{Photo Friday} Mother's Day Special

Although there are different dates reserved for Mother's Day in many parts of the world which most commonly seen in March, April or May but the majority of the countries do celebrate this special day on every second Sunday of May each year. And since today is Friday, Mother's Day will be just two days around the corner on Sunday, 13 May 2012. I am sure most of you have either celebrated Mother's Day early to avoid the crowds or you have already planned something interesting ahead for your mum or wife.

In this post, I have pick some quick and easy recipe links for your reference if you prefer to cook or bake some warm and hearty for your mum or loved ones during this weekend. No matter you are a newbie in the kitchen or someone who can cooks well, I am sure some of these links below will be able to give you some ideas on how to surprised "Mum" with your new skills and creation in the kitchen.

My boy with his genius thoughts and funny act(s) always makes me feel warm and blessed no matter how difficult motherhood is through his growing years. 

SET MENU FOR MUM

Thai Dishes with Appetizer	Chicken Cutlet with Apple Salad and Soup	Garlic Spaghetti with Pistachio Chicken and Avocado Milkshake
Avocado Chicken Parmigiana	Watercress Soup and Hainanese Pork Chop Rice	Kimchi Tofu Soup And Japchae

SOUP FOR MUM

Samgyetang	Five Nuts Soup	Leek and Potato Soup
Cream Of Mushroom Soup	Cordyceps Herbal Soup	Pork Muscle with Burdock

DISHES FOR MUM

Hong Zao Ji(红槽鸡)	Sizzling Tofu (using Happy Call Pan)	Bitter Gourd and Chicken In Casserole
Salmon with Spicy Sweetcorn Salsa	Stir-Fry Leek with Firm Beancurd	Thai Green Curry

BAKES FOR MUM

Lemon Yogurt Butter Cake	Double Chocolate Madeleine	Chocolate Chiffon with Multigrains
Kiwifruit and Lime Cupcakes	Apple Upside-down Cake (using Happy Call Pan)	Pandan Chiffon Cake (using Happy Call Pan)

DESSERT FOR MUM

Soy Milk Beancurd Pudding	Durian Pancake	Sweet Potato Soup
Bubur Terigu(大麦)	Tau Suan(豆爽)	Steamed Milk with Egg Whites

For more recipe ideas, you can refer to my recipes link HERE.

Lastly I would like to wish everyone a Happy Mother's Day! Remember to love and pamper your mum in anyway that you can. Because "being a mom is the hardest job in the world", they don't get to rest and they work 24hr a week for 365 days. So during this coming Mother's Day, do give your mum a warm hug and a pat on her back to show your love and appreciation for her contribution to the family.

Pan-fried Anchovies(whitebaits) Using Happy Call Pan

Looking at this I am sure most of you would "shout out" it as one of the add-ons for Nasi Lemak, natural seasoning for toddlers or kids to be added in their porridge and etc. The above shown is known as Pan-fried Whitebaits/Anchovies in some saying. 

This crispy and fragrant sides is one of my kid's favourite when eating with porridge or even plain rice. I used to cook this quiet often during his toddler's days but due to the salt content and the "fishy" aroma that perfumed the whole kitchen/living room during frying process, I have stop cooking it for sometime.

PAN-FRIED ANCHOVIES (WHITEBAITS)

(using Happy Call Pan)

But recently, out of curiosity I decided to try frying some Whitebaits using Happy Call Pan (HCP) since this pan claim to be able to fry fish using NO OIL/Minimum amount of oil.  So after my small experiment on pan-frying this whitebaits without adding oil (but just lightly grease the pan), I am surprised with the end result which is turn out to be so crispy as compared to those using OIL fried.

(Make: 100g |     Preparation: 5 minutes |       Cooking: 10 - 15 minutes)

Ingredients:
100g Anchovies(江鱼仔)/Whitebaits(银鱼)
1 Teaspoon Cornflour
1 Teaspoon Oil(optional), to grease

Method:-

1. Rinse Anchovies/Whitebaits in a bowl with a few change of water, drain water and squeeze dry using some kitchen paper towel.

