Sunday 31 May 2009

Chicken Soup for the soul



Sorry guys for the lack of post... Have been busy settling into the new attachment and a combination of poor sleep, dehydration and over sun tanning in the nice green pastures of southern general with the accompanying stench of sewage from the waste plant nearby, has made yours truly ill... Don't worry... I'll get back well again.

Decided to have some chicken tonight. I think the last time I made the english version of chicken soup was in 2nd year. Somehow, I still prefer the chinese version but i thought why not give it a change today. To be honest, I don't think I was able to taste the chickeny flavour with a block nose hahaa.

Ingredients
------------
Garlic
Onions
Herbs: sage, rosemarry, basil whatever u can find
potatos
carrots
celery
chicken
olive oil
chicken stock

First of all, pan fry the garlic onions and herbs in olive oil till fragrant. Add in about 3 cups of chicken stock to a medium size chicken (1kg?). Place in the chicken. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. throw in the vegetables and simmer for another 20 mins or so. Add salt to taste.

PS: store the remaining soup in ice containers and freeze them for use later on .


Chicken Soup, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Saturday 30 May 2009

Baked Salmon



This dish was inspired by Poy from a dinner I had at her place. Simple. nutritious and seemingly healthy if u ignore the layer of oil at the bottom of the dish .

Ingredients
-------------------
Salmon
Tomato
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt paprika
Mixed herbs

Rub some salt onto the salmon and lay them in a baking dish . spread the spices and garlic over the salmon, drizzle generously some olive oil over it. Bake in the oven for 20mins at 220 degree celcius.

Serve with wedges or rice.

Baked Salmon, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Wednesday 27 May 2009

Tony Macaroni with the Flatmates



Aa and C bought dinner at the newly opened Tony Macaroni Italian Restaurant at the bottom of byres road. After much contemplation through burgers, curries and "guai Loh" chinese takeaway food, we finally got invited into this restaurant. As part of its promotion campaign, the owners have parked a white Ferrari with the words Tony Macaroni painted over it.





So we settled for the 3 course menu. I had the deep fried mushrooms which were big juicy and not soggy at all. The salad had the right amount of tartness to it and the garlic mayo wasnt too overwhelming.



Aa had the proscuitto with melon. I won't normally order this but Aa gave me some to try anyway. The quality is good and works well with the melon which was just on the verge of being over ripened.



Bruschetta with marinated tomatos... Hmm... For some this would be a really turn off combination haha. I love this. The tomatos were so well marinated in a olive basil drizzle. They were crunchy and juicy which contrasted well with the thick cut bruchetta.



There was a heap of seafood in the linguine that C had ordered. The pasta was well cooked and the sauce actually reminded me of a chilli crab suace.



The only thing I remembered about this dish was that the pasta was of a good quality. haha well.. avoid it unless u just want some pasta and sausages



I had the rib eye which looks much bigger than what the picture potrays. Quite an unusual choice but we do have this policy of ordering as many different dishes as possible so we can try as much of the menu as possible. I ordered it medium rare but came medium. The sauce was really rich and beefy but slightly too salty. Everything about the dish was good except for the fries which I wished were of a thiner cut.



Desserts were really forgettable. The tiramisu was too soggy as if it had been in the fridge for a couple of days. The aroma of the coffee wasn't strong at all and the cream definately din't have any hint of a flavouring. Luckily the ice cream was good. In the background is a sticky toffee pudding which Aa ordered. Texture wise it was too rubbery. Felt more like a muffin cake rather than a pudding. Taste wise it was ordinary.



C had the lemon sorbet which was good. The portion was small and I am not sure if biscuits are a good accompaniment to a sorbet type dessert. I would probably expect some fruits instead.

Overall, I would say the price of 13 pounds was just worthwhile for the quantity and the quality of the food. The atmosphere was pleasant but I wouldnt be so sure had it been more crowded.

