Mayo Prawns

I just had to dig out this entry because its a leap year today...

No relevance?

Well, a leap year only comes once in 4 years, so an entry that reads 29 February would need to wait for 4 years for it to appear again

I guess it doesn't matter what the content of the blog entry is... :p

Back to cooking, I tried out cooking wasabi mayo prawns and was pleased to know how easy it was!!!

I didn't have wasabi, so I just tried out Mayo prawns. The end result was lumpy, but it tasted great nonetheless!

Thanks to ruth again for this recipe!

Wasabi mayo prawns

Ingredients
10 prawns or so.. (I didn't count them, I just grabbed all that I had)
1/2 cup Japanese mayo
1 ts juice of lemon
finely chopped parsley
1 cup flour

Directions
1. Prepare the prawns by cutting off heads and picking off legs and deshelling it. Set aside.
2. With the Jap mayo add lemon juice & parsley. Mix thoroughly.
3. Coat the prawns in flour. Heat up some oil (just enough to cover the base of the pan on high fire. When the oil is hot, shallow-fry the floured prawns quickly for about 1 minute
4. Remove the prawns from heat and stir them in the mayo paste.

I modified ruth's recipe to what I had in my kitchen and refrigerator. So I replaced things like lime to lemon, green onions to parsley and I left out the wasabi.

Great recipe to try out if you are afraid of all the oil splatter from frying etc.. This is one relatively easy frying dish :)

I think I will try more frying recipes in future!

R's Verdict? Yummy!! Was a little disappointed as he expected more prawns :p So if you are trying out this recipe, remember to be generous with the prawns!

Disaster

I had the sudden urge to bake yesterday and with the many mandarin oranges in my fridge leftover from chinese new year, I thought I was quite smart to think of this - Mandarin Orange Cake

So I scoured the www for recipes and found this recipe with lots of great reviews! I was so excited that I had to go to the nearby supermarket to get the ingredients that I didn't have in my kitchen even though we had a close shave to having an accident (well, thats the problem when vehicles don't put signals).

It was 10pm when I started baking, and started to imagine hubby eating nice yummy, freshly baked cake in the morning for breakfast.

But at midnight, I was most disappointed.... my mandarin orange cake was a total disaster!!!!

Can anyone tell me what went wrong? I have so many mandarins in my fridge that I am close to desperate to make this cake, or anything similar with mandarins...

Ingredients
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 1/2 whole mandarin oranges (carefully peeled to make sure there isn't much whitish strands and unseeded)

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2) Beat the eggs, add the oranges and dry ingredients

3) Beat on low speed until combined

4) Pour into a greased and floured pan

5) Bake for 40 mins

My version of the recipe stops here as i was too demoralised to make the sauce that comes with this cake. To me, it was so disastrous that I didn't think the sauce would help much.

My cake was quite gooey and just didn't seem edible.. too soggy i think? I'm not too sure.. But when I was pouring the mixture into my bake pan, I felt that it was a tad too watery, so i added a bit more flour

I think the main problem was the proportions and the measurements. Please remind me not to use any recipes that requires estimates. What the heck is a CUP? *arrrrggghhh*

Ok, so I consulted my smarty pants sister and she said that there was a standard measurement of a 'cup'. Ok Ok, so I'm a bit of a mountain tortoise. So does that mean that if i stick to that standard measurement of a 'cup', my cake would turn out pretty and edible??


Help anyone?


p/s: I am not blaming the recipe... I just had to vent my fustrations cause it just seemed so easy! Hubby reckons the recipe was too brief for an amateur like me. *hmph*

Valentine's Day Dinner

Its our first Valentine's Day and hubby tot that it should be extra special..

so we went about our long debate that it shouldn't just be special just because its the first and yada yada and so on and so on...

he had initially meant to suprise me but because of the circumstances, he had no choice but to let me know..

Introducing our valentine's day dinner

Appetizer - Creamed Plum Tomato and Seared US Scallop Soup served with special tomato salsa bruschetta, feta cheese presented with a salad, garnished with escargot in garlic cream

Kiwi Sorbet

Main Course - Roast Prime Tenderloin of Beef for me and Crispy Duck Leg Confit served with braised red cabbage and marinated goose rillette, green lentil ragout presented in a Vol Au Vent, lavish by orange and wolfberries dressing for hubby

Dessert - Raspberry Creme Brulee garnished with frosted berries, textured chocolate mousse presented with white chocolate praline served with vanilla ice cream

Coffee or Tea

Sounds yummy?


It was yummy!! It was one of the best valentine's day dinner we've had in the years of dating! It came with ambience and a stroller walking from table to table singing out our dedications!

I would loved to have pictures posted but apologies as it was too dark and the photos turned out blackish!!

The damage? I think it was about $130+

A new addition

A new addition to the family!!!

When R said he wanted it, I was a little apprehensive... It would mean a lot of sacrifice and lots of changes...


But in the end, I agreed.


Introducing a new addition to our family

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A brand new Tefal Activys Oven :)

Do you know how much changes and sacrifice I have to make? I have to revamp my entire blog!! Changing the header etc etc... because I am no longer a cook without an oven! (oh, did I sound a tad too excited?)

Now, you know why I was rather apprehensive in the first place?

I guess R felt that I could start making delicious cakes and muffins for him and thus his purchase.

But the first thing I got home and did was to unwrap the string, tear open the box and start baking :P

What did you expect? I was afterall a deprived baker :)

So, my first bake was English Tea Cake! Well, it was a pre-mix, so no recipe, I just wanted to test out the oven. But just look at the cake rise!!!!!!! Beautiful!!

Verdict? The cake went well with our coffee! Yums!