Healthy Tomato Breakfast Smoothie

I copied this from a Korean show called "King Of Food". I used to eat tomatoes sprinkled with sugar when I was young, and was interested to try this sweet & slightly savory idea.

Recipe (adapted from the show)

- 1 large tomato, cut into chunks

- 1 cup skim milk

- 1 tbsp honey

(They added 1 tbsp olive oil too but I omitted it because.... I don't have any when I made this. Ooops!)

Put all ingredients in a blender & pulse until smooth.

The verdict?

I like the flavors but the smoothie doesn't get smooth, there are many bits of tomatoes that makes drinking not too smooth. I feel that running the smoothie through a sieve would be such a waste. Have you guys experienced this? Any solution?

Creamy Fish & Tomato Soup

Another soup that's supposedly good for me (in terms of being a milk-producing cow ^_^)...but I love this one. Creamy fish soup with a bit of a tang from the tomatoes :)

As always, it's super duper easy to make.

Recipe
- 1 piece of grass carp belly (around HK$15), or you can use your desired type of fish
- 4 tomatoes, cut each into 6-8 sections
- 2 cm ginger, crushed
- hot water, olive oil for pan frying the fish, salt and white pepper

Clean the fish thoroughly, scrub with a bit of salt to get rid of any slimy surface, season with salt and pepper generously, pan fry with a piece of ginger until the skin's golden brown in a bit of hot olive oil. Add hot water into a pot, add tomatoes, the remaining of ginger, and the fish, bring to boil, simmer until the soup is creamy. Season with salt and pepper.

Warmth and comfort in a bowl...
Helped with my milk production...and NO PAPAYA!

Yeah! *doing my little victory dance*

Bacon, Tomato & Cheddar Steamed Eggs

Ugly delicious?

I didn't mean to cook an ugly dish, in fact...in my mind, when I was planning this dish, it was supposed to be gorgeous...almost chawanmushi-esque...all silky, satiny smooth, glossy goodness. However, thanks to my addiction to chit chatting online...I overcooked it, and it turned this ugly.

I know, I know...overcooked eggs are never sexy, but I was surprised by how forgiving this dish is...despite the appalling appearance, it's still all light, fluffy, creamy, tasty and refreshing at the same time. I will surely try again soon...and next time, I won't be chatting/youtubing/facebooking/twittering, I promise :)

But, you see, never trust an addict ;)

Now, how crazy easy was the dish?
Extremely!
I thought of including the word "easy" in the title of the post, but that'd be ridiculous, as most of you know that I can only make beyond-beginner-almost-idiotic easy dishes.

Recipe
- 4 eggs, beaten (I measured, it's about 200ml)
- equal amount of milk, thus 200ml
- a few slices of bacon, chopped
- 1 tomato, diced
- cheddar cheese, cut into about 1x1x1cm cubes
- salt, pepper, dry mixed herbs, paprika, worcestershire sauce

Feel free to add and substract the ingredients as you wish...replace tomatoes with mushrooms, replace bacon with turkey/ham/sausages...replace herbs with scallion, etc...the sky is your limit!

After chopping and dicing the ingredients, scatter them around a plate and season them, like this...


Mix beaten eggs and milk then pour...


Steam on medium heat for about 10-12 minutes, keep checking...I think I overdid it (chatting online etc) and steamed it for almost 20 minutes huehuehue...


...and done!

Fluffy milky eggs, creamy bits of melted cheddar, refreshing bites of tomatoes, smoky and savory bacon...you know it's gotta be good!

Eat it as is for breakfast, slap in between bread/toasts/English muffins/croissant, or consume it the weird Asian way (I am the weird Asian)...for lunch/dinner...with steamed rice and ABC Indonesian Chilli Sauce ^_^'

Nevertheless. Yum!

Spicy Sardines with Tomatoes and Zucchini

My love for canned food and anything lazy-ass-friendly is no secret.
But this spicy sardine dish is something that's rather far from lazy. It's doing a lazy dish the un-lazy way, as it involves a bit more than opening a can of sardines and reheating it in a microwave, which would've been nice too, but we wanna bring canned sardines to another level ;)

It's a dish that's always served back home in Indonesia when I was growing up...minus the zucchini. I simply added the zucchini as I want it to be a one-dish-dinner (as always).

It takes more than opening a can of sardines, but it is by no means difficult (you know me and my limited skills ^_*)

Recipe
- 1 large can of sardines in tomato sauce
- 1 zucchini, cleaned and sliced to 5mm thick slices
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 onion, sliced thinly
- 1 red chilli, sliced thinly (or more depends on how spicy you want it to be)
- 2 tomatoes, cut into 8 sections
- olive oil, salt, pepper, kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), light soy sauce, fish sauce, hot water, crispy shallot (for garnish)

Saute 1 clove of garlic in hot olive oil, add zucchini pieces, season with salt, pepper and a touch of fish sauce, let cook (add a bit of hot water if necessary), set aside. Saute the other clove of garlic, onion and chilli in hot olive oil until fragrant, add sardines including the juice, let cook for a while, season with fish sauce, light soy, kecap manis, and pepper. Add hot water if you want more "sauce", pour over zucchini, garnish with crispy shallot and serve with steamed rice.

