Archive for 2016

Paleis Het Loo Cafe

Saturday, December 31, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Het Loo Palace, The Netherlands

The weather was quite pleasant in the morning when I toured around the garden in Appledon palace. It started to drizzle in the afternoon and I decided to stop by the cafe for a cup of hot chocolate while waiting for the rain the stop. 
Het Loo Palace, The Netherlands

The Renaissance style surrounding of the cafe induced me to stay a bit longer as it was way too pleasant, plus I have gotten a window seat! 
Het Loo Palace, The Netherlands

Cakes and sandwiches sold in the cafe looked extra appealing here. Perhaps I was in good mood and was totally not being impacted with the weather. I ordered a slice of apple tart, an open sandwich with shrimps and cream fresh.
Paleis Het Loo Restaurants

 I was blown away by the apple tart. The crust and filling was super delicious. The apple chucks were well baked with crust at the outer layer, moist and soft inside. The cinnamon taste is just right, not over powering the freshness of the apple chucks. It was indeed a thumb up for me as it suited my taste bud perfectly as it was not overly sweet.
Het Loo Palace Restaurant (Paleis Het Loo)

Despite the great look, the savory shrimps open-face sandwich did not wow me. The bread turned a bit soggy which I suspected it was in the shelf for quite sometimes and the moisture from the shrimps and creams has soaked up into the bread. Perhaps I should have requested the counter to heat up the bread in the oven for a few minutes before serving.
Paleis Het Loo (Het Loo Palace Restaurant)

The hot chocolate and apple tart did make my day. The rain started to stop and I have almost done with my afternoon tea. I did a quick tour around the garden in front of the cafe. The surrounding was breathtaking with flowers and fruit trees blossom in full. After a few photo snapped, I then walked to the nearer bus stop and headed back home. 
Paleis Het Loo, The Netherlands (Het Loo Palace Restaurant)

Paleis Het Loo, The Netherlands

Loco Moco - Juicy Hamburger Steak

Sunday, December 25, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Juicy hamburger steak served with steaming white rice and flavorful brown gravy is a popular dish in Japanese fusion restaurants. It is known as "Loco Moco". Because it is a rice dish, many may mistaken it as a Japanese cuisine, in fact LM is actually originated from Hawaii.

Yeah, today I am making a Hawaii dish - Loco Moco!!I have a pack of minced pork seated in the fridge. Since I've ran out of the ready-made gyoza wrap, and I am going to attempt on the homemade LM.

No fancy ingredients required and majority of the ingredients used (dry and wet) are those commonly found in the pantry. Roll your sleeves up and let's get started.

Ingredients
400g ground pork
1 large onion (finely chopped)
6 slices of graham cracker (crushed)
1 egg
1 tbsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
cooking oil

Sauce (mushroom gravy)
100g button mushrooms (thinly sliced)
300ml chicken stock
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or ABC sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Corn starch solution (1tbsp corn starch and 1 tbsp water)

Directions
Gravy
1. Heat up cooking oil in the pan and saute the onion until translucent. Dish out half of the onion for later use.
2. Add in the mushrooms to the pan and saute with the onion.
3. Once mushrooms turn soft, add in the chicken stock, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, pepper and salt.
4. Bring to boil and pour in the corn starch solution to thicken the gravy.

Burger Patties
5. In a bowl, add the minced pork, sauteed onion (set aside earlier), graham cracker crust, egg, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Mix well until everything combine.
6. Shape the mixture into 6 even size patties.
(Tips: Rest the patties in the fridge for 30 min for the shape to set)
7. Pan-fried the patties with some cooking oil over medium heat, for 5 min.
8. Flip over and pan fry another side for 3-5 min till both side turn nicely brown.

Top the burger patties on the steaming white rice. Drizzle generous brown mushroom gravy at the side. Complete the dish with the signature sunny-side-up egg. Voila, there you go the homemade LM! Delish!!

Japanese Inspired Cabbage Pancake

Sunday, November 20, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Okonomiyaki

The weather had been less cheering for the past few weeks especially when the cold winter starts. I really long for a bright sunshine weekend. Oh ya, the long waited bright sunny Saturday morning is finally here again. I feel super fresh in the morning and decided to make a hearty breakfast to start the day. And ... I am making myself my all-time-favourite yet healthy cabbage pancake.

