ABC Soup

You may wonder... How did this soup got its name. What ingredient represents A, B or even C? My mum calls it ABC soup; my mum-in-law calls the same name too. Hmmm, I guess maybe because it is really, really easy to prepare and it is just as simple as ABC ^_^

Firstly, cut up some carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and an onion (heehee the words rhyme!). If you have Chinese cabbage in your fridge, you can chop some up too! The Chinese cabbage adds sweetness in the flavoring. 

Before that, boil a pot of water with some chicken or pork. Preferably parts with bones such as drumsticks, thighs, ribs or the porky's legs. Once done with the chopping, put all the veggies into the pot. Let it boil for about 20 minutes and turn down the heat to let it simmer for another 30/40 minutes. You can add in a chicken cube for seasoning, or salt / soy sauce is fine as well.

And that's it! Your soup is ready to serve and be eaten! XD

Have a great Thursday and weekend will be here sooner than you think. ^_^

Tata!

Express Baked Chicken & Mushroom Pasta!

Yup, you read that right... Express version. LOL! When I was trying to figure out how to make this chicken pasta, I searched over the Internet and found some useful recipes. But I thought, I'll try to keep it simple lah! Instead of creating my own white sauce, I've replaced with canned mushroom soup ^_^

Alright, so here's my cooking experiment...

First, slice up some onions and chicken meat. You can either buy canned mushroom that has been sliced, or the whole mushroom. If it is whole, just slice them up too! Marinate the chicken with some pepper. I used grounded black pepper but I think white pepper is fine. Just use whichever type of pepper you have okie?

Boil the pasta until it is al dente. If it is very soft, it might break into small pieces when we mix our ingredients. While the pasta is being cooked, in a separate pan (or wok), stir fry the onion until fragrant. Then tip in the chicken and fry them until they are quite cooked. Add some herbs - mixed herbs or thyme / basil are fine. I prefer stronger herbs so mixed herbs or oregano are okay for me. Remember to pour in the mushroom when the chicken is about 90% cooked. The canned mushroom is already cooked so that sort of saves time for me. 

Once the pasta is ready, drain them and pour them into the wok. Add in the mushroom soup into the mixture. Pour in some water in the can, maybe 1/3 in order to clean out the remainder that is stacked in it. Stir stir and mix mix everything until all ingredients are well coated. Yum! 

Oh yes, remember to heat up the oven before you use it. Turn it up to Gas 5 / 180c.

Last but not least, taste your pasta. Add some salt for seasoning... And taste again before you scoop 'em up into a casserole dish. Or a deep plate that can be placed in an oven.

Sprinkle on some grated cheese or cheddar cheese slices. Then place the dish into the oven for about 5 minutes or until the cheese has melted, or slightly brown. Ready to serve!

Sorry folks, I didn't manage to take a photo once the pasta is ready to be served. Had to put LittleMissPoochie to sleep because she was tired. Plus we were so hungry that we started to dig in : P

Nonetheless, I think it came out quite good. The pasta was well coated with the sauce. Perhaps a little more sauce would've been nice. Then it would give a creamier texture. 

TheLoyalFan says: "Really liked the mushroom taste. Cheese could be a little less strong though."

Hmmm, I think the cheese I used was a Parmesan. Not too sure myself. The block of cheese has been sitting in the fridge so I use it lor... I think my experiment turned out quite OK. The mini research that I did online helped me also - just to make sure what I have in mind on the methodology is reasonable (methodology... Bombastic lingo :P)

OK, tata everyone! Have a good week and keep cooking!

Black Beans Pork Ribs

Hey!

I found some black beans in my fridge and realized that some of the beans had gone bad. Mouldy. So I thought I'd try to make black beans ribs, like the dish you can eat at Dim Sum. Well, almost similar lah... and I googled a recipe that used a slow cooker to cook this dish. Thought I shall give it go ^_^

Let's get started!

First, ensure your ribs have been chopped into smaller pieces. Maybe 1 or 2 inches in length. Marinate the ribs with Chinese Wine and black pepper. Then pour in the black beans, chopped ginger and garlic followed by corn flour. As black beans are salty itself, there is no need to put soy sauce or salt in it. I've mixed about 2 tablespoons of black beans in my ribs (I made the dish for 4 pax). To reduce washing up, put all the ingredients and mix them up in the slow cooker pot. Haha!