Quick, easy, tasty, although not too lazy :)

A Hearty Snack - Mashed Potatoes with "Chili Con Carne" and Melted Cheese

This is the aftermath of a chili dog and mashed potato dinner...one heck of a hearty snack.

The hot dogs and buns are longgg gone, but I am left with a big bowl of "chili con carne" (quote marks as I am pretty sure that my version isn't authentic) and mashed potatoes. What to do? Put them together, top them with grated cheese...and nuke 'it to melt the cheese (I thought of putting them in the oven for a beautiful golden brown finish...but I worried that I would dry my mashed potatoes...I might try that next time).

Here's how I made my easy version of everything.

Mashed Potatoes
(serves two as side dish)
- 2 large potatoes, cleaned, peeled and cubed (around 1 x 1 x 1 cm)
- 3 tbsp butter, or more? (uh huh)
- a dash of milk
- salt, pepper, nutmeg

Place potato cubes in a microwave safe bowl, add a dash of milk and microwave on high for 15 minutes. Check if the potatoes are soft enough, microwave for 5 or more minutes if needed. Once the potato cubes are soft enough, mash them with a fork, stir in butter bit by bit, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

"Chili Con Carne"
(yields quite a lot, depends on how you want to use it, as a topping for hotdog/potatoes or...eat it with rice?)
I apologize for not being able to find the source of this recipe... T_T
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- half an onion, cubed
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 smallish fresh tomatoes, cubed
- 1 green bell pepper, cubed
- 10 pieces of sliced, jalapeno from a jar, chopped (I used El Paso)
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 1 can of mixed beans
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp all spice
- 2 pieces of cloves
- olive oil, butter, hot water (or chicken or beef stock), salt, cayenne pepper

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil with a touch of butter, add ground beef, add chopped tomatoes and green bell pepper, let cook for a bit, add tomato paste, add a bit of hot water or stock (depends on how thick you want it to be, and depends on how long you want to cook it, since I plan to make a speedy one, I didn't add much water to the mixture), bring to boil, add spices and seasonings, add mixed beans, cook until heated through, adjust seasoning if necessary, add chopped jalapeno at the end, mix well, and serve.

I used a mix of grated mozzarela and sharp cheddar for this snack. After the cheese melted and everything's heated through...

Who was I kidding? One tiny ramekin is never enough!

Heirloom Tomato Seeds from Kenny

The ever so sweet and kind Kenny from Chic Eats sent me two packs of heirloom tomato seeds before Christmas. The mail got lost, however, it finally found its way to my apartment (it was like, after new year ^_^). Upon receipt of the seeds, we could not wait to get them planted. We went shopping for a pot and some soil and got them planted. Now, we are seeing little tomato plants! I'm so excited!

I can't take any credit for this though. SC was the one planting and nurturing the seeds and plants every day, showering them with lots and lots of love...

Oh, tomatoes, please don't die on us!
Kenny, thanks so very much again for the seeds~

Chicken Franks and Zucchini in Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce

In my city, quick doesn't cut it. We want things instant.

Instant noodles, ding-a-meal (to ding = to heat using microwave, Hong Kong slang), fast food restos which slam your orders down the table even before you finish uttering them (except KFC. Hong Kong KFC is slow), MTR trains arrive and gone before you figured out where you're going....they're beyond fast, they're instant.

Good for me, as I am one good ol' impatient bitch.

There are so many obvious reasons why I should love instant sauces, but there is one reason why I hate some of them. I hate it when flavors had been compromised too much, it diminishes the benefit of convenience.

I've bought a pack of Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce, let's see how it did.

The packaging does look appealing....plump, shiny, dewy red tomatoes glistening in front of some cute Japanese fonts. I was so sold!

All I did were chopping up some chicken franks (I allowed 2 chicken franks per person), a large zucchini and slicing an onion. I sauteed the onion in olive oil, add chicken franks until they are browned a bit, add zucchini, add hot water as instructed in the package, add the instant sauce cubes, sprinkled some freshly ground black pepper and served the dish with steamed rice.

It looked gorgeous, didn't taste that bad....but I can't get over its corn starchiness and the deep red stain it left on my bento box.

Hello, food coloring. Goodbye, not looking forward to see you again anytime soon.

Tomato & Beef Cubes on Mixed Rice

Recently, sous chef has been asking me to include more tomatoes in my cooking. He said tomatoes contain a type of antioxidant which is good for boys and it prevents prostate cancer. When I digged a little deeper (i.e. just look it up in Wikipedia. LOL. So much for a serious research), I found that although there are some research which did not prove that statement, tomatoes are still good for us.

