: : : Kitchen Adventures | the cook without an oven : : :

Valentines

2009-02-23T17:21:00.006+08:00

I was bugging hubby before Valentine's Day as to where he was bringing me on this romantic day when he let peek that he was cooking.

In my mind, I gasped... "Cooking?!?!?! So unromantic... *hmph*"

But, seeing him taking the extra effort to study the ingredients from a menu he found online, made me think that being romantic is really how you define it to be.

Everyday can be in fact, Valentine's Day! :D

And I guess, pictures speak a thousand words....

the final product?

A meal made with lots of love!

with help from recipes from Jamie Oliver

Of course I did my part for Valentines, by making mushy heart shaped strawberry flavored buttermilk pancakes with whipped cream and maple syrup for breakfast which I will spare all your eyes :D

And a recipe I stole from Channel News Asia for dessert to complement hubby's dinner...

Lime ice with pineapple

Ingredients

a slice of pineapple

20 limes

mint leaves (I didn't use fresh ones, bought the bottled one)

sugar

salt

water

Directions

1) Squeeze the 20 limes and sieve out the seeds

2) Add the same amount of water and sugar syrup (to taste) to the squeezed lime

3) freeze the mix and occassionally take it from the freezer and use a fork to scratch the ice **

4) use a cookie cutter to cut the pineapple to your favourite shape

5) coat the pineapple with sugar and mint leaves!

** to note: Do not wait for the mix to be totally frozen to scratch it as you may not get the desired texture you want. The texture should be like ice-kachang's crushed ice :)

Jump Start Bento

2009-02-23T16:52:00.006+08:00

I haven't been cooking.

I have been lazy.

Recently, I was inspired to cook for hubby.

Then again, I was still lazy.

So the thought was left in cold storage.

Sis asked me just a week ago if I was interested in Bento making and I thought that it would be a really good jump start to the new year! Since I was too lazy to cook proper meals, maybe I should start with simpler stuff. Bento making seemed so easy!

This week, we start. I take mondays.

And finally, after a week of menu thinking and a day of grocery shopping and of course a day of thinking of what to clear from my fridge, I present to you, my bento :)

I like the colors, and I found my best pal - Broccolli :)

I don't totally agree when people tell me that Bentos are great to put whatever that's leftover. In a conscientious effort to have a balanced ~~color~~ meal, I think I have wasted as much as I have cooked :D

And hubby knows me best when he casually walked into the kitchen whilst I was preparing the bento and asked me "so... how much food are you going to waste this time round?"

Ok ok...
note to self - Next time I will get my portions right and not waste anything. If I do, may I turn to a pink pig with an empty stomach :) *oink*

MC3

2008-08-27T18:56:00.004+08:00

I've been itching to try out this receipe (from L) for the longest time... and everytime I start to prepare the ingredients, I always seem to find that I am lacking something! First it was the butter, then the caster sugar. I'm quite tired of my sloppy grocery shopping!

Last weekend, I made sure I got everything jotted down and headed to the supermarket.

And finally, I managed to bake my MC3 during the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics!

Just in case you were wondering... MC3 = Macadamia Chocolate Chip Cookies :D

Ingredients:

1) 1/2 cup caster sugar

2) 1/2 cup brown sugar

3) 1 1/2 cup flour

4) 250g butter

5) 1 egg, beaten

6) 1 tsp vanilla essence

7) 1 cup chocolate chips

8) 1/2 cup macadamia nuts (roughly chopped)

Directions:

1) In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter

2) Mix the caster sugar and brown sugar into the cream mixture

3) In a small bowl, beat the egg and add in the vanilla essence

4) Add the egg and vanilla essence into butter and sugar mixture

5) Stir all together and mix well

6) Slowly stir in the flour, making sure to blend and cream it thoroughly

7) Fold in the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts

8) Drop the dough into a baking tray and place it in a preheated oven at 190 degrees until lightly browned

**Note: If you crave for Subway-like cookie, bake it for about 8 minutes. If you want a crispier cookie, bake it for about 10-15 minutes.

The verdict? Everyone liked it!!!!
As I made both the softer version as well as the crispier version, I could please everyone! Some liked it soft and some liked it crispy!

P/s: Just curious... How do ppl make cookies in the form of cute and nice shapes? My mixture melted when it was in the oven and the cookie came out in one big piece! I had to snap and break them apart! But nonetheless it was great!!

cooking frenzy

2008-08-08T13:38:00.002+08:00

I've been cooking!!! Lots in fact.

And I think I need to generate more traffic to my blog. The main reason being my not so fantastic food shots.

So in the meanwhile, I'm honing my photography skills.

I want my photos to seem as if they are popping out of your screen. hehe

So, watch this space! :)

I Heart Cream Pasta

2008-07-28T23:30:00.005+08:00

I never really liked pasta. It seemed so difficult just to get the pasta to be "al dente". It was rather a love-hate relationship. I hated the cooking bit but loved the taste of it... especially cream pasta.

But since my blog has hit a rock bottom, I thought that it could do with a little jump start with a simple recipe handed to me by my sister :) I think it was taken off the internet but not too sure exactly where, so I haven't given any credits.

Ingredients

100g pasta

200ml whipping cream

1 heaped tsp of minced garlic

20g butter

a handful of sliced white mushrooms

Directions

1) Boil pasta in pot of lightly salted water for approximately 8 minutes

2) drain the pasta and run it over cold water

3) Prepare the cream sauce by melting the butter over small fire

4) Add the garlic and mushrooms and fry for a while, before allowing the mushrooms to simmer until cooked and soft

5) Pour in the whipping cream slowly and stir the sauce (ensure that the fire is not too hot or the sauce may dry up)

6) Quickly add in the pasta and stir it with the cream sauce for a few seconds

7) And its ready to eat!

I boiled some beans and carrots to go with the pasta for fear that it might get a little too creamy. But my fears went unfounded. The pasta was really yummy! But my personal opinion was that the cream sauce was too little, so if you really like cream sauce pasta, you might want to add in more whipping cream!

R's verdict was that it was even nicer than restaurant standards!!! :D

What a lovely compliment to end the week!!!

