Egg Tart

My love for egg tarts is on a par with Mom's love for taro cake, Dad's love for almond cookies, Bro's love for BBQ pork, and Sis' love for stuffed glutinous rice balls. Egg tart is certainly one of the food items that I missed most from home. I tried making egg tarts with a friend two years ago from an online recipe and they turned out great! I've been making egg tarts occasionally since then. Thanks to Pierre for his effort finding the recipe :)

Ingredients:

(A) Pastry

1/2 cup + 1/3 cup margarine/butter

1/3 cup icing sugar (sifted)

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (sifted)

1 beaten egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

(B) Filling

2 eggs (lightly beaten)

3 1/2 tbsp sugar

160 mls water

26 mls evaporated milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Mix the margarine, icing sugar, egg, and vanilla extract from (A) together. Slowly add all-purpose flour while stirring the mixture.

2. Chill the pastry dough for ~ 2 hours in the refrigerator, or at least 30 minutes in the freezer.

3. While waiting, mix the ingredients from (B) together.

4. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees F.

5. Once the pastry dough is ready, take ~ 2 tbsp of dough and spread it evenly on a tart mould. Do the same using the rest of the dough. It yields ~ 10 standard-sized tarts.

6. Prick holes with a fork on the bottom of the unbaked tarts.

7. Slowly pour the tart filling into each mould about 3/4 full.

8. Bake tarts for 25-30 minutes until the tart shells turn light brown and the fillings fully solidify.

9. Cool the tarts and dig in!

Tom Yum

What's the first thing come into mind when someone mentions about Thai food? Tom yum it is!! Eric who craved for tom yum so badly, has decided to have a Thai fix! Presented to you, the hot & spicy tom yum soup and tom yum rice vermicelli!

The delicious Tom Yum soup.

Ingredients:

~ 1 kg chicken thighs (chopped into pieces)

30 frozen cooked shrimps

2 medium carrots (1.5-inch pieces)

1 large onion

1/4 lb long beans (one-inch pieces)

5 medium white mushrooms (sliced)

2 medium tomatoes (in cubes)

6 dried red chillies

2 stalk lemongrass

3 piece lime leaves

1/2 can instant tom yum paste

2.5 tom yum cubes

Directions:

1. Chop the chicken thighs into small pieces. Cut the onion into pieces.

2. Cut the carrots, long beans, white mushrooms, and tomatoes. Soak the frozen shrimps in a bowl of water to thaw.

3. Prepare a large pot of boiling water. Add the tom yum cubes into the boiling water.

4. Add the chicken pieces into the pot. While they're almost cooked, add the rest of the ingredients (except shrimps). Snap the dried red chillies into two pieces before adding into the soup.

5. Add tom yum paste and salt according to taste.

6. Once cooked, cover the pot with lid and let simmer for 30 minutes until the soup thickens. Add the cooked shrimps for the last two minutes.

7. Serve it with white rice. Bon appetit!

The tom yum soup tasted more delightful the next day! And the best of all, it reminded me of asam laksa ;D

The spicy fried tom yum rice vermicelli.

Ingredients:

1/2 lb chicken breast (small stripes)

5 medium white mushrooms (sliced)

1/4 lb long beans (one-inch pieces)

1 small carrot (thin stripes)

1/2 medium red pepper (thin stripes)

1 inch ginger root (finely chopped)

1/2 large red onion

Bean sprouts

1 packet rice vermicelli

Instant tom yum paste

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

Directions:

1. Soak the rice vermicelli in a bowl of hot water to soften.

2. Cut chicken into stripes and prepare the vegetables.

3. Heat the pan and add cooking oil. Saute the onion and ginger. Pan-fry the chicken stripes.

4. Add tom yum paste to taste. Add the rest of the vegetables into the pan and stir-fry them.

5. Add the rice vermicelli and more tom yum paste according to taste. Add salt and pepper.

6. Add bean sprouts and stir-fry for one minute.

7. Ready to serve!

Very colourful rice vermicelli indeed! Red (red pepper), green (long beans), orange (carrots), light brown (mushrooms), white (bean sprouts) etc. The presentation was appetizing, and the aroma of tom yum was simply irresistible! I certainly went for seconds, so did others!

Thanksgiving Feast

Thanksgiving celebration without a turkey? Yeah! This was an Asian-style thanksgiving with yummy sushi! Oh well, sushi was one of the many dishes we prepared for the big feast! There were mostly finger food:

Pork ribs with barbecue sauce.

Pork ribs were marinated overnight with barbecue sauce and kept in the refrigerator. Bake them the next day in the preheated oven at 400 F till cooked (about 40-45 minutes). It's as easy as ABC!

Chicken wings and home-baked fries.

Half of the chicken wings were marinated with ginger sesame sauce and the rest with teriyaki sauce. Together with the pork ribs, they were kept in the refrigerator overnight. Bake them in preheated oven at 400F.

Home-baked fries

Ingredients:

6 medium potatoes

1 tsp red chili powder

2 tsp dried basil

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/4 tsp white pepper

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them into long stripes.

