Miso Udon with Teriyaki Chicken

I can’t believe I’m saying this but formatting is a pain on Word document!! It’s taking me 2 hours and I’m only half way through listing the table and figure numbers/titles.. Took AR another 3 hours to suss out the format of Table of contents. I want to submit my final draft tomorrow and this is taking far too long! =(

So I’m posting about comfort food again. And what is more comforting than a bowl of soup?

I’m a big fan of miso paste. I use it in salads and even as a marinate. This time round though, I’m sticking to soup. I usually use a small packet of dashi that contains bonito flakes but just before I tear the packet, I noticed the expiry date and it was wayyyy over- so I chucked it out. The soup was still tasty though, possibly because of the sauce from the Teriyaki Chicken.

I stole the Teriyaki Chicken idea from my favourite Japanese restuarant in Perth. They served the best beef teriyaki udon ever. So anyhow, I decided to quicky saute thinly sliced chicken breast strips with teriyaki sauce and that turned out wonderful. On the topic of chicken breast meat, lots of people find it tough and dry but I think that is a sign of overcooking. I found out that if I sliced it across the grain and make sure it’s thin, it’s usually tender and juicy. Let me know what you think or have found. =)

I’m sooo craving for a bowl of soup now.

Miso Udon with Teriyaki Chicken (serves 2)
1 chicken breast sliced thinly across the grain
2-3 tablespoons of Teriyaki Sauce
1 tsp of garlic

2 packet of Udon noodles
750ml of chicken stock
3 generous tablespoons of red miso paste*
1 cup of sliced button mushrooms

*reduce miso paste amount to 2 tablepoons if using dashi.

Marinate chicken with garlic and teriyaki sauce. Set aside while you prepare miso soup.

Boil stock. Add miso paste. Stir till it is well dissolved. Cook Udon noodles in the soup. Add mushrooms.

Sautee chicken quickly in a pan. Spoon chicken with sauce over noodles. Serve warm.

SLURP =)

I’m serving this up for Pasta Presto Night! Yum Yum!

Braised Soya Sauce Chicken with Egg

The sense of smell is a powerful thing. A whiff of your favourite childhood dishes could bring you back memories.

This dish is a childhood favourite of mine. Probably every Chinese household have a version of this. This was also one of the first dishes I craved for when I first arrived in Australia. It’s very homely and I love it with a bowl of rice.

Braised Soya Sauce Chicken with Eggs (serves 4)
7-8 Chicken drumsticks trimmed of fat
4 hard boiled eggs
1 tablespoon of chopped garlic
1 tablespoon of chopped chili
olive oil

1/4 cup of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of kikoman soya sauce
1 tsp of dark soya sauce
2-3 tablepoons of hua tio jiu
1 tsp sugar

1/201 cup of water

Saute garlic and chili. Brown chicken over moderate heat.

Mix sauces in a jar.

Once the chicken is browned, pour sauce mix over it. Pour around 1/2 cup of water into the wok/pan. Simmer for about 20 minutes. Check every 10 minutes if it requires more water. Turn the chicken so that it is well coated in the mixture.

Add eggs into the pot. Again, simmer the mixture for 15 more minutes, turning the eggs every 5 minutes to make sure it is well coated.

Serve with saute vegetables and rice.

What are some dishes that reminds you of your childhood days?

Beef Schnitzel with Grilled Vege Couscous

What a sweet weekend.

Today marks us being engaged for exactly 6 months. Next year this time, we will be married (legally not traditionally). It’s a little scary really, considering how time passes so quickly but I’m enjoying every moment of it (even the frustration..).

I treated AR breakfast on Friday and it left us so full that we ate nothing till dinner time! In return, AR brought me to a fancy french restaurant in Sheraton on Saturday and I’m impressed. Photos and review up later but the service and food was just wonderful.

Back to Monday, I’m lifting my spirits up by blogging about this dish that I have discovered recently. It’s nothing fancy and is probably a staple in the usual Australian or Italian home (except I’ m not Australian nor Italian). The simplicity of this blows me away and I wonder why didn’t I try this earlier?

