Previously on.....

Sunday was a good one, watched a movie with the Mrs and had my weekly family dinner... relaxing and enjoyable (wait, I am relaxed! I have no job!)

Anyway, with the mum visiting from Jakarta, I don't think I will be cooking that much, so I'll post a previous dish that I made.

Focaccia Hamburger on Rockets and the all magic ingredient.. EASY CHEEZEEEEEEE by Kraft; wasted how they only sell the American Cheese... but nevertheless, it made the burger taste... EASY....



Focaccia bread by Gardenia was tasty and lightly toasted for 1 minutes on high heat will suffice. And it's huge size makes for sharing fantastically possible.

The meat is simple - 400g of beef is all thats needed. Marinate it with a small pouch of Old Del Paso dressing. Punch the meat and make sure that all the marinate is evenly distributed and also add an egg halfway thru the bashing and continue on your relentless persuit to blend all that goodness together. Add a table spoon of olive oil before stopping.

(The meat should then be let to rest for about an hour and after that, shape them into flat burger like sizes, I made mine rather thick, about 3/4 inch thick each.)

When the grill pan is already hot, a dash of olive oil to the pan and let the meat dive unto the grill.... the sizzles of the pan will start to make your tongue do the Rumba! 2 minutes on high heat for each side to make the meat cooked and add a dash of pepper afterwards. If you want the meat to be fully cooked, 2 more minutes before you remove them from the pan.



Now to transform all the components to 1 hell of a wicked burger:

- Spread some mayo and place rockets (or any other greens that you like) on the bottom side of the bread and place buffalo tomato slices unto it
- Lay the patties unto the tomatoes and top it with that EASY CHEESE
- Finally, the top slice of the Focaccia to complete this huge burger and its ready to eat!!

Fast and easy, not too expensive as well and feeds 4 (unless you are the size of 1 of my mates)

CHOW TIME!!!!!!!

Birthday Dinner

Alright all.... dinner is served!!!

BBQ Hickory Pork Ribs


Grilled Squid with sambal reduction


Asparagus with Eyrngii Shrooms


Teriyaki Chicken


Sweet and normal potatoes with olive oil, grilled


Sorry all, no pictures of the Garlic Focaccia Bread

I'm knackered!! Good night all..... ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATE

9:30 am wake up call led me to go to the West Coast Wet Market to do some major dinner shopping. After a quick brush of the teeth and a swift face cleaning later, cash in hand, I was only 10 minutes away from the market.

Instantly, luck was on my side with an available carpark spot just a spit away from the market stalls..... we headed straight to the pork ribs and loaded in 2kgs of it. Next stop was the beef steaks, 1kg of it seemed to make my arm overwork?! Chicken thighs were next and about 1.5kgs of that 2 legged fowl, I was taxing myself with 4.5kgs worth of meat (my mates are all carnivores you see). Passing the seafood section, the Mrs jumped and screamed like a kid.... SOTONGGGG..... $8 poorer and 1kg heavier, my flacid left arm is giving way soon.

To balance out the sea of meat, we went for the vegetables and 40 stalks of asparagus, 3 bags of Eryngii Shrooms, 2kgs of sweet and normal poatoes later... my right arm was trembling like it has seen a ghost (yes, I am not your 100kgs bench press kind of guy). We quickly went to the car to offload that burden! (The Mrs was just being pretty and pointing out what she wants to eat -_- )

<-- had this for the first time in Taiwan and the Mrs loved it ever after...


A cha-cha in the carpark later, we reached Sheng Siong and we were greeted with cheap food (well most of them were). Condiments and other loose items were purchased to add unto the flair of the food fanfare :) I found the right partners, and I normally use these boys.... McCormick brand dried herds. Although not a huge range, I was still like a kid in a candy store!? (Key 50 Cent ... I'll take you to the CANDY STORE)



When done with Sheng Siong, we left for the car again and dumped everything in the boot..... BREAKFAST here we come! Regrets came with every mouth of the Egg Prata that I choose and the Dim Sum that we ordered, the only saving grace was our 'Teh Peng'. I could not wait to get back home to prepare the food.

Another 10 minutes of drive time and back to the house we were. Lugging the bags of food like limping lemmings, bliss was when all the food were on the kitchen top. We easily made shreds of the packaging and started to prepare all the food.

