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!

it is Soy...easy

One of the very nice thing i brought back from Dalian last year was this soya bean milk machine i bought there.  It was only about RMB500... approximately $100 a unit.  Ever since then, making soya milk has never been easier.  Just 6 steps, we can get creamy delicious soya milk.

Step 1:  Soak 2 cups of soya bean for 2 to 3 hours.  We can mix with a bit of black soya beans or red beans.  Actually the machine is able even to make with dry beans but i find it taste a bit "raw"  :P
Step 2:  off the bean into the soya bean milk maker's pot and make up the water to 1.5litre.
Step 3:  Close the cover tightly.
Step 4:  Slect the mode of cooking.
Step 5:  Let it cook... until you hear beeb beeb indicating that it is done.  Normally that's about 20minutes.
Step 6:  Pour the hot mixture out into the filtration unit and press the pulp with the tool given... and that's all.  We have got a nice delicious soya milk.

... washing is one part i dislike because there are alot of care required as it has some electrical connection near the wetted parts.  Other that that it is pretty easy.  it taste very nice too.

The soya bean maker is very good as it can make quite a few things including delicious blask sesame paste and green bean paste.

My mom was quite hardworking in making some time ago... but now... only i make for them.

:P

Our favourite - Caesar Salad....our way :P

You probably had noticed that since we revived the blog sometime last week, we have mentioned Caesar Salad several times.  This is because this is indeed one of our favourite... emm emm... so today we will share the recipe... lets call it Caesar Salad our-way.  so it may not be the best Caesar salad in the world, but it's the way we like it.

 a)  Dressing

5 - 6 tablespoon Mayonnaise

1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 clove garlic

3 anchovies fillet

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Throw everything in a food processor and give it a good blend.  Dish out into a bowl and ready for use.

b)  Panini bread stick

3 tablespoon butter

1 clove finely chopped garlic

1 piece Panini bread

Mix butter and garlic and stir well.  spread the garlic butter to panini bread and throw it on top of a pan to grill.  when it is brown and crispy, remove it from heat and cut to long stick.

3) Salad

2 hard boiled eggs, cut to nice 1/6 wadges

2 large romaine lettuce, break to large piece

10 cherry tomatoes, half all of them

Parmesan cheese powder

1/2 can tuna chunk in brine

mix the romaine lettuce and cherry tomato in a large salad bowl.  pour dressing over it and mix well.  Gardish and serve with half boil egg, tuna flakes, bread stick and parmesan cheese.

nice!!  simple and quick.  you can give it a try  :P

An Apple a day, keeps the _______ away.

2 days ago, watched a documentary show called "Unwrapped" on FoodNetwork.  The show is basically talking about food....how it was processed in factory etc.  and this particular episode was talking about Apple.  It was an interesting show telling us about different type of apple, and their products like apple pie, soft drinks etc.  One of the segments really caught my attention and leave a deep impression.  It's the part they spoke about sliced apple... how the apple was sliced in apple and how it was treated so that it doesn't turn brown...it was dipped into a FDA approved solution containing calcium and vitamin C.  Then it shows that it;s distributed to schools etc

Now it sound OK to most people i guess, after all it's approved by USFDA.  It should be safe... and actually i have little doubt that it will do much harm in short term.  My question was, why do we need to serve this type of "treated" apple instead of a fresh one?  It's a healthy snack that I COULD NOT UNDERSTAND!!  Out of convenience?  How long does it take to peel and cut a fresh apple and pop it into our kid's lunch box?  How hard is that?

In fact, this type of packed sliced apple is also available in one of the famous fast food chain, and i bought it before when Jane was much younger.  At that time, it really never make me ponder a while before buying it.  Jamie Oliver in his show "Food evolution" woke me up.

So, the hot question is... is the old saying "an apple a day, keeps the doctor away"... is that still valid?



Have you also encountered something similar?  A food that make u ponder.

Sunday Sentosa Picnic ... ala Iron Chef

It was a crazy picnic by the beach on last Sunday morning.  We had went picnic at Sentosa's Palawan beach with my ex-classmates Brian and Natalie, and their 3 lovely lovely kids.  We departed from home at 8:30am, 30minutes later than original plan.  It was a crazy days... party means we need to prepare food.  We have "splitted the job" that we prepare the main meal while Brian & Nat prepare fruits, drinks and steamed corn. 

