Carrot & Zucchini Soup

I haven't cooked anything new recently since my husband keeps travelling on business trips..This weekend he happened to be in town and I decided to make this soup as a healthy lunch for him on lazy Sunday !

Ingredients:

1kg peeled carrots (diced)

2 peeled zucchini (~640g)

3 potatoes

2 celery branches

1 onion (diced)

3 garlic cloves (diced)

2 teaspoon cumin (powder)

1 teaspoons coriander (powder)

1/2 teaspoon ginger powder

1 teaspoon paprika (powder)

3l water

salt

pepper

a splash of Worcestershire sauce

Method:

Heat oil in a large pot on medium heat. Add garlic, onion & celery. Saute until onions are slightly browned, about 3 minutes.

Add carrots, potatoes, zucchini and all the spices. Mix and cook for 5 minutes.

Add the broth and bay leaf then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until veggies are soft and fully cooked.

Turn off heat . In a blender, puree the broth and the veggies until creamy. Return to pot and mix well. Add worcestershire sauce.

Taste check for additional salt if needed.

Baked Mac & Cheese

I've made mac&cheese a few times but all of those are stove top version. This is the first time that I made a baked version which is similar to the one my friend always makes for her when we go to our farm in England!


The recipe which I asked my friend for it and the following is what she told me..


A basic cheese sauce , butter and flour made into a roux then milk added in slowly , with cheddar and Parmesan , I also put 1 tsp of mustard in either French or English , whichever you have, make it rather thick( I keep a cup of the pasta water aside  In case it's too thick , add a little if you need to ) Mix them well then lots of cheese on top into a warm oven (160) for 30 mins.


And below is what I used for the cheese sauce. ( For 5 oz. of macaroni )

30 g butter
1.5 tbsp flour
2 cups milk plus some water from cooking macaroni ( to loosen the sauce )
1 cups cheddar cheese plus more + some parmesan for topping
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp English mustard powder

I baked at 170c for 20 minutes..

  

Indian Spicy Dry-Fried Prawns

My husband has been eating more seafood & chicken than red meat since he started being on diet. And I chose to make this spicy prawn instead of salad or roasted dish to jazz things up for him !


The recipe 

Prawns / Shrimp -1 lb
Ginger garlic paste-1 tsp
Turmeric powder-1 tsp
Chilly Powder-3 tsp
Coriander powder-2 tsp
Pepper powder-1 tsp
Garam masala powder-1 tsp
Required salt
Oil-4 tbsp
Onion-1/2 thinly sliced
Curry leaves
Green Chillies-5

In a bowl,take the cleaned prawns.To that add ginger garlic paste,turmeric powder,chilly powder,coriander powder,garam masala,pepper powder and required salt and marinate for at least 30 minutes.

In a pan,add the marinated prawns.Cover and cook the prawns  without adding water.The prawns will cook in its own water.Cook until all moisture evaporates completely.

In a pan,add oil ,curry leaves and green chillies and sauté for a minute
Add sliced onions and sauté until translucent
Add the prawns and stir to mix everything well for a few minutes until done.

Condense Milk Chiffon Cake

It's been a while since the last time I made a cake. So it's time to make sure that I've still been able to make such a thing!! Even though it's not perfect but at least it passed my testers's standard !

The recipe could be found here . ( I adapted the recipe by using chiffon cake pan which is the reason why I call it '"chiffon cake" instead of cotton cake as the original recipe )  

Mexican Ranch Chicken Salad

My husband has been on diet and I, as a personal chef, have to do my best to help him reach the goal! And this salad came from my google search which turned out to be a great dish and really pleased my hubby !

The recipe could be found here.

Kenyan Corn & Bean Salad

I've fallen in love with fews of Kenyan dishes when we went there for our Safari trip early this year..so when we got back to HK, I googled and got few more Kenyan interesting recipes including this one!

The original recipe is to make a stew but I decided to change it into salad form, so I slightly modified the recipe to make my own version ! Served it as my hubby's healthy lunch and he gave me nothing but great feedback !!

The recipe :

1 Tbsp of vegetable oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
3 clove of garlic, minced
2 tsp of curry powder
A large bunch of fresh kale, chopped
1 big tomatoes, sliced
2 cobs corn, husked
1 cup of cooked beans, any type, drained and rinsed
A sprinkle or two of salt and lots of freshly ground pepper

1. Cut the corn kernels from the cobs and set aside. Heat the vegetable oil in a large pot and sauté the onions and garlic over medium heat until they are lightly cooked, about 3 minutes or so. Add the curry powder andcook for another minute or so.

