Let's have a cuppa!

Lovely isn't? Well, it's not coffee or tea though... it's Lo Hon Kuo - Herbal Tea! I really miss my leong sui so I've decided to make a pot of this wholesome goodness.

Ahhh... warms up a cold weekend for me already : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

Till then, keep nomming!

Spaghetti Puttanesca

Time to tryout a new recipe... yippie!

I did alittle research on the Internet to find some spaghetti recipe since we're changing our diet to suit our budget. Hehehe. Apparently, this dish is a classic Italian dish and it is really easy to cook it up as well.

Ingredients are as below... just slice up everything and I am good to start!

First, I put some oil into the pan and fried the garlic, anchovies, chilli flakes and the olives. We did some modifications to the recipe. According to the recipe, I was supposed to add in capers but I didn't because we didn't have any and rarely use them for our cooking so I used black & white peppers instead. However, the black pepper that we've got was not strong enough, so needed to add our Sarawakian white peppers. (Malaysia Boleh!!!)
Then, I poured in the plum tomatoes and cut them up into smaller pieces with my spatula. Mix them up well, season it with salt and a little bit of sugar because it was quite sour and put in the drained spaghetti and toss them up. Grate some cheese on it before serving.

Spaghetti Puttanesca - DONE!

There were some 'new' things for me in this dish that I have not tried or liked it. First, it was olives. I don't really like olives because of my past experience with black olives that were in a salad I had back home. Secondly, there was anchovies - fresh anchovies (not the ikan bilis that we can easily obtained back home). I know not alot of people liked it due to its strong fishy smell, but to my surprise, I quite liked it. Although the smell can really put one off to try it, it actually helps to bring the 'aroma' out from the dish.
As for the olives, I think I am starting to like it... I will be having more olives in my future dishes. But for now, I shall stick the green ones first : )

The overall taste of this was really nice and refreshing. It is a little spicy due to the chilli flakes and peppers. Furthermore, it is quite cheap in terms of cost of the ingredients... definitely will be part of our 'usual' dinner dishes.


TheLoyalFan says: 'Taste like 'ching-er' version of Bolognese... yummy without feeling guilty'

Something I've learnt from my French classes last year... j'aime faire la cuisine... Till then, keep nomming!

Pork Mooli

Tonight, I've tried to cook Mum's pork mooli (raddish). Its flavour is a combination of sour and spicy but I prefer it a little more spicy : )

So here goes: fry the onions in a pan or a 'wok' until fragrant. Then put the marinated diced pork and fry until it is cooked. Continue to put some dried chillies. If you prefer alittle spark instead of the full on spicyness, remove the seeds. After that, you can put the cut mooli, a couple of assam keping and water. Be careful on the ratio between the dried chillies and the assam keping though. When I was cooking this dish, I needed to 'balance' out the taste because the sourness was quite intense. Hence, I would suggest maybe 2 dried chillis and 1 assam keping - that should do the trick : ) If it is too sour, not to worry, just put sugar to reduce the sourness. Add oyster sauce and pepper for seasoning.
Let it simmer for about 20 to 30 minutes or until the mooli is soft and cooked (it will be transparent). I like my gravy to be lesser so I will let it simmer without a lid  for a while longer to reduce liquid from it.

And the final product would looked something like this:

The final verdict? Oh it was good! It warms your body up due to the spicyness and it feels really, really good. 'Happy days' as quoted by Mr. Jamie Oliver. Oh well, it definitely was 'happy days' for me and TheLoyalFan during this cold season.

TheLoyalFan says: 'Very good with rice!'

Ingredients: Pork, Mooli, Onion, Dried Chilli and Assam Keping.
(Measurements? What kind of cuts? No specified lah, boss... all agak agak only, ala our mothers' cooking method ^_^)
 

Meet the Crew

For every invention, there's always a place for 'inspiration' to take place. Likewise, for every cook, there's always a place for the wonderful (or disastrous) dishes to happen - the Kitchen and the relevant appliances! Muahahahaha! (syiok sendiri already...)

Anyways, I thought of giving an insight of what's in my kitchen (valid until September 2012) here in Manchester. It plays a special role in my life here as I learn to cook dishes that I don't cook back home and it gives me a chance to play 'masak masak'. Plus, I always have TheLoyalFan to try out the dishes.

Alrightie then, let's not delay this further - introducing... the CREW!!!
*cheers & applause*

Meet the Kitchen - this is where all the cooking, chopping and cleaning takes place. The space is quite small, but it is quite handy; everything's within hand's reach!

