I Hereby Officiate 'The Indian Kitchen'

'The Indian Kitchen' is filled with delicious mouth-watering treats that I wish I could just poof up instead of cooking from scratch. Why, you ask? Good Indian dishes are always prepared with loads of spices and at times hard-to-get ingredients, not to mention that extra cooking step to make it its own. I decided to whip up one carrot-flavoured rice and spicy goan chicken curry - they seemed simple enough and most importantly I have them ingredients.

Gajar Ka Pulao

Heat oil in a pan. When it is hot, add the cassia stick (I replaced it with cinnamon bark), cloves and black peppercorns, and fry for a minute. Add the rice (I used two cups) and fry until translucent. Throw in the grated carrots (I used one big carrot) and 4Tbsp cashew nuts. Fry for a couple of minutes before transferring the rice into a rice cooker. Add the salt and hot water and stir the mixture well. Leave it to cook!

All ready - my carrot-flavoured rice!

The second dish for the day was one Komdi Vindaloo

Ingredients:

Cooking oil, potatoes, large onions, 4 chicken drumsticks, cloves, black peppercorns, cardamom, 4 green chilies (slit lengthways to expose the seeds but the chili is not broken in two - this description immediately made my mouth water ~spicy!), 1tsp sugar, salt. 4Tbsp malt vinegar (I replaced it with calamansi juice).

Grind to a paste: 1tsp cumin seeds, 1tsp coriander seeds, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1tsp chopped garlic, 1tsp chopped ginger, 4 dried red chilies, and a large pinch of cinnamon powder (I didn't have cumin seeds and coriander seeds, so I replaced with powdered ones).

How to:

1. Heat oil in a pan and fry the potatoes until golden. Set aside.

2. Fry the onions till translucent. Add the chicken, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom and green chilies.

3. Fry until the chicken is well browned. Add sugar and salt and stir-fry for about five minutes.

4. Add potatoes and the ground spice paste. Cook till the chicken is done.

5. Stir in the vinegar and simmer for five more minutes. Enjoy!

*I added a little water during the cooking process as the ingredients began to stick to the pan.

Presenting my spicy Goan chicken curry

Tsui Wah Again?!!

Iced coffee. Really coffee-licious. Wonder why we didn't order this previously. Must be the milk tea punya pasal! Next time must try the coffee-tea mix. Takkan wanna leave hk without ever trying that?! >< Champagne milk tea. The perfect blend. Gonna say hello to crappy milk teas in a few months time..
Sizzling king prawns with fried noodles. The jalapeno-looking dried chili is a perfect addition to the dish - sweet and spicy!

Eggs and shrimps with rice. Yes, prawns ruled over our lunch that day!

Little Conversations

We are able to have conversations with the little darling now. It's cute watching her talk - full of expression and her pelat-ness. Here are some examples that I could think of at the moment. Have a good laugh!

She's also quite mindful with her of her 'please', 'thank you', 'excuse me' and 'you're welcome'. "Koomi Papa, I want to walk!"

Mommy: Did you poopoo?

Bel: No poopoo. Poopoo go away.
Mommy: Go away where?
Bel: House.
Mommy: Where's poopoo's house?
Bel: My pampy!
Mommy: Pampy?..
Bel: No... my backside!!


Papa: We go Ocean Park next week ya.
Bel: I so exciting!!

Her mantra before bathing, "I don't want to wash hair". (hmmph.. she knows how to bargain d!)

Bel: I Bel. Mommy is Pearly. Papa is Daddy.
Mommy: Papa's name is Dharma not Daddy.
Bel: No, Papa is not Dharma!! Papa is Daddy.

When giving her bread, I usually tear the bread into smaller pieces. So one day she wanted to help out with the tearing, "I kopek!".

One day while we were out grocery shopping and were passing by the canned fruits aisle, she suddenly exclaimed excitedly while pointing, "Mommy look spongebob sqaurepants house!!" I was so blur that I didn't get it. Papa was quicker (than usual) and replied, "Oh ya pineapple!", much to my amusement!

We were snapping away while waiting for the mtr and she went, "Guys, stop taking photos!! Choo choo train coming d!!"

After I cleaned her teeth, "Mommy wipe for me. No more choc at my teeth. Thanks mommy!"