4-10 Byres Road
Lanarkshire
G11 5
(0141) 334 5959
http://www.tonymacaroni.co.uk/


Monday 25 May 2009

Dinner at Home with Aa & C



Dinner at home is always nice. A simple meal along with some good banter takes away the stresses of the day. C wanted to cook Mapo tofu tonight which happens to be one of her favourite dishes. Its a no frills dish which took less than 15mins to prepare

Ingredients
----------------
Packet of toufu
Packet of mince pork 500g
Mushroom
Garlic
Onion
2 Packets Lee Kum Kee Mapo Toufu

Fry the garlic and onion till fragrant. Throw in the mince pork Stir fry till cooked. Add in the toufu and mushroom and the sauce. Continue cooking for another min or 2. Serve warm





1 Dish is sufficient for 2 people but when u have 3 , you definately need 2 dishes. To balance the high protein of the other dish, I bought some white cabbage to boost our fibre intake. Again a simple dish which really dosent take alot of effort.

Ingredients
----------------
1 White cabbage
Mushroom
Dried shrimps
Garlic

Mince the dried shrimps with a knife. Fry the garlic and dried shrimp till fragrant. Throw in the white cabbage and mushroom. Simmer for 2 mins. Add in oyster sauce and light soy sauce according to your salt preference.

P.S: cover the wok while u cook the vegetables so that they start to soften and that makes it easier to stir fry the veges later.

Mapo Toufu, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Sunday 24 May 2009

Lagsane



I first discovered this dish in a Garfield book. Didnt know what it was then. I knew it contained cheese and because it was placed in a cat dish i thought it was just some special cat food. Fortuantely, pizza hut came along haha and the concept of eating pasta in layers intermittently smeered with a tomato and cream bolognaise sauce became more comprehendable.

C is our resident lagsane cook. I have never cooked a lagsane because I find it too much of a hassle for me . The truth is I am too lazy to layered it when i can just cooked pasta and pour sauce over it. This time around, C used lamb and mutton as the meat which was a nice change away from the usual beef and pork based sauces. I was too full from eating a mcchicken burger and double cheese burger that I managed only 2 servings of it.




Here's another shot showing the multilayering of the lagsane. Bon appetite!!.


IMG_9849, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Saturday 23 May 2009

S's C-elaboration Cake



I've never scrutinised the word celebration but I wonder if the word elaboration has anything to do with it. As you can see this cake is more elaborated compared to the previous cakes that I have made. Double layer, 2 more other fruits and a shiny sugar heart on top. S showed me a mario cake a long time back and asked if I could make it but that cake was made using royal icing in order to achieve the shape and colour of mario. haha Unfortunately, I lack expertise in the use of royal icing and I am not a keen fan of the stick paste. So I told her I'll make something else instead.

My research took me through tonnes of webpages to see if it was possible to make a wedding cheesecake. Apparently, they do have it hmm. but obviously they are made by professional bakers so I'll have to modify abit. Throw in a little bit of creativity and vola! My first ever double tier wedding cheesecake.

Congratulations on your engagement to Ad, it truely is a great representatino of a love that is graceful, persevering and trusting.

S, I hope you like this cheesecake.





S's C-elaboration Cake, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Thursday 21 May 2009

Salmon Surfing Crushed Potatos



Salmon surfing crushed potatos is quite a cheesy title isn't it? If anyone can think of a better short title let me know. It was a last minute decision to have salmon for dinner tonight. There was an inspiration to make a crushed potato side dish after seeing the leftover peppers and tomatos lying in the fridge. I thought that would be a great pairing with some salmon. Afterall I had to head over to Sainsbury to get some groceries. Well, I decided to take it easy today after the OSLER in the morning which went fine :) .

Ingredients
-------------
Salmon
Garlic
Olive oil
Potatos
Peppers
Tomatos
Shallots
Salt
Balsamic Vinegar

Marinate the salmon pieces in olive oil and garlic and salt for about half an hour. Add in some herbs for added taste. Pan fry the salmon on one side and then flip over when its slightly charred (not slightly browned) Repeat on the other side. It is done when the meat starts to firm up. Normally takes about 3mins per side for a thin piece of salmon. Don't worry about the meat becoming too dry as salmon is quite resistant to dehydration.

For the potatos, boil them first till they are semi soft. Crush them. Fry the peppers, tomatos and some shallots in olive oil, add in the potatos and fry till its nicely browned. Season liberally with salt. If not it won't taste nice.