2. Add in 1 teaspoon of cornflour to the dried Anchovies/Whitebaits, using your fingers or chopsticks coat them evenly and set aside for 5 minutes.

3. Next lightly grease lower pan of the Happy Call Pan(HCP) with 1 teaspoon of oil, add in the prepared Anchovies/Whitebaits, cover(don't lock or else water vapour will form and make the content soggy) and cook on the lowest heat for about 10 minutes or until it turns golden brown in colour.

4. When done, remove HCP from stove and leave the Anchovies/Whitebaits to cool off at room temperature before storing them in air-tight containers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note:-

~ During the cooking time, stir Anchovies/Whitebaits on and off about 3 minutes to prevent burning and achieve the even brown colours.

For those who owns a HCP, if you want to make some yummy fried Anchovies/whitebaits without oil or perfumed your kitchen with "fishy" smell. This post will be a great tip to enjoy your favourite anchovies/whitebaits" with peanuts or chilli in a healthy and "smells" free way.

Rainbow Omelette using Happy Call Pan

Thinking of what to cook for this week or even tonight? What about this quick and easy "Rainbow Omelette" which consists of Eggs, Tomato, Enoki Mushroom, Carrot and Onion. Eggs are one of the nutritional ingredient which has 11 different vitamins and minerals, high quality protein, healthy fats (including omega-3) and important antioxidants. Other than their nutritional value, eggs are tasty, convenient and versatile to be use in creating a balance and healthy dish for the family.

RAINBOW OMELETTE

(using Happy Call Pan)

My little boy loves egg and in order to create more egg dishes and add in extra ingredients to make it more nutritious, I often cook this "rainbow omelette" with similar ingredients to make it a tasty and colourful dish. For us, we simply loves this dish which is vibrant in colours as well as the layers of texture and from the soft and silky egg to chewy enoki mushrooms.

This dish is done perfectly in less than 10 minutes using my beloved Happy Call Pan which cooks my daily dishes in a hassle free and efficient way. And I specially delicate this dish to Joyce, my best friend as she is a "super" fan of Egg and Mushrooms!

(Serves: 4 | Preparation: 5 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients:
3 Eggs, 55g each
1 Small Carrot, shredded
1 - 2 Tomato, seed removed and diced
1 Small Brown Onion, thinly sliced
2 Stalks Spring Onion, thinly sliced 1 Packet of Enoki Mushroom, trim off the root portion
1 Red Chilli(optional), thinly sliced

Method:-

1. Add 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in the Happy Call Pan(HCP), saute onion for about 1 minutes till sightly soften.

2. Toss in diced tomato and shredded carrot, cover the pan and cook for another 1 minute.

3. Meantime, whisk eggs together with enkoi mushrooms and 3/4 of the chopped spring onion till well mixed.

4. Open the HCP cover, evenly pour the egg mixture onto the onion mixture, swirl the pan so that all the egg mixture goes round the pan.

5. Cover, and cook for about 2 minutes on low heat till the omelette set, flip the pan over and cook for another 1 - 2 minutes till done.

6. Flip the pan over again. Using spatula divide the omeltte into portion and garnish with remaining spring onion, sliced chilli and serve immediately.

With fresh ingredients and simple recipes I am sure everyone is able to whip up any quick and healthy dish for yourself or your family. And in order to support the project on using fresh ingredients or get to know more about this event, remember to support the "Food Revolution Day" which would be held on 19th May 2012 at The Lawn.

Cuisine Paradise Turns 7!

Today, 30 April 2012 marks my 2,555 days (7th years) in blogging where Cuisine Paradise turns seven(7). Indeed time flies and it had being 7 years since I started with my 1st recipe post on "Steam Mini Pandan Kueh" with an aim just to share my tried and tested recipes and homecook dishes with friends.

Along the years, I have learn to cook and bake different kind of cuisines, food styling as well as into food photographing.  Despite of the ups and downs during my blogging days, I have get to know many new friends who share the same interest either from cooking, baking or photographing.

And to all readers of Cuisine Paradise, I hope I am enable to enlighten you with more improvements from my post and style of preparing the food(cooking/baking) through different stages of my project themes. Here I would like to sincerely voice out my appreciations and thoughts for those who has supported Cuisine Paradise during all these years. Thanks for all your feedback, comments and thoughts which enable Cuisine Paradise to achieve what it has today. Without all your supports and spread of words, Cuisine Paradise would not able to achieve up to 1.8 million page view (since June 2011 till date) and currently having about 150,000+ visitors per month.

Below are some of the flashbacks from Cuisine Paradise over the years:-

MOST POPULAR RECIPE

Avocado Chicken Parmigiana

With over 110,000 pins via from "Pinterest" and a total of 150,000+ Pageviews till date, this is one of the most popular recipe among readers of Cuisine Paradise. It is so easy to prepare that you only need an oven toaster instead of an oven to handle this recipe. And moreover this dish can be pair with either salad or pasta to end with a complete hearty meal.

If you want to prepare something simple and yet flavorsome to impress your loved ones, here is the recipe.

MOST POPULAR KITCHEN GADGET

Happy Call Double-sided Pressure Pan

It's only a few months back that this "Happy Call Double-Sided Pressure Pan" has finally makes it way into many kitchens in Singapore and Malaysia after a year or so in Singapore. This happens from a Happy Call group known as Munch Ministry which set up by 2 ladies who share their interests and recipes on cooking quick and simply healthy food using  HCP.

Even though I have one of this Happy Call Pan (HCP) for more than a year plus, I did not really fully utilize it until I was influence by this HCP group in facebook. After which I have develop interest in trying different recipes using HCP from dishes to bake. Below are some example of my HCP cooking/baking project. For the full HCP recipes menu, please refer HERE.

Baked Sweet Potato	Sizzling Tofu	Claypot Rice
Pineapple Upside-down Cake	Muah Chee	Pandan Chiffon Cake

OUR FAVOURITE BENTO

Making Bento is one of our weekly or at least twice a month mother and kid bonding activities whereby my boy and I will agreed on a theme to work together to assemble his bento.  Up till date I have about 30 quick and easy kid's bento featured in Cuisine Paradise and inSing.com, below are some of our favourite among the rest.

Easter Chicky Bento	Penguins Bento	Red Angry Birds Bento

PRODUCT REVIEWS

As a homemake and someone who loves to explore new kitchen products, I love to try new food or kitchen products whenever I spot something interesting during our weekly marketing trip. And from time to time I would also received product samples from media to be featured in Cuisine Paradise. Below are some of the product review posts and you could also read up more on this link HERE.

VOGEL's mueslis	Easy Thai Cooking(cookbook)	Zespri Kiwifruit Recipes

CURRENT PROJECT

Korean Cooking

It has never come across my mind to learn how to prepare Korean cuisines at home. And it's only due to my recent interest in Korea drama that I am starting to love how to appreciate Korea dishes in another view. Before starting on this cooking project, friendly speaking I am not a fan of even their well-known appetizer; Kimchi(김치) nor Korean Rice Cake (Tteok - 떡) which can be used to cook soup, stewed or noodles. But now with their easy to prepare and delicious dishes I am keen in exploring more Korean cuisines with the help of my new Korean friend. Thanks Daphne!

Below are some samples of my Korean Cooking Project post. If you are keen to read up more on this project you can click on the link HERE.

Kimchi Tofu Soup	Korean Rice Cakes with Ramen Noodles	Sangyetang (recipe coming soon)

Lastly I hope my passion for "food" on this blog would be able to commit for another 7 years or more but till then I really needs all your supports and feedback in order to maintain this blog and continue to strike for better improvements. And if you are new to cooking/baking, I would like to welcome you on board and sincerely hope that my recipes collection would be able to help you cookout some quick and easy dishes for your loved ones.