The Avocado, Carrot and Beet Salad

I am done whale watching. It was an ethereal trip, a much needed one too, before the balls and chains of the good ol' 9-5 comes falling down.

Anyway, back to food postings as I've neglected this blog far too long. I will start with a simple carrot, avocado and beet salad. Ooouff! That's a mouthful, isn't it? Let's just call it the CABS. I guess I could call it SCABS too but that would be a bit gross. :P

A big part of this salad recipe is assembling everything together. But it does involve a little big of cooking.

The CABS salad is healthy and surprisingly hearty. The orange and balsamic vinaigrette gives it a good tangy punch that leaves you pleasantly surprised at just how good everything feels and taste in your mouth :) There is a surprise spice in there that rounds it all off. It's also a best friend to carrot. See if you can spot it.


Carrots, Avocado and Beets Salad recipe:
2 carrots, peels and cut into 3 inch length-wise
2 beets, peels and quartered
Beet leafs, washed and drained (optional, but they are lovely as salads)
1 avocado, skinned and sliced
1 zucchini cut into the same size as the carrots (optional ingredient but I added it in)

Dressing:
1 whole orange juice and some pulp
zest of a whole lime
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted on hot pan for 1 min and crush slightly with the back of your knife
salt and pepper


Method:
1. Heat up a half full pan of water. Season the water with 1 teaspoon of salt.
2. When water boils, add your zucchini to boil for 2 minutes. Take the zucc's out with a slotted spoon.
3. In the same water, add your carrots and beets in to cook for about 8minutes. You can cook the carrots and beets separately but i like the color the beets imparts to the carrots, it becomes a ruby orange :)
4. As your vegetables are cooking, make your dressing. In a large salad bowl, add your quartered avocados in. Add orange juice, zests, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and season with some salt and pepper onto the avocados. Toss to mix and set aside.
5. Assemble your vegetables, hot and steaming, by adding it into the bowl with the marinated avocados and toss together.


Serve with some croûtons and drizzle with a little bit more balsamic.

Tastiest salad ever. And cumin was the surprise spice. It goes very, very well with beets and carrots :)

Limon Tiger Cheesecake

This is quite simply an homage to the 70s recipe books where they are written by "women who love their families". While that line may have a double edge meaning (with the quotes and all that between the lines pun), I would like to focus on the good part of a 70's cookbook - the no-bake cheesecakes!

I was at an excellent pub eating pub grub the other day and fell in love with their slice of heaven called Limon Tiger Pie. It's basically lemon cheesecake with a fluffy creamy top, a rather light but denser middle set on a chocolaty base. I think the reason why they called it a Limon Tiger is because of the stripes caused by a marbling effect on the crumbs and the generous sprinkles of chocolate crumbs splashes over the top. It's simply amazing to eat because of it's lemony fluff texture. To be quite frank, I never thought I would like unbaked cheesecakes this much that I would try to recreate it at home days after. Successfully. Because it's easy. :)

In the 70's, people ate raw eggs wantonly like Salmonella and E. Coli never existed. Today, I'm not so keen on having raw egg yolks in my cheesecake unbaked. And I suppose vegetarians and lacto-vegans will be please to know that I didn't use any eggs in this recipe.

Without further ado, here's Limon Tiger Cheesecake -

For the base:
2 cups of crushed chocolate chip cookies (use your favorite brand) + some for sprinkling
1/4 cup butter

Cheese filling:
500g of Philadelphia cream cheese, softened in room temperature
1 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of lemon zest, zest and finely chopped after
1/2 lemon juice
1 cup of densely packed icing sugar + 1/4 cup for heavy cream


Method:
1. Prepare the base first. Use an 8inch round cake pan and coat it with butter.
2. In a food processor, add your cookie crumbs and butter in. Blitz until you get a pebbly wet texture that is easy to form and mold.
3. Press the buttery crumbs into the base and the wall of your cake pan, slowly even it out with your fingers until you get a pretty crumb base.
Put it into the freezer, while you prepare your cheese filling.

