Showing posts with label iPhone Photographing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iPhone Photographing. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 August 2012

{Bento} Happy 47th Birthday Singapore

Today is eve of Singapore National Day where most of the local schools are having short sessions in the morning for Pre-National Day celebration. And because of this special day, I have prepared this easy and yet meaningful snack box for my boy to bring to school. 

This unique lunchbox is one of the items from my recent Zespri® Introductory Bag for the Zespri®  14-Day Daily Scoop Amazing Challenge event. And for a bento accessories collector like me, this is definitely a "gem" to add into my collections whereby I can prepare yummy snack plus safe keep the kiwifruit.


NATIONAL DAY BENTO


As you can see the size of this unique lunchbox is about the size of our normal sandwich bread and you can also make use of it to put mini packet of juice, cookies and etc as sides. Mostly important thing is, there is a special compartment for storing kiwifruit which is a plus point that I love. In this way I can keep the fruit as whole without cutting to retain it's freshness,  at the same time kiwifruit also helps to add extra Vitamin C to my kid's daily diet.


(Serves: 1        | Preparation: 10 minutes    | Cooking: 3 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Slices Sandwich Bread
1 Slice Picnic Ham
1 Slice of Sandwich Cheese
1 Zesperi® Gold/Green Kiwifruit
1 Mini Packet of Juice or Milo
Some Cheese Cubes
Some Cookies or Seedless Grapes


Method:-
1. Either blanched the picnic ham in boiling water or lightly pan-fry it for 20 seconds on each side, remove and set aside.

2. Using a 8cm pie cutter or mug, cut out round shaped from the bread slices. Repeat the same steps for the cooked ham and with a knife cut it into halve length wise.

3. Next with the round and star shape food cutters (read more on cutters HERE), cut out the crescent and five stars that represent our Singapore National Flag and use a tweezer to assemble them on the ham shown above.

4. When done, sandwich the remaining the ham and cheese(trim a bit) with the cutout bread. Top with the decorated Singapore National Flag Ham and place it in the prepared lunchbox.

5. To complete the bento box, add in some sides such as mini packet of juice or milo, cookies, cheese cubes or etc.

6. Lastly remember to put in either Zesperi® Gold/Green Kiwifruit in the special compartment allocated for it.

If you still remember, last year I also made a "National Day Bento" using Chicken Rice, Putu Mayam, Ondeh Ondeh and etc to represent the multi-races in Singapore. But this round indeed I made something more simple which I believed you can also pack something similar for your kids snack box.

One of our breakfast with Zespri® Gold Kiwifruit shared via my Instagram

Since now is the peak season of kiwifruits, you can be assured that both Zespri® Gold and Green do taste sweet when they are ripe. So remember to include this wonder Zespri® Kiwifruits which has 5 times the nutritious of apples in your family daily diet too!

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Chocolate Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes - 巧克力北海道蛋糕


Last Tuesday I have made some Hokkaido Chiffon Cupcakes for my family as well as mum's church friends. And since I still have leftover whipping cream, I decided to make another batch which is Chocolate flavour upon my boy's request.

The recipe for both flavour is rather similar as I just replace some of the cake flour with dutch process cocoa powder which give it a deeper brown and nicer flavour.

Monday 6 August 2012

Cook For Family - Our 3 Generations Cooking Together for the #CookForFamily Initiative

I am so thrilled to be among one of hundred bloggers who had being invited by Daniel, from Daniel's Food Diary to take part in this #CookForFamily initiative started by him. As we know, his main objective is to get more bloggers, and hopefully their fans and followers, to start cooking and having family bonding with their families.

As for myself, I always tried to cook at least 2 meals per days during weekdays and hopefully one on weekend, especially Sunday.  And to support this #CookForFamily initiative, even my 8 years old boy who often helps up in the kitchen (washing and cutting) also volunteer to cook simple dish for us.  Below you can see some of the shots and dishes that he had cooked under our supervision. Overall we had fun and laughter in the kitchen sharing our family bonding and cooking skill together which makes meal time a fun time too.


#CookForFamily


I love to have soup during my meals and I brew soup almost everyday. Out of all the different kinds of soup we usually had, herbal soup is one of our family favourite. Here I specially made this "Herbal Black Chicken Soup" for mum with added Dang Shen, Ginseng and Dried Longan to regulate blood chemistry, strengthen the body as well as circulate the Qi in the body.


