Lunch with my *censored*

Apparently they are famous for their fried chicken nasi briyani. I thought it was ok... I had better. =D

I loved the teh tarik though.

Gemütlich - Hansang Ginseng Chicken.

So busy I am too tired to post pics I took over Chinese New Year weekend. Am retroactively posting now... in scheduled posts =D.

First of all the Hansang dinner we had yesterday night. Nothing more comforting than hot Korean Samsung Chicken even when the thermostat reading is 28 degree Celsius. I was a bit annoyed at the restaurant because they had a banner outside that said one can have their "all-you-can-eat BBQ" buffet, even on Friday nights, yet they said it wasn't available when we went in. B1 said it was a ruse. I said I was a bit annoyed because I wasn't really there for BBQ yesterday so not much difference to me.

Eh the yellow blob is mashed pumpkin and potato. Wtf? Baby food. I should tell my SIL. =D Anyway, B1 loves napa kimchi, and me radish kimchi (which I know how to make). I think the recipe is in nibblezware main blog.

& of course there is Beef Bulgogi. Hansang's version looks and tastes awfully like Sukiyaki, but don't tell their Korean bosses, I think they will flip to know that I think that their beloved dish tastes Japanisch.

Karei Rilakkuma-wannabe

B1 knowing I have a Rilakkuma craze, sent me this photo he saw on Facebook. I didn't think he look like Rilakkuma but still cute nonetheless.

鱼生

I am too lazy to switch on Chinese script in this computer (having lots of problems switching between English, German and Chinese at the other pc), so now whenever I want to type Chinese words, I have to whack at the Google Translate. Very funny, especially when you are trying to type Chinese idioms. 

鱼生

There is a super popular dish in Singapore called 鱼生, which we only eat during Chinese New Year. To easily explain, it is like a salad, with shredded (and dried somewhat) cucumber, carrot and daikon. Supposedly the three symbolize luck and wealth. Then when you pour in sweet plum sauce, you say lame well-wishing statements like "甜甜蜜蜜", and then the little fried crackers, "富贵满堂", "财运当头" etc.

Vater is making sushi in the background

Usually the pièce de résistance is smoked or raw salmon, denoting "年年有鱼". But in this particular dish, my family used abalone.

Then everyone uses their chopsticks and lift up the entire mixture as high as they dare and yell more lame statements like "风声水起", "身体健康", "万事如意". The salad will fall all over the place and then we will nom nom nom nom.

So many pretty colors

The idea is that the dish is full of symbolism for good luck and prosperity and good wishes for wealth, capisce?

Crispy thin pizza

I've been sick since Friday, which sucks because it is the Chinese New Year weekend.Wasted two days of my life clutching my head. I hate migraines. But yesterday I recovered just enough to play stonewall w my favorite guys =D.

I made this for lunch on Sunday before B1 and I split up to go to our own individual reunion dinners. We will need to think about what to do next year. sigh. I was aching to bake after the very easy beer bread that gave me no release =D or satisfaction.

 I am very ashamed to say... I forgot where I got this recipe from. I tend to scribble the details very quickly on the post-it, and this is all that I got...

recipe

1 tsp sugar  + 1 pkg dry yeast
0.5 cup warm water (the warm bathwater kind of temperature)
1-1.5 cup flour

0.25tsp salt
2 tsp corn meal


Rise 1 hour, 230 degree Celsius oven. 10 min cook dough, 10 min cook ingredients on dough.



Dissolve the sugar and the yeast into the warm water and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Measure 1.5 cup but only pour in 1 cup. You can use the 0.5 cup for the flour surface. Knead 5 minutes.

 At least I got to pummel some with this dough.

Let it rise 1 hour or till 2x size in a warm environment with minimum air? I dumped it inside the microwave oven (not yet preheated).

I scattered the cornmeal all over the baking tin. I started preheating the oven at the point. Note to self, oven is a temperamental bitch. I will have to minus 20 degree Celsius for every recipe, or encounter burnt dough, like my earlier episodes. I also had burnt dough for this pizza but thankfully I was standing around preparing my ingredients this time and not playing CoH so I managed to catch the dough before it burnt very much. Sigh.

