HK Baby Kailan In Oyster Sauce & Crispy Garlic Slices

I will be adding more veggie and fish to my dinner menu after the Chinese New Year.  For 'our ' age ( Wild Boar & myself )  it is good to add more veggie and fish in our diet . I love greens and the chinese restaurants over here have come out with so many different style of cooking greens . Today's veggie dish is Hong Kong Baby Kailan in simple oyster sauce and garnish with crispy garlic slices . A simple yet flavorful veggie dish.

Pan Grilled Salmon With Passion Fruit Pulps And Seeds Topping

I bought some purple passion fruits the other day from the grocer near my place. I chose the wrinkle ones :)  It was sweet and tangy...and what better way to use them as marinade for the salmon steaks that I was going to pan grill for our dinner,  besides using them as topping for cakes.  It was a right choice to use the passion fruit juice ,  for it was a great marinade for the salmon and I was glad that I used the passion fruit seeds as topping for the salmon  :).....the taste was fantastically good ,  the rich aroma of the passion fruit comes the sweet tangy flavor and the rich sea scent of the salmon .....heavenly !

Capsicum Meat Patties

Josh is back for the festive holidays and so it is back to meat patties , meat burgers and anything meat ....I have two carnivores in the house right now so have to put on the thinking cap on how to prepare the meat in the fridge. I have beef, chicken and pork all stored up in the freezer.  For dinner I prepared some capsicum meat patties for him and the Wild Boar and guess who is the happiest ?  Of course , the Wild Boar !  For I have been cooking more veggies and fish dishes the past weeks, trying to wean him off meat and for the next 7 days , he will get to eat meat...and he has Josh to thank for :p

Spicy Tom Yom Fried Rice

Tiredness is my worst enemy for a person who loves to cook and this simple one dish meal came into the scene when the enemy decides to strike :p  Spicy Tom Yom Fried Rice will do for dinner when tiredness takes over. I had been standing on my feet frying the crab filaments the past few nights ( this is the best CNY gifts to give to my friends and relatives  :p )  I used 9 grains to make this fried rice. Healthy and delicious. Love their firm springy texture and high fibre content :)   This fried rice is so simple to prepare that even a young lass can do it :)

It Finally Arrived !!!! The Bread Baker's Apprentice

This is my dream book - The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart.  I heard so much about him from bloggers all over the world and I truly would like to own at least one of his books .  I have been eyeing  it for sometime and finally I have saved enough for this book....hahaha and it finally arrived ...just one day later than the other two books. Now I have three of my most wanted books and tell me if I am not HAPPY !  :))))

I will be trying out bread recipes from  the book after CNY  and now I am pinching myself hard so that I know I am not dreaming :p

love the contents inside the book and the

step by step pictures instruction and 

I would say this is a good book

Finally, I got all my most wished for books :))))

I still have more on my wish list :p  

Have a great weekend !

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My ' Babies ' Arrived Today !

Yay yay.... *HAPPILY DANCING on tip toes * ........my  babies  books arrived today !  I ordered three books from Book Depository on the 8th January 2011 and two of them arrived today....exactly 2 weeks !  My new year present for myself , for a whooping USD120 ( RM360 ) I bought three cookbooks ! Hahaha ... I am so happy, I am going to sleep with them tonight!  I have been wanting to get Dorie Greenspan's Baking From My Home To Yours two years ago and now finally I made up my mind to rightfully own this book.

Quinine Mango Sambal / Chutney

My colleague gave me 3 quinine mangoes last friday , from her own garden.  The ripe one ...has a strong smelly fragrance which can be over powering for some but I love them nonetheless :))) You can't hide them from your friends anyway , what more in an air conditioned office !  I love making  them into sambal , a local mango chutney , that is a sweet and spicy concoction , blend with fresh chillies and toasted shrimp paste ( belacan ) and used as a condiment for fish , meat or simply as a unique side dish. I taught  Jo to eat this when she was young and now whenever I make this spicy mango chutney, she will squeal and I tell you she really ' tambah nasi ' have extra rice when I served this condiment for dinner :p   I learned to make this chutney from my Malay colleague :) when I had lunch with them many many years ago and since then this has been my favorite sambal !

