my little cyberspot

30 May 2005, Sunday, 8.42pm

Birthday dinner

Cooked for Husband's birthday dinner over the weekend - cooking for 13 adults is no joke, but thankfully, everything went smoothly. Check out pikkies below: ^__^

Above: charsiew slices with watercress and crispy wonton skins.

This turned out to be such a yummy dish, it was unbelievable, considering it was really easy. I just shallow-fried the wonton skins (each skin took about 20 secs to turn crisp and light brown, as in pic) and then when the time came, sprinkled watercress & charsiew on top. Used the sauce provided by the friendly char-siew seller but added roasted sesame seeds for extra punch. The wonton skins were flavourful on their own - must be all the oil!! Heehee.

Below: Simple green salad with grapes & raspberry vinegrette. And, my Husband's very own cauliflower mash (guiltless carbos!)

The mash was really yummy, and healthy too! Husband steamed cauliflower (15 mins) then put it in a food processor with some butter, parmesan cheese & parsley. Lovely!

Above: Grilled honey mustard chicken.

I've been trying to perfect the above for weeks now and finally got it right (I think!). Here's a quick rundown of the recipe:

The marinade: 1 heaped tbs grainy mustard, 2 heaped tbs dijon mustard, 1 tbs honey, 2 tbs garlic mayonaise (also known as aioli. Or, if you don't have aioli, regular mayo will do). Marinate chicken (up to half a chicken, around 10-12 pieces) for up to a day in fridge. (If you grilling more chicken, simply double the marinade!)

The process: Fire up the oven to highest temperature and use grill function. Spread the chicken in one layer on pan & place as close to the top grill as possible. Grill for 25 minutes, turning the chicken pieces over half way through. Serve immediately.

I'm telling you this is really delicious stuff - and so easy to do too!

Finally, the night was topped off with one of my own creations - inspired by something similar we tried in Bali - a de-constructed blueberry tiramisu. Did you know that tiramisu is essentially made of 2 things: 1) lady's fingers dipped quickly in coffee 2) marscapone cream beaten with sugar. (Then there's all the add-ons, e.g., cocoa powder dusted on top or chocolate shavings etc.) So, instead of doing the whole layer by layer deal this time round, I just threw the two essential components together, post-modern fashion. To add a fruity twist, I also added blueberry sauce. Here's the low-down recipe:

Marscapone cream & sugar bit: Generally speaking, the proportions are usually 250g of marscapone (1 tub) to 1 tbs of sugar & 1 tbs of vanilla essence. Just beat together with electric beater. However, in this case, because I knew I was adding a blueberry sauce, which was sweet in itself, I skimped on the sugar a bit. After beating the marscapone & sugar, I added some blueberry pie filling (from a can!). It's the sort that has real lumps of fairly firm blueberries in them - NOT canned blueberries, which tends to be very "limp".

Lady's fingers: Husband made vietnamese coffee so I swiped some and dipped the fingers in just before serving. They tend to get soft and grossly mushy very fast, so I had to work quickly - just a super-quick dip and then I fished them out to serve.

De-construction: When time to serve, scoop blueberry marscapone mixture with ice-cream scoop onto plate. Dip lady's fingers in coffee and throw them onto plate in "de-constructed" manner. Add blueberry pie sauce (which can be lightened with some apple juice). Tah-na!!

*hmm* Happy belly :) Wonder how many more of such parties I can put together in my preggers state... hmm. :)

21 May 2005, Saturday, 9.05am

Guess where we were last night?

16 May 2005, Monday, 9.51pm

Spinach soba salad & grilled teriyaki cod

Dinner was whipped up in a jiffy today. Chinese spinach was blanched in boiling water for 1 minute, then run through with cold water, squeeze-dried, before being roughly chopped. Soba was dunked in boiling water for 5 minutes, then run through cold water, before being mixed in 1 tb of sesame oil & some toasted sesame seeds.

For the dipping sauce, I mixed 1/4 cup of rice vinegar (either normal Chinese kind or Jap kind will do), 1/2 cup of mirin and 2 tb soya sauce. I spooned 1-2 spoonfuls into the bowls of noodles and spinach and left the rest for additional dipping.

Cod was very easy and delicious. Using Husband's recipe, I marinated fresh cod with teriyaki sauce, about 4-5 tbs (basically, until the cods were dripping with sauce), for 10 minutes. After pre-heating the oven to highest possible temperature (220 degrees celsius), I grilled the cod as close to the top heating element as possible, for 10 minutes, creating a slightly blackened cod surface (and, by the way, an amazing aroma!).

Done! Dinner done in 25 minutes tops! Not bad for a preggie eh? :)

16 May 2005, Monday, 7.44pm

Bali bliss

Husband & I went to Bali for a short but worthwhile holiday. Above is a pic of our reflection - I took a similar shot in Langkawi (see this entry). Am not a fan of noisy and crowded travel fairs, but must admit that we got a pretty darn good deal from the Natas Travel Fair in March 2005 - our free & easy package came with all sorts of free things thrown in, like a free massage/facial, free 'romantic' dinner by the beach, free f&b voucher, plus 10% discount overall... but freebies aside, what I really enjoyed was simply relaxing with Husband, and having the time to reflect & pray about motherhood. Took copious notes from 'The Contented Little Baby Book' by Gina Ford and feel a bit more prepared to be a new mother soon! Here's some pictures to share:

Our free daily breakfast, served in our balcony!

View from our balcony... overlooking the pool. You could hear the pounding waves from here!