Lastly, make a balsamic lemon and olive oil sauce to go with the fish. I used a 1:1:1 ratio for making up the sauce.



Salmon Surfing Crushed Potatos, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Brel: C's Belated Birthday Dinner




We went to Brel on Ashton Lane for C's Belated birthday. After numerous outings to Chinese restaurants, this was a welcomed change. The last time I was here was way back in first year with YR and Jg. Good ol' first year days haha. Can't remember what I had then. We had dinner at about 845 which is pretty late so the place was quite deserted when we got there which also means we got dedicated waitress service haha





I ordered the soft shell crab for appetiser. It was lovely and I could have eaten at least 2 more of it. They used blue leg crabs which I suspect is different from the Asiana crabs which they use back home. INstead of powdering it heavily in flour what they have done here is just deep fried it "kosong" aka without any batter what so ever. The taste was perfect. Havent had a better soft shell crab than this.





I had mussels for dinner which was good but couldnt surpass mussel inn. C had the monk fish. It tasted good but wasn't a knock out. Roasted potatos did not seem to be a good match either which resulted in C stealing my fries.

Overall, its not too bad definately worth coming here just for soft shell crab and a pintbut dinner wise hmm... maybe not. We gave the desserts a miss as well.

PS: I really should be studying for my OSLER and not blogging LOL!!




Tuesday 19 May 2009

Happy Birthday Girl



Happy 21st girl. I know I have never made a cake for you before despite me making it for so many of my friends. So.. Here's my creation for you, a chocolate and white chocolate cheesecake with a white stripe chocolate ganache. Too bad I cant fedex it to you but I ate it on your behalf with my friends and yes it tasted really amazing.





This is the slice that I cut for you hahaha. You are probably salivating now but u will probably salivate more when I show you your present.


Anyway, I hope you've had a wonderful 21st birthday. Just want to encourage you to continue to grow and mature in this really challenging environment of adult hood. Can't say I have fully comprehended the whole concept but I can tell you the early years of it have been an eye opener and brings rewarding experiences. Continue to pursue what you want in life with passion and believe that if u put your heart and mind into it (and not facebook) you can achieve it someday.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY



Your Kor whom u can always count on .





Happy Birthday Girl, originally uploaded by jiapui.

One Final Dinner Tog8ther

5 Years of friendship through ups and downs. Soon, we will be going seperate ways. Dumfries, Edinburgh, Singapore and Glasgow. I wonder when we will be able to have a nice meal together again or even go on a road trip. The idea for this meal conceptualised about 2 months ago when I intended to cook everyone's favourite dish or what I think is everyone's favourite dish.



M has a strong craving for fish likely due to her Teochew roots and grandmother's pampering of steamed cod fish whenever she's back home. This dish is familliar to me and I have done it 4 times so far. Thoroughly enjoy cooking this dish so I bought a bigger fish this time round as there were 8 of us eating.





San bei ji was a request by C because she likes it and also because I haven't thought of a chicken dish for the menu. This dish dosen't need to be eaten piping hot so its a good dish to cook first and leave it in the oven to keep warm.



3 Roast was meant to be WY's favourite dish but apparently it wasn't. Well, you can't blame me when my dear friend eats out so often and so widely that its hard to pinpoint what's his favourite dish . What I do know is, he likes chinese food so ... haha I made him a favourite cuisine. haha



Sweet and Sour is YR's favourite dish. This I got it spot on cos she mentions it all the time. There is a child in YR who seems to like sweet stuff.. yes I do like SSP but I have grown out of it in favour of more savoury food. I cheated though hahah and used Lee Kum Kee's SSP sauce. I knew their mix was nice and I wouldnt have been able to do a better one. WEll the toughest part is shallow frying the pork which took like 15mins. hahaha . I am not a keen fan of shallow or deep frying but for friends and because its once in a while its fine. Actually, I quite like this dish too hahaha.



Well, I am a strong advocate of vegetables as part of meals haha. Keeps me less guilty after eating all the fried and unhealthy food but also because veggies are a good source of fibres which help improve bowel movemements and are full of vitamins!!.. YUm yum.



