Saturday, 11 September 2010

Day 71 ... Attitude Chocolate Cake With Frosting

The Ingredients ...

Hayley and Ming are in the Dessert Committee,
with Justine helping out with the instructions. 
This would probably be the first time Hayley has to bake her own birthday cake, 
and share it someone else (Uni) on top of that.


The Assam Laksa Girls are checking on the Dessert Girls ...

Straight from the oven ...

Amelia inspects the cake and helped Justine out with the flipping over and frosting ...

The Birthday Cake ...
Awwww ... how pretty ...

Happy Birthday to You 
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to Hayley and Uni
Happy Birthday to You :D

Time to cut the cake ...

We are having the choc cake with vanilla ice cream 
and a hot drink ...
Oh my, the dessert is super delicious! 
Cathy and Uni tapau-ed some back for their kids.
Ming too.


We had a really great time! 
Thanks everyone, looking forward to our next session : 
Birthday Mee :D

Day 71 ... Fish Head Bee Hoon

Amelia & Mom Grace

We had lunch at Win Soon Fish Bead Bee Hoon @ Kuchai Entrepreneur's Park. 
Grace was in town, from Penang, visiting her lovely daughter Amelia.


Hayley was with us. We ordered 3 bowls of noodles. Grace shared with Amelia as they had just come from a heavy dim sum breakfast, and I shared with Bryan. I too just had a packet of wan tan mee that morning for breakfast, after returning from the market with our assam laksa ingredients.


The bee hoon noodles with the fried fish ...
Very nice and tasty lunch, fish was fresh too ... :D

Friday, 10 September 2010

Day 70 ... Chicken Rendang

CHICKEN RENDANG

Today was the first day of Hari Raya.
We are privileged to have been invited to a friend's place in Serendah for Raya Open House.
Mr Nasuha and his family have just moved into a beautiful bungalow in that area.


KETUPAT & LEMANG

Upon entering their dining place, there was large spread of Raya delicacies awaiting on the dining table.

The above are trays of ketupats and lemangs.

I was not able to snap as many shots as I would have liked to because of the guests around me. I surely did not want people to think that I came from some kind of jungle and have not seen a feast such as this.

In fact, I HAVE NOT SEEN a feast such as that ... in a long time.

So, I was only able take some quick shots of food that was placed near where I was seated. Managed to take 5 pictures, but 2 turned out blur. Arghhh.

The chicken rendang, the photo right at the top, was my favourite.

OMG - it was indescribable!!! Super-fantastic-delicious!!!

You will see a hollow kinda space in the photo. That's because just right before I snapped the photo, the lady next to me removed a large piece of drumstick from that dish onto her plate.

I felt like asking her to put it back, you know like, "Would you mind please, it's for my blog?" but decided against that. What would she think? Mr Nazuha is such a nice man, I didn't want him to get any feedback from his guests, this one in particular, that one of his other guest was rather - weird.

And so I quietly enjoyed my food, while making light conversations with the guests on the table. Justine was on my other side, and Bryan opposite me.

I had the chicken rendang with their homemade nasi impit. Mr Nasuha's wife made the nasi impit, along with the chicken rendang and the rest of the goodies on the Raya table. Have not tasted such wonderful impit rice before this. Soft, moist yet firm in texture, very tasty on its own, the flavour is greatly enhanced further when taken with the rendang. Trust me on this, his wife's recipe on the chicken rendang is better than Chef Wan's. I happened to watched Chef Wan's demo on AFC the day after. Somehow, comparing the end result of both presentations, this one was so much more appetizing. Perhaps, it's because we could smell the aroma of the homecooked one, which we couldn't, the one on TV. :D


AYAM SOTO & KETUPAT

Ooohh, the ayam soto was simply delicious. 
See the black spot on the top? That's the homemade sambal. 
Chopped garlic, chopped cili padi, with dark black sauce, soya sauce and sugar.
Yeah, I asked.

We're definitely gonna do up that spicy-sambal.
Simple and a great condiment to our meals at home.

Such a wonderful meal. His wife has also prepared
jars and jars of cookies of all varieties in the living room.

I am so inspired to cook chicken rendang now.
Let me see how am I gonna get the recipe from his lovely wife.

We are grateful that we were able to share this Raya
celebration with Mr N and his family on this festive day.

:D


Time of Posting : 1:59 pm (Monday)

Thursday, 9 September 2010

Day 69 ... Day Out With Hayley

This entry is in Bryan's Blog.

Forgot to sign out from his account when I was doing this entry. :D

bryanphua.blogspot.com

Wednesday, 8 September 2010

Day 68 ... Penne Carbonara with Fish

PENNE CARBONARA WITH GAROUPA FISH


1. Boil the pasta in salted water until half-done.
Drain and set aside.

Marinate fish (bite size) with seasalt and pepper 
and arrowroot powder.


2. Saute garlic and onions till fragrant.
Sear the fish. 
Add the vegetables,
cauliflower and carrots.
Add milk and grate some cheese over.


3. Add pasta into the pan and toss to mix.
Beat an egg into a separate mixing bowl.
Transfer contents of pan into the bowl
and toss well. :D

Sprinkle a pinch of black sesame seeds 
and serve immediately.


Bryan used this egg method for carbonara, 
instead of using cream.
A simple pasta dish which tasted quite like carbonara, 
minus the high-calories. :D


I had my one shake of The Green Drink this morning,
economy rice at the coffee-shop near our condo and pasta for dinner.