It is a simple to make yet filling breakfast and the ingredients are very basic, merely cabbage, egg, plain flour and seasonings.

(serving for 2 person)
Ingredients
100g cabbage (shredded)
2 hotdog (thinly sliced)
cooking oil
scallion (optional)
Siracha chili sauce (optional)

Batter
2 eggs
1 cup of plain flour
1 tbsp fish sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1/2 tbsp sugar
pepper to taste
water

Direction
1. Combine all the batter ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2. Add-in the shredded cabbage, hotdog slices and mix everything well.
3. Heat-up some cooking oil in the skillet and pour in the mixture and form a round shape.
4. Pan-fry for 5 minutes over medium high heat.
5. Flip over the pancake, pan-fry for 2-3 min till both sides turned golden brown.

Top the cabbage pancakes with your favorite sauce. For more vibrant color, garnish the pancake with chopped scallion. I top my cabbage pancake with sriracha sauce for extra kick.

You may turn the humble cabbage pancake into Okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake) by adding the Okonomiyaki sauce, mayo and bonito flakes on top of the pancake. For a more luxurious version, you may also substitute the hotdog with bacon or seafood.
Japanese savory pancake

Spam Luncheon Meat Fried Rice

Sunday, November 13, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


We were so lucky to have Rong cooked for us her signature fried rice before she headed back to China for the winter break. The fried rice she made reminded me the taste of typical fried rice I had in China before, spicy, oily and full of flavors. Of course the homemade style is the healthier version where the salt and oil are kept to moderation.

The ingredients used in the fried rice are mostly sourced from China for example hot pepper corn, home-grind 5-spice powder, dried pickle vegetable and more.

I craved for fried rice and decided to make some. Regardless of how much I tried to replicate the chinese style by Rong, I simply do not have the right ingredients for it. So I ended up making the simple to made yet delicious spam fried rice instead.

Ingredients
1 bowl of cooked plain rice
1/2 tin of spam (cut into cubes)
1 tin of sweet corn
2 eggs (beaten)
1 big onion (finely chopped)
2 stalks of scallion (chopped)
2 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of ABC sauce
Cooking oil
Sugar
Pepper and salt to taste

Direction
1. In a heated pan, stir fry the spam cubes til lightly brown. Set aside for later used
2. Make scramble egg. Use spatula to break the scramble eggs to smaller pieces. Set aside for later used.
3. In the same pan, heat up some cooking oil and stir fry the finely chopped onion until they turn aroma.
4. Add in the rice, follow by the soy sauce, ABC sauce, sugar, salt and pepper.
5. Stir well till all the rice has been coated with the sauce.
6. Add in the remaining ingredients (sweet corn, spam cubes, chopped scallion and scramble eggs pieces) and stir fry for 1 minutes.

Scallions will turn soft and brown fast in heat. Hence, best to do a quick stir and dish out the fast, so you will get fresh and appealing looking fried rice with vibrant colors.

I might not make the spicy and flavorful fried rice like Rong, but I am very happy with my spam fried rice. Such a comfort food yet easy to prepare.

Tips
Preferable to used over-night rice for the fried rice as they will not easily clump together because of less moisture.

Thai Basil Minced Meat Spaghetti with Poached Egg

Sunday, November 06, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


Not too long ago I shared my favourite recipe of Thai basil chicken in the blog. Since I still have a bunch of Thai sweet basil leaves in the fridge, instead of making the usual Thai basil chicken (check out the recipe here), I made the stir-fry Thai basil meat pork. For the more adventurous gastronomical experience, I have indeed made a brilliant twist to the recipe where I substituted the rice to spaghetti and fried sunny-side up with a poached egg.

This fusion dish scored high once again and I have received tons of compliments for this dish. Check it out.

Ingredients
500g minced pork
1/2 cup of Thai holy basil
3 stalks of red chilies (diced) - preferably with seeds on
6-8 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 tbsp of cooking oil
350g of spaghetti
eggs (poached or fried)

Sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
corn starch solution (optional)

Direction
1. Cook the pasta by following the instructions on the packet. Drained and set the pasta for later used.
2. Heat up the cooking oil in the pan. Stir fry the minced garlic and chilies till aromatic.
2. Add in the minced pork and continue to stir til the minced pork are cooked.
3. Add in the sauce and keep stir frying til everything is well mix (30sec to 1min).
4. Turn off the heat and toss in the holy basil in and stir well.
5. Toss in the pasta into the cooked minced pork and stir well.