With quite minimal prep the day before, cooking on that groomy Sunday morning was stressful.  My mom was responsible for her specialty, the famous Kuching kolok mee, while i buzzed the way through preparing the rest of the item.  We have prepared 2 main menu:

1.  Kids meal which was comprises of Corn & Chicken burger and Pineapple & Cocktail Sausage skewer.  I've gotten the idea from one of our favourite website www.freshforkids.com.au. 

...I'm so sorry... we did have time to take a photo on the food because we were rushing as I've overslept that morning.  The pictures above are from fresh for kids website.  Anyway, cutting the nonsense, the recipe are on the website.

2.  Regular adult meal which children seems to enjoy it too.  We made kolok mee, Caesar salad (again!!  cos it's our favourite), kim-bab (Korean Sushi... in our own way just as Frank Sinatra said) and open face egg and tuna mayo sandwiches. 



That's 6 items planned to be done in 2 hours time, but ended up finished in just 1.5 hour with help of my sister washing the delicious romaine lettuce.  phew !!  Isn't that like Iron Chef ... hahaha.  ...don ever wake up late again.

It was tiring, but worth it because i think everyone enjoy the food very much.  Not forgetting the tonnes and tonnes of food and drinks Brian and Nat brought.  few whole whole whole tubs of guava with sng-boi-hoon (drooling), strawberries, grapes, hamimelon, rose apples, plum, and sweet corns... can u imagine?  a small picnic turned into a all-u-can-eat (and probably tapau) buffet  :D

We will share the recipe for Caesar salad (again... our way like Frank Sinatra said... it's not necessarily the authentic or the best taste).  Nat seems to like it...

Well... what is the moral of today's story?  All food can be prepared at home... not necessary to buy from shops or re-heat from factory processed food.  See, we are different.  We do not fried chicken nugget or fish ball.  Remember, we are what we eat... especially important to feed our kids right.  ... oh ya... don forget... if you have party... better not overslept  :D

Well... it was a fun picnic which we should do agian.  The kids enjoy it very much and the adults gets to catch up ...while chasing the kids around.  :D

Home-sweet-home

A few days ago, I have committed a house tour, and today I’m delivering it.  Instead of just bringing you around the newly completed kitchen, I’ve dig out some old photos to make a before and after comparison.  It’s interesting to see the evolution.

Before renovation, our living room is triangle in shape and a small enclosed kitchen.  Due to the layout of the apartment, the ventilation is not very well.  We have to switch on the fan the entire day and my mom dislike staying in the kitchen for a long period of time. 

…So when we decided to renovate, we wanted the kitchen wall to be demolished and have an open kitchen concept.  Of course, our initial concern is the greasy from the kitchen.   To further enlarge the space, we decided not to have dining table anymore and settle all means on the elevated breakfast counter.  We approached 2 contractors and finally we went for the one who quoted the highest price.  … reasons… simple, he actually put in extra effort to design out of the box; and secondly, we do see quite a massive hidden cost for the other contractor.  Overall, I still rate the quotation cheap… although at the end I slaughter him with massive.. I mean massive discount!  Paiseh Victor.

…and here go … In mid of June the renovation started.  Originally we wanted to stay in during the work, but it was just too dusty so we decided to move out 1 day before the renovation day.  So, on timely, worker came to hack down the wall and whole house turn naked.  It was an unimaginable mess…

The renovation was messy.  We moved out to my cousin’s place for 2.5 weeks and we have to move back cos it was less dusty and we are so paiseh to stay longer.  Moving back, we still live like living in refugee camp.  No stove, no sofa, no fridge… eat out everyday, not a normal life.  When it is finally over 4 weeks later, that was Pat’s graduation.  We have to force the contractor to work so hard because Pat’s Parents and Boon Siong is visiting.  We need the place to be clean and kitchen ready as all of them do not like to eat out.  Goshh…. On the day cabinet is done, I work till 4am in the morning to unpack everything and arrange them into cabinets.  Get the house ready for our guess.

I must say it’s a job well-done.  Not exactly the same as design, but still look good.  Everyone had their thumbs up for the design.  Even our neighbour felt that it’s a complete face-lift… it is beyond recognition... in a good way :P.  We love it.  As a bonus, there is no grease issue. May be it s because we have installed a good kitchen hood. 

As for me, it's a money worth spending because it bring laughter to everyone.  It is now finally a place we can call home-sweet-home.

Belacan BeeHoon - the secret family recipe with a twist of our style

It's either you pick this up today or... that's it... :P

This is for SURE ... i repeat for SURE NOT a healthy food ... that's why we sort of agree mutually at home that we are making it just once every quarter ... and sort of twist the original recipe a little to something a little more less "damaging"... hahaha... not so serious... but again... eat it sparingly. 

for me, today I'm writing this is this blog to document this family recipe which should continue from our mom to us.

