MY BABY GAL HAS TURNED 21 :)))

Happy 21st Birthday sweetheart ....

Today my piggy gal has turned 21 and I should be happy instead I have mixed feelings, I feel my baby has grown up too fast . I still remember her first tottering baby steps and today she walks in stilettos with firm strides…..yup yup my baby is now 21 and I am 2 decades older :P No matter how old she is, she is still my baby…a typical Asian momsie ‘s way of thinking! ^ *

left : at 1 month old right : 6 months old

today at 21 and still very much my baby... can't wait for the dim sum to arrive ;P

today at 21....momsie is no longer the hair stylist...she has her own hair stylist now:P

^________*

and

doing the Karen Cheng thing ! LOL !!!

To Piggy Gal : We hope you enjoyed your 21st birthday dinner with us and the fun and laughter we had together!! We love you lotz Piggy gal

3> 3> 3>

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Malabar Spinach Soup ( Saan Choy Tong )

This is a simple veggie soup whereby the white of salted egg is added to the soup for better taste. This Malabar Spinach or slippery veg has many goodness in it. High in vitamins A and C, iron, calcium and protein!

My grandma used to tell me when I was a young lass, that it is good for our digestive system and bowel movement :P The whites of the salted egg helps remove heat from our body…old tales? Well, older people are wiser people…ahem ,ahem… young people don't take offence..okie..... ^ *

Malabar Spinach has a mild taste similar to the spinach. The leaves and stems can be purplish-red or green . The young leaves are for use in soups, stir-fries and fresh salads. The purplish-red leaved and stemmed variety is “ Basella –rubra ” and the green leaved and stemmed variety is “ Basella- alba ” . The French name is “ Brèdes ” , Japanese name is “ Tsuru Murasaki ” and the Chinese name is " Saan Choy/ Shu Chieh "

I will cook this soup at least twice a month . It is a simple and easy to prepare soup and it is tasty too. This post is dedicated to Quinn, an engineer from Down Under and also a regular reader of my blog :))

Malabar Spinach Soup / (Saan Choy Tong )( serves 2)

Ingredients:

300 gm Malabar Spinach – pick the young leaves with stem, washed and drain dry
½ cup of dried anchovies- washed and drain dry
3 pips of garlic- crushed
1 tbsp of olive oil
1200 ml of water ( more if desire )
white of 1 salted egg
sea salt to taste

Preparation:

Heat up the olive oil in a soup pot and sauté the crushed garlic till fragrant. Add in the anchovies and stir fry till the anchovies are light brown. Pour in the 1200ml of water and boil for half hour under medium heat. When the soup is boiling, add in the Malabar spinach. The leaves and stems will turned darker color when it is cooked. Add in the white of salted egg and off the fire. Lightly stir the whites so that the soup is not cloudy . Add in salt to taste. Serve hot.

Note: You can use one whole salted egg for this soup . But for those who have used the yolks for mooncake, you can use the whites for this soup. The rest , you can store them in ice cube container and keep in the freezer for further use when cooking this soup.

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Mango And Shrimps Salad With Pineapple Vinaigrette

I have been searching around for a special salad recipe and finally I found one that is refreshing and appetizing ! I tweak it a bit to suit my taste :)). This salad will compliment the pan-seared salmon which I am going to cook for my better half , on this special Daddy’s Day :)) This mint- scented pineapple vinaigrette goes well with the mango, shrimp , Japanese cucumber and red onion rings. Thumbs up for this salad.

using a food processor, blend together the fresh pineapple, mint leaves

this is salad is refreshing...the mint goes well with

the pineapple....Mmm

mint scented pineapple vinaigrette to die for :)

this is the pan-seared salmon with fresh thyme

and olive oil which I cooked for Daddy,

the salmon was beautiful cooked....
a special treat for Daddy's Day :P

the salad goes well with salmon...

the baby pototoes was yummilicious too
a meal cooked with love always taste better...rite?

(",)

Mango, Shrimps & Salad With Pineapple Vinaigrette ( serves 2 )

Ingredients:

10 shrimps

1 Japanese cucumber- diced
1 big red onions- sliced into rings – pickled with 1 tbsp of lime juice
2 ripe mangoes – diced
a few mint leaves for garnishing

To prepare the shrimps
4 cups of water
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1bay leaves
1 teaspoon salt
a few black peppercorns

Bring 6 cups water and next 4 ingredients to boil in heavy large saucepan. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 15 minutes. Reduce heat to low, add shrimp, and simmer until opaque in center, about 2 minutes.