Plate the spaghetti, top it with a poached egg on top and serve. The poached egg is perfectly done. The running yolk added the creaminess to the spaghetti and minced meat. Yummy!!

If you are not put off by the unique taste of Thai sweet basil, I strongly recommend this pasta dish to you.

Korean Jajiangmyeon a.k.a Black-beans Sauce Noodles

Sunday, October 30, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

jajiangmyeon

I still have half a tub of unused black-beans paste sitting in the pantry. I diligently 'researching' for recipes that using black-beans paste, reason being, I really need to get it consumed before it went expired. I was super delighted to discover that the black-beans paste is actually the key ingredient for the infamous jajiangmyeon. I love jajiangmyeon and I would definitely give the recipe a try.

With the interest of time, I shopped the ingredients in the local supermarket. I get most of the ingredients except for the daikon radish, perhaps it is not in season now. I then substitutes the daikon radish with the normal carrot. 

I adore fusion cooking, hence I am using spaghetti instead of yellow noodles. To my surprise the spaghetti paired absolutely well with the jajiang sauce. The taste is well balance as the saltiness of the sauce is harmonized by the mild tasting spaghetti. Plus, the al-dente spaghetti taste added a great bite (chewy) to the dish. A great thumb-up!

Ingredients
1 carrot (cut into dice size)
1 zucchini (cut into dice size)
2 onion (cut into chunky size)
5 medium size potatoes (cut into dice size)
200 chicken pieces (diced)
5-7 button mushroom (sliced)
cucumber (cut into thin matchsticks)
3 tbsp of black-beans paste
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
cooking oil
corn starch solution (2 tbsp corn starch powder and 1/4 cup water)
water

Direction
1. In a shallow pot, heat up some cooking oil. stir fry the carrot for 1 minutes
2. Add in the potato cubes, onion chunks and zucchini. Keep stiring until the potatoes turn slightly
translucent.
3. Add in the chicken pieces and stir for 1 minute.
3. Add in the black-beans paste, dark soy sauce and sugar and stir well till.
4. Add 2 cups of water and close the lid and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
5. Add in the corn starch solution and stir till the sauce is thicken.
6. Garnish the dish with cucumber strips

The jajiang sauce is ready and you can serve it with either noodles or steamed rice.

Mix everything together using my secret weapon, the chopsticks.

Chunky potatoes, zucchini and carrot ... yum

Sesame seeds added the nutty taste to the jajiang spaghetti. Super tasty!

Egg-Ham-Cheese Tortilla Pizza

Sunday, October 23, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


The gloomy and chill weather led me to switched into hibernating mode. I suddenly feel like a reptile as my movement is slowed down considerably and I am sleepy all the time. These are the days I don't feel like cooking. I just need a quick fix without stepping out from the house. Delivery sounds rather luxurious for me (especially for this month) given the fact that there are a few birthday celebrations taking place this month. I need to save for birthday gifts :(

Pizza is always my favourite quick fix as they are simple to prepare and most importantly no heavy cleaning is required. I do not always have all the basic ingredients for pizza available in my pantry, however, it does not stop me from making pizza at home. For instance, I substituted pizza dough with tortilla wrap (as pizza base) and beaten eggs as the pizza sauce.

Here is the quick recipe of my Egg-Ham-Cheese Tortilla Pizza.

Ingredients: 2 slices of tortilla wrap, 1 beaten egg, hams (in cubes), mozzarella cheese and some pepper.

Direction
1. Spread the egg mix on the tortilla wrap, follow by the hams.
2. Sprinkle some black pepper and top the tortilla wrap with handful of mozzarella cheese.
3. Bake in oven for 12 minutes under 175c.

With the absent of pizza sauce, I was initially skeptical with the taste. To my surprise, the tortilla pizza actually tasted pretty good. The egg blended in very well with cheese and ham. It added extra thickness to the tortilla texture and extra fragrant eggy aroma too. Minus off the sodium from the pizza sauce, my egg-ham-cheese tortilla pizza is deemed to be healthier.   

I like the crisp of the baked tortilla wrap. The tortilla pizza tasted like crispy crackers.