So.... lets get started.  Remember, I learn this from my mom in law, and usually our mothers' recipes are measured by feeling... sort of main agak-agak.  i introduce in some measurement here, but normally i also agak-agak.  You probably need to adjust it a bit to suit your taste.  Let me warn you first, the smell of belacan is strong.  So shut the door and turn on the kitchen hood before you cook.  :P

you need:

6 shallots
6 cloves of garlic
2 table spoon of dried chili paste
half cup dried shrimp (soak to soften and pound)
50g belacan
50g asam paya (tamarind paste)
1 tablespoon of soya sauce
4 tablespoon of sugar
1.5 liter water
Blenched bihoon
Blenched bean sprout
thinly sliced cucumber
Oil for cooking

1.  Blend shallots, garlic and chilli in a blender.  In a large pot, fry the paste for 3 to 5 minutes under medium heat.  Add in the pounded dried shrimp and let it fried for another a minute or so.
2.  The belacan and asam paya will be dissolved in 1.5liter of water before hand.  Pour the belacan and asam solution (don't pour in the asam seeds) into the pot.  Now we are half way done with gravy.  Let the gravy simmer for 10minutes under low heat.
3.  Add in soya sauce to the gravy to give it some brownish colour.  Season the gravy with sugar.  At this point of time, you sound taste it and adjust the taste according to your liking.  There is no salt required because the belacan and asam is already salty.... so don add any salt.  Once you get the right taste, the gravy is done... so easy neh.
3.  Serve it with bihoon, taugeh and cucumber.  See the picture.  you will get it.

My mom in law usually will increase the acidity by adding some rice vinegar.  I'm avoiding that because vinegar can be a bit harsh to the tummy.  I usually will add more asam in the asam/belacan solution.  But if need to, i will put may be half a tea spoon of apple cider vinegar.

Little secret which may be not too many of us in the family know is... it is best to cook this the night before because the sweetness of the dried shrimp will infused into the gravy.

:P

My wife is the number 1 fan for this... i hope everyone reading this will like it  :P

A "Tea"dious matter

2 days ago, i watch Foodnetwork's "Good Eats" on YouTube while i was running in the gym.  ...and the episode i watch was about tea.  I was quite surprise when the host classified tea only to 3 categories, namely Green, Black and Oolong.  My memory straight away tells me at least there are few more type.

I did another small research today on wikipedia and true enough there are more than just 3, but surprisingly also not as many as i thought.  I always tot Oolong, Iron Buddha, Biluochoon, Dragon well etc are tea from different categories, and turn out to be... I'm wrong.  This is what wikipedia says:

Tea is traditionally classified based on the techniques with which it is produced and processed.

• White tea: Wilted and unoxidized
• Yellow tea: Unwilted and unoxidized, but allowed to yellow
• Green tea: Unwilted and unoxidized
• Oolong: Wilted, bruised, and partially oxidized
• Black tea: Wilted, sometimes crushed, and fully oxidized
• Post-fermented tea: Green tea that has been allowed to ferment/compost

Well, as much as i like to drink Chinese tea, I'm not such an expert.  I only drink Oolong and Greentea except LongJing or Dragon well.  I just find the taste too "grassy" :P

My favourite favourite tea of all... is Teh-C.  In Singapore, a good teh-c from well known coffee shop chain like Ya Kun or Toast Box can cost as much as $3 a cup.  My favourite favourite would have to be Ya Kun as the taste is very consistent from store to store.  A proof of quality control.  As usual, i too have a home version... hahaha... my friend always say "what else that you don't make at home?"  :P  hahaha... actually, we are very experimental... we try to reproduce things we eat outside at home :P



To make Teh-C is not difficult.  All we need is a good tea powder, evaporated milk and little sugar...of course hot water.  I like Boh because the taste is strong.  It will give me the "kao" taste.  There is no secret other than pour the evaporated milk to the hot tea and add little sugar.  The real secrete to get the tea "kao-kao" is the tea filter.  In HongKong, this is called a stocking filter  :P 

With this filter, I can pour out the tea and return it to the pot through the filter a few times like making teh-tarik.  hehe... it's delicious.  and it doesn't cost much to make at home.  when you did it at home, you will realize how high the profit margin is for this drink sold at coffee shop and coffee shop chain.  :P

"Steamy" question, BoonSiong asked

During our usual chat over email, our good friend from KL spoke about his new lather sofa... and wrote about doing cooking himself and we said, hey... why not i post something on the blog today and dedicate it just for you my best friend.  ... and here it is. 