This was meant to be Ken's fav dish but apparently not so haha. He mentioned he enjoyed this dish when he was at my place previously and raves about how he will order SSP and tie ban toufu when he goes back to singapore. haha At least he enjoyed the SSP hahah so it wasn't so bad haha. I modified this dish because I dont have a tie ban here. I ll put up more instructions on how to do this in another post.



PY's favourite dish is Fish curry. I used Brahim's sauce mix for this. I particularly enjoyed cooking and eating this dish. This has to be my favourite dish as well because it was so easy to cook. Just stir fry some onions pour in the sauce, add in the fish okra aka lady's finger and brinjal. So simple. The difficult part? Sourcing a good fish . Remember the HEG that I had the other day? Well Here's the meat haha.



Finally, Aa made this dish. Thank you so much it was really yummy and dammm SPICY AH!!


Few miss and hits but everyone enjoyed the meal which is always nice. Thank you so much for the company, the encouragement and for being who you are. For that, you have brought meaning to my time in Glasgow. I sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart and wish you all the best on the road ahead.


IMG_9779, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Monday 18 May 2009

Fish Soup



Went to the fish monger today and was introduced to this fish called Heg... I tried googling up on the internet but couldn't find anything quite near it. Must be a local slang for it or I must have heard wrongly. Anyway, the monger gave me the carcass and jsut when I was at a lost of what to do for dinner tonight, a brilliant idea sprung on me to cook some fish soup. hmm..

Ingredients
-------------------
Fish
Superior Fish soy sauce
1 spoon of chicken stock powder
pinch of MSG
ginger
tomato
spring onion

Basically, marinate the fish in the soy sauce for about half an hour with the ginger. Bring some water to boil, throw in the powder and the MSG. When the water is finally boiling, throw in the fish and tomato and boil for a couple of minutes. Serve immediately with some fried shallots.
Makes quite a hearty soup and certainly has been added on to my list of soup remedies for the sick soul.

Sunday 17 May 2009

Steam Chicken Rice



I was alazy again. haha. This is not the chicken rice that you get back home but it will suffice for now. Those of you who know me must know that I love chicken rice. What did today's basically steamed chicken in a soy sauce drizzle with some chicken flavoured rice.

Steamed chicken

1 Packet Chicken wing or whatever chicken part u can find
2 Tbs Light soy sauce
1 Tbs Sesame seed oil
2 Tbs Shaoxing wine
1/2 Tbs Sugar
Ginger
Garlic
Spring onion

Marinate the chicken in the sauce, ginger, garlic for at least an hour. I tried it without marinating before and it really was qutie bland. Lay the chicken in a steamer and place spring onion on top. Steam for about 20mins.

Chicken Flavoured Rice (1 person portion)
----------------------------
1 Cup Rice
1 level spoon full of Know Chicken stock (I am talking abtout the spoon in the container)
Drizzle of sesame oil
some garlic some ginger.

Give it a good stir and cook as you normally would cook rice.

Saturday 16 May 2009

Nandos Chicken



This chicken is solid man. First time I discovered this chicken in 2nd year I knew I had fallen for it.. Grilled to perfection and bast in a nice chill soury sauce. It wasn't as hot as I hoped for it to be but it will do fine. If you've never had the nando's experience, please head down to one of their many restaurants soon.


P.S: flash your NHS card and get a 20% discount... Only have to pay 8 pounds for this really satisfying meal.
Nandos, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Thursday 14 May 2009

Pork Cutlet



Wah kao... Swine flu still eat pork... er.... what's the link honestly? If you can say that eating pork will give u swine flu, I can also say my DAD say all food that is cooked will be killed off all its bacteria, and maybe the viruses haha.

Well.. after a long day's work and feeling rather tired, I wondered how I managed to muster enough energy to do some shallow frying (deep means alot of oil, shallow means not pan fry and not as much oil used in deep frying. Yes I Coined the term) lol. Actually, this was part of an experiment to see if I was able to baked a piece of raw breaded pork cutlet in an oven. However, the grill stand was dirty and I was too lazy to wash it. Therefore, ended up shallow frying instead.

I don't like deep frying stuff for a couple of reasons. 1) It waste my oil 2) I get oiled up after that. Not too good for socialising eh? ..But for some special reasons which will be revealed in due course, I needed to run some trials so see if I was still able to shallow fry my pork.

