This
may look like regular beef stew, but it's got Guinness in it. The
result? A hearty beef stew, with the subtle bitter undertone of dark beer.
Certainly a dish that would appeal to all men, Husband included! *ooh*
I plucked this recipe off Elise from Simply Recipes, who in turn plucked it off Epicurious, one of my favourite sites to trawl for recipes. As usual, I've changed the recipe slightly - firstly, being the lazy cook that I am, I've shortened the recipe by skipping a few steps, e.g., I did not saute the vegetables separately but simply dumped them in with the meat to stew till tender. Secondly, as I'm not one to have red wine lying around in my kitchen on an average day, I simply did without the red wine; and the stew turned out just fine! Thirdly, I did not include thyme - I'm not a fan of thyme, unless it's used in large quantites and for chicken. My personal feel is that chicken and thyme go together, but I don't really like beef and thyme. ?! Oh, and of course, I've added my kitchen notes and tips, as usual. Here we go:
Irish beef stew (adapted from Epicurious and Simply Recipes)
Serves 4
Some olive oil
500g beef chunk, cut into chunks slightly bigger than bite-size*
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
6 cups beef stock
1 cup Guinness stout
2tb tomato paste
1tb sugar
1tb worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
500g potatoes
2 large carrots, or 3 small ones
1 large onion
Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your pot. When hot, brown the beef on all sides. Then, add the minced garlic and stir till fragrant. Throw in the beef stock, guinness, tomato paste, sugar, worcestershire sauce, and bay leaves. Cover and bring to boil. While waiting, start on the vegetables - wash and peel the potatoes and carrots. Then, slice into chunks. Slice the onion thinly. When the pot is boiling, add the vegetables, cover and return to boil. Then, simmer covered for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. After this, remove the cover and simmer for an additional 40 minutes, to allow some water to boil off and stew to thicken. Serve with baguette or over a bed of rice. Enjoy!
I took this video of Daniel about two weeks ago, but finally got round to posting it. He's become so active and really likes music - bops to it everytime - check out his whole array of moves in this short clip, from The Whole Rhythmic Jerk to the Shake Up and Down to the Bottom Rotate and the Foot Tap! What a strange and wonderful child I have! *smile*
So I have to say that this is the perfect meal for one person. Because it's easy to make, best done in individual portions, and delicious in a warm and comforting way (so you don't feel so lonely when you eat it ha ha). Oyako donburi, which is Japanese for chicken and egg on rice, has been my lunch meal for the past two days. And here's the recipe - try it ya?
Oyako donburi
1 cup dashi*
2tb sugar
4tb mirin
6tb light soy sauce
1/2 onion, sliced thinly
2tb chicken thigh meat, cut into bite size pieces
2 eggs
1. Mix the dashi, sugar, mirin, and soy sauce. Divide into four portions. If you're cooking for one, save the other three portions for future use.
2. In a small frying pan, heat up one portion of the mixture (from step 1) on low heat. Arrange the onion slices and chicken thigh meat in the pan, as the sauce heats up. Cover the pan and cook till chicken is no longer pink, about 1 minute.
3. In the meantime, crack the eggs in a bowl. Use a pair of chopsticks to draw a couple of "z"s in the bowl.**
4. When chicken meat is no longer pink, pour the eggs into the pan and cook until 90% done. Slip the entire mixture from the pan onto a steaming bowl of rice. Top with seaweed if you like and serve with some sliced cucumber.
* I use instant dashi mix. One packet of mix gives me 5 cups of dashi. So, I usually save the extra 4 cups in the fridge for future use.
** The idea is to mix the yolks and the whites without whisking as whisking would incorporate air into the eggs. The yolks and whites need not be thoroughly mixed together as it's nice for the finished egg to be yellow and white in various parts, instead of being uniformly yellow.
It's best to make oyako donburi individually. This means if you're making for two people, you'll need to repeat the steps a second time to make the second bowl of oyako donburi. Oishi!