While I was admiring her recently cut fringe, "Mommy cut my hair. Thank you mommy!"

When in a lovable mood or when we promised her things or when we got her stuffs that she likes, "I like you mommy/papa!!" while hugging us.

She loves playing make believe, "I Spongebob Squarepants, Papa is Sandy, Mommy is Patrick!". Another variation on the chipmunks, "I Alvin, Mommy Britney, Papa Theodore!"

Some cute words: cucumber = cu-cu-bear-bear, everybody = all the birdies

Fried Bittergourd

Hubby loves fried bittergourd especially when his mom makes it. It's one of my favourite dishes too. And the little girl's! This is among the few spicy dishes that she would tolerate, armed with her red cup of water nearby (the other being Ebeneezer's beriani. yes, I'm training her to enjoy her spicy food hehehe).

It is quite simple preparing this dish.. the only leceh part is that you gotta stand over the stove while frying and it can be quite hot esp in a tiny kitchen like mine! Although simple, practice really makes perfect for this dish - too long in the hot oil and the bittergourd will be burnt, or if insufficient oil time then it'll be soggy and not crispy.

Fried bittergourd (MIL's recipe):

Mix chili powder, turmeric powder, rice flour and salt well before adding in thinly sliced bittergourds. Heat up the oil and deep fry the bittergourds. Good luck and enjoy!

Here's to My Blog Readers

When you have a blog, of course you would want others to drop by. Hence the appearance of widgets to monitor your visitors. Lately, my 'live traffic feed' displayed a variety of flags besides the same ol red one (no, I don't do statistical graphs and analysis for my LTF!). I have regular clicks from Spore - probably from Su, Busygran, Kor and Karen. There's one from Havant, Hampshire which I have no idea who. There seems to be a constant visitor from Butterworth, Penang and Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan respectively which again I am not too sure of the identity. Then there are some random ones from HK, probably hubby's colleagues. Well, it's nice to know who reads your blog. If any of you are reading this, feel free to drop me a shoutout ya. Hope you enjoyed ur visit and thanks for dropping by.

p/s: Hmm I wonder what happened to Jackmob. He used to be quite regular on my 'old' blog..

Before the Wok

Purple spinach for that extra dose of antioxidants

Fresh chinese mushrooms

Baby corns and bell peppers

Chicken and Red Date Casserole

Another yumminess from 'The Chinese Kitchen'. The recipe used a whole chicken but I made do with two drumsticks and halved the seasonings as well (except ehem for the rice wine!).

1. Blanch the chicken in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Remove and drain. You may also choose to deep fry the chicken in hot oil.

2. Place the parboiled chicken in a pot. Add three big bowls of water (or stock), spring onions, ginger, 1Tbsp Sichuan peppercorns (I replaced it with black peppers), salt and 3Tbsp rice wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer gently, covered for one hour.

3. Add about a small bowl of red dates (I added dried longans as well) with about 3Tbsp light soy sauce. Stir a little and continue simmering covered for another 50-55 minutes.

4. Enjoy!!

I used more dried longans than red dates..

This really makes a delicious soup!

Braised Mushrooms with Tofu and Cashews

A simple and yummy bean curd dish. Got the inspiration to cook it from 'The Chinese Kitchen'. The recipe calls for dried chinese mushrooms. I did not have any at the moment, so I substituted it with fresh chinese mushrooms. The basic seasonings are the same as the recipe but I added more ingredients. Here is how I did it.

1. Heat oil and stir fry ginger slices till fragrant. Throw in some spring onions and continue frying before adding in a handful of cashew nuts. Fry fry fry. (not sure if I should put in the spring onions when the dish is almost done instead..)

2. Add in some chinese mushrooms and bean curd. Fry fry fry. Add in seasonings - salt and sugar. Pour some water and let it simmer for a few minutes.

3. Add in a dash of sesame oil and about a tablespoon of rice wine. Stir gently, blending everything well.

4. Finally mix 2tsp of cornflour paste with 1Tbsp of light soy sauce, and pour it over the dish to form a clear light glaze.

5. Enjoy!!

I dunno if I'm being syok sendiri or what, but I thought it tasted like what some of the chinese makan shops would dish out! Will try chicken instead of mushrooms and tofu the next time.