What I did was to slice some pork cutlets into 2mm thick slices. Marinate it, then dip it in an egg mixture and finally, frying it. It did not take long as it was thin and the use of a non-stick pan prevented it from being charred.

The verdict: Technique wise it wasn't as much of a hassle as i thought. However, I'll need to work on the taste. Something's still missing.


P.s : Getting there...
Pork Cutlet, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Tofu with Prawn



Had dinner with girls and guys after the Manchester Trip. Once again, the scarcity of authentic chinese restaurants in Glasgow left us opting for Asian Gourmet. Not complaining, food is cheap here and tasty as well. This is one dish which really caught my attention when I tried it. Its basically just stir fry toufu with prawns. Any TDH can make this but the outstanding part of this dish was the savoury seafoodie, toufu sauce. Cannot describe la. U must try to know haha.

P.S: Its been a really busy week so post have been slow coming in, but stay tuned ;)

Wednesday 13 May 2009

Drinks at Cloud 23



Here's the Hilton Deansgate built recently. As you can see halfway up , the floor juts out. THat's where we are went on Saturday night!!.



View of Deansgate from Cloud 23. Kel's favourite Atas chill out place for his visitng friends.



Had a couple of drinks.



Hilton Hotel
----------------------
303 Deansgate Manchester
Greater Manchester
M3 4LQ
Tel: 0161 870 1688
Open Mon-Sat 9am-6pm



PS: sorry very tired tonight.. haha so fewer sentences.. Enjoy the pics...

Tuesday 12 May 2009

Carluccio - Dinner with Kel



Dinner was meant to be a light affair after the huge lunch that we had. After much wondering around, we stumbled into Carluccio at Spinningfields. Pretty nice quiet location and there wasn't much of a crowd either. ( A bad sign? or A good one ?)

We started off with some foccaia bread and calamari. The bread was over salted and wasn't as piping crispy hot as I had previously. Calamari was nice but I can't comment more about it.




I had Spaghetti vongole. Seafood pasta has to be my favourite of all pastas. Its almost impossible to beat the seafood sauce that comes from the juice of all that crustacean which was used in cooking. Well... to be honest,.. i was slightly dissapointed by the execution of this dish... The sphagghetti was overcooked ( too fat liao la ) hahaha...the Clams however were pretty sweet. Overall.. ok lor... Kel had the lagsana. shuld have tried la but I was too full to even attempt a taster..

What really entice me was the 1 pound coffee that you get after the meal however, we've got something planned after dinner lol.... stay tuned..


PS: food wasn't astounding but the banter was . and i din use the right lens and my colour balance lagi off... hahaha



Carluccio
----------------------
1, 3 Hardman Square,
Manchester
Tel: 0161 839 0623

Monday 11 May 2009

Red Chill - Lunch with Kel




Hi All, I am back and really well fed this weekend. Met up with Kel whom I haven't seen in 2 years. He brought me to this sichuan place for lunch at 3 pm!!!!!!..... hahaaha. Thankfully, the food was good especially this fiery fearsome looking soup of lava hahaa. It was damm yummy and went really well with my favourite white rice. On a scale of 0 to 10, I would rate the heat at 7.5. It wasn't tongue burning hot but i reckon you will be in for a good one if u bite into one of this chilli paddis. hahha.





In addition, Kel ordered pig stomach upon hearing that I didn't mind eating anything.. Ok... I thought it was a bad choice but it din turn out that bad really.. I quite like this dish. Texture was like a rubbery meat. Did not taste of innards and the chilli sesame garlic drizzle that came along with it made me craving for more and more hahaha.

I strongly recommend this place . Do check out the website http://www.redchillirestaurant.co.uk/manchester_menu.asp


Oh HAPPY MOTHER's DAY MUM!!!!



Red Chilli Restaurant
------------------------------
70-72 Portland Street
Manchester
M1 4GU

Tel: 01612362888
http://www.redchillirestaurant.co.uk/



Thursday 7 May 2009

BeetRoot Salad



There's just something about beet root that I don't like.. I've never tasted it and i don't intend to anytime soon. The dye really turns me off. Oh well.. Aa can enjoy it on his own lol.

