Super Simple Roast Duck

I love Jamie Oliver's recipe, each and every single one that I tried were easy enough for idiots like me, and the results, oh the results...I love the result, and SC's always so happy with the results, he might agree to let me purchase a whole new cabinet-ful of shoes (and a new cabinet to store them too).

I made this roast duck simply following a sentence (ONE sentence!!!) I heard on Travel & Living Channel, it was something like this...(I can't remember the exact words)...
This will make this sentence the shortest "recipe" ever posted here?
Rub lots of salt and pepper all over the duck, grill in a preheated oven, 180C for two hours, flip once after around 1 hour.

Since I love stuffing things up my bird's butt and my mini herb garden is still alive and kicking..in went some rosemary and thyme, as well as half a lime (I needed the other half for my drink :p).

I thought I'd never say this, but my bird's butt smelt fantastical!

Serve with carbs and greens of your choice, but I really wanted to rip this hot bird apart with my bare hands, and consumed it with a plate of hot steamed rice and Indonesian sambal (chilli paste), one of my legs up on my dining chair :D

Grilled Pork Chops - How to Make the Perfect Checker Pattern Grill Marks?

Do you buy stripey grill pans solely because you wanted your food to be in those adorable stripey/checker patterns?
Of course you do.

Hmm...or maybe not?
Maybe you thought that food's gonna taste even more wonderful when grilled that way,
or maybe it's for health reasons (because not having a grill pan may cause us severe mental distress?),
or maybe you're just a pure shopaholic? (nono, I really need the pan)""

or whatever, man.
I just want my food in cute checker patterns.

Yes, I am shallow, superficial and proud of it (sometimes) :D

Making the perfect checkered grill marks is no rocket science. I am sure anyone can figure it out. But thanks to our friend, Joe, I didn't even need to figure anything out. After several trial and errors, Joe knows his way around his grill pan, he could pretty much checker-grill-mark anything blindfolded (I should probably mention that the blindfold is transparent?).

I'll soon share Joe's formula with you.

First, grab a pork chop, or whatever meat/non meat you are craving...
We were having pork chops.
Because they are delicious.
...and because the day sucked and we needed the release.

We took our turn whacking the heck outta those chops.


Preheat grill pan on medium heat for about 4 minutes, add a bit of olive oil.


Right before grilling, season your chops.
I seasoned mine with salt (generously), black pepper and dry mixed herbs (oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary)...

...and let's sizzle.


1. Place your chop on the pan diagonally (e.g. top left - bottom right)


Let cook for 1-2 minutes, depending on how thick is your chop, if your chop is thin, preheat grill pan a couple of minutes longer so once the chop hits the pan, it gets charred almost immediately.
You can use tongs to lift the corner of your chop a little to peep if the pattern is there.

2. Turn 90 degree (e.g. top right - bottom left), do not flip just yet.


Let cook for a minute or so...(as the pan gets hotter, it creates marks faster and darker)

3. Now, flip!


PS. I used metal tongs to handle my chop.
Let cook for a bit...

4. Again, turn 90 degrees...


...and if your chop is thin just like mine, you're pretty much done.
You'd end up with juicy and flavorful chops with tasty cripsy bits here and there.

If your chop is thick, you may have to finish it in the oven for a few minutes.

Love the pattern and I swear the chop tasted better (totally fooling myself?).

Serve with carbs and green of your choice.
PS. Wearing a checkered shirt to devour this would be too matchy matchy.

Strawberries & Balsamic Vinegar, served with Toasted English Muffins & Peach Sherbet

Vinegar = Piss.
That's what I thought, classic me.
During my first year in Hong Kong, I was so busy trying to avoid vinegar, which is really popular in wonton noodles shop, and naturally, I always mistakenly poured some on my food instead of soy sauce, thanks to my ignorance.

Maybe that's how I got kinda "trained" to appreciate vinegar now.

Balsamic vinegar is a whole other thing.
I bought a bottle out of curiousity.
Blame it on me watching too many Jamie Oliver's shows.
Balsamic here, balsamic there...so I bought a bottle and instantly fell in love with its fragrance.
I use it making salads, roasted potatoes, meat, etc etc etc...but of course, would never use it for something sweet.

But I heard how everyone said that strawberries + balsamic vinegar = top notch!
I heard it, you've heard it, we've all heard it.
Again and again and again and again.
That's it. I gotta give it a try.

One of my main principal is, if everyone likes it, I probably will too.
I'm pretty mainstream really :)
...and not much of a pioneer either :D

So I did.

This is again, an almost non-recipe.

(adapted from here)
- 1 cup of strawberries, cleaned, removed top, halved
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/4 cup of caster sugar
Mix everything in one bowl and let it be for at least one hour, max 4 hours.

That's it, after one something hour, I gave it a taste and...
I swooned!

This is THE perfect treatment for those mediocre, el-cheapo, not-so-sweet strawberries!

I am not much of a scientist, but all I know is, this combo does amazing things to my blah strawberries. They now taste fan-freaking-tastic! I could've just consumed the whole bowl of sweet, syrupy strawberries myself, but I had a leftover of half an English muffin (that's right, half), so I did this...

Butter (salted) and sprinkle some sugar on English muffin, place it on a hot pan. It will sizzle and you'll get this gorgeously golden, buttery toasted muffin with a hint of sweetness....Now, we're gonna bring it to the next level, and all you need to do is...assembling.

