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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Drowsy

I woke up today feeling uncomfortable. Felt like puking. Didn’t puke.

So, i ate TravelCalm which i eat when i go onto a plane to prevent myself from getting sick.

and i ate 1 small banana muffin.

Felt better an hour later – not totally though.

So, i walked up the hated High Street.

The sun was shining, it was uncomfortable, but Fish helped me carry my bag which helped a lot.

So i reached 1 hour late for lecture and realized that my friends left because it was too boring.

So now, i’m all alone here in the lecture. and i’m drowsy.

I forgot that TravelCalm makes one drowsy and/or sleepy.

So now, i can’t keep my eyes open. and my head feels heavy/light.

So smart! and i’m really sleepy now..

Are you sleepy too?

Monday, January 25, 2010

Shopping & Macchiato, Sydney

So, a few days ago, we went to the city and i wasn’t intending to go to Victoria’s Basement – they have an amount of cookware at way cheaper prices. but Fish needed to go to the toilet and i had to go in there to wait for him.

I couldn’t help it. I bought 2 things.

 
I bought a small wooden spoon from Mario Batali’s range of cookware. If you notice, both ends of the wooden spoon are spoons, one bigger and one smaller. I’ve got 2 wooden spoons already – one is a normal sized wooden spoon and the other is a normal sized but with a flat edge wooden spoon so that it can be used as a frying spatula as well. Sometimes, i think to myself.. they’re too big for some purposes.. i need a smaller one. and i found one.

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I have been reading about Teflon non-stick surfaces and read of some of the possible dangers regarding it. Before, i found Green Pan – which is a eco friendly frying pan. but it was quite expensive. So on this trip, i found another brand that does a eco friendly frying pan as well. and they look better than Green Pan.


I bought the smallest size – it was the cheapest (AUD$30, original price AUD$100). and also cause i just wanted to try and out and see how it works. I have not had a chance to try it yet. but i will let you guys know.

It is eco friendly i think because it doesn’t use chemicals to create that non-stick coating, but the layers between are ceramic, which is also what the non-stick surface is made from. So it is PTFE and PFOA free. because the non-stick surface is created using naturally occurring minerals such as dirt, sand and rocks. This i think is quite important as you guys should all know that a Teflon non-stick pan can only withstand to up to a certain temperature (240 degrees) after which it would emit harmful chemicals. I don’t know for sure if i have or will ever reach that temperature – but still.. it is kinda unsettling to know.

If i like it, and i hope i do. They claim that it has better heat distribution and more durable. So, i’ll definitely update when i have a conclusive opinion about this pan.

So.. these 2 stuffs i bought at Victoria’s Basement. QVB also has a small German bakery which we’ve just discovered and i love their pretzels more than the one at Central Station.

Time for dinner.

We decided to try a new place near World Square that i’ve always said we should try but never did. so we did this time.

It’s called Macchiato. It’s an Italian restaurant – pizza, pasta and mains.

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I always love a good garlicky garlic bread. This one is above average. Very buttery and soft. I would love more garlic though – but that’s just me.


We had a Caesar salad – which is one of our favourites now. The Caesar salad here was nice and very delicious – even the croutons.


Fish had a Angus beef steak special with hand cut fries and steamed broccoli. I was immediately drawn to the fries – i am a carbo person. The steak was medium well done and it was tender and the fats were full of flavour.


And we ordered a pizza to share. Sydney Supreme. We ate 2 slices each and took the other 1/2 home and had it for brunch today. Delicious wood-fired pizzas.

 
To accompany the dinner, Fish ordered a cocktail. I don’t remember the name. but it had Kahula, Bailey’s, another alcohol, milk and honey. It was delicious.


And to end the meal, we ordered a tiramisu. It was really really good and alcoholic.

So, in all, we had a good day. and i hope you did too.

Tomorrow is Australia Day and i think we will be going to Bunnings.

and i will be flying back this Sat! can’t wait!

Eating Time! – i just baked Chocolate chip peanut butter cookies!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Today’s Delivery & Tonight’s 3 Course Dinner

Hello Hello!

