bread n pizza,

{ Recipe } Cauli-Crust Pizza

October 27, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Yes, you did not read it wrong! It is a pizza with a cauliflower as a base!! Seriously, I don't know about you but I personally haven't heard that before. When I first read the title of the recipe, I was like does it really work? So, I decided to try it the other night and it was a pleasant surprise! At least, both Mr. Pear and I love to go for another slice :D Com'on it is healthy, why not?

I found this awesome recipe from a new launch magazine -- taste.com.au magazine formerly known as Australian Good Taste magazine. I have bought their first and second issues. I tell you, I love every single recipe that they have in the magazine. Without hesitation, I decided to subscribe for the very first time with their e-magazine for a year :D

I told myself since I have subscribed, I have to make the effort to try at least one recipe from each issue, otherwise, I will just waste the money. I think it can somehow improve my cooking skill too :D

Anyway, get back to the pizza. Though the crust is not as strong as the flour one, it tastes absolutely amazing. Best of all, it is healthier :D The topping is up to your imagination! Why don't you go get something cauliflower and make this for dinner tonight?



[ Ingredients ]

650 g piece caulifwer, trimmed, chopped
1 egg, lightly whisked
50 g (2/3 cup) finely grated parmesan
80 ml tomato paste (original use: passata)
60 g olives, pitted (original: Sicilian green olives, I am trying to clean my fridge, so I use whatever I had)
1 chorizo, sliced
10 fresh thyme sprigs (from my edible garden:D)

[ Method ]

1　Process the cauliflower in a food processor until finely chopped. Place chopped cauliflower in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover and microwave on high for 8-10 mins or until very tender. Drain through a fine sieve, pressing down well with a wooden spoon to remove excess liquid. Combine the cauliflower, egg and half the parmesan in a bowl.

point >> it depends on the power of your microwave, it took me about 20 mins to cook the cauliflower until very tender. Remember to drain as much water as you can, coz you don't want your pizza base too wet.

2　Preheat oven to 230C/ 210C fan forced. Line a 30cm-round pizza tray with baking paper. Press cauliflower mixture firmly into the tray. Bake for 20 mins or until golden.

before

after

3　Spread tomato paste over base and sprinkle with olives, chorizo, thyme and remaining parmesan. Bake for 7 mins or until chorizo is golden.

[ Kitchen Notes ]

• My base was a bit wet. So next time I could either press harder to drain more water out or bake a bit longer to dry out a bit of the moisture. 
• Like any other pizza, you can put whatever you like, but I would advise you to precook the ingredients first as the baking time is not very long.

entrée,

{ Recipe } Hairy Melon & Dried Squid Soup 節瓜鱆魚湯

October 17, 2013 Unknown 2 Comments

mains

{ Recipe } Char Siu Pork Belly (BBQ Pork Belly)

September 19, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Sorry for the lack of posts... Busy? No, I am not. If you didn't know, I have found a job in late June. This was when I kinda stopped posting.

My work is not hard nor busy, but the travelling time to and from work is just killing me. Everyday I go home, I feel exhausted and have no motivation to do anything except sitting on the couch and watching my favourite TV shows. Yes, I am that procrastinating...

I still cook occasionally when I feel like :D Thank God that I have Mr. Pear who loves to cook, otherwise, I could have been as skinny as a stick. Ha! Exaggeratd! Anyway, I am back!

Lianne from Food Made With Love actually encourages me with her "Be Bold" post. It's like a wake up call. If you don't know, I actually started blogging roughly around 1999. I created my own homepage via Geocities (I am very proud of myself, coz I know I can never do it again).

Somehow, I stopped and started again in 2004 with Blogger. Since then on and off for a couple of times and I have started quite a few blogs all these years. I think in life, if you really want to achieve something you should be really consistent and hold on to it.

Giving up half way is now forbidden! haha! Yes, it's time to be tough to myself! I have been too lenient to myself... If I want to do something I like and I enjoy, I should give it 100% and hold nothing back. hehe... sounds so serious!

If you haven't seen me for a while, please drop me a few lines or words to remind me you are still waiting for my posts! :D I will be really encouraged by your kind words.