 I used my hands to roll out the dough to a thin, thin pancake. Notice my fat fingerprints around the sides.

I dumped black olives (I discovered I have a mad love for olives), baby tomatoes, mozarella, parmesan and bacon, which I fried beforehand. Instead of a tomato base, I spread the dough (after 10 minutes in the oven, with much misadventure) with cream cheese. before I scattered the ingredients on top.

It was quite delish, except because of the oven, I wasn't able to crisp out the entire pizza. Still B1 and I liked it.

I always forget to blog something

But seriously this is such a colorful meal I cannot imagine why I would forget to blog about it... perhaps it is somewhere hidden at nibblezware.

Miso salmon (psst that is why some parts are burnt, it's the miso), egg drop soup which looks more like egg camouflage soup), steamed minced meat and fried 豆苗.

Chinese Love letters [Updated!!!]

This was an epic fail of sorts. First, I don't have the necessary equipment (as usual), then I was paranoid that the mixture was too liquid, so added some flour... which ironically turned it to a delicious crepes. But there are only so many rolled up crepes that you can eat before you get sick. The rest of it has been unceremoniously dumped into the freezer until one lazy morning where I will use it to make waffles or pancakes. B1 was the one who gave me the idea while he was deep in thought after consuming one. I thought he has been sucked into BF3 as usual when he uttered "damn things taste like waffles..."

Just to let you know how off the mark I was, here is how real edible Chinese love letters look like:

Source of image comes from Jen's World. I am inserting the url in case I am crazy to do attempt 2 at the love letters. You may never know... besides my original recipe was a modified one from another site (which I forget). My constant adaption of recipes are causing some fun ass hits and misses. You should ask B1. 

<u>Updated!!!</u>

I made pancakes for breakfast using the remaining mix. It tastes fantastic with honey, awful with apple sauce. =D

Please don't be freaked out

Disclaimer: Don't read on if you are not offally interested. I don't want to traumatize anyone.

This is the part where Motorbreath would say only the French would appreciate the stuff Chinese eat. (Our cultures appreciate good food). Even B1 refused to touch offal. I muttered that I bought this at his favorite supermarket Meidi-ya (land of natto for both of us).

B1 was a bit disbelieving that Japanese would eat offal.

Oh please, I was introduced to the joys of offal by a Japanese Yakiniku restaurant in Ang Mo Kio when I was 11 years old. =D  Trust me, the Japanese know their beef.

Anyway I dumped into three slices of striploin for Mr Fussy, but he complained that the striploin is tough. Cheap cuts *shrug*. Instead I was intrigued by why the offal tasted even more rough and rubbery after so many hours of boiling. I am suddenly reminded of the bloody pig intestines I boiled trying to mimick Ah Zhong Mian xian. I got down the mian xian phlat, but wasn't able to make the pig intestines soft like the shop's.

What do you do with leftover potato salad?

Pop downstairs and buy a bag of breadcrumbs. Make croquettes out of them. Duh.

Actually Mutter said that we should not eat leftover potato salad, yet on the other hand, I have heard Americans say that leftover potato salad is even more delish *shrugs*.

Daiso Instant Custard

I have to say at S$2 a pop, this instant custard that is sold at Daiso (a very popular Japanese S$2 shop that has several branches in Singapore. I am a huge fan) is a no-brainer to make and absolutely delish... it even comes with powder to make the caramel. 

Too bad I am a lazy cow who couldn't be bothered to pour the pudding onto a plate for a prettier photo, but who cares as long as it is yummy?

My version of Ginger Pork

Inspired by the Okinawan Ginger Pork that B1 had, I came home and made my own.

I set the microwave oven to "grill" and wrapped Mr Piggie (I bought the frozen pork sukiyaki slices) lovingly around oyster mushroom and carrots. Then I grilled them for about 20 minutes, until I saw a nice golden brown crust. Poured the liquid out into the frying pan, after frying ginger and garlic slices in some olive oil. Added sesame seed oil, soya sauce, sugar and oyster sauce. Tossed the pork packets into the gravy and serve with some Japanese-style mashed potatoes.

No brainer Bier brot - As relaxed as Bier itself

I am trying to cut down on the kitchen paraphernalia as my kitchen is as tiny as a ship galley. For example, I sneak home to grab Vater's electronic scale every Saturday morning because I know he bakes on Friday afternoons. I use a IKEA colander for a sift, a McDonald's free gift of a CocaCola cup for a rolling pin (it makes interesting shapes, you can see the Coca cola symbol on my cookies. Talk about product placement) and a metal soup pot for a mixing bowl.

I rise to the occasion

But it is a losing battle, as I want to try more advanced recipes. Case in point, I needed a loaf pan for my bier brot... and after having a firm talk with myself, I stuck to using my Corningware soup pot as a bread pan. Actually I despaired on whether the bread would rise or it will sit like a flat square cake in the pot, since there was no kneading and proofing involved. 

Our fridge is like a frat party fridge. You didn't see the bottles of wine at the side of the fridge

 I used one of B1's biers for this bread. I opened our frat fridge, hmm, I needed 340ml, so I grabbed his 500ml kirin lager bier. Keke.

This is what you need for the making of the bread. The colander is for the all-too-important sifting of the flour. I forgot to include Mr Baking Powder. Just imagine he is here. Or imagine Mr Plain Flour is Mr Self-rising flour == Mr Plain flour with Mr Baking Powder.

I modified the recipe to my needs. I used my measuring cup to measure 3 cups of flour then sifted it in with my colander into my stockpot (which is my mixing bowl). Then I measured 4 tsp of baking powder and 0.5 cup sugar and sifted that in too. I missed out the salt, no wonder the bread was sweet. I think that the beer is a bit sweet too, so you can actually reduce the sugar if you want. I wasn't very sure if bier foam counted as bier too? Because when I measured only 250ml bier with about 100ml more of foam and poured it in, my dough was already the sticky consistency recommended in the recipe.

Just the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and sugar). Don't forget the salt!

Already too sticky and wet with 250ml beer and 100ml beer foam I added a tablespoon more of sifted flour.

Mr Bread cooking in the Backofen

 

As I was telling Kamerad, I was very verrwirrt, why the bread was so dense, almost cake-like. I thought it was not cooked but apparently it was. I regret not setting the temperature to 190 degree Celsius as called for by the recipe but my oven is a temperamental one and it seemed that setting it at 190 would burn my bread so I turned it to a cautious 180 instead for the same one hour.

There are some reassuring bubbles in the bread, but I think I prefer the old slap and pound because the bread is lighter and nicer to eat. It tastes really sweet, almost like bier cake. Hmm. It is a time saver so next time if I want to make bread, I will bake it with lesser sugar and sift the flour maybe twice!

Seriously I realize there is no kick. The whole reason why I got so into baking bread was because I want to pound the shit into the dough and relieve my stress. Looking at the bier brot all I can say "oh cool". Damn.

I had deliberated about which recipe to use, the Farmgirl version or the Food Network one but in the end, I took a modification of the two.

My modified recipe:

3.5 cups of plain flour

3-4 tsp of baking powder (I went a bit mad on it)

1 tsp salt (I forgot)

0.333 cup sugar (should reduce)

250ml of beer + 100ml foam (I think you should use a nutty flavored one or Guinness stout. Basically a manlier brew)

leftover melted butter

If you use a microwave, preheat the oven at 190 degree celsius and convection setting.

Pour in the beer into the measuring cup to about 250ml. I think you will probably get about 100ml + of foam. I included the foam as part of the beer. =D

Sift the flour, powder, sugar and salt twice into a bowl, then mix in the beer very slowly until your get a sticky mixture like the photo above.

Dump it into the oven which will be sounding the beep around the same time. And bake the bread for about 1 hour. 

Play one round of Company of Heroes' stonewall (German should be enough), and rut out the bread. Perhaps at wave 8 you got to run over and turn the bread, so the oven won't burn it. =D

BiBimBap (비빔밥)

I was looking through the photos on this blog and I realized that I either did not transfer all the posts (of my cooking at the new house) over from nibblezware, or I forgot to post some of them in the first place.