Menu:

- Japanese Teriyaki Chicken
- Black Pepper Beef Steaks
- Honey Hickory Pork Ribs
- Garlic sautéed Asparagus
- Grilled Eryngii Shrooms
- Roast Sweet and Normal Potatoes
- Focaccia Garlic Bread
- Spicy Chilli Squid (or Sotonggg as the Mrs calls them)

just marinated all of them, 2 hours only though..... not that long

Sorry guys, but due to the boredom that I may cause you lot if you were to read on how to make these dishes, I decided not to write down any recipes for this time round. But if you want to, email me and I'll pen you guys a note.

After marinating and preparing these dishes, I had a quick flash in the mind for a simple and delicious dish: Squid head with slices of Eryngii Shrooms in Spicy and Sour base.



How to cook this? GOD DAMN EASY that's how. No fuss and just quick cooking! Sweet!

OK, bowl an alu foil and ensure that there will be no leaks yah, add the squid parts (I added the head bits and the the squid roe of about 10 of them invertebrates), Eryngii Shrooms, 1 teaspoon of sambal belachan, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, a dash of pepper, a dash of light soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of chinese vinegar. Wrap up the combi in the alu foil and just place it into the baby oven for 10 minutes and on high heat.

When you hear DING! that means the dish is ready to be served and in a nice serving bowl or soup plate, pour all unto the plate and add freckles of dried Oregano.... the explosoin of spicy, sour and herby tastes in the mouth will leave the tastebuds dancing for more!!! MAKAN guys!!

Missing Leicester

Nothing beats the sound of this bird when it squawks.... if I had a gun on me, I'd shoot it and make it into a dish. It was only 9:45am that I woke up to the terribly loud 'ka-waaaaaakkk' of that damned bird....

Birds aside, I was itching to cook something nice for the Mrs. No particular reason, but just looking at the fine Holiday morning, it was a good morning to cook a good brunch and what better than to cook the delicious British breakie that me and my Uni mates loved to order in Dry Dock (the pub right outside our hostel back in Leicester, UK).


Taking a few steps brings me to the doors of the Cold Storage near my residence and in a jiffy, I purchased the required items:

- Johnsonsville Cheese Sausage
- Ayam brand Baked Beans
- No Frills Eggs
- Danish Bacon
- No Frills Button Shrooms
- Malaysian Giant Tomatoes
- SIS Butter (Butter just makes food taste that much better?)

Cooking the items were a breeze, not much preperation needed just plain cooking them in the typical way that they needed to be cooked.

Sausage - Pop them in my mini oven for 10 minutes on high heat and they are crisp on the outside and perfect within.

Baked Beans - Whack the can into a steamer for 10 minutes will suffice (add chilli sauce if you want the beans to be a tad spicy)

Shrooms - cut them into thin slices and grill them. Shrooms sweat, so no need for water, just oil the pan and add a small knob of butter. A pinch of salt will not overdo the shrooms. In high heat, stirring the shrooms around for 10 minutes, and they will be more than done.

Tomatoes - Cut them thickly and place them in the grill (no need to wash the grill pan, let the tomatoes absorb the flavour of the shrooms from the previous step) When the tomaotes show grill marks, they are done.

Bread - Cook them at the same time with the tomatoes and they will be grilled brown to perfection at the same time that the tomatoes are done; flavour will be great too as the bread will suck in the tomato juices left in the pan. You may want to spread butter onto 1 side of the bread to enhance flavour.

Bacon - I can never understand why they are normally FRIED, but I like them grilled; the juices of the bacon will start to sweat out and if you want to add a step to better tasting food, whilst the bacon is still cooking and sweating, remove the juices for later but continue to cook the bacon until you can see grill marks on them. This will normally take 3 minutes for each side on high heat.

Eggs - Sunny side up today, just like the gorgeous morning! Simply crack the babies open, 2 at a time into the frying pan and on high heat. Make sure to use butter for that tasty addition to the tongue. It would be better if you have a lid for the frying pan, a glass lid would be perfect (so you can voyuer the eggs...) When the lid is on, lower the heat to 3/4 strength and for 1 minute only. Perfect cooked whites and soft yolks.... ALRIGHT MATE!?!



