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Thursday, June 30, 2011

What’s For Dinner Tonight?! – Taco Spag & Creamed Spinach!

Taco Spaghetti – i made it once with fish a long long time ago at his place.

So i had some pork mince in the fridge and decided to make this again!

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I made the taco mince with a package from Old El Paso.

Then i added the spaghetti (around 225gm), a fresh tomato and a little cilantro. It definitely calls for olives which i didn’t have.

I placed it in a pyrex dish and sprinkled mozzarella cheese all over and baked it in the oven till it melts.

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I decided to boil 3 eggs. I dunno why. I just did and ate it as it is. I think i wanted to add them to the bake, but decided not to at the end.

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I had a pack of baby spinach in the fridge and i suddenly decided to make creamed spinach!

This was really simple. I used 3 cloves of garlic (because i like them), fried them in some butter+oil, then added the spinach and cook till it wilts. Then i seasoned it with salt and pepper. Add a little cream to it and grated a little nutmeg over it.

Served! I loved the creaminess and the slight bitterness i get from the spinach and garlic – i love garlic.

So that was dinner.

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Dessert was this which i showed before. My muffin, warmed in the microwave with dollops of Serendipity’s Tiramisu ice cream. Yum Yum.

How was your dinner? :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Cupcakes.. no.. Muffins.

One night. i decided to make cupcakes. I found a recipe. and got to it.

So i started making.

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This was a simple recipe taken from That’s Noice!

Ingredients

125g softened unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
3 eggs (mine were large eggs)
225g self raising flour
60ml milk

Directions

This is really simple.

In a big bowl, dump all the ingredients in.

Beat the mixture with an electric mixer. Beat on low to combine then on a higher speed till the mixture turns a paler colour.

Fill your muffins cups with the mixture.

*I’m not sure if it was just my self raising flour, mine rose. a lot.

Place into the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. and you’re done!

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See how they don’t look like cupcakes? I’m not sure if i did something wrongly, like beating them for too long, but it’s a little weird.

This tastes best warm or just out of the oven (the tops are crunchy). they get really hard when cold.

So when i want to eat this, i pop one into the microwave for 20 seconds. If you wanna replicate the crunch when it first comes out of the oven, just pop it in the toaster for a while.

This is how i ate this yesterday for dessert!

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A lone muffin after 20 seconds in the microwave.

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Now accompanied with Serendipity’s Tiramisu ice cream. Yum Yum Yum!

Fish had this too.. but with maple syrup as well. and more muffins of course.

So… i would call this a muffin by the taste and texture of my version. :)

I will make it again though. cause i actually quite like it. and i’m not sure if the original recipe used large eggs, but my eggs are always large, so this has a eggy taste and smell. which is nice. but you might be able to just use 2 large eggs and maybe a little more milk instead if you’re not a fan of the eggy taste and smell. :)

Happy Eating!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Aussie Farmers Direct!

I’ve been ordering items from Aussie Farmers Direct for quite sometime now. and i really love the convenience and quality of their items.

My biggest biggest favourite from them is their Apple Juice!!

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I love love this apple juice and we get through this really fast. My delivery days are every Wed and Sat and we basically have fresh apple juice every wed and sat. I love it!

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Another staple that i only really use in baking but fish loves it in his cereal etc. is their low fat milk!

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I tried their orange juice for the first time this week. and hmm.. i dunno. i’m not into into it. Freshly squeezed ones still tastes better. i think i’ll stick to the apple juice next time! We go through apple juice much much faster, i think it’s easier to drink that’s why – not acidic. i think.

I’ve also been using them to get my free range eggs, they’re my sole supplier of eggs now. We’ve also tried their fruit loaf which fish loves and used it to make a butter and bread pudding which he loves loves loves.

I’ve tried their meats once or twice and they’re ok.

I also always get my cream from them. They have 600ml bottles and they’re cheaper and last longer than those in the supermarkets.

I’ll be getting their new veg box next week to compare! :)

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Green Bean Soup w/ Barley

We love green bean soup!

I was working late one night one my assignment downstairs. and i can’t help but wanna find something to eat. I open my cupboard and i see a pack of green beans.

ok. i thought to myself. let’s find sago. i call hui who has already slept and she says that we should have it. then i call fish who says he thinks there’s none.

and so i go searching. there’s a paper bag filled with chinese herbs, so i thought, why not just take a look, well, i didn’t find it, but i found dried pearl barley instead.

so i thought. why not?

and tada! I don’t need sago in this dish anymore. the barley acts like the sago, it is easier to cook and has nutritional benefits as compared to tapioca balls.

