Long Forgotten
This is a long forgotten dessert by us. When Jo bought me the white wheat beans, I thought they look so much alike with barley.
Was craving for this for a long time. Bubur Terigu is a dessert I love in SG. I don't like the beans too soft, neither it to be too hard. In between the 2 would taste just nice.
Ingredients:
150gm white wheat beans
Sugar (to taste)
3pcs screwpine leaves
200ml coconut milk or more (up to you)
water
Way to Go:
1) Wash beans & set aside. Boil beans with enough water to cover in pot for 30mins or until soft.
2) Drain and set aside.
3) In another pot, add in coconut milk, 60ml water, sugar & screwpine leaves to boil.
4) When it boils, add in beans and cook for another 30 mins.
5) Serve warm.
Good Ol' Days
Woosh! The mushroomy fragrance still fills my whole home. By looking at the photo on ur right, perhaps u might have guess what we had for dinner.
It's Gai Xi Meen, u got it correct? Usually I would order either this or wanton mien at the koptiam.
Was visiting food blogs and found this recipe. (Click & view recipe)
Thanks J, for posting this recipe on ur blog. We loved it. :) I marinated the shredded chicken in sesame oil & soy sauce too. Really yummy, makes me miss those days I sat at kopitiam eating this with my cup of icy lime juice. :) *Slurp*
Lemony Lemony!
Oh Yea! I've seen many blueberry, cranberry, every kind of berries, orange, pumpkin, coffee, chocolate & many more other flavours of muffins. But since I've had left tons of lemons in my fridge, I decided to make Lemon Muffins this afternoon since it's a 2-day public holiday here because of Eid Al Fitr.
The public (government) sector in Dubai gets a 4-day PH, while private sector gets a 2-day PH. Meaning, the public sector needn't work for a whole week, as our weekends here is Fri & Sat. Our 1st day of the week starts on Sunday officially. Sigh, I wish I'm in the public sector. Oh well, that's life ya? Nothing is fair. :P
I miss baking! Visited a new baking outlet last weekend and found these beautiful muffin cups.
Glad that my 1st fruit attempt on muffins tastes very lemony! I've heard ppl saying that most of the time they baked fruity muffins, they didn't add enough fruit juice and regretted. So today, I added tons of lemon juice. Therefore, the fragrance is there, except that this sotong baker here, overbaked the top layer- again!! Arrghh.. But hey, it tastes great nevertheless! ;)
All The Way From HOME!!!
YES! Finally they arrived in Dubai! I wanna thank Jo, my dear friend, who went around the whole Singapore to get all these stuffs for me, lugging these heavy things to meet up with him!!!! Enjoy ur trip ya? :)
The next person would be my dear cousin, David!!!! Thanks brother, for being so kind to me, if not for u, these heavy things wouldn't have flown from SG to Dubai!! *wink*
Okay, it's really heart warming to receive things from Home. I miss all these stuffs!! Even sardines!! haha!
Simple meals in time to come, so these really helps!
Canned Foods: Sardine, Stew Pork & Peanuts!!!!
And let me tell u that this dear friend of mine, Jo, does not grumbles whenever I need her help to buy things for me. She has been really kind to help me again & again. I'm really blessed to have her as my friend. She knows me very well too, and thanks for tolerating at times ya? :) *hugz*
My Fancy Gems Biscuits, Terigu (White Wheat Beans). I miss bubur terigu so much!
Sour Prunes (To make into Sour Prunes Drink)
Magazines!! My beloveds!
Last but not least for my new found passion. A Chiffon Tin. Yay! Now I can make chiffon cakes which are my favourites! Hope I can do it well, then I wouldn't miss bengawan solo so often.
Something New
Tried 2 new dishes tonight. And by the time everything is done, I was dead tired.
Never believed in cooking beef myself. It's either too hard to chew, or there're some beefs that have super strong smell even after cooking. But after making my Korean Dwen Jang Jji Ge stew, I've only had confidence in this beef. So tonight, I made Sauté Beef with Broccoli In Oyster Sauce.
Ingredients:
250g topside beef, thinly sliced
5-6cups broccoli florets
Marinade for Beef:
3tsp rice vinegar
1tsp light soy sauce
1 egg white
1tsp corn starch
Sauce Mixture:
1tbsp oyster sauce
1tbsp dark soy sauce
1/2cup water
a pinch of sugar
1tsp minced garlic
Method:
1) Whisk all marinades together in a bowl, marinade beef & fridge for 1-3 hrs.