Pongteh Chicken: Nyonya Blackbeans Sauce Chicken

Sunday, October 16, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Pongteh Chicken

Impulsive buying is a common act when I shopped in the Asian supermarkets. I am vulnerable to discounted items on the shelf. I will find ways to convince myself that I need to buy them even without ideas on what I am going to do with them. The tub of black beans paste is not an exception. It has been sitting in my pantry for quite some time. I finally put it into use when I spotted it has merely a month life span remaining.

The very first dish I attempted with black beans paste is a Peranakan dish from South East Asian named Pongteh Chicken aka blackbeans sauce chicken. It is a popular dish serve in Nyonya Restaurants and is best enjoy with fluffy white rice and sambal belacan (shrimp paste chili).

Ingredients
350g chicken piece (highly recommend chicken thigh)
5-8 shiitake mushrooms (socked in water overnight)
4 medium size potatoes (boiled and cubed)
5 shallots (minced)
5 cloves of garlic (minced)
3 tbsp of cooking oil
3 cups of water

Sauce
2 tbsp of blackbeans paste
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 Duong Thot Not palm sugar
salt to taste

Direction
1. Heat up the cooking oil in the pan and stir fry the minced shallots and garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and sauce. Stir till the chicken pieces are well coated with the sauce.
3. Pour in the water and add-in the boiled potatoes and shiitake mushroom.
4. Close the lid and simmer for 30 minutes.

A simple scallion omelette complement the dish perfectly. Fantastic dinner for the day! I received great compliments for my pongteh chicken.

Tips 
I highly recommend to use chicken thighs for the dish as the thighs are more suitable for extended simmering as compared to chicken breast. 
Blackbeans Sauce Chicken

Sesame Sweet Potato Balls Recipe

Sunday, October 02, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


We bid good-bye to Ms. Summer and we now welcome Mr. Fall.

Weather starts to turn chill since early of the week and I longed for a bowl of sweet potato soup to warm myself up. I've gotten a 500g of sweet potatoes from the supermarket and was so ready for the 'great dessert for the day'. Somehow there was a change in plan after I spotted a simple recipe on purple sweet potato pancake with sesame seeds. It is deemed to be a healthy snacks as you barely need anything else except the sweet potatoes and sesame seeds. I was so tempted to give it a try and I actually traded off my long-love sweet potato soup.

However, the initial recipe turned out to be failure. The texture of the mashed sweet potatoes was way too soft and they kept falling apart. The sweet potato mixture kept on getting stuck on the frying-pan after contacting with the heat (even with low heat). Only 20% of what I made were in good shape. Check out the last image attached, in case you are curious on how the 'defect' pancakes looked like.

Hence I attempted to salvage the sweet potato mashed by transforming them to  delicious yet sinful pan-fried sesame sweet potato balls instead. 

 Ingredients 
400g of sweet potatoes (skinned and sliced to 2-3cm thick)
200g of all purpose flour
2 tbsp of sesame seed
a pinch of salt
sugar (optional)
cooking oil (sufficient for pan-frying)

Directions
1. Steam the sliced sweet potatoes in the steamer until they turned soft.
2. Mashed the sweet potatoes.
3. Add in the all-purpose flour, salt, sesame seeds and mix everything well.
(You may add-in sugar if you prefer the sweeter version or vice versa)
4. Use both of your palms to shape the mashed sweet potato to any circular form you prefers.
5. Heat-up the cooking oil in the skillet and pan fry the sweet potato balls till golden brown.

The nutty taste from the sesame seeds has indeed added a great twist to the sweet potato balls. It helps to balance up the sweetness from the sweet potatoes. Pretty addictive snack I would say. I can easily finish the whole 400g of sweet potato balls all by myself.

 The defects ... 

Bone's Mega Simpler @ Bone's American Diner Restaurant

Sunday, September 25, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


Summer is not perfect without some proper barbecues. Supermarkets are  packed with great discounts for marinated meat, poultry and sausages. Adverts and pictures with tempting grilled meats printed on weekly grocery catalogues make me drool. I craved terribly for barbecue ribs and eventually dragged Phoebe  along for my barbecue quest.
Bones, the American style restaurant
We opted for Bones, the American style restaurant. The initial plan was to order a full slap of ribs. However the Bone's Mega Simpler on the menu caught our eyes. The course comprises of 4 pieces of buffalo wings, 3 pieces of crispy tenders, 3 pieces of the original American spareribs, 5 pieces of onion rings, a bowl of crispy American sweet potatoes, hot sauce and aioli (oil and garlic sauce).

The portion is rather generous and is definitely suffice for small eaters like us to share a course. I would say for merely €13.50, this sampler set is definitely value for money given the fact you can sample the specialties here. There are variety top-ups and dips which you can opt for to go with the set which range between €1.50 to €8. 
The spareribs tasted good too. The ribs were juice and tender.
As a potatoes lovers, we topped a bowl of Bones's home style potato slices for merely €2. Unlike the regular fries, these home style potato slices were crisscut. I am a big fan of crisscut fries, so i found no reason to dislike it. However, the sweet potatoes fries wowed me. They were crispy and sweet in taste which I found they tasted lighter than the crisscut potatoes.

I was let down by the hot wings as I expected them to be fire-grilled instead of deep-fried.

Overall it was a good meal but the element of grill has been minimized. I ended up having more deep-fried stuffs than my original crave of barbecues. Perhaps another round of barbecue spareribs soon.

Homemade Korean Bibimbap

Sunday, September 18, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Korean mixed rice bowl
Gochuchang (Korean chili paste) is one of the top essential condiments in my little pantry. Gochuchang is a very versatile ingredient which I have been using for many of my recipes which include:-
1) Dakgalbi (Korean spicy stir fried chicken)
2) Korean pancake 
3) Gochuchang roasted chicken 
4) Kimchi fried rice
5) Bibimguksu (Korean spicy mixed noodles)
and many more.

Yes, I am using this magic ingredient for my all-time-favourite Korean dish, bibimbap also refer as Korean mixed rice bowl. I never get tired with bibimbap, in fact i can have it all day long. There are a lot of cutting and stir-frying tasks involved in preparing for a bowl of sumptuous bibimbap. However, it could be rewarding where you can have all the ingredients cooked and set aside for later use. Usually if I am making bibimbap at home, I will make a huge portion which could last me for breakfast,  lunch and dinner ... sometimes even supper.
Homemade Bibimbap

The typical bibimbaps served in the restaurants usually come with bulgogi, bean sprout, spinach, carrot, cucumber, mushroom, gosari and egg. Bibimbap is well enjoy with a bowl of steaming hot beansprout soup or seaweed soup. There is no restrictions to the ingredients for your homemade bibimbap. I usually make my side dishes based on what I have in my refrigerator and pantry. I even skip the soup by substituting it with a cup of warm Korean corn tea. Yum!

Here you go the recipe for Denise' homemade bibimbap.

Ingredients
Rice
Gochujang
seaweed
chicken pieces (ready-made salad chicken pieces)
eggs (fried egg - sunny side up)
button mushroom (sliced)
carrot (cut into matchsticks)
leeks
spinach (click here for sigeumchi-namul recipe)
sesame seed
cooking oil
sugar, salt and pepper to taste
soy sauce

Steps
1. Heat up a tsp of cooking oil and stir fry the carrot. Season with some salt and pepper. Dish out and set aside.
2. Repeat the same process for leeks and spinach.
(Alternatively, you may make sigeumchi namul by check out the link above)
3. Saute the button mushroom with some soy sauce, sugar, salt and pepper. Dish out and set aside.
4. Stir fry the chicken pieces or heat up in the oven (low heat) for 8-10 minutes.
5. Assemble all ingredients or topping on a bowl of steaming white rice (refer to the picture below)
6. Top the sunny-side-up egg in the middle of the bowl and place a scoop of gochujang at the side.
7. Sprinkle some seaweed and sesame seeds on top
8. Mix everything together and enjoy.
Korean mixed rice bowl

I prefer the sesame seeds to be sprinkled last on the 'mixture' so it will look more appealing. Regardless of the sequence, the bibimbap still tasted fantastic. The homemade bibimbap is hands down my best dish of the week. Thumbs up!!

Toast Waffle with Nutella and Banana

Sunday, September 11, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


I do have a soft spot for wafflers and crispy crepes despite the fact I don't have a sweet tooth. This may be due to a waffle food-stand in the shopping mall just a stone throw away from where I stay back home. 

