Mushroom Panda

Steamed Barramundi - Cantonese Style

2009-02-24T22:21:00.011+11:00

This dish reminds me of the special family dinners at a Chinese restaurant when I was little , they would be typically lavish affairs - banquets more like - with plates of food following one another until the turn-table was laden with delicious things. I think my favourite dishes were salt & pepper fried prawns (prawn heads with lovely juices ;), sweet & sour pork ribs and this Barramundi dish. Whoever got to sit with the kids (ie. me and my siblings, plus the siblings of another younger Uncle) was considered fortunate..because well we ate less! This dish is a cantonese mainstay and my mother would always say, the reason why it tastes so good is because of the oil you know? Apparently everything that tastes good is essentially bad for u (I love you mum). I disagree. There's not that much oil to it. Read on!

1 Whole Barramundi (Saturday one week we got one from Victoria Markets. Can't recommend it more highly, fresh, sweet and succulent whole fish, the fishmonger should clean and scale it for you).
Handful of fresh coriander
Handful of thinly sliced spring onions (white and green parts)
Small handful of thinly sliced ginger (young ginger is best, sweet and tender - the old stuff is like bark)
4 tblsp Soy Sauce
Sesame oil to sprinkle
3 tblsp peanut oil (ok traditionally you use peanut oil, but i used canola and it's Fine)

Select a plate with a shallow recess to lay your fish on. Hopefully you have a wok and steaming stand to accomodate it. Make 3-4 slices into the fish on either side. Dot the fish with sesame oil all over and rub into the cuts and on the skin. Pour the soy sauce all over and rub into the fish and scatter the ginger on top. Steam for 15mins on med-high heat. When the fish is almost done start heating up your oil gently in a small saucepan/pot. Take out your fish and lay the mixed fresh herbs on top. When the oil is hot pour carefully over the herbs. The smell will be Amazing.

Serve with some rice, and other little dishes. We did a chinese egg & onion omellette and some bokchoy in garlic and oystersauce.

I love you Barramundi. You are so sweet and delicious.

Tea Time! Mushroom Panda Green Blend

2009-02-20T22:47:00.004+11:00

"i puff the rice but rice no puff"

I love me a cup of tea. English breakfast, Irish Breakfast, Jasmine, Chrysanthemum, Oolong & Peppermint are favourites. Tea's meant to be good for you. But not just any old tea, green tea in particular for its high antioxidant content, but you know what...plain old green tea actually tastes really bland to me. Unless it has bits of puffed rice in it, then its delicious. So I've decided to turn my hand in creating a blend at home by puffing my own rice.
--
Rice doesn't actually puff I've found - not with my domestic grade appliances anyways. It just expands very slightly in size, and turns a toasty golden brown, this is what imparts the lovely flavour, the toasted effect. I puffed my rice in the microwave (just 2 tablespoons in a brown paper bag folded up abit for 1.30min) and on the stove (same quantity in a small covered pot on high till browned).

The Mushroom Panda Green Blend is born!
(the following was found in the pantry, some jars have indecipherable Chinese lettering)
Mainly:
Japanese Green Tea
Jasmine Green Tea (not the black please too much tannin - scorched tongue effect)
Sparingly:
Some kind of Chinese black tea
And lots of puffed rice!

A little tip for brewing a nice cuppa without bitterness: After the water boils resist tempation to pour it into the teapot, let the water cool for a couple of mins (this avoids burnt tea => bitterness) then brew your tea for a further couple of mins.

Sweet Plum Chicken

2008-07-20T18:05:00.007+10:00

We ordered a tasty little dish called "Taiwanese Chicken" during a visit to a local Cantonese restaurant a few weeks ago. It came in a hotpot with chicken wing pieces in a sweet brown sauce and some chopped spring onion for garnish. I'm not sure just how "Taiwanese" this dish is but who cares when it tastes good.

During dinner, the conversation turned to what's actually in this dish and how it was made. We came to the conclusion that it was probably chicken coated in flour and fried lightly with a sweet plum sauce poured over the top. We should try that out at home sometime!