BS asked...how to use the steam basket which come together with the rice cooker.  Hey, i thought it's a good time to ask Auntie Kimberly what can BS do with that basket.  Unfortunately our blog "production" time is usually in the midnight when the lil Jane went to bed and we have a little time for ourselves, Auntie Kimberly is also sleeping already, so, yup BS, you gotta count on uncle delik now  :P

OK.  when BS mentioned about rice cooker with a steamer rack... i assumed it's the same as the one we have at home.

I imagine you can easily make a few dishes on top of the cooking rice.  Like killing many birds with one stone.  I will suggest the few below:

These are very simple dishes we can do while the rice is cooking.  ... BUT the basket is not very big.  you could probably do 2 or 3 dishes the most, with very small bowl.  :P

Happy trying. ...

Yo! "Home"licious is back :D

Well well well, it has been a while since we last posted something interesting. and today we are back. Our kitchen is still busy cooking and we are still counting our blessing everyday for the great food we enjoyed. Lots of things happen in our small kitchen. We had our kitchen and living room renovated, the wall between them was demolished. now we have a chic open kitchen... most people will say it is not suitable for heavy cooking family... but it works fine. now... here's a little promise. This week, I'll give you a tour to our newly renovated kitchen. emm...

So... what happened for the pass 2 weeks... For 2 weeks we had confined ourselves at home during weekend because Pat was busy with the school work stuff. So, mega home cook food is part of the fun activities to keep everyone comfortable at home. hmm... 2 of the below are just among the few specialties we made at home.

both are food from different "planets". Caesar Salad is healthy and of course we spice it with our own twist on the dressing and the garlic panini bread stick. emmemm emm... Belacan beehoon on the other hand is super delicious but super unhealthy. Don't ask me how many calorie that was and how much cholesterol in it. We choose not to think about it. but then again.. belacan beehoon is a one every quater feast... so i guess it's ok.

Ok... sometime this week, we will also share the recipe. Well, for those who are fan of my mom in law's belacan beehoon, do stay tuned because it's the only chance you can pick up this secret recipe :P

ok... bye

Some sympathies for Japan please...someone.

Today lets not talk about food and seriously pray for Japan.  The victims are stranger to most of us, but we are brothers and sister in the eye of God.

Today i received another email from my best friend, BoonSiong from Malaysia.  He asked about actions taken by Singaporean government following the nuclear power plant explosion in Japan.  He is standing by to analyse food sample.  That's serious right?  It means of food chain is potentially affected by nuclear radiation.  Just a few days before this, BoonSiong wrote and talked about his friend in Japan whom are now only eat instant noodle and has no power or water supply.

At that very instant, i was thinking that at least his friend survived the earth quake and tsunami.  yesterday night i watched an extensive report on Japanese earth quake and tsunami and nuclear plant disaster on TVBS Asia.  It was so heat breaking to hear about the shortage of food and medication.  That's really worse than we could ever imagine.  How can this be happening in Japan, a developed country?  I cannot understand, but neither do i want to comment.  It is always easier to comment when we are standing outside and watching.  But from that i also do salute the calmness and discipline of the victim.  Can we still queue up for food and drinks?  or will we rush and fight?   The way the victims helped and supported each other really show unity in Japanese society.  That's something the world need to learn.

Back to food, the next time we have our meal, please look at every single grain of rice.  Do not waste food.  There are people in hunger now.  There are also farmers out there working so hard to provide food for all of us, and earn a very small income.  Food wastage prevention is not a "project" during crisis time, it is a life long culture that we should inculcate. 

Personally, i also do not know why, last night i started to keep Japan in my night prayer.  May God bless Japan.  Amen!  :P

Ham... anyone

Ever wake up one morning and realize you really want to take a big bite at the ham...emm...hmm... ham.  Sound like a sudden gene mutation over night right.  ya... i think i have mutated... or may be insane.  :P 

As long as there is ham in it, I will not be able to resist not to take a bite.  below are just some of those that i love to bite:

Other than McMuffin with ham and McCafe triple decker with ham which i commonly get, the spaghetti carbornara i eat must also be with ham and not bacon.  :P

This weekend, may be i will try to make a melting cheese ham sandwich... but first of all, i must get a toaster so that i could grill the ham, and melt the cheese.  :D

Do you have the same madness for ham like me?  :P

Grass... someone?