Serving is a delight with these items and easy too boot! The colours will be magnificent; yellow, white, brown, red... a rainbow to the oral palate!! (don't think otherwise OK!?) You may want to garnish the dish with some parsley or tinges of dried basil to allow for the collection of sweet/salty/herby taste to collide in your mouth. Remember the bacon 'sweat'? Well, drizzle that unto the plate when you have finished with the placing of the food items on the plate (anything unhealthy is always good once in a while ehy?). I added Mozza on top of the shrooms to give it that tug-a-war feeling when you dive your fork into that section of the plate, MORNING BLISS! :)

A cup of Kapal Api coffee (FANTASTIC I might add!!), a half awake Mrs and a fantastic breakie to start the day! Dinner? I might miss that out.... for today! It is a holiday today as well.... INNIT?!?

Day of Meatballs

Coffee with mates brought me to buy a Diablo book.... damn its thick! But I think it'll be good to kill time, hopefully.

Whilst chatting along, I was as usual, compelled to get unto Facebook thru my BB and viola! I saw a friend who posted - Meatballs, meatballs, meatballs!!

*lighted bulb above my head* Let's make today a Speggs and Meatballs day!

Tagging along with my best mate since Poly, whilst he was shopping winter wear (make that long johns) for his Japan holiday (lucky bast*rd), I was thinking on how to cook the speggs and meatballs. Shall I just buy off-the-shelf Ragu Sauce or make the sauce myself? Well, what the heck, I decided to do it myself. :)

NTUC @ Tampines Mall, huge and I love it! Easy shopping - 200g of minced Pork, 200g of mined Beef, a bottle of Del Monte ketchup, a can of diced tomatoes, house brand speggs..... SGD10, enough to feed 4!

Upon reaching home at 8pm, me and me mate started to prepare for dinner..... by 8:35, it was done!! Easy peasy.

Tomato sauce - pour the whole can of diced tomatoes (400g) into a deep pan, fill 3/4 of the can with water and add to the pot. A tablespoon of olive oil, a teaspoon of garlic, a teaspoon of salt and a dash of pepper, cook it for 20 minutes over mid heat. Do add herbs like basil and oregano (dried or fresh) to highten the taste. If you want the sauce to be thicker, add corn starch solution. In the meantime....

Meatballs (1) - mix the beef and pork mince together in a big bowl and start pounding dem!!! Just imagine that boss you hate, the co-worker you want to kill or the live in mum-in-law you want to choke (kidding... I love mums); add salt and pepper, that's 1 teaspoon and dashes respectively. Continue to pounce on the meat and add a spoon of olive oil. As your hands will get dirty, ask someone else to do it for you.... (my mate did it heh heh) Lastly, add a full egg into the meat and continue to pound! After the mixture is properly mixed, you can now shape them into balls. (LOL.. I can't help it) Ok, easy way is to just tear the meat and round them using your palms else you can use a spoon to scoop up the meat and with only 1 palm, round them with the spoon as well. Make sure that the balls are slightly smaller than a golf ball (it's up to you actually).

Meatballs (2) - frying is the fastest way and just quickly, over high heat for 2 minutes will do the trick and making sure that you constantly move the balls around (snigger). Remove them after 2 minutes and let them rest for a minute (remove excess oil). Now, if you want, you can bake the balls for 3 minutes on high in the toaster thingy, which I did. After the balls are done, put them into the sauce whilst the sauce is slowly cooking.

Speggs - In a pot, add salt and olive oil (so that they don't stick together), cook the speggs until they are 'al dente', that's about 4 minutes on high heat and 3 minutes on medium heat. When done, rinse the speggs in cold water... this is to make the speggs more springy. Make sure that the water in the pot is boiling before you put in the speggs. (Not insulting you all, just in case... just in case)

After all is cooked and done respectively, add them all into the sauce; that's speggs, meatballs and sauce of course. Add half a normal drinking cup of the spegg water (that's starch) to the sauce to thicken it slightly. Stir them all together for a bout 2 minutes in medium heat and DONE!

Serve them in a plate and distribute evenly. Finishing touch is to add mozza cheese and not parmessano cheese (it's just different in taste and texture and adds 'stretch' to the dish).



Just nice, the cousin came to the house and the Mrs just came back from work.... Buon Appetito!!