The ingredients for the waffle batter are simple, merely eggs, flour, water, sugar and milk. What made the difference is the golden ratio or ideal measurement of each ingredient. The waffles are freshly made upon order and customer could choose various toppings to go with the waffle such as chocolate spread, nutella, peanut butter, coconut jam (kaya) and various fruit jam. The great smile of the freshly baked waffle always attract many passer-by. Despite the long queue, waffle lovers still willing to wait patiently for a bite of warm and fluffy waffle. It is definitely worth the wait.

 I miss waffle so much until I actually started to surf for waffles recipe. During my recent shopping for a waffle maker, I accidentally discovered the ready made toast waffle from the cookies section. I bought a packet to try. Little did I know, the waffles tasted super good than they look. They have very similar texture to the waffle I am familiar with - moist, soft and fluffy with strong castella cake flavour. 


This is the packaging of the toast waffles. It comes with 6 pieces of rectangular size waffles, weighing in at 250g. It cost a bit over a Euro. The waffles may not look appealing from the humble packaging but they tasted very good. You may warm the waffle in the oven for 3minutes or you may also eat it on its own. They taste both equally good.

The ready-made toast waffle is indeed a perfect option for waffle lover who has no time to make their own waffle at home. They can be a quick fix as the everyday breakfast or even desserts when you anticipate guests coming over. Just warm up the waffles in the oven and top it up with 2 scoops of ice-cream and drizzle of chocolate sauce. For a healthier version, waffle top with mixed berries or your favourite fruits with a drizzle of maple syrup and a dash of powder sugar.

Toast waffler

I had tried a variety of toppings or spreads on the waffler, but the best has to be Banana with Nutella. It combine to form the "Perfect Trinity" - waffle, banana and nutella.


Cantonese Style Braised Udon with Ham

Sunday, September 04, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


Gloomy weekend hit again despite the fact that we are still in summer. Ms.Sun refused to come out to play instead Mr. Rain did. It rained since the morning and temperature dropped till 14 degrees. Welcome to the summer in northern Europe.

 I was craving for something soupy and warm. A bowl of clear udon soup would be too simple to ease my misery for the gloomy depression, hence Phoebe suggested a pot of steaming Cantonese style hot braised udon with thick egg gravy. It sounded great ... but I did have limited ingredients in the fridge. The essential fish balls or vegetable balls  were "temporary out of stock" from my pantry as I have not replenish the stock for quite sometimes. Same old excuse - I am too busy!!

 Phoebe the  creative chef came to the rescue. The 'chef' made used of the ingredients available in the pantry to put up a super delicious braised udon. The secret ingredient which made the dish scored is non other the ham. Yes, you heard it right, the cold-cut ham slices which we usually eat with bread for breakfast. The saltiness of the ham added the magic touch to the overall dish where the udon and gravy were packed with the soothing smokiness taste. You may keep the sodium usage to minimum as the saltiness from the ham is just about right.

Ingredients
2 packets of udon 
30g of ham (cut into strips)
2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 beaten eggs
Chinese cabbage (cut into bite size)
Carrot (sliced)
Scallion as garnishing

Sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 cups of water
2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 tbsp white vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Cook the udon in hot water for 2 min. Drain and run the udon under cold water to remove the excess starch.
2. Heat up some cooking oil in the pan, stir fry the minced garlic till aroma.
3. Add in the Chinese cabbage, carrots, ham, sauce and bring to boil.
4. Add in the udon and simmer until the udon soaked up the broth.
5. Add in the beaten egg.

Sprinkle some scallion on top of the udon and serve. Not a complex dish but a dish with great flavours. Try out the recipe and you may like it.

Delicious Egg Puff Recipe

Sunday, August 28, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


The best way to spend rainy weekend is to conduct some "food experiments" at home. Yeah, that was what I did last Sunday. I did two simple types of pastries with the ready made pastry sheets I bought from the supermarket. Showcase in this post is the easy egg puff recipe. If you like eggs as well as puff pastry (like me), you will surely like these egg puffs. They taste really good so make sure you make a few extras.

Ingredients
140g frozen pastry sheet, 4 eggs, half onion (sliced), 1 medium size red capsicum (cut into 4cm long stripes), garlic powder, 1 egg yolk (beaten), salt and pepper, some olive oil.

