Apron's Delight

Merry Christmas to all

2011-12-24T03:57:00.000-08:00

Classic minced Pies - a Christmas tradition in Britain

Another last minute Christmas bake, the classic minced pies. This is traditionally served as sweet pastry during the festive season in UK. The history of this little minced pies dated back to the 13th century. Detail can be found here. Again I took some short cut, buying store bought pre-prepared luxury mincemeat.

So I better start baking to bring some over to my friend's for Christmas Eve dinner this evening...

Minced Pies
Ingredients

Bought the mincemeat from Mark & Spencer

1 jar of high quality mincemeat (around 350g)
200g plain flour
40g icing sugar
75g ground almond
125g butter (unsalted)
1 egg lightly beaten
Some milk for glaze
Zest of 1 orange

Adding zest of 1 orange to the mincemeat

Lightly butter a 12-hole pie or patty tin. Tip the mincemeat into a bowl and mixed in the zest of 1 orange. Set aside
Place the flour, sugar, almonds and butter in a mixing bowl. Use rub in method by hand until they resemble breadcrumbs. Add in the egg and mixed well . Bring the mixture together with your hands, wrap in clingfilm and chill for an hour or so.
Thinly roll out the pastry on a floured surface. Cut out 12 circles with a fluted pastry cutter, large enough to fill the base of the prepared tin. Press gently into each hole, then fill with the mincemeat.Cut out another 12 slightly smaller discs and use to cover the mincemeat. Press the edges together to seal. Make a small slit in the top of each, then brush lightly with milk.
Chill for about 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted).
Bake the pies for 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove to a wire rack and serve warm

Filling the mincemeat into pastry

Out from oven-still bubbling hot

Flaky short crust pastry with the lovely mincemeat....yummy

So I wish all my readers Merry Christmas, enjoy the holidays. Enjoy the minced pies with some mulled wine.

The end result....ready to go...

Classic Christmas Fruit Cake

2011-12-23T08:50:00.000-08:00

Classic Christmas Fruit Cake

With the Christmas festivities just around the corner (to be precise in 2 days time), I must be honest, I haven't done much really in the baking department. I was planning to bake Christmas fruit cake back in October but my procrastination takes the better of me. Two weeks ago I was grocery shopping and noticed on the shelf they stock ''Christmas fruit cake ingredients in a bag'' for 3 quid only. The instructions on the bag seems easy to follow, so without hesitation I bought one. What an excellent deal!

So my quest for baking perfect Christmas fruit cake begin..... so what's in the bag :

2 kgs of mix dried fruits[sultanas, raisins, candied orange peel, glaced cherries etc] pre-soaked in brandy (luxurious)
275 g brown sugar
225 g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
50g chopped almonds
1 tbsp black treacle
1 sheet of marzipan (which I discard)
200 icing sugar (which I discard)
1 tbsp of apricot jam (which I discard)

The other ingredients which I have to supplement are 4 eggs, 210g butter, zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon. And of course some brandy to feed the cake every 2 weeks....

This classic cake can easily be stored up to 4 months...

The ingredients

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 120C (fan assisted). Prepare a 18cm round baking tin. Cut out double layer of parchment paper to line the base and side of the tin. Also cut out a double layer as cover for the top.
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until creamy.
Then beat the 4 eggs lightly and pour the eggs slowly and continue to mix. Do not pour the egg all at once to prevent curdling of the mixture. If this happen, just dust the mixture with some flour and continue to mix.
Then add lemon zest, orange zest, black treacle, mixed spice, chopped almond and dried fruit. Carefully fold in. Mixed well.
Then fold in the flour and mix. Pour into the baking tin and level carefully. Cover the top with parchment paper.
Bake the cake for 4 - 4.5 hours on the lowest shelf.
After 4-4.5hours, remove cake from oven and let it cool in the tin for an hour.
Once cool, use a skewer/little knife to prick the cake, feed brandy into the cake.
Use new parchment paper to wrap the cake and a tin foil to wrap in and store in air tight cake tin.

Enjoy the cake and Merry Christmas.........

The mixture

Ready to go into the oven

Luxurious fruit cake

An autumn project

2011-10-23T13:02:00.000-07:00

I've just been asked to join an allotment plot near my home. Basically, allotment is a plot of land which can be rented to grow vegetables and fruits. Allotment had grown so popular in UK that waiting list to get one may be subjected to at least 2 years on the waiting list. Due to the fact that my garden at home is dedicated to beautiful plants, there leave not much space for growing edible vegetables and fruits. The yearly rental are almost neglible, imagine £5 for 100m2 plot. Of course the plot is not in it tip top condition as previous tenants left it in dire state laden with perennial weeds and crouch grass. So over the sunny weekend, making use of the best of autumn weather I went digging in my plot. As I am not a keen user of chemical weed killer, I will only use eco friendly method - dig in and eradicate the weeds. Yes hardwork indeed but I believe it will be lovely come next summer - enjoying fresh produce from allotment and try to be self sustaining if possible. I met a few allotmenteers there and they seem to be very helpful and giving encouragement for a newbie like me.

Clearing half of my plot

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine gave me a bag of fresh sweet chestnut. Instead of just roasting and boiling and eating them, I thought I could give a try on Mont Blanc desserts. Well-I believe after you have seen the picture of my Mont Blanc, many will advise me to go for classes to improve on my cream piping skill. My excuse will be, I don't have the right tools but at least I make an effort to do everything from scratch...... :-)

Mont Blanc-I need more praticing on piping the chestnut puree

Mont Blanc

Ingredients (make 7 pieces)

Genoese Sponge Cake

Genoese Sponge Cake

3 eggs
75 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
65 g plain flour
1 tbsp corn flour
40 g butter, melted and cooled

Set the oven to 180C. Grease and base a cake tin (8 inch square tin).
Place the eggs, essence vanilla and sugar in a heatproof bowl and set over large saucepan of hot water. Whisk until very thick and pale, and firm enough to leave a ribbon trail. This will take 6-7mins using electric mixer at medium speed. Remove from the heat and continue whisking until cool.
Sift the flour and corn flour together. Gradually fold half into the whisked mixture using large metal spoon.
Gradually fold in the melted butter alternately with the remaining flour mixture, using as light touch as possible or the cake will sink and the cake will be heavy.
Pour into tin and bake for about 25-30mins. The cake should be well risen, firm to the touch and just beginning to shrink away from the sides of the tin.
Leave to cool in the tin for about 3 minutes, then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely.

Cut the cake into round shape

Use a ring cutter to cut the cake into round shape.

Tips: Genoese sponge is a very light sponge that keeps well, providing a good base for decorated special occasion cake. Add the butter very gradually in a slow thin trickle to avoid making the cake heavy.

Homemade chestnut puree

Chestnut Puree

350 gm peeled chestnut
1 tbsp caster sugar
enough water to cover the chestnut

In a small pot, place the chestnut, sugar and enough water to cover them.
Cook over medium heat for around 20mins until soft.
Drain and keep the sugary water.
Put the chestnut into a food processor and pour in half of the sugary water and blend until it resembles puree.
You can pass through the puree through a seive if you desire a really smooth consistency but I must warn you, it's not an easy task. I would rather divide into small portion and mash any remaining bits.
Set aside for assembling.

Chestnut Cream

Chestnut cream

3/4 cup of double cream
1 tbsp of icing sugar
2 tbsp chestnut puree from above
1 tbsp rum/brandy
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Put the mixing bowl in fridge to cool it first for 30minutes. This helps during the whisking stage.
Bring out the mixing bowl, pour in the cream and icing sugar and whisk.
Whisk until there is ribbon consistency, add in brandy/rum, chestnut puree and vanilla essence.
Continue to whisk for 2 minutes on medium speed until firm. Do not over whisk as the cream will curdle.
Then assemble the cake. Pipe the chestnut cream onto the cake. Repeat until done. Then pipe the puree over the cream using spaghetti tip piping(I need to find this tip).

I went over to friend for lunch and contributed this little piece of delights.

Mini Summer Fruit Tarts with Creme Patisserie

2011-10-01T13:52:00.000-07:00

How time flies, it's officially October now. At least I'm still enjoying the warm weather here, it's been a very sunny and warm (26-29C) week, so make the best of it. Very unusual really for this time of the year.

I had been busy (quoted : enjoying it ) throughout this summer, been going places, doing London to Cambridge cycle ride, a number of social occasions-BBQ, punting, etc, and highlight being able to meet up with Ann & Tim over in London.

I'm back here again to give some TLC to my desserted blog [sincere apology to my readers] . Where to start..... of course it'll be about food. I baked some mini summer fruit tarts yesterday to bring to work for a good cause - The Big Coffee Morning in support of the MacMillan Cancer Support fundraising event. I am happy that I put my baking skill for a good cause.

Mini Summer Fruit Tarts

Ingredients (makes around 15-16 tarts)

Pate Sucree (Sweet pastry)

175 gm cake flour

75 gm ground almond

100 gm butter

75 gm icing sugar

pinch of salt

2 egg yolks

Creme Patisserie

300 ml of milk

3 large egg yolks

50 gm sugar

2 tbsp flour

2 tbsp corn flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

For the pate sucree, in a mixing bowl sieve the flour and icing sugar, then add in ground almond and salt. Rub in the butter with flour until it resembles bread crumb.

Whisk the yolk lightly and slowly add into the dry mixtures. Use a spoon to roughly mix. Form the dough using the cling film method.

On a work surface, lay it with cling film ( roughly about 40cm x 30cm ) . Then pour (2) onto the cling film, then wrap the cling film around it to form a dough ball. Then put into the fridge and let it rest for 1-2hrs. Meanwhile you can prepare creme patisserie.

Beat in 3 egg yolks and sugar into a heat proof dish. Whisk the yolk and sugar together, then slowly add in the flour and corn flour to form a paste, then add in the vanilla essence. Meanwhile heat the milk just until it start to foam, then slowly add in the milk to egg mixture and continue to whisk.

Then cook this mixture over low heat, take care to continue whisking all the time. The liquids will start to thickens, off the heat once the consistency you desired is achieved.

Let it to cool. to ensure there are no thick layers form on the surface, drop in just a bit of butter on the surface, and use a cling film to cover the surface. This creme patisserie can be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Now back to pate sucree. Lightly oil the muffin baking tray. Take out the dough from fridge. Unseal the cling film wrap, use another cling film to cover the top of the dough. use a rolling pin and roll the dough to about 3mm thickness. If the dough is soft due to heat from surrounding, put it back to fridge to let it set for anothe half an hour, so that it'll be easier to cut and shape later on.

Use a 3inch round cutter, cut the pastry and place it onto the individual muffin baking cup. Shape nicely the tart in the cup. Continue until done. Use a fork to poke holes on the bottom of the tart. It is very important to bake blind the pastry. Basically I warp small pouches of uncooked rice/bean in cling film and fill the hole in each tart. This will ensure the baked tart retain it shape during baking and baked evenly. You can put the tart into the fridge to rest for another 20minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 180C.

Bake for around 12-15mins until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool. Once cool the tart cases can be removed easily from the muffin tin. To serve fill the tart with a tbsp of creme patisserie and top with fruits-strawberry, kiwis, raspberry, blueberries, mangoes, peaches...the choice is endless :-). You can glaze the fruits with light sugary syrup(this is optional)

As long as baking is done with ingredients of joy and love, any tarts will turn out lovely. :-)

In search of perfect scones

2011-08-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite past time is enjoying cream tea on weekend be it in quaint tea room or over at friends or in the privacy of my own garden during summer. It's quintessential part of the British way of life, enjoying a really nice brew and an ordinary plain looking scone (or must I emphasize it got to be 2 scones) top with clotted cream and homemade strawberry jam. Heavenly......

There are several useful tips on getting a good or almost perfect scones. But before I jumped on the recipes, let me give you a know-how and understand your ingredients and techniques that make a real different to the end results.

Self raising flour is preferred as it has raising agents mixed into it. Sift the flour to add air into it so that the final product is lighter.
Additional raising agents is required be it bicarbonate of soda, baking powder or cream of tartar. These raising agents produce light textures to the scones. It is important to be accurate when measuring them out. Baking powder is a ready made mixture of bicarbonate soda and cream of tartar. When liquid is added the baking powder reacts and produces carbon dioxide, and the heat of the oven expands these gas bubbles to give the airy texture. Bicarbonate of soda is a raising agent with gentler effect. Using of bicarbonate of soda must be measured accurately as too much of this ingredient will give a bitter aftertaste. Whereas cream of tartar is a fast acting raising agent, it begins to work the moment it is in touch with liquid. Always bake the mixture as soon as possible after adding cream of tartar or its effect will be reduced. I tend to use baking powder + additional cream of tartar to give a lighter texture, it's all about how tall your scone will rise.
Dried fruits like sultanas and raisins benefit from initial soaking in orange juice or alcohol, i.e brandy, rum, sherry. I tend to soak the dried fruits overnight to plump them up. I also tend to gently pat dry the fruits with kitchen towel prior to be added into my baking.
Do not overwork the dough. A few gentle knead to form a rough round ball will do. Then gently pat down to desired heights with fingertips, no rolling pin requires.
Use a ring cutter to cut the scones, try not to twist it when you cut. I tend to use a quick and fast movement to cut through the dough so as to avoid twisting.
A pre-heated oven is mandatory, so that the raising agent is put to work immediately and give that lovely light texture. I tend to use fan assisted oven mode as it circulate the hot air around evenly and heat up very quickly.

English Scones

Recipes (make 6)

250 gm self raising flour
60 gm chilled unsalted butter
1 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of cream of tartar
150 ml whole milk or buttermilk (the choice is yours)
1 tbsp of caster sugar
one handful of raisin
1 small egg beaten + 2 tbsp of milk for eggwash

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan assisted)
In a mixing bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder and cream of tartar.
Using rub in method, rub in the butter with flour mixture wit fingertips until it resembles breadcrumb.
Add in raisin to the flour mixture, then slowly add the milk to the mixture and gently knead with your fingertip and palm to form rough round ball. Dust some flour on work surface.
Put the dough on the work surface and gently pat the dough to required heights with finger tips (2.5 cm).
Use a cutter and cut the dough. Place the scone on baking tray. Assembled the remaining dough, cut and repeat until done. Brush the scone with egg wash.
Bake for 12 minutes until lightly browned and cooked. Bring out and cooled on rack for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with clotted cream and strawberry jam.

Summer cut flowers from my garden to adorn my desk at work

Taking care of Jerry for a week as owner is out on holiday

Stir Fry Minced Beef with Pointed Sweet Red Pepper and Black Bean Sauce

2011-07-25T13:02:00.000-07:00

How time flies. It's been quite awhile since I last updated my blog. I've been busy, first I've family members over visiting in month of June, followed by lots of travelling during the weekend, workload, friend visiting from the north and finally on my mission to study life in the UK test. Not only have I negelected my blog, my garden has been slightly neglected too. It's all about priority :-) .
I promised myself to bake cake, one of those few favorite things that I love to do during summer, went and bought all the ingredients and yet they sat in the pantry untouch for the last 3 weeks. Perhaps procrastination perceeded priority in my case.
Well no cake recipes this time around but I still have simple stir fry recipes to try out.

Minced Beef Stir Fry with Sweet Pointed Red Pepper and Black Bean Sauce
Ingredients (serves 2)

250gm minced beef

1 large pointed red sweet pepper

1 thumb size ginger-finely chopped

1 clove garlic-finely chopped

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp black bean sauce

1/2 tbsp vegetable cooking oil

1 tbsp shaoxing wine
2-3 tbsp water

Heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a wok/pan on medium heat. Once hot, add the minced ginger and browned slightly. Then add in the minced beef and give a good stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Add shaoxing wine and stir fry another minute. Remove from wok and set aside.

Using the same wok, heat 1/2 tbsp of vegetable cooking oil, add in minced garlic and slightly browned. Add in the sweet pepper and give a good stir fry for a minute. Add black bean sauce, sugar and water and bring to simmering point.

Pour back the minced beef and give a good stir and coat. Off the heat. Serve it hot over piping hot steam rice.

Garden a bit unkempt-on the wild side

My first harvest of runner bean-easy to grow, and taste great when stir fry

Last year I only have 5 fruits, this year my green gage is doing extremely well

My harvest of greengage from the garden

Jerry will only pose for the camera if I'm doing string trick

Lush in July, sit back and relax

Xiao Long Bao (Steamed soup dumpling)

2011-05-07T13:16:00.000-07:00

I like making little snacks but I always shy away from making xiao long bao. Yes, I love eating them very much especially when I'm away in Taiwan or back in Singapore. Of course Ding Tai Fung serves good xiao long bao but for the authentic version one can find in Nanxiang xiao long bao in Shanghai. One fine day I hope .......

So here I am in my first attempt on making xiao long bao.....

Xiao Long Bao

Ingredients

Soup Jelly
4 cups of water
6 chicken wings

5 dried scallops-soak till sot

2 spring onion

1 knob of ginger, smashed

3 cloves of garlic-smashed

1 tbsp of gelatin powder
Bring to boil all the above ingredients (except gealtin powder). Once boiling, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 2hrs. Off the fire.

Sieve the boiling liquid into a bowl. Then stir in the gelatin powder, mix well so that it's not lumpy.

Pour the liquid into a plate and let it to cool in fridge until it sets. Then cut into cube.

Filling

500 gm of mince pork

100 gm prawn-finely chopped

4 spring onion-finely chopped

3 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp of white pepper

1 tbsp shaoxing wine

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp sugar

Mixed all the ingredients, also add in the cut soup jelly. Mixed well. Set aside in the fridge until you're ready to wrap the xiao long bao.

