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Some experiences are bound to fail.
Yet, I was stubborn enough to still try them. Sometimes I fail the food, sometimes I fail the photography. This time, I record-breakingly failed both. Haha, this calls for a celebration.
I blamed these failures solely to my stubbornness:
- I knew I had to follow a true and tested recipe properly (I didn't plan to fail perkedel another time), yet I chose to deviate from it. Dammit
- I knew I should not have experimented taking photographs with harsh lighting and no light diffuser of any sort, but I bloody did it anyway
So, the results:
- Ugly looking perkedels
- Ugly pictures
So, guys, please do not try these at home.
Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang
After failing perkedels (Indonesia potato cakes) a few times, I kinda gave up and almost vowed never to try making them again. But my good blogging pal, Lidia, encouraged me to try her fool-proof recipe, which sounded doable and her perkedels look incredible!
I should not have trusted my ability to follow recipes. Based on my chronic fear of deep frying, I insisted on microwaving the potatoes, which made turned them into a bowl of mushy mess. Furthermore, due to my pure greed, I added too much canned corned beef, thus when I was trying to pan fry the potato cakes...potato and beef bits and pieces floated everywhere...it was disastrous.
Finally, I decided to throw the rest of the dough into a lightly greased muffin mold and baked 'em. They tasted decent, but nothing like how perkedels should taste nor look like.
Since I don't want you to do what I did, I am not sharing my modification of the recipe. Please follow Lidia's recipes linked above...
...and 'til my next failure.....stay delicious ^_^
This lemon lime cake is only a decoy, a bait to give me a chance to gush at how happy I am....because my ice cream picture is printed in a magazine!
Oh yeah! Oh yeah!
Please excuse how lame I am, it's just....I haven't had anything of me printed in a magazine, except for my contribution to my company's publications.
So, although the picture isn't exactly big, and I couldn't even find my name on the credit list without a microscope...I am so damn happy that some people found my picture useful. Yay! The graphic designer at Time Out magazine was very nice, she asked for proper permission to print and sent me a copy of the magazine, which I totally appreciate.
The picture was originally posted here:
Here's the cover of the magazine:
Here's the article:
...and here's my ice cream photo, with a tiny print of my name somewhere.
...now, as a token for my appreciation of your patience, having endured my lame overenthusiasm...
Lemon Lime Cake
It's just a humble quick and easy snack/dessert made from muffin batter, disguised in a cake form and whisked more than I normally do muffins. Don't be fooled by how ugly it looks, it is one of the most popular things I've baked and forced offered to my colleagues. But then again, they are Hong Kongers. They love receiving killing drinking and eating anything that includes lemon.
Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour (sifted)
- 1/3 cup + 3 table spoon sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2/3 cup yoghurt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- juice and zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime
Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix all wet ingredients in another, mix them well. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan or muffin tray lined with muffin cups, bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (based on my experience: loaf pan = about 20 minutes, muffin tray = about 15 minutes).
They are sweet, soft, moist and lemony, perfect with a cup of hot tea, while watching my current obsession.
Thanks for bearing with me, you guys!
I guess there's no going back.
For me, it's like...
- peanut butter and nutella
- burger and fries
- potato chips and coke on ice
- cake and hot tea
Yes, once I've tried the beef and red wine combo, I think I got hooked.
I kept craving it and had to use the flavor combo again, my apologies, guys.
Minute Steak with Red Wine & Raisins Sauce
If only there's a nickle for every dinner menu which was decided by whether or not the ingredient was on sale...
Recipe
(serves 2)
Steak
- 2 pieces of steak (I chose rib eye because...they were on sale!)
- salt, black pepper, olive oil
I learnt this easy way to do my steak from chef Michael Smith. Heat up frying pan, until really really really hot (you'll see smoke). Rub olive oil, salt and pepper on the meat right before frying. Fry each side until you reach the desired level. I like my meat medium to medium-well with a bit of brownage outside. Just flip once, let the steak rest on the side.
Red Wine and Raisins Sauce
- 4 cloves of shallot (or half an onion), thinly sliced
- red wine
- raisins (soak in a bit of water while preparing other ingredients)
- sugar, salt, black pepper
Reuse the steak frying pan, add a bit of olive oil, saute shallot until a bit browned, pour red wine, add raisins, add sugar, salt and black pepper (sugar should be the dominant component, although we should balance it with salt), until thickened, pour over steak when serving.
I served the steak with zucchini and oyster mushrooms, simply sauteed with garlic.
Now what do I do with white wine?
