GOODBYE 2010 , HELLO 2011 !!!

TO ALL MY FRIENDS AND READERS

We wish U to have a …..

Sweetest Sunday,
Marvellous Monday,
Tasty Tuesday,
Wonderful Wednesday,
Thankful Thursday,
Friendly Friday,
Successful Saturday.
Have a great Year. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

*           *           *

Roast Chicken Breast With ' Turkey' Stuffing

" This is my entry for the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot "

I prepared a simple Xmas dinner for the family for my Piggies had their own Xmas party to attend later in the night. All their friends were back in Ipoh and so I made something light for dinner.  I made Roast Chicken Breast With ' Turkey ' Stuffing  and served with Cranberry Sauce and  some Aglio Olio Pasta  as a side dish . Dessert was Australian Chocolate Mud Cake. It was one great dinner....simply delicious and I am sure every mouthful was good :)

This roast dish doesn't have a great christmas story behind it but this dish had make someone special very happy......and this someone special is Jo's Godmother Miss M :)   Christmas tidings is all about LOVE AND GIVING and sharing your  Christmas dishes with someone special other than your own family members :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY 2011 TO ALL

It's Christmas and 

I just wanted to say 

"Thank You" and that....

It's been a pleasure 

blogging and sharing recipes with you this past year...

Hope you and your family have a

wonderful Holiday and... 

A Happy New Year !

May God's blessing  continues  a hundred folds

this coming 2011

*             *             *

Pancake Pizza With Wobbly Egg

Jo was feeling exceptionally hungry last Sunday morning ( normally we will skip breakfast and have lunch together with Daddy after church service ) and I was too lazy to make something elaborate or go out and join the sunday breakfast crowd at the coffee shop so I whipped up something tasty and yet nutritious for her in just 30 minutes before we left for church. I asked her how about pancake pizza with wobbly egg  ? ( half boiled egg ) :p and she nodded...thus I came up with this delicious pancake pizza with lots of cheddar cheese and mixed herbs ...mmmmm and with that egg wobbling on the surface of the pancake pizza !  A delight of course !

Baked NZ Mussels With Garlic Cheese And Dills

" This is my entry for the Christmas Giveaway hosted by Swee San of The Sweet Spot "

Christmas is just five days away and I still have not come up with idea of what we would like to have for Christmas dinner- main course . Maybe I have to ask my wild boar for ideas as to what to serve for dinner or rather I have to delegate that task to him.  But for now, I would like to share with you this mouth-watering baked NZ mussels with garlic, cheese and dill. A lovely and flavorful starter that you can serve for your coming Christmas dinner :))  I  have to try this out before the Christmas dinner and after Jo and myself  had savored it , we would definitely want this for our starters for our Christmas dinner...yeah one dish named, the main course, I will leave it to my wild boar. Jo will have to come up with one dessert ...yeah less one job for me  !  read on for the recipe :)

Merry Christmas To All My Readers & Friends :)

"  Dashing through the crowd
In a happy spirit mood...
O'er at Mid Valley we shop
Laughing all the way
Bells on bob tails ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to laugh and shop
For Christmas gifts tonight

Oh, jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to shop
In a fun filled festive place

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to shop....
In a fun filled festive place ...Jingle bells...jingle bells...jingle all the way

oh what fun it is to have ...on a fun filled shopping spree....

Merry Christmas 

To All My Readers and Friends

from Elin and her family

We made a trip to KL last week , not just for a last minute shopping spree , but with some urgent matters to attend to :) We stayed a night at Cititel , so that we can have our last minute shopping done and this hotel is more convenient to put up a night there...shop till we drop and can be back in our room in just 5 minutes.....woke up at 6am the next day , had breakfast then shoot off to attend to our matters....had lunch at Italiannies , The Gardens, then check out and hop on the ETS train and back to our home sweet home.

Read on to see what we did, when we arrived at Mid Valley........besides attending to our other matters the next day...we had so much time.....so what else, Daddy went for his business appointment and both Jo and myself went on our own, eating and shopping. We had so much fun together, Jo and myself.....we were transported back to age 5...read on to see what I meant.....

