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Oct 28, 2005
this is from the gang again..we added boiled eggs, prawn and fishballs. haha kj was pretty much in heaven :p
Posted at 03:13 am by kairui
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Oct 27, 2005
prata!! with chicken curry that i added cinnamon, coriander and cumin :) nice!
Posted at 04:35 am by kairui
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haha this was sent by the gang..sorry for the blurred photos. kj and zx were rushing me hehe..they were like hurry up we want to eat already..grr so no choice, had to hurriedly snap the pics.
its funny. in singapore i never cared for panda biscuits. in fact it was just one of those childhood biscuits.not something that i fancied or cared for very much.
it was cute no doubt, the little red meiji packet, with the individual biscuits with the smooth silky milk chocolate inside. my mommy used to pack it into my lunchboxes for recess in school haha. it ranks up there with the jewelled gems (from khong guan i think) and glico pokki as my childhood biscuits. but as i grew up, i went thru the OREOS phase..mm that was good. and then there was the period of shortbread biscuits, the danish kind, which i have forgotten the name, but it comes in a nice round blue tin, and my fave one would be those that had the sugar coating on the top..heavenly :p at that same time, there was famous amos no nut choc chip cookies that i would buy and share with my mommy every week before my drama class would start. haha ah i still remember, the specialist shopping centre in orchard, where john little is, and i can always smell the cookies the moment we open the door of the carpark into the shopping centre. haha we used to joke that it doesnt matter if we forget where the shop is coz our noses would always lead us to it :p haha man those were the times where calories and saturated fat was not in my vocab, i happily ate whatever i fancied, not even thinking how many runs round the track or laps in the pool it would cost me haha.
then we switched to marks and spencer biscuits, which of course is super duper nice. hmm i have so many favorites from there! haha i love just browsing through all their products (by the way, their strawberry granola cereal IS THE BEST IVE EVER EATEN its so gorgeous, i even pack boxes of it to bring over here..coz for some oddest reason, despite ozzy being a commonwealth, they dont have marks and sparks! *horros* really its so UGH and according to my other cuz, they insist that the triple chocolate breakfast cereal is gorgeous too, but hmm somehow i find having chocolate at breakfast kinda weird. hm altho it could be great as a snack haha yeah..shall go home and buy :P) but some of my faves of m&s biscuits would be the fig, almond, digestives(!!! i love love this, with the lightest smear of chocolate on the biscuit, woah sweet!)
haha anyway. ever since coming to ozzy, ive been craving and missing the oddest things. isnt it funny how you always miss things that you cannot get?? id have the oddest cravings like suddenly NEEDING to have kueh, chee cheong fun or even peanut pancake haha im not kidding! its so weird, especially since these are food stuff i hardly even touch when im in singapore but here in ozzy they have been elevated to another level haha so the gang's gift package was godsent haha and here it is!! the absolutely wonderful hello pandas! mm really missed it :)
Posted at 04:33 am by kairui
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Oct 26, 2005
does anyone know how to add archives dates? i just realised that my blog doesnt have archive dates..i just need it to be really simple..something like those in blogspot..i dont want the calender kind..pls let me know if you know k???
Posted at 09:05 pm by kairui
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Oct 21, 2005
my first shf!---dark choc
chocolate has absolutely got to be the best invention in the world.. honestly i just LOVE LOVE LOVE chocolate..who doesnt? hehe..so i was super happy that the theme for my first sugar high friday was all about dark chocolate.. well to be honest, i used to be more of a milk chocolate kinda person, always felt that dark was much too bitter and white was well, err fake. haha but ever since el introduced cadbury old gold jamaica which is essentially dark chocolate with rum soaked plump raisins..ive been absolutely hooked and now i only eat dark chocolate..which can be a bad thing here, coz kj and zx both hate dark choc, so if i buy a bar..there is no buffer to help me finish it haha..which is terribly dangerous :p
so anyway, since kelli of lovescool challenged us to find something new or interesting to make..i was like bugger, i was just thinking of making my fave comfort dessert food, warm choc puddings with hot chocolate lava flowing out from inside the pudding..mm..BUT i decided to finally try something different. so i went the opposite from the dense and supremely rich chocolate pudding and decided for a chocolate souffle...well for those who dont know what a souffle is, its essentially a french dessert that is light and fluffy baked dish made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites and upon coming out of the oven, its risen and fluffy, which falls about 10-20 min later, so its best to eat it straight out of the oven (never a problem tho haha). Its usually baked in a ramekins, im not entirely sure why, but somehow baking it in other kinda baking equipment doesnt have the same effect..theres something abt those ramekins i reckon.
