Healthy Dragon Fruit Smoothie & Popsicle - Perfect For Summer

This smoothie is yummy & refreshing, and it is great for digestion ;)

It's fun for the kids to make too! OB had a great time helping out & he generally likes things more if he's involved in the process.

In goes banana... Mama's heart stopped seeing him using a knife, but papa closely supervised him. Phew..

In goes the chunks of dragon fruit..

And then yakult, ice & honey.

Pulse in blender 'til smooth.

Cheers!

How was it?

All smiles! 

(And hello, beautiful poo poo, bye bye constipation! - oh gosh, being a mom has reduced me to THIS) 

The same recipe can be made into popsicles. Hello, summer!

Recipe

- 1 banana

- 1 dragon fruit

- 1 bottle of yakult

- a handful of ice

- 1 tbsp honey

Pulse until smooth in a blender.

Drink up, refrigerate, or pour into popsicle mold & freeze.

Cheers!

Strawberries, Honey & Caramel

Things that we did with our strawberry loot from Kam Tin Country Park...

We dipped the strawberries with a bit of local honey bought from the country park. The honey's from strawberry flowers, super super fragrant! I love it.

We also had the strawberries we caramel spread.
OMG.
Perfect. Match.

We had a lot of fun picking the berries. 

The perfect weekend activity.

Go before the weather gets too hot and all the strawberries are gone.

There were lots of things to do too. Super fun for kids. 

This year OB's big enough to feed the animals on his own. I totally enjoyed schooling the animals not to fight for the food :) 

Hey cutie little bunny...

Now OB is also old enough to ride this orange elephant on his own.

Mommy wanted to ride this too!

Extra treat! Pretty sunflowers bigger than my head!

For more tips and how to go to Kam Tin Country Park,
Check out this post.

Hong Kong Roast Pork (Siu Yuk), Apples & Mustard Mayo Sandwich

Hmmm...

When life gives you bread...

...I'd say, ditch your low carb diet and make sinful sandwiches.
Did I hear amen?

There's a story to this loaf of bread.
Baby M wandered around a local bakery (A1 bakery), grabbed a bag of bread and dropped it on the floor. The bread slipped outta its protective plastic bag, lying helplessly on the floor, begging for us to buy it. Uh oh. The staff saw this, and she was being very nice. She offered to clean up the mess, never demanding us to buy the bread. But we are people with conscience, especially when we are trying desperately to find some excuses to eat carbs. So, we bought the bread.

On the way home, I simply bought a strip of roasted pork belly with crispy crackling & juicy tender melt-in-your-mouth meat *gulp*
So siu yuk sandwich it is!
Here's what I put together. I don't think I can call this a recipe, and I didn't make the roast pork nor the bread. We are spoiled with having numerous roast pork shops in Hong Kong. But if you wanted to make the roast pork, I am sure there's a good recipe online somewhere.


First, I generously buttered my bread and grilled them.


Pork and apples, they are best friends, right? Slice the apples thin and arrange them on the toasted bread.

Add the pieces of siu yuk. Lots of them.

For the dressing, I mixed mayo, mustard, and a touch of honey, then slathered it generously on the sandwich. You can leave the sandwich open, or top it with another piece of butter toasted bread.

What a beautiful sight!

I need to bring baby M to bakeries more often!

PS. If you're a Kpop fan and you love 2PM, I went to their Hands Up Asia Tour concert in Hong Kong last weekend. If you wanna see the pics, check it out here.

Honey Lemon Basil Chicken Pie

Underneath this dramatic exterior...there's something sweet trying to come out.


I asked for some ideas for summer-friendly savory pies on twitter, and it's so amazing how V, a food loving pal and I shared the same thought! We both thought of lemon chicken pie! Sweet, savory and tangy at the same time. It's perfect!


The filling is very easy to make and I used some leftover puff pastry I had in my fridge. If you want to make your own pie crust from scratch, you can use Jamie Oliver's recipe that I've tried before.


Recipe
Filling
- 1 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillet, cut into bite sized chunks
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- honey, salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg, corn starch, water, cooking oil, butter
- fresh basil
Marinate chicken chunks in salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg, lemon zest, a bit of lemon juice and corn starch for about 15 minutes. Saute garlic in a bit of butter and oil until fragrant, add chicken chunks, let cook for a bit, add honey, lemon juice, cook until the chicken's a bit caramelized, taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, add some chopped fresh basil, add corn starch which has been diluted in water to thicken the sauce, set aside.