Skin

3 cups plain flour

1 cup boiling water

1 tsp vegetable oil

4 tbsp cold water

In a large mixing bowl, put in the flour. Pour in the boiling water, use a chopstick and continue to stir vigorously.

Then add in the vegetable oil and cold water, use your hand to knead the dough. The dough should feel sticky. Continue to knead for about 5minutes into a soft dough. Cover with a damp kitchen towel and let it rest for 30minutes.

Lay the bamboo steamer with either napa cabbage leaves or iceberg lettuce leaves.

Divide the dough into 4 equal portions. Take 1 portion and roll into a long log. Then divide the log into 14 pieces.

Dust the work surface with flour, use a rolling pin and roll each piece into 3inches circle. For wrapping, the thinner the edges the easier it will be for pleating later.

Scoop 1 tbsp of filling onto the skin wrapper, and start to pleat. Continue until you're done with all the fillings. You can learn how to pleat from this video.

Place the dumplings onto the steamer and steam for around 10-12minutes.

The flavors are there but I still need to improve the quality of the skin......

A nice break in Lake District

2011-04-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

I was away to Lake District with few friends for 5 days. Plan was to do scenic hike up some scaleable peaks dotted around there. Lake District National Park is such a lovely place. We did camping with a hint of glamour/style or better known as 'glamping'. We slept in tent that has been refurbished with clean sheet and comfy mattress, a wood burner as cooking stove, proper dining table and even a toilet within it. It was new experience to me, as you still have access to great outdoor, coming back after a long walk to a nice cosy tent. It was a good break, away from hectic life, breathing in spring fresh air, embracing the lovely scenery etc, etc....did I forget to tell you, the weather was superb (almost summer like) considering it's still early spring. I allow the pictures do the talking for me:-)

Sheep grazing the field

Lake view at Buttermere

Lake District famoulsy known for English author Beatrix Potter, Tales of Peter Rabbit

A curious and friendly sheep

Scenic route up Buttermere

Ullswater lake in the distance

Still a bit of snow left up Hallevelyn (3rd highest peak in Lake District)

Pistachio Biscotti

2011-04-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

Where have I been or what have I been doing? I am still enjoying the wonderful April weather, it's been sunny and warm (20degC), which is rather rare for early spring. The whole city is buzzing when weather is nice, people will go out to lie on the grass and enjoy a sun kiss skin. After all, you've to enjoy the brilliant sunshine weekend, any other things will take second place. I've been baking to enjoy the freshness of baked goods right from the oven. So I thought I should give it a try at biscotti. Baking cookies are quick and no hassle. The enjoyment of having freshly baked cookies with a cup of freshly brew coffee or tea is an enjoyment to behold.

Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients (make about 30)

280 gm flour

250 gm butter softened

130 gm caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp brandy

pinch of salt

1 egg yolk lightly beaten

85 gm pistachio nut roughly chopped

Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Cream the butter and sugar . Then add in egg yolk. Mix well.

Then add in brandy, pistachio, flour and salt. Use a spoon to mix well.

Pour the soft dough onto cling film and wrap around and roll into a log.

Then put in the fridge and cool for an hour.

Pre heat oven to 190C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Remove the log from fridge, unwrap the cling film, use a sharp knife and cut diagonally into 5mm slices.

Place them on the baking tray.

Bake for 12minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool f0r 5 minutes in the oven, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Store in airtight container.

I took some lovely pictures again from Cambridge and my garden.....

I love April for its tulips, cherry blossom and lovely weather.......

King's College Chapel

The leaves has appeared on the trees

View of King's College from The Backs

Punting on Cam River

Jerry guarding his daffodil

Daffodils Salome

Daffodils and Tulips at back garden

Spring colors in my back garden

Bright yellow tulip brightening up a shady corner

Always make time for a cuppa

Flowering bleeding heart

Tulips in the raised beds at front garden

Tulips Appeldorn

Spring Colors

2011-03-28T12:45:00.000-07:00

Truly spring has arrived here, we've just tuned our clock to BST again. I'm also much or less out of hibernation mode to enjoy the fresh spring air, it's still a little chilly in the morning but it warm up quite quickly. As a keen gardener, March is a busy month, so much to do in the garden, from clearing out borders, flower beds, potting up, sowing seeds and etc. It is not all about doing this and that in the garden, always make time to rest and enjoy the blossom of early spring bulbs. :-)

After a hard day in the garden, how about enjoying a slice of banana cake and a cuppa. Yes... lovely indeed.

Banana Cake

Ingredients

125gm butter

125 gm sugar

240 gm self raising flour

2 large eggs

2 large very ripe bananas

a handful of walnut (roughly chopped)-optional

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Line a 2lb loaf tin with grease proof paper.

Mash the banana with fork.

Lightly beat the eggs with fork.

Cream the butter and sugar and add the eggs slowly while continue on creaming.

Mix in the mashed banana. Then add in the flour. Use a metal spoon and fold in.

Then pour the mixture into the tin and bake for around 30-40mins till cook.

Lovely winter pansy

Cherry Blossom

Cut flowers from my garden, white tulip and muscari

Cut flowers from my garden-fragance hyancinths

Sowing vegetable seeds

Blooming daffodils in my garden

Sowing flower seeds

Garden supervisor having a siesta again

Braised pork serve with rice

2011-03-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

It's been quite cold this past few days, there were frosty mornings and cold evenings. But was pleasantly cool during day time. These were the transitional period between late winter into early spring. Last chance of making those comfort food for the cold evenings before warmer days set in, and put my Le Cruset cast iron pot to good use.

Braised Pork serve with rice
Ingredients

600 gm pork belly-cut into 1 inch thick
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil
5 cloves of garlic-crushed
1 inch of ginger-thinly sliced
5 tbsp of light soya sauce
2 tbsp of dark soya sauce
3 tbsp of shaoxing wine
1 cup of water
1 tbsp sugar
8 dry mushroom -soaked till soft, discard stem

Heat oil in the pot. Once hot, sweat garlic and ginger for a minute. Then throw in the pork belly and let it browned for 5minutes. Throw in the mushroom. Continue stirring.

Then add in soya sauce, dark sauce, shaoxing wine, water and sugar. Bring to boil.

Then lower the heat to minimum and close the heavy lid of the cast iron pot. Let it braised for 2hours. Stir once every hour.

The meat should be tender and falvorful after 2 hours. I find that this dish taste better the next day when all the flavor is fully absorbed by the meat.
Serve over rice.

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend Japan Day at Kaetsu Centre in Cambridge. There were Japanese arts of display, calligraphy, chado session, martial art session, flower arrangement, origami, manga and of course Japanese food.

Steamed scallop with chilli garlic oil

2011-02-27T10:41:00.001-08:00

I'm counting down days to spring time. Days are getting slightly longer, you'll hear robins singing from dawn to dusk, milder weather and finally you'll smell spring is in the air. Lovely days ahead. I even head down to The Backs in Cambridge today to view the carpet of crocus, a sign that spring is in sight. Yes, I'm yearning so much for spring now.

On the cookery front, I decided to post steamed scallop with chilli garlic oil. This is a simple enough dish and very very nice.

Steamed scallop with chilli garlic oil

Ingredients

8 scallops in shell
4 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 tsp chilli oil
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of lemon juice (optional)
1 spring onion finely chopped

Prepare the garlic oil by heating 1tbsp of vegetable oil. Once hot, add in the garlic and let fry till light brown. Remove and set aside

Steam the scallop on high heat for around 6-7minutes. Do not overcook.
Prepare the sauce. Mix the chilli oil, garlic oil, soy sauce, sugar and lemon juice and mixed well.
Plate the scallop, drizzle over the sauce and garnish with spring onion.

Hereby enjoy some pics I took of the crocus.

Homemade mantou (Chinese steamed bun)

2011-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00

During Chinese New Year meal, I made mantou to serve with the roast duck. The mantou is easy to make and taste much fresher, soft and fluffy. After my 5km run this morning, I decided to make another batch of steamed bun to serve with braised pork belly. So I deserve the extra calories. :-)

Mantou

Ingredients (20 buns)

280 gm Hong Kong flour
100 gm wheat starch (Tung Mein Fen)
80 gm icing sugar
30 ml vegetable oil
8 gm fast action yeast/dry yeast
180 ml warm water

Sift flour, wheat starch, icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Then form a well in the middle and add in yeast, water and oil. Use a spatula to mix well.

Don't worry as the mixture is a little bit sticky. Dust the worktop with some Hong Kong flour and give a good 10 minutes of kneading to the dough.

Then set aside in a warm area to rise, cover with damp tea towel.

After the dough had triple in size, dust the worktop again and give a good 5 minutes of kneading.

Then roll into a long dough and cut into 20pieces. Take a piece and roll into ball, then roll out into a circle of 5mm thickness. Use an oil chopstick to glaze the top half of the circle and fold into half.
Let it rise for a further 30minutes before steaming.

Steam for 12-15minutes on high heat.

Enjoy with your favorite meat.....braised or roast.

Happy Year of Rabbit

2011-02-07T13:25:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my family and friends a Happy Chinese New Year. This year is the year of Rabbit. I wish everyone will enjoy good health and prosperity. I haven't been back to Malaysia/Singapore for CNY over 3 years now, pretty much getting used to celebrating with close friends over here in UK. And moreover I still have to work during CNY, so I decided to host a lunch over at mine on Sunday.

It's a good time to get together to enjoy a nice meal with good friends and I also do enjoy cooking for my guests. At the end of the day, if you could make someone happy through sharing your food, it's a very satisfying thought.

My menu for the day consist of following:

Yusheng - Raw salmon salad

Starter of prawn toast, fried wonton, spring roll

Premium seafood broth

Roast ''Pek Ling'' duck with mantou[thanks to Algernond for naming that roast duck after me]

Mixed vegetables stir fry

Chow Mein

Steamed Scallop in black bean sauce

Pot sticker/Gyoza

My appointed photographer was pretty much distracted by the lovely food and forgot to take nice macro shot.

I hope all my guests had gone home with a great smile on their face.

I will eventually share with you some nice recipes here, be patience. At the moment let me share some pictures my photographer took before he got distracted by the food.... or more likely the boozy.

Enjoying gyoza

You might think it's shark fin soup, but hey it's not, I called it premium seafood broth

Roast duck with mantou drizzled with Hoisin sauce-Yum Yum

Crispy ''Pek Ling'' Roast Duck, thumbs up

Kek Bahulu

2011-01-29T11:41:00.000-08:00

I went for a run this morning ( to tell you the truth I haven't done any outdoor running for a very very long time). It was bitterly cold, so I had to run fast to heat up. Well for a start I managed 1.5miles run. Maybe one of my new year resolution..... keeping fit and healthy through healthy eating and excercise. :-)

After the run I had craving for my mum Chinese steam cake, it's easy to make and healthier than the butter cake options. The main ingredients of the cake is just eggs, sugar and self rising flour. So I whipped up the cake under 15minutes only but there is a little problem, I can't find my steamer. Well..... it can be baked too. Turn out well after all.

Kek Bahulu

Ingredients

3 large eggs

3-4 tbsp sugar

100 gm self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Beat the eggs and sugar till it's thick reaching ribbon consistency. Take roughly 8minutes.

Then sift the flour into the mixture. Carefully fold in with spatula.
Add the essence vanilla, mix well.

Pour the mix into cake tin and bake for 20-25minutes till cook.

Verdict: I prefer the steam version as it's moist, the baked version is little bit on the dry side.

Roast Duck with cranberry and sloe gin sauce

2011-01-23T07:57:00.000-08:00

I made this dish over the Christmas period and forgotten to post the recipes here. I enjoy roast meat, be it chicken, pork, goose or duck. I chose duck as it's one of the more flavorful meat

A good roast duck should have that elusive, crispy skin while maintaining the moist and tenderness of the meat beneath. Total enjoyment to serve with slightly sweet sour fruity sauce, a perfect match made in heaven. Not forgetting a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.

In order to create crispy skin remember the skin got to be dry(I mean really dry) and the need to prick the skin. Therefore, I normally prepare the duck a day before so that It has ample time to allow the skin to dry out.

Roast Duck with cranberry and sloe gin sauce

Ingredients (serves 4)

2 kgs Gressingham duck

1 lemon-cut into 1/4inch slices (*)

3 tbsp honey(*)

1 cup dry sherry/shaoxing wine(*)

4 tbsp of soy sauce(*)

800 ml of water (*)

Pour the water in a pot, add lemon, honey, wine and soy sauce and bring to a boil. Once boiling turn the heat down and let it simmer for 20minutes.

Hang your duck up on the neck with meat hook or string. Place a container below the duck before basting. Use the hot liquid from (1) and baste the duck all over. Once you've used up the liquid, pour back the collected liquid in the container and bring to boil again and repeat the basting process for another 2 time. Hang the duck and let it dry overnight. Keep the remaining liquid.

Before you roast, use a skewer to prick all over the duck, this will allow duck fat to come out and not just bubbling beneath the skin. As duck is very fatty, remember to sit the duck on a roasting rack, and fill the roasting tray with water, so that the dripping fat will not splatter in your oven.
Pre-heat the oven to 190C fan assisted. Once heated, place your duck breast up into the oven and roast for 40minutes. Then turn down to 180C, brush the duck with the liquid once and continue to roast for additional 20minutes. Then turn over the duck, baste and continue to roast for 25minutes. Turn over again and continue to roast for additional 15minutes. While duck is roasting you can prepare the sauce.

Sauce

200 ml sloe gin plus some soaked sloe

2-3 tbsp cranberry sauce

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp chicken/veg stock.

1 tbsp sugar (adjust depend on sweetness you desire)

Put everything in sauce pan, gently bring to a boil and let it simmer, stir occasionally, until the liquid is reduce by half. This will roughly takes about 45minutes.

Carve the roast duck and serve with the reduced sauce and side vegetables and humble roast spud (potatoes).

All that is remaining- duck carcass

Spicy Glass Noodle Salad

2011-01-16T02:06:00.000-08:00

There is no perfect winter weather, it can be bright and sunny but stays cold or it can be mild but yet wet and windy. I'm so looking forward to early spring..........

To beat the winter blues, I try making some simple dish to replicate the taste of summer, to remind me sunny and warmer days are just around the corner. :-)

Rummaging through my pantry, fridge and my herby pot to see if I've any ingredients that needed to whip out something really quick and easy, let say spicy glass noodle salad.

Spicy Glass Noodle Salad

Ingredients (4 persons)

150 gm dry glass noodle-cooked in boiling water for 2-3minutes till soft-drained

1 medium carrot julienned

2 shallots thinly sliced

handful of rocket salad

chopped spring onion/corriander

2 tbsp of crushed roasted peanut

Sauce

2 tbsp of garlic oil

1 tbsp of spicy chilli oil

2 tbsp of light soya sauce

1.5 tbsp honey

2 tbsp fish sauce

juice of 1 lime/lemon

Mixed well the sauce ingredients in a bowl.

Then add in the glass noodle and toss well to coat the sauce.

In a large plate, assembled the glass noodle and garnish with carrot, shallot, spring onion, peanut and rocket salad.

Served and enjoy the simple salad.

One can also add cooked prawn, shredded chicken to add another dimension to the salad.

Happy 2011

2011-01-03T05:02:00.000-08:00

Wishing all my readers a brand new 2011. Yes some of you already made new year resolution. As for me, I'm glad that I've 2 weeks break and shall resume work tommorow. Of course there were invitation to spend Christmas & NewYear in New York, but hey had to forego the idea as traveling during this period is kind of touch and go due to weather. It's nice during the end of year to slow down and relax before the hustle and bustle begins. Felt energize after this break.

I wish all of you a good year ahead and stay tuned for Apron's Delight recipes. Enjoy.

Seared scallop with garlic oil

Smoked Salmon Salad with Parsley Vinaigrette Dressing

2010-12-29T08:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I've friends over at mine for a nice evening meal. I've prepared a menu that consist of 4 courses that it's nice, healthy and delicious.

Here's what I've prepared:

Smoked Salmon Salad with Parsley Vinaigrette dressing served with farmhouse bread

Leek and potato soup, side of seared scallops

Roast Duck with cranberry and sloe gin sauce served with winter vegetables

Fruity yogurt with slice of pineapple

Let me share with you smoked salmon salad with parsley vinaigrette dressing. This is a light meal to begin with. It tasted light, fresh and an elegant starter, goes well with a glass of rose or red wine. Really easy to make and my guests gave thumbs up ............ and one of my little guests requested ..... " Can I have more smoke salmon please? "

Smoked Salmon Salad with Parsley Vinaigrette Sauce

Ingredients (served 4)

300 gm Scottish Lochmuir oak smoked salmon slices

100 gm of crispy salad green

Dressing

1 bunch of flat leaf parsley (take the leaf only, discard the stem)

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1-2 tsp honey

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp red wine vinegar

1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 pickled little onion/ 1 shallot

4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

freshly milled black pepper

Use a pestle and mortar to pound and crush parsley, shallot/pickled onion, salt into puree. Then add in Dijon mustard, honey, vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil and pepper and blend well.

Divide the salmon and salad into 4 portions. Assembled the smoked salmon and salad onto plate. Drizzle with some olive oil and garnish with the dressing (1).

Enjoy the healthy salad.

Wishing all Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T01:20:00.000-08:00

Wishing all a joyous Christmas and hope you all will enjoy the time with family and friends.

Tidings of peace, joy and love for Christmas...........

I was enjoying scone with adult drink [ noted: homemade damson gin ] on Christmas eve with friends. My friend made really lovely scone, I will try to make some next.

