canapes....

so we made canapes in class today...

pastry tarts with salmon roe, quail egg, sour cream, dill & coriander

pumpernickel topped with a lettuce chiffonade, smoked trout mousse and garnished with capers & chives

we also made stuffed mushrooms, spinach and fetta filo parcels, chicken satay, mini qaesadillas... which unfortunately were all eaten before i remembered i had a camera... haha. i have such great memory.

omelette with bacon, mushrooms, and gruyere cheese

this was just my dinner a few days ago. i was lazy to do anything else so i just cooked up an omelette. thought it looked pretty so i took a photo of it :)

now that i have a compact camera at my disposal.... i think i'm going to have more photos of stuff done in school. provided i remember to bring it for practicals... haha. i will try my best!

urges

i sometimes have the inexplicable urge to bake. thank God I always have baking supplies in the pantry :)

dark chocolate cupcakes with a nutella icing

props to zac who helped with the snapshot!

lazy saturdays

haven't had one of these in awhile. waking up late on saturday morning and cooking my own brekkie. it's something that i've missed quite a bit actually, so i'm glad that i managed to wake up yesterday to do exactly that :)

homemade eggs benny

unfortunately i realized i was a little rusty with the poached eggs, so they weren't as pretty as i wanted them to be. but i guess that will get better once i start doing them more often again.

in other news, zac and i are going off to sydney for a week! i can't wait! i'm so in need of a holiday. looking forward to meeting up with old friends and eating up a storm! stay tuned for photos and updates on sydney edibles!

 

fresh out of the oven

there's nothing like a good hand-me-down recipe. my mom used to bake a lot when she was in university, and she used to write down all her recipes in this black book. now that she's so busy with work, she hardly has time to spend in the kitchen... so i was lucky enough to inherit the holy grail - mother's recipe book.

mom's hand-written recipe book

mom's banana bread is amazing. i've tried the recipe several times before, and i've always found myself picking the crumbs off the counter. yum yum. haha. it's dense and aromatic... and tastes heavenly with a cup of hot tea and a dollop of  fresh clotted cream. this time i added in about half a block worth of dark chocolate chunks just to make things a little more exciting :)

fresh out of the oven...

mom's banana bread with an extra chocolate punch :)

okonomiyaki

okonomiyaki (japanese pancake)

this is a really easy and tasty recipe. i used some prawns, fishcake, fresh shitakes in addition to the basic cabbage and onions, but you can choose what you'd like to add according to your taste. i got the recipe from this youtube video  that's actually part of a series of videos on japanese food. the instructions are pretty clear and all the ingredients are listed in the info section. don't be put off by the dog though (you'll understand if you check out the video!).

too many mushrooms

fresh mushroom soup with turkish bread

what do you do when you have too many mushrooms? make mushroom soup of course! the more varieties of mushrooms the better. i used some white portabello mushrooms, swiss brown mushrooms, and a handful of fresh shitakes this time round. i wish i had some dried porcini or truffle oil to add in as well, but i couldn't find either in safeway. i probably wasn't looking hard enough...

here's a tip for bread and carbo junkies in melbourne... threshermans bakehouse (just off lygon street, near melbourne uni) has some fantastic fresh breads that go for half price after 3pm every day. i bought a massive thing of turkish bread for two bucks! i love bargains. they make me happy :) 

i don't usually like cream in my mushroom soup. i find it too rich, and you can't really appreciate the full flavour of the mushrooms. i took a hint from jamie oliver and serve each bowl with a dollop of marscapone cheese instead. the results are heavenly! absolutely recommended if you love mushrooms.

cravings

ever since returning from our vietnam trip this year, there are some mornings where i wake up and have cravings for this vietnamese breakfast dish. 

bo ne op la

marinated beef steak sauteed with onions on a cast iron dish and two eggs sunny side up swimming in gravy... mopped up with fresh crusty baguettes... yum yum yum.... :)

porterhouse steaks

In honour of caleb's visit, we bought up some porterhouse steaks yesterday and pan-fried them for dinner. it's on occasions like this that i absolutely LOVE vicmart. 5 huge cuts for 24 bucks. just awesome! the steaks were lightly flavoured with salt and pepper... and then panfried and served with a dollop of homemade garlic-herbed butter. mmm.... meat. haha. i also whipped up some potato mash and popped some asparagus and prosciutto in the oven.

steak & mash with baby asparagus wrapped in prosciutto

marcus came over as well, and we had great dinner conversation... talking about everything from food, to the government to singaporean films. 'twas a fun night :)

in other news, the parents are in town, and i'm graduating tomorrow. taking them to a little italian restaurant in hardware lane tonight. al fresco dining and live jazz music. crossing my fingers for good weather. excited about tomorrow! can't believe i'm finally graduating!

duck and pinot noir!

a few of us were having drinks overlooking the yarra river about a week ago, and we had the fabulous idea of having a night dedicated to the classic combination of duck and pinot noir. the boys were to buy the roast duck and the wine, which left me the arduous task of coming up with a couple of sides to go with the roast duck.

