loaf or any kind of bread, top with parmesan cheese (optional) and toast it!
Serve this with a warm bowl of soup or just simply for breakfast! So easy with only 3 steps, you've definitely got to make it your own!
Friday, November 1, 2013
Crispy Crunchy Corn Cutlets
This has been a wonderful snack in my family as sweetness and crunch from the corn makes it nice. Moreover, it is not too difficult to make.
Ingredients
- 4 corns
- 1 chilli finely chopped
- Chinese parsley finely chopped(the whole bunch)
- 7TB corn flour
- 7TB tempura flour
- 3 cloves of garlic
- black pepper corn (crushed)
- salt
Steps
1) Remove the corn kernels from the corn
2) Finely chopped the Chinese parsley and chilli. Add to the corn.
3) Crush the garlic and black peppercorn as fine as possible to add in together with the corn and Chinese parsley
4) After mixing everything together, you might want to put in blender to blitz it a few times only just to crush the corn a little, but yet intentionally leaving some corn kernels behind so as to give a nice crunch to the cutlets.
5) After that, add the corn flour and tempura flour to it. Then mix it together. Leaving this nice paste. Please do not add any water. There will be water from the corn. So don't worry.
Ingredients
- 4 corns
- 1 chilli finely chopped
- Chinese parsley finely chopped(the whole bunch)
- 7TB corn flour
- 7TB tempura flour
- 3 cloves of garlic
- black pepper corn (crushed)
- salt
Steps
1) Remove the corn kernels from the corn
4) After mixing everything together, you might want to put in blender to blitz it a few times only just to crush the corn a little, but yet intentionally leaving some corn kernels behind so as to give a nice crunch to the cutlets.
5) After that, add the corn flour and tempura flour to it. Then mix it together. Leaving this nice paste. Please do not add any water. There will be water from the corn. So don't worry.
6) Then put oil enough to cover the cutlets fully in a frying pan
7) Use the spoon to scoop one TB and gently put in the hot oil
8) Make sure all sides end up golden brown. So you might want to turn it as and when the colour is right.
Do serve this hot as its definitely nicer!
You might want to eat this with chilli or sambal belachan. Enjoy!
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Freshly Made Pasta
I have always dreamed of making my own pasta as those who have tried it swears by it and never did turn back into buying them off the shelves. I never knew how easy it was to make until trying it myself.
All you need is just two ingredients to make pasta- flour and eggs. How easy is that? The only troublesome part is the kneading and rolling but hey, its worth it when the noodles has so much texture after cooking. In local terms, it is very QQ! (meaning great texture with bounce)
Ingredients (for 3 adults)
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour/ plain flour
- 3 eggs
Basically, my rule of thumb is that the number of eggs will state the number of people you are to cook for. And its about 3/4 to 1 cup of flour per person. Some recipes state 1/2 cup for one person but I found it the dough still too wet and so I increase the amount.
Steps
1) Place the flour on a big working surface or big deep bowl
2) Make a well and place the eggs inside. You can add a few drops of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt if you want too. Its optional.
3) Take a fork and beat the eggs. Then slowly, mix with the flour bit by bit..
4) Then, after mixing it, put on a working surface to knead it until its smooth and soft. If you are not sure if its good, you take a paring knife and slice through, if you still see air bubbles, you continue kneading. It should look like the below picture after cutting through- smooth and no air bubbles.
5) Then you use a cling wrap and wrap it up for about 30 mins
6) After that, divide the dough and roll it out in individual portions. So if you have 4 people eating, you divide the dough into 4 pieces. As you cut out the first piece, you leave the rest of the dough wrapped if not the dough will harden up.
7) Keep your working table and dough well-floured. You flatten the dough with your hands and put it through the pasta maker. If you don't have one, don't fret. You are just one of all traditional Italian housewives who believe in everything by hand. You just need a rolling pin to roll it till its very thin and smooth. It should be very translucent. The picture below is still not good enough.
