Kitchen Hack for a finer textured porridge.

Been awhile since I have posted anything… Pregnancy, baby etc. Well…I’m slowly getting back to my sickness of taking pictures of my cooking again! Probably will be sharing much much simpler stuff.

Anyway!

Was on FB and saw a video about 4 quick porridge recipes and one piece of information in the video really got my attention: using a wire egg beater to break up the rice when it has expanded to get a fine textured porridge. Wow. So simple? So I finally had the chance to try it today.

So, it really is that simple! No need to cook for hours, no need to pour into a food processor, no need to use a immersion blender. Once you see that the rice has expanded after cooking for a while, simple use the egg whisk/beater to break up the rice. That’s it! HK-style porridge at home!

Dose of inspiration.

  
I’m not very good at expressing what I feel, so I won’t say much. I guess all of us have that feeling sometimes, that it’s too late…I’ll never…I’m too old…I no longer have the time…the time has passed…etc etc… A despairing heartache that you try your best to bury with the busyness of living. May we have the faith to believe that it’s not too late and have the courage to make those dreams come true and be the person we long to be. 

Panna Cotta with Caramel Sauce Cockaigne and Caramel-glazed popcorns

So I made some panna cotta the other day. The recipe yielded 6 servings and we had only eaten two. It would be too boring to have them with raspberry coulis and berries again, (please see my previous post for recipes of panna cotta and raspberry coulis) and besides, I’m itching to try a different way of plating my dessert. My inspiration for this was a picture I saw on the internet. It was beautifully plated with a popcorn atop the panna cotta, and I thought, oh! how creative and beautiful! I have never made caramel either and it seems like this is a good time to try. 🙂

   

Panna Cotta with raspberry coulis and berries.

So I have just started watching the latest season of MasterChef Australia. Yeah, the season has just recently ended, and much to my horror, I accidentally got to know who the winner is by reading a friend’s post on Facebook. 😦  But still enjoying the show regardless!  I am so, so, so awed and inspired by the contestants! I can’t believe the kind of dishes and plating they are doing in the first few weeks of the competition. Personally, I really enjoy MasterChef Australia a lot more than the original MasterChef. I feel that there’s a lot more about cooking, and more mentoring and advice given by the judges and guest judges. I as a viewer, seemed to also be learning more from watching how the contestants cook, the ingredients they use and the way they present their food. Oh my goodness, the way they present their food – I’m so inspired! 

Hatcher Pass Road and Independence Mine State Historical Park

What a busy summer it has been! We’ve had friends over, ate way too much and had too much fun. Many beautiful hikes that we did with our friends. This was one of them. We drove to Hatcher Pass and took a walk around Independence Mine.

Hatcher Pass is a scenic mountain pass which loops between the Glenn Highway and the Parks Highway. Definitely worth a stop or as a side trip if you are travelling up north to Denali from Anchorage. There are scenic turnouts along the way and Independence Mine sits on top Hatcher Pass Road. Driving up to the mine, we saw a few parking areas near trailheads. It looks like a great area for hikes and we hope to go back again to explore the various trails. You can also try your hand at gold-panning while you are there. You can pick up the equipment needed at the visitor’s office. This was a real working gold-mine alright. Our friends went gold-panning with their children and you can really see lots of fine gold dust and specks.

Directions:

Follow the Glenn Highway north from Anchorage north to mile 49.5.  Turnoff on Palmer-Fishhook Road and follow the signs to Hatcher Pass Road/Independence Mine State Historical Park.

 

  
  

  
  
  

Boketto

From the book, Lost in Translation: “It’s nice that the Japanese think so highly of thinking about nothing at all that they actually gave it a name.”

Boketto: n. Gazing vacantly into the distance without really thinking about anything specific. This word came to my mind at some of the stops we made along Seward Highway, Alaska. It was a lovely day – Blue skies, temperature in the 70s. A perfect day for some boketto. 🙂

Sichuan-style wontons in chili oil and vinegar.

I was talking to a friend a few days ago, and the conversation drifted to the topic of food and a restaurant in Singapore that I miss, and I thought about one of my favourite dish there – Hong You Chao Shou (红油抄手). Directly translated, it means “Red oil, crossed arms”. The dish is better known in English as Sichuan-style wontons in chili oil and vinegar.  In the west, wontons are typically eaten fried, but basic wontons are also eaten boiled, or in savoury soups accompanying noodles. Good wontons have thin and supple skin and when they are boiled, the skins have a wonderful slippery texture. In this dish, they are tossed in spicy chili oil and vinegar and adding some minced ginger into the wontons complements the tangy-ness of the sauce.

Easy 20 minute Pork Chops with Plum sauce, ginger and lime juice.

Some days, you just don’t have the energy or  feel like spending an hour cooking your meal. Well, yesterday was such a day for me. On days like this, I am thankful for having my staple sauces standing ready in my pantry. One of my favourite is Chinese Plum sauce, and I especially like to use it when I cook pork. There are many brands of plum sauce out there, but I have always used the one shown below as it’s a popular brand in my home country, Singapore.

This dish needs only 5 min prep time, and around 10 min cooking time. It will be ideal if you plan ahead and let the meat marinade in the sauce for 4 hours or even overnight. But because the sauce is strong in flavor with plum sauce and honey, I think it will be okay if you have no time to marinade your meat and have to cook it right away. If that’s the case, baste the pork chop with the marinade as you cook, and cook the remaining marinade after you have finished pan-frying the meat, and use it as the sauce for the pork chops.

Iced gems, batch number 2.

So the husband managed to pester me into making these again. Made them smaller in size this time round, and ‘plump-er’, so that there’s a nicer balance of biscuit and icing (and more biscuits to eat). Decided to make a Tiffany-blue and white colour combination this time round. 🙂

Please see my earlier post for recipes and instructions on how to make these iced gem biscuits!

  

Got to concentrate on how great I will feel after! :)

Took this photo for my online running log. Just a short run of 4 miles today as I could feel the strain and tightness coming back in my hip flexor. Better to take it easy than to risk another injury and be put out of running for another month!

And today’s motivation for myself:

Yup! Had to force myself to get of the house but glad I did. Happy running! 🙂