Plus, they improve my skin's ability to deal with fierce UV rays.
Plus, their acidic qualities make most dishes taste more delicious.
Plus, you can fool people with your accent by saying either tomahto and tomayto.
Plus, HK$10 can get you five tomatoes.
Plus, having a bit of tomatoes in a dish can make me feel healthier already.
Plus, although they are actually fruits, they act as vegetables in cooking (so I could say that I include vegetables in my cooking?).

Thus, I shall oblige and include more tomatoes in our diet.
Here's one of my favorite ways to deal with tomatoes.

Tomato & Beef Cubes on Mixed Rice
Recipe
- 0.5 lb of beef cubes (or beef meat cut for stir frying or sukiyaki style, but cubes are more juicy)
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tomatoes, cut into 6-8 sections each
- tiny bit of corn starch, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, worchestershire sauce, olive oil

Marinate beef in dark soy, light soy, sweet soy, worchestershire sauce, olive oil and a bit of corn starch, for at least 30 minutes, the longer the better. Saute garlic and onion in a bit of olive oil, add beef cubes, add tomatoes, adjust flavors, cook everything through, serve with a bowl of rice (or in my case, pretending to eat healthier, a mix of red, brown and white rice).

Plus, the red look beautiful when photographed.

Braised Beef Brisket in Herb and Tomato Sauce - A Glass of Poison, Anyone?

How sad and frustrating it is not being able to cook and create, especially when inspirations are floating around your head all day (this is what you get from watching too much Top Chef reruns), events are lined up waiting to be done, and readers waiting to be virtually fed. The answer is...

Very. Absolutely. Extremely. All adverbs ending with "y"

Fortunately, I have another channel to pour my inspirations into, or I might explode!

But, don't worry, my hungry monkeys, I've been digging, and I still have some deliciousness in store for you, stashed deep inside my hard disk. They are the kind of food that's gonna taste better when kept (a little) longer. Hehe, enjoy!

Braised Beef Brisket in Herb and Tomato Sauce

Recipe
- 1 pound of beef brisket
- 6 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 onion, cut into big chunks
- 5 tomatoes, cut into sections
- rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage, black pepper, salt, fresh mint leaves, lemon juice, lemon zest, red chilli
- butter, olive oil, hot water

Season brisket with salt and pepper, sear in hot oil to brown a bit, set aside. In a pot, saute garlic and onion in olive oil and butter, add brisket chunks, add tomatoes, add herbs, lemon zest, keep lemon juice, chilli and mint leaves for later, add a bit of hot water if necessary. Pop the pot into a preheated oven (180C), and cook until the meat is super tender (about 1.5 hours). You can cook on stove top or use a pressure cooker. Squeeze some lemon juice, sprinkle chopped chilli and garnish with fresh mint leaves. Taste great with rice or pasta, and you can mop off the sauce with bread. Yum.

Now, I've been wanting to share this with everybody, but it got pushed to the back of deep data jungle in my disorganized hard disk. Finally, it's out. Nobody keeps poison in the corner, right?

Short? Tall? Grande? Would you like a milk with that? Cream? Soy? Sorry, arsenic is not available.
Over here, people just die from pleasure ^_^

Honey Roasted Pork Ribs & Tomato Corn Soup - 1 Slap 2 Bitches

I remembered when I first discovered those 2-in-1 shampoo + conditioner. Some of you might say "Eeeccckkk!!!". That's fine. I too, don't use them anymore. But when I first learnt about them, being a lazy bum that I was (and still am), I thought wow, genius! it's one of the most brilliant ideas ever, which deserves to be alongside others such as sliced, crustless bread, and Microsoft Word (for those who are old enough to relate, don't you guys remember Word Perfect? ARGGHHH!!). Yes, I loved 2-in-1 shampoo + conditioner, or whatever it is that could help me do two things in one go.

This time, the 2-in-1 factor is:
Flavorful soup + Tenderized-meat-falling-off-bones pork ribs...
Honey Roasted Pork Ribs & Tomato Corn Soup

Recipe
- 5 ripe tomatoes, cut into 8 sections each
- 3 sweet corn, cut into 3-4 parts each
- 3 small heads of wawa veggie (or you can use cabbage)
- 1 bulb of garlic, crushed
- 3 cm ginger, crushed
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 1 lb pork ribs
- olive oil, salt, white pepper, sugar, honey

Tomato Corn Soup
(In a pressure cooker, or in a deep pot) Saute onion, ginger and garlic in a bit of hot olive oil until fragrant, add pork ribs, add tomatoes, vegetables and corn. Cook for 20 minutes (if you are using pressure cooker), or 2-3 hours (if using normal pot, high heat then lower to low heat after bubbling). The tomato corn soup has been richly flavored by the meaty flavor of pork ribs, sweetness of corn, onion, vegetable, and the tang from the tomatoes. This soup needs very little seasoning. Just a pinch of salt will do.