*Edited 8 August 2008*

Another version of my cream pasta!!!!! Love the heart pastas :) You could add lots of ham into it!! Yums

Okonomiyaki - お好み焼き

2008-06-06T11:15:00.006+08:00

After my short trip to Japan, I couldn't really get the Japanese bug off me.

A brief explanation of what Okonomiyaki is from wikipedia...

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese dish consisting of a pan-fried batter cake and various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked" ; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is mainly associated with Kansai or Hiroshima areas, but is widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.

And since my fridge didn't have any thing I could not add in "various ingredients". I contemplated to add in chicken drums, but I reckoned that it would be a tad troublesome. I either had to peel the meat off the drums and put it in my pancake or I could just have them separate. Of course, as usual, I chose the easier option - Separate :)

My "cook without an oven" version of okonomiyaki (modified from daintybites)

Ingredients

1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp seasoning (I put in some miscellaneous seasoning, whatever that I had, and I can't even remember what it was)
1 lightly beaten egg
bacon bits (I added this as there was absolutely nothing in my fridge. Not even cabbage)
mayonnaise
okonomiyaki sauce
katsuobushi

Directions
1) Mix the flour, water, salt, seasoning
2) Add the egg, making sure the egg is well mixed into the mixture
3) Add in the bacon bits

* I thought the mixture was a bit too watery and so I added slightly more flour in the process

4) Heat up the pan with oil
5) Pour the mixture in and turn it over after it turns golden brown.
6) When ready to serve, drizzle heaps of okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi and its good to eat!!

I realised that it doesn't really matter what the proportions are, as the okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise and katsuobushi is really where all the flavour of the pancake comes from! :)

I prepared a few drums of teriyaki chicken to eat together with the pancake.

R's verdict? Yummy! Can consider adding some ingredients in the pancake the next time round

Honeyed Pork Ribs

2008-05-05T16:19:00.004+08:00

Pork seemed to be my favourite item for the past week.

Oh well, thats because I overstocked on my food. Hubby was grumbling at me for overstocking my food, dry food items included.

He realised that some of my dry food items were expired! (well, its only a few days after expiry.. I think they can still be used... or can they not?)

That is why I never really liked him nosing around in the kitchen.

Ingredients

4 big pork ribs
4 tbsp honey
4 dark soya sauce
3 light soya sauce
4 tbsp water

Directions

1) Marinate the pork ribs with honey, dark soya sauce, light soya sauce and water for at least 30 mins (carefully ensuring that the honey sticks on the ribs and not the container)
2) Pour the marinade and the pork ribs into a pot and bring to boil
3) Let the marinade and pork simmer for 15 mins, turning it on the other side and simmer for another 15 mins
4) Drain the ribs out of the pot and place in a turbo boiler
5) Place the turbo boiler at 200 deg and bake the ribs for 10 mins turning it on the other side and bake it for another 10 mins

*Tada! My pork ribs served on fried rice that was bought the night before! Perfect complement!

R's Verdict? Fantastic. He reckons the pork ribs could do with a little more honey but loved it nonetheless! :)

Sickly Pork Loins

2008-05-05T16:05:00.003+08:00

cooking has been addictive.

I tried out katsu curry and my pork loins turned out sickly. Hmm.. but I'm glad they turned out yummy to eat!

Ingredients

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup of flour

pork loins

Directions

1) Dip the pork loins wth the beaten egg

2) Coat with flour

3) Lightly pan fry with oil until lightly browned

My curry was made out of the japanese golden curry cubes. I mixed 2 cubes with 250ml of water and brought it to boil together with 2 carrots, diced, as well as 1 potato, cubed.

And yes, my rice turned out great! YES. Please stop laughing. My sister had to have her two cents worth by sniggering at me and telling me her maid cooks rice better than me.

If you can't cook good rice, remember, YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

R's Verdict? Great! The pork loins were still tender and it went well with the curry! The only thing was to improve on its sickly presentation :)

Salmon Steak

2008-04-21T10:39:00.004+08:00

Fish - A luxury to my hubby.

Why?

Well, fish has always been well avoided because, to me, it was deemed to be troublesome to prepare and difficult to cook. (As you may recall that I often imagine myself fighting with a fish in the wok with a ladel on one hand and the cover of the pan in the other, jumping around, avoiding the oil splatter) You may also realise that most of the food posted on my blog are meat items. :)

I didn't know what gave me the courage to purchase 2 salmon steaks to prepare over the weekend.

Ingredients

2 salmon steaks (from the Japanese supermart)

pepper

6 tbsp teriyaki sauce (mine has mirin in it, so if yours doesn't, you might consider adding some mirin)

Directions

1) marinate with a few dashes of pepper over the salmon and rub it in

2) I left my salmon in the fridge until I was ready to cook and eat

3) Place some butter on your pan and let it heat up over low fire

4) Put the salmon steak in the pan and heat it till salmon turns a nice peach pink, turning its sides after a few minutes

5) Before serving, pour in the teriyaki sauce and let the salmon simmer in the sauce

The amount of time spent cooking the salmon depends on how you like it. I personally like my salmon 3/4 cooked, so immediately when it turns light pink, I let it simmer in the teriyaki sauce for a few seconds.

I prepared some butter rice, french beans, carrots and mushrooms to go with the salmon steak and all of them were really easy to prepare. While the rice was in the cooker, I placed the mushrooms on the tray above to steam it soft (so despite it looking chunky in the photo below, it was really soft, juicy and yummy). I used a steamer with a little oil to steam the french beans and carrots for approximately 10 minutes.

I never expected fish to be so easy to prepare and cook! Definitely going to have lots more fish dishes whipped up!

R's Verdict? Fantastic!!!!! And plus 5 full stars from me!

(I never really liked to give my verdict on my food, I think its what people often say, that the person who cooks, usually eats the least. I don't really know why. But I had to make an exception for this. It was so simple to prepare!)

Goodbye Oasis

2008-04-02T10:52:00.007+08:00

Well, as usual, everything in Singapore that has some bit of sentimental value is gonna be removed/demolished.

I remember the old days when my parents would bring me to Oasis for porridge and I would be thrilled to see cups with metal holders. I can't really remember the details, but the image of that cup was vividly etched into my memory.

I could also remember the days as I was always very excited as it was like travelling to another part of Singapore, eating while 'floating' on water! (well, you do know kids are rather easy to please)

29th March 2008 was the last day Oasis Taiwan Porridge was in operation near the old national stadium (that is also due for demolition).

I was one of the few that made a special trip there. It was great eating there again.

Seeing the news crew interview people who have made that special trip there, seeing the waitresses serve tea in the cups with metal holders, seeing the porridge being scooped out from the igloo containers, seeing the cooks and staff clear the kitchen partially. It was like trying to capture all the many memories that are left and keeping it safe into a locket, hoping that when the day is over and they close for good, those memories will be kept safely into our hearts.

Goodbye Oasis, see you at Toa Payoh in April 08

Eating Out @ Home

2008-03-17T13:10:00.011+08:00

Both me and sis heard so much of the place called "Gastronomia" at Great World City that we both made a special trip there on Friday to buy our dinner for Saturday!

There was so much to choose from that we almost went berserk :p

Our appetizers were lobster soup and caesar salad with fresh bacon bits!! Sis insisted that we used fresh bacon bits, so we fried the bacon on the spot and tossed it together with some shredded chicken into the caesar salad!

Its very interesting that the soup came in packets and all you had to do was to just pour it out and make it warm and its ready to drink!

We could also pick and choose pasta to suit the various pasta sauces and since the pasta were in servings per person we could have a variety!

our main courses from left to right: Spinach tagliolini and aglio olio, fungi alfredo with maccheroni and bolognese with egg tagliolini

And what could be better than after meal desserts? We couldn't resist the tiramisu as well as the nutella chocolate cake!

Our verdict? (total panal of 3 judges) we were a little disappointed with the aglio olio as the sauce was a little too oily for our liking. The bolognese was slightly salty but we all loved the alfredo!

The lobster soup is a must try and the tiramisu and nutella chocolate cake is definitely to die for.

We enjoyed the entire experience and Gastronomia is indeed a great place to buy food to prepare for the night when you are feeling lazy :)

Cupcake Minis

2008-03-13T14:34:00.006+08:00

I hope to be able to do such lovely cupcakes someday...

Hubby's colleague gave some mini cupcakes and because it was sooo cute and pretty, most of it was snapped up and hubby had to snatch 4 of them back for me as he knew I was easily taken in by such cutesy things :)

Awww.... Aren't they so preeeeeetty?

I mean, even though I visit Kuidaore's Blog often and drool at her very nice cupcakes and photos, it is just so different seeing such cupcakes upclose and personal!

Teriyaki Chicken - western style

2008-03-11T10:27:00.008+08:00

I decided to try my hands on some western food without having it fried. Hubby and I are starting to worry about eating too much oily/fried/outside food.

Not too sure if the western food I prepared was healthy though, but I just told him that no oil was used :) So he was pretty happy.

Introducing... Teriyaki Chicken, Mashed Potato and Caesar Salad!

Ok, I bought the Caesar salad :) It was from Cold Storage. At first, I was quite skeptical about it, but while preparing it, I took a bite and then took lots of bites more :p I had bacon bits so I sprinkled them on the salad too! Heavenly!

Teriyaki Chicken - directions

1) Marinate 3 chicken thighs with 6 tbsp of teriyaki sauce
2) Place in fridge while preparing the mashed potato
3) When the potato has finished boiling and is ready to be mashed, take the thighs out and grill them at 200 degrees celsius for 40 minutes, turning them over after 20 minutes

Mashed Potato - Sufficient to feed 4 (or 2 very greedy us)

Ingredients
4 potatoes
a pinch of salt
10 tbsp milk
generous portion of bacon bits
pepper

Directions
1) Put potatoes into a pot of water (completely covering them) to boil sprinkling a pinch of salt
2) Boiling should take about 30 mins or when chopsticks poke through to the core of the potato
3) Drain the potatoes out and run them under tap water
4) Thereafter, start mashing the potatoes. For me, I used a mighty normal FORK :)
5) Start adding the milk tablespoon by tablespoon and incorporate it into the mashed potato*
6) Sprinkle pepper to taste and heaps of bacon bits and savour!

* I like the texture of my mashed potato with 10 tbsp of milk. So you might want to add the milk in tablespoon by tablespoon so that you can stop once you are satisfied with its texture

R's Verdict? Yummilicious! Though the potato was indeed too much for 2 greedy people :p

Mayo Prawns

2008-02-29T13:25:00.007+08:00

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

2008-02-21T12:06:00.006+08:00

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

2008-02-18T12:29:00.005+08:00

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

2008-02-13T11:05:00.007+08:00

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

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!

Milk and Coffee

2008-01-02T14:22:00.003+08:00

I was thrilled when I saw such a unique recipe from Piggy's Cooking Journal and the first thing I reached home was to go make a list of what I needed and head down to the supermarket! :)

Both R and I are coffee drinkers, so that explains my enthusiasm.

Its quite easy to make, but I would definitely love the coffee taste to be stronger than the milk. But nonetheless, it was quite refreshing and it gave me new ideas to play around with. So do keep a look out for new variations of this recipe :)

Method:

1. Prepare approximately 1 cup (250ml) of black coffee with sugar (For me, it would be approximately 2 teaspoons of coffee powder with 4 sachets of sugar, as I use sugar in packets.. :p)

2. Stir in 1.5tbsp of gelatin powder while the coffee is still hot

3. Let it cool to room temperature then keep the mixture in the fridge and let it set

4. Remove the mixture from the fridge and cut it into cubes

5. Pour milk into a glass and scoop a few spoonfuls of coffee jelly into the glass

R's Verdict? Pass! Refreshing and Unique

Claypot Chicken Rice

2008-01-02T13:55:00.002+08:00

R couldn't believe himself when he had spent 30 bucks just to buy the ingredients to cook claypot rice.. until I had to tell him that things like the dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sesame oil, chinese wine, rice etc etc could be kept and used in the future, then it dawned on him that it made a little sense. *phew*