Love Toast :)

A senior citizen who thinks she is always  '25'  can come up with lots of idea when preparing breakfast for herself or her loved ones :p and this Momsie creature is one creative and a romantic retard person !. I love eating toast bread with half boiled egg or poached eggs....with dashes of pepper and light soy sauce.  I had a good sleep last night thus I woke up  feeling very refreshed and very creative.  I had to let my mind run loose at times and allow it to take control and I came up with this half boiled egg in the heart shaped dent of my toast.  My colleagues all laughed heartily at my breakfast for they find it funny ....LOL! I think it is cute and fun to have my toast and egg presented in such a hearty way ! Christmas is a time of sharing and loving.....so if you like to be little creative in presenting food to your loved ones...this is one way to show your love :p  It is so COOL !

Non-Halal Dim Sum @ Yoke Fook Moon ,Ipoh

Dim Sum means “ dotted heart " or “ pointing to your heart " in chinese. But lately people prefer to call it Tim Sum meaning “ touched the heart ” Dim Sum is labelled as ''bad for the heart'' due to ''hidden fat'', but we Chinese still enjoy it. Eat first as the saying goes and deal with it later…. * wink* * wink* Well , it goes well with a cuppa of green tea though.  And Ipoh is famos for their dim sum :)

Dim sum conjures tiny morsels of Chinese tea snacks in bamboo baskets that are popularly eaten at breakfast or lunch. The most popular ones are Steamed Sui Mai, Steamed Har Gao ( prawns dumpling), Radish Cake, Chee Cheong Fun , Char Siew pau, Egg Tarts , Wu Kok or aka Taro Puff and not to forget the famous glutinous rice aka Lor Mai Kai. There are many types of dumplings which are so daintily made and attractive , especially the cyrstal clear dough skin prawn dumplings. Nowadays, they have come out with lotz of different dainty looking dim sum snacks.

Simmered Lotus Root With Red Wine And Balsamic Vinegar

A  flavorful lotus root side dish. I am very impressed by Roxan's simple yet delicious recipes from her blog -Kitchen Meditation .  I read how she simmered lotus root in one of her post and I got the inspiration to  create something like hers - it was so simple... instead of using soy sauce and mirin I substituted them with red wine and balsamic vinegar to flavor the simmered lotus root. The red wine and balsamic vinegar infused into the soft texture of the lotus root giving it such ooomphs that I knew straight away that this fusion dish will be a keeper for sure. If you are a balsamic and red wine lover you will love this side dish...goes well with any roasts or you can eat it just plain.....it has a very unique and beautiful flavor !  Call me crazy if you like but I love experiencing with ingredients :p  One thing is for sure, my Piggies and the Wild Boar has lots of patience with me and my cooking :ppp  Am I blessed ???

Stir-Fry Garoupa Fillets With Jelly Mushrooms/ Wood Ear Fungus

A chinese stir fried fish dish -garoupa fillets with the additions of wood ear fungus also known as jelly mushrooms and ginger slices and not to miss out the onion peels . Full of flavors and if the fish fillets are fresh, it will be nice to cook it this way. I just discovered that the jelly mushrooms have lots of nutritional value besides having a crunchy texture, Love them in drunken chicken too.

Garlic Sauteed Shrimps In Sizzled Light Soy Sauce

Garlic and light soy sauce plays an important part in this cooking.  Instead of cooking them in curry or tomyam style like I normally do, I cooked them in this simple sauce and it turned out  flavorful with the shrimps coated with a sauce to die for.  My mom used to cook this dish for us when my siblings and I were young and I remembered the whole house filled with the beautiful aroma of sauteed garlicy shrimps and the smoked smell of sizzled soy sauce ! For busy working Momsies , this is easy to prepare and would please everyone in the family :)

These Ladies Just Wanna Have Fun !!!

Sometimes we ladies just need to have some fun without the men around...lol!   I dated Claire,  Lena  and Cheah  for an impromptu dinner at Friends Cafe, Medan Baru Ipoh.  I have known Lena for two years now since the day she came up to me at the market place and say  " hi Elin , I read your blog everyday " . Awwww....she makes me feel so proud to have my blog ...people knows me ! Other than hi and bye at supermart, we have never really sat down to have a cup of tea and chat and to get to know one another well....so I decided to invite her to join us for dinner . I have known Cheah for almost 2 years now and we used to date each other out for lunch and I thought it was good idea to have dinner together with these ladies.

