Thursday, 6 October 2011

Pork Schnitzel And Apple Salad

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Salad isn't just some mixture of vegetables, mixed fruits, pasta and etc with dressings. Sometime it can be consider as a Main Meal with additions of meat and seafood to make it more nutritious and family meal. Here we have Pork Schnitzel to go with some salad green and crunchy apples for combination of textures and flavour. And for me I find this is also a good way to get kids to eat vegetables and fruits with that extra slices of yummy pork schnitzel that goes with it.


PORK SCHNITZEL AND APPLE SALAD 


(serves: 4 | Preparation: 20 minutes | Cooking: 5 minutes)

Ingredients: 
4 Pork Sirloin Steaks, fat trimmed
1/2 Tablespoon Cornflour
1/2 Tablespoon Cooking Wine 
1 Egg, lightly beaten
1 Cup breadcrumbs or Panko
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
2 Green Apple, cored, halved and thinly sliced
1 Packet Ready-to-serve Salad Green with dressing

Mustard Dressing:
Some Mayonnaise
Some Wholegrain/Creamy Mustard Sauce

Method:-
1. Using a meat mallet, pound pork slices evenly to 5mm thick. Marinate it with cornflour, cooking wine and lightly beaten egg for about 3 - 5 minutes.

2. Coat marinated pork slices evenly with breadcrumbs by pressing the meat down against the crumbs.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium heat, cook pork schnitzel for 3 minutes on each side or until golden and cooked through. Drain well on paper towels.

4. Meanwhile, toss the pre-packed salad with accompany dressing before transferring them to a serving plate and top with apple slices. (you can soak apple slices with some lightly salted water to prevent it from oxidized and turns brown)

5. Next thickly slice pork and arrange on salad and drizzle mustard dressing over pork and serve.



Overall this can be a very flexible dish as you can use different types of salad green as well as changing the Pork Schnitzel to Chicken or Fish fillet depending on what is available in your pantry. And if you find it is a trouble to prepare Pork Schnitzel you can also purchase those ready-made(frozen type) and oven baked them according to the packet instructions.


Wednesday, 5 October 2011

{Guest Post} Gulai Cancang (Beef Curry) by Lia, Bentolicious

Today I have invited Lia from  Bentolicious whom is a very talented mummy of 2. She has never failed to excite her readers with her beautiful and creative bento(s)(read more HERE) which reflects her love and passion for her kids. Each time whenever I visit her blog I will be amazed with her ideas and skills in assembling those gorgeous bento.


I get to know Lia since a few years back while leaving comments in some of our favourite bento sites. And recently Lia has started "Bloglicious" where she shared her homecook dishes, bakes as well as some food reviews. For this Guest Post, I am so happy that Lia is here to share with us one of her Indonesia curry dish known as "Gulai Cancang". Without delay, let's take a look at this delicious dish and it's recipe.



GULAI CANCANG



I am a reader of Cuisine Paradise for quite sometimes now. I always admire Ellena’s cooking and baking skills, showed on her delicious blog. She is one of the passionate foodie bloggers from Singapore. She also prepares bento for her son, perhaps that the reason we knew each other in the blogging world. Last week, she asked me whether I could make a guest post for her blog. I was excited and nervous at the same time. After reviewing some choices about Indonesian foods that I wanted to post, I chose ‘Gulai Cancang’ or Beef Curry from West Sumatra. I believe that some of you from the South East Asia region, especially from Singapore and Malaysia are familiar with Padangnese foods. Indonesia is very rich with its culinary heritage, each region has its different culinary that sometimes I don’t know or never taste it before.

Padangnese foods are one of my favorite because they are so tasty that surely will make you eat more than 1 portion of rice. Gulai Cancang usually uses beef or lamb. But since I don’t eat lamb, I choose beef to cook this curry.

Ingredients:-
1kg Beef Brisket
1.5 Litres – 2 Litres water
400ml Thick Coconut Milk / 150ml Coconut Cream
2 Star Anise
1 Teaspoon White Peppercorn
1 Tablespoon Curry Powder
2 Asam Kandis
2 Stalks Lemongrass, bruised
4 Indonesian Bay Leaves
3 Kaffir Lime Leaves
1 Turmeric Leave, knotted
2 Teaspoon Salt or to taste
3 Tablespoons Cooking Oil

Spices Paste:
75 gr Shallot
40 gr Garlic
40 gr Ginger
40 gr Galangal
120 gr Big Red Chilli

Directions:-
1. Boil the water in a pot and cook the beef brisket until tender. I use electric press cooker to speed up the process.

2. Meanwhile, grind shallot, garlic, ginger, galangal and chilli to fine paste with mortar & pestle or electric blender.

3. When the meat is already tender, remove it from the pot, but leave the beef stock inside the pot.

4. Diced the beef brisket about 2 x 2cm.

5. Heat cooking oil in a large pan.

6. Stir fry the spices paste, star anise, white peppercorn, curry powder, asam kandis, lemongrass, Indonesian bay leave, kaffir lime leave, and turmeric leave until aromatic over medium heat.

7. Add 1.5L beef stock. Add salt.

8. Stir well together for few minutes.

9. Add the diced beef brisket. Add coconut milk / coconut cream, keep stiring.

10. Cook until the liquid become slightly thicken. Serve it warm with rice.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Once again, thanks Lia for this wonderful Guest Post and if you wish to find out more about Lia's  Bento creations/tips or her homecooked dishes. Do head over to her blog at Bentolicious. (p/s: photos and recipe shown here all copyright and credited to Bentolicious)


Monday, 3 October 2011

{Guest Post} Fruity Jelly by Anncoo Journal


For the month of October I am so excited to line-up a few wonder Guest Posts from different culinary aspect to share with you people. First let's us welcome Ann from "Anncoo Journal" with her gorgeous "Fruity Jelly" which would come in perfectly as a after meal dessert to delight your family or guests.


