Adrian & Stephenie's UK Odyssey

Cinnamon bun

2010-01-03T02:41:00.006Z

Happy New Year! Nothing much to do today so I might as well update the blog with some more food pics. Will treat this blog as a library of all the food I attempted.

Macaron inspired recipe

2009-11-01T00:25:00.008Z

Today I thought of making macaron after reading a lot about it on the web so I googled the recipe for it and realised that I did not I have the almond for the recipe. Too lazy to go shop for it, I decided to go freestyle again by replacing the almond with sunflower seeds. Recipe also requires icing sugar but I didn't have that also. Anyway, my 'sunflower-caron' was a totally different recipe altogether. I basically just use the concept and created my own biscuit. Probably the first of its kind in the world. Anyway, I made a chocolate sunflower macaron with banana choc fillings. The result was pretty impressive. A nice crunch on the outside but very light and fluffy in the inside. Since I have never tasted a macaron I can't benchmark what the texture should be. Will definitely try the real McCoy when we visit Paris/ France one day.

I made about 7 for my first batch and left it to cool on a plate. It was an exciting EPL weekend, so I went to the room to check some of the football results. Chelsea was leading 1-0 after Frank Lampard's penalty. I was pretty please with the overall result. When I went back to the kitchen, I saw only 1 macaron left. I thought Steph kept it in a container so when I look at her, she gave me one of those guilty look. I knew something was wrong - yes she has eaten the 'missing' macarons. She said it was very good and she couldn't stop munching. I swear I was only away for less than 10 minutes. :)

- Adrian

What a fatty weekend

2009-10-25T23:18:00.035Z

This weekend has been cooking, baking, cooking and more cooking, so much time spent in the kitchen, oven being used countless times, steamer, washing, and of course Eating. On Saturday we made fried popiah with fillings of shrimps, chicken meat, dried scallops, leeks, carrots for lunch to go together with spicy glass noddles. The popiah was absolutely superb! The shrimps and scallops really added a nice aromatic flavour to the popiah. The glass noodles was a mixture of fish sauce, cajun pepper, balsamic vinegar, sugar and chilli flakes. It was topped with toasted peanuts.

As for dinner, we settle for some easy Thai food, noodles in tomyam soup. Dessert was raspberry cheese cake and appple strudel which we bought from supermarket.

Next morning, Adrian made vegetables bun for breakfast ("chai pau"). Basically these are the same fillings which we used for the popiah. The chai pau really made me miss Msia. Thereafter, Adrian made lamb burger for lunch. It was his first time making Lamburger, so good. Have it with some cheese on, horseradish sauce, pickles, jalapeno peppers.. it's better than those served in the restaurant, reallly. Seriously good!!

Moules Frites

2009-10-16T09:04:00.006+01:00

Moules & Frites aka Mussels with fries- Had that last night and it was delicious. The first time we had this dish was in Nimes, France. This apparently is a common way of eating them in Belgium, Netherlands and France.

Well, I cooked my mussels with butter, leek, ShaoXing wine, garlic and cream cheese. Yummy!

-Adrian

Roti canai with dal curry

2009-10-12T16:41:00.003+01:00

You can't beat a good hearty breakfast like roti canai. Full of calories and yumminess to start your day on the right note :) Accompanied the lovely roti with teh tarik (using English tea mixed with condensed milk). Yummy!

ps: I didn't make those roti canai because I was too lazy. Bought this from the local supermarket, frozen and they call it Pratha in the UK. I made the dal though.

-Adrian

Nasi lemak with beef+chicken rendang

2009-10-12T09:02:00.008+01:00

I probably don't know what Malaysia's national dish is but nasi lemak is probably one of the potential candidate for that spot. Strangely enough, I've never attempted to make nasi lemak before. Just never had the craving or the request for it. So yesterday, I finally did it. Made my first rendang daging and ayam - very time consuming dish. Plate it up with a side of ikan bilis, peanuts, telur mata kerbau (translated literally as eye of buffalo egg aka sunny side up) and cucumber. Too bad we didn't make any sambal or curry to go with it but it was pretty nice on its own. In terms of calorie count, each of our serving is probably around 1000 calorie due to the santan in the rice and the rendang but well worth it. I did try to run it off in the evening but I think I only manage to run for 15 mins before I ran out of breath. I'm so unfit at the moment. Didn't help that for dinner, I cooked rissoto with chorizo which was another calorie rich dish. For dessert we had Steph's home made tiramisu and my Banana Nutella Bread. Happy Days!

-Adrian

Pounds devaluation - pros and cons

2009-10-08T11:06:00.010+01:00

For all those family and friends who hasn't visited us in the last 2 years, I think it is probably a good time to do it now with the pound being so weak. Branded stuff like LV and Pradas are probably 20% - 30% cheaper. If you buy enough of it, it might even pay for the cost of your plane ticket here. AirAsia X has just announced the rights to land in Paris as well. Good news all around for Malaysians who plan to visit this part of the world. As for us, it is just the other way around because, pound devaluing is an indirect pay cut for me. Basically the decline in the sterling is importing inflation into this country. All imported stuff is costing a lot more and travelling around Europe is painful now since it is 20% more expensive now compared to a few years ago. Pound and Euro is almost at parity now! Sterling is expected to remain weak until end 2010 so please come visit us when it is cheap to do so. Hope to see some mates and family soon.

Mr. Clarkson disses Proton AGAIN

2009-10-07T16:52:00.006+01:00

The man (Jeremy Clarkson from Top Gear) who famously destroyed Proton's reputation in the UK has done it again in his latest article on BMW 135i M Sport convertible. I think somebody from Proton should just spend a little bit of money to bribe (ps: people with moral high ground should not live in Malaysia because bribing is a way of life) Jeremy to say good things about Proton or just don't say anything at all. It is better than spending a disgusting amount of money on F1 to promote our national car.

Excerpt from the article
"I’ve never been able to put my finger on quite why I don’t like cars made by Proton and so on. But now I do. They are not joyous. They are built purely to shore up an emerging nation’s balance of trade, and you will never find any joy in anything where every single part has come from the lowest bidder. "

Original article from here.

Unfortunately there are talks that Malaysia/Proton is joining the whole F1 racing fiesta with their very own Lotus powered car next year. I'm proud and worried at the same time because I read somewhere that everything will be made in Malaysia and staffed by Malaysian crew. Seriously, who are we kidding? Money in F1 can't buy success and if Team Malaysia fails miserably, it will be an even worst publicity for Malaysia, especially Proton and even Lotus.

- Adrian

Yummy 'Nai Wong' Bun

2009-10-07T16:05:00.004+01:00

Last weekend we went down to London for Dim Sum with Steph's cousin. Steph's cousin is leaving London and going back to Singapore after 3.5 years here so we thought it will be a good idea to have a farewell lunch and at the same time satisfy Steph's craving for Dim Sum. Too bad I'm no Dim Sum chef so we will have to let the real chefs do the cooking this time. Well, as usual when you go for Dim Sum, you will order the standard Char Siew Bao, Har Gao, Cheong Fun and etc. A conversation came up on Custard Bun aka Nai Wong Bao which Steph recalls was introduced to her when she was working in Singapore. So I told myself that I will attempt to make that for her when I have the time. Well, I attempted it...........and here are the results in pictures. I didn't attempt to make a steamed version this time because I wanted to try the baked version. Turned out pretty nice but the filling wasn't gooey. Probably too much egg and flour this time.

Willen Park @ Milton Keynes

2009-09-27T21:06:00.011+01:00

It was a lovely weekend of sunshine. As usual, when the weather is good, we spend our time outside! "Life is too short to be wasted indoor" Adrian's belief . Sometimes (not all the time) I do hope that the weather will not be as good, so that I can stay indoor and chill. "If you have nowhere to go, no point wasting time outside" Stephenie's belief.

We went to Milton Keynes on Saturday, often abbreviated as MK is a new town developed to ease congestion in London. We've been to MK a couple of times since it is quite near our town, just under 30mins drive. It has a massive shopping complex and I to walk the whole complex, you'll probably need the whole day. The town also has an indoor ski, rock climbing, indoor skydiving facilities, and the list goes on. Definitely a more happening town compared to Luton.

This time around, we went to Willen park to take some pictures. We've been to the park a few times already but have not cover the whole place coz it's massive. They have a huge lake at the centre of the park which is a popular spot for water activities such as cable skiing, fishing, wind surfing, canoeing.

One of the main attraction is the Peace Pagoda. Taken care of by the monks and nuns of the Nipponzan, it is the 1st peace pagoda to be built in Europe. The 1st Peace Pagoda was built in Hiroshima after the 2nd World War. Set on the edge of the beautiful and peaceful Willen Lake, there is a spectacular view all around the stupa. A thousand cherry and cedar trees have been planted on the surrounding hill all around the stupa as a mark of remembrance to the victims of all wars. Next to the Peace Pagoda, you have the Japanese Shrine.

