Prawn and Chicken Toast

If you have leftover bread, this is a good way to use them up. I had a gathering on Saturday and this was made as an appetizer and snack since the cooking was taking some time.

This recipe is a little time consuming, but the outcome and taste of this dish is yum!

Ingredients:

Prawns 
Chicken Breast/Thigh or even mince
Spring onion
Fish Sauce
Bread
Cooking Oil
Egg
White Sesame Seeds


For the measurements of this recipe.. The ratio is used for  Chicken to Prawn was 5 to 3. As for why there is so many options on the type of chicken is simple because you have to process the chicken and get this all sliced up. I used Chicken Breast and Tiger Sea Prawns and because I don't have a food processor, I simply used my knife and chopped away. Tedious, but it gets the job done. Plus I like to have some texture and chew in my food so having chunks of meat around to bite on was nice. 

When I made this, I used 500g of chicken and 300g of prawns. You can always choose the ratio you like, for example, if you prefer for prawns, add more, if you're allergic to prawns, just stick with chicken all the way. It's really flexible. Oh yes, I used one eggs and around slightly less than one tablespoon of fish sauce. 

• Step 1, cut up or process the chicken and prawns 

• Step 2, cut up the spring onions 
• Step 3, Mix the chicken, prawn, spring onion, fish sauce and egg together
• Step 4, (OPTIONAL) Take your bread loaf and slice off the edges

Because you're using stale bread, the edged are generally already harden and it would be difficult to bite into. I save the edged and usually eat them together with soup :)

• Step 5, Pour out the sesame seeds on to a plate. 
• Step 6, Evenly spread the mixture of chicken and prawn onto the slices of bread.
• Step 7,  Press the bread down over the plate of sesame seeds to coat it evenly. Or scatter the seeds over the bread, but ensure you press the seeds down to stick to the mixture if not they will fall out.
• Step 8, Pour a generous amount of oil over a pan and heat
• Step 8, When the oil is heated, with the sesame side facing downwards, place it into the pan to cook the mixture. 

Please don't flip the slices over and fry the bread side. With the amount of oil, the bread will soak it up and you will be biting into a soggy piece of oily bread, 

• Step 9, Ensure that the mixture has bee completely cooked and serve on a plate. 

This recipe used up an entire big loaf of bread. If you live in Sydney, you know the $2 Woolworths bread? Yep, I used up that entire loaf and I still had leftover mixture. I stored the leftovers and fried them as little patties the next day. 

Hugs for everyone~ nom nom nom

Creamy prawn pasta

So... I'm in love with spaghetti noodles. I don't know why, but I just do. So today I decided to give myself a treat. I didn't have milk or anything much in my fridge so I was kinda limited on what I could make.

I'm only left with prawns and a few vegetables here and there. I cook every day so my ingredients run out really fast.
I absolutely love creamy pasta and this is so easy to do. So I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients:

Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Prawns (100-150g)
Spaghetti (around 1 serving) 
Thicken Cream (100-200ml) 
Parmesan Cheese 
Oregano (or any herbs you like)
Pepper
Cooking Oil

If you noticed from the ingredients, there is no salt as the flavour of the dish will come mainly from the cheese. So I didn't place measurements on the cheese because it solely depends on how salty you like your dish to be.

• Step 1, boil some water in a pot. 

• Step 2, while the water is taking it time to boil, cut up the garlic and prawns (optional).
• Step 3, when the water boils, place the spaghetti in.
• Step 4, when the spaghetti almost reaches al dente, heat up the oil in a saucepan.

Make sure that there's not too much oil or the dish will turn out really oily due to the thicken cream and excess oil.

• Step 5, when the oil heats up, throw the cut up garlic into the pan.
• Step 6, drain the spaghetti and when the garlic fragrance is in the air, throw the spaghetti in the pan and mix. 
• Step 7, pour the thicken cream, herbs and pepper into the pan and mix well.
• Step 8, add the prawns into the pan. 
• Step 9, take a grater and grate the cheese onto the top of the pasta in the pan. 
• Step 10, mix it well and taste to see if the dish's flavour is strong enough. 

A very simple dish that is filled with creamy goodness. IMPORTANT: Towards the end if the cream is still very liquid like, just allow it to boil a little longer so that it thickens up :)

You can't really go wrong with this dish and if you're feeling like relaxing, add a nice glass of wine. I had a nice Crimson Cabernet to go along with this. I prefer sweet wines with little alcoholic taste. I don't mind strong alcohols like whiskeys and scotch or even simple beers, but one thing I can't stand in my wine is an overly powerful alcoholic taste. So if you're like me and generally prefer something softer and sweeter on their palates, try the moscato from Banrock Station.