Winter Melon and Ham Soup

'The Chinese Kitchen' has got to be the gem of all chinese cookbooks (the same goes for 'The Indian Kitchen'). These are birthday gifts from Karen and Kor *big grin* Not only does it provide recipes but also descriptions on the ingredients.

I officiated 'The Chinese Kitchen' yesterday with a simple dish of winter melon and ham soup. This is a fast and simple soup recipe: Drop a square of chicken cube into a pot of water (one big chinese bowl) and bring it to a rolling boil. Add dried shrimps and slices of ham and winter melon. Bring it to a boil and cook for another 2-3 minutes. I was true to the recipe except that I 'cheated' and replaced the soup stock with chicken cube. And so I didn't season the soup with salt and pepper.

Looks like a typical HK dish.. thanks to the ham!

Anniversary Dinner at Thai Pad

This another one of those overdue postings. I only recently uploaded pics taken with my 6500 slide (thus the compromised photos), so expect more of overdue entries with blurry pics ;p

Supposed to be cendol?! Didn't know it'll turn out as a drink! Not recommended at all. Too sweet for my liking not to mention that artificial santan taste. Yucks!

Seaweed soup. Not bad. Something different instead of the usual tomyum soup. We had the tom yum soup when we first went there (for our ROM anniversary). It was ok and spicy (can be spicier though) but definitely cannot beat Purple Elephant's!

Pork and chicken satay. These are yummy! Reminded me of Bali's satay lilit!

Green curry chicken. Simply delicious! One of the better ones I've tasted. But somehow I felt it was nicer when we first had it (this was our second time ordering GCC here). Could it be because the first time had lychee and full cherry tomatoes (so when you bite into it the juice will ooze out giving that perfect tomato taste!).

Some fried rice. Was it pineapple fried rice? Sorry, forgot. Too long d!

Some thai desserts. Ok ok only la. One of it tasted like the above mentioned cendol!!

Birthday Dinner

We had my birthday makan at a nearby north indian restaurant named the Curry King restaurant. This is where we always go for our 'tandoori house' fix. We had a very satisfying meal *burp*

I have always been a rice person and will choose rice over naan, anytime and anyday!

Yummy aloo goobi

The spiciest ever fish vindaloo, which was surprising considering hk's standard of spiciness! The best! The squeezed lemon complemented the dish well.

Hubby's cheese naan. Annabel loves it as well.

Lunch at Food Republic

This is my first time having a laksa at the Citygates' Food Republic. What to do, suddenly kempunan. And it doesn't help that Karen was having some laksa party in another part of the world! :( The laksa was very mild but ok I guess to ease a little of the craving. Beggers are not chooser huh?!

Hubby and Bel's Vietnamese lemongrass chicken chop. Not bad at all. Bel is very selective on spicy food! Hmmm..!

Vietnamese spring roll. Full of lemongrassy-spice taste. Refreshing.

My Birthday Cake

We first heard rave reviews of Awfully Chocolate from Kor and Karen years ago. I even cut an Awfully Choc cake with my 'evil' twin *wink* a few years back (in one of those rare moments where we actually celebrated our birthday together literally). So you can imagine my excitement when I found out last year that they have branches here!

Hubby got me Awfully Chocolate's all chocolate cake for me birthday. Thank you dear! *muacks* Was so tempted for the chocolate rum and cherry but for obvious reasons we didn't get that.

True to its name - rich and chocolatey!

Of course Annabel had a slice too!

Annabel was so excited posing with mommy and the cake...

... and blowing the candle too... while patiently awaits for her slice!

Mommy and Annabel ~16 July 2010~

Hey, Papa's Creative Too!

Here are pics on creativity, courtesy of hubby dear. He has always been into legos but I still can't help but be amazed at how he could easily model a 'car' out of some clipo parts. He did an aeroplane before but didn't manage to capture it.

Annabel was so excited with her car especially since Elmo and Big Bird could fit nicely inside!

See how comfortable her little friends are!

One contented little girl!

Sek Bak

Bought Evelyn Wan's Cooking Without Tears ages ago, during my theory-only-no-practical cooking days. Yes I must confess I love cookbooks more than cooking at that time.

