What's for dinner?

Christmas eve.

We had the company of our good friends who flew in from Perth with their 2 girls to spend the festive season with us in Japan. They arrived at noon on 24 December and we enjoyed a lovely dinner that evening to celebrate christmas.

 

  

What's for dinner?

Chickpea curry.

I made this dinner in about 20 minutes. It was fast, and fuss-free. This is perfect for vegetarians with the main ingredient being chickpeas and the rest were just canned whole stewed tomatoes, zucchinis and baby spinach leaves. As for the curry base, I used Sharwood's mild curry paste. I always have homemade rempah (curry paste) prepared by my mum and I would bring them back from Singapore and keep them for ages in the freezer. But I only use this rempah when I make chinese or malaysian style curry as I just don't think they suit indian curries. So if I cook indian curries, I use my trusty Sharwood's that I can easily get from the local supermarkets.

Served on warm steamed rice. A perfect dish for winter.

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What's for dinner?

Comfort food again - chicken porridge this time. It was meant to be the classic lean pork porridge with century egg but I preferred chicken instead and I had no century eggs at home. So I made the chicken porridge and served salted eggs (which I love by the way) on the side. It was a bliss eating this on a cold, winter night.
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What's for dinner?

I know I just did a What's for Dinner post recently but I can't not share this (actually....I just wanna boast about this so indulge me OK).

So like I mentioned in my latest update, I attempted my very first Bouef Bourguignon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_bourguignon), Julia Child's version. For those who cannot be bothered clicking on my link to wikipedia on a detailed information, this is basically a beef stewed in red wine in a french way. It is one of the most well known and classic french dish. I love stews, especially in cold winters and I have made my own versions of beef stews many times, occasionally with red wine, and other times just in stock and herbs. But a good friend of mine sent me a dvd of the movie "Julie and Julia" earlier this year as a surprise gift (thanks babe!) and I was so inspired after watching it. Julia Child was an american lady who lived in France in the 1950s as her husband was based there as a diplomat. She was trained at the famous Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and became an expert in french cooking.

I have always been intrigued by french style of cooking and have heard of the famous classic boeuf borguignon before but there was never a motivation to challenge this. So after watching this movie, I was all inspired and raring to give it a go. My sweet hubby then bought me 2 of Julia Child's cookbook - Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 and 2! Boeuf borguignon HAS to be the very first dish that I try. My husband's grandparents are visiting us from Perth and staying at our place at the moment so I made this a couple of nights ago.

Boef borguignon accompanied by 2 side dishes - sauteed onions and mushrooms, and buttered peas. I also prepared some plain rice to go with it as the stew itself is a very intense flavoured dish. And buttered peas are recommended as a preferred side dish.

The star of the dinner. My boeuf borguignon!

The truth is, I have never eaten the dish cooked by Julia Child of course and I don't really know how an authentic boeuf borguignon should be like. I followed the recipe and this just tasted like a really good beef stew. And the flavour is very very intense and unlike any other beef stews that I had made in the past. In fact, I have to say it was the best stew I have ever eaten! But the recipe is not so straightforward and cooking time is long. I doubt I will be making this dish again like an everyday dish.

And the dessert after dinner!

 

I made this berry tart because I saw gorgeous punnets of black berries, raspberries and blueberries at costco the other day. Straightaway the bulb in my head lit up - berry tart! I will not be putting up any recipes today as I doubt anyone is interested anyway.

So the dinner went well. Everyone seemed to love it. Either that or they are just entertaining me by boosting my ego. I'll take any compliments that come my way. I don't care!

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What's for dinner?

As a diehard foodie, I love experimenting (and eating of course) different types of cuisine. But on days that I feel lazy, sickly, moody, busy, or simply uninspired to cook, I always turn to my comfort food. I am a Singapore born chinese but my paternal grandparents migrated from Canton in China to Singapore many many years ago. So growing up, dinners were always typically cantonese style soup accompanied by 2 vegetable and meat or fish dishes. And rice of course. Gotta always have white rice.