This week, we decided that we’ll try our veggie and fruits delivery from a new company – Boxfresh

I got the small chef box which costs $40.

The difference here is that from flemingtondirect i usually get the mover’s or standard box, which is more expensive than the small chef box – i decided on the small since we were going back to Singapore soon and didn’t want to have fresh food that we couldn’t finish on time.

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Other than that, the box is a recycled Styrofoam box which, included in the $40 is a $5 refundable deposit for the box. So this means that i have to keep the box and return it when the delivery guy delivers the next order. Flemington uses a new carton box each time and we just throw that away. I’m not sure which way i like more since the styrofoam box is good as it’s recycled, but it takes up space in my kitchen and my kitchen is not big. but as far as cooking dinner tonight, it wasn’t in the way.

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The choices are not as customizable as flemingtondirect’s where i could choose almost exactly what i wanted and what i didn’t want.

Boxfresh has a ‘standard’ list for every week and from there, i can choose what fruits or veggies that i wanted or didn’t want. but there are things like potatoes which are not offered this week – whereas i could have potatoes delivered from flemingtondirect in every order.

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I got a relatively good variety of stuffs. Just a quick run through.

1 Red & 3 Brown Onions, Basil, 1 bag of Snap Peas, 2 bags of beans, 3 carrots, 1 bag of Baby Spinach, 3 bunches of Bok Choi, 6 Bananas, 2 corns, 3 small & 1 big red chilli, 1 small bag of red grapes, 1/2 pumpkin, 1 head of brocolli, 2 green capsicum and 1 box of oyster mushrooms.

Hmm…. i’m not 100% sure if it is of better value than flemingtondirect’s. I shall have to think about that a bit.

But it is of good quality – the fruits and veggies are fresh looking and packaged nicely.

So, with all these veggies and fruits, i started making dinner.

It has been said that fruits should be eaten first – so i washed the grapes and left them on the dining table so that Fish would be able to eat them once he came upstairs.

Then, i decided, with so much veggies, i should make roasted veggies!

I had to go to the store downstairs to get some cream for the dessert, so i bought some mushrooms and potatoes to add to the roasted veggies mix.

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(I had to stop here for a moment – a GINORMOUS spider was crawling on my bed!!!!)

Back to veggies.

Don’t be afraid of roasting loads of veggies at once. Lie your baking dish with aluminium foil – it does not eliminate washing up, but it does make life easier.

Olive oil or Extra Virgin olive oil is essential, so are some dried herbs, salt and pepper.

In this bake, i used:

1/4 pumpkin
4 potatoes
2 white onions
1 carrot
1/2 head of broccoli
9 white mushrooms
1/2 green capsicum

You need loads of oil. A good coating.

All the veggies are hopefully diced in approximately the same size. Don’t dice them the size you want to eat them in, dice them slightly bigger than that as they will shrink.

Give it a good sprinkle of dried herbs – i used dried Italian herbs and dried rosemary. Salt and pepper too.

I wore a plastic glove to mix everything well.

The veggies should be nearly overflowing your roasting pan. Don’t worry. They will shrink. If you look at the picture, it is only half full after cooking.

You have to roast for a long time. and you will need to take it out of the oven to toss and turn a few times. I had to take out the broccoli and mushrooms first as they were browning way faster than the harder veggies.

I started roasting them in a 180 degrees preheated oven. but towards the end, when i knew that the hard veggies were all cooked, i turned it up to 220 to get them to brown faster.

To go with veggies, we decided on a simple spaghetti that is delicious.

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At first, i only wanted plain spaghetti, but fish convinced me to go with this – this is one of my favourites.

Simple. 3 ingredients. Spaghetti, chorizo and loads of garlic.

If cooking for one, the oil from the chorizos should be enough. But you might just want to add a little butter or olive oil.

This is also one where i would try switching with kabanas – since i don’t really eat the chorizos as they are very salty. Fish loves them.

Today fish also added chilli flakes. Spicy!

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Usually, this would be enough for me, but i was afraid there wouldn’t be enough meat for fish – he makes a lot of noise when he doesn’t get enough protein. So, i bought chicken schnitzel from downstairs and just fried it up.

(haha.. if you realised, we ran out of paper towels and so i used a brown paper bag instead to soak up the oil)

Lastly, i made dessert – Fish has been requesting this for a long long time. So i made it today.

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Bread and butter pudding. Only, i used too much butter.. hehe.. i used a tissue to soak up the excess oil.

This is a really quick and simple dessert to make. Only – i didn’t use enough sugar – i don’t like things sweet, but i really should have used more sugar. I’ll make a custard sauce to go with it tml and increase it’s sweetness.

I haven’t found a definitive recipe yet, but i will share when the time is ripe.

Today’s a 3 course meal!

Going out for dim sum tml!! yay! hopefully we can wake up……

Going to cook dinner again on Sunday – making Pork Ribs soup with peanuts and etc…

Till then.. Eat well and Sleep well!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Lasagne!

Last night, i decided to make lasagne and i searched the net a little to look for a cook recipe. and i found Gordon Ramsay’s.

I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand and so i definitely did not use his recipe in the entirety. and the thing is. beef in australia has a gamey taste. So far the normal beef that we’ve tried in the supermarket tastes ok. but i bought angus beef mince that day and used it for lasagne and it was not good.

I hate that gamey taste – which resembles lamb. and i don’t like it.

So, next time, i’ll make this using the other beef mince which has no gamey taste.

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It isn’t too difficult to make. and i love love love the cheese sauce. and i love love love instant egg lasagne sheets.

Ingredients

Bolognaise

300g minced beef
2 Kabana Sausages – our new favourite!, sliced and fried
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf (optional)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1tbsp tomato puree
50 ml milk
Dried Oregon & Dried Italian Herbs
Salt & Pepper

*Other ingredients possible include grated carrots, red wine

Cheese Sauce

25g Butter
25g Flour
300ml Milk
50g Cheddar Cheese (you could definitely use more or less according to taste)
Salt & Pepper

4 sheets Instant Egg Lasagne Sheets (depends on the size of your sheets you may need more or less – or break them up to fit your dish as they should not overlap)

Directions

In a saucepan, add olive oil and diced onions. Give them a while to sweat and become translucent then add in your chopped garlic. Fry till aromatic.

Add in the minced beef. Fry till nicely brown. Add in the tomato puree and the can of chopped tomatoes together with the dried herbs and bay leaf.

When nearly done, add in the milk and take it off the heat. Leave it aside.

Now, in another saucepan, we start cooking the cheese sauce.

Start by making a roux. Melt the butter down and then add in the flour – it does not need to be sifted.

It should form a nice paste. In low heat, add 1/3 of the milk and mix in well. Add the second 1/3 and using a whisk, whisk vigorously to get rid of the lumps. When nearly there, add in the remainder of the milk and whisk again.

Add the grated cheddar cheese. Whisk together into a smooth creamy white sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste.

You should now have a smooth, creamy and delicious white sauce.

Now, to assemble the lasagne.

At the bottom layer, place 1/2 of the meat sauce. A layer of pasta. 1/2 white sauce. the other 1/2 meat sauce. Pasta. the rest of the cheese sauce.

I sprinkled the top with cheese (i used a mixture called ‘pizza plus’). and Japanese panko. Delicious!

Into the oven for 225 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

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*****A note on our new favourite sausage.

We love chorizo sausages. but we’ve found a new favourite. Kabana Sausages.

(Taken from ‘Don’ website)

Kabana, derived from 'Klobasa' meaning sausage, is a typical eastern European thin sausage that originated in Poland and Russia. One of our most popular deli products, the Kabana is an icon of the Aussie barbeque platter.

DON® Kabana has a strong, distinctive flavour characterised by cracked black pepper, paprika and finished with a mild smokiness.

They are most commonly dry to very dry in texture and smoky in flavor. Kabana, unlike other meats such as sausage, are typically eaten alone as an appetizer, and often served with cheese.

Kabana are commonly used as hiking food because they do not spoil as quickly as many other sausages.