Honey Roasted Pork Ribs
Preheat oven to 250C. Remove the tenderized pork ribs, the meat should be super tender. Place in oven tray, pour honey over them (rather generously), sprinkle a bit of salt, scoop a bit of soup to maintain juiciness. Grill until golden brown.

Consequently, there were 2 big bowls of rice in 1 stomach that evening. ^_^

Soto Daging Babat - Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup

What did you wanna be when you grow up? What was your dream job? Are you doing it?
These questions reminded me of my primary school days. We were always asked this question and the most popular answers were:
- For boys: a doctor, an engineer, or a pilot (I think at that time lawyers didn't make as much money as now, especially in Indonesia hehe)
- For girls: a flight attendant (uh huh!), a nurse (see how we grew up positioning ourselves as the assistance to men?), or a good mom
- A general answer which will get you an A in exams: I want to be someone who will glorify my country's name (Orang yang berguna bagi nusa dan bangsa). Yeah, baby, yeah!

I've never really been through the stage of wanting to be a flight attendant (that time I didn't realize how sexy and attractive this occupation sounds to guys hehe) or a nurse (I can't stand seeing people in pain, and I am wayyy too self centered to take care of others), but I always had good grades stating that I wanted to be someone who's useful for my country. Hahaha!

I've always wanted a creative job. First, I wanted to be an architect. There was a huge misconception that if you could draw a decent picture of a house by the mountains with flowers, a rising sun, some birds and a couple clusters of cloud, then you'll grow up being an architect. Yeah, right. Later on, I realized that there are many other jobs creative people could do, other than architecture. Everything needs creativity.

Although I am all grown up now (borderline old, only young at heart hehe), I still have my dreams. My current list of dream jobs are:
1. Taking pictures of fashion bloopers and bitching about it (I'd need a camera with a tele lens and camouflage outfits in colors of Hong Kong train station walls/Hong Kong skyscrapers)
2. Drawing & writing funny comics about life in Hong Kong
3. A good mom with a successful career
4. An immigration officer, so that I could be as rude as I like, and it will be considered a great performance. Hehe.

I am not sure if the dreams will ever come true, but this morning I spotted something interesting...and I didn't have my camera with me. So I'll just have to draw it down. Hehe...hope this isn't you, walking towards Hong Kong's most famous landmark office building, Bank of China Tower ^_^

Shoot. I almost forgot to talk about food.

I am a big fan of instant spice mixes. I wanted Soto, but I never have the wide array of fresh spices needed to make the paste from scratch. So I went for the short cut (as always. hehe) and the result was every bit as tasty as something made from scratch.

Soto Daging Babat (Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup)

Recipe
- 2 packets of Indofood Soto Ayam Instant Spice Mix (you can buy it online here)
- half pound beef brisket
- half pound beef tripe (I bought a frozen pack, so it's been cleaned)
- half pound beansprouts (I bought HK$5 worth of it, and I think the guy gave me more than half pound. Add as much as you like)
- a sprig of corriander (chopped)
- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 4 cloves of shallot (thinly sliced)
- 5 cm ginger (peeled and bruised)
- hot water, salt, pepper, kecap manis, olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 2 small red chilli (chopped)
- 1 tomato
- fried shallot for garnish

Boil frozen beef brisket and beef tripe with half the ginger and shallot, 1 tsp salt and a dash of pepper for about 15 minutes, drain, cut into bite sized chunks. In hot oil, saute garlic, shallot and ginger, add brisket and tripe chunks, add hot water, add instant spice mixes, bring to boil then lower the heat, cook for 2.5 hours. Blanch beansprouts in hot water, drain. Add beansprouts, tomato, and a bit of corriander, cook for 15 more minutes, squeeze lemon juice and cook for 15 more minutes. Garnish with chopped corriander and crispy shallot, drizzle some kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and serve with steamed rice, fresh sliced tomatoes, wedges of lemon and the chopped chilli on the side.

You can use other kinds of meat, such as chicken or lamb, and you can add boiled eggs and crackers. Feel free to jazz it up.

Dream job #5. Is there any job which involves enjoying deep fried food and/or bacon all the time?

Asian Franks and Beans - Halloween Costume Ideas?

Another canned food creation. This is what happens when I need to serve something, other than a nice, candle-lit, romantic atmosphere, myself and a pair of raggedy old (albeit) Jimmy Choos for dinner. There was no time to procure any fresh ingredients, so I had to do my kind of dumb-n-dumber-but-smart math equation, which is:

Whatever you have in your pantry/fridge + Garlic + Onion + Ginger + Kecap manis = YUMMY

Using the formula, I came up with my version of...
Asian Franks and Beans
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- half onion, sliced
- 1 cm of ginger, crushed
- 8 chicken franks (chopped into bite sized chunks)
- 1 can of kidney beans, drained
- 1 small can of tomato paste, dissolve with a bit of hot water
- kecap manis, salt, pepper, olive oil, fried shallots (optional as garnish)

Brown chicken frank pieces in olive oil, add garlic, onion and ginger, add tomato paste with a bit of hot water, add beans, add kecap manis, salt, and pepper. Garnish with fried shallot. Serve with steamed rice or mix with pasta/noodles or with bread as a sloppy sandwich.

