Long time no see

Sorry the long break..haha..

Yes..i went to Hunter Valley..We drank wine and ate cheese and went to the Hunter Valley Gardens which was amazingly beautiful. It's roses were pretty.

This is a picture of the storybook garden! Very pretty and cute!


This is the beautiful rose! There is a Rose spectacular i think around this time to Nov and i really wanna go and see..


This is just a sample of the flowers..So pretty!


We bought an amount of wines - mostly dessert wines. I really like the one from Ivan Hoe. It leaves a very nice lychee taste! We bought a few more as well..

We stayed at the Travellers Rest Motel. The hostess Amy is a very friendly lady and speaks Chinese too..she was very nice. Her husband does the housekeeping and the cooking and is a very good cook. Fish enjoyed his food a lot..HaHa..

We went to Cessnock - the town. The people were quite friendly but there was very little asians there.. literally none. There was this group of teenagers who said konichiwa to us and Fish replied sawadikap..HahA..

We had lunch there at their Thai restaurant and i had Tom Yam Rice. Instead of the soup, its like using the paste to fry the rice. Very Very nice..but i can't really find it anywhere else. I like!

We went to and fro using Rover Coaches. The drivers were friendly and nice. So its not bad. A day tour at Hunter Valley with to and fro costs only $90 including wine tating etc.

So if you love wine, or gardens or cheese..Go Hunter Valley for a day! You'll love it!

Coconut Rice

I had to video cam through msn to get my grandma's recipe for this.

However, i do not have all the ingredients necessary. I don't have pandan leaves - so whatever! HaHa..

Her recipe is a little different from others that i've found on the net - as in the quantities.

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup of jasmine rice
270ml coconut milk - i used Ayam's
50 ml water
Salt

Directions

Wash the rice till water runs nearly clear.
Add the water and the coconut milk. Mine covered the rice completely. Add salt.

I added some chopped onions as well.

Not too sure how it will taste like as it is cooking now.. Will let you know later!

Hunter Valley!

Hey!

I just came back from my 4 days 3 nights trip to Hunter Valley! It was wonderful. Had loads of pictures.

Will post it later! Keep Lookin!

Smiles!

Porridge in Rice Cooker

This is the Porridge that i created in the rice cooker today for lunch/dinner.


This is the final product.

Ingredients

1 cup of rice
4 cups of water/stock
3 cups of water/stock
Sesame Oil

Directions

This is very simple, just a little tiring
Wash the rice with water till nearly clear, then add 4 cups of water/stock.
On the rice cooker and let it boil.

To make the rice congee style, just stir and stir and stir - keep stiring - i believe this breaks down the rice thus making it thick and creamy.

When the water boils down and you feel that it is getting too thick, add more water. In total, throughout the whole cooking process, i left the lid off after it started boiling and just kept stirring and added 3 extra cups of water.

When the porridge cools down, it will get even thicker - so adding a little more water while its hot will help ensure that you get the correct consistency you like.

Also, to make it smoother, i added sesame oil while cooking it. Fish also added pre-fried shallots to the porridge while cooking as he wanted the onion flavour as well.

Then just cook and stir and cook and stir till you're happy. =)

Chicken Rice

Ingredients

Garlic - Fresh ones are always the best, i used canned ones
Rice - 2 cups
Chicken Broth - i should think 2 cups as well - but the water level should be half an inch above the rice
Oil - i only had olive oil
Sesame Oil

Directions

First, heat the oil in the rice cooker, then add the garlic and fry till fragant.
Secondly, add in the rice and stir it around to make sure that it is coated well with the oil and just fry it for some time
Then, add the chicken broth.
And, youre done! Turn it to on and wait.

I added sesame oil to it after it finished cooking.