2. Add the kale and reduce the heat to low. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon until the kale softens, about 10 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, corn and beans and simmer another 10 minutes or so. Season to your taste with salt and pepper then serve

  

Sautéed Prawns & Zoodles with Pesto Sauce

Since clean / healthy food has become popular in these days, I've, then, seen lots of posts and recipes about zoodle (which seems fallen into the category) from the food blogs I've been following and finally, I managed to make myself up-to-date with this easy but gorgeous dish!!

The recipe ( slightly adapted from here.)

Indian Style Fish in Mustard Curry

It's not often that I use fish to cook for Indian dishes. So,when I saw this interesting fish curry recipe a while ago, it ,of course, caught my attention at the first sight and I undoubtedly wanted to give it a try ! Finally, I managed to make the dish and was very happy with my outcome!


The recipe

500 grams halibut
1 and half tbsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsp garlic paste
A pinch of fenugreek seeds
1 medium tomato (pulp)
2 green chillies, slit
3-4 tbsp mustard oil (for frying)
2 tbsp mustard oil for frying the masala
½ to 1 tsp chilli powder (depends on how hot you want the curry)
½ tsp turmeric powder + ½ tsp tsp for sprinkling over the fish
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp roasted cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander for garnish



Wash the fish under running tap water. Strain the fish and place it on a plate. Sprinkle it with salt and keep it aside for 2-3 minutes.
Wash the fish again under running water and place the fish on a separate plate. Sprinkle the fish sparingly with turmeric powder and keep aside for 5-7 minutes.
During this time, you can prepare the masala for the curry. Ground the yellow mustard seeds to powder and add 3-4 tbsp or more of water. Again pulse it till a fine paste is formed. Keep this aside.
Heat the oil in a pan. Since this oil has a very pungent smell, you need to let it smoke on low flame.
Once that is done, carefully slip slices of fishes in the pan (be careful since the fish can splutter oil; I use a large spoon with a long handle to do this job)
Cook the pieces of fish on high flame till they are golden brown. Remove from the oil and keep them aside. Fry the fish in batches.
Remove the oil from the pan and in the same pan pour 2 tbsp of oil and again smoke it. Carefully add green chillies (if you want lesser heat of green chillies, you can add it towards the end of the frying process to obtain only its flavour) and add the fenugreek seeds to the oil.
Then add the mustard paste along with ginger and garlic paste. Fry it on medium heat till the masala becomes almost dry. You need to constantly stir the paste to prevent it from getting burnt.

Once this is done, add 2 tbsp of water and re-fry it till it becomes dry again. Add the tomato paste alongwith the dry masalas – red chillies, salt, coriander powder, garam masala powder and cumin powder. Fry for about 30 seconds and then pour 450 ml of water.


Once the water starts to boil, add the pieces of fish* to it. Let the water boil again. Now, reduce the flame to low and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Remove the fish from the fire and transfer it to the serving bowl. Serve the fish, garnished with fresh coriander leaves, with steamed or cumin fried rice.
Serves 4

Malted Pretzel Crunch

I've been making this lovely crunch for a few times and it never fails to please people which are both adults and kids who I serve for. Pretzels are good enough to be eaten alone but with few extra ingredients, it amazingly makes the thing much more scrumptious !   Please except my apology for a late post /sharing this amazing recipe..anyway, it's better to be late than never happened!

The recipe

Ingredients

4 cups salted mini pretzels - about ½ of a 16-ounce bag
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup milk powder (like Nestle)
⅓ cup malted milk powder (see Note)
1 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons butter ,melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 275 F.
Pour the pretzels in a ziplock bag and hammered them with a mallet - or anything hard, breaking them up into one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, malt powder, sugar, and salt, toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat.
Spread the mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20-22 minutes. It should look toasted a little toasted. Cool completely and break into clusters.
Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month.

Cauliflower Cheese

Cauliflower is not my favorite vegetable , thus it's not an ingredient I would normally use for my cooking. However, a friend of mine made this dish as a side dish for dinner when we visited her house a while ago and it turned out to be a big hit for the kids, especially my daughter. Consequently, she kept asking me to cook for her and I had no reason to say no !


