Food For My Belly

Mango is in season! Sticky rice with mango, who would've thought but this is definitely a great combination and it always makes me want to go back for seconds :) I have eaten this dessert many times before but actually making it myself? Never. So here goes my first attempt at doing so and guess what? It was alright. I could definitely do a bit more tweaking to the sticky rice but besides that it was pretty good. Mango with Sticky Rice topped with coconut cream and palm sugar shavings

I decided to make the same dish that I made on Day 2 while mum was away. Two reasons for this; 1. because it's simple and doesn't take much time and 2. I was craving this dish with lots of cut chilli. Even though, it was a really hot day...everyone enjoyed dinner and a few also went back for seconds including me :P To remind you what I cooked on Day 2, just click on the following link:- http://foodformybelly.blogspot.com/2011/10/mums-away-on-holiday-day-1-fridays.html

This post will consist of no photos and I have a valid excuse for it, you know the Cadbury Crunchie bar?...looks ugly on the outside but taste good on the inside? That's the excuse I have for my two dishes; not very good-looking dishes but taste oh so yummy :) Honey Soy Glazed Salmon Scrambled eggs with coriander, red onion and tomatoes I have never cooked salmon in my life before, the only reason I did last night was coz when I was in Springvale the other day doing my grocery shopping, there was a nice juicy piece of salmon staring at me saying "buy me and cook me" so I had to buy it. I followed a recipe I found online and surprisingly, it turned out better than I expected! As for the eggs, enough said...to be honest, I don't think scrambled eggs normally look very pretty...mine sure doesn't :P At the end of the day, the homestay students still enjoyed dinner and that's what counts the most :)

Saturday was a hot hot hot day, nothing/no one could've bribed me to get out of the house...I dislike hot weather and I would hate it if my skin was to go a shade darker. So instead, I stayed home and did all my laundry...my clothes were all dry in a very short time :) Two of the homestay students told me that they were not going to be home for dinner. Lynn was also going out so only leaves one of the homestay students to cook for. But luckily, I cooked enough on Friday night and there was still a lot leftovers so I told him to just eat leftovers :) First night, FREE from cooking duties! :P

Definitely running out of ideas of what to cook but here are three of my fail-proof dishes that everyone enjoys :) Question: Is it weird that I like my own cooking? Friday's menu consisted of:- Stir-fried minced chicken with enoki mushroom in oyster sauce Garlic and pepper pork belly Chinese Broccoli topped with garlic and onion oil     The garlic and onion oil is probably the easiest thing to make, all you need is oil garlic onion and the microwave First, pour the oil into a bowl and heat it up in the microwave for 2 minutes. Then add equal amounts of garlic and onion or whichever you like more. Put it back into the microwave and heat it for another 2 minutes. If the garlic and onion has not brown enough to your liking, put it in for another minute at a time till it's brown and crispy to your liking :)

Only a few days to go before mum gets back from her holiday and I'm kinda impatiently waiting for her to get back...I miss her :P I'm starting to run out of ideas of what to cook, a bit hard when mum only gave me a certain budget to spend while she was away. And yes, I have been guilty for not touching the steph/adam project for a while now *sigh* When a family friend was living with us, he cooked us this one fish dish and I loved it. He's much older than I am...has a loving wife and 3 kids. And hello Auntie Janet, if you are reading this :) I decided to recreate this dish and it turned out alright...wasn't as good as I remembered it but I think it's also because the chillies that I had were like grass, there was no flavour at all. The menu for Thursday night consisted of:- Steamed rockling with taucu sauce, ginger and chilli Stir-fried minced pork with eggplant and cauliflower 90 seconds greens (as per Adam Liaw's recipe) I think I really ...

Tonight, I only had to cook for two people so I decided to just keep it simple coz I was feeling kind of lazy plus I had a pretty eventful day at work. Two of my favourite things to cook are:- Steamed chicken with ginger, garlic, spring onion, coriander, pepper, and sesame oil. Stir fried choy sum with garlic.  

