Monday Night Dinner: Garlic Prawns

First step: Cleaning the prawns.

Second Step: Obviously, cooking it. Which was fun! But the oil kept spewing everywhere.

And Voila!

 "Scrumptious, crunchy and creamy. There was a hint of chilli that sings in your mouth and the prawns could be cooked a bit less, as it was rather overdone. But all in all, the prawns with the crusty bread and lemon wedges proved a powerful combination."

Sunday Night Celebration- Yum Cha Dragon at Waterfront City

It was a Sunday night and Docklands wasn't exactly as lively expected. It was actually like a ghost town out there. Not a soul in sight. Good thing Yum Cha Dragon was open for us to celebrate my big brother's farewell to being a kid and to finally being a man. What's on the menu? We ordered something from every heading. We had chicken, beef, pork, seafood, rice and noodles. 'twas terrific!

Queensland Floods receding - So relieved!

 A non-food related post:

I am so relieved that the floods in the land of the Queen are slowly receding. I'm thankful, very thankful that the peak didn't reach as high as 1974 either!

In all my life, I have never watched so much news! News on channel 7, 10, 9 and 2 occupied my whole week!

It was very saddening, and is still is, to know that your fellow Australians over in Queensland have all suffered tremendously. Many, losing not just their houses, but their homes, the one place where they feel comfortable to be themselves. Many lost family members, friends, mates.

First, there was the devastating bushfires in Victoria around a year ago and now, this devastating wreck that would approximately cost $1 Billion! Huge number, but I know that though the process will be slow, Australia or more so, Queensland, will get back on its feet again.

A post dedicated to all those people who lost their lives and for those who are still missing. For those who sacrificed their lives to save their loved ones, including that of the heroic Jordan Price and the parents who put their children's lives first before themselves. I know there are still others out there and I commend you for all that you've done.

For those people who were unexpectedly swept away and lost your lives, I pray for comfort for your family. All of you will never be forgotten.

Thank you as well to those people who are willing to volunteer and help out. The SES, the army/military, the local volunteers, the police, the Red Cross, International help. Julia Guillard and especially to Queensland premier Anna Bligh. I really do think you've done a wonderful job and are continuing to do so.

Sorry for sounding like Anna Bligh here. :)

As a Melbournian, you Queenslanders are in my thoughts and prayers everyday.

Cooking for the family... Check!

Today, my grandma and I had a party as we both cooked barbecue glazed meatloaf for the fam bam. My parents obviously both go to work but recently my big bro also joined in the bandwagon, leaving me, grandma/nanay and little F at home.

For this week alone, I was in charge of kitchen duty. On Monday, I cooked the family a bland Madras chicken curry. It wasn't my recipe okay? It was the packet's! Nah, it was bland because I had too much of the chicken and the potatoes. I'm meant to serve 4-6 people but the packet could only flavour 2 of that 6, leaving the rest to be rather bland. How to correct thy mistake? Buy two packets next time.

Tuesday, I cooked, or more so, my nanay cooked some fried chicken. Thanks to dear mother, I managed to tweak the boring just add salt and pepper and toss it in the hot oil way and here's how it works:

To make your fried chicken have a crispy but fluffy looking exterior and a deliciously soft inside, mix these ingredients to your chick-en:

• Cornflour
• Plain Flour
• Water
• Egg
• Egg White
• Baking powder (not too much)- the secret ingredient for the fluffiness
• Water
• Salt

All you need to do is to mix all those together to form this nice, yellowy batter and you toss in your chicken, making sure they're all coated nicely. The good thing is, you can even leave it overnight and cook it the next day and it would taste perfectly the same: which of course is delicioso! 

Wednesday, my nanay cooked a traditional Filipino dish called Nilaga which is short for Nilagang baka which basically means 'Braised Beef' in English.

It was superb! Except my nanay, who is growing older and older each day, much like me, forgot the right vegetables to put in it and put the wrong one. It's alright. The whole family forgave her because it tasted good.

Thursday, aujourd'hui! Back to the meatloaf. It was a nice meatloaf, a recipe from the Women's Weekly main dish recipe book. The only thing that could've been better was to add a bit more salt. And if we had red wine vinegar...

Alright. So I cooked for my family and they liked it. They're proud of me! I'm just happy that they're happy. =)

Tomorrow, I'll be going over to P's place for a dinner, since she kindly invited me over. My mum was actually going to award my efforts by buying Maccas for dinner tomorrow, but P beat her to it. I feel kinda bad, but mum's mum. I know she'll buy it next week!

The only problem? I didn't get to take any pictures. Why? I don't own a camera!

Sigh. I'll save up and buy one, or squeeze one from the 'rents. I'll make up for it. Trust.

You can never go wrong with Nutella

Today for my brunch, since I woke up around 12.30 (shocking, I know), I managed to be lazy and instead of following my dad's suggestion of putting cheese and ham on the croissant and heat it up on those things where you crush the sandwich together, like a waffle maker, instead I used Nutella.

I have never tasted anything so lovely in my life, well, in my home life that is. It was just absolutely gorgeous! The Nutella was so silky smooth and it complemented the croissant so well that I knew I shouldn't make another one because it's very fatty.

I didn't. But I ate choc-slice though...

Guys, you have to try it!

Buy any croissant at your local supermarket or if you feel like baking, make a home made croissant, spread a generous amount of nutella inside, put it in a sandwich press (now I remember the name) until the croissant has a nice crisp outside, take a bite and feel the feeling I got when the taste hits your pallet.