Once all the ingredients have been well mixed, turn the knob to "auto" mode and let it simmer away for 3 hours.

Mmm... taste wise, it is quite good - not too salty. If you find the black bean's taste is too strong, you can either balance it with a dash of sugar and some water to dilute the taste. Mum said that I could be  a little more generous on the corn flour. I was afraid that if I put too much, the meat may be starchy. Perhaps 1 tablespoon or 2 of corn flour could create a smoother and juicer meat texture. And it would be nice to garnish some spring onion on the ribs.

TheLoyalFan says: "Was thoroughly yum yum. Even better with longer juicier ribs!"

-.-"""

Oh wells, I guess we could try to chop longer next time lor...

Till then, keep nomming!

Om Om Omelette!

A simple yet can be a delicious dish, I think the omelette is a flexible dish. How so? Well, it is flexible because you either cook it with eggs only, or adding different ingredients to create a more wholesome, awesome egg dish.

I'm not sure about you, but at my home, the omelette is versatile. We can combine with all kinds of ingredients - from simple sliced onions, French beans, bitter-gourd to a combination of seafood such as crab sticks and prawns. If you have the opportunity, do try it at the nearest restaurants in your area. Or when you visit Kuala Lumpur ^_^

I'm happy to share one of our household's favourite - the tomato omelette recipe.

First, slice up some onions and cut the tomatoes into wedges. Remove some of the seeds from the wedges. This is because when the tomatoes are being fried, the mushy seeds will become watery, making the omelette wet. Then depending on the number of people you are cooking for, crack some eggs into a bowl. Let's say, you are cooking for 4 people: Perhaps cracking 4 eggs or 5 eggs (if you like your omelette to be more... "Egg-gy"). Season the eggs with some pepper and soy sauce. Whisk them away, Sous Chef!

Frying and simmering away!

And here it is... the final porduct!

All nice and charred... NICE!

To be honest, this is not my first time cooking this dish. However, my previous attempts didn't turned out as how it would look like the photo above. It was always wet because of the tomatoes, and I just suddenly thought of this idea of removing the seeds. Hahaha, abit slow to figure that out ^_^ Nonetheless, it was yummeh, babeh!

TheLoyalFan says: "Very nice! Tomatoes indeed can be added into omelettes."

Yup, you are looking at my crock pot chicken too : P Both are fantastic with rice! Om nom nom noms...

Have a great weekend, folks!

Cooking Again - Crock Pot Chicken

Hey everyone!

It has been a while, okay lah... a long while, that I have written stuff in my blog. Over the past year, I've been busy adjusting with a new member in my family - LittleMissPoochi. She has been a bundle of joy to TheLoyalFan and I ^_^ We are truly blessed and thankful for her well being.

Alrightie then, let's get back to more cooking!

With LittleMissPoochi around the house, I find it challenging to prepare a meal. So Mum taught me a recipe that doesn't require much attention... which is cooking with the Crock Pot a.k.a. Slow Cooker.

The thing about this wonderful pot is that one doesn't need to jaga fire - standing by the hob, ensuring the fire is right in order to avoid our dish being burnt. All you need to do is put in all your ingredients and turn it on. So lots of our mothers (and our grandmothers) like using the crock pot as it can stew the meat, making the meat all sooo soft, juicy and yummy!

First, ensure your chicken is thawed and marinate it. Before you marinate, trim off some of the fat from the chicken in order to reduce the oil. I marinated my chicken with 3 ingredients - Chinese wine, soy sauce and white pepper. This is the same marinate method that I used for my steamed chicken. Cut some ginger into thin strips then soak some gei zhee (goji berries) and yoke chook. For the Chinese herbs, I soaked in water, about 2 or 3 tablespoons of water.

Once your ingredients are ready, put everything including the water from soaking the herbs, into the crock pot. Leave it in the pot for 2 hours. I adjusted the heat to high mode.

And after 2 hours...

Tadaaa!

Chickens were stabbed to check whether inside is cooked ^_^

I must say, this dish turned out great! A variation of my steamed chicken and I.LOVE.IT! Well, I'm a very ching chong kind of person. The sauce was tasty and complemented well with rice. Mum and CuteFuzzyBear gave a thumbs up for my attempt (yay!)

