Food For My Belly

I call them "Green with Asian Envy" a.k.a Pandan Coconut Cupcakes with a suprise kaya filling topped with pandan cream cheese frosting and toasted shredded coconut. The reason for the name is because these cupcakes are probably the most Asian of cupcakes that I have ever made and eaten. What's there not to love about pandan or kaya (coconut jam)? Combine the both of them together and the flavours bring me back to my childhood days of eating kaya on bread. Most non-Asian kids would have been brought up on nutella or peanut butter on bread but I was brought up on kaya. Below is the recipe for "Green With Asian Envy" which I have adapted from Cupcake Central 's red velvet cupcake recipe. If you have not gotten your hands on their "Hatch That Dream" cookbook, you are missing out! So...what are you waiting for? If you love asian flavours and are a sweet tooth, do give this recipe a go! :)

This has to be one of my favourite go to quick dishes for dinner. It's so simple to make and oh so tasty. In my garden, we have a rosemary bush and a lemon tree and and in the fridge, a container that is always full of diced garlic that is ready to be used. So, here is one of my favourite recipes :)

When it's summer time, the one thing I love to eat and always overdose on is figs. That's because we have a fig tree in our garden and when its a good season, the figs are plentiful. We do not want to waste any of the fruit as it's ridiculously expensive in the groceries stores hence the overdosing on them. By the end of summer, I am already sick of figs but now, I am really looking forward to summer coz I am craving them (hopefully, it will be a good season for it). I love eating fresh figs but thought I could do something more with them. Whilst having a conversation with a colleague from Sydney, she suggested that I try stuffing the figs with goat's cheese, wrap them up in prosciutto and drizzle over them with honey and then, grill it in the oven till the prosciutto starts to sizzle. It is an amazing combination and I got addicted to making them. If you can get your hand on some fresh figs during summer, try making them :) Here is the recipe for it...

Pete and I were invited to a friend's place for dinner. They were cooking the main and I had the choice of picking between entrée and dessert. I chose entrée. As most of you already know by now, I am not a keen baker and my baked good are never quite right so dessert was not really an option for me. I wanted to make something easy which did not require much cooking so I browsed through the coles magazines that I had in my room and found this recipe. INGREDIENTS 200g rice vermicelli noodles 2 small carrots 1 lebanese cucumber 1 red capsicum 500g cooked peeled prawns 1/3 cup basil leaves 1/3 cup mint leaves 1/2 cup coriander leaves 1 cup bean shoots, tails trimmed 1/3 unsalted roasted cashews DRESSING 1 1/2 tbsp brown sugar 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce 1/4 cup lime juice 1 small red chilli, finely chopped 1 small garlic clove, crushed Place noodles in a large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 5 mins, then drain into a colander...

Century egg is something that I rarely eat not because I don't like it, it's just that I don't really cook with it. The only time that I have it is in porridge or when I am back in Malaysia eating steamboat by the side of the streets. I was looking through one of my cookbooks and came across this dish and thought I would give it a try since I had century eggs in the fridge. This dish is extremely simple and I must say, it has become one of my favourites. The dish calls for lean pork but I used pork belly instead because it was what I had in the fridge. For those of you who would like to try this recipe at home, here is the recipe...

I got a bit carried away over the weekend with cooking so I thought I will try something different, baking. Baking is not my forte, somehow baking and I are not good friends and I don't think we will ever be. Someone once said to me that baking is like science because you need to be precise with measurements while cooking is like art because you can be creative. I definitely prefer cooking coz I can never stick to colouring within the lines. Anyways, I had  too much time on my hands yesterday so I decide to raid the pantry for this...

Something that I said that I needed to conquer and I did...fried noodles! It was nothing spectacular but I am really happy with the end product. All I did was get two pack of hokkien noodles and rummage through the fridge for random ingredients and TA-DA! Surprisingly, it tasted really good. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought my mum cooked it. Next thing to conquer, fried rice.

Whenever mum goes away, I always choose to cook dishes that she never cooks to give the homestay students a taste of what else there is on offer. Tonight, I decided to cook a roast leg of lamb accompanied by a creamy garlic pasta and a simple salad. As much as I look at recipes to cook the dishes that I cook, most of them are done by feel with how much of the ingredients should go in and how long it needs to cook...that's probably why I am so bad at baking. simple salad: red onions, capsicum, cucumber and tomatoes with a french dressing creamy garlic pasta: lots of parmesan cheese and garlic roast leg of lamb: simple marinade of juice of one orange and lemon, olive oil, garlic, pepper and salt And last but not least, there was jelly for dessert which I made while the lamb was roasting away but forgot to take a photo of. If anyone wants any of the recipes of the above dishes, leave me a message :)

This post is definitely long overdue but here it comes :)  Whenever my mum goes away on holidays, I am left in charge of taking care of the household. Especially making sure that everyone who lives under our roof gets fed with my cooking. So far, no complaints so I guess I must be doing something right. Though I like collecting cookbooks, 30+ books and counting...as much as I like trying out new recipes, I am someone who likes to just open the fridge and be inspired by what I can find. This also includes going to Springvale and seeing what fresh produce they have on offer. So here are a few photos of the dishes that I have cooked while mum was holidaying in Europe... If anyone wants to know how to cook the above, just leave me a message :)

The boyfriend and I have been watching a lot of Luke Nguyen in the past couple of weeks and after every episode, it made us hungry. It also made me want to cook the dishes he made on his show.  So...two Fridays ago, I made one of his dishes. Surprisingly, it turned out better than I expected, it was very fresh and the green papaya was crisp combined with all the different herbs made it oh so much healthier to eat :) One downside was that we underestimated how spicy my garden chillies were and was suffering for a bit. INGREDIENTS 1 green papaya (180g), peeled & finely julienne 200g cooked pork belly, finely sliced 200g cooked medium tiger prawns, peeled, de-veined and sliced in half lengthways 5 green mint leaves, finely sliced 5 Asian basil leaves, finely sliced 5 perilla leaves, finely sliced 5 coriander leaves, finely sliced 1 tablespoon fried red Asian shallots 1 tablespoon crushed roasted peanuts 1/2 teaspoon fried garlic chips 1 chilli, chopped 3 tables...

One of the many Korean dishes that I thoroughly enjoy :) I have made this dish quite a number of times at home using a Korean cookbook that I have at home. However, this kimchi jjigae is my take on Marc's (norecipe.com) recipe...of course, it comes with a bit of tweaking. I was only suppose to make this dish for myself to satisfy my cravings but mum gave me the excuse of "oh I am only cooking two dishes so make enough to feed the rest". As we have homestay students, I had to make a massive pot of kimchi soup to feed 8 people. Here is Marc's recipe...(this recipe should feed 2-4 people)

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 :)

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...