Elinluv's Tidbits Corner

Broth-Braised Potatoes - French Fridays With Dorie

2012-01-27T11:22:00.002+08:00

When I first saw this recipe - Broth-Braised Potatoes in Dorie's book, Around My French Table, I knew it would taste good. And I was happy that the recipe was scheduled for this Friday's FFWD ! I will not miss it for sure. This dish can be eaten alone or as a side for roast or pan-seared meat. The potatoes are cooked in chicken broth infused with garlic, herbs, lemon zest and olive oil. The broth et al bring up the sweetness of the potatoes and add a touch of intrigue to a dependable dish. I used pink skin potatoes and it turned out lovely.

The potatoes are fluffy and they easily absorbed the flavor from the herbs and lemon infused chicken broth . I cooked the chicken broth the night before. I used coriander , carrots ,onions and mixed herbs in sachet bag and boiled together with the chicken breast and two cups of water for almost an hour under slow heat until I get a cup of chicken broth. I didn't know that it is so easy to prepare chicken both until I googled for the recipe :) Dorie's Broth Braised Potatoes asked for chicken broth but she didn't give the recipe for chicken broth- thus I have to google for the recipe :p

Adding lemon zest, basil leaf and rosemary to the chicken broth further enchanced the flavor and taste of this dish. Dorie advises to using small potatoes or cut the potatoes into smaller cubes for they works best for easy absorption of the flavorful broth. Simmer the potatoes in the broth until the potatoes has softened . Once cooked, remove the potatoes and reduce down the broth . You can serve the potatoes as a side dish with pan-seared meat or fish. Or browned them in the oven if you liked. The lemon zest in the broth gave the potatoes a citrus-y taste. Love this dish! I always love Fridays! :)

Do hop over to see what the rest of the Doristas have come what with

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

* * *

Crustless Spinach Salmon Quiche

2012-01-17T20:29:00.000+08:00

Since recovering from the bad flu , my appetite is getting better and now I want to eat everything.... I have a sudden craving for quiche . I have to thank my lucky star , I found two pieces of salmon fillets in the freezer . and without waiting for it to thaw properly, I baked this deliciousness for dinner. Added in spinach for some iron and this quiche was truly yummy ! Crustless....less work and healthier too !

This is rich food but who cares....eat first and think later how to burn up the calories amassed from the cheese ,eggs and milk. Eat in moderation....lol that is how I always console myself. Food is to be enjoyed wholeheartedly :) Anyway this is healthy food for growing kids but for adults, eat in moderation :) This is so yummy that I can have one whole 6" diameter quiche all to myself at one sitting :)

Anyway this is a much healthier quiche compared to those with crust. Easy and simple to prepare with less one job of making the pastry. Mix all the ingredients together and pour into an aluminium oil pastry pan and bake for 30 minutes - 40 minutes dependings on the size of your quiche. And most important after having satisfied the craving for this crustless quiche....NO WASHING was needed, just dump the empty foil pan into the garbage bin :))))

I love salmon !

cut the salmon fillet into cubes and

chopped up the blanched spinach, seasoned with

black pepper and salt to taste

add the salmon cubes, onions rings and chopped spinach
to the egg ,cheese and milk mixture...

it looks mouth-watering even before baking :p

love the top crispy browned cheese

it does smell cheesy good...thumbs up !

Crustless Salmon & Spinach Quiche

Ingredients

½ cup flour

¼ tsp baking powder

4 eggs, beaten

2 cups low fat milk

75g reduced-fat spread/butter, melted

210gm can pink salmon cut into cubes

1 onion, chopped

½ cup grated cheese

1 cup blanched spinach drain and chopped coarsely

black pepper, salt

Method:-

1. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl.

2. Stir in eggs, milk and butter. Add salmon, onions, grated cheese and spinach . Mix everything together until just combined.

3. Pour into a large greased baking pan. . Season with black pepper on top.

4. Bake at 180C for about 45 minutes or until set.

5. Leave to cool a bit before slicing.

Enjoy and have a nice day !

* * *

Plum, Avocado Salad With Balsamic Vinaigrette

2012-01-16T15:38:00.000+08:00

Thank you for all your get-well wishes and now I have fully recovered from a bad flu and now can be seen enjoying a good meal :) After having eaten a scrumptious french style chicken meal ( M.Jacques Armagnac Chicken ) , salad of this kind makes me happy and guilt free for a second. Avocado is in season and this is the best time to add them to your salad. Yea, salad makes me healthy and happy :)

I threw into the salad bowl whatever fruits and greens I can find in the fridge, tossed in some toasted walnuts and added in hard-boiled eggs for protein and whisked up a balsamic olive oil vinaigrette dressing to go with it. Simply healthy and delicious ! Balsamic vinegar is one ingredient I cannot do without :p Love 'em in my salad and love 'em as dip for my ciabatta bread !

my salad is made up of avocado , black plum, toasted walnuts

hard-boiled eggs and lettuce

Slicing An Avocado

Cut the avocado in half lengthwise, twisting the two pieces to separate the halves. Tap the blade of your knife into the pit to lodge the blead in the pit. Twist the blade and remove the pit. With a large spoon , scoop out the pulp. Discard the pit and skin. Cut the aocado into 1/4 inch slices.

Enjoy !

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Show Your Support For Walgreens :)

2012-01-16T13:00:00.001+08:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Walgreens for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

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M.Jacques Armagnac Chicken -French Fridays With Dorie

2012-01-13T15:07:00.000+08:00

I am very excited each time I have to try out a new dish from AMFT :) This week French Friday's recipe is M.Jacques Armagnac Chicken....and gosh it was GOOD !!! I thought it was just like other normal stew dish but I was wrong. It was so TASTY that I forgot for a moment, I was recovering from a bad flu and the beautiful aroma automatically mend my appetite. The chicken was tender and juicy and baking with a foil over the chicken before covering it with the lid, has given the chicken a deeply golden color and the aroma and flavor sealed in. The sauce was super delicious...richly flavored with the natural sweetness from the free range chicken and red onions and the subtle fragrant of basil and rosemary herbs that I used was enough to give me back my appetite. This was easy to whip up and as I was recovering from my flu, it has made cooking easier for me. I just have to dump everything into the casserole dish and baked it for an hour and tada it was ready for serving.

Wild Boar and I had half a bird each ...yum yum .Dont worry, the bird is small....as free range chickens are normally smaller in sizes . I had it alone without rice and the carrots , onions and potatoes were so tasty having absorbed all the sweetness from the sauce . I took Dorie's suggestion and added some prunes to the dish...giving the gravy a darker rich color. The pruney flavor of armagnac/brandy is so intriguing ! In my case , I used brandy. A splash of the brandy on the bird has given the chicken a nice golden color after baking.

I lightly sauteed the vegetables with basil and rosemary with a tablespoon of olive oil, add some pepper and salt for taste and before dishing up , add in some prunes, and placed the sauteed veggies at the base of the casserole dish , place the chicken ( cut into halves in my case ) on top of the veggies. Splash 1/2 cup of Armagnac or brandy over and around the chicken. If your casserole cover is shaky, cover your dish with a piece of aluminium foil and then put the cover in place . Slide the casserole into the oven and let the chicken roast in the oven undisturbed for 60 minutes. Transfer the casserole to the stove and remove the lid and foil. Turn the heat to medium , add in a cup of hot water to the pan dish and stir the vegetable to dislodge those stuck at the bottom . Simmer for 5 minutes and you are ready to crave the chicken and serve in a platter with the tender veggies and aromatic sauce. Thanks to Dorie for sharing this recipe with us in her book AMFT. Her recipes never failed to intrigue me. This dish turned out amazingly GOOD!

délicieux !

Do hop over and see how the rest of the Doristas prepared their version

of this M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken.......

and if you like to cook along wih us, do get this book

Around My French Table from here

and I know for sure, you are going to have lots of fun
cooking along with us :)

Have a great weekend !

* * *

Pan Seared Honey Teriyaki Chicken Onions

2012-01-11T10:55:00.001+08:00

I was down with flu the whole of last week and had been on a course of antibiotics , thus I have not been cooking anything nice of late and have been on a simple diet of just plain ABC soup with vermicelli. I cannot expect Wild Boar to go on the same diet like me , so I just pan seared this simple chicken drumstick with lots of onion rings just for him when I was feeling better. He loves it even though it is such a simple dish :)

He ate heartily even though it is a just this dish with my ABC soup. I marinated the deboned chicken drumstick with honey teriyaki sauce , a dash of white pepper and pan seared them for 20 minutes with a tablespoon of grapeseed oil , add in the onion rings last and stir fried them together for another 6 minutes. Dish up and served with hot steaming rice with a bowl of ABC soup and the Wild Boar is contented :)

love the sizzling effect of the chicken pieces.on the hot non stick pan...

aromatic and if I was much better and had a better appetite

I would love to have this for my dinner :p

Yummy !

do hop over to my dessert blog and

feast your eyes on my......

Fresh Apricot And Cranberry Upside Down Cake

^ ______*

Have a wonderful day :)

* * *

Homemade Healthy Chapati II

2012-01-03T15:22:00.004+08:00

* Edited on 1/3/2012 - This post made it to Foodbuzz Today's Top 9 :) Thanks for your buzz !

Time flies ...now it is already the 3rd day of 2012 . I had a wonderful 2011 ...a year full of trying out new recipes and a year of knowing new friends since joining FFWD. I did not make any new year resolutions this year but I promised myself more baking and more cooking in 2012 and to clear off the long long list of what I had KIV last year :p

One of the things I needed to do for this new year is to look for a good Chapati / flatbread recipe that will remains soft till the last bite. I came upon one recipe that looks good and it uses yoghurt , warm milk and vegetable oil . This is so healthy without the ghee or butter . I am quite happy with the result , though it did not stay soft throughout the meal LOL! Soft when it is still warm but half way through the meal, the other pieces turned slightly hard. I had to microwave the rest of the chapatis and they turned soft again. I will continue to make chapati until I get a soft chapati ( I will not rest until I get the soft chapati ...ahem ) ...maybe the recipe is right but the handling of the dough my be not correctly done . Maybe some of you would like to share the secret with me on how to make a soft chapati :) I welcome any tips from you :) I want to make chapati my staple food for 2012....can ? I made the chappatis and Wild Boar cooked the beef curry for our new year meal. Take a peek at my new year meal.

Simple, healthy and delicious ! I would have enjoyed it even more if Wild Boar had given the curry a bit more gravy. The curry tasted fantastic but just a little too dry for my chapatis....anyway, thank you WB for helping out while I was busy rolling and tossing the chappatis !

There are different version of chapati recipes out there on the internet and I read through this one and I have never tried with yoghurt before so the urge to make it is so strong coz I love chapati and this is my second attempt at making it. This chapati is much softer than my first attempt. Definitely have room for improvement. Practice Makes Perfect and Everything In Moderation are still my mottos for 2012 :))

Homemade Healthy Chapati II
makes 4 pieces

ingredients :-

1 cup Atta flour
2 tbsp of plain yoghurt
2 tbsp of vegetable oil
a pinch of salt
1/4 cup or more warm fresh milk - enough to make a soft and pliable dough

Method:-

Combine the atta flour with the yoghurt and oil...slowly add in the warm milk to the four mixture to form a soft and pliable dough. Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes till it is smooth. Leave to rest for 30 minutes. Divide into 4 equal pieces . Shape each piece into a round ball and roll each ball into a flat round disc. Warm the non-stick pan or tawa pan and cook the chapati till it blisters and puffs up - 3 mins on each sides. Serve with curry or dhall curry of your choice.