Introducing Ruth's Claypot chicken rice (in a rice cooker!)
Boneless chicken legs and fillets cut into about 20-30 small bitesize pieces
2 chinese sausages
Handful of chinese mushrooms, soaked in warm water for 20 minutes
~~1 tb sesame oil~~ (I didn't put any sesame oil as I bought a bottle without realising I needed a bottle cap opener *duh*)
2 tb chinese wine
2 tb dark soya sauce
1 tb light soya sauce
Handful of lettuce, shredded into long strips
1 cup of rice & slightly over 1.5 cups of chicken stock (as my rice was still quite hard though cooked)

1. Marinate chicken thigh meat with the sesame oil, chinese wine and soya sauces. Put in fridge while preparing the rest of the ingredients

2. Remove stems from mushrooms & slice in half

3. Slice chinese sausages into thick slices (like the picture above - thick!)

4. Boil the rice in rice cooker. After 10 minutes (approximately - What I do is I open the rice cooker off and on to see how cooked the rice is), open rice cooker & add chicken thigh meat. Be sure to flick off excess marinade before putting meat in. Then, add the chinese sausages and mushrooms on top. Close the rice cooker and allow the cooker to finish cooking the rice.

5. In the meantime, I baked an egg until a bit golden brown with my turbo boiler to accompany the lettuce for the rice to sit on. It was the first time and it came out just like those eggs they serve for Nasi Lemak! Yums

6. Viola! Stir up the rice & all the ingredients and serve immediately on a bed of shredded lettuce. I opened the cooker and stir the ingredients and put it to cook again for a 5 more minutes. The result? A bit of burnt rice just like authentic claypot rice!!

R's Verdict? Good!

Cooking Absence

2008-01-02T13:30:00.000+08:00

Do not be deceived by my absence.

I have been cooking, though not blogging as frequent as I should be.

Blame in on my ill-equipped home as I have yet to get my lazy bones up to subscribe to maxonline. But the amazing thing about my ill-equipped home is that I have quite a well-equipped kitchen, that still lacks an oven! :)

Of course not as well equipped as the floggers' sites I visit, but I am proud to say that I have churned out decent meals that hubby likes (for now) and I really have Ruth to thank :)

I have so much to blog about!!

First up, was the delicious meal and food that my in laws cooked for my office's christmas party! I did of course help them in the kitchen!

Then it was the chicken claypot rice and then the hainanese chicken rice that I had the sudden urge to cook.

Thereafter was the whipping up of tandoori chicken with butter rice for the in laws over the christmas/new year holidays!

I don't think it can get any tougher.. especially considering that I am someone totally scared of fire/gas (you know.. the super paranoid me always gets hallucinations of the place being blown up when the gas is on and that fire is so dangerous)

Cooking Mama

2007-12-07T11:54:00.000+08:00

I'm addicted to cooking..

Blame it on my sister that introduced me to nintendo DS!

Such a terrible device..

So, here I am blogging on my cooking blog about a computer game.

How interesting...

Wonderful Food!

2007-08-26T23:51:00.001+08:00

Very seldom do I comment about food because to me, eating out is really really common. I mean, there really isn't anything special to write about the everyday foodies I eat.

But, my trip to En Japanese Dining Bar @ Bukit Timah really made me want to blog about it!

Let my pictures do the talking!

Dad's very own popiah

2007-08-06T18:18:00.000+08:00

Somehow or rather, I feel that my dad should start his very own food blog. He seems more enthusiastic than me in many aspects of cooking/baking/frying etc

Thus I have decided to post up his pics and his culinary journey here :D

And of course, the adventurous dad decided to try out popiah one very fine day!

It started of course 4 days back when he arrowed mum to buy turnips, carrots, tau kwa, prawns, cabbage and letting it simmer. Yes, 4 days of simmering.

Finally on day 5, the popiah wrapping begins!!

I do have to apologise that I didn't take pics of the nicely wrapped popiah. If you really want to see it, I would have to take a picture of my full tummy. In short, the popiah was yummy!!

2007-03-12T13:06:00.000+08:00

chix wings, potatos, prawns, pork, bananas

What is so common about them all?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

They can all be deep fried!

I am a ~~big fried fan~~ big fan of fried stuff. So, on one of my retail therapy trips with my sister, she convinced me that a mini deep fryer would add a lot more excitement to my ovenless kitchen.

In fact I wasn't the only victim. There were another 4 people whom she managed to persuade to buy these fryers. I then started to wonder if my sister was secretly receiving commission from the sale of these fryers :p

And after I bought it, I realised that this little thing was not just an ordinary deep fryer...

It was a little monster in disguise!

So spiffy, so small and great to use!

So, we decided to try out some new fried food! My sister made potato croquettes and pork cutlets topped with japanese curry... We had only 2 pieces of potatos and 1 piece of pork cutlet left on the plate after gobbling everything down, when we suddenly remembered to snap a pic. So there you are -

the rare sight of 2 potato croquettes sitting on top of the remnant piece of pork cutlet drizzled with whatever was left of the japanese curry :p

Jelly Galore

2007-02-16T17:58:00.002+08:00

I have been scouting around for jelly moulds and its amazing how difficult they are to find!!! I was busily trying to get an uncle to understand what I wanted and when he asked me is it those with sizes like small, medium and large, I assumed he already knew.

But lo and behold, because of the mandarin-english-hokkien barrier, he got me heaps of jelly instead!

Nothing near jelly moulds. In fact, indeed he got them in sizes - small, medium and large

See the mandarin words circled above? Yes. The root of all language miscommunication.

Uncle's translation and meaning, as above 果冻 [guo dong] = jelly

My translation and literal meaning 果洞 [guo dong] = jelly hole

I think I need to brush up my dialect and mandarin as much as I need to brush up my cooking :p

So, this valentine's day, I finally found my jelly moulds and decided to revisit my basics and make some konnyaku jelly - the perfect gift for all my loved ones!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Strawberry (red) & Mango (yellow) konnyaku jelly with tropical fruits!

