Chinese BBQ Pork

To continue the Chinese BBQ hit, I’ve decided to make some BBQ pork (Char Siu)!!!! As I mentioned in the Roast Pork Belly post, I love my fatty char siu!!! hahaha... So when I went and bought the pork neck in preparation for this char siu night, I asked for a fatty piece!!! Hehehe...

Ingredients:

1kg pork neck

5 tbsp char siu sauce (you can get it from Chinese grocery shop, and it comes in a jar)

3 tsp soy sauce

1 tbsp Chinese wine

honey

1) Cut the pork neck into strips, and give it a good wash and pat dry with paper towel. Marinate it with the char siu sauce, soy sauce and chinese wine. Cover with glad wrap and leave it in the fridge overnight.

2) Preheat the oven to 200C, and roast the pork neck for 50 minutes with all the sauce in the pan and cover it with foil.

3) Remove the foil and turn the temperature down to 150C and brush it with the sauce in pan every 5-10 minutes for half an hour. In the last 15 minute coat the meat with honey to get that sweet sticky taste. Cool and rest the meat before cutting it into pieces.

You have to be careful after you coat the meat with honey, as it tends to burn easily!!! I usually dilute the honey with tiny little bit of water, so it can be brushed on more easily... Just a little hint and tip for you!

I reckon mine turned out not sweet enough, next time I might add a little bit more honey in. But hubby already had his thumb up, saying that it’s better than the store bought one! I reckon he’s just saying it just in case I don’t make it for him next time!!! hahahaha...

I served mine with some rice and vege, and drizzled the remaining sauce in the pan on top!!!! 1kg of pork neck does sound alot... don't worry, we didn't have it all in one go, we made 2 dinners and 2 lunches out of it! =P

Fried Sticky Rice

There is one dish that I always wanted to try making, but never got around to it is the fried sticky rice! I have put it off for so long because I’ve heard alot of ‘tricks’ are needed to make it successful! And some people say that if you do it the preper way (ie. fry the sticky rice from raw to cooked, not cheating it by steaming it soft first!) it takes ageessss and lots of arm muscles! Ummmmm....

Finally I took up the challenge!

Ingredients:

2 cups sticky rice

2 Chinese sausage, sliced

2 dried scallop

12 dried shrimp

12 dried mushroom

2 eggs, whisked

4 tsp water

chopped shallots

2 cups water

3 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1) Soak the sticky rice overnight. In a separate bowl soak the mushroom and dried scallop till soft. Then diced them up.

2) Add a little oil to a non-stick pan and pour in the eggs to make omelette. Cool, then roll it up and slice into threads.

3) Fry the Chinese sausage, shredded dried scallop, and the diced mushroom together. Reserve.

4) Drain the sticky rice. Add a little oil in pan, and fry the sticky rice until it’s coated with oil. Slowly add in the water a little at a time. Continue to stir until sticky rice softens. Add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar and stir to coat the rice evenly. Add in the ingredients from step 3 and lastly the egg threads.

Well... it didn’t turn out to be as hard as I imagined, and it didn’t take long for the rice to soften either! I think it only took me 10 minutes! Don’t know why, perhaps because I soaked the rice overnight?!?!? I also found that the rice is lacking in flavour, maybe a little bit more soy sauce will do the trick!

Now I still have a big bag of sticky rice left in the cupboard... so I might give this another go, and whatelse can I make using sticky rice?!!?! Any suggestion??

Salmon in Puff Pastry

Time to clear some old food in the freezer!!! Packets of half used puff pastry and shortcrust pastry tends to get neglected in my freezer all the time! And once they get forgotten for a long time, they tend to go dry and start cracking! And this is exactly what’s happening to my puff pastry in my freezer! Oopsss.. But I guess they’re still good to eat, but just not in one piece!

One night I bought two pieces of salmon home, and all of a sudden I remembered the long forgotten puff pastry in the freezer, so I made use of the poor thing, and made them into something simple but fantastic! Simply season the salmon with salt and peeper and some lemon juice, then wrap it with the puff pastry. Then brush the top with some egg yolk wash, in they go into the oven for 15-20 minutes at 180C or until they turn golden!

Yummy... and full of omega-3! The good fish oil!

Chicken Japanese Curry

Winter is not even here yet, why is the weather so cold already!??!?! Does it mean that the winter is gonna be freezing cold?!?!