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This is it – doesn’t look like much, but it sure tastes good!

and is really simple to make too.

So when it was done, i called fish and asked him to come down to eat.

he tells me that he doesn’t like green beans, he prefers red beans. i force him to eat.

he takes the first mouthful. hmm. tastes like red beans (texture wise). and continues to down a whole bowl of my green bean soup. I had half a bowl and kept another half a bowl for hui in the fridge.

Ingredients

1/3 cup green beans – washed
Handful of dried pearl barley – washed
(you really don’t need too much because they thicken the soup quite a bit and i think my handful was quite enough)
A good amount of water – continually check and refill if necessary
Rock Sugar
(feel free to use normal sugar – i have no idea how to explain why i believe rock sugar is better than normal sugar – but they’re both fine)

Directions

Wash your beans and barley in a pot.

Add a good amount of water. Let it come to a boil.

Occasionally check on it and make sure it has enough water and stir it once in a while.

If i didn’t remember it wrongly, i cooked it for about 45 mins while i was doing my work in front of the stove. I just let it simmer and bubble, till everything’s soft.

Add sugar whenever you like during the process, i usually add a bit before it boils. Then when it is cooked the way i like, then i taste and add more.

 

Me LIKEY! :)

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Kasumi Izakaya, Sydney – Our Current Favourite Place

We love Kasumi. It nice and cozy and the food is quite good and the only place i get to drink alcohol. haha

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So, something that we must order is the Beer Braised Beef Tongue. It is delicious. Ocassionally you get a piece that isn’t as soft as you like it to be, but overall it is great. We always have 2 bowls of this.

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Eating this with the leeks, spring onions and seaweed is delicious!

On this day, i decided to try something new – Mimigar

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The flavour is good. the presentation is beautiful. However, i didn’t finish this. It’s description says that it is pork skin with spicy shallot sauce. The dressing is very nice, the skin itself is crunchy – i couldn’t help it, but i kept thinking that this isn’t skin, this seemed more like the texture of pig’s ear. So if that’s what you like – you would like this. I liked the flavour, but there was only so much of this i could eat.

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This is something we also had for the first time. It’s Cod Roe Spaghetti. and i love it. It is so simple. The roe i believe was just a touch spicy and the dashi and bonito flavour was so strong in this dish and i’m not sure where it was coming from, but it was definitely very flavourful and delicious. Because of the roe i guess, there was a richness and creaminess about it. but it wasn’t gluggy or heavy like a traditional cream pasta would make you feel. It just came with a a few thinly sliced pieces of shabu shabu pork i believe. I really like this. I’m so eating this again!

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Kaarage Chicken with spicy shallot sauce (i think – don’t quite remember the exact name of the sauce). I usually don’t eat this – fish eats all of this. but since he always orders this, it must be quite tasty and good!

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Teriyaki Chicken Ball w/ Egg Yolk. This is really quite nice. We stopped ordering this in between, but i asked for it this time. The only thing is, it does get a little too salty after a while because of the teriyaki sauce i guess. But i do like it.

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We also always order their broiled salmon sushi. I love broiled sushi, or they can also be called aburi salmon sushi. With this sushi, there is no need for wasabi or soy sauce, although they still provide them. All you need is the sushi, with the sauce and the green onion and it is delicious! They put a little pea of wasabi below the fish, but it is hardly noticeable and i believe it adds to the flavour. A must order!

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Another must order for fish. Premium Wagyu Steak. The marbling of the steak is delicious. You can taste the fattiness and oiliness of the beef itself and we love it. It comes with an onion sauce if i’m not wrong, and a bowl of rice. The sizzling plate comes really hot, so even though the beef looks really rare now (this is when i will steal a piece), it can be cooked till well done as the picture below – the way fish likes it. This also isn’t as expensive compared to other restaurants. and much more flavourful.

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By now, you should know that i don’t eat much meat, so this is definitely a fish dish – i just steal a piece or two. :)

I forgot to take a picture but what alcohol do i drink here? It can be barely considered alcohol. I always drink 1-2 mugs of Green Apple Chu-hi. It is a shochu based cocktail. i’ll make sure to take a picture next time. I describe it as a beginner drink. Very little hint of alcohol. but i like it. hehe

….We love it here, they are open till very late. and on the weekends, they have bands playing. We usually catch a movie around 6+ then head over here to have dinner and this time, we finished at 11pm. it was a sunday night, so it was very quiet.