2007-02-12T11:51:00.000+08:00

If you are an ardent oven-using fan, you're in luck.

The cook without an oven has decided to break all tradition and use an oven - A brand new tika oven sitting in my sister's kitchen, a few roads down from my place :)

This would probably mean more cooking at my sister's place, and more messing around with my 16 month old niece *heh*

And presenting.....

Our first attempt with the ~~oven~~ mini butter cakes. I finally understood the beauty of an oven, when the mini butter cakes rose so evenly and so nicely. *sigh* and when I went home at the end of the day, I realised how much effort it is to cook nice muffins using the turbo boiler :p

Place a price tag on these mini butter cakes?

Priceless

Food Forecast 2007

2007-01-26T13:36:00.000+08:00

Poached the idea of a food forecast 2007 off from daintybites.. hehe

* start baking *

Realised its been eons since i blogged about food! Not that I have not been eating but its because my camera's memory is full to the brim and I have yet to clear it (oops ... oh, you mean, I have used this excuse before?)

* Cook mains *

Another thing I am aspiring to do - cook decent mains. My mains very often turn out too salty, too much water, too dry, too this and too that... Now, I think this year is a pretty good year to set out to start on cooking decent mains....

* More deserts and fruits *

Have decided to make more deserts and at the same time incorporate more fruits in them... to add a more fruity twist... hopefully can think of something extraordinary to do this year!!!

Have you got your food forecast already? :p

2006-12-04T12:39:00.000+08:00

Its been ages!!

Missed me? :)

Or did you (yes, you. Stop looking behind!) delete me off your bookmark list due to my lack of updates? *evil stare*

It was a tough battle the past month having to deal with lots of administrative matters at home :) Though, there's still alot to be done, I'm hoping this post will help keep this blog alive...

The day started in the wee hours of the morning at 6am *yawns* as I had to literally peel open my eyelids... (what is this.... I am a slave to the stupid brownie? waking up at such an unearthly hour? Risking big black eyebags? - this was the only thought running through my head)

And, despite the sleepiness and zonking out in the process of putting the ingredients in, the brownie turned out pretty nice (not in terms of looks.. but in terms of taste I must say)

Introducing the long-awaited cream cheese brownie (from daintybites)... *applaud please*

Even though the brownie doesn't look as delicious as the one on daintybites, don't be deceived!!!!!! It does taste nice especially with ice-cream!!

Ingredients for brownie
100g self raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
70g dark chocolate, broken into pieces (used herseys special dark chocolate. It isn't special really.. it was just its name)
100g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (I used normal baking chocolate)
120g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
3/4 cup of sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 large eggs

Ingredients for cream cheese filling 1 (8 oz) block cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg yolk

Directions
1. Whisk flour, salt and baking powder together. Set aside.
2. Melt the chocolates and butter using low heat in my turbo-boiler (heh.. the lazy way).
3. Whisk in sugar and vanilla extract.
4. Whisk in eggs, one at a time. Mix sure well combined before adding the next.
5. When the chocolate mixture is smooth and shiny, whisk in the flour mixture. Set aside.
6. Cream the cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla extract until smooth.
7. Pour half of chocolate mixture and drop dollops of cream cheese mixture and pour remaining chocolate mixture and remaining cream cheese mixture into a aluminum lined and greased square baking pan (I think the pan I used was 7 5/8 inch). Using a knife, draw big "S"s in the baking pan to swirl the cream cheese into the chocolate mixture.
8. Bake in preheated turbo boiler at 110 degC for 60 to 90 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

I believe the brownie could have been baked for a longer time as the base of my brownie was still a little bit gooey, but it came out alright after a few hours in the fridge (again, the lazy way)

Past season

2006-10-13T15:57:00.000+08:00

I swear I wanted to put on the recipe for making mooncakes from my apprentice whom in turn poached it from her mother in-law... but... due to my messy nature, I have forgotten where I have placed it!

Urrrgghhh

And, I have been searching frantically for it and in the process have found other stuff like bank statements that have been lost, papers of friend's addresses yada yada.. everything except that darn recipe..

So, my hopes of sharing the mooncake recipe before the mid-autumn season ends are dashed.. and probably when I find it, it would be christmas season or the bbq pork season.. *duh*

2006-09-26T16:46:00.000+08:00

Its been a while since i blogged.

Besides the fact that I have been really busy, I have been really lazy as well. Workload is getting to me and I find it hard to get myself up on my feet to do some cooking over the weekends.

But, I've got great news!! I have an apprentice! I do have to admit that she didn't have a choice but to call me master as she was in dire need to tripod her future in-laws :) *muahahah*

And in exchange, I have to call her master to teach me how to make mooncakes, of which she will be learning from her future mother-in-law :)

its a vicious cycle

so meanwhile, be patient with me :p

Trust me, I will be whipping up something pretty soon :)

A new twist, A new taste

2006-08-28T12:56:00.002+08:00

So many things have been happening at home that I had hardly any time to cook. My parents' health has been on the down-side and it probably isn't a good time to be whipping out cakes, muffins and anything heavy. Don't get me wrong but this blog will not be transformed into a "healthier choice" blog, but of course I will try to watch what I add in when I am cooking/turbo-boiling anything for them to eat.

This weekend I was only in charge of taking photos. My dad decided to put his culinary skills to the test after years of being a couch potato and the occassional trips to the kitchen to cook instant noodles. He has been telling us how he used to make good spaghetti in his old student days [and my mum would just snigger at his comment] and after I made spaghetti a few weeks ago, it sort of ignited the enthusiastic fire in him again :)

And here it is, presenting dad's spaghetti.

