Am I out of my mind?

OCT said I was out of my mind to think I can make 36 cans of pineapple into the pineapple jam on my own. over the weekend.

I didn't realise the seriousness of the matter until I sat down to do some simple maths on the time required. How naive am I to think I can take on such a huge undertaking... If it takes 2 hours to cook down 5 cans of pineapple, I will have to repeat the work 7 times at least. Not to mention the time and effort required to open,drain and stir the pineapples.....It is not rocket science, but extremently labor intensive and time consuming. While the jam is cooking, I have to stir it CONTINUOUSLY or it will get burnt.

I have completed 2 batches, and the third batch is still cooking....Prospect of achieving my goal seems pretty positive. But my weekend will be burnt. Luckily, our friends Melvin and Gerrie offered to help on Saturday afternoon.

Now with extra pair of hands, I actually have a pretty good weekend :) OCT and I went out on Saturday for breakfast and bought a $5 dollar (after mail in rebate and 20% discount) blender! I can't wait to put the blender into good use. More importantly, after all the R&R over the weekend, all the pineapple jam are now ready to be used for our pineapple tarts making! We are going to make a thousand pineapple tarts on Tuesday for an event on this coming Sat and Sunday. I still can't imagine people will fork out money to buy my humble pineapple tarts.....

What happen if nobody wants my pineapple tarts?!

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Roast Pork ( Char Siew)- st louis style

I bought some cheap pork butt last week because I remember seeing some recipes requested for that. After the pork butt was safely kept in the freezer for a week, I can't recall the exact recipe I wanted to try them on. So I ended up looking up recipe to use the pork butt insteads of the other way round.

There's a recipe from Gourmet, apparently an Asian recipe for roast pork. I decided to try that. We took some time to cut the 5 lbs pork butts into 2 inches chunk and divided them into 2 freezer bags. One bag was used for tonight's dinner. Since it required overnight marination, we pour in the sauce before we went to bed yesterday.

The roasting process was quite different from what I am accustomed to. A half inch of water was first added to the tray below the roasting pan without contact with the pork. Follow by a few rounds of basting with the marinate. This is especially challenging since there's hot water in the tray. Not to mention the hot weather we are experiencing now.

All in all, it's quite tasty, and definitely worth the effort. The overnight marination does ithe work to infuse enough flavor into the pork. I still have some leftover....I wonder what can I do with them...



Roast Pork (adapted from Gourmet Magazine)

1 (1-lb) solid piece boneless pork butt (shoulder), halved along the grain
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Chinese rice wine or sake
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cut pork along the grain into long 1 1/2- to 2-inch-wide strips. Remove and discard any sinew but do not trim fat. Transfer pork to a large sealable plastic bag. Stir together remaining pork ingredients in a small bowl until combined well. Add to pork and turn to coat, then squeeze bag to eliminate as much air as possible and seal. Marinate pork, chilled, at least 4 hours but no longer than 24.

Put oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 375°F. Put 1/2 inch water in a 13- by 9-inch roasting pan and place a metal rack across top of pan (rack should not touch water).

Remove pork from marinade, reserving marinade, and arrange pork strips 1 inch apart on rack. Roast in oven 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring marinade to a boil in a 1-quart saucepan, then boil 1 minute (marinade may look curdled). Remove from heat.

Brush both sides of pork with some marinade and roast 10 minutes more. Generously brush both sides of pork with marinade again and roast, basting 2 or 3 times, 10 minutes more.

Increase oven temperature to 400°F and roast pork until strips are mahogany-colored and caramelized on edges, 10 to 15 minutes more (pork should roast for a total of about 50 minutes). Transfer to a cutting board and let stand, loosely covered with foil, 10 minutes.

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What do you think of this?

I mean the new skin. I decided it's time for a change from the old pinkish skin. And added some cookbooks that I really like on the sidebar. I am looking forward to adding more features in my blog. But with my limited HTML knowledge, I think it's going to take awhile...

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Shrimp Scampi with Linguini

I almost forgotten that I made this recipe last Sunday until I uploaded my food pictures from the digital camera.