This was one of the first dishes I cooked at my new kitchen. I saw that the tofu auntie at the wet market was selling those giant bean sprouts, which are a absolute delight in bibimbap. I am quite a fussy eater in that I do not like to eat those tiny bean sprouts unless their tails and heads are removed. For these big headed ones, I don't mind the heads, but will still remove the tails.

This bibimbap contains cucumbers, carrots (both of which I blanched quickly), shredded egg, beef tossed with onions and garlic and my giant bean sprouts. To make the sauce for this is very simple, buy the readymade chilli paste from any decent Korean market and mix it with miso and water. Boil and dump on top (I usually pepper mine for extra kick). Yummz.

Okinawan dinner?

We were running low on natto so we did a grocery run at Meidi-ya. The cashier suggested that I become their member. The Japanese must be crazy, I would have to pay S$2 for a supposedly life-time membership and then accumulate points that must be used up every half a year. And... for every S$1 I spend, I get 1 point, and I would have to spend S$502 in 6 months to get a S$5 voucher....

There isn't much natto and half-price sashimi that I can buy for S$5.

So anyway we walked around Liang Court looking for a half decent eatery to settle our hunger. In the end we went back to the Okinawan diner. I forever associate Okinawa with pork and papayas. Anyway the joke was on me because I already had okawa in the afternoon, and my dinner set also came with okawa (think: Sekihan, the glutinous rice served with red beans to celebrate events, e.g. a girl having her first menses *gross... think about everyone celebrating your first tampon*)

The noodles was interesting. Reminded me of my usual Chinese egg noodles.

B1 had the ginger pork. Each set came with pudding-like tofu *I love* served with a thick soy sauce, minced ginger and spring onions. There were also two interesting sides of miso buta and radish (preserved with bonito and seaweed?).

Old Cucumber Soup 老黄瓜汤

老黄瓜汤功效:黄瓜性寒，味甘，有清热解毒、利水消肿等功效；白糖性寒，味甘，有润肺生津、和中益肺、舒缓肝气等功效。

黄瓜营养成分 黄瓜，又名王瓜、胡瓜。黄瓜富含蛋白质、钙、磷、铁、钾、胡萝卜素、维生素B2、维生素c、维生素E及烟酸等营养素。 黄瓜食疗药效 黄瓜中含有精氨酸等必需氨基酸，对肝脏病人的康复很有益处。 黄瓜所含的丙醇二酸，有抑制糖类物质在机体内转化为脂肪的作用，因而肥胖症、高脂血症、高血压、冠心病患者，常吃黄瓜既可减肥、降血脂、降血压，又可使体形健美、身体康复。 黄瓜汁有美容皮肤的作用，还可防治皮肤色素沉着。 黄瓜顶部的苦味中富含葫芦素c的成分，具有抗癌作用。 

Old cucumber is a good "cooling soup", very suitable for hot humid places like Singapore. It is anti-aging, helps with weight loss and good for the skin. It is also high in dietary fiber, calcium, iron and rich in vitamin A, B6, and C. I made it not because of the abovementioned benefits, but because it was going for a discount. I was shopping at the neighborhood mama shop because I wanted to buy cinnamon powder for the buns and saw that the shop still had some veggies left. Normally I would be very against the idea of buying veggies so late (you know the early bird nonsense) but I hadn't bought any on Saturday morning because B1 attended a wedding lunch and I stayed home to wrestle with *censored*.

Usually everyone would leave the ugly ass brown skin on while cooking this because they worry that the skin would be too mushy and disappear into the soup. However because I use an electric crockpot and not a claypot on the gas, I don't need to worry about that and I think the skin is goddamn disgustingly hideous and unhygenic, so I happily shaved the skin off. 

I dumped scallops, pork ribs, old cucumber, dates and wolfberries and boiled the hell of it. Accompanied by a simple beef stew (no wine was harmed in the making of this dish) and baby xiaobaicai (I can never understand why this green veggie is called xiaobaicai, literal translation: little white veggie).

Part 2 of "I CRAVE for Cinnamon Buns" - Using whatever I got

I used this recipe but modified it to my own taste. I missed Cinnabon which used to have branches in Singapore.  I was sehr tempted to make the calorific cream-cheese coating but I think I will hasten death some other way.