The moscato from Banrock station are sweet. When I say sweet I mean that you can't taste a single hint of alcohol unless you're really sensitive to it. If you want to try this drink, it's cheap in Australia liquorland and it cost below $10. With most wines, you can enjoy this one chilled. 

If you're looking for something a little stronger, not so sweet with that slight alcoholic taste, you can try Banrock stations's Crimson Cabernet. For myself I prefer to drink this at room temperature (which currently it's winter so it's still cold) or just slightly chilled. It's alcoholic taste gets a little too heavy for me to enjoy the drink if it's too chilled. 

One reason why I absolutely LOVE Banrock stations's is that they are great to just chill and drink, affordable and because they are cheap and taste good, they're great to work with in the kitchen. I can make dishes using these wines without feeling heartbroken because they're expensive or that they're not good enough to bring out the flavour of the dish. 

So if you're on a budget, this is definitely one brand of wine you could try :) 

Hugs for everyone~ Don't drink too much!

Stir fried rice vermicelli with chicken

 Hello~ I was getting a little homesick so I made myself some rice vermicelli. In Singapore we call it beehoon. This used to be something my family used to cook cause it was easy to make, delicious and you could store it for a couple of days (1-2days). So when they got really lazy, I remember eating this for 2 days for lunch and dinner. You would get so sick of eating it, the reason why my brother and I ate it was just so we could finish it and get something new to eat.


This recipe is very flexible so you could add in almost any other ingredient you think would go well with it :)

Ingredients:

Rice vermicelli (3-4 serves)
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Chicken (~100-150g)
Light Soy Sauce (depends on how salty you want it to be)
Dark Soy Sauce (~1 tbs) [OPTIONAL]
Carrots (1 or 2 sticks)
Nappa Cabbage (5 leaves) 
Sesame Oil or any normal cooking oil you use

If you would prefer your noodles to look whiter, then don't add in the Dark soy sauce. Dark soy sauce only changes the flavour slightly but it does allow your food to look darker. 
Sesame oil gives the dish a slight fragrance compared to other cooking oils. It just gives it that extra yum, but you can cook it with normal cooking oil if you're not picky.

• Step 1, boil some water in a pot. 

• Step 2, while the water is taking it time to boil, cut up the garlic, carrots, nappa cabbage and chicken. For the nappa cabbage separate the parts of the stem and leaves. 
• Step 3, when the water boils, throw in the nappa cabbage STEMS and carrots.

• Step 4, when the nappa cabbage stems turn translucent and the carrots are almost soft, heat up oil in a sauce pan.

The most important part is to ensure that the cabbage stems are translucent as I always find that they take more time to cook. You can eat carrots raw, but I don't think you want to eat nappa cabbage raw.

• Step 5, throw in the garlic and when you can smell the fragrance of garlic, throw in the nappa cabbage LEAVES.
• Step 6, when the leaves in the saucepan softens, drain the stems and carrots from the pot (try to keep the water) and mix them into the saucepan.
• Step 7, add more water into the pot and place over the fire to boil. 

By keeping the water, the noodles get the slight vegetable flavour of the water and the water also boils faster.

• Step 8, when the water starts to boil, place the rice vermicelli in. 

Vermicelli cooks fast so I usually keep a close eye on it. You don't want the noodles to be so soft that they just break off everytime you try to pick them up.

• Step 9, throw the pieces of chicken in to the saucepan and mix.
• Step 10, when the vermicelli has softened till al dente or almost al dente, drain the water and mix the noodles into the saucepan. 
• Step 11, season with the different soy sauce and make sure it is well mixed. 

Best way to check if you dish is well mixed is the colour. If you're using dark soy sauce, it is immediately noticeable as you will have very dark and light areas. If using light soy sauce, it may be harder to differentiate as everything looks so light.

• Step 12, double check if the chicken is cooked and serve :)

Cooking chicken is difficult. It's a very versatile meat, but it is difficult to cook to perfection. If you don't grasp the timing right, it gets overly tough, if you don't cook it long enough, it's still raw. After a while you get used to it and you can gauge and estimate the timing. 

Just for ideas~ It's always good to envision the end product you want to create. The other ingredients that can go well with this recipe... Corn, pork, beef, broccoli (you could try :p), peas, dried shrimp (if you want that flavour in the dish), peanuts ( the chinese can peanuts that are soaked in sauce). Well just some ideas. I regret not putting corn in though, A slight burst of sweetness from the corn would have been nice.

I was thinking of adding photographs with the steps but half the time I make dishes on impulse and I don't really know how they would turn up. Almost everything I think of making is based on how I feel that day and I usually have never tried the recipe before. The pasta bake and this recipe was just something I thought of doing up on the spot and both these recipes are something I thought of along the way.