Winter Warming Drink- Apple Juice with Calvados

2010-12-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

As Christmas is approaching and weather forecast saying the starting of second freeze going to begin tomorrow in Britain, with northerly Arctic wind blowing in. I hope that this year will have a white Christmas...... been waiting for a white Christmas during the last 4 winters. Yes it's going to be cold, haven't I said going to be very COLD.
To forget the cold outside, one can find comfort in winter warming drinks like a big mug of hot chocolate or Christmas mulled wine. Well, I have a nice bottle of Calvados given to me for my birthday present, my intention: to use it for making lovely apple tart, but hey, it' so cold outside, a warming apple juice with Calvados will take priority over tarts. This is a lovely drink which I intend to serve during Christmas as an alternative to mulled wine. Calvados is apple brandy and only being produced in region of Normandy in France.

Apple Juice with Calvados
Ingredients

1 litre apple juice
100 ml Calvados
3-4 cinnamon stick

In a pot, pour the apple juice in and add cinnamon and cook on low heat until boiling. This may take about 15 minutes. Off the heat.
Then add in the Calvados and stir.
Served on glass and decorate with cinnamon stick.

Enjoy the warming drink...... maybe with mince pies :-)

Leek and Potato Soup

2010-12-12T02:29:00.000-08:00

Winter has begun in it's full force. Two weeks ago, I came back to Artic condition here. The maximum temperature hardly rose above 0deg C. This is cold, very cold. However, I still continue to cycle to work even in this cold.

After cycling back from the cold condition outside, it's always inviting to have winter warming soup, which I call comfort soup. My diet these days are incline towards soup and broth as it's easy to prepare and can be kept for a week in the fridge. I'll introduce you to leek and potato soup being the seasonal ingredients readily available now.

Leek and potato soup
Ingredients (serves 4)

2 large leeks - chopped
2 large potatoes (about 300 gm)- cubed
1 litre of vegetable stock/chicken stock
1 large white onion-chopped
150 ml double cream
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a pot, add onion, leeks and potatoes and let it sweat for around 5 minutes. Stir continuosly.
Then pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Turn the heat to low and continue to simmer until the vegetables become tender.
Using a hand blender, blend until smooth. Then stir in the cream, off the heat.
Served hot.

Trust me, this is really easy, comforting for a cold winter's supper and tasty. I find that the soup taste even better the next day. This soup can be easily kept up to a week in the fridge.

Dusting of first snow of this winter season

I love San Francisco

2010-12-02T13:55:00.000-08:00

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

San Francisco is a great city, I would call it golden gateway to a fun fill holiday. There are so much to experience in this city and it surrounding area. We were there just for the weekend. Having a limited time at hand, one can only try to squeeze in as much "let's go, do this, do that" (one can only hope weather will be on our side). So here's our "To Do List" in San Francisco:

1. Arrive on Friday morning , take the cable car ride down to Pier39, then walked to Pier 33 for short ferry ride to Alcatraz Island.

For almost three decades, this island served as the most well known prison in the States. The ideal location with it's surrounding very cold, strong and hazardous undersea current make escape almost impossible. For obvious reason, this prison became the choice to place most serious offenders in those times. Of course the upkeep of the prison became very expensive, as all neccesary items has to be shipped in from San Francisco. The prison was closed down after 1963. We were on self audio guide tour, which were really well explained, I highly recommended it if you were visiting San Francisco.

Alcatraz Prison

2. San Francisco is also well known for it's unpredictable weather, it could be raining heavily one moment, could be sunny next, could be shrouded in thick fog etc. As weather is a bit cloudy and cold, we thought of heading down to "Slanted Door", a contemporary Vietnamese restaurant for an early dinner. However, we were turned away as we were too early and no advance booking allowed. Trust me this place is buzzing every evening. Instead of loitering around the place without any purpose and with an empty stomach, we forego this restaurant and decided to try out the famous San Francisco Clam Chowder at Boudin which is located near Pier 39/41. As we're there early, we're in for the Happy Hour menu deal, awesome. So we ordered clam chowder in sourdough bread bowl, it was absolutely a comfort food for a cold and chilly evening. Very tasty I must say. The only regret, my DSLR camera run out of power, so instead my friend offer to take picture of the clam chowder with his phone.

Clam Chowder in Sourdough Bread Bowl-Boudin

After dinner, we went back to Westin hotel and decided to go for a quick look around Macy's and The North Face flagship store just a few blocks away. I really like The North Face outdoor jacket, they look so versatile and of quality make (I bought some good deal jackets and ski gloves from The North Face outlet in Berkeley instead-love them)

3. Next day, it was pouring down hard early morning, we're about Pier 39 at around 8am deciding whether we should do the whole day cycle ride across Golden Gate to Sausalito and end at Tiburon which covers about 35km. So while waiting for the rain to stop, we decided to take our breakfast at Boudin again, which served really nice pastry with a grande hot chocolate top with whipped cream....... sinful but nice.

After our breakfast, the rain too had stopped, we decided we had to do the cycle ride.... but we had to decide whether we would like to go on tandem or individual bikes. After a try out on tandem, we decided we had much fun if we could go on individual bikes instead, absolutely the right choice. First we cycled to Pier 39 to see the residence seals. They're always there irregardless. It has become the iconic "to do" thing while in San Francisco beside the cable car ride. So we cycled through a bit of hilly terrain to reach Golden Gate. Along the way, weather turned out well, there are lots of photo opportunity, we just can't resist to snap on.

A wonderful day for cycling

The wind from the Pacific is quite strong and chilly as we stood on the bridge, absolutely lovely view of the ocean and the hilly terrain that encased the Bay Area. The cycle ride took us through coastal ride to Sausalito. A nice feel to this place, further ride north reveals a lot of houseboats near the marshlands. After that we decided to side track to Mill Valley to see the redwood forest. If you're nature lover, you'll probably spend the whole day trekking in this park.

Very nice post box near Mill Valley, in the redwood forest

After that we decided to take a short lunch break at Pearl's Phat Burger, noted the best burger place in this side of Bay Area. We deserved the fulfilling burger after burning quite a bit of calories cycling on the coastal and hilly terrain.

Pearl's Phat Burger-Yummy

Soon after, we left Mill Valley around 215pm and headed to Tiburon which will need around an hour of pedaling. The rides took us through scenic coastal route with San Francisco city at the backdrop. We reached Tiburon around 315pm which left us with ample of time to stroll around before catching the last ferry back to San Francisco at 430pm. Around this time the weather had turned a bit of the wild side, with high winds and rough sea, we wondered whether we'll be stranded on Tiburon. Finally the ferry arrived around 5pm, it has started to rain again. We were soaking wet when we returned to our bike rental area. Wet, cold but the whole experience is totally worth it. We enjoyed it very much. Returned back to hotel to freshen up and decided to give another try at Slanted Door, this time around the whole place was filled up to the brim, even the bar and waiting area people were savoring food, the atmosphere quite buzzing and exciting. Anyway....
In San Francisco there are no lack of good restaurant, so we decided to go back to Union Square and by chance we spotted this lovely Italian restaurant, Kuleto's. This place has very nice feel about it, I totally enchanted by the nice decor and ambience. It was already 930pm, so we decided not to eat too much but go easy on antipasti instead. We ordered fried calamari, insalate, carpaccio with shrimp to go with Italian red wine. The portion is huge to share between us. Elegant and gorgeous meal, with excellent service. I highly recommend this restaurant. By the time we finished our meal it has way past midnight, luckily our hotel just a block away. The only setback, my camera run out of power again.

4. On Sunday morning we went out really early again to see Lombard Street, well known for it's one way only steep, tight hairpin turn, if it's not enough...it's the most winding street in the whole world. It was interesting to see line of cars traveling down the street.

Lombard Street

After we headed up Coit Tower to get a bird eyeview of the bay area. It was pretty steep climb up the hilly road, now I started to see why the San Francisco residents are way much fitter. After the climb down, we decided to go for an early brunch at a well known Dim Sum Restaurant-Yank Sing. Apparently it get quite a good reputation on travel books, so we thought why not give it a try. I was so happy, finally I get to try dim sum.

Yank Sing Dim Sum, dissapointing

We ordered the usual dim sum items, apparently we felt that the waitress with the dim sum carts seem to push the food items quite easily onto our table before we even have chance to say we don't want it. The dim sum was nothing to rave about, my friend even commented the shiu mai tasted like processed meat, for me the Har Gow skin was totally thick, nothing special really. After we've done with the meal it took ages for the waiter to come back with an official receipt. The service was appalling . Would we go back there again.....the answer is NO. So we checked out from hotel and headed to Berkeley for outlet shopping before heading to San Jose.

Bay Bridge by nite

If I would go back to San Francisco, I would definitely take more time to explore the Napa Valley and perhaps to trek in Yosemite National Park.

Missing In Action Again

2010-11-27T01:37:00.000-08:00

For the past 2 months, I had been traveling quite a bit, first to Ireland, then to the far east and recently I just got back from the States. Traveling bit was fun but I must say that my natural body clock all gone haywire due to different time zones. After catching up the much needed sleep or sleeps here I am. To my readers out there, apology for the rather "silenzio" moment in my blog for the last 1 month or so.

It was rather a good opportunity to return to US before my visa runs out. I was attending a conference in Dallas for a week. We didn't get to see Dallas very much as the conference programs were rather compacted from early morning to evening. Only on one evening, we went out to Galleria Dallas for shopping. Most of Christmas lighting is up. Apart of that we don't get to experience any cultural event. From food point of view, there are no lack of choices of good to very good restaurants along Belt Line Road close to where our hotel is. We even won over by an authentic Japanese Sushi Bar, known as Mr. Sushi, we went back twice to dine there, so oishi!

After Dallas trip, we flew to San Francisco, stay tuned for more exciting stories of San Francisco..........

To Far East and back again

2010-11-03T13:21:00.001-07:00

I was away for 2 weeks in the Far East, wished I was scuba diving or scaling peaks in Asia. But this trip has brought me to Taiwan on a business trip. I've been to Taiwan several times and one can't resist the temptation of over indulging in "varieties of good food". Taiwan is well known for it's delicious street food, spicy hot pot which is uniquely Taiwanese, modern Japanese cuisines, in short so much choices that you are likely to overeat ( ahem! time for strict diet after returning to UK :-) )

I'm still experiencing jet lag and potentially down with cold at the moment, therefore this is going to be a short post I promise. Hope you enjoy some lovely food pictures.

This Japanese restaurant-Shinbashi earned it's reputation to create modern fusion Japanese food.One of the recommended dish is deep fried soft shell crab in golden pumkin sauce-absolutely delicious. Their sashimi plate tasted so fresh. If you're fan of good Japanese food and happen to be in Hsinchu, check this restaurant out.

I went to another city, Chung Li to visit some friends. They brought me to try out the authentic Taiwanese Spicy hot pot. If you're fan of spicy food (I mean seriously SPICY), you'll love it. One of the special item in hot pot is the congealed duck blood cubes. It tasted alright, with tofu like textures. The trick to tone down the spiciness is to dip your items in bowl of white vinegar.

This restaurant we discovered accidentally in Hsinchu which served good quality Shanghainese cuisines. The Xiaolongbao here tasted very good. Good Dongbo pork (however a bit disappointed with their bun to wrap the pork).

Roast Figs with Honey, Cinnamon and Thyme

2010-10-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Figs in season right now. Before I came over here, honestly I don't know how fresh figs look like and taste like. All I know figs are dried, sweet with thousands of seeds that make the textures so unique, you either hate or love it.

Few years ago, I did try fresh figs but I'm not bowed over, I thought dried figs tasted better or perhaps I didn't choose the "Finest" fresh range. So this season, I thought I will give it a try by roasting them instead, so just to start with, I only bought 2 figs.....
So I found this simple recipes and thought would give it a go.....

Roast Figs with Honey, Cinnamon and Thyme
Ingredients

3 tbsp clear honey
1/2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brandy
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
12 figs
few sprigs of thyme

Preheat the oven to 180C (fan assisted oven).
Pour the honey butter, brandy and cinnamon in small saucepan. On low heat, continue stirring until a liquid formed.
Using a sharp knife , make a cross cut from top to almost at the base.
Place them on roasting tin, add thyme and drizlle with the liquid from(2)
Roast for 15minutes and leave them in oven for additional 5inutes or so.
Serve with yoghurt, ice cream, cream or even on it's own with the tasty roasting juice.

It's a nice and simple desserts..... healthy as well.

Autumn Elixir-Rose Hip

2010-10-03T13:40:00.000-07:00

As evening are drawing in, temperature has gradually dropping, autumn has sets in. There are things to enjoy in autumn-I mean simple things that just make the day. Me and Alge went rose hip picking near our work place. Rose hip are the berry-like fruits of the rose bush left behind after the bloom has died. They are typically red or orange, but may also be dark purple to black in some species. Although nearly all rose bushes produce rose hips, the tastiest for eating purposes come from the Rugusa Rose. Rose hips have a tangy, fruity flavor similar to that of cranberries. Each hip comprises an outer fleshy layer which may contain up to 150 seeds embedded in a matrix of fine hairs. The irritating hairs should be removed before using the rose hips in a recipe.

The red hips are in abundance at the moment, what a joy. I decided to use it for making rose hip syrup, a remedy to ward off cold/flu as it's high in Vitamin C. Homemade elixir, full of goodness. Two years ago, Alge made the syrup and gave me a bottle. So this year I decided to make and gave Alge a bottle too. I used the recipes from here.

Rose hip has excellent natural source of vitamin C, rose hips have been used for centuries as a medicinal herbal remedy in teas, syrups and tinctures. During World War II, under instruction from the Ministry of Health, British school children were given the job of collecting rose hips from hedgerows to make into a vitamin C-rich rose hip syrup, and replace the imported oranges that were no longer able to land in the United Kingdom.

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is a vitamin absolutely necessary for the body to remain in good health as it not only acts as an antioxidant and protects the body against free radicals, it protects against infection, helps with wound repair and promotes healthy cell development. However, since ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin it is not manufactured by the body and therefore has to be ingested.
Rose hips are thought to be richer in vitamin C than many citrus fruits hence their traditional use in teas and syrups. However, vitamin C is not the only vitamin that rose hips contain and it is certainly not the most important one in Rose Hip Oil. Vitamin C is largely found in the shell of the rose hip and it is the shell that is used in teas, jams and syrups. The seed of the rose hip contains a host of other essential vitamins, antioxidants and fatty acids which make Rose Hip Oil an altogether amazing natural ingredient.

Crysanthemum in my garden has started to bloom nicely, indicating autumn is here.

Connemara Photo Opportunity

2010-09-30T12:27:00.000-07:00

This is a must do thing while you're passing through Galway. Driving in the Connemara, this area of West Ireland is all about outdoor, open space with a touch of wild factor to it. A real therapeutic experience away from the life on the fast lane.

Scenic shot at Screeb

Starting in Galway City head west towards Spiddal along the scenic coastal route. I've been warned that road signs will all be in Gaeltacht(traditional Irish language) once I'm in Connemara. I don't really mind, somehow I deemed it as a challenge and fun drive trying to comprehend what the road sign says.

Gaeltacht Road Sign

Once at Rossaveal drive northward and suddenly the distant Maum Turk and Twelve Bens mountain ranges appear on the horizon. I continue to dry till I reached Maam Cross and decided to take northwest toward Clifden. It was an easy drive through wild landscape, sparsely populated area, scenic mountains, grassland, lakes etc. Decided to take a break at Clifden for lunch. A little Irish town with nice feel to it. Quite a few seafood restaurant offering lunch menu. Went to a nice cosy restaurant for sandwich and seafood chowder.Wow, the seafood chowder tasted so fresh and fulfilling. One of the best chowder I ever tasted.

Best seafood chowder with chunky chicken and melted cheese sandwich

After lunch decided to drive eastward towards Connemara National Park. Since the weather is still fair, I decided to hike up Diamond Hill, a trek of 6km to the top. The main landscape here is of bog, grassland and heathland.

Diamond Hill at the background, Connemara National Park

Path leading up to Diamond Hill

Hike up and you'll enjoy nice view of rolling hills and coastal plain of Atlantic ocean. I enjoyed my time at the National Park embracing the great outdoor.

I stopped at several places along the drive for photo opportunity. Connemara is truly magnificent place to drive around, I enjoyed it very much. I hope the pictures will do the talking for me. Enjoy.....

Drive Around County Clare, West Ireland

2010-09-24T13:40:00.000-07:00

I left Athlone early Sunday morning and headed westward to Galway. My self drive route will cover roughly about 120 miles which took me through the fascinating landscapes, the sweeping limestone rocky hills and plateau known as The Burren, passing through little villages & country side, leading me to the dramatic and stunning vertical Cliffs of Moher.

These are sheer striated cliffs, rising over 200m out of Atlantic ocean. The cliffs stretches over 8 km along the coast. These cliffs create a haven for seabirds - nesting gulls, puffins, kittiwakes etc. The coastal area constantly battered by high winds from Atlantic ocean. On the main stretch, the main walkways and viewing areas along the cliffs have been surrounded by stone wall which were set too far back from the edge. Oh dear! I wonder how to experience living life on the edge. Fear not, there's relief and joy for those who seek a bit of thrill, walking close enough to the edge. Walk southward towards Hag Head, allow around 1 hour walk, you'll be amazed that you chose this walk, of course take note of the pounding wind from Atlantic, proper clothing and walking shoes recommended...... and of course not going too near to the edge :-) .

After Cliffs of Moher, I drove along small road along the coastal route to Ballyvaughan. This is yet another scenic drive around the tip of the coastline at Black Head, waves ideal for surfing.
It was a nice and enjoyable drive of the western coastline this time of the year where the summer holiday crowds had gone.

