Octopus Salad

Octopus !!! saw some octopus sold in Tesco and they looked fresh , I bought some home with no idea what to do with them. It is not often that octopus are sold in Tesco and I guess that was what spurned me to buy them.  I looked through my cookbooks for some ideas and eventually I picked this salad recipe.  I tweaked it to suit my taste.   I followed their marinating method but for the rest of the ingredients, I just add in what I have in the fridge. This is the typical me...waste not !  Lucky for me, the salad dish turned out fabulous. I don't know about you but for us, it was indulged joyously. 

The octopus were small in size...perfect for grilling them and having them in salad. The original recipe uses thai sweet chilli sauce and since I don't have that at home, I make my own dressing sauce.  I combined the diced sweet  crunchy jalapeno, red wine vinegar, caster sugar to taste and some chilli sauce of your choice and olive oil together till well blended.  This is simple to whip up and the octopus took just 12 minutes to grill.  Pour sauce over  the grilled octopus and gosh it is addictingly delicious !

clean the octopus by removing the gut 

marinade with olive oil and chopped garlic

for 1-2 hour ...for me I marinade it

overnight in a zippered bag

you can either grill them or pan seared them

I cooked them on grill pan 5 minutes on each

sides till lightly brown and do not over cooked them

it will be tough...just 5 minutes on each sides will do

sauce ingredients -

sweet crunchy jalapeno- diced them into small bite sizes

mixed with olive oil, sugar, chilli sauce and red wine vinegar

lay the grilled octopus on a bed of salad sprouts

and pour sauce over the grilled octopus

love the dressing sauce and the vibrant color of this dish

I mixed them up before serving and cut the octopus into smaller pieces

this is one delicious and mouth-watering salad that was indulged

joyously by the Wild Boar and the Sow....OINK!

this is screaming to be filled into the mouth  LOL!

Enjoy and have a great day !

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Fresh Shiitake And Shrimps Omelette

I can't tell you how much I love fresh mushrooms and I try to have them more often in my diet.  I love all species , of course top on the lists are the white and brown mushrooms, shiitake , enoki and King mushroom. Wild Boar is not a fan of mushroom but I am trying to make him love them and now I can see some improvement....haha he has no choice but to partake them as I cook just this one dish for dinner :p  But of course I added some shrimps for him since he is a carnivore....I am not the wicked wife after all :p but his loving Sow !  This is a delicious and a well balanced diet for us.  Come near...let me whisper this into your ear.... " actually, I can have this whole thing all to myself  if WB doesn't like ...less people more share ...huh !"   trying hard to suppress the selfish thought LOL!  

This is a simple and easy to prepare dish....who can't cook omelette...I am sure everyone can do that. It is such a versatile dish. You can add all your favorite ingredients into the beaten eggs and tada...a wonderful and flavorful omelette for your brunch, light lunch or dinner.  For me , since I have so much of fresh mushrooms in the fridge ( they can't keep well for long ) I make omelette out of them and they are simply delicious.  Great dish to have when you are pressed for time....like you have to watch those recorded movies and dramas from Astro  LOL!  Lazy Elin will think of something simple and doesn't takes up time when she is hooked on dramas and her movies :)   Mushroom and shrimps omelette is the solution...rather than eating out most time.   I used the basic seasoning ingredients...chilli flakes ( extras from Domino's -waste not ) cajun and Maggi seasoning sauce ( the one that looks like soy sauce ) and season the shrimps for 10 minutes and that is enough to make the omelette taste good.   I learned from Sonia that if you want the shrimp meat to be firmer and have a light springy texture, first season them with baking powder and true enough , the shrimps have a light springy and firm texture.  Thank you Sonia for the tips. 

first saute the fresh shiitake with garlic and olive oil...

the extra chilli flakes is for seasoning the shrimps

season the shrimps with cajun powder, chilli flakes

and a tsp of Maggi seasoning sauce for ten minutes

add the seasoned shrimps to the sauted mushroom 

and cook till the shrimps are almost cooked...drain off

the liquid from the pan...pour in the beaten egg ( 2 nos ) 

and the chopped italian parsley onto the mushroom and

shrimps , add another tsp of olive oil onto the pan

after the bottom side has set and a brown, flip over and cook the 

other side for another  2 minutes and the omelette is ready

for serving...mmmmm smell good....

love the crispy edges of the omelette

you can  garnish with more italian parsley 

and if you are hot stuff , you can shake more

chilli flakes on the omelette for extra hot but

Wild Boar ate them with his favorite sauce

Tabasco !!!   the chilli flakes not hot enough for him !!