The Hob & the Microwave - without them, you can't really cook or defrost something, eh?

The kranky kettle & the 'Pot of Wonder' - Somehow this kettle produces loud growling sound when it is boiling water, kinda scary but it boils water fast! No complains from me : ) 'Pot of Wonder' was brought from home and it has served us well - from boiling rice to frying meat, this machine is really something.

The stir fry pan a.k.a. the 'Wok' & 'Pot on a hob' - Bought at a local supermarket last September. We use it for frying and stewing. Its slight depth gives us a chance to boil soup too! 'Pot on a hob' was brought by Mum when she visited us in December. Looking forward to use it for some 'soupy' dishes. *slurp!*

And recently joining the crew a few days ago, 'O Great Toaster' & the Chopper - Christmas presents from SZ & TOH and we're loving them to bits, especially 'O Great Toaster'. Well, TheLoyalFan is a huge fan of toasties and he LOVES it to bits! I'm looking forward to chop something with this cool gadget, but only time will tell me the right moment to use it. Hehehe.

So that's it on the introductory session of the Crew. Hope you didn't fall asleep while reading this. Till then, keep nomming!

One Pot Cooks it All!

What to cook when you have very limited stuff in your fridge? Not to worry, there's always the 'one pot cooks it all' dish also known as 'Pot of Goodness' as quoted by TheLoyalFan.

Basically, the title is self explanatory. We put the ingredients that we like into a rice cooker and after 20 minutes or so, voila! A pot of goodness is ready to be served! Yum yum!

Tonight, I made our favourite 'pot of goodness' - rice cooker lap cheong rice! (a modified version of claypot chicken rice) First, I cut ginger and lap cheong into slices. Then soak some chinese black mushroom in warm water(due to the water & weather condition here), cut off the stem and cut the shrooms into slices (or quarters if you like them chunky). Prepare the rice as how one prepares it (add a little bit more water for other ingredients that may absorb water) and before you pop it into the cooker, put all ingredients into the pot. Make sure everything is soaked beneath the water and add some seasoning. For this round, I've added chicken stock because I had some leftovers in the fridge and wanted to finish up. However, I've also added in soya sauce, oyster sauce and pepper. Well, these are the 'standard' seasoning I use for my chinese cooking :-) Once done, it should look like this:

Doesn't look quite appealing, eh? But don't worry, it will be yummy!

And put it into the cooker and wait for the switch to pop up.

After 20 minutes or when the switch pop up, you can smell the aroma from the rice pot and it is ready...Mmmm! What I like about this 'One Pot Wonder' is that you can put almost any ingredients into the pot. I've tried putting broccoli, chinese long cabbage, onion, chicken meat... it's like an experiment - Just put in the stuff, season it and once ready, open the lid and see the 'Pot of Wonder'! LOL!

Yum Yum YUMMM!

TheLoyalFan says: 'Om nom nom... Very good!*scrape rice pot clean*'

Ingredients: Almost any ingredient you fancy :-) For some taste and aroma, add in ginger, onion or garlic.

To Peel or Not to Peel

When it comes to lap cheong (chinese sausage), I always wonder whether 'to peel or not to peel' off the lining of the lap cheong. You see, it is not as easy as it seemed to be because the lining is stuck onto the meat and the oily surface is not helping to speed up the process either. But it has to be done although it is difficult, you wouldn't want to be pulling out the lining out of your mouth during a meal... that would be unpleasant for everyone!

So usually, I would cut the ends of the lap cheong, using my fingernails to 'separate' the lining away from the meat and gradually remove the lining. It can be quite frustrating because the bits of the meat will get stuck underneath your fingernails (yuck) and afterawhile, I would feel tired because of the amount of strength I used, just to remove the lining. TheLoyalFan suggested that I should try removing the lining under running water and so I gave it a try. True enough, the lining came out easier! (Of course, the ends have been cut off so that there is an opening to start with). The beginning part was slightly challenging but as you continue, the lining came out and you don't need to put much force/strength onto it.

A new discovery for me, hope it is for you too!

Now, I look forward to peeling more lap cheongs... hahaha!

Starting a New Year

Happy New Year everyone! Best wishes from FooSA and me over here.

A cooking/travel/adventure blog is something FooSA thought of one day, and I thought 'great idea!'. So we took a little time to convert FooChook to her new blog and here it is. I hope her stories will warm your hearts and give you small chuckles from time to time. Do enjoy!