Some brave souls surfing and swimming in the Atlantic

Stay tuned for my next self drive through Conemera....

To Athlone again

2010-09-22T12:47:00.000-07:00

Just back from Ireland, mission number one: attending my good friend's wedding, mission number two: self drive holiday to scenic Ireland's west coast.
After landed in Dublin on Friday evening, I hired a car and drove all the way to Athlone, relying on my good ole GPS. Reached my destination on time. So good to meet up with my friend and her family and relatives again.
The wedding reception was held at Athlone Springs Hotel. The menu consist of 5 courses :

Appetizer - Crispy Duck Salad with Cherry Tomatoes of Balsamic
Soup - Cream of vegetable soup with freshly baked bread
Passionfruit Sorbet
Main course-Duo of sea trout and lemon sole with pesto reduction & creamed emulsion
Desserts - Assorted treats

I must say the food was very delicious, nicely done to a high standard by chef Michael Talty.

Stay tune for my mission number two.......

Roti Jala (Net bread)

2010-09-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have wanted to make roti jala for a long time but never come round to it. So the mould has been sitting in my kitchen cabinet for awhile. Since I've prepared curry chicken the night before, so it's high time to put my roti jala mould to good use.

Roti Jala
Ingredients (make about 12 pieces)

125g flour
1 large eggs
1 cup of milk
1 cup of coconut milk
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
1 tsp tumeric powder
1 pinch of salt

Mix all the above ingredients except oil to form a runny batter. Then add in the oil, mix well and set aside.
Prepare a non stick pan. Heat on low heat, lightly grease with some vegetable oil. Once it's hot, scoop a laddleful of batter onto the mould and run it over the pan. You can see the video here how it's being made.
Once it's cook, transfer from the pan to a plate. You can wrap it in traingle form or roll it.
Served with curry.

I like my roti jala, tasty with authentic Malaysian curry.

Apple Pie

2010-09-06T12:15:00.000-07:00

I saw my colleague brought in a bagful of cooking apple - to be precise it's Bramley apple. Apparently it's from her garden. She told me to bring back some and make lovely apple tart. Oh, I told her honestly I have never cook with apple before let alone Bramley apple. Alright I told her, I'll give a try, so I picked out 4 large apples, thanked her with a smile.

Apple Pie
Ingredients

For the short crust pastry
225 gm plain flour
120 gm unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
6 tbsp of cold water

For the filling
3 large Bramley apples
75-100g soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon of mixed spice/cinnamon/nutmeg
1tbsp plain white flour
25g butter

Preheat the oven to 190C, 15minutes before baking the pie.
Peel and core the apple and cut into thick slices, set aside. Mixed in sugar, cinnamon powder and flour.
Make the short crust pastry using rub in method. Divide the dough into 2 portions. Roll 1 portion to form 8 inches diameter circle of 2-3 mm thick. Then lay the circular dough onto 7 inches pie tin. Prick the pastry with fork on the bottom. This will allow the pastry to breath while it's baking.
Roll out the other dough to 8 inches diameter of 2-3mm thick as well. Then place the apple into the pie tin. Cut the 25gm butter and dotted them over the apple.
Cover the pie with the dough. Firm the edges by pressing with your thumb and index finger. Remove excess trimming. You can use the trimmings to decorate the top of the pie. As for me I use Christmas cookie cutter to form the pine tree decoration.
Bake for 15minutes, then quickly brush with egg wash on the surface and continue to bake for additional 15minutes till the pastry turn golden brown.
Remove from oven and let it cool.

I always find the pie tasted better the next day :-)
In my picture...even the wasp is attracted to the lovely pie.

Chilli Crab

2010-08-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

This is the last bank holiday weekend for 2010, therefore no more holidays till Christmas period. One have to make full use of the long weekend to get outdoor especially now we're approaching the late summer. I joined an outing to Great Yarmouth, a typical British seaside town with my friends and colleagues. Even though it's just an hour and a half away, I have yet to explore this seaside town by myself. So it's a good opportunity to join in the fun and if courage took hold of me, I might try to swim in the North Sea ( brrrr...... even the thought of it, send chill into my bone ... hehehehe).
We're given good weather to start with (sunny blue sky and slightly on the chilly side-but hey I can't complain....it's typical of North Sea climate this time of the year). This seaside town is quite quaint, dotted with lots of fish and chip shops, restaurants, shops, market etc etc. Too bad I didn't bring my DSLR with me, as I don't want to risk my camera when I have a friend who wanted to push me into North Sea :-) .
I ventured to the town market to see what they've over here especially the fresh seafood. I saw plenty of Cromer crabs on sale, an usual treat during summer months. Of course I prefer the mud crabs, but here they do Cromer crab at a fraction of price compared to supermarket and it's pretty fresh (over here they normally sell crabs which has been pre-cooked, you hardly ever find live crab in the market over here). So I decided to buy 4 whole crabs. Singapore Chilli crab or black pepper crab? ........ scratching my head..... :-)
I decided it shall be the famed Singapore chilli crab .....

Singapore Chilli Crab
Ingredients (serves 2)

2 whole crabs - washed, cleaned and chopped to different segments
2 tbsp of chopped ginger
3 cloves of chopped garlic
1 shallot finely chopped
5 red chillis- finely chopped
1 tbsp of sambal (optional)
1 cup of chicken stock
Sauce-4 tbsp of tomato ketchup, 2 tbsp chilli sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1 tbsp lemon juice, salt to taste, mixed well
1 egg lightly beaten
Spring onion or corriander for garnishing
2 tbsp vegetable oil

If you're using fresh crab, wipe dry, coat it with some corn flour and quickly deep fry for 30 seconds on high heat. Removed. For me my crab has been pre-cooked therefore I skipped this step.
In a wok, heat the vegetable oil. Once it's hot, fry the shallots, garlic and ginger until fragant-take care not to burnt them. Add the chopped chilli and sambal to sizzle.
Add the crab and stir fry for around 2-3 minutes on high heat. Then add in the sauce and continue to stir fry. Add the stock too. close the lid and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Then add in the eggs and continue to stir until the egg set. Off the heat. Garnish with spring onion/corriander.
Dish out onto plate, served with rice or Chinese bun.

Enjoy.....

Summer Salad : Grilled Nectarines

2010-08-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

There are so much to buy from the market, I couldn't resist to buy back some juicy plump nectarines. One of my favorite fruits, so juicy, sweet and taste a bit like mango, well almost.
So I thought of grilling the fruit and mix them with some homegrown salad, dress with balsamic vinegar. There you go a healthy lunch, simple and refreshing.

Summer Salad : Grilled Nectarines
Ingredients (serves 2)

2 nectarines - ripe and still firm
handful of lollo rosa salad leaves
some cherry tomatoes
some fresh mint leaves
some grated lemon zest
some grated parmesan cheese
dash of black peppercorn
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
dash of sea salt
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar + 1 tsp sugar- boil over hob to reduce the amount by half as it thickens.

Slice the nectarines. Place over grill pan and grill about 4-5 minutes on each side on high heat. You'll have nicely grill mark on nectarines. Remove and set aside.
Place the nectarine, tomatoes, salad leave, chopped mint leaves in a mixing bowl.
Add all the other ingredients and mixed well with your hand. Set aside.
Serve on plate as starter with toast or baguette.

Simple and nice.....

Cheese stuffed burger

2010-08-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

I've been counting that this summer, I have attended quite a few BBQ summer party over at friends. Indeed I've shy away from the fast food burger chain like Mc Donalds, Burger King during this summer as I realized homemade burger tasted so good, better still if you could grill it over the BBQ. As I'm hoping for Weber BBQ gas grill to be presented to me , I can only be contended grilling it with my lovely cast iron grill and my Neff oven, result is still good :-)
So I decided to make do with the leftover minced beef and some gorgonzola cheese hoping it will turn out lovely. Cheese stuffed burger.....anyone interested out there?

Cheese stuffed burger
Ingredients (make 2 burgers)

330-350 gm minced beef 9preferably with 80% lean and 20% fat)
60 gm Gorgonzola cheese
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1-2 tsp of salt-or to taste
1 medium white onion-finely chopped
1 egg
2-3 tbsp bread crumbs
1 tsp Dijon mustard
dash of black pepper

In a mixing bowl, add all the ingredients except gorgonzola cheese and give a good mix with your hands. Form 2 patties.
Shape the Gorgonzola into 2 balls.
Wrap the patties over the cheese ball. If you prefer you can coat the burger patties with chopped taragon leaves.
Set the burger to rest in the fridge for at least an hour before you grill them.
You can use oven at 160C to cook for 30minutes or over the grill pan for 20minutes or so. Please note that the cheese might leak out during grilling. Therefore I prefer to oven baked them for 25minutes, and finally subjected them to grill pan for 2 minutes each side.
Serve with salad, cucumber, onion and tomato over white bun. If you prefer you could actually add guacamole as sauce over the burger......rather than the usual tomato sauce.

One bite and the runny cheese oozing out ............. Burger will never be the same ..... :-)
Delicious..... and I throw in some homegrown salad/tomato too.

Pictures from my garden as usual.....

Sit down and relax with egg sandwich

2010-08-02T12:44:00.000-07:00

I have not been able to blog for the last 3 days. Quite frustrated when one's computer been infected by viruses and worms. Luckily, I have a good friend whom I can rely upon to be the worm-buster. Thanks to my techie and not so nerdy friend, my computer is up and running again.

As a keen gardener, July onwards is time to sit down and relax and enjoy the spectacular display of beautiful summer flowers in the garden. And those days of hard labor in the garden in the early months had been handsomely rewarded.

Yes, it's also time for afternoon tea party in the garden or in the conservatory. I must say a tradition that is truly English and one could easily embrace especially in the summer months. I've few friends over last Saturday [quoted: they cycle a long way to my house] for this delightful tea party in my little conservatory that overlook the little back garden. I hosted a full tea party where the menu consist of finger food that is savory, sweet and desserts. Sit down and relax over some egg sandwiches, cooling cucumber sandwiches, freshly baked mini sausage rolls and not forgetting the delightful summer fruit tarts over a nice cup of freshly brew tea plus some gossips. I will post here the simple to make egg sandwich recipes.

Egg sandwich
Ingredients

Salad cress

3 hardboiled large eggs
1.5 tbsp mayonnaise (I use Hellmans brand)
sprinkle of freshly ground black peppercorn
handful of salad cress
6 slices of bread of your choice
vegetable spread/margarine

Mashed the eggs with fork. Add in mayonnaise, black peppercorn. Mixed well and set aside.
Take 3 slices of bread and stacked them up, remove the crust. Repeat for the next 3 slices.
Spread margarine on the bread.
Add the salad cress into the egg and mix. Divide the egg fillings into 4 portions.
Spread one portion on every 2 slices to form 3 tier sandwiches.
Use a bread knife to slice the sandwich into 4 finger size bites.
Arrange nicely onto a plate and decorate with some salad cress.

And indeed it was a delightful thing to enjoy on a nice afternoon............

Enjoy the nice pictures from my garden with it's fair share of lovely butterfly and bumble bees

Cone flower or enchinachea

Summer Fruits Tart

2010-07-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a wonderful summer so far, really dry with hardly any rainfall since end of May. Since then you'll notice people enjoying the BBQ summer. Being outdoor is essential during summer months, and what better way to spent nice time in one's garden enjoying lovely summer fruits tart and embracing every moment this season has to offer. Make the best of it.
Yes summer fruits are in abundance now, from strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, nectarines, peaches( best is the donut peaches), apricots and plums to follow. I love summer fruits especially those locally grown. I'm fortunate to stay close by to a PYO (pick your own) fruit farm. Therefore every summer, I will make sure I'll go for some soft fruits picking at this farm. I enjoyed the lovely taste of freshness, every mouthful of freshly picked fruit is heaven.
Yes, I also used those fruits to make the lovely fruit tarts, pleasing to the eyes, a must for an afternoon garden tea party, if you're being invited to mine. :-)
I also attached in the picture, a step by step guide to making the short crust pastry. Never did you realize how useful the cling film is, a real hassle and mess free process.

Short Crust Pastry (make about 6, 3 inches diameter tart cases)

For those who prefer to take shortcut, you're able to buy ready made pastry from supermarket.

For the filling

6 fresh strawberries-hulled
30 fresh raspberries
30 fresh blueberries
150 ml whip cream-chilled
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp icing sugar

Chill mixing bowl in the fridge. Once it's cold, pour the whip cream, icing sugar and vanilla essence into the bowl and use electric whisk to whip the cream (try to use low speed as too high speed may cause the liquid to splash). You'll see bubble initially, as you continue to whisk, you'll reach ribbon consistency. This will take about 4-5 minutes on low speed. Turn off the whisk. Chill the cream until you wanted to assemble the tart. For those who wanted to take short cut, buy the ready whipped cream fro supermarket.
Once the tart is cool, clean, drain and wipe dry the soft fruits. Pipe the whipped cream onto the tart until done. Then decorate the tart with one fresh strawberry each in the center and follow by other fruits.
Leave to chill in the fridge till ready to serve.

Oven baked cod with chopped parsley with white sauce

2010-07-10T23:23:00.000-07:00

As summer at it's peak, decided to include this simple yet elegant dish as my main for Sunday luncheon over at mine. As my garden too is bursting with lots of flowers as well as herbs especially curl leaf parsley, which I'm using as a nice complement to this dish. The dish tasted light and yet tasty.

Oven baked cod with chopped parsley with white sauce
Ingredients ( for 4 persons)

4 cod fillets (around 120 gm each)
Sea salt
Black pepper
6 tbsp chopped curl leaf parsley
dash of lemon juice
1.5 tbsp olive oil
Basil leaf, thyme and roasted pecan nut for garnishing (optional)

White sauce
I added some chopped parsley to the sauce to give it some herby flavor.

Clean the cod fillet, pat dry. Place on work surface and sprinkle with dash of salt and freshly grind black pepper. Let it rest for 5 minutes.
In a bowl, place the chopped parsley and olive oil and mixed well.
Pre-heat the oven to 200C.
Line the baking tray with aluminium foil. Brush with some olive oil.
Rolled the fish fillet with ingredients (2). Then place the fish fillet on the lined tray. Repeat till done.
Bake at 200C for the first 5 minutes, then lower to 180C and continue baking for another 5-7 minutes. Removed from oven.
In a plate drizzle with white sauce. Place the cod fillet on it and garnish with basil leave and pecan nut. Drop a thyme leaf on the side to give a touch of elegance.

This dish goes well with nice Australian white wine.

Of course the blog will not be complete to show you some nice transformation in July :-)

Aubergine with garlic and dark soya sauce

2010-06-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

As summer month progressing, I've seen a lot of vegetables gradually make their appearance either in the supermarket or local farmer's market. I always try to get what the season has to offer, as seasonal vegetables will be in abundance, taste better and cost less too.
How could I resist, when Tesco offering globe aubergine for 39 pence each last week. Let just put it as, I bought loads of aubergine. They're so versatile-you can grill, roast, deep fried with batter, stir fry, cook with curry etc etc. The thing is that aubergine really soak out flavor very well.
I know many of you tend to think that cooking aubergine is a hassle-from salting to get rid of it's bitter taste(this will only apply if it's rather old) and require tonnes of cooking oil. Worry not as I introducing you a healthier way of cooking aubergine and yet still tasted as good. A little effort of steaming before frying would actually reduce the consumption of oil during cooking. This recipes is good for vegetarian as well, with a touch of Oriental influence.

Aubergine with garlic and dark soya sauce
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

1 large globe aubergines about 400gm (cut lengthwise about 2cm thick)
2 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp of water
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp of fried garlic bits in oil

Steam the aubergine in steamer for around 30-40minutes, you should feel it is soft now.
Heat cooking oil in a pan/wok. Once hot, add in the steamed aubergines and let it soak up the oil. [Typically if we're not steaming, we could easily used up to 5tbsp of oil. ]
Slowly add a tbsp of water at a time, let it simmer on low heat.
Then add in light soya sauce, dark soya sauce and sugar and stir to mix. Let it simmer for additional 3minutes.
Off heat and dish out. Garnish with garlic bits in oil. Serve with rice.

Here's my harvest of strawberry from my garden, one colander full every 3 days, really bountiful harvest this year :-). I turned them into jars of lovely jam.

Buttermilk Scones

2010-06-20T14:08:00.000-07:00

I love June because .......

Simply summer is here.

English summer afternoon should be enjoyed with tea and scones or better known as cream tea. As my English friend puts it, "The proper cream tea set should consist of 2 scones, served with strawberry jam, Cornish/Devon clotted cream and a pot of tea". And yes I totally agrees with him. Of course if you visit any tea room here in Cambridge, you're normally given only one tiny scone, a small jar of jam and whipped cream plus a pot of tea. Having one scone with whipped cream is not authentic enough, it got to be Cornish/Devon clotted cream. Moreover, I prefer to have freshly baked scones right from the oven with homemade strawberry jam [quote: strawberry home grown too] and a dollop of pure authentic Cornish/Devon clotted cream. So I decided to enjoy one summer afternoon tea with homemade scones. Summer afternoon indulgence at the luxury expense of waistline..... hehehehehehehe.

Here's my recipes for buttermilk scones.... and yes it's so easy to make.