To prepare the Mint-scented Pineapple Vinaigrette
Blend together in a food processor

1 wedge of fresh honey pineapple – diced
a few mint leaves
2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of sugar

Using a food processor, blend together the fresh pineapple, mint leaves .Sieve out the excess juice and add in the olive oil and sugar to the minted pineapple mixture.

To prepare the salad
Mixed together the diced mango, Japanese cucumber, shrimps and red onion rings and the pineapple vinaigrette till well combined. Garnish with a few mint leaves. Chill in the fridge till ready to serve.

To the Piggies' Daddy

"Thanks Daddy for being there for us always :))

Our displinarian, our mentor and our friend

I hope you had a wonderful Daddy's Day and suffered enjoyed the meal I cooked (",) "

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HAPPY DADDY'S DAY

Happy Daddy's Day to all the dads reading my blog :))) For the Piggies clan, Daddy’s Day started yesterday with Momsie making sushi for Daddy…not that he loves sushi but he doesn’t mind eating homemade ones…so I the opportunist told the Daddy that I am going to celebrate a day earlier for him…making sushi for him…see , told ya that I am an opportunist! :P I enjoyed making them coz I love the beautiful colors of sushi! I couldn’t take much photos becoz my hands were too messy to hold the cam…:( by the time I finished making them, I was too tired to take any photos…haha otherwise I will be crazy shooting them :P

This time round, I tried making them with mango and turned them into fruit sushi :) Homemade ones are more versatile…can use any ingredients and stuff them up and it still taste good with wasabi and my pickled ginger.

not actually neatly done but yummy no doubt

can you guess what is inside it :)

trying to do better each time....my skills in making them sucks

clumsily done alrite but taste good though...haha

so far no complain from Daddy...so I guess it was good (",)

I made an assortment of sushi but alas

no culinary skills..... :(

this set of sushi for Piggy cousin


Link to my first sushi attempt :)

Happy Father's Day to all Dads 

Cooking a nice dinner tonite for him...stay tuned!

Steamed Cake With Wolfberry

This is the first time I am using wolfberry in a cake :) I normally used them in soup or braised chicken but in a cake…nope this is a novelty for me . Thanks to Piggy’s Cooking Journal that I came to know that wolfberry has a lot of anti-oxidant properties and it’s a perfect match for this steamed cake. The natural sweetness and the light scent from the wolfberry adds flavor to the cake. This cake doesn’t use egg yolks , it uses only the whites…. a healthy cake no doubt. Good for children and adults :) Easily digestible too. I will definitely make this again.

Out of hot steamer...wow.. it looks great
the smooth and soft texture is a real delight

one healthy snack for the kids and adults

easy and no fuss cake

Steamed Cake with Wolfberry Recipe - adapted from Piggy's Cooking Journal

Ingredients:
115g egg white (about 3 eggs)
85g caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
1g salt
35ml milk
10ml olive oil
80g dry wolfberry

Method:
1）Lightly grease a 9X5-inch baking pan with olive oil, then line the pan with baking paper. Soak wolfberry in a bowl of water for 3-5 minutes, dish out and then pat dry with paper towel.
2) In a medium bowl, whisk egg white with an electric mixer until foamy. Continue to whisk and at the same time, add sugar in 3 batches. Whip the egg white until stiff peak forms
3) Sift flour and salt over egg white mixture. Using a wide spatula, fold the mixture until just combined.
4) Mix milk, oil and 60g of wolfberry in a bowl, pour over egg white mixture. Fold the mixture until well combined.
5) Sprinkle remaining 20g of wolfberry on the cake. Pour the batter into the baking pan, steam in medium heat for 20 mins.

*             *            *

Streaky Bacon Fried Rice With Salted Egg Yolk

We have not had fried rice for quite a while now, so to make things easy, I decided to have fried rice for dinner. I ransacked the fridge to see what left overs there are in the fridge that can make a nice delicious appetizing fried rice. Hmmm just the two of us for dinner…a simple one dish meal will do :)) with a vege soup of course.