So we did. I picked up a jar of SPC Plum Sauce with a recipe for "Chicken Tenderloin in Sweet Plum Sauce" on the back. It sounded very similar to the Taiwanese Chicken dish so we used it as a rough guide ontop of which we did our own customisations. Without further ado...

1.2kg of chicken wingettes and drumettes
1/4 cup port
1/4 red wine (or just go with 1/2 cup of the one port or red wine)
1/2 plum sauce
1 tbsp seeded mustard
1/4 olive oil
and some plain flour

Coat the chicken evenly with plain flour and place on an oven tray. Place the tray in the oven for around 20 mins at 210C, turning it once half way through. What that should result it chicken that it just about cooked through.

In the meantime, prepare the sauce but mixing the port, wine, plum sauce, olive oil and mustard seed in a bowl. Mix and put it aside.

Next place a frypan on the stove, turn the heat up to high and cover the pan with cooking oil. Throw in your chicken pieces and cook until it's golden. When done place the chicken pieces into a crock pot or similar and put the lid on to keep it warm.

In your frypan, put a small splash or plain flour over the existing oil and cook for a minute or two. Turn the heat to low-medium and pour in your sauce mixture. Simmer for a minute or two then pour over the chicken in your pot. And voila. Serve with rice and a vegatable stir fry for a balanced meal. For 2-3 people. A very nice little homely dish we both enjoyed before heading off to see The Dark Knight.

So how does it stack up to the myserious Taiwanese chicken dish? The dish at the restuarant was more subtle in taste, and upon reflection the sweetness didn't come from plum sauce alone. There was definately some honey in there was well. Tweaks to the second version is already planned - use a chinese plum sauce and not as much, add some honey, and perhaps use a chinese cooking wine instead of port/red wine.

Lamb Rogan Josh

2008-06-14T18:01:00.007+10:00

Slow simmered lamb in a fragrant, mild and creamy tomato based sauce. Delicious.

INGREDIENTS
1kg lamb cubed/sliced
10 Spanish onions(red) sliced thinly
1 400g can of tomato puree OR 3 tomatoes pureed in food processor (our choice)
2 tomatoes diced
1/4 cup cream or natural yoghurt to stir through at end

SPICE MIX A
3 Bay leaves
8 Whole cloves
3 Brown cardamom pods
8 Green cardamom pods
1 Cassia bark piece
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 dried chillis (split them and deseed them if you aren't a fire fiend)

SPICE MIX B
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp chilli powder (to taste)
3 tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tblsp fresh crushed ginger
1 heaped tblsp fresh crushed garlic

1. Pour enough oil (about 1/4cup) to cover the bottom of heavy based pot or deep pan and heat med-high, try not to let it get too hot and smoke. Add SPICE MIX A and stir around for 30seconds - the green cardommon pods will explode with force, so be a little carefull incase this is in your face.

2. Add the sliced onions and a good pinch of sugar to help with the caremalization process. Cook until the onions are softened down, brown and caremalized.

3. Add the meat and brown on all sides. Then add SPICE MIX B and the tomato puree and stir through. Simmer on very low for 50mins, stirring occasionaly. You could simmer without lid for the last 20mins if you find that there's too much liquid to your liking. Then turn off heat and stir through the cream/yoghurt (we went with cream).

Serve with some naan, rice and red.

Self-saucing chocolate pudding

2008-06-01T22:04:00.006+10:00

It's a winter night and you want something gooey, warm and CHOCOLATEY...This hits the spot.

Can't remember how the recipe goes exactly...but here's the pics for now =)

Butter Chicken Curry (Murgh Makhani)

2008-06-01T21:00:00.008+10:00

Making a curry from scratch at home will blow your mind, beats anything you could order out hands down.

Ingredients:
800g chicken thighs (6-8pieces), cut into small pieces.