Lion at the Peace Pagoda

Granite sculpture

Pampas Grass

Stone arrangements Oh, and the exciting bit of the journey was... we saw lotsa blackberries! Cant resist plucking them, and in the end we have about half a sandwich bag filled with blackberries to bring home. Yummy!Fat spider

St Albans Roman town

2009-09-27T00:09:00.007+01:00

Continuing from our previous post, we often drive down to St Albans town which is only 20mins from our place. This was once a Roman town, and the name of the town originates from a priest St Alban, the first British Christian martyr which was beheaded in the town.

There is a huge park next to St Albans cathedral which we always go to and also the popular weekend outdoor market. The cathedral is quite similar with the other churches here, not one of those rare ones which makes us go aww but still not too bad. When we were there last week, we got to witness a wedding ceremony taking place in the cathedral.

Childrn's water play area at the park, quite a cool concept. Wish I could join them.

Bird watching @ St Albans

2009-09-24T20:52:00.016+01:00

Some interesting birdy pictures from our trip to St Albans park.

Steamed baoz and mantao

2009-09-24T20:52:00.010+01:00

Its officially autumn in the UK but surprisingly it isn't that cold yet. We can still go out with a single layer of clothing but I doubt that will last for long. Just completed a round of pau and mantao making and was very satisfied with the results. The texture and taste was very nice and similar to the ones you usually get at dimsum restaurants. The colour was a bit yellow compared to the extra white ones you get at dimsum place probably due to some additives they use. Anyway, just thought we share some pics we took of our pau and mantao. The flavours were black+gold (red bean and kaya) and for the mantao was black sesame.

-Adrian

Steam buns @ Mantou

2009-09-21T20:29:00.011+01:00

Back to blogging again!

It's been awhile since our last blog. I blame it on the good Summer that has come and gone. To be honest, I'm just feeling lazy.

What have we been up to the last couple of months?

Abit of travelling, catching up with friends in the UK, random drive and exploring different parts of UK, playing host to family and friends who came visiting, celebrating birthdays, engagements, baby shower party, football, BBQ, phototaking, berries picking, and of course our favourite pastime baking & cooking!!

And what have we done today?
We had Mantao with chicken curry, I made the curry and Adrian made the "Mantao", usually reffered as Chinese steamed buns. This is what I call team effort! You can easilly get those Mantao frozen pre-cooked from supermarkets and all you need to do is just steam it. But Adrian being him, made them from scratch. There is a popular story in China that the name Mantou actually originated from "barbarian's head" (direct translation). Interesting yea? Anyway, Adrian knead the dough yesterday to let it rest in the fridge. He rolled them up into individual mantao and steamed them today. He made unfilled mantao but he added a cheeky amount of butter into each one to give a nice buttery taste.

The mantao look really gorgeous sitting in the steamer.
I was really excited when I see the Mantao double in size. I somehow thought they look like alot like durian puff.. wish we had some durian paste around. Maybe we shall do that the nextime, or maybe not considering that it cost close to 10 pounds for us to buy one durian here.
Adrian then decided to panfry them later to go with our chicken curry. It was good, we had an amazing dinner tonight (as usual) =)

We will be making more mantao tomorrow, but with black sesame as stuffings. Hopefully will post some pictures up.

Breads galore

2009-08-18T10:35:00.014+01:00

The obsession with baking our own bread started a few months ago and I think we have made a few more different variation of breads. What goes into your bread is really up to you. It is so simple to make. The smell of fermentation is just so..........addictive. Once I got over my fear of yeast and baking, there is just no stopping the creative juices. So far we have made, Apple bread, Coffee bread, Roasted garlic bread, Cinnamon bread and Mixed nuts bread. I'm going to try to make a bread with mixed herbs next. Life is good when you have freshly baked bread for breakfast or just for snacking.

I think this dark coloured bread was the coffee bread

This was the Apple bread. This was made the morning my Mum and Dad arrived in the UK.

This is Steph's first bread (I'm so proud of her). Made it when I was in Norwich. She didn't use enough dough so it came out looking like a flat bread. She cut it into thin slices and spread them with garlic and butter and roast for abit in the oven .. she calls it her garlic bread sticks.

This was our favourite bread of all - Cinnamon bread.Our next few breads would probably be something with Nutella, herbs, cheese or some root vegetables.

-Adrian

Long time no blog

2009-08-12T16:57:00.003+01:00

Wonder what happened to us in the last couple of months?
I wonder what happened too? I remember we would blog every now and then but then all of sudden just silence. I think I was busy juggling my work and my studies but not sure why Steph decided to stop penning her daily/weekly life. Well I should start the ball rolling again by posting this.

I must say I do miss cooking a little bit but I don't have the chance to do this the last couple of months because I'm on an outstation job in Norwich. Only back on weekends and usually that doesn't give me much 'kitchen time'. Anyway, hopefully this assignment will end soon so I can stay at home a lot more. The plus point of working outstation is having the chance of eating three course meals everyday. I'm quite sick of eating out now but it is nice to have somebody do the cooking and cleaning for a change. I've definitely gain some weight from this assignment but hopefully the weight don't get too comfortable on my body because I will definitely lose them when I get back to my normal routine - 5 small meals a day.

Summer has been nice in the UK this year. I'm not complaining too much even though it rains occasionally. Somehow Norwich is blessed with better weather compared to the rest of the UK. Steph manage to visit Norwich last week and she trully enjoyed her stay here. I haven't done the touristy stuff yet because by the time I finish work, the shops are usually closed. That is UK for you. By 6pm most shops are closed for the day. Well at least Steph enjoyed herself.

-Adrian

First bread making attempt

2009-05-03T20:12:00.005+01:00

My personal life for the last couple of weeks have been non existent due to work. Been working down in London the last couple of weeks and spending around 3 hours a day commuting to my workplace. Usually knock off work around 9pm to 10pm. By the time I get home, it is usually time for bed.
It is a public holiday tomorrow so I thought I would have a 3 days weekend but as usual, luck wasn't on my side and had to go in to work this morning. To suppress my disappointment, I thought I will cheer myself up by making something I haven't done before. Making my own BREAD. I prepared my bread dough last night so that I could just pop it in the oven early in the morning.
Call me crazy but I actually woke up extra early to make this. Need to get in to work by 9am so I woke up at 7am to do this. Made a multi-seeded bread (Check out the pictures below) with roasted garlic inside. Making bread makes the whole house smell like a bakery and it was really satisfying to have fresh from the oven bread for breakfast. Warm and crusty. My bread came out looking good but the taste was disappointing. I didn't put enough salt so the taste was quite 'healthy'. But you can always fix 'healthy' bread with a little bit of good old butter/margarine. We had our bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
- Adrian

?????!!! ?!!

2009-04-21T23:27:00.003+01:00

Liverpool drew Arsenal 4-4, so dissapointed with Liverpool's performance. They were too caught up in attacking.. and no one seems to know how to defend. Title hope? Forget about it already. End of story.

Chinese macaroni

2009-04-20T23:35:00.005+01:00

The other day we had macaroni miso soup for dinner. This came straight from a packet (instant). Strange how Italian has started to influence our Asian food. I love macaroni soup because there are so tasty and easy to prepare. Just throw in whatever stuff you have in the fridge and you'll have your warm hearty comfort food. I always prefer using macaroni to instant noodles whenever I have the crave for some soupy meals. I just love the texture of those little macaroni.

We also had red bean soup with glutinous rice balls for dessert. Red bean is more commonly known as adzuki beans in the UK. We will usually have this once a fortnight. Adrian haven't perfected the glutinous rice ball because it wasn't chewy enough.

- Steph

oh happy day and 6-layer baked aubergine pasta

2009-04-19T22:06:00.008+01:00

Today has been a fantastic day - good weather, good food, good company and good news. We went to St Albans, a nearby town to celebrate a friend's baby girl full moon. They served really good food, roasted duck, stewed lamb, pork leg stew, carrot cakes, etc. I can't stop eating seriously. Finally my guilt kicks in after I finished 2 big slices of carrot cake and learnt that Adrian only took a bite. Hmm... need to think of a way to make him eat more so that I wouldnt feel bad everytime I eat.

Y'day Adrian cooked pasta using aubergines for dinner. First he pan fried the aubergine and arrange them at the bottom of the baking dish. For the sauce, he used double cream and chopped tomatoes.

After that, he split a quarter pounder burger into smaller pieces and arrange them on top of the aubergine. He sprinkle a bit of paprika on top to give a slight kick.Next, the penne and loads of chunky garlic and pour some sauce over it. A final layer of aubergine with abit of butter and finally top it up with lotsa cheese.

Baked for about 15 mins and voila.. the 6-layer baked aubergine pasta. Really good.

Oh, almost forgot, I am so happy that Manchester United lost, they are out of the FA Cup! What a day.

- Steph

curry & naan

2009-04-18T17:26:00.008+01:00

Adrian decided to cook curry for lunch. And this is very simple to cook coz we did the shortcut way. We used half a packet of Deli Chef curry, I brought so many instant Deli Chef curry sauce packet from Msia - there are chicken curry, fish curry, rendang, green curry... my mum bought all these from Cosway for me. Thanks mum. I LOVE CURRY!! and this Deli Chef curry sauce comes in paste form and I personally think it tastes much better than the other pre packet sauce in powder form. It has a very strong and rich flavour.. very spicy too. We just add-in onions, potatoes, chicken, curry leaves, and finally coconut milk.