Steps
1. Defrost the pastry sheet by following the instructions on the label.
2. Cut the pastry sheet into 10x5cm size - any square or rectangular shape you prefer.
3. About 1cm from the edge of the cut pastry sheet, slightly make a fine line using the back of the knife. Don't cut the edge. The purpose for this step is to create the frame for the filling later.Store in the fridge for 30 minutes to fix the shape.
4. Lay the onion and capsicum on the baking tray. Drizzle some olive oil, sprinkle some garlic powder, salt and pepper. Bake in the oven under 175c heat for 20 minutes.
6. Remove the pastry sheet from the fridge and assemble the filling. Make sure no filling at the outer edges.
7. Brush the edges with egg yolk and pop into the preheated oven to bake for 10 minutes (175c heat). The edge should rise and puff up after 10 minutes. You should see the 'frame' created.
8. Crack an egg into the 'frame' for each individual pastry sheet and bake for another 8-10 minutes.
9. Sprinkle some pepper and salt on top of the egg and serve the egg puff while warm. YUM!! 

I have made the pesto pastry rolls as well on the same day but they turned out  a bit ugly. Reason being, the greedy me had indeed sprinkled way too much cheese on top. They oozed from the roll and turned the pastry soggy. Perhaps I should make another batch next time.

Hokkien Style Braised Udon Noodle Recipe

Sunday, August 21, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Hokkien Mee

When it comes to noodle dishes, Chef Phoebe is always the best. I am delighted every time when Chef Phoebe volunteers to cook us the signature noodle dish. I always hope there would be left over so I could pack some for the next day. But, it rarely happens. Not only there is no left over, there are times when we had barely enough to share. This really shows how good the noodle dishes are.

Today, we are lucky to have Chef Phoebe shared the secret recipe on the signature Hokkien style braised udon.

Ingredients
2 packets of udon (200g each)
150g vegetable fish ball (halve)
2-3 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 beaten eggs
Chinese cabbage (cut into bite size)

Sauce
4 tbsp dark soy sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar
2 cups of water
2 tbsp corn starch
salt and pepper to taste

Steps
1. Loosen the udon in hot water for 2 min. Drain and run the udon under cold water to remove the excess starch.
2. Heat up some cooking oil in the pan, scramble the egg in hot oil. Set aside for later use.
3. In the same pan, stir fry the minced garlic till aromatic.
4. Add in the Chinese cabbage, vegetable balls, scramble egg, sauce and bring to boil.
5. Add in the udon and simmer until the udon have soaked up the broth
 
Top the udon with chili slices and serve.Despite the simmering process, the udon did not turn soggy and instead packed with great flavour after absorbing all the essence from the broth.

My special thanks to chef for the super tasty Hokkien style braised udon recipe.

Tortilla Egg Crepes

Sunday, August 14, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

蛋卷

Egg crepes are deemed as the popular breakfast in Taiwan and China. The egg-roll looking crepes is also a well known street food as they are usually sold by the road side in a pulling cart. The outer layer of the egg crepes is actually a thin layer of flour batter that pan fried till crisp.

I am fascinated with the dish as they look yummy and simple to prepare. I have been to China for a couple of times for business trips but lady luck was not by my side as the infamous egg crepes were nowhere to be found around my office. Phoebe who had tried out the authentic egg crepes in Beijing was proudly 'showing-off' the photo of egg crepes to me. No doubt they really looked delicious which inspire me to create a homemade version egg crepes by substituting the flour batter base with Tortilla.

I am not certain how close my version of egg crepes as compare with the version sold in China, but I would say, my tortilla egg crepes tasted super good. It was so addictive until I made it for breakfast in 2 consecutive days.

Here you go the recipe for Denise's version of Tortilla Egg Crepes.

Ingredients
1pc of tortilla flatbread
1 egg
1 tbsp of teriyaki sauce
1/2 tbsp of cooking oil
shredded mozzarella cheese
some chopped scallion
pepper and salt to taste


Direction
1. Heat up the flat pan with cooking oil (low heat). Place the tortilla flatbread on the pan, spread the teriyaki sauce on the tortilla and crack an egg on it.
2. Smear the egg to cover the surface of the tortilla, then sprinkle some salt and pepper.
3. Add in the chopped scallion.
4. Flip the tortilla to cook the egg
5. Re-flip the tortilla once the egg are completely cooked.
6. Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella cheese on top.
7. Fold the crepes as shown in graphic #7 and #9.