I made these fruity lemon cream tarts over the weekend. The lemon cream was the X-factor that made the tarts superlicious - it was a good balance of tart and sweet, very much like the amazing lemon cream tart I recently tasted at Corduroy & Finch. I really have to thank Anita of Dessert First for her inspiration and her kind sharing of the recipe, adapted from Pierre Herme. And now, after wolfing down many tarts over the weekend, I think I need to go on diet ... ^__^
When motherhood threatens to engulf your identity (and sanity), it helps to be reminded that you are not just a mother, but also a friend. A friend to some very lovely women who have seen you through sticker-trading, colourful large pencil cases with many compartments, plastic glasses, pimples, tucked-out pinafores, crushes, relationships, break-ups, marriages, and yes, even motherhood. Here's to friendship, which like wine, seems to get better with age, especially when Christ is at the centre of it. Aren't we the loveliest trio of friends you've seen in a while? (*HINT* PLEASE compliment us on our good looks! Thanks!) ^__^
V. and I checked out the National Library @ Bras Basah on Monday. It had a great room of children's books, which was where we spent most of our time, but before we left, I whizzed past the "Cookery" section to check out the recipe books. "From Julia Child's Kitchen" sprang out before me and I grabbed it in a nanosecond. Boy was I glad I did! I found a recipe for poulet poele, which means cover-cooked chicken, or rather, chicken that is baked in a covered casserole. This method of cooking allows the chicken to be steamed in its own juices, making it tender and allowing it to absorb all the flavours of the other ingredients. Husband & I had the wonderful opportunity to try such a chicken when we were invited to a dinner party a few months ago. The friend who whipped the dish up was kind enough to share his recipe, but silly me, I forgot all about it, until Julia Child reminded me of it in her book!
Here is the recipe, which Husband absolutely adores and is set to become a family favourite for its ease and scrummy taste. I have adapted Julia Child's recipe so that it is more in line with my friend's recipe - the key difference is that while Julia makes the cream and mushroom sauce separately and pours it over the baked chicken at the end, my friend bakes the chicken in the cream. So it is like braising the chicken in cream, in the oven, in a covered casserole. Amazing.
Cream chicken casserole (cover-baked) adapted from Julia Child
1 whole chicken or 1+ kg worth of drums and thighs (or thereabouts)
Salt
2-3 bulbs garlic, unpeeled
10 button mushrooms, stems cut off
3/4 cup thick cream or creme fraiche
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup white wine *
Preheat oven at 150 degrees C. Film the bottom of a pan with oil. When oil is hot, brown the chicken on both sides, then set aside. Place mushrooms and garlic in the pan and give them a turn till slightly brown and fragrant. Lightly salt the chicken and place in casserole with the mushrooms and garlic. Now, mix the cream, chicken stock, and white wine together and pour into casserole. Cover the caasserole ** and place in oven for at least 1 hour and up to 2 hours.*** Serve over a bed of rice or with a baguette.
* I didn't have white wine on hand so as usual, used sake, which I know is very different, but the dish still turned out smashing.
** If you're not one to have a covered casserole that can withstand oven heat lying around the house, I'm told you can also wrap your dish with aluminium foil. Just make sure you wrap around the edges tightly so that as little steam as possible escapes from the dish.
*** As I made this dish using a whole chicken, the cream was insufficient to cover the carcass and I therefore made it a point to baste the exposed half of the chicken and drip cream over it every 45 minutes or so. If you're using thighs and drums, and the cream sauce covers the chicken sufficiently, you probably could get away with sticking the dish in the oven unmonitored for the whole time!
1 hour of cooking will give you tender chicken. The closer you get to 2 hours, the more of the fall-off-the-bone effect you'll have. But, some people, i.e., Julia Child, prefer chicken that still retains its shape and vigour, instead of limp fall-off-the-bone chicken. It's up to you, really. And I guess it also depends on how much time you have to spare!
p.s. oh yea, sorry no picture!
If you're looking for a salad that's easy to do but fancy enough to bring to a party, this might just be it! It's made of nice-looking greens, shrimp roe, fresh Japanese seaweed, and surimi (mock crab meat). The bright orange shrimp roe gives the dish a certain amount of "glamour", while the fresh Japanese seaweed (the bright green kind that is only slightly thinner than the green jelly in chendol) provides an interesting chewy surprise for those expecting boring tasteless greens. All ingredients were bought at Cold Storage, prepared and ready to be used. So it was just a matter of mixing everything together - such a cinch!