(I have a huge bottle left in my fridge and no seafoodness left)
The day has arrived. The day I've always wondered about.
If only...
- If only I lost my appetite, what would it be like?
- How would it feel to wake up not thinking about breakfast?
- How would it feel to arrive at work not being excited about lunch?
- How would it feel not to be hungry at 11 am, despite the huge breakfast?
- Wouldn't it be nice if for once, I am not eagerly peeking into my lunch box or impatiently waiting for the clock to hit 1 pm?
- What would I do if I didn't search for yummy recipes all day or thought about where to go for dinner? (I should be working)
- Would the office be more quiet and peaceful if my stomach did not grumble every hour?
- Would I be the perfectly petite Hong Kong girl who fits into a pair of size 24 jeans if I didn't finish my second bowl of rice for dinner?
- Would the world be a better place if I didn't crave something sweet with my late evening bad TV programs?
Finally, it happened. The day I lost my appetite.
I was hyper, my heart was racing, I was restless, and most importantly, the whole day, there was no moment where I felt hungry, and I was not excited about food nor did I think about food at all.
What happened to me? Did I fall in love? Was I broken hearted? Not really.
Sous chef said it was probably the heat, but I can never be sure. It's still a mistery.
But...how was it?
Well...it was NO fun!
No matter how great it would be if I didn't enjoy food, loving and being excited about it feels wayyy better.
Here's something simple yet incredibly healthy and tasty, to celebrate our love for food.
Cheers!
Simply Tasty Long Beans Omelette
Sounds weird? I thought so too when I first tried this dish, cooked by sous chef's mom. I was not a fan of long beans, but I was surprised with how tasty it turned out. I am now officially hooked.
Recipe- 3 eggs, beaten
- a bunch of long beans, sliced into 3-5mm pieces
- salt, pepper (or fish sauce)
- olive oil
Beat eggs, mix the long beans with the eggs, season well. Heat up wok/frying pan until it's really hot, then pour the mixture. Fry until you get a bit of brownage, the beans will keep the eggs moist. You can add freshly chopped chilli if you want some heat. Serve with steamed rice.
Sigh. The loss of appetite could've been a fantastic way to lose weight, no?
Somehow, the title of this post kinda reminds me of Spice Girls.
Imagine Creamy Spice, Sweet Spice, Tangy Spice, and Hearty Spice. Spicy?
Ehm, that brought back memories of another thing something I am not proud of...
When I was young, the five of us, my sis, my cousins and I, love love LOVE, a Japanese series Google V. It's a team of 5 heroic characters, fighting various world destroying baddies. We loved the series so much, we watched the series again and again (It was the time when videos were still in! Gowd, I am old) we sang the songs, we remember the tag lines, we remember which bad guys did what, we could imitate the moves/routines, the weapons, the transformation into robot, the robot's moves/routines and the final weapon (which worked every time, I am now wondering why they didn't use it straight away to kill the monster. oh yeah, there would be no series if they did that. gotcha).
We were a bunch of hopeless, geeky, nerdy freaks!
Everyone got to choose their own character. My chubby sis was goggle yellow, my girly cousin was goggle pink, both my boy cousins snatched the blue and the black, just because there were their favorite colors, and I was stuck being red. Actually, I didn't mind as the guy playing goggle red was kinda hot, although my major childhood crush was really...goggle blue.
Why am I feeling more like a loser each time I typed one more word into this post...
Anyway, that was then. My fun filled childhood.
Now, if creamy, sweet, tangy, spicy and hearty are characters out of spice girls or any group/band, I would have a major hard time choosing a character, cos I love 'em all and I like mixing 'em all up in one easy peasy dish, such as this one...
Creamy, Sweet, Tangy, Spicy, Hearty Minced Meat, Pineapple, and Eggplant in Coconut Milk
Recipe
- 1 lb minced meat (I used pork, but chicken will work too)
- 1 pineapple, remove core, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 eggplant, cut into bite sized chunks
- a box of 200ml coconut cream
- 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 red chilli, chopped
- olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar
- 1 sprig of spring onion or corriander, chopped (garnish)
- crispy fried shallot (garnish, optional)
Saute garlic, shallot, and chilli in olive oil until fragrant, add minced meat, cook for a while until it changed color a bit, add eggplants and pineapple, add seasonings, cook covered until eggplants are cooked through, add coconut milk, mix well, garnish with freshly chopped corriander/spring onion and crispy shallot. Serve hot with steamed rice or between two slices of bread of your choice.
Creamy, sweet, tangy, spicy, hearty.
Now tell me, who was your action hero childhood crush?
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