Cottage Pie

I watched an episode of The 'F' Word once and Gordon Ramsay's guest was arguing with him that she was making a shepherd's pie, when in actual fact she was making a cottage pie. I'm not entirely sure what the difference in ingredients is, but only the fact that when one is made from beef it is called a 'cottage pie' and when made with lamb, it is 'shepherd's pie'.

I've not made this dish in a long time and since I bought some minced beef at a discount, decided to do it. This is naturally one of hubby's favourites because of the potatoes.

I don't have exact measurements but the ingredients I used are as
follows -

1. Minced Beef
2. 3 big potatoes, boiled and mashed with approx. 1/4 cup fresh milk and a knob of butter, seasoned with salt and a mix of black and white pepper
3. Some peas
4. 1 carrot, cubed
5. 1/2 an onion chopped up
6. 1 tomato, chopped
7. Seasonings - cinnamon, 1 bay leaf, oregano
8. Some breadcrumbs to thicken up minced beef mixture
9. I added some grated cheddar to the top (optional). You can use an egg wash

Cook everything together except the mashed potatoes. When beef is cooked, place in a baking dish and top with mash. You can choose to pipe it nicely if you like. Sprinkle some cheese on top and bake till brown. Enjoy!

Steamed Fish Fillet

I have no idea whatsoever, why they named this dish 'steamed fish fillet', as there was no steaming involved. The fish was pan-fried and sauce poured over it.

Pan Fried Fish Fillet (taken from November issue of 'Food & Travel' magazine)

Ingredients -

400g soon hock fish fillets*, sliced into 2 pcs
2 bulbs ginger, shred thinly
1/4 cup fish stock (I used the fish bones to make this)
1/2 tsp dark soya sauce
1/2 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
spring onions and sliced tomatoes for garnishing

* You may also use sea bass, garoupa, red snapper.

Method -

1. Pat dry the fish with paper towels and marinade with salt and pepper.

2. In a pan, heat 1/2tbsp of sunflower oil and fry the fish until crispy and golden brown. Remove and set aside.

3. In the same pan, heat remaining sunflower oil and saute the ginger until crispy. Remove from oil.

4. Add in dark soya sauce and fish stock and let it simmer.

5. Add in the brown sugar and simmer until the sauce caramelizes.

6. Pour the sauce over the fish. Garnish with the fried ginger strips, spring onions and sliced tomatoes before serving.

Steamed Herbal Chicken

Do any of you read the 'Food & Travel' magazine? I am very pleased to be introduced to it by Kenwood when I joined as a member and was given 4 copies of them. In them, I found many simple recipes to experiment with and most of them turned out quite nice. The pumpkin curry I prepared earlier was also from this magazine. Just this week, I made this herbal chicken and also the steamed fish fillet which were both simple to prepare, and tasted good.

Steamed Herbal Chicken (taken off the November issue of the magazine)

Ingredients -

2 chicken thighs
2 tsp Chinese wolfberries
2 tsp polyconattum (yok chok)
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tsp Chinese rice wine
salt and pepper to taste

Method -

1. Marinade the chicken with all the ingredients for about mins.

2. Place the chicken and the ingredients in a bowl and steam for 25mins (I did 35 to get it more tender).

3. Serve immediately with rice.

Prosciutto Chicken with Carbonara Sauce Recipe

Ingredients -

500g fettucine (I used fresh, not dried)
Extra fresh sage leaves to garnish
Shaved parmesan, to serve (Can you believe the prices of these things??!! I bought the cheapest which was some Australian Cheddar)

Prosciutto Tenderloins -

12 chicken tenderloins (I used 9 pcs fillet, I believe the little fillet = tenderloins?)
6 slices prosciutto (Cut 3 slices in half - cost saving hehe)
12 sage leaves (9 for me)

Carbonara Sauce -

1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 bacon rashers, coarsely chopped
300 ml cooking cream
1/2 cup milk
2 egg yolks

Method -

1. To make prosciutto tenderloins, place a tenderloin across a piece of prosciutto. Place a sage leaf, lengthwise, on top of each tenderloin. Roll-up prosciutto to hold each leaf in place.

2. Cook chicken in a heated, oiled non-stick frying pan until browned all over and cooked through. Remove and cover to keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a large saucepan of boiling, salted water until just tender. Drain.