I have salted eggs , dried shrimps and some streaky bacon…yesss, I know that Daddy will surely love this…..salted egg yolk in fried rice!!! The fat from the bacon added extra flavor to the rice ….a yummilicious and appetizing fried rice no doubt. Since Daddy did not complain I guess he likes it :P , otherwise he would have said “ next time , please don’t cook this for me. I rather eat sandwiches if you want to have a simple meal ” Haha, most asian men are spoiled by their wives but of course some asian women are also spoiled especially when their hubbies are good cooks….agree with me ? :)))

I love fried rice coz it is versatile ,

you can have all your favourite

ingredients in it :)))

I love the salted egg yolk in the rice.....

the bacon and the duck egg yolk add extra flavor

to a simple rice dish :)) yumm

just look at the bits of bacon and salted egg yolk...mmmmm

one word yummilicious

the bits of hot chillies in the rice makes it
even more appetizing....

just testing out how it looks at this angle

I am bored, I have nothing to do.....

all work and no play make Elin a dull woman

so Elin plays with her cam :P

Streaky Bacon Fried Rice With Salted Duck Egg Yolk

Ingredients:

4 bowls of cooked rice
1 tbsp of olive oil

1 salted egg yolk – coarsely chopped
3 pips of garlic- finely chopped

4 strips of streaky bacon – cut into small pieces
2 tbsp of dried shrimps –soaked and chopped fine
bird’s eye chillies – chopped fine *

salt & white pepper to taste

Preparation:

Lightly sauté the streaky bacon till fragrant. Dish up. Add in one tbsp of olive oil , sauté the dried shrimp and garlic together till the shrimps are properly cooked under medium heat, then add in the chopped salted egg yolk and stir fry till cooked. Add in the cooked rice and stir fry till the ingredients are well combined. Add in the chillies and the streaky bacon and continued to stir fry till the rice are practically jumping in the wok under high heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dish up and serve hot.

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Just A Little Tease....

I had lotz of fun making buns for my Piggies especially when they requested for it…it meant one thing, they mizz those buns I make for them ;P Very time-consuming though, I had to make a few varieties…so this Momsie is smart. (",) use the same dough recipe and fill them with different ingredients and at the same time fulfilled their desires. I had to make them in two batches. First batch in the afternoon. Came back from a wake service and did the second batch…er…sometimes I wonder where my strength come from. I guess it's the insane passion to bake!

You must be wondering how they can finish such amount of buns…it amazes me too but they sure can coz they love to eat BUNS…buns for breakfast, lunch and dinner :)) The buns will last them for 2 days only LOL ! They love my homemade buns and even Kimberley , Piggy gal’s room-mate loves the buns too !! ^ * Therefore, I make extras for her :)) haha , she told Piggy gal this and that made my head swelled double when Piggy gal repeated to me in her sms last nite “ these buns tasted better than those sold in the bakery shop . Your mom can open her own bakery shop ” . Out of the mouth of a 21 yrs old babe ! LOL

I do enjoy their compliments especially from Piggy boy. He is the food critic in the Piggy clan . He smsed me last nite when he received those buns. “ I am eating your buns now , darn good !..can’t wait till morn ” so I replied him, “ come back more often then and you get to eat all those good stuffs I posted up ” …what a wicked Momsie…dangling the carrot in front of him , well , as the saying goes…the way to a man’s heart is through the stomach…do you agree with me ? :)) And this evening , he smsed me again with this message " the buns all damn nice, the sausage bun the best...finished already. I am going for my swim now " With this , I ate two bowls of fried rice :)))

I heart my Piggies muchie and I mizz them when they are not with me :(

a varieties of bun using the same dough

streaky bacon roll

soft and delicious..mmmmm a tease, can? :P

I add cheese & italian parsley to this bacon twist roll

cheese and bacon filled buns with

brush on with garlic & parsley butter on top

plain garlic bun

piggy gal's favourite, garlic bun

mouth-watering sausage bun

Piggy boy's comment on this bun

" sausage bun the best "

-of course with lotz of

mozzarella and the garlic parsley butter!

Note to Piggies : I finished baking them at 2am and waiting for them to cool down

before packing them for delivery to you, Piggy boy ,

and I am glad

you enjoyed them!