Claire and myself , needless to say , we  are peas in a pod ! :)   The other lady is Piggy Jo whom I invited to come along and get to know these lovely  friends of her Momsie :p  Thus , these 5 ladies had a wonderful nite out without their better halves ( Cheah , Lena and myself  are the only married ones ) and had such a jolly good time camwhoring and chatting for 3.5 hours at the cafe :)   Read on to see what we had for dinner....

Braised Taro With Dried Shrimps

Taro is such a versatile root tuber veggie that you can cook them in soup or make them into fritters , puffs , pudding, cake and even ice cream ! Oh, I am sure many of us just heart this root tuber . We love them braised and today I just want to share this Hakka cuisine with you.  A dish favored by the Hakka people  :) 

The combination of taro and dried shrimps really make a perfect pair , resulting in a taste that is so flavorful!  Love this dish , the braised  taro, soft and fluffy just melt in the mouth bursting with the awesome flavor of dried shrimps and garlic. What a wonderful dish !

Deep Fried Oysters With Panko /Kaki Furai

After the disastrous adventure in trying to cook my own fried oyster / 'or chien' at home,  I decided not to retry it until I get a good recipe for it. Since the raw oysters were quite large this time, I decided to deep-fry them with panko instead, like those served in Japanese restaurant. In japanese , fried oysters are called kaki furai...which are normally served as appetizer. It was so good that Jo and myself finished the whole plate of deep fried oyster as Daddy is not a fan of oysters to our delight - less man more share :p :p  . It was crunchy on the outside and sweet and succulent on the inside with the unmistakable scent of the sea .  Oishii !!!

Fresh Bay Scallops Steamed In Simplicity Is Best !

I finally found a great place where I can get fresh and frozen seafood...salmon, cod fish , oyster , and many more. Expensive but very fresh and I don't mind paying for something good though pricey a bit. I saw some shucked bay scallops, picked up a packet and the mind was already planning what to do with them. Jo and myself love any form of seafood and needless to say, after savoring those from Oyster King @The Gardens, we still crave for fresh oysters and she was beaming happily when I showed her what I bought from the seafood shop. I bought some fresh oysters too to make oyster omelette / 'Or Chien' but it turned out scrambled egg 'Or Chien ' so I am not showing you that until I have master the art of making 'Or Chien ' :p

Back to these bay scallops, it was so fresh in taste and the sweetness is awesome , even though it was frozen when I bought them from the shop. I just simply steamed them in soup spoons for 3 minutes with chinese wine and topped it with fried garlic oil , chopped parsley and chilli.  I will let my pictures tell how great this preparation was :p

Stir Fry Homemade Silky Egg Tofu With Veggie

Being able to make my own egg tofu is a sheer joy that money cannot buy and something I am proud to present to my family and friends. Eventhough I have make this many times, but each times it still brings joy and happiness to me...something I cannot describe to you in words :)

 It is  much healthier without the preservative in them.  I made the egg tofu in the early morning ( 6.00am) and managed to cook this dish in 30 minutes . After which I have to leave for work at 7.30 am . It takes only 13 minutes to make the egg tofu.  A very simple to make egg tofu that I am sure all of you will be delighted to learn or most of you already knows how to make your own egg tofu :)))  Read on to learn how to make your own healthy tofu for your family :)  You must be wondering why I cooked this so early in the morning and on a working day too....I prepared this for a very dear and close friend of the family , Miss M . Hope she loves this dish for her lunch and hoping she will request for more :p  I love to make people happy with the food I cook. There is a saying -  " if you put love into something you do, it will turn out great " and for this egg tofu...I have put in lots of love :)))

Stir Fry Wild Fern Shoots With Shrimp Paste

Wild Fern Shoots or what the malays called them Pucuk Paku Pakis were eaten only by the malays , I remembered my Mom told me that the chinese doesn't know how to eat them  during her time :)  But now it has become a delicacy veggie dish among the chinese and even some restaurants are having them as one of the dishes served. Normally served as Stir Fry Wild Fern Shoots With Shrimp Paste, a simple stir fry but  appetizing at the same time.

Sushi -Zen @ The Gardens

Continuation from the previous  post Oyster King @ The Gardens......