Beef Schnitzel is nothing new and certainly nothing that shouts “amazing”. But tough beef is a no-no so I tenderised it by using the salt method. If you prefer, chicken will work as well. Perhaps let your negativity out by pounding on a piece of chicken breast.

I served this with grilled vegetable couscous. Well, because I was lazy and wanted to combine carbohydrates with our vegetable intake. ;p

Beef Schnitzel with Grilled Vege Couscous (serves 2)
3 pieces of lean or “heart smart” beef steak
1 egg
1 cup of flour
1 cup of spicy packaged bread crumbs (or plain/herbs)

1 finger eggplant sliced thinly
1 red capsicum sliced thinly
1 cup of chopped mushrooms
handful of toasted pine nuts
1 cup of couscous
1 cup of boiling water
seasoning
lemon juice
1 tablespoon of olive oil

1) Salt beef. Rinse and pat dry. Dust beef with flour and shake off excess. Dip in egg then breadcrumbs. Pan fry for 3-4 minutes each side. Repeat for each steak. Keep warm in oven.

2) Meanwhile, boil water. Soak couscous in water in a microwave safe bowl. Zap it for 30 seconds in the microwave. Keep the lid on for 5 minutes or so. Heat grill pan on high and lightly grilled vegetables for 5 minutes.

3) Fluff couscous up. Add grilled vegetables to couscous. Add pinenuts, seasoning, lemon juice and olive oil.

4) Serve with beef schnitzel.

Banana Chip Cookies

I’m not sure how I feel about this one. The cookie was on the softer side, however, the banana chips added a lovely crunch to it.

It’s still a lovely cookie and something that is worth considering if you would like to make something different (other than your choc chip combo). I still prefer cookies on the crisp side so this recipe is not one that I will revisit soon. Nevertheless, I’m glad I tried it. You will never know till you try! =)

Banana Chip Cookies (adapted from Australian Women’s weekly Biscuits and Slices)
125 grams of butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 caster sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup chopped banana chips
1/2 cupped chopped walnuts
1/2 cup banana chips extra

Preheat oven 180C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Cream butter, vanilla essence, sugar and egg. Flour flour, chopped banana chips and nuts in. Shape 1 tsp of mixture into balls. Top cookies with extra banana chops. Bake for 10-15 minutes till browned slightly. Cool cookies on tray for 5 minutes before lifting them to the cookie rack.

Life is Full of Gratitude

It is easy to complain and whinge about the negativity going on around our lives. Little Corner passed me this tag and I’m glad she did. There is so much to be grateful for.

I’m grateful for my family and friends who love me unconditionally.
I’m grateful for the amazing grace that God has provide.
I’m grateful for the ability to speak, move and smile.
I’m grateful for shelter and food.
I’m grateful for the oppourtunity to study.
I’m grateful for health.
I’m grateful for being able to love.

~Start Copy~

In order to be able to achieve and maintain happiness we need to, actively, be able to do two things: Complain and then let go (Dump the baggage, the roadblocks to happiness.) Express Gratitude (The open expression of gratitude promotes happiness.) After all everyone has something to be grateful for and/or something to complain about. If you would like to share, please follow the appropriate link and do so: “Are You Grateful?”, “Complain Complain Complain.”

Add your name to the current List of Contributors:

Contributors to “Are You Grateful?” & “Complain Complain Complain” are: 1-Attitude, the Ultimate Power 2-Max 3-DianaCA’s Metamorphoses 4-Mental Poo 5-My Thoughts 6-Baba Doodlius 7-Wake Up America 8-Life is a Roller Coaster 9-Life and Me 10-pinay mommy’s love blog 11-My Happiness Haven 12-And Life Goes On for a Filipino Mom 13-Blessed Sanctuary 14-Expressions And Thoughts 15-Memories by Jenn 16-Reminiscence of My Adventures 17-In the Life of Mne 18-Juliana’s Lair 19-Pinay Wahm 20-Lucid Creativity 21-Winged Words 22-Irresistible Fascinations 23-A Little Time 24-See Me For What You Will 25-Greatest Reviews 26-ETC ATBP 27-Gandacious 28-We Are Family 29-Journey to this thing called LIFE 30-www.rajeshrana.net 31-www.rajeshrana.com 32-BaReFooTeD Me 33-Uncomplicated 34-Points of View 35-Pride & Prejudice 36-Colorful World 37-Nora’s Notes 38-A Daily Walk With Bill & Gina 39-Strange but True 40-Everything Under The Sun ( Beth Rebokon ) 41-Kaleidoscope 42-Fil-Oz Blog 43-By Osc@r Luiz 44-Comedy Plus 45-Blogging by Sandee 46-Soul Meets World 47-Mae’s Memoirs 48-Beyond the Rave Reality 49-Amori, poesie, arte, chat by Hanna 50-Attached at the Hip 51-Carver’s Sight or is that Site? 52-Empress Reviews 53-Simple Pleasures In My Heart 54-Lourdes’ mia 55-A Grateful Heart 56-Majorsleepyhead 57-Scrappy n Happy in Ohio 58-CHOC MINT GIRL 59-Extraordinary Things 60-ZOOROPAZOO 61-BeNolSatuEm 62-As The World Turns 63-Your Caring Angels 64-Life Is Wonderful To Know Everyday 65-Sugar Magnolias 66-Little Peanut 67-Creative In Me 68-Me and Mine 69-Pea in a Pod 70-the diary of the Pink & Brown Wedding 71-good thoughts, good trades, good life 72-My Blog – all things me 73-Rainbows 74-Little Corner of Mine 75-Me, Myself and I 76-My Planet Purple 77-Amel’s Realm 78-A Handful of Surprises 79-A Detour 80-Something Purple 81-Vanity Kit 82-Are You Grateful? 83-A Simple Life 84-BlogTips.Com 85-Balitang Kalye 86-Mariuca 87- Emila Yusof 88-A Total Blog 89-My Life in this Wonderful World 90-MommyAllehs 91-Things That Suck 92-A Mother’s Stuff 93-Princess Vien 94-My Inner Thoughts Revealed 95-Roxiticus Desperate Housewives 96-Apples Of The Eyes 97-Nita’s Random Thoughts 98-Nita’s Corner 99-Thomas Digital Services 100-A Mother’s Thoughts101-Meltwater. Torrents. Meanderings. Delta 102-My Perfect Escape 103-Vanidosa. Marie 104-Confessions of a Supermodel Wannabe 105-Lynda’s Loft-106 Daphne from More Than Words
~End Copy~

I’m passing this to:

Ruth
Singairishgirl
Mochachocolata Rita
Ben
Ivy

Spiced Grilled Salmon with Bean Salad

I love bargains!

We bought 2 pieces for salmon fillet for less than AU$19/kg . The usual price is $32/kg. It was fresh and pink. I haven’t had salmon for ages! What a bonus.

My mind began to twirl. Miso salmon? Butter garlic Salmon? Grilled? Baked? Steam? The possibilities were endless.

In the end, I decided to keep it simple.

Spiced Grilled Salmon with Bean Salad (serves 2)
2 pieces of salmon fillet
2-3 tsp of chili flakes
2 tsp of cumin
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2 tsp of minced garlic

Marinate salmon with spiced mix and olive oil. Season if needed. Heat grill pan to hot. Grill salmon both sides for approximately 3-5 minutes.

Bean Salad
1/2 cucumber chopped
1 can of butter beans
2 tsp of sesame oil
2 tsp of sesame seeds
1 tsp of lemon juice

Toss ingredients together. Serve with grilled salmon!

Apple, mango, nectarine, sultana and chocolate pie

When you least want it, drama follows. What is the worst thing that could happen to a postgraduate student expecting to finish her 200-300 pages thesis anytime?

The computer died.
That was when I realized how valuable and precious the word “back up” means. Thank to the constant reminders from AR who even took the step of stashing a DVD of my write up in his office locker. “Just in case the house burned down,” he said. I laughed it off then but now I’m so thankful that I have copies of my work everywhere.

As a tentative measure, I resorted to working on my laptop again. The only problem is that I have about 5-6 programs running at the same time and it is a 5 years old laptop… yup. U guessed it. It lagged big time. In fact, it crashed twice last night, and I had to remind myself to “stay calm” (especially since I was editing 316 references!).

