Saturday, April 30, 2011

My spag and Royal Wedding nite

It was the nite of Royal Wedding on Australian TV.........

A quick meal and some bubblies were needed. I grabbed a few things from Coles supermarket before heading home after work. I found this little sauce packet "Passage of Italy" in the cherry tomato bolognese sauce. Anyone ever had that? Must be new. I thought that would be interesting to have it with my pasta. Then I spotted the little meatballs on special for $3.80 a packet. "Right! This will do me nicely, let's grab some parmesan cheese and then home".

It didn't take long to cook at all and I must say that I love the ready made sauce, it tasted so fresh unlike the ones I usually get from the jars inthe Pasta section. So I plonked myself down in front of the telly and watch the Royal Wedding with my pasta and bubbly. Fantastic!

I am loving my quick pasta meal and cheers to Will and Kate on their happy day ;) Just gorgeous ...love a love story.

Royal Wedding : Photo by Ninemsn staff.




Sunday, April 24, 2011

Ice Kacang

After an insane 3 weeks of fighting with Fishpond (Yes, you still suck and I won't be back), I finally won my money back thru a Paypal claim and I am able to purchase an ice shaver from another outlet.

Ladies and Gents, please may I introduce to you my latest toy in my kitchen, xoxox to this little hero ;) ice kacang today, strawberry magarita tomorrow, who knows? But I am in love!!!! Isn't she gorgeous?

To make ice kacang, I used
Atap chee from Asian grocer, in a can
Gula melaka aka Palm sugar
Sweet creamed corn
Sweet condensed milk
Red bean dessert, I used kidney and azuki beans cooked in brown sugar and pandan




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Happy Easter!

Once again, it's that time of year....no, I don't mean Xmas. My boy asked me the other day "Is it Easter yet??? Can I eat my chocs? Whaddaya mean it's not Easter yet?"

Hmmm, so what does Easter mean to you and yours?

I know that it is a religious holiday and I love and appreciate the biblical movies on TV. They are awesome. It used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid... Seriously, wouldn't you shit your pants if you ever saw a man who can part the sea? I know I would ;)
Nowadays, for me, it's means a break from work. To spend time at home with the boy and the furkids. To celebrate and eat hot cross buns....My daily bread! Get it???? Meh, okay.. that was lame.

So, this Easter, I am going to feature and pay tribute to the talented chefs at the Quinty Bakehouse in my blog. I am a HUGE fan of the bakehouse. I am in love with the sourdough organic spiced hot cross buns. The taste is out of this world. I can't decribed it. It smells like sweet raisin toast ;) and bagel.

Quinty Bakehouse is on the web at http://www.qbakehouse.com/

It has two outlets, one in Uranquinty and another on the corner of Forsyth and Best Street, Wagga Wagga.











Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Som Tam

I love this green papaya salad as it is tangy, spicy and sweet and salty at the same time. Just thinking of it makes my mouth salivate. Drool factor 10 out 10. I first tasted this salad at a Thai restaurant in Canberra by the Melbourne Building. Since then I've always wanted to make it but green papaya is a rare find in Wagga. I have asked Coles to get them but have not seen one yet. They are also known as cooking papaya. I found some at my lastest Canberra trip. These are very dear, two of these cost me $26. No wonder, Thai restaurants here do not have these on their menu. Thank Goodness for no Fruit fly zone between Wagga and ACT. Heheh!

This would be so good to serve with crispy fried chicken and pineapple fried rice but sadly I will be having this with plain rice and peri peri chicken. Yummo for me !!!





So I am going to make just a single serve and so I will halve the papaya. Might use the other half for rojak later..yum yum! Seriously, by the time you julienned half of a papaya to mix with other stuff, it's huge!

This recipe below is adapted from http://thaifood.about.com/

Ingredients:

1 small green papaya, OR 1/2 large (your papaya should be very firm, the flesh white to light orange in color)
1/2 cup honey-roasted peanuts OR plain roasted, or glazed cashews
1-2 cups bean sprouts
1 to 2 tomatoes, cut into long thin strips (optional) I opt out!
1 red chili, minced (seeds removed if you prefer a milder salad)
3 spring onions, sliced into long matchstick-like pieces
1/2 cup fresh basil, roughly chopped if leaves are large
A handful of fresh coriander

For the Dressing:
1/2 tsp. shrimp paste
2 Tbsp. good-tasting oil, such as olive
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
3 Tbsp. lime juice
1/2 to 1 Tbsp. liquid honey, to taste


Method:
  1. Prepare the dressing by mixing together all dressing ingredients together in a cup. Make sure shrimp paste and honey dissolve fully (if using glazed nuts, you may only need to add 1/2 Tbsp. honey). Set aside.
  2. Peel the green papaya, then slice it in half and remove all the seeds. Using the largest grater you have, grate the papaya (or you can use a potato peeler to create thin, ribbon-like strips). Place in a large bowl.
  3. Add the sliced tomato, spring onion, chili, bean sprouts, and most of the basil. Add the dressing, tossing to combine.
  4. Add the peanuts or cashews* (you can either leave them whole, or roughly chop them). Toss again. Taste-test the salad. If not sweet enough, add a little more honey. If not salty enough, add a little more fish sauce. If too sweet or salty, add more lime juice. If you prefer it spicier, add more fresh-cut chili or dried crushed chili.
  5. To serve, scoop the salad into individual bowls or onto a serving platter. Sprinkle with remaining basil leaves plus fresh coriander. Serve immediately and ENJOY!
If you wish to make this salad ahead of time, combine all ingredients except the nuts and the dressing. You can then leave it covered in the refrigerator several hours, or overnight. Add the dressing and peanuts at the last minute, then toss and serve.