Enjoy !

Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-12-30T10:17:00.001+08:00

After all the calories laden food we had over the last few days, it is good to go for something lighter :p ahem...I was delighted that FFWD recipe for this Friday is Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin...this is considered light compared to those red meat we had the last few days LOL! Cauliflower and bacon plus those lips-smacking cheese and heavy cream.....baked till one's nostril tingles with the aroma of the bacon and spices wafting out of the oven....awwww I have to walk extra miles to burn off the calories that I had been happily tucking in during the festive season .

This gratin can be served as a side dish with a roast or as suggested by Dorie can be served as a brunch, lunch or supper with a salad...the last would be favored by me but I was too lazy to prepare a salad so I took this as brunch without salad. It is like a quiche filling with extra flour and yet taste like a savory pudding with its rich, soft and creamy texture. A classic no doubt !

As usual I followed the instructions to the dot except that I added some dried mixed herbs to the mixture for some flavor. I should have taken Dorie's suggestions to add some curry to it and add in some sauteed onions too for a more exotic taste. I will definitely do that the next time I make this again :) She said we can replace bacon with cubes of ham and pair the cauliflower with its cousin the broccoli . Mixed herbs and thymes would be great for this dish , which I did add in some mixed herbs for extra flavor....it turned out more flavorful * wink yummy good !

I thought it was a bit bland so I decided

to take Dorie's suggestion and added in

some dried mixed herbs.....it was good !

I cant wait to savor it but it has to wait till

I took some shots of it for posting.....

this gratin is best just from the oven or warm but like a

quiche it can be taken at room temperature :)

this is simple and easy to prepare...one dish meal for us :p

especially after a short holidays, I tend to be a bit lazy

and this week FFWD was just great for me LOL!

love the burnt melted cheese on the surface...

and the rich soft and creamy texture ..mmmm

yummy good !

Do hop over and see how the rest of Doristas prepared their version

of this Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin

" To all DORISTAS cooking along with me

HAPPY 2012

And Many More

HAPPY FRENCH FRIDAYS WITH DORIE

in the coming new year ! "

* * *

Christmas Away From Home - A Jolly Good One !

2011-12-29T12:11:00.007+08:00

This year we had to celebrate Christmas away from home and we picked Piggy Jo's place to meet up and her place is 30 km away from the Mid Valley. Jo met us in MidValley on the eve and we had a wonderful bonding time shopping in Robinson , The Gardens. I picked up some plates going off for 70% to showcase my food :p 70% off was a great deal and knowing this Elin, well , she just have to pick a few pieces to add to her collections ! :) We had our Christmas eve lunch at Aunty Nat Restaurant - a nyonya restaurant. I will post that on my next post

Today's post is how we spent our Christmas away from home...and looking through all the photos , I realized that I do miss my Piggies very much and even if it means I have to travel all the way to just spend some hours with them , I am contented and happy just the same. They can't come back, we go to them LOL! We had our Christmas eve dinner at Kajang country club aka mewah club to the locals. The name of the restaurant at the club is 21st Century Restaurant . Situated at the hill top , the hidden gems of Selangor, the night scene was magnificent....looking down , we could sight the twin towers from where we stood...lighted up so magnificient....awwww that was a heavenly sight to behold. I am sure Kajang readers will agree with me :) it was magical ! " Thank you Piggy Jo for arranging this beautiful place for us to have our Christmas Dinner and Wild Boar and myself had a wonderful Christmas and I am sure Piggy Josh would want to bring Elaine to this place LOL! "

This picture was taken after a heavy downpour or we could have had our dinner outdoor instead of inside the restaurant. I would love to come here again the next time I come to visit Jo :)

The food at the restaurant was good, we invited Joanna's buddy , Kristy, to have dinner with us. She is from Shanghai and an international student at the University where Jo is doing her PhD . We had so much fun together and the food was great not to mention , the night would not be complete without dessert at Secret Recipe....as you see how these youngster can really eat ...after a hugh portion of food served at the country club, they each had a slice of cake...Wild Boar and myself shared a Banana Split :) When one is in the company of ~~gluttons~~ one just have to follow suit :p

Josh, Joanna and Kristy.....

see how delighted they were with their dessert

and the best thing is I managed to make

them posed for me before they can partake the cake LOL!

Red Wine Grilled Lamb for Piggy Joanna

Combo Platter - Steak + Chicken

for Wild Boar and Piggy Josh

Red Wine Chicken for Elin

Grilled Lamb + Tiger Prawns for Kristy

Octopus Salad - Japanese preparation....yummy

The rest of the photos below are just a peek into how we spend our christmas day....fun exchanging gifts at the smart hotel where Wild Boar and Piggy Josh put up for the night . I bunked with Piggy Jo...haha girlie night together....spent yakking and yakking till early morning.....

Kristy, Joanna and Joshua

I forced them to pose this for me...muahaha...

and I was in for this one.....ready ...one two three...

Josh was engrossed with his Christmas gift from the sister.....haha

yea...who wouldn't.... Chris Botti autographed CD

at his lastest concert here at KLCC early December.

Jo went for his concert and got the man to autographed for her brother......

Chris Botti is Piggy Josh favorite

We had a wonderful time together and we are looking

forward to more happy ones in 2012

Thank you to Wild Boar, my Piggies , all my readers and friends for your

continuous support through out these 3 years of my blogging. Without your

love and support, I may not be able to continue to improve skill

in my cooking and baking !

HAPPY 2012

TO MY FAMILY,

TO ALL MY FRIENDS, DORISTAS, READERS

MAY 2012

BRINGS GOOD HEALTH AND JOY TO ALL OF YOU!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !

Sesame-Crusted Salmon With Ginger Lime Vinaigrette

2011-12-26T21:52:00.002+08:00

I was telling Joanna how good this was when we went down to KL to spend Christmas with her . Salmon being our favourite fish and what more I discovered a new way to prepare the salmon other than pan seared them. Salmon fillets coated in sesame seeds and wasabi paste are drizzled with ginger lime vinaigrette was the original recipe by Stefano Fiata . I substitued the lime juice with red wine vinegar for the the vinaigrette and it was superb ! It has a crunchy coating and a burst of wasabi flavor with a scent of the sea and dip with the ginger vinaigrette ...mmmmm yummy ! If you are bored with the normal pan seared style...do try this recipe, you will love this !

You can serve this as a main dish or as an appertizer . It is truly superb dish and I will definitely cook this again when the Piggies are back. I am sure they will love it as much as I do. Easy to prepare and below are the pictorial steps to making this delicious sesame-crusted salmon. Drool as much as you like but nothing beats making it and tasting the real stuff :p

Sesame-Crusted Salmon With Ginger Vinaigrette - adapted from Stefano Fiata

Ginger Red Wine Vinegar Vinaigrette

Juice of 1 lime * I substitute with 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
1 tbsp of ginger juice
3 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste * I substitute with a dollop of wasabi paste

Sesame-Crusted Salmon

3 tbsp white sesame seeds
3 tbsp black sesame seeds
4 small fillets of salmon, each 3.5 ozs
1 tsp of wasabi paste * mine was definitely more
2 tbsp vegetable oil * I use grapeseed oil

Preparation of ginger vinaigrette

In a small bowl, mix together lime juice ( red wine vinegar ), ginger, 3 tbsp of olive oil, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust for seasoning.

Sesame-Crusted Salmon

Combine white and black sesame seeds and spread evenly on a plate. Set aside.

Brush each piece of salmon with a thin layer of wasabi paste and season with salt and pepper. Roll in the sesame seeds and coat evenly.

Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium high heat. Add oil and when hot, gently place the pieces of salmon into the pan. Cook salmon for 1 minute. Turn and repeat cooking each of the remaining sides for 1 minute. Lower the heat if the sesame seeds are browning to quickly.

Plate salmon and drizzle with the ginger lime vinaigrette. Serve immediately.

Happy Holidays !

* * *

Spicy ,Garlicky Minty Tofu - Night Market Snack

2011-12-19T11:39:00.001+08:00

Wow...this is an awesome snack that I would love to tuck in while watching movies or dramas at home. This is something that I dont mind having everyday :) I was first introduced to this night market snack by Piggy Jo . "Mom you must try this.... " and she brought me to this particular stall at the night market that sells ' taiwanese snacks ' they have fried fresh mushrooms, fried sweet potatoes chips, fried fresh enoki and many veggies ( can't recall what they have :p) but the most delicious ones are fried enoki and special taiwanese tofu Deep fried the tofu , enoki or sweet potato and mixes with fresh chopped garlic, mint leaves , cayenne powder and chilli flakes and salt...gosh, the best finger food ever ! Watching them do it live was how I managed to ~~steal~~ replicate the recipe LOL! Of course, I could not make the special tofu but the taste is more or less the same as the one sold at the stall :p I told her, let me replicate this for you and I was succeeded ! Well almost 90 % * oink oink and the day before yesterday, I cooked this again for the craving was strong and drooling can be bad at times ! Homecooked ones are much healthier where the oil is concerned :) Do try this out if you are a fan of tofu, garlic and mint !

I used the ready bought 'deep fried five spice flavored tofu ' from Tesco , cut them into cubes like those from the night market, coat with crispy flour ( from Yummy, Ipoh Garden South ) or corn flour if you do not have crispy flour and deep fried them in hot oil. Place the fried tofu cubes on kitchen paper and drained off the excess oil before mixing with the chilli flakes, salt and chopped garlic. Coat the mint leaves with the crispy flour and deep fried them for a few seconds. Mix the fried tofu and mint leaves together with the chilli flakes, salt, cayenne powder and lots of fresh chopped garlic. Easy does it...right ? If you want it more spicy , add more chilli flakes :)

I first replicate this snacks in 2008

Click here for the recipe

I replaced curry powder with cayenne powder and

this time it tasted better and more like those

sold at night market :p

Do hop over to my dessert blog for this
to die for cake..

Cranberry Upside Down Cake

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all my readers, Doristas and blogger friends

celebrating Christmas.

Have a swell Christmas with

your family and friends.

* * *

Potato Chip Tortilla - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-12-16T10:02:00.002+08:00

This a fast , fun , and funny version of the traditional Basque tortilla made with cubes potatoes. Dorie explained in her book that the French would call this clin d'oeil , a wink , at the original ,and they'd surprised not only at the potato chips that stand in for the usual sautèed spuds, but at the creator , Jean-Franςois Piège , formerly the chef of Les Ambassadeurs, the Michelin starred restaurant in Le Crillon. One thing good about Dorie, she will play around the recipe and give us her best version of this french recipe. I love reading her short write out on this recipe. It is indeed fast to prepare, fun making them and funny because not a soul had any inkling that what they were savoring had been a snack food of a type they 'd never eat ! She is so funny :) I made this for my breakfast bento this morning and Dorie suggested it can be served as a hors d’doeuvre for dinner parties. It can be made ahead and served at room temperature. Love it ! You can serve this for your coming Christmas party and I am sure you will have your guests and family members licking their fingers for more !