And remember, start planning what you are going to get me

next coming Mother's Day ! (",) :O

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Potato Tortilla

This was a simple and satisfying meal I had for dinner last night. It’s called Potato Tortilla…:))) this is actually the 3rd recipe I tried out from the same Flavour Magazine May-June issue …yesterday's post was the 2nd recipe. I love potato whether cooked in curries or in stew :) but this is something I have never tried before. I knew I had to try it out. Nothing very special but yet it caught my attention by the mouth-watering pictures in the magazine….Potato Tortilla! I told Daddy, lets eat something simple tonight. He agreed, so I took the opportunity to try this out :P I have been eyeing the recipe for some time already…waiting for this opportunity for I can’t finish one whole piece by myself ! An opportunist Wife ( grab the chance to cook something he may not like )….a wicked Momsie ( making her Piggies drool on her bakes here ) and the best colleague ( bring her bakes for them to eat ) ….. :P ^ *

This recipe uses potato trimmings. What is potato trimmings? Well, it explained that when you turned potato – shaped the potato to desired shape like oval or rugby ball ( for food presentation ), large part of the potato end up as trimmings. So instead of wasting the trimming, the host of that column in Flavour JEAN-MICHEL FRAISSE , a KL- based hospitality and tourism consultant and culinary trainer with the French Culinary School in Asia , turned them into potato tortilla. I don’t turned potato so I juz make the trimmings myself…haha have to be a bit more innovative at times.

This is a simple and greatly satisfying way to use up the potato trimmings – you can add any other ingredients to flavour it to your liking, such as bacon, smoked salmon or tomatoes, but for me I just add some some chopped scallions, lotz of chopped garlic and some spices like cajun and paprika and some shredded mozzarella cheese. Voila ! it was a nice and tasty piece of potato tortilla ! I took half a piece, an apple and a cup of iced green tea. Daddy took the other half, a bowl of mee and an apple and a cup of iced Nescafe :))) You can have it for breakfast too!

one potato make into trimmings by a peeler

chopped scallions and garlics

whisk 3 grade C eggs with a dash of cajun and paprika spices
shredded some mozzarella for some cheesy taste

saute the trimmings in olive oil over medium heat,

add garlic and stir-fry till fragrant and the trimmings are cooked,

add in the eggs mixture with cheese,turn the heat to small

and cooked till the surface is not glossy, flip over and

cook the other side till lightly brown

Voila ! a piece of tasty Potato Tortilla

see how thin it is...I use a 12" non-stick pan :)

Mmmmm....potato with a cheesy & spicy flavor

yummilicious if you like egg and potato

Potato Tortilla ( adapted from Flavour Mag. by Jean-Michel Fraisse )

Ingredients :
( serve 2)

potato trimmings from 8 potatoes * 1 potato – peeled into trimmings
100 ml oil * 2 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of chopped garlic
8 eggs * 3 eggs – C grade
1 tbsp of smoked chilli powder * 1 tsp of Cajun ,1 tsp of paprika

2 tbsp of chopped parsley * 3 tbsp of chopped scallions

freshly-ground pepper to taste * ¼ cup of shredded cheese ( any choice)salt * 1 tbsp of light soy sauce

Preparation:

In a non-stick frying pan, heat the oil in medium heat and add potato trimmings. Cover with lid and cook until tender and lightly colored- turning as necessary. Add garlic and scallions and sauté until aromatic. Whisk eggs and season to taste with Cajun and parprika spices, light soy sauce, and cheese. Lower the heat and add the egg mixture to the pan. When the egg surface is not glossy and the bottom of the tortilla is set, flip the potato tortilla onto the plate by turning the pan upside down. Place the frying pan back on the stove and slip the tortilla back into the pan to cook the other side until just lightly brown. Serve hot.

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Note: those in red are my own version

the original recipe is too big an amount for both Daddy and myself :))

Sesame Pocket Bread With Fresh Mushrooms Filling

This is the second recipe that I tried out from the Flavour Magazine , May-June Issue , the first being the Inche Kaybin and now Sesame Pocket Bread….wow..wasn’t I glad I tried it out ! The sesame pocket bread tasted better than the pita bread , it smell good with those sesame seed on it. I changed the filling though to fresh mushrooms being my favourite :P The original recipe calls for minced chicken but I didn’t want to consume too much meat , so I switched to mushrooms….I dropped by Jusco and bought fresh oyster mushrooms and fresh shiitake mushrooms. Stir-fry with lotz of garlic and celery…yum yum yummy :) the aromatic mushrooms with chinese cooking wine and oyster sauce as seasoning tasted fantastic with the sesame pocket bread…they were well matched and I couldn’t resist and took two before dinner :P The bread was mini size …stuffed it with lotz of mushrooms….squirt some thousand island sauce on it….wheew..mama mia it was delicious! Rang up my Piggy cousin to come and collect her share :)))