Monday, April 18, 2011

April Canberra Trip

I am officially on holiday... yippeee!! But I can't afford to fly overseas and besides, boy's passport is expired. Such a waste to buy another passport for just two years as he will have to change over to an adult passport soon. Anyway, we will not be heading overseas anytime soon.

However, I managed to drag the boy along again for yet another Asian heist. This time, we are off to Canberra, I like this city. I love the cold. Anyway, I promised to take him sightseeing after the grocery hunt. We went to Canberra Centre and walked the mall for three hours...  to Gold Creek Village the next day and I bought $35 dollars worth of lollies from the Lolly shop.

It was a beautiful day. I had expected, rain and thunderstorms and dark clouds. But the sun shone and we got in by lunchtime and headed to the mall after checking in at the hotel. The room was lovely. It opens up to the courtyard. We stayed at The Quality Hotel in Dickson for my "Operation Grab an Asian". I had tandoori lunch at the mall and grabbed a laksa from the Asian Noodle House in the evening.















Reptile Santuary at Gold Creek Village.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Choc and Peanut Butter Cheesecake


Firstly a big thanks to Suzanne Gibbs for her recipe on ninemsn. A sinful combination of chocolate and peanut butter...WOW! I wanted to make this since like forever and since it is my birthday tomorrow, just thought, I would whip this up tonite. Crazy huh? Yup, totally nuts!

Ingredients

200g chocolate wheten biscuits, broken
60g butter, melted
125 ml milk (I used double cream)
210g crunchy peanut butter
250g cream cheese
1/2 cup caster sugar (Whoopsy, I forgot about this...heheh!)
30g dark chocolate, melted ( Yeah Baby!!)

Method
1. Line base of a 23cm loose-based flan pan with baking paper. Process broken biscuits into fine crumbs. Add melted butter and extra tablespoon of milk and process until well combined. Press mixture over base and sides of pan. Chill while making filling.

2. Place peanut butter and remaining milk in a small saucepan and heat on low for 10 minutes, stirring, until smooth. Remove from heat and cool.

3. Using an electric mixer with paddle or V-groove beaters, beat cream cheese with sugar until smooth. Stir in peanut butter mixture. Spoon into chocolate crust, cover loosely with plastic wrap and chill for three hours, until firm.

4. Place melted chocolate in a small plastic bag and snip off corner. Drizzle melted chocolate finely back and forth over cheesecake. Return to fridge and leave to set for 15 minutes. Cut into wedges to serve.


Sunday, April 10, 2011

Thai Pineapple Prawns


Okay, so I am supposed to lower my cholesterol but the prawns were on special!!! Seriously, if they were expensive, I would have walked past and given them a miss. So I ended up buying some Crystal Bay prawns and that nite I cooked Thai pineapple prawns. This is such an easy classic Thai dish. I used a tin of pineapple chunks. I can't seemed to find any fresh sweet pineapple from Queensland at the moment. Hopefully they will be back in droves soon.

Ingredients

2 tablesppon of Thai red curry
2 red chillies
1/2 kilo of prawns peeled, with tail intact.
Mint or basil leaves for garnish.
I can of pineapple chunk pieces
I tablespoon of fish sauce
Coconut milk ( optional) I opt out, I wanted mine fiery!

Method
  1. Add curry paste to hot oil in wok
  2. Throw in the prawns
  3. Stir fry it
  4. Add a can of pineapple in juices, no need for sugar if in juices.
  5. Squirt fish sauce in 
  6. Let it cook, and voila, there you have it! Garnish with Mint or basil leaves.

Farmer's Market at Wagga Wagga

One very beautiful Autumn day, I decided to venture out to the local Farmer's Market at Wollundry lagoon. It was still very early, 8am but the stalls were starting to look busy. I can smell the smell of bacon and sausages cooking but remain on my true path, which was getting some photos for this blog. Then I saw Polka Dot Pancakes, groaned out loud!!! I ran from that stall and did not take any photos of the pancakes. Sorry lady, I am not mad, just hungry.

It was a peaceful, happy, jazzy kind of day. There were children everywhere, none of them screamed :) The golden oldies were rocking to the tunes of jazz music. The Rotary Club hired a jazz band to play while people shopped. Isn't that nice? Fathers can be seen in clusters having breaky while mothers in prams shopped. I tried to go to every stall that was food related. Yes, the soaps smells really nice but I can't eat them, sorry lady.

I met one fellow food blogger. She recognised me straightaway and I am ashamed to say that I did not know who she was. I have not been to the FoodBuzz Network for a while. She has a stall called Petite Macarons and specialised in French Macarons. We discussed my macaron epic fail ;) perhaps I should practise with her?

Just want to thank the ladies of Darkside Chocolates for your lovely sample of Belgium chocs. I have to say by the end I was not so hungry anymore, as the stall owners kept throwing food at me. I even got a glass of cherry wine! Score! Lucky I brought cash, but if you haven't got those, some stalls take credit cards. I collected a lot of business cards, so if any of my readers want more info, just yell out on comment box below. Just for info, this market is on every second Saturday of the month.































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