Chinese Rice Porridge/ Congee.

my new housemate, linzi (read: lindsay), has a penchant for Cantonese-style rice porridge/ congee which i must admit--before i met her--i've never attempted cooking. as i've explained earlier, i'm hainanese and our congee is quite different from how the cantonese prepare theirs. mainly, the difference lies in the viscosity: of all the dialects, the cantonese congee is the most fluid, to the point where it gets mistaken as a soup by the uninitiated.

lucky for us, not only is L. Cantonese, but she also knows her congee recipe well. for the most part, therefore, this recipe will be credited to her!

because linzi and i are going to be terribly busy over the next few days, we're cooking a big pot of congee to last us till wednesday/ thursday.

Ingredients.
500g, jasmine rice (washed and drained)
4 cloves, garlic
1-2 inch, ginger
1 pc, chicken stock cube (or 1 cup, chicken stock, or whatever stock you prefer)
1 tbsp, ground white pepper
2 tbsp, sesame oil
A LOT OF WATER

substitutable ingredients.
6 pc, dried mushrooms
1 pc, chicken breast
2 stalk, continental parsley (garnishing)
some thai fish sauce (for flavour)

(because the congee is made quite separately, you might want to add prawns, duck meat, beef strips, etc instead. pretty free-form once the congee is done.)



Special Equipment.
food processor (preferably handheld)

Serves.
8

Step 1: Preparing the ingredients
bruise and dice the garlic and ginger.

set the dried mushrooms in boiling water, and let it soak till soft.



remove the mushroom and dice them. set the mushroom broth aside for cooking later.

dice the chicken breast into finer portions.



Step 2: Quick fry of the main ingredients.
set your nice big wok/ pot over a medium flame. pour the sesame oil in. when hot, throw the garlic and ginger in.



before they brown, add the rice in and stir fry everything for about five minutes.



Step 2: Adding Water and Broth.
pour the mushroom broth into the mixture; remember to keep stirring. add about 10 portions of water--the water to rice ratio for this recipe is roughly 10:1. let the rice cook, but remember to stir intermittently.



Step 3: Processing the Congee.
when the rice is more or less cooked, you'll notice that it's broken down quite a bit. however, the rice bits are still somewhat separated from the water. traditionally, the porridge is cooked over the stove for about an hour so that the rice breaks down naturally. thankfully i haven't the patience; we're going to break it down actively.



turn your flame off, stick your food processor into the pot and let it rip! you'll probably have to spin the stick processor around for at least ten minutes so that you get a beautiful liquid texture out of the congee.



when done, return pot to stove.

Step 4: Adding stuff.
this is where we may depart and differ. i'm adding the mushroom chicken in right now. also, i'm adding more water so that the congee becomes even more fluid. the aim is to keep the congee as fluid as possible. so whenever water evaporates over the stove, add a bit into the pot and stir the water in.



make sure you allow the congee to come to a boil if you added raw meat in.

Final Serve.
taste your congee and you might realise that while it has a nice soothing taste to it, it's not exactly the most flavourful dish. most restaurants prepare their congee in a similar fashion: cook the main congee, remove part of it to add specific ingredients according to your order.

I'm serving my congee with a tsp of Thai Fish Sauce, pinch of continental parsley and pepper. you may decide on some other sauce (e.g. soy sauce, chinese vinegar, etc) or to have none at all. really, it's up to you at this point.

Dark Sauce Pork.

since we're all pressed for time thesedays, i'll share another fuss-free recipe handed down to me by my granny. the dish is quite a popular (or at least common) one that you can find at most ala carte cooked-food stalls back in singapore. as per normal, my granny does it slightly differently from the rest.

due to the fact that i lack some necessary ingredients for the full-blown recipe, i'll be delineating the differences between what my gran does and what i've done. this way, anyone attempting the full recipe might get a notional understanding of going about cooking it.