The potato chips I bought for this savory french tortilla is the hot and spicy ones...perfect for this potato tortilla. Dorie is a genius and this is a winner alright ! I can never have enough of it...you can imagine how flavorful it is with the scallions, italian parsley and garlic in it and a shake of cayenne and pepper for extra flavor. D.E.L.I.C.O.U.S ! I served it with a salad....a great morning breakfast in a bento ! I am sure Wild Boar will request for more :)

this is the chips I bought for making this tortilla

Hot 'n' Spicy

place the chips in a mixing bowl and crush it - noisy,greasy job

that leave you with potato- chip fingers that you'd want to lick :)

as described by Dorie

chop some scallions ( white parts only ) some italian parsley

and garlic. Mix the beaten eggs with a dash of cayenne ,

pepper and a pinch of salt

mix the ingredients together and pour

in the egg mixture and stir to blend well

add a tsp of olive oil to grease the non -stick skillet, heat the skillet

and pour the chips and egg mixture and use a fork to push the

mixture to the edges of the pan and cooked under medium heat.

I used a non stick crepe pan for this and cooked under medium heat

on the stove :)

cook the tortilla for 2-3 minutes until it set around the edges

and the top is almost done, run a spatula around the edges

and under the tortilla in case it has stuck to the pan. And cook

another few minutes until the top has set and cooked. Remove

from pan and served at room temperature

this is so flavorful and addictive ....finger licking good :)

I made a salad to go with it.....

ingredients for salad are....cauliflower, carrot,

USA red apple and some chopped italian parsley

dressing sauce...red wine vinegar,

french mustard and olive oil...tada a delicious salad

this is my breakfast bento #6 which I am submitting to

Bento Banter :)))

Do hop over to have a peep at how my other Doristas friends have come up

with their version for this week FFWD..and if you like, you can also

join us by just buying the book Around My French Table and jump

on board with us..... :)

* * *

Bento Banter - Bento # 5

2011-12-13T13:03:00.002+08:00

I like my lunch meal served in bento boxes . Interesting and food served in bento helps to control food intake in large portion * I know Claire will surely ROFL at this statement * She used to laugh at me when I ordered big portion of food to the table :p I am a big eater and still is or better phrase it this way " I have good appetite " ahem..this sounds better LOL! So eating meals from bentos will be good for me. Food served in small portion looks more appetizing actually :) Food looks more dainty and delicious and a good way to control my gluttonous eating habit * wink . I am a fan of Japanese food and what a good excuse to prepare Japanese meal to take to office !

The last trip to KL, I bought a few packets of Japanese Hokkai Yamato ( a combination of dried seaweed, sesame seed and dried salmon bits with some seasoning ) I sprinkled them onto the japanese rice and shaped them into Onigiri - japanese rice balls...making the rice balls flavorful and tasty !. I served the Onigiri with Pan fried teriyaki Salmon Fillet with crispy ginger shreds , made some Tamagoyaki ( Japanese egg roll ) and seaweed salad. This meal looks like it involved a lot of work but I tell you...NOPE , not really. The salad can be made ahead and while waiting for the japanese short grain rice to be cooked, I got down to make the tamagoyaki. If you know how to make them , you can accomplish them in just 15 mins or less :p Love the whole combination and this is healthy meal for me :)

love this combination - onigiri, tamagoyaki, seaweed salad

and pan fried teriyaki salmon fillet with crispy ginger shreds

making these is fun...wrap them in cling wrap

and shaped them into any shapes you want while

they are still warm.....

this may not be perfect yet but it will be after a few

practices :)

japanese seaweed salad with soy sauce.

red wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger juice ,sugar and sesame seed

A delicious Japanese bento meal which I am submitting to

Bento Banter

Have a nice day !

* * *

Meat Roulade With Cranberry And Croutons Fillings

2011-11-29T15:43:00.003+08:00

Christmas is barely 3 weeks away and I am sure many of us will be either dining out in restaurant or slogging in the kitchen for hours preparing a scrumptious dinner for the family :) For the Piggy family , meat is a must have item on the table. I am going to introduce you to this wonderful Meat Roulade ( French term for ' rolled ' )with lots of fresh cranberries and fresh italian parsley as a finishing coat for the roasted meat roulade. Roulade can be either savory or sweet. Besides the fresh cranberries, I added a layer of ' turkey stuffing ' to give an extra flavor to the meat roulade. I have two more packets of fresh cranberries in the freezer and I love the tang bitterish after taste of this berries and it is truly a great filling for this pork loin roulade. A great dish to serve for the coming Christmas. And if you are still blank as what to cook for the coming Christmas dinner...try this....flavorful and fragrant !

Meats are commonly used as a rolling medium in savory roulades, but it is also possible to use pastry , cakes, bread or sushi nori and the fillings are varied according to one's taste. I had been flipping through my stack of cookbooks for some ideas and finally I combined all ideas together and came up with this scrumptious dinner for Wild Boar and his best pal Mr. C whom he invited to dinner. Christmas dinner came early for the piggy clan LOL!

Trottered to the butcher and bought this one foot long pork loin which costs me Ringgit Malaysia 20 . Came back , slowly, slowly spiral cut it open as shown in the pictures below....hard work but worth every effort put into making this delicious meat roulade :) In classic roulade, meat is tenderized with a meat mallet before being rolled around a filling made from vegetables, breadcrumbs and sometimes seafood and you can pick the fillings of your choice and I chose fresh cranberries and croutons, bacon and walnuts as fillings for my meat roulade :)

Cook the fresh cranberries ( 300 grammes ) with 1 orange zest , 1/2 cup caster sugar and 1/2 cup of orange juice till the cranberries pop and turned soft , dish out and keep aside till needed. Combine together in another bowl, croutons with fried bacon bits , crushed toasted walnut, 3 tablespoon of olive oil and some chopped fresh parsley and a pinch of sea salt to taste . Leave the croutons mixture to harmonize for a while . Dijon mustard as a spread before putting in the fillings by layers. First layer will be the cranberries and topped with the croutons mixture before rolling up the roulade like we make sushi . I have taken some pictures as to let you have a feel how to make the roulade. I am not good with words so I let the pictures tell the story ...... :p

ingredients for the fillings........

meat roulade in the making....

croutons mixture...consists of pan fried croutons,bacon bits,

toasted walnuts , italian parsley and olive oil

once the ingredients have been rolled together,

tie the roulade with meatbind/twines safe for food

( I bought mine from 100yen shop ) to keep the shape

while the roulade is roasting in the oven

red wine , bay leaf and garlic marinade is

the best basting sauce for this roulade...best to marinate it

for a day, turning over every 1 hour and keep in the fridge

until it is time to bake the roulade...

I prepared this a day before

roast in the oven @250 deg C for 1 hour or until cooked through and

basting the roulade with the remnant marinade sauce every 20 mins

and the last 10 minutes, brush honey over the roulade for a shiny

and dark look....

remove the meatbind/twines while it is still hot

and brush on a layer of Dijon mustard sauce on the surface

and coat the surface with chopped italian parsley...

this will make the meat roulade more flavorful and fragrant

look how juicy and tender ...mmmmmm the red wine marinade

was a great choice for this meat roulade........yummy

..the slight tang and bitterish aftertaste was a great choice for the meat

when it has cooled down, cut with a sushi knife

so that the fillings doesnt drop off when you are cutting it

I learned this from Wild Boar......:p he is a good partner

in life...my mentor and my friend :) doing a bit of

polishing here becos Christmas is here * oink

ipad2 ??????? LOL!

the most tasty meat roulade I have ever made this far

I made some stuffed portobello mushrooms as side dish...

first I baked the portobello in papillote with garlic and olive oil

for 20 mins till cooked. Made some japanese mashed potatoes as

stuffing for the mushrooms....it was the most delicious mashed

potatoes.....with bacon bits and chillies and parsley combined together

and a dollop of japanese mayo and olive oil in it.....simple and yet

delicious....does this look mouth-watering ??? LOL!

alright I am a teaser and a wicked one too ! :p my Piggies are hungry

looking at these..........but I assured them , I will feed them well

this coming Christmas !

drool as much as you like....christmas is coming soon :p

and I made some delicious fruit salad to go with the meat roulade....

red and green so refreshing for the eyes and the palate !

green apples, strawberries ( leftovers from making Claire's cake)

red USA Anjou pears......yummmy !

I made an orange balsamic sauce for the meat roulade......

YUMMY!

I would love to make this again......what about you do you like this

and want to try making this...I assure you , you will not regreat making

this meat roulade....now as I write it out and looking at the pictures...

I am salivating just thinking how tasty it tasted ! I know Wild Boar

and Mr.C enjoyed the meal as much as I do.............

orange balsamic sauce for the meat roulade...delish

consists of garlic, orange pulps, orange juice,

balsamic vinegar and pinch of sugar......

Meat Roulade With Cranberry ,Croutons, Walnuts Fillings

Ingredients:-

1 lb of pork tenderloin ( about a foot long ) remove fat and the silver tendon on surface

spiral cut it and rub salt and black pepper over surface of the spiral cut tenderloin

Cranberry filling:-

300 gm fresh cranberries - cook with with

1 orange zest ,

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup of orange juice till the cranberries pop and turned soft and thicken

Croutons filling:-

4 slices of 3 days old bread - cut into bite sized - fry in non stick pan with 1.5 tablespoon of olive oil till crispy and golden brown

1 cup of toasted walnut- crushed

a dash of mixed herbs,

a pinch of salt

chopped fresh italian parsley

2 tablespoon of olive oil

pan fried bacon bits

mixed the croutons ingredients together till well harmonized

Dijon mustard

salt and black pepper

Red wine marinade

1 cup of red wine

2 cloves of garlic- crushed

1 bay leaf

Boil under slow fire for 20 mins till aromatic...cooled before use

Method:-

Open up the spiral cut tenderloin on a baking sheet, rub salt and black pepper all over the pork loin, brush a layer of dijon mustard on the surface and spoon the all cranberries filling on to the surface like you do making a sushi. When it is evenly spread out, add the croutons fillings on top of the cranberries. Start rolling tightly all the ingredients and when it is done, tie with meatbind /twines so that the meat roulade will remain in shape after roasting. Marinade with the red wine marinade for a day, flipping over often to make sure the meat is well marinated all over.

Bake the meat roulade for an hour @250 deg C, basting often with the remnant of red wine marinade to get a nice brown. Brush on honey 15 mins before taking it out of the oven. When it is done, take out, cut off all the twines on the meat., brush a layer of mustard over the body of the roulade and cover the roulade with chopped fresh italian parsley. Cut into slices and serve with the orange balsamic sauce !

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms With Japanese Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients :-

6 pieces of large portobello mushrooms - washed clean and drained dry

wrapped them in papillote with olive oil and garlic and baked for 20 mins

till cooked. Take out from the papillote and drain off the excess liquid exuded

while cooking in the papillotte.

Japanese mashed sweet potatoes

2 big japanese sweet potatoes - boil till soft, and drain off water, let it dry off in the pot

mashed it with a fork

1/2 cup of bacon bits - pan fried in a non stick and cut into smaller bits

2 tablespoons of fresh italian parsley

a pinch of salt

1/2 tablesoon of red chilli - chopped

1tablespoon of olive oil

1.5 tablespoon of japanese mayonaise

Method:-

Mixed all the mashed potaotes ingredients together till well harmonized. Stuffed them into the cooked portobello mushrooms and serve as a side dish.