Ingredients:
1 cup of warm milk (45 degrees C)
2 eggs
76g of butter 

476g of all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt
100g of white sugar
1 package fast acting yeast

<s>220g</s>100g of brown sugar
100g of ground cinnamon

50g soft butter (actually I just used whatever was left)

The dough puffed up no end while I ran home to grab some stuff and bought dinner and some groceries. I love how dough puffs up!

Sigh burnt a little because I was too busy playing CoH. Should have turned the tray when I smelt it from the room. Anyway I expected the burning because I had been too eager to use up the brown sugar and cinnamon mixture.

I love how "holey" the bread is =D.

Part 1 of "I CRAVE for Cinnamon Buns" - Measurements are stupid

Especially those conversions from American cups to British grams. Drives me nuts everytime. And the conversion is different for different kinds of ingredients. And I think I just got the amount wrong for brown sugar and cinnamon power which I need for my cinnabuns.

See what I have to put up with? Recipe says 0.5cups white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar and 4.5 cups flour.

In the metric kitchen, I am told white sugar = 100g, brown sugar = 180g and flour 120X4.5 = 540g. While allrecipes.com says white sugar = 100g, brown sugar = 220g and flour 128X4.5 = 576g. I gave up and chose to chuck in 176+300g flour. Hmm still sticky.  Poured the baby out onto a floured surface and massaged the hell out of it while I thought evil thoughts about people I don't like (this is why I am developing a love for baking bread, I can knead out all my frustrations. People should just save money visiting therapists. Just give them some dough and tell them to knead the hell out of the mother fucker) until the dough sits obediently on the table. At this point, B1 came in seeking his bier and was alarmed to see me pounding the dough on the kitchen surface, which he claims might not be very clean (then you should have made it clean when you were washing up just now *sour*). I pointed out that both of us didn't die the other time when I made my crusty loaf, so we will be just as fine now.

I have used up my dough but I still have the cinnamon-brown sugar mixture. Pissed. What a waste of ingredients. I tried to pour more of the mixture onto individual buns, but I now realize I may cause the damn thing to burn. Stupid!!!!

More on the cinnamon buns later when I am done.

I forgot about this meal - "Russian Peasant" Soup

I do apologize if I sound rude to the Russians, but I call this soup my Russian Peasant soup, filled with cabbage and bit of bacon, pork balls (yes I said I would cut down on processed foods but bacon, pork balls and octopus balls are things I considered my "soul food") lurking around the surface like flotsam. 

I just think that my favorite Mr Piggy goes well with cabbage *drools*, which I am glad as a big non-fan of cabbage. 

Actually I cooked this back in cold December and forgot to blog about it. Perhaps because of the prawns which I do not eat. B1 complained that I would not cook prawns because I do not care for them. So I agreed that I would cook them if he would peel them. We even argued on how much peeling he would do (he wanted to merely strip the heads, but I made him strip off the legs and the body leaving only the tail, then gingerly holding each prawn by the body with a pair of tongs I cut away the dirty black vein *I am fastidious to the last*). I cooked them with butter, chinese wine, lots of pepper and salt, and had to stare at the prawns in order to tell whether they were cooked just right. Sigh.

Don't look at me! I am actually a baked potato dish

I contain milk, potatoes, cheddar cheese, bacon, eggs and parmesan cheese. I am death in a dish.

<u>Updated!!!</u>

Oh apparently, I am also called Pommes Dauphinoise. =D Guess I didn't invent the dish. Sigh. I saw the recipe later when I was reading A Table in the Tarn *haha*.

玉米汤 Corn Soup

适用范围：脾胃虚弱、食欲不振、疲劳、心悸、乏力等症者，尤其是慢性胃炎和胃、肺部肿瘤手术后的患者。

Corn soup is good for the spleen and stomach, especially for people suffering from loss of appetite, fatigue, palpitations, fatigue embolism and lung cancer patients recovering and going for operations.  

I made this the week after the 甜玉米羹 because B1 complained that the latter was technically not corn soup. Okie.... the man is also obsessed with having pork ribs in the soup, even though he does not eat the corn nor the pork, unless under severe duress (seriously as the person who pays for the groceries, it makes my heart bleed seeing these going to waste).