2009 Public Holidays

A lot of long weekends... good year to plan for short getaways... heh...
(click to get a larger image)

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup

Had been "eyeing" this recipe for quite some time, and I finally managed to give it a try tonight. Looking back at my blog entries, it had been quite a while since I last cook. Since it's already the school holidays, I hope I'll have more time to try out the other few recipes that I've bookmarked.

Anyway, back to the soup. I almost didn't want to continue with it coz I was tearing like crazy while cutting up the big onion. I was only cutting up one half before my eyes started to sting, and I hadn't begun chopping it yet! But having bought all the ingredients and missing lunch, I just had to endure. It was almost as bad as being in a temple full of the smoke from the joss sticks and it all gets into your eyes. So, the onion ended up in cubes instead of being chopped as stated. (that's why you can see chunks of it from the picture)

One thing to note, as you would likely read from the reviews of the others from the original recipe, is that the onions need to be cooked much longer than 3 minutes to soften it. Also, if you prefer smooth and creamy soup to which you can swallow instead of having to chew, you can take an extra step to blend it in a food processor before serving.

Tomato Spinach and Basil Soup
4 servings

Ingredients :

- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 1 (28 ounce) can tomato puree (do your conversion here)
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- 2 cups fresh spinach, torn
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

Directions :

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes. Stir in milk and cook for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in tomato puree and sugar. Mix well, cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Add spinach, basil, salt and pepper and simmer, uncovered, for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese, if desired.

Tan Hong Ming

This is sooooo cute!!!

Curry of Love...

.... made by the grandmother of one of my tuition kid. I was quite surprised when she handed me the packed bowl of hot, steamy curry when I was about to leave. I have been giving tuition for so many years, no doubt some parents had made sandwiches, or bought snacks for me to eat, but this was the first time that I actually got a homemade meal to bring home. I'm not sure why, but it kind of made me miss my late ah mah...

Photo fun!

Check out what you can do with your pictures from this site! :)

Dark and white chocolate cookies

I know what you are thinking, "where on earth is the white chocolate?". Before I reveal the answer, I need to show you what I had envisioned when I decided to make this cookie - here it is.

Looks fabulous, right? Ok, ok... stop comparing that picture with mine here, I know both are completely worlds apart. I was not too sure what kind of white chocolate to use, so I got the Cadbury white chocolate. But after baking, the white chocolate was 'burnt'.

I guess I should have gotten the white chocolate for baking and not the normal one. But luckily, they didn't taste that bad, just a little on the sweet side. So for the following batches, I stuck the white chocolates in between the cookies.

Since there was a family gathering over the weekend, I brought all the cookies over and let them try. My uncle was quite the supporter, and even gave them another name, 牛粪饼 = cow dung biscuits. Though it might sound disgusting, there was somehow a sense of "rightness" to it when my uncle said it in Teochew. Haha.

Dark and white chocolate chunk cookies

Ingredients :

- 2 2/3 cups bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chunks, divided
- ¼ cup (½ stick/57g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup (88g) packed golden brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- ¾ cup (105g) self-rising flour
- 3 ½ oz (98g) high-quality white chocolate, very coarsely chopped

Directions :

1) Preheat oven to 175ºC/350ºF. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

2) Stir 2 cups chocolate chunks with butter in heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth; cool 10 minutes.

3) Beat eggs and sugar in large bowl until well blended. In low speed, beat in melted chocolate mixture and vanilla, then flour. Stir in remaining 2/3 cup chocolate chips; let stand 10 minutes – this is a very important step, since the dough is fluid and won’t set until the chocolate cools.

4) Drop cookie dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies 2 inches (5cm) apart. Press white chocolate pieces into top of cookies, dividing equally.

5) Bake until cookies look puffed and slightly dry on top, about 13 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets, then carefully peel them off the paper using a wide metal spatula.

A little over a decade

The husband just reminded me that we have been together for about 150 months as of today.

Wow.

Baked Chicken and Carrot Porridge

Because of the opened pack of chicken stock which had to be used up within 7 days, I went through my collected stack of recipes and found one from Simply Her magazine, which will not only make use of all the stock, and is easy to cook as well. Since I didn't like to deal with chicken bits with bones still attached, I used chicken fillets instead of the stated chicken thighs.