Chicken Stew Soup By 'Chef Wild Boar'

Of all the soup recipes out there, chicken soups have to be one of the most versatile soups. A fresh pot of chicken soup or stew starts with a pot of hot water and any part of the chicken with fresh picked root veggies, fresh herbs or dried herbs and potatoes depending on your recipes. It goes well with many different spices and seasonings . The best comfort food for us especially on a cold rainy night . Nothing is quite as versatile and yet simple and easy to make as chicken soup and I was wondering why it has been such a long time since I made a stepping pot of chicken soup or stew.  And someone beats me to it ..and not only that... he cooks better than me LOL!

Today, I would like to share with you this pot of chicken stew soup prepared by my ' Chef Wild Boar ' : ) A simple yet tasty soup. This chicken stew soup must have been prepared with lots of love and patience for it tasted wonderfully good :p . I have recently conferred this title " Chef Wild Boar ' on him for he cooks better than me now :p  So , I think I can now safely hand over my apron to him...What say you ???

Light Dinner @ Sushi Zanmai, The Gardens, KL

You know ,when I am down in KL , I will normally hang around The Gardens for food , too lazy to venture out , firstly we have no vehicle, we travel by ETS nowadays, unlike those days when the kids were younger, Wild Boar will drive , thus have to rely on public transport and secondly , the traffic jam in KL is horrible.  So , Jo and myself will normally eat around this area.  Wild Boar goes about his business leaving me and Jo to amuse ourselves :) What else , we eat and eat and eat the whole time we were there..and after eating round the clock, we settled for something light and yet delicious for dinner.....yea...Sushi Zanmai.

Crispy And Spicy Salted Egg Yolk Aubergine Cubes

Aubergine cut into cubes, coated with potato flour and deep fried in hot grapeseed oil and tossed in salted egg yolk , garlic, curry powder and with a sprinkle of toasted sesame seed....awwww I will let you imagine how good this dish is.  Salted egg yolk has the uncanny ability to bring out the flavor of this dish ......with its partners in crime, the garlic and curry powder and toasted sesame seeds, this dish can be a real great appetizer. The curry leaves makes it aromatic .

Simple Dinner Affair :)

This is one simple dinner affair we had last night.  We had a heavy lunch so we decided to have something simple and I whipped this up for us :p  Something colorful and something nice and something fragrant and a something refreshing soup to go with it.  Haha...yesss...colorful Luncheon Meat with Ham Omelette and the ever refreshing Mint Soup  :)  Just these two makes our simple dinner affair. No matter how simple the dishes are, it is up to one to make them colorful, tasty and mouthwatering :) and I love these quotes  " When baking, follow directions. When cooking, go by your own taste - Laiko Bahrs  and  "  Make food simple and let things taste of what they are " - Curnonsky

Lovely Lunch @ Italiannies ,The Gardens

Lately , I have been travelling up and down KL and on one of these occasions, had the opportunity to try out food from Italiannies . The three of us were at The Gardens looking for good food to appease our hunger and we found Italiannies on the 1st floor of The Gardens. Piggy Jo and myself love pasta and the  ' Wild Boar ' loves anything meat.  The perfect lunch for the 3 hungry pigs  us...it was delicious both the roast chicken and the pastas.  I wish I could remember the name of the pasta and the chicken...I only remember they have wonderful name for each dish :p for the memory is weak when the stomach is weak LOL! Just drool and see what finally appeased the stomach :)

Thai Green Curry Shrimps

My neighbor Miss SP gifted me a packet of Thai green curry paste and I was like ahhhhh...what am I going to cook it with ? I have never cook green curry before !  I  have some shrimps and some beef in the freezer ....so be it  , shrimps will do. I wanted to cook the shrimps in rice wine actually but since my kind neighbor wanted me to tell her whether this paste is as good as recommended by her friend, I have to oblige her and cook green curry instead .