Gosh, it even made ME delicious ;) hehe

Moving on...believe it or not...I, the self proclaimed party animal, haven't been to a real Halloween costume party. The only one I went to was a karaoke party, and I went as a cross between an omnivore, a big eater and a greedy bitch, which was pretty much myself...downing plates after plates of crappy cheap buffet food...singing my out-of-tune, inaccurately-pronounced version of Chinese songs, on top of my lungs. That could not be counted as a real Halloween costume party, as plenty of people were in slutty attire, but no one was in any scary costume hehe, although I certainly accomplished my mission of scaring some people off the buffet table. LOL

The idea of a costume party made me wonder...what kinda costume would be perfect for me?
Could I be...
- a sexy witch?
- a slutty nurse?
- a naughty devil?
....or a creepy handless chef?

Beef & Chicken Franks in Spicy Tomato Sauce: Jerks & Hot Jerks

Sometimes I fancy myself as an omnivore. But to be honest, not really. I am really a meat lover. I do admire vegetarianism, though. Be it for health reasons, religious reasons, other noble reasons I can't think of, I-wanna-be-cool reasons, I-just-follow-my-bf/bff/boss reasons (i.e. I-have-no-opinion reasons), or I-am-only-vegetarian-on-the-record reasons. HAHA! For what it's worth, it shows self control and I have none :p

I'd like to share a personal vegetarian encounter, though. My friends and I had a super bad experience with one. Someone we knew, who is a hard core vegetarian and a noble religious practisioner (a wannabe?), is super mean to others. We aren't talking about mildly cunning here...but pure evil. Mean, mean, mean. We always wonder if this person has to be mean to human beings to compensate being so nice to animals (by not hurting/eating them)? ^_^

However, no worries. I don't generalize. I believe that it's one isolated case, and there are so many great vegans in this world, despite the jerks....which I found in a Taiwanese snack shop LOL:

...and girls just love bad boys...so, here are the HOT vegetarian jerks, wait until the tops come off ;)

I think enough jerks for today, aye? Let's move on to my love for meat. Most of my dishes contain meat. They are the star, and the fruits and veggies are the supporting actors/actresses. They could do an award winning performance, but I paid the tickets to watch the star. Hehehe.

Here's another favorite hearty dish. Easy, quick, and always satisfying:

Beef & Chicken Franks in Spicy Tomato Sauce
Starring: Nicely Marbled Beef & Sliced Chicken Franks
Supporting Actors: Sliced Tomatoes, Garlic, Shallot, Chilli, Soy Sauce, Sweet Soy Sauce, Pepper, Ketchup, Sambal ABC (ABC Indonesian chilli sauce)
Extras: parsley flakes, olive oil, a bit of butter

Brown chicken frank slices, set aside. Saute garlic, shallot, chilli in olive oil with a bit of butter, add beef and chicken franks, pour sauces, cook through, garnish with parsley flakes.

If you like this, you might also like my Bistik Trio

PS. If I had to be a vegetarian, I might weigh a gadzillion lbs, as I could see myself compensating the lack of meat with truckloads of carbs ^_^

Fish Rice Noodle Soup: Bad Girl Gone Good

Meals after meals of rich, decadent and tasty food...it is time for something clean and clear. Yeah. Right.
That doesn't sound like Rita. Since when did she turn to such a good girl? Something's fishy alright.

The truth is...yes, mostly I love everything that's bad for me. But it also feels nice to be a good girl sometimes...so when people (when I say "people", I really meant my mom) ask "Do you eat well? do you eat healthy? Do you eat vegetables?" I could say "Yes! Yes! and Yes!"

Plus, this month, I could see a few birthdays coming, and each will include at least one, if not multiple satisfying, naughty and sinful meals (is it just me? or this sounds naughtier than I intended? LOL).

Thus, just this once, preparing myself for all the foreseeable beautifully orchestrated symphony of cholesterol and fat, I'll treat myself to something clean, clear, healthy, but still with a great deal of yummility to it ^_^

Fish Rice Noodle Soup

Recipe
(serves 2)
- 2 packs of thin rice noodles (mai fan) or you can choose any other noodles
- 0.5 lb of boneless fish fillet (I use seabass fillet), cut into bite size chunks
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- a cup of fish stock or chicken stock
- 2 large tomatoes, each cut into 8 parts
- celery, cut into small pieces
- olive oil
- salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce
- red chilli, fish sauce and vinegar (for dipping)

Marinate fish with salt and pepper, pan fried in some oil, set aside (if you want it more sinful, you can add corn starch coating and pan fry until golden brown hehe). Saute garlic, shallot, ginger, add celery pieces, add stock, add tomatoes, add hot water if you want it more soupy, add rice noodles, serve with fish fillets on top, garnish with fried garlic pieces or shallot, serve with chilli dip (for the fish).