MARINADE
2/3 cup plain yoghurt
2 tsp tandoori masala
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger

SAUCE
2 tblsp butter
2 tsp crushed garlic
2 tsp crushed ginger
1 bay leaf
3 green cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp chilli powder (to taste)
1 400g can crushed tomatoes
1 cup thick cream
1 tsp sugar

1) Mix all the marinade ingredients together and coat all the chicken pieces well. Set aside overnight ideally, but it's okay for as long as you can manage. (we only did 30mins and it was fine)
2) Fry up your chicken pieces on high heat in your largest pan, if you need to - do it in two batches so that it browns more easily. This process should take about 8mins each time. Set aside and covered with foil to keep warm.
3) Heat a large pot to medium with the butter. Then fry the cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom for 1 minute.
4) Now add the garlic and ginger and fry for another 30 sec
5) Add the garam masala, chilli powder, sugar and crushed tomatoes and bring to a boil, now simmer.
6) Add the chicken back in and simmer on low for 10mins.
7) Add the cream and bring to a boil then turn off.
9) Serve with rice and naan/chappati bread

Bloody excellent with a glass of robust red.

Enjoy!

I'm not a curry connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination - although I used to do a regular early-week curry and red wine lunch with a group of workmates in Prahran - but I must say this is the best curry that I've ever had. So rich and flavoursome, it's just to die for.

I particularly like how with a home cooked curry you can add chilli to taste. Normally the spicy factor of butter chicken I've encountered is a pretty mild to near-non-existent affair. By adding the extra kick really makes the dish and especially with a nice red wine. God I love curry with a glass of red.

We had our curry with some garlic chapati bread found at the local supermarket. Although the garlic was pretty non-existent, it complemented the dish perfectly. We did have a peek at the naan breads for sale, but they didn't look particularly appetising. If anyone knows of any places to acquire good naan, or even an easy way to make it, please leave a comment and let us know :)

Overall, best curry that I've tasted and we'll be sure to cook some more curries in the coming months. 4.5 stars.

Sunday Lamb Leg Roast

2008-05-10T11:01:00.006+10:00

2kg x lamb leg
10 x garlic cloves
1 x rosemary sprig
sea salt
black pepper

Slice the lamb across multiple times (1.5inch apart and 1cm deep) then do it again in reverse, like a criss cross pattern (see below).

Crush your black pepper and sea salt a liberally rub all over the lamb.
Crush all the garlic and embed along the grooves you've made and every so often pull a couple of leaves off the rosemary sprig and insert those too.

Bake at 220C for 30mins. Then lower heat to 170C and back for 1.5hours. When it's finished let the lamb stand for 10mins before you carve it up.

Bean & Vegetable Soup with Chorizo

2008-04-13T22:50:00.006+10:00

A hearty, delicious soup that's perfect with some crusty bread and a glass of cheery red on a cold night in.

3 carrots, diced into small pieces
4 celery sticks, diced into small pieces
1 chorizo sausage, diced into small pieces
1 onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
10 small mushrooms, sliced
6 potatoes, 3 of them chopped into medium pieces, the other halved.
2 cans of beans - we used a combo of butter beans, borlotti beans and cannellini beans
500ml stock - chicken or beef is fine but get the liquid packs instead of stock powder.
1 bay leaf
cream to taste.

Boil the 3 halved potatoes in a pot and get on with the rest of the recipe (when they're cooked you want to mash them and set aside).
Now fry the onions, garlic and chorizo over a medium heat in your largest pot until the onion is softened. Then add the carrots, celery and potato and fry for 10mins, stirring now and then with the lid off. After the 10mins is up, pour in the stock and add the mushrooms and bay leaf and bring to the boil the lower and simmer with the lid on until the vegies are done, about 25mins.
After this stir in the mashed potatoes until well combined into the liquid (this will make a creamy thick soup) and stir in the drained beans. Lastly turn off the heat and stir in a few tablespoons of cream to taste and seasoning too.

Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

2008-04-13T15:38:00.008+10:00

This lasagna is rich and flavoursome, and makes great leftovers too.
If you use pork mince instead of beef mince, the other flavours in the sauce are a lot more apparent and you avoid an almost overwhelming flavour of beef, so we do that all the time with our spaghetti bolognaise recipe. It's really up to you what you prefer, but we used a 50/50 mix of pork and beef mince for this recipe, which kept the beef taste rich enough without it dominating everything else.