We decided to eat the chicken curry with naan - Indian style. So we bought a packet of garlic and coriander naan from the supermarket. The naan is huge and smells good too. So yummy.. my mouth still waters everytime I look at the picture.

As I am blogging this Adrian is cooking something new for dinner tonight, smells good from here. Oh no, I hope this is not another kilo to my weight *sweat*

-Steph

Herbie affairs

2009-04-17T11:55:00.012+01:00

We had Emperor Chicken couple of days ago. This dish originated long ago in China, the story begins when a starving, homeless beggar in rural China who stole a chicken from someone’s yard. That person killed it, built a fire and prepared the chicken for cooking. Suddenly, the emperor's guards came along with the emperor and his entourage, and in a panic to hide the chicken this person covered it with mud and threw it into the fire. Attracted by the aroma of the baked chicken, the Emperor stops and dines with the beggar, demanding to know how this food was created, and such a delicious meal. As the story goes, this emperor had such fancy and admiration for this humble dish that he made it his favorite dish in his palace. So with some herbal concoction this dish has become the Emperor's Chicken.

I used a packet of Emperor Chicken herbs & spices mix, you can easilly get this from any supermarket. One can choose to either steam or roast it. I decided to do the original - steam it.

First, apply the herbs and spices mix onto the skin and inside of chicken, massaging the chicken at the same time. Wrap the chicken in the plastic wrapper, followed by aluminium foil provided in the package mix. Place the wrapped chicken on a steaming dish. Steam the chicken for 2 hours over low heat.
I used the left over chicken for herbal soup the next day, just add in water & let it boil. It tasted like those herbal chicken soup which has been simmered for hours!

I love chinese herbs (most of them anyway). I am the type who happily breathe in the pleasant tonicky aroma whenever I walk pass chinese medicine shop. Thanks to my granny and mummy, when I came to the UK, I brought along some chinese herbs with me, only the common ones which can be used easilly:-

1. Red dates / Hong Zao - strengthen the functions of heart and lung, as well as nourish the stomach and spleen. Contains lots of Vitamin C. Ocassionally used this to boil soup together with Tong Sum.

2. Wolfberries / Gou Xi- high in antioxidants, good for improving eyesight and eyestrain. Also for soup and my steammed herbal chicken. This little berries are really sweet, we put them into our porridge to give it some sweetness. Can also put them into boiling water and drink it pure.

3. Tong Sum / Dang Shen - for lung and spleen, improve one’s 'chi' and stamina, good for those always feeling tired. It's a root similar to that of the ginseng family and is regard as the poor man's ginseng as it is cheap yet full of amazing properties. Love using this for our soup and herbal chicken. Throw some into a boiling water together with red dates and you have your tong sum red dates tea.

4. Bai Xian - Commonly used to treat cough with lots of white mucus that is difficult to dislodge. Use this for soup and cooking.

5. Pao Shen / american ginseng - tonic for the whole body, and believed to cure lethargy, arthritis, impotence, senility, diabetes, bla bla bla (the list goes on, there are tonnes of goodness in those roots) and also is one of the most effective anti-aging supplements. Good yeah? Since this stuff is quite expensive, I usually boil it under low heat overnight and drink it in the morning.

6. Cane root and arrow root - this one is prepacked with some other herbs in there. Just some sweet herbal drinks, has yet to boil it.

7. Ju Hua / Chrysanthemum - Mentioned this because it is a type of herbs as well. haha.

8. Snow fungus - Good quality snow fungus has a pale and yellowish-white color. Ladies, drink more of this as it is believed to promote healthy skin and good complexion. I love to boil this with red dates as sweet dessert. I'm boiling this today.

9. Pre packaged herbs - there are probably 6 types of herbs in there. Quite cheap, bought this for rm3 per pack. Will use it to make herbal chicken soup one day.

So, do I sound like an old ahma who is expert in chinese herbs? No way, I only know a handful of these, the rest I went to Eu Yan Sang's website to check out the name. Hahaha. By the way, I found out that there is a type of herb which shares the same name with me - the Stephania Root (Hanfang Ji), good for bladder, intestines.. cool huh.

Well, here is my herbie collection. I know these are nothing compared to most households back in Malaysia, but I'm already worried whether we will be able to finish them. Adrian doesn't touch these stuff for his cooking. It's me who has been using them constantly because I usually cook chinese food and I love drinking soup.
Hmmm, maybe I could try growing some ginseng in my backyard since my spring onions arent growing as well as I hope it would be (Nothing came out! Maybe the worms ate all the seeds?).
I wonder whether they have those prepack 'grow your own ginseng root'. Just stick the baby roots to the ground and let it grow? That would be easy...

- Steph

Tower Bridge

2009-04-16T22:32:00.008+01:00

2 weeks ago I met up with a friend in London city for lunch. After that I went over to Adrian's London office which is near the Tower Bridge area to meet up with him after work and proceed to dinner together with a friend of his. I was sitting outside his office and came to realise that his office has an excellent view of River Thames and also the major landmarks nearby.

The building on the left below is Adrian's office. In front of his office is the belfast naval ship.

Across the river, there is the Tower of London, another major tourist attraction. Romantic right? What a nice place to pak-toh after work.

Check out the Gherkin ....er, there that condom shape building hiding behind.
And situated upstream of the Thames is the famous London Bridge! Magnificent isn't it. Nah, that's not London Bridge. Picture below is London Bridge... abit boh-syiok right? I was conned like most of the people. I'd always thought that the famous London Bridge would be huge, majestic not a plain simple ordinary looking bridge. Well to give you all abit of history - the very first London Bridge was built over a thousand years ago, while the Romans were in control of London , and it was made of wood. When London was raided by the Danes, they sailed upriver and attached ropes to the wooden struts and then rowed downstream with all their might and managed to pull the bridge down. This is thought to be the origin of the old nursery rhyme "London Bridge is Falling Down". Anyway, this one here is a completely new bridge, which was located slightly downstream from Tower Bridge. So back to Tower Bridge, this bridge is located next to the Tower of London, and hence its name. Built in the 19th century, this bridge is on a level with the streets with a double draw bridge that could be raised to let ships pass up and down the river and lowered to let vehicles pass to and from across the waterway. The bridge is regularly opened to allow the passage of tall ships.

We were lucky to be able to see the bridge being raised to allow tall ship passing through it. There was once when we were stuck on the bridge itself when the arms were raised. It was simply awesome being on the bridge seeing the road infront of you being lifted up.

At night, the view is even better.

So incredible is the Tower Bridge that the big Blue Whale wouldn't want to miss it too. hahaha!
-Steph

Our garden

2009-04-15T22:31:00.009+01:00

The weather has been very lovely. Went to the garden today and was surprised to find so many flowers growing in our backyard.

Cherry Blossom

The cherry blossom trees are in full bloom during the arrival of spring. This is my favourite plant and one of the most beautiful sights to behold. Back home in Malaysia, we always put up fake cherry blossom in our house as Chinese New Year decorations. This is my first time seeing a real Cherry Blossom and I'm thankful that we have one in our very own backyard! Cool right? Actually, it's the neighbour's tree but the branches grow above and into our garden.

Young green leaves can be seen growing from some of the branches. I wish those beautiful sakuras can last longer.

Another Cherry Blossom nearby. There are plenty of these here. What a sight!

To top it up, we have a nice deck whick extend from our living room into the garden. Love to just sit outside basking in the spring sun just enjoying the view while having a cup of hot coffee.

Cant wait to have a barbeque in the garden someday.

- Steph

banner changed

2009-04-14T23:42:00.000+01:00

We decided to change our banner to represent each seasonal change! Got this idea when we were snapping pictures of flowers in the park. The last banner was a picture of falling snow taken at our backyard during the winter season. The current picture was taken when we were lazying in a park near our neighbourhood during the last weekend. I'm so happy and glad that spring is here. Bring on the hot weather.

Happy Spring!

Easter weekend

2009-04-14T14:07:00.001+01:00

Easter break is over! Back to work! In the UK, Easter weekend is a 4 days break cause we celebrate Good Friday and Easter Monday. There are 8 public holidays in UK compared to approximately 13 in Malaysia (state dependant). In the UK kids get Easter eggs (made with Chocolate) on Easter.

Why do we eat easter eggs at Easter?
For Christians, Easter eggs symbolise new life. They believe that, through his resurrection, Jesus defeated death and sin and offers people the promise of eternal life if they follow his teachings. This is why there is a tradition for Christians to be baptised at Easter, which celebrates new life in God.
However, the festival of Easter stretches back to pre-Christian times, too. It gets its name and some symbols, including the Easter Bunny, from the Pagan Spring Equinox festival, which is a celebration of Spring and also of new life.

Weather wise, it was horrible. I think it rained 3 out of the 4 days. So we were indoor most of the time. SO what do you do when you are indoor? COOK of course. Below are some of the dishes we had (some for the first time) over the long weekend. Steph is probably a lot heavier now compared to last Thursday. Well, somebody has to help me finish all my yummilicious dishes.