after mulling over it for a few days, i came up with two side dishes. the first was a spinach and rocket salad with caramelized oranges and a miso sesame dressing. the slight bitterness and sweetness from the oranges worked wonders with the nuttiness of the rocket, and it broke the monotony of the dressing. in my opinion, the salad was a winner :) for 

carbohydrates, we had pan-fried polenta wedges topped with a five-spice honey soy sauce to complement the roast duck. this was pretty good as well, as the crispiness of the fried polenta really added texture to the entire dish.

roast duck with an orange miso salad and polenta wedges

e-hern with multiple bottles of pinot noir

e-hern serenading us

jo not-studying

in other news, a bunch of us went up to yarra valley last sunday. the weather was beautiful, and we got the chance to taste some really gorgeous wines. i promise that i will blog about it as soon as i manage to get the photos :)

pan-seared swordfish

dinner last night was bought on impulse when i went to vic mart to get some fruits. i walked past the fish section and i couldn't resist. it's not everyday that there's swordfish in the market :P

i thought i'd try something thai-inspired... hence the fish sauce, chillies, sugar and lime. i didn't have any thai basil on hand, so i had to make do with a mountain of coriander (which i incidentally LOVE). haha. unfortunately... i was a little too enthusiastic with the fish sauce... and not enthusiastic enough with the sugar. note to self the next time i attempt this.... remember to taste the marinade BEFORE i put the fish in... 

seared tofu in a miso-based sauce

i had a block of tofu sitting in my fridge, and i figured that it should be eaten soon-ish. having already put some beef bulgogi to marinate for an hour... i thought of trying something japanese inspired with the tofu. it's just something simple i managed to whip up with ingredients that were already in my kitchen :)

ingredients:

1 block soft white tofu

1 clove garlic (sliced thinly)

1 small slice of ginger

1/2 tablespoon miso paste mixed in 1/4 cup hot water

1 tablespoon sake (white wine or chinese cooking wine)

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 heaped tablespoon sugar (or mirin if you have it)

1 tsp corn flour dissolved in a 1/4 cup tap water

cracked black pepper to taste

sliced scallions & cut red chilli to garnish

method:

1. pour oil into a heated saucepan, enough to cover the bottom

2. sear tofu for about a minute on each side. 

3. remove tofu from saucepan and set aside on a serving plate/bowl

4. clean saucepan and reheat, pouring just enough oil again to cover the bottom

5. brown sliced garlic and ginger

6. add in miso paste & water

7. add in soy sauce, sugar, and sake, constantly stirring to dissolve sugar

8. once sugar has dissolved, pour in corn flour/starch and continue stirring till sauce thickens

9.remove from heat and pour sauce into serving bowl with the tofu

9. crack black pepper, and garnish

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if you'll notice, i didn't put any salt in this, as the miso paste is very salty, and there is some soy sauce in there as well. zac commented that the ginger taste was a bit strong for his liking, but i like the taste of ginger and i thought it was ok. the recipe can be adjusted according to taste. it was all on the fly anyway. haha. the next time i do this, i'll probably make a batter for the tofu... might give it more of an interesting texture.

the bulgogi actually turned out pretty well too, even though i had to substitute a few ingredients. maybe the next time i make it i'll remember to take a photo and put up the recipe :P 

nonya recipe bibles

every singaporean mother whose kitchen i have walked into seems to have this book. it's like the bible of singaporean cooking. it's particularly awesome for nonya food and kuehs. my grandmother has her own copy, and this one was passed down to me by my mother. 

there's just something about yellowed pages and second-hand books that i love... all the stories that they would tell if they could talk :) of course another nonya recipe bible is the famous Mrs. Lee's cookbook, of which i also have a copy. this was also passed to me by my mother. i guess the reason why i prefer the singapore cookbook is that it has heaps more colour photos and the directions are a lot clearer than the former. but i do sometimes refer to Mrs. Lee to compare recipes. 

i've been experimenting with quite a few of these recipes lately. in the past one week i've made babi pong tay, bak wan kepiting (minced pork with crab and bamboo shoot soup) and ayam sioh (chicken in thick spicy tamarind juice). All of which have been absolutely delicious. i wish i had taken photos. i keep on forgetting to, and only remember after we have scraped the last morsels off the bowls.

i'll try to remember next time!

little indulgances

once in awhile i like to indulge myself in junk food. particularly if it's on special at the supermarket. 

the best potato chips on the market (imho)

easter beckons

it seems like the signs that easter is approaching start to appear earlier and earlier each year. suddenly there are shelves and shelves of chocolate bunnies and eggs that line the aisles at supermarkets and convenience stores. there never was this much variety when i was a kid. i've never seen so many different kinds of easter eggs. it's bizzare.

my favourite easter treat has to be the hot cross bun. particularly the chocolate ones from bakers' delight. absolute heaven when toasted up. the traditional ones are delightful as well. especially when served heated up with a knob of butter oozing off the top. totally YUM!

traditional fruit hot cross buns  from bakers' delight