2) Bring a pot of water to boil, add in broccoli florets. Cook for 30 seconds & drain. Set aside.
3) Mix sauce mixture together & set aside.
4) Heat oil in wok, sauté some garlic till fragrant. Add in beef, stir fry till browned. Dish out.
5) Add oil to wok again, sauté rest of the garlic & pour in sauce mixture till it boils.
6) Stir in broccoli & beef slices back to wok, mix well. Cook to heat through about 1 min & serve with rice.
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Next up is my Chi Kut Teh. I've had too many packets of Bak Kut Teh spices in my cupboard, so I thought why not use chicken instead. Added some wolfberries too! I love the seeds inside them, would go digging them out just to chew on them. :P
Tau Suan With You Tiao
Have been procrastinating to make this. My list of "To Dos" are getting longer each day, Gosh! :P
Got these beans from SG when I was back the last trip. Managed to find potato starch at Daiso here as well. So here I am, presenting my Tau Suan with You Tiao. It has been a one year since I ate this. Always 4get to eat this whenever I get to go back home. And now, we can eat it anytime, and Oh! I didn't make the You Tiao from scratch. We went for dim sum early morning today & bought these back, a good time to make this dessert finally.
Ingredients:
200g split green beans
Rock Sugar or Castor Sugar (add according 2 ur tastebuds)
800ml water
3tbsp potato starch mixed with 2.5tbsp water
Method:
1) Roughly wash beans & soak them in water for 30mins. Drain & set aside.
2) Boil a pot of water, add in beans & sugar. Stir slightly.
3) When beans are soft, remove pot from stove, pour in potato starch solution while stirring the beans mixture in pot with ur other free hand. This is important as it helps to prevent the lumpy starch mixture. Stir till mixture thickens.
4) Put pot back to stove & 'cook' the starch for 1min. Serve warm with You Tiao slices.
Rice Cake Korean Style
Was in the mood of having something spicy and soupy. Yep, another Korean food for the night. Rice Cake In Spicy Soup (Ddeok Bok Ee).
The unique tube shape of the rice cake attracted me to grab them off the freezer immediately. And the tau pok a.k.a Korean fried beancurd tastes the same as our SG tau pok. Now I know where I can get tau pok whenever I miss them especially eating Laksa. Yum!
Originally, the recipe uses just spicy power and chilli paste, but I added some soya bean paste to enhance the flavour alittle, else it would be too bland yet too spicy.
Serving as a side dish, KimChi. Fiery dinner ya? *wink*
Venturing Out In2 The Working World...
I'll need to get used to cooking simpler food in time to come. Good news & bad news I've for you.
Okay, let's talk about bad news 1st. I wouldn't be cooking & baking that often from this sunny onwards . Thus, my weeknights meals will be much more simpler, creative cookings by me will have to wait till weekends, and so will my bakings.
The good news: I've been hired by a japanese company as a PA to the GM. I shan't eleborate further here. This is something that I myself am amazed. Quitted my job to come here 2yrs earlier, and here I am, after these few yrs, I'm going back to working life again. Partly excited, but yet, need to adjust myself once again to working life. It's really a good exposure & experience for me, I must say.
Thanks Hubby, Evie, Fen, Joey, Cherie & all who encouraged to take up this challenge once again, another step into my life in Dubai. W/o all of ur support & encouraging words, I don't think I would dare to venture out this time & I might have missed this good opportunity.
Right, as I said, simpler meals to come soon. I love to frequent food blogs, one of them is Ching's. Today, I visited her blog again & found this. Really hassel-less & simple. She calls it lazy, but I call it super simple. :P
Thanks Ching for all ur simple recipes! I love them to bits! :)
Chicken Rice. Not a fan of it, but sometimes will miss eating this. And look at this! It's really good! Not kidding! The rice is so fragrant that I had a huge bowl of it & the fragrance of the rice fills my place even until now as I typed. Accompanying it was a Stir Fry Oyster Sauce Xiao Bai Cai. As for the chilli dip, I used the one Evie gave to me. That's the closest chicken rice chilli that I feel will go with this dish. Everything is so delish that hubby gave 10 thumbs up! ;)
Now I know preparing chicken rice is actually not that difficult. Meals need not be complicated to taste good. Simple meals can be yummylicious too, depending on how u create it.