Buttermilk scones (make 8 scones)
Ingredients

280 gm self raising flour+ some for dusting
90 gm butter
4 tbsp buttermilk
1/2 tsp salt
40 gm caster sugar
2 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Use rubbing method to mix butter and flour till it resembles breadcrumb. Then add in sugar and salt mix well. Slowly pour in buttermilk and mix using a knife. Don't overwork the dough. If it's too dry, add the milk.
Then pour the dough onto a dusted floor work surface. Pat lightly to form about an inch thick dough. Use a 2inch cookie cutter to cut the dough. If you wanted your scone to have the rise edges, the secret is: when you cut the dough with the cookie cutter, make sure use some muscle power. Plunge the cookie cutter fast and strong onto the dough and make a clean cut, never twist your cutter while in the dough. Continue until you're done with the dough.
Place the scones on a baking paper and bake for 10-12mins. You can glazed the scones with buttermilk or egg yolk.
Served with jam, clotted cream and tea.

Enjoy the afternoon..........................

Gardener hard at work and yearning for a cuppa

My strawberry showing sign of ripening

My favorite Princess of Wales rose. Another reason why I love June......month of the roses

Back from holiday (Part 3)

2010-06-16T14:44:00.001-07:00

Area near Eyjafyallajokull-still covered in thick volacnic ash, can get quite hazy

This will be the last part of our adventures in Iceland. We were contemplating where to go next after the extensive Golden Circle excursion. We still have 1 full day to explore, wondering what nature has to offer us in Iceland. We were offered half day whale watching/puffin tour + nearby Videy Island or a full 9 hours excursion to the south [ with the possibility of going through the volcano eruption area]. Of course the latter sounds more interesting, to be in the spot where we could witness what big trouble this Eyjafyallajokull has caused. We decided there and then South Shore Adventures it would be, for our next day excursion.
We woke up early to have our huge breakfast before starting our tour at around 9am departing from Reykjavik. The drive to South Shore took almost 3.5 hours to a little coastal hamlet of Vik. Along the way we passed through the area near the erupted volcano. We were literally passing through the area which still has lots of volcanic ash lying around. On a dry and windy day, the whole area will be very hazy, with poor visibility. We did stop to get our hands on the ash from Eyjafyallajokull, took some as a little sovenirs from Iceland. We then proceed to Vik. It is the southern most tip of Iceland, from here to Antartic, there are no land in between. The main attraction in Vik, is it almost black sandy beach.

The black sandy beach of Vik

The waves here is really strong, you could feel the power of the waves even you're looking from afar. It is also famous for Reynisdrangar pillars that rise from the sea just off the shore. It reminded me of the eleven apostles on The Great Ocean Road in Victoria, Australia.

Reynisdrangar pillars

South Iceland is a lowland region of lush farmland (but due to the recent eruption), many crops has been destroyed. Even the white glacier Myrdalsjokull is covered with ash and is quite mucky. But the experience of seeing grey glacier will have your body and mind transported to the moon for a second. We also had the opportunity to walk on the ash covered glacier. Cool.....

Myrdalsjokull glacier-look like a place on the moon

After that, we stopped at Skogar Village. There we went up the Skogar Waterfall, one of the highest in Iceland. Looks frantically frightful up there as the fall plunges about 100 metres downward.

Skogar Waterfall-looks scary as it plunges 100 meters down

Afterwards a visit of the Skogar Folk Museum; a local folk museum which gives an excellent insight into Iceland’s history. The caretakers of the museum are full of enthusiasm explaining the early history of Icelandic people. A small museum but has very cosy feeling about it, with Holt houses dotted around it. We spent 45 minutes at this stop.

Holt House

The last stop before heading back to Reykjavik would be the lovely Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, a small but extremely picturesque waterfall, special not only for its beauty but also because it is actually possible to walk behind it. If the sun ray is in front of the fall, the mist from the fall form a lovely rainbow......awesome spectacular sight. A wonderful waterfall indeed.

Seljandsfoss-you can walk behind the plummeting fall-the lovely rainbow

With all the nature has to offer, this excursion totally turn out to be ideal for nature lovers of all kinds. Totally love it.
We head back to Reykjavik with our mind filled with all the beautiful things nature had offered. Truly Nature, Wild and Free............. go to Iceland. We definitely be back in Iceland in the near future.

Soon I'll be posting cooking recipes again......... from lovely Cambridge. Stay tuned.

Back from holiday (Part 2)

2010-06-10T13:28:00.000-07:00

The Reykjavik Excursion tour company

So we decided to join Reykjavik Excursion for full day excursion that lasted 8 hours. Having very poor meal last nite, we decided to have huge breakfast at the hotel. We have chosen "The Golden Circle"excursion. The name "Golden Circle" might be a tourist-industry tag, but it's also apt, as this broad circuit east from Reykjavik covers many Iceland's best known features and touches on the root of much of its history. The whole round trip is about 300km.

We started by visiting Hellisheidi geothermal power plant, a high temperature geothermal area just 30 minutes drive from Reykjavik. This stop at the power station is very educational as we learnt that most heatings and hot water to all building in Iceland is supplied by geothermal plants. A further 1.5hours drive through the vast space of soutwest from Reykjavik brought us to the beautiful waterfall Gullfoss (Golden Fall), where we can walk so close to the edge that we felt the mist of the glacial water on our faces. This water fall plunges in 2 stage before dissapearing into huge gorge. Amazing really to see the volume of glacier waters being released into the gorge. One of the most beautiful waterfall I've seen.

The Amazing Gulfoss

Next we head up to a nearby geothermal field where the famed Great Geyser is located. However the Great Geyser no longer gushed out hot water fountain but the nearby Strokkur is, with spectacular bubbling hot water fountain display, 30 metres high, in an interval of between e 3-4 minutes. It's the wonder of nature in display here.....my first to see geyser in action, amazing really.

Hot bubbling Strokkur geysir

After lunch we headed up to Pingvellir National Park. The region is scarred by one of the world's great geological boundaries, a rift valley marking where the North American and Eurasian continental plates are physically tearing apart by 2-4cm each year. As our tour guide explained jokingly, we need passport to cross the continent as we enter from Eurasian plate into North American plate. Over here the landscape is of vast moor land, volcanoes and lake Pingvallavatn. Þingvellir is geologically remarkable and the tectonic plate boundaries form a breathtaking scenery. Over here you'll also be able to see the Icelandic parliament Alþingi was founded in the year 930 AD. One of the world first parliament.

To the left-North American plate, to the right Eurasian plate

We headed back to Reykjavik after an interesting tour of Golden Circle. Again, I truly enjoy Iceland wonder of nature.

Langjokull Glacier in the distance (white color)

Back from holiday

2010-06-04T14:57:00.000-07:00

I've just returned from a nice short break. Many wonder where did I go. Oh well, I went to Iceland. To me, Iceland never ceases to amaze- with it's massive lava field, rugged terrain, hot springs, volcanoes, glaciers, geyser, amazing waterfalls ...............all things nature.
Iceland environment is so clean and unpolluted-the two main ingredients of longevity - air and water is totally fresh.
Some of our friends think we're crazy to go to Iceland when the famed Eyjafyallajokull ( still not able to pronounce the name properly) is still having some activities, plus to leave the nice warm summer Cambridge to cold "Ice-land", etc etc....
How wrong they were : Few days before we travel, Icelandic met office has issue a statement that the volcano has stop erupting. After we arrived, we realized that summer weather in Iceland is as nice as one could expect, a cool 17deg C and we're gifted with almost sunny weather throughout our stay. And not forgetting the midnight sun-almost 22 hours of daylight, even then the sky didn't really turn pitch dark. Amazing really to experience the almost "Midnight Sun"
I will share with you all on our trip to Iceland over the next few days.
We arrived Reyjkavik on Friday night and were transfered to Hotel Klopp. This will be our accomodation for the next 5 days. Being located right in the city centre and on a Friday nite, you might be better off joining pub crawl with Icelandic party revellers than having a disturbed sleep due to the noise from nite clubbing crowds. But then nightlife in Reykjavik isn't known for it's subtleties, well much on the wild side.
We decided to go a bit slow on Saturday for the itenary, so we picked Blue Lagoon, a mere 45 minutes drive from Reyjavik. Along the way to Blue Lagoon, one is confronted with view of lava field miles after miles. This place is well known globally as "the must visit" outdoor bathing spot if you're in Reykjavik. The colour of the water is milky blue, it contains silica and algae deem good for skin disorder. Having said that, we plastered our face and body with the healing mud. Really fantastic. I even bought a tube of silica mud mask, too good to be missed.

Icelandic practice religiously clean hygiene when going into pools all around the country. One has to shower naked before putting on bathing suit. It's inconsiderate if one didn't clean yourself before proceeding to the pool as water in Iceland is so pure and no traces of chlorine treatment at all in the pool.
Truth to be told, Blue Lagoon is actually artificial, set in the middle of a flat expense of black lava rocks and filled by water outflow from the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power station. What is geothermal? We spent almost half a day soaking in the nicely heated outdoor lagoon. Everyone got out totally relaxed.
As the sun never really sets, we proceeded to explore Reykjavik at our own slow pace. View of Reykjavik from Perlan is fantastic on a clear day. We anticipated a full 2 days excursion out of Reykjavik.

After that we headed to the harbour to try out the famous seafood buffet. I've researched on internet and it gives good review about this little establishment. As seafood-particularly fish is the main export of Iceland. Fish produce are deem cheaper than meat for example. So we have high expectation of this place and expected to pay around GBP20 per person. Only to find ourself totally disappointed with the food here as the taste doesn't totally agree with us. After dinner we went to checkout another establishment deem to be "the must visit" seafood joint by many travel guides. One expect to pay GBP10 for a stick of grilled seafood. Over-priced!
Having said that, we decided to explore the best burger joint in Reykjavik for tommorow's dinner as prices is affordable [ still slightly more expensive than what you get at home ]. I guessed I have to lower down my expectation of the food vs price. If I anted to go to a real good restaurant expect to pay at least GBP40 per person/meal. Therefore nothing to really rave about food in Reykjavik. After all I'm here for the nature stuff :-) .
We went to sleep when the sun is just about to go beyond the horizon only to realize it will appear again 2 hours after..... land of the Midnight Sun ...... lovely.

Chargrilled roasted vegetables

2010-05-16T13:18:00.000-07:00

I love weekends, it's a time to relax. With the days getting longer and warmer, I just couldn't wait to go outdoor and breathe in the life that spring brings. It's a wonderful feeling.
Having said that I need a simple and light meal to satisfy my appetite. So I decided to make chargrilled roasted vegetables.

Chargrilled roasted vegetables
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

1 large pepper-quartered
1 courgette-sliced thinly
1/2 large aubergine- sliced to 1 cm thickness
3 cloves of garlic-smashed with skin on
1 large red onion-quartered
4 tbsp olive oil
a handful of basil leaves
sprinkle of black peppercorn
generous sprinkle of sea salt
balsamic vinegar

Place a wire rack over gas fire. Grilled over medium gas fire-pepper, aubergine and courgette for about minutes or so. Try to achieve charred pepper skin as this will add smokey flavour and also easier to peel of the skin. Remove the vegetables and set aside. Use a knife to scrape off the pepper skin.
Preheat oven to 180C.
Put all the vegetables on a roasting pan. Throw in garlic cloves and basil leaves. Drizzle with olive oil. Mixed well so that oil will coat all the vegetables. Drizzle with sea salt.
Place the pan into the oven and roast for 35minutes. Removed and let it cool.
Served onto a plate, drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Served with warm roll, garlic bread etc.

Home grown sweet Genovese basil

Smoked Salmon Donburi

2010-05-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

I bought a pack of Scottish smoked salmon to eat it with young salad leaves. I must say the smoked salmon here tasted fresh and really nice. Beside using it in salad, my friend advise me to make smoked salmon donburi. This is really simple and yet tasted so healthy and fulfilling.

Smoked Salmon Donburi
Ingredients (served 2)

60 gm smoked salmon slices- cut into bite size
2 large eggs
2 stalks of spring onion-finely chopped
1/2 of small carrot-finely chopped
1 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 bowl of cooked sushi rice
1 tbsp of shoyu(light soya sauce) - Kikkoman
seaweed (optional)
black sesame seed (optional)

Beat the egg in a bowl and add in the chopped spring onion
Heat a pan, pour in the cooking oil. Once hot, add the carrot and stir for a minute or so, then flattened it into a round circle.
Place the smoked salmon on top of the carrot. Pour in the beaten eggs from (1) onto the smoked salmon+carrot.
Swiveled the pan so that the eggs will coat well all the ingredients.
Let it cook for 2 minutes on medium heat. Before the egg is fully set, turn off the heat and cover the pan with lid to let it continue to cook. This step will ensure that the egg will not be overly charred and salmon is just nicely cooked.
Served it on top of rice. Drizzle with shoyu sauce, black sesame seed and seaweed.

Enjoy the healthy meal.

Here some picture I took this morning around 6am in my garden.

I love the little blue florets of forget me not mingling well with tulips

Spring Dutch Iris In full bloom

Fragant colorful wallflowers

I love the morning sun ray upon lupin flower spire. The lupin has just begin to flower

Look at the almost black color tulips-known as the Queen of The Night. My favorite tulips

Stir Fry Minced Meat with preserved turnip

2010-05-02T00:57:00.000-07:00

I've been preparing quick meal for dinner lately. Not that I don't like to cook anymore but other things require more attention. Nevertheless, it's still yummy or probably I'm not a picky eater. :-)
Also did some photo shoot of rape seed oil field that coming to full bloom now, all over the farming field near where I lived, what a photo opportunity it is.

Stir Fry Minced Meat with Preserved Turnip
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

250gm minced meat (pork/chicken)
2 shallots-finely chopped
1/2 inch ginger-finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
2 tbsp of light soy sauce (I use Kikkoman less salt soy sauce)
1 tbsp of sugar
1 tbsp of preserved turnip-finely chopped
1 tbsp of shaoxing wine
5 tbsp of water
1 tbsp of vegetable cooking oil+1/2 tsp of sesame oil
2 stalks of spring onion-finely chopped
1 red chilli for garnishing (optional)

Heat the oil in a pan/wok. Once it's hot, add in shallot, garlic and ginger, fry till frangant. Then add in the turnip and give it a good stir fry.
Add in the minced and fry for around 2 minutes on high heat until slightly cook. Then add in the soya sauce and wine and mixed well. Add the water and sugar as well.
Close over with a lid and turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Off the heat and throw in the spring onion.
Garnish with chopped red chillis. Served with rice.

Rape seed oil field

Having a quick meal over Guiness in my garden after cycling to the field

Marble cake

2010-04-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

Last 2 weeks had been really busy. Busy at work, busy in the garden, busy going out. Well indeed it's good that I'm busy, felt like I'm just out of hibernation. Been to London for West End musical show - Thriller. Not what I expected a West End show could be, it involves great participation from audiences, clapping hand, dancing, cheering, more like a concert tome. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the music.

Instead of April shower, this April has been really dry and weather is splendid. We almost had 2 weeks of sunny days and each days are getting warmer. What could be more rewarding than relaxing in one own garden with a cup of afternoon tea with cake. After all this is very core to the tradition of British people. Therefore I baked a marble cake to go with a cuppa.

Marble cake
Ingredients

125 gm butter
125 gm caster sugar
125 gm self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp of milk
2 large eggs
50 gm chocolate (70% cocoa bar)
1 tbsp double cream

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a rectangular cake tin.
Melt chocolate with double cream using steaming or use microwave. Let it to cool down.
Lightly beat the eggs
Cream the butter and sugar using food processor/mixer
Add the egg a little at the time into (3) until done.
Then add in the flour, , milk , vanilla essence and mixed well. The cake mixture should look smooth.
Scoop 1/3 of the mixture and mix with the chocolate.
Pour the original mixture into the cake tin then follow by the chocolate mixture from (7)
Bake for 30-35minutes.

Jerry is having a Siesta

Victoria Sponge Cake

2010-04-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Many of you have heard of the Icelandic volcanic ash has cause chaos in the air travel across Europe. UK air space has been shut down since Thursday. The latest news indicate it will still shut till tomorrow evening 7pm. Yes, few of my friends from Taiwan are stranded in London at the moment. I really hope they can get home soon.

Having baked lemon tart last week, I have spare tub of lite double cream which need to be consumed before used date. Well having my friend over to view my little spring garden, baking a Victoria Sponge Cake sounds ideal with a cuppa.
This is rather classic cake in Britain. As the name suggested, it was named after Queen Victoria, as she favored a slice of sponge cake with her afternoon tea. This is rather easy cake to make.

Victoria Sponge Cake
Ingredients

200g butter or margarine, softened at room temperature
200 g caster sugar
4 medium eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
200g self raising flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsp of milk

Filling

150 ml whipping cream
1 tsp of vanilla extract
100 g strawberry/raspberry jam

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper.
3. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consitency.
6. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.
7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
8. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack. Let it cool for half an hour.
9. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Whip the cream with vanilla extract till soft peak forms. Leave aside.
10.Sandwich the cakes together with raspberry/strawberry jam and whipped cream. Enjoy with a cup of tea.

We have been granted excellent weather since the early spring, it's really beautiful and weather is warm enough to enjoy the best of outdoor . Attached some pictures from my garden.

Early spring bloom, the show will only gets better

Good sign, my strawberry plant is flowering now....... dreaming of the juicy sweet fruit comes summer

First bloom of my lovely Dutch iris

Lovely tulips

My fruit tree (green gage - a type of sweet plum) is flowering too. I planted the tree last autumn

magnolia bloom-spectacular

Lemon tart

2010-04-10T14:04:00.000-07:00

Today it felt like summer, one could easily fire up a BBQ. It's a wonderful feeling when sun is up, weather is warm, spring flowers in bloom, birds chirping away making their own melody and bumblebees buzzing happily searching for nectar. All this happening in April, the extreme cold we had back in December and January felt so distance and all could only hope for many basking in the sun summer days.