TheLoyalFan says: 'Such a good dish to come home to after a long day. Its good to have sous chef back!'

I'm glad that sous chef is back too! : P

Stay tune for more posts on my culinary journey back home. Till then, keep nommings!

The attempted sticky ribs...

It is, so far, a relaxing week for many Malaysians as we only work 3 days! Well, that's because there's Diwali and Awal Muharram - both are national public holidays for all of us! Weee... so, without any hesitation, it is time to try out a new recipe which I was really excited.

After reading much recipes from the Internet, I've decided to simplify it. So here goes...

First things first, we must have THE ribs. TheLoyalFan and I headed to our nearby market to buy some pork ribs. The friendly butcher chopped the ribs into half... it wasn't baby ribs so have to chop lor... Then, it is marinate time!

Give the ribs a good rinse and drain well. Finely chop about 2 cloves of garlic and place into the bowl of ribs. Season it with salt, pepper, BBQ sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Massage these goodies on every surface of the ribs. Be generous on the seasoning but go easy on the BBQ sauce as this is a dry marinate.

Grilling in ze BBQ pit, with a LID! 

Now it is time to grill. You can either use an oven or on a BBQ pit. For this, I use a BBQ pit with a lid. I grilled the ribs for 2 hours. During the first hour, it was an indirect grilling and we flipped it about every 10 minutes to even out the cooking. For the last half hour, we basted the ribs with honey to get that 'sticky' effect.

Et voila! Moi attempted ribs. The chicken was part of dinner too!

Yum yum yum! I think it was a success on my simple marinate experiment. After having the ribs, I can't wait to have another round of this ribs again! Nonetheless, there are some tweaks need to be done in order to perfect my ribbies. TheLoyalFan and I thought that we should baste the ribs with a honey & BBQ sauce mixture instead of just honey. Also, I think we should cook it longer so that the meat would just fall off from the bones... *slurp slurp slurp*

TheLoyalFan says: 'Nom nom nom nom nom noms...slurp!I wish I could have this everyday!'

Mmm Mmm...

Something New and Something To Try Out Soon!

Look!

A gift from TSS when we met up the other day at her house for dinner. I was really happy and touched for this wonderful gift. : )

Looks like there are lots of recipes to try out and I shall pass on the food revolution to all of you ^_^ I hope my journey with this book will be fun and enjoyable. Stay tune for more posts on recipes from this book! : P

Happy Weekend everyone!

Yeong Tow Foo!

Can also be known as stuffed veggies or stuffed beancurd if translated directly from its Chinese name, it is a common food in Malaysia and a favourite among all races too! This food originated from the Hakka people but it has evolved to suit everyone's tastes and preferences. The stuffing is either made from fish paste, meat paste or a combination of mince pork and fish.

And here it goes...

First, you'll need fish and mince pork. I used Tenggiri fish or the Spanish Mackerel (Gao Yue in Cantonese). If you're not sure how the fish looks, feel free to ask your friendly fish monger in the market. The fish monger whom I bought from was very friendly and helpful. She gave great information about the fish and how to do it : ) OK OK... back to topic: Once the fish has been thawed completely, scrape the flesh from its skin. Be careful not to scrape out the bones as the bones near the fins are quite fine. You can ask your fish monger to 'butterfly' your fish, separating the flesh from its spinal bone. That way, you'll be able to scrape easily.

Scrape, scrape, scrape!

And mince mince mince!

Once the flesh has been scrapped out, sprinkle some salt and mince them. At the beginning, use the knife to mince it. Then as you continue to mince the fish into paste, use the blunt side of the knife.  After you mince it, fold the flesh towards the centre of the mince. It is as though you are folding a dough. Keep repeating these steps until the flesh becomes sticky. I think it took about 10 to 15 minutes for me but do take note that if there is alot of flesh, then it will take longer time.

When the paste is ready, mix together with your mince pork. Season it with sesame oil, pepper, salt, 2 to 3 tablespoons of corn flour and an egg to bind everything together. Give it a good mix and you are ready to stuff your veggies!