I know it's not very chef-like or professional, but if you want a nice, sweet dish that'll make your mouth water, then you've got to try it.

My first but not last disaster

Today's menu:
Ricotta Gnocchi with Eggplant Sauce
&
Double-Choc Slices

Knowing me not well enough, I'm a bit of the cook who, if having too much fun, tends to be a bit lenient and careless and today, I did exactly that.

R came over to cook with me today. We've done our shopping and all and decided to do Ricotta Gnocchi with Eggplant Sauce.

It was a pretty straightforward recipe and very easy. We followed the steps, missed step one, for crying out loud, but managed to recover pretty easily. After we heard the water boiling away, we decided to toss in our beautiful army of gnocchi to their death.

Look at the picture. What do you think is missing in those nicely fork-decorated gnocchi?

Any guesses?

No?

How about egg?

Exactly that. Egg! Of all things to forget when you're making pasta, it just had to be egg! After the first batch was slowly boiling away, my eye sharply caught the image of the egg, sitting innocently underneath the shade of the bright red apples and the long trunks of the bananas.Uh-oh.

I looked over at R and asked her to look at the recipe to see where the egg comes in, because I was sure that it had to be part of it. She said that we were meant to put the egg in with the gnocchi mixture. Oh.My.Gosh.

After laughing for about 5 minutes and wallowing in self-pity for 20 minutes did both of us realise that we were not cut for the culinary world.

But, as Sir Lambs-a-lot once said (paraphrased of course), "you should never give up, no matter how stuffed up!"

She ate a gnocchi and it tasted funny. I shook my head in disbelief and my heart sank down to my lungs. Read the recipe properly next time!

Oh well, looked good anyway. Except for the sexiness of the sauce. It needed more.

Double-Choc Slices

After our minor setback, we came back Roger Federer way and made the sweetest and scrumptious Double-choc slice ever! Though I have to admit that we needed more of the crushed biscuit since Cadbury chocolate pretty much overpowers anything, including the fluoride in your teeth.

Mixed butter and sweetened condensed milk in a pan and poured it over the crushed biscuit then we melted the chocolate on a bowl over a pot of boiling water and used it as the chocolate top.

Dust some icing sugar there and Voila!

 

And since we're feeling a bit creative, we added some blueberries to make it look more model-like.

 

Just to let you know, the recipe for the ricotta gnocchi belongs to Isabella of Junior Masterchef from the Junior Masterchef Official Recipe Guide and the Double Choc-slice was the Women's Weekly Dessert book but tweaked by us.

 

"Bon Apetit!"

First ingredient: Inspiration

I am 15 years old now and in a few months time, will be L-plater 16! Woo! Can't wait! But for now, I have to.

So... Cooking. At school we were taught how to cook and how to read a recipe properly. It's called Home Economics or Food and Technology. I've loved it and enjoyed every single class, but maybe not so much the theory, because sometimes it was full information overload, but it was very tolerable.

At school, I've cooked chocolate hedgehogs, the basic Easter cupcakes to the more advanced ones such as cooking your international dish that represented a country from the Commonwealth Games. I made beef satay in skewers with a peanut sauce. Sounds complicated? Well, it wasn't, compared to what those absolutely ingenious Junior Masterchefs cooked up.

What inspired me to cook, you ask?
Apart from the best friend who always seemed to have the time in her hands to whip something up, basically Junior Masterchef, and she could very much relate to that.

I just couldn't stand being left in the dark while the younger generation are cooking up duck dumplings cooked two ways or tea-infused quail. I mean seriously. Who knows the difference between a coulis from their confit? I know I don't... well, until now anyway.

It hurt my pride. But more importantly, it woke me up to the realisation that I needed to step up my game.

Inspiration: Junior Masterchef and the fact that most of the kids there have an absolute passion in cooking and they mostly cook for their family.

Italian twins, Isabella and Sofia was very much in this category. The one where I wanted to be. They cooked since they were one and apart from having a natural talent, they just have a passion for cooking for those they love with little Sofia saying she loves to cook for her dad.

Okay then. To cook for family, whom I absolutely love, will be my inspiration. Of course, apart from my want to be better, that is. :)


First ingredient officially ticked off the list.

To start cooking is to start looking

Born in a family where food is a runner-up to studying, I never knew how much this would impact me in the future... which is now.

My mum loved me so much that my lunchbox every single school day, camping or some outdoor activities that didn't involve me being in a house, was full to the brim.
That meant chips, lollies, juice box and the hot food. I loved growing up knowing that in the morning my lunchbox would be full and all I needed to do was to put it inside my bag and and I'm off.

Now, I feel as if I was deprived of what many families all over the world enjoy doing together, and that is... cooking together.

Europeans, especially Italians and Greeks, I've seen, seem to share a lot of this 'cooking together' vibe. Food is basically the foundation of their tradition and for me, that is just plain wonderful and exciting.

I've cooked things before. Canned goods. Your everyday corned beef, the infamous Spam, your eggs and the hotdogs. I'm so useless that I've burnt most of them and I'm not being cliche-y, I'm just being truthful.

After moving to Australia 5 years ago from my hometown in a 3rd world country, I've really enjoyed the variety of shows that free TV offered. Especially the cooking shows. I learned to love Jamie Oliver, who is officially my favourite celebrity chef and the Masterchef world's George Colombaris, Gary Mehigan, Matt Moran and the swear-tastic Gordon Ramsey, to name a few.

Cooking, in my perspective was just plain art. As I delved deeper into the culinary world, I realised it was more than just art, it was a masterpiece.

And if I want to start cooking, then I need to start looking for the right ingredients.