Homemade Chilli Sauce

We ran out of homemade chilli sauce so yesterday we went out and get fresh red chillies from Lotus. 

Soaked the chillies in baking soda and vinegar to get rid of pesticides. Drain them dry.

Today, they were ready for for the blender. Blitz the red chilli together with shallots and oil. Ratio - 1:1:1/2 - red chilli: shallots: cooking oil. Can keep up to 3 mths in the fridge.  I added chilli padi for extra heat 😜

Cook the chilli mixture over low heat. Keep stirring every one min for an hour. Once the chilli sauce is ready, add salt and sugar ( I replaced sugar with Lakanto ) to taste.

Great for dim sum items like siumai, wonton, fried Beancurdskin rolls, fishballs and noodles. So good! Before serving as dip, you can add chopped coriander to the chilli sauce for extra flavour.

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Chickpea Sweet Corn and Tricolour Quinoa Salad

 

Yesterday I whipped up a simple salad for myself for dinner. Promised to self to eat more salad this year. More to plant-based food.

Chickpea, Sweetcorn and Tricolour Quinoa Salad. Added whatever veggie and fruit I can find in the fridge 😆 cucumber, cherry tomato and apple. Chopped up some coriander and added hard boiled egg😁 . Made a mustard and balsamic dressing for it. Added a tsp of Sumac and one tbsp of extra virgin olive oil to the dressing sauce. So good! 

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Homemade Tomato Sauce

 

It's been a while since I blogged. Been busy with travelling to Australia to see the grandchild the whole of last year.

Now I back to staying home and start cooking again. Most probably you will see more cooking and baking for this year 2025. 

Last Saturday I bought 2.5 kg of ripe tomatoes from Jaya Grocer. Decided it was time to make some tomato sauce. Since having recovered from C, I have not touch any canned stuff. So everything has to be prepared from scratch. 

First soak the tomatoes in water with baking soda and vinegar to remove pesticide and bacteria. A day's job,  roasting and cooking with onions and garlic. After roasting, blend them and  add Sumac spice , bay leaf, mixed herbs to cook till sauce thicken . The aroma wafting out from the cooking sauce makes all the hard work involved was so worth it!

Seriously worth it when you get tasty healthy sauce. I can't wait to try them out on a plate of roasted eggplant and cheese. Wholemeal pasta and homemade beefballs. 

Dinner will be good for the next few weeks. Have a good day.

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Oven Baked Australian Lobster Tail

The best experience I had when I was in Melbourne was being able to taste lobster meat. My daughter and hubby treated us to baked lobster tails. It was cooked by the son-in-law...our blessing because he is a good home Chef. He prepared a sauce that is delicious but too shy to ask for the recipe. Baked lobster tail served over stir fried asparagus. I feel this dish should have a post of its own. Thank you to the son-in-law for cooking this dish for us.

 

first time tasting lobster meat

Fisho's Torquay

On our Great Ocean Road trip, we stopped by Torquay and have lunch at Fisho's.  The salad was the star of the day though the fish ( snapper) and calamari was fresh, it was just a simple grill. Nothing to shout out about. I expected a bit more flavours to the seafood.  Overall it was a great meal. 

 love the salad and I will definitely try to replicate the salad for sure

the seafood was fresh

 this is the star of the day 😜

The salad comprises of Shredded Wombok, Carrots, Pickled Daikon, Crispy Shallots and Sesame Ginger Dressing.

Making Memories of this salad 🤣

El Jannah- Legendary Charcoal Chicken

 

When we are too lazy to cook, we had take out from restaurant. This time we ordered a take out from El Jannah , in Arabic it means 'Paradise' and it is a Australian family owned fast food restaurant that serves Lebanese Cuisine. We ordered the family set that comes with two charcoal grilled chicken, soft warm Lebanese bread, Tabouli Salad and Garlic sauce and potato chips and cans of zero Pepsi and Solo Lemon can drinks. It was really good! 

the charcoal chicken is cooked over wood flame that gives it it's signature crispy and charred skin.

Tabouli Salad is good too...made up of chopped parsley, diced cucumber and tomato with olive oil and lemon juice 

the garlic sauce is simply delicious

soft warm Lebanese bread

We will definitely come back for more!