Keeping it Simple

Lunch: Stir fried pak choy with garlic and oyster sauce. That's it.

Just keeping things healthy and light in the lead up to our Singapore and Penang trip next week. We've already planned a chilie crab dinner for our first night (Friday), we have a wedding banquet on Saturday, Sunday will probably be Japanese, and for lunch on Monday, we're taking my 85 year old grandma to DB Bistro Moderne, Daniel Boulud's restaurant at Marina Bay Sands (that hotel which looks like it has a ship on top of it.)

My Nonya grandma, who's name is Nellie, Mama Nellie as we call her ( and yes she is as cute as her name sounds),no longer likes Chinese food and prefers a juicy burger and fries any day over a bowl of congee or a plate of chicken rice. "Jelak already!" she says, which means "I'm tired of it!" I supposed after more than 80 years of eating mostly Chinese food, I'd be sick of it too! Hence we are taking her to Mr Boulud for some French-American cuisine. As my grandma is getting on in her years and now no longer wants to travel, we don't get to see her as often as we'd like. So this lunch will be really special for my family as my mum and dad (who live in Perth) and brother (who lives in Sydney) will also be there. We just need my little sister (who is Melbourne based and sadly couldn't make the trip) there to make it one big reunion.

I've never been to Marina Bay Sands before so I'm excited to go check it out. I won't be lazy and I'll bring our proper camera this time for the food and family snaps (if you haven't noticed everything on this blog has just been shot with my iPhone 4, ha!).

Then on Tuesday we are off to Penang for four days of even more eating ... sigh, it makes me happy yet very very full just thinking of it.

Afternoon snack: Sabah tea, dried cranberries and butter cookies.

*oh dear...look at that crooked picture! Tsk tsk!

Thursday

Breakfast: Banana crepes with maple syrup & grapes.

Going thorough a bit of a crepe phase, I am getting quite good at making them now.

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Vanilla Scented Crepes
Makes 6 large crepes, perfect for 2 people
2/3 plain flour
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 TBS vanilla sugar (or just use 1 tsp of vanilla extract and 1 TBS sugar)
Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients well, cover and leave to rest for an hour (you can skip this step if you are super hungry - I normally make the batter the night before so the crepes are ready to roll when we wake up).
Heat a pan and butter very lightly. Pour enough batter into the center of the pan to cover about 1/3 of its surface area then quickly pick it up and use a swirling motion to cover the rest of the pan. You may need to re butter the pan half way through. Make sure your pan is quite hot for nicely browned crepes that don't stick to the pan.

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I used to make the crepes as we ate but I soon got tired of hopping back and forth to the stove between mouthfuls so I now make all the crepes in one go, stacking them up and covering them with foil to keep them warm and supple. Supple crepes....mmMmm!

I accidentally elbowed poor G in the face this morning as he scooted over for a sleepy hug and I reacted in my sleep by doing a stretch and my elbow smashed into his nose. So the first words out of G's mouth today was "Mmmmrrrrgghhhhhh..." and mine were "Sorry... sorry....sorry....zzzzzz" lol.

G and I keep waking up just before 6am every morning, this is really unusual for me as I normally like sleeping in. I blame our camp schedule as this is the time we normally wake up when we're there.

Cooking up something green for lunch...

Lunch: Creamy broccoli soup and bread

Stupendous Chicken Salad

I had a bowl full of cold shredded roast chicken meat in the fridge from Monday night just begging to be used up so i decided to make a chicken salad for lunch today. I wanted a chunky monkey of a chicken salad as I didn't have any bread to serve it with so I needed to make it a whole filling meal to satisfy G, who's appetite knows no bounds these days.

This is what I used...

A quarter of a broccoli (steamed in the microwave - just put a little water in a bowl, put your broccoli in, cover with wrap and zap for about a minute, then dunk it in an ice bath to seal in that lovely green colour before you chop it up)...

Chopped spring onions...

Two sticks of celery, chopped into small cubes...

Two baby potatoes, boiled till just cooked and cubed...

A handful of grapes, halved...

Two hard boiled eggs, chopped roughly...and

Two cups of shredded roast chicken meat...

Undressed...


Then you put your creative cook's hat on and mix up a yummy dressing!

I used...

1/3 cup heavy cream...

1/4 cup of Japanese mayonnaise...

A dash of smoked paprika...

A sprinkling of Japanese magic salt ( yes, I buy strange things when I'm on holiday)

A few drops of Tabasco...

A generous squeeze of lemon juice...

A heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard

A sprinkling of salt and pepper...

And half a teaspoon of brown sugar...