For the dressing, I used Annabel Karmel's Japanese Salad Dressing, which consists of 4 heaped tb creme fraiche, 1tb soya sauce, 1/2ts finely-chopped ginger, 2ts sugar, and 2tb rice wine vinegar. Just blend in a blender/grinder till smooth. Absolutely yums! The dressing is apparently based on the salad dressing served at a chain of American Japanese restaurants called Benihana. It's got the right balance of creamy, salty, and sweet to complement the seafood in the salad. Enjoy!
Daniel: Last weekend, mommy and daddy took me to Malacca to attend Church Camp! The Camp T-shirt was a tad big for me, but it was comfy!
Daniel: Church Camp was fun - I got to crawl everywhere in a big auditorium where talks were held. Check out my sprawling crawling ground!
Daniel: I also met many aunties, uncles, and other kiddies!
Daniel: Apart from being spiritually fed, mommy and daddy also got to eat very yummy Malaccan food (recommended by the Makansutra Malaysia!) Mommy was especially delighted to eat very yummy bak kut teh (the dark kind, which she likes, not the peppery kind!)
Daniel: Of course, I didn't get to eat any of the above. While mommy and daddy were chowing down, I mimicked them by eating my spoon. *cough* Yums.
Daniel: All in all, it was a very interesting trip. But now I sense mommy and daddy are very tired and need to rest more. As for me, I'm tired too, but am glad that I went part of the Church Camp - maybe one day, I will be able to understand what is being said at Church Camp and it'll be more meaningful for me! ^__^
Daniel is getting so mobile these days. Besides pulling up on furniture and walking with the help of mommy, he's learnt how to crawl in the past two weeks. My friend A. told me that the correct term for what Daniel is doing is "creeping" - moving on all fours, but not necessarily on his knees. Indeed, Daniel does a strange left-leg-stick-out kinda crawl, which is quite amusing to watch. But it does get him places. In this video, he manages to climb up a step, the first time he has done so! Ah, my son the creepy crawler! ^__^
| www.flickr.com
|
 |
| |
* Einstein Never Used Flash Cards - How Our
Children Really Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize less
* The Bible
* What to Expect When You're Expecting
Cravings
* Good takeout Chinese or Thai food - which
does NOT exist in Palo Alto
:: local floggers::
Renee Kho (shiokadelicious.com)
Aromacookery
Cheat Eat
Chubby hubby
Cass
loves cooking
Treats
by Trishratna
Eatzybitzy
Umami
She bakes and
she cooks
Kuidaore
The Skinny Epicurean
Quick and Easy
Treats from Zu's Kitchen
Nibble & Scribble
Cuisine
Paradise
Piggy's
cooking journal
Eat fat
fat
Greedy goose
:: everywhere else floggers::
The
passionate cook
A spoonful of
sugar
L'art de vivre
da*xiang
Cooking for engineers
Obachan's kitchen
& balcony garden
She who eats
The scent
of green bananas
Baby rambutan
Delicious days
101cookbooks
Rubber
slippers in Italy
Delicious delicious
Eatchicago
Bakingsheet
Cupcake bakeshop
Yummy fun
Eat stuff
The bakers rack
Rice and noodles
A curious mix
Raging yogurt
Funky cookies
Kokblog
Food
beam
Dessert
first
Becks & Posh
Taste of the suburbs
Stephen cooks
Felicity wishes
Food storm
Our Patisserie
Bloggers (non-floggers)
Bim
Mac
Ling
Alto
Intherain
Mass rapid
The Goh family
Neonangel
Iz reloaded
Mongchacha
In a little while
Students sketchpad
Bits
& bites
Lovely room
Owen for God
Ashton's Diary
My
wedding photos
My single
life
«
#
picture
this! ?
»
SearchSG - the SG web community
eatonweb
photoblogs.org
foodbloggers
foodnmore
ricebowl journals
Best
viewed with Firefox
at 800 x 600 resolution