Baked Chicken & Carrot Porridge

4 servings

Ingredients :

- 3 chicken thighs
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup white rice, washed
- 3 shallots, chopped
- 2 carrots, cubed
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp pepper
- spring onions, chopped, for garnish

Directions :
1) Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C. De-bone and remove the chicken skin. Set the meat aside and wash the bones with hot water.

2) Place the chicken bones into a pot of water with the chicken stock. Add the rice and shallots and boil for 30 mins on medium heat. Turn off the heat when a porridge consistency forms.

3) While the porridge is cooking, marinate the chicken and carrots with dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and pepper. Bake for 20 mins.

4) Remove chicken from the oven and slice into pieces, then place on top of the porridge with the carrots. Garnish with spring onions.

To the cinema : Mamma Mia!

It should be about 5 to 6 years since Mamma Mia! musical came to Singapore. I could still remember how it was like in the Esplanade theatre, the atmosphere was highly charged and I could feel the pent-up energy of the people around me, trying hard to curb the urge to just jump up from the seats and dance along to the familiar and groovy ABBA songs. But being Singaporeans, we obediently stayed in our seats, not wanting to be the odd one out and risked people saying that we “action, action only” behind our backs. However, I’m sure that inside, everyone was imagining themselves up and about dancing and singing along to the songs. Well at least for me, my foot suddenly had a will of its own and started to tap along to “Dancing Queen”.

So, imagine my excitement when I realized that Hollywood had taken the musical and made it into a movie. Yun, Qing and I made a date to watch it together since the guys are totally not interested.

Honestly, the storyline for Mamma Mia! is not very strong. I believe it’s the lure of ABBA hits and how each song is cleverly injected throughout the plot that made it such a hit. It seems like each song is suited just for that moment of the story as it goes along. I wondered if the producers thought of the storyline first, then decide to use ABBA songs? Or did they thought of the story while going through the list of ABBA hits?

Anyway, if you are more of the movie fan than a musical fan, this is not the movie for you. Most of the acts are more theatrical-like, e.g. chasing one another among the trees, 3 middle-aged women jumping on the bed, and then the whole village singing and dancing together, etc.

Well, it would be quite unfair to compare with the musical as each has its own plus and minus points. It's the live performance vs actual scenery, professional musical cast vs all-star Hollywood cast. But personally, I much preferred the actual musical, even though the ticket may cost about 14 times more, and we had to squint our eyes to see how the performers look like, nothing beats hearing live singing and feeling the lively energy from the stage as well as the people around you.

- Mamma Mia! homepage

- Mamma Mia! movie official site

Chicken Stew

It wasn't every weekday that I could muster up enough strength and self-motivation to cook after working for the whole day. But somehow, I was feeling the urge to cook something tonight when the husband mentioned that he would be home for dinner. So, I quickly went through my collected recipes, those that I had marked as "must-try", and found this Chicken Stew recipe which I had torn out from a 2006 issue of Simply Her magazine.

However, when I got to the NTUC, I realised that there weren't anymore potatoes and large onions. In the end, I had to make do with just carrots in the stew. Luckily, the carrots maintained their sweetness after the simmer and the stew was delicious.

Chicken Stew
(4 servings)

Ingredients :

- 1 kg chicken, cut into bite-size pieces (for added flavour, marinate with 1 tablespoon of Hua Tiao wine)
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 2 tablespoon oil
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 2 large onions, cut into wedges
- 3 large carrots, cut into cubes
- 4 potatoes, cut into cubes
- 500-700 ml of stock/water
- 1 tablespoon parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg

Directions :
1) Mix flour with 1 teaspoon salt, pepper and ground spices. Coat chicken pieces with the seasoned flour.

2) Heat oil and butter in a pot and fry the onions until fragrant.

3) Add chicken pieces and fry till lightly browned.

4) Add stock, carrots and potatoes and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes until chicken and vegetables are tender.

Some modifications I did :
- I left the chicken to marinate in Hua Tiao wine while I cut up the carrots and prepare the flour mixture. (I did a rough gauge since it was not mentioned for how long should we marinate the chicken)
- I used the chinese five-spice powder instead of the ground cinnamon and nutmeg as stated.
- Instead of just simmering for 15 minutes, I did mine for about 30 minutes and the chicken was still quite tender.