Ingredients.
500g, San Chen Rou (三辰肉)--literally, three-layer meat/ pork* (i'm using spare ribs instead because it was all i had in the freezer)
10-12 pieces, Chinese Dried Mushrooms (shitake's good)
4-5 cloves, garlic
2 inches, ginger
2 tbsp, Five Spice Powder
5 tbsp, Chinese Rice Wine
1.5 tbsp, ground white pepper
2 tbsp, light soy sauce
.5 cup, dark soy sauce
2 tbsp, sugar



Missing In My Attempt:
5-6, egg
200g, dried tofu

Serves.
4

Step 1: Preparing the meat and everything else.
chop the meat up into bite-size portions, and braise the pork with abt 1.5l of boiling water, and drain the water away. my grandma says it rids the pork of its overly pungent taste.

soak the mushrooms in boiling water until they're all soft. put the water aside to be used for the cooking later. slice the mushrooms.

bruise and dice the ginger and garlic.

full version:
slice the dried tofu into bite sizes.

hard boil the eggs, shell them and set aside for cooking later.

Step 2: The Cooking.
oil your pot or wok and set it on top of a medium flame. when hot enough, throw the garlic and ginger in and stir fry for a minute, making sure that you don't brown it too much.

throw the pork and mushrooms in. add the water in which the mushrooms were soaked as well. stir fry for a bit, before you throw everything else in: (in no particular order) light soy sauce, five spice powder, ground pepper, rice wine, dark soy sauce, and sugar.

bring the whole pot over to your smallest flame, put a lid on it. leave to simmer for about half an hour.



full version:
before you put the lid on, throw the eggs and tofu in. let them soak up the sauce and simmer with the rest of the ingredients.

Final Serve.
like i always say: best served with rice! (yes, i'm a proud yellow, rice-loving "smells a bit like soy sauce" chink.)



Additional Notes:
San Chen Rou. i'm quite sure this refers to streaky slab, seeing as how they both refer to the cut from the pig's belly. it's important to use this cut of the pork because this dish actually depends on the oil you'll get from the layers of fats for additional taste. and yes, it gets pretty oily after a while, so consume with discretion.

Recooking. my grandmother reboils the dish whenever we have a meal. the more you recook it, the nicer it gets. basically, it takes time for all the ingredients to infuse one another. so if you can, cook a whole pot of it and experience the wonders of this dish getting tastier by the day. you may also add new hard-boiled eggs whenever you run out.

Wounds & Dark Sauce. the chinese believe that people with wounds that are still healing should avoid eating dark-colored food, especially dark sauce. it causes the wound to heal with a dark tone; i've got brown patches on my legs from when i was young as evidence. seeing as how i just got inked at the nape, i really shouldn't be promoting this recipe right now. oops :(

I'm singing in the Kitchen.

"Yes, I'm dreadfully sorry for the lack of updates ... but you see, my kitchen ... is flooded."

alright, thats not the REAL reason why there haven't been updates from me ... I just haven't had the time to cook anything remotely interesting recently.

but my kitchen, really is flooded.



fun times.

i'll be free by tuesday.

i promise something after.

:)

Much Less Digest.

apologies for the want of updates. both L. and i have been so caught up with school that we hardly have time to ingest, much less digest or even cook anything. thesedays, my best meals are delivered to me by Classic Curry Company (03-93294040), which says more than it should about my recent dietary habits--my staple: butter chicken, tandoori chicken, plain naan, chapati, and mango lassi. (their lamb biryani's pretty good as well).

just a shout out to the various people with whom we've earned your mention or/ and linkage:

No Stupid Questions... Just Stupid People.
torby's so cute we could eat him!!! careful the womb raider doesn't come in and steal him away.

Totally Addicted To Taste.
there's nothing sexier than a cutie who loves his cooking; go you!

Smell & Taste.
we don't care what Steven thinks of your western food, we'll pay for your fail-proof chinese meals anyday.

What I Cooked Last Night.
you know what's really funny? we get a lot of hits from people googling "how to make cum taste good". we'll explore that inquiry right when cum appears in the quicky bag on Ready, Steady, Cook.

Noodles and Rice.
who ever knew that rock sugar has such a rich history!?

Everything You Needed to Know.
your partner and you really don't have to suffer the desserts in agony. why don't you send them over to me, and i'll (in low insinuating mafia tone) settle them for you.

Fuss-Free Steamed Salmon.

i was tempted to call this the idiot's guide to steaming fish, but it occurred to me that it wasn't like i didn't learn it from observing my grandmother in the first place. nobody's that gifted.

the recipe is good for most fish, but i chose salmon over the others simply because it was on sale and i really do love the taste of these upstream-swimming fuckers.