Oh! Oh! A quickie garlic bread.... (what?! as in quickie recipe). Toast the bread for 3 minutes. Mix a table spoon of Mayo and a teaspoon of pre-cut garlic until even. Spread this unto toasted bread and cut into halves.... serve and enjoy.

Day 1

Hey all! Welcome to my cyber kitchen!! This is my first food blog. Well, its actually my 1st blog ever.

I have been thinking of writing a blog for a long time, just that I don't know what to write about.... days of my life, moments of my life, my life in general..... but then, why would anyone want to read about my life? What makes me think that my life will be special, different from the rest?

So I decided to write about my passion..... COOKING. However, as I am a cheeky fella as well, dribbles of a certain X-rated nature may sometime rub in..... cos that's me, in real life I am like that too. :) so i hope, I do not offend anyone.

I have been in love with cooking since I can rememeber and now, as I am recently jobless, what better way to relax then to cook?

I am sure that other people have other means of releasing thier stress / pent up frustrations / boredom on shopping (oh... I love this too....) / sleeping (waste of time) / reading (yawnnnn...) etc, but cooking, it's a love affair; when you prepare the food, when you cook the creation, when you look at the finished dish.... it's about the effort and love that went to making that dish.

My kitchen is simple, a Teka stove, a Gazz grill / bake contraption, Tefal pans, WMF knives, WMF pots and my trusted IKEA grill pan (love this thing! its cheap and good) These are my faithful partners in crime. (the Moulinex kettle leaked on me last week..... any sponsors?) And oh.... my trusted Nikon D60 for taking pictures of my dishes, badly need to get good macro lenses but DANG! It's the price of me camera!!! Sigh.....

I have tested on my faithful lab rats (no bribes needed, neither were abusive force implemented) and they have so far loved it.... so I hope that some of the readers will like my humble creations as well.

I will put up my other earlier creations soon, but for today, let's start with a simple challange... SGD8 bucks to make a dinner sandwich:

- tuna in brine 1.92 (on the can, in the ingredient box, it stated: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS FISH. Gee, I guess not many people know that TUNA is FISH)

- no frills bread 1.52

- golden mushrooms (mushrooms guys... not shower....) 1.00

- grated mozzy cheeeeeeze (aka Mozarella cheese) 2.99

- a small head of cabbage 0.98

Of course, you will need your regular olive oil and other condiments already (yes... it's a tad cheating but c'mon..... i was refering to the main ingredients!)

Why did I choose to do this dish? Well, I guess, buying food from Cold Storage @ The Village Centre, I didn't have much choice? Nah.... I was thinking of a light dinner for me and my mate and since I have putting on some weight, I decided, let's try LIGHT.... or so I thought.

TO THE KITCHEN!!

Golden Shrooms - simple as pie! Just rinse them and then place them straight to the grill pan! TA DAH! Oh, its just for 3 mins on high heat too. Done? Let them rest too.

Tuna - filter the brine and put the tuna into a small bowl (depends on servings ok, mine is just for 2 so 140g of tuna is more than enough), I decided to add a table spoon of Materfoods Honey Mustard, a dash of pepper and a pinch of salt. Just mish and mash them together.... done!

Cabbage - shred them leaves!!! As thin as you can, and then, in boiling salted water (2 teaspoons), just dip them in for about a minute.... done! Its still crunchy enough but cooked enough! (I know some of you rather other greens, try rockets, lettuce or whatever you fancy.. hey its YOUR dish!) Drain the leaves and let them rest.

Bread - do we really need a toaster? NO. The ribbed grill pans does the same magic..... (oi... its ribbed GRILL PAN, not that ribbed latex thingy). Ok, high heat on each side for 2 mins will do, and if you think to add a bit more flavour to the bread, add a teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and salt.

Heat up the grill / toaster contraption for about 10 minutes. In the meantime, place the cabbage on a bread, then place the shrooms, then the mozza cheese. On the other bread, give a good dullop of tuna on it and mayo if you want to. Place them both side by side into the contraption and close the lid, usually, the heat retains and thus, you can turn off the device, leave the bread in for 1 min or until the cheese melts; you can also leave the heat on if you like......

And there you go, cut in half and serve with crisps or as it is and enjoy........

Ahhhh..... my 8 bucks sandwich for 2. VivoCity with the mate.... till next time folks!