After a quick ' high tea' at Oyster King, we walked around Cold Storage @ The Gardens to burn off some calories so that we can stomach more food later . We went up to look for handbags and Jo bought a nice leather bag for herself , so after the purchase , we went for another round of food.....yesss  sushi as we still have some space for Japanese food :p  See the happy expression on Miss Piggy's face while waiting for the food to arrive.  Happy also because she bought hereself a nice elegant leather handbag :)  Read on to see what we ate at Sushi-Zen @ The Gardens.

Nothing Beats Having Steamboat/Hotpot At Home :)

Really, nothing beats having steamboat at home ! Daddy is the first to vouch for it :)  Eat in comfort and can have our favourite meatballs, fishballs, seafood and veggies for home steamboat or hotpot.  Daddy will normally purchase those beef meatballs and stuffed tofu and bitter gourd from the famous shop in Ipoh. And I will sneak in my salmon fillets and mussels and lots of enoki and veggies  :p 

Actually Jo missed home prepared steamboat and she being a slow eater, she prefers to eat in rather than paying for buffet steamboat and not having our favourite beef balls , thus I am going to share with you what we had for our home prepared steamboat for the 3 of us :))) and of course, the wicked Momsie will not let Josh off so easily....I want him to see what he missed for not coming back  !  Let him drool and salivates for those beefballs and stuffed bitter gourd are his favourites :p

Oyster King @ The Gardens

Jo was very hungry by the time we finished our tasks  and asked to have our  'high-tea'  at Oyster King @ The Gardens  . Jo and myself were in KL last Monday to collect some documents from her college . We were there on a day trip and we have 3 hours left before we took the 6pm train back to Ipoh  so we took the KTM train to Mid Valley from Sentral   Piggy Jo introduced me to this Oyster King in The Gardens food court which serve large , succulent fresh oysters....OMG...I love their baked garlic oysters and their Malacca Style  Fried Oyster Clams / 'Or Chien ' . I leave it to your imagine...how the hungry Piggies tucked in these mouth-watering fresh oysters cooked in different style...........my photos here will surely make you salivate and  have you run to Oyster King for a taste of their succulent fresh oyster baked with garlic oil :p

Fruits de la mer Pasta In Papilotte

Fruits de la mer in french means seafood  ,a new word from Piggy Jo .  I picked the name Fruits de la mer instead of seafood  :p  French lesson no 1 . She ate something like this in Paris but said mine was better :p Kidding ??? And here I was , tellling her that I want to fly over to Europe one day and try all the french and italian food !!! Of course she was kidding...just wanna butter me up or no food for her * wink , wink . Okay , back to this pasta dish.  I saw this beautiful recipe from Angie Tee's blog - Seasalt With Food and I am sure many of you would have seen this recipe on her blog - Seafood Pasta In Paper Bag . I am crazy with cooking food in papilotte for it enhance and seal in the aroma and flavors and what more with the leftover of steamed crabs - thus Angie Tee and her seafood pasta comes to mind .........

Steamed Mud Crab With Roe In Chinese Wine

Went to the wet market yesterday ( public holiday ) to grab some beef for my two  ' four-legged children ' and on the way passing through many stalls, this lady selling mud crabs called out to me and managed to convince me to buy back a kilo of mud crab ( with roe type )  - ' koe hai ' ( in cantonese ) at a whooping price of RM27 per kilo.  Needless to say, my mind was already trying to figure out how to cook them .  Steam them or cook them in sweet sour sauce..........

Joshua 's Birthday Lunch @ Tony Roma's

Piggy Joshua will not able to come back home for his birthday this weekend , so we decided to go up to KL and have lunch with him last Sunday. We travelled to KL on a day trip just to have lunch with him....with the electric train we were able to be in KL in just 2 hours thus making it possible for us to lunch together :)  Josh met up with us in MidValley....and we had our lunch at Tony Roma's...an early birthday celebration for him....haha Jo and myself wanted that as an excuse to be in KL but we have other ulterior motive.... shhhhhh ...yeah shopping , what else !  :P  Christmas pressies for ourselves !!! 