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night's Gang, hosted this week by Michelle of Greedy Gourmet
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That was me being a good girl for one meal. Today I had a slice of lemon cake for breakfast, a sinful yumcha lunch and 3 different birthday cakes (chocolate cheesecake, mango cheesecake and black forest)...and it's not even dinner time yet hehe

Boy, it feels so good to be bad :p

Chicken Egg Noodles in Creamy Sesame Sauce: The Almost Naked Chef

So much for trying to stay away from my kitchen this summer LOL. It didn't even last a day! I suddenly craved chicken with tomatoes and corriander in creamy sesame sauce, with noodles....I won't be able to get this outside, and it's not like I can afford to get my own personal chef to whip up whatever I crave (sous chef was on strike due to the unreasonable yelling the other day. Joking, joking. He was busy with something ^_^).

The idea of cooking in the nude tempted me, but I realised that my kitchen windows would totally expose my jiggly bits to my neighbors, who upon utter disgust would not hesitate to immediately either press 999 to call the police or record my "perverted kitchen antics" and upload it to YouTube, while simulatenously trying so hard not to puke.

So I just cooked in my underwear. LOL.
(If you saw me in YouTube, either pretend you didn't know it was me, or pretend to be my biggest fan. Your choice. Choose the latter, please ^_*)

Anyway, no exposed body parts were injured in the course of cooking this dish (I only almost injured my toes by dropping a knife onto the floor):
Chicken Egg Noodles in Creamy Sesame Sauce

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 2 tomatoes, cut into small pieces
- 1 can of corn kernels (optional)
- 1 bunch of corriander, chopped
- 4 tbsp sesame sauce (I think you can replace this with creamy peanut butter)
- 3 parts of fresh thick egg noodles (you can replace this with any pasta/other types of noodles/ramen)
- 3 chicken breasts (I tenderized them by whacking them with a wooden stick)
- salt, sugar, pepper, soy sauce
- garnish (optional): toasted sesame seeds

Saute garlic and shallot, add chicken until slightly browned, add noodles, mix well, add tomatoes and corn kernels, season well, add corriander, serve, garnish with toasted sesame seeds.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night's Gang!

Now tell me what do you wear when you cook?
and no I don't think you wanna see a picture of me cooking in my underwear :p

Spicy & Beefy Beans & Zucchini

There are just too many food to avoid these days...let me scare you with some of these:
- Beef = mad cow
- Fish/seafood = mercury exposure
- Fried food = cancer
Recent Hong Kong food scare:
- Chicken = Avian Flu H5N1
- Tomato = salmonella

I can't believe it!!! Not my beloved, trusted, innocent TOMATOES!!!...Gosh, do I really need to consider going nothingarian? I bet I won't even five minutes being one...

...so...what the heck! I am already a mad cow anyway, let's have something beefy for dinner...and lemme throw in some tomatoes as well for a good measure LOL!!

Spicy & Beefy Beans & Zucchini
Recipe
- 0.5 pound beef brisket
- 3 zucchini (peel skin off, cut into chunky pieces)
- 1 can of kidney beans
- 1 can of tomato paste (ok! I chickened out!)
- half bulb of garlic, crushed
- 2 red chilli (I wanted it spicy, so I kept the seeds, just finely chop the chilli)
- olive oil, butter
- salt, black pepper, sugar, parsley

Boil beef brisket for a while to get rid of the excess fat, set aside. Saute garlic and chilli in olive oil and butter, add beef brisket, add tomato paste, cook for 1.5 hours. Add beans and zucchini, cook until zucchini's done but still crunchy. Season with salt, sugar, black pepper, sprinkle parsley, serve over rice/pasta.

PS. Beware of this failed-nothingarian mad cow. She bites.

Back To Basic Beef, Tofu & Veggie Combo

Why do things have to be so complicated? It was me an my newly adventurous ass. While you could read all about the good things in my previous post, here are the challenges of a typical day:

IDEAL SITUATION
- 18:00 speeding off work, got to the nearest train station and boarded the train just right before the door closes, managed to get the last available seat on the train ^_^

- The train would speed off, just missing all the throwing-their-bodies-into-the-departing-train peak hour crowd and the peaceful absence of perverts trying to rub their hands on bootie/boobies

- Reached the market by 18:30, where all the freshest produce and handmade noodles I needed were still amazingly available, magically on sale! All the market dominatrix were either not there or smiling lovingly at me, giving me practical cooking tips and wonderful dinner ideas; vendors were wonderfully friendly, offering me bunches of fresh corriander and red chilli for free (oh my!)