Roast chicken with stuffing

and the damage done by the both of us.

Fish fingers salads
English breakfast
Sushi
Curry flavoured mee hoon Fruit jello

Custard flavoured buns

Salmon spaghetti in tomato cream

-Adrian

Tea infused pasta

2009-04-10T10:17:00.000+01:00

Everyone knows that England is a tea drinking nation. I probably drink 5-8 cups a day when I'm at work - White no sugar. Came up with the idea of making this tea-infused pasta whilst I was drinking tea one day. The aroma from fresh tea made me think that I should include this aroma in my cooking. So when I got home one day, I decided to try this out. Firstly I boiled 3 tea bags in a pot. Probably left them in there for a good 3 to 5 mins. Before they started getting too bitter, I took the teabags out and added in half a cup of milk, salt and pepper. Moments later I added in some ham which I've fried separately earlier on. Then I added in my chicken breast, leek and some chicken stock. I let the tea reduced to quite a thick consistency before adding my pre-boiled pasta. Once the sauce thickens up and the pasta has absorbed most my tea, it was time to serve my experimental pasta. It tasted good but I found that it lacked the aroma that I was looking for. Probably I should add a few more teabags next time. Anyway, will try to perfect this dish before I attempt to serve to my friends back in Malaysia...kekeke...

-Adrian

Freezin onions

2009-04-10T09:40:00.000+01:00

What's the best way to store onions?

FREEZE THEM!

We over bought onions in the supermarket, and we have a whole big bag of it! We already have some at home, but when we saw that the store was selling it for such a deep discount, we decided to get it. It think it was 20p for 1kg. Who can resist cheap onions right? hahaha. And the onions that we bought were gigantic not those small cute ones.

Doubting that we can finish all of them in time, despite that we love to use onions in our cooking, it is quite impossible to consume all those before they get rotten. Not like we are cooking for a whole big family, it's just the two of us!

So what do we do? Well, we decided to freeze them.
After half way peeling through the onions, I decided to leave a couple on the shelf. My hands are tiring me out. And I havent even got to the hardest part yet... chop and dice them. Ever wonder why do we tear everytime we chop the onions? Some type of chemicals are released into the air when we cut an onions which make your eyes tear, and I find white onions are the worst-- purple never seem to be as bad. I usually try not to breath while cutting onions, but come on, it is easy if I only have one to cut, but now I have a whole lots of them! How could I not breath? So I opened all the kitchen windows, and the balcony door, and was so glad that it was a windy evening, so the air was just circulating in the kitchen. and voila, no tears at all!

Read from some articles that to avoid tearing, you just need to cut a cone out of the bottom of the onion (where the roots come out) and it'll be fine, but you need to cut out a huge chunk of it. Well I am happy with my method.

After dicing all of them, I stuffed them into a sandwich bag, a tupperware and the also wrap them up in clingfills. Separated them into different sizes and parts so that it is easier to use them as required for different dishes. I make sure it is all wrapped up for odour protection.

Look at my onions collection! kekeke.. this will last us for a very long time... so satisfied. The only downside to this is I have to bear with my onion smelling fingers till the next morning. *sniff sniff, eewwww...

-Steph

CHELSEA - One up

2009-04-08T23:16:00.000+01:00

Chelsea looked like champions tonight with a 3-1 win at Anfield. Like they say, past results are no indication of future performance. Today just proves that the ball is round and anything can happen. I never expect Chelsea to win so comfortably against Liverpool which recently found a rich vein of form. They thrash the likes of MU, Real Madrid and Aston Villa. Anyway, I'm really happy Chelsea won. Too bad I miss the match because I was at work. Steph wasn't happy with the results but I think I can live with that (Sorry Steph).
Ivanovic (2 goals) and Drogba were the point getters tonight.

what a Fungi dinner

2009-04-08T22:22:00.000+01:00

Bought some portobello mushrooms over the weekend. I've never seen such huge mushrooms before! You could just hold one and munch on it like you were munching a piece of bread.. this giant is more than 10cm wide! Portobello mushrooms are popular mushrooms for stuffing...Adrian wrote me an email on what to do step by step cause he was still at work. So I just follow his instructions. First, I stuffed them with the leftover 'Quorn beef' bolognese we used for our pasta. Quorn is totally meat free, a type of vegetable protein made to look and taste like meat. I used quorn chicken before and they taste really good, almost like the real deal.

See, aren't this stuff huge?

So there you go, all mushrooms stuffed. Completely pushed down the stuffings with the back of the spoon to make sure the mushrooms are really pack.

Then I sliced up a ball of mozzarella cheese and spread them out on top of the mushrooms. Sprinkle some oregano and drizzle a little olive oil over them. And into the oven they went.

Took them out after 15 - 20mins. I thought I over baked them, coz the mushrooms looked kinda dry. So I used those juice which must have oozed out from the mushrooms and pour them back into the mushrooms.

There you go.. nice stuffed portobello served with couscous and spinach. Couscous is a Mediteranean dish and they are high in protein.

These are yummy! To my surprise, the mushrooms are not dry at all, instead they are really moist and juicy. So healthy, no meat, no fat and high in protein. Will definitely do this again someday. Maybe can try grilling them instead and stuffed them with some other ingredients.

- Steph

tonigh is the Night!

2009-04-08T10:48:00.000+01:00

Liverpool-Chelsea will face each other for the Champions League game tonight. This battle is the highlight of this year's quarterfinals. Been waiting for this game anxiously and can't wait to see how both team square off in the field. I hope Liverpool wins, while Adrian supports Chelsea. Read about our previous blogs rearding this match here and here. Who do you think will win?

Last night saw Porto drawing ManUnited in Old Trafford. What a terrific game and Porto showed some incredible skills playing against United. Also found out that Porto has a striker by the name of Hulk.... This guy was voted the man of the match, truly the Incredible Hulk.

-Steph

oh my, what a lovely pungent-ness smell

2009-04-07T23:35:00.000+01:00

I prepared dinner today! Adrian gotta work in London, so by the time he comes back, we will both be starved. Each time when I am incharge of dinner, it will be 99% that we will be having Chinese meal. Why? I need my rice... tend to feel uneasy if I don't pop some rice into my mouth for more than 3 days. typical chinese girl.

For the vege, I sitr fry the lettuce together with some mushrooms, beancurd and oyster sauce and chinese Shao Hshing wine. I love lettuce but dislike having them for salads. Adrian always munch them raw.. eeee-yak!

As for the meat, I did the Shrimp Paste Chicken, Har Jiong Kai (in Cantonese). This is one of Singaporean’s favourite fried chicken dish. I remember having them quite frequently while working in Spore. This dish is like a must order when I eat in any Tai-chau stall.

I used the Lee Kum Kee's shrimp sauce which I've brought along from Spore. To many Westerners unfamiliar with this condiment, the smell can be extremely repulsive... but to Asians, this stuff are like heaven made.
I used chicken drumsticks instead of the more common used chicken wings.

Really simple -
1. clean the chicken (dont throw away the skin, that's the best part!)
2. marinate them with shrimp sauce and let them sit in the fridge for few hours
3. Coat the chicken with corn flour
4. Open wide the kitchen windows (to let the smell escape or the whole house will smell of shrimp)
5. Fry them till golden brown

and tadaa!

Tender juicy on the inside. Crispy shrimpy taste on the outside. Say hello to my pungent shrimp fried chicken (I can still smell it in my nose) ... and Bye bye to KFC!

- Steph

fatty Tortellini

2009-04-07T00:03:00.000+01:00

We had store-bought fresh tortellini with cheese and ham fillings. It's a type of ring-shape pasta. Decided to have it with cream instead of the usual bolognese sauce. We throw in a bunch of spinach, ham, garlic, onions, cheddar cheese, chicken stocks, double cream and finally a dash of whisky to enhance the flavour. It was really yummy but in my opinion the cream is too overwhelming coz Adrian throw a whole full cup of of cream into it!! For those health concious out there, maybe can try serving this with alot of salad to go with it or just cook tortellini soup instead. It is my first time having tortellini and I can't wait to have another round again.. but definitely with less cream please.

- Steph

drools.. Eggtarts

2009-04-05T22:03:00.000+01:00

What a beautiful sight! Adrian made these pretty 'Portugese style' egg tarts, and it was simply yummy. These little pastries have been my all time favourite. I remember getting them for 40cents back then when I was still in primary school but I think they are probably selling for at least RM1.20 now.

The custards are really simple to made and we used the leftover pastry dough from our char siew puff, so making these only took us less than 30mins. But we dont have enough pastry dough to go about, and guess what?

We had eggtortillas tarts!! he used tortilla wraps instead for the remaining custard..

- Steph

the G-riots

2009-04-05T21:08:00.000+01:00

Finally, back to bloggin again. Been spending some time down in London, also been getting abit lazy and preoccupied with... er, the lovely spring weather, G20, Obama?!