Ingredients.
2, salmon fillet
1 inch, ginger
2, red chilli
1, tomato
4 tbsp, chinese (rice) cooking wine
1 tsp, salt
1 stalk, spring onion/ scallion (not included this round; i ran out)

Serves.
2

Step 1: Salt, Chop, and Splash.
my salmon fillets came nicely packed for cooking, so there's no real preparatory action needed before we start.

take a few stabs in the fillet with your knife, and salt the fillets.

chop the ginger, chilli and spring onion up, setting them all atop the fillets when you're done. slice the tomato into about 12 pieces, and line them along the side (skin up).

splash the cooking wine over, and set everything aside in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.



Step 2: Steaming.
while the fish is set aside, we can prepare the steamer. i'm using a wok and steaming rack. i boiled water with an electric kettle to save time, and then pour that into the wok over the fire.

when the water reboils in the wok, place the bowl on to the rack, and set the cover on. let it steam cook for 10 minutes.



take the lid off and see if the fish is cooked. it should flake off quite easily when it's ready.

Final Serve.
that's all for this fuss-free recipe. it can be taken as a main, or as a side with some steamed rice.

dee's kitchen.

as an avid cook, one of the things i'm proudest of at home is my new kitchen. eventhough i moved in to this apartment only a month ago, i'm already very in love with the kitchen seeing as how it's almost twice the size of my last one. and because i'm so enamoured by it, much money has been pumped into kitchenware and electricals so that i might better enjoy the cooking and dining processes.

figured it's about time i show the world just where it is that all my recent and future cooking experiences take place.



top-down perspective of my kitchen from the lounge area, with the cabinet doors closed and opened. the apartment is a bit old, so everything looks a little eighties in it.



the one thing i hate is the fact that most grocery bags provided by the supermarts thesedays don't fit very well with the ikea bins. therefore i either have to live with hanging smaller bags in the bin, or buy Glad bin liners.

i'm really happy with the working and clear space provided by this kitchen. at my previous place, the clear space was half this size, so there could only be one effective cook in the kitchen.



the sink counter features a food disposal unit (sink on the left), which i don't use for its designed purpose because it makes way too much noise. this kitchen comes with a dish washer (bottom right), but it doesn't work so i'm reduced to washing everything by hand. which isn't a problem until i throw fancy dinner parties that require my full arsenal of kitchenware!



other than my Tefal wok, pots and pans are mainly cheap stuff that i got from various kitchenware stores. i don't care what people say about it, but i'm really proud of my lovely Maxwell & Williams dinnerware set, which was on sale at Matchbox.



as you can see, this is a relatively empty cabinet because i don't indulge in a lot of instant meals. the bottom right side of my cabinet boosts my various cheap tea collection. i'm not a fan of coffee.



the oils are kept directly above the kitchen hood. other than the olive oil, i really seldom use the other oils.



the top shelf is where i keep my garlic, ginger, onion and other dry but fresh food. alongside them are other dry food stuff like cinnamon, chinese herbs, etc. thanks to the combined powers of both my housemate and i, we now have a full shelf of condiments and spices. not exactly comprehensive, but more than enough for a variety of treats.



my sad stemware from ikea. these break very easily. honestly, they should be used only at big parties where you have to consider people breaking things. i'm waiting for most of them to break before i get myself a proper set of glasses.

my hard liquor collection is also very sad right now because i don't have the habit of making my own drinks. i find beer and champagne a way easier alternative for inebriation.



i recently acquired my Maxwell William Mondo cutlery set, as my previous housemate took over the terrible ikea set we had at the previous place. fiq often complains i'm using stainless steel instead of silverware like he does, but i am after all only a full-time student. so i'm more than happy enough to own this cutlery set.

my scissors and knives are Victorinox (the same people who give you the original swiss army knife), supposedly more commonly used by apprentice chefs.



okay, this is just a mess of my utensils! pardon the lack of organisation!

well, this concludes the pictorial-tour of my kitchen. hope to see how other people organise and run heir kitchens as well!

Stone Soup sans Stone (aka Beef Stew).