Meat Sauce:
800g mince (50% pork 50% beef)
1 cup red wine
2 celery sticks, chopped into small pieces
1 large carrot, chopped into small pieces
1 onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
3 rashers bacon, chopped into small pieces
10 mushrooms, sliced
2 large jars pasta sauce (plain tomato, and I think they're 700ml or something)
1 tblsp dried oregano
1 dried bay leaf

Bechamel Sauce:
100g butter
1/2 cup plain flour
3 cups milk
100g grated parmesan

Lasagna pasta sheets (we ended up using 2x250g packs but most likely you'll just need 1)

1) Make the meat sauce first. Over medium in a large pan/wok heat fry onions, carrots and celery till softened. Then add bacon, mushrooms and garlic and fry till the mushroom is softened - couple of minutes. Transfer to a large pot. Now fry the mince in the pan until cooked through, taking care to break it up into small pieces throughout the frying process (the finer the mince the better). Drain off the mince liquid if there's a lot of it. Add the mince to the large pot, add the wine, pasta sauce, oregano and bayleaf and bring to a boil then simmer on medium heat stirring every 5 mins or so (make sure bottom doesn't burn) till it reduces down abit. This will take about 35-45mins.

2) With about 10mins to go on the meat sauce, preheat your oven to 200C. Now we make the bechamel sauce. Over a smaller saucepan melt the butter down over low heat, careful not to let the butter burn and brown. Then gradually add in the flour, stirring into the butter until it's all mixed through. Keep stirring this doughy mixture for 2mins. Now pour in the milk, a little at a time and keep stirring. This will make it easy to keep the mix smooth and lump free. At the end you'll have a very liquidy sauce, and keep stirring on med heat now and it will thicken. When it's thick enough (consistency like pouring custard) remove from heat and add in the grated parmesan and stir through.

3) It's time to layer the lasagna. Start with a layer of pasta sheets then a 1/3 of the meat sauce followed by a layer of pasta sheets. Then 1/3 of the meat sauce, followed by 1/2 of the bechamel sauce and then a layer of pasta sheets. Then the last 1/3 of meat sauce, the last layer of pasta sheets, the last 1/2 of bechamel sauce and sprinkle a nice layer of mozzarella cheese over the top of all this. Bake in the oven for 50mins with aluminium foil covered over it. For the last 10mins take off the foil so the cheese can brown.

Tropical Burger

2008-04-05T22:19:00.006+11:00

The burger consists of:

beef pattie
cheddar cheese (placed on the pattie when the pattie is being cooked)
fried egg
crispy bacon
pineapple
mustard
multigrain bun

My patties are made by getting 500-600g of premium beef mince. Finely chop up an onion, add one egg and place the mince in a bowl. Add seasoning salt, pepper and cumin and mix thoroughly. Shape 5-6 meat balls from the mixture. Place some flour on a plate. For each ball, roll it in the flour and flatten, making sure that the pattie is covered evenly with flour. And then cook in a fry pan with some liberal dose of canola/olive oil.

I must say, I love a good beef burger with pineapple.

(and beetroot!)

The Best Carbonara Ever. Really

2008-03-28T22:44:00.007+11:00

(gobble)
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
(gobble gobble)
OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG
(gobble gobble gobble)
OMFG.

So it went a little like that at dinnertime. This isn't going to win Most True-to-Tradition Carbonara of the Year award, but the taste of this interpretation is unbelievably good.