Pie Crust
- Defrosted puff pastry
- 1 beaten egg
- butter/oil to grease pie pan
Preheat oven to 200C. On a lightly floured surface, roll puff pastry until it's about 2 mm thick and wide enough to cover the pie pan/pot, make two pieces, one for the bottom (bigger), one for the top (smaller).  Butter/grease the oven proof pie pan/pot, place rolled puff pastry gently, don't cut the excess yet, add filling, trim the excess pastry but leave about 1 cm. Brush the edges with beaten egg, place the topping, trim to fit the pan, seal with the excess pastry of the bottom, brush the top with beaten egg, poke a few holes, bake for about 40-50 minutes or until golden brown, serve with fresh basil.

Whew!
You can skip the whole pie-making extravaganza and just make the filling and eat it with a carb of your choice ;)

Honey & Lime Roast Chicken

Oh boy.
Look at that bird's ass.
Golden delicious!

...and it's something I could make while I having a mindless chat, gawking at hot guys/beautiful pictures/delicious food/sinful desserts, or shopping online.

Perfect.

I'll try giving some step by step picture illustrations. Some, not all, since apparently my attention to details = crap.

First, start with the bird. Mine's HK$30 worth of smallish chicken. Rinse thoroughly inside out, pat dry, rub salt (generously) all over the bird, inside out and in between the meat and the skin.

Now, herbaliciousness.

I was really excited to use some goodies from my mini herb garden. I snipped a few sprigs of rosemary, thyme and basil, rinsed, drained them well, crushed 5 cloves of garlic and slice a lime into sections.

Before messaging the bird with some herbs, I prepared my roasting pan...

Being a good partner, I line my roasting pan with foil, for sous chef's easy cleaning later (otherwise, he may refuse to clean forever = my loss). Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

I squeeze lime juice all over the chicken, inside out. Stuffed lime sections, crushed garlic and herbs in the bird's cavity and in between its skin.

Then lay it on the roasting pan...cover with foil...

Dump the whole thing into oven and do whatever you like for about an hour.

After an hour...take out the bird and uncover...and ohmygod!

Nothing happened to the chicken???!!!

Actually it's pretty much cooked, now we just need to brown the skin.
Crank up the heat of the oven to 220-250C. Roast the chicken uncovered, flip once it turns light brown.
Take out the bird again, slather honey (generously. I used cheap BBQ honey, which is pretty much syrup?) all over the skin, drizzle some into the cavity, squeeze lime juice all over...and throw it into oven again until it gets really golden.

Forget being ladylike, civilised, well educated, elegant, blablabla.
Best consumed savagely with bare hands.
Ouch! Hot!

Serve with a side of carb and some greeneries of your choice.

Lightly Pan Fried Pomfret with Ginger Lemon Honey Sauce

Pan frying fish with almost no oil?
What are you? Crazy?!!!

That was what I thought when I saw a shopping center demo of various non-stick, non-chemical coating woks and pans.

I hate pan frying fish.
It sticks.
It needs quite a lot of oil.
It splatters.
It stinks.

Blah!

My friend once asked me how to fry whole fish without splattering and all the other annoying things. I remembered my spontaneous reply...it was..."just don't cook fish". What a useful advice.

Then it started with one "innocent" window shopping trip to a nearby mall (is there such a thing?), I shashayed by a few demos of woks and pans...normally I'd stop by each counter for a couple of minutes, laughing at how expensive the pans are, murmuring that the pans probably won't work (in super low volume of course, I didn't want a heavy wok hitting my head), giggling and proceeding to the next counter.

But this time, I stopped at the last counter and watched a little closer.
I have been using cheap non stick pans and the teflon coating peels off after a while. I was tempted by the idea that these pans are non stick because of its uneven surface (they call this air cushion), without chemical coating. I need a saute pan to replace my old teflon, so I bought myself the cheapest of the bunch.

I didn't wanna bet big, in case it doesn't work. The 28 cm saute pan costs HK$498 (around USD64).
Hope it works!

The first test for my new pan....the dreaded pan fried fish!
I simply season the fish with salt and pepper (generously), rub it with teeny tiny bit of olive oil and drop it to the pan.