The starter dough took 4 hours resting time

when its ready, mixed with chopped italian parsley

and divide the dough into 40g balls

flatten ball and roll into 3" disc ,

Brush egg glaze on top and sprinkle

with sesame seeds

preheat the baking tray in the oven for 3 minutes,

place the bread in the hot tray and bake for 3 minutes

till the bread puffed up but not browned.

It was finger licking good :)))

Piggies , drool first

before you get to eat it....... :P :O

Sesame Pocket Bread ( adapted from Flavour Magazine by Catherine Lau )

(makes 20 )

Ingredients:

Starter dough
375g high protein flour
3 g instant dried yeast
235 ml water

Dough

175 g plain flour, sifted
20 g milk powder, sifted
3 g malt powder, sifted
7 g fine salt, sifted
3 g instant dried yeast
2 tbsp honey, mixed with
75 ml water
50 ml sesame oil or olive oil * I used olive oil
30 g coriander leaves, chopped * I used fresh Italian parsley

Egg glaze

1 egg yolk
1.5 tbsp water or milk

Method:

To make the starter dough:

Place all the ingredients in a mixer and mix with the dough hook on low speed until combined. Then mix on medium speed until smooth, about 4 minutes.

Place dough in an oiled bowl, rest for 4 hours at room temperature.

To prepare the dough:

Cut starter dough into smaller lumps and place in the mixer with the combined sifted ingredients, yeast, honey and water mixture. Mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined. Mix on medium speed for 3 minutes. Add oil and mix for 5 minutes until smooth. Add coriander, mix well, remove and shape into a ball. Place in an oiled bowl, clip wrap, and rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.

Divide dough into 40 g portions and shape into balls. Flatten balls, cover and rest for 10 minutes.

To bake:

Preheat oven to 245 ̊ C . Roll flattened dough into 3” or 8 cm circle. Allow to rest uncovered for 10 minutes. Brush top with egg glaze and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Preheat the baking tray in the hot oven for 3 minutes. Place the bread in the hot tray and bake for 2-3 minutes, until they are puffed up but not browned. Remove and keep warm wrapped in towel.

Filling using fresh mushroom ( my recipe )

Ingredients:

1 pkt of fresh shiitake mushroom – cleaned and cut into bite sized
2 pkt of oyster mushrooms – cleaned and cut into bite sized
2 sticks of celery – cleaned and diced

5 pips of garlic –chopped fine
2 tbsp of olive oil

Seasoning:

Mixed all the seasoning ingredients together

2 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of cooking wine
dash of white pepper
dash of paprika
salt to taste
1 tbsp of cornflour

Heat up wok with medium heat and pour 2 tbsp of olive oil, add in the chopped garlic and saute the garlic till fragrant, add in all the cut mushrooms and saute till cooked, dish out the mushrooms and pour away the extra liquids. Put back the cooked mushroom into the wok, add in the celery together with the seasoning mixture. Dish up when it started to thicken. Use as filling for th split sesme pocket bread.

Filling using minced chicken ( adapted from flavour magazine)

2 tbsp of veg oil
3 cm young ginger, minced
1 onion, diced
50 g dried oysters,soaked and chopped
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and diced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
500g chicken, minced
1 small carrot, diced
1 stick celery, chopped

Seasoning:

1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of Chinese rice wine
1 tsp of Chinese 5 spice powder,
1 tsp of sesame oil
Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp of potato starch, mixed with
4 tbsp of water
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped

To prepare the filling: Heat the oil and stir-fry the ginger, onion, and oysters. Cooked till fragrant, add mushrooms and stir-fry for two minutes. Add the garlic and stir-fry till fragrant before adding the chicken . Cook chicken until lightly browned before adding carrots and celery. Stir-fry for a minute, add the seasoning and thicken with potato starch solution. Add spring onion and dish out. Use as filling for the split sesame pockets.

Enjoy!

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