4. In a large mixing bowl, cream your cream cheese until it's creamy and fluffy (about 3 minutes with an electric mixer).
5. Add your lemon zest, lemon juice and icing sugar in and start mixing it again until everything is well incorporated. Continue beating the mixture for another 5 minutes. Set aside.
6. In another bowl, pour your heavy cream into a bowl with 1/4 cup of icing sugar.
7. Beat with an electric mixer until heavy cream forms firm peaks (about 3-4 minutes)
8. Pour the fluffy cream into the cheese mixture. This time use a spatula to gently fold the two mixtures together until they are well incorporated.
9. Take out the base from the freezer and pour your cheese content in.
10. Sprinkle with remaining crushed chocolate chip cookies and let it set in the fridge for at least 6 hours.If you're feeling decadent, forgo the chocolate chip cookie topping and pour a can of preserved cherries on top.

This cheesecake is extremely easy to make despite it being 10 steps. You don't need to turn on your oven and that, hands down, makes this the most excellent recipe for hot summer days. What I like about this recipe is that it's melts in your mouth, almost like ice cream :)

Green bean stew: a brunch of tomatoes, beans and eggs

I have made this for breakfast thousands of times before and it's always fulfilling, healthy and yummy. Today, I'm going to share with you a breakfast creation of mine that can feed 1 up to 10 people depending on how many times you go "crrraacck".

In this series of kitchen experiments, I am stewing a bunch of green beans or, fancily, haricot verte in a pan filled up with marinara sauce. So basically, it's a tomato based green bean stew where you finish off with a crack or two of eggs that will gently cook into the sauce. The yolks will still be gooey and it's the most incredible thing in the world when you tuck in by soaking the sauce up with some bread.

I don't even know if I can actually write a proper recipe for it because it's such a off hand meal but I'll try. Oh did i tell you that this recipe is so simple? :)


Green bean stew with soft-boiled eggs recipe:
Serves 1 or 2 (double or triple or quadruple recipe at ease)

1 handful of green beans, cleaned and ends sniped off
1.5 cup of marinara sauce (store bought ones are fine)
2 eggs
salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: a bit of parsley and shallots for garnish

Bread for soaking the awesome sauce up.


Method:
1. In a deep pan, bring marinara sauce to a boil. Add your green beans and let it simmer for 5 minutes on medium heat. Do not cover the pan yet.
2. Crack in two eggs into the pan and watch the eggs fall nicely in between the cracks of tomato sauce and green bean goodness.
3. Cover to cook for 3 minutes or until eggs is done to your liking. I like my eggs to have a nice white sheath covering the yellow yolk. Season with some salt and pepper.

Serve with bread.


** this is a lacto-ovo vegetarian friendly recipe :)
*** apparently there is a similar Tunisian and Israeli dish like this called Shakshouka where it's cooked with different vegetables. :) One thing I've read about this dish is that the possibilities are endless.

Khanom Paeng Na Moo (Thai pork toast)

This is an extremely tasty snack that I stumbled upon. I would love to tell you where, if I can only remember where. But Khanom Paeng Na Moo is basically Thai pork mince on toast. It is very similar to the familiar French toast except it's coated with meat instead of just eggs. What makes this recipe delicious is the crispiness of the pork coating and the soft fluffy center after it is cooked. It's a perfect balance of flavors and an utter delight to the taste buds :)

This is one of the simplest recipe to do and I recommend that you try it for a little snack with some leftover unused minced meat. Or make a batch for entertaining - your guests will be pleased by this easy to eat food. It is also good served in room temperature as well. And I assure you, this recipe takes less than 30 minutes from prep to ready.