Then the man who I pledged myself to be married to (In exactly 1 year 1 day’s time) came to my rescue (HA! sounds so heroic! I can’t believe I just wrote that statement!). He stayed up all night to fix the computer up. He grabbed a few moments of sleep as the computer loads. So, by the time it was 7:30am, the desktop was up and running again.

Thank you AR. =)

_______________________________________________________

In light of the above event, I decided to follow the theme and blog about a pie that I made around 2 weeks ago. I’m not even sure how I’m going to write the recipe up! As a disclaimer, this is probably one recipe that you should not try from this blog =) .

I had 3 pieces of puff pastry left and thought a pie might be a good idea to use it all up. Just as I was stewing the apple pieces, it occurred to me that 3 apples will not be sufficient to filled up the pie dish! Ok, correction, it wasn’t a pie dish, it was quiche dish.

So anyway, after blind baking the pastry, it became really obvious that if I use that filling, the pie might become a “stingy pie”. You know, the “full of pastry but barely there filling” pie? So guess what I did?

I went to the fridge and digged out every fruit I have in there. So that means my pie consisted of

1 mango
1 nectarine
n the 3 apples that I was stewing.

Ok. everything chopped and into the saucepan with the apples. Oh dear, it still looked sparse.

Open pantry cupboards.

Light bulb moment– chocolate! Chocolate makes everything taste good.

oh! And some sultanas. Ok, in the saucepan it went as well.

So here you go. This is my “Apple, mango, nectarine, sultana and chocolate pie”

3 pieces of puff pastry
3 apples
1 mango
1 nectarine
handful of sultanas
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1 Cinnamon stick
2 tsp of mixed spice
1/4 cup of chocolate chips

Line a dish with puff pastry. Patch pastry up if it didn’t fit the dish. Blind bake for around 15 minutes.

Mean while, stew skinned and chopped apples, sultanas, nectarine and mango with brown sugar, cinnamon stick and mixed spice for around 15 minutes. Cook till soft. Line pastry with stewed fruit and sprinkle chocolate chips to fill the gaps if the filling isn’t sufficient. Cover it with another layer of pastry, making 4 slits at the top. Bake for 25 minutes till puff and golden.

Serve with ice-cream.

hmm..ice-cream makes everything looks good ya?

Dumpling Noodles

I remembered helping grandmother wrap prawn dumplings as a kid. As we sat around the table, grandma’s quiet presence filled the kitchen. She told me childhood stories of my mum, aunt and uncle. She recounted her experiences as a 5 year old kid carrying her younger brother and looking for shelter during war time. I felt her sadness as she recalled how her younger brother died when she was a teenager.

I have always looked forward to those prawn dumpling sessions. It exposes a gentle side of her that we don’t normally see.

Clumsy fingers that I have got as a child (and even now), the dumplings were not sealed properly the filling will fall out while it was being cooked. She would tell my parents that those ugly dumplings were mine and I would always swear that I did better than that. Yes, grandma can be a teaser.

She taught me how to make these dumplings. The only thing though, we had a guest over and he is allergic to prawns so I omitted them here. Still, just sitting down and enjoying a plate of dumpling noodles brought warmness into my heart.

Dumpling Noodles (serves 4-6)

For the filling of the dumplings
200 grams of pork mince
1 can of chestnut chopped (around 100grams)
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of kikoman soya sauce
1 tsp of dark soya sauce
1 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 tsp of corn flour
1/4 cup of Hua Tiao Jiu (Chinese cooking wine)
pepper

Combine all ingredients. Marinate overnight if possible.

Wrapping the dumplings
24 prawn dumpling skin
24 shrimps if needed
1 egg beaten.

Wrap 1 full tsp of mixture in the dumpling skin. Seal with egg. Set aside.

Noodles
4 portions of fresh egg noodles
Chinese vegetables of your choice. I chose Kai lan but choy sum is good too
4-6 tablespoon of oyster sauce
4-6 tsp of sesame oil
1/4 cup of hua tiao jiu (chinese wine)
sambal
freshly chopped chili (pickled green ones if you have any!)

