Stir fried asparagus with chicken and walnuts

25.9.14 (Thurs)

Yesterday I went to the market and saw that the asparagus was on sale. The asparagus was very fresh and big, so I bought a packet and went home, searching for recipe. (It was  my very first time cooking asparagus!) Luckily, I found one easy recipe on Christine's recipe and Ta-Da, the dish turned out to be very yummy and I could really enjoy the crisp stems.

Ingredients:
60g walnuts
180g asparagus
150g chicken breast
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp Shaoxing wine (I didn't use this)
Salt, to taste

Marinade:
1 tsp light soy sauce
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp cornflour / corn starch
Sesame oil, to taste
White pepper, to taste

Seasonings:
2 tsp fish sauce (I didn't use this)
2 Tbsp chicken stock

Method:
1. Heat walnuts in a small pan without any oil over medium heat until aromatic. Remove from the heat. Let them cool down. Mix chicken with marinade. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in a wok or a frying pan. Cook the chicken over high medium heat until chicken turns white and cooked through. Set aside.

3. Blanch asparagus in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain well and immediately soak in cold water until cold to touch. Drain well again. Cut them into 3 to 4 sections.

 

4. Stir fry in the same pan with a little of oil. Add garlic and saute until aromatic. Season with salt and sprinkle wine. Quickly stir to combine well. Pour chicken stock and fish sauce. Cook further for another 2 minutes. Toss back the chicken and quickly combine well. Turn off the heat. Stir in the walnuts. Serve immediately.

Notes：
By soaking the blanched asparagus, you can keep its fresh green colour.

To get the best results, stir fry the thicker stems first, then add the thinner ones to cook together.

Apple Rose Tart

19.9.14 (Fri)

Yesterday we had guests and they brought some apples over, just in time for my baking today! I saw this recipe on Facebook and ir was easy.

 

Ingredients

2 apples, cut in slices (without the core)

2 tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp honey

3 tbsp water

50g butter

1 cup cake flour

 

Methods

1. Cut the apple into half and remove its core. Slice the apple.

 

2. Put the apple slices into a pot. Add sugar, honey and water. Cook for about 3-5mins. Set aside to cool.

 

3. Put butter into a bowl. Add 3 tbsp of cooked apple water. Sift in flour. Knead until dough becomes smooth.

 

4. Cut the dough into half and roll out each piece.

 

5. Cut into strip, about 1 inch width and 8-10 inch length.

 

6. Take one strip and place 4-5 of the cooked apple slices on the top. Then roll it up and put into a cupcake mould. Put it into the baking pan and bake for 15-18mins at 170C.

 

7. Brush honey and sprinkle icing sugar and cinnamon for decorations.

 

 

Crispy Roast Pork Belly 脆皮烧肉

12.9.14 (Fri)

I am a super lover for roast pork belly. I remembered when we were in Malaysia, when it comes to ordering chicken rice, I would order roast chicken + roast pork belly. I always see FaceBook posting on friends making roast pork belly and I decided to try it out too! And as always, I like to refer to my "sifu" 's recipe, ie Christine's recipe. (I referred Christine as my sifu coz I really learnt a lot from her webpage on cooking, baking and tips)

 

So yesterday, I bought thick pork belly and marinated it overnight. And this morning, I took it out and baked for around 40mins and "ta-da", I was quite happy with the result. Hubby liked it and will definitely try making it again to get even better result!

 

First attempt

Second attempt

Second attempt

(adapted from Christine's recipe)
Ingredients:1.2 kg pork belly
1/2 Tbsp Shaoxing wine, optional (I omitted this)
rock salt, to taste

Seasonings:
3½ tsp salt (I think can reduce)
2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp five-spice powder

Method:
1. To prepare the seasonings: Combine salt with sugar and five-spice powder well. Set aside.

2. Use a knife to scrape away any impurities and hair. Rinse thoroughly. Blanch in boiling water for about 15 minutes, until 60 to 70% done, and the skin is softened. Drain well and wipe dry with paper towels.. Use needles to poke the rind as many holes as possible. Turn over to other side, cut a few slits on the meat to help absorb seasonings better.

(I don't have needles so I used a fork instead)

3. Rub wine evenly on pork. Let rest for a while. Coat the meat with seasonings evenly. Make sure there‘s no seasonings on the rind, otherwise the five-spice powder will darken it.

4. Wrap the pork meat with foil and leave the rind unwrapped. Place in fridge, let air dry overnight in fridge.

5. Preheat oven to 200C/395F.

6. Remove pork from fridge and remove foil. Let rest at room temperature for a while. Poke the rind with needles evenly once again. Wipe dry. Season the rind with rock salt. Bake in preheated oven for about 30 minutes. Increase temperature to 220C/430F, bake for 10 to 15 minutes, or until you get enough cracklings. (If ordinary oven used, move the pork from middle rack to upper. Grill the rind until evenly blistered and browned.)