I get to know more about Ann's blog through Aspiring Bakers since 2010 where everyone of us get together to share (blog about) what we made through a monthly assigned theme. To me, Ann possess a great passion in both her culinary and photographing skill which reflect through her posts. Example:- just recently, she has created some lovely baked "piglets"(read more HERE) for this Mid-Autumn festival which you would definitely be amazed by her crafty fingers.

Now let's us take a look at her new creation for this guest post.


FRUITY JELLY


I've been a silent reader of Cuisine Paradise by Ellena before I started my own blog and I was thrilled when she approached me to do a dessert guest post on her blog. Thank you very much Ellena for giving me an opportunity to be a guest over at Cuisine Paradise.

Fruits have many benefits to our health and Singaporeans are very fortunate to get to taste various types of fresh fruits imported from all over the world at an affordable price. So today, I'm using blueberry from USA, golden kiwi from New Zealand and strawberry from Australia to make a simple Fruity Jelly with agar agar powder as dessert.

Here is the recipe....


Ingredients (A):
1 packet (13g) Agar agar powder
600ml Water
400ml Fresh milk
170g Sugar
2-3 pcs Pandan leaves, rinse and clean well, tie leaves into knots

Ingredients (B):
1 packet (13g) Agar agar powder
1000ml water 170g Sugar
2-3 pcs Pandan leaves, rinse and clean well,tie leaves into knots
Cut some fresh fruits(blueberries, golden kiwi and strawberries)

Method:-
Ingredients (A) 
1. Boil water, sugar and pandan leaves together for 5 minutes, keep stirring constantly at medium heat.

2.Off heat and pour in fresh milk and continue to stir the liquid for another 2 minutes.

3. Discard pandan leaves and pour liquid into serving glass until half full. Leave to set in fridge for about 10 minutes.

Ingredients (B) 
4. Rinse and set aside the cut fruits. (blueberries, diced golden kiwi and strawberries)

5. Boil water, sugar and pandan leaves together for 5 minutes, keep stirring constantly at medium heat.

6. Off heat and continue to stir the liquid for another 2 minutes. Discard pandan leaves.

7. Place fresh fruits into prepared glasses and pour (B) liquid into it.

8. Chill fruity jelly in fridge for few hours before serve.

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

Thanks Ann for this wonderful Fruity Jelly post. If you want to read more about Ann's other recipes on making Jelly. You can refer to the link HERE.

Friday, 30 September 2011

Chicken And Vegetable Pho


Phở is a Vietnamese noodle soup that usually served with flat long rice noodles, fresh herbs and thin slices of meat(beef or chicken) cook quickly in hot broth. In Vietnam most of their dishes are typically served with lots of greens, herbs, vegetables, and various other accompaniments such as dipping sauces, hot and spicy pastes and a squeeze of lime or lemon juice to enhance the taste.

Last week while watching the Junior Master Chef series, I was attracted to one of their quick and easy demo dish is is "Chicken and Vegetable Pho". So without hesitate I search through my pantry for some necessary ingredients to try out this dish.


For my version, I omitted the Bay Leaf, Thyme and Parsley from the original recipe for the soup broth as I do not have those available in my pantry. But in a while it also make the soup for oriental flavour without those herbs.

Recipe adapted from Australia Master Chef website, HERE.
Ingredients for Quick Chicken Stock: (serves 4)
2 Chicken Breast plus 4 Chicken Wings
2.5 Liters Water
1 Small Brown Onion, cut into half
2 Stalk Celery, cut into 1" chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick slices
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Teaspoon Black Peppercorns, lightly pound

Method:-
1. Trim and blanched the chicken in boiling water, rinse and set aside.

2. For the chicken stock, place all ingredients in a large stock pot, bring to boil.

3. Reduce heat and simmer for about 45 minutes, skim the fat from the top as required.

4. Strain stock through a fine sieve and set aside.


Ingredients For Broth Infusion:
1.8 Litres Chicken Stock
1 Cinnamon Quill
2 Star Anise
4cm Ginger, halved
1 Big Red Chili, sliced
3 Pieces Coriander Root, light pound

Seasoning:
2 - 3 Tablespoons of Fish Sauce
3 Tablespoons Light Soya Sauce
Juice of half a Lime, about 1 tablespoon

Method:-
1. Place all the Broth Infusion ingredients in a medium saucepan and bring to boil.

2. Reduce heat to simmer and cook for 10 minutes.

3. Season to taste with fish sauce, light soya sauce and lime juice.



Ingredients For Pho Vegetables: (serves 4)
4 Serving of Fresh Thin Rice Noodles, about 400g
1 Medium Carrot, julienned
1 Packet of Enoki Mushrooms
100g Bean Sprouts, blanched in hot water
4 Fresh Shitake Mushrooms, thinly sliced
Some Spring Onion, thinly sliced
1 Cup of shredded Chicken Meat, optional 

Garnish:
Some Vietnamese Mint and Coriander
1 Big Red Chili, thinly sliced
1/2 Lime, cut into quarter

Tips:-
~ I used the chicken breast meat from the soup stock, shred it and serve together with the noodles.

Method:-
1. To serve, layer pho ingredients into separate serving bowls starting with noodles, carrot and etc from the sequence above.

2. Gently divide the broth infusion into serving bowls top with garnish, lime juice and serve immediately.


Although my version might not be the authentic Vietnamese Pho but we definitely love it's fragrant clear soup base which is loaded without lot of fresh vegetables and herbs. Overall the soup tasty and refreshing with hint of cinnamon fragrant and a bit of spicy and sourish taste from the chili and lime juice.

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