I do think we will be returning soon! :)

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Herbs Update!

I have not updated my blog on the status of my herbs for a while.

They are not growing very well, because i don’t get adequate sunlight at my house, especially since now it is winter – the very max that they can get is only 2-3 hours a day and usually much less. So i’m looking into adding a grow lamp which will give them the light that they so need. but i’m going to diy that, so i’ll be going down to bunnings soon.

You can really see that they’re not doing well without enough sunlight. The chives, spring onions, thyme and rosemary are not growing much after their initial growth spurt. The only one that seems to be still resilient is the parsley.

This was the parsley about a week ago.

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You can see little parsley shaped leaves growing out of the other leaves. AND LOOK! I have an albino parsley at the top left hand corner! It is absolutely white.

I took the next pictures just yesterday.

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You can see the white leave obviously is unable to survive and has died down. The parsley is growing bigger and looking quite good. but i do believe that their growth is still quite slow. The rest of the herbs look exactly the same. almost no growth at all. i must get the lamp quick.

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You can see next to the parsley is the chives (i think) – but look at how short and weak they look in comparison with the parsley.. they haven grown much and since it’s really cold, dry and windy outside, their tips keep yellowing and drying out. I have trimmed them and they seem to grow a little more. but a little really is a little.

Well. i can’t wait to get the lamp and give my herbs the boost it needs before they die on me. :)

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Giovanna, Kingsford – We still love it!

We’ve been here many times, i think i blogged about it once. and we still love it.

Me and fish decided on here for dinner one night.

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We always get garlic bread because i love garlic and i love bread.

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We don’t usually have entrees, unless it is to share, i really don’t see how people can eat an entree and a main, when an entree already makes me very full.

So for mains, i got a special ‘Fettuccine with Truffle and Egg.’ According to the lady boss, their family went on a vacation to Italy and brought back 2 bottles of truffle shavings but their sons weren’t too keen on it, so they brought it to be used in the restaurant. So lucky of us!

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This is the truffle with egg pasta. Really simple, very rich and good. This is entree size. I really couldn’t possibly have eaten a large sized one.

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Fish got a favourite. A rib of beef served with peppercorn sauce. Their sauces here are divine. Fish usually orders 2 sauces, but today he decides to just stick with one. Their diane sauce is great as well. The rib this time was nicely marbled and very juicy and delicious even though fish ordered it medium well.

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Fish wanted a pizza. The pizzas here are also classics, there’s no tandoori chicken etc. just plain simple pizza. So we ordered a pizza with tomato, cheese and mushrooms. It was simple and good.

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Lastly, a serving of tiramisu to share. A sweet note to end the wonderful dinner. :)

and you know. we will be back.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Ding Tai Fung – My love affair starts all over again!

I used to love ding tai fung. Fish called it my happy place, cause i will always become really happy after eating here.

However, after an incident when i brought my relatives there, it angered me so much that i didn’t visit for around 6 months i think.

One day, fish was sick when we went to the city. He wanted something light. and xiao long bao seemed perfect. So we decided to give it another go.

We waited for a little while, got seats at an area i really like. We don’t share tables, so we usually have to wait a little longer. but i really like being seated at the platform on the right side of the restaurant, next to the kitchen. It’s nice and cozy and always have many waiters around for service.

Since fish was sick, we didn’t eat much that day, but we still ordered our favourites.

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Vegetarian Delight. I love this. This is one of the rare dishes where i will gladly eat my beansprouts.

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Fish had a bowl of free range chicken soup. Very light and tasty.

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Fish didn’t feel well enough to order a main, so we got 16 xiao long baos and he ate most of it. It’s really good though. I don’t like raw ginger, so i always eat mine on its own. i bite a small hole at the bottom side of the dumpling, then pour the golden soup onto my soup, eat the dumpling and then drink up the soup. No wastage. yum yum.

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My main which we couldn’t finish. Fried rice with fried chicken cutlet. yum yum again. Fish didn’t eat this since he had a sore throat so we had to take away the left overs. but it is really good. and i’m a rice fanatic. so i love their fried rice.

That’s all we ate this time. but my love affair has been rekindled. so i hope to be back soon! :)

Wednesday, June 08, 2011

IndoRasa, Kingsford

Recently (ok, not so recent), a new Indonesian restaurant opened.

There were always a good amount of people inside, as opposed to the one opposite it.

So we decided we should try it. and it really wasn’t bad.

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This has to be the highlight – Tauhu Telur – deep fried omelette (so crispy and fluffy) and deep fried tauhu all drenched in a great peanut sauce. I love this dish!

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Nasi Goreng was what i ate. It was good, as good as how i had expected fried rice to be. But it didn’t exceed it.

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I can’t remember what this is called, but it came with a variety of side dishes such as fried chicken, beef, some chicken livers i think and fried egg. Shi Hui said it wasn’t too bad. The chicken was dry though, but had great flavour. The chilli that you see on top of the cucumber, is extremely spicy. you have been warned!

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Soto Ayam. Fish liked it and said it was good. Only downside was that the soup didn’t come piping hot.

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This was good. Ayam something. It’s grilled chicken in spices. We got the thigh so it was tender and delicious! yum yum!

This place really isn’t bad. The food is up to scratch.

The only downside is the service. They are prompt was water and menu. But have horrible attitudes. They menus are flopped on the table. No smile, no hi, nothing. Service is there but to the most minimal level required. The food comes and the waitress just places it on the table and leaves. and we’re left there staring at the dish wondering what dish that it.

But i shall return, because i can deal with such service if i get to get Tauhu Telur!!

EDIT! – This has become one of my favourite restaurants in the Kingsford area. We still order their tahu telor but our favourite main dish is now their mee goreng, only beef balls and to make it a little spicy. yum yum yum.

and.. their service has improved a lot! everyone is now quite friendly and smiles a lot more, so that's good! :)

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

Fish is awesome!

I love it when fish cooks for me. cause he’s great. he just doesn’t know it. hehe

One night, me, fish and hui were downstairs watching Babylon 5. and i had a late night hunger craving.

One of my favourite food that fish makes is a pizza bread. So i leaned over and whispered that i would like some pizza bread. He thought for a while and got to work. yay!!

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It’s quite simple.

Just normal white bread, with spaghetti sauce.

He made 2 versions for me. The one in front is with bacon. and the one at the back is with japanese arabiki sausage (which are amazing – get yourself some!). Both are topped with an insane amount of mozzarella cheese!

I got so full eating these 2 breads. but they were delicious and lovingly made.

Thank you fishie!! :)

Monday, June 06, 2011

Garlic Butter Basa Fillet!

Hey peeps!

So, a long time ago, i ordered 2 basa fillets from butcher2u.

There is some controversy surrounding the basa fish, but i think it should be fine and it is really quite a nice fish to eat. So, whatever.

We found a recipe online for this and really liked it. So i adapted it slightly when the three of us where sick and didn’t want to eat heaty food.

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And it is really simple as well.

Ingredients

2 basa fish fillet
50gm butter, melted
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced (i love garlic, so i definitely put a lot in there)
1/2 lime/lemon
Chopped coriander
Salt & Pepper

Directions

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1. In a pyrex dish, i mixed the melted butter, minced garlic, salt and pepper together.

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Good amount of garlic eh. I love garlic.

2. Place the fillets of fish in the dish and coat both sides of the fish with the butter mixture.

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It’s quite cold here already so, if a matter of minutes, my melted butter hardened – hahaha – and mine was more of a paste then liquid. but it’s fine, just get the fillets coated.

3. Cover the dish with an aluminium foil and bake in a 200 degree oven for 10 minutes. Take the dish out and switch off the oven.

4. Carefully open the aluminium, avoiding the hot steam. Sprinkle over the fish the lime/lemon juice and the chopped coriander. (At this point, you can totally see in the picture below that the fish is not totally cooked yet – it’s still slightly translucent and a little pink)

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5. Place back into the oven to let the fish continue cooking in its residual heat for 8 minutes.

6. By then, the fish should become totally white and flaky.

7. This is best served with basmati rice.

The website where i got this from served this with coconut rice – which is awesome. But i wanted to cut down on the fat a little. So instead, we served it with plain basmati rice.

The butter might seem slightly excessive, but if you eat this with rice, the garlic butter would go fantastic as a sauce for our rice.

If you decide to have this on its own, then either cut down the amount of butter, or just get rid of the excess.

In any case, this was a really simple meal that we really enjoyed.