Thanksgiving Fun

Thanksgiving break is just around the corner, and I'm sure for most of you it has already started! Excited much? =)

Last year I tried to do a Thanksgiving dinner, with a HUGE turkey which turned out a little sad because it was so big that I couldn't fit it in the oven, and had to cut it open before roasting it. Not very pretty.

This year, I'm having some friends over and we'll be cooking and having some Thanksgiving/Christmas dishes and dessert at home! I'm hoping that it'll turn out better than last year.

So people, if you guys are ambitious enough to try out a Thanksgiving dinner, share it here!

Traditional Thanksgiving dishes includes huge roasted turkey, glazed ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob, deviled eggs, mac n cheese, salads (eggs/potato/seafood/etc), pies (pumpkin/apple/mincemeat), apple cider, and eggnog. This year I'm gonna be trying out glazed ham, mashed potatoes, maybe a pumpkin pie, some eggnog.

Good luck to me, and to anyone who's planning on having a Thanksgiving dinner! =D

And have a wonderful and well-deserved Thanksgiving break!!

Mille Crepe Attempt 1

It was a friend's birthday some three weeks ago, and the usual overambitious, curious me decided to try out the Mille Crepe recipe that I've been eyeing for about a few months now.

When I first discovered this "cake" in a cafe in Melaka, I fell in love with it instantly. It was nothing like I ever tasted, and it's just, amazing. Layers and layers of what I thought to be some kind of egg batter, assembled so perfectly into a cake - it is perfect. So sometime around summer, I was browsing around and looking at baking and cooking blogs, and found the recipe for this mille crepe! It doesn't look as nicely assembled at the one in the cafe in Melaka, but it looks good nonetheless.

So I've been wanting to give it a try, but I've just been procrastinating it for a few months because it really seemed like a lot of work. When my friend's birthday came, it just struck me that I had to give this a try. It was then or never.

Preparing the batter was easy and fun. But the frustration kicks in when it's time to make the crepes. I had access to two non-stick pans, but both had scratches and didn't work very well. My crepes were sticking to the pan and I've wasted about 4 or 5 crepes, and VERY frustrated.

But there's my baker boyfriend, who came and suggested that I use the smaller pan (probably about 4-5 inches) which looked better and didn't have any scratches on it.

It worked, and we ended up having two tiny mille crepe cakes. :D


The sides of the cake wasn't supposed to be covered with cream, but my boyfriend decided to not waste the cream (it was delicious) and just wipe it all over the cake after assembling it, when I wasn't home. *lol*


So it was a pretty interesting experiment, and the crepes turned out thicker than I wanted, but it turned out okay. I will definitely try making it again. :D

Mooncake

I just realized I haven't update in forever. And honestly, I did not cook anything spectacular. Between my classes and labwork and the mountain load of homework, all i feel like doing each day is to drop dead.

but hey, i'm blessed in that i live with people who loves cooking. who have the patience to try, again and again and again, to make mooncake.

me? i shuffle down every now and then and offer to help coz i felt guilty for being a pig. heh.

so...

i'm taking liberty and posting pictures for you to see. and of course, links to mooncake recipe (i didn't claim that i know how to do it =p) i know mooncake festival is already over... but maybe if you have free time and a craving for mooncake? or maybe for next year?

cheers! pictures and mooncakes are compliments of CJ, and Alicia.

big mound of mooncake

ping pei mooncake
more ping pei mooncake
nice? =)
giant mooncake



links:
Mooncake Recipe (1)
Mooncake Recipe (2)
Mooncake Recipe (3)

Simply Addictive

Since semester started, I have been so super uber busy, I can't even find much time to post something proper here. *sigh*

And because everybody is really busy as well, (I assume - from all the late night facebook updates and complaints on homeworks and lab reports XD) let me at least share something that I personally LOVE, something so simple and easy to make, something REALLY addictive (beware).

I don't know the original name for it, (does it even have a name?) but let us just call it The Majestic Wonderfully Addictive Spring Roll Snacks! :D Everybody loves something deep fried. Everybody loves something sweet. And most of all everybody goes for anything addictive (despite how unhealthy it is). :D

I think I first learnt about this snack from my mum (or somewhere in the family) when we made it once upon a time for Chinese New Year. When I first made and served it during Chinese New Year that year, I was surprised by how quickly it finished. Everybody loved it and asked me how I made it. The best thing is how simple it really is to make it.

Ingredients:

1.) Spring Roll skin (depending on how much you want to make, but two of this would be enough to start off)

2.) Icing sugar (also depending on how sweet you want it to be)

3.) Oil for deep frying

Method:

1.) Defrost the packet of spring roll skin if it is frozen.

2.) Take a piece of spring roll skin and cut it into half.

3.) Roll it up (as illustrated). If it doesn't stay rolled up, mix some corn starch with water, and apply it at the end of the roll. (acts like glue)

4.) Cut up the roll according to the size you want.

5.) Once you've finished rolling and cutting, heat up oil for deep frying, and fry the spring roll skins until they turn light brown. (it shouldn't take a long time)

6.) Take them up, and sprinkle icing sugar evenly (to taste).

And that's it!

I made this for Raya celebration this year (took me only an hour - and I was in a rush), and everybody loved it! They're even more surprised at how simple it is to make. :) Making this little snack can also be very fun. If you're bored of rolling the skins, try making other shapes! During Chinese New Year this year, my friends got bored and curious, and decided to make origami using the skins. This is how one turned out.