Really hot stuff.....

Have a great day !

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Dim Sum @ Qi Yuan , Greentown Business Centre,Ipoh

I have not been cooking for the past few weeks except baking  :(   Been eating out most of the time with friends...gosh , I am growing sideways already !  Miss home cooking lots....but rest assured I will be putting on the apron again :)  Today , I want to share with you guys, a nice place for dim sum in Ipoh . This shop is located in Greentown Business Centre.  The name of the shop is Qi Yuan.  They serve great dim sum.  This is definitely one great place for dim sum....I love their dumplings and radish cake and I heart their different types of fried rolls and not to forget their glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf.  And of course , they serve  different desserts everyday.   I love their aloe vera with ice cream...yummy!   Wild Boar and myself were taken to this place for brunch by our dear friends, Kitty and Ron...thank you so much  for the scrumptious brunch !  We both enjoyed it very much :)

Homemade Pickled Beetroot

Beetroot is also one of my favorite root veggie besides red skin radish....love eating them as salad or as pickles. I read about how good they are for our health that I have decided to add them  more often into our diet. Pickled them in red wine vinegar and they really make good appetizer .   It can be addictive .... I will take a few pieces out of the jar each time I have dinner at home, it is really great to chew on this crunchy  flavorful beetroot . I realized that I have not been cooking much , thus for the lack of posts lately :(  

Almond Flounder Meunière- French Fridays With Dorie

Flounders was out of stock in Jusco so I could not get this dish in time for Friday, but I went straight this morning to get them from Jusco and thank God , they have fresh stock of flounder fillet @32.90 /kg.  Bought   a fillet piece for RM13 - quite a big piece - fillet of half side of the flounder . It was so fresh that I quickly cook it for our lunch so that I could make it in time for FFWD even though it may be a wee bit late.  Better late than never and when I read through the recipe , I knew I would love it. Every bite was  nutty crunch and with an after taste of the lemon zest...great lunch for the two of us :)   This dish is an inventive crossbreeding of two classic dishes, sole amandine whereby the fish is finished with sauteed almond slices and sole meunière , in which the fish is sauteed in browned butter.  And Dorie's version is using baby flounder, lightly coat the fillets with ground almonds and sauteed them in browned butter and served them with toasted almond slices and a sprinkling of parsley. I love this style of cooking the flounder...the ground almond  coating which has lemon rinds in it gave the fish the nutty crunch . I served it with radish salad and some Korean strawberries......Yummy ...a good lunch for a sunny day!

Home Prepared Tuna Sashimi :)

Well, you better believe it. Yea, I made some tuna sashimi at home for my dinner :p  Gosh I can't believe I ate them and my tummy behaved well ...LOL!  I bought a piece of frozen tuna from the Jusco.  They look fresh and thus I took home a small block . Kept a piece for making sashimi ! Wild Boar was oinking into my ears the whole time I was in the kitchen , preparing this. " Make sure you don't contaminate them or you will land yourself in the hospital ! " and after a few minutes he came in and OINK louder this time and said this " Why not we go to your favorite Japanese haunt and eat your sashimi ? " Haih, the trouble is, he doesn't understand ... to me, being able to make your own sashimi is a JOY ! So, I shoo him away and told him this " Shoo , go away and leave me to prepare my own sashimi in PEACE before you contaminate them with your saliva, the way you OINKIN' at me !!! "  and that managed to get rid of the Wild Boar ! * eyes rolling and you should see his expression.  My joy became his worries !  Of course , my tuna sashimi turned out great ...you want to know how I prepared mine ?But please do not follow if you have a weak stomach. Mine is as thick as the SOW's so I am safe :p