"Dae Jeung Guem" (대장금) Night
Yes! Korean food for tonight! No, not at a restaurant, but rather, at home. Am very happy with the results today. Will make these again, practice makes perfect!
These are what I cooked, favourites of all favourites! Hubby gave thumbs up for all dishes!
Dwen Jang Jji Ge
(Korean Bean Paste Stew with Vegetables)
Don't judge by its outlook. This stew is not that spicy afterall. It's actually mostly made up of korean bean paste yet not too salty, unlike our Chinese "Tau Jiong". I love korean bean paste, next time I shall try whipping up chicken with potato in this paste. :)Kim Chi Bok Eum Bab (Kim Chi Fried Rice)
Something that korean food is never lack of. Kim Chi. I love the cruchy texture of the nappa cabbage with the vinegary taste & a tint of spicyness in this. I added minced pork to this rice dish as well. Taste good!
Oh Ee Mu Chim (Cucumber Salad)
If u love sour food & looking for something to enhance ur appetite, this is the appetizer I would recommend. This makes me want another helping of rice tonight.
Korean Shopping Spree
After much hunting in this city for so long, I FINALLY found an authentic Korean Food Stuffs supplier here. Hanarum is the name of the shop. And we're staying near them too! They just shifted to this place called Karama, a place where the rentals are cheaper. But I think the food are alittle expensive in AED(Dubai's currency) form. I spent AED 95 (Sg$ 45 +-) on just these few items.
Korean Fried Soybean Curd
Ready Made Kim Chi & Soy Bean Paste (Dwen Jang)
Brown Rice Vinegar
Korean Round Rice Cake (This cost me AED20; Sg$10)
Korean Seaweed for Snacking Time
Red Chilli Powder (Go Chu Ga Ru)
It's at this place I found a friend. A korean friend. She's a mother of 2, staying far away from me, but yet, willing to teach me korean & korean cooking for free!!!! Can u imagine me screaming with joy???! I'm superly happy today that I made an effort to make a trip down to this korean store, not even knowing where the place exactly is, trying my luck sitting in the cab finding the place, going round n round the area. There are lots and lots of things in the store, can't buy all at once, else will go broke very soon. :P
Infact, I'm feeling alittle down lately. I miss my family & my friends back home. I miss the food, the convenient transportations, kopitiam and all. U name it, I am missing it. And with my grandma being hospitalised, I can't seem to visit/ see her face to face except to call her. That makes me miss her even more. But after this shopping spree, I'm feeling alittle better, let's hope things will get better n better as each day pass by.
And YES! U guys are going to see more korean cooking on my blog soon! I love korean & japanese food! They're awesome! Now, learning korean cooking is my piority! I shall go hunt for recipes!Tata for now!
Ps: Perhaps, some of u might feel this is nothing to be happy about, but to me, this is one joyful moment as it's surprising to be able to find a korean shop that sells these stuffs especially in an Arab world. *wink*
Cutey Little Things
Went to Daiso yesterday & found this cute little thing. It's a Shoe Toothpick Holder. The crystal-like material attracted me to buy it. When it comes to these cutey and pretty stuffs, I have weakness to control my brain and mind not to buy these. Just like my mother. :P
Next is this Chocolate Bunny which I bought for Gaby, my bunny since this Easter. Couldn't have the heart to eat it until yesterday night while watching my favourite tv programme, 'Survivor'. Ain't this cute?
Perfect!
I'm satisfied with just a plate of Bee Hoon (rice vermicelli) for dinner. Kinda run out of cooking ideas these days, probably because of my back which has been aching for days.
Tired of eating rice already, so I decided to fry some bee hoon instead. Having luncheon meat, lettuce, chicken & eggs in my fridge, I combined all into one dish with a tint of spicyness sambal at the side.
My chicken cubes were marinated in rice wine, sesame oil & a dash of soy sauce for additional taste. Luncheon meats were shallow fried till crispy too. Everything is just perfect for today.
Just In Time 4 Tea
"Y have U neglected me?!!!!" It screamed and frowned at me. That's my oven!
It dawned on me that, yeah I've unknowingly cast that new passion of mine aside somehow. I stopped being a couch potato and started to get down to baking.
I miss the fragrance that fills my house when the cakes or muffins are in the process of baking. It smells wonderful, doesn't it? It makes me hungry, wanting to quickly finish up everything I've baked. :)
This afternoon, a Japanese Sponge Cake is born. I used the sponge mix packet that I bought from Daiso last week and added chocolate chips, chocolate flakes, eggs, butter, vanilla essence & sugar. Off it went to the oven. The fragrance filled my house, this is the moment I'm always looking forward to. The cake rose nicely, and here's the final product.
I sat down, with a cup of coffee in my hands, having the cake and enjoying it; just in time for tea @ 3pm. Indeed, it lives up to it's name, Spongy and fluffy! :) Just can't have enough of it!
Ingredients:
180g japanese sponge cake mix flour
30g castor sugar
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
40ml water or evaporated milk
1tsp vanilla essence
1tbsp unsalted butter
a handful of chocolate rice & chocolate chips
Method:
1) Preheat oven to 170C. Grease an 18" cake pan with butter.
2) In a mixing bowl, add egg yolk, butter, water(or evaporated milk) & beat for 2 mins.
3) Add flour & beat till well combined.
4) Add in egg whites, sugar & vanilla essence and mix well. Fold in chocolate rice & chips.
5) Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 30-40mins or till skewer comes out clean.
6) Leave to cool on wire rack & slice.
PS: I got my jap sponge mix at daiso, ingredients written here are all self invented.
DoDo Prawn Noodles Soup
A little too oily I must say. But it still does brings the authentic taste of Singapore to those who are living overseas like me, people who are lazy to cook lunch for themselves and craving for Prawn Noodles.
I like everything included in this frozen cum convenient packet excluding the soup base. It's a little too oily which after drinking afew tablespoons of it, I stopped & looked around for some drinks to ease that oily-ness feeling.
Overall, I still prefer their Dry Mee Pok. Will be going to hunt for it this weekend. :)
A Song 2 Dedicate 2 My Grandma
SHE is such a dear to me, in my heart, in my mind, never would I ever 4get what she has done for me. I used to be closer to her more than I am to my mama. She is the one who takes care of me eversince young, cooked for me and shower her love to me endlessly whenever I am sick. She doesn't add stress to me, she never fails to believe in me, gave me words of encouragments when I was down, and listens patiently to my musings whenever I needed someone there for me.
Now I pray she'll be discharged from hospital soon, to be healed and whole totally. I ask for strength, longevity & good health to reign in her body. This song is dedicated to my beloved maternal grandma whom Im very close to. I love u grandma! :)
今天是外婆生日
我换上复古西装载着外婆开着拉风的古董车兜兜风
车里放着她的最爱
找回属于是她的时代
往大稻埕码头开去把所有和外公的往事静静回忆
外婆她脸上的涟漪 美丽但藏不住压抑
失去了爱情只盼望亲情 弥补回应
大人们以为出门之前桌上放六佰就算是孝敬
一天到晚拼了命 赚钱少了关怀有什么意义
外婆她的期待 慢慢变成无奈
大人们始终不明白 她要的是陪伴
而不是六佰块 比你給的还简单
外婆她的无奈 无法变成期待
只有爱才能够明白 走在淡水河畔
听着她的最爱 把温暖放回口袋
记得去年外婆的生日 表哥带我和外婆参加
她最最重视的颁奖典礼
结果却拿不到半个奖
不知该笑不笑
我对着镜头傻笑 只觉得自己可笑
我难过 却不是因为没得奖而难过
我失落 是因为看到外婆失落而失落
大人们根本不能体会表哥他的用心
好像随他们高兴就可以彻底的否定
否定 我的作品 决定在于心情
想坚持风格他们却觉得还欧颗
没惊喜没改变
我已经听了三年 我告诉外婆
我没输 不需要改变
表哥说不要觉得可惜 这只是一场游戏
只要外婆觉得好听 那才是一种鼓励
外婆露出了笑容说她以我为荣
浅浅的笑容 就让我感到比得奖它还要光荣
外婆她的无奈 无法期待
有爱才能够明白 走在河畔
听着最爱 把温暖放口袋
Great Combination!
These are the ingredients left in this little fridge of mine: Leeks, dried scallops, pork steaks, belachan. I combined them together and into the wok they went. I added some oyster sauce for additional flavour, and it turns out good!
I love dried scallops, tho' I have heard lousy stories about them. I prefer to soak them for 10 mins, and return them to wok. The chewy yet alittle hard texture makes me love it even more. So try this, another new dish of mine, Leeks with Dried Scallop in Sambal Belachan.
I Love Mondays!