(Serves: 4      | Preparation: 10 minutes        | Cooking: 60 minutes)

Ingredients:
1 Black Chicken (乌鸡) / Half Portion of Chicken (600g)
2 Pieces of Dried Ginseng(人渗)
5 Pieces of Dang Shen(党参), cut into halves
8 - 10 Pieces of Big Red Dates(红枣)
20g Dried Longan (龙眼干)
10g Wolfberries (枸杞)
1.8 Litres Boiling Water

Method:-
1. Rinse the dry herbs and set aside. Bring a pot of water to boil and blanch the prepared black chicken which had being trimmed and cleaned.

2. Meanwhile using a soup pot (i used a big claypot), bring 1.8 litres of water to boil and add in all the ingredients including the blanched black chicken.

3. When the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer over the lowest heat for at least an hour (careful of the heat and don't let the soup dried up). Alternatively,

4. You can transfer the soup to a slow-cooker and cook it on AUTO mode for about 2 hours.

5. Serve warm before meal or at night before sleep. This soup has a natural sweetness due to the herbs used so usually I won't add in extra seasoning or salt.

Stir-fry Celery With Sea Cucumber is one of my favourite vegetable dish which mum always cooked for us. And here for the #CookForFamily post, she prepared this dish especially for me while I take care of the herbal soup section.


(Serves: 4        | Preparation: 10 minutes         | Cooking: 6 minutes)

Ingredients:
2 Sticks of Celery
1 Small Red Capsicum, sliced
5 Fresh Shiitake Mushroom, sliced
1 Packet of Sweet Peas
2 Pieces of Sea Cucumber, sliced
2 - 3 Slices of Ginger
Some Chicken Stock Powder for seasoning

Method:-
1. Using a vegetable peeler, remove the outer skin of the celery and cut it into thick slices. Set aside.

2. Saute ginger with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil till fragrant, add in celery and mushrooms, toss for a 30 seconds in the Happy Call Pan (HCP).

3. Next add in the remaining ingredients such as red capsicum, sweet peas and sea cucumber.

4. Add in the seasonings and give it a quick stir, cover the pan and let it simmer on low heat for 3 minutes.

5. Drizzle some cooking wine, stir to mix well and dish up to serve.


My little boy on the other hand also volunteer to join us with the #CookForFamily task where he marinated the chicken wings using Wokkingmum's "Grilled Chicken Wings with Fermented Beancurd" recipe. He choose this recipe because he knows that both grandma and I love fermented beancurd which we always had it with our porridge.

Recipe adapted from Wokkingmum website HERE.

(Make: 12 Chicken Wings    | Preparation: 5 minutes   | Cooking: 25 - 30 minutes)

Ingredients:
12 Chicken Wings, halved
2 Tablespoons of sauce from Fermented Beancurd
1.5 Pieced of Fermented Beancurd
1 Tablespoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Cooking Wine


Method:-
1. Using the back of the spoon mashed fermented beancurd and mix it with the sauce.

2. Next stir in sugar till well mixed.

3. Marinate chicken wings with the mixture together with some cooking wine for at least an hour before cooking.

4. Arrange marinated chicken wings on baking tray which is lined with baking paper, grill in the preheated 220 Degree Celsius oven for about 25 - 30 minutes or chicken is cooked.


As mum love fish compared to meat, I always tried to incorporate at least 1 dish with fish whenever she comes over for dinner. Here we have a simple steamed fish dish using Threadfin fish head and ready pack Portuguese sauce. To success remember to get fresh fish head, steamed it to just done (do not over cooked), drizzle with some Portuguese sauce and steamed for another 1 minutes.


SOME OF THE MEALS WE COOKED IN JULY


All these photos (except the one with my boy doing cooking) are taken from my daily Instagram shots which I have shared online.






Any simple dish will bring a smile on your loved ones face. In fact it can be just a bowl of instant noodle with an egg or even simple ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast. For me it is more of the thoughts, loves and bonding time together that counts rather than the expensive ingredients or time spent on preparing the meals.

Photo credited to Daniel from Daniel Food Diary

So from today onwards, let's start to prepare something simple for your family as as head start and don't use the excuse that you can't cook or u are too busy. I am sure frying an sunny egg or boiling a hard boiled egg that served with bread and beverages won't even take up more than 15 minutes of your time a day.

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Deep-fried Banana with Popiah Skin

This is a yummy finger food that mum taught me while we are having a conversation about how to use those banana that I always stock up for our weekly fruit supply. She mentioned that she saw a Taiwan cooking clip from youtube which use fresh "popiah skin" to wrap banana with some Japanese mayonnaise and deep-fried till golden brown.