London host the G20 meeting lastweek, and all the world leaders were here. Mr Obama was in town! Yes, I'm a big fan of the President and his beautiful wife. As usual, for most major summits there will be protest, riots and demonstrations. And for this case, the people are generally angry at the bank bailouts situations whereby governments throwing trillions trying to save the banking system... and ppl are even more pissed when the bankers are still getting their fat bonuses despite the fact that the money pumped into the bank are basically the tax payers money.

Anyway, it was quite tense in the city of London during the days prior to the summit.
Effigies of bankers are 'hung from lamp-posts' in the run-up to the G20. City workers have been warned not to wear suits, but to dress down in chinos and loafers because they would be obvious targets during the demonstrations.

Canary Wharf, the business centre of London, was also one the hot spot for demonstration.

Was having lunch with a friend in that area on the day of the summit, and was hoping that I will bump into a demonstration so I could, maybe join in the protest... well, just for the fun of it. Erm, nothing happens, the demonstration took place in the city of London instead and there are ppl who died at the protest.
Quite a serious riot apparently.

NOTHING happens in Canary Wharf!! Dissapointed, I head back home.............

wait, is that Citibank building on fire?

- Steph

a delightful surprise

2009-03-25T12:13:00.000Z

Got back home late yesterday night from London. A very tiring trip all thanks to the London crappy traffic. (We spent couple of days in London as Adrian has training there.) The London traffic is just plain stupid, they like to have roadworks at peak hours, placing hundred and hundreds of cones closing most of the lanes and only allowing one pathetic lane for cars , and having traffic diversion all the time... kononnya for road maintenance, how inconsiderate! I think 75% of our driving journey, we have come across road diversion. So, a normal 1hour journey from London turned into almost 2 hours for us to get back home. And this time, we noticed that the roadworks guys were just sitting in the truck watching TV!!! All that for the massive jam! What the **TUT***!! I have to agree simply with many of my friends here complaining that London is really a 3rd world country. So much inefficiencies with their transport system, postal services, government services, bla bla... sound familiar?

Anyway, when we got home I was treated to a lovely surprise!! A friend of mine sent me some pineapple tarts all the way from Spore!! nyam nyam... not any ordinary tarts, it's Bengawan Solo weh! Maybe nextime can send me some layered cakes since they are the most popular cakes being sold in BS. hahaha! Thanks friend, very thoughtful of you. Chomping onto those right now.. they are yummy! I suspect these little cookies will not last till the weekend.

-steph

Hello Spring!

2009-03-21T22:14:00.000Z

The weather has been lovely the past few days, we have plenty of sunshine in the UK. Leaves are budding everywhere, spring spring is finally here! It is my first time experiencing Spring time, and was so excited when I see buds shooting out from the once dead branches. Managed to capture some pretty pictures.

The most amazing sights will be the daffodils. Most trees are still leafless but the daffodils are growing like mushrooms. They seem to be sprouting everywhere... by the roadside, field, by the lake, even our house backyard. And they come in assorted colours and type too. I only managed to capture the yellow ones. I read that daffodils are the first sign of Spring. Winter is finally gone!! finger cross.
Took the shot below outside Adrian's office. Can you spot the daffodils?

- steph

Ezy meals

2009-03-21T00:10:00.000Z

Some of the simpler meals which we've cook this week -

1. Leek, potato and bacon bake - Slice the potatoes and boil it in chicken stocks, meanwhile fry the leeks and the bacons. Layer up the potatoes and leeks, then scatter the bacon over the top. Pour some of the leftover stocks into the dish. This is really a quick and easy meal, took me 30mins to prepared this before popping into the oven. Taste lovely, would be better if there were more bacon. Will probably stuff some chicken in there the next time.

2. Super spicy olio spaghetti - This is even easier to prepare. Boil the pasta and while waiting for the pasta to cook, on another pan fry some garlic, seafood, then throw in some spices and of course a handsome amount of chilli flakes. Add in the spaghetti and it is ready to be served. The secret to this dish is good quality extra virgin oil which is basically the flavour of the dish.3. 'Chicken' chickpea spaghetti - We bought a few packets of Quorn, which is a type of mycoprotein food instead of the real chicken meat. This Quorn product is made of some type of fungus and is high in protein. Good option for those who are trying to cut down on meat. It taste really good, and we have some Quorn minced beef and Quorn grilled vegetables sitting in the freezer! The Quorn chicken was cooked with chickpeas and mixed salad. Add the spaghetti in to the mixture and you have a nice healthy dish.

- steph

Chelsea draws Liverpool in the Champions League Q-final

2009-03-20T11:20:00.000Z

To be honest, this is probably the worst draw for Chelsea because of Liverpool's track record in the CL. 5 seasons in a row these two teams meet in the CL. What is the probability of that. Lets just hope that Hiddink has a strategy to get us into the semi-finals. The other problem is that Barcelona or Bayern Munich are waiting for us there. Too many hurdles man. Drogba has found his goal-scoring form at the right time in the season and the midfield dynamo, Essien is back. Fingers and toes crossed we can lift the trophy this year.

United on the other hand has got such an easy path to the final. They are in a half with the likes of Porto, Villarreal and Arsenal.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUARTER-FINAL DRAW:
Villarreal v Arsenal

Manchester United v FC Porto

Liverpool v Chelsea

Barcelona v Bayern Munich

Steph vs Adrian

2009-03-20T11:18:00.000Z

It's Liverpool against Chelsea in the quarter-final of the champions league. Argh! I am a supporter of Liverpool and Adrian supports Chelsea. How la? I guess we have to behave and compromise when we watch the game on tv. That means no over shouting or over reaction... or not we might be getting on each other nerves. NO FUN!!!

Full quarter-final draw:

Villarreal v Arsenal
Man Utd v Porto
Barcelona v Bayern Munich
Liverpool v Chelsea

Full semi-final draw:

Man Utd or Porto v Villarreal or Arsenal
Barcelona or Bayern Munich v Liverpool or Chelsea

-steph

CDCLO

2009-03-18T17:43:00.000Z

No, not some collaterised loan obligation... Yesterday we had baked chicken, not the normal kind of chicken grilled marinated with brown sauce or whatever sauce.. er, Adrian been experimenting again, and this time he risked our lovely Chicken drumsticks (which I wanted to used it for my more ordinary dish) which he stuffed with smashed hardboil salted Duck egg with Curry Leaves and top it with a mixture of Oats and (chicken) egg and curry powder. There, thats my CDCLO!! What sort of combination is that?! I wonder any of you will eat that if you only hear / read about it without any graphic.
after half an hour in the oven, here is the result ...

Any takers now? Pretty fusion huh, it was yummy !!

Along with the abnormal CDCLO dish or whatever you want to name it, we had the 'extra spicy fermented tofu' (fuyu) stir-fry vege. He underestimated the spiciness of the chilli powder (again) and threw in more than enough into the vege dish despite the words being obvioulsy stated on the packaging - 'EXTRA HOT CHILLI POWDER'. It was so hot, that we gotta rinse some portion with water.

And we had something very random and spontaneous for dessert, shall I call it CBM - chocolate Baileys mousse? whatever la, as long as this 'tam chiak poh' loves it.

-steph

Charsiew bun and pastry

2009-03-16T20:24:00.000Z

Last weekend, we made Charsiew pastry (Char Siew Soh) and the weekend just passed we made Char Siew bun. I was contemplating on posting these two recipes on separate blog entries but decided to put them together since the fillings were the same. Both the recipes were successful and we manage to make enough to satisfy our appetites. I must say both the pastry and the bun was not easy to make. Both required significant amount of time to prepare.

Ingredients:
Char Siew filling
Minced Char Siew
2 tablespoon of corn flour (mixed with half a cup of water)
1 big onion (diced)
1 tablespoon of LKK Oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of LKK HoiSin Sauce
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
A few dash of pepper

How I did it:

Firstly, fry the onion until is starts turning brown. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and mix for another 10 mins or so. That would be the filling for your bun and pastry.

Ingredients:
Pastry dough
Plain flour
Ready made puff pastry dough
Margarine
Sugar
Water
1 egg

How I did it:
As you can see I have not put in any measurement for the flour and water as I was freestyling. I don't have a weighing scale at home. I guess I understand the basic of baking and adding stuff together until it feels right is the way I go about doing things. I made the 'normal' dough on my own and bought the puff pastry. The last time I tried making puff pastry, it took me 2 hours at least. I had to combine the puff pasty with the normal dough because using pure puff pastry will be too flaky and using pure 'normal' dough will be hard. For the normal dough, firstly put in the flour and margarine into a mixing bowl and mix them together. I added a bit of water at a time into the mixture until a soft and elastic dough is formed. Once the dough is formed, leave it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to rest. Once that is done, divide the dough into 4 portions. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Place the puff pastry dough on top of the normal dough. The ratio for the normal dough to puff pastry is 2 to 1. Wrap the normal dough around the puff pastry dough until it forms a ball. Roll out the combined dough. Cut out a rectangular shape with a butter knife and put a tablespoon of Char Siew filling into the centre of the dough. Fold up the side and make sure they are properly sealed. Glaze the dough with egg wash. Place it in the oven for approximately 30 mins at 200 degrees Celcius. DONE!

Our first try to see which shape looks the nicest.