Background.
one of the most popular children's stories is perhaps that of the stone soup. lest you've never heard of it (and just where have you been?), a hobo chances upon a village and convinces its people that he has magic stone capable of making the best soup ever. the only problem is that his magic stone required the help of some garnishing, which he didn't have.

impressed and eager to savour the wonders of that magic stone, each village household contributed something from their kitchen. from celery, to potatoes, to meat, every item was added to the pot as an exchange for a portion of that magically tasty soup. with that many ingredients added to the pot (with the stone in it), the soup naturally turned out amazingly delicious.

Wikipedia would have you believe that the moral of the story lies in the virtues of co-operation, but i like to see this as simply good marketing. at most, it's an ingenuity for cooking leftover ingredients. this story has inspired so many people that it has come to a point where some people are actually taking the recipe as illustrated in the story quite seriously...

anyway, a fortnight ago when i was desperately trying to rid my then soon-to-be-rotting vegetables and expired scotch fillets, i thought i'd give this Stone Soup--sans stone and storyline recipe--idea a try, and it actually was quite lovely.

i realise that this recipe might sound a lot like a beef stew.

ack.

beef stew. d's stone soup. po-tah-to. po-teh-to.

Ingredients.
2 pieces, beef steak (i'm using t-bones for their marrows)
2, carrot
3-4, potato
2, mustroom (i'm using cups)
2, tomato
2 sticks, celery
1, onion
3-4 cloves, garlic
2-3, red chilli (depending on how spicy you like the soup)
1, lemon
2 stalks, spring onion/ scallion
1 bunch, parsley (abt 5 stems worth)
1 tbsp, black pepper
4 tbsp, butter (optional; see Step 2)
1 cup, flour (optional; see Step 2)
2 tbsp, red wine (optional; see step 3)
4 tbsp, honey (optional; see step 3)


(missing in picture: onion, garlic, spring onion)

Serves.
4-5

Step 1: Chopping, Slicing and Dicing!
chop, slice, dice the steaks and vegetables, then have all of them thrown into a pot. add enough water to drown all the ingredients and start your fire. i recommend a small to medium flame, on which you allow the soup to cook very, very slowly.



when the soup comes to a boil, add the pepper and lemon juice in and allow everything to simmer till it reduces to about 4/5 to 3/4 of the original amount. stir intermittently.

after at least half an hour, you can taste the soup and see if you're happy with the results so far. if you are, *ta-da*, you're done and can skip the next two steps.

Step 2: Thickening the Soup.
if you'd prefer a slightly thicker soup (stew-like), you'd have to thicken the mix.

first, melt the butter in a bowl, and stir in the flour slowly until you've got all the flour mixed with the butter. coating the flour with butter prevents the flour from clumping up when you add it into the soup.

slowly stir the buttered flour into the simmering soup, and let everything boil for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the soup thickens.

(taste it, and if you're happy so far, skip the next step.)

Step 3: Adding Extra Unimportant Clear-Before-They-Expire Things.
i'm simply adding what's left of my red wine and honey into the soup, then let simmer for another five minutes.


(see additional notes below on use of slow crockery pot cooker.)

Final Serve.
the versatile stone soup can be enjoyed as a main (accompanied by bread or steamed rice), or as an appetiser or a side.

i like mine with rice!



everyone should try to make hir version of the stone soup out of the odds and ends lying in your kitchen. as my friend, fiq, likes to say: just throw them all in and hope for the best!

;)



Additional Notes.
1. Use of Crock Pot. i'm leaving everything in a slow crockery cooker overnight. additionally, slow cooking it allows the meat to get really very tender. you needn't go to such a drastic measure, because direct heat works just fine. just be sure to be slightly patient to allow the soup to boil in due time.

2. Recooking. the remainder can be reboiled whenever you decide to have some. the more you boil, the thicker and tastier it gets really.

3. Not Stew-like. i used .5 cup of flour instead of the recommend 1 cup as described above. this is just a personal preference of not wanting the soup to end up stew-like.

