CHAR-GRILLED SALMON

Woohoo, it is Salmon time again.  Had a very unsatisfactory lunch yesterday, so decided we will make our own today.

Ingredients:
Norwegian Salmon
Bi-Colored Sweet Corn
Romaine
Half a carrot
Cherry Tomatoes
Onions

Sauce and toppings:
Basil, parsley flakes, tartar sauce and mustard.
Butter and sea salt for the corn.

As usual, we marinate the fish overnight with soya sauce and honey.  KK grilled the salmon whereas I prepare the corn and salad.

This is our version of Char-grilled Norwegian Salmon. Yes love it.

SALAD FOR APRIL - SWEET POTATO

Had salad this morning, this time we added Japanese Sweet Potato and potatoes.  The sweet potato was from Japan, we got it from Isetan and very sweet, texture is good, not old, and not dry. 

Added capsicum too, I noticed that capsicum these days have very hard and tough skin and taste weird.  Do not like them anymore.

HAM AND CHEESE SANDWICH

Struggled with my low sugar this morning and prepared this breakfast.  Ham and cheese sandwich with a little side salad, not a full salad because my avocado is still olive and not brown yet.

Ingredients:

The salad - Romaine, cherry tomatoes, sweet corn in sesame dressing. Also strawberries.
The sandwich - wholemeal bread, cheddar cheese and shaved ham (which is so salty! eeks) sprinkled on black pepper, parsley and chilli flakes.

SALAD FOR APRIL - AVOCADO

In this season, there are USA Avocados wherever I go, so not much of a choice.  They are ok, although I personally prefer the NZ version, creamier and sweeter.

Photo shot with my LX3 since my cellphone is broken.

SALAD FOR APRIL

More salad for April.

We made egg and potato salad. One of my fav.
We also use mini carrots, not the baby carrots but mini ones.  They are half the size of the normal carrot.  Still hardy and crispy and yet serving size is just right.

MORE SALAD - CARROTS

More salad for this March, this time with carrots.

 This one with regular sized carrot.

This one with mini size carrot.  I added apple into this too. Not bad, balanced the taste with some sweetness.

SALAD IN MARCH

More salad for March..

This is just a record for myself what I ate.

Ingredients basically are: NZ Avocado, Romaine Lettuce, Baked nuts, dried cranberries, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, capsicum, baby sweet corn, sweet corn, potatoes, cucumber and seaweed.

Dressings: Honey mustard and sesame dressings with sea salt.

SANDWICHES

After all that feasting during CNY, I don't even dare to step onto my weighing scale. Hahahaha..
Back to my salads and sandwiches.

Made ALT sandwich for tea break, because the Avocado is too ripe and also not much ingredients.  It tasted pretty good though.  Ingredients: Avocado, cherry tomatoes and romaine lettuce, with black pepper on wholemeal bread.

Then comes breakfast.  I found some luncheon meat in the fridge, so decided to use it for sandwich.  Ingredients: Maling boiled luncheon meat, romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes on wholemeal bread. Pretty filling meal.

CNY 2014

Year of the Horse, and again it is cooking spree again.  For days we have guests coming over for visits and meals.  It was tiring but it was fun at the same time, catching up with each other and stuff.

Menu for this year is exactly the same as last year.

Day 1: Poh Piah
Day 2: Hokkien Mee
Day 3: Fried Kway Teow
Day 4: Yam  Rice

If you want the recipe for both the Poh Piah  and Fried Kway Teow, they are in the previous CNY posts.  This year the price for prawns are so high at 1kg for $60, we ended using frozen prawns but luckily they turn out pretty ok too.

A few mistakes we made when we stored our ingredients, we kept the noodles and kway teow in the fridge when it should be kept outside.  Also, Sheng Shiong is opened on the 3rd day, so we do not really need to rush to buy and stock up the ingredients.

Poh Piah

Hokkien Mee

This year, mum cut up the fishcakes into thin strips and deep fried them till crispy before adding to the noodles, very nice.

Fried Kway Teow 

This year we added cockles, however, the Lap Cheong is of inferior quality, but overall still very nice.

So tiring, should we take a break next year?  We said the same thing each year but we still ended up cooking. Hahahaha...

SIMPLE LUNCH - LUNAR NEW YEAR'S EVE

It is the Lunar New Year's Eve and we had something light and simple for lunch.  We had salad and garlic focaccia.

Ingredients:
4-5 leaves of Baby Romaine
1 Japanese Cucumber
1 Tomato
half bottle of corn
seaweed
Jajabee
Nuts
1 Onion

Dressings:
Japanese Sesame and honey/mustard

CALIFORNIA HANDROLL

Today is our first attempt at making sushi rice and also California handroll.  We do not have all the necessary ingredients, but just made the best of what we have on hand.  I would say it was pretty successful.

Ingredients for making 6-8 handrolls:
1 cup (blue glass) of Japanese Rice
3 teaspoon of sushi vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar
sea salt (abt 10 rounds the grinder)
1 and a third cup (blue glass) of water. I would personally prefer 1.5 cup water to make the rice softer
Crabsticks from Isetan Supermarket
Seaweed
Avocado from Mexico (not nice)
Japanese Cucumber
Ebiko - prawn roe

Instructions:
Wash rice thorough and drain dry
After drying, pour rice into rice cooker and add water and soak for about half an hour before turning on the power to cook
After cooking, transfer rice to bowl and add the vinegar etc.
Ready to serve

My wrapping was disastrous, so no photo for the blog. Hahaha but taste is ok, except the avocado is way too unripe.

Updated with photos on 30 Jan 2014.

This is by KK, mine was disastrous..

MORE GREENS

Another day of salad for breakfast. Today I will show the ingredients we use.  Ran out of stuff, so mostly it is all green, not as colorful.

MORE SALADS

It is salad time again, I love avocados.

My version and KK's (with nuts)

Ingredients: corn, onion, japanese cucumber, carrot, avocado, mini romaine, seaweed, focaccia bread with home made garlic spread, potato sticks.
Dressings: honey mustard / japanese sesame

My first time using a ceramic knife for salad, it is good, not much metal taste in food. Perhaps I should start using a wooden bowl, what do you think?

KK made some garlic spread.  This is focaccia bread.

SALAD

My simple salad for breakfast. Left over ingredients from the wrap yesterday, i.e. Romaine lettuce, seaweed, crapsticks, japanese cucumber, tomatoes, wrapskin, nuts, sunflower seeds and avocado.
Ran out of sesame dressings, so used a little mayo then mashed up the avocado. It is good.

Morinaga Pancakes

Our experiment with Morinaga pancakes again.  This time we follow the instructions on the package and it turned out pretty well.

A Little Japanese - Tori Karaage

My first attempt at this.  Just for fun.

A rather quick snap as I was having low sugar, and couldn't wait to take my food.

Grilled Salmon

Woohoo, it is Salmon time again.

For my friend who is curious, here is the simple recipe:

Ingredients: Norge Salmon,  Romaine, Alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, corn and sesame dressing.

Marinate: Light Soya Sauce, Honey, Worchestire sauce and sometimes with Basil ..sometimes not, depending if there are any in the cupboard.

Grilled, and served with salad.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Marinate time in fridge: 1.5-2hrs

KIMCHI NOODLE

My first attempt with Kim Chi Noodle with the HCP.

CHICKEN MACARONI

My first attempt at making chicken macaroni.  Been wanting to do it but has been procrastinating.  Recently I got to know that my little nephew is having macaroni in his school, and he does not like it, so I decided to convince him through my cooking that macaroni is nice.  He complained that the macaroni he had in school is cold and hard, so I made sure mine is warm and soft for him.  He likes it. ♥

My little notes to remind myself what I did:

2 piece chicken thigh with bones, without skin - marinate this in starch and soya sauce.
Then cook it with a bit of water, soya sauce, ginger slices. Once cooked, take out to shred the chicken, leave the bones and gravy in the pot for cooking the macaroni soup base.

Boil the macaroni, then transfer them out to the soup base once almost half cooked. Add in peas, corn and carrot, also slices of ginger.

Served with finely chopped romaine lettuce.

CHICKEN CUTLET WITH FRIES

Today, we made chicken cutlet again, but this time with fries.  Used russet potatoes for the fries and had a hard time cutting them, coz the knife not sharp lah. hahaha..