What you need for Khanom Paeng Na Moo (Thai pork toast):
(double, triple, quadruple recipe when necessary)

150g of mince pork (or any of your favorite minced meat)
1 egg (use two eggs if you're tripling/quadrupling your recipe)
2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
2 kaffir lime leaves, sliced thinly into a chiffonade
1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch/cornflour
a pinch of chilli powder, more if you want it spicier (optional)
1 teaspoon fish sauce (optional, use soy sauce if you have none)
a large pinch of sugar
salt and pepper to taste
4 slices of bread

Garnish: Lemon slices


Method:
1. Combine all the ingredients together except for the 4 slices of bread. Let it sit for 10 minutes to marinade while you heat a lightly oiled pan under medium heat.

2. Your meat mixture should resemble a thick paste that is easily spreadable. With a spoon, spread 1 spoonful of mixture evenly on each side of the bread and pan fry each side for 3-4 minutes.

3. Repeat for remaining slices of bread. After your Thai pork toast is done, let it cool for 5 minutes before cutting it into bite size piece and squeeze a bit of lemon juice on top before serving.


Best eaten with some chilled milk tea OR iced coffee.

The Blueberry Pancake post

Since I was a little girl, I've always been fascinated by the pancakes in American commercials/movies. They were always so perfect and fluffy. My attempts on making pancakes as a child were rather insipid because they always turn out flat and thin. But I have since discovered that I was making crepes instead of pancakes; crepes post for another time..:)

But as time passes by and after eating proper pancakes that looked like the ones I saw on TV I began to mix up my own batches of batter until I came to a perfect concoction without measurements. If that made any sense.

I measured with my senses for the perfect batter, knowing when to stop adding the flour by instincts....but fret not, dear readers (and Elsie) for I have come up with a good measurement this time for a no fail pancake recipe. Blueberries are my addition of choice but you can make this plain to eat with just butter and syrup if you want.

The perfect pancake batter bettered with blueberries starts with,
the perfect pancake batter:
1 cup of all purpose flour
1/4 cup of corn flour (cornstarch)
1 tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoon of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 egg
3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons of milk

Optional: blueberries (but do try raisins and bananas, they are out of this world)

Method:
1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients together with a whisk or a fork. Mix until you're sure that everything is combined properly.
2. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add milk and eggs. Slowly mix until you have a smooth and thick batter. Batter should be as thick as sweetened condensed milk from the can.
3. Heat pan on medium heat until hot. Add a bit of butter and grease the pan.
4. With a 1/4 measuring cup, scoop the batter and pour 1/4 cup's worth of batter onto the hot pan. Add blueberries in and leave the batter to cook for 2-3 minutes before flipping it over for another 2 minutes or until the it is golden brown.
5. Repeat step 3 as needed and step 4 until all batter is used up. You'll get approximately 1o pancakes.

Serve pancakes hot with butter and syrup. Serve it with bacon if you dare because I dared myself and loved it to bits!

This is going to be my last post for a while. I will be flying back to Malaysia for a trip in a few days so if any of you would like to meet up, just let me know yeah? :) My email is on the About Me section on the right hand side - feel free to drop me a line or two, do not leave your contacts in the comment section for security reasons.

The Perfect Scramble

The perfect scramble, marinated mushrooms and toasts

If I had a personal chef, I would have him cook me breakfast like this everyday. It's not that it's hard to make, it's just not exactly my cup of tea to be up to my elbows in grease for plate of hot breakfast. So, yes, a personal chef that abides my morning needs gastronomical whims and fancy *jots down in notebook*

Eggs. I like my scramble eggs soft, creamy and gluants, which translates to gooey in French. I never used to like gooey eggs I was used to my mom's quick fire scramble which are nicely formed firm clouds with bits of brown bits from the hot wok. Gooey eggs to me were yucky before because I never had good ones made for me. I actually had scrambled eggs that is gooey in a 5-star hotel in Bangkok once and it was so poorly made, it was sweating liquid on the sides (happens because you seasoned the eggs while cooking a scramble, a big no-no), which makes the whole tray looked like vomit. EUGHH...

