Kueh Chap and Popiah TGIF!

Another good weekend bites the dust but I don’t feel that bad because a long weekend is coming up next week! And it’s R’s birthday too, so that means lots of great food and celebration (^___^) ahead.

Jo, HC and I went to Manise (William Street, Northbridge) for lunch during the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Manise and the food is still lovely. This little Indonesian shop is deserving of a full blog post but we were too full to have a proper lunch, so here’s a picture of their lovely cripsy empek empek instead.

We had another TGIF (thank god it’s family day) dinner today! I spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, it was hard work but actually really fun and satisfying at the same time.

First up was nasi lemak lunch bento for tomorrow.

The popiah was a bit of a rush job at the end of the night so it didn’t turn out as well as I would have liked it to.  I’m going to give it a real go and full concentration tomorrow night so let’s see how that will turn out.

This was the dish that took up most of my afternoon, Kuching’s Kueh Chap, a popular herby porky dish that is well loved by my family members. Don’t bother asking me for the recipe because it was kindly given to me by my mum’s friend (whose family is apparently the pioneer kueh chap seller in Kuching *___*). So this is a family secret and I feel really privileged that dear Aunty Jenny was nice enough to share it with me.

The verdict? Pretty close to the real thing but definitely room for improvement. The part that I’m most chuffed about, my first attempt at cleaning pig intestines (tedious job ) turned out pretty good and my intestines were not foul smelling (there is a reason why they’re called offal you know) at all. Yeah, so I learned something new today and I’m happy. Hooray for TGIFs.

Next TGIF might be bak zhang night Any other suggestions for TGIF food?

East meets West beef stew

The problem with batch cooking is that you end up eating the same thing for the entire week. So with the same ingredients, I made beef stew 2 ways.

Chinese style beef stew with mushrooms, radish and carrots. I braised this with cinnamon, star anise, garlic, ginger, zhu hou sauce, soy and rock sugar.

Western style beef stew with the common ingredients of herbs, onion, leek, garlic, red wine and chopped tomatoes.

Which would you prefer?

Equilibrium

Half of 2012 is almost over. For the past few months I’ve been desperately trying to get back to feeling like this again. I think I’m gradually getting there again, or at least, I’m making a better attempt at it.

Weekends are the best times for getting my act together. A stolen Saturday. A really good latte. Messy but healthy burgers at Grill’d.

Bento of the week is gyudon (beef bowl) with a half boiled egg and garlic long beans.

Something to look forward to? Masterchef is back on Australian tv (^__^).

Procrastinator

Now that I have so much more time on my hands, I should be really striking off the million things on my ‘to do’ list. But somehow, the weekends drift away lazily…

My Sundays are spent grocery shopping, cooking bentos like this nestum chicken bento.

Friday nights become family nights when Jo and Hc come over for a homecooked meal, perhaps a steak or two, or a glass of strawberry wine… or two.

I have to snap out of this wonderful relaxing haze and get up and moving. Maybe next weekend …

Saturday family dinners

Yeah, it was a good weekend.

Firstly, my parcel  from The Book Depository arrived in the mail Happy Sunday Agatha Christie reading ahead.

Then there was our impromptu Saturday roast chicken dinner with lots of strawberry wine.

With lovely Mandarin cake for dessert. This cake was really yummy.

I wish I could bake that way, not only was the outside of the cake beautiful, the inside was gorgeous too. It was fun cooking together on a Saturday night, feasting together then watching TVB dramas together. What should our theme be next Saturday night? Korean? Laksa night?

This stir fried cabbage is not just normal stir fried cabbage, it has my mother’s specialty hay bee hiam (spicy dried shrimp sambal) in it, so good that a normal stir fried vegetable has that extra oomph.

Claypot chicken and mushroom rice topped with a sunny side up.

Spinach and ricotta ravioli in white wine cream sauce.

Hehe, something that I stole from Jo’s home. So small, white, furry and cute. Hehe.

No time

I am running out of time to do anything. The working days feel extremely long and never ending.

Even happy lunch bentos like this minced pork in spicy bean sauce and braised japanese egg tofu don’t make the work days go faster.

Even my photos are rushed nowadays so please excuse my blur photo of kueh bakar which is baked pandan custard kueh. This is for my team morning tea tomorrow, I was going to make savoury siew paos to go with them but well, I ran out of time, so I’ll probably make them on Friday or Saturday.