Once done, cut the egg crepes and serve. The pan fried tortilla is so crispy while the melted cheese oozes out. Every bite is very satisfying indeed. Best breakfast ever.

For a more luxurious version, you may add-in any of your favourite toppings, preferable 'dryer' toppings such as hotdog, nugget, pepperoni or even ham. Mushroom is not recommended as they take longer time to cook which causes a burnt tortilla base. Another tip is, cook with low heat as tortilla will get burn pretty easily. Enjoy trying the recipe!!

Omelet Sandwich with Pågen Antigen Subs

Sunday, August 07, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-

Äntligen! Subs

 I never miss any sales for Pågen Antigen Subs. Regardless of how busy I am, I will still make sure to pop-by the supermarkets for my favourite bread. A loaf of Pågen Antigen Subs (6pc) cost around Euro 2.7 during off sales but with sales, you can enjoy up to 50% discount. So, I only pay around Euro 1.3 for it. I will definitely buy sufficient supply to last me for at least 1 and the half week. Not an issue for me as I love bread ...hehe.

 My classmates were curious on how I 'digest' those subs beside having it with cheese-and-ham, butter-and-jam. Sharing in this post is the Denise's classic subs - Omelet Sandwich Pågen Antigen Subs, my favourite way to enjoy the antigen subs.

 Ingredients: 1 egg, 4 sliced button mushrooms, half an onion (sliced), some chopped scallion and cilantro, soy sauce, pepper, cooking oil.

 Direction
1. Beat the egg in a bowl.
2. Add in the sliced onions, button mushrooms and seasoning and beat until everything well mix.
3. Heat up the pan with some cooking oil, pour in the egg mixture and cook for 1 minute.
4. Next, sprinkle the chopped scallion and cilantro on top of the omelet. Cook for 1 minute.
5. Use a spatula to flip the omelet and cook the other side for 30 sec.
6. Lightly brown the subs with the remaining heat on the pan.
7. Sandwich the omelet in between subs.  Top some ketchup or any of your favourite sauce and enjoy.

 Tips
For more flavors, you may spread a thin layer of butter on the subs and lightly brown the subs on the heated pan for 1-2 minutes.
Omelet sandwish with Pagen

Must Try Thai Basil Chicken Recipe

Saturday, July 30, 2016 0 Comments A+ a-


pad kra pao gai
I was having a 'hard time' when writing the previous post on 10 Delicious Food To Try in Bangkok. The fact is I was drooling away when looking at those tempting and mouth-watering food photos. The great taste of Thai cuisine just lingered in my month and I decided to make this delicious Thai Basil Chicken to satisfy my craving for Thai food.

I would say this dish is by far the best Thai food I have ever attempted at home which I am very proud of. Ever since its first 'debut' on my dining table, I constantly get repeated requests for the dish. The Thai-holy-basil instantly becomes the essential in my kitchen pantry now.   
pad kra pao gai
The Thai Basil Chicken is a simple dish to prepare at home and it goes absolutely well with steamed rice and fried eggs (sunny-side-up egg). Check out the recipe here.

 Ingredients
400g chicken breast (cut into bite size chunks)
1/2 cup of Thai holy basil
3 stalks of red chilies (diced) - preferably with seeds on
6-8 cloves of garlic (minced)
2 tbsp of cooking oil

Sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp sugar
corn starch solution (optional)

Directions
1. Heat up the cooking oil in the pan. Stir fry the minced garlic and chilies till aromatic.
2. Add in the chicken pieces and continue to stir til the chicken pieces are cooked.
3. Add in the sauce and keep stir frying til everything is well mix (30sec to 1min).
4. Turn off the heat and toss in the holy basil in and stir well.

The Thai version of sunny-side-up fried egg complimented the dish perfectly. Have you ever notice, the Thai fried eggs are crispy at the edges but remained runny on the yolk. These are the tips:
1. Generous amount of cooking oil
2. Crack in the egg onto the pan only when the oil is sizzling hot
3. Using the spatula, continuously splash some hot oil onto the egg
4. No flipping is required.

Surprise your family and friends with this simple to prepare Thai Basil Chicken dish. Prepare to get great compliments as the dish will definitely score!

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