It was a very refreshing dish, using only lemon juice and white wine as sauce. I did add some brown sugar to it because it was too sour in the beginning. But maybe that's because I didn't measure the lemon juice properly. If I have followed the instruction more closely, I am sure this step could be omitted.


Shrimp Scampi with Linguini
(Adapted from Tyler Florence)

1 pound linguini
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
1 large shallot, finely diced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
20 large shrimp, about 1 pound, peeled and deveined, tail on
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley leaves

For the pasta, put a large pot of water on the stove to boil. When it has come to the boil, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and the linguini. Stir to make sure the pasta separates; cover. When the water returns to a boil, cook for about 6 to 8 minutes or until the pasta is not quite done. Drain the pasta reserving 1 cup of water.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt 2 tablespoons butter in 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium-high heat. Saute the shallots, garlic, and red pepper flakes (if using) until the shallots are translucent, about 3 to 4 minutes. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper; add them to the pan and cook until they have turned pink, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the shrimp from the pan; set aside and keep warm. Add wine and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Add 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons oil. When the butter has melted, return the shrimp to the pan along with the parsley and cooked pasta and reserved pasta water. Stir well and season with salt and pepper. Drizzle over a bit more olive oil and serve immediately.

Note: The recipe said this recipe serve 4. But we think this serves at most 3 adults, or 2 very hungry man.

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Back to the mundane

After travelling and slacking a few days after coming back, the kitchen stove was finally working at full force yesterday.

I stirfried some spinach, made some popiah and a tilapia dish as dinner yesterday. It took me 2 hours to get everything on the table and we had dinner at 9 p.m... anyway OCT came home late from work too, so it was ok.

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A batch of chocolate biscottis

I baked a batch of chocolate biscottis on our 1st wedding anniversary. By no means that it is my gift to OCT, I was thinking of baking these goodies for somebody else actually.....

Because the biscottis are very well received by whoever that tried them in the past, I decided to make a big batch this time, using the recipe from Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. I wish I could overcome my laziness to type out the recipe soon. Borrowing the idea from Starbucks, I replaced 1/2 cup of flour with whole wheat flour. It gives the biscottis a nutty taste and somehow smoothen the harsh taste from the Hershey's Dutch processed cocoa. Also, i used 2 types of chocolates this time. The bitterweet Ghiradelli chocolate chips and 72% cocoa Vidalia. The marriage of both chocolates= heavenly.

The process of baking biscottis is always a messy and lengthy one. But a bite of the end product confirms that they are worth the effort. In fact, it's much cheaper to make the biscottis on your own than to buy them from the store. Even when you are using the best ingredients.

I ate some with my coffee this morning. It was so good~

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The hundred thousand dollar Cheesecake

I am slowly recovering from our exhaustive DC trip and wanted to bake something. It's only a matter of cookies or cake. I asked OCT what he wanted to eat. Cake was his answer. But what cake? I greedily search through my recipe collection, and decided to try the Southern Living Cookoff winning recipe: Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake.

This cake is made of cream cheese, espresso powder, chocolate and kahlua. Almost all of my favorite ingredients are put into the formula. Plus it's a $100,000 recipe. I got to see how good it is.

At the outset, I must tell you that I have made some changes to the ingredients, like I used 3 blocks of cheese instead of 4 blocks that the recipe suggested. And used 1/3 less fat cheese instead of normal cream cheese. Because of this, I also have to adjust the amount of other ingredients accordingly.

After chilling the cheesecake overnight, we can't wait to have a piece each for breakfast. The cheesecake has a distinct cheese and chocolate taste, but I am quite disappointed that not a hint of kahlua and espresso powder can be detected from the cake. One of the plus point,though, is that it is not overly sweet. This is more of a chocolate cheesecake than Coffee cheesecake if you asked me....I am not sure if it will be much different should I make a full fat recipe.