Cute eh? :D

Oh and you can roll it up with seaweed too if you like, as you can see in the picture, if you look carefully. :D

Go ahead and try it! It's addictive I swear! :D

Old Cucumber Soup!

After so long, I finally persuaded my mum to cook/boil some soup for me. Yeah, we cater so my mum seldom cooks. And the craving for soup comes once in a while. A nice steaming hot soup is excellent for cold weathers! Cream soups are not that suitable for me because well, they're creamy and don't possess that subtle, herby flavour. Not much omph, to shorten words. A chinese will always be chinese. Nothing beats chinese style boiled soup. =D

Old Cucumber is my favourite so I'm sharing this recipe with you guys. =D
Ingredients:
400g of pork bones. *not the full bones of course. have some meat on em'!*
A handful or more of red dates
A handful or more of wolfberries. (kei chi)
A handful of dried longans (this is optional, but it makes the soup sweeter)
A cube of chicken stock
1 old cucumber

Method:
1. Boil the pork till they are half cooked. Leave to cool for later use.

2. Wash the old cucumber then scrape the brown skin of with a knife. Don't peel the skin. Just scrape it off and you'll see a layer of green inside.

3. Cut the old cucumber in half and then into three sections. Or you can cut it in any lengths as you wish. Its really up to you. Remember to remove the seeds! unlike ordinary cucumber, its not necessary to cut off the edge of the cucumber and rub off the sap. My mum laughed at me when I did that. = =

4. Boil a pot of water and put in the half cooked pork bones. let it boil for a few more minutes then add the wolfberries, red dates, and longans. 

5. Cover the pot and let it boil for about ten to fifteen more minutes. 

6. Add the chicken stock cube and cucumber. Stir with a ladle before covering and reducing to a simmer for about 30 minutes. Alternatively, you can use salt and sugar to season the soup. We don't use salt and sugar because we're not that sure of the ratio. Chicken stock works best for us.

7. Place the pot of soup into a warmer and leave it there till its time to serve. You guys probably don't have a warmer so you can let the soup simmer for about 2-3 hours. Is works either way.

tadaaa! a steaming hot bowl of old cucumber soup! excellent for cold days. =)

Fried Rice

I’m particularly interested in fried rice because there are a hundred ways you can cook it, but very few of them stand out. I still remember this stall outside my tuition centre which sells really good ones – too bad it closed down though.

Serves one hungry person, or two not so hungry persons.

 

INGREDIENTS (based on feel – vegetable ratios are flexible, sauce ratio is  more important)
One cup of rice – cooked.

Garlic – 2 to 3 pips. More garlic more flavor
Onion – 1/16 or 1/8 of a palm size onion
Carrot – equal to the amount of onions you’re using
Scallions – equal to amount of onions, or depending
Dried shrimps

Oyster sauce – 1 tbsp
Light soy sauce – 1 tbsp
Dark soy sauce – 1tbsp

Black pepper
Curry powder (quite irrelevant)
Chilli powder (quite irrelevant)

 

INSTRUCTIONS
**HAVE YOU COOKED THE RICE YET??**
1. Fry whatever meat you’re using. I usually use fish fillets.
Tip: Fry fillets with low heat (on a scale of 0 to 7, use 4). It turns brown and crispy, and no pesky oil splattering. Put it aside. You can also fry scrambled eggs – just push them to one side of the pan.

2. Saute the garlic til brown. Fry the onions until they smell. Add in carrots. (Do it in this order). Push everything to one side of the pan.

3. Make sure there’s at least one tbsp of oil. Add in the rice, the 3 sauces, and cover (literally) the whole thing with black pepper (and the other 2 powders). Before stirring the rice, heat up the oil again – the frying sound.

Note: Fry only the rice – keep the spices and eggs separate. Make swift choppy motions.

4. Now, mix everything up. Add in the scallions and dried shrimp and continue mixing.  You’re done :)

I think the only thing about this is the amount of black pepper and the sauce combination. Well, it keeps me happy during exam period. lol

 

Note for beginners: Don’t be afraid of using oil. Embrace it. Rice cannot fry without oil. Learn with trial and error to gauge your oil usage. LOL

Let me know how it works out for you :D

CedZH

Sweet Sour Fish

*recipe from home :D

INGREDIENTS

One onion -  slice into rings or half rings
One tomato- cut into wedges
One third Carrot- cut into strips
One third Cucumber - remove skin - Cut into half and then quarter  lengthwise, remove the centre(seeds)- cut into strips like carrot
[I usually don’t bother adding it lol]

2 dessertspoons Tomato sauce
1 dessertspoon chilli sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce(optional)
A slice of lemon or one lime- squeeze the juice( can use  vinegar instead)
One tablespoon Tapioca or corn flour mix with water

INSTRUCTIONS

Heat up the wok
Add enough oil for frying the fish
Fry fish until golden brown on both sides
Remove from the wok.
Turn off the flame.
Remove some oil from the wok after frying the fish.
Leave enough for preparing the sauce.
Turn on the flame.
Saute the garlic till light brown
Add in the onion, carrot and tomato, Stir fry. add tomato sauce and chilli sauce( and oyster sauce)
Add in salt to taste. Add water to slightly cover the whole mixture
Add a bit of sugar
Add lemon or lime juice( or vinegar)
Add in the cucumber, continue stirring
Thicken gravy with starch solution.(Just enough so that the gravy can still flow when u test with spoon)
Dish up gravy and put on top of the fish.

It’s a sweet and sour dish, so it’s really nice if served with oranges. (especially Florida oranges, heavenly). Balance it out with cool vegetables.

Have fun~

CedZH