The result of our first try

We went for the 'sui kau' shape in the end

Ingredients:
Char Siew Bun
Bread flour
4 tablespoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
3 tablespoon of milk powder
1 and half teaspoon of yeast
1 egg
50g of butter
120 ml of water

How I did it:
Add some water into the yeast. Leave it aside and the yeast will start 'frothing'. After 5 minutes, add in all the ingredients except for the butter. Knead the dough until it becomes elastic and non-sticky. Initially it will be very sticky but as you continue kneading, gluten will be formed. You can add a little bit of flour as you knead to quicken the process. The kneading process probably took approximately 20-30 minutes. It was so tiring and my arms were sore after that. I nearly gave up because I kept telling Steph that my dough is still very sticky. I lost track of the amount of flour I added. Add in the melted butter after 15 minutes. After a long and tiring process, the dough was formed. Cover the dough with a cling film and let the dough prove for 2 hours in a warm place. I place mine in an oven because the house was pretty chilly. After proving, the dough should double in size. Give the dough a few more rounds of kneading. Divide the dough into little mini balls. Flatten your dough with your fingers and place your Char Siew filling in it. Bring the edges towards the center to seal the dough around the filling. Place the seam side down on the baking tray. Let the dough sit for another 10 mins or so and you can see it grow a little again. Place the doughs into the oven for 20 minutes at 220 degrees Celcius. Once ready, brush the top of the buns with some melted margarine or butter to give it a nice glossy shine.

DONE!

-Adrian

Marley & Me - a must watch

2009-03-10T12:04:00.000Z

Me and Adrian went to watch Marley & Me last week. (Adrian adores Jennifer Aniston) Well, I taught it would be another romantic comedy film .. unexpectedly it is not. I simply love the movie. A real story written by John Grogan, Marley & Me is a story of the young couple John himself and his wife and their 'super active and adorable' dog Marley who taught them what really matters in life. The movie speaks of unexpected challenges that everyone faces in adulthood, responsibility as a husband, wife and parents... unconditional love, sacrifices, issues and how one can balance what's important in life. The story sort of prepared me and Adrian of what to expect as we move on in life as a couple and taught us great values. Just incredibly meaningful and it is soooo touching at the finale. Please just go watch it!!

- Steph

Char siew

2009-03-08T09:43:00.000Z

Char Siew (Chinese BBQ pork) is one of my favourite meat dish. If I have Chicken rice back home, I would always order Char Siew with it. I rarely order just chicken with my rice. If I have dim sum, my must have would be Char Siew Pau or Char Siew Soh. When my Dad buys dim sum for breakfast he will always gets me Char Siew Pau when the rest of the family will have their Big Pau or Loh Mai Kai. Since I can't get my usual fix of good Char Siew in Luton, I decided to learn how to make them. First time I did it, I used chicken and it turned out alright (see previous post). This time I did the 'real' thing by using pork. I guess the other difference was I used HoiSin sauce this time instead of the LKK Char Siew sauce. Both tasted good but you can't beat pork when it comes to taste. I made quite a bit of Char Siew this time because I wanted to make Char Siew Soh as well. Will post the Char Siew Soh on my next blog entry.

Ingredients:
Marinade

1 kg of pork (Belly or shoulder)
4 tablespoon of Hoisin sauce
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
2 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
5 tablespooon of sugar
1 tablespoon of five spice powder
A few dash of pepper
1 tablespoon of ground ginger powder
Fried garlic
Other ingredients
Honey
ShaoXing wine

How I did it:
1. Marinade the pork with all the ingredients stated in the 'Marinade'. Add about 50ml of water and give it a good mix to make sure every piece of pork is coated. I left it over night to make sure all the wonderful flavour is absorbed by the pork. I guess you could get away with 2-3 hours of marination.

2. Place the pork on a baking tray (lined with aluminium foil) and cover it with another foil. Pop it in the oven for 15 mins at 200 degrees Celcius. Remove the top foil and dip every piece of pork into the excess marinade. Pop it back to the oven again (this time without the foil) for another 15 minutes. Remove the pork and dip it in the marinade again. Pop it back in the oven again. While the pork is cooking in the oven, pour some ShaoXing wine and 2 tablespoon of honey into the excess marinade. Heat up the marinade until it starts to bubble. Continue to reduce the marinade with low heat until it becomes quite thick. Take out the pork and coat the pork again and put it back in the oven. I turned the heat up to 220 degrees Celcius. The Char Siew will be ready when the pork is slightly charred. Your pork should now look like a Char Siew. If you have extra marinade just use it as Char Siew sauce for dipping or just pour it over your Char Siew.

We had wantan noodles to complement the delicious Char Siew. It looks pretty authentic ya. I must say, Steph has really captured the essence of my cooking. Just blogging about this dish makes my mouth water. I wish I had made more. As promised, I can't repeat any of my recipe for the rest of the year .....Argh.....what a stupid promise since I can't enjoy this for another year.
-Adrian

Muah Chee

2009-03-08T09:36:00.000Z

My memory of Muah Chee always brings me back to Gurney Drive in Penang. My Dad will stop the car by the roadside and we will run/ walk briskly to the muah chee store in the center of the 'food court'. Sometimes we are disappointed when it is closed but most of the time we will get what we want. Some people go to Penang for their Char Kuey Teow or Asam Laksa but my 'MUST HAVE' will be the Muah Chee. Yes, you can get Muah Chee in most pasar malams but the one in Gurney Drive is just so much better.

Recently I was reading a food blog (Rasa Malaysia) and saw Muah Chee on it. Straight away, the saliva glands in my mouth went into overdrive and I told Steph that I want to make this. Look around websites in UK to see if I can get glutinous rice flour but none of the major supermarkets carry them. So off we went to the local Asian store....YES! they had plenty in stock. Bought my packet of glutinous rice flour(choice between Thailand and China but went for Thailand since I lost a bit of confidence in China-made stuff). I was happily walking back home and suggested to Steph that we should make it straight away. However, I was still recovering from my cough so I can't really eat peanut yet. I will give my body another few days to recover. I even bought a bottle of Pei Pa Ko from the Asian store to speed up the process...hahahaha.

Muah Chee is made of glutinous rice flour and mixed with water, sugar and cooking oil. Very simple ingredients. The Rasa Malaysia recipe used tapioca flour in the mix but I went with corn flour since I didn't buy any tapioca flour. I didn't follow the recipe's measurement (the rebel in me). I just add flour and water until I got the right consistency. It was very watery initially so I just kept adding flour until it became a dough. Steam the dough in a steamer for a good 15 to 20 minutes. Let the dough cool before cutting it up and tossing it in the peanut mixture.

For the peanut coating, we bought peanuts and crush them manually with a glass bottle. Steph did the hard work on that while I was preparing the dough. We pop the ground nuts in the oven for 10 mins to roast the nuts a bit. Once the nuts were cooled, we added sugar in it.

For the added taste, I made some fried onion to sprinkle on top. As usual, I wouldn't just accept the traditional Muah Chee without adding my own twist on it. I added a teaspoon of melted peanut butter on it. It just made the Muah Chee taste even better. I honestly think that my Muah Chee is better than the pasar malams but I still can't beat the Gurney Drive Muah Chee.
-Adrian

Oi Apam, Balik!!

2009-03-07T11:01:00.001Z

Woke up in the morning, and the first sentence popping out from my mouth is.. "What are we having for breakfast?" Soon, this will be a typical morning habit. I look forward to Saturday and Sunday coz there'll always be nice morning meals to look forward to, coming from a 'tam chiak poh' (greedy girl). This morning we made.. I mean Adrian made 'apam balik' - the thin version kind, the more of a crispy crepe/pancake type.
Some call it Ban Chien Kueh, some call it 'Tai Gau-Meen'. This kuehs are favourite pasar malam food. Still remembered Adrian and I and another couple -Tim and Janet used to head to the pasar malam in SS4 for dinner before our bowling session in Tropicana. How I miss those days.
For the batter, we used flour, a pinch of baking powder, milk and an egg. After preparing the batter, pour a little to the pan and quickly spread it across the pan evenly. Oh, before pouring the batter, rub some butter/margarine unto the pan.
For the filling, we sprinkle some sugar, then add a generous amount of crunchy peanut butter and creamy corn. Leave it to cook for awhile, then fold the pancake into a half and leave to cool. Voila!I suppose you can put any sweet fillings like red beans, sweet coconut, nutella, chocolate, kaya to your apam balik.

The final product. You can just stand in awe admiring the beauty of the scene when the peanut butter and corn ooze out of the apam balik. Amazing start to a day. And we made extra to keep for snacks later. Yummmmiehh!!

Also , I am looking forward to dinner tonight. Adrian will be making his char siew. The pork has been marinated since last night and is sitting in the fridge right now *drools*

- Steph

what a Feast!

2009-03-06T20:11:00.000Z

Our dinner yesterday was superb. We had 3 different type of unique dishes and even our rice has its own speciality too. Not to mention that all the dishes were our first attempt.

First dish - "Giant meat(flat)balls with baked beans". You can refer to the previous post on how we did this.