Last Friday I went to my lil girl school for the once per semester exhibition and meet the teacher thingie and guess what...?  We brought back 3 plants grew by my lil angel.  We had a pot of mint, a pot of some red xxxx vege thingie and a tray of wheat grass.  郭老师told us to to cut and blend the wheat grass and make into ...you know... wheat grass juice... To us, it's not just any wheat grass juice... it's D grass grown by my girl.  So, i thought on Sunday night, we will cut the wheat grass and then make it into juice so that everyone can have a sip of it... yumm..... that's good stuff packed with chlorophyll, vitamins and all the good stuff... emm... yum yum...

Ya... that's what we wished.  Last minute the owner of the grass refuse to let us cut it.  After 30minutes of bargaining, I gave up.  So, at the end, we did not get to drink any wheat grass juice after all.  but i can completely understand the feeling.  I remembered when i was a kid... may be primary 2... i found a chick one day on my way home from school.  So, my ah ko helped me to build a small cage to keep the chick... and as usual... all chick has the same fate... end up in someones pot... my lil chick was no exception.  One day my ah ko decided that d-day has arrived.  With my nonsense, she slaughtered the poor white hen.  after that i regretted.  i cried... ya and you know 鸡死不能复生, but I 化悲伤为力量 and ate a drum stick :D ... anyway... i just didn't want to invite trouble.  I know my girl, she will jump and jump if i cut the grass.

So... take another look at the "grass" we do not get to savour... it's Jane-Nat Wheat Grass... :P

"Katong Laksa" home made style

Hi everyone, so sorry that we have disappeared for almost 2 months.  We were just busy.  Well, now we are back online, i would like to share with you our adventure of making Singapore laksa for the very first time yesterday.  It all started with our sudden addiction to the Katong Laksa outside United Square.  After a few days of research online, I finally satisfied with the following recipe...(Disclaimer:  it is not a healthy food, i say up front ah... high in fat and cholesterol.  Consume at your own risk...hahaha... but so damn good ohh  :P).  haha... my friend said we always have a home version of everything. 

Ingredient:

Gravy
4nos Shallots
6cloves Garlic
2tsp Turmeric powder
1tsp  Coriander seed powder (freshly roasted and ground)
5nos Candle nuts (buah keras)
2tbs chilli powder
2 lemon grass
2cm long "Lengkuas"
1/2tsp belacan
5pcs laksa leaves a.k.a. daun kesom
1 hand full of dried shrimp
1 packet of coconut milk
1 cup full cream milk
500ml water
cooking oil
Salt and sugar for seasoning

Beehoon
2 packet Laksa beehoon
Fish cake
Fresh prawn
taupok (bean curd)
Bean sprout a.k.a. taugeh
finely chopped laksa leaves

Instruction:
1. Using a blender, finely grind shallots and garlics, then grind dried shrimp and candle nut seperately.
2.  Using a medium size pot, tumis-tumis your bawang and chilli for a few minutes, then add in coriander seed powder, turmeric powder and candle nut.  Tumis-tumis for a few more 1 more minute, then add in the dried shrimp and belacan.  Tumis again for few minutes before add in coconut milk and fresh milk.   After that add in the daun kesom, lemon grass, lengkuas and water.
3.  When the gravy started to boil, reduce the heat and add in taupok.  Simmer for 5 minutes then season it with salt and sugar.
4.  To serve, blench some beehoon and taugeh.  Pour hot gravy over it and garnish it with boiled prawn and fish cake.  Add a bit of finely chopped laksa leaves...it taste so good :P

I cannot say this is the best laksa in the whole Singapore, but for sure better than most of the hawker stores  :P ... and it's home made.  ... cannot say it's cheaper also.  With the amount of money i paid for the ingredients...it's probably still cheaper to eat outside... but the ingredient we used are of better quality :D  Not i 车大炮, this laksa really worth 4 out of 5 stars... serious... give it a try.

***** :D

Jane's birthday cupcakes decorcated with fondant

Wow!  I've not been blogging the food for a few days.  Well... you have not missed much.  pretty much the same food everyday.  We had a nice spicy curry 2 days ago though.  :D 

It's Jane's belated birthday and Jane had celebrated at school with her classmates...those cute small boys and girls.  Pat ordered a set of nicely decorated cupcake to celebrate at school.  The characters on the cupcakes are Jane's favourite - NumberJacks. 

