Creamy Mushroom Soup & Pork Patty

A juicy piece of patty with a slab of mayo and drizzle with some chili sauce. Awesome.

My blog it seems, has been reduced to quite a pathetic state with the frequency of postings getting few and far between. Blame it on my hectic time schedule and well,  facebook too. What prompted me to make another round of mushroom soup was the finding of 3 wild mushrooms sprouted out from my lawn. I just need to refresh my memory of how to make it by making a call to my sis in law in Singapore. It is typical to have garlic bread to go with mushroom soup but I figure I'll do something different this time : a meat patty. We had several meat projects done for some clients of ours and I remembered my then Application colleague had to come out with the actual meat patty with added flavors from our library collection. All it needed was a message to her via facebook and she obtained the meat patty recipe for me from our the chef.  Thanks Jez for the prompt reply and action on my request :)

The really creamy wild mushroom soup. Yummy....(fatty...)

I think the dinner attempt tonight was fated to be postponed since hubby called to say he ain't coming home for dinner. I went ahead with my dinner plans because for the next few nights, I will not be home early to cook. Less than halfway cooking the mushrooms, I had a major kitchen mishap. I accidentally cut my finger while taking out my food processor. Blood was oozing out and I was fumbling to take a picture of it while manning the mushrooms still simmering in the saucepan.

My homemade mini burger, sandwiched with a mini pork patty.

The so called 'kitchen mishap'.

 It took me slightly more than 2 hours to come our with the creamy mushroom soup and the meat patty plus the cleaning. Hubby came home to taste the soup and for him, it was creamy. He doesn't like it too creamy though but I like it otherwise. I'm not sure whether to consider the meat patty a success because it was obvious that I was over generous with the salt. Yes, you got it right. It was over salty. To make the best of it, I'll just have to top it with lots of veggies then. Other than the saltiness, it was awesome to bite into the burger which I smeared a generous amount of mayonaise and chili sauce. I just wish I have more people to eat it with me and to share the delight. Cousin Soo will get her share tomorrow and perhaps I'll scoup some out for my doctor too since I'll be seeing him tomorrow.

Not cheap. Deliberate got it for the purpose of making the soup.

The real stuffs and therefore, this soup is really costly.

Over estimated again that I had to keep a packet of the mushrooms

Fried Chicken Wings in a jiffy

I was craving for fried chicken wings last Sunday and instead of satisfying my desire once and for all, I left the mamak restaurant fuming because I wasted my stomach on this highly fatty and oil foodstuff and yet it tasted...not to my liking. Guess what? Yes... on Monday, I drove to Tesco in Paradigm (yahoo.. finally there's a shopping centre near my office!), got myself the wings, went back home to marinate it and today, had them for dinner. Marination was simple : with soy sauce and red fermented beancurd. Hubby rode his bike like a wind to tapau back Singapore Fried Beehoon and Hokkein Mee to savour with the wings lest the wings go cold. Now.. this is what I call 'teamwork' :D p.s not often I get this teamwork though...

Roast Pork (Siew Yok)

It's everyone's favorite, let's just admit it. While someone was still in the midst of his dreams, I got up at the wee hours to make a trip to the morning market before starting work. I'm glad the dinner turned out well because hubby just gave me his big 2 thumbs up. I'm not exactly sure how sincere he meant, but I sure felt a sense of triumph on his reaction. I already had in mind to whip up a dry wan tan mee noodles to go with it roast pork. The only thing missing was there were no wan tan to go along with it. I diligently followed the recipe given to me by my cousin. At one point I really thought I had burnt it because the charred smell filled my entire living room. As it turned out, it was the right kind of smell and I was truly glad that I followed my cousin's advise to really make the skin slight burnt and then to scrape off some of the burnt parts. The skin is crispy but on certain parts, it was chewy instead. It's really strange that when I crave for something so badly and when I finally made it myself, the marginal utility has diminish even before I started devouring the meat.

 Knowing perfectly well that there are only 2 mouths to feed ,  I bought and roasted 1.2kg of the meat. It will look nicer to roast a bigger square chunk  rather than just a thin flimsy strip meant for 2-3 pax. However, I am now stuck with the stunt fact that it will take us days to finish it. Anyone wants?? Cousin Soo?? For recipe, please click here

Crispy Fried Popiah

I was doing the weekly grocery shopping with mom in hypermart, deliberately led her to the frozen food department and merely showed her the popiah skin. It was like she was suddenly struck with something long forgotten and replied : I know how to make crispy popiah. Her next inevitable question was "do you wanna eat?" I would be a total idiot if I said no but frankly speaking, I'm a fan of anything fried and crispy too. Umm... seems like I'm a fan for a a variety of food.