4. To make carbonara sauce, heat oil in the same large saucepan. Add onion, garlic and bacon. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 mins, or until onion is soft. Add cream and milk and bring to the boil. Add pasta and egg yolks. Reduce heat to medium. Stir until pasta is hot

5. Arrange pasta on a serving plate. Top with cooked tenderloins. Garnish with extra sage leaves. Served with shaved cheese.

Syrian Chicken Recipe

The original recipe is served with couscous, but I used white rice instead. Somehow, the colour of mine is not as beautiful as the original photo in the magazine. It was a lovely golden colour with hardly any sauce whereas mine is more of a yellow colour. Wonder what went wrong. :P I do not highly recommend this recipe but if anyone is game enough to try it, it might turn out better than mine. I thought it was only so-so. I was attracted to it because of the use of apricots and figs.

Ingredients -

1 tsp sea salt or table salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tbsps flour
400 g boneless chicken thighs (I used chicken breasts)
40 ml olive oil
1 onion, sliced thickly
50 g gresh ginger, peeled and cut into thick strips
2 cloves garlic
5 sprigs thyme
4 tbsps lemon juice - I think maybe 3 is enough but I've not tried the original Syrian chicken so it might be a sour dish. However, my own preference would have been a little less sour.
1 preserved lemon, roughly chopped - I omitted
2 tbsps honey
1 cup dried apricots
4 dried figs, chopped roughly
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth (use canned)
1/2 cup white wine

For the couscous -

500 ml chicken or vegetable stock (use canned)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup currants or raisins
1-1/2 cup couscous (we used a rice cup for measurement)
Handful of chopped coriander leaves

Method -

1. Combine salt, cumin, cinnamon, pepper, turmeric and flour in a plastic bag. Add chicken and shake bag to coat the pieces with the mixture.

2. Heat olive oil in a pan over a high flame. When hot, add chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside.

3. Add onion, ginger, garlic to the same pan and cook for 2 mins. Add thyme and cook for another 2 mins.

4. Return chicken to the pan and add lemon juice, preserved lemon, honey, apricot, figs, stock and wine. Cover with the lid and simmer over a low flame for 10 mins. Uncover and simmer for 15 mins. Keep warm.

5. To prepare the couscous, bring stock to a boil with cinnamon sticks and oil.

6. Add currants and couscous, stirring till it returns to a boil. Remove from stove and cover for 5 mins. Stir in the coriander leaves before serving. Serve hot with prepared chicken.

Note - I can't comment on the couscous recipe as I did not try it.

Pumpkin Curry Recipe (serves 4)

Ingredients -

1 kg pumpkin, remove skin and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 onion, chopped
1 tsp mustard seed
2 red chillies, sliced
8 curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
[250 ml thin coconut milk (125ml water + 125ml coconut milk)
250ml thick coconut milk] - substituted with Carnation Low Fat Evaporated Milk (404ml I think)
2 cloves garlic
1 slice ginger
1 tbsp fresh coconut - I omitted
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp oil

Method -

1. Heat oil in saucepan. Put pumpkin and onions into the pan and saute for a few minutes until the onions start to soften.

2. Add in the mustard seed, chillies and curry leaves, and saute for a minute. Then add the thin coconut milk, turmeric and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer until pumpkin is tender.

3. In the meantime, grind together the garlic, ginger, coconut and black pepper and mix with the thick coconut milk. Add to pumpkin mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. The gravy should be thick.

4. Serve with rice or flatbreads to sop up the gravy.

Note -

As I am not able to consume coconuts, I substituted the coconut milk with low fat evaporated milk. Although I believe the gravy wasn't as thick as it was supposed to have been if coconut had been used instead, it still was yummy. However, fresh coconut would have made a huge difference as it would have been more fragrant.

Potato, Leek & Lentil Soup

For lunch today, I made Potato Leek soup. I actually wanted to make the Asparagus Leek soup that Daphne made. I'm trying to put hubs on a light diet so have to think of stuff that he will like. However, at the market this morning, I couldn't find any asparagus. According to Daphne, it's out of season. I suppose that's why my regular vegetable seller didn't carry them. If I'm not wrong, his veg are usually imported from Oz thus we get lovely broccoli, asparagus, etc.

