Pickled Jalapeno & Cheddar Omelette with Grilled Sausages - Low Carb Breakfast

One of my recent low carb brekkie.
Very tasty & satisfying, I love how the pickled jalapeno added a bit of heat & tang into the rich mix.
Btw, can I consider pickled jalapeno as "vegetables"? ^_^'


Recipe
(serves one and only me!)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tbsp of pickled jalapeno, drained, chopped
- cheddar cheese chunks
- olive oil
Pour beaten egg to lightly oiled hot non-stick pan, add pickled jalapeno and cheese, fold or flip (I folded mine into a triangle), remove from heat and serve with grilled sausage of your choice (or bacon?). Do not overcook the egg.

This is good with some sweet and creamy coffee.
Happy Friday!

PS. Do you have more omelette ideas for me?

The Bin Tai II - Indomie, Sausages, Cheese & Mayo Sandwich

To celebrate the last working day of the year, here's my bin tai (Canto for pervert - or click the word to see the definition from urban dictionary) gift to you all...the sequel to the bin tai.
Muhahahahaha.


The idea started from how in Hong Kong we have a typical breakfast set menu of instant noodles, toasts and sausages and eggs. Why don't I put them all in one package of a sandwich? Aha! So I did, except I forgot the eggs. Ugh. Typical me.

I think you pretty much know how everything's prepared, but I'm gonna share how it's done anyway. I'm show-offy like that ;)

"Recipe"
- Buns or bread, and butter
- Your favorite sausages (or ham, or bacon, whatever pushes your buttons). I used chipotle cheese sausages
- Your favorite cheese(es). Ideally a combo of something that will melt well and something that will turn golden brown, but I only had cheddar, so I just used cheddar. Sobs
- Your favorite dry instant noodles. I used Indomie goreng. You can also use soup noodles but make it dry by excluding the soup and some of the seasoning to prevent it from going too salty
- Mayo and chilli sauce (or whatever sauces you want)

Prepare the noodles, undercook them to give the sandwich a bit of crunchiness and let the noodles withstand the additional heating the sandwich might need later. Once prepared, set aside. Butter the buns or bread generously and toast until golden brown. Slice and pan fry sausages, grate cheeses. Slather the buns with mayo and sauces, add fillings until the sandwich resembles an exploding, tumbling hot mess. Reheat the whole package in the oven, or you can blow torch the cheeses to melt and turn them golden.

Imagining how it tastes won't help much. Go ahead and create your own version of perverse yumminess!

And, Happy last Friday of 2011! Yayyyy!!!

One of My Favorite Breakfasts - Sausage Donut, Yamazaki Bakery, Hong Kong

Let me state the obvious here.
I haven't been blogging much. Hmmm, correction. I haven't been blogging at all!
I am sure you don't want to read my 74983275984 lame excuses (work, life, stress, baby, relationships, home, mortgage, renovation, health, insurance, never cooking, blablabla etc etc etc) , and NO, I am NOT having another bun in the oven :D

One of the less-cliched reason that I haven't been blogging is...(it's pretty lame)...that I am addicted to instagram!!! Crazy huh? I have a collection of god-knows-how-much photography gear, and now I am addicted to taking pictures with my phone and editing them with free apps. And it's not as if I had lots of followers or likers or my photos are exceptionally fantastic. But I can't help it. I'm gonna need an instagram rehab soon. Just in case you want to see what my addiction is like, I'm @mochachocolatarita on instagram.

I don't know why the content of this post is not related to the post title at all...I guess I have a tendency to ramble.

Now, since I haven't been cooking much, I'd like to share one of my favorite breakfasts with you. I am sharing this one simply because when I tweeted "sausage donut" one morning. Someone asked me "Sausage donut???? What's that???!!! Is there such a thing?"