So visit my house during the weekend if you want a flaky siew pao to go… two more days to the weekend.

Rebellious

That’s how I’ve been feeling lately. It might take a while before I feel normal again, perhaps only a huge change might do.

Pancakes on a Saturday at Pancakes at Carillion. I’m still not a pancake fan, the chocolate sauce and maple syrup was overkill and way too sweet.

Lazy Sunday afternoon, pub food and a midi at a nearby pub(Bentley Hotel). My salmon with macadamia crust was surprisingly delicious with a delightful tangy salad.

The kangaroo rump steak was a bit too overcooked, medium rather than the requested medium rare but the pepper sauce was very tasty.

Master stock braised pork belly with loh egg.

Pineapple beef and stir fried cabbage and carrot lunch bento.

Back to reality tomorrow

Winter curries

Winter is frightfully cold this year in Perth. Everyday I find myself craving warm creamy soups and spicy hot curries. So cooking for the past two weeks has been very winter themed.

First up, butter chicken which is my favourite Indian curry. I think I like sweet curries.

I love pumpkin everything, oven roasted pumpkin, pumpkin steamed cake. But I recently discovered curried pumpkin soup which is delightful dipped with a hunk of bread. This is my first try and making pumpkin soup which I garnished with bacon strips.

Something not so warm but delicious nonetheless, salmon sushi rice bowl with fish roe and sweet egg strips.

Return of the malaysian chicken curry. Jo’s portion had lots of chicken breast meat (the only part she likes), potatoes and cabbage.

Bento of the week, teriyaki chicken with scrambled tomato omelette. Hope this week flies by quick!

The Pressure Cooker Weekend II

I haven’t been blogging for a long time, I should get round to my next Bali blog soon. But nowadays it takes a real effort to switch on the computer after coming home from work.

This weekend we tried out a new breakfast place being Cantina 663 which I’ve heard lots about. I’ve had dessert and coffee there before but was looking forward to sampling their breakfast menu.

Their coffee was a bit too strong for my liking.

We shared a mandarin muffin like thing which was lovely and had a fresh delectable mandarin taste to it.

Calv’s Mama’s breakfast which I guess is Cantina’s version of a big breakfast, it really was very substantial and looked very nice.

Jo’s semolina cake with poached egg , herbs and mushroom. I wasn’t particularly impressed by Cantina’s breakfast fare  but appreciated the bustling atmosphere and great service.

HC is back in Malaysia for a few weeks, so I did some extra cooking for Jo this weekend.

The pressure cooker is fabulous for bulk cooking, I tried this char siew spareribs recipe that my mum recommended and it turned out really easy and pretty close to the real thing.  Reminded me of the Pai Gu Wang we had as kids in Kuching.

Jo’s request for hometown food, our favourite taogeh mee (beansprouts noodles).

Jo’s favourite teriyaki hambagu with tomato based spaghetti.

Teriyaki beef lunch bento with sweet corn kernels and rice.

Pressure cooker cooked zhuhou sauce beef brisket and radish. I will never spend hours braising beef brisket anymore, this was done in 30 minutes and fork tender.

Ok, hopefully I’ll blog more this week, I hope the weekday flies by because it’s Calv’s birthday this weekend, time for a real celebration!

The Pressure Cooker weekend

Or should I say it the weekend where all the stress and pressure of the past two weeks melted away. And also the weekend I bought a pressure cooker! I love my pressure cooker, it is so handy, hours of braising on the stove are over, now everything can be smack bang and done in less than 30 minutes!

And the rock sugar and vinegar spareribs are still yummy!!

Braised pork belly, done in 25 minutes … we also managed to cook a whole pot of bak kut teh and make litres of chicken stock in an afternoon. I love my pressure cooker Y( *   V   *)Y

Teriyaki hambagu, stir fried long beans and rice. Not cooked in a pressure cooker but done traditional style. Don’t worry Jo, I will be making these for you when HC is away in Kuching.

Saturday brekkie with Jo and HC

Vietnamese dinner with Gerry and the cute couple on Saturday night. Teh tarik at the bad Makan2, teh tariks still good but service still very very bad.

Weekends should always be this good.