While prepping for dinner yesterday, the main race for the Melbourne Cup was about to start so I was just guessing who would win the race. Given that I heard over the radio, Dunaden was a favourite to win the race so I just picked Dunaden. And low and behold, the bloody horse won...I should have just gone to the TAB and placed a tiny bet, it was worth $8.50...I could've made some extra pocket money! >_< gahhh and hearing on the news doesn't soothe my soul :P Anyways, back to what I cooked for dinner... Spare Rib Watercress Soup with dates and goji berries Stir fried beef with brocolli Silken tofu topped with minced pork with pickled mustard and spring onion And the other dish we had was tempura: eggplant and cauliflower served with sweet chilli sauce and wasabi mayonnaise. I did not take a photo of because everyone demolished 90% of it by the time I finished cooking the other dishes :( Overall, an awesome dinner and I'm really happy that they enjoy ...

For some reason, Mum had a gazillion tomatoes in the fridge so I thought I might as well make spaghetti bolognaise with it. Though mine is not the usual spag bol as I add other ingredients to it :P Well, maybe it's not that different but I always add brocolli to my pasta sauce. Yes, some might think it's a bit odd but I like it (so does my sis) and I haven't had any complaints so far :)

This is one of my favourite dishes to cook; lots of preparation but it's simple, quick, healthy, and tasty...and the best of all, everyone always enjoys it :) It's Vietnamese rice paper rolls!  Since I have home stay students living with me (most of them mainly from China), I always try to make sure they experience things/foods that they don't normally get back in their hometown. And rice paper rolls are always a good way of getting everyone to have a bit of fun in making their rolls :) The bunch that is eagerly waiting to start eating :) The spread; herbs, carrots, cucumber, iceberg lettuce, prawn, beef, and my special homemade dipping sauce :) When we have rice paper rolls for dinner, I stick to the above ingredients as it's simple enough and healthy. Yes, there are a lot of different herbs on either side of the photo but I absolutely love them and they're good for you!  The special sauce that I make consist of mixing shredded pineapple, hoisin sauce...

I needed to make something quick and easy as I was having people over for Halloween. So it was whatever I could find in the fridge and here is what I came up with... Saturday's Dinner From left to right:- Stir-fried minced pork with white peppercorns, pickled cabbage and tomato. Bok Choy with oyster sauce and topped with fried shallots.

This is probably one of my favourite dishes to make coz it's simple, quick and tasty. And it's always good on a cold and rainy night :) Soup Noodles with Beef Balls, Fish Cake and Choy Sum The soup:- Bring a pot of water to boil Add chicken bones (sounds evil saying carcass) and Ikan Bilis stock granules The best is to let the soup slowly boil for a while so you get as much flavour as you can from the chicken bones and the ikan bilis stock granules. During this time, you prepare the other ingredients which are:- Fish cake Beef balls Choy Sum (Asian veggie) Chives Noodles (Vermicelli and Flat Rice Noodles) Chilli Wash the beef balls and set aside. Then slice the fish cake into thin pieces and set aside.  Chop up the choy sum, wash and then drain it.  Wash the chives and then chop it up, set aside as this is to be added as a topping for the dish. For the noodles, you can use whatever noodles that you like...my preference is always a mix of vermicelli a...

Whenever mum goes away on holidays, I become the person in charge of the household. Given that we have 7 rooms; 4 of those rooms are occupied by home stay students. They pay full rent which includes 3 meals a day. Mum is usually the one that does all the cooking, so now I have become the head cook at home :) I enjoy cooking but I'm not the kind that goes out of my way to get specific ingredients to cook special dishes on a daily basis. I'm the kind that just raids the fridge and work with what's in there. So here's last night's dinner... Thursday's Dinner <3 From left to right:- Stir-fried chicken with capsicum, ginger and spring onion. Steamed fish with my special sauce (that's what MT calls it) - the sauce consist of spring onion, ginger, garlic, chinese cooking rice wine, soya sauce, sugar, and sesame oil. Stir-fried Chinese cabbage and carrot with dried shrimp.