Now here comes the assembling part - I used brinjal and fried tofu. For the brinjal, cut it into chunks and slid in the middle of the brinjal pieces. You can use big chillis, lady's finger and even the white squared tofu to stuff the meat. For those, you'll just need to slid the veggie, and empty out the seeds inside it.

When all is done, fry them in hot oil. You can either deep fry or shallow fry them. Remember to fry all sides to ensure the meat is entirely cooked.

After much preparation, we can finally tuck into our home made Yeong Tow Foo! I must say, it is much more delicious than those in the shops. The texture of the meat was just right, it wasn't too meaty and neither was it too fishy as well. The flavours from the stuffing enhances the vegetables and the tofu. Hmmm, I must do this again! I think my smile was stretched from one eye to the other ^_^

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tastes like commercial Yeong Tow Foo. If only there were Sui Kows (Dumplings)...'

Well, with much sweat, blood and tears, I ate every bite with much appreciation for those Yeong Tow Foo sellers. It was a tedious process to prepare this, but I am really happy that I have learnt to make this : )

Till then, happy nomming and have a fantastic week ahead!

Shepherd's Pie

Aloha everyone!

I must apologize for the long silence. TheLoyalFan and I got back home about a month ago and we had to do some errands and adjustments back to the Malaysian lifestyle. Now that we're settling in, it is time to try new recipes again! This time, the location is back in KL... weee!

Shepherd's pie is something really English - *with English accent* typical English I must say. So here goes:

First, chop up some onions, carrots and celery. Then stir fry the onion with some cooking oil in a pan for about 2 minutes or until it is fragrant. Next, pour in a packet of mince beef and mix well. Season the mince with herbs, salt and pepper. When the mince is almost 90% cooked, pour in the chopped carrots, celery and a can of tomato puree. Season it with some sugar to counter the sourness of the tomatoes. Give it a good stir and let it simmer until the vegetables are soften. I made mine moderately soft because TheLoyalFan likes them crunchy ^_^

While waiting for the meat and veggies to be cooked thoroughly, you can start preparing your mash potatoes. Basically, just clean and cut them into chunky bits and boil them for about 10 minutes or until it is soft. Then drain the water and mash the potatoes!!! Remember to season them with butter and milk... it will be oh-so-delicious and fluffy!

Here comes the fun part - assembly time! (It is not the usual Monday assembly school time, folks : P)

Using a casserole dish, pour in the mince beef and flatten it out. Once that is done, pour the mash to cover the meat. Oh yes, before you do this, remember to heat up the oven at 190⁰c or gas mark 5. Decorate your mash with either some pepper seasoning or with twigs of rosemary. Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until the mash has become golden brown.

Et voila!

I think the preparation was quite easy. With some help from TheLoyalFan and CuteFuzzyBear, we managed to cook this really fast. The mash complements really well with the meat... Ooh La La!  One thing to note though, my meat mixture was a little wet. Perhaps the next round I will need to drain the sauce away.

TheLoyalFan says: 'The creamy mash matched the meaty filling very well! I had trouble stopping myself...'

Yum yum yum!!! I have to agree with TheLoyalFan... I had trouble too : P

Happy Weekend everyone! I am loving the weekends >_<

The things I will miss...

A year of adventure will be coming to an end. There were so many good memories that were created while we're here. And here goes... of the things I will miss in the UK:

Clockwise from top left: Nawaab (Indian buffet), Tops (Chinese / World buffet), a  variety of salads on a platter at Bem Brasil (Brazillian buffet)

Buffet in Manchester!
Known as THE 'Buffet Hub' in the UK, there are so many types of cuisine that one can choose from. From Chinese, Indian, Thai to Brazillian and 'World Buffet', ahhh... staying one year here is definitely not enough to try all of them! Furthermore, you can get a proper buffet meal under a tenner and stuffed yourself silly! I don't think I can ever get this price in Malaysia...