- Reached my flat and the lift was on ground floor, eagerly awaiting me, got to my floor and my neighbor's dog for once would wag his tail in a friendly manner to welcome me back, instead of the normal agressive & violent barks (doesn't he sniff that I am totally a dog person? Or he was just too excited to see me?)

- The rice starts cooking at 18:45, no finger was wounded in the preparation of cooking, stove operated smoothly, no sauce was spilled, no pieces of finely chopped garlic fell and got stuck somewhere at the corner, I got the taste right at the first seasoning, all elements of the dishes arranged themselves beautifully on the plate, down to the last piece of garnish..

- The food shots were all at the right angle, got the perfect shot before the fifth take, just as the rice cooker beeps signalling dinner is ready by 19:30

- Sous chef and I inhaled our dinner (yes we do, I personally think any food being chewed more than 3 times became tasteless hihik, not the healthiest thing in the world, I try my best to slow down) and finished dinner before 19:45

- We'd have time digesting dinner while watching Discovery Travel & Living Channel and they are showing Jamie at home (& it is NOT a rerun, yay!) before attending 21:00 body combat class...

- ...where I felt extra energetic: jumping, punching, kicking, kneeing, elbowing, ab crunching and push upping gloriously all the way through the end of the class, and the instructor praising me ever so publicly, endlessly telling me how well I've done..

- and I went home 10 lbs lighter and stayed that way as I didn't get tempted into eating the whole tub of Dreyer's chocolate cake ice cream kept in my freezer

HOW I WISHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

There's hope to achieve all of the above doing this
Back to Basics Dinner of Beef, Tofu and Veggie

Recipe
- half pound thinly sliced beef (the one normally used for sukiyaki)
- 2 cloves of garlic, 3 cloves of shallot, crushed
- 3 heads of small napa lettuce, sliced into chunks
- 2 tomatoes, each sliced into 8 parts
- 1 or 2 soft tofu, cut into big chunks
- salt, pepper, sugar, a little olive oil

Saute garlic and shallot, throw in all the veggie, add some water, bring to boil, add seasoning, before serving, add tofu and beef, serve with white rice or add noodles. Easy eh?...but in real life...things are different...

...IN REAL LIFE...

- 18:00 while trying to speed off work, that guy from that department just stopped by and went on and on and on unstoppably about...everything in general and nothing in particular while I kept staring at the clock, mumbling impolite answers

- Got to the nearest train station and just missed the train (!!!)

- The train would open and close its doors for more than 3 times in each station as the throwing-their-bodies-into-the-departing-train-peak-hour crowd tried desperately to board the train, and there were perverts drooling on bootie/boobies

- Reached the market late, where all the freshest produce I needed were either gone, or I was left with the seriously damaged yet overpriced ones! All the market dominatrix cut queues, tried to pay the HK$50 using 50cents coins and made rude comments about my choices. I somehow left only with HK$500 note and pissed the vendors into charging me HK$2 for a bunch of spring onions (oh no!)

- Reached my flat and the lift was on the highest floor, with no sign of going down soon, I got to my floor and my neighbor's dog barks with extra violence, his owner shot me a dirty look as if I've violated her

- By 19:00 I realised that the rice cooker's power wasn't plugged, no rice was gonna be cooked anytime soon.

- Due to my blond ambition to produce a complicated dinner, nails got cut, fingers got injured in the preparation, stove failed to turn on, hot water got spilled...into the pieces of finely chopped aromatics. Couldn't get the taste right even after adding seasoning for the 10th of time, all elements of the dishes look so disgustingly weird on the plate. Put up the wrong background color for the pic and it's too late to change, so I'd have to live with it

- Most shots were blurred and I could not find a nice angle, hot steam kept blowing into my camera lens, finally gave up trying to get a pretty shot, and I still need to wait for that late rice (@#$@#!$#@!!!!)

- Sous chef and I extra speedily inhaled our dinner but still finished dinner wayyy after 20:00

- Thus did NOT have enough time digesting dinner, the Discovery Travel & Living Channel was showing yet another boring rerun, we either had to cancel attending 21:00 body combat class, or still attending and

- ...I felt extra sluggish, kept yawning in class and was not up to jumps, my favorite instructor went on a super long holiday and got replaced by someone who utterly sucksssss and kept calling me lazy in front of everyone

- and I went home feeling none the lighter, needed to cheer myself up by polishing off that tube of ice cream T_T

So...yes, it is good to know when to get back to basics sometimes, I might still be able to make it to that class and prevent a major nervous break down^_^

*Hong Kong Coffee Shop Classic: The Red Soup

Continuing the soft diet...goshhh when is it gonna be over?? Hmmm but let's see the silver lining, it's motivated me to try things I've never tried before, for once my blog may not be full of crispy golden browns for a change (who am I kidding? I still miss the golden browns. sob sob sob).