Fish Fillets En Papilotte

It's time to eat more fish after having consumed so much of arteries clogging food during the festive season :p and now back to eating fish and be happy !   I love cooking fish in papilotte .  Wrap them in papilotte and chuck them into the oven for 15-20 minutes and tada dinner is ready !  It's such an easy task and yet it gives me the full satisfaction in taste and the right amount of calories intake ..... and not much of cleaning up to do and it's healthy too !

Salted Egg Yolk Chicken

I was inspired to cook this dish after reading Wendy 's blog  Table For 2 or more  :) she is the pregnant one but looks like I am the one with a sudden craving  :p  I have some chicken breast meat left so it was a good idea to use them for this dish. I used what I have in the fridge. I have 2 salted duck eggs  left in the fridge so I used up the 2 salted egg for this awesome and tasty restaurant dish. The curry leaves are a plenty in the garden ...flourishing well becoz it has been pouring heavily lately. I don't have evaporated milk so I substituted it with non dairy cream and it turned out delish just the same .

Special Gift From My ' Wild Boar ' :)

Today I won't be talking about food but something better than food ! I get connected with foodie friends in which ever nook and corner of the house .  Do you know that  I am now very dependable on this thing called iPod Touch. I will be like holding on to it  8 hours a day  :p :p ..of course not counting the working hours !  I hold it when I am sleeeping, at the dinner table or watching the idiot box  LOL! funny isn't it....God will be happy if I am holding the bible instead but you will be surprised ...I have the online bible in it too so God need not worry about Elin forgetting to read the bible before she knock off to dreamland  :p

Well, I got this gift from  my ' wild boar ' two months ago...my early Xmas pressie from him :)  This is so useful and convenient for me , I can surf  the net in which ever corner  I am in the house !  I can check the baking ingredients from the iPod Touch without having to start the PC and having to run to it each time I forget the ingredients.  Wheeee...the best pressie I ever have from  'wild boar '.  Thank you dear wild boar for this ' gift of life '. I love it and I know I can't live without it. This is much better than a diamond ring :p  I can watch cooking demo  video on You Tube while lying down on the comfort of the bed.  I can check my e-mail and chat on skype with friends while lying down resting. I can play games while the cake is baking away in the oven.  I am a multi tasking person so this came just nice for me. I LOVE IT .WILD BOAR !  Merci ' and Je l'adore !      ~ ^

 "  It is not how much you love me

but how much you know me :)  "

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Kimchi Bokumbap / 김치 볶음밥

Kimchi Bokumbap/Kimchi Fried Rice would be nice for a change....spicy and savoury and it is so easy to make ! as long as you have kimchi at home. I used to make my own kimchi but lately I found some very good ones from Jusco...they are authentic ones from Korea thus save me time and energy. It tasted good and we had Kimchi Bokumbap for our new year lunch... a great meal to kick start 2011 :)

Is it possible that I can write a post about ' rice' and still have you drooling over it ??? Yess...it is ma-sseo-sseo-yo ( it just means delicious in Korean )  I can only help you imagine how great it looks through the lens but the real taste has to come through your cooking !

Stuffed Roast Chicken In Red Wine Marinade

To wrap up 2010 and to usher in 2011, we had a simple celebration at home . Time flies and here is 2011...and blogging through out the year 2010 had brought me many foodie friends from foodbuzz and many readers from all over the world , some of whom have become good friends . Strange ...how food can bring people from all over the world together. Blogging not only brings me new friends from all over the world but have have also helped me improve my cooking skills :)  I had so much fun blogging about the food I cooked and those food photography session was fun  . Being able to capture the food I cooked in picture form is happiness for me.

I believe 2011 will be fun filled too with many blogger meet ups  :)  My  first post for 2011 and I am going to share with you  the goodbye 2010 and hello 2011 dish  " Stuffed Chicken In Red Wine Marinade "