Chicken salad

We like vegetable :-D, this recipe of chicken salad is 'classic' to me: simple ingredients, easy to make, tastes good and feel healthy enough.

Simple recipe: slide white and red cabages into thin strips, place on a large bowl or deep plate; boil two to three small pieces of chicken (choose the white part) then shred them into small strips; put all together with some mint leaves; in a small bowl make a sauce with a little vinegar, sugar and lots of lemon/lime juice as well as some fresh red chilies; well mix the sauce with the vegetable and chicken; set aside the dish for at least 15 minutes so that the ingredients will blend well with the sauce then serve fresh. Enjoy!

Macaroni/ Penne and Cheese

Recipe adopted from Everyday Food:

1. Preheat oven to 375°. Cook pasta, and drain; reserve. Meanwhile, in a 5-quart heavy pot, melt butter over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Whisk in flour to coat onion. In a slow steady stream, whisk in milk until there are no lumps.
2. Cook, whisking often, until mixture is thick and bubbly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in cayenne, if using, and 1 cup each yellow and white cheddar cheese. Season with 1 teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
3. Toss pasta with cheese mixture; fold in ham. Transfer to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish or individual dishes. Set aside.
4. In a food processor, pulse bread until large crumbs form. Toss together with remaining ¼ cup each white and yellow cheddar, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Top pasta with breadcrumb mixture. Bake until top is golden, about 30 minutes.

Penne, ham and cheese baked in the oven, pieces of bread should be added in later when it is almost finished.

Hanoian spring roll with noodle

One of my favourite food:

Bún nem

Lieblingsrezept: Vietnamesiche Frülingsrolle mit Reisnudeln Zutaten (4 Personen):

Frühlingsrolle: - 20 Blätter Reispapier - 1 Hand voll frischer Sojasprossen - 150 g Glasnudeln - 500 g Schweinehackfleisch - 3 Ziebeln - 2 Karotten (in Streifen) - 10 getrocknete Garnelen (optional) - 1 Ei - 100 g getrocknete Pilze (50g getrocknete tungkow Pilze u. 50g Mu-Err Pilze)

Reisnudeln + Salad + Soße: - 300 g Reisnudeln - 1 Kopfsalat - 1 Bund Koriander - 1 Tasse Fischsoße (Nuoc Mam) - 1 Limette - 1 Knoblauchzehe - 2 kleine rote Chillischoten - Salz, Zucker

Zubereitung der Frühlingsrollen:

- Glasnudeln und Pilze in eineSchüssel mit Wasser zum Aufweichen geben

-  Nach kurzer Einweichzeit aus dem Wasser nehmen und in kleine Stücke schneiden

-   Zwiebel in kleine Stücke schneiden

-  Korotten in dünne kurze Streifen schneiden

-   Sojasprossen etwas zerkleinern

-   Garnelen in heißes Wasser geben und anschließend mit einem kleinen Hammer „plattklopfen“

-  Alle Zutaten in eine große Schüssel geben

-   Schweinefleisch und das Ei ebenfalls in die Schüssel geben und alles gut verschieschen

-   Zugabe einer Priese Salz und Zucker (evtl. auch Gewürze für Frühlingsrollen)

- Alle Zutaten nochmalsgut miteinander vermischen

-  Eine Scheibe Reispapier auf einen flachen Teller legen und eine kleine Menge der zubereiteten Frühlingsrollen-Paste an einer Seite dazugeben

-          Beginnend von der Seite mit der Frühlingsrollen-Paste wird das Reispapier aufgerollt (bei zu trockenem und sprödem Reispapier evtl. mit etwas Essig befeuchten)     

-  Beim Rollen der Frühlingsrolle ist auf ein möglichst enges Zusammenrollen zu achten

-  In eine Pfanne etwas Öl geben und erhitzen

-   In das heiße Öl die fertig gerollten Frühlingsrollen legen

-  Frühlingsrollen von beiden Seiten goldbraun fritieren

-  Die fertigen Frühlingsrollen auf einen Teller geben (zum Aufsaugen des überflüssigen Öls Löschpapier oder Taschentücher verwenden)

         

Chilli-Soße: (alternativ kann die Soße auch fertig im Supermarkt gekauft werden)