Mom stir fry the content to be wrapped in the popiah skin : slices of turnip, cabbage, black fungus and bits and pieces of chicken meat cut in small cubes. She said making this finger food is like snapping her fingers ; easy, fast and hey presto, the food is done.

One can't do without sweet Thai chilli sauce when it comes to fried popiah. We dipped generously into the chilli sauce and savoured the taste and the crispy popiah skin. Well, you just gotta eat it while it's still hot and warm, otherwise it will be soft and soggy.

Sigh...another yummy dish to go with our dinner.

Huh?? What?? Recipe?? Later lah. The weather of late is killing me and the new TNB meter is ticking away like nobody's business.

Braised Pork Belly / Kou Rou Bao(扣肉包)

My lovely mom made some really awesome braised Pork Belly( Kou Rou Bao - 扣肉包)  in which we sandwiched it between the pau, added a little piece of lettuce and drip some drops of the superb sauce in it. Mom made it for dinner tonight. You'd be surprise that at one point, mom actually vowed not to ever attempt any bao related recipes after so many failures (that's according to her standard). Finally one fine day, she got it right after consulting several recipes and from there on, came up with her own recipe.

I cannot tell you how tasty and yummy it is. The pork belly was just at the right tender texture while the bao was super soft. At this rate, I don't think my diet plan is going to materialize at any time sooner but anyway, it's a blessing to come home with yummy dinner waiting for me.

Look at the wobbly combination of fat and lean meat. The top skin was fried on a pan of scarce oil to make it crispy (of course when soaked with gravy, it becomes soft), the mixtures of major spices like cloves, star anise, cinnamon stick, chinese wine and fermented beancurd created the aromatic and tasty gravy as well.

As we munched with satisfaction on bao with the gravy oozing out from the side, the other hand of ours reached for another piece of lettuce to crunch together.

The above has been packed for a friend of mine whom I haven't seen in decades. Tomorrow ...yes ....tomorrow... we will meet for the 1st time in decades and exchange food for the first time as well.

Macrography

Nikon D300s + Tamron SP60 (Manual, F/16, 1/80s, ISO 200)

Nikon D300s + Tamron SP60 (Manual, F/16, 1/80s, ISO 200)

Nikon D300s + Tamron SP60 (Manual, F/16, 1/100s, ISO 200)

Nikon D300s + Tamron SP60 (Manual, F/16, 1/80s, ISO 200)

Nikon D300s + Tamron SP60 (Manual, F18, 1/60s, ISO 200)

Irresistable Pineapple Tart

I've been bogged down with work, busied myself with shopping for Christmas gifts, attending cycling activities and the next thing I knew, Chinese New Year is just round the corner. If I had more time on hand, I would like to bake my chocolate chip cookies but unfortunately, time was what I seriously lacked.  Due to time constraint, I've decided to settle with Pineapple tarts because I just couldn't resist them and once I start to pop one into my mouth, I can't seem to stop. Hubby was saying perhaps I should reconsider my decision because popping the tarts means gaining weight and gaining weight is the last thing I needed. I don't care. I love eating my own tarts and this is a once a year affair. I just gotta bake it for myself and also for a few people whom I've promised to give.

Some like the tart to be hard and crunchy but my recipe is such that it melts in the mouth.

The entire process took a little more of 4 hours inclusive of cleaning and putting everthing back to its original place. I've got another 1kg of  pineapple jam tucking in one far corner of my fridge but I shudder to think of the entire baking process. My back hurts and so's my shoulder. My legs were aching like hell. Umm... a massage wouldn't be a bad idea....

Hokkein Mee

I'm finally done with my vegan pledge. It drag for a good 4 months because of the days I skipped when I went for holidays in Taiwan and Kota Kinabalu. I also skipped vegan when I go cycling with my group of cycling friends. The first thing I went for after completion of the entire 'ordeal' was digging into a juicy fried chicken. The next morning, I bought some pork, fresh noodles, beansprout, mustard greens, beancurd, fishcake etc from the morning market , just before I got into office. I wanted to fry a noodle dish for dinner but I haven't the faintest idea what style of noodles I wanna fried. When I got home, it suddenly hit me that maybe I should just fry Hokkein Mee since the noodles are fresh. It's not often I get to have fresh noodles during weekdays. So hubby came home and had a surprised look on his face. I told him it was while he was sleeping, I was buying groceries in the morning market, thus making this Hokkein Mee dinner possible. He just grinned....then ate the noodles.... then gave me one thumb up :D

Ingredients :
Fish cake
Slice pork (marinate with sesame oil, soy sauce and a little cornflour)
Fresh noodles
Mustard Green
Garlic, chopped

Seasoning:
Dark soy sauce
Sweet soy sauce
Light soy sauce
A little oyster sauce
Chicken powder
Water