Yes there is, it's from Yamazaki bakery and it is fan-freaking-tastic! Imagine stretchy chewy and very slightly sweet donut dough, with a tasty frank in it, deep fried to a glorious golden brown until the exterior is sufficiently crispy and the interior is fluffy. That and a cup of coffee.

What a heavenly morning!

It's been a while since I had this breakfast. I am so gonna buy it tomorrow.
Now, excuse me while I instagram the heck outta my life.
You should too.
See you there!

The Making & Behind the Scene - Hello Kitty Food Blogger Sausage Sculpture for the Cock Up

All the mess and madness before the cocktail sausage cook up.

I didn't plan to make a sausage sculpture before, I knew cutetifying food isn't my forte.


What did I plan to make?
Welcome to my Hall of FAILURES.

Cocktail Sausage Savoury Cheesecake. 
The idea sounded good in my head, I used Maid brand's honey cocktail sausages, they're a bit sweet, so I thought they would work. I thought of making tarts instead of a huge cake, topped with glazed apples, peaches, or grapes, or a mix of fruits...maybe garnished with a piece of thinly sliced, deep fried crispy cocktail sausage.

Wow. Ambitious, wasn't I?

Well, obviously, I failed. Hard.

I food processed the cocktail sausages into the cheesecake batter. The cheesecake ended up fluffy, more Japan than New York, which was fine, but the tiny bits of sausage made the cake super weird, and not in a good way. I probably should've left them sliced to give the cake bits of bite. You can see that I've failed the cream cracker crust too. I was too impatient waiting for it to set. Oppps.
I'll do better next time...


Apple, Pear & Cocktail Sausage Savoury Crumble
Again, the idea sounded good in my head, but the whole thing tasted so damn weird. I should've probably leave the fruits uncooked or pickled. Crisp the sausages and make the crumble separately and assemble them together in small shot glasses or something. This crumble topping was savoury, maybe I should've made the crumble topping sweet? I dunno, but I'll explore this idea and try again.

I realized I should stick to what I know instead of trying to be a smart ass, I'm a one trick pony after all. Heheheh. That's how I ended up with my dishes, sweet & sour sausages and the Indonesian sate sosis.

As for the Hello Kitty craziness...
I just wanted to have fun and create something mad for the event, instead of just bringing dishes.
I thought of making a whole table of food bloggers, most of them would resemble the bloggers who would attend the event, but OK, that's too damn ambitious, there's no way I could do that.

Then I thought of creating a mini me (a food blogger) out of cocktail sausages, but ok that's so damn narcissistic, I feel disgusted even as I am typing this up. Ugh.

So what's cute, somewhat relevant to Hong Kong, and relevant to the event?
Uh huh! Hello Kitty food blogger, my friend.

I used these light colored small sausages. A tanned Hello Kitty would be cute too, but I tried to be as close as its original colors.

I bought a variety of stuff to realize my Kitty ambition.

Seaweed and seaweed strands for the eyes and whiskers, cheese for the nose, maybe add some food coloring for the red bow. Crackers and cracker sticks in case I need to build a table...


I had to make a lot of plan Bs...it's hard to stick anything to the sausages as they're oily! Everything slides down and fall off when touched, especially after the oil's dried out. I ended up using rice for the nose, stuck it to the face using a toothpick. I used honey as glue, small sharp scissors and tweezers helped a lot!


What's a food blogger without food? This was pretty straight forward. Rice, seaweed strands, toothpicks and sliced cocktail sausages to resemble luncheon meat. Very Hong Kong la!

The camera's made of sausage wrapped with seaweed. This failed in the end, after a while, the seaweed peeled off..and I had a bit of a disaster with the bow too...the cheese melted. I was so upset. I tried to keep everything savoury, as if we're going to end up eating the whole thing (warning, food poisoning?), but in the end I gave up and made the bow and camera out of pink Sugus candies.

The slogan "my blog is cuter than yours" was made out of alphabet pasta and changed the banner to resemble a talk icon.