(Taken from ‘Don’ website)

It is delicious. As compared to chorizo, it has a less intense flavour – definitely not spicy and has a milder smokiness. What makes it nice is also that it’s not as salty as chorizo. Sometimes, chorizos just get a little too salty, but this is well seasoned and flavoured.

The only downside to using this in place of chorizos is that you lose that delicious looking red oil that comes out of the chorizos. which is also a good thing because kabanas are not as oily as chorizos. If you look at the picture below, you can see that there is no residual oil at the bottom of the pan. whereas chorizos would have a beautiful red oil.

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I’m coming home soon in 2 weeks and i’ll be eating loads of local foods then! yay!!

See ya everyone!! =)

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Dinner – Deep Fried Mushrooms, Sujebi & Fried Bee Hoon

For the last 2 days, i have been cooking dinner.

So… yesterday, i cooked Sujebi again and tried Deep Fried Mushrooms.

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Deep fried mushrooms! Using a beer batter.

I don’t have an exact recipe. but i do know what goes into it to give it a crispy and fragrant batter.

Plain flour, Corn flour, Beer (i used Coopers Sparkling Ale), Salt, Pepper, Italian Herbs and Dried thyme. Make a nice thick batter.

It must be eaten hot. We didn’t and by the time it cooled and we ate it, it was all soggy.

So, it’s important – eat is while it’s hot and crispy! and it really is very crispy and good.

I made Sujebi again – because we have a lot of kimchi left.

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This time, Fish fried up a good amount of bacon and added it to the Sujebi – quite nice. I did use a different recipe for the dough – but i’m not sure which one i like better – so… i still have to experiment.

Tonight, i tried to cook 星洲炒米. Ironically, it is Singapore Fried Noodles. which Singapore obviously does not have. However, i have eaten it at restaurants and i actually really like the flavour. So i tried it tonight.

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It was similar, but not there. The meat that they always put into this dish is ham, but i didn’t have that, so i just sliced up and marinated a pork chop. It was ok but not perfect.

The flavour was acceptable and it is not perfect. but it is very 爽口. Meaning it’s not cloying nor was it oily – so you could eat an amount and not feel like you’ve ate a lot – at least that’s what Fish said.

I will try cooking this again – but it is very troublesome and it makes a mess.

I made chocolate sorbet tonight. Not the most successful – it was a little grainy and not smooth. So i definitely have to try that again.

Did you have a great dinner?

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Dinner & 走油焖肉 (Braised Pork Belly)

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Dinner took a long time today. I started cooking at around 430pm and we only had dinner at 9pm. =)

What we had for dinner today was… the pork belly shown above, steamed egg and some little fried stuffs.

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That was dinner. and what i really wanted to share with you guys, is the meat. It was the first time i had cooked it in this manner and it was amazingly good. Fish loved it.

I got the recipe off 阿芳的私房菜. It is called 走油焖肉.

I’m going to share it with you guys today and i had made some changes to the recipe to suit what i had on hand.

Ingredients

Pork Belly – ours was a long strip
4 cloves of Garlic – i would have used more, but i had none left
1 Star Anise

Sauce
1/2 cup Dark Soy Sauce
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Rock Sugar
2 1/2 cups Water

*Other ingredients i didn’t add
Dried Orange Peel
Red Chilli

Directions

Get a frying pan – preferably something with a lid because the oil spits everywhere!

Fry the pork belly skin side down till golden brown. Then continue to fry on all sides.

After frying, place the fried pork belly into a bowl of water and soak in there for an hour to remove oil. (I didn’t do it for exactly an hour, maybe 45mins)

I used my Korean pot to fry the pork, then removed most of the oil. After water soaking the pork, put it back into the pot, add the garlic, star anise and all the other ingredients for the sauce.

Cook it for 2 hours. I cooked it for slightly longer – around 2 1/2 hours.

Sliced the pork belly up and i did something that was not included in the original recipe.

Fish got me to fry up the slices of pork. So i dry fried them till golden brown.

For the first time, we did not eat our pork belly with the sauce.

Fish came up with a sauce to accompany the pork instead.

*He added onion oil w/ fried onions, chilli powder and dark soy sauce.

