Butternut Squash Soup

I was curious to cook this soup because I had an amazing butternut squash soup on our valentine's dinner in "Second Umpire" Restaurant in NC.
I have never made anything with butternut squash before so this was my first experiment. It turned out yummy.
I used recipe from Food Network but I modified a bit.

Ingredients:

• 1 butternut squash - halved (doesn't need to be peeled)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion
• 1 cup of celery
• 2 cubes of chicken bouillon
• 5 cups of water
• 1 cup of milk
• 1 tsp cinammon
• 2 tbs unsalted butter

Directions:

1. Halved the butternut squash and seeded.
2. Preheat oven in 425 F. Coat the cut side with olive oil, salt and pepper and put the cut side on the bottom of baking pan. Bake for 35 minutes until it is tender.
3. In a stockpot, sautee garlic, onion and celery with olive oil and butter.
4. Add in chicken bouillon and 2 cups water.
5. Scooped the baked squash and put in the pot. Stir everything together. Bring to simmer until everything is tender
6. Add in the rest of the water and milk.
7. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, cinnamon.
8. Use immersion blender to blend it all together. Make sure turn off the stove before you do this. We don't want the hot liquid to splatter everywhere.
9. Sprinkle with green onion as garnish
10. Serve

Enjoy!! :)))

Chicken Pot Pie

This is my first time making a chicken pot pie. We have to do grocery this weekend so I wanted to finish all the veggies and meats in the fridge. Luckily, I still had 1 pack of chicken and frozen veggies. This is really easy to do. At least, I was doing it the easy way with the help of frozen pie crust and a can of creamy chicken. :)

Ingredients:
1 can of creamy chicken
2/3 cup of milk
celery
salt
pepper
poultry seasoning
1/2 bag of frozen veggies
1 pack of chicken thigh (about 6 small thighs)
1 cup of chicken broth
1 package of frozen pie crust

Directions:

• I always boil my chicken so it's easier to cut the meat into small sizes. Boil the chicken until it's cooked. Add a bit of saltSave the broth.
• Cut the celery into small cubes. Boil with the chicken.
• In the meantime, thaw the pie crust. Wash the veggies and thaw it.
• Once the chicken and celery is cooked, cut the chicken into small sizes. Set it aside in different bowl. Save 1 cup of the broth for later use.
• Stir fry the veggies with a bit of olive oil until it is half cooked. Add in the chicken and celery.
• Add 1 can of cream of chicken, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning and milk. Pour the chicken broth that we saved last time.
• Stir until its evenly mixed.
• Once everything is cooked, let it sit for about 50 minutes to let it cool.
• Put the pie crust on the pie pan (if you have one). I don't have pie pan so I use the pyrex bowl that I used for my steamed egg.
• Make sure the chicken and veggies are in room temperature, otherwise, it will tear the pie crust.
• Fill the pie and seal with top pie crust. Cut 4 slits on the top crust.
• Optional: sprinkle with cheddar cheese before seal with top crust. I did it and it was yummy.
• Bake in 425 F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. I let mine sit too long in the oven (lesson learned: don't play video games while baking something). My crust is slightly burn but I saved it right on time. No bitter taste...horrayyy!!
• :)))

When the weather outside is frightful...time for Bakuteh!

This is one of my favorite dishes when the weather is cold and rainy. A Bakuteh soup!
Since I am not savy enough to make the spices for this soup (it takes quite amount of spices), I opted to use this awesome instant spices that I bought from Grand Asia supermarket. I am sure you can find this spices in any asian supermarket. Here is a bit information about the dish from Wikipedia

Bak kut teh (Chinese: 肉骨茶; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bah-kut-tê) is a Chinese soup popularly served in Malaysia, Singapore, China, Taiwan and the Indonesian island of Riau (where there is a predominant Hoklo and Teochew community) and also, cities of neighbouring countries likeBatam of Indonesia and Hat Yai of Thailand. The name literally translates as "meat bone tea", and, at its simplest, consists of meatypork ribs simmered in a complex broth of herbs and spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic) for hours.^[1] 

Ingredients:
1 pack of pork ribs
1 small bowl of chinese dried mushroom
1 pack of Bakuteh spices
Soy Sauce
Oyster Sauce
4 cloves of Garlic

Direction:

1. Soak the dried mushroom in hot water for 15 minutes. Sliced into halves.
2. Follow the instruction at the back of the spices package. It is very simple (You just need garlic, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and oyster sauce)
3. Boil water and add in the spices. Let it boil for 30 minutes.
4. Add the meat, garlic and the sauces.
5. Let it cook for another 30 - 45 minutes.
6. Ready for serving!..