Second dish - "Fried japanese tofu with minced pork". This is a simple recipe which I learnt from my granny. She cooked this quite frequently back home. First, deep fry the tofu till golden brown, remove and set aside. Mixed minced pork with a little corn starch, soy sauce, white pepper. Then, cook the minced meat with the mushrooms and carrots, throw in some corn starch to thicken the gravy.

Third dish - "Leek and Chinese sausage stir fry". This is my favourite! First steam the sausages after slicing them. For the leek, stir fry until it is cook, and once ready, mix in the sausages.

Accompanied by - "Ginger rice". Add some ginger, spring onions and 2 table spoons of margerine into the rice when it is just about to boil. We added chicken stocks to give it abit more taste as well.

It was a good dinner, and despite eating more than usual, we still have plenty of leftovers!! We ate this for our dinner today too (but instead of rice, we had it with wantan noodles). I wonder what Adrian will cook next. I admit that I've put on some weight since I came over, because he is always experimenting with food.

Well, I guess we make a good combination, he loves to cook and.... ME love to eat! kekeke

- Steph

Meatball with baked beans

2009-03-06T15:45:00.000Z

Last night, we cooked three Chinese dishes for dinner. Never done that many dishes at once before and it was interesting how Steph and I managed to prepare it in less than an hour. Basically, we had meatball with baked beans, leek with Chinese sausage and Japanese tofu with mince pork. Steph cooked the Japanese tofu with mince pork and I cooked the other 2 dishes. Husband and wife team! :)

The meatball with baked beans is how my Dad usually cooks baked beans at home. Obviously, it taste different but he gave me the idea for it. Thanks Dad. Mine had a hint of ginger in it so tasted different from home.

Ingredients
Meatball with baked beans
150g of minced pork
1 egg
Chopped ginger (About a tablespoon)
1 toasted bread
Spring onion
Soy saunce
Oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
Pepper
2 tablespoon of Corn flour
Baked beans

How I did it:

In a bowl, mix the minced pork, egg, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, pepper and ginger together. Leave it for 15 mins. Make some breadcrumbs from the toasted bread (I used a grater since I haven't bought my food processor yet). Mix the breadcrumbs into the mixture and add in the corn flour.

Shape the mixture into meatballs and fry them in a pan till they are brown on each side. Remove them from the heat. Warm up the baked beans in the same pan and put back the meatballs when the baked beans starts bubbling. Cover the meatballs with the baked beans sauce. DONE!

-Adrian

the accidental sticky baked beans rice

2009-03-05T14:20:00.000Z

This is what I just had for lunch.. and I called it the accidental 'sticky baked beans rice'.

Why accidental? Wanted to cook fried rice, and I threw in the dumplings we had from the lamb stew. I thought the dumplings will be nice to go with the fried rice because of its chewiness. Never thought the very solid dumplings will dissolved and the flour and stuffing from the dumplings made my rice stick together... it actually looks like 'lo mai kai' (the genuine sticky rice). And I threw in a whole lot of those giant dumplings into my fried rice. Hence, I ended up having a whole slab or chunk of rice all sticking together in the wok. For a moment, I wanted to make cheesy baked rice, (trying to salvage my dish), but can't be bothered to bake them as I am already very hungry. So as usual, easy easy, just to cheer up the dish a little, I cooked baked beans with eggs. I love baked beans, and hence by adding them to my dish, will make my rice more appealing.. well, at least to me.

So, lesson learnt, do not assume that anything can goes into the fried rice... although most of us would agree that we tend to use whatever leftover dishes including the rice itself!! (fried rice a.k.a. what's left over from dinner). Anyway, I love my sticky baked beans rice, and thanks to God for His grace on my lunch.

- Steph

Lamb, Leek and Carrot Stew with Dumplings

2009-03-04T22:45:00.000Z

A couple of days ago, Steph bought some leek from the supermarket. I have never cooked leek before but I enjoy eating it. So was thinking of what to do with it. Opened my fridge, and was looking at my available ingredients. So I put a few ingredients together to create my Lamb, Leek and Carrot Stew. The dumplings was an add on because there wasn't much carbs in this dish. The first time I had dumplings was in Wigan and I was trying to recreate the taste from memory. In my opinion, it was a nice winter dish since it is sinful and warm.

Ingredients:
Lamb, leek and carrot
4 lamb chops
1 carrot
1 leek
Beef stock
A bottle of beer
Olive oil
Salt, sugar and pepper (adjust to suit your taste)

Dumpling
100g of plain flour
25g of stuffing mix
1 tablespoon of baking powder
Grated cheddar cheese
A pinch of salt
Water
Butter/margarine

How I did it:
1. Season the lamb chops with some salt and leave it in the fridge for an hour. After an hour, pan fry the lamb chops (3-4 minutes on each side). I learn this technique from some cooking program. This apparently seals the juices in the meat before cooking it in the oven. Remove the lamb and let it rest in the baking dish. Drizzle some olive oil over it.

2. Using the juice from the lamb, fry your leek and carrots. Add a tablespoon of olive oil and continue to fry the veg for a good 5 to 8 minutes. Add a little salt, sugar and pepper for taste.

3. The secret ingredient = BEER. I used Kronenberg 1664. It is a French beer and is one of my favourite beer in the UK. The cup beside the beer bottle is the beef stock (they come in cubes) which has been mixed with half a cup of boiling water

4. Place the veg on top of the lamb. Pour in the beef stock and beer and make sure all the veg are covered. Cover the dish with foil and pop it in the oven for an hour at 200 degrees Celsius.

5. Dumplings:
Firstly mix the stuffing mix with some hot water. In a separate bowl, mix the plain flour, salt, baking powder, grated cheese and butter together. Once it looks like crumbles, add a bit of cold water to make it into a dough. Add in your stuffing mix. The dough will get softer after adding in the stuffing because of the water content in the stuffing so don't add too much cold water to your flour mix.

6. After an hour, remove the dish from the oven. Spoon a tablespoon of the dough into the stew. My dumplings were a little too soft (too much water). Pop it back in the oven for another 25-30 mins at 175 degrees Celsius. This time, you don't need the foil.

7. The finish product!

-Adrian

simple desirable Apple Crumble

2009-03-03T12:17:00.001Z

Adrian doesn't feel well today, so I thought I'll make something (sweet) to cheer him up a little. We had a couple of apples in the fridge so I decided to make apple crumble for dessert. It was my first try, and never knew that it would be that easy, took me less than 30mins. As usual, I visited youtube for recipes. I always find it easier to learn how to cook from watching the video compare to just reading the steps.
First, peel and slice the apples. Then, sprinkle them with sugar and a little cinnamon and mix them up.

For the crumble mixture, mix the flour, oats and some butter into a large bowl and mix with your hands until it resembles a crumb texture.

Pour the mixture over the apples, and baked them for about 20mins.

Delicious! Would be better if there are more crumble.. the apples are really sweet so the crumble can level down the sweetness intensity.

I think I will be making more of this in future. Maybe a nice warm apple crumble for breakfast, top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. yummmm!

- steph

My Char Siew Chicken

2009-03-02T21:16:00.000Z

During CNY, I attended a friend's open house in London. It was a pot luck so everybody had to bring a dish there. Initially, I wanted to bring my beef and beer pie but realise some of my friends don't eat red meat. So I ended bringing, char siew chicken. I don't really remember the exact recipe anymore but I basically substituted the pork with chicken breast. Most people at the party thought is was pork because the chicken breast was quite dry and looked like pork. Even a Malay guy didn't believe me when I told him it was chicken and it was safe to eat. Let me know whether you think it looks like the 'real' thing. I plan to make one with pork soon. Will make more so I can use the leftover to make Char Siew pau.

- Adrian

Lasagne - The way I made it

2009-02-28T07:52:00.000Z

Yesterday, we made lasagne. Yes, the classic Italian dish made with layers of pasta, tomato sauce and cheese. It turned out alright, considering this is my first attempt at making one from scratch. As usual, I didn't follow any recipe and just used whatever I had in the fridge and store cupboard.

Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients:
500g on minced beef
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
A can of chopped tomatoes
2 tablespoon of dried Basil leaves
2 tablespoon of Oregano
A dash of red wine
1 tablespoon of Bertolli Olivio spread (margarine made with olive oil)
3 tablespoon of olive oil
50g of plain flour
150ml of milk
50ml of white wine
1 tub of ricotta cheese
50g of cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon of dried parsley
Salt, sugar and pepper (adjust accordingly to suit your taste)
Lasagne sheets
Some pasta to cover the gap (The sheets were not big enough to cover the dish)

How I did it:

To make the bolognese sauce, firstly heat the olive oil in the frying pan. Finely dice the onion and fry it until it turns slightly brown. Add in some garlic as well. Add in the mince and mix it together with the onion. Add in your chopped tomato, basil and oregano leaves. Add in 2 tablespoon of sugar, 2 tablespoon of salt and pepper to suit your taste. Let it simmer for about 15 mins or so. Pour in a dash of red wine. Turn off the heat and let it rest.
To make the white sauce, heat a pan with a teaspoon of olive oil and some margarine(I use Bertolli margarine because I forgot to defrost the butter from the freezer). Add in your milk, dried parsley and garlic and bring it to a boil. Add in the flour after the milk start simmering to thicken the sauce. Add some salt to give it some taste. Add in your white wine after that. Turn of the heat and continue stirring to remove the lumps caused by the flour. Add the cheddar cheese now and continue stirring. After 3-5 minutes, add in the ricotta cheese. Continue stirring to blend in the cheese.
Preheat your oven at 200°C. Now you can start your layering process. Pour a little olive oil at the bottom of the ovenproof dish. I added a layer of white sauce at the bottom before putting my first layer of pasta. Arrange the pasta so that it covers the entire surface of the dish. Pour in the white sauce to cover the pasta sheet. Add the bolognese sauce to cover the white sauce. Repeat the same process until the dish is nearly full. The final layer should be covered with white sauce only. I ran out of white sauce so my top was a little too dry (That is the problem when you don't follow recipe). Note to self, add more milk and flour the next time I do this.

