29 Oct 18 (Mon) - Teriyaki Salmon with Mashed Potato, Carrot & Pumpkin and Steamed Milk Custard

Worked from home today and got my cooking all planned out. Had some leftover mitarashi sauce from yesterday, added some minced garlic and shallot as well as a bit more light soy sauce and water to make it into a teriyaki marinate for the salmon. Bought a portion of pumpkin over the weekend and steamed it together with a potato and half a carrot. Kept most of the mashed pumpkin for further use and mixed the rest of it together with the mashed potato and carrot. Found that the colour was a bit too orangey, so added some boiled small broccoli florets while mixing some mayonnaise. Pan-fry the salmon in my happycall pan and set it on a blue serving plate because it was Monday and typically associated with blue. LOL.

Then went on to make steamed milk custard. Since I have a lot of dried blue pea flowers lying around, so used a handful to colour the milk blue by warming the milk with the flowers in a microwave oven. The milk didn't turn very blue so I had to stir the flowers using a fork and tried to squeeze the flowers just to extract the colour. Once the colour was to my satisfaction, followed my steamed milk custard recipe but sprinkled some black sesame powder over it before steaming.

Since I have put in effort today to cook and experimented with colours, I took some photos of my creations. It was during the photo-taking that it occurred to me that had the black sesame powder converged like the shape of the different continents, the steamed milk custard would have looked like a world map with the blue being the mass of water. Haha...

28 Oct 18 (Sun) - Japanese Curry and Black Sesame Mitarashi Kushi Dango

Things have slowed down a little and I managed to find time again today to do some cooking. Nothing fanciful. Just some chicken Japanese curry and black sesame mitarashi kushi dango since I have ingredients lying around. I have attempted mitarashi kushi dango before, only this time round I added 1-1.5 tablespoon of black sesame powder to the dough.

Since Halloween is just a few days away, the black sesame mitarashi kushi dango seems like a good idea. Unfortunately, nothing scary to decorate the plate.

30 Sep 18 (Sun) - Baked Orange Honey Salmon

It has been a busy year so far and not much time for serious or experimental cooking. Little big sis tagged me to a couple of FB posts few weeks ago, one on Grilled Chipotle-orange Salmon and another on Cilantro Lime Salmon. We wanted to give them a go but unfortunately, there simply wasn't any right time to try.

So today I finally found time to try the recipes out on my own. Looked through both of them, googled a few more and came up with my own version. Took some time to decorate the plate since it has been a long while since I put in effort to do cooking.

Ingredients:

1 piece 340g salmon fillet 1/2 cup fresh orange juice orange zest from 2 oranges 1 tbsp light soy sauce (optional) salt and pepper

2 orange slices                    2 tbsp honey                    1/2-1 tbsp olive oil/butter                    1/2 tsp ground ginger                    corn starch for thickening

Method:
1.  Marinate salmon with salt and pepper and set aside.
2.  Preheat the oven to 190 degree Celsius.
3.  Combine orange juice, orange zest, honey, olive oil/butter, light soy sauce (if using), ground ginger in a sauce pan over medium heat.
4.  Stir constantly till well combined and smooth.
5.  Add corn starch to thicken the mixture.
6.  Line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
7.  Pour some sauce on the foil, place the salmon skin up on the foil and pour remaining sauce over it.
8.  Bake for 4 minutes and turn the salmon over.
9.  Spoon some sauce over it and place the orange slices on top of the salmon.
10. Bake for another 8-10 minutes.
For a job well-done, I rewarded myself with a glass of orange beer from Don Don Donki. 

27 May 18 (Sun) - Brown Sugar Peanut Ice Cream

Have not done any experimental cooking for a long while. Found a pack of brown sugar peanuts, which I bought from Okinawa last December, and a pack of fine brown sugar in the pantry. So decided to try my hands on making brown sugar (peanut) ice cream which I had tasted in Okinawa. 

Looked through the ice cream recipes that I have and came up with my own version. I had very high expectations of how it would turn out, unfortunate, it was not what I had in mind. The taste was great, texture was smooth but it was too soft. Remembered that I had searched the Internet about this issue before and I think it was due to the sugar level. I could have added a tad too much sugar to the ice cream mixture that caused the freezing point to be lower and hence the inability to freeze properly.

Oh well... guess I had to settle for brown sugar peanut milkshake instead. Nevertheless, I won't give up on this recipe just yet. Will fine-tune it and try again.

Ingredients:

200ml whipping cream

100ml milk

150g brown sugar peanuts

50g fine brown sugar

1 tsp condense milk

Method:

1.  Pulse brown sugar peanuts in food processor into smaller bits

2.  Add milk to the processed brown sugar peanuts and set aside

3.  Whisk whipping cream till soft peak

4.  Add brown sugar peanuts mixture, fine brown sugar and condense milk to the whipping cream

5.  Mix till well combined

6.  Pour mixture into a container of your choice and put into the freezer

7.  Remove from freezer after 2 hours to churn* with a fork
8.  Repeat step (7) for 3-4 times before freezing it overnight

* Try to churn the mixture in a whisking manner to try to incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible

21 Jan 18 (Sun) - Salted Egg Bittergourd and Durian Butter Cupcakes

Was tidying up my drawer of recipes last weekend when I saw a newspaper cutting on a recipe called "Salted egg white bittergourd". Recalled that I still had two salted eggs sitting in my fridge so went to Giant supermarket last Friday to get two mini bittergourds. As white bittergourd is hard to come by, I had to settle for the green ones.