anyway.. i got the souffle recipe from epicurious, as it was my first time, i decided to stick with this relatively simple recipe, and used 63% nestle dark chocolate. haha i was kinda nervous coz i was so afraid it wouldnt rise and i plopped myself in front of the oven.zx thought i was pretty mad haha. and the first 10 minutes, there was virtually no movement, and i could just feel my heart sinking thinking i must have buggered it..all the hard work beating those egg whites by hand for nothing..and was just getting more and more depressed..WHEN THE THING STARTED RISING!!! YAY!!!haha..its funny..how my baking and cooking adventures just goes in tandem with my moods..haha anyway..here it is: ( i topped it with some orange zest..i just think citrus fruits and chocolate are like a match made in heaven mmm)
heres the recipe from epicurious:
Ingredients:
1/3 cup sugar plus additional for sprinkling
5 oz bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
3 large egg yolks at room temperature
6 large egg whites
Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Generously butter soufflé dish and sprinkle with sugar, knocking out excess.
2. Melt chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until smooth. Remove bowl from heat and stir in yolks (mixture will stiffen).
3. Beat whites with a pinch of salt in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until they just hold soft peaks. Add 1/3 cup sugar, a little at a time, continuing to beat at medium speed, then beat at high speed until whites just hold stiff peaks. Stir about 1 cup whites into chocolate mixture to lighten, then add mixture to remaining whites, folding gently but thoroughly.
4. Spoon into soufflé dish and run the end of your thumb around inside edge of soufflé dish (this will help soufflé rise evenly). Bake in middle of oven until puffed and crusted on top but still jiggly in center, 24 to 26 minutes. Serve immediately.
Posted at 01:09 am by kairui
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Oct 18, 2005
its funny really..almost amazing how my taste buds have really evolved ever since i started cooking. food has always been an enjoyment yes, but i never really cared what i put into my mouth, my mom and maid would plan out lunches and dinners and i would just happily eat them. but ever since having to cook for myself, i find myself trying new things, new flavors and techniques that i would previously have never dared tried before...in the beginning, i was more of a herbs person, sorta mediterranean-pasta kinda influence, but im starting to warm to spices and how the different concoctions can create vastly different yet intricately interesting tastes and so yups, this turmeric rice is basically a testament to all that :)
Turmeric is from the ginger family and India is the world's primary producer of it, but its also grown in China and Indonesia. Its also sometimes used as a substitute for saffron apparently (hmm altho i doubt anything can beat saffron :P) and apparently it was also used as a medicine for stomach and liver ailments and sores; and as a color dye in the olden days. That would explain why my gorgeous rice pot is now stained a orangey color sobsob. ah nvm..most importantly is that i loved the rice it cooked with, and i decided to add a bit of shallots and pine nuts (it was supposed to be almond silvers, but thats too expensive, besides zx loves pinenuts. so yups haha compromis hehe:P ) i served it with cucumbers, a nice refreshing vege on a hot nearly spring-summer day which would not take the attention away from my lovely spiced rice..and grilled some Thai chicken which came from the seasoning packets that my sweet dear friends sent from singapore which was just as gorgeous and went so well with the rice..
oo just look at that nice orangey color. and thats the color of my pot now haha..oh man
Posted at 03:45 am by kairui
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Oct 14, 2005
haha i call it my miracle risotto coz at first i was so devastated with it..but upon eating..it tasted soo good! i got the basic recipe from jamie o's book the naked chef, but haha as usual i made my own adjustments here and there :p here goes:
Ingredients:
1. Chicken soup stock *look below for the recipe for it. (i cant really tell you how much i used, but its roughly about a whole pot of it, i reckon it was about 0.5 litre??no idea hehe but just make more just in case and if you have extra can always drink it :p)
2. 1 tbsp olive oil
3. 1 finely chopped red sweet onion
4. 5 sticks of celery finely chopped and peeled (use a vege grater to peel off the outer fibrous layer)
5. 2 gloves of garlic, finely chopped
6. 1 cup of milk
7. 200g of rice (i used normal ones and it worked fine)
8. a bit of butter
9. freshly grated parmesan cheese
Steps:
1. Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the onion, celery and sweat it around for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and continue stirring, making sure the veges soften but dont brown.
2. After about 2 minutes, add the rice and turn up the heat. DONT LEAVE THE POT. continue stirring the rice but dont color it (if the fire is too high you can turn it down). The rice may crackle and would turn translucent as it absorbs the flavors of the base.
3. Add the cup of milk. jamie o asked for dry white wine actually or vermouth, but i didnt have any alcohol whatsoever and i had to finish up my milk so i thought why not? haha this is where i thought i majorly messed up coz it looked kinda odd and smelled odd too. i was already preparing how to tell kj and zx that i messed up, almost ready to throw it away. but i stuck at it anyway hoping that some miracle would work out. and it did! so happee. the thing is to stir the rice continuously as the milk cooks into the rice. Turn down the heat.