I have since had great gluants scramble eggs and I can't get enough of it. It's the only way of eating scrambled eggs, in my humble opinion, thanks to Gordon Ramsay. The little secret to making perfect eggs is to start with a very low heat and constant stirring, first. No oil is added but a bit of butter is thrown in with the eggs at the start of cooking. The butter helps glaze your eggs and gives it fantastic flavor. Oohh..i can write the whole recipe OR you can watch Mr. Gordon Ramsay help you impress your loved ones ;)



I don't use Crème fraîche on my eggs, I add a tablespoon of milk instead. It's very, very nice too! :)

My breakfast includes marinated mushrooms and toasts. These marinate mushrooms are simply delicious eaten cold or warm. It gets better as time goes by and it keeps well for up to a week. I will post the recipe for marinated mushrooms soon. But for now, scramble eggs takes the limelight.

Ravioli with "orange" Stuffing - Two Ways

One of the different types of raviolis

Raviolis are sold between $5-$7 for a big bag in the supermarket close to where I live. The prices fluctuates according to brand but regardless of brand, taste and quality they all have one thing in common - convenience. The raviolis are nicely pre-made for you and all you need to do is boil some salted water and cook these raviolis until al-dente.

BUT.

I am a masochist. I have always been a masochist. I like the hard, painful and the long winded way. My family and some friends think I am quite a nut. So I made raviolis myself, from scratch - dough, filling, whatever. Maybe I like to bask in the ray of self-perpetuated glory before a plate of ravioli while I look liked I have just fought the war with a rolling pin and some flour. Maybe, I just like things done from scratch so that I can appreciate the culinary splendor better and as such take me another step further into perfecting my ultimate dumpling. Maybe, I'm just a masochist.

Actually, dear foodies, it's not exactly hard to make raviolis. Our Chinese ancestors have been making pot stickers and wontons since even before the 7 kingdoms were united - what's hard about making raviolis except it's tedious and time consuming? So don't attempt ravioli if you're hungry :)

To make raviolis, start with this link ----> Making Ravioli

To make the "orange filling":
1 sweet potatoes, boiled until soft
3 cloves of garlic, boiled together with sweet potatoes
1/2 cup of pumpkin filling
1 teaspoon kosher salt
pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 big sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped *use dry rosemary if unavailable*

Method:
1. In a food processor, put in boiled sweet potatoes, squeeze out the soft garlic from its peel, pumpkin filling, salt, pepper, olive oil, rosemary.
2. Blitz until you get a smooth and creamy paste
3. Use as a filling for your ravioli. Follow the instructions from the link above because that's what I used as my guideline.

If you want meaty stuff, you'll have to wait until i do a meaty ravioli with mushrooms or google for a recipe if you cannot wait :)

This ravioli is not stuffed with oranges, it is stuffed with an orange paste made from sweet potatoes and pumpkin. It is very delicious because I love the savory sweet flavor of the pumpkin-sweet potato filling. I flavored the filling with freshly chopped rosemaries so every pocket of ravioli emanates of rosemary and a light sweetness.

We all know the traditional way of eating ravioli, which is cooking the stuffed pasta until it's done and eating it with your fav. marinara sauce, cream or aioli. But I have a better idea. I deep fried my ravioli into a crispy golden brown and used my tomato marinara sauce as dip :) It's SO wonderful eating it that way. It's also the perfect food to entertain ;)


Remember to sprinkle some salt on the fried raviolis - dip and eat :)

One of my favorite things: Half boiled eggs

I love half boiled eggs. I use to have them as a child back when I was 7 years old. My mom would make me 2 half boiled eggs, a toast and a cup of warm milk with some Nestum in and I would be good to go.