Ingredients and directions:

Place about 1/2 to 3/4 pack of spaghetti (depending on number of people) into a pot and bring to boil
Boil the spaghetti with a pinch of salt until the spaghetti becomes soft and al-dente (meaning not too cooked and not too uncooked but just right but I just never get it right)

Immediately after spaghetti becomes al-dente, place the spaghetti under cool water and place to drain and dry

While the spaghetti is draining, heat up a pan and grease it slightly with olive oil

Fry a handful of onions, capsicum and then place a teaspoon of garlic

Place the spaghetti into the pan and stir fry, adding in tomatoes, mushrooms and tomato ketchup

Basically a recipe that I cannot decipher as I cannot cook based on estimation *sigh*

It looks quite like mee goreng and looks a bit like chinese noodles. I can't really place a name or style to it, and that basically explains the title of this post - A new twist, a new taste :)

~ fine settimana italiano ~

2006-07-31T12:20:00.002+08:00

It was my first attempt cooking for the family. Tough choice. It was like cooking for a panel of judges that was skeptical of my cooking abilities beacause of my infrequency in the kitchen.

Then the examiner said "spaghetti" and so I had to make spaghetti. A student's worse nightmare is cooking something totally new and untried before and sitting before the judges to scrutinise and comment. Almost immediately after the topic was set, I scoured the entire world-wide-web and found this!

Of course I have to give credit to my trusty helper who helped with all the little details in the preparation. Thank you sweetie! :) *hugz*

Spaghetti with baked meatballs (adapted from dainty bites!)

Ingredients and directions for spaghetti sauce
2 cans of 14.5 oz each whole tomatoes from Hunts, mashed using 2 forks
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste from Hunts
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp dried basil leaves
1 tsp dried oregano leaves (I used ground oregano powder)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (I used groud black pepper instead)

Mix all the ingredients and leave it in slow cooker to cook for about 5 hours (I placed the cooker on high and when big bubbles started to appear occassionally, I left it on low)

Ingredients and directions for meatballs
(the original recipe from dainty bites used 750g of meat, but I only had 250g thus I have ammended the recipe as follows)
250g lean ground pork
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
3/4 egg (how I got 3/4 of an egg... I used 1 egg, poured into my meat and drained out excess egg that couldn't be marinated in (-: )
a handful of grated Parmesan cheese
2 dashes of evaporated milk
1 tbsp dried parsley flakes
1/3 clove of garlic, finely chopped
a pinch of salt
1/4 tsp dried basil leaves
1/4 tsp dried oregano leaves (again I only had oregano powder)
a dash of dried thyme leaves (and I had only thyme powder)
a dash freshly ground black pepper

When I found my marinated meatballs a bit too soft, I added more bread crumbs and started scooping the marinated meat up and hitting it hard against the bowl repeatedly like playing baseball, in order to give it a firmer texture

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. shape the meatballs and I placed them into my trusty turbo boiler to cook for about 20 mins in about 200 degrees

And in an attempt to bribe the judges, I couldn't resist but to complete my italian themed weekend by trying out tiramisu from ruth's webbie

Ingredients and directions for tiramisu
250g marscapone cheese
1 egg
2tb heaped icing sugar
1/2 ts vanilla essence
2tb Bailey's Irish Cream
sponge fingers (Lay enough to cover the tray)
1 cup of black coffee (its ok to have coffee left after making the tiramisu so don't worry!!)
cocoa powder for dusting

Separate the egg yolk and white
Mix the yolk with the sugar and add the vanilla essence. Stir in the marscapone and mix thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, whisk the egg white till soft peaks form. Then, add the egg white to the marscapone mixture. Pour in the Bailey's Irish Cream. Give everything a thorough mix. In a tray lay out enough sponge fingers to cover the base. Spoon coffee onto the sponge fingers (about 3 tbsp each layer) and then smother with marscapone. Lay out another layer of sponge fingers, spoon coffee over and smother with marscapone. Dust with cocoa powder and chill till ready to serve.

The Verdict?

The judges found the spaghetti sauce too tangy for their liking but I loved it! The meatballs were yummy and they thought the tiramisu was bought from a shop!

Piacere!
(which means enjoy, by the way)

cooks vs auditors

2006-07-04T16:55:00.000+08:00

It has been weeks since I stepped into the kitchen. Besides the fact that I have been extremely lazy, it was partly due to the fact that my attempt on the szechuan fiery beef slices failed miserably. I had been overly enthusiastic with this dish that I totally forgot that I was one person who could not deal with estimates. (Not withstanding the fact that I as an auditor by profession am to deal with estimates and not absolutes)

*sigh*

So a week back, my sister bought a jar of nutella and a slab of butter and handed it to me and said "go forth and make some nutella muffins". She threatened to turn me into a rabbit with her wand if I failed her on this mission, so I really didn't have a choice.

And here they are, my nutella muffins!

Although they weren't the best muffins one could find, this attempt revived me from my sluggish-state-after-failed-szechuan-beef-slices. And I was thinking that I was probably more apt in making muffins than any other chinese style home-cooked dish.

And more importantly, I wasn't turned into a cutesy little rabbit! :)

Western Delights

2006-06-05T13:01:00.003+08:00

I decided to whip up something special this weekend in order to keep my cooking enthusiasm going and at the same time to use up some leftover ingredients from my previous cooking attempts. (how do you use up all your leftover ingredients??)

So I surfed all around the internet for some interesting recipes to try out! Well, I found a few recipes that sounded pretty interesting and yet seem easy to prepare... So the menu was set
Main: Breaded Chicken Roast with mashed potato & baked broccoli with cheese
Dessert: Chilled Mango Sago

But lo and behold!! It was my first tedious try at making a meal! okay, I admit... I was feeling a little ~~lazy~~ tired... it probably is simple for some of you who are seasoned chefs and have prepared even more complicated meals before though :)

I got the breaded chicken roast from here but was rather hesitant as no one posted a review on the recipe. I started to turn a little skeptical ~ (maybe it was never tried before? maybe it isn't that fantastic? maybe no one bothered? hmmm) ~ The recipe was also submitted without a photo so I really had no idea what to expect of this dish. It was really a dish that required me to "imagine". So, I went ahead with the recipe on hand and a backup sidedish of mashed potato.

[Well, if the chicken failed then at least the potato would suffice in filling our tummy, right?]

And the result?

I felt rather proud of my first try!