Since I already picked up some leeks, I was trying to work out in my mind what kind of soup I could make, then remembered the potatos I had back home. So that settled it.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes
2 or 3 leeks, chopped (I used 2) - make sure all the sand is washed out properly
500ml stock (I had some chicken stock)
200ml water (I thought the liquid looked too little) - You can also use milk
1 cube of vegetable stock (or chicken even)
1/6 cup red split lentils
1/4 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste
1tbsp butter

Method :

1. Boil potatoes and remove skin when cooked.
2. Bring stock and water to boil, add lentils followed by potatoes. Mash potatoes in stock.
3. Saute leek in butter till translucent. Add to stock.
4. Simmer over medium to low heat. Add salt, pepper and veg cube stock.
5. Add cream and serve with bread.

M&M (Marble and Meringue)

I have been slackening in my postings, I know that, as I've been asked frequently by friends, 'how come no updates?'. Haha. Well, haven't been feeling too good as the arthritis has been acting up, and have hindered a lot of my leg movements. I'm not sure if the weather is to be blamed. And also, it IS the time of year when many things are happening, being near Christmas and all, year end graduation concerts, school holidays - time to meet up with friends, and birthday parties every weekend(!), so won't have as many updates as other times of year as have not got much free time to be sitting in front of the mac. But first of all, I feel very guilty that I have not sent out the cookies for the cookie exchange which I have signed up for in the forum that I am in. I mean my sender has already got my cookies on the way over to me and I have only baked mine last night! It sounded fun when I signed up but how was I to predict that I would be in this state? I don't think the cookies will be late, but since I am only mailing them out these couple of days, I can't opt for surface mail which will take 2 months to arrive, as informed by the post office! So if I do participate again next year, will have to mail them in October! Yikes!

So anyways, enough of ramblings... a couple of days back, I left a block of butter out to soften in the morning and was out the whole day... now where did I go... hmmm... every day passes in a blur. After coming back in the evening, had to quickly prepare dinner and all the time the butter was staring at me. After princess was all ready for bed with daddy tucking her in, I still did not know what to do with the butter. Had intended to bake something but as it was getting late, was panicking and didn't want to put it back in the fridge. Did not want to do a full chocolate recipe so looked through my bookshelf and spied the cookbook that mum had given me a couple of years back. She got it from Cold Storage like free when you spent a certain amount of $. Flicked through and decided to do the marble cake as it called for a full block of 225g butter. One huge mistake I made was that I was too lazy to clean up the Chef so I used manual labour. Taking pointers from a forum pal, Josh, who said that the important thing about butter cakes is that you cannot let the mixture curdle or the cake will not be fluffy soft, gosh, I was spooning like a spoonful each time and you do the math with 4 egg whites. Sheesh. And on top of that, there was the cup of milk to spoon in as well. By the time the cake was cooled, it was past 12 am, but thankfully there was a 2hr episode of Amazing Race on that night, and the first country they visited was Ireland! :P


I also made some meringues yesterday with chocolate chips. Baked them for a couple of hours so that they would dry up on the inside and not be marshmallowy soft. The thing about meringues is that they have to baked super slow on very low temperature to avoid getting them brown. The first batch I made were a disaster. They were baking really nicely till I hung up a tea towel on the oven rack and probably turned up the heat on the oven by accident! While wrapping birthday presents, the room was suddenly filled with this sweet smell, and when I went to look in on them, they were all browned!!! Gosh! Waste of my effort so I took a break and started again in the evening. This time I was very careful, as they had to turn out perfect. The result is a highly addictive meringue, very light and crunchy. I love the lovely sheen on them.


Meringues

Ingredients -

2 egg whites
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
chocolate chips (amount to your fancy)


Method -

1. Preheat oven to 110 deg C (225deg F). Line 2 cookie sheets with foil.

2. In a large glass or metal mixing bowl, beat egg whites, salt and cream of tartar to soft peaks. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, continuing to beat until whites form stiff peaks. Add chocolate chips and fold in. Drop spoonfuls 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheets.

3. Bake for 1-1/2 hrs in preheated oven (I think mine was at least 2hrs in oven). Meringues should be completely dry on the inside. Do not allow them to brown. Turn off oven. Keep oven door ajar, and let meringues sit in the oven to completely cool. Loosen from foil with metal spatula (I find I didn't have to use spatula, just peeled them gently off the foil, they came out beautifully). Store loosely covered in cool dry place for up to 2mths.