Winter is the time to have some hearty comfort meals, and one of the easiest thing to make is the Japanese Curry! One day when hubby and I were doing the weekly grocery shopping, we were walking down the aisle of an Asian grocery store... Hubby goes “Can we have Japanese curry?” just like a little kid asking his parents whether they can get buy some lollies when walking down the supermarket aisle! Haha...

The most common Japanese curry comes in cubes, and you can get either mild or hot. But I can tell you, even the hot one is not hot at all! Japanese curry tends to have a sweet flavour, unlike the Thai or Indian curry which leans towards the spicy side with lots of herbs.

This simple dinner involves only dicing up the chinese pieces (you can use beef if you prefer), carrots, potatoes and onion. Then saute the vege till they are slightly brown, then add the chicken pieces and stir for another 3-4 minutes. Add the curry cubes and water according to instructions and let it simmer for a little while. Then spoon over your rice, and it’s done! Easy!

I usually add less water than the instruction suggests because I like my sauce to go thicker, which is just my personal preference!

Plum Melba Tart

After discovering the awesome tart base when I made the Lemon Meringue Tart at the beginning of the year, then I always wanted to revisit this tart base recipe!!! I reckon tart is only good for a large group of people because of the amount of butter you use in the base you instantly know that it's a fatty treat!!! Plus the tart tin I've got is pretty big, and it's only good when you have a dinner party. Although I do have a small 10cm one, but the effort of making a tart base, then making the filling is a bit too much for a 10cm tart! =P

So this 9 people dinner party during Easter is perfect for a dessert tart! For the tart base, refer to Lemon Meringue Tart...

Ingredients:

4 ripe plums, peeled, halved, stones removed

200ml thin cream

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

2 eggs, plus 1 extra yolk

1/4cup caster sugar

125g raspberries

2tbs flaked almonds

1) Preheat the oven to 190C, bake the tart base with pastry weight for 10min, then remove the weights and bake for a further 5min until pale golden and dry. Remove from oven.

2) Reduce oven heat to 170C. Heat the cream and vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan over medium heat until just below boiling point. Gently whisk the eggs, extra yolk and sugar together in a bowl, then whisk the warm cream into the egg mixture, discarding the vanilla pod.

3) Place the plum halves, cut-side down in the tart case. Scatter with half the raspberries, then pour over the cream mixture. Bake in the oven for 35-40min until the custard is set. Cool slightly, then dust with icing sugar and serve scattered with the almonds and remaining raspberries.

This recipe was from a recent purchase of 'More Please'... it was some great recipes in there and fantastic photography!!!! I have a habit of tagging the book with tabs when I get a new one!!! And now this book has heaps of tags hanging off the side of the book waiting for me to adventure through!!!

Chinese Roast Pork

I'm still trying to catch up on my posts... and yes... I'm still on Easter!

This year I'm having a relatively quiet easter in Sydney, which is very unusual, even my mum found it weird!!! A couple of weeks before Easter, my mum asked me whether she needs to take care Mochi for us during the Easter break and I said 'no'... and she was shocked and questioned again... 'No?!?!?!?' Usually when we have a long weekend, we'd either go away for a short interstate or drive away trip or have house parties at different people's places. But this year nothing was really organised besides a dinner party and a small breakfast gathering both at my place.

For the 9 people dinner party, I actually made quite a few things, but only managed to take photo of the Roast Pork and the dessert! I've made smoked salmon arancini (this is actually the third time I've made this, but I still not managed to take one single photo of it!!!! arrrgghhhhh....), carrot dip + avocado dip with pita bread, lemongrass chicken skewer, and the chinese roast pork! And thanks to Carol for preparing a salad for me!

Personally I don't really like the Chinese roast pork you get from the shop, because I found them too salty!!!! But one day I came across this recipe (here is the English translation of the recipe!!)that seems so easy to make, so I thought I'd give it a go, since hubby loves the Chinese Roast Pork!

After the first bite... I went... 'Wowwwww'.... the skin was soooo crispy, and the meat was still slightly warm and not too salty - you can just taste a hint of the salt which I like!!!! The meat was soft and tender, and you couldn't really taste the oily fat in the meat, I guess it was all drained out from the boiling and roasting process! It tasted awesome!! I was so effortless, just preparation work is needed the night before! I'll definitely make this again!!!

=)

Whoopie Pie

Easter?!?!?! It seems so far away, although we had a 5 days long weekend but I'm actually ready for my next long weekend already! This whoopie pie was done a long time ago, back during easter time, when it's the time for guilt-free chocolate indulgence! Well... an excuse to dose up on sugar to be more exact!