The colourful decoration on the cake is called fondant.  Before this, i just understood the term as a kind of decoration and thinking that it is something similar to marzipan.  Today, out of curiousity i have done a small research online to findout exactly what fondant is.  and ... it is ... merely sugar with cornsyrap ... and other binding material .... and not forgetting.... colouring ... and of course safe to be consumed.

according to ww.allrecipes.com, fondant is made of:

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup corn syrup
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons shortening
• 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch, for rolling out the dough

Directions

1. Place gelatin and water in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until gelatin is melted. Remove from heat.
2. Combine the corn syrup, vegetable oil, shortening, and confectioners' sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on low, and add the gelatin mixture. Beat on low speed until a paste is formed. Refrigerate for 15 minutes to let harden slightly.
3. To use, roll the fondant to 1/4 inch thickness, using cornstarch to coat the work surface and the rolling pin. Transfer fondant by rolling it around the rolling pin. Place fondant over cake and unroll it, stretching it into place as necessary. Use a paring knife to cut away the excess. Store unused fondant in an airtight container.

The cupcake we ordered each cost $4 (ya... $4 a piece :O ) and it's ordered online at http://cupcakedivinity.blogspot.com/.  It's pricey but i guess we paid for the craftmanship.  it is nice.  ...profit margin must be that...THAT ...high.  Next year we try to make our own, ok?

:D

Happy Birthday Jane girl.  Papa and Mimi love u!!

Tempura - The homemade way

To spice up life, it is interesting to make something different.  How about making Japanese food.  It's not so difficult... try our little home recipe.  It's quick and it's home made.  It's cheap also.

For jump start, go to any supermarket and grab these 2 item:

They are tempura flour and concentrated tempura sauce.  After u get these, then think about what we want to fried.  We can pratically tempura anything.  Prawn, squid, fish, crab stick, and most of any other seafood.  Tempura vegetable is also very good.  We use to fried carrot, lotus root (yum.. good), pumpkin, asparus, ladies finger, mushroom etc.

Last Saturday, as there were only Pat and I eating, so we made it very simple.  We only had prawn, tofu and oyster mushroom.  To make it, it's very simple.  Just make the tempura batter as per the tempura flour mix instruction.  We use Nissin tempura flour.  It's pretty good.  never tried other brand anyway.  for the sauce, we use Hinode concentracted tempura sauce.  We only need to mix one part of the sauce with 2 part of hot water. 

It's a simple enough to make, and very delicious.  It may not look as good as those from restaurant, but guarantee to taste good.  We also made a bowl of Japanese potato salad.  To make this, just add mayonaise to boiled potato (cut into cubes) and bunch of boiled baby carrot.  Just add in some boneto flakes for garnishing.

To make the meal complete, we also served miso soup, salmon sashimi and roasted seaweed.



3 days roll up

oppss... have not been updating the blog for 2 days and as i compiled, i realized that we have consumed quite a fair bit of food.  I cannot say they are the healthiest food, but mostly home made. :P

13 Jan:
Lunch:  Office packed lunch is the same food as the previous day's dinner.  Fried bean with sambal and sweet pork. 
Dinner:  Chinese sausage ommelette and fried brinjal.  Pat had some kimchi as well. 

14 Jan:
Lunch:  Again is the same as the dinner from the previous dinner.  Mom will usually cook extra for dinner and pack for next day's lunch.  I will then reheat in microwave oven in office.
Dinner:  We had fried kangkong, steamed fish and "hairy melon" soup.  The fish is steamed in somewhat teochew style. 

15 Jan:
Lunch:  Simple lunch, adults had fried beehoon while the small little girl had her favourite organic rice pasta soup. 
Dinner:  Only Pat, Jane-nat and I at home for dinner.  We had home made tempura dinner.  We fried prawns, fresh mushroom and tofu.  The sauce is not really home made though.  It's bottled concentracted sauce.  we also made Japanese potato salad with boneto flakes and miso soup.  To make the dinner more complete, we bough 1 serving of salmon sashimi.  yum!  The little girl is not feeling well.  She ate steamed egg with minced pork and carrot in the Japanese potato salad.
 

All the craps I have eaten

While promoting healthy diet and minimizing intake of processed food, I myself have consumed quite a fair bit of unhealthy processed food which are high in sugar, sodium, and carbo.  ...I'm trying to find an excuse for myself... emm....may be on 80/20 basis it is OK.... :P... no it is not OK. 