Top toasted muffin with an ice cream of your choice (I only had Dreyer's peach sherbet), place balsamic vinegar strawberries on the side and drizzle with the sweet and sour syrup from the strawberry "marinate".

It looked so glamorous, I almost felt bad I consumed this with bare hands~
Almost ;)

Baked Rice with Mushrooms, Peppers, Turkey Bacon & Cheese

When bloggers stretch their brain upside-down-inside-out trying to write a witty and entertaining opening paragraphs, I wonder if you wanna say "just cut the (not-so-funny) crap and get on with the (not-so-good) food" sometimes?
We all probably do.

Let me cut my crap and get on with the food.

In Hong Kong, we see baked rice dishes all the time, the most famous one being pork chop baked rice, from fast food places like Cafe de Coral, Fairwood, Maxim's, or local Hong Kong cafes. It's deep fried juicy (albeit tenderized) pork chops, placed on a bed of fried rice with "tomato" based MSG laden sauce, topped with cheese and baked until the cheese melted and charred. Generally, freaking delicious.

I never thought of trying to recreate the dish at home. You know we don't deep frying stuff and since there's a Cafe de Coral/Fairwood/Maxim's at almost every corner, where these babies are sold for around HK$ 30something a pop, totally delicious and no effort required apart from ordering & queueing to pick up, why bother? That was my stand....

...until I saw Noobcook's Baked Rice posts, and realised that I can do other versions of baked rice, eliminating the deep frying and all the other complicated stuff, making it perfectly suitable for me, the lazy bummie. I did mine slightly differently from Wiffy's, I started with leftover cooked rice instead of uncooked rice. Try both methods, or be inspired, discover your own way and share :)

This is how I did mine.
Ingredients
(serves 2)
- 1 cup of leftover cooked rice (mine is mixed of white and brown rice), refrigerated overnight
- 1 green bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper (you can use any color), remove seeds, diced
- 1 cup sliced fresh shitake mushrooms (or any other mushrooms)
- 4 sheets of turkey bacon (you can use other bacon/sausages/SPAM/etc), cut into small pieces
- 1 cup grated cheese (I used mozzarella and parmesan, you can use other cheeses)
- olive oil, salt, black pepper, worchestershire sauce, dry herb mix (oregano, rosemary, sage, thyme - optional)

Heat up fry pan with a bit of olive oil (the turkey bacon doesn't release much oil. If your bacon releases a lot of oil, omit the olive oil), add bacon until they get browned a bit (do not burn/overcrisp the bacon pieces)...

...add diced peppers and cook until they soften, add sliced mushrooms, cook for a bit until it reaches the desired doneness that you like (I like mine super done and a bit charred).

Add leftover rice, season with salt, pepper, a dash of worchestershire sauce, dry herb mix, and mix well.

Preheat oven to 200C.

Transfer the rice mix (You can sooo already eat this, but don't. At least not all) into an oven proof dish..

...top with grated cheeses...

A little or a lot... depending on how good you wanna look in that pair of skinny jeans...

For me, a lot. (I don't wear jeans, I wear giant skirts and dresses all the time :p)
I also added a dash of dry herbs...hmmm perfumetastic!


Dump it into oven and wait for the magic to happen....15 minutes later...


MAGIC.

OK, that's an exaggeration.
It's no magic, it's easy cooking.

PS. my all burnt and scratched baking sheet is so photogenic, I think I should do another one :p

Tom Yum Grilled Chicken Drumsticks

I'm gonna start 2010 by being true to myself.
Yuck, somehow that sounds too philosophical.
You know, philosophy + me = nothing good

What's my true self?
Expert cook? Nope.
Experienced diner with amazing palate? Nope and nope.
I spent quite a long time (like 15 minutes?) pondering about who I am, only to realize that I am not a foodie, gourmet, gourmand, wannabe chef, cook, etc, etc, etc.

What am I? I have yet to find a word or a phrase that can represent myself, but I surely know one thing.
I am someone who does yummy the lazy way.

See, I'm more of a Shallow Hal than an Aristotle.

This dish represents so much of myself, it's ridic!
1. Chicken drumsticks with skin on = me
2. Instant tomyum paste = anything "instant" can be followed by "perfect for Rita"
3. Marinate and grill = almost not considered as "cooking" = again, so me

Calling this a "recipe" is laughable, but still, it does list what I used and how I did it...so I guess...here we go~

Ingredients
- 4 chicken drumsticks
- 1 pack Tomyum paste (I love this one)
- couple tbsp hot water to dissolve the paste a bit

The night before serving, dissolve tomyum paste in a bit of hot water until it reaches "spreadable" consistency, not too thin, we don't want our marinate to be watery. Rub and massage paste all over chicken drumsticks, generously, refrigerate for one night, at least.

On the day, preheat oven to 180C, grill chicken covered in aluminium foil until the meat's cooked (about 30 minutes), crank up temperature to 250C, grill chicken uncovered until beautifully golden.

You can do similar things with chicken wings, serve them in a party and watch your guests killing each other fighting over them. These babies are perfect with carb of your choice (hello, steamed rice and lots of it).

This year, I hope I could do yummier things in ways tat are lazier than ever.
Cheers!