Last evening, we had gone to Carrefour and saw this tiramisu selling for half price. Was $3-something. The use by date is the end of this month so bought one to try. I don't really fancy is as it is way too sweet. The alcohol in it is very strong, but unless you love really sweet stuff I wouldn't recommend it. Ok, time to make my own... probably for Christmas dessert. :)

Busy busy

Was a busy day today. Picked little one from school before classes ended to rush down to the paed before the clinic closed for lunch. Made a big 'donation' to the paed but what to do, hopefully this will sort out the problem of her cough. The GP had suggested that if she still wasn't well after this round of medication, that she should go for an x-ray. Huh? Is it really so serious? We decided to go to the paed instead. The minute we saw him he diagnosed it straightaway as an allergy. He asked if she coughs after a run, and yes she does. Also she coughs straight after eating ice-cream. I guess that's what you pay for. It's the experience that they have. Even if it's way more than the cost of seeing a GP, it at least answers my questions. I don't think it warrants an x-ray. I mean she's had it before and we went for TCM after western medication didn't help. Well, it eventually tapered off, but I really pitied her that time. Had to force her to down the yucky chinese medicine (I doubt I can drink that myself), but after threats with cane, and the buckets of tears every time, we finally found a solution, that was to add honey to it and she drank it much better (I was really so proud of her), but always accompanied by some preserved plums. :) She loves them. That is so Chinese. I think her Chinese genes are much stronger than Irish. And I guess living here in Asia contributes to that as well. She loves noodles and tofu more than potatoes or roasts.

So for the next 7 days we have to do this inhaler thing. It was a lot to absorb at the paed's. Goodness, must remember all the steps etc. So we have to get up a little earlier in the mornings to get it out of the way before leaving for school. Sigh. Then after 7 days have to report back to paed and continue for another 3 weeks. Mega sigh. But he says it works better than liquid allergy medicine. And also thank God it's not the nebulizer or it would have been more costly to rent the equipment etc.

Note to self - No pineapple/orange juices, berries (basically acidic food), no nuts. No green kiwi, golden kiwi is fine. Can take apples, papaya.

On a happier note, the tooth fairy visited for the 2nd time this month. The tooth has been bugging her for ages since the 1st one came out (they were both shaky together) and the poor child couldn't eat the last 2 days and the 1st thing she said when it dropped while she was eating papaya was, 'Yay! Now I can eat!'. Hahaha. The greedy child. She was really happy. This time the 'tooth master' decided that the tooth fairy should give the little princess $10 instead. Woohoo!! We woke up all happy this morning when we found out what the tooth fairy brought us.

This funny thing happened before she went to bed this evening. She mentioned that she could smell brownies, hmmm, they smell so yummy. I said I didn't smell anything. But she did. Oh well, weird, considering I was planning to make some brownie muffins after she went off to sleep. Haha. Hmmm... 6th sense??


This is for you, Peony...

Chocolate Brownie Muffins

Ingredients -

2 cups (300g) sr flour
1/3 cup (35g) cocoa powder
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
60g butter, melted
1/2 cup (95g) chocolate bits
1/2 cup (75g) chopped pistachios (optional - I omitted, or you can substitute with other types)
1/2 cup (125ml) Nutella
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup (180ml) milk
1/2 cup (125ml) sour cream

Method -

1. Grease 12 hole muffin pan.

2. Sift dry ingredients into a large bowl, stir in remaining ingredients. Spoon mixture into prepared pan.

3. Bake in moderately hot oven about 20mins (I used fan-forced 160 deg C). Makes 12.

Note - The muffins were really light and soft with a lovely crusting on the top when eaten freshly baked. However, this morning, it's gone heavier. Maybe a quick zap in the microwave for a few seconds will make it warm and soft again? I have not tried.

Also, special thanks to inspiredmumof2 for kindly offering me the loan of her baking book where I got this recipe from. Can't remember the title and publisher.

Fried Rice Paradise

I spent the better part of this morning waiting at the clinic to see the doctor. 2 whole hours! I didn't want to walk to the clinic, get a number then come home and walk over again, so we got a number and went to the market, playground, 7-11 and still had to stand around waiting for another 40mins. Goodness! I don't like sitting in the clinic as you can pick up all sorts of germs and you might go in with a cough but come out with worse things. If it's not for the fact that I am lazy to send my girl to school tomorrow morning, I wouldn't have bothered to wait. It's much easier to go down earlier tomorrow to get a number and be the first in the queue, but even so, the doctor doesn't come in till after 9am and the clinic opens at 8.30! She completed one round of anti-biotics but the cough is still persistent. She's got a very dry and itchy throat and still coughing every few seconds!

