Tomato Basil Soup

I love tomato soup but not the Campbell kind. I have been making my own tomato soup for awhile. Adam loves it too, so whenever I have way too many tomatoes at home, I’ll stock up the freezer with tomato soup. (I label every container so I know which ones needs to be eaten first )

Tomato soup with toasted buttered whole grain toast

Tomato Basil Soup

Celery – roughly chopped
Onion – diced
Garlic - minced
Tomatoes – roughly chopped
1 can of V8 vegatable juice
1 – 2 cups vegetable stock (depending on the consistency of the soup you prefer)
Bay leaves
Fresh basil – chopped
Cream or Half-and-half - optional
Black pepper
Salt

First sweat the celery with bay leave, onion and garlic.

Then add in the tomatoes and some of the fresh basil.

When juices start to come out of the tomatoes and you get a wonderful aroma, add the can of V8 juice and vegetable stock.
Add remaining basil.

Let the soup simmer for 15 minutes.

Turn the heat off and  puree the bits and pieces in the pot with an immersion blender.

If you like your tomato soup creamy, add cream or half-and-half now.

Add salt to taste and freshly ground black pepper.

Enjoy!

 

Pizza

Adam and I have pizza once a week. It’s easy because it comes frozen in a box and it taste good. Since I love to try my hands on making my own, I made my pizzas from scratch. Yes, I knead the dough myself. This is the outcome.

Pizza ~ Seafood and Diabolo

Seafood pizza with a hot salsa base topped with shrimps, mussels, squids and shredded Asiago cheese.

Freshly baked seafood pizza

Pizza Diabolo (inspired by a pizza we had in the Dominican Republic) has a hot salsa base and topped with fresh red onion slices, pickled green chillies, fresh basil, Prosciutto de Parma, Lomo and loads of Asiago cheese.

Pizza Diabolo

Love it!

 

Nasi Lemak and Beef Rendang

I have tried many beef rendang recipes to find the perfect one for us and I finally found it! After 6 tries, I finally found THE recipe!!! I even found a recipe to make sambal ikan bilis!!!! WOOHOO!

You will understand my desperation if you do not have access to yummy Malaysian food

This is what I made over the weekend (and very proud of it) and all thanks to this blog.

Nasi lemak with sambal ikan bilis and beef rendang.

Nasi Lemak

2 cups of Jasmine rice
3 screwpine leaves (tied into a knot)
Salt to taste
1 cup coconut milk
1 cup water

Just like making steamed rice, rinse your rice and drain.

Add the coconut milk, water, a pinch of salt, and screwpine leaves

Cook rice how you would normally do it.

Sambal Ikan Bilis

1/2 red onion – sliced
1 cup ikan bilis (cleaned – head and guts removed)
1 clove garlic
4 shallots
10 dried chillies – deseeded
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon tamarind paste
1 cup warm water

Rinse ikan bilis and drain the water, do not soak them!

Fry the ikan bilis until they turn light brown and set aside.

Grind shallots, garlic, and dried chilies in a food processor.

Soak the tamarind pulp in warm water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind to extract more flavor, remove pulp and seeds, set aside the tamarind juice.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the spice paste until fragrant.

Add onions.

Add ikan bilis, mix well.

Add tamarind juice, salt, and sugar.

Simmer on low heat until the gravy thickens.

Beef Rendang

1 1/2 pound boneless beef chuck (beef for stewing, cut into cubes)
5 tablespoons cooking oil
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
3 star anise
3 cardamom pods
1 lemongrass (cut into 4-inch length and pounded)
1 cup thick coconut milk
1 cup warm water
2 teaspoons tamarind pulp
6 kaffir lime leaves (very finely sliced)
6 tablespoons kerisik (toasted coconut)
1 tablespoon sugar/palm sugar or to taste
Salt to taste

Spice Paste:

5 shallots
1 inch galangal
3 lemongrass (white part only)
5 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
10-12 dried chilies (soaked in warm water and seeded)

Grind the Spice Paste ingredients in a food processor.

Soak the tamarind pulp in warm water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the tamarind to extract more flavor, remove pulp and seeds, set aside the tamarind juice.

Heat the oil in a pot, add the spice paste, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and cardamom and stir-fry them until fragrant.