2. Place potato stripes in a large mixing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix well.

3. Spread the potato stripes on a greased cookie sheet with aluminum foil.

4. Cook them in a preheated oven at 400 F until cooked (about 45 minutes).

5. Serve while hot!

*Hint: Fries are best served with mayonnaise + ketchup as dipping sauce.

Sushi with avocado, simulated crab sticks, picked radish, canned salmon and tuna ;)

This special dish was prepared by Paul and Eric. Yummy sushi, best served with wasabi + sashimi soya sauce ;)

The cream cheese blueberry pie from the Happy Baker!

The bountiful food left my stomach with no room to contain this yummy blueberry pie bought by Teck from the famous bakery store, Happy Baker. Located in the heart of downtown Fredericton, it sells fresh and delicious pastries, cakes, breads (you name it) and I just love to be there!

I had to take a two-hour break before indulging into the yummy pie. Smart choice, Teck! Fresh blueberries on soft custard and tasty pie shell, yumm....

Gingerbread loaf from my Lab Manager, Tracy.

I shared this gingerbread loaf on Thanksgiving day with two of my roommates. Apparently, gingerbread is best served with whipping cream. We had it plain and it was tasteful with a strong aroma of spices just the way it was!

Birthday

Chocolate cake + chocolate icing with creative decorations ;)

Fried rice with fried egg and sliced cucumber. A splash of tomato ketchup completed the meal ;)

Fried rice, baked potato fries, mashed potato, and Rootbeer float for our "candlelight"dinner.

I don't use a cake mix very often. I decided to give it a try for a surprise birthday cake. A chocolate cake with chololate icing and chocolate wafer sticks. It shall be called the "ultimate triple chocolate" cake. Thanks to Betty Crocker, the cake turned out to be rich and moist. Yumm...

It took me some time to come out with the decorative idea though. It looked plain with just the icing. Hence, I had chocolates (with nuts) around the cake and wafer sticks sheltering the birthday candle, made it look like a camp fire when the candle is lit. Sweet...

It certainly saved some time using the cake mix and the instructions were easy to follow. Besides the cake mix, only milk, eggs, and oil are required. The batter was separated into half for baking. The two cakes were then stacked together and coated with Betty Crocker "instant" frosting.

The fried rice was prepared by Eric with Maggi fried rice seasoning. It came in handy. Together with chicken, chinese sausage, carrots and peas, the fried rice turned out great and colourful! The birthday supper for Paul was so special that we even had Rootbeer float. Of course, he wasn't greeted with birthday wishes until we brought out the birthday cake with lit 24 candles (oops...did I just say that?).

Paul, hope you had an enjoyable birthday celebration. Presented to you by Adeline & Eric :)

Chee Cheong Fun

I was absolutely inspired by the Chee Cheong Fun (a.k.a. rice noodle roll) prepared by Lily that she had it on her blog (http://lilyng2000.blogspot.com/2008/07/chee-cheong-fun-iii.html). The preparation process was fascinating and I was so eager to try it out myself!

Ingredients:
(A)
60g rice flour
20g tapioca flour
2 1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil

(B)
1 1/2 tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 1/2 tsp water
1 tbsp sesame seed

Directions:
1. Mix ingredients from (A) and leave it aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Preheat a non-stick pan on medium heat. Pour a thin layer of batter into the pan and heat until a thin layer of the the batter solidifies at the bottom. Pour back any excess batter.
3. Place a lid on the pan and cook on low heat.
4. The noodle is cooked when it turns translucent. Remove pan from the heat source.
5. Roll the sheet of noodle carefully (not to break it) with a wooden spatula on the pan. Place the rice noodle roll on a greased plate.
6. Continue cooking with the remaining batter.
7. Dilute the Hoisin sauce with water. Pour the sauce on the noodles and garnish noodles with sesame seed. Savour the chee cheong fun while hot!

p/s: It takes some practice to yield smooth texture cheong fun. I appreciate those hawkers who cook fine and tasty chee cheong fun!

Steak Feast II

The carrot was cut into a unique shape, very creative :)

I've been craving for steaks these days and hence prepared myself a Grade A striploin and salad for supper. Besides the similar ingredients used to prepare the first steak that I had (refer to the post "Steak Feast I"), I added some Moroccan harissa spice (1 1/2 tsp) for marinating the meat. It was merely a 15-20 minutes of cooking time with the toaster oven set at 400F, for a medium rare steak. With the steak topped with mushroom sauce, and salad as side dish, I indulged myself in this delicious meal ^v^

Salad

Ingredients:
1 cherry tomato
1/2 medium green pepper
1 small carrot
2 stalks celery
2 leaves iceberg lettuce
2 leaves romaine lettuce

Directions:
Creativity + Passion + Patience = Awesomeness

How did I come out with this idea? Well, I had these ingredients sitting in the refrigerator that I needed to prepare for tomorrow's lunch. Instead of a boring dish of salad, I wanted something that's more presentable, and more appetizing! And here I am, combining the salad with some canned salmon for a meal *wink*