Where was I??

9 months of hiatus.. that is freaking long.. where was I? I was nowhere but felt like I was everywhere.. it must be what you call aging? no??!

shit happens in life.. for some it maybe sometimes, but for me it seems like all the time.. family issues, in-law issues, the kid falling sick almost every 2 weeks it has been a roller coaster ride but Alhamdulillah, got thru all of it in 1 piece!

The numerous baking, cooking and kitchen experiments in these 9 months has been exciting.. after all those shit that happens, i'd realised my pots & pans, the stove, the oven and my lovely kitchen helps me to de-stress..


My comfort zone.. This is where i'll be when i'm hiding from my Firas.. This is where i'll wait impatiently for food to be out from the oven..


My very own island.. Love them to bits!

Here's what I've been doing since my last post:


5th March 2013.. Mountain Cheese burst patty.. Homemade dinner..


The first Rainbow cake for my Sister 30th Birthday, 17th March 2013.. It was such a failure.. the frosting was a runny mess, the taste was too sweet, but it was worth the try and I wasn't going to give up yet!


18th March 2013.. Maggi Goreng Mata Lembu! Instant quick dinner..


The first lunchbox, 19th March 2013.. This is when I decided to cut down on lunch spending.. That's stir fried veg + rice + Sweet Soy Sauce chicken..


Lunchbox, 22nd March 2013.. Fried Macaroni + oven baked chicken wings + Sardine bread roll..


22nd March 2013.. Fried Shrimp on Toasted Bun.. That's a lazy dinner..


23rd March 2013.. Weekend Brekkie.. My very own Big Breakfast.. Heh!


Lunchbox, 26th March 2013.. Green Chili fried rice + chicken cutlet & 'jemput-jemput'


4th April 2013.. The instant brekkie.. Instant Prata + Cheesy Sausage one can never go wrong with these combo..


11th April 2013.. Beef Pita for a weekday brekkie..


18th April 2013.. Baked Macaroni, for a weekday dinner..


19th April 2013.. Cajun Chicken Focaccia for a weekday breakfast..


Lunchbox, 26th April 2013.. Fried Egg Seafood Noodle..


4th May 2013, Mothers' Day celebration at the beach with my Mum and faveys aunts.. My 2nd rainbow cake.. It was my mistake cos I didn't crumb coat the cake.. henc ethe runny chocolate glaze.. But everyone love them!


5th May 2013.. Chocolate Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting on a good day!


5th May 2013.. Cuppies for my dear and his colleagues.. You've gotta feed Police Officers with good food!


The first Doughnut ball 12th May 2013.. Made them during the weekend for my sister's religious class and it turns out a 'lil chewy, the chocolate glaze didn't cooperate with me.. boohoo! But I was determine to try them again!


12th May 2013.. It was Mothers' Day celebration for my MIL.. Chocolate Cuppies with Cream Cheese frosting..


Dinner, 16th May 2013.. Beef tofu stew, missing Seoul badly..


Dinner, 28th May 2013..  Roasted Chicken + Potatoes, it turns out oily & it wasn't spicy enuff for my tastebud.. Recipe from allrecipe.com


Dinner, 29th May 2013.. The effortless meal.. Ramli's Chicken Patties with toast.. When I am uber lazy, out comes the instant!


Dinner, 31st May 2013.. Macaroni Chicken Soup + Sambal Kicap.. the purrrrfect dinner on a rainy day..


Brekkie, 8th June 2013.. Cheesy beef toast..


Lunchbox, 12th June 2013.. Stir-fried veg with vermicelli noodle + Egg tofu


Lunchbox, 17th June 2013.. Tuna Onigiri..


Dinner, 18th June 2013.. My first Beef Lasagne.. Recipe taken from the back of the pasta packaging..


28th June 2013.. Mini Cinnamon Churros to kill time while waiting for dear husband to come home.. Surprisingly it turns out good..


8th July 2013.. The perfect soft donuts!


20th August 2013.. Complete dinner set for my famish husband.. Stir-Fried veg + Sambal Sotong..


8th September 2013.. When both wants a different menu for lunch.. For him, Sambal Tiger Prawns & I wanted a Ayam Lemak Chili Padi..


14th September 2013.. Weekend lunch, Nasi Goreng Kampong + Cajun Prawn + Keropok Ikan Tamban.. Power GileRR!


12th October 2013.. Midnight Snack, Tuna Mayo on Toast..


15th October 2013.. Mini Chocolate Chip muffin..


16th October 2013.. MY Meat pie for dinner..


Lunchbox, 29th October 2013.. Kimchi Fried Rice + its condiments..


30th October 2013.. Brekkie was Kimchi pancake on a weekday..


9th November 2013.. Cake pop for a cousin wedding.. I still couldn't figure out the perfect cake pop recipe but these are just too pretty!


15th November 2013.. Mushroom Fried Rice it tasted superb!


19th November 2013.. Hokkien Fried Noodle for weekday breakfast..


24th November 2013.. Ddubokki for dinner.. missing Seoul street food..

These are homemade food.. I wouldn't consider myself as hardworking but when it comes to food I get excited all the time.. and that explains why I gained 6kg after giving birth..

THE - Soft Tofu Stew

Since we got home from our Korea getaway, hubby was craving for Soft tofu stew which we had at Insadong.. So he googled some recipes then picked out 1 which he think would taste good and forward them to me so that i could cook it after work..

I have no idea where he got it from, i only had screenshot of the recipe, the address bar wasn't in the pic either.. Here goes:

Soft Tofu Stew



Ingrdients:
* 3 Tbsp sesame oil
* 1/2 lb beef (thinly sliced)
* 1/2 Tbsp garlic, finely chopped
* 2 Tbsp red pepper powder
* 2 cups anchovy stock or beef stock
* 3 cups soft tofu
* 2 Tbsp soy sauce
* 1 lb unshucked clams
* 2 scallion, sliced
* Eggs (optional)

Methods:
1) In a soup pot, stir-fry beef, garlic, red pepper powder in the sesame oil for abt 5 minutes.
2) Add in stock and soy sauce to pot. Bring to simmer.
3) Add in clams and let it cook for abt 5 minutes or till it opens.
4) Gently slide in the soft tofu & add in the scallion. Turn off heat and serve hot!

Note: In restaurants, these stew are served in traditional earthenware bowl while bubbling hot. Raw egg is added to the stew and folded into the contentc to cook from the heat within the bowl.

THE - Fiffy's Seafood Platter!

An entry via iPhone Blogger apps, doesn't allow you to save, only publish.. My lengthy post got lost when i fell asleep while posting an entry 2 days ago.. T_T

2 days back, as usual, had texted hubs to ask what's for dinner.. His reply this time was "Surprise me.." And so, i'd skipped lunch to shop for grocery at NTUC Parkway Parade instead.. Have i ever mention how i'd loved my trips to the supermarket.. i could spent hours in a supermarket, the big ones of course.. Back in the days when there was carrefour at Suntec, i would go there EVERYDAY.. i would gleam at the entrance of the market.. Oh and to me, supermarket has to be big.. There is no point making a small supermarket, where the alleys are freaking small and there isn't much much variety of products to buy..

Since i stayed in the North but work somewhere near the East, here are my fave's supermarket:
1) Ang Mo Kio - NTUC FairPrice
2) Parkway Parade - NTUC Finest
3) Northpoint - Cold Storage (They have the freshest thawed chicken)
4) Tampines - Giant

Back to "what's for dinner?"

Before he gets sick & tired of chicken, i'd to change the menu.. Seafood is like an expansive food to me.. So the once in a while indulge to Fish & co was what we had look forward to.. Like I'd mention previously, dinner has never been peaceful since we had Firas.. So, i'd decided to try make my very own Seafood platter for dinner!

Fried Calamari:

Ingredients:
* Squid
* 1 cup flour
* 1 egg, beaten
* pepper
* seafood seasoning
* salt

Methods:

1) Clean squid, cut it into rings

2) Mixed flour, pepper, salt & seafood seasoning into a bowl.

3) Dip squid into egg and then to the flour mixture. Deep fry it till golden brown.