Fruit Salad

6 strawbrerries - hulked and cut into quarters

2 red anjou pear - diced

2green apple- diced

italian parsley

1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar

mixed them together and serve as a side dish for the meat roulade.

Christmas came early for Wild Boar and myself LOL!

I am submitting this to the Christmas Giveaway in

The Sweet Spot

come lets us all join in the fun,

just make anything in red/ green or red+green to participate!

Closing date of the Giveaway Contest is 11th December,2011

* * *

Curried Chicken, Peppers And Peas en Papillote - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-11-25T08:32:00.004+08:00

Today's FFWD is cook's choice . We can pick any one of the recipes from Around My French Table !!! and knowing me...I will definitely go for anything cooked en papillotes. I heart food cooked in en papillotes ...I can't even count the number of times I have cooked food in parchment paper. Instead of roast turkey with stuffing for Thanksgiving, it would be a great idea to serve this in individual pouches to family members . We can serve this parcel dish with white rice or cardamom rice pilaf or couscous or even quinoa as suggested by Dorie herself. I served this with a combination of Brown rice and Basmati rice cooked with screwpine leaves and garlic. This dish is full of flavor, fragrant, colorful and each family member will have the pleasure of opening the packet and sniff the aromatic steam. And the best thing is , it takes just 5 minutes to assemble and needs absolutely none of my attention while it cooks . And that leaves me time to prepare dessert for the the both of us :)

The kids were busy with research and assignments and could not make it back for the short hols...so Thanksgiving day was celebrated with this simple dish for the two of us. I love healthy cooking and this dish was full of flavor and the moment we opened the papillote...mmmmm the first heady whiff of aromatic steam coming out from the opening , everything was forgotten ! The kids , ooops even the thanksgiving prayer was forgotten until we scooped the first mouthful :( Of course, we put down our spoon and thank God for everything good inclusive of this wonderful meal :))) Happy Thanksgiving to all once again :)

All you need is chicken breasts - cut into strips and

marinate with olive oil and curry powder .

Dice some red capsicum and add in peas

( I used sugar snaps in place of peas )

and some red onion rings. Add them to the marinated breasts and

stir them till well coated with the curry powder

leave them to harmonize together for a while

spoon an equal amount of the mix on the center of each piece

of parchment paper or aluminium foil.

Draw up the edges of the foil or paper and seal the packets well

remember not to crimp the foil or paper close to the chicken

leave room around the ingredients sot they can steam.

Bake the packets on the baking sheet..( You can assemble the

packets up to 4 hours ahead and refrigerate;

bake for a few more minutes ) Bake the papillotes for 17-20 mins

or until the chicken is cooked through

Serve the packets immediately, bringing them to the table straight

from the oven or opening them in the kitchen and

arranging the chicken and vegetables on individual plates

I served this dish with basmati and brown rice for our thanksgiving dinner

...it was delicious ...flavorful and aromatic :)

For this Thanksgiving, I thank God for good health, good friends,
wonderful children and a lovely and supportive hubby
and many wonderful blogger friends , Doristas and readers.

Do hop over to see what the other Doristas have chosen for this Friday

click here to read what they have prepared for Thanksgiving from

Around My French Table.

* * *

Tortilla Pizza With Runny Egg & Sweet Basil

2011-11-24T11:35:00.001+08:00

Sharing with you guys something simple and yet delicious and nutrituous for a light brunch. I made this Tortilla Pizza With Runny Egg & Sweet Basil for Wild Boar on one of the days while resting at home ( medical leave for a week ) A simple and hearty brunch for him....I don't give him this everyday so don't worry about the sinful stuff in it. I decided to pamper him something he enjoys much...bacon and runny egg and cheese loaded tortilla pizza !!! don't worry, I make sure he sweat them out later :p

I have not been posting much lately ...reason being I was down with tonsillitis and followed by subconjunctival hemorrhage . I am much much better now after a week of resting at home :) No exertion from now on as advised by the doctor but this Momsie is damn stubborn....how not to bake and cook...it is my life !!! * Oinking away * well anyway, I did overdo my exercise at the Polo Ground....brisk walked as though I am a 25 year old lady LOL! Okay ! " I heard you Claire...slowing down now but it is your birthday so I just have to bake something special for you " I baked a lovely cake for Claire my close buddy yesterday and I shall share it with you guys in my dessert blog Elinluv's Sweet Delights ")

Today is Claire's Birthday and I want to take this opportunity to wish Claire of Caring Is Not Only Sharing - " a Joyous & Happy Birthday !!! Hope she enjoys eating the cake as much as I enjoyed baking it for her :) "

Sorry for the digress.....and now back to this brunch I was talking about........

I have some ready-made tortillas left in the fridge, and not wanting to exert myself, I whip this up for Wild Boar. Instead of using tomato paste, I brush a layer of thai tom yam paste on the tortilla, throw in some bacons and shredded cheddar cheese . Dump into the preheated oven for 6 minutes..took it out and break an egg on the top and a shake of some mixed herbs and put the tortilla back into the oven and baked for another 6 minutes until the egg is half cooked. Throw in some homegrown sweet basils ( drizzle some olive oil on the basil ) and continue to bake for another 1 min. Take it out and cool it for a while before serving. Love the look of the runny egg on the tortilla pizza. Some of you may not like the idea of the runny egg on the pizza but I know for sure WB loved it ! and that is all that matters :)

Take a peep at the cake I baked for Claire for her Birthday :)

Moist Butter Cake With Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

Happy Thanksgiving To all my readers celebrating thanksgiving :)

* * *

Thanksgiving & Christmas

2011-11-23T22:39:00.002+08:00

The holidays are just peeking around the corner with Thanksgiving in the lead. It’s scary how time flies so fast sometimes, just slipping through your fingers and leaving shadows of memories of the year past. Soon, the halls will be decorated with boughs of holly, mistletoes and the quaint whaft of home cooking scenting the festive air. Whilst this is the busiest time of the year when the entire family gathers together to celebrate Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas or all three, it is also the busiest time in the kitchen if you’re thinking of entertaining and throwing holiday parties.

Fortunately, we all live in the age of technology thus granting us access to wonderful recipes all over the internet. At the simple click of the mouse, you open up a cookbook brimming with chicken recipes, casserole dishes, fresh garden salads, drool-worthy pies and mouth watering desserts. There are so many variations to a simple chicken dish that you’ll be blown away at the number of choices available to you for your holiday planning.

Planning for the holidays does not necessarily need to be stressful and dreadful. Plan well ahead of time so that you have an ample amount of time to prepare for any changes in your initial plan and still pull off fantastic gatherings. As you tuck into your Christmas puddings and fruit cakes, impress your guests with your excellent culinary skills as you swap funny poignant memories of the past year and welcome the new year with open arms.

* * *

Pan Grilled Cinnamon Flavored Red Wine Sauce Drumstick

2011-11-15T08:49:00.002+08:00

I have some leftovers of homemade cinnamon flavored red wine sauce from making Red Wine Pear Cake. Instead of wasting the red wine sauce, I decided to use them for my pan grilled drumstick for Wild Boar's dinner. He is not a ~~fisherman~~ fish man so this very aromatic pan grilled meat is a welcome for him. He loves it especially the cinnamon flavored red wine sauce . The flavored red sauce infused well into the meat and when you pan grilled it....wow...the smell is darn good ...believe me * drooling this thinking of it. Arrrrgh...I wish I could have a piece for myself but NO ! I have to be satisfied with my piece of salmon which I will share with you guys later :) Meanwhile be happy with this Cinnamon Flavored Red Wine Sauce Pan Grilled Drumstick ! There is no boundary for me where cooking western food is concerned LOL!

This would be great for a christmas dinner and Wild Boar thought that it Christmas came early :) LOL! and all those fresh cranberries goodness lately....I really have to go for my brisk walk exercise again. I am looking more like a water tub instead of a oversized vase :p Oink Oink ! Haih....I love food and I love cooking and baking...how not to have a body shape like a water tub ??? Wild Boar ! he is worst ! He looks like a beer barrel now! Ooops....shhhhhh don't let out to him or he will pan grill me with the wine sauce !!!!!

the homemade red wine sauce complemented the meat well

so do not worry if you have leftovers of this cinnamon flavored

red wine when you make your Red Wine Pear Cake which I am going

to share with you on my Sweet Delights blog :)

Wild Boar chomped it down fast and asked for more

tsk tsk...I told him no more LOL! and greedily ate more slices

of my Red Wine Pear Cake for dessert !

I lightly stir fry some carrots slices ,onion rings and

button mushrooms with balsamic vinegar and a pinch

of sea salt as a side to go with this delicious meat dish :)

Pan Grilled Cinnamon Flavored Red Wine Sauce Drumstick

2 chicken drumsticks - deboned leave skin intact - cut criss crosses on the surface

to enable the red wine sauce to infuse deep into the meat

1/2 cup of cinnamon flavored red wine sauce ( click here for the recipe )

1 tbsp of grapeseed oil for grilling

* Marinate the drumsticks with the red wine sauce for a few hours, turn over every 30 minutes.

Method:

Heat up a grill pan and add 1 tbsp of grapeseed oil . When it is hot, put in the marinated drumstick and pan grill over high heat till the meat is cook through on both sides. Put in the remnants sauce onto the drumstick and continue to cook till the sauce thickens. Dish up and serve hot. Drizzle extra sauce on the drumstick when serving.

Side dish :-

1/2 carrot- cut into slices

1 red onion - cut into rings

5-6 button mushroom - cut into slices

a glug of balsamic vinegar

a pinch of sea salt to taste

a pip of garlic - chopped finely

1/2 tbsp of grapeseed oil

Method:

Saute the chopped garlic with 1/2 tbsp of grapeseed oil till fragrant. Add in the rest of the ingredients except balsamic and salt for 8 minutes. Add a glug of balsamic vinegar and salt before dishing up. Serve as a side dish.