Personally I don't really like easter eggs... I found them a bit boring, and the cream eggs are too sweet, so I had to find substitute so I could boost up my sugar level just like everyone else! I made rocky road last year for easter, so I have to find something different to make this year! Whoopie pie was the first thing that came to my mind! I first saw that on other people's blog, and it seems like this is the new sugar trend after cake pop!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the cake,

125g butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.25 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup cocoa

1/3 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butter milk

For the marshmallow filling:

125g marshmallows

2 tsp water

1) Preheat oven to 280C. Cream together the butter and brown sugar using an electric mixer and add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until light and creamy. In a separate bowl, whisk together the baking soda, salt, flour and cocoa. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in 3 parts, alternating with buttermilk, and combining well after each addition. Finally stir in the chocolate chips.

2) Place a dollops of batter onto baking paper, making sure that there are enough space for it to spread. Bake until tops are puffed and cakes spring back when touched - about 12 min. Remove from oven and cool completely before filling.

3) Pair up cakes that are similar in sizes. In a microwave proof bowl, melt marshmallows and water on high heat for 20 second burst (needs a total of 40 sec). The filling will be soft and spreadable. Don't sandwich them together straight away, otherwise it will slide off. Wait for 5-10 min before placing a top on.

I only used up half of the marshmallow filling, because I don't like mine too sweet! So if you're like me, feel free to halve your marshmallow filling ingredients!

This recipe is from the Not Quite Nigella website which is one of my absolute favourite food blogs!!

Honey Glazed Duck Breast

In terms of meat, chicken probably dominates the most of my diet because it's such an easy meat to cook, and so versatile - bake, grill, pan-fried, stir-fry, roast, poach.... the method goes on! But I guess every now and then, we all need something random to spice up our lives! A while ago, a friend of mine gave me a little thick Marie Claire cookbook called 'Spicy' which has a lot of recipes in there that uses different kind of spices! And I found this honeyed duck breast recipe in there that is soooo easy to make and I couldn't resist not to make it!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4x duck breasts

1 tsp Chinese five spice

1 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 200C. Score the skin of the duck breasts in a crisscross pattern and rub the five-spice powder into the skin along with the salt.

2) Drizzle honey over the duck breasts and roast for 15 min. Allow to rest for 1 minute covered with foil.

Two simple steps, how easy is that??? I served mine with some pearl couscous which I thought was a pretty good combination. You can always choose rice, mashed pumpkin or sweet potato would be nice too!!!

Dinner is ready in less than 30 min!!! How good is that???

Coconut Red Bean Pudding (椰汁紅豆糕)

Well... I think I've cooked too much red bean while I was making the Red Bean Pudding (砵仔糕), so now I need to find something else to cook to use up the cooked red beans! =P

The first thing that came to my mind is the coconut red bean pudding! You might be thinking why the hell I want to make another red bean pudding!!!! Ha! This red bean pudding is totally different to the other one I previously made. It has a much soften texture, more pudding like and none of those chewiness! This is actually another of my mum's favourite!!! I guess she likes anything with red beans!

Ingredients:

150g corn flour

300ml coconut cream

300ml milk

600ml water

white sugar to taste

cooked red bean

1) Add corn flour into milk in a large pot and mix well. Then add in coconut cream, water and sugar and mix until smooth.

2) Heat up the mixture over low heat until thick, then add in the cooked red beans and stir well. pour in a oil sprayed tin, and wait for it to cool before refrigerate.

Just a little note that when you heat the mixture up, make sure it's over low heat otherwise it will bubble and splatter everywhere! Also make sure that the mixture becomes VERY thick before you turn off the heat otherwise it won't set, and you won't be able to cut it into squares so you will end up eating it like a thickened soup! I've made these 2 mistakes before so I know the tragedy!!!!

Chinese Street Food - Red Bean Pudding (砵仔糕)

What characterise the food in Hong Kong is the fact that you can enjoy some delicious cheap street food, as well as some micheline star restaurants in this small bustling city. However, because of hygiene and safety control, those temporary or 'on-the-run' street foods are very hard to find nowadays!!! I remember when I was little, there was a 'on-the-run' wooden trolley just close by home that sells steam rice noodle with sesame and hoi sin sauce!!!!! I used to have that as breakfast almost every morning before school! And those sauce always ended up staining my white uniform! Opppssss..

