Attempts to cook

huat kueh (fatt koh), first time attempt by zzz

home-made cabonara and pasta (a tad saltish but actually not bad!)

baked salmon with asparagus and mushrooms

self-made bread, inspired by Jamie Oliver

piZZZa!

We were supposed to go zzz ah-ma's house on Sunday to "bao ba-zhang" (glutinous rice dumpling) but zzz got an army notification to report back to camp in mid-morning (so very BL loh!)

zzz ended up making a small tomato base with mozerella cheese and basil pizza for his lunch, since he already had the dough refrigerated a day before. Snitched a slice from him before going off to dous house. Quite yummy!

Nonya yums

about all that goes into

all the good stuff

the end product...Assam Prawns....sweet and sour

Gulau Melaka in tapioca dough

bring to boil....

ondeh ondeh in grated coconuts!

Me with my ondeh-ondeh...and our new ikea kitchen table!

My foray into Peranakan cooking. So Fun. Thanks to mummy who led the way and made cooking these looked so effortless. Like real.

Partly in preparation for my school project, which is due for submission so soon. eeks. (and no, i am not attending culinary school)

Cupcakes with cream cheese icing

My part was to sprinkle the colorful sugar beads. But it tasted and looked good, all thanks to zzz's efforts. No complains from me!

Cupcakes
225g butter, softened
225g caster sugar
225g self-raising flour
4 eggs

Icing
200g cream cheese (Philadelphia is the best!)
175g icing sugar, sieved
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat the oven to 175degC. Place 18 paper baking cases in muffin tins. Combine the butter, sugar, flour, eggs in a large bowl and beat with am electric whisk until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Spoon batter into the cases and bake for 20 minutes. Remove tins from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cook on a rack

To make icing, slowly beat the cream cheese in a large bowl with an electric whisk until it is smooth and soft. Add icing sugar, lemon juice and vanilla. Beat briskly until smooth and well combined. Swirl the icing onto cooled cupcakes.

Making Yummy Stuff Last Longer!

Strawberry Jam to mix with Sparkling Wine at the Thai Dinner
(aka Red & White theme dinner according to JC)

I love strawberries and i have been wanting to create this strawberry jam thingy since i saw the Jamie Oliver show many months back. Since we don't have the luxury of growing fresh strawberries in our backyard, zzz and myself had to make-do with a smaller quantity of strawberries for a slightly diluted version of the jam. We made strawberry concentrate, good to go with any fizzy drinks on a hot day.

Strawberry Jam
1) Wash strawberries and dry off excess water. Remove any stems and freeze overnight
2) Heat up a saucepan, place frozen strawberries over heated saucepan
3) Stir occasionally, add appropriate amount of water.
4) Stir in sugar (taste for sweetness) to strawberry mash.
5) Remove from heat, cool and store in fridge.

The Thai Thing

The gals, together with the help of zzz and JC, recreated the Thai menu which we learn at Bangkok in '07.

Have to confess that we engaged the help of some pretty reliable ready-made paste. Not that the end result was any less palatable. We still managed to enjoy a FEAST, just like in Bangkok

Menu: Tom Yam fish soup, green pork curry,mayo wasabi eggs, double cheese salad, chicken salad, baked chicken with vegetables, grilled vegetables/shrimp skewers, cheesecake, chin chow with Nata De Coco, mixed mock tails and strawberry flavored champagne.

Looks like alot? It was. But not to fret, we finished all of the food, thanks to the gals who very nicely offered to takeaway some leftovers.

Was a good thing we did this together, only lament that our kitchen has limited working space for a more comfortable cooking experience. (",)