We got treated to facial & massage, followed by a short dip in a flower bath. Hubba hubba...

11 May 2005, Wednesday, 7.26am

Bye bye kitty!

Meow's new favourite spot is on top of our luggage! She sits, stands and yawns there all day. I guess it is quite an apt spot, because she's leaving us this morning! B & SIL are coming to take her away soon... so it'll be bye bye kitty, hello clean & hairless house once again!

Am quite sad to see her go. Recently, have been developing maternal instincts towards Meow, in lieu of Daniel. ^__^ She really is quite a docile & well-behaved cat. Here's a parting shot:

Bye bye kitty!

p.s. if you're wondering why our luggage is out, we're taking a holiday to a nearby country! ^__^

7 May 2005, Saturday, 2.57pm

Hainanese chicken rice

Upon my mother's request, I made Hainanese Chicken Rice for lunch today. Was quite pleased with the way it turned out, considering it was my maiden effort, and I have WX to thank - or rather, his mother. Like WX, I have always believed that steaming the chicken gives better flavour than boiling it. His recipe turned out to be very straightforward and delicious. Here it is:

Hainanese chicken rice

1 chicken, preferably fresh from market*

Two dashes of salt

1 thumb size piece of ginger, thinly sliced

7 cloves of garlic, smashed

Oyster sauce

Sesame oil

For the rice

Jasmine rice **

3 cloves of garlic, smashed

Chicken oil from the steaming process ***

1 thumb size piece of ginger, thinly sliced

Chicken stock, enough to cook rice in ****

* For the best chicken, buy fresh from wet market. Let the chicken auntie know you are cooking chicken rice "ji fan" and ask for a "mu ji", which is a mother chicken. Mother chickens are best for cooking chicken rice because they are nice and plump. It might also help to let chicken auntie know how many people you are cooking for, as she would be able to recommend the right size of chicken for you. Incidentally, my chicken auntie was v friendly and even threw in some extra gizzards/hearts free of charge. Yay for chicken auntie!

** The quantity of rice depends on how many people you are cooking for. 1 cup of rice can feed 2 people, so if cooking for 4, then use 2 cups of rice, and so on.

*** This will be explained in recipe below

**** Instead of using water to cook the rice, use chicken stock, which you can buy in cartons. My loyalty lies with Swanson brand of chicken stock, which is salted. For great rice, use the proportion 1 cup of rice to 1.5 + cups of stock.

1. Rinse the chicken with water and dab to dry thoroughly.

2. Put two dashes of salt in palm and rub all over chicken skin.

3. Stuff the chicken with the 7 smashed garlic and sliced ginger pieces.

4. Allow your chicken to sit and wait while setting up your steamer.

(Now, the challenge is to find a steamer that is big enough to accomodate a "mu ji" chicken - I used a huge pot. Normally, I would place a metal stand in the pot, and on the metal stand, I would place a plate for steaming. However, the metal stand was too high this time round, i.e., if I put the plate on the metal stand, and put the chicken on the plate, the chicken would jut out of the pot and I would not be able to close it. So, I used the WX method - abandoning the metal stand, I used a makeshift stand consisting of three chopsticks tied together with string! See pic below:

This rather crude contraption served very useful because it elevated the plate high enough above the water, and yet, the chicken did not jut out of the pot. Here's a pic of my chicken happily sitting in the pot (you can see where I jabbed it to test for doneness):

OK, back to the recipe:

5. Add water to the steamer, heat the pot and when water is beginning to boil, add the chicken to the plate. Steam for 40 minutes. (Depending on size of chicken, the steaming could take longer. To test for doneness, poke the drumstick at its joint and check for blood. Generally, steaming should take no shorter than 30 minutes and no longer than an hour.)

6. Remove chicken and cool it on a dry plate before chopping it up. Before serving, swish some oyster sauce and sesame oil over the chicken slices. Don't use too much! Just a dab here and there.

7. While cooling the chicken, you would have noticed that the plate which bore the steaming chicken has collected a lot of liquid (mostly oil). This will be very useful for cooking the rice! In a separate wok, heat a very small quantity of oil and fry 3 cloves of smashed garlic on low heat till fragrant and slightly browned.

8. Throw in the rice and mix it thoroughly with the garlic and oil. Keep stirring to prevent the rice from burning. Remember to keep on low heat!

9. After a minute or so, transfer the rice to a rice cooker. Add the chicken oil liquid from the steaming process and enough chicken stock to cook the rice. Also, add in the slices of ginger.

10. Once rice is done, serve it hot with the steamed chicken. Other side dishes could include: tofu and oyster veggies. Enjoy! By the way, this recipe for rice is really scrummy - I was quite surprised myself at how absolutely delicious it was! Husband said it was better than Boon Tong Kee rice!

2 May 2005, Monday, 12.37pm

Husband checklist

Ever made a checklist for the kind of guy you wanted to marry?

As I was cleaning up the spare room today, to prepare it for Baby Daniel, I came across a scrap of paper, torn off on two sides, on which I had scribbled a list of qualities I hoped for in my future husband. I don't remember when I had written it, but it's probably during my early working days. Here's what it said:

loves me + only me
a gentle voice
easy laughter
drive
principled
tender
sensitive
christian
mature
appreciates sweetness/silliness
wise

Over the years, I had forgotten my checklist. But now that I stare at it, I am amazed and humbled that God has given me 11 out of 11. Praise Him for answered prayers! Do you have a checklist? Care to share what it is? ^__^