So, this is the first time ever that I made the dish..and surprisingly, I got a very very good feedback from my tasters !!  


The recipe ( Note : I added more milk to the sauce since it's too thick )

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, broken into large florets
40g/1½oz butter
40g/1½oz plain flour
400ml/14fl oz milk
1 tsp English mustard
100g/3½oz mature cheddar cheese, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper



Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Wash the cauliflower thoroughly and place in a large saucepan of salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the cauliflower is almost tender, but still fairly firm. Tip into a colander and leave to drain.
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a medium, heavy-based pan and stir in the flour. Cook over a gentle heat for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually add the milk, a little at a time, stirring well between each addition. Return the pan to a medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for two minutes, then remove from the heat.
Stir in the mustard and two thirds of the cheese and set aside. Arrange the cauliflower in and ovenproof baking dish. Carefully pour over the sauce, ensuring the cauliflower is completely covered. Scatter over the remaining cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden-brown and bubbling.
    

Fresh Orange Cake

I didn't feel like cooking or baking since I got a flu two weeks ago but now I am back in shape and started looking for something to play with... and I found this cake which is perfect to come back with because it's very easy ,yet provides such a wonderful outcome !

The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I reduced sugar to 1/3 cup for both batter and syrup and add some Grand Marnier to the syrup to jazz it up.

    

Kenyan Beef Stew

We went to Kenya for 10 days Safari trip during CNY break and we had really really fabulous time and great experience with not only all those animals that we never saw but also lots of delicious food made by local chefs at the camp we stayed. We couldn't feel more flattered with the way they treated us and it, of course, is one of the best trip I've ever had !!


Back home in HK, I have still been missing lots of things in Kenya especially a few dishes of local food that I've found they are so simple to make , yet unbelievably delicious..so I decided to make Kenyan Saturday dinner to satisfy my craving !


I chose this beef stew as a main course along with this cabbage stew and chapati..

The recipe 

Ingredients

 vegetable oil

1large onion, chopped

1 1/2 lbs beef, cubed

1inch ginger root, minced or grated

4cloves garlic, minced

1Tbsp paprika

1Tbsp curry powder

2 large tomatoes, chopped

2 cups beef broth, as needed

Instructions

Cut the onion, tomato beef into average hunks. Next, brown the onions in oil over medium heat. Then increase heat to high, add the beef and brown. (Do it in batches if necessary).

Next, pile on the ginger, garlic, paprika and curry. Sweet paprika will work too if you don’t like it spicy. Now, add tomatoes. Splash on the stock. Season with salt. Simmer uncovered until thick and pasty and all broth has reduced away. This took about an hour.

Serve with fresh chapati. If you’re feeling particularly traditional, use pieces of the chapati to pick up the food instead of silverware.

Leek & Potato with Sitlton Soup

I've started making soup regularly since last year and couldn't believe there are loads of different kinds of soup could ever be made ! Recently, my gal had a chance to tried few soups made by a local chef while we were at the safari camp in Kenya for the first time and she seemed to like it a lot. Thus, when we are back home, she then asked me to add soup to her regular meals!

And the first soup I made is this one which both of my hubby and daughter really enjoyed eating it !

The recipe could be found here. ( note : I used stock slightly less than the recipe called for )

    

Cheesy Chicken Tater tots Casserole

I've learned lots of new things through food blogs over 8 years since I started cooking and baking..it seems never end to find something new that I sometimes can't believe how long it takes me to know that they exist !! ...And the case for this casserole is tater tots!!

The recipe is very simple..it's easy and fast to prepare and cook..the dish is worth trying and surprisingly makes a great meal !!


Prep time:  10 mins Cook time:  60 mins Total time:  1 hour 10 mins
Serves: 4-6


Ingredients

¼ cup milk
1 cup sour cream
1 (10 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
handful of frozen peas
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked & cubed
16 ounces frozen tater tots
1½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine milk, sour cream, cream of chicken soup, peas and chicken in medium size pot.
Place on stove top over medium-high heat.
Stir and heat until ingredients mix well; about 3-5 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in 1 cup shredded cheese. salt and pepper.
Pour mixture into 9X9 glass baking dish.
Place tator tots on top of mixture.Sprinkle ½ cup shredded cheese over mixture.
Cover with reynolds wrap and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove reynolds wrap and continue to bake for 10 minutes uncovered.
Serve warm and enjoy.