Note:  If you are looking for a crunchy fried calamari, i wouldn't recommend this recipe. The taste is alright but it ain't crunchy.. (I am still working on a crispy calamari)

Cajun Prawn:

Ingredients:

* Tiger prawn (It's for family, and the bigger the prawns the tastier it is)
* Cajun Seasoning
* Seafood seasoning

Methods:
1) Clean your prawns, cut the legs leave the shell and the head on.
2) Season it with cajun and seafood seasoning
3) Melt butter on pan (i uses happy call), and cook it for about 5 mins on each side.. (prawns cook real fast, so overcooking the prawns may not be a good idea)

Mussels in Garlic Butter Sauce:

Ingredients:
* 1lb frozen 1/2 shelled mussels (you could use the one with both shell on of course)
* 1/2 block butter, room temperature
* 4 cloves garlic, minced
* 3 teaspoon parsley, chopped (you could use the fresher ones, but i'd prefer the bottled parsley flakes cos i could keep it longer)
* 60ml cooking cream

Methods:
1) Mixed butter, garlic & parsley with a wooden spoon.
2) On a small fire, put the mixture in a medium pot. Once butter has melted put in mussels.
3) Stir well, making sure the mussels is has butter on it. Then add in cream.
4) Cook it on small heat for 15 mins.

PS: Serve it with toasted bread.. The sauce is heavenly YUMS!
Note: I am upset with my Herbs Halibut cos the recipe i had online turns out to be freaking salty.. Let me work on that again before i post.

Happy Tucking!!

THE - Sambal Affair

Saturday's lunch.. To me it was worth the carpark summon, the sore feet & the 3 different market visit, all for my 'Sambal Kupang/Mussels'.. I had concluded today, Mussel wasn't in season (like DUH! after 3 different market visits).. Managed to get 2 kilos of fresh mussels, had initially wanting to get those pre-packed without the shell..

Anyhoots, lunch for dear hubby was cooked by moi, yes moi alone and i'm proud of it! My MIL had cooked a different dish for my FIL which wasn't my hubby's fave, fish.. Today's menu was Sambal Kupang/Mussels, fried veggie & fried chicken..

This sambal, was a recipe from my mum. Sambal tumis is a very basic sambal, which you could add on different ingredients. Prawns, mussels, fried anchovies or even fried eggs. You could have them with Nasi Lemak, Nasi Goreng or even White Rice.
- If you are using the fresh mussels (bought with the shell), wash thoroughly then steam it till the shell open up.
- But if you bought those which the shell was removed, fry it for about 5 minutes. So that the mussels last longer.
- Same goes with prawns, fry them so that it could last longer.

Sambal Tumis:

Ingredients:
* 3 cups of oil
* 2 handful of dried chili - Boiled then blended
* 4 onions
* 5 cloves of garlic
[Onion & garlic are to be blended together using the blender from the chili]
* 1 cup of tamrind water
* 1 tbsp of salt
* 2 1/2 handful of sugar

Method:
1. Heat up the oil in the wok. Then add in the blended chili.
2. Chili should be cooked till dry. Make sure to stir regularly so that it doesn't get burnt.
3. Once chili is dry, color should be of dark red (not burnt), add in the blended onion & garlic.
4. Stir well. Once the mixture is a lil dry, add in about 1 1/2 cups of water.
5. Aprox. 10 minutes later, add in the tamarind water and stir well.
6. Add in the salt and sugar. Taste it, add more to your preferred taste. Leave if for a few minutes.

The above recipe cook about 1 big bowl of Sambal. To have your preferred Sambal variation, you could scoop out half of the portion in the wok to be cool and store it in the fridge. The other half portion in the wok, add in the steamed/fried mussles OR prawns OR fried anchovies OR fried eggs. Leave it for a few minutes. Then, its ready to be served!

Fried Veggie:

Ingredients:
* 2 tbsp of olive oil
* 1 onion - sliced
* 2 cloves garlic - chopped
* 1-2 red chili - sliced
* 10-12 French beans - cut abt 2cm long
* 1 Carrot - sliced thinly
* Cabbage - sliced
* 1/2 cube of Chicken Know stock

Methods:
1. Once oil is heated, fry onion, garlic & red chili.
2. Next add in the cube stock and then the rest of the ingredients.
3. Stir well and add in about 1/3 cup of water. Leave it for about 5 minutes and.. ready to be served.

Happy trying!