The moment of truth...flipping the fish. Whoa! It really didn't stick!
The fish is naturally curvy and the pan's flat. To ensure that the fish is cooked thoroughly, add a bit of water and cover the pan to let the fish get steamed for a bit. I also squeezed a bit of lemon juice from time to time.
Lemon and fish....they're good friends.

Set the fish aside after pan frying.

Ginger, Lemon and Honey Sauce
- 3 cm ginger, cut into match stick size
- 1 tiny clove of garlic, crushed
- juice of a lemon, a few slices of lemon for garnish
- 2 tbsp honey
- salt, sugar, olive oil, water

Saute ginger and garlic in a bit of olive oil, squeeze lemon juice, add honey, sugar and salt until you achieve the desired balance of savoury, sweet and sour. Add a bit of water to mix everything well. Pour sauce over pan fried fish.

So far, I am loving this pan and if it stays this way, my non stick wok needs to worry, it might get replaced soon.

Honey and Rosemary Grilled Pork Ribs - When My Butcher Broke My Heart...

How did my butcher break my heart?

He could've blantantly rejected my love...
He could've fooled around with the veggie vendor auntie right in front of my face...
He could've given better cuts of meat to the lady queueing in front of me...

but he didnt.

He simply broke down my ribs into pieces...

Don't call 999 just yet...they weren't exactly my ribs, but they were my pork ribs.

I always wanted to try grilling baby back ribs at home.

So, I went to my beloved butcher, hung around his shop for a while, wearing my sweetest smile, flicking my hair, toying with pieces of plump tomatoes I got from the veggie stall (because cucumbers or carrots would just be too vulgar), while checking out pieces of sexy things on display. But I didn't see anything remotely similar to the baby back ribs I usually get from pricey restaurants. I just saw a couple slabs of giant ribs, and wondered if they would do the trick.

My beloved butcher has always been super sweet.
I could just tell him what I want, and he'd give just what I need plus a little something extra (such as bits of fats or tendons to make your roast or sate moist, or pieces of bones to sweeten your soup)...
Told him about the grilling plan, he nodded knowingly and pulled a slab of giant ribs, quickly asked me if I wanted them cut....and before I could say anything much...he proceeded and broke the slab into tiny individual pieces...

Sob. Sob. Sob.

Despite not knowing if it mattered, I felt heartbroken.
Because I knew that I wouldn't be able to take beautiful pictures of the full slab of ribs just like Peter's.

Honey & Rosemary Grilled Pork Ribs

Yes, I was inspired by the ribs guru, my sweet lil' gweilo, Peter of Kalofagas, to make my own ribs. Check out Peter's Hickory Pork Ribs post to see how it should be done. I tried my best to follow his tips, but as always, I haven't achieved that "holy grail" level of ribs yet. I'll try to do better next time.

The dry rub
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Paprika
- Rosemary
- a little oregano
Since I don't have powdered garlic and onion, I just crushed a few cloves of garlic and halved a couple of shallot and scattered them amongst the ribs. I kept the ribs refrigerated overnight for grilling the day after.

The grilling
The next day, I preheated my oven to 180C, covered the ribs with foil (I failed to place the ribs on wire rack as I don't have it, I'll get one soon ^_^), and grilled the ribs for 1 hour. After an hour, I removed the foil cover, pour plenty of honey on the ribs, and grilled them again until golden brown.


These golden brown babies were delicious, but they could be a lot better.
I see a very promising future.

I quickly realized that I was being unreasonably broken hearted. My butcher was nothing but sweetnesses, love him still, but I shall continue my search for baby back ribs somewhere else. Oppps, sorry :p

Honey Pork and Grapes with Chinese Soup - What Does Your Mug Say about You?

Hungry no more, people! This food scavenger found another treat after a dig. Gosh, there are so many hideous food photographs I found in my hard disk, they made me cringe...with happiness, knowing how far I've come...although I also know how far I still need to go. You can check out my earlier posts to see how hideous my photos were.

Back to food, you know how we love combining sweet, sour and savoury, right? This is one of those combos that worked.
Honey Pork and Grapes Stir Fry

Recipe
- 0.7 lb of pork neck meat, sliced thinly
- half an onion, cut into big chunks
- 1 cup of green seedless grapes, halved
- honey, fish sauce, white pepper, olive oil

Saute onion in olive oil until fragrant and slightly caramelized, add pork neck meat, cook until the meat pieces as done, add fish sauce, add honey, add grapes and cook until the grapes are slightly caramelised. Serve with steamed rice and wash it down with...