Channel 7's New Cookery Show.

all aussie cook bloggers! Channel 7's looking for people to participate in a new cookery show featuring Matt Moran!

as the great gwen stefani would say: what 'cha waiting for?

blog maintenance.

because not only have i just gotten back online, but also that we've switched to the new version of blogger, i'd be running some maintenance tasks in terms of site formatting, etc.

bear with us if it gets a bit messy.


ETA: 02 0027 Jan 2007 Tues.
i have more or less finished adding the tags to the last few entries, etc. tags are not provided by blogger, so del.icio.us will now only be used as a comprehensive index for the recipes we're sharing.

hope everyone's having a better new year than i'm having so far.

Pork Rib & Lotus Root Soup.

it's now ascertained that moving house is nothing if not a bitch. after what seems like forever, i've finally got myself more or less settled into the new place in the city. plus, i bought me some new kitchenware to celebrate the move; am now a proud owner of (among other things) a handheld food processor and the loveliest TEFAL wok! not to mention i'm absolutely in love with the new kitchen, pity the dishwasher doesn't really work.

anyway, back to today's dish!

personal history.
this is one of my favourite recipes, something passed down to me from my grandmother. it's arguably one of the few dishes of hers that i enjoy over-eating since i was a kid.

in general, the dish is quite a common sight in chinese families. however, what i've learnt from many of my friends is that most of their families and in fact hawkers leave the soup in its 'natural' flavour. my grandmother swears by a bit of rock sugar, and for that i think she rawks!

Ingredients.
500g, pork ribs (much of the flavour comes from the bones)
200g, lotus root (washed and sliced)
1.5 cup, dried red dates
1.5-2 cup, raw peanuts
1.5 cup, chinese lycium
1 cup, rock sugar
a few cups, hot water (enough to drown all the ingredients)



Additional Notes On Ingredients
1) my grandmother says that fresh young lotus roots give the best taste; i'm resorting to freeze-pack ones from the local asian grocer's because i can't find lotus roots around here.

2) sometimes my grandmother adds dried longan as well. if you're a fan of the taste of longan, halve the amount of dates and replace that half with longan.

Special Crockery
i'm using an electric crockery pot for this dish because it takes time for all the ingredients to break down. give it at least twelve hours in the crock pot, although i normally go for twenty-four.

Serves
3-4

Step 1-and-only-1: Toss it all in!
too simple! drop the porb ribs to the bottom of the pot, then followed by the rest of the ingredients, try to leave the roots for last. pour the hot water into the pot, cover and let it cook on high for at least twelve hours. when it's ready, the aroma of the soup will naturally fill the room.



when it's done cooking, you'd see that the soup and most of its ingredients turns a dark umber. the peanuts and dates normally continue to float in the soup.

Final Serve.
the dish is best served alongside some steamed rice. because there's meat in the soup, there's really not much of a need for additional sides to go with.



More Notes
if you're not a fan of rock sugar, you might want to taste the soup before adding any rock sugar to the mixture. this is best done at the half-way mark (i.e. twelve hours, in my case), so that you give the sugar some time to infuse with the other ingredients, and vice versa. alternatively, you can omit the rock sugar altogether because the lycium, dates and longan are all by right natural sweeteners.

Rawker's Lasagna

For the Rawk stars.

In celebration of finally recieving my care package from home (some of it at least), I made Lasagna (its one of the toughest words i've ever had to spell).

Its very simple to make and very yummy.

Took about 45 mins in the oven.

Actually, I made it because I had too many peppers, potatoes and cans of tomato in the kitchen.
We could/should call this series of posts "What to do with canned Tomato, green peppers and onions". or "same ingredients many dishes".

You make sauce and roll with it.




Ingredients.
3 sheets of lasagna pasta (i used the pre-cooked kind)
1 large white onion
1 large green bell pepper (capsicum)
1 can of plum/chopped tomatoes in tomato juice
25g of butter (about 1 cm of the stick)
250g minced beef
Worcestershire sauce
Tomato Ketchup
Salt & black pepper to taste.
a dash of italian herbs
1 block of cheddar cheese (this is imprecise. its more like, as much cheese as you'd like)

optional side dishes:
9 really small potatoes (3 per person)
3 portions of french beans


Serves.
3.


Step 1: Pre-heat your oven
200 degrees celcius. just turn it on.