So while awaiting our turn, we went over to the market and took a slow walk, bought some char siew (bbq pork), fishcake, imitation crab bits and I had cooked the rice before I left the house so that I could come home and fry some rice for lunch.

Fried rice is such an easy yet versatile dish to prepare. Anybody can do it. It helped that I had gotten the stallholder to cut up the char siew into small bite-sized pieces for the purpose of frying rice. It's nice that they accommodate that request. Why is fried rice easy? Because there are no recipes to follow. You put in whatever ingredients you like. It could be spam, peas, shrimps, ham. Anything you fancy really, but dice them into bite-sized bits.

You season it with soy sauce or salt, white pepper and some sesame oil. Voila! Meal complete!

Orange Chocolate Muffins

Have been feeling out of sorts the past 2 days and got up this morning not wanting to go down to get breakfast so decided to make some muffins. I have a list of 5 items I want to make this weekend. Have made two of them, one of which was lemon curd. It's for some lemon cupcakes which I plan to do tomorrow or on Monday when I feel better. This 'orange chocolate muffins' recipe has been on my to-do list for ages. I made sure I had to do them. And I did want some muffins for brekkie this morning. Boy, was I rewarded! The muffins were lovely.


Orange Chocolate Muffins (slightly modified recipe from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients -

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup orange juice
6 dsp milk
2 tbsp grated orange peel
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3 squares (1oz) bittersweet chocolate

Method -

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, orange juice, milk and peel. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and grated chocolate; stir into creamed mixture just until moistened. Fill paper-lined muffin tray or baking cups 3/4 full.

2. Bake at 400 deg F (200 deg C) for 15-20 mins or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 5 mins before removing from pans to wire racks.


This I made for princess' lunch yesterday. Just to satisfy the curiosity of what a 'haw cake' is. It isn't really a cake. For those who know, it is san cha, or haw flakes. It's those little round reddish snack which most of us liked when growing up. Well, I still like them now. ;P

Chinese Radish Cake or Chai Tow Kueh

A real quickie post before I have to shower and rush over to school to pick up little one. Made this today, just in fact. Was sifting through all my pieces of papers containing jotted down recipes as I intend to type them out and file them nicely, and came across this recipe.

I cannot even remember whose recipe this is. Either my grandma's or her helper's. It was written so long ago. Anyway, here it is. I will make some amendments the next time I do it as it was quite hard, I don't mean hard hard but I would like it a little softer. I also saw it on another blog. Lily's recipe calls for 4 cups water whereas mine is only 3.

Here's what a Chinese radish looks like. Click on the link to read more.

Chinese Radish Cake
Ingredients -

1 radish (grated) - squeeze out excess juice
2 bowls of rice flour (chinese rice bowls)
3 bowls of water (mix this well with rice flour) - I will use 3half to 4 bowls next time
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt (you'll probably have to add more if adding water) - taste it and see


Optional ingredients (you can use either one or you can use all of the following) -

chinese mushroom (cut into strips)
lean meat (cut into strips)
chinese sausage (sliced)
dried shrimps (soaked in water to soften)


Garnish -

shallots
spring onions
cut chilli


Method -

1. Fry shallots till golden and remove. Next, fry chinese sausage and remove. Fry the dried shrimps (which have been removed from water and pat dry). Set all these ingredients aside.

2. Fry radish, add salt and pepper, then add flour. Add the above ingredients together and fry till well mixed.

3. Pour out into a round cake tin and steam for 1/2 an hr.

4. Remove from steamer and garnish.

Our dinner

Another coincidence. I bet the canteen lady is out to annoy me, cooking same stuff as I do! Sometimes I wonder why I bother?! Having cooked macaroni soup, I was told by little one that they also had mac soup for snack! Arghh!!! Plus on top of that I had given her 2 slices of strawberry cream cheese bread to take to school, so I didn't want to overload her with food. Thankfully I hadn't added the macaroni to the broth yet or it'd all have been wasted. So I kept it for dinner. She loves tofu so I added tofu, spinach, meatballs and fishcakes (courtesy of her godma) and also used abc pasta which she loves as well. I love the little piggies! Aren't they super cute??


Sometimes it's nice to read other blogs and see what others cook daily. I do get sick of thinking up what to cook for dinner. Another inspiration from littlecornerofmine - stir fried veg with fried tofu and scallops. I also made spinach meatball soup and kungpo chicken with sauce I made up. This dish was because of packet of dried chilli which I picked up from Daiso and so wanting to use it. :)


Kungpo Chicken (recipe for 2) - the sauce is something I made up. I don't know what the actual ingredients are to make this dish.