Dairy products
I am going to miss this real bad! Well mainly because where I come from, there are limited choices of cheeses and milks (whole, semi skimmed, skimmed). Plus most of it are imported and hence, the prices are quite expensive for us to buy and enjoy them. We still buy them nonetheless although it is pricey... we need our daily calcium intake ma! ^_^

In this year of adventure, I have learnt to cook dishes with double cream, crème fraîche and with cheese. Not only that, we drank milk every day too! I will remember the recipes I've learnt and cook them for my family when I'm back... the next time would be, spaghetti cabonara, made in Malaysia! ^_^

The stairs
The faithful flights of stairs that we use throughout our stay here in Manchester. Whenever we head out to the city, we'll use it to go downstairs instead of the lift. When it is cold and wet outside, it is our 'exercise apparatus' and we would go 2 to 3 laps a day. I think TheLoyalFan and I will surely miss our 'Stairs Master' exercise when we're home...

Clockwise from top left: The Great Orme, sheep on a meadow, piggies! and Tudor architectures in Chester

The UK itself
There are so many things that I have learnt to appreciate while I'm here and one of them is history. Everywhere we visted, there's always old buildings from the Victorian era, Georgian and even Medieval times. The city councils have preserved them really well and I have learnt and understand more about the history and how we have evolved to become a better civilization towards the 21st century. Not only that, I will miss those wide pavements for pedestrians to walk, to push their buggies and for their wheelchairs. Although the pavements are dirty and full of chewing gum residue, I enjoyed the walk very much. We still walk during the bitter cold winter and we've survived although we're from the tropical climate country : )

Last but it is definitely not the least, I'm gonna miss those cows, sheep and pigs whenever we travelled around the country. I love the view of the green plains with grazing cows and sheep. And during winter, it would be a snowy white plains to the end of the horizon. Brilliant view indeed!

As we'll be starting to pack up, go home and start new chapter of our lives, our adventure will always be a great memory to cherish and the UK has a special place in our hearts as well...

Till then, keep nomming!

Can Instant Food be home cooked?

Have you tried Macaroni & Cheese - the ones where you can buy from the supermarkets, just add water, milk & butter? I love eating Mac & Cheese! Ever since the day I tried it back home, I sort of fell in love with it.

Lately I was thinking whether this miracle instant food can be cooked from scratch. So I thought I would give it a try, using my own imagination on what ingredients manufacturers use. Hehe, a 'food factory' experiment!

And so it begins with these ingredients - macaroni, cheese, water, butter, salt & pepper.

Pour 1 cup of water and half cup of macaroni into a sauce pan. Let them simmer on medium heat and add in about 1/3 cup of milk, followed by the a good knob of butter. Stir up everything. I used the same cup for all measurements : )

While waiting for the macaronis to be cooked, season it with salt & pepper. I think the simmering will probably take about 6 - 10 minutes, depending on the quality of the macaroni.

Once the macaroni is thoroughly cooked, mix it grated cheese. I used cheddar cheese. While mixing the cheese, remove the pan from heat in order to avoid your sauce from splitting.

Finito!

I can't believe that my experiment actually worked! Hahahaha... So happy with the result. Some things to take note though: If I want to make the sauce dryer, I could reduce my water measurement. Perhaps the next time, adding another type of cheese (say, Mozarella) should take better. And, I think the next time I can add in some herbs. So far, I'm inclining to basil but I'll need to test it out the next time : P

So it turns out that we can actually cook Mac & Cheese on a hob too! Looks like a simple instant food can be home cooked and it takes the same amount of time to prepare as well : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'Ten times nicer than the instant version! The cheese tasted real, beacause it was! It didn't have an artifical taste and wasn't overly creamy. Just nice!'

Ooo... yes it was!

Till then, keep nomming : ) And have fun watching the opening ceremony for London Olympics!

Kiwi & Peach Crumble Crunch

What do you do when your kiwis are hard and still not ripen after a week? Well, I decided to chop them up and learn to make a compote out of it : )

Basically, compote is a mixture of fruits that were boiled in sugar syrup. This method was orginated from France some time in the 17th century. So I thought that perhaps this method can help make my kiwis edible : P

And here goes...

First, I sliced up the kiwi into small pieces and place them in a pan. Then I added in sugar and some water. This is the most basic compote. From what I've gathered via the Internet, you can add in vanilla pods and lemon juice to make it tastier. Let the mixture simmer on low heat and stir it occasionally to avoid the fruits getting burnt. This would take about 10 minutes, or depending on the amount of fruits.

