Panic Birthday Dinner

My mom’s birthday was early October so obviously this is a very late post…

The whole family already had the birthday dinner the weekend before the actual date and I thought I could just give her the tiramisu on the day. That afternoon, I called to say happy birthday and then I realised dad wouldn’t be coming home for dinner. So I told mom I would cook for her. 

After I hung up, major panic kicked in. I had no idea what to cook. And I didn’t have much time to shop and actually cook!!! Should I do pasta? Boring. Steak? Nah, she doesn’t like it that much. What does she like to eat? Well, pizza… but how the hell was I gonna make a pizza?! Oh, wait, she likes tabouleh! 

I wouldn’t have the time to chop all those tomatoes and cucumber and parsley. Plus I would have to think of another hot / meat dish to go with the salad. So, no tabouleh. Instead, I’d make a simple one pot dinner with couscous.

Couscous with Chorizo and Chickpeas

Ingredients

• 1 cup couscous
• olive oil 
• chorizo, sliced 
• 1 tsp paprika  
• 1 can chickpeas, drained 
• 425ml chicken stock
• chopped parsley, to serve

Method

1. Prepare couscous according to the packet’s instructions.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan and stir fry the chorizo for 3-4 mins. 
3. Stir in the paprika, then tip in the chickpeas and the chicken stock. 
4. Simmer for 2 mins. Spoon over the couscous and scatter with chopped parsley.
5. Serve with a mixed leaf salad with lemon olive oil dressing. 

She beamed when she saw it’s couscous and that meant a lot to me. It feels good to cook for my parents. They always tell me it’s nice (whether it’s true or not, I don’t really care). Whereas my various attempts to cook for someone else never yielded this kind of result. 

Birthday and Housewarming Tiramisu

In answer to my mom’s subtle (really?) request for a tiramisu (see the second last paragraph of this post), I decided to make one for her birthday last month.  

It was at least five years ago that I last made a tiramisu and I already lost the recipe. Well I do know what ingredients I’ll need and the steps are easy to remember but it was the quantity that I wasn’t sure of. So I searched the web and eventually combined a few recipes into this:

Tiramisu

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• 1.5 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 tub (approx. 455g) mascarpone cheese
• 1 tablespoons Baileys
• 1 tablespoon Cointreau
• 1 cups very strong coffee
• 12-15 ladyfinger cookies
• Cocoa powder to dust 

Method

1. Brew coffee. Let it cool to room temperature. Add half tablespoon Baileys and half tablespoon Cointreau. Set aside.
2. In large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar with electric mixer until light yellow, about 1 minute. Beat in mascarpone and the remaining Baileys and Cointreau until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until stiff, but not dry. Fold egg whites into mascarpone mixture.
4. Quickly dip ladyfingers, one at a time, in the coffee liqueur mixture and arrange them in a deep baking dish. Spread half the mascarpone mixture over the ladyfinger layer. Repeat the soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone layers.
5. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight. 
6. When serving, divide portions of the tiramisu on plates. Don’t worry if it kind of falls apart a little. It’s meant to be a little sloppy. Dust cocoa powder over the tiramisu and serve. 

* You can substitute with other liqueurs. The original Tiramisu calls for Masala wine. But Kahlua, Tia Maria, Amaretto will work just fine. 

* You can use brewed coffee or instant ones. 

I’m sure if you try making one, you’ll never want to eat those served in restaurants. 

This surely is easy to make and will definitely impress your friends and family. Mom and dad both liked it and I couldn’t resist a second helping that night. 

I made this again last week for my friend’s house-warming party. It seemed to go down well. And the next day, my friend told me she saw some of the boys literally licked their plates clean. I was so proud of myself haha.

Lazy sticky food

I was tempted to have pasta for dinner tonight, again. Not that I don't like pasta but I think I've had too much carbs lately. Also, my pasta repertoire is quite limited and I don't really want to eat the same thing again and again and again.

Obviously I wanted something easy to make. With the leftover honey from the cake I made earlier in the week and the lemons I bought (for salad dressing and as the fridge's odour-absorber), here's my lazy dish of the day.

Sticky lemon chicken

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of chicken fillet
• 1 lemon
• 1.5 tbsp honey
• Seasoning

Method

1. Preheat oven (about 160C)
2. Lightly brush oil on a baking dish
3. Place chicken on the dish, season with salt and pepper 
4. Bake for 6 minutes
5. Meanwhile, cut two slices of lemon
6. Take out the chicken, turn over and sprinkle with more seasoning. Put a slice of lemon on each of the fillet
7. Drizzle with honey and then squeeze over the juice of the remaining lemon
8. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is golden and cooked through
9. Serve with a salad or steamed veggies. Or, if you don't mind the extra work and extra carbs, you can have rice or potatoes. 

