Saturday, October 6, 2007

Ultimate breakfast feast.....


On some occasions, not most, but some I have magic moments where I think, OMG Kim good one! My magic moment occured Thursday morning after perusing the wide world of web for recipes, mind you not for breakfast but for gyoza's - yes my stomach has no sense of self restraint to eating inappropriate foods during the assigned periods of a day in which certain foods should be consumed. If it were up to me Desert would replace Breakfast, Dinner would be in lunch's frame time and Happy Hour Drinks would be consumed at 5 hour interval throughout the day. Geez! Imagine that.. sorry got a bit side track. Back to the point, oh yes.. during my venture of searching for gyoza recipes I came across this website http://www.opensourcefood.com/ which has now become one of my favourites, as it is online hub, with food-loving people sharing gastronomical recipes and amazing photos. I came across one of the members, Yongfook. He had recipe for Shrimp Gyoza's & Pomegranate Ponzu which I have bookmarked, however intrigued by what this site was, I began to rumage through the rest of his impressive recipes and came across Light English Brunch. The dish was so cute and so simple so I made that morning with the crust and minus the mushrooms and this is how it turned out.



But wait! Where was the magic moment? You may ask. Well, after impressing my self with cooking Yongfook's recipe, I had 2 round pieces of bread left over (cos I made 2; one for myself & my sister - hence the reason for 2 pieces) and I don't like wasting food or anything for that matter, so I made a baked bean stack using the leftover bake beans and buttering the pieces of breading of both side and cooked on a pan on both sides until they turned golden brown. Once cooked I stacked them and using the bake beans as filling in between the two pieces of bread.

Magic Moment #1 recipe - bake beans stack
After taking the photos I realised that this would have been better if I had scrambled eggs around it with 2 strips of streaky bacon....oh drool! Unfortunately I ran out of eggs, had no bacon in my fridge, but I have drool...yes it comes naturally. hehe!

The second magic moment came after, magic moment #1, of course! And still riding on the success of the first recipe using the cut out pieces of bread, I thought to myself...hhmm what about a sweet breakfast! Ah ha, yes magic moment #2 was born by using another 2 pieces of cutout bread, I buttered both side and dipped them in a plate of sugar/cinnamon coating both sides and then once again toasted them in a heated pan until their was caramelised crust. Once again stacking them but in between each layers I dusted each pieces with icing sugar and spread strawberry jam and then finished it of with a dollop of ice cream. Oh god was it good.... They tasted like those Danish mini pancakes, I think we call it potterflies here. Next time I'll try it with fresh strawberries or bananas... oh yum, can't wait.

Magic Moment #2 recipe - Strawberry stack

Friday, October 5, 2007

Mutated Black Beef stirfry

This is a mutation of beef black bean stirfry and sizzling beef. However I didn't have black bean sauce in my pantry, so I used black peppered sauce instead. This is great quick dish and fills you up and can feed an army or it can be served as part of a banquet. Like most of the dishes I make, I have recreated or attempted to emulate dishes from places where I like to go out and eat. I'm lucky that I have a good sense ingredients and taste, as I usually am able to pick up on what ingredients have been used. This dish was in honour of the many wedding banquest I've been to at Chinese restaurants. They always serves this dish, minus the carrots and over the years I've managed to acquire my own personal touch to it. It's isn't exactly like what they serve, but it's close enough and as long as it get's eaten by friends and family I'm well chuffed.




INGREDIENTS
400grams beef strips
Bunch of Chinese brocoli
1 Medium Onion - chopped into wedges
1 Medium Carrot - halfed and then slices
tbsp finely chopped garlic
tbsp chopped ginger
4 birds eye red chillies finely chopped
MARINADE FOR BEEF(About a tbsp of each)
darks soy sauce
oyster sauce
fish sauce
black pepper sauce
Kecap manis
minced garlic
grinded black pepper
Sugar

Corn starch and water to thicken stirfry

Like many asian/stirfry dishes, ingredients should be chopped, sliced, diced and blanched in advance. So make sure you have all the ingredient in hand ready for the wok
1. In a bowl combine beef strips and marinade and mix together so beef is well coated and leave in fridge to marinade for about 20-30 minutes.
2. Boil a pot of water on stove for blanching the chinese brocoli and carrots. Extract the stems of the chinese brocoli from the leaves and before throwing them in the the pot of boiling water, ad tbsp of oil into the pot, this will help give the brocoli glistening effect. The chineses brocoli only needs 30-40 seconds max, then take them out and strain them, then chuck in the sliced carrots for about 20 secs and then strain them as well
3. Replace pot with wok and ad some vegetable oil and let the wok heat up, then throw in the garlic. Let that sizzle for a few seconds before adding the brocoli stems and stir it so it coated with garlic and oil, then add the leaves, stirfry until the leaves have wilted, then transfer the chinese brocolit on a large plate, creating a bed.
4. Place wok back on the heat and a few tbsp's of oil and ad garlic and chillies. Then throw in onions and cook them for about 2 minutes (you still want them to be firm and they shoudn't be too soft), then ad the beef marinade and stir make sure the meat is evenly cooked through. At this point you can put some more cracked black pepper - I like to because it gives the dish a bit more kick. Finally ad the carrots and the corn starch mixture to thicken the stirfry. Once the stirfy has thicken, ladle it on top of the chinese brocoli. Voila! and serve with some Jasmine rice.
Serves - 6-8 people.