When the kiwis are soften, pour in the sliced peaches. For the peaches, I cheated by using the canned ones. Hehe... Fresh ones will do just fine as well but you'll need to boil them together with the kiwis. When the compote is ready, remove the pan from the stove and let it cool down.

In a separate bowl, crunch some digestive biscuits into rough crunchy bits.

Next, whip up a tub of double cream until it creates medium peaks. Then fold in a tub of low fat yogurt and we are ready to assemble our crumble crunch.

Using some glasses (or bowls), place a layer of digestive biscuits. Then scoop up some compote and followed by a layer of the yogurt mixture. Keep repeating until you have reach to the brim. Place the glasses into the fridge to set for about 2 hours and it is ready to serve : )

Simmer simmer, pound and pound, let them set and ready to eat!

The outcome of this dessert was interesting and yummy. I mentioned interesting because while I was cooking the compote, the kiwis started to change colour and I panicked. Hahahaha, silly me! It is completely natural for fruits to change colour, more so for the kiwi. Thankfully I had TheLoyalFan to help out and calm me down. I really liked the combination of the crumble crunch. It is not too sweet and neither it was a heavy dessert. If you can't find double cream, I think vanilla ice cream would be splendid too! My sister made a dessert for my mum and myself once with ice cream, cornflakes and fruits. It was delicious too!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very, very, very yummy! Tasted like cheesecake.'

Yummy indeed! Nom Nom Noms...

Steamed Ribs

This week it is back to Chinese food and while we were planning what to eat, we suddenly thought of steam ribs, those you'd eat at Dim Sum. The ribs would be steamed with ginger, black beans and finely sliced red chillis. And so, we decided to give it a try, with a twist : P

Because our stay in the UK is coming to an end soon, we didn't wanted to buy black beans. Instead, we modified our ingredients. First, marinate the ribs with pepper, Chinese cooking wine, soy sauce and corn flour. The corn flour will give a smooth texture on the rib when it is cooked. Leave the ribs to marinate for about 5 - 10 minutes. Then slice up some garlic and ginger and scatter on top of the ribs. Using a pair of scissors, finely cut the dried chillis and scatter all over the ribs too!

Once the garnishing is completed, steam the ribs for 30 to 45 minutes.

Ready to be served!

At first, I wasn't sure whether it would turn out nice as this is my first attempt at cooking pork ribs. To my surprise, it tasted quite nice actually. The dried chillis were replacement of the black beans and they complimented with the ribs rather nicely. Plus it gives you a slight spicy taste to it, and made the ribs more refreshing, leaving you wanting more. Sadly, we only had 8 pieces of ribs. We will definitely make this again and the next time, must remember to buy more ribs! Hahahaha...

TheLoyalFan says: 'Veli Veli Goods! Super good with rice, tasted super chinese! Got transported back home, for a short while, hehehehe.'

Till then, keep nomming!

The Western Week - Day 7 (Finale)

Asian Chicken (yep, you read that right : P) served with tomato & cucumber salad. Sorry folks, I can't think of a proper title for my chicken. Hehehe...

With limited ingredients at home, I was not sure what kind of flavour to prepare for dinner. Herbs were out, and the only ingredients available were my Chinese sauces. So, I marinated the chicken with pepper and a dash of fish sauce. While searing the chicken in a hot pan, I poured some Shao Xing wine and later on glazed the chicken with honey & soy sauce mixture.

For the salad, it was seasoned with pepper, salt, finely chopped garlic and some cooking oil.

The outcome for this round of dinner was nice. However, the chicken was a bit too salty. We suspected that TheLoyalFan dashed 'too much' of fish sauce. But I think if we remove the soy sauce from the honey mixture, it should turned out alright. I wanted to try to make a Char Siew glaze (watched it from "Gok cooks Chinese"), but it didn't tasted as I'd imagined. Nonetheless, the chicken was really juicy and tender. The salad was quite refreshing, wished I had some black pepper as that would create a different taste than the white pepper : )

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tasted very fushiony. It actually reminded me alot of our BBQ marinated chicken at home. It looked a little different at first, but it turned out pretty well and i enjoyed it very much!'

* * * * * * * 

Finally, our Western Week has come to an end. Reflecting back to the objectives that I've set out at the beginning of this, I think we managed to survive just western meals for dinners. To be honest, we cheated. We had Chinese food for lunch : P Guilty as charged! Ho Ho Ho. If we didn't have Chinese lunch, I think we would have died! Yup,  we're true Ching Chong Ling Longs! (hopeless!)