For dessert , hop over to Elinluv's Sweet Delights

for this Red Wine Pear Cake

* * *

Pan Fried Organic Pumpkin Tofu With Sour Plum Sauce

2011-11-10T12:40:00.000+08:00

Each time I visit the organic shop, I will surely take home a few slabs of their organic tofu. There are two types , one is with seaweed and the other one is with pumpkin. I am sure whether the tofu is made from organic soy bean or the pumpkin is organic. I assumed that both are organic since it is from the organic shop :) Well, this is what I will cook for our dinner when I am rushing for time...like if I have a cake to bake or bread to bake...dinner will be simple and this is one easy to prepare dish. Seriously , this is delicious and appetizing at the same time. Can store them in the freezer for a month. Thaw them first before cutting them in slices. If I know I have to do some baking that night, I will thaw this tofu on bottom shelf of fridge so that by the time I come back from work, it is ready for slicing :)

Pan fried them in shallow grapeseed oil on a non stick pan till crispy and brown on the outside . Before dishing up, drain off all the oil from the pan and pour in a few tablespoon of sour plum sauce and coat all the crispy tofu slices evenly. Throw in toasted white sesame seed and chopped chilli onto the sour plum coated tofu and served it hot. I am not lying when I say it is delicious. Thumbs up for this simple pan fried tofu dish ! I know my Piggy Jo will love this as much as I do ! :)

This pumpkin tofu is well flavored and seasoned so do not need to ask any salt to it

just add in sour plum sauce and chilli and sesame seed if desired :)

You can get this organic pumpkin tofu from any organic shop in Ipoh

@ 5 Ringgit Malaysia a slab

* * *

Dinner @ Kok Thai Restaurant, Ipoh

2011-11-09T10:59:00.002+08:00

Whenever we dine out at this restaurant, we will surely order this dish...Kok Thai's signature dish...sorry, I am a yellow banana and they give fancy name to the dish. Many times I had ordered this, I still can catch the name of this dish.....I have to describe the dish to the lady Captain.... " you know you have this dish with the roll meat cured in wine and served in slices with a layer of pickled jellyfish as base " then the captain will nod her head and say..... " oh this dish is called .................. " till today I still cannot remember the name of this dish " LOL! don't even ask the rest of the Piggies...they are worse than me when it comes to the Cantonese language. We only know that we love this dish and I wish I could make this myself....then I can renamed it to a name I can remember easily :p And we have to either go there early to eat or order this dish in advance. Once , we went there at 8pm and this dish was sold out ! This dish comes with this garlic, chilli and shallots in vinegar....beautiful sauce ! I don't think I can replicate this sauce....look simple but the taste is awesome ! I really dont know what vinegar they used...simply delicious with this awesome " rolled meat dish " :) You can read on to see what we had for my birthday dinner :p Birthday lunch at David's Diner , Greentown Business Center and a simple birthday dinner at Kok Thai Restaurant , Ipoh :) Thanks Wild Boar for a scrumptious birthday treats !!!!! The Piggies and I were well fed on that special day :p And you know what, the apron was in the washing machine ! yea.....rest day for Momsie Elin ....she deserved the day off , sat back and rested her trotters LOL!

Love this dish ....the rolled meat was well flavored. I think they most probably soaked the rolled meat in wine....I must try to replicate this dish. I have seen the picture of rolled meat soaked in wine in some chinese magazine but becoz I am Mandarin illiterate , so did not purchase the magazine.....I hope some food blogger will put it up some day. Meanwhile , whe I crave for it..I will just eat at Kok Thai and describe this dish again with my famous line...." you know you have this dish...................................................................... " LOL! my Piggies laughed at me each time I goes like this..hand language and etc.....

love the skin......and the crunchy jellyfish....the sauce with sesame seeds

was a perfect sauce for the rolled meat :)

this is the birthday noodles ...a must for the chinese when celebrating birthday

the long noodles signify longevity :),

stir fried with bbq meat and chicken breast strips...another one

of their signature dish !

steamed free range chicken with a special sauce......
cannot remember the name of this
steamed chicken with a spicy sweet sauce......
I just nodded each time the captain describe the dish........LOL!
I took the picture when we almost finished the dish.....
^^)

this is the veggie dish that Piggy Jo loves...

.four types of greens stir fried with

shrimps sambal...hot and spicy...

this dish in cantonese is 'Sei Tai Tin Wong '

something like that...* eye balls rolled up

hahaha I am not good in remembering dishes,

I only know how to eat :p

consists of lady finger, egg plant, asparagus and french beans

this is my favorite fish dish...steamed Red Tilapia with

salted veggie ( ham choy) and tofu, tomato and chilli and sour plum

' Teochew Steamed Red Tilapia '

We had a yummy dinner, thanks to Wild Boar :)

* * *

Fresh Cranberries !!!!

2011-11-08T12:19:00.003+08:00

I could not believe my eyes when I saw a few packets of fresh cranberries at the fruit section at Tesco, Ipoh !!! I was practically jumping up and down ~~on my trotters~~ and I must have oinked out loud coz Wild Boar asked me " what is wrong with you ? " Seeing me...grabbing packets of fresh cranberries off the rack into the trolley , he thought I have gone crazy ...!!! He is not a fan of fresh cranberries unlike me, I yearn for it most of the time ....When I can't get the fresh ones, I used dried ones for my bakes which lack the bitterish taste. Dried ones are sweetened so they are not my cup of tea but fresh ones comes with a slight tang and bitterish...that makes me like it so much. There were about 5 packets left on the rack and I wanted to take them all but on second thoughts where am I going to store them in the freezer...there is hardly space now that I am almost making fruit popsicles everyday :p So I grabbed 3 packets of them.....they came just in time for my Xmas cooking !!! Cranberry sauce is good for roast chicken or turkey and now I am thinking of cupcakes, cakes and muffins with these 'hard to get' fresh cranberries . Yay ! Fresh cranberries now filled my dreams...and I noticed that Tesco usually have them in the month of November nearing to Christmas and boy ! I am one lucky Momsie ! Ain't I ??? And they were fresh and big too ! I will be watching out for great recipes that uses fresh cranberries in the next few weeks and if you happened to have a good one please share with me by leaving your link here for me :) Thank you and I am so excited now...LOL! I have to pinch myself a few times to believe that I really have them in my freezer ! And you know what, I regretted not taking the whole lot back home with me , then I could have fresh cranberries all the year through !

Watch out for more cranberries goodies in the next few weeks.......

and have a nice day :)

meanwhile do hop over to Elinluv's Sweet Delights for
some Ultra Soft Walnut Banana cake....I am sure you will love it !

Ultra Soft - Walnut Banana Cake

^ ______________ ^

* * *

Walking Down Memory Lane - Elinluv's Tidbits Corner

2011-11-04T15:51:00.012+08:00

I was tagged by Kristy of My Little Space , to do this 7 Link Challenge....how true..I find it challenging for I love every single recipe found on my blog....of over 784 posts and each post was done with so much passion in it. So to pick one for each topic is really heart wrenching....so many popular ones and so many that deserved attention yet not LOL! Okay, the biggest reason being , I have been pretty busy lately and also procrastinating all the year :p So it is time to do this before the year ends. My sincere apology to Kristy for taking such a long time to do this up :)

Let's reminisce some of my past posts that I think needs mentioning again :p

1) The Most Beautiful Post......"Ferrero Rocher White & Dark Chocolate Cake" . It was hard ...really hard to pick one from the 784 posts but I think this is the most beautiful cake I had baked for my birthday with those mouth-watering white and dark chocolate ! Yummy :)

Ferrero Rocher White & Dark Chocolate Cake

2) The Most Popular Post......" Fruits de le mer Pasta In Papilotte " ...well, I guess I had many visitors for this particular post , so does this make it popular ? :p This dish is popular not just with friends and readers and my family love this sinful indulgence :) all those mouth watering seafood in the pasta and the aroma and flavor trapped in the papilotte....a wonderful one meal dish which I am sure will be popular with busy momsies or working people :)

Fruits de le mer Pasta In Papilotte

3) The Most Controversial Post......for the time being I do not have one that has a debate over it yet :)

4) The Most Successful Post......" Salmon In A Jar " . After joining French Fridays With Dorie, I have mastered many new dishes with a touch of french style cooking and have succeeded in making my first cured salmon chunks ! And I have make many friends from all parts the world. Cooking together the same dish on a Friday makes it fun and challenging besides the exchanging of reviews on the dish. Sharing the same passion for a particular dish by Dorie Greenspan :) A link to many food bloggers around the world !

Salmon In A Jar

5) The Post That Did Not Get The Attention It Deserved..... " Apple Pannenkoek " . This is a light meal that is healthy and that I think many would love it but it did not catch much attention though. For me , this is the most easy to whip up meal for the day...for breakfast , for supper or even for snack in between meals. Easy digestable and tasty and I would like to bring to your attention once again so that you may like it too and make this for your family for their breakfast or serve this for a light brunch :)

Apple Pannenkoek

6) The Post I Am Most Proud Of ......" Roast Chicken Breast With ' Turkey Stuffing ' " ...I think this is one chicken dish that I love and I think it is a successful one for I won the 1st Prize from Swee San :) a Nigella Lawson Christmas Cookbook was the Prize for the cooking competition. Yay! my first participation and I won ! so I can consider this as a successful post :) Xmas is just around the corner , so maybe you would like to try this recipe for this coming Xmas !

Roast Chicken Breast With ' Turkey Stuffing '

7) The Most Helpful Post......" Homemade Kimchi " . I realised that knowing how to my own Kimchi is an added plus point in my whole cooking experience. I love kimchi and being able to make my own and sharing and teaching others how to make this korean kimchi a blessing. I sincerely wish this kimchi post is helpful to those who wants to make their own homemade kimchi... I know Lena of Her Frozen Wings had made some herself after reading my Kimchi post :p

Homemade Kimchi

Thank you Kristy for giving me this opportunity to reminisce on

all my old posts and once again being able to share with my readers and

friends on these few worth mentioning posts

and thank you, my readers for walking down memory lane

together with me :)))

Have a nice weekend !

* * *

Roast Pork Ribs With Parsley, Dijon and Chives

2011-10-31T20:03:00.004+08:00

What would be nice to go with stuffed pumpkin with everything nice that I made for FFWD ? I asked myself this many times before I cooked SPWEN and suddenly I saw my Curtis Stone book among the stack of new cookbooks ...I got an idea ! How about Roast Ribs With Parsley, Dijon and Chives ? And guess who vouch for it....yea Wild Boar ! He took me to the market early in the morning and I bought back some his cousin's ribs back for roasting LOL! Curtis Stone has this book titled " Relaxed Cooking With Curtis Stone " and I found this great Roast Rack Of Lamb with parsley, dijon and chives recipe from it :) I substituted rack of lamb with pork ribs :)

According to Curtis Stone , lamb racks have the perfect ratio of meat to fat to bone, which gives them an absolutely delicious flavor and considering how hassle-free they are to cook, they are a very easy way to make a meal seem special. I could not get the lamb rack and used pork ribs instead and nonetheless it tasted good just the same :)

I made some salad with avocado cream dressing and serve alongside the stuffed pumpkin and roast ribs :) this meal was delicious and would be a great idea to serve roast ribs and stuffed pumpkin for thanksgiving instead of roast turkey :p just kidding ! and perhaps some homemade pumpkin cinnamon rolls. Yum Yum !

succulent and juicy piece of roast ribs.....mmmmm

drool as much as you like :)

the fresh italian parsley and mustard coated roast ribs is to die for...

i will make this for the coming Xmas.....I am sure my Piggies would

love this for their Xmas dinner :)

I did not blend the avocado into paste , I prefer it mashed coarsely

so that I can get feel the avocado bits in my mouth :)

the delicious and tasty Stuffed Pumpkin With Everything Nice....yumyumm

A beautiful meal .....satisfying no doubt !

I told myself I am super woman...preparing all this

just for dinner......stuffed the pumpkin and while it is baking

in the oven, I seasoned the ribs and while waiting for its turn to

be in the oven, I prepared the pumpkin cinnamon rolls....

and everything fit in nicely , cooking and photo shooting all done and ......

and dinner was ready at 7.30pm sharp.......

I have no candles and no red wine at home

or it would be a romantic dinner for two !