Whew! It's been so long since I've been so mad.
It felt so good, I look forward to more madness.

More pics are posted on my Facebook Page.

Super Easy Savoury Bread Pudding Breakfast 整一個快過去廁所的早餐 - 麵包布丁

Something tasty and easy for a lazy weekend :)
Just the way I like it.
周末乜都唔想做, 但係又肚餓, 可以點?
一個又好味, 又容易整既麵包布丁


Recipe 
- 2 slices of bread, buttered generously, torn into pieces
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 chicken frank, sliced
- 1/2 cup cheese (I used cheddar)
- salt, pepper, nutmeg

食譜
- 2塊麵包, 搽滿牛油, 再"mit"爛佢去一細塊一細塊
- 2隻蛋, 打左佢
- 1/2 杯奶
- 1 條腸仔, 切細佢
- 1/2 杯芝士 (我用車打的)
- 鹽, 胡椒, 肉豆蔻

Heat up oven to 200C, pour everything except half of the cheese into a baking dish, top with the rest of the cheese, bake until the top's golden brown. I ate mine with tabasco and peppermint tea.
預熱個焗爐去200, 倒晒D野去個烤碟(除左芝士), 將D芝士放係面, 焗到個面金黃色為止
我自己鐘意加D辣椒仔同沖杯荼黎食, 正

Feel free to spice up yours, your way ;)

Quick Chicken Franks & Veggie Bistik - Bistik Sosis & Sayuran

SC and I felt that we have been spending money like water these days....so we kinda made a commitment to cut back a little. We didn't know where the money went...but I guess it's probably all the good food we eat these days :D

Thus, I agreed to make and pack our lunch most of the days, even if we dined out the night before. Sometimes, we came back from a night out and it's too late to get any ingredients from the market/supermarket...and I don't have a habit of keeping ingredients on hand, I normally just buy what I need for the day (the beauty of living in the city). This was one of those nights...

Luckily, I had a pack of chicken franks and half a pack of frozen veggies. So there you go...lunch. I just did them in flavors that I always love...Indonesian bistik.

Recipe
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- 2 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 4 chicken franks, sliced
- 1 cup of frozen mixed vegetables, quickly defrosted in hot water
- light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce (the dominant flavor), nutmeg, olive oil, white pepper, hot water
- crispy shallot for garnish

Brown the sliced chicken franks in a bit of hot olive oil, add garlic and shallot, cook until fragrant, add veggies, add sauces, add a bit of hot water, serve with rice, garnish with crispy shallot.

More lunch box means more dining out.
Can't wait for my next treat ^_^

Sausage & Cheese Savoury Pancakes

Love pancakes to death, but I just can't have only sweets for breakfast...but pan frying eggs, bacon and all the savoury frills would be too troublesome for my lazy ass. My lazy solution is...to throw savoury bits in and make savoury pancakes ^_^

These may look like ordinary sweet pancakes...

Wait 'til you get to see what's inside...

Recipe
- 1 cup self raising flour
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder
- 1 tsp dry mixed herbs (thyme, rosemary, oregano, sage)
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)
- 1/2 cup chopped sausages (I used Maid brand cheese cocktail sausages)
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, wet in another. Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients, add wet ingredients, mix well, add chopped sausages and grated cheddar cheese. Heat up a non stick pan to medium heat, pour a ladleful of batter, (butter/oil isn't necessary for non stick pan) pan fry until you see bubbles and the edges dried out a little, flip, let cook for a bit and transfer to a plate. Repeat until all the batter's done. Serve with butter and if you like sweet-savoury flavor combo, maple syrup ^_^

Fluffy pancakes with savoury bits...

My kinda weekend breakfast ^_^

The sausage pieces are only visible from the butt of the pancakes :D

Have a great weekend, everyone!

My Hot Dog & Poutine Wannabe Dinner

I've never tried Poutine in my life...so, how weird of me to try "recreating" it at home. How was I supposed to know how it tasted like? Therefore, please excuse my beyond inauthentic poutine wannabe and just go along this yummy ride, will ya?

From what I heard, poutine is essentially french fries served with cheese curd and gravy.
They had me at cheese.
Heck, they had me at fries!

So, here we go...
My Poutine Wannabe
The Fries

I planned to use store bought french fries or frozen fries. But since I couldn't find any that day, I just sliced a couple of potatoes, rinse them until the water runs clear to get rid of the excess starch, pat 'em dry, and oven baked them with some butter and olive oil. I try to avoid deep frying whenever I can.

The cheese

In a sauce pan, I threw in 2 tsp butter, 1/2 cup of skim milk, plenty of grated cheddar cheese, a pinch of salt, white pepper, a dash of paprika (I just did it for the love of red dust) and a bit of corn starch dilluted in water to thicken. I added a few chunks of cheddar at the end.

The gravy

I despise store bought gravy, plus, I need to prepare my lunch for the next working day, so I used the gravy of this beef dish on my "poutine". Saute a clove of crushed garlic and a quarter of diced onion with a bit of butter and olive oil, add beef chunks, add mushrooms, drizzle some red wine, add some diced vegetables (I used peas, carrots and corn), add beef/chicken stock (optional) or just hot water, add mixed herbs (I used rosemary, oregano, and thyme), season with salt and black pepper, thicken with a bit of corn starch dilluted in water...and I got my version of gravy sorted.

The assembly

Two servings of "fries". Since they will get soaked in sauces anyway, don't worry too much about them being not as fluffy or crispy as normal french fries...and you don't need to season them.


I couldn't resist but adding a few chunks of beef before pouring some gravy over 'em.


Topped with the liquid gold...cheese sauce with chunks of cheddar cheese...
Yum. Amen.

I went even more inauthentic with the next serving...but I didn't regret it...

I added the whole beef, veggie, and mushrooms with the gravy altogether before pouring the cheese.
At least it is healthy---er, right?

...and while I prepared the hotdogs, I keep them in low oven to keep warm...

It's amazing how I could peel myself off them.

They were begging to be consumed right away.

Oh my~

The hotdogs

Johnsonsville's Turkey Cheddar hot dogs on lightly buttered and toasted hot dog buns, served with mayo, ketchup, relish, sambal ABC (Indonesian chilli sauce) and grated mixed cheese.

Nothing else I could say but yum!

PS. SC blamed me for the 2 lbs he gained after this meal :(

Chicken Franks and Zucchini in Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce

In my city, quick doesn't cut it. We want things instant.

Instant noodles, ding-a-meal (to ding = to heat using microwave, Hong Kong slang), fast food restos which slam your orders down the table even before you finish uttering them (except KFC. Hong Kong KFC is slow), MTR trains arrive and gone before you figured out where you're going....they're beyond fast, they're instant.

Good for me, as I am one good ol' impatient bitch.

There are so many obvious reasons why I should love instant sauces, but there is one reason why I hate some of them. I hate it when flavors had been compromised too much, it diminishes the benefit of convenience.

I've bought a pack of Japanese Instant Tomato Sauce, let's see how it did.

The packaging does look appealing....plump, shiny, dewy red tomatoes glistening in front of some cute Japanese fonts. I was so sold!

All I did were chopping up some chicken franks (I allowed 2 chicken franks per person), a large zucchini and slicing an onion. I sauteed the onion in olive oil, add chicken franks until they are browned a bit, add zucchini, add hot water as instructed in the package, add the instant sauce cubes, sprinkled some freshly ground black pepper and served the dish with steamed rice.

It looked gorgeous, didn't taste that bad....but I can't get over its corn starchiness and the deep red stain it left on my bento box.

Hello, food coloring. Goodbye, not looking forward to see you again anytime soon.

Red and Brown Fried Rice with Chicken Franks

Initially, I typed "Easy" as the first word on the title of this post, but eventually changed my mind and deleted it.

To me, cooking a tasty fried rice is not at all easy. It's a gadzillion lightyears away from easy.

One of the biggest failures I had in the past was...not getting the rice right. I often ended up with fried rice which clumped together, their bond tighter than that of a stamp and an envelope, and mushier than most love declarations...

I've followed all the tips, including refrigerating the cooked rice overnight...and still, most of the time, I couldn't get it right.

Slowly, I've learnt more about fried rice and improved bit by bit.

New things I've learnt:
Greed isn't good
It is easier to handle a smaller batch than what I normally do...struggling to stir a heaping large batch of fried rice, sweat dripping into frying pan (it has similar effect to MSG/vinegar? Doesn't it?), ended up with a super sore right arm and unevenly flavored fried rice (A said tasty, B said salty, C said underseasoned)

Grain is great
Brown and red rice separate themselves well, like they're biggest enemies. The texture's wonderfully chewy, plus, they're healthy! I tried using them for fried rice...and my humbly simple chicken frank fried rice turned out fabulous!

Red and Brown Fried Rice with Chicken Franks

Recipe
(serves
- 1 cup of mixed rice (red and brown rice), cooked the night before, cooled down and refrigerate overnight
- 3 pieces of chicken franks or sausage of your choice, cut into 2-3 mm pieces
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 4 cloves of shallot, thinly sliced
- 3 small red chilli, thinly sliced (reduce/add or remove seeds to adjust level of heat)
- soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, ketchup, pepper, olive oil

In a bit of hot oil, brown the chicken frank pieces, then set aside. Saute garlic, shallot and chilli until fragrant, add chicken franks back, add rice bit by bit, mixing while adding, season with soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, ketchup and pepper, serve hot.

The fried rice made quite a satisfying weekend lunch. Spicy, tasty, chewy...
If only I could get my lazy ass to fry two eggs....it would've been perfect!

Athena's Bday Party - How to Host A Bitching Party?

You're not having a dejavu, there was really another party at my place, and the title of my post doesn't mean that I am good at hosting party (this was only my second time), it's a question, not a statement. Please share your party tips, pretty please?...

I remember my first time attending a "casual" dinner at my friend's place, in Singapore. I typed casual between quotation marks, as to me, it was really a stunning dinner. She was serving simple and delicious home cooked meal of tomato soup and lasagna, but the table was beautifully set, decorated with gorgeous flowers and candles.

Did I learn from that experience? Ehm, judging from how my party spread looked like (disposable plates and cups? Really?)...gosh, I still have a lot to learn.

What did I do prior to the party?
Is my place normally that pristine and immaculate? Do I always have fresh flowers at home? Of course NOT!
Not really, so here are the things that I do when preparing for a party:
- A week before: thought about the menu (Order in? Take away? Home cooking? What style? Western? Asian? Indonesian? Chinese? Who doesn't eat what? Are the guests big eaters/dieters?) Any other activities to be done after dinner? Xbox? DVD? Games?
- A couple of days before: menu should be pretty much decided, create a list of ingredients to purchase)
- The day before: purchase ingredients and prep or cook dishes which can be prepared in advance, tidy up my mountain-high piles of dirty laundry, collect and throw SC's game weekly magazines from every room, stash any messy tidbits into empty drawers
- The morning and afternoon before: roughly dust visible places, clean floor, and prohibit SC to throw more dirty laundry everywhere, arrange flowers into various vases and station them several rooms
- One hour before the party: start cooking rice, and prepare all ingredients for dishes, ready to fire up, and prepare to heat up dishes which had been cook the day before

What did I serve this time? Just simple dishes I knew I could handle.

Italian Herbs and Lemon Zest Grilled Chicken Wings

- I prepared about 2-3 pieces of wings per person
- Italian mixed herbs (rosemary, oregano, thyme, sage)
- Zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1 lemon
- Salt, black pepper, olive oil

The day before the party, I defrosted the wings by quick boiling it (dip them into boiling water until the skin changed color, but not necessarily cooked through), drain and pat dry, coat wings with all ingredients, store in fridge. You can opt to skip the quick boiling.
On the day of the party, preheat oven to 220C, grill wings until the skin turned golden brown.

Corn Kernels with Bacon and Sausages

- 1 large can of corn kernels
- 3 slices of bacon, cut into small chunks
- 3 chicken franks, cut into 2-3 mm thick chunks (or any other sausages of your choice)
- 2 pork and herb sausages, cut into bite sized chunks
- black pepper

Defrost sausages and bacon since the night before, if necessary. About one - 2 hours before the party (or the day before, if you didn't need to defrost anything), slice bacon and sausages, then keep in the fridge before cooking. When ready to cook, heat up frying pan, add bacon and sausages (with no oil), cook until golden. Meanwhile, open the can of corn kernels and drain. Once the bacon and sausages are nicely browned, add corn kernels, cook until a bit charred, add black pepper. No other seasoning necessary, all the ingredients are already very flavorful.

Initially, I planned to add raisins to this dish, which will add another dimension of flavor, but I...forgot. Opps, maybe next time.

Grilled Chicken, Pineapple and Red Pepper in Coconut Milk

- 3 pieces of chicken upper thigh fillet
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 can (around 200ml coconut milk)
- 1 small fresh pineapple, or 1 can of pineapple chunks
- salt, black pepper, fish sauce, sugar

In the afternoon, or 1 hour before dinner starts, start preparing the ingredients, all the slicing and dicing. When it is time to serve, heat up frying pan (with no oil), season chicken fillet with salt, black pepper and olive oil, and grill skin down until you get some color. Flip once, cook until you get some colorage, set aside and slice into bite sized chunks. Saute garlic and onion, add chicken pieces, add pineapple (without the syrup if you are using canned pineapple), add coconut milk, and use some of the syrup of the canned pineapple (if using), season with salt, pepper, sugar, fish sauce and serve.

Beef Brisket Stewed in Red Wine

The birthday girl wanted to try this dish, so I did another encore of Beef and Red Wine combo. This time using brisket. I cooked this dish the night before, to get the beef to be more flavorful the day I served it.

Sauteed Black Pepper Mushrooms

- Mixed mushrooms
- Butter and olive oil
- salt and black pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Saute garlic in olive oil and butter, add mushrooms until they turn golden and slightly charred, season with salt and lots of black pepper. It was really that simple.

Poison of the Day:
Mandarin Orange, White Wine and 7Up Drink

I should've named the drink with something catchy like sex on the beach or screaming orgasm, but my creativity veins are blocked today (this is Monday!)...so I just called it what it is.
Suggestions please....^_^

- 1 small can of mandarin orange sections in syrup
- white wine
- sprite/7up/soda water

Fill a jug with the mandarin orange sections, including the syrup, add ice, fill up to 2/3 with chilled white wine, top it off with sprite/7up/soda water, stir and serve.

The birthday cake's from a bakery called Zoe, it's very chocolatey, rich, and satiny smooth delicious! Served with cups hot of earl grey tea.


Capturing Joe's cute gestures and expressions such as this one? Priceless!


The perfect party souvenir: Polaroid pictures!
Useful tips:
- If we're anything other than svelte, hide behind those who are ^_^
- If you wanna appear more fair skinned, move to the front
- If you wanna appear ridiculous, do my pose

A birthday isn't a birthday without some gift giving action. The gift which shocked Joe to the core...original soundtrack of Boys over Flowers and SS501 album (birthday girl's current favorites).

Guess what he was thinking when he saw the CDs?

Check out birthday girl's blog post to find out what her husband said about her outfit, at Athena's Little C9 (in Chinese).