Basically, the breaded roast chicken was better than I had imagined, my recipe-less mashed potato was quite successful and the baked broccoli with cheese was something unique and delicious! Though I have to confess that I hurried down to the supermarket to buy a packet of instant roast chicken gravy as I was worried the potato would turn out bland :)

Breaded Roast Chicken (adapted from Nigella.com/submitted by symphony0509)

Ingredients:

3 or 4 pieces chicken breasts/thighs

4 heaped tbsp of butter

4 cloves of garlic minced finely/blended

1/4 cup cheese (well, I used cheddar cheese that has been grated)

1 handful of coriander leaves (I didn't have any fresh leaves but had some masterfoods ready coriander leaves spice so I added approximately an amount of my palmsize)

2 splashes of virgin olive oil

Crushed graham crackers (I used my leftover panko)

the original recipe also included 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of thyme leaves but I didn't have any on hand thus didn't add them in :)

Directions:

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place it in the electric turbo boiler

Mix well the olive oil, coriander leaves, cheese, garlic, butter, lemon juice and thyme into a bowl

Paint the chicken generously with the mixture

cover the chicken with the panko until completely covered

Baked it for about 45mins to an hour with a temperature of about 150degrees

Recipe-less mashed potato (based on my agar-ation)

Ingredients and Directions:

4 potatos, skinned

Boil the potatoes for about an hour or until soft

Wash them under cold water and drain it

Place in big bowl/plate and start mashing them with a fork

When potato has been mashed totally, add about 1/4 cup milk or until mashed potato has a smooth texture

Season with salt and pepper together with basil leaves

Add about 1 heaped tsp of butter

Mash further and mix well

Baked Broccoli with cheese

Took the broccoli recipe from here except for a few modifications...

firstly, i used my muffin foil instead of aluminium cups and as I didn't know how to estimate the weight proportions, I basically used 2 broccoli stems with each cup, 1 tsp of mayo, 1/2 tsp of butter and enuff cheese to fill the top and cover with it with leftover panko again :)

I placed it in my trusty turbo boiler for about less than 10 mins till the top turned light brown at about 120 degrees

And for dessert, I have to admit that the sago almost drove me nuts! I soaked it for eons and it didn't turn translucent! It stuck to each other like glue and by the time I thouroughly read through the recipe again, then I realised there was an easier way!! argghh!

But definitely a recipe worth trying! Definitely doesn't taste as pale as it looks. I placed it in the freezer and by the time it was to make its appearance, it had bits of ice in it which made it a great finale to my weekend cooking experiment :)

Chilled Mango Sago (slightly modified from thelazychef & Zu's Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 mango (original recipe uses 2 but I was on a tight budget)

400ml mango juice

125ml evaporated milk

80g sago pearls

250ml water

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp water

extra 100ml water

Directions (slightly modified as I was ~~lazy~~ tired):

1. Used 250ml hot water and sugar, stir till sugar dissolves.

2. Mix cornflour with 1 tbsp hot water and pour into the syrup and stir until smooth.

3. Cut the sides of the mango and cube them.

4. Scrap the remaining mango and put in a bowl, add 100ml of water to blend, put aside. (I confess I skipped this step. Instead the remaining mango went into my stomach and upon slurping it all up I realised I was to use the remaining mango as well)

6. Add blended mango (from4), cubed mango, mango juice and evaporated milk into the syrup solution (from 2) then stir.

7. Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add abit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.

8. Chill before serving.

As I had a tedious time preparing the sago pearls and have thus lost track of the time I took to prepare them...
Please refer to original recipe and preparation of sago pearls here :)

Japanese Fare

2006-05-29T00:22:00.002+08:00

I has been 3 weeks since I started on my cooking "experiments" and I must admit that it gets a little addictive at times. The urge to try out something new is always on my mind and I can't help it but to constantly surf around for new recipes to whip up in the kitchen.

Though I have yet to satisfy any cravings (well, I am a potato chip junkie so I can always buy my favourite Calbee Hot and Spicy chips off the shelf), it still brings great satisfaction seeing the food I try out turn out successful and well, platable.

I made it a Japanese themed week as I tried out Tonkatsu chicken with japanese curry, chawanmushi as well as green tea ice-cream with red bean paste. Of course with the Tonkatsu chicken and chawanmushi recipes taken from ruth's website :) Her zeal for cooking and her clear instructions make her blog a definite visit for me everytime I go online!

CHICKEN TONKATSU (adapted from ruth)

Ingredients:
1 cup of Panko (leftovers from what I bought from a Japanese supermarket and its different from tempura flour)

1 egg, beaten

3/4 to 1 cup of flour (I used leftover self raising flour from my muffins) and I think 3/4 cup of flour would be sufficient as there was lots of leftover when I used 1 cup.

2 boneless chicken thigh meat (as the pieces were too big, I cut them into 4 pieces)

Directions:
1) Season the meat with salt and pepper (me, having not seasoned anything before.. I added about 5 dashes of pepper and 2 dashes of salt and it tasted pretty ok)

2) Cover the meat in flour, dredge it in egg and cover the meat in panko in this order, ensuring that all parts of the meat is covered (and as ruth suggested to have a production line with these 3 ingredients lined up together so it facilitates the meat to go from flour to egg to panko easily)

3) Refrigerate for an hour (this is to allow the breaded layer to stiffen and stick to the meat)

4) Heat up the oil and wait for the oil to be ready (well, I used a dangerous method of placing my arm over the oil to see if its hot enough :) but for ruth she waited till she saw small bubbles rising and waited for another minute) and deep fry meat till golden brown

5) I also steamed hot a packet of ready mix golden curry for about 5 minutes and poured it on top of the chicken before serving

CHAWANMUSHI (adapted from ruth)

Ingredients:
2 eggs, beaten

3/4 to 1 cup chicken stock (well, I used chicken soup that my mum was boiling) If you like your chawanmushi watery, 1 cup of stock will be nice but if you prefer it less watery, you can try 3/4 cup

1 tbsp sake (but I used chinese wine from my mum's kitchen)

1/2 tbsp soya sauce

1/4 - 1/2 tbsp sugar (I found 1/2 tbsp sugar a bit too sweet so I guess 1/4 should be just right)

I added some mixed mushrooms I found from the supermarket

Directions:
1) Mix all the ingredients together and pour into container but do not cover the container as it allows the chawanmushi to set and cook faster

2) Boil water in steamer till very hot and lower the chawanmushi into the steamer and put the fire to low to allow egg to set smoothly

3) I steamed my chawanmushi for a good whole 30 mins

GREEN TEA ICE CREAM WITH RED BEAN PASTE

Well, I found this at Medi-ya a few weeks ago and the picture was just so tempting! Though the actual ice cream I made out didn't look that presentable (well, thats why I didn't put up any pictures), it tasted rich and milky and really really nice!! I bought a packet of ready made red bean paste found at Medi-ya as well and it complemented the green tea ice cream!!