Roast Pork Ribs - adapted from Curtis Stone " Roasted Rack of Lamb with parsley, dijon and chives "

Two 1 1/4- 1 1/2 - pound racks of lamb ( each with 8 bones ) well trimmed * I substitute with Pork ribs

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh chives * I omitted this

3 tbsps of Dijon mustard

Method :

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Place a large heavy frying pan over high heat. Sprinkle the lamb ( pork ) with salt and pepper. Drizzle 1 tbsp of the oil into the ot pand and place 1 lamb rack ( pork ribs ) in the pan, meat side down. Sear for about 2 minutes per side, or until golden brown on both sides. Transfer the lamb (pork) rack to a heavy baking sheet, meat side up. Repeat with the second lamb rack.

When both racks have been browned, transfer the baking sheet to the oven and roast the lamb ( pork ) for 15 minutes, or until a meat thermometer inserted into the center of one end registers 120°F for medium rare. Transfer the lamb ( pork) to a platter to rest for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle the parsley and chives evenly over a plate. Spread the Dijon mustard over the meat side of the lamb racks, and then press the mustard-coated side of the lamb (pork) firmly into the herbs, creating a green herb crust. Crave the lamb (pork) between the bones into individual chops. Place the chops on 4 serving plates, drizzle with the remaining 1 tbsp oil and any accumulated juices from the lamb ( pork) and the pan and serve.

Avocado Cream

2 ripe avocado - click here on how to cut and peel an avocado
( mashed the avocado coarsely )
1 tsp of cajun/paprika
a pinch of salt
1 tsp of extra virgin oil
* chilli flakes - optional

Mix all the ingredients together and chill it in the fridge. Serve on your favorite salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber

Have a pleasant Monday !

* * *

Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-10-28T11:12:00.002+08:00

TGIF....when Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan arrived at my doorstep some months back, I could not contained my joy for I really want to try out some simple french cooking and Dorie has complied all the the simple and delicious french dishes in one book. I read through them the very night I received the book and have bookmarked some of the ones that I wanted to start off with and to my delight, Lizzy and a few of my blogger friends invited me to join FFWD group and can you imagine the joy and happiness...having Dorista friends all over the world cooking the same recipe and comparing notes....fantastic how food can bring people together :) Today FFWD dish is Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good ! Well true to its title...it is really stuffed with everything good LOL! Yummy..and we love it ! It goes well with my roast pork ribs which I am going to share with you in my next post :) Meanwhile , let's look at this pumpkin goodness first :) This is one delicious pumpkin recipe that Dorie shared with us in her AMFT.

I used Japanese pumpkin for this, the local ones are too sweet for me :p but of course this is my preference. For savoury dishes I would use japanese pumpkin but if I am making rolls and cake, I would use the local ones. I bought half a Japanese pumpkin for this recipe, though the recipe called for one pumpkin, for there were just the two of us for dinner. I used aluminium foil to wrap up the pumpkin :) And baked in oven for 50 minutes until the pumpkin has soften and cooked. I prepared the croutons a day before and used cheddar cheese for this recipe. It turned out delicious....

scoop out the seeds from the pumpkin and

rub toasted black pepper and sea salt on the inside.

ingredients for stuffing are croutons, garlic, chedder cheese,

smoked bacon strips , italian parsley and garlic and heavy cream

mix them together with a dash of pepper

stuffed the well mixed stuffing ingredients

into the pumpkin and wrap them

up with aluminium foil

this looks good ......yumm can't wait for it to be ready

baked it for 1 hour @ 180 deg C or till the pumpkin is soften

wow...the aroma is so good.... the title befits this dish

pumpkin stuffed with everything good ! :)

I had this PWEG as a side with my roasted pork ribs........

yummy !

This post participates in French Fridays With Dorie
Do hop over to my other Dorista friends and see their creation of this dish

and for dessert click

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls ( Vegan)

to savor more of this pumpkin goodness

Have a wonderful weekend !

and thanks for leaving me a comment :)

* * *

Birthday Lunch @ David's Diner

2011-10-24T20:45:00.000+08:00

We decided to have my belated birthday lunch at David's Diner after Wild Boar got well from his flu' that was yesterday. Wild Boar got sick on my birthday which fell on 20th October, so the celebration was postponed till he was fully recovered...and to make up for it, Wild Boar gave us a treat to a Western lunch ( David'sDiner ) and a Chinese dinner at ( Kok Thai Restaurant )....the Piggies and myself gave each other a ' Five ' with our trotters :p Momsie was given the day off from cooking :p Today's post will be on our lunch at David' Diner. We love western food ..no, I think the best descriptione is..we love to eat no matter what cuisine it is...slurrp ! As usual we had some camwhoring time together before the food arrived ...so fun !

I love it when we are together and food is not important but the fellowship with one another is ! :) You can see how happy my Piggies are when there is food...I don't call them Piggies for nothing :p Even Wild Boar looks happy though he still look a bit tired :) The food here is good. I love the grilled Dory fish which was well flavored with spices . A bowl of salted mixed veggie salad with their own concoction of Thousand Island sauce came with the grilled fish set .. The Sirloin Steak , according to Josh, was good...well marinated and grilled to perfection. Came with some mashed potatoes and curly fries...yummy...if I am not a less carbo diet I would have taken all his curly fries :p Joanna was more into Mexican ...burritos with beef fillings came with some sides of mashed beans and mexican fried rice with nachos. Wild Boar went for their bbq chicken that came with mushroom soup. Their buns were soft and yummy...dipped into their well flavored mushroom soup....it was good...as good as homemade soup ! I would definitely dine there again !

father and son......

this is another Piggy who loves to eat and eat...see the smile LOL!

Food is all that matters especially when the food arrived at the table !

Grilled dory fish with roasted potatoes and
mixed veggie comes with soup and bun

@ RM27.90

Burritos with Beef fillings......it was okay for me
but the portion was too big for Jo

RM24.90

Sirloin Steak for Piggy Josh

RM32.90

bbq chicken with the strong smoked bbq sauce

@RM 25.90

I love their soft and fluffy buns...

the mushroom soup is good..unlike those canned ones

I love their Thousand Island sauce

their lettuce were fresh and crispy

sour cream and salsa sauce for Jo's Burritos

Do drop by my other blog and take a peek

and my birthday cake

Elin's Birthday Cake

* * *

Tortilla ' Twister '

2011-10-22T01:15:00.002+08:00

Tortilla ' Twister' LOL! Why twister ? Tortilla with a Twist - mine is a fusion one. Read on and you will know what I mean...fusion Twister. Well, I was just trying to replicate those ' Twister ' from KFC. They are my favorites and each time, the Piggies order from KFC, they will surely order ' Twister ' for me ...they do know what I like and what I do not like :p Wild Boar bought us a sesame roast duck from the Kg.Simee market for the weekend and as you know both of us could not finish one whole duck , so I took some for making ' Chap Suey ' and I kept one breast part for making pulled duck meat for these tortilla 'twister' . 3 type of preparation with just one roast duck ! Clever or not ? :) Tortilla with a Twist is so apt...chinese roast duck and mexican tortilla LOL!

I turned the breast meat into pulled meat and wrapped them with the tortilla wrap . Add some lettuce, pickled onions and carrots shreds. The roast duck came with a packet of special hoi sin sauce ...yummy sauce I call them :) sweetish and flavorful. Perfect for the roast duck . I used the sauce as a base , then add on a layer of lettuce topped with pickled onions and carrots , meat jerks and cover with another of lettuce . Roll them up tightly and cover one end of the Twister with aluminium foil to prevent the fillings from dropping. We can just hold them and eat while watching a movie. And that was dinner for us. Light and easy ! This is what the lazy Momsie will prepare for dinner, when movies and dramas takes control over her life :p Poor Wild Boar !

these are the ingredients for the tortilla ' Twister '

lettuce, pickled onion , carrot shreds and pulled duck meat

this is the special ' Hoi Sin ' sauce for the roast duck

but I used it as base sauce for the tortilla as I have shown

in the photos below :)

Light and easy meal for the two of us...less washing and more watching hahaha

Got it ?

For our supper , hop over for some

Bacon, Tomato & Cheese Bread

Have a nice day !

* * *

Straight Talk - All You Need Plan

2011-10-22T01:02:00.002+08:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Straight Talk for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

My nephew Bryan is now settled in his new home in Florida and he is happy with his new job. He will be getting married this coming Spring . His parents stay in New Jersey. Calling home to his parents him costs a huge amount monthly on phone bills. He heard about this Straight Talk plan and its benefits. He has now switched to Straight Talk - All You Need Plan which will help cut his monthly bill to half, with lower rate call for all international long distance calls and the best thing is he is not tied to a contract ! It comes with a 1000 minutes, 1000 texts and 300MB of web data . With the money saved, he can buy a smart phone for himself. The power of Android phones , at only $45/- monthly for unlimited use and with all the apps and games he needed....gosh , isnt he thrilled to bits with this good plan ! He will definitely Feel Richer with Android ! He can use any trusted phone manufacturers like Nokia, LG, Motorola, Samsung and Kyocera or any amazing smart phones, touch screen phones and app capable phones with features like voice navigation , camera, video recorder, music player , instant messaging , and Bluetooth.

I am sure my brother and my sis-in-law will be happy to know that Bryan has got a good phone plan. With the money saved from the phone bill, he can fly back more often to visit his parents. A wonderful all you need plan and its great benefits !

For more information on what this phone offers are, please check out this YouTube videos :-
<iframe frameborder="0" width="480" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xlhbcs"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xlhbcs_the-getting-richer-effect-has-expanded_tech" target="_blank">The getting richer effect has expanded...</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/LittleBard95" target="_blank">LittleBard95</a></i>

Pissaladière - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-10-21T08:06:00.005+08:00

The moment I knew that this Friday's recipe for FFWD is pissaladière, I jumped on board with the rest of the Doristas and made this for dinner . Looking at the photo in Dorie's lastest book AMFT , I knew I would love it :) Each time I set my eyes on a mouth-watering food photo, I will just have to cook or bake them !

This recipe comes from Dorie's friend Rosa Jackson, who teaches cooking in Nice, her hometown. Pissaladière is what Rosa calls " a treasured Nicoise street food, sold in every boulangerie of Vieux Nice and at several stands specializing in quick eats. Actually it is not so quick to make, since the base is of a simple yeast dough that needs an hour to puff. If both the dough and the onions topping can be made ahead, you can get your pissaladière into the oven with a snap of the fingers :)

The word pissaladière comes from the word anchovy paste, pissala. It is stirred into the onions to intensify their flavor. I used dried anchovies instead of canned anchovies. I pan fried them with bay leaf and fresh oregano ( in place of thyme as required by the recipe ) in olive oil. Chop them coarsely and mixed into the caramelized onions...wow the fragrant of the pan fried anchovies is so intense that Wild Boar could not wait to devour them :)

Pissaladière can be served as a starter, a snack or paired with a salad, a light meal. For me, I served this for our dinner...something light and yet delicious. Love the caramelized onions topping with the pissala in it. I am glad I did not give this a miss and instead jumped on board with all the Doristas . I love the base with its crunchy edges and the topping is a winner ! I let my pictures tell the rest.....

We don't give the recipes over out at FFWD

but you can find it online here

and

Do hop over to see how the other Doristas did theirs

or you can get a copy of " Around My French Table " and

join us in the fun :)

Have a great weekend !