To Sum Up
1 shake & 2 meals
Juice. Fruit. Hemoberry. Water


Time of Posting : 8:49am (Thurs)

Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Day 67 ... Oriental Chicken Paella

ORIENTAL CHICKEN PAELLA

Tonight, I asked Bryan to do his famous paella dish. 

Had taken out some chicken thighs to thaw, they were nice and ready to be cooked. It was either curry chicken or shoyu chicken. I had a tummy upset after lunch time, for taking too much sambal with my pan mee, so curry was out. :(

Oriental it is then.  

In short, Claypot Chicken. Just that, he did it in the saucepan, the spanish way. We orientalized a spanish dish :D



1. Marinate the chicken pieces with seasalt, 
pepper, shoyu and dark sauce.

Saute garlic, onions and ginger in sesame seed oil.

Add in the chicken. Stir fry till meat is well done. 
Add carrots and oyster mushrooms.



2. Add in 2 cups of rice grains.
Toss to mix.
Add 2 cups of water mixed with 
homemade ice-cubed chicken stock.
Simmer. Close the lid.
Should be about ready in 20 minutes.
 


3. Just before removing from the stove, 
turn on flame HIGH for a few seconds,
to get a nice thin layer of crusty texture 
on the sides of the pan.
The best part. :D

Serve from the pan.
Run the scoop through to loossen the rice a bit. 
Garnish with some spring onions or coriander leaves.

Hmmm, dinner was absolutely delicious!
We finished the whole pan while watching TV, 
scrapping at the crusts and all. :D

I had my one shake of The Green Drink this morning,
pan mee in piquant szechuan soup and paella for dinner.


To Sum Up
1 shake & 2 meals
Juice. Fruit. Hemoberry. Water


Time of Posting : 9:06am (Wed)

Monday, 6 September 2010

Sunday, 5 September 2010

Day 65 ... Claypot Egg Noodles

CLAYPOT EGG NOODLES

Tonight, Justine and I had a "lazy dinner." 

Lazy to cook, lazy to go out, lazy to order-in.

So, in that sort of mood, we decided to have lazy noodles, everything taruh. 

Yup, throw everything in. Easy as can be.


1. Boil some water in a claypot. 


2. Add homemade ice-cube frozen chicken stocks.
When boiling, add whatever we had in the fridge, 
including garlic, onions, ginger, oyster mushrooms and cabbage. 
Add a portion of noodles. Break an egg in it. Simmer.


3. When ready, toss in tomatoes, carrots, 
chillies and spring onions.
Added shoyu and sesame seed oil. 
Chilly oil for some kick.


Yeah, that was our dinner on Sunday night. :D

Saturday, 4 September 2010

Day 64 ... Creamy Chicken in Peanut Sauce

CREAMY CHICKEN IN PEANUT SAUCE
by Justine


Our beautiful daughter cooked dinner tonight.

She was helping me in the kitchen, chopping the garlic and onions. Bryan's in Singapore this weekend. One thing led to another, from the chopping board she took over the saucepan, and soon she was like stir-frying the ingredients etc.

At first, we intended to prepare chicken in oyster sauce. I was rummaging through the fridge and saw my Made in USA Peanut Butter. Asked her if she wanted to make peanut sauce instead? She was like, yeah yeah, peanut sauce's better. So took out the milk as well. Brought out some vegetables to add in too. She loves potatoes, so potatoes are a must in whatever she's gonna be cooking tonight. :D


chop chop chop
garlic, onions and
ginger (in broad strips - so she could easily pick them out later)

While Jus was sauteing the garlic, onions and ginger in sesame seed oil, I took out two chicken thighs. Removed skin and cleaned them up, and chopped them into smaller pieces. Tossed them into the saucepan. Jus gave it a nice stir-fry. We added the potatoes, carrots and oyster mushroom.


Her favourite part was to pour in some fresh milk and the peanut butter. 

One table spoon was not sufficient, she said, so we added two, of the creamy peanut butter. She sprinkled seasalt over, gave the ingredients a stir, tasted again, and felt it needed a lil bit more salt. So added another pinch. Passed her a bottle of basil herbs, and she shook some in too. After that, we added half a mug of water, put the lid over and left it to simmer for a bit.

We checked it about 10 minutes later. The potatoes were nice and soft. Tossed in the bell peppers and strips of spring onions. She gave it a final toss before I transferred the contents onto a serving dish.


Ooh, Bryan should have been here. :D 
Never mind, Jus can always do it again.
The chicken was absolutely creamy-tender 
and very very tasty.
The potatoes were our favourite, 
texture was just right to melt in the mouth. 
We had it with white rice while watching 
FRIENDS (DVD). :D

Friday, 3 September 2010

Day 63 ... Vegetarian Stir-Fried Spaghetti

VEGETARIAN STIR-FRIED SPAGHETTI

Tonight, Bryan whipped up a simple dish of fried pasta, using spaghetti noodles. 


 
 Here are the ingredients ...


1. Boil the pasta till half-cooked.

Meanwhile, beat and fry the egg.

2. Saute garlic, ginger and onions in olive oil.
 Toss in the vegetables, except for the bell peppers.
Stir fry a bit, add in the spaghetti. 
Add water, seasalt and shoyu. Simmer. 
About ready, toss in the bell peppers.

3. Garnish with spring onions, cherry tomatoes,
fried egg and a dash of black pepper.
Squeeze some lime over for a zesty taste.


 
 Always like my plate colourful ...
The noodles were delicious!


This morning, I had one shake of The Green Drink,
pan mee for lunch and the above for dinner.


To Sum Up
1 shake & 2 meals
Juice. Fruit. Hemoberry. Water.


Time of Posting : 9:41am (Sunday)