Those who are from Hong Kong knows this one very well, for this is a famous item in Hong Kong coffee shops. Most "fast meals" (fai chan) comes with either:
- Chinese soup (which often taste like stinky feet soup or with major MSG overload, or severely flavorless)
- "Cream" soup (which normally is just super corn starchy with almost no cream and again tasteless) or
- my favorite, Red soup, which taste decent if not yummy most of the time.

I imagine it takes hours to boil, so I hardly try to recreate it at home. When I eventually did, without knowing the secrets, I failed miserably, my red soup was even more flavorless than HK coffee shop's "cream soup". Shame. On. Me. HAHA

The other day, desperate for something tasty, I requested sous chef's help to make the red soup. After a lengthy (luckily not charged by the hour) consultation with sous chef's mom, we learnt "The Secrets to Successful Hong Kong Style Red Soup" (this is sooo gonna be a self-help book title), which are:
1. Tomato Paste (this gives the soup its vibrant red hue and thickness)
2. Vinegar (this gives the soup its acid punch)

No matter how much I tried to replace those two ingredients with read tomatoes, it just didn't work.

Ingredients
- lots of tomatoes
- 1 large potato
- 1 onion
- 2-3 stalks of celery
- 1 medium sized carrot
cut into chunky bits
- pork/beef brisket, blanch with ginger before cutting into chunky bits
- 1 can of Tomato paste
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- salt pepper

Throw everything into a boiling water, boil for about 1.5 hour, stir in the tomato paste, add the vinegar, salt, pepper, boil some more (the longer the better). Serve with bread + butter or garlic bread.

Bistik Trio

I've grown up eating bistik in Indonesia. The word came from Dutch biefstuk which means beef steak. The version we had at home is so different from regular beef steak. It is a mix of beef fillet and potatoes cooked in kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), regular soy sauce, garlic, shallot, and grated nutmeg. Ofcourse, in Indo, we eat potatoes with rice.

My version accomodates the busy and the lazy as usual. Mixing the beef with lots of tomatoes and tofu as veggie substitute (Bistik Trio of Beef, Tomato & Tofu Puff), so I didn't have to cook the veggie separately. It saved me a LOT of time, which was productively used to watch more TV (enjoyed The Heartbreak Kid yesterday night) and grow myself on my sofa. lol

Ingredients
- HK$25 beef for stir frying
- HK$3 tofu puff
- HK$2.50 tomatoes
- finely chopped garlic, thinly sliced shallot (shallot vs garlic ratio = 2 to 1)
- kecap manis (Indo sweet soy sauce, I can't live without this) & regular soy sauce (kecap manis vs regular soy sauce ratio = 2 to 1)
- chopped chilli (remove seeds)
- a little corn starch + water
- olive oil

Marinate beef in kecap manis, regular soy sauce, a bit of corn starch while prepping the other ingredients. Saute beef with a bit of shallot and garlic, set aside. Saute shallot, garlic, chilli, add tomatoes, tofu puff, add kecap manis, regular soy, add beef, heat up everything. Serve with steamed rice.

I didn't manage to get my lazy bum to the store to get nutmeg powder, so my version had to go without. Still tasty though :)

...and...I am submitting my Satay Beef Ramen for Presto Pasta Nights. Enjoy!

Check it out & join the fun!

Chicky Love

"First love never dies" yeah. right. I don't think so. Everybody had their puppy love, and I forgot mine as easily as I forgot to bring my office access card every morning :)

If there's one love I can never get over, is my love for chicken. Call it my chicky love. The scene of a young girl waiting impatiently by the kitchen for the chicken to be served, skillful little hands meticulously peeling the meat off the bones, the big grin full of joy after every bite, face smeared by chicken bits and pieces while licking the bone of the fried chicken thigh, everything are still so vivid in my mind.

So, I hope I will certainly bore you with chicken-and-chicken-again postings. MUHAHAHAHA.

This one is "adapted" from Jamie Oliver's Tender & Crisp Chicken Legs with Sweet Tomatoes. I've tweaked it so much due to (un)availability of ingredients and time constraint, it finally became something else (doesn't it always?)

Ingredients
- 4 x Chicken thigh fillet, cut half = 8 pieces
- as much tomatoes as you can fit in the oven tray (slice each tomato into approx. 8 parts)
- half an onion, just cut into a few parts
- a few cloves of garlic, don't bother to even peel the skin off (this is so Jamie)
- some broccoli
- olive oil, salt, pepper

Rub chicken fillets with some salt and pepper, to dramatically shorten cooking time, I pan fried the chicken fillets to crisp the skin. Pre-heat oven to 200 C, lay everything on oven tray, spread everything evenly, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle salt and pepper (I did this rather generously), bake for about 30 minutes or until the chicken meat is cooked through and covered with tomato juice.

You'll get tender, tasty, tomatoey and juicy chicken with crispy skin, chickeny tomatoes and broccoli...and the juice....hmm I think I just fell in love all over again.

PS. My sous chef is so against chicken. Between you and me, I think it's just jealousy.