As for the budgeting, I think having Western meals can be cheaper if chosen the right ingredient. For example, if one were to buy chicken, the breast is usually the most expensive compared to thighs or drumsticks because it doesn't have any bones. So that would be a saving. Just to share with you, our usual weekly groceries are average of GBP20 which includes lunch, dinner, snacks and desserts after dinner. However, for our western week challenge, it was GBP 22.00. Not a very big variance mainly because we usually buy the 'in season' vegetables or those with promotion. The reason of the slight increase is the frozen breaded cod. That alone costed GBP 2.00.

Nonetheless, I had great fun with the challenge. I've learnt to appreciate and understand (roughly) a common Western food, at the same time, I also learn't not to take Chinese food for granted. Both are yummy and great!

Mmm... Time to treat ourselves with some Asian food. Hehehehe...

Till then, keep nomming!

The Western Week - Day 6

Phew... We're now at Day 6 and there's one more day to go for our Western Week Challenge. Yay! Am quite looking forward to the end of my self initiated challenge : P

Day 6 dinner was a simple one - Spaghetti Cabonara!

TheLoyalFan says: ' This cabonara was a little too cheesy for me. I also would have preferred smoky bacon. Other than that, it was very good. Noms!'

Yum yum yums... 6 days have came and gone. And the final day is coming soon too!

Cost for Day 6: GBP 1.20 for 2 pax.

The Western Week - Day 5

Sorry everyone for backlog post... Anyways, day 5's dinner is...

*Drum rolls*

Pan fried breaded cod served with chilled potato salad and fresh green vegetables. Plus a homemade tartar sauce.

We had a free drink too! Well, sort of - TheLoyalFan looted from our Hall's summer party. 

Another really simple dish. The breaded cod was bought in a box at the frozen section and just pan fried them. Wished I had an oven and that would be much easier... That way, I wouldn't be cleaning the newly 'decorated' kitchen with oil splatters : )

Other than that, the sides were repeats from previous dinners... hehehe. Fast and simple for me! ^_^

As for the tartar sauce, it was an attempt to finish up our big bottle of mayonnaise. I've added some finely chopped pickled gherkins in a bowl and squeeze a huge dollop of mayonnaise. Then I seasoned it with some salt and  pepper. I also poured a teaspoonful of juice from the pickled gherkins. Mixed them up, et voila!

The cod was erm... hmmm... quite okay... Well, it was like having fish & chips at our local western food stall back home. Very simple and edible lah! The tartar sauce was kinda chunky because I chopped too many gherkins... but I like it! Yum Yums! Perhaps I should squeeze some lemon juice the next time when I make tartar sauce.

TheLoyalFan says: 'I was slightly disappointed with the fish fillet, it tasted like a huge fish nugget.  As a result, it tasted really oily. The tartar sauce was great though... Never knew it was so easy to make.'


Cost for Day 5: GBP 3.00 for 2 pax.

The Western Week - Day 4

Spicy Garlic Mushroom Spaghetti! Finally, something different : )

This is a new recipe I found on the Internet and thought of giving it a try since it is quite easy. So here goes...

First, fry some garlic, onion, dried chilli and mushroom in a pan with some cooking oil. For budgetary experimental purposes, I bought sliced mushroom in a tin. Hahahahahah! Plus, this can save some slicing time for me too! Once the onion & garlic are fragrant, pour in carrots and other vegetables that you'd like it in your sauce. Celery and olives should taste great and add colour in it as well.

While frying these ingredients, remember to boil the spaghetti too!

After frying for about 5 minutes, pour a tin of chopped tomatoes and give it a good mix. Add in some herbs such as parsley or... mixed herbs. However, I'm out of mixed herbs so I used basil instead : P  Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Let the sauce simmer in low or medium heat until the sauce has been reduced and thicken. Pour in the drained spaghetti and give it a good toss!

Done!

Toss Toss Toss!

Ready to be eaten, with some cheese! Yummie!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tasted alot like Puttanesca. It has a more fusiony Asian twist though. I liked the spicyness... noms!'