Today I make lemon tart, a nice dessert for a warm day. This recipes I learnt from watching Rachel Allen Bake over at UKTV Good Food Channel. I must say she is a talented cook and I like her down to earth attitude. Am also liking her lemon tart recipes.

Lemon Tart
Ingredients (adapted from UKTV Good Food)

For the sweet shortcrust pastry

200g plain flour, sifted
1 tbsp icing sugar
100g butter , chilled and cubed
1 egg, beaten

For the filling

3 eggs
1 lemon, grated zest
125g caster sugar (I use 100gm)
150ml double cream
3 lemons, juice only
1 orange, juice only
icing sugar, for dusting

1. For the pastry: Put the flour, butter and a pinch of salt in a food processor and process briefly.

2. Add half the beaten egg and continue to process. (You might add a little more egg, but not too much as the mixture should be just moist enough to come together.) If making the pastry by hand, rub the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs then, using your hands, add just enough egg to bring it together.

3. With your hands, flatten out the ball of dough until it is about 2cm thick, then wrap it in cling film or place it in a plastic bag and leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or, if you are pushed for time, in the freezer for 10–15 minutes, before using.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

5. Line a 23cm tart tin with the shortcrust pastry and cover the base with baking parchment. Fill the tin with baking beans and bake blind for 10-15 minutes. Remove the beans and parchment for the last five minutes of baking for a golden crust.

5. For the filling: Place the eggs, lemon zest and sugar in a bowl and whisk for a couple of minutes until the egg is all broken up.

6. Add the cream, orange and lemon juice. Mix well, skimming off any froth from the top of the mixture. Carefully pour the filling into the cooked pastry case.

7. Reduce the oven temperature to 160C/gas 3 and bake the tart for 30-35 minutes or until the filling has just set in the centre – it should only wobble very slightly when you take it out of the oven.

8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes before removing the tart from the tin and transferring to a plate or cake stand. When it is cool, dredge a little icing sugar over the top and cut into slices to serve.

Cook's tip: Rachel suggests rolling out the pastry between two sheets of clingfilm to help keep it together, then removing the top layer of film and flipping it into the tin. She also keeps the top layer of clingfilm in whilst the pastry shell is baking blind.

Enjoy the tart.

I also did make some photo shoots from garden this afternoon..... to my readers, enjoy the bloom

Tau Yu Bak (Braised pork in soya sauce)

2010-04-02T14:23:00.001-07:00

For this authentic dish, I must insist one can't go wrong with pork belly. If you're health conscious, slot in extra time on treadmill to burn off that extra calories :-) . After all if you like braised meat like myself, it's well worth the extra day of cycling for 10miles.

Tau Yu Bak (Braised pork in soya sauce)
Ingredients (serve 4)

500 gm pork belly marinade with
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp 5-spice powder
1 tbs oyster sauce
1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar or to taste
Other ingredients:
- 4 whole garlic pods with skin on
- 1 star anise
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 tbsp dark caramel sauce (I use Cheong Chan brand)
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar or to taste
- Salt to taste
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp of cooking oil
1. Marinate pork for several hours or overnight.
2. Heat a heavy based cast iron pot on medium heat, add in vegetable oil, I use Le Cruset pot to good use again.
3. Put in marinated pork to brown.
4. Add garlic pods, cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves.
5. Pour in half cup of water and cook covered and bring to boil.
6. Add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sugar and salt to taste.
7. Turn to low heat. Add half cup of water and simmer till gravy is thick and meat is tender. This roughly takes about 1.5hrs-2hrs.
8. If gravy is drying out, just add more water. Likewise if meat is not tender enough, just add water and simmer for a longer time.
9. To serve, cut pork into slices and add gravy to the dish. Garnish with spring onion. Served hot with rice.

Enjoy and remember to excercise thereafter.

Here's the cheery daffodils in my garden.

Spring In Action

2010-03-28T14:07:00.000-07:00

Lately the weather has warmed up significantly and always gifted with clear blue sky in the morning. Before the April shower sets in,one should enjoy the best weather while you can. After all, English weather is truly unpredictable.

So I decided to check out the Daffodil dale near astronomical ground in Cambridge. With my regal Pashley Princess, I cycled all the way to Cambridge and urged my buddy to go and enjoy the lovely flowers and spring weather. This year the arrival of daffodils are late by roughly 4 weeks due to extreme cold we had in winter. They're such a cheery flowers, they break the winter gloom and telling us spring is in. Even my garden daffodils are up too :-).

After the daffodils, I went to town to do some marketing. I passed by a lovely bakery shop, Fitzbillies along Trumpington Street. Yes, I heard of their famed Chelsea bun but had never try it before. This bakery dated back to 1922 and at times expect ques to get this lovely bun. And if you've craving for sweet things......go for it with a cup of tea. I bought two buns and brought it home with me. Indeed, this is one of the best Chelsea bun one could hope for- nice mix of cinnamon, berries, sweet syrup. So next time if you're around Cambridge do remember to go to this bakery and get this lovely bun and give it a try.

And yes we've switched to BST (British Summer Time). We've to change our clock to an hour earlier as day are getting longer. Yes, the whole season cycle begins again................

Green Apple with grated sour plum

2010-03-23T13:46:00.000-07:00

I can smell spring. Indeed spring is in the air. So much to look forward to..... in short, anticipation. I've been so busy lately as gardening calendar year is starting here again. Few achievements - like erecting a rose arch for my climbing rose (to last count I've 19 different rose varieties in my garden), enlarging my flower borders single handedly, grow my own grubs, weeding, lawn repair, cleaning up after winter etc. Some of you might think why the hassle ...... I tell you honestly,reap the reward in summer with a fantastic display of colors and bountiful harvest ..... sit and enjoy the labor and effort you put in during late winter/early spring. I don't mind a glass of Pimms on a hot summer day though.

Here is a nice little healthy snack to have on a hot day. I find that sour fruit will easily quench one thirst and open up ones appetite. This is so easy to prepare and in no time you'll snacking away on healthy bite.

Green apple with grated sour plum
Ingredients (serve 2)

3 Granny Smith green apples
3 dry sour plum
1/4 tsp of salt

Wash, peel and diced the apples. Place them in a bowl/plate. Rub them with salt to prevent browning of apples.
Use a grater or knife to grate the dry sour plum flesh onto the apples.
You can cool it in fridge or serve them immediately.

Sunday Roast

2010-03-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

This is a classic British meal served on Sunday for lunch. It's normally consist of a type of roast meat (chicken, pork, lamb, beef) and served with roast potato, with sides of yorkshire pudding, vegetables, stuffing and good gravy.

I wouldn't say NO to this classic meal anyday of the week, imagine the flavorsome chicken with it's delicious crispy skin plus the perfect golden and crispy roast potato......you've got the idea.
My British friend always invited me over for lovely roast dinner, am gosh their roast potato is to die for. So I learnt a bit of skill from them on how to create that lovely roast potato and for the chicken-the oven will do justice for me I hope. :-)
So I thought, I will experiment with this classic dish, off to supermarket to get a medium size free range chicken (1.5kgs), king edward potatoes and some vegetables.

Roast chicken with roast potato
Ingredients (serve 4)

1 whole free range chicken
some sea salt
Rosemary sprigs
2 carrots-diced
1 medium onion-diced
4 large King Edward potatoes-cut into 6 for each potatoes
100 ml sunflower oil (if you prefer, you can do with 50ml sunflower oil+50ml goose fat)

Preheat the oven to 190C.
Clean the chicken and pat dry. Stuffed the chicken cavity with carrots, onion and one sprigs of rosemary. Use a toothpick to seal up the bottom. Rub with sea salt on the skin and top with some rosemary sprigs. Place on a roasting tin.
Pour the oil into another roasting tin. Put the tin into the oven. Also put the chicken roasting tin into the oven as well. Let it roast for 20minutes at 190C.
Put the potato into a pot with lid and parboil for 10minutes. Off the heat. Drained. Pour it back into the pot and close the lid and let itself steam for another 10minutes or so to loose some moisture, the potato should look slightly soft and fluffy.
Take out the oil roasting tin, place the potato into the tin, it should be bubbling away. Use a spoon to scoop up some oil to baste the potato. Place the tin back into the oven.
Turn the oven heat to 160C now. This will ensure the slow cook process of the chicken and retain it's moisture.
Baste the potato every 30minutes. The chicken should be cook after 1.5hrs.
By the time the chicken cook, the potato will be have acquire a golden brown skin. Remove the potato and drained with paper towel.
Place the chicken onto a big serving plate, carved and served with the roast potato and onion gravy. The vegetables in the cavity will taste absolutely gorgeous too.

There you go, Sunday lunch sorted out. :-)
That's a real good roast chicken and successful roast potato too. Yummy.

And here carpet of crocuses along The Backs in Cambridge, and couldn't resist my Pashley against the backdrop of crocuses. Ahhhh....... it's Spring :-)

Kick start your day with healthy breakfast

2010-03-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

There is a wise saying in Chinese, "早上吃的飽, 下午吃的好, 晚上吃的少" [ have a full breakfast, have a good lunch and eat less for dinner] . Most often we're reversing our meal-where we skip breakfast and end the day with a heavy supper. This is not healthy.
I always take my breakfast even if it's just a glass of milk. I felt much more energize if I have a proper breakfast.
So this morning I decided to make a rather healthy breakfast and it tasted light and yet packed with energy to start my day......or rather to conquer the world. :-)

Poached egg, salad with ciabata
Ingredients (served 2)

1 ciabata roll
1 medium tomato-deseed and chop
one bunch of lamb lettuce
4 chestnut mushroom-slice
2 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
dash of sea salt
3 tbsp of olive oil
2 free range eggs
some seeds
dash of pepper
dash of dry herbs-oregano
parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat a pan, add the olive oil, once heated, add the garlic to saute till fragant. Off the heat, add the mushroom immediately and mixed well. Let it to cool.
In a bowl, mix the chopped tomato and lamb lettuce. Scoop 2 tbsp of olive oil from (1), balsamic vinegar and salt. Mixed well.
Prepare the poach egg. Boil a pot of hot water, one boiling, crack the egg one at a time into egg poacher or just drop it into the boiling water. Boil for 1.5-2minutes. Remove from the pot. Set aside.
Slice the ciabata roll. Dab some olive oil onto the ciabata roll. Sprinkle with some oregano. Toast the roll in oven or toaster for 5minutes.
Place the roll on a plate. Top with some mushroom, salad and poached egg. Sprinkle with some toasted seeds and black pepper. Add grated parmesan cheese if you like. Drizzle the plate with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dressing.

Enjoy the healthy breakfast.

Onion Bhaji

2010-03-09T11:59:00.000-08:00

As some of you might know, I've been churning out soy milk with my new machine. And the by product is the soy pulp. I was thinking what to do with it:

1. Chuck it into the bin.
2. Feed the birds.
3. Using it to make some lovely food.

I think I'll go for option (3).
My mum always make a traditional Foochow fried oyster/prawn cake using the soy pulp, rice flour, oyster/prawn/minced pork, chives and some seasoning. Even Anthony Bourdain tried that special oyster cake at Maxwell Food Centre in Singapore. It was prepared with a special ladle and deep fried to golden brown. The skin is so crispy on the outside and the soya pulp makes the texture inside moist and soft. So next time don't throw away that lovely soy pulp after milking the soy. It can be used for making a lot of cooking, even it is being used a lot in Japanese cooking (known as okara).
As for me, I adapt my own method to churn out onion bhaji in a jiffy. And the end result........ am asking for more ... the soy pulp does make a difference to the texture and it's good for vegetarian friends and do give it a try.

Onion Bhaji
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

1 large onion- finely chopped
2 tbsp of soy pulp
2 tbsp of rice flour/corn flour
1/2 tsp of salt
1 tbsp of curry powder
1 egg
1 green chilli-deseeded and chopped
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate (optional)
vegetable oil for shallow frying

Lightly beat the egg, add in the soya pulp, curry powder, salt and rice flour.
Mix well.
Add in the onion and green chilli. Stir to mix well.
Heat a frying pan with oil for shallow frying. Use medium heat.
Use a tablespoon to ladle a scoop and slowly drop into the frying pan. Repeat to fill up the pan. Fry each side for about 2-3minutes till golden brown.
Remove and drained. Served with ketchup or chutney.

Banana Muffin and a great weekend

2010-03-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

This week has been splendid.....lots of sunshine and everyday almost perfect blue sky. Still a little bit on the chilly side, but hey I can't complaint for this lovely weather, it has been a freaking cold winter. Even my spring bulb flowers had been delayed...... I started to see some coming out and some early flowering crocuses and iris make my day. :-)
Initially I intended to bake banana cake but somehow decided at the last minute to bake muffin instead, as I've no access to my laptop for banana cake recipes. Therefore I always fall back on my ole good muffin recipes book on the shelf.

Banana muffin
Ingredients (make 11-12 muffins)

280 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
pinch of salt
100 gm sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
3 ripen bananas (weighs around 1 pound)-mashed
85 gm melted butter
90 ml milk
3 tbsp rolled oats
a handful of chopped walnut (optional)

Seive the flour, baking powder and soda bicarbonate into a mixing bowl. Add in the sugar.
Preheat oven to 190C-200C.
In another bowl, mix bananas, butter, milk and rolled oat. Pour this mixture into (1)
Lightly beat the egg and mix to (1). Add in essence vanilla and drop in chopped walnut.
Mixed well all the ingredients. Scoop into muffin cups or muffin trays. I use silicon muffin cup (they're brilliant).
Bake for 20-25minutes till golden brown, or when you poke the middle of muffin with knife they come out clean.
You can decorate muffin with glazed banana.

I'm enjoying my muffins with friends on lovely Sunday morning.

I also took some pictures of my early flowering spring bulbs. I'm intrigued whether I could produce saffron from the stamen of my lovely crocuses. :-)

White and lilac crocus

Snowdrop

Iris reticulata

Purple Crocus

Happy Chap Goh May

2010-03-02T11:51:00.000-08:00

I'm so looking forward to spring at the moment, I've had enough of this extremely cold winter. This few days weather is warming up, really sunny, the days are getting longer and yes all my spring bulbs in the garden seem to wake up from their dormant period. So much to look forward to..... how I love spring. I'm counting down, officially it's only 3 weeks away from March 21st.
Over the weekend I made sweet potato dumplings with minced meat fillings. I served them over a bowl of piping hot rice noodle soup. It's definitely warming and of course ended the CNY on a high note with sweet potato dumplings looking like gold nuggets....

The recipes of sweet potato dumpling can be found here. One can also replace the fillings with vegetable fillings of your choice if one doesn't like meat fillings.

Wishing everyone a belated Chap Goh May. Anyone out there making a wish and threw mandarin oranges into the river on that nite? :-)

Happy Occasion

2010-02-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

Joyous be every such occasion marked with gaiety and full of happy fervour, yes I'm talking about wedding here. Last weekend I have flown over to Dublin, Ireland to attend a wedding of a lovely couple, friends of mine. It was a happy moment to had witness the joining of two hearts into one. Not only that, we were treated to the most sumptious and delicious Chinese banquet at Ming Court restaurant Blanchardstown. The seafood were aplenty and fresh. We had a 12 course dinner banquet. One of my favorite is the huge lobster cooked with scallion and ginger and not forgetting the abalone stewed with oyster sauce with pak choi. And I have the opportunity to dine with so.moo.food. I truly enjoy every moment of it.

I also did a 2hrs touring Dublin city on my foot. It was a crisp winter day. Here you are with the photos of Dublin city.

Chinese radish cake/Loh Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕

2010-02-17T12:40:00.000-08:00

I have always wanted to attempt making this savory radish cake but never come round to it. It's commonly found in Hong Kong dim sum restaurant. Reason is I'm not sure of the success rate and also it requires quite a lot of effort I would have thought. And I have no excuses not to make it to consume during Chinese New Year. But I had researched online for quite a number of recipes and decided to stick to this one and change some ingredients as I can't find them in my local supermarket and make do with what I have in my pantry. It's not that tedious as I would have thought and the end result is yummy-licious delights. For those would like to follow the step, you can follow this video (it's in Cantonese though)

Loh Bak Gou 蘿蔔糕
Ingredients:

200g smoked bacon - finely chopped (you can use Chinese lap yuk and Chinese sausages)
2 tbsp dried shrimps-soaked and finely chopped-I omitted this
3-5 large dried shitake mushroom - soaked, removed stem and finely chopped-keep the soaking water
4 dried scallops- soaked for 1 hour and shredded-keep the soaking water
3 shallots-finely chopped
2 cloves garlic-finely chopped
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt or to taste

750 - 800g shredded radish-drained any excess water
250-300 ml water (from the water used to soak scallops and mushroom)
220g rice flour
30g wheat starch/corn starch/tapioca starch
1/2 tbsp chicken powder
4 tbsp cooking oil

Mix rice flour, starch and water together.
Heat up a non stick wok with 2 tbsp oil and fry shallot and garlic till fragant. Then add smoked bacon , dried shrimps, mushroom and scallop. Fry till fragrant. Add in white pepper and salt to taste. Remove to one side. Check if the wok has any brown sticky bits, if yes wash before proceeding to next step. Browning bits can make the cake looks greyish or brownish.
Next heat the wok with 2 tbsp of oil. Once hot, add in the radish and stir fry for around 6 minutes. You'll notice that the radish will excrete it's own juice during cooking process.
Stir in flour mixture, taste to check if more seasoning is needed and cook at low heat stirring all the time for till the mixture started to thicken like gooey congee . Turn off heat.
Grease a retangular cake tin or aluminium foil container. Scoop the mixture into the container. Prepare the steamer. Place the cake into steamer and steam for about 1 hour 20minutes. Once cooked, it is a bit soft at the moment, don't worry, the cooling process overnight will cause it to set. Remove from steamer and cover the top with aluminium foil and let it to cool overnight.
Once it's set, you can easily removed from the container and you can slice the cake. You can dust it with just a little corn starch/potato starch. You can also omit the corn starch and fry on it's own.
Prepare a non stick pan, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Once hot, put in the cake and let it shallow fry till a golden brown surface is achieved on both side. Served hot with sprinkling of spring onion and XO sauce/sambal sauce/or thick dark soya sauce.