Another of my 'on-the-run' favourite is the red bean pudding (that's actually the best I can translate it in chinese!!!) It comes in 2 flavours - brown sugar or white sugar. I actually don't mind both, and it comes in a dish shape with a thick skewer through it, so you can enjoy it without too many 'accident'!!! I don't see them much on the street anymore, last time I saw it was probably in Central near the Lan Kwai Fong district! If you want to try them now, you probably need to get them from Yumcha or some bread shop.

The other day a friend of mine asked me whether I know how to make them, cos she wants to have some. So I promised her that I'll make her some next time I do a batch. This kind of red bean pudding is actually quite easy to make... especially when you have all the ingredients at home! The most frustrating step is boiling the red bean, it's time consuming! It can take up to 40-50 minutes just to soften up the red bean!

Ingredients

3.25oz rice flour (沾米粉)

2oz wheat flour (澄麵)

4oz brown sugar (or white sugar)

red beans

1) Boil the red beans in water for 50 minutes, or until soft. Drain (you might need to keep an eye on the water level, just it case it goes dry!!)

2) Mix rice flour and wheat flour together in a large bowl with 1/2 cup of water until there smooth. Pass the mixture through sieve 3 times.

3) Mix sugar and 1.25 cup of water together in a small pan and bring to a boil. Cool for a minute then add to the flour mixture and stir quickly until smooth.

4) Grease 7 ramekins (or any other small bowl) with spray oil and pour in the flour mixture from step 3. Add in cooked red beans. Steam over high heat for 20 minutes.

These red bean puddings are so delicious and chewy in texture, and you can alter the amount of sugar and red beans you put in to suit your taste. My mum likes here to have LOTS of red beans! And for myself, I'm actually happy to go without any red beans as well... hahaha... I just love that chewy texture!

=)

A simple Japanese Dinner @ Home...

onigiri

takoyaki

Last Saturday, hubby and I went out for bunch with a group of friends in Crows Nest, and it rained so badly that I didn’t want to go anywhere after brunch except just to go home lie on the couch with a blanket on and watch DVD.

And on a slow raining day, cooking gets lazy too! A quick fix of Japanese meal for dinner is just perfect! I don’t have the Japanese sushi rice in stock, but the medium grain I have at home will do! Get the rice cooked in the rice cooker, once it is done, add a splash of sushi rice vinegar and some sugar (adjust according to your own taste!), then mix in some japanese rice seasoning, and use one of those triangle sushi mould to create the shape (according to Jo, the official name for triangle sushi is onigiri!! Thanks Jo!!!) and wrap it with a strip of seaweed! Done!

Having only onigiri looked a bit plain, so I threw in some takoyaki, wagyu beef slices, and a seaweed salad into the menu. Don’t think that I’ll make the takoyaki from scratch!!! It’s too much effort plus you need to get that special cooking utensil for it, so I just got the frozen ones from the Asian grocery store. You simply just microwave it according to instruction, but I think I’ll chuck it into the oven next time, cos I found that using the microwave makes them lack in colour! ummmm... those frozen takoyaki are not bad, but of course no where as good as the fresh ones. These frozen ones seem to have too much flour in them but not enough octopus pieces... well, it’s only frozen, can’t expect too much! And the real ones should have the fishy flakes on top, and it just happened that I ran out in the pantry, but I think I can deal with that!!! The Japanese BBQ sauce and mayo definitely helped to save the dish! hahaha...

Doggie Cupcakes

It seems pretty unfair that I always cook for hubby and myself, friends and family, and never cook for my dog Mochi! When we have dinner, he always come around and start sniffing around the table, but actually that’s all he does, because he is trained to know that he won’t get any food off the table! But occassionally he does get very agitated when our dinner plate has some kind of egg, cheese or apple in it, because I sometimes feed him these as well, but never off our dinner!!!!

One day I saw a friend of him who baked some little cupcakes for her dog - she’s a dog lover, she always give her dog the best food, and the best care! So whatever she feeds her dog must be good! So I quickly asked her for the recipe!!!

Ingredients

40g plain flour

3 eggs

10g honey

1) Preheat oven for 15min @ 200C

2) Beat eggs and honey together for 5min

3) Sift in flour and fold

4) Pour batter into cupcake mould (80% full)

5) Bake for 20min @170C

Eggsssss... I think that’s all Mochi could sniff!!!! When he saw those cupcakes, he was over-joyed, and finished it in a second!!!! I guess it must be good! hahaha...