4. Add the first ladle of hot stock and keep stirring the rice. Make sure its sorta highish simmer coz you dont want the outside to be cooked and inside still raw. Keep adding ladles of soup until the rice is soft with a slight bite.
5. Remove from heat and add the bit of butter (you actually require really little coz the milk has given the rice the creamy rich taste) and the grated parmesan. Save some parmesan to serve on top.
6. Stir in your own toppings ( i grilled chicken, which was basically chicken, chopped garlic and shallots, some oregano and olive oil).
7. Serve it with parmesan cheese grated on top and a sprinkle of mild paprika (its for that extra kick to the creaminess of the risotto) mmm it was really gorgeous and im so happy :p
* the chicken soup:
This is the really important bit, my mommy always said that the key ingredient to any dish is the stock so yups, ive always used stock instead of water in all my cooking
Ingredients:
1. Raw chicken
2. 5 sticks of celery
3. 3 cloves of garlic unpeeled
4. 1 large carrot roughly chopped
5. bits of rosemary, thyme, parsley and pepper
6. Water to cover all the chicken
Steps:
Boil everything in a large saucepan, then simmer for about 3-4 hours.
I always find that for a good stock, the amount of water should simmer until it reduces by about half, so yups if you need 1 litre of stock, double the amount of that to put into the pot. :)
5.1 medium onion roughly chopped
Posted at 03:59 am by kairui
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Oct 10, 2005
wanted to blog about this a long time ago..haha but been kinda busy with all the mugging and studying with exams only 3 weeks away. oh no time passes too fast for its own good sometimes. anyway..i digress :p for my birthday dinner, we ate at this place called Grossi Florentino. Its the only Italian restaurant awarded 2 chef hats (maximum is 3) by The Age Good Food Guide. What happens is that every tuesday, there would be a review about a particular place by a reviewer from the age and it would be marked out of 20, according to food ambience and the works. So any restaurant that gets a score 18 and above would enter into this "grand draw" sorta thing where at the end, the reviewers would go back and try the places that scored 18 and above again and this time score them out of 3. So yups thats how it works.
And im not kidding, the place really rocks. Ive actually been there twice, once with daddy mommy and kj and the 2nd time was for my birthday. I didnt take any pics coz i felt kinda embarrassed whipping out my camera even though i brought it with me both times, it just felt really awkward, so yups, sorry for the pictureless review. :)
The ambience is really nice (we ate at the grill, coz its less dressy and we really didnt feel like dressing up), and its slightly darkish but not to the point where you cant see your food, and the tables and chairs are close and comfy. Theres an open kitchen concept, where you can see the chef preparing the food, but the ventilation system is pretty awesome that you dont smell the food at all, neither is it too noisy.
Ok for appetisers, we didnt have any the first time, but the second time, we ordered a plate of calamari in padella which was panfried with peas, chilli and basil leaves on a confit tomato. It was really good, a nice tangy sorta taste, excellent kickstart to the meal, coupled with the complimentary foccacia that was served. Also the olive oil that they had on the table was of really good quality and i was also extremely pleased that they gave us fresh olives too.. im a big big big fan of olives hehe :P
for mains, with mom and dad, they both had the filetto di manzo which was fillet of portland Black Angus beef with black pepper and herbs, served with roasted garlic and Kipfler potatoes, apparently it was really good and juicy, i didnt try it coz i dont really like beef and would avoid it if i can.. weird i know..pple think im crazy to not eat beef in oz esp when lots of pple specially buy beef when they come here, but i dont know i just hate the smell and texture, beef in burgers is still acceptable, but in steak its just ugh grosss.
me and kj both had a spaghetti marinara, which was freshly made spaghetti tossed with fresh seafood in olive oil with garlic and parsley. This was SO SO SO GOOD! haha even kj who normally hates pasta says she wouldnt mind eating it everyday for the rest of her life. The seafood was superbly fresh, and i think it was marinated in a pinch of salt and lemon, and the whole flavor was just fantastic.
on my second time there, i decided to order the tagliatelle con aragosta which was marinated pieces of lobster tossed in a cream vermouth sauce with tagliatelle and tomato pieces (although i really had a hard choice deciding whether or not to try something new coz i hardly ever get to go there.. kj ordered a seafood marinara again just in case i wanted to swap..aww how sweet) it was super nice but i think id still stick to my marinara the next time becoz it was a tad too sweet from the vermouth i think, and i didnt really like creamy bases haha.
for the sides, we ordered a salad of mixed greens with salted ricotta, which wasnt bad but otherwise pretty ordinary, it just looked really pretty with all the mix of colors. and braised spinach with garlic parmesan and cream. oh my god. that was the day i really fell in love with spinach, spinach has also been just another vege to me, but after trying that, it was nirvana to another level. i never ever thought i would ever crave for a vegetable, but im serious, this dish is simply amazing.
