Charco

This is Charco, the new mixed breed in our home. He is 3 months old and Daddy said he is going to be Bear's beau when he grows up... :p :0 :))) Quite good looking though so Bear doesn't need to worry. He is full of tolerance and a well behaved one too...so far so good..house trained and an obedient chap. Good candidate for Bear, our gal dog.

We put 'Eeyore' on his head and surprisingly no respond...

Haha...guess he is too s l e e p y to bother.....:))))

Daddy adopted him from the veterinary clinic.

Now we have two dogs in the house...

* Momsie's eyes rolling like Eeyore**

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Savoury Shrimps In Tomato Ketchup

How could one resists shrimps if one loves seafood ? Momsie , for one will find it hard to resist but being one who believes in moderation in everything....this is no problem at all. I cooked and I will eat in moderation. A little gastronomical delight to satisfy cravings :)))

I have about 15 medium sized shrimps left in the freezer and not knowing what to do with them. Keeping them too long in the freezer will not be good so I decided to make a simple dish out of them. Yup, cooked them in tomato ketchup for once would be nice. Simple to cook and savoury in taste. It will whet the appetite definitely and the aroma while cooking is indeed heavenly…garlic being sautéed and the shrimps gives out the salty sea scent while being stir fried in a wok hmmm delicious!

Savoury Shrimps In Tomato Ketchup

Ingredients:

15 medium sized shrimps – washed and deveined
(keep shell intact )

4 pips of garlic = chopped
2 tbsp of cooking oil
½ red capsicum – sliced
½ big yellow onions- quartered
2 tomato – quartered
2 sprigs of Italian parsley

¼ cup of thick tomato ketchup
1 tsp of sugar
a pinch of salt
1tbsp of cooking wine

Method:

Heat up the wok, add in oil and sautee the garlic till fragrant, add in the shrimps and stir fry till it turned red. Add in capsicum, tomato , onions and stir fry till cooked. Add in the tomato ketchup, sugar and salt and stir fry till the shrimps are coated with the tomato ketchup. Add in cooking wine and a bit of water if you want to have a bit of gravy.

When ready to dish up, add in the parsley . Served hot.

Some people like to have a bit more gravy, but for me , I perfer just to have the shrimps coated with the savoury sauce :) That's why you don't see much gravy on this dish! Simple to cook especially for a full time working momsie like me ^ * Haha, infact I prefer to cook one dish meal for just the two of us when my Piggies are away at college so that I have all the time for my baking (",) Can?

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Chinese Arrowroot Chips aka Nga Ku Chips

Lately ,chinese arrowroots aka 'nga ku ' in cantonese are being sold everywhere in the supermart and wet market and you will know that CNY is just around the corner. How could I not buy them and join the womanfolks in making the arrowroot chips for the CNY festive. Daddy famous words “ don't waste time making them , juz buy them ready made! ” . He doesn’t know how fun it is to make them ourselves and the joy when we put that crispy chips into our mouth and hmmmm when we start eating there will be no stopping till we touch the jar bottom..that’s how good and yummilicious it is!!!

This year CNY falls on 26th of January and it is just 2 weeks from now ..time flies , we barely got over the Christmas and New Year feast and now CNY is around the corner! We, the Chinese community in Malaysia celebrates the CNY with lots of fuss. Spring cleaning comes once a year, old things to be thrown away and replaced with new things , gates to be painted with new colors etc etc. Haha..welcoming the chinese new year , year of the Ox , with new things. Some believes that every year they must add new things to the house and if we go deep into this , chinese has lotz of superstition believes and sorry to say, I do not follow them even though I am Chinese :) but when it comes to F O O D , I do follow the traditional chinese new year reunion dishes though :)))))))

For a start, I have started making the arrowroot chips and I am quite happy they turned out nice. I managed to single handed- ly made 2 big jars and 3 smaller jars out of 1 Kg of arrowroots and I have finished eating 2 small jars while watching the idiot box. The natural sweetness from the arrowroot is enough to make you yearn for more . And guess who helped to finish eating it all ! You are rite! 'Daddy ' the guy who told me to just buy them and not waste time making them…

If you want to know how to make them please click here . I did it last year and have posted pics to show you how to make it.

Have fun making them if you have the time,

as for me,

I always make time for FOOD (",)

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Chickpea Salad

We pop in chickpeas as a snack , but to turn it into a salad dish is the first time I have ever tried and surprisingly it turned out to be good. The dressing blends well with the chickpeas. The recipe was adapted from Family Circle Salad book.

I boiled the chickpeas for the Piggies as snack while watching their holiday movie and I suddenly remembered reading this recipe from the Salad Book by Family Circle. After those artery clogging goodies we indulged in since Christmas, I thought it was a good idea to have more salad in our daily intake and since I have the chickpeas ready for consumption I might as well try it out….curiousity kills the cat but in this case curiousity benefits the Piggies..oink oink and Piggies and myself love it.

The subtle fragrant from the chopped italian parsleys , the tangy taste of lemon juice and the after taste sweetness from the honey makes this a perfect combo. The chopped garlic and red onion of course added extra flavor to the salad! The scent is out of this world. And the infusion it makes is absolutely heavenly . This salad is easy to whip up, but its taste is much more luxurious than its simplicity belies.

Chickpea Salad - adapted from Family Circle/ Salad

Ingredients:

(A)

1 cup of cooked chickpeas

1/2 cup tomatoes - diced

1/2 cup red capsicum - diced

10 pitted black olive - diced

1/2 cup zucchini - diced - * I left this out

dressing:

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp honey

3 pips of garlic - chopped finely

2 shallots - chopped finely

italian parsley - chopped

Method:

Mix together ingredients A in a salad bowl. Mix dressing ingredients in a jar and shake it to get the infusion to start its magical work. Pour over the salad and toss well.

Note: This can be prepared a day ahead and keep in fridge.

Have a nice day!

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New Year's Eve Dinner - Fusion Style

Serving this fusion style dinner to suit my Piggies is one hard task :p . One likes beef, one likes fried wanton with special fillings and one likes prawns…haih so many likes, so this poor Momsie puts everything together on a plate and served them fusion style dinner so that no one needs to complain and everyone laughed when I served them all their favourites on their dinner plate! Save washing up later…:)))))

On the dinner plate, there were Beef Rolls with mango, red capsicum , cucumber and ginger strips , Fried Wanton, Cauliflower with my olive oil dressing and Garlic Prawns and a bowl of white rice and a bowl of old cucumber soup each. Dessert was Coconut Jelly :)) 

Fried Wantons with special fillings , made up of mince meat,  prawns , chopped mango & red capsicum, chopped Italian parsley and a drop of sesame oil , a tsp of corn flour and a dash of white pepper. Mixed all in a deep bowl and stir it with a pair of chopstick till the mixture becomes sticky. Wrapped in wanton skin and deep fried till brown or cooked. 

I asked Daddy to cook his famous dish Garlic Prawns which was superbly done and have our fingers licked good :p .  Oh.. by the way, the Beef rolls tasted fantastic. I added the mango strips for extra flavor  :)) 

After tucking in those sumptuous stuff, a bowl of old cucumber soup really complement the digestive system .

We had a wonderful dinner …a fusion of east and west ... to suit my Piggies whim. Looking back, we are gluttons in every sense. Haih , I feel so guilty when the poor outside are suffering and we are eating like gluttons !!!

Claypot Rice - The Easy Way

This is a yummy one dish meal which is well received by the Asians called the Claypot Rice . Rice cooked in claypot with dried mushroom slices, marinated chicken pieces , chinese sausages and garnished with scallions , fried onions and sliced chili.  Easy to prepare and deliciously yummy! 

I cooked this for dinner when I am lazy to prepare anything more elaborate for my Piggies and I tell you, they love it ! 

Marinate the chicken pieces (1/2 chicken cut into pieces ) with ginger juice, oyster sauce, thick soysauce, light soysauce, sesame oil, pepper and chinese cooking wine for 1 hour. Meanwhile, cut the chinese sausages into 1/8 inch slices in a slanting manner and cut the soaked dried black mushrooms into strips.

Fry sliced onions in oil till crispy and keep aside for garnishing. Cut scallions and chili for garnishing too :)

I used the rice cooker to cook this as my claypot was a wee too small :)  the traditional way of cooking this is by charcoal fire and in a claypot..haha but nowadays people used the rice cooker for convenience sake. Nothing beats the traditional way though…it taste better if cooked in a claypot under the charcoal fire. And when we desire to eat the traditional way of cooking , we eat out :) Momsie is not going to start a charcoal fire and wait till the rice is cooked…too tiring for me but I was tempted though to cook this when we had barbeque the last time but then everyone was too full already coz they had a sumptuous feast with those grilled lamb shoulders and beef :)  Well, food for thought though…the next time you have a barbeque party you can have this claypot rice dish as an additional item for those who are rice takers! ‘ fun thung ‘ in Cantonese :)))

Claypot Rice

Serve 4 person

Ingredients:

Rice – 2  milk tins (condensed ) full
( I used condensed milk tin for measuring the rice grains)

½ chicken cut into bite sized pieces and marinate with

3 tbsp of ginger juice,
1 tbsp of thick soysauce
1 tbsp of light soysauce
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of cooking wine
½ tbsp of sesame oil
A dash of white pepper

3 chinese sausages – cut slanting -1/8 inch thick
6 dried Chinese mushrooms – soaked and cut into strips

Garnishing

8 shallots – slice thinly and fry till crispy
Scallions and chilli cut for garnishing

Method:

Washed the rice grains and cook as you normally cook your rice but take note , reduce the water a bit coz the marinated chicken will produce water when you add to the rice later.

Meanwhile, stir fry the marinated chicken, mushrooms, and sausages till ¾ cooked. Add to the rice when the rice is ¾ cooked. When it is fully cooked, stir the ingredients together with the rice. Add in a bit of thick soysauce for color if desired.

Serve hot, garnished with the cut chilli, scallions and the onions crisps.

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