Lightly Braised Bitter Gourd With Salted Black Beans

This is our family favourite dish and I will cook this very often . My Piggies love bitter gourd or bitter melon which is a surprising thing for bitter gourd may not be a youngster's cup of tea so to say as it has a slightly bitterish aftertaste. They started to like eating this only after they entered their teens. Bitter gourd has a lot of nutrients and bitter gourd is often used in Chinese cooking for its bitter flavor, typically in stir-fries , soup and also as tea.  My mom used to boil them as tea for me when I was a teenager, 16 to be precise...it is believe to purify our blood as at that time pimples were blooming all over my face :(  but thanks to all those bitter gourd tea I drank during my teens that today I have a smoother complexion :p  Seriously and today my Piggies were given the same treatment when they had pimples on their face.  They love bitter gourd in stir fries but not as a tea.....but wanting to have a smoother complexion overcomes everything :)

Red Wine Honey And Sesame Roasted Drumstick

esame seeds are good for health and I love to add them to my salad , buns and roasts. They contain sesamin and sesamolin, substances that is believed to prevent high blood pressure and protect the liver against damage. They are rich in Vitamin E that helps to strengthen the heart and nervous system.  Good news for us women....sesame oil can help removes wrinkles !  I just discovered that half cup of sesame seeds contains 3 times more calcium than half cup of whole milk. Whoa...... calcium helps prevent osteoporisis ...I can use them generously for my cooking from now on....:)

Scad ( Ikan Selar ) In Papilotte

Back to home cooking again after eating out the last few days....Piggy gal missed Ipoh food ,we took her to some of her favourite haunts for dinners thus for the absence of homecooked food posts :)  She has been drooling on my past posts on  'fish on papilotte' and has been salivating over them so I decided to make this for her. She likes fishes of any kind as long as they are fresh. Scad is one of her favourites. This recipe is from the Flavour Magazine ( past issue ) . I love fish cooked in papilotte...it helps seal in the flavors and keep the the fish moist and juicy......mmmm delicious !

A Toast To Jo @ Jogoya, Starhill, KL - Part 2

There were so much to choose from the dessert section and here are some sweet indulgence I took after those oysters and scallops ( I took so much of those arteries clogging stuff that I think my arteries will suffer after this indulgent )...there were lots of mouth-watering cakes too  - cheesecake, moist chocolate cake and lots more but we just drool at them coz our stomach really can't hold anymore of those delectable cakes so we just took a few pieces of red bean pudding cake and some wolfberry jellies and some Haagen Dazs and NZ Natural Yoghurt ice cream of different fruit flavors.  Saw this  Puff Mushroom Soup when I went to pick up some yoghurt ice cream...couldn't resist it eventhough I can't hold  anymore  LOL! Gosh... it's creamy rich fresh mushroom flavor was enough to make me want to make them myself.  I told Jo, I want to make this..........LOL!  She just rolled her eyes :p

A Toast To Jo @ Jogoya, Starhill, KL - Part 1

We went to Jogoya Starhill, KL  to have our dinner - a graduation celebration for Jo and a valid excuse for me to indulge * wink wink .  It was our first time there and Jo's second . In fact she was the one who suggested that we have the celebration there since our hotel was just a stone's throw away . It doesn't matter where or what we eat as long as we are together again and it is the fellowship that is most important :) Family get together is always fun :)

Here are some of the food we took for the night and I wished that I had a bigger stomach for I realised I was already full and I have not even sampled their steamboat and dim sum at the far end of the room :(   Seriously, there were so much to eat and sample but unfortunately my stomach is so tiny :p

Welcome Home Piggy Jo !!!

My Piggy Jo is back !  I am glad that she has finally graduated with a 1st Class Honours in Materials & Manufacturing Engineering  :)  Daddy had a business appointment at Parkroyal , so only Josh and myself took the KLIA Express to the airport to welcome her back and you can guess how much we all miss her and now I can have 3 months with her before she continues her studies again...in pursuing her PhD  :)  Welcome home Piggy gal :)

We celebrated her graduation in Jogoya, Starhill, KL and shall post up the food we had in my next post :)

For now...it is about the welcoming home for Jo :)

Crispy Panko Crusted Aubergine Slices

Finger food are addictive no matter what kind :)  Recently , I made some pan fried crispy panko crusted aubergine slices…awwww it was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside….. I paired them with some pickled ginger….mmmmm yum yum it was good !  You can dip them with hot spicy chilli sauce or wasabi :)  heavenly !  Aubergine or eggplant is one of my favourite veggie and you can have many variations of it.