When I first moved to Australia a couple of years ago, it took me a while to get used to the fact that rice would no longer be my staple food. I also had to learn how to cook as I didn't like the takeaways type of food. Chinese food was the first type of cuisine I tried to pick up simply because it was the most familiar to me. It was my roots. And although I can now cook the more exotic kind of cuisines like thai or indian, chinese food will always be my comfort food. The food that brings me fond memories of growing up.

A couple of nights ago, I felt like eating my good old chicken and mushroom claypot rice - a recipe that was created by my mother. I don't often cook chinese food for dinner because I don't think my husband fancies them that much. But he does like this dish and I cook this every now and then. And sometimes on days that I don't have much stuff in the fridge. The main ingredients are chicken pieces and shitake mushrooms. Super easy.

The picture doesn't really do this justice but believe me, it is a very, very delicious dish. And it doesn't take long to cook at all. But I'm not sharing this recipe today as I can't exactly tell you how much ginger juice to add, or how much chinese cooking wine to use for the marinade. Everything is by estimating and that was how my mother taught me. I have kinda gotten used to that and everytime I cook this dish, the taste turn out to be about right. My mother will be so proud of me :)

Comfort food - the food that brings you fond memories. It may not mean much to you who are living so close to home but to someone like me who is always living so far away from family, cooking a meal like this is very heartwarming. Believe it or not, a lot goes on in my mind whenever I prepare my comfort food. And I often do so with a smile on my face.
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What's for dinner?

I used to prepare a dinner like this once a week. It is usually organic brown rice, assorted vegetables steamed and served in a chinese bamboo steamer, miso soup and a steamed/panfried/grilled fish or chicken. But my usual weekly dinner routine has been disturbed by our recent travels so it has been a while since I prepared this healthy dinner.

The other day I found several types of vegetables lying around in the fridge so I decided to make this meal to use them up. Before living in Japan, I used to just buy instant miso soup packets that are sold in the supermarkets but now that I know how to cook miso soup from scratch, I no longer rely on those instant satchets that are packed with msg. Home cooked miso soup really do taste sooo much better. And healthier too. I also had some frozen scallops in the freezer and decided to throw them into the soup together with some diced zucchini and shredded chinese cabbage. The scallops and cabbage were a magical addition and made the soup a lot sweeter than usual. My 3 year old loved the soup so much!
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What's for dinner

Pineapple salsa, panfry fish fillet and carrot rice.

I find pineapple salsa works very well as a side condiment to fish. It is a little tart, with a slight hint of sweetness, and helps to add some dimension to a simple dish like a sea salt and black pepper seasoned fish fillet.

Recipe for pineapple salsa

Freshly chopped pineapple
Diced red onion
Diced red chilli (I left this out as I didn't have any at home)
Italian parsley
Pinch of sea salt
Pinch of black pepper

Mix all of the above in a bowl. Let it sit for at least an hour before serving.

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What's for dinner?

The house is almost unpacked with just a few boxes lying around but I'm still trying to settle in my usual routine and playing catch up with chores and errands. I was looking at some photos that were taken before I went to Singapore and saw this which I have yet to post.

This is my "What's for dinner" post this week (for those who visit this blog frequently will know that I like to post an entry on what's for dinner once a week).

I'm pretty particular about Aiden's nuitrition and keep track of what he eats in a week as a general guideline. Above is one of Aiden's typical dinner - steamed fish fillet (seasoned with ginger, sesame oil and a dash of soy sauce), rice and a salad. He loves fish which is great as they are full of nutritional value and is especially good for brain development. I mentioned before that Aiden doesn't really like cooked vegetables so I iend to prepare a green salad as a side for him.

This is his way of showing appreciation for his dinner.












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What's for dinner?

Salad with raw "scallops" and cauliflower soup.