Though the instructions were in Japanese, I could sort of decipher the ingredients as well as the proportions by looking at their pictures behind the package :)

Directions:

1) 1 egg yolk beaten

2) 3/4 cup milk

3) Add the green tea mix and mix well till all dissolved and freeze for about 3 hours

2006-05-26T10:45:00.000+08:00

I got something new, something blue, something wonderful and picture perfect too!

A present from my sister - my very first cookbook :)

As a form of encouragement to me, my sister thought I would love to try out more muffins!

Considering the fact that I am someone who hates to read, she got me this book because of its great yummalicious pictures too! I would probably try out some of the recipes from the book one of these days! Hopefully I would be able to take some great pictures like they do in the book!

Tandoori Chicken

2006-05-22T00:17:00.004+08:00

My first try at cooking a meal... thanks to ruth's wonderful trusty & easy peasy recipe for tandoori chicken and Zu's kitchen for the strawberry yoghurt ice cream. Though, I can't help but to admit that I surfed all around to gather recipes to make the 1kg tub of yoghurt sitting in the fridge to good use :)

I had wanted to try out the saffron rice but was afraid to do so, despite spending 10 bucks on a small mini container of red stringy like herb. Questions were running thru my mind.. would it stain my rice pot? will my mum scream if she realises her pot turns a funny yellow? will my guests like the smell/taste of saffron rice? Will normal sugar do instead of brown sugar? I guess I would be more adventurous and try it out the next time round :)

My guests loved the tandoori chicken! Though it was eaten with plain rice, we finished an entire chicken. Just the 3 of us.

The tandoori was so tender because of the yoghurt and when coupled with nice sweet tomatoes, it was even more tasty! I guess I could have tandoori for the entire week :D

After meal dessert was strawberry yoghurt ice cream but I guess I was over enthusiatic with the yoghurt as it was a tad too sour. Plus, I bought strawberries that were also sour (oh well, they were cheap as well and probably not in season). And because I was so eager to try it and yet afraid it will melt, I took a few pics that turned out blurrish and have thus not posted them up

Thank goodness my guest came with cheesecake as a backup plan so after the yoghurt ice cream we induldged in some strawberry new york cheesecake and oreos cheesecake!

INGREDIENTS and DIRECTIONS for TANDOORI CHICKEN (adapted from ruth's website)

About 1 small spring chicken (well, I cut it up into 8 pieces so I could associate with ruth's recipe)

Marinade chicken

with 3 full tablespoons of plain yoghurt (I must admit I just took 3 scoops.. didn't matter if it was slightly more and over heaped)

and

3 slightly heaped tablespoons of "sharwood's tandoori spice mix" and added it according to the color of the marinade and to ensure all parts of the chicken was covered

And place it in the fridge overnight

Well, I do admit that the yoghurt does really tenderise the meat! *yummy!*

the tandoori chicken was grilled for about 30 mins including flipping it at about 200 degress inside the good ol' trusted electric turbo boiler :)

2006-05-13T00:40:00.000+08:00

The journey of this blog begins here... and as the name suggests, all the recipes I try out here are without an oven. So, if you are like me, with an oven-less kitchen, do not be afraid to try out these recipes, because even without an oven, we can still cook up a storm :)

It was after hearing my sister and her friend rave about cooking their desired cravings over and over again, that made me decide to start learning to cook. Well, I must admit that I often imagine myself fighting while cooking a fish (holding a pot cover shielding myself) and make a mess just preparing ingredients (with probably half being wasted)... and this is why I never attempted to cook.

But, in spite of all these, I guess we all have phases we go through and I do hope that cooking will become part of me and not fade off with time..

So, my first attempt was ~~baking~~ cooking chocochip coffee with cream cheese muffin! Well, thanks to a wonderful fuss-free recipe from thelazychef! but of course without an oven but a electric turbo-boiler

Slightly modified version of thelazychef's recipe:

INGREDIENTS FOR FLOUR MIX:

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup mini hersheys chocolate chips

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

2 tbsp Baileys/Kahlua/Orange Juice

2 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water (But i used coffee milk from meiji)

1/3 cup milk

Mix the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and hersheys chocolate chips. Pour oil (well, i used olive oil) into 1 measuring cup; add egg, the coffee milk from meiji, Baileys and more coffee milk to fill the cup.Mix this with teh flour mixture.

INGREDIENTS FOR CREAM CHEESE TOPPING:

125g cream cheese (basically half of a 250g tub i bought)

1 tsp vanilla essence

60g icing sugar (but i used about 4 full teaspoons as I have a weighing scale-less kitchen as well)

1 egg

DIRECTIONS:

1) Preheat turbo boiler to 190 degrees

2) Create muffin batter as instructed above.

3) Spoon batter to fill 1/2 the muffin cases. (if your case is bigger than normal, fill it to 3/4)

4) Cook in turbo boiler for 10 minutes at 110 degrees (my first attempt at cooking it at 190 degrees had my muffins burnt)

5) Mix ingredients for cream cheese till fluffy and well combined.

6) Remove muffins from oven and carefully spoon the fluffy cream cheese mixture over.

7) Return to the turbo boiler and cook it for another 15 minutes at 110 degrees or till cheese topping turns a nice color.. if you like your cheese more burnt, wait till it turns more golden brown :)

Sift some cocoa powder and icing sugar over the top if desired!! (well, for mothers day, i used the hershey mini kisses to form a heart shape at the top of the muffin!)