Happy Father's Day Homemade Dinner

We had a simple dinner at home celebrating Father's Day. I didn't make that cake. It's a black and white chocolate mousse cake from Arome bakery, costs about HK$160 (credit card discount) with a free pack of "Japanese" cookies. Good deal!

The dinner prep was really a father-son bonding session. What on earth were they trying to make?


This. Homemade roast pork - the recipe comes with the halogen cooking pot.


Did it work?

We love how it is transparent and we can all argue about the state of the food in the cooking pot. Perfect ice breaker for family gathering!

The father-son bonding only got stronger from there.

Proven by how SC and his dad collaborated plucking out remnants of pig hair...

...and after 15+30 minutes... voila!

Tasty roast pork! The meat's tender enough. The skin could use a little more poking, but not bad at all!

Here's MIL whacking away the siu yuk. She looked damn cool doing it. Don't mess with her.

Tasted AMAZING with rice. Not advisable for those on low carb diet :D

We also had beef curry. Very spicy.


And fish wrapped mangoes FIL learnt from TV.

If I could ever find that TV chef who taught this, Imma have to whack him/her with a cutting board. What a waste of beautiful fresh mangoes!

The cake has tool box shaped chocolate. Everybody loved it.

I grew up without a dad, but I love celebrating father's day with SC's family :)

Happy belated father's day, y'all. Hope you had a fantastic father's day celebration :)

French Onion Soup

I am not a big fan of French Onion Soup. The ones that I've tried were all too sweet for my taste. But when my friend suggested that we make our own version together, we instantly agreed. I figured that if we are making it ourselves, we could definitely adjust the flavors to suit my savoury taste ;) and we did just that.

We adapted a recipe posted on Jamie Oliver's website by a member, and we love how easy it is.

Here's the recipe.
Our adaptation:
- we omitted the egg yolks
- we used red wine
- we used gruyere and cheddar
- we seasoned with salt and white pepper until we achieved the perfect balance of sweet and savory, but bearing in mind that cheese will be added
- we added grated cheese, then croutons, then grated cheese again on top
- we'd consider adding mozzarella into the cheese mix next to add that "stringy melty" quality to it


The recipe mentioned that using croutons isn't convenient, but we did it and it was easy and yummy. We'd use croutons again.


Grilling in the oven.


Perfectly golden brown.


Out of this world.

Creamy Sweet Corn & Bacon Pasta Recipe

Sweetness of corn & saltiness of bacon. I always love such a combo. Initially I made this for my toddler (OMG, feeding my son bacon - that makes me a bad mom, right? Oh well... just once in a while... and mommy wants some too!). So here goes.

Recipe
(serves 2)
- pasta for 2 (measure using those pasta measuring rings), I used spaghetti
- 2 fresh sweet corn kernels
- 2 strips of bacon per person (I used lean back bacon and removed the fat)
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- butter, cream, salt, pepper

Cook pasta according to the instruction on the packet - do not overcook. If pasta's done before sauce is done, drain and set it aside. Meanwhile, melt about a tbsp butter, add garlic, saute until fragrant, add bacon, add corn, cook until there's a bit of brownage going. Add cream to your liking (I added about 120 ml), season with salt and pepper. Toss the pasta with the sauce and serve hot.

Add some fresh herbs if you like. I didn't since I'd have to pick them out one by one as my big boss (the toddler) demanded. Oh man, I'm such a loser mom.

Anyway, enjoy the pasta!

How To Make Ridiculously Easy Cheat No Bake Chocolate "Cake"

I love anything cheat and anything lazy. Short cuts, I adore thee!
What else is new? :)
When I first saw the idea on TV (TLC, Buddy's cooking show), I fell in love with it immediately and decided that I HAVE TO make (an adaptation of) it! And here goes...

This beautiful gorgeous gorgeous "cake" isn't a cake. It's made of bread, soaked in chocolatey goodness. Uh huh! Oh yeah! So, pick a bread with desired texture, you can pick fluffy ones, or chewy ones... but make sure you pick one that can withstand liquid and won't turn into mush. I picked a chewy one made of mixed grains with lots of nuts in it. I love that it has a bit of saltiness in it. So, here's how I made this.

Recipe (Adapted from Kitchen Boss)
- Chunks of bread that you like, cut the crusts, I made two thick chunks
(if you wanna make more, adjust the liquid recipe)
- 100gr dark chocolate (or you can use milk chocolate or white chocolate - the world is your chocolate box)
- 1 cup coffee
- 2 tbsp sugar (you can adjust the sweetness)
- 2 tsp rum essence
- 1 shot vodka (you can use rum and omit the rum essence, I did this because I only had vodka)
- Strawberries (or fresh fruits of your choice to go with chocolate)

Cut chocolate into chunks (or you can use baking chocolate chunks), melt over double boiler. Add coffee, sugar, rum essence and vodka, mix well, take it off the heat. Cut crust off bread and cut into chunks. Soak bread in the chocolatey liquid, make sure the liquid gets all absorbed the inner parts of the bread. Baste them, flip them upside down. Once all the chocolate liquid gets absorbed by the bread, you can serve it.

On the TV show, it's served with whipped cream. Since I am not a fan of whipped cream, I planned to serve it with ice cream. But in an effort to be healthier, in the end I served it with fresh fruits instead.

Beyond yum and so damn easy. Perfect for me.

And here's a behind-the-scene shot of baby M "helping out" during the photoshoot.

He flipped the mirror around, took the mirror away, and threatened to touch the chocolate a few times :D

Have fun, hope you like the crazy lazy recipe.

James' Kitchen - Private Kitchen, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

Good deal decent dinner! We had the privilege to order the VIP members only set dinner because my colleague is the chef's secondary classmate! Yay! We love good deals!

James' Special Platter.

Salad with Serrano ham. Nothing earth shattering...


Poached egg salad with black truffle paste. The egg's poached beautifully, but I am maxed out on black truffle paste. I wish there's more dressing with more acid and seasoning.


Yummy yummy oysters. Many of my colleagues don't eat oysters, which means - more for me!


Love the foie T_T really really love it. Pear's poached perfectly. Yum max!


Duck soup. Very well seasoned, very tasty. I finished every single drop of it. And I'm not even a soup person :)


Spinach & cheese homemade ravioli with king prawn. Perfectly cooked prawns, decent ravioli. The creamy sauce is a tad to sweet for me though. I wanted more salt and acid.


Perfectly cooked and well seasoned Australian grain-fed rib eye steak. It's served with black pepper sauce, which is yum. But I am not a big fan of the lotus root chunks, sweet potato mash, and taro crisp part. I was happy to just demolish the steak.

Now... some serious desserts. They are mostly yummy and the servings are generous. Value for money!

Epic baked Alaska. There are black sesame mochi ice cream balls hidden underneath. We LOVE!


Creme brulee. Yummy.


75% dark chocolate cake. It's yummy too.... until I had the next one...


My photo didn't do this molten chocolate cake justice. It's absolutely delicious! Love it!
My colleagues signed up for VIP membership as soon as they finished dinner :)
And because of my colleague, we got a platter of free dessert too - yay! Thanks, Chef!

VIP Members only set dinner: HK$488 for two (not including dessert) + HK$90 for foie 

James' Kitchen
9/F, H8, 8 Hau Fook Street, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2368 3833
尖沙咀厚福街8號H8 9