Not so crazy and definitely not lazy food

As I mentioned in the previous post, I finally managed to try baking something new. 


Honey cake with honeyed almond crunch
I got the recipe from here.

When I first read the recipe, I thought it's very easy. But me being me, things always have to come with surprises. Right before I finished work in the office, I took one more look at the recipe and realized I missed out something very important. I needed to whisk egg whites. My arms are more Olive Oyl than Popeye, hm... And so i had to go buy an electric beater! Well I figured I'll need it for other cakes anyway but it's just annoying that I had to make a detour and stop by the department store... 


In the end the cake turned out ok although slightly burnt at the edges. Plus I managed to burn my thumb too. Typical me. 


Obviously I can't finish it all. Gave a few slices to my parents who were so happy to see that their daughter can and does actually cook. 


Also gave one slice to the chef, trying to kick away his blues. Glad that he said it's not bad. But maybe he's just saying. I still have the feeling that he really doesn't care. But like he said, the cake was not the point. 


Well, then what's the point then? If you would show me please...

Dizzy lazy food

I haven't been cooking much lately. For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking to start baking again but procrastination always wins...

Finally on Monday I decided to bake something simple, no matter what. So after work I quickly went to get everything that I needed and rushed home. Although the cake was simple enough to make, by the time I put it in the oven, it was already 10pm. As I was washing the messy bowls and stuff, I suddenly felt very dizzy. It was really quite bad. I almost fainted. It was then that I realized, oh right, I hadn't had dinner. No wonder. 

So after I regained my energy, I made a simple noodle. 



Cold soba noodle with crab meat

Ingredients

• Soba noodles
• Crab meat (crab leg actually. got from the supermarket when I did the shopping for the cake ingredients)
• Dipping sauce 
• Nori sesame mix

Method

1. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 5-6 minutes
2. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water a few times (so that noodles are completely cold)
3. Put noodles in serving bowl. Place crab meat on top
4. Sprinkle with nori and sesame mix
5. Serve with dipping sauce

As you can see, it's really simple. But tasty and it definitely saved my life. 

Crazy lazy food

I love food but am no foodie. I enjoy cooking from time to time but most of the time it's out of practicality - I've got to eat something, right? I can't afford to go to fancy restaurants all the time and I don't want to have another 茶餐廳 (local version of the greasy spoon) meal after a long day's work. So I tend to make something quick, usually only involves one pot/pan to minimize the pain of washing up. And sometimes I ended up doing something crazy for various reasons.
   
Last night, after going to my grandma's place for a belated 拜年 (Chinese New Year ritual - visiting your seniors), it's still early and the market hasn't closed yet. So I wandered around with no idea what to cook for the night. I thought of making a soup with cabbage, tomato and corn. But after I got the tomatoes, I passed by the fish monger and thought, "oh I haven't had fish for a while." I finally got a filet of some kind of white fish (don't ask me, I don't even know its Chinese name).
 
So then I started to think what should I do with the fish... And here's what:
 
Tray-baked filet of I-have-no-idea-what-fish-this-is with cabbage and tomatoes
 
Ingredients:

• Filet of fish, any fish
• 1 small cabbage (coarsely chopped)
• 2-3 tomatoes (cut in wedges)
• Salt and pepper for seasoning
• Ginger (few small pieces, squash them)

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven (around 220 degrees)
2. Drizzle oil on a baking dish (I use a disposable foil tray)
3. Put the chopped cabbage in the baking dish, drizzle a bit more oil on it
4. Cover with aluminium foil and cook in oven for 10mins
5. Meanwhile, rub salt and pepper on both sides of the fish
6. Take out the tray from oven. Put the fish on top of the cabbage, add the ginger and tomatoes and cover with foil
7. Put back tray in the oven and cook for 20mins (depending on the thickness of the filet)
8. Serve

* don't waste the remaining juice in the tray. it's yummy too. oh and I think you may also add some white wine in it.
 
P.S. All quantities, oven temperatures, cooking time are arbitrary. I'm not a professional cook and I just learn as I cook ;P
 
P.P.S. Sorry I didn't take any photo... Use your imagination.

Baking

I've been meaning to pick up baking for a while now.
 
Finally I made these muffins today.
  
I thought about making a cake for someone's birthday last week. But then I was just so swamped with my freelance stuff the weekend and I had to give up baking once again.   
  
Maybe it's really not meant for him.
 
Yesterday I managed to find an easy enough recipe for these apple muffins. The only problem was I couldn't find buttermilk in supermarkets.
  
"Dear Chef, Question - can I replace buttermilk with milk?"
  
"Probably yogurt, not milk."
  
In the end my substitute for buttermilk was 1 tablespoon of lemon juice added to the milk. It worked.
  
But I still couldn't share these with him. He's busy, as usual.
  
Well, doesn't matter. I'm sure my parents would love to have my homemade goodies.