Add beef and the pounded lemongrass and stir for 1 minute.

Add coconut milk, tamarind juice and simmer on medium theat, stirring frequently until the meat is almost cooked.

Add kaffir lime leaves, kerisik , sugar/palm sugar, stirring to blend well with the meat.

Lower the heat to low, cover the lid and simmer for 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until the meat is really tender and the gravy has dried up.

Add salt to taste. If not sweet enough, add more sugar to taste.

 

Mussels in White Wine Sauce

Adam and I love mussels. I have tried making a few variations of it but love the easy, tasty and simple way of cooking them in white wine ~ moules marinieres.

Before cooking the mussels, I normally scrub them with a clean toothbrush (it’s not an old and used toothbrush! I got a new clean one just for cleaning mussels ) to remove any grit or sand. I will then remove any beard found on them. You need a hard tug sometimes to remove the beard but when it gets too difficult, just cut them off with a sharp knife.

At this stage when you see opened mussels, please thrown them away. They are dead. Rinse the cleaned mussels several times and place them in a colander. Do not soak them in water! It will kill them!

Cleaned Mussels in Colander

When you are ready to cook, have these ingredients ready: -

• Butter
• Olive oil
• White wine - something good and that you will drink. If you hate it, don’t use it.
• Garlic - chopped
• Shallots / yellow onion - chopped
• Coriander – chopped. You can use parsley if you want, I prefer the aroma of coriander

In a heavy bottom pan, add butter and olive oil.

When butter bubbles, add shallots and garlic. Do not brown garlic!

When fragrant, add white wine and some coriander.

Dump all mussels into the pot, cover and shake them to make sure the liquid covers the mussels.

In about 5 minutes, all mussels should open.

Uncover the pan, add the remaining coriander and shake the pan once more to make sure the mussels is covered with all the yummy goodness.

Serve with some yummy crusty bread. I used Pagnotta.

Cooked mussels. YUM!

*Note – If you see any unopened cooked mussels, please throw them away. They are dead and can’t be eaten. Do not try to pry it open.

 

Chicken Piccata

I couldn’t think of a chicken meal to cook last night. I have the chicken defrosted, wanted to make something different and easy but wasn’t sure what. So I went to Simply Recipes, a food blog that I love and got the recipe for Chicken Piccata.

Chicken Piccata

It’s a very easy recipe. All you need are

• Chicken breast – butterflied if it’s too thick.
• White wine
• Butter
• Capers – wash off brine first before using
• Mix of plain flour, salt, pepper and grated Parmesan cheese.

First you clean the chicken and then coat it with the flour mixture

Pan fry both sides until done. Romove chicken from pan.

Using the same pan, add some butter and white wine. Scrape the bits and pieces off  the pan and add capers.

Add some of the remaining flour from the mix to thicken the sauce.

Pour sauce over chicken and serve with mashed potatoes and steamed veg (our favourite).

Voila! You’ve got yourself a simple meal that taste great!

 

Chicken Parmesan

I made Chicken Parmesan last night after watching a program on Food Network. It’s not a difficult dish to make just that it requires some time and a few extra steps because you would need to cook the sauce first, then pan-fry the chicken before baking it in the oven.

I am rubbish at taking photos of food. Can someone please teach me how?

Tomato sauce (if you are not using store-bought sauces like Prego…etc)
Yellow onion – diced
Shallots – sliced
Garlic – chopped
Bay leave
Fresh basil – cut into strips
Canned tomatoes – crushed or petite-diced
Red wine
Salt
Pepper

Fry the onions, garlic and bay leave with some olive oil.
Add canned tomatoes, stir well.
Add fresh basil.
Season with salt and pepper.
Let sauce simmer for 5 minutes.
Add red wine and let the sauce simmer until thick.

Chicken
Salt
Pepper
Dried bread crumbs
Season chicken with salt and pepper.
Dust with dried bread crumbs
Pan fry it for no more than 4 minutes each side (just so the chicken does not get too dry)

Finishing touches
Parmesan – shredded
Mozzarella – shredded

Once done with the chicken, base a cooking tin or casserole dish with the tomato sauce.
Sprinkle a layer of freshly shredded parmesan chesse.
Place chicken on top of the cheese and spoon more parmesan on the chicken.
Cover the chicken with tomato sauce.
Top it with mozzarella cheese.
Bake it for 15 minutes in a 400F oven or until cheese is bubbly.