Bamboo Steamer Rice

Last year when hubby and I went to Hong Kong, after a few days we started to have this people phobic - too many people, too much traffic, and too much pollution. So we decided to go out on an outskirt adventure to Tai O. Tai O is kinda like a fishing village where there is minimal traffic... actually barely any traffic - more bike than car, and people are so simple and down-to-earth, lots of little grocery stores, and most importantly fresh air!!! After almost 2 hours of travel from the city centre, we finally arrived! Hubby and I not knowing our direction, so we simply just followed behing this group of people who seemed to know where they were going! We stood close by them and listened to their conversation as to where to go for lunch!!! haha.... we don’t usually do that!!! We ended up at this simple restaurant right by the water and there was this dish called ‘bamboo steamer rice’ which was awesome!!!! And I tired to replicate this dish a couple of times, but still haven’t been successful! Well... I guess if I can easily replicate the dish at home, there would be no such thing as restaurant and secret ingredients!

Anyway... here’s my version. It has rice... obviously!! And salty fish, pork neck, shrimp paste, silver fish, and the big dried shrimp!!! All wrapped with lotus leaf so it has that nice fragrance, then in it goes into the bamboo steamer for 20 minutes!

After a quick stir!!!

Mine didn’t taste too bad, the second time definitely improved! But this time round the shrimp paste was a bit too strong, and somehow the shrimp paste and salty fish here just doesn’t taste the same as the ones in Tai O. Does anyone have a suggestion of a good shrimp paste?? I guess I still need to work on the balance between the salty taste, the distinct taste of shrimp paste and the beautiful fragrant of lotus leaf!!

Ready for the third time trail!

Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls

What I like about rice paper roll is its light and fresh taste. Although it’s a pretty light ‘snack’ (or dinner... which is how we had it) in taste, it’s actually very filling, probably because of the noodles inside!

This time I made two flavours - prawn and beef. Prawn is easy, you just go and get the cooked prawns from the seafood store, for beef, I got the fatty Asian hotpot beef you get from the Asian grocery stores and marinated it with sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar and stir fried it. The fatty beef is just so lovely in taste, every bite you can feel the beefy oil run inside your mouth. However, what I found is you can’t have too much of it, because the amount of oil from the beef actually fills you up pretty quickly!

Making rice paper rolls is easy, you get the rice paper from Asian grocery stores, they come in a pack of hard semi-translucent hard sheets. All you need to do is soak it in warm water, once it’s all soften up, you can start rolling!!!! Add in some prawns, noodles, and mint, then roll it up and tuck the sides in! Easy!!!! Mint is the crucial part in these rolls! It helps to give that refreshing flavour! Cucumber is another thing that you might want to add into your rolls just to give it some crunch!

For the sauce, I was being lazy, and just bought the hoi sin sauce for dipping, which I found a bit too salty. If you fancy, you might want to create your own dipping sauce with fish sauce, brown sugar, lime juice, chili, and shredded carrots to give it an extra refreshing flavour!

Roast Chicken with Garlic and Peri Peri Sauce

It is not the first time I’ve heard from people how good those oven bags are for roasting meat, so I thought I’d give it a go!

As I was walking down the aisle in Woollies, I actually found those oven bags came with different seasoning as well! There were garlic, honey soy, herbs, and portugese or something, of course you can the plain ones and do your own seasoning as well. But I felt like being lazy, so I picked the garlic one!!!!

When it came to the chicken night, I felt extra lazy, and since hubby was working from home that day so I instructed my hubby to do the chicken roasting! But these oven bags are just so amzing, making this so a simple process! No need to give hubby a massive long instruction on how to marinate and all that fearing he will miss something along the preparing process, just ask him to read the instruction on pack!!! haha... Basically you just need to give the chicken a good wash, pat dry with paper towel, then put it in the oven bag and give it a good shake and rub, poke a few holes, and in it goes into the pre-heated oven for 1.5 hour! Easy!

Recently I’m in a hot and spicy crave, so after the chicken is done, I gave it a good brush of the Nando Hot Peri Peri sauce!!!! Yummmmm....

The colour of the roast chicken turned out great, and because it was cooked in a bag with its juice that means the meat can remain juicy and tender. But one thing I reckon can improve is the taste. Without the peri peri sauce, I think the garlic flavour wasn’t intense enough, it can do with a bit more flavour! Lucky that I had the Nanado sauce handy!!!!!

=)

Marinated Chicken Wings

Chicken wing is such a versatile kind of meat, basically you can cook it in any way you want! You can steam it, bake it, grill it, deep-fried it, pan-fried it.... and the list goes on!