It was very good. The meat was not meltingly soft, but it was Q and chewy but not at all tough. The fats were very Q and not squishy and it doesn’t leave your mouth feeling as if you’ve just swallowed oil.

So… this is a definite favourite and i will be making it again and again.

**To make this more educational, i’m going to try to translate what she was saying in her book regarding this sort of cooking method.

走油 is basically frying the pork in oil then submerging in cold water. This causes the meat and fats to become soft yet still able to retain its shape. Soft yet elastic, wobbly in a way. So, it is slightly more troublesome, but yet it makes a real difference to the end product.

I hope you guys really try this because it is amazing! =)

We had a great great dinner!

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Dim Sum!

I love love love dim sum @ Marigold Restaurant in Chinatown.

We’ve been there many times. but on this occasion, we went there on a Sunday (2nd Jan 2010). The whole place was packed full of people. It was the first time that we had been there and the place was overflowing with loads of people queuing up. We usually go on weekdays so it’s never crowded. and i think, we will stick to weekdays.

Still, the food is great. service is acceptable, just don’t expect too much.

We have definite favourites that we will order every single time. unless otherwise noted.

So, i brought my camera there this time to share our favourites with you!

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My very favourite that i have to have every single time is this deep fried yam paste with pork inside. They have this with prawns (i think) and scallops as well. but i love the pork the most.

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This is something i tried for the first time and i really quite like it, so i think it will become a staple too. It’s deep fried tofu with prawn paste on top – you can’t really see it in the picture. and it comes with a good serving of black bean sauce. I like.

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This is Fish’s favourite – shi hui too i think. This is pork ribs in a sticky sweet caramelized sauce. There should be mai ya tang in it. The pork is tender and the sauce is amazingly sweet and very very nice. It’s not my favourite for 2 reasons. Firstly, the bone – not a fan of bones and secondly, it’s too sweet for me. Although, the last time we went there with hui, they gave us a lot of that sweet caramelized sauce and i could stop myself from eating it. Just taking my chopsticks and swirling it in the sauce and licking it off my chopsticks is delicious. In this occasion, Fish ate 2 plates of this by himself. because one of his favourite dish was missing that day.

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Egg Tarts. and we love our egg tarts. we got 2 plates, so 4 egg tarts. i ate 1 and fish ate 3.

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This is a staple too. Not necessarily from here. It’s vegetarian – so veggies and mushrooms wrapped up in a beancurd skin and deep fried. One of our favourites. Golden Kingdom has another variation of this – and…. i think i like Golden Kingdom’s better. but Fish likes this better.

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This is an absolutely favourite. It’s pork ribs and it is delicious! See all that oil surrounding the pork. Those are put into good use too. We have to get this every single time.

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This is beancurd skin. Inside is predominantly bamboo shoots and prawn paste i think. It is a very pleasing dish and it’s sauce is good too. We don’t order this every single time. though.. i don’t remember the last time we did. I think it’s because we don’t know what it is called. Now we do.  i think.

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Porridge was good, though i don’t eat the pork in it though. i just drink the porridge. This round, the porridge was very drinkable – smooth, creamy and perfect. This is also where the oil/sauce from the steamed pork ribs come into action. I take the oil/sauce and drizzle it all over my porridge. It gives it a great flavour and it tastes so good.

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We don’t usually eat dessert – except for an occasional mango pudding. But on this day, i saw these tofu like jelly and i was wondering if they were almond jelly. But it isn’t, it is coconut jelly and so i said, why not? It is nice. and refreshing after a meal but i was too full to finish 3 slices of the jelly. so i ate one and took away 2.

Fish had sweet tofu (豆花) which he loves but i don’t, because this one has ginger in it.

What was missing today which made Fish upset was beef balls. He loves his beef balls and there wasn’t any to be found that day. Which is how he justified eating another plate of sweet pork ribs.

After eating, we walked and attempted to shop. Finally, we decided to take a walk in darling harbour. The weather was quite good that day.

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HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone! and may this year be even better!

and may i get to eat loads and loads of nice and delicious foods!!!!!