1stly, I love Mondays because Spinneys hold their 'Market Day' on this loveable day of the week. 2ndly, there'll be lots of good tv programmes, hubby & I would be stuck on our sofa the whole night and enjoy whatever supper that we can grab conveniently at home. Sometimes, we indulge ourselves in a sinful chocolate ice-cream, on healthy days, we would take fruits and on heaty days, we would have cooling desserts like jellies with nata de coco. :)
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Chinese Preserved Mushrooms, or some people call them 'Shitake Mushrooms', are my favourites. I love the woody smell and taste of it. Cantonese Chicken Mushroom is what I prepared tonight.
I've got a really small fridge so 'clearing stocks' is usually necessary after afew days. My cabbage head has been sitting on it's large space area in that small fridge of mine for days. Out of frustration, I shredded everything and gosh, I've so much cabbage on the serving plate in the end. Haha, I'm such a sotong... but nevertheless, I'm glad that I've got much more spaces in this fridge of mine now.Stir Fry Cabbage with Black Fungus & Dried Shrimps
Back To Normal
After living close to 2 years in Dubai, I realised I've NEVER bought Tau Kwa before. NEVER thought that I would ever buy this as I don't enjoy eating it. As I was flipping thru' my collection of recipes this afternoon, the sudden urge to eat Tau Kwa came floating. Since I had more than half a bottle of Kecap Manis left over, I thought why not try something new?
So here I am, with Braised Tau Kwa Kecap Manis. Now I start to realise there's so much use for this sauce. I'm starting to feel the 'exploring cooking spirit' in me, or rather I should say, 'back to my normal self' again. :P
Here's our greens tonight, Spinach in Oyster Sauce. Anyone out there have other ways of cooking this vege? I realise they have a weird kind of taste, any idea how to get rid of it?
********************************************Ohhh, this is delish! Evie & Jackson, thank u for the sambal that ur maid made for me. It definitely works wonders. I shall try it with fried fish the next time round. :)
Here's my Stir Fry Minced Pork In Sambal. These dearest friends of mine were kind enough to ask their maid to make sambal for me when we were in Indo visiting them in June. Really yummy! My precious sambal, gotta ration!
Sigh, living overseas is all about rationing, especially those things that u brought from back home to the country that u're living in, don't u all agree? :)
Sinful Dinner with My Cup Of Tea
According to Wikipedia, Bolognese sauce is a meat based sauce for pasta originating in Bologna, Italy. Bolognese sauce is sometimes taken to be a tomato sauce but authentic recipes have only a very small amount of tomato, perhaps a couple of tablespoons of tomato paste.
If u ever see me eating pasta, it will definitely be with this sauce. Hubby loves the creamy ones, and so does my best friend's little gal, Chanelle.
Tonight, we had Fusilli Bolognese for dinner, accompanied with Fried Haloumi (حلوم)Cheese Slices. Yummy! But what a pity, hubby ain't a cheese fan and so, yours truly had the privillege to eat them all. :P
After such oily & sinful dinner, I decided to have my cup of tea. Never would I thought I could find this in Dubai. I've been missing it eversince Eve introduced this wonderful tea to me many years ago. It's actually Green Tea with Brown Rice. The roasted brown rice fragrance smells really good. Eve, U miss this? This is for u! *wink*
中秋節快樂! Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!
... to U, Yes! U! Who is reading this blog post now! :)
I love mooncakes, be it the traditional baked ones or snowskins (冰皮) texture. Most moonies comes with lotus paste fillings, but I would much prefer those with red bean fillings without nuts. Unfortunately, I failed to make them today. Failure because of the flour that I used, how I wished they sell 糕粉 here. Instead I used glutinous rice flour n baked them for 30mins, and the texture came out different. How sad I am, but nevertheless, this failure will not spoil my mood to celebrate mid-autumn festival. :)
Mooncakes are my favourites. My mama used to be super worried for me whenever this festive season arrives. 'Cuz I could eat mooncakes (with 4 yolks) for 3 meals a day, yes just mooncakes. It's really bad for health I know, but only once a year la, so "one eye close", pretend u don't know. Haha, that's what I always tell her so I could eat in peace. :P
Another kind of moonies I like is "Piglet Biscuits" in the basket. These never fails to top my list too. And I even kept the colourful "basket" just to bring back good ol' memories of childhood. :) Don't U love these? :P
**Photos courtesy from can.com.sg
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