Fast forward 2 days, we have given a huge portion of the cake to friends, and left with a very small piece for ourselves. when we tasted the cheesecake on Tuesday, the flavor has somehow mend very well together. I wonder if there's an explanation for why cheesecake taste better after 24 hours....

And my cheesecake cracked, again. OCT asked if there's a way to ensure that the cheesecake will not crack, and whether the bakery has to throw away the cake if it's cracked......Sure there's a way to ensure that the cake doesn't crack, but I was just too lazy to put in a water bath, or to monitor the cake more often than I should. And speaking of bakery, I never remember seeing a cracking cheesecake on the shelf, so I assume they will throw the cracked ones away.

Anyway, this is my cracked but still edible cheesecake:

Chocolate Coffee Cheesecake
(Adapted from Sharon Collison, winning recipe of Southern Living Cook-off 2005)


3 cups crushed chocolate graham crackers (about 20 sheets) (I used 2 cups)
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
PAM Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
4 (8-ounce) packages PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened (I used 3 blocks, 2 blocks of 1/3 cream cheese and 1 block normal cream cheese)
1 cup DOMINO Granulated Sugar (used 3/4 cup sugar)
1/4 cup coffee liqueur
1 teaspoon instant coffee granules
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs (used 3 eggs)
4 (1-ounce) bittersweet baking chocolate squares (used 3 ounce)
Mocha Sauce (omitted)

1. Stir together crushed graham crackers and butter; press mixture into bottom and up sides of a 9-inch springform pan coated with cooking spray.
2. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Cool crust in pan on a wire rack. Reduce oven temperature to 325°.

3. Beat cream cheese and 1 cup sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended. Add coffee liqueur, coffee granules, and 1 teaspoon vanilla, beating at low speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until yellow disappears after each addition.

4. Remove and reserve 1 cup cream cheese mixture. Pour remaining batter into prepared crust.

5. Microwave chocolate squares in a medium-size glass bowl 1 minute or until melted, stirring after 30 seconds; let cool slightly. Stir reserved 1 cup cream cheese mixture into melted chocolate, blending well. Spoon chocolate mixture in lines on top of batter in springform pan; gently swirl with a knife.

6. Bake at 325° for 1 hour or until almost set. Turn oven off. Let cheesecake stand in oven, with door closed, 30 minutes. Remove cheesecake from oven, and gently run a knife around outer edge of cheesecake to loosen from sides of pan. (Do not remove sides of pan.) Cool on a wire rack. Cover and chill at least 4 hours.

7. Remove sides of springform pan. Serve with Mocha Sauce.

Note: For testing purposes only, we used Kahlúa for coffee liqueur.

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Eating in DC....

FOOD is one of the important aspect of travel. No trip is complete without the memory of good food we eat. For our Washington DC trip, we hunt for cheap and good food recommended by other travellers and the DC local paper- Washingtonian.

First Day: Our flight was delayed due to bad weather. After an one hour detour stop at the nearby Dulles Airport, we reached the Ronald Reagan Airport around 8p.m. We have ham sandwiches as dinner that night.

Second Day: For lunch, we went to Cosi, a sandwich place where they serve breakfast and lunch. We sat near the counter where we could see the staff kneading the bread dough, putting them in the old fashion, cave like oven ( I don't know its proper name) and taking out the baked one. There's only one type of bread with different fillings, which I think is a good idea. Sometime too many choices make life complicated (at least for me). I ordered a BLT sandwich and OCT had a Grilled Chicken Sandwich. I preferred his actually, for the grilled chicken was so succulent and the bread was niceand crispy in a good way! I don't mind eating it again if we didn't make other dining plans for the subsequent days.




Dinner was at Malaysian Kopitiam. This is a small restaurant run by 2 Malaysians from Ipoh, and the place was being voted as a Cheap and Good eating place! We ate lamb satay, fried oyster, char kuay teow and rice. It was a nice meal except the chilli was not as hot as those in Malaysia.

3rd day: 4th July. Everywhere in the Mall area was crowded, humid and hot. After visited only one museum and watched first part of the parade, we decided to retreat to the comfort of our hotel room. Besides, OCT wanted to watch Italy vs Germany at 3p.m. We had our lunch at another sandwich place : Potbelly, which was pretty good and much cheaper than Cosi. For only $3.99 each , we had a sandwich which we ate for lunch and dinner. They even have live music performance in the restaurant when we were there. I don't mind eating there again, if it's not for the other plans we have......Oh, when being asked for the condiment choices, OCT told the staff we want EVERYTHING. hehehe, this is so OCT.

4th day: We woke up late, and had to give the Capitol tour amiss. We went straight to the Library of Congress tour, which took our breath away. I am not exaggerating, the beauty of the place is beyond words. And certainly my 3.2MP camera can't even capture 1/10 of its magnificient view. I greedily took in as many sight as my little brain can accommodate and save them in my memory. After the tour, we had lunch at the Longworth Cafeteria, just opposite the Capitol. It's a Senate Office building, the food there are reasonably priced, and tax-free. Not only that, they have wide choices of food for everybody. I ordered a wrap, which was huge, and OCT ordered a burger. Then we decided to share a salad among us. I really like their salad bar as they have many choices of veggies and meat.
Dinner was a Chinese meal at the Union Station Foodcourt. The fried rice was pretty tasteless, this was the worst meal we have in DC.

5th day: Last Day in DC, and we overslept AGAIN. Seems like we are destined to come back to DC for the Capitol tour another time. We had breakfast/lunch at Breadline, one of the local sandwich place at Penn. Ave that receive tonnes of rave reviews from other travellers and locals. We share a Cuban Sandwich among us. You won't believe how filling it was....


And for a late lunch, we checked out a local burger chain "Five Guys" . This family run business offer cheap and good burgers where they grind their beef chunk and handmade them into patties. They are opening a new outlet at the airport soon. If you happen to go there in the future, do check them out.

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Another cake to bring for our trip: Chocolate Swirl Banana cake

Yesterday night I made ANOTHER cake for our trip. OCT likes the banana cake that we have eaten almost every week, so I made him another one! This time, I omitted the walnut, which he doesn't like and added melt 72% chocolate. It makes the banana cake tastes very chocolatey. Yum~

And this is the tuna pasta salad I made the night before.

I will be away from 2 Jul- 6 Jul. Hope I will have more updates + photos when I return. Have a happy 4th July everyone!

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Homemade Granola, Tuna Pasta Salad and Lemon Cake

It is a productive day for me! I made half a batch of Granola, as recommended by the kind people on Cookinglight forum in the morning. They are so easy to make, and yet so tasty! I must have eaten more than one cup after they came out from the oven. They are simply addictive as snack! It reminds me of the expensive breakfast I used to have with my ex-colleagues at Coffee Bean, where they served yogurt parfait. It is basically milk + yogurt + granola. I have known the staff so well that I managed to fish out the brand of everything they used to make the parfait. It was definitely more economically to make it myself at home. Eventhough the price of the granola they used was still quite expensive....

This granola recipe I used came from here. It is an oil-less recipe. You won't know that it's low fat from its taste. Since OCT doesn't eat granola, so I only make half a batch. (still I think it can last me for more than 10 breakfasts) And I added slivered almond, raisin, and chocolate covered cranberries to my basic granola. Yum~~

OCT is helping his colleague to move house tonight, so I am eating dinner alone. I decided to try another pasta salad because of the hot weather. Judging from the ingredients list,which has all my favorite ingredients; I believe it will turn out well. And sure it does! This is another Rachel Ray's recipe that will be made over and over again! The best part is: it doesn't use mayo or Italian dressing. Which means it's low fat. The pesto and lemon juice used gives the salad a refreshing taste that belongs to summer.

For dessert, I make the famous Ina Garten's Lemon Cake. I never have a more lemon-y cake than this, in a good way of course. There was only a second of hesitation, as to whether I should try another lemon cake recipe, but Ina prevailed. So far, I have not tried any Ina Garten's recipe that I don't like!