Ok, back to the post! If you follow my facebook page (if you haven't, I strongly recommend you to like it, as I upload photos quite often on this page, so you won't miss out too much.), you should know I made this char siu some time ago and said I will post the recipe "soon". So here we go! I finally take the time to start writing again and this char siu post is the best to start the journey.

Who doesn't like char siu? To be honest, I haven't heard anyone said he/she doesn't like char siu. Seriously, if you do have a friend doesn't like it, you should make this one for them to try. Sure they will change their mind.

Char siu is one of the most popular dishes in many families in Hong Kong. I remember when I was young, mum always bought char siu when she did not know what to cook for dinner. I like mum to have a lazy night as I love char siu especially the charred one with the crunchy touch and a little bit of fat...ummm... YUM!

We still can buy char siu here in Brisbane, but it's so much different from those in Hong Kong. Plus here, char siu is luxury good = very expensive, thus I seldom buy for dinner even I don't feel like cooking! haha...

The other day when I was waiting for my flight to Sydney, I found this recipe in Feast by chance. That issue also introduced our famous unofficial Chinatown in Sunnybank. Love to see magazine talking about things around me, feel so familiar and close :)

So when I came back from Sydney, I decided to make this one night and Mr. Pear was so impressed and complained I did not make enough! Guest what I did? I gave him the magazine and told him to cook for himself if he wants more.... hehe, I am just me being me :PP

Anyway, you should give it a go, coz it is not hard to make at all! Have fun! :D

entrée,

{ Recipe } Sunomono 酢の物 (Japanese Cucumber and Seaweed Salad)

May 29, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Mr. Pear and I love cucumber very much. The freshness and juiciness feeling make the dish taste extra delicious. This is one of the reasons that we planted the cucumber in our garden. Since we planted the seeds in February till now, we have got more than 15 cucumbers and there are more coming soon.

Now we have supply of cucumbers in our garden, of course, we will make very good use of this fresh produce. While Mr. Pear's signature cucumber salad is my all time favourite, today I made this Japanese cucumber salad from Just One Cookbook and it tasted absolutely fantastic.

Just One Cookbook and Just Hungry are my Japanese cuisine rescuer. There got lots of Japanese cuisine recipes and they are easy to follow. Good for weeknight dinner if you are always busy!

finger food

{ Recipe } Spicy Kale Chips

May 27, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Some time ago I bought a voucher from Living Social for a fruit and veggie store which I can buy things up to A$40 for only A$20. Yesterday was the day I shopped for all the beautiful and fresh fruits and veggies :D

Then I came across a brunch of kale while I was walking down the aisle. I remembered I saw kale many places... Pinterest, blog and website... It is a super food and a hardy food for winter :) Since there are so many people talking about kale, I wanted to know more about this super food, so I took one in my grocery basket. And here we go to explore this special vegetable.

When I got home, I looked at it... I was like, ummm... How should I cook this? Stir fry? Cook in soup? Or what? Then, Lianne's blog came into my mind. I remembered I read about the kale chips post from her blog, so I quickly went there to see if I have the ingredients to make it.

Surprisingly, this kale chips was super easy to make. I did not have the exact ingredients that the recipe called for, but I followed most of the steps from the post :))) and it was a great success, it was crunchy and it was super additive as Lianne warns us in her blog!!! :D

biscuits n cookies,

{ Recipe } Green Tea Chess Cookies

May 17, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

I want to make this little cookies for long. Just purely because they look really pretty. Read through the recipe, I was surprised that it is actually easy to make than I thought. It just need to take more steps to make the pattern.

There are quite a few thing I can definitely do better next time when I make it again. First, I should not do it in a rush. I remember on the day Mr. Pear and I had to go to his parents place. So I was like running around the kitchen and tried to make this happen. Second, all because of the first reason, I did not harden the dough enough which made it too soft to cut it straight and nice. Therefore, some of the cookies still had the gap in the middle.

Overall, despite the shape doesn't look what it supposed to look like and a little bit bitter, but it was close enough and the taste not too sweet too.

freezable,

{ Recipe } Pork and Vegetable Dumplings with Garlic Vinegar

May 02, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Dumplings, something like pizza. I know it is a bit weird to use pizza as an example, but seriously, you can have many different fillings, just like pizza has different toppings, right?

Another variation you can do with dumplings is how you cook them. You can pan fry, you can steam, you can deep fry or even boil them, depends on your personal preference. This time I chose to boil the dumpling and dipped with garlic vinegar.

This time I chose to use mince pork and Asian green (I used bok choy) as the main ingredients. I also put some dried shitake mushroom.

As for wrapping the dumpling, you can pick a method from my last post. The one I used is a bit complicated to explain but it is not too hard to make once you practise a few time. :D

now i know

Now i Know >> How to wrap dumplings

April 30, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

I never know there are so many ways to wrap dumplings. However, the one I usually use is not here, but it is quite close to the last one from above. So, I guess there are at least 8 ways to wrap this little yummy things.

[ source: Pinterest ]

edible garden

HomeGrown: Cucumber

April 27, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

I always want to grow some veggies and herbs in our garden, as I love to cook with fresh fruits and vegetables. However, one thing stops me from getting started... which I just thought I might not have the patient and consistency to watering the plants.

Early February, Mr. Pear and I bought some seeds from Bunnings. I remembered after we planted the cucumber seeds the next day we got the pouring rain which caused many places in Brissy under water. Our backyard has the history of water overthrowing... Of course, there was no exception for this time. So, both Mr. Pear and I were like... the seeds must have died as they were soaked in the water for such a long time. Amazingly, few weeks later, we started to see the cucumber seeds were blooming everywhere (thanks to the rain and the little flood that washed the seeds everywhere =__=). Since then, I am so excited about it and I started to take more care to help it grow better.

The cucumber plants do have a lot of flowers, but not every flower can bear fruit. So far, I can only see three to four are developing to become cucumbers :D It is very interesting to see it to develop from flower to cucumber. If I have not grown it, I would never know the cucumber actually develop from the end of the flower, unlike tomato which the fruit develop in the flower.

desserts,

{ Recipe } Apple Tarte Tatin

April 15, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Do you still remember the Easter dinner that I mentioned before? On that day, I made crème caramels for dessert. Since I was not sure how crème caramels will turn out, I made this dish for my backup plan.  I was so stressed on the day. I was so worried what if crème caramels did not turn how it should look and how it should taste... then I failed my guest... Though I had this backup plan, making two desserts was actually killing me. However, I was so glad that I made two desserts, as they both turn out really good and my guests loved them! I was over the moon! :))))

[ Kitchen Notes ]

¶ The main pressure point of this recipe is to caramelise the sugar. Other than that, this is actually not a difficult dish to cook at all :D

eating out

Place2Eat: Urbane

April 13, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

This restaurant consists of four different sections (Urbane, Sub Urbane, The Euro and The Laneway) under the umbrella of Urbane Group. These four different sections have their own menu and characteristics. Tonight, we were dining in Sub Urbane for a private function, to be exact a wedding dinner. The ambiance is classy and romantic. Sub Urbane is a tiny little room for a small size function but has a great privacy. The service was excellent and the food was fantastic! Plus sharing the meal with people you love, tonight was absolutely an awesome night!

mains,

{ Recipe } Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup

April 07, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

Oh, Pinterest, Pinterest! I don't know how I can live without you. You are so awesome and you are so addictive!! Sometimes, I can spend the whole night just browsing Pinterest. This site has all I want to see, fashion, design, craft, photography, recipes.... countless! I discovered this recipe via Pinterest the other day. Since I have not found a job yet and I think I should be a good wife and cook more for my Mr. Pear :D, I decided to make this tonight.

