Tag Archives: Recipes: Vegetables

Bar-bie-que

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filled swiss brown mushrooms

filled swiss brown mushrooms

it’s been a while since I had a last bbq, think the last one being in July. And even then..fellow SAHM, D, and I swore off bbqs for a long while. Haha..seriously I think it is the lack of enthusiastic participants which made it hard for us to enjoy. Baah.

This time round, I suggested a bbq with my cousins. I was craving sausages, onions, red meat..etc. The works. It helped that my cousins were interested in more not-so-local kind of bbq. Of course we needed the stingrays, sotongs and satays. But we were cool without the chicken wings and hot dogs. We preferred the more gourmet kind of sausages, oh us young people with atas tastebuds. =P

Yours truly was in charge of marinating the meats and making a salad with some dressing on the side. Here was what I prepped:

1) chicken kebabs with morrocan seasoning
2) chicken kebabs marinated with olive oil & thyme (I forgot about the lemon juice..dammit)
3) beef eye round kebabs with salt & coarse ground black pepper
4) beef sukiyaki slices marinated with garlic, dried rosemary & olive oil
5) beef yakiniku slices marinated with salt & coarse ground black pepper
6) pork belly sukiyaki slices marinated in a bulgogi marinade
7) pork belly sukiyaki slices marinated in a kimchi marinade
8) mesclun lettuce, baby spinach & butterhead lettuce salad with pistachio, avocado & dried cranberries
9) balsamic vinegar & olive oil salad dressing
10) honey mustard & herb salad dressing
11) swiss brown mushrooms topped with garlic, mozarella cheese and chopped fresh italian parsley.

Phew. It took me two days to do all of that stuff, buying the groceries, marinating and skewering. I wish I took a picture of all that food..haha. And mind you, this was only what I prepped. There were also other food prepped by other cousins (or their moms..-_-” haha). The two things that caused me some grief was searching for a kimchi marinade recipe and a honey mustard and herb dressing that I would be happy with. See..I had a really really really good honey mustard & herb salad dressing when we were holidaying in Houston, TX. The recipe I was searching for had to be close enough to that taste..or what I remembered was that taste. Guess this salad dressing was good enough was my family was raving about it. It was still a tad tart for me, and I probably should have added a bit more honey and dijon mustard. Otherwise, it was still pretty good!

Here are the recipes for the both as adapted from their respective websites:

Kimchi meat marinade by sportsglutton

Ingredients

fresh kimchi (cabbage based)
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tsp Korean hot pepper paste (gochu-jang)
1tbsp + 1tsp honey
1/2 juice of a lemon

Note: I did not add the lemon juice as I felt that the vinegar would have made the marinade tart enough. Also I added the kimchi when I was bbqing the pork belly slices on a tray rather than marinating it together.

Raw Honey Mustard Herb by Sara of Me, Redone

Ingredients

2 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp raw honey
1 tsp Herbes de Provence (I used 1 tsp dried thyme & about 3-4 sprigs of fresh italian parsley)
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1.5 cups extra virgin olive oil (I used normal olive oil)
1 pinch of salt
1 pinch of pepper

Cauliflower Mornay

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ooo cheesy cauliflower mornay

ooo cheesy cauliflower mornay

I had been craving for a cheesy cauliflower dish for awhile, ever since I had it at the Greenhouse at Ritz Carlton. But the idea of having to do the bechamel sauce always kinda put me off. Well..the washing bit anyways, you know..crusted flour, milk & butter batter.

Having put it off long enough, I finally got down to doing it today. Decided that I had to stop throwing cauliflower away cos they always turned bad when I decided that I wanted to cook it. Yes, they last long enough in the fridge and that is how long I procastinate. =P

Anyways, this is the recipe I used for the cauliflower mornay, taken from the BBC Australian Good Food magazine, October 2011:

Ingredients

800g cauliflower, cut into florets
50g unsalted butter, chopped
1/4 cup (35g) plain flour
2 cups (500ml) low-fat milk (1 used full cream milk)
1.25 cups (300g) light sour cream
3/4 cup (90g) grated reduced-fat tasty cheese (I used full fat tasty cheese)
1 cup (70g) fresh breadcrumbs
pinch of smoked paprika

1. Preheat oven to 200C or 180C fan. Cook the cauliflower in a saucepan of boiling water for 5 mins, until just tender. Drain. Transfer to a shallow 6 cup capacity ovenproof dish/

2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat. Stir in flour and cook for 1 min, until bubbling. Gradually add milk, stirring until smooth. Bring to boil, simmer for 3 mins, until thickened. Remove from heat. Stir in sour cream and half of the cheese. Season. (I added some coarse grinded black pepper)

3. Pour cream sauce over cauliflower. Scatter top with breadcrumbs and remaining cheese. Bake mornay for 15-20 mins, until golden and bubbly. Remove from oven. Sprinkle with paprika and serve.

4. Self-note: there is never too much cheese. There should have been more cheese and I added some grated parmesan on top as well to up the cheesiness. =D

Note: all ingredients are easily found in local supermarkets.

I have decided to start blogging about the food that I cook, as a form of record for me because I keep forgetting to write down where I got the recipes from and end up having to dig up mountain of magazines to find that one recipe. Dammit. But hey, have fun trying the recipes out. =)

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Sunday Brunch: Roasted Pumpkin

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Hmm, I think I might get used to this whole Sunday brunch thing. A good way to eat light and have some salads! Been wanting to try a mix of salads that have very little meat in them, so we won’t still feel hungry after the meal cos the meat feels us up a little. Sunday’s just a good day to sleep in a little, take my time with the cooking and serve up the light meal at about 11-11.30am.

Tried this roasted pumpkin dish today. Think I overcooked the pumpkin cos it was really soft! Didn’t have balsamic glaze so I omitted that (didn’t think it was worth it to buy a bottle when I might only use it once). The best part of it was the pancetta. mmM. Crispy, salty and so unhealthy haha. But tastes so good with the salad tho. Sorta like bacon bits but not so hard. Pancetta’s a little expensive but still so tasty. It could turn into an expensive habit. =(

Turkey dinner tonight!

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