Pork Bone and Hairy Melon Soup

Recipe
- 1 lb pork bone (you can use ribs)
- 2 hairy melons, peel, cut into big chunks
- hot water, salt, pepper
I used pressure cooker, so it was quick, but you can cook this in any pot. Throw pork bones into boiling water, cook for minimum 1.5 hours (for non pressure cooker). With pressure cooker, you just need 20-25 minutes. Add pieces of melons, cook until softened, season with salt and pepper, serve. Light, clear, and refreshing.

What Does Your Mug Say about You?
Now, an exhibitionist that I am, I love doing or using everything that reflects me. Home decor, clothings, food, you name it. So, I love these mugs from Indigo, Prince's Building, Central. Choose one that reflects who you are: Toy Boy? high maintenance? daddy cool? yum mum? cheeky monkey?

For myself, this time of the month, I think I'd have to custom order Raging Bitch.

Roasted Duck with Orange Honey Glaze - My Sweet Ugly Duckling

Weird. Isn't this Hong Kong? The land where ducks and geese, roasted or preserved, are just hangin'...at almost every street corner? Yeah! The last time I checked, it still is!

So, I thought finding fresh duck meat might be easier than finding the perfect, comfy high heeled shoes (which is equal to the quest for the holy grail for my troublesome feet), but boy, I was so wrong. Carefully, I searched the fresh poultry stands in wet markets, the frozen sections of supermarkets....I found whole chicken, black chicken, chicken legs, wings, breasts, skin on, skin off, bone on, bone off...but I didn't see no duck, AT ALL!

Naturally (I think you know this annoying human nature), the harder it is to find...the more you want it. A friend told me that chilled duck meat is available (at HK$28/half a duck) in a luxury supermarket far far away (in Western District, like 1 hr and 15 minutes traveling time from my place. In Hong Kong, that's practically a different planet). Do I want it that bad? I was contemplating jumping onto a bus one weekend to get that piece of hot duck azz, then thought better of it and planned to just get a chicken instead.

Surprise, surprise, what did sous chef find lying helplessly at the corner of poultry section of the frozen shop? Bags after bags of frozen whole duckies, at HK$28 for a whole duck! HAHA! Score! By the way, I am crossing the phrase "great attention to detail" off my resume.

I was thinking how to beautify my ugly duckling...and thought of oranges. Hold it. I need to manage your expectations here. This is by no means the classic Duck a L'Orange, baby! This is just my way of perfuming my ugly duckling.

Roasted Duck with Orange Honey Glaze


Recipe

Tenderizing
- 1 duck, defrosted
- 5 cm ginger, crushed, or ginger powder
- 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 3/4 onion, sliced into big chunks
- 2 oranges, sliced into big chunks
- hot water, olive oil, salt, white pepper
Trim duck's excess fat (wish I could do the same to mine), wash duck, rub inside out with salt and pepper. Saute garlic, ginger, onion with a bit of olive oil, add duck (I cut the duck into quarters), add orange pieces, add water just enough to cover everything. I used a pressure cooker for 20 minutes. If you are not using pressure cooker, cook until duck meat is tender and you get creamy colored, tasty stock (use the stock for other purposes later). Set the bird aside for grilling.


Glazing

- 1 clove garlic
- 1/4 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cm ginger, julienned
- juice of 1 orange
- orange peel (of 1 orange)
- orange chunks (of another orange)
- honey, salt, white pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, olive oil, a bit of hot water
Saute garlic, onion, ginger in a bit of olive oil, add orange peel until everything's fragrant, add honey, orange juice, a bit of hot water, orange chunks, salt, white pepper, a bit of cinnamon and nutmeg, let it caramelized a little. Use some to give the duck a rub, set aside some for sauce.


Grilling

Preheat oven to 250C. Throw the duck on an oven tray (I lined mine with foil - for easy cleaning later), place bits and pieces of glaze in, outside, and all around the duck, sprinkle a bit of salt and white pepper. I added extra honey/glaze from time to time to get more beautiful golden brownage. Grill until golden brown.

It ain't no Gisele...but my ugly duckling was sweet.