Mix, mix, mix, pour over the salad, stir and stick it in the fridge to marinade for an hour or so to let all those good flavours sink in.

Dressing...

Then just before you serve it you do this...

*Whack!*

Sprinkle the cracker crumblies on top, add some Parmesan shavings and you have yourself a stupendous chicken salad lunch! :)

Dressed!

Deepavali

Breakfast: Takeaway Chee Cheong Fun (rice flour rolls) with sesame seeds and sweet sauce and cold green tea. I'm no chee cheong fun expert but I liked the smooth texture of the rolls, I think they were quite skilfully made.

I also had some nasi lemak but it was such a mess by the time we got home I thought I'd spare my newly hatched blog the ugliness and leave it out this time :p We ended up getting takeaway as today is Deepavali and a public holiday so there were no seats available at Foh Sang.

Deepavali- known as the "festival of lights" involves lighting small clay lamps filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil.

Lunch: Stupendous Chicken Salad (see post above)

Tuesday Eats

Breakfast: Crepes with butter, lemon and vanilla sugar. G had his with Nutella and banana.

Lunch: Roast Pork and char siew on rice with a small bowl of clear soup - RM5.50 ($1.80 AUD)

We had lunch for the first time at this little place called Corner Cafe at Karamunsing Complex. They do a mean roast pork which has a fantastic slightly charred flavour and crispy crispy skin. Now we know why they're so packed at lunch time.

Dinner: Risotto with chicken and mushrooms with Sauv Blanc. My favourite.

Roast Chicken Dinner - Asian Australian Style

Dinner: Roast Chicken with gravy, stir fried bok choy with dried prawn and garlic and rice.

This is my version of a classic roast chicken dinner. Instead of sides like potatoes or buttered carrots, I serve it with rice, stir fried vegetables and a healthy serving of tasty gravy...a homage to my asian australian upbringing :)

For the chicken, I make a herb and garlic butter rub by basically chopping up fresh herbs, grating a couple of garlic cloves, salt, pepper and squishing the whole thing together with my hands then jam the blob of herby butter into the chicken between the breast and the skin, Jamie Oliver style. I then stuff some more fresh herbs, crushed garlic cloves and half a lemon into the chicken cavity, smear the rest of the herb butter all over the chicken, sprinkle with paprika, salt, pepper and dried thyme and bung the whole thing in the oven at 220C for about 1hr 10 minutes. If the breast starts to brown too fast, cover the chicken loosely with tin foil to stop it burning.

For the gravy, I pour off most of the oil from the roasting pan, reserving 1 tablespoon of oil which I mix with 2 teaspoons of flour. I put the roasting pan on the hob and add 1/2 cup of white wine (I didn't use the wine tonight actually and it still came out fine) and cook the liquid down, scraping up all the sticky bits at the bottom of the pan with a spatula. After about 4 minutes I then add in a cup of chicken stock and cook for another 5 minutes, then I add the flour/oil paste which thickens the gravy up nicely. Strain and serve!

The chicken started seriously smoking up in the oven and the house was smelling like a rotisserie so I had to turn the aircon off and open up the windows....my hair still smells like roast chicken juices and G who is now sitting next to me on the couch just gave a sigh and said " Very....smells of chicken..." lol

Credenza Love

Our new credenza was delivered this afternoon. Isn't she a beauty! I'm planning on having a smattering of framed prints on the wall above her and line her top with a large chunky coloured vase, some family pics and a big beautiful lamp.

Well, we'll see what happens. I'm happy though as this has got me excited again about doing up the apartment :)

Handmade Ice Cream

Look what I made the other night! Chocolate ice cream! Despite not having an ice cream maker and not really knowing what the heck I was doing, it came out creamy and so so chocolatey.

Here is the simple and brilliant recipe I got off my pal Geri:

Hand churned Chocolate Ice Cream

What you'll need:
2 egg yolks
150ml full cream milk
100ml cream
120g cooking chocolate, melted slightly in the microwave.
1 tsp cocoa powder ( I used Dutch processed)

Whisk egg yolks and milk inside a heavy based pot. Heat yolk and milk mixture over a low fire, stirring constantly. Do not allow mixture to boil but cook until it thickens approx 7 minutes. You can check to see by making sure it coats the back of a spoon.

Turn off the heat, add the partly melted cooking chocolate into the yolk mixture and stir till it completely dissolves. Add cocoa powder and mix well.

Pour chocolate custard through a metal sieve into the cream and allow ice cream custard to settle to room temperature before freezing.

After approximately 45 minutes in the freezer, whisk thoroughly to break up the ice crystals and repeat this process at least twice at 30 minute intervals.

Ice cream is best if allowed to freeze overnight. Slurp!