-  In einer kleinen Schüssel die Chillischoten zerkleinern

- Knoblauch in kleine Stücke schneiden und ebenfalls in die Schüssel geben

- Etwas warmes Wasser und eine Priese Zucker hinzugeben

- Die Limette halbieren und ausquetschen

- Den Limettensaft ebenfalls in die Schüssel hinzugeben

- Danach eine kleine Tasse der Fischsoße dazugeben und alles in derSchüssel gut verrühren

Reisnudeln:

- Reisnudeln in kochendes Wasser geben bis diese weich sind

-  Kopfsalat und Koriander in kleinere Stückeschneiden und in eine separate Schüssel geben

- Die weichen Reisnudeln aus dem Wasser herausnehmen

Anrichten der Teller:

- In die vier kleinen Schüsseln (jeweils eine pro Person) zuerst etwas Salat geben

- Darauf die Reisnudeln geben

-  Die fertigen Frühlingsrollen in kleinere Stücken schneiden und auf die Reisnudeln geben

-  Etwas von der Chilli-Soße darübergießen und mit Koriander dekorieren

Servieren der Schüsseln

English version below:

Grilled bacon with apple and cheese

One of my favourites, later I found out that this dish should be also baked with some slides of ananas :-)
Another way of cooking bacon: with chicken breast and apple, bake with wine and serving with caramelized onion, this recipe adopted from gocbep.com.

Duck and bamboo shoot noodle

View On Flickr

Bun' ngan voi mang( - my favourite :-D.
"Me too! the bowl looks so good!" - a comment from a flickr's friend.

First Halloween pumpkin carving and Korean Omelet cooking

First Halloween pumpkin carving experience - 05.11.10

Last Friday, in a search for a delicious menu for a friend visit, I decided to make a pumpkin soup as a starter. Luckily I found two lovely Japanese pumpkins in the Spree German supermarket, which not only tasted good :-), but also became nice shapes for our first Halloween carving experience:

Pumpkin carving - 05.11.10

Here is the menu that I prepared for a cosy dinner with three friends - Vladimir, Mathias and Kim Hoa (supposedly four but Thomas missed it), most likely for myself to remember a possible combination of delicious and quite simple-cooking dishes:
Starter: Pumpkin soup (recipe adopted from gocbep.com);

Salad: A plate of tomato slices with cheese together with a bowl of peanut salad (Vietnamese style, eat with souffle);
Side dish: Grilled bacon with apple and baked pineapple - this is the star of the dinner, a light dish, very tasty and I like very much the addition of the two fruits to the bacon;
Main dish: Spaghetti Carbonara (learnt from our Italien friend in the SAHC Master, Riccardo, special thanks!);
Desert: Chocolate yogurt with pineapple and dried grape.

The dinner went well with some fun moments. After that, we played the Monopoly game, which is a game depending mostly on luck. Therefore, I only got excited at first, but after almost 2 hours, I lost a bit of my concentration and made wrong moves a couple of times. To conclude, I enjoyed cooking for friends and gathering with them a lot, reminding me of the wonderful time in Prague that each of my colleague in the SAHC Master from a different country prepared our own cultural dinner. We will do it more often here.

In the mood for new cooking the next day, I tried a new dish: Korean omelet with the recipe I read again from gocbep.com. I used to have this in Singapore, this is a nice dish once in a while, but if one has it often, one might get fed up with the creamy taste:

First cooking experience with Korean omelet rice dish

Patang with pineapple - yummy!!

Ca' sot' ca` chua dua' voi' ot': mua ca' thu, ran' rat ngon, sot' len bam( nho? ca chua, dua' (a must-have), pha nuoc' cham^' ot' cay ruoi' len, an com hoac an bun' voi rau song' :x.

Mot mon an ngon nua la ca' nuong' lam don gian lam': mua ca' hong^` (red snapper), boc. giay bac. cho it' muoi' va it' dau olive roi cho vao lo` nuong' len. An quan' banh' trang' voi bun', ra', rau song', pha nuoc' cham' nuoc mam' ot' ngon la rat okie. :-)

Beef with water cress (cải xoong)

Simple recipe for a light and little time consuming dish: heat olive oil in a pan, fry beef in the highly hot pan for few minutes, add in some salt then set them aside on a plate; fry also shortly water cress with some garlic and salt until the vegetable reduces its volume and slightly turns to yellow; bring back the beef very shortly in the pan, mix with vegetable; it's done, serve the dish in a medium-deep plate and have it hot. Enjoy!

