Peas and Bacon Crumble

I've been crumble-topping everything eh? I can't help it! It's super easy, it makes everything tasty... and pretty too! I love it.


Recipe
- 2 heaping tablespoon of all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 tsp of grated parmesan
- a bit of sugar, black pepper, nutmeg, grated lemon zest
- 1 small bowl of green peas
- 2 strips of bacon, cut into chunks

In a frying pan, render bacon fat, add peas, mix well and pour into vessel (I chose sturdy paper muffin cups, you can use cute small ramekins). Preheat oven to 200C. Using hands, mix flour, butter, grated parmesan, a bit of sugar, black pepper, nutmeg and grated lemon zest - never mind the chunks. Add on top of the peas and bacon, dump into oven until the top's golden brown.


Yum! Great as a side dish or snack or party food!

Easy & Tasty Peas & Bacon

I shouldn't call this a recipe. I know. I know.
I don't know why I haven't done this combo before. Easy, simple, and of course bacon and bacon grease make everything tasty. Perfect for a quick lunch or dinner, or serve this as a side dish, or add a couple of beaten eggs to turn it into a breakfast. Easy peasy!

Recipe
- a cup of frozen peas
- a few slices of bacon strips (depends how much bacon you want, I used 3 strips)
- salt, black pepper, lemon juice (optional)
Drop frozen peas into a bowl of hot water for a quick defrost, drain, set aside. Cut bacon strips into small pieces. Throw bacon into a frying pan over medium heat. Once bacon becomes a bit brownish, turn the heat up and add frozen peas. Mix peas and bacon, let cook for about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving plate/bowl, squeeze fresh lemon juice to balance the bacon fat.

I have a confession to make. I ate mine with steamed rice. How Indonesian of me.

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

Some experiences are bound to fail.

Yet, I was stubborn enough to still try them. Sometimes I fail the food, sometimes I fail the photography. This time, I record-breakingly failed both. Haha, this calls for a celebration.

I blamed these failures solely to my stubbornness:
- I knew I had to follow a true and tested recipe properly (I didn't plan to fail perkedel another time), yet I chose to deviate from it. Dammit
- I knew I should not have experimented taking photographs with harsh lighting and no light diffuser of any sort, but I bloody did it anyway

So, the results:
- Ugly looking perkedels
- Ugly pictures

So, guys, please do not try these at home.

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

After failing perkedels (Indonesia potato cakes) a few times, I kinda gave up and almost vowed never to try making them again. But my good blogging pal, Lidia, encouraged me to try her fool-proof recipe, which sounded doable and her perkedels look incredible!

I should not have trusted my ability to follow recipes. Based on my chronic fear of deep frying, I insisted on microwaving the potatoes, which made turned them into a bowl of mushy mess. Furthermore, due to my pure greed, I added too much canned corned beef, thus when I was trying to pan fry the potato cakes...potato and beef bits and pieces floated everywhere...it was disastrous.

Finally, I decided to throw the rest of the dough into a lightly greased muffin mold and baked 'em. They tasted decent, but nothing like how perkedels should taste nor look like.

Since I don't want you to do what I did, I am not sharing my modification of the recipe. Please follow Lidia's recipes linked above...

...and 'til my next failure.....stay delicious ^_^

Christmas Feast at Yeh Lam Kwok Restaurant

After my share of home cooking madness, and sous chef's end of low iodine diet...we were like loose canons...shooting from one restaurant to another...

This Christmas, considering my plummeting stocks....despite the generous one month bonus the company gave out...we didn't pick anything fancy. "Anything fancy" normally requires 6 months advance booking, and it could cost more than my one month's rent (seriously!).

Thus, I picked one of my favorite Hong Kong steak restaurant, Yeh Lam Kwok. The service totally sucks, they consistently screw up our orders, their food is nowhere near "fine dining", but I love love love the place...and you'll see why.

We managed to avoid the dining peak hour, by arriving at around 6.30. See all the empty seats there?...they would all be full by 8.


I love set dinners. At HK$148 (plus 10% service charge), I get lots of stuff. Soup, bread, appetizer, main course, dessert and a drink! In places like this...I am more of a quantity girl more than quality. Hehe.

Rich mushroom and seafood soup. Yes, it is rich with corn starch. This is why I hardly ever order cream based soup in Chinese eateries. I made an exception, and I shouldn't have. The raisin dinner rolls though...were heavenly. Soft, fluffy, and fragrant.

When dining in Hong Kong restaurants...the red soup is your safest bet. It is always rich and tasty.

I mentioned earlier that this place's service sucks and it consistently screwed up orders. In my previous visit, a friend of mine ordered a white soup with a puff pastry topping. She was served red soup with puff pastry topping. She couldn't see what's under the puff pastry, so she poked it with a fork...and told the server that it's not what she ordered.

Then the most amazing thing happened. The lady seated at the next table mentioned that she ordered a red soup with puff pastry topping. Our server looked at the soup in his hand (red, with already poked puff pastry), and we could see how he was contemplating giving the soup to the lady at the next table. My friends and I, and the lady and her companion were all staring at him, thinking "NOOOOO WAYYY"...and he DID! He handed the soup to the lady at the next table...and she looked at him with disbelief and said that she could not accept that.
The something more amazing happened. Our server argued "but it has only been poked, she (my friend), hasn't tasted the soup". The lady's companion said "No!"...and our server argued again "Well, if you won't accept this, then I'll order again and you will just have to wait!". He said "We'll wait". Our server stormed away, clearly not looking very happy about his brilliant idea being shut off. We looked at each other...still couldn't believe what we just experienced, and cracked up.

Will they screw up again this time?

My appetizer - Sliced ham and turkey on top of mashed potatoes and pumpkin with gravy
The ham was great, the gravy was tasty, and the mashed potatoes was smooth and creamy. I have never been crazy about turkey...it's a bit too dry and chewy for me.

Sous Chef's Main Course - Sirloin Steak with mashed potatoes and pumpkin, roasted vegetable, and tomato rice.
In places like this, when you ordered your steak "medium well"....don't count on it too much. Most probably you won't get it how you ordered it. It's gambling, really...and you might wonder why they serve mashed potatoes with rice? They're trying to get us high on carb, so that we won't notice the screwed up orders. Hehe

My main course - Steak and soft shell crabs on a bed of (another) mashed potatoes and pumpkin and roasted vegetables with black pepper sauce
The soft shell crabs were the star of this dish. They were crispy and deliciousss...and I love drenching them with black pepper sauce all over. YUM!


The dessert - Waffles with peaches and strawberry sauce, with a side of chocolate sauce
It's really too filling after the multiple appearances of mashed potatoes...but what the heck! It was delicious and we wiped the whole thing off the plate.

Sous chef's drink - Hot pear, ginger and tangerine tea
It's nice and refreshing, lightly sweetened, it's the perfect drink to end this heavy meal.

My drink - Triple Sec Chocolate
Super rich, creamy, orangey, and chocolatey. My all time favorite from this restaurant. It is so worth the HK$8 extra charge for "special drinks"

They did screw up my order and tried to serve me salmon instead of my steak. But I love being overfed...and with such a value for money, the screw ups won't scare me away from going back to Yeh Lam Kwok.

Yeh Lam Kok Restaurant (Hung Wai Building)
3-5 Fa Yuen Street Shop B, 1/F
Hung Wai Building Mong Kok

Holiday snap for the day...

Santa on the loose...spotted in front of Fat Angelo's Restaurant, Soho, Central, Hong Kong.

What did I wear that day? Check it out here...but after this holiday season, I guess I will have to borrow santa's pants. Oh well!

Braised Ox Tongue

This might creep some of you out. The only tongue you like is probably in a french kiss? ;) But I love it since I was young. I was referring to the braised ox tongue...well I learnt about the french kiss a lot later HAHA (too much information alert! too much information alert!).

I love the tender, juicy, melt-in-your-mouth texture of the ox tongue and I love it cooked in many different ways, it could be charcoal grilled just with salt and pepper, or braised with lots of spices. But I love them thick (at least 1 cm thick), for me, the paper thin ones just missed the whole point. Since I have a lot of time on my hand recovering, I could do this braised ox tongue.

Ingredients
- 1 ox tongue (or pig)
- ginger, shallot, garlic (crushed)
- chinese five spice powder, salt, pepper, rock sugar
- kecap manis, soy sauce, oyster sauce

Throw garlic, shallot, and ginger into boiling water (the water should just be enough to cover the tongue), followed by the tongue, add salt, pepper, rock sugar, chinese five spice, cook until the tongue is done, pierce the tongue with fork for more absorbing action, add kecap manis, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cook on low heat for about 1.5-2 hours (when am I gonna get a pressure cooker????) or until the tongue is tender, and the sauce is caramelised. Cut thick pieces and serve. This can be eaten hot or just room temperature as snack/side dish.

Call me a pervert (again), but I think I love this more than a french kiss?

Peanut Butter Chicken Wings

The name says it all...how could this be not yummy? I think almost impossible hehe. This is a part of my continuous effort to keep my sous chef hooked on chickens *wink*. Luckily, I didn't have to put too much effort, as this peanut butter chicken wings are sooo easy peasy to make.

Ingredients
- 10 chicken wings (I could eat all 10, but I have a budget to stay within)
- peanut butter (a few tablespoonfuls)
- salt, pepper, sugar
- garlic, shallot, ginger (you can skip this altogether if you want)

I love boiling my chicken wings until they are pretty much thoroughly cooked before grilling to brown/crisp the skin, mainly because the sight of bloody undercooked chicken meat will make my sous chef swear off chickens forever and that is not good for me *grin* but you can skip this step if you wish.

Boil chicken wings with garlic, shallot, ginger, salt, pepper until thoroughly cooked, drain. Sprinkle salt and sugar, rub peanut butter all over the wings, grill until golden brown...and indulge. :)

Kering Kentang & Tempe - Caramelised Soy Bean Cake & Potatoes

Friday was a day off (yay! doing my little day off dance at the background), and I was thinking how to spend the day.

I ofcourse chose to conveniently "forget":
- an avalanche of dirty laundry at the corner of my bedroom (and living room, and bathroom, and dining room) screaming to be brought to the laundry shop
- floor desperately needs vaccuming
- furniture begging for dusting
- the bathroom laughing hazardously every time I almost slipped on the life threateningly dirty tiles
- clean dishes, pots and pans mocking me as they took over my tiny kitchen
...the list is endless...

But all I could think about was how I've been missing kering tempe, and how inconvenient it is to do kering tempe on work days. So, dodging the dirty laundry, pirouetting past the dusty furniture, pranching over the dirty floor, I went straight to the nearest Indo shop and bought myself a pack of tempe (Indonesian soy bean cake), and got it going. I love the wet and moist version, not the dry and crunchy one, but both are delicious. :)

Ingredients
- 1 pack of soy bean cake, diced
- 1 medium potato, diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 4 cloves of shallot, sliced
- a bit of ginger, crushed
- 3 red chilli, remove seed, sliced
- palm sugar
- kecap manis
- salt, pepper
- 3 tbsp of coconut milk
- cooking oil


Soak palm sugar in a bit of hot water (I used 3 of those) until totally dissolved

Tempe - the soy bean cake - tempe can be used as a meat replacement

Dice the tempe into a tiny rectangular shape, sprinkle with salt

Fry until golden but not too dry. This can already be eaten. I had to fight myself not to "sample" too much
I like the softness of potatoes as a contrast to the crunchy tempe. Fry the diced potatoes until golden.

Saute garlic, chilli, shallot, ginger in hot oil, add tempe and potato, add the dissolved palm sugar, salt, pepper, kecap manis, stir in the coconut milk, bring it to boil, serve.

Serve with hot steamed rice.

OK. I couldn't live in a dirty flat. So, finally spent the whole afternoon off cleaning. The kering tempe made a perfect reward :)

PS. Retno of Kedai Hamburg also made her version of Kering Tempe. Check it out! :)

Comfort Snack - Sweet Potato Chips

I saw many recipes of 'Sweet Potato Chips' online, they are all savoury ones, so I've decided to modify the recipe & make a sweet version. A comfort snack good enough to break an unbroken heart (I was heartbroken cos I couldn't have enough of these bad boys)

Cut sweet potato into thick chunks, wash until the water runs clear, dry 'em

I'm too lazy to clean my oven tray, so I always line it with foil. Spread some oil/butter, line up the sweet potato chunks, add lotsa sugar & a little salt

Bake until you see golden chunks, turn once, add more sugar if you want

I think deep frying would work well too...hmm...lemme try deep frying next time & compensate by (promising to) do more cardio classes, & no cheating on push-ups & crunches sessions (I generally just lie on the mat until the instructor approaches me)...well well well, promises promises

Shocking Corn Fritters- Bakwan Jagung Pedas

I always miss this particular starch + starch snack: Corn fritters aka bakwan jagung. Popular as teatime snack, or you can eat it as a side dish accompanying...ofcourse...rice. Plenty of sweet and crunchy corn kernels in each bite...and the SHOCK factor comes when you bite on pieces of hot chilli (HA-HA-HA !). Prepare a big glass of sweet iced tea /water (not soda, as it highlights heat) & a box of tissue.

This is not a suitable side dish for Valentine's day dinner if you can't stand the heat. If you can, you might impress your date, but then again...he/she might end up dumping you before it all even began. Hmm...or you can simply omit the chilli.

Ingredients
- 1 can of whole kernel corn
- 9 tbsp of plain flour
- 2 tbsp of corn starch
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- finely chopped spring onion, corriander, garlic, red chilli

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix well, scoop 1 tbsp of concoction into hot oil, fry until golden brown.


If you did put the chilli, dig in, with care.

*Honey Glazed Grilled Chicken Wings

Hongkongers are such chicken wing fanatics, I am surprised there has been no song written about it (or is there? do let me know)




















They make great snacks, appetizers, main courses, desserts, drinks??... (ok, I got carried away) But seriously, if I had HK$1 for every chicken wing found in my workmates' lunch boxes...I'd be able to invest in the stock market by now

This recipe's from a friend's mom, it is so easy...it probably shouldn't be called a "recipe"...and you'll have to be a true retard to fail this.

You need:
- 10 pics of mid chicken wings
- teeny tiny little piece of ginger (crush it)
- honey (those cheap ones you can squirt out of the bottle, or the one for charcoal bbq with a cute lil brush)
- water for boiling
- olive oil (or whatever oil you normally use)
- salt & pepper

Serves 2 normal people, 1 greedy one, or not enough for the super greedy.
I personally can eat almost unlimited amount of chicken wings, it scares me.

Boil chicken wings, with salt & a little ginger (I like adding garlic, shallot, & corriander, so I'll get a nice tasting stock ->1 slap 2 bitches), until it is almost cooked (stick a chopstick/fork to check)

Drain wings, marinate in lotsa honey and some oil for minimum 30 minutes, preheat oven

Dump wings into oven, turn and glaze with honey from time to time, until they look good enough for you. I personally like to see some burns.

Let me think of a chicken wing dessert recipe now...