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Eggless Chocolate Chips Cookies

My oven has been resting for sometime now, and I think it's the perfect time to make it work before its owner goes on vacation next week!

This is a recipe I saw from Anna's blog. It was supposed to be a vegan recipe. In case you are unfamiliar with the term Vegan like me, the following is its definition on Wikipedia:

"Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle that "seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment."

In practice, a vegan (an adherent to veganism) commits to the abstention from consumption or use of all animal products, including honey, eggs and dairy products, as well as articles made of fur, wool, bone, leather, feathers, pearls, mother of pearl, coral, and other materials of animal origin. Many vegans also avoid products that have been tested on animals. People who avoid eating all animal products, but who otherwise use animal by-products (for example, leather shoes) are commonly referred to as dietary vegans."

Uh...I guess I can never be a Vegan. Because I love my chocolate, cheese and ice cream. I am sure there must be Vegan versions of chocolate and ice cream, just like the mock meat that my vegetarian friends enjoy. My vegetarian friend ML who happens to be a good cook used to cook "Chicken soup" for us back in College, using mock chicken, of course. But I guess, I like the real thing better...

Because I used dairy chocolate chunk in the recipe, I guess I can't call this recipe Vegan Chocolate Chips cookies nor "Almost vegan chocolate chips cookies", so I call it Eggless Chocolate chips cookies! It's a pretty healthy recipe, using whole wheat flour and maple syrup, without butter and eggs.

I really need a healthy cookies recipe to quench my cookies crave. Did I tell you the fate of half batch of the chocolate chips cookies I made for last Sunday's picnic? They were all gobbled up by me! OCT tried to stop me but to no avail. He grumbled that I have finished all up without leaving one or two for him. But I really couldn't stop myself! The first night when the cookies were baked, they were so so only. After refrigerated overnight in the fridge, they had transformed! I don't know why, but they tasted better on the subsequent days....

Needless to say, the last recipe wasn't the healthiest cookies I have ever made. This recipe sounds healthy enough though, and I am really curious of its texture and flavor, without the fat from eggs and butter, and the substitution of white flour with whole wheat flour.

Because it requires no butter and eggs, this has shorten my baking process tremendously. I don't have to wait for the butter to come to room temperature, and beat with mixer etc. From start time to pulling the cookies out from oven, it took less than 40 minutes.

It has an interesting nutty flavor and chewing texture. A healthy recipe that certainly worth trying. One thing to note though. The cookies spread quite a bit because of the lack of structural support from butter and eggs, so be sure to leave enough space between the doughs.

Eggless Chocolate Chips Cookies ( Adapted from Cookie Madness and Vive le Vegan!)

1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (see note below for wheat-free version)- I used WW flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup unrefined sugar (I used white sugar)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses (omitted this)
1 - 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup canola oil (a little generous 1/4 cup)
1/3 cup non-dairy chocolate chips ( I used dark chocolate chunk!)

Preheat oven to 350°F (176°C). In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not overmix). Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little. Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out). Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack. Makes 8-10 large cookies.

Note: Unbleached all-purpose flour produces a cookie with a very classic taste and texture, but you can use whole-wheat pastry flour and still have delicious cookies! For a wheat-free version, use barley or spelt flour. With spelt flour, you may need to add an extra 2-4 TB of flour, if it is a refined spelt flour.

Idea: Make a really special dessert treat... ice cream cookie sandwiches! Using two cookies that have been completely cooled in the refrigerator, spread some softened soy ice cream on the underside of one cookie, then place the other cookie on top. Wrap in plastic wrap and freeze until firm!

Makes 12 cookies

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Kindness of the strangers

After knowing that the food in DC are appallingly expensive, I crack my head to come up with snacks that we can bring to eat for our upcoming trip. You have to understand that my husband has bottomless pit, so we really need to bring something that's filling, doesn't require a fridge, and economical. Yes, economical. I sort of feel guilty for making OCT to stretch his budget and bring me to visit Washington DC.