Prawn spaghetti

Beef/ Turkey meatball with spaghetti

Recipe adopted from Everday Food people in a Martha Steward show:

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Ingredients

Makes 35 meatballs

• 3 slices whole-wheat sandwich bread
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey, 93 percent lean, dark meat
• 3 scallions, finely chopped
• 2 small cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 large egg
• Coarse salt and ground pepper

Directions

1. Place bread in food processor; pulse until fine crumbs form. In a small bowl, mix breadcrumbs with milk; set aside at least 5 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine turkey, scallions, garlic, parsley, egg, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon pepper, and breadcrumb mixture; mix gently with a fork.
3. With hands, form mixture into balls, each equal to 2 level tablespoons; arrange in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
4. To freeze, transfer baking sheet to freezer. Freeze for 1 hour to set shape; transfer frozen meatballs to an airtight container or resealable plastic bag, and freeze for up to 3 months.

How to cook the meatballs is on the spaghetti recipe: 2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add meatballs and cook until browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Add marinara sauce and 1/2 cup water; cook until heated through, 5 minutes. Add spaghetti and toss to combine; serve immediately.

Beef steak - how to make a juicy!

Selection: Beef ribeye - tender & juicy 

Steps: simple and fast
- Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celcius
- Season beef with salt, pepper & olive oil
- On hot pan, fry beef quickly in 1 min
- Remove beef from pan, put in a non-stick tray in oven
- Use a thermometer to control the temperature of the beef, when the temperature of the beef reaches 111 degree then the beef's done
- Remove the beef from the oven, let it rest for 5 mins and have it with beef steak sauce

Pork rib noodle - sour tamarind soup

This is one of my favourite soups: pork-rib cooked with sour tamarind and pineapple soup, to be served with noodle and fresh coriander.

In the mood for some pre-Christmas cooking :-P! Singapore 20/12/08

"Ba't bu'n mau` sa('c phong phu', ngon nhi? :D" - a comment from a flickr's friend, analox.
"Bun' nay nau' me chua day', H rat' thich' an :-)" - myself.

Beef tail soup (Sup' đuôi bò)

Nguyên liệu và cách làm tham khảo trên mạng:
Nguyên liệu (làm 4 phần)
1125g đuôi bò căt thành miếng nhỏ.
2 muỗng canh dầy ăn.
2 tép tỏi, cắt thành miếng 2,5cm.
2 củ cà rốt lớn, gọt vỏ, cắt nhỏ.
5 tách nước.
1 nhánh cần tây, cắt thành miếng 2,5cm.
1 củ hành lớn, cắt thành 4 miếng.
1 muỗng cà phê húng khô.
1 muỗng cà phê tiêu đen..
2 lá nguyệt quế.
1 củ cải lớn, cắt nhỏ.
1 tép tỏi, gọt vỏ,đập nhỏ.
1 tách rượu Madeira hoặc rượu trắng.
Cách làm
1. Cho dầu vào chảo và xào đuôi bò cho hơi vàng. Cho hành và cà rốt vào, tiếp tục xào cho đến khi rau hơi vàng.
2. Lấy đuôi bò và rau ra khỏi chảo, đổ ra và bỏ phần mỡ đi.
3. Cho đuôi bò và rau vào, cho tỏi, củ cải, rau cần, xào trên lửa cao trong 2 phút.
4. Cho lá nguyệt quế, tiêu đen, húng quế và nước vào. Đun sôi và hầm trong 3 giờ cho thịt mềm. Nếu cần, cho thêm nước hoặc nước lèo bò vào để giữ cho xương được ngập nước. Vớt phần mỡ.
5. Cho rượu vào và hầm thêm 10 phút.
6. Nêm muối và tiêu. Múc ra chén và dọn nóng với bánh mì nướng.

Carrot/ orange juice; strawberry & banana blend

My dear Bear has bought me a juice extractor, carrot juice is my everyday favourite drink:

The juice extractor for oranges is different from the one for other kinds of fruits. I already sent one to my sister (who is expecting twins ^^) & now I'm searching for a new one.

My another favourite: strawberry & banana blend, it's a good match (",), add 2 teaspoons of Baileys the original Irish cream liqueur for more favor ^^

Food and drink

Beef steak

Chicken salad

Beef with water cress

Beef tail soup with bread

Duck and bamboo shoot noodle

Fish soup noodle

Grilled bacon, apple and cheese

Freshly squeezed juices

Patang with pineapple

Hanoian springroll noodle

Macaroni/ Penne with cheese

Menu and Korean omelet

Meatball spaghetti

Prawn spaghetti