P.S: won't be posting for the next 3 days. I'll be heading down south. heehe
BeetRoot Salad, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Wednesday 6 May 2009

Southern Fried Chicken



Southern Fried Chicken, originally uploaded by jiapui.
Eh got southern fried chicken means got northern fried chicken issit?? What exactly is southern fried chicken then??
Apparently there is some Scottish influence to it. People have been frying stuff for ages especially the Scots who are so famous for frying almost anything from your fishes to my creative ones like mars bar and to really bizarre items such as can Dog Food....
So when the Scots migrated to the Southern States in the US, they brought their habit along as well. However, as most of you would know, UK food can be rather bland at times and apparently the Africans who were working in the southern states plantations decided to incooperate the technique of deep frying together with their habit of marinating meat in spices.. So that's how southern fried chicken came about... You don't believe me right?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fried_chicken <-------- Read this Anyway, Aa introduced this simple, comfort and most definately unhealthy food to me in second year. For 2.75 pounds (abit of inflation factored in, used to be 1.99) you get 7 pieces of thigh and drums. Throw in the oven for 30 mins at 220 degress C and in the meantime, go do more reading hahaa.. I decided to be a bit healthier by having some salad.


Tuesday 5 May 2009

OX Tail Rendang



Aa made ox tail rendang yesterday. Quite an unusual selection of meat to go with a sauce that you would normally pair with a chunky meat. He used the asian gourmet series of sauces which tasted not bad actually. It managed to just hit the rendangness that I was hoping for but then most who know me well enough will know that I rarely go for a dish that is savoury and at the same time sweet e.g. sweet and sour pork. After so many years my taste is still the same maybe it will change for other tastes in my life too.

Anyway thanks Aa. Going to miss the bachelor meals when C comes home finally tomorrow!!.. The dishes are piling LOL!!!

OX Tail Rendang, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Cafezique - Breakfast with the Girls



Got a treat from the girls today. I was intending to go to Macs to satisfy my unhealthy food craving but Mich decided to check out this cafe in Partick. I used to stay there and have always been familliar with Delizique. Since its renovation sometime last year, they have expanded to include a cafe as well. I had high expectations for this place because Aa has been talking about since my 2nd year.

Had a hot chocolate to start off.. Alas.. I was dissapointed.. not chocolatey enough.. it felt really thin. At least I could taste the chocolate but that was about it.



For brunch, I had the big fry up. A typical scottish breakfirst consisting of tomato, baked beans sausages, potato scones, bacon mushrooms and black pudding which i substituted with a poach egg. On top of that another 2 scrambled eggs to go with it. It was ordinary but satisfying.




PY has crab linguine. I wished I ordered this instead. It was fantastic. U could taste the crab sauce with each mouthfull of linguine. In someway, I feel challenged to make this dish haha. Dosen't look too difficult does it? Its all a matter of procuring some good crab meat. ;)



Cafezique
--------------------
66 Hyndland Street
Glasgow G11 5PT
Tel: 0141 339 7180



Sunday 3 May 2009

Lobster Pasta



Hmmm.... Lobster??!!!!...... Yup..... How can a student afford lobster?? Well... The poor student can't but the working doctor sure can. Its not expensive actually. Aa got each lobster from Lidl for only 5 pounds. The downside is it was frozen rock solid. That means you can probably expect a drop in meat texture and taste quality. For 5 pounds aiyah what can you expect haha. The intention was to make chinese lobster noodle but since Aa is better trained in western cooking, he's decided to make a lobster pasta.



So basically, what he did was defrost the lobster. Cut off the claws and split the body into halves. Give the claws a good whack. Melt some butter and basically just toss the lobster in it till its warmed throughout.



Here's the head going in . In the mean time, he's got some thin linguine boiling.



There we go, lobster pasta. It taste quite nice haha YOu definately can't beat a freshly cooked lobster pasta but the experience of eating lobster is good enough for now.

Its nice when Aa cook cos that way I can take more pictures and show you more of the prepatroy steps. Something which I can't do when I am cooking alone.
IMG_9427, originally uploaded by jiapui.

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