The "scallops" are actually sliced oyster mushroom and they really resemble scallops. My husband and I eat a couple of raw dinners every week in our journey to better health. We don't consider ourselves raw foodists (who usually eat at least 70% raw food in the daily diet) but having a good amount of raw meals everyweek helps to cleanse and recharge our bodies. By raw, it means that food should not be heated above 50 deg C as cooking and overheating destroy the enzymes of all food and kill the nutrients.

The other night I made a huge mixed green salad with a simple honey and red wine vinegar dressing. I love raw mushrooms so I threw in some marinated oyster mushrooms (recipe below). Sometimes we have our dinner just like that but I wanted to add on a soup to bulk up. Raw soups are not exactly my favourite so I made some cauliflower soup to go with the salad. Yums!

Raw "Scallops" (marinated oyster mushrooms)

Marinate thickly sliced king oyster mushrooms in olive oil, apple cider vinegar and tamari for at least 2 hours.

Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients:

1 cauliflower (chopped)

1 medium brown onion (chopped)

2 garlic cloves (bruised)

3 to 4 cups vegetable stock

2 small bay leaves (or 1 large bay leaf)

Method:

- Sauteed onion and garlic until fragrant.

- Add cauliflower and sauteed for another minute.

- Add stock and bay leaves.

- Bring to a boil and let simmer until cauliflower is tender.

- Let the soup cool.

- Remove bay leaf from the soup and blend.

- Reheat the soup just before dinner.

I served my soup with a peppery heart. Told you I'm a sucker for aesthetics!

What's for dinner?

My husband and I love indian cuisine so I cook indian meals from time to time. I craved for tandoori chicken the other day after coming across a recipe online. This isn't the first time I make tandoori chicken but I used to get ready made marinade from the shops so this is the first tandoori that I have made from scratch. It wasn't difficult but you do need to get the timing right as the chicken has to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not more than 8 hours. The end result was so satisfying that I don't think I will ever revert to using store bought tandoori marinade ever again.
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Recipe

Ingredients
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp sweet (not hot) paprika
1 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 whole chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs), or its equivalent, skinless, bone-in
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Method
Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat, then cook the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, garam masala and paprika, stirring often, until fragrant (approximately 2-3 minutes). Let cool completely.

Whisk in the cooled spice-oil mixture into the yogurt, then mix in the lemon juice, garlic, salt and ginger.

Cut deep slashes (to the bone) in 3-4 places on the leg/thigh pieces. Just make 2-3 cuts if you are using separate drumsticks and thighs. Coat the chicken in the marinade, cover and chill for at least an hour (preferably 6 hours), no more than 8 hours.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and shake off the excess. You want the chicken coated, but not gloppy. Panfry the chicken to brown it.

Turn the chicken so it is brown (even a little bit charred) on all sides. Transfer into a roasting tray and bake in in oven at 180 deg C. The chicken is done when its juices run clear. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
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I served the chicken with a vegetarian pilaf (basmati rice cooked in vegetable stock and mixed vegetables) and a cucumber raita. I don't want to crowd this page with recipes so if there's anyone interested in having the rice and raita recipes, just leave me a comment :)

If you like tandoori chicken like I do, give this recipe a go. Cooking from scratch really isn't that hard and I promise you the result is oh so worth it!

What's for dinner?

Chef's salad (me the chef. I just use whatever vegetables I have in the fridge) with red wine vinegar dressing, pork cutlets and carrot rice.

What's for dinner?

Various type of vegetables (steamed and served in the chinese bamboo steamer), steamed fish (chinese style), miso soup (home cooked) and brown rice.

We usually have this once a week for dinner. I will use whatever vegetables that are in season, and the fish (white fish or salmon) will either be steamed or grilled. Miso soup is very easy to prepare and I like to cook it in various types of combination - sliced okra with tofu, dried beancurd with spring onion, tofu with wakame (a kind of seaweed), or just with mini clams. The list can go on as there are so many things you can add into the miso soup.

I like to serve this dinner in individual portions on a bamboo tray (I'm such a sucker for packaging). The serving in this picture is for one. Just look at how pleased my husband was with his dinner!