Grilled (Burnt) Cheese Sandwiches

I was thinking quick, easy, tasty & satisfying when I decided to make sandwiches. I told my sous chef of the decision, and the words "upset" and "disappointment" were plastered all over his face.

SC's thoughts = sandwiches = cold = tasteless = going to bed hungry = insomnia = depression = suicidal

Little did he know that those words he thought of were too far from the sandwiches I had in mind HA-HA! Look at these babies, lack of which might really cause depression.

I started with these, my favorite, Maxim's 5 Grain Bread, a pretty healthy start, eh?


Then I added (on each sandwich) 2 slices of cheddar cheese, 2 strips of bacon (nuked to heat up), fried egg, slathered each slice of bread with butter, mayo, ketchup. Slather butter on outer part of bread, press and let each side sizzle on hot pan until the slices of cheese melt and the bread turned gloriously golden.

If you had Discovery Travel & Living ON while grilling the sandwiches, just like me, this is what's gonna happen:

Funnily, SC loved the burnt ones, and discovered a newfound love for sandwiches, albeit unhealty ones *grin* (turning healthy things into tasty-unhealthy-treats, my blessing, my curse *double grin*)

Miso Fried Rice & My Dirty Dirts

Feeling a bit Japanese? I bought a pack of miso for just HK$10 at Jusco 10 Dollar Plaza last week. Instead of using it as soup base for ramen/udon, I decided to use it with Indonesian national staple, RICE :) (The real reason is, I don't have any ramen/udon on hand, so, rice it is. So much for creativity. hehe)

Ingredients
(serves 4)
- 2-3 tbsp of miso paste, dissolve with 2-3 tbsp of water, add 1/2 tbsp of sugar
- 2 cups of overnight rice
- 1 ball of lettuce, sliced thinly
- HK$15 ground meat (I used porky pig)
- soy sauce
- 1 stalk of spring onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- cooking oil (I use olive & sunflower mix)

We added shredded lettuce for the extra crunch (OKOK. I give up. I'll tell you the real reason: I was too lazy to cook a separate dish of vegetables)

On a hot wok, saute ground meat with soy sauce, set aside. Saute some of the chopped spring onion with a bit of oil, stir in the rice, add miso sauce, add lettuce (you can add the lettuce the last if you like it super crunchy, almost raw), crack egg, mix well, add the rest of the chopped spring onion, serve.

I've been tagged by Michelle of Greedy Gourmet, and I've posted my reply on my alter ego blog, Living La Vida Rita. Check out my dirty dirts there. LOL

Oh, and Jaden of Steamy Kitchen shared how dinner related decisions were made in her household, I couldn't help myself but shared my dirt in this area too (this was posted as my comment in her blog):

Decision Making Process
me: so who's gonna cook tonight?
xx: you, i have no idea, no inspiration, nothing
me: ok, we're having beef then
xx: beef..ok, how will u do the beef?
me: saute with blablabla
xx: ok, sounds good, i'm gonna cook it
me: wat the!! #@$@$@##!!! tat was MY idea!!!
xx: no! tat was MY idea!!!

----at the supermarket-----
me: so, we're getting beef eh? will$25 be enough?
xx: yeah, no no make it 30
me: look at those braided chicken chops, only $10!!!
xx: wow!!!!!! and they are NOT expired!!!
both: ok we're having chicken chops tonight

Licky Leek Spring Rolls

Such a wonderful news! Michelle just told me that I won the overall photography part of the SnackShots#2 event! Wowwwwww!!! This calls for a celebration, and inspired me to do better! Thanks you guyssss...Cheers!

My original post:

Michelle of Greedy Gourmet invited me to join a SnackShots event involving leek. Accckkk!! I've never made anything of leek before. I was also not sure what's leek. Finally, I went to the market yesterday, and was told by the veggie vendor, that leek is basically some kind of giant spring onion. Okie dokie. I'm gonna do something Asian, something spring-ish. So, here are my Licky Leek Spring Rolls (pardon my corny name) and Porky Pig Licky Leek Spring Rolls (for carnivores in my household, who could not survive without meat)

Ingredients
- 1 stalk of leek, chopped
- 1 pack of spring roll wraps (20 sheets)
- if you want the meaty version, get some ground pork/beef/chicken
- oyster sauce, soy sauce, shaoxing chinese wine (optional)
- oil for frying, saute
- worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, sugar, chopped red chilli (for dipping)

Chop-chop-chop

Saute-saute-saute

The chopped leek, saute in oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese wine, set aside until cool

Place a spoonful of leek on the spring roll wrap, place the spring roll wrap on a damp towel to prevent it from drying (I got this tip from Jaden's Steamy Kitchen)

I rolled them pretty much the way I liked them, my sous chef helped me rolling some. This is why the shapes of the rolls are so un-uniformed (is that a word?). There are fat ones, and there are slim ones. The pretty ones are mine (sous chef: no! mine! me: NO! MINE!...this could go on forever. A classic debacle at Mochachocolata's kitchen).

For the carnivores, saute ground meat with a bit of leek, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese wine. Drain all the juice, let it cool

Roll-roll-roll

Fry-fry-fry

Dip-dip-dip & Eat-eat-eat

Yum-yum-yum!

*Spicy Cilantro Meatballs & Festa Italiana

My sous chef had a sudden inspiration to make meatballs, and I am happy with my huge contribution of eating almost all of them. The inspiration came from.....(I was pretty shocked on how creative my sous chef can be)...........Indonesian Corn Fritters!!! So, these meatballs are filled with chopped cilantro, garlic and red chilli, minus the corn. Turned out pretty darn good, I almost ended up with empty lunch box cos I couldn't stop popping those little bad boys into my mouth.

Ingredients
- HK$20 ground pork (can be replaced with ground chicken, beef, fish, shrimps or maybe corn/peas/tofu for vegetarian alternatives)
- finely chopped garlic, chopped cilantro, red chilli (remove seeds)
- 1 teaspoon of corn starch
- salt, sugar, pepper, ketchup, oyster sauce
- tomatoes, chopped into 6-8 parts
- olive oil

Mix ground pork with corn starch, some of the finely chopped garlic, cilantro, red chilli, roll into small balls, pan fry until golden brown, set aside. Saute the remaining of garlic, add tomatoes, ketchup, oyster sauce, salt, sugar, pepper, add meatballs, cook until all heated through.

Perfect for pasta, but we just had to eat them with rice. How typically Indonesian of me. HAHA



By the way, there's a Festa Italiana hosted by Finding La Dolce Vita and Proud Italian Cook. I am submitting my Zucchini Carbonara, go on Zuc, make mama proud!

Snacks in Black

I have been saying that gold is the new black for me. But, when I went to Muji and Jusco $10 Plaza last Friday, I went back to basic and was totally attracted to black, black and black. Call me fickle minded, but look at these blackies and tell me how to resist them

Black sesame sticks, savoury, light, crispy, 100 calorie snack, yay!

Black sesame charcoal pie, nutty, sweet and crispy

The Snacks in Black collection - Spring 2008 - these should make me look slimmer kekeke

I was told to "watermark" my pictures. I kept saying my pictures were not appealing enough for e-pic-pockets, but the truth was, I don't know how to (another lame excuse?!! Please, girl, learn!). OKOK. So, now I have just installed photoshop, and just learnt how to spit texts all over my pictures. At one point, I went through a photoshop-texting-frenzy and here's the text-laden pic:

More than protection, I find it super FUN. I will keep practicing, so, please pardon my texts. It won't be long until I am able to photoshop some yucky-inedible dishes to yummy perfections and con you guys to cook and eat them (jokingggggggggggggggg). MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA