It was one of those reflective moments that cranked up my cravings for a tomato based pasta. Memories of Melbourne poured into my mind, intense and sudden, just like Melbourne's unpredictable weather. Immediately, I rushed out of my house to the nearest supermarket for ingredients. Amazing how the stomach is able take full control of the mind, making one think of nothing but food, not just any food, but a specific food for hours or even days!
Ingredients: Leggo's Tomato Puree, San Remo Vermicelli, 2 cloves of garlic
1) Boil a pot of water and add the pasta when tiny bubbles start forming on the side of the pot. Allow the pasta to cook for 10 minutes. 2) Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to a frying pan to stir fry the finely chopped garlic. Subsequently add the tomato puree, cherry tomatoes, black pepper and a pinch of salt to the pan. 3) When the sauce is cooked, toss the pasta in the pan and serve immediately.
Chocoholics please stand up! You are one recipe away from attaining eternal satisfaction. Extracted from the family recipe book, the end product of this recipe is a cake that melts-in-your-mouth. We improvised the "inherited" recipe by adding a touch of melted Lindt chocolate and some simple strawberry decoration, making it an even more irresistible dessert even to the most health-conscious homo sapien on earth.
Method: 1. Sieve together (B) and then add (A) and mix well in mixing bowl. 2. Pre-heat oven at 180C 3. Bake for 40 minutes 4. Leave to cool. 5. Cut the cake into half (horizontally) and carefully remove the top to a flat plate. 6. Melt (C) in a microoven at high for 1 minute 10 seconds. 7. Spread the melted chocolate onto the bottom layer. Carefully, replace the top layer and spread remaining chocolate. 8. Finish off with some freshly cut strawberries. Optional: Sprinkle some colored rice flakes for extra excitement.
A Jamie Oliver inspired recipe, with a touch of Jamie Lee's cooking. My first frittata, and it turned out as perfectly as I could ever imagine it to be (being a novice cook).
View from top
Flipped side
Ingredients: 8 asparagus sticks 2 eggs (I used only one yolk) 5 tablespoons of soy milk black pepper one small onion 1 tablespoon of Olive oil
Method: 1. Preheat the oven for 5 minutes at 200C. 2. Bake the asparagus sticks at 200C for 15 minutes 3. Beat in the eggs with the soymilk 4. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan and saute the onions 5. Add in the beaten egg mixture followed by the baked asparagus. 6. Allow the egg mixture to fry on a low flame until it does not stick to the pan. 7. When cooked on one side carefully flip the mixture over and continue to fry the other side. 8. Dish out and place on plate with asparagus showing and dash some black pepper on it. 0. Serve immediately and enjoy!
As your teeth sinks into the mushroom, piping hot juice squirts out onto your palette and as you attain gastronomic orgasm. As your saliva begins to digest your mouth's contents, the flavors of the pot mushroom begins to push your dopamine levels higher, encouraging you to go for another bite, a much bigger bite. The milawa chevre goat's cheese crumbles into smaller pieces as time passes, into bits that seeps into your tongue, converting into neurotic signals to tell your brain that you have reached nirvana. That's my most recent and most pleasurable meal, I'm glad that I've lived to tell the tale, so that you can enjoy it, hopefully more than me.
Ingredients: 6 large Portobello Mushrooms (mine were as big as my palm) 2 cloves of garlic 4 sticks of garlic shoot 4 tablespoons of olive oil A packet of fresh rocket Balsamic vinegar 100 g of goat's cheese (I used Milawa Chevre) Black Pepper
Optional: 2 tablespoon of toasted black sesame seeds (for decoration)
Method: 1. Preheat oven to 200C 2. Heat olive oil on a non-stick frying pan and saute the finely chopped garlic and garlic shoot. 3. Lightly grease the baking tray 4. Place the mushrooms with the stalks facing up and carefully top with sauteed garlic, garlic shoot and cheese. 5. Sprinkle some black pepper and bake for 12 minutes 6. Meanwhile, arrange some fresh rocket leaves on the plate and drizzle some balsamic vinegar over them. 7. Carefully place the cooked mushrooms on the plate and sprinkle some black sesame seeds all over plate. 8. Serve hot and enjoy!
Feel like having nasi lemak? Boil a pot of rice with some santan and pandan leaves. For the vegetarian curry chicken all you need is a packet of vegetarian roasted chicken and a packet of Liza's curry vegetables. As all necessary ingredients are already in the curry paste you just need to place the curry paste onto a pan and add in the vegetarian chicken pieces. Simmer on low flame for about 5 minutes and it will be ready to be served with some cucumber slices. Simple and fast, right?
Some of us just love ice-cream but cannot indulge because of the sugar and cholesterol that goes along with most ice-creams. I was recommended by a friend with this recipe and it is so simple and hassle free to make and the taste is simply delicious. All you need is just 3 medium sized bananas and a little soya milk. Blend them in a mini blender and transfer to a tupperware mold to freeze for 2 - 3 hours. Whalla........... guilt free banana ice-cream. Will try blending with other fruits and will be posting them another time
A perfect day to start a cold winter morning is a piece of Lawson's Settler's Grain toast spread with fresh avocado. Though avocados are made up of fat (90% of the calories are from fat), they are said to help lower cholesterol, by raising HDL levels and lowering LDL levels. Avocados are also known to be very rich in antioxidants.I used a non-stick pan to toast my bread as I felt that I can get a more even toast and there will be no burnt ends.
Here is a really simple recipe to make scones. I do not add sugar to my scones as I prefer to eat them with jam, maple syrup or honey with a cup of hot tea. Great for a gathering with friends for afternoon tea. Ingredients: 1 cup of self raising flour 1/2 cup soy milk 1 tablespoon of olive oil
Method: . Mix all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl until you get a lump of dough. 2. Preheat the oven at 200C for 10 minutes 3. Grease a baking tray with some olive oil / butter 4. Roll the dough into 5 cm diameter balls and place them on baking tray 5. Bake at 180C for 10 minutes or until golden brown. 6. Serve warm with ginger marmalade or maple syrup or honey.
Olives are concentrated in monounsaturated fats and a good source of vitamin E. In addition to vitamin E, olives contain avariety of beneficial active phytonutrient compounds including polyphenols and flavonoids, which also appear to have significant anti-inflammatory properties. Vitamin E is the body's primary fat-soluble antioxidant. It goes after and directly neutralizes free radicals in all the fat-rich areas of the body. Free radical damage can lead to numerous ailments. For example, when free radicals cause the oxidation of cholesterol, the oxidized cholesterol damages blood vessels and builds up in arteries, and can eventually lead to heart attack or stroke. So, by preventing the oxidation of cholesterol, the nutrients in olives help to prevent heart disease.
Ingredients: 1 medium size aubergine (cut into long strips) 10 pcs pickled olives (sliced) 1 big onion A little olive oil Method: 1. Fry onions in a little oil 2. Add in aubergine and fry for 2 minutes 3. Lastly add in sliced olives and a little salt
It was a great honor to be invited to Uncle Silvio's house for a genuine Italian pizza feast. The pizzas we ate were made from scratch and we are tremendously lucky to be able to witness the pizza making process. The wait was quite long though, as the preparation of the ingredients was quite time consuming, but the end product was definitely worth the wait. The cheese was able to stretch until the "ceiling" exactly like the pizza hut ads (though it's never the case when we visit pizza hut). Thanks for the wonderful experience Uncle Silvio and Aunty Mei.
Ingredients: Dough: Plain Flour Salt Yeast Warm water
Steps: 1. mix a packet of instant yeast with warm water 2. add to dough mixture in a mixer 3. mix until even, adding flour bit by bit until the texture below is obtained. Leave to rise. 4. saute the pizza toppings (until cooked) 5. Pat the dough flat on a pizza platter. 6. Remember to poke little holes in the dough with a fork. 7. Add the toppings! (tip: add tomato paste first, followed by mozzarella cheese, then the toppings)
credits: http://littlemissmay.com/index.php/?m=200701 The recipe is half standard and half by feel and experience. 1 kg of flour, 1 kg of sugar. That’s the standard portion. The other half is measured by “holding up a wet finger in the air”. 15 to 20 eggs, depending on how tasty (or heong) you want the love letters to be. Milk from 4 coconuts or more, depending on how old the coconuts are. The older they are, the more milk they produce, the less you need.
The amount of coconut milk added to the batter of flour, sugar and eggs is another thing that’s based on feel. My uncles who are pro at this always go by the consistency of the batter when they mix and stir it around a little. Too thick, just add a bit more milk. Too runny, and you’ll be in trouble.
While the batter is being prepared in the kitchen — it takes about 2 hours to get it just right — outside at the indoor garden, the stove is prepared. Charcoal pieces are placed into the stove (see how rusty it is? Now, that’s a really well-used ka-chang!), and left to burn till they smoulder nicely on their own. The perfect “fire” for barbecue.
The moulds are heated up to melt the layer of coconut oil that was applied the year before to keep them from rusting. Now, this is the “secret” — only use coconut oil to coat the moulds before, during and after making those love letters. We’ve tried all sorts of other cooking oils, but they don’t preserve the moulds well enough compared to coconut oil.
Once the moulds are cleaned off of the old oil and recoated with a new layer, the love-letter making begins!
Now, this is one thing I admit I’ve never really tried. Handling the moulds themselves over the stove. I’ve beaten the flour, sugar and eggs, squeezed the milk from the coconuts, mixed with a spring beater till my arms are all tired, folded the thin biscuits till my fingers are almost blistered from the hot oil. Those things, I’m good at.
Cooking the love letters themselves, no. One needs to pour batter onto the mould, put it over the stove to cook for awhile, scrape and clean the edges halfway through, put on the stove again till biscuit turns golden brown, peel off from the edge and toss to the designated letter folder (which is usually me). I’m ok with burning my fingers on the folding, but too chicken shit to try the actual cooking which probably might be less taxing on my fingertips. I’m afraid that I might burn half of the biscuits before they even reach the folding stage. Maybe next year, eh? Or the year after that… Or I’ll just stick to folding…
Tip: If you were to visit Perth (or any other states in Australia), it is an extremely good idea to visit the local supermarket like Coles / Safeway / Woolworths to get some fresh local veg, herbs and fruits. If you would like to try some of the local veg, I'd recommend that you stay in self-contained cottages / apartments so that you can do some of your own cooking. =)
Fresh Parsley + Pot Mushrooms + onions no extra seasoning needed! just a pinch of salt if you like it a little salty.
Fresh Baby Spinach wash and it's ready to be eaten raw!
Salad topped with Yoghurt Stuffed Olives, Zucchini, Fresh Basil, Yoghurt
Ingredients: 1 bowl of Red rice 1 big red onion 2 large Capsicums (One Red, One Green) Some "seafood balls"
Method: 1. Cook the red rice the regular way. 2. Slice the top of the capsicums away and remove the seeds. (Do not throw away the top of the capsicum) 3. pre heat oven to 220C 4. stir fry the onions with the red rice and seafood balls. 5. stuff the capsicums. 6. Replace the top of the capsicums. 7. place in oven until the capsicums have cooked (it took about 10 minutes for mine to cook) 8. Enjoy hot!
Option: You can add replace the onions with garlic or some herbs like basil. If you are more of a noodle fan, I'd imagine this combination would go pretty well with some spaghetti and tomato sauce. You can even add some sliced capsicums to the stuffing.
Ingredients: 1 medium sized Eggplant 2 medium sized tomatoes 3-4 medium sized fresh mushrooms garlic balsamic vinegar Black Pepper
Method: 1. (I am using a non stick pan, so this is basically a dish that uses very little oil). Slice eggplant to a thickness of about 1 cm. Place the eggplants onto the non-stick. Flip eggplants when the sides are cooked. Remove and place onto serving dish. 2. Drop a few drops of olive oil onto a non-stick pan, add sliced garlic and sliced mushrooms. Add tomatoes last to perserve freshness and juiciness. 3. Top eggplants with the items from step #2. 4. Drizzle some balsamic vinegar / fat free italian dressing / dressing of your choice. 5. Sprinkle some black pepper. 6. Decorate with some parsley (optional)
* opt for the elongated asian eggplant if you want similar sized eggplant slices.
Ingredients: 2 bowls of Red rice 3 Lettuce Leaves 1 Capsicum half a Garlic 8 slices of Cucumber Vegetarian Tomyam Paste
Method: 1. Cook the red rice the regular way. 2. Cut the pineapple and dice it. 3. Prepare the capsicum and garlic. 4. Line a plate with a big lettuce leaf and chop the rest into small pieces. 5. When the rice is ready, saute the garlic and the capsicum in a non-stick pan. Add the red rice and the chopped up lettuce. (As it is a non-stick pan, only a few drops of olive oil is required) 6. Cover the pan and let it cook for about 1-2 minutes. 7. Add a heaped tablespoon of vegetarian tomyam paste and toss well. 8. Serve on the lettuce leaf and line with slices of cucumber. 9. Enjoy!
Option: You can add mock meat (i.e. shredded soy fish / vegetarian anchovies)
Two avid vegetarians are here to share some insights to the world of vegetarianism.
Hopefully, through this site, the lives of some animals can be spared. Always remember, animals have feelings too, they are our friends not our meal.
Flipped side
I used a non-stick pan to toast my bread as I felt that I can get a more even toast and there will be no burnt ends.
Ingredients:.jpg)
Ingredients:
Egg Fritata with mushrooms and brown onions
Dessert - by Neli
Vegetarian fried meehoon by Yvonne.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Vegetarian Party
Pot Luck Party