Followed the recipe as closely as I could, however, I didn't know what is red finger chilli nor green bird's eye chilli so I replaced with three red chilli padi instead. And because I didn't have enough garlic, so I added a shallot. Was happily cooking and excited to see the whole dish coming together nicely. After I had assembled the dish on a serving plate, then I realised that I had forgotten to add a dash of ground white pepper at the end of the cooking. Oh well... Not sure how soft the bittergourd was supposed to be for the dish, mine still retained some crunchiness which I rather like. Taste-wise, fortunately, it still tasted good without the ground white pepper. Heh.

In the short write-up that accompanied the recipe, it was mentioned that the dish goes well with rice or porridge. Therefore, I cooked some brown rice porridge and added some seaweed that I bought from my last Okinawa trip to eat as lunch. What a healthy meal.

Still had some leftover durians in the fridge and decided to use them to bake durian butter cupcakes since the durians weren't of very good quality. The preparation was easy and very happy that the cupcakes turned out very well. A good start to the first bake of the year. Ate one while it was still warm together with a dollop of chilled durian and it was heavenly! My healthy meal was, therefore, spoiled by the unhealthy dessert. LOL.

Durian Butter Cupcakes (Makes 5)

Ingredients:

58g self-rising flour 63g butter - soften 43g castor sugar

pinch of baking soda                                                      63g durian flesh                                                      1 egg

Method:

1.  Preheat oven to 160 degree celsius

2.  Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and whisk till light and fluffy

3.  Add egg and beat thoroughly

4.  Stir in durian flesh

5.  Fold in self-rising flour and baking soda

6.  Fill cupcake cases till 2/3 full with cake batter

7.  Bake for 18 minutes or until cooked

8.  Do the toothpick test, if the toothpick comes out clean, transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow to cool

9.  Serve cakes with dollops of chilled durian or eat them on their own

14 Jan 18 (Sun) - Baked Marmite Chicken Wings, Steamed Chicken Thigh with Essence of Chicken and Kimchi Fried Brown Rice

Was given a small bottle of marmite few weeks ago and after seeing some posts of marmite chicken wings on a Facebook group, finally I decided to try my hands on the dish myself. Searched the Internet for the recipe and found one "Baked Marmite Chicken Wings" by Noob Cook. The difference between those on the FB group and the one by Noob Cook is that the former ones are done using an Airfryer while the latter one is baked in an oven. Given that I don't have an Airfryer, I have to make do with the oven-baked on. Followed the recipe closely and marinated the mid-joint chicken wings the day before. The mid-joint chicken wings turned out to be rather good, would have been even better if I had shortened the baking time slightly further than I already have.

Found a bottle of BRAND'S® essence of chicken and searched the Internet for a recipe on cooking chicken with it. Found two, one "Steamed Chicken in Chicken Essence" by Noob Cook and the other "Steam Herbal Chicken With BRAND’S® Chicken Essence" by Cuisine Paradise. Studied the two recipes and modified them to suit my cooking needs. I don't like to drink essence of chicken, however, it became more palatable after being cooked together with the chicken thigh and the herbs.

Steamed Chicken Thigh with Essence of Chicken

Ingredients: 1 small chicken thigh 5g cordyceps flower, soaked 1/2 tbsp wolfberries, soaked 2-3 red dates, soaked and sliced

Marinade:                    1 bottle essence of chicken                    1/2 tbsp Chines hua diao wine                    1/2 tbsp Chinese rice wine                    1/2 tsp light soya sauce                    1/2 tsp ginger powder

Method:

1.  Rinse the chicken thigh and pat-dry
2.  Combine the marinade and marinate the chicken thigh for at least 1 hour in the fridge
3.  Arrange the marinated chicken thigh, cordyceps flower, wolfberries and red dates on a plate
4.  Cover the plate with aluminium foil and steam for 30 mins

My brother-in-law passed me a box of kimchi, which he bought from a restaurant recommended by a friend, couple of weeks ago. The quality of this kimchi was much better than those found in the supermarket. Used some to try to cook fried brown rice. Taste-wise was rather good, however, the rice was slightly soggy. Till now, I still have problem cooking that perfect fried rice. Sigh...

7 Jan 18 (Sun) - Matcha Ice Cream

Happy New Year! Haven't been posting for a while. Been really busy during last year end. To get the cooking engine started, I made something simple - ice cream. However, instead of the usual egg-less ice cream, I attempted the custard-base ice cream instead. Searched the Internet for basic custard-base ice cream recipes, found a few and modified them to become something of my own. The result was creamier than the egg-less one but required more churning. The matcha taste was strong and the chocolate rice enhanced the flavour.

Ingredients:

200ml whipping cream

100ml fresh milk

2 egg yolks

75g white sugar

8g matcha powder

Generous amount of chocolate rice

Method:

1.  Prepare ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice cubes and some water, then place another smaller bowl on top of the water and put a fine-mesh strainer inside. Set aside.

2.  In a small pot, simmer milk, sugar and matcha powder. Stir constantly till sugar dissolves. 

3.  In another bowl, whisk egg yolks.

4.  Whisk slowly but constantly some warm milk mixture into the egg yolks, then pour the mixture back into the small pot of milk mixture.

5.  Cook the mixture over med-low heat till it thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Stir constantly, scrapping the bottom and sides of the pot.

6.  Pour the mixture through the strainer onto the bowl in the ice bath. Scrape whatever is on the base of the strainer into the bowl and remove the strainer.

7.  Whisk the whipping cream till soft peak and stir into the egg-milk mixture.

8.  Cool the mixture completely, pour into a container of your choice and chill in the fridge overnight.

9.  Transfer the mixture from fridge to freezer and churn* with a fork every 2 hours.

10.  Churn for another 5-6 times and mix in the chocolate rice during the last churn.

11.  Freeze the ice cream overnight.