So, in desperation, I posted a question on the Cookinglight forum, a forum that I like to frequent but never contribute much. To my surprise, the kind people there have come up with all sort of creative and do-able ideas! One suggested that I bring my cooler bag, which I can fill with ice that hotel provides, so that we can buy milk/ yogurt to eat as breakfast. Another suggested me to make homemade granola to eat with the milk/yogurt. And others provide test and true recipes, ideas and tips for cheap eat and must see places.

When I told OCT about this, he was quite surprise. He said he didn't know why people could be so helpful to someone they never met. For me, I am touched. And I know I will do just the same for people that need my help. I think sometime we are too involved in our undertaking that we fail to see other's need. We become self centered and selfish and think everyone should fend for themselves and mind their own businesses. Kindness becomes rare, and deems as stupid, and to be taken advantage of.

I don't know. This is not the way I was brought up. I grow up in the part of the world where people help one another. Neighbours will help you to look after your house, water your plant when you are away and give you whatever extra fruits that they harvest in their backyard. Friends give you rides even it's out of their ways without you asking. People look after one another.

Sorry if I have bored you with these. It is just that the kindness of these people on the forum has suddenly reminds me the warmth of my hometown once again. Of course I must not forget to count my blessings to be in the midst of the helpful Singaporean community here...

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More rice on the table....

Bring on the rice! For the benefit of my rice-deprived husband. We have been feasting on Chinese meal since last Sunday. ~ Boring~

However, I manage to inject a bit of surprise every night, so that we can have something to look forward to for dinner. Actually, OCT is easily satisfied with the sight of rice, regardless of the dishes. And I am not particularly motivated to try out new dishes, because I have more EXCITING things to do!

We are going to Washington DC this coming Sunday! I have been busy in doing research on the "must see, must go and must eat places in DC". And I am overwhelmed by the vast information the ever wonderful Internet provides. I have our flight and accomodation booked, and itineary planned. Now I only need to think of what cake/ cookies to bake for this coming trip.

Allow me to digress from my usually food related entry. I am really excited about this trip. Incidentally, we will be in the nation's capitol on its National Day! I have heard so much about its marvellous firework at night, which attracts tourists and citizens to the Capitol for the event itself. A certain must see! Afterall, we will be conveniencely there, staying just 2 blocks away from the White House.

Because of the research I am conducting, I have somewhat throw my apron aside and digress from my daily baking related internet sites to other travel sites...Nevertheless, I managed to try a new recipe yesterday, and it was a good one! OCT commented that the dish was " refreshing". How true! With the combinations of a few acidic ingredients, the sauce turned out to be surprisingly refreshing. Almost making me succumb to another helping of rice....

It's a fish dish, which we seldom eat due to the lack of fresh fish here. Or rather the expensive price tag that comes with the fish. Well, I used frozen tilapia for this dish, and it turned out nice! And I promise that no one will know they were frozen. I don't have the five spice powder, so I just sprinkle the fish with some salt, pepper and paprika before saute. The highlight is really the sauce in my opinion.

Five- Spice Tilapia with Citrus Ponzu Sauce

2 tablespoons thinly sliced green onions
2 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
1 teaspoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon bottled ground fresh ginger (such as Spice World) (I used fresh ginger)
1/2 teaspoon five-spice powder (substituted with paprika)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
4 (6-ounce) tilapia fillets
2 teaspoons canola oil

Combine green onions, juices, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, and ginger in a small bowl.
Combine five-spice powder, salt, and pepper. Sprinkle both sides of fish evenly with spice mixture.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness. Remove from skillet.

Add the sauce into the same skillet to deglaze the skillet. Pour the sauce onto the fish once it comes to a boil. It should take less than 10 seconds.

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Rice on plate like rain after drought...

We didn't go to the Winery again. OCT was not feeling well this morning..Sigh, what can I say? Hope we can go another time.

We have rice tonight, after OCT complaint that he hasn't had a single grain of rice for 4 days. It's a record for him, apparently. He normally cannot survive without rice for more than 3 days. He said that his dizziness was a signal his body sent, to remind him to eat rice....

So his wish is granted. We have rice along with two rather uninspiring dishes. But the glow on OCT's face is obvious...

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Oatmeal Chocolate Chips Cookies

I make a batch of cookies tonight for our picnic tomorrow. After many delays, we are finally going to the winery with our friends! Not that I am an alcoholic, but I am always curious of the wine making process.

In fact, I am curious about everything that have to do with food! That's why I chose Applied Chemistry as my university major. How ignorant. The course had absolutely nothing to do with food. And all the chemicals that I dealt with were not edible....

After graduation, I found myself selling poison to professional. Ok, it's not what you think. I was only doing medical sales. If you look carefully, all the medicines are labelled poison on their insert. So, I can tell people that I made a fairly good living selling poison.

I have always wanted to do something related to food. In Uni days, applied Chemistry was the closest thing I could get...Ok, maybe not really close, but definitely closer as compared to Physics or Mathematics or Literature. Poor me who spent so many nights breaking down the complex organic structures into its simplest form; and cracking my head to think of the shortest pathway to make another meaningless chemical structure.

I wish I could use some of the knowledge I learnt in my baking. Some people say baking is a science. You must use the exact ingredients to get the exact outcome. I know this too. Did I tell you that I worked in a pharmaceutical plant before? I know how important the exact weight of a certain ingredients, the exact temperature and the exact mixing time are to the final products. Medicines are unlike cookies. No mistake is allowed. And nothing should be wasted. The last drop of liquid may well worth 10- 20 dollar.

I don't know why I suddenly digress and talk about my previous life... Back to the cookies. They are not as nice as I remembered.I think the last batch tasted much better. Maybe it's the Hershey Kissable chocolates that I used to replace part of the bittersweet chocolate chunks. The kissables are milk chocolate, which makes the chocolate tasted milky. Yike! I don't like the profound milk aftertaste! However, they look pretty interesting. Maybe kids will like them...

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Tomyam Soup and Instant Noodle

Not exactly a healthy meal, but we need to find a way to use up the expiring tofu. Hmm..actually it has expired 2 days ago... Nowadays, I am in constant race with the expiration date of our perishable produce...

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Bowtie Pasta with Roasted Red Pepper and Ham in White Wine Sauce

Yesterday was another hot summer day. And I didn't sleep well for the past 2 nights, so I wasn't in the mood to cook a Chinese meal with different dishes, not to mention the extra plates and bowls that needed to be washed after the meal.

I cooked pasta in the end. With the simple combination of white wine + vidalia onion + roast red pepper + lemon juice that guarantee success. I don't know why, but this simple combination will just work! The white wine gives the dish a sophisticated taste that couldn't be achieved using other condiments. Juice from half a lemon added towards the end also brighten the flavor of the sauce!Nowadays I always keep some lemons in the fridge for various uses. Like in the banana cake, pasta dish, sauce and iced lemon drink!

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ST, this is for you: Potato Salad

I want to tell you about this potato salad I made yesterday. It was so good so good so good!
I have no idea that it will be that good judging from the simple list of ingredients. Maybe because I actually follow the recipe, and bother to use my measuring spoon and cups to measure the ingredients. I even use a scale to weigh the potatoes! All these are worth the effort. The potato salad turns out perfect. Maybe my standard is low, but this is exactly how I like my potato salad. It reminds me of the potato salad I had at Starbucks. I know this is weird. It's Starbuck that I found my favorite potato salad, of all places. So, if you like Starbucks' kind of potato salad, have a go at this. It may not be exactly the same as theirs, but it reminds me of them.Not any Starbucks, I am referring to the Singapore Starbuck...The only modification I make is to reduce the mayonaise. Oh, and I used the light Mayo. I can hardly wait to make it again.

While doing the research on a potato salad, one site mentioned that the key is to mix the potatoes with the dressing while they are still hot. The reason is because the dressing will coat on all surfaces of the potatoes.

Another reviewer, however, mentioned that chilling the potato salad for a few hours is important for the favour to mend.