"Fusiony Asian Twist"? o.O!!!

Well, I think it turned out quite nice. Wish there were more mushroom and more of it! Hehehehe.

Cost for Day 4: GBP 1.70 for 2 pax

The Western Week - Day 3

Better quality sausages served with home made sauce. Plus potato salad and fresh greens with home made honey & mustard dressing. Yums!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Much better sausages... I actually prefer the green salad as a side compared to the first time. Nonetheless, nom noms!'

And noms noms indeed! Weee! 3 days have passed and we're still going strong without rice! Hahahahahaha!

Cost for Day 3: GBP 2.50 for 2 pax

The Western Week - Day 2

Butter & Herb Chicken glazed with honey. Served with potato salad and refreshing cucumbers.

I used chicken thighs as they are much cheaper than breast. First, I removed the chicken skin and some fatties around the chicken. Then, using a knife, I gave some 'slits' onto the meat so that the marinate can seep into the meat and to ensure the meat is thoroughly cook too. Rub the meat with mixed herbs and season with salt and pepper, both the top part and the bottom part of the thigh.

Once the pan is hot, pour about a tablespoon of oil just to baste the base. Then place the thighs onto the pan, as flat as possible. Sear both sides for a couple of minutes and put a big knob of butter into the pan. Swirl the pan to ensure all meats have absorb the butter. Close the lid and cook it for 15 minutes.
Occasionally, turn the meat so that both sides are evenly brown. When the chicken meats are cooked, serve. With the remaining oil in the pan, melt a tablespoon of honey together with the oil and glaze the chicken.

The potato salad was made in advanced on Day 1. So we just took it out from the fridge - nice and cold! Yums!

It turned out quite nice, I must say : ) I think if I have an oven, it would probably turn out more moist and yummy too! Cooking with a pan can make the stove area quite messy though : P Nonetheless, it was yummy!!!

TheLoyalFan says: 'I love the chicken. Mmm... it has a very nice roasted herby flavour. Am very surprised that it tastes so good considering that it was pan grilled. Suggested to Souschef that the marinate to be used in barbeques in the future!'

Hmmm... that's a good idea! When we do our next barbeque lah ok?


Cost for Day 2: GBP2.50 for 2 pax

The Western Week - Day 1

This week, I'm taking on a new challenge for our dinner meals. I would like to find out a couple of things and have decided to write my experience thru my blog. Here are some of the things:

1. Can we (The Souschef and The LoyalFan) survive on western meals alone?

2. By preparing western dinners, how does it affect our budgeting? Will it be cheaper than usual, or, more expensive?

I know this sounds a little weird, but hey, let's bring some fun into this challenge, man! TheLoyalFan and myself are Malaysian Chinese, so let's see whether we can survive this... or not : P

Alrightie then, let the challenge begins!

*Drum roll begins, ends with a clash of cymbal*

Our first western dinner - Sausages with potato salad & stir fried sugar snaps

I have made the potato salad in advanced so that it will be chilled. Cut potatoes into little chunks and boil it until it is cooked. Drain the water and season the potatoes with mayonaise, salt, pepper and some mixed herbs (Chives would be lovely!).
If you have lemons, squeeze in  some lemon juice and it will give a refreshing taste!

For the sugar snaps, it was a chinese fusion... hehehe (Asian seasoning is considered as... seasoning, not as a meal ^_^). Stir fry the sugar snaps with or without oil, and season it with some soy sauce & fish sauce.

The sausages we've bought are one of the cheaper brands in the supermarket. It is very easy to cook, just fry it in a pan! Yippie! We also made sauce to compliment with our sausages. With the leftover oil from the sausages, stir fry sliced onions until fragrant. Then pour in some wine, we used our little bit of port and pour in half a bowl of corn flour water. Season it with some HP sauce and sugar. 


Done!

It does nice on the plate, eh? The sausages were... well, okay lah! Abit too salty and the meat was quite processed. Nonetheless, our 'experimented' sauce turned out quite nice!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Tonight's sausages weren't as good as the premium ones we had the last time. Sauce was good though, the port gave it a very nice ehhh ermm... fruity flavour. Noms!'


Alright! Day One's complete and six more days to go...

Cost for Day 1 : GBP 3.30 for two pax