Jenny and I are foodie lovers and we've been to three food events this year (only 1 of them, we went to separately). Last month at the Taste of Melbourne, we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly with Melbourne's Ultimate Tasting Menu - sharing 7 of the superb dishes between us from a number of great restaurants :) This is a photo of the two of us with our yummylicious cupcakes that we did not share with anyone (we were at a weekend getaway for a friend's birthday)... Jenny, Myself & our cupcakes <3 Here are the photos of the dishes that we had on the night... 'European' Kinkawooka paella cooked by Ian Curley, The European. 'European' Kinkawooka paella Slow cooked suckling lamb, pearl barley salad & truffled pecorino cooked by Riccardo Momesso, Sarti. Slow cooked suckling lamb, pearl barley salad & truffled pecorino Seared scallops, green chilli aioli, almonds and celeriac remoulade cooked by Anthony Musarra, Stokehous...

Adam calls it pearl pudding in his book but I have always known it just as sago with gula melaka (though there is coconut cream involved), its more of a mouthful but it's what I am use to and it is so for a lot of Malaysians out there. Up until now, I haven't shared any of Adam's recipe coz I think everyone should get his cookbook but I will for this one because it's a Malaysian classic and an all time favourite. Mine looks nothing like Adam's as I did not have the moulds but it taste just as good :) Serves: 8 Preparation: 30 minutes Cooking: 50 minutes + 2 hours setting  INGREDIENTS 250g dried sago or tapioca pearls Palm sugar syrup 200g palm sugar, grated or chopped 40g dark brown sugar 3 pandan leaves, roughly chopped 20g ginger, sliced Salted coconut cream 400ml thick coconut cream 1/4 tsp fine salt METHOD Lightly oil eight dariole moulds. Bring 1.25 litres of water to the boil in a large pot and add the sago. Cook over medium-low heat, ...

I decided to cook this dish for everyone who lived at home and a couple of guest, that comes to a total of 9 people. My lesson learnt? Choose another dish to make if I was to cook for a big group of people. I did not realise how expensive duck breast fillets were, I certainly choked when it came to the time that I had to pay for my goods. If I was to make this dish again, I would keep it to a maximum of 4 people, the less people the better coz it ain't cheap. Adding to it, salted duck eggs ain't that cheap either...depending where you buy them from, it can range from $1.10-$1.30 just for one. Was it worth it? I would say so coz everyone certainly enjoyed it and that put a smile on my face :) parent and child duck rice bowl Adam's recipe: 81 Steph's completed: 10

I wanted to make a simple lunch and I thought that this dish would be alright, yes it was easy enough but one aspect definitely wasn't...the peeling of the half-boiled quail eggs. An egg is fragile enough, imagine trying to peel quail eggs without destroying them >_< To get the runny yolk, you have to cook the eggs for 1 minute and 50 seconds and to stop the cooking process, place them in a bowl of iced water. To make the kushiyaki quail eggs, you then have to roll the chilled eggs in flour, then in a beaten egg and finally in the panko crumbs and last but not least, deep-fry the eggs untill the breadcrumbs are golden. This is what the eggs looks like... And the asparagus, after its been steamed... And all together + the japanese mayonnaise, it looks like this... ^_^ steamed asparagus with kushiyaki quail eggs and japanese mayo The dish was meant to have yuzu mayonnaise but I didn't make it as I couldn't find yuzu juice :( So instead, I just used kewpie...

This recipe has probably become one of my instant favourites. It is not only easy but simple and tasty :) It's meant to be spicy minced beef but I made use of the ingredients I had at home which was minced pork + one of the girls at home doesn't eat beef so win win. Also, I did not have Sichuan peppercorns so I substitute it with white peppercorns and I did not make Adam's chilli and garlic oil, I used a garlic and chilli oil that one of my ex homestay students brought over from Japan. The end result? Better than I expected, everyone who had it for dinner loved it including me! Here is what it looked like... Spicy minced pork dan dan rice bowl Adam's recipe: 81 Steph's completed: 8