NOW FOR THE DESSERTS. EVERYONE MUST MUST MUST TRY THEIR TIRAMISU!!! ITS AMAZING!!! i think its seriously the best ive ever eaten! they serve you a plate dusted with cocoa powder, and then they come round with this big big bowl of tiramisu and cut you a slice from there. The mascarpone cheese is amazingly light and smooth and creamy, with enough liquer for that kick and balanced off with a really light sponge cake. on my second visit, coz upon cutting the slice, the waitress messed up the presentation a bit, she cut me a bigger piece to make up for it haha man i was in heaven and was grinning throughout haha
zx ordered budino di cioccolato e fichi, which was macerated dry figs and Valrhona chocolate steamed with citrus pudding. i had a small bite and it was lovely, always liked the combination of chocolate and orange, but it can never beat my tiramisu, its simply outta the world :)
and for the finale, we ordered expresso, i just love expressos, the king of coffees :) and they served it with some biscotti. it was a sweet gesture but i much prefer the crunchy kinds, but they served the chewy ones. but nvm..minor glitch.
overall if i had to rate grossi, its 25/20 haha..yeah way surpasses everything..the service is prompt and friendly and efficient, and they all have good wine knowledge which is pretty important to me. but the second time i think i got a bit drunk, haha had 3-4 glasses of wine, plus my pasta is alcohol based and so is tiramisu, haha but man it was so worth it. i just love love that place...such a happy place..cant wait to go back there...*drools*
GROSSI FLORENTINO
80 BOURKE STREET MELBOURNE VIC 3000
PHONE: 9662 1811 (its best to make a reservation coz its always so crowded..proof of its good quality of food :P)
Posted at 03:23 am by kairui
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Oct 5, 2005
apple pie by joan chong aishan
Posted at 02:52 am by kairui
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Oct 3, 2005
well i borrowed jamie oliver's books and he made making bread or pizza dough for that matter look incredibly easy..so i decided to have a whack at it!! and oh my god! it actually turned out nice!!! haha..
i actually had enough dough to make 4 relatively large pizzas but i broke one base and the other pizza dropped on the floor when i was taking out of the oven..so sad.. nvm lar
actually the thing that really got me started on making dough was that..wait for this..my granny (think a really traditional chinese kinda person) wants ME to teach HER how to make pizza (coz all the pizza recipes are in english and she doesnt understand) haha im not kidding..this would be fun..hopefully she can teach me how to cook her fantastical wonderful food..my granny's a mean cook..mm esp her chinese new year goodies and carrot cake and kaya..haha its good enough to throw any diet out the window :P
anyway the recipe can be found in Jamie Oliver the return of the Naked Chef but i decided to post just for those who dont have the book..coz its marvellously simple and you simple get childishly euphoric looking at the dough rise..haha i know i do :p
Aussie Style
Blue Cheese
Basic Bread Recipe:
15g dried yeast
15g honey or sugar
1/2 pint warm water (not too hot tho) or 315ml
500g flour
(i skipped the salt coz i didnt have it. and it didnt make a difference at least to me..but for the purists, its 15g salt)
extra flour or water for extras haha
Steps:
1. Dissolve the honey and the yeast in half the amount of water
2. On a clean surface, pour the flour and make a well in the middle and pour in the yeast mixture and the rest of the mixture
3. Knead and have fun! if its too sticky add more flour, if its too dry add more water..use discretion
4. Flour the top of the dough lightly and make it roundish shape. Score it deeply and place on a baking tray in somewhere that its warm moist and draught-free ( i stuffed it into my oven) It would prove (or increase in size) to about double. Probably takes about 40 mins or so.
5. When the dough has doubled in size you can divide up the dough to make your individual pizzas, using a rolling pin to roll out until about 0.5cm thick.
6. Add the toppings that you like and bake for about 7 min in a 240C oven until the pizza is lightly golden. MMMM
The toppings i did:
1. AUSSIE STYLE! :p its basically bacon, pork, and minced pork on a tomato base, topped with mozzy and parmesan cheese sprinkle some italian herbs on top and then crack an egg on top. im serious..i know it sounds so weird to have egg on a pizza but honestly the egg works somehow and its really really good..
2. Olive oil base, with blue cheese and fresh tomatoes and parmesan. Sprinkle italian herbs on top. i wanted the highlight to be the blue cheese so the other flavors were a bit more sparse :p
3. The on the pizza that fell :( i used the bacon fat to saute some field mushrooms, and placed it on a tomato base together with bacon bits and fresh tomatoes. Sprinkle with italian herbs and mozzy and parmesan. (haiz it looked really good..but unfortch it wasnt meant to be.. bugger)
Posted at 03:45 am by kairui
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Ingredients:
