char kuey teow

It’s been a while since my last post and I really missed blogging! A lot of things happened and was hoping that I could squeeze a couple of hours so I can blog about the places I went to or the food I cooked, but boy! 24hours can pass really quickly! I hope that in the coming weeks, I’d be able to catch up with my backlog of pictures and recipes that I want to share 🙂

Being new to married life, I realised that nothing beats the feeling of satisfaction whenever I cook and to have someone appreciate it. That’s the case with me and my husband so I really enjoy spending time in the kitchen. 😀 It is good that we are both adventurous with the food we eat so our cuisine could range to Asian to Middle Eastern or to just anything yummy! The selection is endless! Here’s something I cooked recently and surprisingly tasty despite how it easy it is. 😉 This is something I really missed eating when I was still in Singapore.

Ingredients:

5oz rice noodles

12 pcs prawns

100g beansprouts

1tbsp chilli oil

1 egg

1tbsp Korean chilli paste (I used this because this is what we have at home 🙂 )

1tsp dried chilli flakes (if you want more punch)*

5tbsp soy sauce

1tbsp sugar

1tsp fish sauce

1 stalk spring onions, chopped

garlic cloves, minced

onion, chopped

Procedure:

1. Cook the noodles with boiling water until its about ‘al dente’. I prefer to cook it just enough that it’s a bit chewy and I’ll cook it all throughout with the sauce 🙂 Drain and set aside.

2. Prepare the sauce by combining sugar, soy sauce, chilli flakes* and fish sauce in a small bowl.

3. Heat the pan and put the chilli oil. Saute garlic and onion. When the onion has been cooked, add in the chilli paste and toss it for a few seconds. 🙂

4. Add the prawn in and just make sure to slightly cook both sides. Once it has been half cooked, add the bean sprouts. Toss for only about 5 seconds then add in the sauce prepared in step 2. (A lot of things will happen really quick so brace yourself! Fast hands! :D)

5. Once the sauce starts to boil, add the rice noodles. The noodles may seem to be a ‘big lump’ and tangled at this point, but fear not! After you drop it in the sauce, it will start to losen. So just be patient and try to untangle the noodle by using a fork 🙂 Mix the sauce thoroughly with the noodles.

6. In your pan, set the noodles aside and crack an egg on the other side. Stir in the egg (as if making a scrambled egg) to make sure it doesn’t cook sunny side up.

7. When you have broken the yolk, combine the noodles and the egg. Toss a few spring onions for garnish 🙂

Note: You may remove the optional chilli flakes if you feel that the chilli oil and chilli paste will provide enough kick for this dish 🙂

 

London 2012

A friend travelled all the way from Singapore to attend another friend’s wedding in the Netherlands. We were supposed to attend the event as well but due to visa stuff, we were unable to. It was a bit frustrating since we seldom meet up with friends living across the globe and this would’ve been an opportunity to do that. So we ended up doing the next best thing: meet up somewhere close to where we are. 🙂 Our friend planned to do a bit of European travelling (since she is already within the continent anyway) and we decided to meet up with her in London. It was pretty exciting since this is the first time I will be travelling to a European country (apart from Dublin) since I got here. I have long wanted to see the different places of interest that I just used to read in books or encyclopedias (when it was still the IN thing). As my husband told me, UK is a really BIG country and there are lots to see and do. A weekend was truly not enough and would’ve wanted to do more but time is a bit of a constraint for us. 🙂 I was just glad that we managed to meet with our friend before she headed back to Singapore and go to lots of places as well.

 

It was a fun-packed and tiring weekend but truly worth it. Food was of course included in the itenerary and pubs (why would we miss that?). But the most memorable part of our trip was our attempt to pose ala-Beatles style at the Abbey Road. It was really crazy! That small bit of asphalt and cement was a big hit we saw a lot of tourists attempting to do the same thing! Bad thing was, it was a bit late (around 10ish) so traffic was a bit busy. While drivers seemed ‘patient’ enough not to honk at some crazy tourists who would put their life on the line to have their photo taken, we did not attempt to do it :p We just snapped a couple of photos in the sidewalk :p

After we dropped her off to the airport, we still had a bit of time to go around. My husband and myself decided to just go around the city and snap a couple more photos 🙂 I am looking forward to my next UK trip and would love to see more!

 

milky chicken with thyme

My mom does not like `herb-y’ dishes. She finds it a bit weird to taste really strong flavours lingering on her mouth. That makes me the exact opposite of hers. I love playing with herbs and spices. I always love it when I cook with lots of herbs and spices because you can get an explosion of flavour while eating! 🙂 Sometimes, there could  be lots of herbs and spices mixed in the dish that it’s a surprise if the combination works or not. That’s what I love most about cooking; to get the result and see if it tastes good or yuck. :p

During my 3-month stay with my parents last summer, it was a great time for me to cook for them and to show them what kind of food I eat. It was also a chance for me to convince my mom that herbs can’t be too bad 🙂 I played it real simple with this dish and made sure that all the ingredients can be easily accessible to her, as it can be quite tricky to get some herbs or spices back home in the Philippines.

Ingredients:

500g chicken breast, cubed
1 small can evaporated milk
1/2 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 small can chick peas
garlic, minced
onion, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Marinate the chicken with half the portion of thyme, salt and pepper. Make sure to rub the herb to the chicken to allow the flavour to sink into the meat. 🙂 Leave it for about 30minutes.
2. After marinating, heat some oil to a pan. Sear the chicken really quickly just to seal all the flavours in. Remove the chicken from heat once colour changes and set aside.
3. Saute the garlic and onion. Cook until onion is a bit transparent and soft.
4. Pour the milk and wait until it starts to boil. Once it starts boiling, add the chicken in to continue cooking. Let it simmer for 2-3minutes.
5. Toss the chick peas and stir in the mixture. Simmer for about another minute then add the rest of the chopped thyme or add some thyme sprigs. 🙂

milky chicken with thyme

It was a surprise when after my mom tasted it, she told me that it was her favourite among all the dishes that I cooked for her so far! 😀 It was really nice hearing it from my mom, especially I know that she doesn’t like food with herbs in it 😉