Pan Seared Salmon With Citrus Yoghurt Sauce

I have been trying to add more salmon into my diet lately for I simply love salmon .  Give me a piece of salmon and I will know what to do with it. Seasoned it with crushed black pepper and sea salt and pan seared  for 4-5 minutes on each side...that's it....a beautiful piece of salmon steak to make a ' 25 year old ' happy  :p

I searched for a sauce to go with the salmon and finally found this very refreshing and healthy sauce .....yeah it is Citrus Yoghurt Sauce from epicurious.com . I found the perfect sauce for the salmon...... a  mixture of yoghurt, lemon & orange zest plus honey... I knew that this combo will never go wrong :p and true enough it was  a perfect match for the salmon steak !

Savoury Vadai

Divali /Deepavali - The Festival of Light , falls on 5th of November which is just around the corner, barely 10 days from now.  It will be a public holiday for Malaysia - a country with many different cultures and many of my Indian colleagues are getting ready to celebrate this festival and we always look forward to the Diwali delicacies during this celebration. A festival with the lighting of small clay lamps filled with oil to signify good over evil .

I would like to wish all my  readers , friends and colleagues celebrating Divali or known as Deepavali over here in Malaysia  " Happy Deepavali " .  I know I am a bit early in wishing all of you this but I am in the mood to start the celebration early with you :)

Wrap-turous Emperor Chicken

I have invited the ' wild boar  ' to be my guest writer again for I know he enjoys sharing his cooking adventures with all of you. Well...he did cook something great on my birthday...a special treat for me   :)  I would like him to share his cooking adventure with you and I happily gave him a space to rant on as a reward for taking the trouble to cook something nice for me .   (We didn't paint the town red for my two Piggies were not around to celebrate with us )  Have fun reading on and discover for yourself what the  ' wild boar ' has to rant about this dish :p

Elin's Birthday Cake Unveiled !

Many of my friends asked me this " hey , what cake are you going to make for yourself this coming birthday ? "  I can't really tell them at that moment, so I told them " wait , it is going to be a surprise ! " but deep down I really don't know what to bake for myself :)

I was going through Ellie's blog Almost Bourdain and  suddenly remembered seeing this beautiful cake she  baked for her Mr.J's birthday in one of her post. Tada, I baked this for my birthday today...hahaha never ask me my age...I celebrate my  25th birthday every year since 25 years ago :p   Today, I want to treat you guys to this virtual cake :p  have a slice but please don't salivate too much ...don't sue me for a new keyboard ! 

For more pictures and recipe of this luscious sinfully rich chocolatey cake.....please hop over to my other dessert blog - Elinluv's Sweet Delights  ...don't worry , I won't sue you for it...it's my BIRTHDAY  today !   LOL !   I love you guys for always dropping me sweet notes and lovely words of encouragement ! Thank you Ellie for this wonderful cake .

Happy virtual feasting!

Quick And Easy Tuna Garden Pasta

I find eating pasta much healthier than rice. Pasta are made from durum wheat , rich in protein and good for people who wants a low carb diet :) I read from somewhere that pasta is very low in sodium and non-egg varieties are cholesterol-free. One cup of enriched pastas provide an excellent source of folic acid and a good source of other essential nutrients, including iron and several B-vitamins. Good news for me too. I am trying to do away with rice for myself :)

Quick ,easy and effortless to whip up dinners are what I am looking forward to these days. Who say one dish meal is not appetizing ? :p Tell me this one dish meal is not and I won’t cook again :p Just kidding , not everyone likes pasta :) … this is one flavorful pasta dish that is so easy to prepare…infact for someone like me , this is a miracle dish whereby lots of nutrients can be found in this plate of pasta. Cherry tomatoes, french beans, canned tuna chunks in olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice are found in this quick and easy pasta dish .

Roasted Chicken Whole Leg With Rosemary, Lemon And Garlic Marinade

Pumpkins are very versatile in their uses for cooking . I make muffins, bread and cakes out of them ....the orange pigments in them  are rich in beta carotene  which generates vitamin A . They have a natural sweetness which kids love . I remembered my mom used to cook them with dried shrimps and curry powder. Those were the days and I miss my mom's cooking  :(

I sometimes roast them as a side dish  for my roasts . We had roasted pumpkin slices as a side dish for the  roasted chicken whole leg with rosemary, lemon and garlic marinade that we had yesterday . I read somewhere that pumpkin extract may be a good product for pre-diabetic people as well as those who already have diabetes :)  Ok, not too much on this side dish for the main highlight is the roasted chicken whole leg with rosemary, lemon and garlic marinade . A three ingredients  marinade that burst sensations to the palate  !