Step 2: Prepare the vegetables & meat & cheese
Wash and chop up the onion, and green pepper into little cube sizes/squares.

Marinate your beef with a liberal sprinkling of herbs and salt and a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce and mix evenly. leave aside.

Slice your black olives into little "O"s and leave aside.

Shred your cheese. as much as you'd like. you'll be using this to stick everything together!

Step 3: the Sauce
This is kind of like making a pasta sauce.
melt the butter in your pan, and saute your onions and green peppers till tender, then throw in the beef and stir it around till the beef seperates in to mince and browns, then pour in your can of chopped tomato and sauce.
stir in some tomato ketchup, enough to cut the sour of the tomato juice in the pan. (taste it)
add salt and pepper to taste.
let the sauce simmer and then take it off the heat.
It should still have liquid.

Step 4: Layer!
I used a bread tin.
pour in a layer of the liquid (just the liquid) from your sauce into the bottom of the tin.
this is to prevent sticking.
then place a piece of pasta over the liquid.
now add a layer the beef and vege. and a layer of cheese.
and so on.
you might need to gauge how much to layer visually.
just remember you're making 3 layers and the top most layer will be cheese. not pasta.

now, on the top most layer of beef and vege, layer on the black olives.

it should look like this:


Please note that the last layer of cheese only goes on in the last 15 mins of baking.

Step 5: Bake!
Your tin should be filled and ready to bake, sans the last top layer of cheese.
put it in your preheated oven for about 30 mins.

and after 30 mins, take it out, top off with cheese to melt and brown on top.

it should look ike this:



Optional Side dishes:
throw the potatoes in the oven and bake them along with your lasagna.
boil and drain your french beans in water and a sprinkle of salt. (for health)

Final Serve.
Getting the lasagna out of the pan is ... tricky.
cut 3 even portions and use a spatula to lift the lasagna out of the tin.

plate and serve with your sides of choice.

hurrah!

Money Issues

d. said i should mention how much i spend when i cook. because, apparently, i do it for really cheap and it looks ... not so cheap.

hm. go figure.

well, on average, i spend a little over or under 1 pound to feed 3.5 people (out of four, one's a small eater.)


here's some cost breakdowns:

a can of peeled tomatoes with sauce - 15 pence
a can sweet corn - 13 pence
5kg of potatoes - 1 pound
1.5kg of onions - 60 pence
1kg rice - 1 pound
1 packet of wholewheat pasta - 23 pence
1 box of mushrooms - 1 pound
1 packet of frozen french beans (or frozen vegetables in general) - 80 pence to 1 pound
1 can of black olives - 50 pence
400g minced beef - 75 pence
1 tray of 8 chicken whole thighs (thigh+drumstick attached. big) - 5 pounds
1 tray of 12 cuts of pork - 5 pounds


the meat is cheaply bought at the wet market. they sell them as a whole tray and are generally, not the best cuts of the meat (as in , the pork comes with a big piece of bone attached) and i figure, meat is meat is meat. its what you do with it that counts.

so we make bak kut teh with the bones.
and cut the rest of the meat in chunks or slices.

i have to de-fat the (fatty) chicken myself and seperate it from the thigh and that bit of leg that they left behind after chopping the feet off and lop off the 'bishops nose' (chicken butt).

basically i have to do a bit of knife work.
but it all turns out fine.

don't use a lot.
don't over cook.
less is more.
quality over quantity.

etcetra.

i also shop at england's Wal-mart alternative, ASDA ... cheap food in general.

house brand type food with no picture on the label.
just the words.

i know it sounds gross, i thought so to and refused to touch the stuff for a while.

but i've actually tried the stuff with and without labels.
SOME stuff is gross. THOSE you avoid like the plague.

but in general, its the same. you basically save money, because they don't spend on packaging and fancy color printing. is all.

well.

'cheap' is relative.

i think i'm doing moderately well with the money. sometimes i feel i might be overspending.

*shrugs*

go figure.

Tangy Oven Baked Salad with Steamed Chicken

We've been trying to eat healthy.

This is ... somewhat healthy. I have a little butter in it.
It could be taken out or substituted. (actually, this dish requires no oil whatsoever. the butter was put in for ... flavor. but I'm sure it'll do just fine without.)