 

Usually I think of the main ingredient I wish to use for a particular dish and then I start to wrap my head around the different things I can make with it. I hardly do a recipe more than twice. I do the basic foundations of the recipe but I swap the seasoning or ingredients to see what different flavours I can bring out of the dish. 

 

It's not fun to always stick to same recipes and keep doing them over and over again. They may taste like the most amazing thing ever, but I want to try all different tastes in my mouth and have fun exploring the different combinations of food. I think cooking is like life, always moving forward and always changing. That's what makes it so exciting! Two ingredients that you never thought wouldn't be able to compliment each other, tastes so amazing. It's like a every little bit you take is a little secret that you share with the food and your tongue. 

 

Haha I know, I sound crazy. But I absolutely love food. It's the one thing that puts a smile on my face no matter how bad my day has been. It allows me to be creative and express myself. It sounds weird because people express themselves with art and crafts and then there's me. Expressing myself with food. :p 

Hugs for everyone! Have fun expressing yourself through food :3

Sweet potato pasta bake

I made a sweet potato pasta bake the other day. It's a really simple and easy recipe. Plus, if you're lazy and you don't want to have a ton of washing up to do after cooking, this recipe is definitely one you should try!

Things to note: I know it looks like a lot of steps. And I can't really give an estimate on the time for the pasta to cook in the oven since I honestly didn't pay attention at all. Sorry about that... even the amount of ingredients I use are all estimates. I've become so used to just grabbing and throwing it in without wondering how much I actually used. I'll try harder to take some measurements next time!

I generally prefer to recipes with more steps because I hate it when people compile what you're suppose to do into one step to make it seem like there are lesser things for you to do. It always ends up with me forgetting one part of the step. So in the end it's like this is step 1 part a, part b part c... and I miss little steps here and there :( Generally the more steps there are in a recipe, the clearer the process is.

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes
Milk (I used around 1 cup, but just as long as you have enough to cover the pasta)
Thicken cream (I used around 1/3 cup)
Herbs (I used thyme, rosemary and oregano)
Fusilli pasta 
Cheddar cheese
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

• Step 1, preheat you oven. Generally around 180 degrees Celsius will do. 

• Step 2, peel the sweet potatoes and cut them into slices. 

Make sure they're thin enough so you don't wait forever for them to cook. 

• Step 3, place the sweet potatoes in the bowl and pour around a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper. 

When I mean a pinch, I really do mean, a BIG pinch like you see on television. I used to place literally a mini pinch of salt and when I saw how everyone was doing in on television programs with a HUGE pinch of salt... I was telling myself how the term is so deceiving -.- 

• Step 4, take your oven proof dish and layer the bottom with sweet potato. Ensure you still have leftovers for the top layer

• Step 5, place the dry uncooked pasta above the potatoes and try to even the layer. 

• Step 6, mix the milk, thick cream and herbs (you can choose the herbs you want). Pour this mixture into the ovenproof dish. 

Ensure that the pasta is completely submerged in the mixture. 

• Step 7, layer the sweet potatoes above the pasta

• Step 8, change the settings of my oven from a forced fan surround for 360 degrees to just allow heat from the bottom. 

This will ensure that the milk will boil and cook the pasta before the sweet potato on the top burns.

• Step 9, when you notice that the pasta has been cooked or is almost at al dente, take out the ovenproof dish and give a good amount of cheddar cheese to cover and layer the top.

 I used vintage cheddar cheese so I just required a thin layer of cheese to give the dish a full flavour.

• Step 10, place the dish back in the oven and for the cheese on the top to cook, place your oven into full force fan surround at 360, or even just the top if you notice that your pasta is getting a little too mush already.

This step is to just melt the cheese above and give it a nice crisp.

• Step 11, Once the cheese has melted, enjoy! :D

I was extra lazy so I ate out from the dish. Since the dish is for myself and it saves up on washing, why not :p Don't get me wrong, I don't hate washing up. I don't mind it. It's just not something I want to do since it's winter I'm pretty sure that no one would like to do something that would make you any colder that what you already feel.

For this recipe if you would like to add in extra cheese such as Parmesan, it could be added together into the milk mixture. You wouldn't have to use salt since the Parmesan would give it a nice salty flavour and the cheddar cheese you use for the top should be mild. For the top layer of cheese you could also use mozzarella.
The reason why I chose cheddar for this recipe is because I love it's nice sharp flavour and it's less expensive and easier to buy compared to the other cheeses.

So if you have sweet potatoes and you have a craving for pasta, try this out!

Hugs for everyone~ I hope you enjoy the meal!