Enjoy.....

Shredded radish

Steamed and cooled radish cake-ready for slicing

I gave some loh bak gou to my guinea pig friend to try my first attempt and it's thumbs up :-)

Just to let you all know I was given a new kitchen gadget by a friend...... A soy milk making machine. It's a brand made in China (Joyoung) and gosh I'm impressed.....only at a press of a button, and 20minutes later you'll have the freshest hot soy milk. I highly recommend this machine for those who like fresh soy milk. I've been milking it every morning for breakfast :-)

Gong Xi Fa Cai & Happy Valentine's Day

2010-02-14T03:06:00.000-08:00

Welcoming the arrival of Year of the Tiger. Wishing all who are celebrating the festivity a Happy Lunar New Year, 恭喜发财, 新年快乐, 年年有馀.

This year St. Valentine's Day fall on the same day as Lunar New Year, wishing all Happy Valentine's Day too.

Enjoy the weekend too...........

Here's my starter dishes for CNY eve dinner - Giant Prawn Cracker(from Malaysia), homemade Yee Sang and 4 seasons platter, and won't be complete without wine :-)

Chinese stir fry beef and tenderstem brocolli with noodles

2010-02-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year is just around the corner, I believe many of you who are celebrating it must be busy "spring cleaning", baking cookies, decorating houses with auspicious items and etc. For me, "spring cleaning" - tick, baking-intend to, decorating with auspicious item - could be tough, I can't even find ang pow packets here. Indeed, the Chinese New Year has all it do's and don't. I would rather spend my energy to create some nice recipes to whip out on Saturday, the eve, for friends to enjoy. And of course to inspire people who reads my blog to try out the recipes and enjoy them too.

For those who know me well, I'm not a keen beef meat eater. Maybe my mum did not train us to eat beef since we're young as she herself has allergic towards beef, and hence beef is not something common on our palette. However I did try a stir fry beef noodle and it did change my opinion on this rarely eaten meat for me. The red meat taste is not overwhelming and is so gorgeously tender, and yes it's acceptable for my taste department. I started out to like this stir fry beef and now it's a love affair. This is a simple recipes and I believe in no time you'll love it too. It will be a lovely noodle dish for Chinese New Year rather than the traditional longevity noodles. :-)

Chinese stir fry beef and tenderstem brocolli with noodle
Ingredients (serve 4)

200 gm lean pork fillet-thinly sliced perpendicularly to grain
300 gm egg noodles/spaghetti- I used spaghetti here
4 cloves garlic-finely chopped
1 packet of tenderstem brocolli (200 gm) / Chinese Kailan
2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Marinating ingredients for beef

1.5 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp of ginger juice
2 tsp of corn flour
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp of dark soya sauce/caramel sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)

Noodle sauce

300-400 ml chicken stock
1/4 tsp of white/black pepper
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce (optional)

Marinate the beef with marinating ingredients for 30 minutes.
Boil a pot of water, once boiling, blanched the tenderstem brocolli for 30 seconds and remove. Then add in spaghetti to cook. Follow the spaghetti packet instruction, i.e if 15 minutes require to achieve al-dente, drained after 12-13minutes.
Heat a wok on high heat. Add in a tbsp of vegetable oil. Once it's hot, add in the garlic and lightly brown. Then add in the beef, lay thinly over the wok and let is slightly caramelised, this will take about 1 minute or so. Then flip over and stir fry for another minute. Do not overcook as you want your beef to be just tenderly nice. Remove to a plate.
Add in another tbsp of oil onto the wok, throw in the green and stir fry quickly to nicely coat the vegetable with oil. This will take about a minute. Remove to a plate.
Then pour in the noodle sauce, once it start simmering, turn the heat to medium. Add in the spaghetti and stir, let it absorb the liquid. When the liquid is almost absorbed, turn off heat, add in the beef and brocolli stem and mixed well. Served hot with pickled green chillis.

Steam Chicken with Dong Quai, goji berries and red dates

2010-02-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

Bet many of you must be checking my blog and wonder whereabout Apron's Delight is. Been quite busy lately at work, an early spring clean my house during weekend and watching some really good documentaries on TV. And I am still keeping my resolution to keep cycling to work at least 3 times a week during winter (note: cold and dark here in winter), but nevertheless 36 miles per week for the last 6-7 weeks felt like an achievement.
Yes indeed it's also good time in winter to replenish one's body with nutritious meal. Here's a really simple and good remedy for women well being. My mum used to cook this dish for me. So simple and yet really delicious with a bowl of rice.

Steam Chicken with Dong Quai, Goji Berries and Red Dates
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

2 chicken legs portion
6 slices of dong quai (Chinese angelica root)
6 red dates-pitted
1 tbsp of Goji berries
Dash of kosher/sea salt
8 tbsp of water
1-2 tbsp hard liquor-Brandy, Cognac, XO
aluminiun foil

Wash the chicken and pat dry. You can opt to chop into smaller pieces.
Rub the chicken with sea salt.
Wash the dong quai, red dates, goji berries. Drained. Lay them on the aluminium foil. Top them with the chicken pieces.
Slowly wrap the parcel, before sealing, pour in the water and brandy.
Heat up a steamer and let it steam for 25-30minutes. Ensure when you prick the chicken there is no bloody liquid as it's still not cook, continue to steam on high heat.
Serve hot with rice.

Of course one should read about what is dong quai if in doubt.

The arrival of snowdrop signifies spring is just around the corner, I can see myself smiling

Comforting Mushroom Soup

2010-01-23T08:24:00.000-08:00

At times, I'm busy with other stuff that I will try to make simple dish in a jiffy. Here is one good example, this mushroom soup is fulfilling and comforting for a cold winter day and it's so easily made. I don't buy Campbell Mushroom Soup any longer since I discover the fuss free homemade mushroom soup making . Homemade fresh mushroom soup is so flavorful and fresh. Moreover, mushrooms are brimming with protein, Vit B and minerals. They're low in calories and may have antibacterial substances to help the body. This soup can be incorporated as a starter as well.

Mushroom Soup
Ingredients (serve 4-5 persons)

500 gm closed cup mushroom- chopped
800-1000 ml of vegetable/chicken stock (if you want thicker soup use less stock)
1 big onion-chopped
2 cloves of garlic-finely chopped
90 gm butter
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp plain flour
1/2 cup single cream
salt & pepper to taste

Heat a pan, once hot, melt the butter, add in chopped onion and garlic. Turn to medium heat to sweat the onion and garlic till soft. It takes approximately five minutes.
Add in the chopped mushroom and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Add in the flour to coat well the mushroom, continue to stir. Then add in the stock and throw in the bay leaf.
Bring it to small boil and let it simmer for further 10minutes. Remove the bay leaf thereafter. Use a hand blender to blend to your require consistency.
Off the heat. Add in the cream and stir. Serve hot with some bread. Drizzle some cream over the soup to garnish. Add your salt and pepper to your taste.

This soup can be kept in container in the fridge and kept well over one week. You can heat up when required. Warming winter soup......

Pork Ball Cellophane/Glass Noodle Soup

2010-01-21T12:36:00.000-08:00

As from the title of my recipes, my main aim here is to share with you how to make bouncy meatballs [pork, beef or chicken] that one could easily make.
I always thought making those bouncy meatballs required a lot of skill. Fear not, it's as easy as I promised you. Infact this is my first try in making these bouncy meatballs and it turned out really well.

Pork ball
Ingredients (make 20-24 balls)

250 gm mince pork
60 ml icy cold water
1/2 tsp nam pla- Thai fish sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp of white pepper

Put the mince pork into a food processor and blend until a paste is form. During blending, add 3 tbsp of icy water slowly(one tbsp at a time) until a smooth paste is form. Remove the blended meat paste into a big bowl
Then mix the remaining icy water with fish sauce, salt, sugar, oil, cornflour, white pepper and baking powder in a bowl.
Pour this mixture into the meat paste and use a big spoon to stir slowly until all the liquid is absorbed.
To do the taste test, boil a little of the paste. Taste it and season according to your taste by adding salt or sugar.
Cover the meat paste with cling wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or so.
When you wanted to shape the pork ball, boil a kettle of water. Pour the boiling water into a deep pot.
Using a wet hand, scoop the meat paste onto your palm, close your hand, push the paste through the index finger and thumb, use a wet spoon to scoop the ball and drop it onto the hot water in the pot. Continue to do so until complete. Here a video clip on how to shape the ball with your hand.
At this time, you should notice the outer layer of the meatball is slightly cook. Bring the pot onto your cooker, on the heat to lowest, slowly bring it to simmering point but not boiling. This will ensure your pork ball will be bouncy. This roughly takes about 15minutes or so. Once cooked the pork ball will float to the surface. You can half one of the ball to ensure it's cook, no sign of pinkish meat.
While it's cooking, prepare a big bowl and fill in with icy water. Drop the cooked pork balls into it. Once cooled, you can remove the pork ball and store in the fridge until it is required.

Cellophane/Glass Noodle Soup
Ingredients (serve 4 persons)

200 gm dried cellophane noodle
1.5 litres of chicken+anchovy stock- add salt and 1/2 tbsp of sugar
2 stalks of spring onion-finely chopped
2 tbsp shallot oil
1 tbsp of pickled radish/turnip (chai po)
2 cups of bean sprouts or some greens
pinch of pepper
sliced red chillis (optional)

Boil the cellophane noodle for 5 minutes or so till cook. It should be transparent.
Bring to boil the prepared stock. You can add in the pork ball to boil as well. Off the heat
Separate the noodle into 4 bowls.
Garnish the noodle with bring sprout, spring onion, pickled turnip, shallot oil, pork ball and red chillis.
Served piping hot, nice to dip the meat ball with garlic chilli sauce or just soya sauce with bird eye chillis.

Un croissant sil vous plait

2010-01-16T13:40:00.000-08:00

This brings back memory while I was in Grenoble, France some time ago. In any French town, one could only be drawn to boulangerie that dotted every corner of the street. I picked up a few useful sentences while in France in order to get along with everyday life, i.e bon jour, merci beaucoup, la dison sil vous plait, ca va? , tres bien and of course my favorite phrase while I visit any boulangerie: un croissant sil vous plait.
The freshly baked aroma of croissant is drawing me to the boulangerie every morning. Oooh, ooh so heavenly. I could easily get ready made croissants from Tesco but I'm so lazy to go out this morning as weather is damp and windy. Yes I know making croissant is quite tedious but aye, who can resist the freshly home baked croissant?

I followed this recipes from bbc good food:

Croissant
Ingredients (make 24 croissants)

1kg/2.2lb strong white flour
450g/1lb unsalted butter
pinch of salt
570ml/1 pint water and milk mixed
2 sachets easy bake yeast (14 grammes)
1 egg for egg wash

1.Sift flour into a bowl, cut butter into small pieces, add a pinch of salt, yeast and with a pallet knife cut in water and milk. This makes a horrible sticky mess but turn onto a lightly floured table and carefully knead to make a cohesive dough.

2. Shape mixture into a rectangle and roll out to approximately 30cmx20cm/12inx8in. Fold over the top third, fold up the bottom third, seal each side with the side of your hand, then put into a plastic bag and chill for 30 minutes. Turn 90 degrees and roll again to another rectangle. Fold up bottom third and seal with the side of your hand. Chill as before for 30 minutes. Repeat two more times, chilling 30 minutes between each rolling. Return to plastic bag and refrigerate for an hour.

3. Remove from fridge and roll carefully into a big rectangle 50cm/30cm/24inx12in cut in half lengthways, divide each half into 12 triangles. Then from the widest edge of the triangle, roll up tightly and place in a crescent shape on a tray. Beat egg for egg wash and with care, egg wash croissant. Make sure you do not go over a cut edge with egg wash. This will stop them from rising properly if desired.

4. When frozen take off the tray and put into a plastic bag.

5. For use, remove from freezer the number required for breakfast, put onto baking tray and leave overnight. Put into a hot oven at 200C and bake for about 15 minutes until browned and risen.

You can also watch this video on step by step how it's make.
And one of my favorite baking websites - Joe Pastry who gives a lot of good tips on how to bake.

Serve with strawbery jam or marmalade. It's so crispy and flaky on the outside and soft on the inside. Hmnnnn............heavenly.

Kari Ayam (Malaysian Curry Chicken)

2010-01-10T11:01:00.001-08:00

I still vividly remember the time when I first attempted at making the authentic Malaysian kari ayam in my home science cooking lesson at school with Mrs. D. All of us girls were quite terrified back then when we've cooking lesson with Mrs. D. She proves to be the best home science teacher in my school, I reckon for at least 2 decades. Yes, back then we've strict rules to follow when we make our kari ayam, all ingredients measured to the scale even the curry powder. Even though I had eaten kari ayam over and over, I didn't realise that there is an ingredient use to give the curry it's ''lemak'' (creamy) texture-candlenut or better known as buah keras in Malaysia. It was in the lesson I learnt and have a first look of candlenut. Of course back then all the key ingredients like coconut milk is freshly squeezed from the grated coconut and the sambal paste freshly pounded with some manual hand power. They tasted real good. Of course over here now, I try, I try to replicate as much to the original recipes except for the can of coconut milk and dry kaffir lime leave that I subject myself to. Some you know I'm a fresh ingredients freak, even no lazy garlic is allow in my cooking. :-)
And to have kari ayam with rice is consider a majestic treat for a cold winter's day.

Kari Ayam (Malaysian Curry Chicken)
Ingredients

1 free range chicken (roughly about 1.5 to 2 kgs)-chopped into 16 pieces-marinate with 2 tbsp of curry powder and 2 tbsp of coconut milk for an hour
4 big potatoes-cut into cubes-parboiled for about 5-7 minutes
2 tbsp curry powder-mix with 3 tbsp of coconut milk to form paste
1 can of coconut milk-roughly 400ml
6 kaffir lime leaves or better still use curry leaves
1 tbsp tamarind paste+5 tbsp of water-make into tamarind juice
salt to taste
1-2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp of vegetable oil

Paste ingredients

10 shallots-chopped
10 dried chillis - soaked in warm water for 10minutes-chopped (warning this is spicy)
3 red chillis-chopped
1 garlic bulb-chopped
thumb size ginger-chopped
3 lemon grass stalks-chopped
3 candlenut-broken into pieces
1 small piece of sambal belacan

Use a mortar and pestle to pound the paste ingredients. I find this very therapeutic. You can use a food processor to blend them as well.
Heat a wok and pour in the oil, once it's hot add in the paste (1) and curry paste and let it sautéed till fragant. This takes about a minute. Add in the kaffir lime leaves/curry leaves, sautéed .
Add in the chicken and continue to stir fry for 2-3minutes until meat is lightly cook. Add in the parboiled potatoes and mix thoroughly. Turn the heat to low. This will ensure the coconut milk will not curdle
Add the coconut milk, tamarind juice, salt and sugar to taste. Stir. Close with a lid, and let it simmer on low heat for 20-25minutes.
Turn off heat. Served hot with rice.

Candlenut

Pad Thai

2010-01-06T11:51:00.000-08:00

The start of the year has been so cold with so many snowy days. This winter has been the coldest in Britain for the last 3 decades. My snow excitement might have fizzled away as it's quite common to snow lately. How I wish it could be slightly warmer.

If I can't change the weather I can make my food spicier to ward off the Big Chill. So I decided to make Pad Thai tonite.

Pad Thai
Ingredients (for 3-4 persons)

300 gm dry pad thai rice noodles- soak in water for about 15minutes, drained.
500 gm bean sprouts
3 duck/chicken eggs-duck egg is tastier
50 gm chopped pickled turnip/radish
250 gm king prawns-de-shelled & de-veined
1/2 cup ground roasted peanut
5 cloves garlic-minced
1/2 cup vegetable cooking oil
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp fish sauce-nam pla
1 tbsp of tamarind paste+ 5 tbsp of water-make into tamarind juice
50 gm Chinese chives
2 shallots-chopped
2 green chillis- sliced (medium hot)
1 cake tofu bean curd-cut into smaller cubes

Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and sautee garlic and shallots. When it is fragant, add the noodle and stir fry. Add just enough water to soften the noodle, continue to stir fry them to prevent noodle sticking to the pan. If you've a big pan, you can remove the noodle to aside, else remove them from pan.
Heat another 3 tbsp oil in the pan, when it is slightly smoky, add in the prawn, pickled turnip, tofu cubes and chillis. Stir fry for a minute or so. Return the noodle into the pan. Add in tamarind juice. Mix thoroughly.
Make some space on the pan to make the scramble eggs. Heat 2 tbsp of oil, when it is hot, break the 3 eggs and scramble them.When set, mix thoroughly with noodle. Add the bean sprouts and chives and off the heat immediately, this will prevent the sprouts and chives for being overcook. This will give you the crunchy bites of the bean sprouts.
Serve on a plate, garnish with ground peanut and chilli flakes.