Enjoy :)

Mickey Sugar Cookie

I bought Mickey cookie cutter from our honeymoon in Disney World. So, today I decided to make use of those cute cookie cutters.
I wished it turned out perfect, but it was hard to use the mickey mouse face cookie stamp. But this is my first try :D

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Direction:

• In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda Set aside.
• In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the beaten egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until you have a smooth dough.
• Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour (or overnight) or until firm enough to roll.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) and place rack in the center of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
• Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and, on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch (.6 cm). (Keep turning the dough as you roll, making sure the dough does not stick to the counter.)
• Cut out shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and transfer cookies to the prepared baking sheet. Place the baking sheets with the unbaked cookies in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes to chill the dough which prevents the cookies from spreading and losing their shape while baking.
• Bake cookies for about 8-10 minutes (depending on size) or until they are just beginning to brown around the edges. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling

Source: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ValentinesSugarCookie.html

Wedding Ceremony Pictures, October 17 2010 @ Fearrington Village

This is long overdue. But, finally I was able to put up the pictures. Yay!Special Thank you to Simple Moment Photograpy (Amy Terrell). :))

Wedding Reception Pictures, October 17 2010 @ Fearrington Village

Disney Honeymoon 2010

I got an email from Shutterfly with a code to get a free 8x8 photobook. So I spent the last 2 days creating Our Honeymoon book. Thought I'd share this with everyone. Why I put it in my kitchen blog? Because I included few of Disney awesome food! :D
Enjoy :)

Click here to view this photo book larger

Hong Kong Silky Smooth Steamed Egg with Mushroom and Shrimp (without Steamer)

The weather has been cold, gloomy,rainy for the last few days and I have not been feeling well either.

Ugh...I have this chest pain that comes and goes as she pleases. I really have to watch what I eat now since one of my cousins died young because of a high cholestrol. So I thought of making something light and healthier. When I say healthier, I meant, avoid oily fatty food. Steamed egg is one of the dishes that my mom used to make when we were kids. The thing is, we don't have a steamer in our house so I was youtubing and googling trying to find a way to steam this dish without a steamer. So here is how I steam without a steamer. I used a big pot and filled with a 3/4 cup of water. Inside the pot, I used the pyrex  bowl for my steamed egg. I added pictures of my pot and pyrex so you know what I am trying to say :D

Ingredients:

• 6 Chinese dried mushroom- soak in hot water for 15 minutes. Then, sliced the mushroom. We will use the mushroom stock for our egg (1/2 cup  of mushroom stock)
• 10 Shrimps- peeled and chopped- blanched in hot water
• 2 Stalks of green onion- chopped
• Salt
• White Pepper
• Sesame Oil
• Fish Sauce/Soy Sauce
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

How to Cook:

1. Pour 1/2 cup of mushroom stock and 1/2 cup of chicken stock into the bowl.
2. Add in 3 eggs and whisk it until it bubbles and everything mixes evenly
3. Add in mushroom, green onion, salt, pepper, sesame oil and fish sauce.
4. Put 3/4 cup of water inside the big pot and let it boil.
5. Once the water is boiled, put in the pyrex bowl inside the pot and close the lid.
6. Let it steam for 15-20 minutes.
7. That is it! Easy and yummy! :)

Enjoy!

Prawn Noodle (Prawn Mee)

Yesterday began with checking my fridge on what stuffs I can cook. Turned out, no grocery left except for shrimps. Checked the pantry, only found canned corn, spaghetti, green bean, etc. Uh...ohhhh!! Errrrr...so maybe cook Shrimp Scampi Pasta? it's supposed to be easy (although I have never made some) and only use few ingredients like butter, onion, shallot, parsley, lemon (that's what the recipe said).

 

After taking out the butter from the fridge to make pasta, I thought to myself.. I have been eating lots of good but unhealthy food for the past few days..maybe I should not eat pasta made with butter, etc. LOL

 

Sooo...googling Prawn Mee....found lots of recipes but everything looked so fancy to me. Ayayaya....but let's go ahead and try anyway ...

Here is my recipe.. I only used the ingredients that I had at the moment so I did not make anything fancy. Serving for 2 portions..just for my husband and I.

 

Stocks Ingredients:

• 4 cloves of garlic - chopped finely
• 2 cloves of shallots - chopped finely
• half of onion - chopped
• shrimp shells
• beef stock cube
• 1 tbs sugar
• 1/2 tbs salt (sugar has to be more than salt, we want the stock to be more sweet)
• paprika powder

Garnish:

• 1 chinese sausage- sliced to small cubes
• deveined, deshelled shrimp
• cilantro
• 1 jalapeno sliced thin - u can add more if u like super spicy
• 2 stalks of green onion- chopped

Noodle:

I used spaghetti noodle... :))

Cooking steps:

• Soak shrimps (with the shell) in salted water for 30 mins, then take out the shells and put the shells on paper towel to let it dry a bit
• Heat 1 tbs oil and sautee garlic, shallots and onion.....and as the fancy chefs say..let all caramelized for a while with low heat,hehehe
• add a bit of sugar to help with the caramelizing
• add the shrimp shells
• add water and 1 cube of beef stock
• let everything cook in low heat so the shrimp shell can give out the shrimpy taste..
• Taste the stock, u can start giving more sugar and add salt..depending on your liking..
• Add paprika powder- I put 1 tbs of powder to make the soup red and spicy...yummyy
• On different pan, put a bit of cooking oil and brown the chinese sausage (aka lapciong). Once it's browned and u can see the yummy fat melted a bit, add the shrimps and quickly stir.
• Sprinkled a bit of salt
• Sprinkled with chopped cilantro
• Boiled spaghetti noodle on different stockpot
• Next...get a big bowl for him and her...carefully pour the shrimp stock/soup to each bowls (make sure no shrimp shells poured to bowl).
• Put the noodles in
• Put the shrimp, Chinese sausage, cilantro on top of noodle
• Last but not least...sprinkle with the chopped green onion and the jalapeno...

 Voilaaaaaaaaaaaaaa......bon appetiteeeeeee :))

Now..you can google the recipe and found the great recipe out there..we are supposed to use sliced pork/beef, meatballs, etc..but since I did not have anything, I was glad enough to have just with the shrimp and chinesesausage. ehehehehehhe

Enjoyyy..

  

Oxtail Stew (Semur Oxtail/Buntut) using Slow Cooker

I had no idea why suddenly I was craving for Oxtail.  I saw my sister in law was posting in facebook about how she and my big bro cooked oxtail for dinner. Yum..but this is my own recipe with a twist of Indonesian taste :D

Oxtail Stew (Semur Oxtail/Buntut)

Ingredients:

• 1 package of oxtail
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 tsp of peppercorn
• 1 tsp of thyme
• 1 tsp of corriander
• salt
• pepper
• sugar
• 1 tsp of cumin
• 4 garlic- minced
• 1 ginger- thumb size- minced
• 1 onion
• 2 stalks of green onion- chopped
• 1/2 cup of water

How to Cook:

1. Braise the onion, garlic and ginger with a little bit of oil in the pan.
2. In the meantime, rub the oxtail with salt and let it sit for 5 minutes.
3. After the onion turns brownish, put the oxtail on the pan. Sear it until its brown on each side.
4. Prepare your slow cooker. Drizzle a bit of olive oil inside.
5. Move the oxtail from the pan into the slow cooker.
6. Add in cumin, peppercorn, thyme, bay leaves, corriander, and green onion. Pour the water into slow cooker.
7. Sprinkle with salt,sugar and pepper.
8. Mix all evenly because we want to make sure the oxtail is taking a bath in delicious stock :D
9. Set the cooker into High for 4 hours.
10. Selamat Makan! (Indonesian for Happy Eating) :)

Shrimp Potato Cake (Perkedel Udang)

Since I was a kid, I have always liked this Indonesian dish called Perkedel. I remember back then, I always went to the kitchen and watched my nanny cooked. She would mash all the potatoes and spices/ingredients using Molcajete. Ohh and she would fry the potato before she mashed it all.

Since I was too lazy to fry my potato and tried to be more healthier, I decided to boil my potatoes instead.

Shrimp Potato Cake (Perkedel Udang)

Ingredients:

• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 cloves of shallots
• corriander powder
• cumin powder
• salt
• pepper
• 20 Shrimps
• 3 Potato
• Cornstarch
• 2 eggs

How to Cook:

1. Chop garlic and shallot mincely
2. Peel the shrimp and put in a bowl. Chop the Shrimp really fine.
3. Put 1 tsp of cornstarch, garlic and shallot, salt and pepper with 1 tbs of water. Mix it all together with the shrimp.
4. In the meantime, boil the potato until its soft but not too mashy (for about 10 mins)
5. Mash the boiled potato and mix it with the shrimp evenly.
6. Sprinkle salt, pepper, corriander, and cumin and mix it again until everything is mixed evenly.
7. Next, shape the potato shrimp dough into a flat ball.
8. Beat the eggs and add a dash of salt and pepper.
9. Coat the dough with the eggs before putting into the fryer.
10. Fry for 3 minutes with heated oil until golden brown.
11. Voila!!! Nom..nommm...

Baked Potato Chips

Today I feel very inspired. I have 1 potato left from my soup but I don't really want to add potato to my oxtail stew. So, I thought maybe I'd just try to make baked potato chips.

The thing is, I don't have slicer ...sooo...the only idea I have is to use my peeler. LOL...

If you have slicer or you can slice the potato really thin, you are so blessed. Peeler works fine for me too, but it just takes time and the shape is not as pretty. But I think this is good for the first try-out. Turned out yummmm-oooooooooo! :)

Baked Potato Chips

Ingredients:

• 1 potato
• kosher salt
• olive oil

1. Slice potato really thin
2. Oil the baking pan so the chips won't stick
3. Place the potato on baking pan and brush oil on potato surface. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
4. Preheat oven at 375.
5. Bake potato for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
6. Move the chips to cooling rack right away before it starts sticking to the pan.
7. Enjoy! :)