I picked this book up again during my last trip back. It was nice browsing through possible dishes that I could actually cook this time. I wasn't going to bring the book with me to hk so I jotted down a few recipes. And this sek bak recipe is one of them.

Sek Bak (how I did it)


Ingredients:
3 palm sized pork fillets (you can also add pork organs)
*10 small shallots (sliced)
*1 pip garlic (crushed)
*1" each galangal and ginger (sliced)
*2 stalks lemongrass (bruised)
*a few pcs of kaffir lime leaves (shredded) this is my own addition
*cinnamon bark, star anise
3 cups of water
half cup light soy sauce
3 level Tbsp sugar
salt to taste
taukwah and taupok (add in half an hour before the dish is done)

Method:
1. Heat oil, add in * and fry till fragrant without burning, about 7 mins.
2. Add meat and turn about with the spices for about 5 mins. Slowly add in soy sauce and sugar and allow it to fry with the meat and spices for about 5 mins to release the fragrance of the spices.
3. Slowly add in the water (boiling), give it a stir and cover the pan. Simmer for about one hour over low flame or until meat is tender and gravy reduced. Check occasionally to ensure no sticking or burning. Adjust seasoning according to taste.

Tah-dah.. . sek bak!

Truth be told, I couldn't really remember the taste of sek bak. Don't think mom ever cooks it. My only encounter with sek bak that I can remember is when we ordered it (for occasions) from our two-doors-away neighbour.

I don't know if this is how sek bak should taste like but I do know that Annabel likes it. It's tasty and sweet with such pleasant blend of spices. What's not to like?

IFC Mall Outing

Summer is the time filled with temptations to go out and shop. Especially in HK. There are sales everywhere. So yesterday was mommy and daughter's third window shopping outing together.

I hardly go out alone with Annabel because I have to cook and it can be quite tiring carrying her all the time. But it's getting better as she's willing to walk these days, and even insisting at times to walk without holding hands, "I don't want hold hands, I walk alone!" (or is it I walk myself?). But when she gets tired or lazy or moody, she'll quickly walk in front of us, stop and hold on to our legs saying, "Wait!! I tired. Carry me!!" Yesterday was no exception. She obviously didn't hold on to her promise of walking when out shopping with mommy!

Nevertheless Annabel does make a good shopping companion with quips like "Nice mommy!", "Mommy princess!", "Why mommy don't want to buy?", "How much is the dress mommy?" when I was shopping for clothes and trying them on. Aww.. so supportive my sweet little darling!

Annabel likes going in bookstores as well and will get excited when seeing her favourite characters on the cover of books like Mickey Mouse (and friends), Dora, Diego, Kai-Lan... She knows the books that she has at home and will exclaim, "I got!!" when seeing Eric Carle or Dr Seuss' books etc. Upon leaving the bookstore yesterday, she asked that I buy her a book, and immediately grabbed one from the shelves! Books here are expensive and especially since we've discovered the wonders of free delivery of wide choices of books at bookdepository, I am quite contented with getting our books there. So after a round of explanations blahblahblah she relented. Phew!

Despite so many good bargains and temptations, I only spent on a mng dress. On a budget mar teeheehee! I am very happy with my buy - such a lovely floral dress with lace trimmings. I like! It was priced at HKD259 (probably after a discount of bout 60%-70%) which is about RM110. I think it was initially priced at Euro 35 (about RM147). See how much they marked up the price!!

Line Peel Yeux Crystalescent

So much for my previous eye cream posting. In the end I chose Biotherm (now why didn't I think of it earlier). We were already at Sasa and they having some sort of discount. Plus I was quite happy with what I read - ... instantly illuminate the eye contour, gently renovate it, and visibly reduce under-eye bags, with silica micro-crystals, pearls and caffeine being among the main ingredients.

The Biotherm line peel yeux crystalescent

From HKD315 (~RM134) to HKD252 (~RM107). A twenty percent off. I wonder how much is it back home.

I was expecting a gel-like formulation but it was 'creamy'. No worries, it is rather light and doesn't leave an oily residue. There is a soothing sensation immediately after applying it. Long term benefit is still unknown as I've only been using it for two days.