Taiwanese beef noodle soup best comfort food for winter time and I am so glad that we bought the pressure cooker from Aldi (though not a fancy one, it does its job quite well!). If you follow the original recipe by using the slow cooker, it will take you about 6 hours. Whereas using the pressure cooker, your dinner will be ready in less than an hour! Both cookers are amazing, but I just find pressure cooker is more convenient. :D




[ Ingredients ]

600 g beef stew meat
4 cups water
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup Chinese rice wine
1/8 cup rock sugar 冰糖
3 slices fresh ginger
2 stalks green onion, sliced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 red hot chili, seeded
1 tbps all spice powder
1 cup chicken broth
1 pack Yang-chun noodles 陽春麵 (any dried Chinese noodles will do)

[ Method ]

The below is for reference only, for a proper full version of the recipe, please click here and to enlarge the image, please click the photo.


[ Kitchen Notes ]

¶ It is important to wash the noodles under running cold water, as it helps to prevent the noodles stick together and to prevent the noodles being overcooked with the heat of the noodles.

¶ As this dish does not have any veggie, so Mr. Pear made his homemade pickled veggie to make this dish more nutrient. What a thoughtful man!! :DD

desserts,

{ Recipe } Chuanbei and Egg Sweet Soup 川貝雞蛋甜湯

April 03, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

I was talking with mum the other day and my voice was really bad and I knew I just can't lie to her that I was  feeling fantastic... I have been coughing, sneezing and having a runny nose since Easter... I coughed until like my lungs were coming out from my chest. Worst cough ever!!! I am glad that I called mum that day... She taught me to cook this soup and it helps to soothe the bad cough. She told me dad drank that one time and he got so much better. So I took mum's advice and cook this soup. It was fun to have an interesting conversation with mum when she tried to teach me how to cook it.

desserts

{ Recipe } Crème Caramel

April 01, 2013 Unknown 0 Comments

We did not have plan to go away during this Easter. Instead, we were just relaxing at home and invited some friends to come over and had a barbecue. I have made this before and this was actually the second time I made this (I normally cook most of the recipes once, unless it is very easy and/ or very delicious).

I was a bit worry about the time is not enough for the egg mixture to set, but I guess my worry was not necessary. The crème caramels (焦糖布丁) turned just nice and was a crowd pleaser for the night. :D The egg custard was really smooth. It tastes like the Chinese version of steamed sweet egg (燉蛋) but with the caramel on top. Yummy!

[ Ingredients ]

vegetable oil, to grease
60 ml water
215 g caster sugar
750 ml milk
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
pouring cream (optional), to serve
fresh or frozen raspberries (optional), to serve

[ Method ]

1 Preheat oven to 160°C. Line the base of a roasting pan with a tea towel, folded to fit. Lightly brush six 185 ml capacity ovenproof ramekins with oil to grease. Place in the pan on the tea towel.


2 Place the water and 155 g sugar in a small saucepan over low heat (see kitchen notes for this step). Cook for 5 mins or until sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, without stirring, for 8 mins or until golden. Allow the bubbles to subside then pour the mixture evenly among the ramekins. Swirl to coat the base and about 2 cm up the sides of the ramekins. Set aside to set.

3 Place the milk in a medium saucepan over low heat and bring just to boil. Remove from heat. Whisk together the eggs and remaining sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Slowly add the hot milk (see kitchen notes for this step), whisking constantly until well combined. Stir in the vanilla. Strain through a fine sieve into a large jug.

4 Pour the milk mixture evenly among the ramekins. Pour enough boiling water into the roasting pan to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 40 mins or until custards are just set. Remove ramekins from pan and set aside for 2 hours to cool. Cover with plastic wrap. place in fridge overnight to chill.


5 To serve, run a flat-bladed knife around the inside edge of each ramekin and carefully invert the crème caramel onto serving plates. Serve with cream and raspberries, if desired.

[ Kitchen Notes ]

¶ With step 2, keep an eye on the colour of the sugar mixture to avoid burning. It should be a warm golden colour and not too dark. You must be very patient with this step, otherwise, the sugar will burn easily.

¶ With step 3, make sure you pour the milk slowly and whisk constantly so as to avoid the hot milk cooks the egg mixture.

¶ Straining through the fine sieve for the egg mixture in step 3 is a key to have a silky smooth egg custard.

¶ Click here to get to know more about this dessert.