Baking and steaming are the methods I use the most for chicken wings! Why??? Because it’s easy and less fuss as long as you marinate it beforehand! But this time I chose to pan-fried it just to make it out of the ordinary! I heated up the pan, and add a little oil in then start pan frying the chicken wings in batches until golden brown on both sides! Because this time I was so un-organised and didn’t marinate the meat before hand, so I qucikly whipped up a sauce hoping that it can be flavoursome enough! What I added in was some chopped garlic, tomato sauce, worchestershire sauce, sugar, vinegar and tobasco sauce!!! hahahaha... yes a random mixutre of everything...

After the wings are all done, give the pan a good wipe to get rid of the excess oil. Then return the chicken wings into the pan, turn the heat on low and add the ‘random sauce’ in and let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes!!!! The wings turned out to have a nice rich reddish brown colour, however this last minute sauce lack the tangy flavour that I was expecting, maybe it could do with a bit more vinegar and tobasco sauce! And next time I think I should be a bit more organised and marinate the meat beforehand or at least give the wings a good rub with the salt to enhance the flavour!

Boo boo for me this time!!!

=(

Unagi Fried Rice with Egg

I bought a couple of unagi a while ago, and they have been hiding at the back of the freezer quietly... ummm... maybe it's time for me to dig them out and do something with them!

Unagi on rice, unagi sushi and unagi fried rice have always been some of my favourite dishes in Japanese cuisine... I guess in general I just like unagi!!! hahaha... sometimes I do think maybe it's not unagi that I like, it's the sauce that I'm obsessed with. Usually unagi comes with a slightly sweet and sticky sauce, the chef usually keeps on brushing the sauce on top of the unagi while grilling, and after it is cooked, a generous amount of the sauce is brushed on top to enhance the flavour!

Unfortunately, the frozen unagi that you get from the Asian grocery store usually has a more chewy texture rather than the soft texture you get when it is fresh. So the frozen ones are usually not good for doing ungai sushi, but it's ok for eel fried rice!

Serves 3-4

2 cups cooked rice, cooled and refrigerated over night

2 unagi, diced

4 eggs, whisked

2 medium carrots, diced

handful chopped shallot

unagi sauce

1) Heat the wok with a little oil, and pour half of the whisked egg in to make an omelette. Then repeat to make a second one.

2) Once the omelettes are cooled, rolled it up and sliced into thread like shape.

3) Heat a little more oil in the wok, then add diced carrots, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Then add in the unagi and stir fry for 1 minute.

4) Add in the cold cooked rice and stir until the grains of rice are separated, and thoroughly mixed through with the carrot and unagi.

5) Drizzle with the sauce, and continue to stir fry until the colour is evenly distributed.

6) Turn off the heat, and stir in the egg threads and 3/4 of the shallots.

7) Spoon the fried rice into a bowl, and sprinkle with fresh shallots.

Enjoy!

A healthy start of the day!

On a saturday morning, what do I feel like for breakfast??? Cereal?? Nooooo... Egg on toast?? Nooooo.... Banana Bread?? Nooooo...

Feel like something healthy! Yoghurt and fruit salad!!!!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Sometimes a really simple dish is all you need to make yourself feel satisfied. All those glorious fancy ingredients like squid link pasta, duck rivoli, porcini linguini.... are not the type of things that you would store in your cupboard, and sometimes I do wonder whether our taste buds actually likes the simple taste of $5 tomato better or the hundred dollar porcini better!

Last night I made the good old spaghetti bolognese - the cheap but tasty childhood dish! There is no special ingredients in there just the tomato, beef mince, spanish onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomoato sauce, tobasco sauce, and some sugar and mint. I tried to make it more adult like by adding some tobasco sauce in there... hahaha... which was nice, you can try adding chili in if you prefer, it will have a totally different taste! I also added some mint in for colour, and a fresher taste! Of course you can always substitute it with other herbs just as basil and oregano. It just happened that I’ve got some left over mint in the fridge that I need to use up!!! hahaha....

After the first bite, hubby’s eyes lightened up and said it was awesome!!! And I asked him... did I hear this right?? did you say awesome?? It has tomato in there - your ultimate enermy!!!! Yes hubby hates tomato, but through our 3 years of marriage, he is slowly accepting tomato into his occasional meal... but still he would pick it out if he can! But this time, hubby said the taste was really good, the flavour was just right!!!! And he polished it off in no time, including all the tomato bits!!!! After the big bowl of spaghetti, he asked for MORE!!!!

Hahaha... I think I have slowly transformed him into a tomato eater!!! ummm... my next aim is to add some berries into his life!!!! Then it will be perfect!

=P