Strawberry Choco Chip Cookies & Cute Cookie Press 士多啤梨朱古力脆片曲奇 & (曲奇噴射器<-一個很有霸氣的名字..)

Today's post is bilingual, my crappy English meets SC's dubious Chinese. Heheheh.
It's SC's debut interpreting my posts into Chinese or writing the Chinese version in his own style. Please give him a warm welcome~!

大家好, 大家有睇開Rita個Blog都應該知道我係邊個.

冇錯, 我就係SC(SOUS CHEF), 一個唔係太識煮野食既副廚.

由今日起, 我將會為大家寫個中文版, 希望大家鐘意.

小弟英文唔好, 中文又唔好, 如果有D咩寫錯, 請多多包涵!!

Look at these cuties. Aren't they the most adorably shaped cookie dough ever?

望落去就好似日本既櫻花一樣, 尤其用左黑底焗爐盆襯返出黎, 真係Sakura Sakura~..

Do you have a kitchen gadget that has been sitting around idly in your kitchen for a couple of years (!), lonely and unused?

I surely do. 

I got this cookie press as a birthday gift from a good friend, Sir A, a couple years ago. I kept promising myself to find a suitable recipe, and only managed to finally use it...yesterday evening. 

Procrastination is my first name, middle name and also last name :D

唔知大家屋企有冇D買左都未用既廚房用具呢? 我就咁啱咁蹺有一個. 係我既一個好朋友Sir A幾年前送比我的生日禮物. 我成日同自己講一定要揾到一個好正既曲奇食譜先去用佢, 無謂失禮嘛

攪到琴晚, 終於的起心肝試吓啦. 冇辦法啦, 我個名係叫做慢吞吞嘛..XD

It's supposed to be so easy to use...

望落去好似好易用..

...and it makes 12 different shapes of cookies! All cute and adorable!

仲可以整出12種唔同既形狀, 有D整到出黎仲好攪笑..

SC and I fiddled with it for a while and failed to produce good looking cookies numerous times! I almost gave up, but SC...being persistent as always, kept trying until he finally pressed beautiful looking flowers on the baking sheet.

我同SC試左好多次都失敗..(其實係因為大家都懶得去睇說明書..). 最後我都頂唔順, SC話比佢試吓. SC憑住無比既耐性 (其實佢頂唔順走左去睇說明書..). 最後都整到個好靚既櫻花出黎!!!

After finish baking...

焗完出黎後

Super duper cute pink cookies!
These ones don't have any chocolate chips though, the chocolate chips won't go through the cookie press.

真係好鬼可愛!

哩D係冇朱古力脆片的, 因為D朱古力脆片唔可以係個曲奇噴射器度噴出黎..

The strawberry cookie dough with chocolate chips were made into my favorite shape...

哩D冇用曲奇噴射器既就可以落朱古力脆片, 哩個曲奇塔係我最鐘意整既...the amoebas!

別名: 阿米巴變形蟲塔..
I used a random choco chip cookies recipe I found online, omitted the walnuts and vanilla essence, added strawberry essence and a touch of pink food coloring. These cookies are melt in your mouth, but I find them too sweet. The strawberry essence gives them this weird "artificial" flavor. Since they're not really good, I am not sharing the recipe here. Let me know if you have a good idiot proof cookie recipe ;)

我係求其係網上面揾到哩個曲奇食譜的, 自己改左小小野, 冇落合桃同雲呢拿香草精. 因為屋企有, 所以落左士多啤利香草精同紅色既食用染料. 整左出黎係入口即溶, 但係就甜左少少. D士多啤利香草精比左D曲奇士多啤利味, 但D味有D怪. 最後由於唔係咁好食, 我都係唔係度出食譜啦…最後, 如果大家有D咩好味曲奇食譜, 記得話比我知, 等我試吓.
The cookie press can be bought online from Amazon or you can also try finding it in kitchen/baking gadget shops around you.

個曲奇噴射器可以係Amazon 度買, 或各大廚房用具店都應該有

Tea Pairing Dinner at Lingnan Club

You've probably had many wine-pairing dinners, but have you had a tea pairing dinner? It's such a brilliant idea. There were many delicious dishes from Lingnan Club, each paired expertly with a tea from MingCha to complement, but I'm just gonna share my favorite things from the night.

Wild Chrysanthemum with White Peony Supreme, served in martini glasses.

How cool is that!

Black truffle from Abstoss World Gastronomy!


...which we sprinkled on some delicious goodies...


...such as on this stir fried lobster and albumen dish...


...and on this claypot traditionale.

Yum!

Another favorite dish from the night that I am craving right now...

...stir fried beef with walnuts. Super mega delicious! Tasty, tender, juicy!