On 11 Jan, i started with waking up late... and i mean really late.  Woke up in total shock at 6:45am.  I was so late for the company bus.  So Pat had to drive me to the MRT station and board the company bus at Admiralty instead of Sengkang... and lets not even talk about not being able to bath.  Then back at the client's place, i had the typical Singaporean breakfast... fried noodle, and i added a sunny side up egg (with broken york :( ).  Thank God i convinced myself not to take sausage.  :P .... other than, i had 2 instant teh tarik (with artificial creamer and high in sugar... and a packet of Corntoz Aiwah bought.  Good God!!  what was on my mind.  BUT... lunch and dinner were good.  Summarizing for the day for 11 Jan, please see the chart below:

Then on 12 Jan, more craps into the stomach.  In the morning, instead of just eat my whole meal bread, i also ate a slice of soon kueh.  Packed lunch at office was superb.  The rated "A" fried rice my mom made is delicious as usual.  Back home, everyone had plain purple rice porridge for lunch and steamed minced pork and chai sim to go with.  In afternoon, had another coffee.  It's a waste of calories, the coffee taste ....then it is worsen with another pack of Corntoz and a piece of kueh chap...ohhh... Dinner was great. We had ginger soya sauce fish head, fried bean and sweet pork, and brown rice as usual. 

My 2 days were basically spoiled by the rubish i consumed.  I must control!!!  But i did resume my exercise regime.  :D

爱心靓汤 - 玉米红萝卜莲藕煲排骨 Soup of the day - Maize,carrot and lotus root soup with pork spare rib

I've been waiting for soup since we return from Hongkong last Thursday night.  Finally, today we get to drink some nice soup.  Hurray!! This is one of our favourite soup of all time, especially my little Jane.  It's very delicious and nourishing at the same time.  it is known to be very 滋补.  Anyway, for me, the most important thing is it is very tasty.  It's my mom's specialty also.  Little Jane drank a big bowl this evening and ate 5 pieces of the lotus root and not to mention so much of the carrot and sweet corn.

below is roughly the recipe.  Please pardon me, my mom do not have exact measurement of how much is each ingredient.  It's all by "feeling" and "experience".  It's just "a bit of that" and "a handfull of this" :D  You just intelligently balance the ingredients to your own liking.

Ingredient:
Fresh sweet corn (whole corn)  - 2 nos
Carrot - 2 nos
Lotus root - 1 no (about 1' long)
Pork spare rib / soup bone - 250g
Salt for seasoning

Instruction:
1.  Clean the pork rib and blench in boiling water to get rid of the blood.  Clean the blenched pork rib with cold water.  This will also make the soup clearer.
2.  Cut the sweet corn into 4 or 5 pieces short sections, carrot into large pieces and lotus root into thick pieces. 
3.  In a big stock pot, boil the pork rib and the lotus root for 30minutes, then add in sweet corn and carrot.  Slow boil the soup again for about 1 hour over low heat.  Add water if necessary.
4.  When all ingredients are soft, season the soup with salt.  No MSG required.  The soup is naturally sweet.


Sometime we also add a few pitted red dates.  But watch out, add red dates sparingly because it is heaty and make sure it is pitted as the seed is more heaty.  A Hainanese colleague of mine cook similar soup with ginger.  It taste quite good too, but i do find it heaty too.  Not very suitable to drink during hot day.  You can also make this soup without the lotus root. 

OK.  enjoy cooking.

10 Jan - food

It's another day and looking back at the photos of what we have consumed over the entire day is in fact quite amazing.  The food we ate today is more or less self explanatory.

Overall, i rate as below:

Breakfast - "A" for the egg sandwich which both Pat and I had; "B" for little Jane's bring-to-school snack box (peanut butter bread).  All bread are whole meal though.

Lunch - "B" as kueh tiaw Pat, mom and little Jane consumed is still some what processed, but not too bad.  At least it's not oily.  "A-" for my "frozen" chicken rice lunch.  Still very tasty and cucumber pickle is refreshing.

Dinner - "A".  Not a great dinner.  In fact quite simple but again home cook and all ingredient are mostly fresh.

Overall, it's good.  All... and really... all the food for the whole day are home made... and made mostly from fresh ingredients.  I'm trying to say no to my favourite sausage and instant noodles.  Trying to set a good example for my little girl.  emm... i promised to return to my exercise regime tomorrow.  I will try...

Lets be healthier everyone!  I think the most important thing is to reduce processes food and say no to food which contain XYZ ingredient that sounded like NASA code which we have little/no knowledge about.  They could be colouring, conditioner, stabilizer, thickener, preservative, flavouring, binder etc... you name it, they have it.  They are just chemicals in a nut shell.

Mek..mek...fresh goat's milk in Singapore

Mek...mek.....Yes, in Singapore, and yes, the goats are all holding Singaporean passport and living in Singapore :D 

It is amazing isn't it? I think this is one of the very rare argriculture industries in Singapore.

My little Jane has been drinking fresh goat's milk from Hay Dairies since several months ago.  She will consume 1 serving of fresh goat's milk and mix with another 2 servings of formula goat's milk.  Goat's milk is known to be easy to digest and good for those who are allergic to cow's milk.  The milk come in normal white milk or chocolate (but not sweeten). 

I really prefer this fresh milk than formula milk because i just cannot understand why must the formula milk manufacturer add in so much additive AHA, DHA, Omega-3 etc...into milk powder.  I was shocked when my vegetarian colleague told me that they could not drink some of the common milk powder because the omega and DHA is from fish oil.  Fish oil in cow's milk powder? emm....

I earn nothing from Hay Dairies and really not promoting for them.  Just like to share something good with everyone.  The only thing that i would probably recommend to Hay is that probably they can consider recycle their bottles.  It's quite a waste to throw away the bottle everyday.

Hay Dairies Pte Ltd

No. 3 Lim Chu Kang
Agrotech Park Lane 4
Singapore 718859

Tel: (65) 6792 0931
(Office Hours: 9am to 4pm)
Fax: (65) 6794 1580

http://www.haydairies.com.sg/

Week 01/2011 roll up

Still not quite use to my new activity, i.e. blog about my family's daily diet yet.  Some of the pictures were taken when we were half way through the meal.  Please pardon me for the quality of the photos.  Anyway... here is the the roll up for the pass 2 days since i decided to blog about it.

8 Jan:We had our lunch at home as usual.  Well... not too much of fresh ingredient in the fridge since we just return from Hongkong, so mom made chai-po ommelete and pork with kiam-chai, and we had purple rice porridge to go with it.  Both chai-po and Kiam-chai are preserved vegetable...i didn't read the ingredient on the packaging ... so i have no idea what were the "chemicals" added.  Too bad i didn't take any picture.  On scale of A-E, i rate the lunch "C".  But it is still a healthier home cook meal as it has reduced oil and no MSG.

Dinner was good.  I rate it "A" with a minus sign since we dipped the cucumber with sambal belacan.  We had brown rice for the lunch

9 Jan:
Simple lunch.  i have to give it a "B" because we had our favourite canned Sardine.  It's a processed food.  man!  Forgoten to read the ingredient again.  Vege was good though.

 Then we had my mom's best chicken rice for dinner.  I have to rate it "A".  Not only it is delicious, it is also healthy as the rice is not so oilly, and everything are made from fresh ingredient including the chili dip (of course not the soya sauce).  We also had my mom's special cucumber marinated with lime as side dish.  I packed the same food for lunch, tomorrow, i'll try to remember to take a picture of the cucumber.

Here is a minus point for the day.  Pat and I had a curry puff each for tea break.  I'm not promoting for anyone, this curry puff is the famous curry puff from Ang Mo Kio, which some said the owner was the one who were jailed due to failure to file tax correctly.  I donno...it's just yummy... but oilly and full of carb.  :P  on 80/20 basis, i guess it is ok :D

and ya... that summarize what we ate for the pass 2 days.  Simple food, but home made.

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

After just watched the 1st episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Travel and Living Channel on 6 January 2011, I completely counting my blessing more (and more) for having hot home cook food everyday .  And appreciate the food more.  As a parent myself, i feel sore to see what children are being fed with everyday in school.  It was really an eye opener.  Thank God i have a loving mom who cook hot meals for us almost everyday.  She also prepared lunch box for us to bring to office.  It may not be the most delicious or interesting meals, but definately the healthiest choice. 

The fact that my little 4-year old daughter, Jane-Nat eats her nai-nai (granny)'s cooking everyday is a true blessing.  At least she eats healthy food everyday. 

I've decided that i will create a blog about my lunch box and hot meals everyday.  I hope this will inspire the people around me to cook and go home to eat.  Eat-out less and reduce consumption of heavily processed food.  May be share a few home cook recipe.  Start to live healthier.  It's a matter of choice.  Start the little changes and we can and will regain the healthier life.  Feed yourself well, feed our children well. 

To start of, allow me to share this amazing wake-up-call video of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.  It has inspired me, i hope it moves you too.

All 6 episodes are on You Tubes and each episodes is splitted into 3 parts.  I hope all my friends and relatives will watch all of them.  It is not a religious preaching, nor direct sales.  It is just a TV reality show... so real.  I trust it will change your life, change your kid's life  ... if it doesn't move you at all, then ...i guess i just "buang karen" talking to you.  :D