Looking outside my window, it's quite pretty things cover in white........the tune of let it snow, let it snow, let it snow comes naturally.

Braised Duck Legs/滷鸭腿

2009-12-31T06:44:00.000-08:00

The thought of having braised dishes over a bowl of rice is just so tempting. And moreover I have stocked up several duck legs over the festive season. To make braised meat with my newly acquired volcano orange Le Creuset enamelled cast iron pot seems ideal. I really like Le Creuset cast iron pot ranges, if only I could be an unofficial spoke person for Le Creuset , maybe I will be given the pots for free....one can only dream......
Le Creuset had been around since 1925, started in France and the cast iron pot is still being handmade individually by skillful artisan. I totally agrees that this product is of high quality, many serious cooks will definitely have one or more of these lovely pots in their kitchen. I've bought a cheaper cast iron pot before at a fraction of price of Le Creuset but am totally disappointed after few uses, as the enamel chipped off and became rusty. So I decided to splash a bit more for good quality stuff and a brand like Le Creuset which stand the test of time. I know in particular back home in Singapore and Malaysia, not many people own Le Creuset pot, mainly because it's quite expensive. This pot is really versatile and could last you a lifetime, so in the long run it's a good investment considering many comforting food can be churned out from this pot. And its addition to your kitchen would definitely stands out with its cheerful colors. I've my eyes on more Le Creuset ultensils like the cast iron wok, tangine, grillet, etc etc....

Braised Duck Legs/滷鸭腿
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

2 duck legs (approximately 400-500 gm)
5 tbsp light soya sauce (*)
3 tbsp of dark soya sauce (I use Cheong Chan dark caramel)-(*)
3 tbsp sugar (*)
2 tbsp Chin Kiang black vinegar (*)
1 tbsp shaoxing wine (*)
200 ml water
6 big dry shitake mushroom-soaked and quartered
2 star anise
pinchful of cloves
5 cloves of garlic
1 inch of ginger
3 hard boiled eggs or more
1/2 tbsp of vegetable oil

Put the duck legs into a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes to remove any blood scum and excess fat. Drained.
Marinate the duck leg with the (*) ingredients overnight.
Next day heat a pan with 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil. Once hot, add in the garlic, ginger, star anise and cloves to fry till fragant. Then add in mushroom to stir fry as well for a minute.
Then add in the marinated duck leg plus marinating juices, stir fry. Turn the heat to medium, then pour in the 200ml water and let it simmer for 5minutes. Add in the hard boiled eggs as well.
Pour everything into Le Creuset pot and on low heat cook for about 2-2.5 hrs until meat is tender and soft. Let the meat soaked up the sauces as it simmer. Remember to turn over the duck legs + eggs to coat up the sauces about every half an hour.
Granish with spring onion and served over a bowl of hot rice. The braised sauce can be kept for making braised duck noodle.

I know many of you wish for a Le Creuset pot now :-) .
And Happy New Year 2010 to all my readers ....... at least I'm not in freezing cold London to usher in 2010 :-) .

Fu Qing Sweet Potato Dumpling

2009-12-26T11:34:00.000-08:00

Today I'm going to talk about sweet potato. They're the survivor food during the World War II back in South East Asia. The price of basic necessities like rice increased drastically due to hyperinflation. The local can't afford these staple food anymore. Therefore root plant like tapioca, sweet potato, taro were replacing rice as staple food. Moreover these can be grown in the farm land or even in the backyard garden. I remembered, my grandad used to tell us the stories of how the people survived just on sweet potato, 3 meals a day during those war period back in Malaya. Thanks to this humble root plants that provide so much nutrients to stave off starvation back then.

Here is the Wiki explanation on the nutrients rich sweet potato:
Besides simple starches, sweet potatoes are rich in complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, beta carotene (a vitamin A equivalent nutrient), vitamin C, and vitamin B₆. Pink and yellow varieties are high in carotene, the precursor of vitamin A. In 1992, the Center for Science in the Public Interest compared the nutritional value of sweet potatoes to other vegetables. Considering fibre content, complex carbohydrates, protein, vitamins A and C, iron, and calcium, the sweet potato ranked highest in nutritional value. According to these criteria, sweet potatoes earned 184 points, 100 points over the next on the list, the common potato.(NCSPC)
Sweet potato varieties with dark orange flesh have more beta carotene than those with light coloured flesh, and their increased cultivation is being encouraged in Africa, where vitamin A deficiency is a serious health problem. Despite the name "sweet", it may be a beneficial food for diabetics, as preliminary studies on animals have revealed that it helps to stabilize blood sugar levels and to lower insulin resistance.^[13] Some Americans, including television personality Oprah Winfrey, are advocating increased consumption of sweet potatoes both for their health benefits and because of their importance in traditional Southern cuisine.
A 100g root is reported to contain 108-121 calories, 68.5-72.3 g water, 1-1.7 g protein, 0.2-0.4 g fat, 25-31.0 total carbohydrate, 0.7-1.0 g ash, 21–36 mg Ca, 38–56 mg P, 0.7-2.0 mg Fe, 10–36 mg Na, 210–304 mg K, 35-5,280 µg beta-carotene equivalent, 0.09-0.14 mg thiamine, 0.04-0.06 mg riboflavin, 0.6-0.7 mg niacin, and 21–37 mg ascorbic acid.
The peptic substance (0.78 percent total, 0.43 percent soluble) present in fresh tubers contains uronic acid (60 percent) and methoxyl (4 to 5 percent). Other constituents include phytin (1.05 percent), two monoaminophosphatides (probably lecithin and cephalin), organic acids (oxalic acid), phytosterolin, phytosterol, resins, tannins, and colouring matter. Sweet potato contanins calcium, 30; magnesium, 24; potassium, 373; sodium, 13; phosphorus, 49; chlorine, 85; sulphur, 26; iron, 0.8 mg/100g; iodine, 4.5 µg/kg; manganese, copper and zinc are present in traces (Hug et al., 1983).

When buying sweet potatoes, select sound, firm roots. Handle them carefully to prevent bruising. Storage in a dry, unrefrigerated bin kept above 15deg Celcius is best. DO NOT REFRIGERATE, because temperatures below 15deg will chill this tropical vegetable giving it a hard core and an undesirable taste when cooked.Sweet potatoes add valuable, appetizing nutrients and color to any meal.
My mum used to make this little bite size sweet potato dumpling with fillings which is of 福清(Fu Qing-a clan in Foochow) origin. My mum is a person who make lovely food just with ''agak-agak'' (estimation) recipes. I made them today and will upload the recipes later. They tasted real good as they look......
I wander if these little delicacies can suitably call itself dim sum ? :-)

Fu Qing Sweet Potato Dumpling
Ingredients (make 20-24 pieces)

Wrapper

300 gm sweet potato-cleaned, peeled and cut into pieces
120 gm tapioca starch + additional 30 gm tapioca starch for dusting
50 gm wheat starch
1/2 tbsp lard/vegetable shortening/vegetable oil
a pinch of salt
1 tsp icing sugar (optional-depend on the sweetness of your sweet potato)
1 tbsp vegetable oil- for brushing after steaming

Fillings

250 gm mince meat-chicken/pork
4 stalks of spring onion-finely chopped
1 tbsp preserved sweet turnip/radish (Chai Po)-optional
1 tsp of finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1 egg-only use the egg white
1 tsp of corn flour

Mix all the filling ingredients in a bowl and let it marinate over night.
Next day, place the sweet potato into a pot, top up with water to cover them, boil for 15-20mins till soft. Use a fork to poke the potato, you should be able to poke through easily all the way through.
While the sweet potato is boiling, in a mixing bowl seive 120gm tapioca starch and 50gm wheat starch. Add in the vegetable oil/lard/vegetable shortening , icing sugar and salt.
Once the sweet potato is cook, drain immediately and add them into the tapioca, wheat starch mixture. Use a fork to mix and mesh the sweet potato with the starch. Continue to mix well. Once the dough is slightly workable with your hand, knead to combine well. If it's too sticky, dust with some additional tapioca starch so that it's workable. The dough should feel soft but not mushy. Let it rest for 15minutes or so covered with a damp towel.
Divide the dough to 20-24 portions. Roll with your hand each of them into a small ball. Press using your palm to form a circular shape wrapper, about 4mm thickness. Scoop about 1 tbsp of filling onto it, wrap like you would as wrapping pao. Repeat until done.
Prepare bamboo steamer, let it steam for 10-15minutes on high heat until cook. Remove from heat, brush the dumpling with some vegetable oil, this will ensure the skin will stay soft and glistening.
Garnish with some black sesame seed. Served with some soya sauce mixed with pickled ginger.

Enjoy of course.

Merry Christmas to all Apron's Delight Reader

2009-12-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas vacation has started for me. I'm off till 4thJan, and foresee myself to enjoy this holiday season. Cold yes but it's alright.
This is the time when kids are the happiest-loads of presents, sweets or candies. A season when the hambug would be scrooging and grudging all about Christmas :-) .
I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Of course it's not complete without a lovely recipes to wake up to on Christmas morning.

Orange Carrot Spice Muffins
Ingredients (make 12)

280 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp soda bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp each of ground cloves and nutmeg
1 egg
90-120gm caster sugar
finely grated zest from one orange
180 ml freshly squeezed orange juice (aprox 2 big oranges)
150 gm finely grated carrot, soak overnight with 90ml of orange juice from above
85 gm melted butter or 90ml vegetable oil
50 gm raisins/sultanas
50 gm pecan/walnut finely chopped
Toppings-100 gm cream cheese, 60gm icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla. Blend well.

In a mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate soda, salt and spices.
In a separate bowl, beat egg with fork till lightly fluffy, stir in sugar, grated orange zest, orange juice, orange soaked carrot and butter/oil.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry mixture, stir to blend well. Add the raisins and pecan nut, lightly mix just to blend. The batter should look thick and lumpy.
Preheat oven to 190C.
Prepare muffin tins. Scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for 20-25minutes. Remove and cool.
Once cooled, scoop 1/2 tbsp of topping onto the muffin and spread. You could top with a pecan nut for decoration.

Potsticker wrapped with white radish

2009-12-23T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ahhh.....time to clear old stock from my fridge before replenishing with new ingredients. Well, I still have- use by 26thDec minced pork, half of white radish, some water chestnut and spring onion. Alright, just the right ingredients needed to whip up potsticker with white radish as the skin. I've seen somewhere of this recipes before but have not try it. So it seems high time to give this recipes a try.

Radish skin wrapper
Ingredients

1 big radish-chose one with at least having the top with 2.5-3inches diameter
2 tsp salt
1 litre of water
1 tsp corn flour

Filling
Ingredients

150gm minced pork
6 chestnut-finely chopped
3 stalks of spring onion- finely chopped
1 tsp of chopped ginger
2 tsp of shaoxing wine
2 tsp of white pepper
1/2-1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of sesame oil

Sliced the radish thinly using mandolin or if you can sliced thinly with knife to a thickness of less than 2mm. Make about 30 slices.
Add salt to the water in a big bowl. Stir to dissolve. Place the radish in the bowl and let it soak for 2 hours or until the radish skin can be easily folded half.
Drained and rinsed. Pat dry the skin with paper towel. Then dust one side of the skin with corn starch. This is to ensure the filling will stick onto the skin.
For the filling ingredients, add everything and let it marinate for at least an hour.
Place a teaspoon of filling ingredients onto a piece of radish wrapper. Fold half. Repeat until all the wrappers done.
Heat a pan, grease lightly with some vegetable oil. Once hot, place the potstickers onto the pan and cook. Turn to low heat to let it cook slowly. You don't have to add water onto the pan as radish will excrete juice from itself. Cover with a lid for5-7 minutes. Check if the side has browned, if yes, turned all over and cover with lid and let it cook for 5 minutes or so until browned.
Once cooked and nicely browned, removed from the pan. Garnished with some sesame seed and served with ginger in rice vinegar.

To me this little snack is healthy, the radish gives a crunchy bites and the moist minced flavor blended well with radish.

Enjoy.....

Here's some of my FOC decoration for Christmas....

Cut the holly berry from a park

My holly wreath - I just tied them together....

Mistletoe given by friend. I've not seen mistletoe before coming over here. It is meant for couple to kiss underneath the mistletoe, hence the song "I saw Mummy kissing Santa Claus underneath the mistletoe."

First major snowfall

2009-12-18T13:47:00.000-08:00

The snow did arrive in large quantity in Cambridgeshire and is going to do so over the weekend. As the weather still struggling to go above freezing point, we've a really crisp winter morning. Imagine having a blanket of white all over, almost picture perfect of wintry scenery. I did take some shot in my village and did go to Cambridge city to get some nice shot....and mucking around in the snow of course. Enjoy the picture...... I really hope we'll have a white Christmas....finger crossed. :-)

View from St. John college

Got hit by a snowball

Doing the angel act

Brave soul still punting along River Cam

St. John college

Icicle on a conifer

View from my village green

Lovely white scenery around my area
Holly Berry

My front garden carpeted in white

Finally it has arrived

2009-12-16T14:11:00.000-08:00

Oh I'm so happy today, finally my new multifunction oven has arrived. I had ordered it online a week ago and thought I've to wait a further 28days before they could actually deliver. Having the festive season just around the corner, and no oven to bake with, I could feel a bit restless if I'm inviting guests over for dinner, unless I would only served drinks (I mean alcoholic drinks) :-) .
Well, I've been researching awhile which oven to suit me and my kitchen, finally I decided for NEFF series 3 oven, German made, elegant stainless steel finishing and fit well into my built in cabinet. I'm really looking forward to start my baking again ..... the thought of freshly bake aroma of cakes, pastry, bread, pizza, pudding etc ..............
All begins with oven installation DIY before I could actually use it....luckily I have my friend to give a helping hand to do the wiring.
It has been so cold since yesterday, the temperature barely stay above freezing during the day. It's forecasted to snow tomorrow and well into Friday-about 10cm of snow expected. Stay tuned for some shots of snow.

Build up a little winter fats

2009-12-13T08:43:00.000-08:00

Especially in cold winter month, one can be forgiven to complaint a lot about weather and craving about having rich food ( the reason is to store up some ''healthy'' winter fat for heat insulation).
It has not cross my mind to make siu yuk (Chinese roast pork) before, until I discover this recipes which require no roasting at all ( as some of you already knew that my oven is already on it's last leg). This recipes produces crispy crackling/skin through frying the skin .
I have tried and tested this recipes and my verdict: Yes, I will try making them again if I've craving for siu yuk..... minus the oily mess.

Siu Yuk (Chinese Roast Pork)
Ingredients

1 pound of pork belly
1 tsp of ginger powder
1 tsp of Chinese five spice powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 1/2 tsp sea salt
oil for frying

Siu Yuk Sauce

1 tsp of oil from pork frying
1/2 inch ginger-minced
1 tsp of black bean sauce
1 tsp of dark soya sauce
1 tsp light soya sauce
100 ml of chicken stock/water
1/4 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of corn starch+ 1 tbsp water

Wash the pork. Immersed in a pot of boiling water and turn to low heat and simmer for 30-40minutes. Drained.
Using a sharp knife, stab the meat. This is to ensure you the marinating ingredient could be absorbed deeper into the meat.
Rub first ginger powder then five spice and pepper, no need to rub the skin just the meat.
Scored the skin side with sharp knife. Rub the meat and skin with salt. Cover them with cling film and let them marinate overnight.
Next day, heat a cast iron pot with some vegetable cooking oil (sunflower oil). Make sure the oil is deep enough to fry the skin bit. Once hot, place the meat with skin down, you've got to be real careful as the frying process will have oil splash. Once in, quickly cover the pot with heavy lid to avoid oil splashing. Turn the heat to medium, fry for about 8-10minutes till the skin is golden brown. Then quickly turn onto the side and fry for 1 minute each on the side (close the lid).
Once done, removed and drained with paper towel.
Chopped the meat into slices.
Scoop 1 tsp of oil from pork frying onto a sauce pan, fry the ginger till fragant. Add all the other ingredient for sauce except corn starch. Bring to a boil. Add corn starch solution to thicken sauce.
Served with rice and drizzle with sauce and cucumber.

P/S: Need to be extra careful when frying because of oil splash. Therefore cast iron pan with heavy lid is recommended.

Wanton noodle soup

2009-12-10T13:08:00.000-08:00

A bowl of piping hot wanton noodle soup on a cold winter day, it's so invigorating to the core. It's tasty broth and homemade little morsel of wanton and egg noodle is just my kind of comforting food on a dull winter's day. I like it with some minced garlic+vinegar sauce over my soup.

Wanton skin wrapper+filling recipes can be obtained here

Egg noodle recipes can be obtained here

Broth
Ingredients

800 gm pork bone/chicken + 1 handful dried anchovies
2 liter water
1 thumb size ginger-smashed
5 cloves garlic-smashed
1 thumb size rock sugar
salt to taste

Put all the ingredients for broth in a pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and let the broth simmer for 3 hrs.
Remove the bone from the pot and filter the broth onto another pot.
Heat the broth when you wanted to serve.

Noodle+Wanton

In a pot boil enough water, once boiling, drop in the wanton and let it cook. Once cooked it will float to the surface. Use a spatula to scoop them out and drained.
Then add the egg noodle to boiling water and cook. Once cooked, remove the noodle from the pot and wash under running cold tap water. Add some water to the boiling water in the pot, once boiling, add the noodle back and cook just to heat it. Drained and served in bowl. Top up with wanton, scoop the broth onto it and garnish with some spring onion, fried shallot, pickled green chillis and lettuce. Sprinkle some white pepper to serve.