Cover your dish with an aluminium foil and pop it in the oven for 40 mins. Take the lasagne out and remove the aluminium foil. Pop it back in the oven for another 5 to 10 mins to get the nice golden colour at the top. There you go, my first home-made lasagne. DONE!
As usual, Steph was very complimentary about my dish. I felt that it was ok. I had limited ingredients to work with so it was average for me. It would taste a lot better if I had some extra cheese sauce for the top and grated Parmesan between each layer.

Will try to improvise next time by using coconut milk to give it an extra richness and definitely using butter instead of margarine.

-Adrian

HAIL LIVERPOOL !! ......... chelsea too

2009-02-26T11:16:00.000Z

Yesterday was a good day for me. why? Coz Liverpool had a stunning victory over Real Madrid in the Bernabeu camp itself! How cool is that. Their performance can be quite teruk if you look at the games they played in the premier league for the past few weeks, but Liverpool record in the European Cup has always been quite good. Happy for Adrian that Chelsea won too. Well, I hope both teams don't have to fight one another, or not I am pretty sure Liverpool will beat Chelsea this time 'round!! Sorry ah-boy.

Dinner was quite simple (I guess you know why) as I'm the one who prepare them. Adrian wasn't feeling too well yesterday, so I thought I'll prepare dinner. Dinner was the leftover tomyam soup, steam eggs, and brocolli fried with tuna.
It was my first attempt in cooking steamed eggs. We used:
2 eggs, one cup of stock/broth water, 1 salted egg and crabsticks, a bit of soya sauce and pepper and spring onions for garnishing.

Basically, I just chucked whatever stuff I have in the fridge. We ran out of pork meat, or not I would love to put in some minced pork. After putting all the ingredients together, we had a little too much to fit into a bowl so we split them into 2 and put them into the steamer.

It was my first time cooking broccoli with tuna too. Just heat it with some butter and put the tuna in when the broccoli is cooked. Simple yet delicious! I read that high intake of broccoli can reduce the chances of prostate cancer. So to all the men out there, do take more of these! Or woman, do cook more of these vege for your other half.

Here you go, my ridiculously simple dish. I doubt I'll ever have the chance to prepare this dish back home in Msia. My granny is a wonderful cook and I would prefer to give her the chance to show off her skills.

-steph

Relearning the English language

2009-02-25T10:00:00.000Z

I'm now in the UK (approximately 10,000 km away from Malaysia). When I first got here, I thought my English was of 'average' standard and Malaysia being an ex-British colony, I spoke fluent 'British' English. However, with the influence of Manglish and American sitcoms, my English is no where near 'British English'. I had a few embarrasing moments during some of my daily conversations with people here. On one occasion, I was working on a project that involved the disposal of a business producing bread. As you would expect, they had flour mills to store the main ingredient for bread making.

Me: I'm happy to look at the flour mills operation
Colleague: Can you pronounce 'flour' again?
Me: f-l-a-r. .....
Colleague: Dude, it is pronounced 'flower'
Me: What??? That is the first time I heard it pronounced that way

So I looked up the dictionary to check how it was pronounce to prove that what I was taught the right pronunciation in Malaysia was correct. This is what the dictionary showed - flouuhr, flou-er (Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/flour).

Another one was 'handphone'.
Me: What is your handphone number?
Colleague: What is a 'handphone'?
Me: Mobile phones, your Nokias and Sony Ericssons.
Colleague: That must be what Malaysians called it.
Me: I guess so (*confused look)

Again with the trusty dictionary.com, I typed in 'handphone'. Result - Redirected to another website selling phones. That has never happened before. So I tried another dictionary website - thefreedictionary.com. Result - Hand phone is not available in the general English dictionary and thesaurus. Mental note, never use the word handphone again in the UK.

A few more that I can remember are:
Chips = French fries
Crisp = Potato chips
Datakey = Pendrive
Photocopy = Photostat
Stamp = Chop

I bet if I travel around Europe and even the UK, I would encounter many more varieties of English. Since my work, involves presenting my work in 'British English' I fear one day my reports will be given back to me with hundreds of question marks and scribbles asking me to explain what I'm trying to say. My writing would have a combination of British, American and Malaysian English. I've now signed up for an English course to 'relearn' my English. My company provides this training for free so hopefully, my 'English' will improve after a couple of months.

Everyday is a struggle not to use phrases that I love:
"Can ar"
"Where got"
"-lah"

-Adrian

Baby, I love my Tomyam soup

2009-02-24T19:41:00.000Z

Last weekend, Adrian and I went to an oriental grocery store. It is a huge storehouse and I am very impressed with the varieties they have there, and even more impressed with the price. Most items are priced at least 3 to 5x of the price if I were to buy the same item in Msia. Anyway I am very happy with my purchase, bought salted eggs, japanese tofu, dried beancurd, tomyam paste and some noodles.

Out of guilt and love, I told Adrian y'day that I will make dinner, it was him who usually does the cooking. He has done so many gorgeous food since I came over, so I thought I will do it this time. Me being myself, did the easy way. I used the tomyam paste to boil the soup, and threw in some crabsticks, chicken slices, smoked haddock, ladyfingers, and spring onions. The final verdict - awesome. It smells so good that my housemate came to the kitchen and see what I'm up to :) Well I guess, all my 'hardwork and effort' was worthwhile since Adrian had a second helping.

Instant tomyam paste (₤1.55)

My magic concoction

I'm a good cook after all... haha.

-steph

Happy Pancake Day!

2009-02-24T16:05:00.000Z

Most Malaysians probably have no idea what we are talking about unless you are a Christian in certain parts of the world that celebrates this day. In the UK, today is Shrove Tuesday and is celebrated each year on different dates depending on when Easter falls. It is the day before Lent. There is a tradition, whereby pancakes are made and eaten on this particular day. I'm not being religious or anything but since Steph and I love eating pancakes, I decided to wake up extra early today (7am to be exact) to make a batch of pancakes for breakfast and lunch. Actually I was really looking forward to doing this so I didn't feel any tiredness at all. All I wanted to do was make some pancakes. :) I wish I felt the same way about going to work...

Pancakes are very simple to make with very basic ingredients comprising flour, egg, milk, salt and sugar. I'm not going to bother with the 'how to' make a pancake because you can easily get the recipe from various websites. Being adventurous, there were 4 different types of pancakes; the standard version - syrup with butter; banana and Nutella; a version of 'Apam Balik' made with Chunky peanut butter and sugar; a savoury pancake with minced chicken and mushroom as filling. As usual, Steph (the avid photographer) has captured some of the delicious pancakes for your viewing pleasure. We had so many batches of pancakes and they were all so delicious.

Tossing the pancake (the fun bit!!!)

A standard tin can (with bottom removed) to make mini pancakes

Pancakes with butter and syrup (IMO, the best combination)

the traditional with syrup and butter

banana and Nutella

My version of 'Apam Balik'

with minced chicken and mushroom

There you go, our first Pancake Day in the UK. I've been told by Steph to start remembering the stuff I put in my food and post the recipes. That request has been noted and I will make an effort the next time round.

-Adrian

P/s: I really miss Paddington House of Pancakes at the Curve. My next recipe will probably be pancake burgers with chips.

A new Blog is born

2009-02-23T18:26:00.000Z

Hello friends! We thought it would be a good idea to start documenting our life in the UK. We decided to share our experiences here with our family and friends. We both come from Malaysia and having educated and worked in Malaysia all this while, living in a foreign place is truly a new and exciting (scary as well) journey for both of us.

Also, we want to show case Adrian's new found hobby - cooking and trying out new recipes. Below are some of the foodie pics taken over the last couple of months. Adrian has promised to keep his recipes 'fresh' by not repeating the same recipes for the rest of 2009.

Meatballs spaghetti

Roast pork noodles

Cheese baked fusilli

Bread and butter pudding

Ikan bakar

English breakfast

Steak and beer pie

Salmon sushi

Reggae chicken wing

Bak kut teh

Pork with stuffings

Popiah (Homemade skin)

Pepper stuffed with couscous

Red wine Mee Suah

Beef steak

Chicken and chickpeas spaghetti

Blackberry muffins

Fish and chips

Stick with us as we blog more. Tomorrow - 'Pancake Day'