So without hesitate, I bought some fresh popiah skin and start making some for our morning tea.  After which when I posted this photo on my "Instagram", someone comment that it looks similar to one of their Philippines dessert which is known as Turon or Banana Lumpia.  And when I did a Google, it shows that Turon is a Philippine snack made of thinly sliced bananas and a slice of jackfruit which dusted with brown sugar and rolled in spring roll wrapper and deep-fried.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Durian Butter Cake


Every year during the period between June and September, this "spiky" green thorns fruit known as "Durian (榴莲)" can be found everywhere in the HDB market area or some local supermarkets fruit section (fruits remove from shells and tightly sealed). So is either you love or hate this fruit due to it's strong odour where some said it is fragrant while others might find it distinguishing.

Friday 13 July 2012

Bollywood Veggies @ Kranji Countryside

Bollywood Veggies is locate in the rustic environment of the northwest Kranji Countryside where many farms are open to the public for touring. This countryside concept provides visitors with opportunities to learn and enrich themselves in the natural environment. So for weekend family getaway from the shopping malls or etc, you might want to consider to bring your family or loved ones to explore some of the beautiful natural agriculture farms in Kranji area.

In this post I would be sharing our recent visit to Bollywood Veggies and it's Bistro known as Poison Ivy. These photos are taken with my iPhone and more photos related to this post can be found in Cuisine Paradise Facebook Page HERE.

Although this is not our first visit to Bollywood Veggies but it indeed it was our first dining experience at their bistro. And upon getting our seats, we notice a colourful menu chalkboard at one end of the entrance displaying their daily special.

Since it was a rainy afternoon, we decided to settle for some hot beverage. Here we had fragrant Fig Tea (back) which had a similar taste to "red bean soup" plus refreshing Lemon Grass Tea (front) which both are their recommended beverages (served in either Hot or Cold). Personally I would prefer Lemon Grass Tea over Fig for it's lovely natural taste and aroma.
Price: S$2.00 each


Moringa Tempura is a signature dish from Poison Ivy Bistro which you must try at least "once" during your visit. These crispy veggies tempura is made with Moringa leaves which are an excellent source of calcium that contain 4 times the amount of calcium in milk and seven times the amount of vitamin C in carrot.

These will be great to served as afternoon tea snack or appetiser before meal. And even though these are fried stuffs, they are not grease to handle as finger food. Just love to munch them and it's quiet additive too! For your information the Moringa Tempura will be served with kacang manis (dark sweet sauce) and some pickled vegetables to enhance the taste of the tempura.
Price: S$4.00 per plate


Their Nasi Lemak was piled with lots of sides dishes but the portion was rather small for it's price. But for small eater or those who wants more varieties of the side dishes, this is something that you can try.

Price: S$6.00 per plate


As I was curious to try their items in smaller portion, I decided to get "The Poor Mans' Platter - For 1" which consist of 3 items + 1 side. From the photo above(top down), this platter comes with:-

~ Warrior's Chicken Curry taste great with tint of spiciness and great aroma of the spices used.

~ Stir-fry Long Bean with Banana is a very appetizing dish to go with even just steamed white rice.

~ Bolly Banana Curry was definitely something interesting to us because of the "banana" in curry. However these banana slices doesn't taste anything like the normal "soft bananas" that we used to eat it taste more like sweet potato or yam(taro).

~ Plus some Crispy Banana Chips at the side. These crispy chips are very addictive which makes you keep popping them one after another. And if you like it, you can also purchased some home at their counter which comes in a 2 sizes packing.

Price: S$10.00 per person (3 items + 1 side)


Just a note on dining at Poison Ivy Bistro, since there is "NO Service charge or GST" included in the total bill, they only accept "CASH" for payment. No credit cards or NETS.

At one corner of the Alfresco area, there is a push cart selling organic products such as Fig, Banana, cooking spices, potted plants and herbs as well as their well-known Banana Cake.

As the rain had stopped after our meal, we decided to take a slow walk and explore around the Garden. Below are a few photos showing some of the plants and herbs in the Bollywood Veggies garden. 

Common herbs such as mint, drill and oregano that we have spotted. And we also surprised to find Wheat Field during our last visit too.


BOLLYWOOD VEGGIES
100 Neo Tiew Road,
Singapore 719026 (Kranji)
Telephone: (65) 6898 5001
Website: http://www.bollywoodveggies.com/

Opening Hours:-
Wednesday to Sunday And Public Holidays; 9.00am to 6.30pm
CLOSED ON: Monday And Tuesday(except Public Holidays)

Note: Dinner is not available as they close at 6.30pm

Payment: CASH ONLY

How To Get There:
- By Driving, click HERE
- By Shuttle Bus, Click HERE

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