125g butter, chopped up
1 cup freshly grated Parmesen cheese
250g bacon (about 4 rashers), halved lengthways then sliced up
3 eggs
3 garlic cloves, crushed/minced
8 medium-sized mushrooms, sliced
8 spring onion stalks, sliced - discard the top half of the green section
Olive oil for frying
500g your pasta of choice. (Spaghetti, Bucatini, Linguine, Fettucine are all good here, we used Fettucine)

Fry the bacon in a little olive oil on a low heat till the bacon just starts to brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon/spatula and try to reserve the oil in the pan. Keep covered and set aside.
Fry the garlic and spring onion on low heat for about 5mins. Remove and set aside covered, once again try to reserve as much of the oil in the pan.
Fry the mushrooms until thoroughly softened. Set aside covered, after draining as much of the liquid as possible away.
Now put the pasta on boil and in the mean time get the sauce ready...
Beat the 3 eggs and mix in 1/3 of the parmesan.
When the pasta is cooked drain off all the water very well and return the pasta to the same pot, with the stove off.
Add the butter pieces and mix through thoroughly till all the pasta is well coated.
Pour in the egg & cheese sauce and mix quickly and thoroughly. (The heat from the hot pasta alone will be enough to coagulate the egg mixture to form a silky smooth sauce-coating. At a higher temperature it would curdle and you'd end up with scrambled eggs.)
Stir through the bacon, mushrooms, spring onion & garlic & rest of parmesan cheese.
Serve and eat pronto! not nice to let it cool because of all that glorious fat.

The Hard Grind

2008-03-22T15:31:00.004+11:00

So we have this quaint little hand-operated coffee grinder now at home. I think everyone would agree, nothing compares to freshly ground coffee. Takes awhile to get there on this little device though, but the fact that you work so hard to get it ground just makes that cup of coffee taste all that much better.
We need a percolator now, the plunger is a bit of waste.

Scalloped Potatoes/Potato Gratin

2008-03-22T14:46:00.005+11:00

This is such a beautiful way to serve the humble potato. With it's creamy layers of soft potato and crispy cheesy topping, you can't go wrong. It's dead simple to make too.

1.2kg Potatoes (we used Desiree)
200ml cream
100ml chicken stock (it does pay to always use real chicken stock*, but if you don't have any, use the "real" chicken liquid stock cartons by Campbell or Continental)
50g butter
1 cup grated tasty cheese

Pre-heat oven to 200C.
Thinly slice potatoes and set aside. Melt down butter and grease a medium sized baking dish with some of it (use some scrunched up baking paper). Layer the potatoes into the baking tray and every second layer or so, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Whisk the cream, stock and butter together with a fork. Pour all over the potato layers and finally top with the grated cheese.
Bake for 45mins or until the potatoes are soft and the top golden brown. If you find that the cheese is burning too quickly lower to 180C and bake for longer.

yum yum yum.

Continental Breakfast

2008-03-17T02:42:00.001+11:00

Yum! :)

Asian BBQ Pork Ribs

2008-03-14T22:53:00.005+11:00

"I want my baby-back, baby-back, baby-back ribs"
- Fat Bastard (Austin Powers : The Spy Who Shagged Me 1999)

Ribs are such messy, delicious fun. And you can't go wrong with a sticky, sweet and well flavoured marinade. This is a recipe for a chinese styled bbq taste, but really you can put anything in the marinade that you have on hand. Things that are great: Worchester sauce, tomato paste, brown sugar, crushed garlic, sesame oil, a splash of port etc. Just keep in mind that you need something sweet in there to help with the caramelization process if what you're after is a sticky sauce.

INGREDIENTS
1.2kg pork spare ribs
4 tblsp hoisin sauce
2 tblsp plum sauce/jam
2 tblsp honey
2 tblsp soy sauce
2 tblsp dark soy sauce/ABC kecap manis sauce
1 tblsp chinese 5 spice
1 tblsp paprika/chilli powder
1 tblsp vinegar
1 tblsp chinese cooking wine or sherry

Get a nice big bowl and mix all the sauce ingredients together first. Then add the pork and coat all the pieces well. Let it marinade for as long you can, preferably overnight but a few hours will do too. It'll still taste great even if you don't have any time to marinade beforehand.

Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Spread the marinated ribs on a baking tray and bake for 1hr. At half time turn the ribs over and baste with the sauce collecting around the tray. If you find that too much liquid is seeping out, you should drain it into a small pot to make into a gravy. This will prevent the baking process from turning into a boiling/poaching process.