And I got to eat the last piece which everybody normally wouldn't touch.

They're polite, I am shameless ;)


I forgot to take picture, but my favorite tea that night was the Phoenix Supreme Oolong, it's so fruity, almost sweet. Love it!

More pictures of the event can be viewed here.

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I went nuts playing with frosting, and not in a good way. It's not as easy as I thought it'd be. I squirted some frosting out trying to draw a circle...and my circle got disconnected all the time, my frosted cupcakes looked pretty...pathetic! We all had a lot of fun though...SC, myself and my helper each got to frost at least a cake...and here are the horrible ones we did...

I did the horrible circles (they were meant to be "roses", but I failed miserably) and the wobbly heart, my helper did the "flower" with just four petals (she meant to draw five petals but somehow overestimated the space heheheh) SC did the star and...

....the Chinese character which could be interpreted as "yum" (jeng!).
How creative of him!

I also did a little smiley face...which also meant that this cake had too little frosting, too bad!

I used recipes from all recipes, I just reduced the portion to eight cupcakes, added a teaspoon of orange essence in the cake batter (recipe link here), as well as a teaspoon of orange essence and a drop of orange food coloring in the frosting batter (recipe link here). The chocolate orange cupcakes turned out wonderful, chocolatey and moist, the frosting gave a delightful tang to the combo. I'll be making these babies often ;)

Speaking of writing with food...it all started when we went to a Japanese BBQ joint for a lunch and SC wrote the same word using thick, juicy, tasty ox tongue chunks.

He said that this should be every food blogger's favorite word, yum!
I couldn't agree more ;)

My Weekend Breakfast & Baby Marcus' Food - Grass Carp & Choy Sum Congee

Now baby Marcus has started eating various solid food, we prepare it daily, super fresh, using ingredients which are normally organic and even better than what we normally eat every day. Ahhh...things we do for our kids...new parents syndrome.

Marcus would only eat a bit, so we get leftover ingredients which we sometimes used the next day. But since we want to use the freshest things, these days we try to consume the ingredients used for baby Marcus' food, just like what I saw in this wonderful blog, Yummies for your little one's bellies. I saw her making two different versions of dishes, one for the baby and one for the big kids, and I was truly inspired!

Last weekend, I was on congee making duty, and I made grass carp and choy sum congee for baby Marcus. I ate the same congee, mine was just cranked up with a lot more seasoning. Heheheheh

Recipe
- 1/4 cup rice
- water to rice ratio: 5 to 1
- 2 small stalk of organic choy sum, finely chopped
- a small slice of grass carp belly (about 3cm x 10 cm)
Cook rice in hot water until soften (to congee/porridge consistency). While rice is cooking, clean and steam the fish. Once the fish is done (it's done when a chopstick could go through it very easily), mash the fish and remove all the bones. Once the rice/congee is done, add the shredded choy sum, let cook for 1-2 minutes (we don't wanna cook it for too long, w, e want to retain as much nutrients as possible, that's why we chopped the choy sum so finely), add the mashed fish, remove from heat.

For the baby, pour congee into a food processor/blender, pulse for a couple of minute, serve warm. No seasoning necessary, the rice actually makes the congee pretty sweet.

For me, I surely didn't food-process the congee, added fish sauce, pepper, topped it with crispy shallot. A very comforting hot weekend breakfast for me.

Slurp~!

Ching Ming Festival 2011

It was the Ching Ming festival last Tuesday, and here are the pictures from that day.
The offerings...

SC's parents called us to come over as it was baby Marcus' first Ching Ming and they'd love baby Marcus to pay his respect to his great grandpas.

Joss sticks and candles were lit at the corner of the entrance...


...by the window...


...and grandma led baby Marcus to pay his respect...


Some of the treats...homemade fried fish, salted steamed chicken...

Some store bought Chinese sweets, oranges and peanuts...rice and Chinese wine.

...roast pork, bananas...

...and rose chocolate cupcakes with buttercream topping that I made the night before. They were supposed to be for SC's parents, but they included them in the offering. It was kinda cool ;)

Warning! Please do not do this at home.

A bag of paper offerings were "sent", including paper hat and various clothing.

But no iPhone/iPad...heheheh. Oppps.

In the evening, we had a family dinner at SC's parents'.

Roast pork and chicken from the offering spread earlier...

Super delicious prawns and eggs with chopped scallion.


Pork belly, dried mushrooms, fat choy, lettuce and dried oysters in oyster sauce.


Super tender beef shin Chinese style curry with potatoes and carrots.

I can't make this dish this yummy!

And I made another batch of rose & choco chip cupcakes with rose buttercream.

Did you celebrate Ching Ming?