Ingredients -

1 chicken breast (cut into cubes) - seasoned in a little light soy sauce,
white pepper and bit of cornflour
7-8 pcs dried chilli (soaked in water)
4-5 slices ginger
1 clove of garlic (sliced thin)
cashew nuts (approx 1/3 cup)
oil

Sauce - (mix in a bowl)

1 tsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
Few drops of sesame oil
1 tsp water

Method -

1. Drain chilli and pat dry. Heat wok and add oil. Then fry chilli. Remove and fry ginger then garlic. When fragrant, add chicken cubes.

2. When chicken is browned, add sauce and stir fry till cooked. Add cashews and mix well. Then turn off the flame. Dish out and serve with white rice.

The humble chicken pie

Was flipping through an old issue of Donna Hay magazine yesterday (a gift from a friend a few years back), and came across the recipe for Basic Chicken Pie. Decided to give it a try since I had some Pampas puff pastry in the freezer. However, the base of the pie was supposed to be in the form of short crust pastry. Anyhow, you can use the same puff pastry to do it, but as I was in Carrefour this afternoon, I chanced upon the Carrefour brand of ready rolled dough. Whoopee! I love them actually and I think they are so much easier to use than Pampas.

So having prepared the filling last evening, it was very easy to assemble. Popped them in the oven for approximately 20-25 mins and they were done. Yummy!


Basic Chicken Pie (taken from Donna Hay's magazine issue 16)

Ingredients -

1 tbsp oil
1kg (2lb) chicken thigh fillets, chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
3 tsp thyme leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tbsp plain flour
1/3 cup (2-1/2 fl oz) water
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) chicken stock
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) milk
375g (13oz) block ready-prepared shortcrust pastry
375g (13oz) block ready-prepared puff pastry
1 egg, lightly beaten

Method -

1. Preheat oven to 220degC (425degF). Heat a large non-stick saucepan over high heat. Add the oil and chicken, cook for 3-4mins. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add the onion, thyme and garlic and cook for 3-4mins. Return the chicken to the pan. In a small bowl, combine the flour and water. Add the stock, milk and combined flour and water. Cook for 10mins, stirring until thick. Set aside to cool.

2. Roll out the shortcrust pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper to 3mm (1/8 in) thick and line the base of a 20cm (8 in) round metal pie dish with the shortcrust pastry. Spoon in the cooled chicken mixture. For the pastry top, roll out the puff pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper to 3mm (1/8 in) thick.

3. Place the pastry top on the pie. Cut a small round in the centre of the puff pastry as an air hole. Press the edges of the pastries together to seal and trim the pastry. Brush the top with a little of the beaten egg. Place on a baking tray and bake for 25-30mins or until the top is puffed and golden. Serves 4.

Carrot cake

Have been busy the past couple of days as cousin is down from London, so been having family dinner, lunch etc. Was so tired last night I even slept at 9.45pm which is virtually unheard of. Finally got to stay home one whole day today and hubby was very kind, washed up after lunch and then in the evening took little one downstairs to have a ride around the estate on her bike, played some frisbee in the field, and now they're on the xbox. It's past her bedtime, but I can't be bothered. Let them go sort it out themselves.

I baked a carrot cake this afternoon and with the leftover mixture, I put them into little cups, to make cupcakes.

Had a little trouble with the baking as I usually bake with the fan on. However, the outer part of the cake rose quite well except for the middle which sank. Oopsy! I then turned off the fan and did normal baking and thank God it turned out fine. The cake also did not dry out.

The texture of the cake was just right, not too dry, neither was it too moist. Only thing is I'm not sure if there is a difference between wholewheat flour and wholemeal flour but what I had was wholemeal flour so you could taste the little grains in them. It's like eating wholemeal bread with the little grains. I don't mind it. It's quite nice. The sweetness was just enough, no need to cut down on sugar and it sure does taste healthy as the name suggests. I guess the fatty part would be the topping as I couldn't get any light cream cheese. But what is carrot cake without the topping, right?