After the hour is up you should have nicely browned, slightly sticky carmelized pork ribs that are tender and full of flavour. Enjoy!

We served this with some baked small potatoes, carrots and sweet potatoes that were cooked for the same time and temperature as the ribs.

One Hell of a Strawberry Cheesecake

2008-03-10T16:56:00.010+11:00

We love cheesecake. Oh glorious, dense, creamy one...I want to drown my face in your calorific extravaganza. Or maybe not. Here's a recipe that's an adaptation of quite a few recipes I googled, mish-mashed together to suit the ingredients I have, and also scaled-up so that we could upgrade to our larger baking pan instead of the usual cake pan we use. Coz bigger is better baby, in the land of cheese. *Note this cheesecake is made in the tradition of typical New York and other baked cheesecakes; heavy on the cream, cheese and eggs with none of that light, fluffy no-bake gelatin set rubbish tyvm. In saying that have 000 on standby in case of cardiac arrest.
Recipe notes:
Also I'm writing this whilst it's baking and this time around we didn't use a water bath. A water bath is when you fill a larger pan with boiling water and drop your cake tin inside it then bake it.
Since the temperature will never exceed 100C within the water bath, you'll avoid raising the temperature too quickly which causes cracks and uneven browning of the cheesecake surface. Another benefit is that it'll never get too hot, and you'll avoid the sunken middle sydrome of a cheesecake that rises like a souffle only to sink down when it starts to cool. However what we found last time is that it needed so much longer to cook and this time around we're being impatient as well as realizing meh, who cares about some cracks if the Queen's not coming around for tea. But we'll see if we can avoid the cracking anyways without the water bath.

Also, a baked cheesecake can be an expensive cake to make (up there with true mudcakes, chocolate ganaches and anything with copious amounts of almond meal). With the ongoing drought in Australia pushing up prices of feed->livestock->livestock byproducts we're seeing Philadelphia Cheese 250g blocks costing nearly $4. Considering we need 3 of those, not to mention a tub of cream amongst other ingredients, this cake is nearing the $20 mark which is excessive for a baked cake at home. So we substituted Philly for home-brand cream cheese, about $1.70 for 250g. The major difference is the fat content, 45% Philly vs. 35% Homebrand. Normally I would have a cry about this and refuse to sub down to a lower fat version, but in this case it hopefully won't make much of a difference, baked in with eggs and and cream.

INGREDIENTS
1.5 packet (about 400g) of Arnott's Nice Biscuits.
100g butter melted.

1 punnet strawberries
2 tblsp casto sugar
2 tblsp port (non-essential)

3 x 250g blocks of cream cheese @ room temperature
1.5 cups thickened cream
1 cup castor sugar
1.5 tblsp corn flour
4 eggs , 1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated rind of 1 lemon
pinch of salt

First thing you should do is macerate the strawberries. Dice the strawberries up into quarters. Combine the port, sugar and strawberries, mixing well. Leave out at room temperature until needed in recipe. The strawberries will have softened and reduced a fraction, leaving behind much of their juice which sweetened with port and sugar make for a lovely sauce to drizzle on the cake later.
Preheat the oven to 180
To make the biscuit base, crush up them all up using a food processor. If you don't have one put them in a plastic bag (a couple of layers is a good idea) and give that a good bash with a rolling pin until you get a fine crumb texture. Melt the butter down and mix this through in a large bowl with the biscuits, then spread out into a generous caketin or baking tray making sure to really pat the biscuit mixture down firmly with the palm of your hand or the bottom of a heavy glass tumbler. Pop in the oven for 12mins to brown a little then take out to cool.
In a cake mixer combine the cream cheese and sugar gradually, at a low speed until well mixed. (The trick to a good cheesecake is not to overbeat the mixture at any stage - saying this though we used a handheld blender that in no way blends ingredients gently. One day we'll get a cake mixer, one glorious day.) Then add in the cornflour and 1 egg at a time then the egg yolk and mix until just combined - the mixture should be uniform throughout. Add in the vanilla, salt and lemon rind. Drain the strawberries (conserve liquid for later - return to fridge) and combine with the thicken cream into the mixture. At this stage fold it in well with a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour cake mixture into the biscuit layered tin and drop it against the table a few times to get rid of any airbubbles on top.

Pop into the oven for 40mins @ 180C then
15mins @ 150C then
15mins @ 120C then
15mins @ 100C.
During this time never open the oven door. After the time is up leave cheesecake in the oven with the door closed for another hour. This will ensure a slow lowering of the temperatuer to avoid a sunken middle, as well as making sure the cheesecake sets properly. After the hour is up transfer the cheesecake to the fridge and ideally set overnight. But if you're like us and that's asking too much, leave it in the fridge until it's thorougly cooled - this will take several hours.

On serving ladle some of the strawberry liquid on top and dig in. If this is for guests beautify the cake with fresh strawberries and artsy swirls of strawberry liquid into a small puddles of cream, then make patterns with a toothpick. that might be another post another day.

Spring Onion Pancake (poured)

2007-10-25T22:02:00.000+10:00

2 cup flour
4 cups warm water
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil
3-4 spring onions

Cut up the spring onions finely (green bits and all)
Sift the flour into a big bowl
Add 3 cups of warm/hot water into the bowl
Mix the mixture while adding the rest of the water. Make sure there is no lumps. I found egg beater works best
Add the spring onions, sesame oil and salt and mix
Oil a pan and turn the heat onto medium
Take a 1/2 cup of the mixture and pour onto the pan
Tip the pan in a circular motion to ensure the mixture is evenly distributed
Cook until both sides are golden
Serve, eat, enjoy.

Serves 2 fatsos having a late weekend breakfast

No proper online recipes for this so I just had to do a little experimentation myself. Turned out really well - just like how I remember it was like as a kid.

Soy Chicken

2007-09-30T18:51:00.001+10:00

- 1 large (heavy lidded preferably) pot
- 1 whole chicken - I used a 1.2kg chicken
- 1.5 cup Dark Soy Sauce (eg Pearl River Bridge)
- 1/2 cup Light Soy Sauce (eg. Pearl River Bridge)
- 1/3 cup of Brown Sugar
- 2 tbsp of Sesame Oil
- 6 whole pieces of Star Anise
- 1 thumb size piece of ginger
- 2 large whole pieces of spring onions

Preparation

- Wash the whole chicken and rinse the insides well.
- Allow to sit and dry.
- Prepare one large pot of water (measured to ensure that there is enough water to fully submerge the chicken when it is added)
- Add these ingredients: soy sauce, sugar, star anise, ginger, spring onion and bring to a boil.
- When the water is boiled turn the heat to LOW then slowly lower the chicken inside, make sure the chicken is entirely submerged (add more water if this is not the case)
- Turn the heat to medium and boil for 20 mins - no lid
- Turn the heat off and cover lid firmly (pile an upturned bowl on the lid to ensure that no steam escapes if u don't have a heavy lid)
- Let chicken sit in the covered pot for 1hr.
- Take out the Chicken and drain the liquid from the chicken, save the stock for now
- Take out the ginger and spring onion and allow to dry.
- Combine a sauce made of 2tblsp sesame oil and 2tblsp soy sauce - brush this all over the chicken and let the chicken it.

The Dipping sauce!

- Dice up the ginger and mash it up with a spoon
- Slice up the spring onion. Slice up a few stalks of fresh spring onion
- In a bowl add 1/2 cup of stock and 1 tbspn sesame oil, mix in above ingredients

VOILA~!

this recipe is an adaption from my brother allen who apparently will kill me if i share it outside the family. GOOD FOOD IS A RIGHT to all peoples is say. and this is some GOOOOD chicken. usually i wouldn't eat chicken skin that isn't fried to a crisp, but the skin is infused with flavour and has that melt-in-the mouth silky texture that comes from fat that's been cooked with patience and care. this home made version stomps all over the store-bought soy chicken you see hanging along roast duck and pork at your local chinese restaurant.