Ingredients.
1 large white onion
1 large red pepper (capsicum)
5-8 small white mushrooms
2 cups of french beans
1/2 can cream of chicken soup
1 lemon
15g of butter
3 chicken breasts (or thighs)

black pepper to taste.

Serves.
3.


Step 1: Pre-heat your oven
Switch on your conventionial oven and pre-heat it at 190-200 degrees celcius for about 15-20 minutes. or however long you'd take to prepare all the other ingredients.
(no science here, you really justwant your food to cook. so don't worry about it. just turn it on.)

Step 2: Prepare the vegetables
Wash and chop up the onion, capsicum and mushrooms, then throw them into a deep oven safe
pan (i used a bread tin), along with your beans and mix the vegetables up evenly.

Step 3: the Sauce
The resulting sauce of this dish is made up of the vegetable's own liquid as well, which will appear when they are cooked. so don't worry if it looks a little dry now.
pour in the 1/2 can of soup, letting it flow through the gaps, as well as the juice of the lemon (there is no need to mix it now, just make sure the liquids you have at this point are evenly spread over the top and flow though the gaps. we'll mix it later.)
and finally, slice the butter and lay over your vegetables.

Step 4: Bake!
Cover your vegetables with a piece of foil and shove it in the middle of the oven to bake for 30-40 minutes.

Step 5: Steam Chicken
For simplicity and health, i just washed the chicken, put it in a metal plate on a rack over a pot of water and steamed it with no marinate whatsoever. this will take about 20 minutes or so to cook (poke it to check it. the juices should run clear when its done.)

Step 6: Shred Chicken
Let your chicken cool and tear the chicken into lovely shreds to lay on top of your warm salad.

Final Serve.
The vegetables should be cooked and soft by now. Stir it up in the baking tin and add pepper to taste.

Serve warm on a plate and top off with chicken shreds.
I had some baked potatoes and just added that in as well.

Voila.

warm food ... great in the winter :)

hiatus.

i'm back in melbourne but also in the process of moving to a new apartment. while utensils are put away, i find great delight in visiting--for lunch--Ken Zan (GPO), Degraves Expresso, Blufish (Central Pl), Supper Inn (chinatown, off Lt Bourke), Mekong (Swanston), Mr Tulk (La Trobe/ Swanston), and--for dinner, lunch or just drinks--Cookie (Swanston) and Hairy Canary (Lt Collins).

Sautéed Eggplant and Mushroom with Mint Vinaigrette

I made this for lunch on my birthday, but i didn't expect it to be any good.
turns out, eggplant, mintsauce and mushrooms go really well with pasta.

hm.

and i've developed a special liking to wholewheat pasta. :) it just tastes better.

as for the mint sauce, i just had that lying around in the kitchen.
(i'll tell you how to make mint sauce from scratch near christmas time)

here we go.



Ingredients.
1 serving of wholewheat spaghetti
1 eggplant / brinjal
8-10 white small mushrooms
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
25g butter (or 1cm of the stick)
2 tbsp ready made mint sauce
mixed herbs + salt + pepper to taste

optional:
some olives. if you like them.

Serves.
1.


Step 1: Make pasta
you know the drill.
bring a pot of water to a boil, throw in some salt and some pasta.
cook till soft or if you like, al dente (read: chewy)
meddle with everything else while this is happening.

Step 2: Preparing the vegetables
slice the eggpant at a 30 degree angle, making each slice no more than 1cm thich. (thiis so the eggplant gets nice and soft and sweet more quickly.)
slice the mushrooms and chop up the onion and garlic, then set everything aside.

Step 3: Saute the vegetables
heat up a pan and melt your butter in it. throw in half of the chopped garlic and all of the onion and fry till fragrant.
now, throw in the eggplant and let the butter and heat soften it. halfway through, throw in the mushrooms as well.

now, you may find that the pan is getting a little dry. no fear. its time to put in the mint sauce.

the vinegar from the mint sauce adds moisture to the vegetables (which should now be letting out some juices of their own) and thus, you have a sauce.

add salt, pepper and mixed herbs to taste.
(watch the salt, remember, your butter is already salted.)