I would have tried both suggestions, if I was not rushing out after the potatoes are cooked. But I did chill the salad for 3 hours! No pics for this recipe though. I don't think the picture do any justice to the potato salad. It just look like the normal, humble potato salad.


Potato Salad

2 pounds Idaho potatoes (about 5 potatoes, I used russet potatoes)
2 jumbo eggs, hard boiled
1 1/4 cups mayonnaise (I used slightly less than 1 cup light Mayo)
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 stalks celery, finely chopped
1/2 tablespoon yellow mustard
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt


In a large pot, add potatoes and water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook until fork tender. Drain and cool. Peel cooked potatoes and cut into small chunks. Put in a very large serving bowl or container. Peel and finely chop hard boiled eggs and add to bowl. Add mayonnaise, green onions, celery, mustard, white pepper and salt. Mix until just combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours before serving.

Serves 5 as side dish.

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Martha's Banana Caramel Cake

I have been eyeing this recipe for as long as I have the Martha Stewart Baking Handbook. The only reason that I have not tackled it till now is because of lack of patience. The recipe requires the usual baking of 2 banana cakes, cooking bananas in caramel sauce, and frosting! And I don't really have a special occasion to make a celebration cake.....

Still, here I am, making the cake nevertheless, because I have plenty of time to kill, and a bunch of very ripe bananas to use. And I thought I can ask OCT to bring the cake to his lab meeting on Friday. Later, he told me that his colleague has just bought a banana cake to the lab on Monday. Think I better make something different for his Friday meeting....

Martha's banana cake tastes nice even without the frosting! In fact, I think it will be better off without the frosting. The cream is a bit too sweet and milky. It is a mascarpone frosting. But I think the only way for mascarpone cheese to shine, is with kahlua and coffee. In the Tiramisu. Not in any other recipe. Well, that's what I think.

But I like the caramelised banana in the middle of two cakes. It gives the banana cake its character. The visible banana flesh screams "I am a banana cake, come eat me!", to me, at least.
As the recipe is not found online, I will have to type it out sometime later....

But here's the picture of the banana cake:

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Spareribs with Black Peppercorn Grill Mix

Yesterday night we had spareribs for dinner. I turned my oven to 425F despite the hot weather, and roasted the spareribs for an hour. You can probably imagine how sweaty I was after the cooking.

I got the spareribs last week when they were on sale. Nowadays our dinners are pretty much determined by what is on sale that week. I am not complaining. In fact, I find it quite fun to plan for a week's meal based on that. Of course there's exception...Like our last trip to Trader Joe, we actually bought some smoke salmon, black forest prosciutto, Gruyere cheese and Provolone cheese! All of which are crucial for scrumptious picnics.

Coming back to the spareribs. Usually I like to roast the spareribs "Haiwaiian style", using BBQ sauce and canned pineapple. That is a tried and tested way. But yesterday I was in a spring cleaning mood. So I searched through OCT's box of condiments that he has accumulated before I came. He used to rely on all these ready made, all in one package spice/ sauce before the arrival of his wonderful wife (that's me!!) Since I seldom use any of those, some that he bought from Singapore have expired. I made a mental note to use up some of them as soon as possible. (Like the bak kut teh mix to use up the rest of the ribs) But for yesterday's dinner, I found a packet of Black Peppercorn Grill Mix, that only required 15 minutes of marinate time. And only need to add some vinegar, water and oil. How nice. Normally I will have to marinate the spareribs overnight.

It was not bad. In fact, it was quite delicious, except that it's a bit too dry and spicy. But this can easily be rectified by shortening the roasting time by a few minutes. Definitely something that we can make again when we have guests. I only hope that my memory will not fail me, the way it always do. Either it's the temperature, the cooking time or the ingedients. Most of the time, if it's my own recipe, I can't remember what I have added to the chicken or beef or veggie to make them nice. It's always something extra, which I reckon I will not forget, but forget, and later sulk that I didn't meticulously pen down the recipe. It happens all the time, and if you think I have learnt my lesson, I haven't! Sigh.... Maybe I will start now..Maybe next meal.

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