Separate oyster sauce, sesame oil, sambal and chinese wine into 4-6 portions.

Meanwhile, boil two pots of water. Cook egg noodles in one. Portion the noodles onto the prepared plates with the sauces. Ladle a small amount of water onto the plate (approximately 4 tablespoons) to assist in mixing the noodles up with the sauce.

In the other boiling pot of water/stock, add dumplings. Cook till done. You can place the plate or serve it separately. Cook vegetables in this pot of water as well. If you are using stock, that can be served as soup.

Pick up your chopsticks and enjoy!

This plate of dumpling noodles is heading towards Pasta Presto Night!

Peanut Butter Pistachio Choc Chip Cookies

Two of my favourite spreads are nutella and peanut butter. (A close third is kaya). When The peanut butter boy announced the first great peanut butter exhibition featuring cookies, how can I resist participating?

I remembered the first time I baked cookies. It was in my home economics class. I was 14 then. I believe those were butter cookies. Encouragingly, the boy sitting in front of me in class ate it all up (and didn’t die of food poisoning). Total random note-10 years later, we realized that we had a crush on each other that time…and no! we didn’t tell each other. Might explain why he decided to eat those cookies though-despite them being rock hard…

The 2nd time I baked cookies were flourless peanut butter ones. They were burnt (Lemongrass-yup.that was one of my baking disasters) . I refused to give up and tried another batch. Those turned out golden brown and had a beautiful crunch to it.

Fast forward 7 years later, I decided to combine three of my favourite ingredients. Peanut butter, pistachios and chocolate chips. These cookies were crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. They were also flourless. I started with a tablespoon but these babies spread like wildfire so resist the temptation of rolling more than 1/2 a tablespoon of dough per cookie onto the tray. When they are done, be careful- They are very addictive. Oh! and I really enjoyed the wonderful peanut butter aroma lingering in the house after. Yum Yum.

Peanut Butter Pistachio Choc Chip Cookies (makes around 24 cookies)
Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

1 cup super chunky peanut butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup of dark chocolate chips
1/4 cup pistachios shelled

Preheat oven to 180C. Mix first 5 ingredients in medium bowl. Mix in chocolate chips and pistachios. Using moistened hands, form 1/2 tablespoon of dough for each cookie into ball. Arrange on 2 lined baking trays, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake cookies until puffed, golden on bottom and still soft to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to racks; cool completely.

These babies are going into

Check out The peanut butter boy’s blog for more peanut butter inspiration. I can’t wait to see what the other bloggers have baked for this event!

Look! New Template!

I lurrrve this new template. At exactly 12 midnight, I had a sudden inspiration to change the template of this blog. I know, it’s bizzare, but weird things happen when you are under stress. It’s so much neater now. Besides, looking at pretty things calm me down.

The tech idiot in me didn’t know that Blogger has upgraded their brower. Fiddling around it took ages but I think it was worth it at the end. Yeah so I look like a panda this morning with dark eye rings but hey, I woke up a happy girl and was looking forward to being in front of the computer again. Thanks to AR as well, for he helped me heaps in transfering some widgets over.

I’m still playing around with the template so do expect changes over the next week or so. I also welcome any feedback. =) Let me know what you would like to see or not see on this blog.

More recipes and photos soon! They are in my camera and I haven’t had the chance to load them in yet. That’s ALOT of photos waiting to be loaded into the computer.

Meanwhile,

Thank you Little Corner for passing this award to me. It is a really pretty award too-the right time for a pretty template. I do believe that trust, kindness, honesty and caringness are attributes of a perfect blend of friendship. Strong friendships are difficult to find, and I’m really pleased to know some really lovely people in the blogging world in addition to my closest friends.

I’m going to pass this award to…

Ruthie
Ben
Ivy
Isaac and Sophia
Petrina
Elin
Jen
Little Corner
Singairishgirl
Wandering Chopsticks
Eat First Think Later
Living in Food Heaven
A Whiff of Lemongrass
Tigerfish
Peony
Mochachocolata-Rita
Babe in KL
Big Boys Oven
Culinary Princess
Evan
Inspired mum of 2

*muacks*