Ah yes, would like to recommend this product below. I don't know how many of you have tried it but we're addicted. :0 Lovely on a slice of white bread and great to pack to school for snack time. There are real strawberries in them, you can tell by the seeds. ;)

Easy Peasy Apple Cake Recipe

Easy Peasy Apple Cake

Ingredients -

6 tbsp caster sugar
8 tbsp sr flour
2 large eggs
125g butter (I would cut this down as it's rather oily)
4 green apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
4 drops vanilla essence
1/4 cup slivered almonds

Method -

1. Melt butter then add the sugar and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Place in a greased tin.

2. Sprinkle with extra sugar, cinnamon and slivered almonds. Bake at 200 deg C for about 30mins. Allow to cool before cutting.

Pasta recipe

Ok, this is the recipe I tried posting yesterday but the fonts are still wonky this morning, so rather than get myself all worked up, I simply changed to another font. ;) My pasta recipes are all similar it's just a matter of changing some ingredients and the type of pasta used. I tend to go for a simple olive oil-based dish.


Pasta with bacon and crabsticks

Ingredients -

Linguine
approx 30g of back bacon, cut into small pieces
1/4 of a white onion
1 garlic, sliced thin
1/4 of a capsicum, cut into strips
7-8 stalks of baby asparagus, cut into 3 lengthwise
3-4 fresh button mushrooms, quartered
approximately 4 crabsticks
5-6 cocktail sausages
3-4 basil leaves
Italian seasoning
fresh ground black pepper
salt

Method -

1. Cook linguine till al dente.
2. Fry bacon fat to extract oil. Remove from pan when cooked, and put in lean bacon to cook till brown. Remove and put aside.
3. Using oil from bacon, fry onion till light brown, add garlic and vegetables. When halfway cooked, add mushroom, sausages and crabsticks. Mix well.
4. Put linguine into pan to fry with ingredients. Add basil, Italian herbs, pepper and salt to taste.

This recipe serves 1-1/2. (1 is me and 1/2 is princess) :)

Enjoy!

Baked donuts

This was what started me on my foray into the world of blogging. This recipe was sent to me by lilltots to actually show me the baking tray that she wanted to know if I'd come across. But I got hooked on that blog, written by a 'happening' granny, and thought to myself, hey if a granny can do it, it must be rather easy (sorry there Peony, not meaning that you are old, no offence). I mean I can't imagine her children always being called upon to do her blogging for her. I'm sure she must have done it by herself. So I started looking into how I could start a blog, and here I am, 2 months later. I have learned so much and am very proud of myself that I did it mostly on my own. Of course hubby helped too here and there.

After a quick dinner of fried rice, decided to try baking some donuts using the above recipe.

Erm... ok, so these don't look anything like Peony's... hehe.

I think they look better camouflaged by chocolate? Hmm... it truly was only a camouflage as didn't taste as good as they looked, not so much the donut, but rather the chocolate coating. It was too bitter even though I added some icing sugar to sweeten it. Must remember to use milk chocolate for coating! Have to try this recipe again another time.

Frankly, the lemon glazed one tasted better as it complimented the lemon taste that's in the donut. Why did the donut taste sour? I know there's lemon juice. Could it also be the yoghurt?

What does one do with excess melted chocolate? Hehe, chocolate coated strawberries of course! Pure indulgence.

The weekend

Alrighty, time for some updating... have been busy since Friday and usually not able to update much on the weekends as am often busy with this and that. Also, ballet term has started so no more Saturday mornings wasted sitting in front of the mac. Speaking of Saturdays, I was so so unlucky to fall going down the steps outside Parkway. Sigh. Don't know what could have happened as didn't trip over anything. But I suspect my knees may have been weak. Falling is something that I often fear happening as I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (inflammation of the joints), thus I am afraid when I do fall and hurt myself, it will take a longer time than a normal healthy person would, to recover from it. I felt so sorry for princess, as it was after ballet class and we were going for lunch there. I was holding on to her hand and pulled her down together with me. She said I hurt her hand and was on the verge of tears. I thought she had scrapped her arm against the stone ground but it wasn't that. It was just the strength with which I used to pull her that hurt her. Sorry princess, and thank you for being such an angel and putting ice packs on mummy. We couldn't go for lunch after that as I was hurting in both my feet, so made our way to the taxi stand. Poor princess was looking forward to lunch at the Coffee Bean. Thank goodness I had picked up her favourite waffle on the way to Parkway and gave her that to appease her.

It wasn't till last evening that I felt aches in my right hip bone and back. But after a good nights' sleep, I felt much better this morning. It still aches in the places I mentioned and in the right foot as well but it should clear soon. I thank God that I did not suffer anything worse. My guardian angel must have been watching over me.

Going back to Friday, princess' classmate had a birthday party and from what I know, invited the entire class. I'm not sure though, but not everyone turned up. I know some kids had parents working so they go to full day school and thus could not make it. But nonetheless, it was plenty of fun. The day started out ok weather-wise, but when it came to noon time, the skies changed to really dark clouds and as I was waiting for the school bus, it started raining cats and dogs. I was thinking how sad as it was going to be a pool party. Hope that it'd clear by 4, which was when the party was to have started.

Check out the lovely fruit kebabs.

A beautiful fairy drawn by a wonderfully artistic tattoo artist.

Having some fun in the pool after the rain cleared. This was the highlight of the party.

A most lovely Ariel birthday cake.

We went to Parkway today after church - yes, the scene of the 'crime'. Chanced upon this balloon sculpture artist who was selling the balloons he had created. Loads of beautiful ones. I particularly liked the Thomas the Tank Engine and a little ladybird for the wrist. He happened to be one half of a husband and wife team whom I had engaged for princess' 1st birthday party. I said it to him and he was delighted to meet us. Although hubby reminded me later that it was his wife who was at our party. Haha. He said he'd give us a discount on the Ariel that princess had picked out. And it was a very generous discount. How sweet of him. Thank you Mr Balloon Sculpture artist. (goodness, I sound like the Higglytown Heroes here - hahaha)


So while princess was away at art class this afternoon, I was preparing dinner. Princess comes in the door.

Princess : 'Mummy, are we having pasta?' (it's her most favourite food)

Me : 'Yes, how do you know?'

Princess : 'Daddy said so'

She runs into kitchen, sniffs sniffs, 'mmm...yummy'.

Haha, doesn't that just make your day? It does for me.

Oops, remember my honey chicken? This was what happened to the last 1/3 of it. ;)


For the benefit of Sam, one very busy working mum, here's the recipe for the pasta, although I'm not good with recipes. I just cook by feel.

Stir Fried Pasta with Olive Oil

Ingredients (again it's really up to you and what you have in the fridge, it's really like fried rice Italian style) -

What I had was broccoli, young corns, onions, garlic, prawns, fresh button mushroom (I only use fresh but you can use canned), leftover honey chicken, and cheese sausages (any kind will do). I tend to use Penne for this dish. I think it goes well with it.

Method -

1. Fry onion in olive oil till caramelized.
2. Add prawns and quickly fry till just turned red. Do not overcook. Remove from pan.
3. Add sliced garlic and fry till fragrant, then add in cold chicken, vegetables, and rest of ingredients. Sprinkle Italian Seasoning and some black pepper.
4. When ingredients are cooked, add pasta, prawns, salt and pepper to taste.

Lemon Cupcake (recipe)

As per G's request, here is the recipe, adapted from 2 recipes and modified.

Lemon Cupcakes

Cupcake ingredients (makes 15) -

1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (plain flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup of butter, softened
3/4 cups granulated sugar (I just used plain sugar, or can use castor)
1 tsp vanilla
1-1/2 eggs
1 8oz carton sour cream (I used the light version)
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel

Method -

1. Preheat oven to 350F. (I used 175C). In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter on medium to high speed for 30secs. Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well-mixed. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add flour and alternate with sour cream to mixture, beating on low speed after each addition until combined. Stir in lemon peel.

3. Fill bake cups about 1/2-3/4 way. Bake in preheated oven for about 18mins or until a wooden toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Leave to cool before filling and frosting. Cakes can keep overnight outside. Fill and frost only when ready to be served.

Curd ingredients - *this recipe says to fill 10 cupcakes so if you need more, probably should double the recipe.

1/6 cup lemon juice
1/2 tsp lemon zest
2-1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 egg, at room temperature
1/4 tsp vanilla

Method -

1. Over a low heat in a small saucepan, dissolve sugar in juice. Mix in zest.

2. Beat egg in a small bowl. Whisking continuously, pour syrup in a slow steady stream into egg. Beat for 2mins and transfer back to saucepan.

3. Heat over a small flame, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until the curd mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Let cool and store in fridge.

Lemon Buttercream ingredients -

1/2 cup butter, softened
1-3/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla

Method -

1. Cream all ingredients on low speed until combined. Continue beating on high speed for 5mins until thick and fluffy.

To assemble:
1. Even off the domes of the cupcakes with a sharp knife. Cut out a cone from the top of each cupcake and fill the hole with 1/2 - 1 tsp of lemon curd. Replace cut out cone. Frost and serve.