No offense to all you bakers out there but I detest baking, it just don't work for me in the kitchen...something always stuffs up. The last time I made a cheesecake, it was successful enough but still not good enough. Maybe its just like the saying of "practice makes perfect" but yeah I don't know when it comes to baking... It's been a while since I have cooked from Adam's cookbook so I thought I will give this simple recipe a go since I had all the ingredients at home but yeah, long story short...it didn't quite go according to plan. Firstly, I left the liquid caramel out of the mixture which altered the taste of the cake. Secondly, the cake did not rise to my expectation (it cooked through properly though) and looked nothing like the picture! This is how a piece of the cake looked like... It tasted pretty good though if I actually put the liquid caramel in, it would taste even better. So, since I had all this caramel...I decide that I would ...

I was afraid the first time I made this jelly as I have only ever eaten it whenever my mum made it but now, I'm a pro at it. This is probably one of the simplest jellies that you can make, not that I know...this is the only jelly I make :P INGREDIENTS 1 pack of konnyaku jelly power 1250ml of water (you can push it to 1300ml; 300ml of longan juice and 1000ml of water) any type of fruit that you like (I like the combination of golden kiwi, longan (canned), and strawberries) *Note: If you are wondering where to get the konnyaku jelly powder, you should be able to find it at your local asian grocery story. They come in different flavours, I have only tried mango and lychee flavour :) METHOD Place fruits in the jelly moulds. Make sure the fruit bits are not too chunky, if the fruit bits are too big, the jelly won't set as nicely and your fruit pieces will fall out. After the hard part is done, pour 1 packet of konnyaku jelly powder into a pot. Add the 1300ml of liq...

Quinoa (pronounced keen-wah) is not a common item in most kitchens, certainly not mine but I have eaten a fair share of it from the fine foods cafe across from work and also had the chance to cook it recently. I must say, first time cooking an ingredient that is foreign to me has turned out better than expected and absolutely delicious! A bit more info on quinoa; it's an amino acid-rich (protein) seed that has a fluffy, creamy, slightly crunchy texture and a somewhat nutty flavor when cooked. Pea and Mint Quinoa Salad INGREDIENTS 1 cup of quinoa peas goat's cheese fresh mint DRESSING olive oil salt and pepper apple cider vinegar coriander a bit of dijon mustard garlic *Note: I got this recipe online and it had no measurements at all except the 1 cup of quinoa so put in as much or as little depending on feel :) METHOD Cook the quinoa according to the instructions on the packet. Drain well after cooking for a few minutes. Cover...

I must say that when Mr A and I cooked this dish, I was really looking forward to cracking my poached egg onto the risotto...I mean, who doesn't like runny yolk on their food? Yummy! smoked salmon risotto with poached eggs INGREDIENTS 2 tbsp (40ml) white-wine vinegar 4 eggs 300ml milk 1 bay leaf 250 smoked salmon (you can use trout or cod) 50g unsalted butter 1 tbsp (20ml) olive oil 1 large leek, white part only, washed, thinly sliced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 250g arborio rice 150ml white wine 350ml fish or vegetable stock 1 cup (120g) frozen peas cracked black pepper 2 tbsp chopped chives, to garnish Bring a shallow pan of water to the boil, add the vinegar, then turn the heat down to medium-low. Break the eggs into the simmering water and poach for 5 minutes, until the white is cooked through but the yolk is still soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate. (I recommend doing this last so your egg will still be warm and real runny) Put the...

I am sure a lot of you would've eaten beef tartar before but maybe not like this....this one has caviar :) Beef Tartar Peter the Great Yes, it does have an interesting name to it but it taste as good as it sounds. I stumbled across this recipe when I was flipping through a book I bought at Camberwell Market for $3. The book is called Meal for Males, A Guide to Hearty Food and Drink by John J. Poister. The only reason I attempted this dish was because I still had some leftover home-made trout caviar and I thought, why not :) Here is the recipe, hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

