Orange-Banana Smoothie with Strawberries

Today is all about my little Jane's favourite.  We drink juice every morning and i prepared them before i leave for work.  Preserving the freshness and nutrient is very important (... but that's a different topic at all and we will see if I can spend some time share with you about it tomorrow).  In fact, i did quite a fair bit of research before I decide on the method to prepare fresh juice and store them (properly) for consumption a few hours later.

Yesterday (yes, it was already yesterday... it is now 12:56am) we made orange-banana smoothie with strawberries.  It's my little Jane's favourite.  Here's our recipe:


orange-banana smoothie with strawberries
Serves 4

1 ripe banana (or 2 if you like it thicker)
4 to 6 Strawberries
5 Oranges
100ml filtered water
some ice cubes

Juice the orange into a pitcher.  Peel the banana and throw into the OJ together with the other ingredients.  Use a stick blender and give it a good blend.


The reason why I am adding some water is because the banana tend to make the drinks very sweet and my girl doesn't like it.  It also make it less viscous.  Serve it cold, it makes a very refreshing drinks.  I thinks a little bit of mint will be nice... but have not tried.

If you have left over, you can also freeze it in Popsicle mould and it also makes a very good all natural Popsicle.

Good cooking shows we love

oh well... 10 mths ... that's how long I have not updated this blog and today i pull myself to post something as some of my "fans" (you know who you are)... are gumbling about not hearing from me and the interesting food we are making.

Lets start our first update with 2 cooking show which l like and they are showing back to back late night on Asian Food Channel (AFC).  The 2 shows are Good Chef Bad Chef and {Fresh with Anna Olsen}.  Both are very interesting because the food are made-able at home. 



Hey... join me to watch the show.

... and i have an idea for update tomorrow... i will showcase you the juices we make everyday.  

Dong Dong Chiang! We are back... after being really quiet AGAIN.

... standard answer... BUSY MAH.... well, those are just excuses.  The real reasons are actually firstly, I've been awfully lazy recently, and secondly, I've been using iPad more regularly than laptop and i'm still yet to discover a good way to blog using iPad.  I was wondering how to upload the photos.

Ah well... I've received good comments on my Chinese New Year reunion lunch menu which i have posted on Facebook.   My sister in law and friends even asked for recipe... paiseh... paiseh.  :P

As this year our flight back to Kuching is in the late afternoon, and has been my in law's family tradition to have reunion lunch instead of dinner, so obviously we missed the most important meal of the year.  We decided to have a small scale reunion lunch for just the 3 of us.  The menu is not too complicated and much taught was put into it as i wanted to create a meal that even my Lil Jane will love, and it is also suitable for adults.  So, 6 dishes was planned and cooked.

It was a good meal.  All dishes are made from scratch.  Nothing is ready made from supermarket freezer.  We enjoy the meal.  The best part is, there is no wastage of material.  All material were used and nothing being thrown away.  All food finished too.  Good.

In our next posts, I'll try to recall and document the recipe for a few of the dishes.  do come back to visit our blog if you are interested. 

More salad ... Baby Spinach, Avocado and Orange Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette

We are back with more salad...  recently we just made another salad ... quite good and appetizing.  Good as starter.  We call it Baby Spinach, Avocado and Orange Salad with Citrus Vinaigrette.

To make the vinaigrette, this is how we do it.

Ingredients:
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup lime juice
lime & orange zest
salt
honey to taste
1 big teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup olive oil

Mix everything up... so simple

for the vege part, we used

1 bag of baby spinach
1 no of romaine lettuce heart
2 large avocado
1/4 red onion (thinly sliced and soak in iced water for 30minutes)
segments of 3 oranges

...and mix everything up... eat immediately.

A few days later, using the same vinaigrette, we made another different version of it using only romaine lettuce, strawberries, avocado and some lotus seed for some texture contrast.

It's pretty good.  give it a try.

New creation! Romaine, tomato and apple salad with spicy pan seared shrimps

Hallo... We have been quiet for a week... and finally today we have something to share.  not that nothing happened, but we have been busy.  Today we have new creation.  It's our lunch today.

Actually, i don't really remember how i did it... so lets just say you can use the dressing from Caesar Salad.  Cut a bit on the Dijon mustard and garlic.  The star of the salad today is the seared shrimps.  Actually it it's quite easy to do.  Just pan sear the shrimp in a bit of sea salt, garlic and butter, and end it with chili powder. 

Make sure the shrimp is cooled down before top it to the salad.  Finish it with Parmesan cheese powder.  It's yum!!

Rosemary Pork Rib Stew withe Vegetable... yumm!!

This is what my mom called... 迷迭香汤.  It's actually a western stew dish with pork rib slow cooked in vegetable and "powered" with fresh or dry rosemary.  It's really good.  Normally we eat it like a dish with rice or add pasta in it to make it into a pasta soup.

There is a story to this dish.  I actually learned it from a American colleague of mine.  His name is George Shipley.  His original version is "meatier" with premium spare rib and pickled chili pepper.  So, i came home and make a few times.  My family loves it... so my mom learn to make it... and now she is the expert.  She can even go to supermarket to buy her own herbs... that's amazing.



 Talk so much of nonsense... so, how to make?  Here's the recipe:

4 big sticks of celery, cut to long diagonal sections

1 big stick of carrot, cut to big chunks

1 big red bell pepper
4 - 5 big tomato, cut to quater or 1/6 wadge

1 big onion

a few cloves of garlic

1/2kg Pork rib

1 tablespoon dried rosemary

1 liter water

Salt for seasoning

olive oil

heat some olive oil in a think base pot and fried the onion chunks to soften it.  When the onion is translucent, add in the crushed garlic.  Do not brown the onion.  Just soft and translucent will do.   Put in all the vege and stir before add in pork rib and rosemary. 

When everything is mixed well, add in water to simmer the meat and vege for at least 45 minutes.  season the stew with salt and it's done.  no MSG required.  the vegetable and meat make a very sweet soup base. 

if u are doing it in the morning, you can put everything into a slow cooker and set the heat to low.  It will be ready for your for dinner.

for my friend Joe Yung, you can also do this in thermal pot.  just reduce the water and keep the pot in the insulated cover after the stew is boiled for 5 minutes. ... ohhh ... don forget to season first ok.  ... that's what my "consultant", my mom said.  give it a try.  tell me how it turn out.

... bye

Late night "Eco-friendly" kim-bap

Anyonghasaeyo!  it's our kim-bap again.  ... and today featuring the "Eco-friendly" version!

what??  Actually the real story is... tonight there is some left over rice... purple rice (we call it black rice... but really... it's actually black when it is raw, but purple when it is cooked).  So... we pull out a piece of Nori sheet from the fridge, and crab sticks, sausage, carrot, cucumber and egg.  We boiled the carrot sticks and made a omelet and cut to stick strip...

....and we roll, roll, roll ...

it's yummy... and not so sinful since we only have enough rice to make just one roll.  haha

did i mention... the dipping sauce is actually the left over Caesar dressing from last Sunday dinner... amazing huh...

Don't waste your food.  do a "Eco-friendly" kim-bap!