8) After that, you either use your machine or roll it up and cut by hand to the kind of noodles you want. As you can see, your children will enjoy making this as to them, its like playing with play dough.
9) Keep flouring your noodles so that it wont stick. I made different kinds of noodles to try it out. Finally, put your noodles in a pot of salted boiling water for only about 2-3 mins. Homemade pasta cooks much faster. So test it first before taking it out of the boiling water.
After making my own pasta twice, I concluded that the noodles I like best is still the thinnest one (picture below). From both attempts after making, and trying to make the dough as thin as possible, the top Fettuccini ones turned out still too thick for my liking.
Have fun!!
All you need is just two ingredients to make pasta- flour and eggs. How easy is that? The only troublesome part is the kneading and rolling but hey, its worth it when the noodles has so much texture after cooking. In local terms, it is very QQ! (meaning great texture with bounce)
Ingredients (for 3 adults)
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour/ plain flour
- 3 eggs
Basically, my rule of thumb is that the number of eggs will state the number of people you are to cook for. And its about 3/4 to 1 cup of flour per person. Some recipes state 1/2 cup for one person but I found it the dough still too wet and so I increase the amount.
Steps
1) Place the flour on a big working surface or big deep bowl
2) Make a well and place the eggs inside. You can add a few drops of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of salt if you want too. Its optional.
4) Then, after mixing it, put on a working surface to knead it until its smooth and soft. If you are not sure if its good, you take a paring knife and slice through, if you still see air bubbles, you continue kneading. It should look like the below picture after cutting through- smooth and no air bubbles.
5) Then you use a cling wrap and wrap it up for about 30 mins
6) After that, divide the dough and roll it out in individual portions. So if you have 4 people eating, you divide the dough into 4 pieces. As you cut out the first piece, you leave the rest of the dough wrapped if not the dough will harden up.
7) Keep your working table and dough well-floured. You flatten the dough with your hands and put it through the pasta maker. If you don't have one, don't fret. You are just one of all traditional Italian housewives who believe in everything by hand. You just need a rolling pin to roll it till its very thin and smooth. It should be very translucent. The picture below is still not good enough.
8) After that, you either use your machine or roll it up and cut by hand to the kind of noodles you want. As you can see, your children will enjoy making this as to them, its like playing with play dough.
9) Keep flouring your noodles so that it wont stick. I made different kinds of noodles to try it out. Finally, put your noodles in a pot of salted boiling water for only about 2-3 mins. Homemade pasta cooks much faster. So test it first before taking it out of the boiling water.
After making my own pasta twice, I concluded that the noodles I like best is still the thinnest one (picture below). From both attempts after making, and trying to make the dough as thin as possible, the top Fettuccini ones turned out still too thick for my liking.
Made beef bolognaise sauce topped with grated parmesan cheese and bacon
Have fun!!
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
Heston Blumenthal's Perfect Roast Chicken
I have always been blown away by the works of Heston Blumenthal since watching Masterchef Australia. Heston is an English Celebrity Chef who owns a three Michelin-starred restaurant. It is always a multi-sensory experience when eating his dishes.
I was especially blown away when he created this Edible Garden in the last season of Masterchef Australia and got the competitors to replicate his work.
So anyway, I hope you are as blown away at this guy's talent as me now!
I found this video by Heston which I thought I would like to share with you in making the perfect, juicy roast chicken!
Enjoy! I will definitely be trying this soon!
I was especially blown away when he created this Edible Garden in the last season of Masterchef Australia and got the competitors to replicate his work.
Its not only a piece of art but everything in this garden is all edible!! Yes, believe it or not. What is amazing about Heston's work is that he plays with your mind. Your brain is telling you that you are eating dirt/soil which is actually made from black olives and the rocks are actually potatoes.
So anyway, I hope you are as blown away at this guy's talent as me now!
I found this video by Heston which I thought I would like to share with you in making the perfect, juicy roast chicken!
Enjoy! I will definitely be trying this soon!
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