* * *

Pan Fried Organic Seaweed Tofu

2011-10-17T15:35:00.001+08:00

I like to indulge in organic stuff once in a while. I frequent the organic shop quite often though because one of my colleague is very into organic food. So we will go together and for me it is just browsing through their shelves and see what they have that I really need and I will normally purchase some stuff back if they are not too pricey . I opened their chiller and found some organic tofu. I could not resist them for I am a tofu person :) I bought back 2 types - pumpkin tofu and seaweed tofu....ohhhh, I could finish a block of tofu by myself especially when I pan fried them and dipped with some Thai chilli sauce...one word HEAVENLY !

The texture of the tofu is firm and nicely flavored with the seaweed . A block of this organic seaweed tofu measuring 4" X 2.5" X 1.5" costs RM5 almost $2usd . You can either steam them and pour a thickened oyster sauce over them or pan fried them like I do with grapeseed oil. Crisps on the outside and soft on the inside. Dip them with any sauce of your choice, you will surely be captivated by their unique flavor. I don't really know what they have put into the tofu besides the seaweed but it was aroma when you pan fried them that will make you salivate. Tasty ! I have another block in the freezer - the pumpkin one still sitting in the container. I will mostly probably stir fry them with some mushrooms and shrimps.

Do hop over to my dessert blog

for some Pumpkin Cake

Have a nice day !

* * *

Japanese Pizza - Tortilla Base

2011-10-11T14:32:00.004+08:00

I had this fusion pizza at a Japanese restaurant , Pasta Zenmai, at Mid Valley KL and I fell in love with it the first time I set my eyes on it and when the first bite went into the mouth, I was ooo- ing over it . I told myself that I must make this myself when I go back home to Ipoh :) Thin crust - tortilla was used as the base - with fresh scallops and fresh button mushrooms with mozzarella cheese and japanese mayo...gosh... light and easy for the palate. So to day, I am going to introduce to you the easy to whip up and yet delicious Japanese fusion pizza that will have wow you over :) I replaced fresh scallops with shrimps :)

I bought a packet of ready tortillas from the Cold Storage ( there are not available in Ipoh ) but of course we can make our own at home but I am too lazy to make my own ...I will make my own when time permits :p So for the time being , ready made ones are a welcome. The ingredients are tortillas , tomato paste mixed with ground black pepper and some mixed herbs of your choice, mozzarella , cheddar cheese, fresh brown button mushrooms , shrimps with shells removed and Japanese mayonnaise. You can add in filling ingredients of your choice except that tortilla is a must have for the base . * I lightly sauteed the mushrooms and shrimps till half cooked with a tsp of olive oil and salt to taste, before putting them on the tortilla for baking. The baking time is 15 - 18 mins or till the mozzarella has melted and the tortilla starts to curl at the edges @ 180-200 deg C. depending on your oven.

Even Wild Boar who doesn't fancy pizza loves the tortilla base and requested for more :) Feel free to drool over the pizza I made....but don't blame me if your stomach is drumming away :p You have this as snacks, light lunch or dinner or even supper for some of us.....

Have a wonderful day and do hop over to Elinluv's Sweet Delights

for some delicious Mango Cake French Style

* * *

Olive Olive Cornish Hens - French Friday With Dorie

2011-10-08T23:06:00.004+08:00

I am late again in submitting this entry for FFWD :p I wanted to try this week FFWD recipe on Friday but we had dinner with friends , thus I can only roast the chicken for our lunch today and to my surprised it was delicious. I thought it might not be that nice since I do not have the canned anchovies and cornish hens are not available here. I substituted it with dried anchovies for the tapenade and chicken from the wet market . It turned out great just the same and I love the flavorful olive tapenade. I told Wild Boar that I am treating him to a french cuisine today and guess what ? He asked me this " today is Friday "? French cuisine means it's Friday ! LOL!

This is my first time making homemade olive tapenade. As suggested by Dorie, work some tapenade under the chicken's skin and give it a olive oil massage, a squirt of lemon juice and baked them for 30 mins in the oven ( if using cornish hens ) but since I used the local farm chicken, it took me 45 -50 mins of roasting time.

The chicken is split into half and flatten at the breastbone, the skin is loosen from the flesh, using the fingers, work the tapenade under the skin. You know what ? I used all the tapenade on one whole chicken :p Gosh, it turned out delicious and I never regretted using up all the tapenade eventhough Dorie's recipe called for only 2 teaspoon for the cornish hens :)

I will share with you the recipe for the olive tapenade at the end of this post :) The tapenade can be used as a spread for crackers to go with cocktails or as a condiment ...and it can be kept in the fridge for at least a week if kept in well-sealed jar. This is so delicious that I shall make some as spread for crackers !

According to Dorie , the French called this preparation " en crapaudine " translated it means " like a toad " which is what the flattened chicken, with it legs splayed and their wings sticking out, resemble. From today's experience, I learned something new today..no.1 - tapenade is tasty and no.2 how to split the chicken into half and resemble a toad ! I have so much to learn from this book " Around My French Table " by Dorie Greenspan. Do get a copy of this book and join us in cooking all the recipes from the book .

Evenly browned and the fragrant wafting out from the oven while it was baking was enough to make both of us hungry :) I prepared a simple salad to go with the roast chicken. I used the pan juices to bake the sweet corn and the juices absorb into the corn makes it so tasty...this meal would have been more complete if we have some red wine to go with it :) I shall make this again for sure ! The rest of the pictures are for drooling :)

Recipe for the olive tapenade

1/2 cup pitted oil cured black olives * I used the green type stuffed with pimentos
1 anchovy, drained * I used dried anchovies
grated zest and juice of 1/4 lemon
pinch of rosemary ( fresh or dried )
pinch of thyme ( fresh or dried )
Pinch of pigment d'Espelette or cayenne
1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and process, scraping down the sides of a bowl as needed, until the olives are pureed. It is up to you how smooth or chunky you want to make the puree. Check the consistency, and if you'd like it a little thinner, add more oil drop by drop. Taste and add more herbs, hot pepper or lemon juice, if you want them.

Do hop over to see how the other Doristas did theirs

or you can get a copy of " Around My French Table " and

join us in cooking out all Dorie's recipes in the book :)

Have a great weekend !

* * *

Tribute To Steve Jobs 1955-2011

2011-10-06T10:44:00.006+08:00

Steve Jobs - Apple Founder

1955-2011

Though you have left us today but

you leave behind a legacy for us.....
an incredible legacy that will live on....

I love my iPod Touch which I can't do without

and iPad to read all my e-books.

Thank you for leaving me such precious

things which I shall take it to my grave

when the time comes.

May you rest in peace... dear Hero

Deconstructed BLT And Eggs - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-10-03T12:20:00.003+08:00

I could not make this in time for last Friday FFWD and I thought I would make this later in the week but after seeing what the other Doristas had come out with this recipe, I just had to make this for our Sunday lunch :p I can't wait till midweek to make this delicious bacon, lettuce and tomatoes salad !.....Dorie's Deconstructed BLT and eggs is a tasty and scrumptious one and I am so glad that though I am a bit late for FFWD post, at least I got to taste it after all :)) a beautiful and colorful and tasty salad !!! And I am sure most of my Doristas friends will agree on this one :) A keeper for sure !

The ingredients that I used for this salad are curly endives lettuce , honey cherry tomatoes, bacon stirps, organic tofu, japanese cucumber and hard boiled egg . I made the hard boiled egg with the egg yolk soft....I managed to get it right and the texture of the egg yolk was soft and yummy . The vinaigrette dressing was perfect for this BLT . The vinaigrette dressing ingredients are djion mustard, olive oil, red wine vinegar and ground black pepper ....whoa, I love this vinaigrette dressing ! Do try this BLT and eggs...I am sure your family and friends will love this as much as I do :)

Click here for the recipe

Do hop over to the other Doristas blogs and see

their creations :)

Have a happy Monday :)

Poon Choi / Big Bowl Feast @ East Ocean Restaurant, Menglembu

2011-09-30T09:40:00.005+08:00

I know Piggy Jo is waiting to read this post. I was telling her about this Poon Choi aka Big Bowl Feast. She was fascinated by my description of the amount of delicious seafood in it. Bet she was drooling when I told her about this dish over skype LOL! Have been wanting to share this with my readers too but was just too busy with the other stuff and have forgotten about this dish I ate some months back and looking forward for another round...next time, we will try the most expensive range :P I am sure my friend Claire will enjoy this again as much as I do :) Read on for more info on this dish...............

Poon Choi aka as Big Bowl Feast is a traditional type of dish originating from Hong Kong village cuisine but now is famous in urban area of HK and it has become a signature dish in most Chinese restaurants in Malaysia. It is a dish made up of ingredients such as roast pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, abalone, ginseng, shark fin, fish maw, shrimps, crabh, dried mushroom, fishballs, squid, dried eel, dried shrimp, pigskin, beancurd and chinese radish and are served in wooden, porcelain and metal basins. Traditional village Poon Choi is served in large metal washing bowls with a perforated metal plate at the bottom at the bottom ti keep the food from burning as it is kept warm on a portable stove as it is being served to diners. Poon Choi is special in that it is composed of many layers of different ingredients. Every restaurant has their own composition - differs with the price of course :p It is also eaten layer by layer instead of " stirring everything up "

Story on how this dish came about - taken from Wikipedia

It was said that Poon Choi was invented during the late Song Dynasty. When the Mongol troops invaded Song China, the young Emperor fled to the area around Guangdong Province and Hong Kong. To serve the Emperor as well as his army, the locals collected all their best food available ,cooked it, and because there were not enough containers, put the resulting dishes in wooden washbasins. In this way, Poon Choi was invented.

The Poon Choi we had here consists of fresh shrimps, fresh scallops, fish maw, sea cucumber, fresh mushrooms, dried shiitake mushrooms, beancurd and dried oysters and a bottom layer of napa cabbage. All stacked in layers and covered with thick well flavored sauce. This is a sinfully delectable dish rich in protein and iodine and artery clogging stuff and not advisable to be taken often :p but I do crave for it again as I was blogging on this dish.....slurp slurp slurping away virtually LOL! This dish costs RM195, the cheapest of the range ~~we go for the cheapest one first - wallet problem~~ and the most expensive one is RM500. We will go for the RM500 one when the wallet is full :p For the time being enjoy peeking into the layers of food that was inside the basin.....unfortunately half way through the meal, the layers of food were mixed up together. Don't worry about hygiene, we have a few shared ladles for scooping the food into our individual bowls :))

Have a wonderful weekend !

* * *

Bento Banter - Breakfast Bento # 4

2011-09-29T09:11:00.001+08:00

I have been stuffing myself with some artery clogging deliciousness lately while I was in KL and now it is time to tone down a bit and eat something light and easy :) Something light like sandwiches would be great and having bought myself a sandwich sealer , my new toy, I would of course want to play with it more often :p Seriously , this sandwich sealer is a great thing to have when making sandwiches. It helps keep the fillings from dropping off. Great gadget to have for sandwiches lover :)

This is a simple and easy to whip up egg sandwiches. The ingredients for this filling are two hard boiled eggs, mashed coursely, finely diced japanese cucumber , a tsp of freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of salt to taste - mixed together with a dollop of japanese mayo and there you are, in just a few mins , you are ready to have the most delicious egg sandwiches for your breakfast or lunch. I sealed the edges with my sandwich sealer/press and packed them into my bento , threw in a few cherry tomatoes and there I have my breakfast done. I made one set for Claire too. I am her ' chef ' for free and ahem, ahem ... she is my ' chauffeur ' for free ! LOL!