To me, half boiled eggs (or soft boiled) are like comfort foods. The sunshiny goo that runs from the yolk every time i break it with my toast never fails to cheer me up. I remember this gadget my mom has that makes perfect soft boiled eggs every time. It's a plastic container with three rings around its top and a hole in the center for the water the drain off slowly while your eggs cook. It came with a funky yellow thermo cover. All you need to do is boil some water and add it into the container with the eggs in it and wait till the water drips off and your soft boiled eggs are ready.

But I don't have that container so I am just going to use a method that has never failed. All you need to do is put the eggs and water into a pot and heat till it comes to a boil. Turn off heat immediate and let the eggs sit for 2-3 minutes. Voila, perfect eggs every time.

Chicken Kimchi Stew

I don't know what on earth was I thinking when I made this stew. It's bloody hot and the temperature is 42C out... Now looking at it makes me sweat. I made this stew last evening because I had about 1/4 head of kimchi left. And kimchi stew was just a click away on this Korean food page I was looking at, I thought I'd give it a try.

Heat waves aside, the stew tastes good although I wouldn't drink it now when the weather is just scorching. It's a very simple stew served during the winter months by the Koreans. Go figure.

So you guys living in the southern hemisphere, this recipe would be perfect for you. The basic kimchi stew is just kimchi, onions, garlic and broth/water. But you can add anything you want inside. I am using chicken that I've sliced thinly. You can go ahead and use beef, mushroom, lamb, pork, tofu or all of that's listed. If you want to make kimchi, just click on my kimchi recipe here..

Here we go:
250grams of kimchi / 1/4 head of kimchi cabbage
3 cups of water
2tablespoon korean chili powder
2 cloves of mashed garlic
1 teaspoon of black pepper
Salt to taste
Green onions
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 chicken breast, sliced thinly and season with some salt pepper and cornflour

Other optional ingredients:
Tofu, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, turkey, venison, veal, broccoli, daikon radish, cabbage, carrots, turnips, potatoes, mushrooms, baby corn, etc.

Method:
1. Combine kimchi and water in a pot and bring to a boil. Add the rest of the ingredients in and let it cook for 10-15 minutes under medium heat.
2. Serve.

Yes, it's that's easy really :P

Eat it with rice or just drink it as it is. It's just delicious!

Steamed Pork Riblets in Garlic Black Bean Sauce

This is perhaps a very Chinese dish.

I don't usually eat pork as but the ribs on the supermarket shelved looked too enticing and fresh. I just had to grab one home. So, the first thing that came into my mind is steaming it like how both my grandmothers do with their meats sometimes, using sauces and ingredients that compliments the strong flavors of the pork.

I am not a huge pork fan because I thought the meat has a slightly strong odor that I don't really like. The only pork I'd eat is spam or luncheon meat because it smell so good when fried...:) But, i liked this steamed pork riblets with garlic and black bean sauce although I wouldn't eat it everyday. I added a ton of aromatics like garlic and ginger into the marinate to cover the pork smell and it did a pretty good job of it too. Ginger is a really awesome for getting rid of gamey and fishy tastes and smells.

Let's move on to my recipe.

For my marinade, I used:
2 tablespoons full of preserved black bean sauce
4 garlic, chopped
3 slices of ginger, minced
2 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine
2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil

300grams of pork riblets (You can also use other types of meats, like beef and lamb or even chicken drummets)

Method:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the marinade together in a ziplock bag and toss in the ribs. Squish until all is covered with marinade and let it sit for a 3 hours on the counter or overnight in the fridge..

2. After marinating, take the ribs out and place them on a plate in a steamer. Steam for 3 hours because you want the meat to fall apart. Add more water whenever the steamer dries out.
3. Serve :)



This recipe is quite fuss free, you just need to wait. It would be perfect for dinner if you do it during lunch or something. You could even pop it into a slow cooker, like how another food blogger did with her steamed ribs using preserved bean sauce instead: Slow-cooked pork ribs with salted soy beans, garlic and red chili from Teczscape :)

This dish goes very well with rice and veggies on the side. Simple and yet delicious.