You can serve this dish with pasta (any sorts you like) or salad. I served mine with store-bought fresh ravioli.

If you decide to use pasta, remove the chicken from the baking dish and then pour cooked pasta into the dish to soak up all the tomato sauce with the gooey cheese which is in there.

If you have some time to spare over the weekend and don’t mind working about an hour in the kitchen, this is a great dish to make. Better with wine. Perfect with a loved one.

 

Toad in a Hole

That’s Adam’s favourite English dish. Eh? Apa tu katak? There are no toads, frogs or any other forms of amphibious lifeform in a traditional British Toad in a Hole dish.

Essentially, Toad in a Hole is sausage covered and baked in Yorkshire pudding. It’s a favorite pub food and also a classic dinner, usually served with roasted potatoes, vegetables and gravy.

Yorkshire pudding is an English savoury dish made from batter. The Yorkshire pudding recipe is not an actual pudding, but a baked pudding made from flour, milk, and eggs.

When my MIL came for a visit in Feb, I asked her to teach me this dish. After 5 attempts, I finally made an entire meal successfully. Success is determined by how well the pudding rise and that is determined by how hot the oil in the pan is when you pour the batter in but your batter has to be well beaten if not it will not rise even if the oil is hot enough. Simple dish yet difficult to master.

I have slightly changed the cooking methods to what my MIL taught me. Somehow my way suit me best and it works for me.

Recipe
4oz plain flour – sifted
1/2 pint milk
2 eggs
Pinch of salt

Measure flour and sift it into a mixing bowl.
Add a pinch of salt.
Create a well in the middle of the flour mixture and break in 2 eggs.
With wooden spoon, mix eggs with flour.
Add milk and mix well.
Beat the batter with a hand mixer for about 3 – 4 minutes.
Once done, let it stand for 20-30 minutes
Stir again before pouring the batter into the pan.

8 sausages

Cook the sausages in a pan and set aside.

Cooking instructions
Drizzle some olive oil into a square cake pan.
Put the cooked sausages into the pan and place it into a pre-heated 450F oven for 10 minutes
Remove the pan with the bubbling hot oil and pour in batter.
Let it bake for 30 minutes.

Adam likes his Toad in a Hole with steam vegetable, roast potatoes and gravy. For gravy my MIL suggested I get Bisto which is a brand of instant gravy powder she uses in England. Thankfully I can find it here and that saves me time from making real gravy.

I also made individual Toad in a Hole, the same method as above but just use a muffin tin rather than a sqaure tin. I like the looks of it.

If you like some British food, give this a try but please be reminded that

1) the batter has to be well beaten. Using a hand-mixer is the best way to do it.
2) the oil in the pan has to be very hot before you put the batter into the pan.
3) try not to open the oven door the first 15 minutes when it’s baking.

Good luck!

 

Guacamole

I love making guacamole. It’s easy to make and tasty.

A photo of what’s left of the guacamole I made

2 Avocado
1/2 small spanish onion – chopped (amount depends on how much onion you like in your guacamole. My youngest sis does not like much and eldest sis love plenty, so put in as much as you like)
1/2 can Petite-diced tomatoes
Lemon juice
Salt

Place chopped onion and tomatoes into a bowl. Add salt.
Scoop the avocado into the bowl in big chunks, does not need to be nicely cut.
Add lemon juice.
Mash with fork if you don’t want it chunky. I like my guacamole chunky so I just stir the ingredient together.
Taste and add more salt or lemon juice to your desired taste.

To ensure that the colour of your guacamole does not turn dark if you want to make it ahead of time, place a cling wrap over the guacamole. Yes, onto it so that there’s no air in between the wrap and the guacamole.

Give it a try!

 

I Love Me Some Barbeque

I watched a cooking program on the Food Network and was inspired to try my hands on some Texas barbeque for Friday’s dinner. This is my first attempt and did a swell job! (beginner’s luck?)

I whipped up BBQ ribs with coleslaw, potato salad and biscuit. YUM!

It’s really easy to make, all you need is time but very little work required.