Step 4: Toss it in the pan
fish out your pasta and toss it in the pan (which should now be on med-low heat so as not to overcook the vegetables while tossing)

also, throw in the reminder garlic.
(i always do this, because fresh garlic is what makes pasta smell so nice.)


Final Serve.
plate your pasta and garnish with more mixed herbs and olives, if you have them. :)


ta-da!
happy birthday me.
.

it's l's birthday!

happy, happy birthday, Ms L!

<3

Cottage Pie.

History.
according to Food Timeline's entry on Shepherd's Pie, this English dish has its origins in the late Middle Ages (i.e. mid-16th Century AD). what began as meat served in pastry "coffyns" (coffins?) was only very late in the 19th Century cooked with mashed potatoes; the latter was a New World produce. Supposedly popular in the Northern regions of England and Scotland where sheep were in abundance (hence cooked with mutton and the name Shepherd's Pie), the pie became the people's answer to asian fried rice i.e. a creative way to rehash leftovers.

Shepherd's Pie = cooked with mutton
Cottage Pie = cooked with beef
Fisherman's Pie = cooked with fish

thesedays, it is but a relatively fuss-free dish for if/when you need to feed either an army of people or a ryce.

Ingredients.
(for meat base)
500g beef mince
3-4 clove, garlic
5-6 cup mushrooms
2-3 sticks, celery
4-5 baby carrots
1 onion (using brown)
2-3 tomatoes (using roma)
1 can, cream of mushroom (not in pic; using campbell's)

(for mash)
3-4 potatoes (using brown)
4-5 bunch, parsley
2-3 tbsp, fresh milk
1-2 tbsp, butter

(for cheese topping)
Pizza Mix (cheddar, parmesan, mozzarella)

you will also need a baking pan of substantial depth, subject to how thick you want your pie to be.



Serves.
3-4.

Step 1: Preparing Meat Mix!
finely chop up all your vegetables, separating the garlic and onion individually from the rest.

oil and heat up a sizable pan over a medium flame. when hot, throw your onions and beef mince into the pot and keep stirring. depending on how strong you like your garlic, you can either throw it in at this stage, or together with the rest of the vegetables later.

let it cook for 4-5 minutes before you throw the rest of the chopped up vegetables into the pan. don't forget to stir! while the vegetables are still cooking, add the cream of mushroom into the mixture. turn the heat down to a smaller flame, let it slowly simmer to a boil, and continue to boil for a while (3-4 minutes).



when that's done, pour the mixture into your baking pan and set it aside to cool for 0.5-1 hour. if you don't let it cool properly, the mash isn't going to sit well on your meat mixture. at this point, some people are known to put the meat mix into either the fridge or freezer even.

Making Mash Potato.
skin the potato before you put them in a pot of water to boil. add some salt into the water and let the potato boil for about 10 minutes or until it feels soft enough to mash.

meanwhile, mince or finely chop the parsley up.

when done, remove the pot from the fire and drain the water away. you may begin mashing the potatoes in the pot, adding the parsley, milk and butter in at this stage. mash and blend well until you get a relatively consistent and smooth mash.



Baking the First Two Layers.
set your oven to preheat at 200 degree C.

apply the mash potato on top of the meat mix which by now should have cooled in the baking pan. when you have the meat mix nicely covered with mash, score the layer of mash with a fork.



when ready, put the whole baking pan into your oven and let it cook for 15-20 minutes. remove the pan from the oven after. apply the cheese on top of the mash, ensuring that you've got all the mash more or less covered.



return the pan into the oven for another 15-20 minutes, until your cheese turns a lovely golden brown!



Final Serve.



ryce and i both enjoyed it quite a bit. though this version of the cottage pie is a little shallow on the mash potato. so if you're a fan of mash potato, you might have to up the number of potatoes in your attempt.

also, i realised that the meat mixture was a bit too wet for me. but this is more of a problem if you're gunning for presentation points like i do. to ease the problem, you can always drain some gravy from the meat mix before you apply the mash on top.

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ETA: 25 1615 November 2006 Saturday.
my friend fiq made a mince beef mix last week by frying the mince beef with tomato ketchup, black pepper and i think a bit of soy sauce. it tasted great! so ketchup might be an easy and inexpensive substitute for the cream of mushroom.