sweet potato mash I would like to firstly apologize for the not-so-good quality photo of this dish as I hastily took this photo with my iPhone camera before my friends and I devoured it. My mum was the creator of this yummy recipe at home after having eaten it at a cafe which I have later tweaked it and made it my own :) INGREDIENTS Sweet potatoes Boiled/half-boiled eggs Mayonnaise Juice of 1 orange Cracked pepper Cut the potatoes into even size chunky bits so that it cooks evenly. Place them in a pot of boiling water and let them cook till they are soft. The way I use to check if they are cooked is to pierce them with a fork, if it goes through with ease, that means they are ready. While your potatoes are slowly cooking away, get your eggs on the boil too. Depending on preference, you can either have them fully cooked or half-boiled for the oozy yolk, yum! When the potatoes and eggs are done, place them in a large serving bowl and mash them all together with...

Ok, we went a bit overboard with the cooking that night but there was a reason for it! I was meant to deep fry the fish so that we could have it with the fresh sambal but we didn't have enough oil for deep frying so we had to bake one and somehow pan fry the other. Baked fish with kecap manis and some other sauces, not quite sure what was in it, Lynn did that dish but it turned out really nice. Pan fried fish, served with fresh sambal (you can find it under Balinese) Stir fried cabbage and carrot (this dish is always a winner for me, it would've been much better if I added dried shrimp to it) Steamed chicken with ginger, spring onion and coriander Tomato spare ribs (this was meant to be some other sauce which had tomato in it as well but I was too lazy to make the sauce so I just left it at tomato sauce which still turned out real yummy)

I was feeling a bit lazy that night and only cooked two dishes:- ninety-second greens (as per Adam Liaw's recipe) Pork belly curry with lychee  I know some of you might be thinking "what?? lychee with curry???" but seriously, its actually really yummy. My mum usually makes this curry dish with roast duck, pineapple and lychee but I've just made use of what was in the fridge :) This would've been the 2nd or 3rd time I have made this dish. Usually, I add potatoes to this dish too but I was too lazy to deep fry some so I opted to leave them out this time around :P

Yes, I am on a mission to cook all of Adam Liaw's recipe but on the side line, I also cook for the family/homestay students when mum needs me to or when she is overseas, these next few blogposts are of some of the dishes I have cooked for dinner while mum has been overseas :) The dishes that I cooked are:- Steamed Fish with my special sauce (it's not that special really, just a number of asian ingredients) Stir fried garlic and pepper beef with snow peas Stir fried beef and bittergourd with oysters sauce (I had way too much beef in the fridge so cooked two different beef dishes) Egg omelette with bittergourd Stir fried choy sum with oyster sauce and fried shallots

I have a been a bit slack with the steph/adam project coz I have been a bit sick but all recovered now so hopefully (after meeting Adam), I will be more determined to cook the remaining recipes from his cookbook :) *I would like to add that this dish was cooked entirely by my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago as I was quite ill. All I did was make the ninety-second greens and plated up the dish. black belly rice bowl (with lemon paste and pickled chilli) The one thing I wasn't sure about this dish was the lemon paste, it didn't really appeal to me. I can say I eat most things and am not fussy but when I tasted the lemon paste by itself, I was already not keen on the idea. When we sat down for dinner and ate, I was surprised at how well the pork belly tasted with the lemon paste...it was like a match made in heaven. The pork belly, lemon paste, and the pickled chilli was so yummy, its the kind of dish where you want to keep going back for more :) It's just like Al...

Steph & Adam Liaw <3 Yesterday, I went to the Good Food & Wine Show in Melbourne with a friend. I was lucky enough to get an online special deal where tickets were half price but only for the Friday :) I had previously gone to the SBS Food Journey Festival in March with a couple of girlfriends and absolutely loved it so I thought this would somewhat be the same. The Good Food & Wine Show was bigger but I preferred the SBS Food Journey Festival as it was much more intimate and cozier. Anyways, back to what the title of this post is....I got to meet Adam and even had the chance to take a photo with him! If only I looked up the show's information earlier...I would've known that he would be there and could've got him to sign my copy of his cookbook! >_< Oh wells, at least I got the chance to take a photo with him and also told him that I was on a mission to cook all the recipes in his cookbook. He even asked me what my blog was called but I doubt he...