Steamed River Catfish With Simply Garlic Oil

Another great fish to savor is the River Catfish aka Ikan Baung.  I steamed it with simply garlic oil and sizzled light soy sauce.  Delicious !  The meat is silky smooth and sweet . I love fish prepared with no fuss so that I get to taste the natural sweetness of the fish. Awww .... Steamed river Catfish aka Ikan Baung in our national language can be quite pricey if you order from the restuaruant menu.  I bought mine alive from the aquarium tank , sold by a fish vendor from the wet market in Canning Garden . You can pick the one you want and the man will catch it for you.  Claire a good friend of mine  recommended me this fish :)  I have been to the market so often and can you believe it ???...I walked pass the stall most Saturdays and yet can't register such a stall there :p until Claire told me about it :)

Pan Seared Salmon With Mango Salsa

It is pan seared Salmon again ! Mmmmm this is heavenly , a simple and easy preparation yet it taste heavenly , it satiates my palate :)  I wish I can have salmon everyday  for my dinner  :p  I will not order salmon from the restaurant menu anymore when home cooked ones are so much thicker , cheaper and tastier . Those salmon served at my hometown restaurant comes in thin slices , I can't really get to taste the salmon-y flavor..and  over cooked.  I don't mind paying more if it comes out thick like those shown above :) I enjoy a thick slab of salmon steak and I can never resist one when I see a thick slab of salmon steak. You may call me a salmon woman ...seriously salmon is good and I will never stinge on it :p  The wonderful taste of this fish still haunts me and you can imagine what it is doing to my saliva glands while writing this post  :p

I prepared a mango salsa to go with it....mmmmmm  darn yummy ! A perfect match for the salmon !

Silken Tofu Garnish With Black Sesame Seeds And Bonito Flakes

Tofu is a cholesterol free soy product ....by itself it is bland , you can prepare them in any sauce with any fillings or toppings , deep fried or steamed , they will still taste delicious . A healthy and comfort food for those who are on soft diet.

You can have it simple - Tofu with sizzled soy sauce garlic oil or you can have a more complicated one - Pan Fried Prawn Paste Tofu Patties or more adventurous , baked them as Tofu Pizza . My tofu dishes here will tell you I am a fan of tofu :)  When I am not lazy, I will make my own tofu .  I love tofu and I can make many variations with it....I have tofu in most of my meals and a simple tofu dish  can make me happy ;p 

Dry Curry Chicken

After church today,  I came back to a house that smell like a curry house ....mmmm I thought it was my neighbor cooking curry and to my surprised the smell was strong when I entered the house. And guess what ?  The wild boar raided my kitchen while I was in church !!!  I forgave him for the mess he did to my haven when he served me the best dry curry chicken.....for my lunch .  

So to reward him, I invited him to be my guest blogger and share his recipe with you ......... frankly speaking, I don't mind if he wants to take over my role in the house for the weekend ....anyway, my Piggies loves his cooking so I think I can hand over my apron to him for the weekend ! What do you guys think ?  Is it advisable when he mess up my kitchen and I have to do the cleaning after him ? 

Stir-Fry Broccoli With ' Abalone Mushrooms '

For the last few weeks, our department had been organizing the Raya parties for their staffs. This is the norm in our department for each section to invite colleagues from different sections to attend their raya parties. The local malay raya food will be served like the lemang ( glutinous rice cooked in bamboo ) , chicken & beef satay ( bbq chicken & chicken in skewer ), Laksa , Roti Jala ( Net Bread - a kind of crepe/pancake eaten together with curry ) , Nasi Impit ( malay compact rice cake ) and lots of local malay delicacies . After this sinful  indulgence , my weight would have increased by at least a kilogramme :(

Eating simple , especially more veggies and fish dishes in my meal will be great for me after all those heavy stuff I had taken . Thus, this simple stir- fry broccoli ( my Piggies called this ' little green trees ' when they were young ) with ' abalone mushroom ' was a great comfort food for me :)