BBQ Ribs
Rack of baby back ribs - you can use spareribs but it requires more cooking time and is less tender
BBQ sauce – buy a bottle of your favourite barbeque sauce.
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil

First, season the ribs with salt and pepper and drizzle with some olive oil.
Bake ribs at 250F for 1 hour.
Remove ribs and baste with barbeque sauce, return to oven for another 30 minutes.
Remove ribs and baste again, return to oven for 15 minutes. Repeat this step and bake ribs for another 15 minutes.
After 2 hours of slow cooking, crank the heat up to 450F and bake the ribs one last time for 5-10 minutes until the top part of the ribs is charred and crispy.

Coleslaw
Cabbage - shredded
Carrots – shredded
Granny Smith’s apple – shredded
Mayonnaise
Sour cream
Salt
Pepper

I bought the shredded vegetables from the store, so I just made the dressing according to how I like it and add in the shredded vegetable and apple.
Toss and keep them in the fridge until it’s ready to serve.

Potato Salad
Potato – cubed
Bacon – diced
Mayonnaise
Hard boiled egg – chopped
Vinegar
Lemon juice
Parsley – chopped
Onion – chopped
Salt
Pepper

Boil a pot of water, once boiling add salt and potatoes.
Cook diced bacon until crispy
Mix all other ingredient except bacon and potato to make the dressing. Adjust to taste.
Once potatoes are cooked, drain and mix to the dressing.
Add in bacon bits and mix well.

Biscuit is US Southern food. It looks like scones but is much softer and fluffy. It’s like a dinner roll but taste really good. I bought pre-baked ones at the store so no effort required to make them other than putting them into the oven.

This meal is really quite simple to make. You only need 2 hours to bake the ribs but other than basting them, you are free to do whatever you want. This is going to be my favourite dish to make for dinner parties from now on.

 

Chicken Pie with Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes

It has been awhile since I blogged about my cooking. Some days I don’t cook tasty enough dishes to blog about and some days I just assume the food will not taste good and didn’t take any photos of it.

Lately I have been very diligent at taking shots of my cooking and hopefully that will start me off blogging about what I cook again.

My favourite dish this week – Chicken Pie with Asparagus and Mashed Potatoes. My first attempt at making this type pie and it taste delicious!

This dish is not all that difficult to make. You first cook the pie filling, fill them into a remekin, top it off with filo sheets and bake!

Pie Filling

Olive oil

Yellow onion – chopped

Chicken meat – cubed

Mushroom – sliced

Peas

Carrots – diced

Heavy cream

Half & Half

White wine

Chicken bouillon

Pepper

Dried oregano

First some olive oil to fry the onion. Once the onion is soft, add chicken pieces. When the chicken starts to turn brown, add white wine.

Allow the wine to evaporated a little, add the mushroom, peas and carrots. Once the vegetable is half cooked, add heavy cream, half & half and chicken bouillon. I like my chicken pie creamy, so I have more heavy cream than half & half. Stir them well, add some black pepper and dried oregano and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and fill the remekins.

Cover the remekins with fillo dough, one sheet at a time. Melt some butter, have a brush at hand and get ready to cover the pie.

Cut fillo sheets into the size required. Place one sheet on the remekin and brush some butter on the sides to help seal the remekin and then on the rest of the sheet. I repeated this step 4 times for each pie but some recipes online has 8 sheets of fillo, so I guess it’s entirely up to you.

When ready, put the pies into a 375F oven and bake for 15 minutes or until crust is brown.

Asparagus

Asparagus

Butter

Pepper

Preparing the asparagus is very simple.

Boil some hot water in a pan, once water is boiling hot put the asparagus in. When the asparagus turn into a beautiful green colour, remove from water.

Place some butter in a bowl and put it into the microwave for about 45 seconds or until butter has melted. Add some pepper into the melted butter and pour it over asparagus.

This is easy to make, tasty and very filling. I like the idea of being able to prepare the filling ahead of time so that when Adam is home from work, I don’t have to spend too much time in the kitchen.

I am not a fan of puff pastry which is why I used fillo. I don’t really like the taste of the fillo and I would like to try making some sort of crust the next time I give this pie another try. If you have any suggestions for the crust, please let me know.