Chocolate Rocky Road Banana Loaf

In all it's crumbly glory~!

Say whatever you like but nothing beats the comfort of a banana cake/loaf. Frankly, I don't really care what the difference is between a banana cake and a banana loaf, if any, except the type of baking pan used but I made mine in a bread pan, so I'll call mine a Chocolate Rocky Road Banana Loaf :)

Every now and then, i bake in the middle of the night because it soothes me. Last night, i baked a banana loaf laden with walnuts and chocolate chips. It's so filled with all the goodies, it was quite hard to cut when it was warm because the cake was too soft and moist. I have to admit, picking on the crumbs was really yummy though.

It doesn't look like a banana cake from the top at all

So, the recipe is a very basic banana cake/load recipe. All you need to do is just add the extras in (walnuts and chocolate chips).

Here's my recipe:
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 and 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk (or substitute with 1 tbsp lemon juice/vinegar and normal milk)
2 large ripe bananas (or 3 medium sized bananas), mashed

This is after i have picked up all the crumbs after the first slice, notice the hole at the corner?

Optional:
1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 350Fahrenheit (that's about 180C) and grease your cake/loaf pan. Mine was an 8 inch loaf pan, i thought it was a little small so if you have a 9 inch one, use that.
1. Combine soften butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat until light and fluffy.
2. Sift your flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and then add gradually into the butter mixture.
3. Add your mashed bananas and buttermilk in and mix well.
4. Add your chocolate chips and walnuts, remember to reserve some for the topping.
5. Pour into the cake pan/bread pan and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.


After it is out of the oven, loosen the sides with a knife and let it cool completely before cutting. Don't make the same mistake of cutting it while it's warm like me otherwise, you'll have to pick on the crumbs.

Enjoy! :)

Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread

This is perhaps the EASIEST recipe I have ever come about in baking history. Well, no doubt it's just a shortbread, preparation and labor takes less than 30 minutes. You basically dump every ingredient in, stir and pop it in the oven to bake.

The result? A buttery and delicious shortbread. Originally, this is a Martha Stewart's recipe but I added chocolate chips into it because of my undying love for all things cocoa. All for good measure. Seriously, chocolate should be a food group of it's own, since cocoa is high on antioxidants! :P So this recipe initially was made into heart shapes by Martha and I think it was for Valentine's Day or Mother's Day. One way or another, you can have it in any shape you want, just choose your cookie cutter shapes. I just cut them into rectangles and eat them with cold milk. YUMMY!

Oh and since Father's Day is on the 17th of June, you might want to consider making this for daddy dearest. If the man has fed you, clothed you, protect you, brought you up and love you so much since you were a tiny tot - i think spending a short amount of time in the kitchen making heart shape shortbreads is a small gesture for dad. Too bad, I can't make this for my dad - he's just thousands of miles away right now. But I have other things in planned ;)

Here's the recipe for the Chocolate Cranberry Shortbread:
1 c. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. sifted powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. finely shopped dried cranberries
1/2 c. chocolate chips

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 325F degrees.

Literally dump everything in

2. Combine ALL ingredients into a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. You will have a crumbly but malleable texture that you can bring together into a ball.
3. Grease the cookie pan with some butter and flour.
4. Pour the dough onto the cookie pan and with a roller, roll it evenly such as thus:

I realize that some dough is stuck to my roller, an idea would to be cover the top with a plastic wrap and roll. Then nothing sticks! :)

5. Pop it into the oven and bake for 20-50 minutes (the range is big because some ovens varies in temperature and power).
Whatever it is, just lookout for a pale golden top and you're done. You only cut the cookies AFTER it's baked :)

After it's done, just cut them into rectangles like me or you can use a heartshape cookie cutter and make heart shape shortbreads :)

These shortbreads tastes better and better as the days goes by. It will keep up till 7 days, so keep them in an airtight container.