This is the shizzle. Chicken is so tender and succulent. We ended up devouring everything on the table as pictured between two people. Side dish pictured is a simple stir fry with bok choi, carrot and fried tofu.

Spring Onion Pancakes (doughy)

2007-09-30T18:36:00.000+10:00

2 cup plain flour
3-4 spring onions
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 cup of cold water
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
1 teaspoon of salt
cooking oil

Cut up the spring onions whole
Put the flour into a bowl
Add the boiling water to the mixture
Add half of the cold water
Mix while adding the rest of the cold water until the mixture is of a doughy consistency
Add 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 teaspoon of salt and mix
Shape the mixture into little pancakes
Put a pan on the stove and coat with cooking oil
Cook the pancakes into the pan until both sides are golden.

best breakfast in the world, although i really would argue it's a snack. but apparently Peoples of R.O.C eat these for brekky. i managed to down 3 of these heavy-set pancakes before noon, then went for a nap. i think maybe with this recipe they need to be rolled out into coils then flattened, to give them more of a layered effect, and hence will be lighter. but still they're very moreish.

Had to add a bit more flour for the mixture to get a doughy consistency so it's able to be shaped. Although the pannies turned out to be quite enjoyable they did end up a bit heavy. There wasn't a rolling pin available, so it didn't help that I wasn't able to roll them out a bit more flat. I remember the original spring onion pancake to be lighter and were poured onto a pan rather than made out into a dough. Had no luck in locating this recipe online, but I'll keep looking.

Beef Stroganoff

2007-09-30T18:26:00.000+10:00

0.5kg beef in strips
1 cup of beef stock
1 cup of white wine
1 cup of mushroom
1 cup of thick cream
3 cloves of glaric
1 onion

Cut the meat into strips 1/2 inch x 2 inches or 1cm x 5cm.
Trim off any fat or gristle.
Place the butter in a saucepan over a fierce heat, add beef strips, season with salt and pepper and allow to cook rapidly for a few seconds.
The beef should be brown but underdone.
Remove beef from pan
Add crushed garlic and onion to pan and allow to cook gently until tender.
Add wine and shallots and reduce to one third, then add the cream and reduce by a quarter.
Add beef, stir, but only simmer.
Serve with rice

Turned out really awesome. Beef was tender; the sauce creamy and flavoursome. Very enjoyable. May want to do some steamed veggies on the side to make it a more balanced meal.

Yes forgot about the vegies... mushrooms sort of count, but they're not green. you should actually use sour cream not regular cream, and you probably would want to if you weren't going to use wine, just for that little piquancy. since there's wine in this recipe, no real loss there, and the sauce is delicious with the creamyness balanced with a fruity depth that only the addition of wine can bring.

French Toast

2007-09-27T14:23:00.000+10:00

2 x eggs
1 x cup of milk
4-6 x slices of bread. Thicker, fluffier bread works best (eg. Helga's grain bread)
cooking oil
a pinch of salt

Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk with a fork
Add the milk and a pinch of salt and continue mixing
Pour the contents into a shallow plate without overflowing
Get a fry pan ready with cooking oil on medium heat
Place one side of a piece of bread into the plate with the egg mixture for a few seconds
Place the bread into the fry pan, mixture face down
Cook until golden and repeat for the second side
Serve with maple/golden syrup

Serves 2

This is the pwnage bitches. So quick and simple, yet a really satisfying weekend breakfast. I've tried a few different times and the ratios in the above recipe is just right. For a little more eggiess (I think that's a word), let the bread soak for a wee bit longer or double dip.

eggy-ness maybe mike? anyways, i can't think of a better way to wake up then to these babies. (i've never witnessed the making process, one day i will. like say u served them at supper time...) awesome with your syrup of choice, kinda need a nap after though. that's what happens with carbo-loaded brekkies. i haven't had FT since i was a kid and mum made them, these are better than what i remember.