I love this sandwich sealer/ press so much that I have

been making sandwiches for my breakfast - an excuse

to play with this new toy of mine :)

this is a hearty meal to have.....

and finished the meal with some

juicy cherry tomatoes :) yum yum

Do hop over to Bento Banter on facebook and see

how the rest of the group prepare their bentos :)

Have a great bento day :)

* * *

Chill Out With Piggy Jo @ Pasta Zanmai, Mid Valley, KL

2011-09-27T14:38:00.007+08:00

I was away the last few days, visiting Piggy Jo ,and besides chilling out with her, I was there to help her shift from her present pigsty to another new sty nearer to her campus. A family home is better than staying with the rest of the students - reason was during the summer break , she was pretty much on her own and the place is so quiet and not SAFE at all for her. Basically the former place housed mostly international students and summer break is 4 mths - imagine how worried I was during summer time. I am so glad that she managed to find a nice home , staying with family is so much better. She has a room with bathroom attached and with air con provided for RM550 a month. Thus, I was away for a few days...to help her move her stuff to the new home :)

And besides that, we had a wonderful time chilling out at Mid-Valley... what do you expect of these Piggies?shop shop shop ,slurp slurp slurp and oink oink oink away........had wanted to go to the Curve, but she said she does not know the way home...funny thing is she knows the way there but fogot how to take the road back :( she said she will have to get a GPS soon....maybe I should give one to her this coming Xmas ! :p We ate at Pasta Zanmai and the meal was GREAT...simply delicious !!! Come take a look at what the Piggies ordered for lunch at Pasta Zanmai. The two Piggies had their stomach filled to the brim.................... LOL!

Jo ordered two set meals ...their sets are not bad and cheap too. A set costs ( Ringgit Malaysia ) RM23.00. We ordered a japanese salad that consists of crab meat, avocado and tobiko ( flying fish roe ) comes with sesame seed sauce dressing ( this is yummy..it goes well with the salad )

crab meat, avocado salad - RM18.00

this sesame seed sauce dressing is

for the crab meat avocado salad

my set meal consists of pasta with lots of

crab meat and avocado and

coated with sesame seed sauce ,
omurice rice topped with grilled unagi...lovely !!!
and a bowl of miso soup - RM23.00

I enjoyed this very much...I shall look for the sesame sauce

and I can make this myself :))))

omurice rice - japanese fried rice wrapped in omelet

with the tasty grilled unagi

love the rice.....tasty :)

yummmy.........

miso soup to complete the meal .......

this is Jo's set meal....pasta with grilled chicken with a runny egg

She loves the runny egg.....coated onto the pasta...you should see how

to slurp them : )

her set comes with japanese pizza a scallop pizza....

with fresh mushroom slices and fresh scallops...lots of them too...yummy !

tortilla crust base....light and yummy !

cucumber, orange and mint drink... RM 18.00

just nice for us... for the weather was hot and humid...

this is to cool down the body heat....after that scrumptious meal :)

See how happy and contented this little Piggy was :)

" Mommie...I want dessert !!! "

my eyes were rolling back...calories calories ringing in my head

this meal was RM95 plus service tax and govt tax........

for two person......

I will come here again to try out their other dishes :)

Wonderful lunch together and

Jo and I had a wonderful time together without the guys around

whoo hooot......I want more of this time together !

Do hop over for some dessert at Elin's Sweet Dessert

Red Dragon Fruit Jelly

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Bento Banter - Bento # 3

2011-09-22T11:45:00.003+08:00

This is something light and easy for me. A lunch meal that is not too filling and yet satisfying. I like bento meal because I can just use whatever is left in the fridge and turn them into something delicious, fast and no fuss and take to office. Nothing beats homecooked food. Whipping out something nice is not hard for me for I have almost everything in the fridge except fresh fruits :p I have two refrigerators at home. One old fridge which I inherited from my dear beloved mom, for my cooking ingredients and my dog food :p and the other one is for the family 's ration LOL!

I have some inari for making inarizushi ( fried tofu bean skin that is cooked in sweet soy sauce based sauce , drained then stuffed with sushi rice ) in the fridge. I cooked some rice in the morning for WB and I mixed them with some tuna flakes and nori flakes and stuffed them into the inari. Two in one, I have onigiri in inari. I deep fried some fresh oyster mushrooms with potato starch in a small pot ( of course by the time I eat them they turn soft but nonetheless it was nice and made some wasabi to go with them......YUMMY and end the meal with one big juicy black plum !

Deep fried fresh oyster mushrooms with potato starch

season potato starch with sea salt :p

I planted some cherry tomatoes

on my onigiri rice :p cute !

this is normal rice that I used for the onigiri

can't take sushi rice all the time...

I love this stem picks for putting up my cherry tomato

so cute....looking for more cute picks...at Daiso

Yay ! I am on 2 days leave.....

I am away in KL today and I shall be spending some

time with my Piggies in KL

Do drop me a line...I am happy to read your comment

whether good or bad :) Good one are for encouragement and bad ones are

for making better :)

Have a nice bento day !

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Pickled Salmon In Homemade Wholemeal Bun

2011-09-20T15:42:00.000+08:00

I made a hearty breakfast using Dorie's Salmon In A Jar. I used up the last batch of my 2nd jar :) but will be making another jar soon :p It is so convenient to have a bottle in the fridge. It is easy to make pickled salmon. You can refer here for the recipe if you are interested to make some for yourself. You can add them to your pasta, pizza and rice or sandwiches/bun . I am excited to share with you this simple pickled salmon filling for your buns. This is good for busy working momsies and single person :) Healthy and less washing to do ! :p

I diced the pickled salmon into small bite size and mix them with some french djion mustard , homegrown dill , sun dried tomato , ground black pepper and the olive oil from the pickle salmon. Wow...I tell you this is great as a sandwiches filling and add some pickled dill to your sandwiches....my goodness, it was such a hearty meal that I want to make more of this pickled salmon :) I have to thank Dorie for this wonderful salmon in a jar and since making them I have been hooked to it ! You can make the wholemeal buns a day before . You can click here for the wholemeal bun recipe. For the flour, I used 50% wholemeal flour and 50% bread flour, the rest to follow as the bun post .

Ingredients for making this delicious salmon fillings are :- diced pickled salmon, diced sun dried tomatoes, french djion mustard , chopped dill and some freshly ground black pepper....just mix them well and you are ready for some mouth-watering sandwiches/buns. It is mmmmm and yummmmm for me LOL!

the dills add extra flavor to the salmon mixture

this is a good sandwich filling, flavorful and healthy too

and add in some pickled dill or gherkins....gosh

this is a healthy breakfast and I want more :p

' ces't délicieux '

(french word for yummy )

and

bonne journée

(french word for have a nice day)

^ ________ *

Do hop over to Elinluv's Sweet Delights
for this addictive snack

Homemade Rice Bubbles

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Bento Banter - Bento # 2

2011-09-19T15:07:00.002+08:00

Made some tuna sandwiches for breakfast and packed them into bento box and gosh ...it was a cheerful breakfast :) with a bear face smiling at me as I tucked in the tuna sandwiches. Bento meal can be fun and at the same time nutritious. Since joining bento banter, I am now beginning to like meals packed in bentos. Fun packing them, one tends to make it more creative...like a simple hard boiled egg can be shaped into cute smiling bear face, star shape, love shape, little car and smiling bunny face. I have a set of egg molds and love each and every one of them. Happy that I can use them for making my lunch and breakfast bento more cheerful :) and guess what, I have added a new toy - a sandwich sealer to my kitchen assessories collection ( I think that is what it is called - helps seal the edges ) I know for sure I am going to have lots of fun making my bento meals from now on :) And those cute octopus - haha too cute to even eat them :p

Tuna sandwiches can be delicious if you spice it up with some crushed toasted sesame seeds and chopped celery and chillies with a spoonful of japanese mayo. That was how I make the tuna fillings....mmmm yummy and I want more. Seriously, this is what my breakfast should be instead of just taking oats every morning. I want something more delicious than just plain oats. I think I will alternately have oats and sandwiches for breakfast :)

Ingredients : a tin of tuna flakes in brine - drain off brine, chopped celery,

chopped chillies, crushed toasted sesame seeds and japanese mayo

mixed together

salad - carrots, celery, japanese cucumber, cherry tomato

and dried apricot - diced into small bite size mixed with

herbs infused olive oil and toasted sesame seeds as garnishing

this is my new toy...it helps seal the edges of the sandwiches :)

dual function...you can make triangle ones too

with this cute sandwich sealer :)

my egg mold....cute bear face

I have to pamper myself something nice and cheerful

once in a while instead of having oats drinks every morning

Have a great day....hope this bento set will cheer you up

and blow away your Monday blues :)

Thank you for all your support ...your continuous support has

make blogging fun and interesting for me.

A big hug to all :)

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Cinnamon-Crunch Chicken - French Fridays With Dorie

2011-09-16T21:10:00.007+08:00

Edited on 9/18/2011 - Thank you Miss Dorie for this wonderful recipe , this dish made it to Foodbuzz Today's Top 9 #6

When I ran through the recipe for this week FFWD, I was quite hesitant about cooking this dish for I was thinking of skipping meat and eat just salad for dinner . But the urge to try out this very French home cooking dish was too great to give it a skip :) The ingredients involved looks stylish and taste haute. I am quite a glutton when it comes to food :p And most important, I can compare notes with the other Doristas...cooking the same dish and sharing notes is the best thing that could happens to food bloggers :) I am full of excitement when Friday comes.......

This is my first time cooking chicken with cookies...and cinnamon flavored cookies ! Dorie asked for Speculoos - are thin , buttery cinnamon and spice cookies that will melt in the mouth like shortbread. I can't get Speculoos in my hometown so I substituted it with digestive cookies, add a dash of cinnamon to it and tada .. I have my own cinnamon cookies for the chicken. Dorie's friend Alice came up with this brilliant recipe and I have to agree it is rather unusual and delicious !

The 3 most important ingredients, chicken breasts, creme fraiche and speculoos and it takes only 10 minutes to prepare !!! I made just enough for two person. Not sure whether Wild Boar will like cream and cookies in his chicken , so I am actually testing out and see whether it will be a hit with him . It was just okay with us, though we like the crunch but it taste a bit sweetish ( maybe I used the wrong type of cookies ) Anyway, I am glad to try it out...something different for a change.

dry the chicken strips with paper towel
season with salt and pepper,

mix the creme fraiche with the cookies powder /crumbs

saute the chicken strips with butter or olive oil

till cooked through, add in the cookies/creme mixture

to the cooked chicken and stirring till the

chicken strips are coated and completely cooked

it has a slight crunch , packed with flavor of

cinnamon cookies , tender and juicy

This dish to be eaten as soon as it is ready :)

Do hop over to see what the rest of the Doristas have come up

and I can't wait to see their creations :)

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