 

 

  

Notes:
The tricks of making crispy cracklings:

First, the rind must be very dry.

 

Second, poke as many holes as possible. While grilling, the fat inside the rind turns really hot, then get released from the holes. That produces an effect of a kind of “frying” the rind. So, it turns crispy.
Mind you, don’t poke too deep through the rind though. The rind won’t be crispy any more otherwise.
 

Basically, the temperature is the same, no matter you use convection oven or ordinary one. But an ordinary oven needs longer cooking time.

The cooking time depends on how thick and how big the pork belly is. Please adjust accordingly.

 

妈妈vs婆婆

（女生們請看完）

一、顶妈妈的嘴，妈妈一下子就忘了；顶婆婆的嘴，一辈子牢记在心

二、肚子饿了，妈妈煮三餐给你吃，很自然；婆婆煮三餐给你吃，她心里很不舒服

三、吃饭的时候，不叫妈妈吃饭，没事；不叫婆婆吃饭，没礼貌

四、妈妈在忙，你没帮忙，没怎样；婆婆在忙，你没帮忙，说你懒

五、在妈家，出门办事，不必赶回家，只等吃饭；在婆家，出门办事，赶回家吃饭；妈妈训话，左耳进右耳出；婆婆训话，心里不以为然也要回答…是、是

六、可以在妈妈面前说你先生不是，但千万别在你婆婆面前抱怨你先生不对

七、在妈妈面前，偷懒心安理得；在婆婆面前，这个”懒’字说不得

八、在家，有好吃好喝的，妈妈舍不得吃，留给你；但在婆家你得留给别人

九、你的悲，你的喜，妈妈很在乎；但婆婆，这个就无所谓

十、在妈妈面前顿脚，是撒娇；在婆婆面前顿脚，是大逆不道

两个婆婆的对话~
一位婆婆对著邻居说：我那个媳妇，好吃懒做，睡到中午，家事也没做，东西还让我儿子拿到房间给她吃，真是太过份了
后来邻居反问她：你女儿嫁的还不错吧？
那位婆婆说：对啊，过的很幸福呢，大家都对她很好，也不用做家事，假日都到处去玩，也可以睡到中午，女婿还会煮东西送到房间给我女儿吃呢！

大家一定要好好爱自己的妈妈。因为她很伟大。是婆婆永远都比不上的。

I PASSED!

5.9.14 (Fri)

It's Spring! I have survived through the three months of winter and it wasn't too bad, except that some days were really cold and freezing.

Last Friday (29/8) was my driving test (failed the first time one month ago). For the past one week, I practiced about 30mins for the manoeuvres, ie hill start, U-turn at intersection, U-turn at T-junction, reverse in a straight line, parallel parking and 3 point turn. The examiner will test you on 2-3 manoeuvres as part of the test and of course, the main part will be driving on the road and be cautious on the important road signs for eg STOP, GIVE WAY etc.

On that morning, Hubby and the kids followed me to the test centre. Hubby led a prayer and asked God to grant me wisdom and blessings so that I can be alert and calm during the test.

This round, I had an elderly man as the examiner and guessed what!? He was the same examiner that Hubby had during his driving test and this was how God answered our prayer, coz earlier as I mentioned, God sent an angel, ie the examiner that PASSED Hubby on his test. His name was Paul and he was really a chatty man. Unlike the first examiner I had before, Paul gave me a relaxing feeling while driving and he didn't really write down much notes on his paper. He was chatting with me about his family life and oversea trips.

 

We left the centre at 9.30am and came back around 9.50am. I was a bit worried as the test ended quite early. I waited patiently while Paul was writing on his paper, at the same time, thinking hard did I make any mistakes! Finally when Paul ticked on the SUCCESSFUL box, I smiled and thanked him. There were minor mistakes and he also pointed out that I was quite slow in some corners. But all in all, I PASSED! That's the most important thing! Hubby was relieved.

 

Then, when we came home, I went to open the gate and suddenly, I felt something was moving on the tree branch. I turned left and was shocked to see a green snake on the branch! I dropped the bag and quickly ran to the car. We called the landlord and he asked us to try asking help from the neighbours. Luckily, one of our neighbours came to help. He took a look at the snake and commented it was a tree snake and was harmless. We used a stick to give it a push and the snake ran away to the gutter. The neighbour also mentioned that it was quite normal to see snakes around the neighbourhood. Some snakes are harmless for eg the tree snakes but if we see any brown snakes and they are very defensive, then we should go away from them or call the council for help. Thanked God for is protection that we are not harmed and also through this incident, we got to know our neighbours after moving here for one month. However, after this incident, I had phobia when walking past any trees in our garden, fear that I will see another snake again!

 

Because I passed my driving test, Hubby gave me some rewards which I really thankful of.
1. Cupcake carrier

2. Cake carrier

3. Sumptuous dinner

4. A smartphone