Sunday cook-out:: A one-dish meal

The mom-in-law.  She lives with us and does most of the cooking on weeknights.  On weekends, we either eat out or occasionally, we do like to attempt a cook-out.  One weekend, she was out of town, so the Man and I put on our creative caps and wondered what we should be cooking for our Sunday cook-out.

When we were living in Tokyo some 5 years back, I used to trawl the internet for interesting one-dish meals to whip up.  Cooking has never been my forte and one-dish meals seemed like the easiest to make.  I found this relatively simple pork chops and rice recipe.  Made it once for the Man and we loved it!  Copied the recipe down into my cook-book, hoping that one day I will be able to recreate the dish.

Imagine, 5 years on, I decided that it’s finally time to make this dish.  Ingredients seemed relatively easy to get with the exception of canned French Onion Soup which may not be so common on our supermarket shelves.

But I did manage to find canned French Onion Soup at Cold Storage.  So decided to make this dish once again with a few minor tweaks to the original recipe.

Pork Chops and Rice (recipe found online but I can’t remember where since it was 5 years ago)

Ingredients:
a) 1 (10 .5 ounce) can of French Onion Soup
b) 1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
c) 4 pork chops (at least four bone-in)
d) Salt and Pepper

Method:
1) Pre-heat over to 180 degrees Celsius.
2) Put approximately 1 cup of washed but uncooked rice in the bottom of a casserole dish.
3) Cover the rice with one can of French Onion Soup. [Save empty can for later use.]

4) Season pork chops with salt and pepper.  Brown pork chops in a large skillet and set aside.  [We used 2 large cuts of pork-chops instead of 4.]

5) Fill the saved can with water and pour into the skillet that was used for browning of the pork chops.
6) Scrape the fixins from the pan with water and pour into casserole dish.
7) Stir the ingredients in the dish and spread the rice evenly.
8) Place chops in a single layer on top of rice mix.
9) Bake in oven half an hour uncovered.
10) Thereafter, cover with foil and bake for another 30 mins.
11) Serve hot and enjoy!

My mistake for this was that I didn’t follow the instructions to the tee which I should have.  I thought 2 cans of water for the rice was too much so I adjusted and added just half a can of water instead.  That was mistake for the rice turned out to be a little too dry then what I remembered it to be.

So, if you are ever making this and wondering ‘Really? 2 cans of water?’  Trust me, it really is.

But all in all, a really satisfying one dish meal that we served with a side of fresh Japanese tomatoes as a starter.  Hoping to make this again one day.  And this time, I must get it right!

Stay home Saturday cook-out: Roast Beef

I was really craving for a good cut of beef and instead of heading out to settle that craving at a restaurant.  We decided to up the ante and do the cooking back at home.  Well, just blame it on the weatherman for making our decision all that easier for it was pouring the entire day last weekend.

It was no elaborate affair but all the dishes that we whipped up were hearty and some were kinda healthy.

Instead of a starter, I decided to recreate this Curried Carrot Soup.  Was itching to play with my kitchen gadget that we had brought back from Geneva.  It had somewhat become a white elephant since our return.  So, I wiped off the dust and made a blended soup with the kitchen device.  The soup was a crowd-pleaser and the helper learned the recipe so hopefully she can recreate this on her own.

Next up, the highlight of our dinner!  This mean roast beef that the Man has perfected!  The cut?  A gorgeous one that we got at Swiss Butchery, marinated wonderfully by the guys from the store.  All the Man did was to add rosemary, carrots and garlic to the mix and viola… a wonderful dinner awaits!

Now, isn’t that a gorgeous colour for a perfect roast?  After taking it out from the oven, the Man covered the roast beef in foil and allowed it to rest for about 10 to 15 minutes.  We realised that even though we were hungry and had wanted to dig our steak knives straight into the cut.  Resting the beef allowed the juices to be locked into the beef allowing the flavour to be juicier.  Us all silent during the mains was a testament of how good the roast beef was. ‘Nuff said.

As for the sides, I had a box of Gratin sauce gifted by a dear friend from Geneva.  So, I made a potato gratin topped with Tetsuya’s Truffle Sauce.  It was totally yums!  Gonna ask the pal to bring me more of the sauce so I don’t have to make it from scratch.  Hehe..

Lastly for dessert.  Was a little tired of making Molten Chocolate Cakes so for a change, decided to make a mini Apple Tart using this recipe.  Got a ready-to-roll puff pastry from the store but think I added too much flour to the pastry while kneading it, resulting in a slightly hard crust but the apples were beautifully done.  Topped with a scoop of salted caramel ice-cream from Marks & Spencer, this marked the end of our home-cooked meal.

The entire family had a wonderful time at dinner and this guy wished he could get in on a piece of the action.. but no, he didn’t!

Can burgers be healthy?

Well, yes, if you make them yourself.

I was in the mood for some home-made burgers but wanted a twist in my previous recipe.   So I surfed around and realised that I could substitute the Panko (Japanese bread-crumbs) in my recipe with tofu.  And the best part?  You won’t even know the difference.

If you like to give this recipe a try, click here and follow the steps.  Just omit the Panko and the milk if you are using tofu.  As for the type of tofu to use, I would recommend that you use the firm type of tofu and drain the moisture out of the tofu with paper-towels before throwing it into the meat mixture and mashing them up to form the hamburger patties.

An easy and wholesome dinner idea served alongside rice or in our case, a soup and potato gratin for a full meal.

 

An evening of indulgence @ home

Weekends should be made of these.. more indulgence at home.  Lucky us got invited to a friend’s do and boy, was the host generous!

We got treated to some really fine wines on top of the amazing food that he whipped up. 

And my contribution to this small dinner-do?  A spinach dip that I had just learned from another friend.

This Spinach dip is really pretty simple to do as well.  All I did was to get chopped frozen spinach, drain the excess water from the spinach and pop in 1.5 cups of low-fat sour cream.  Add about 1 teaspoon of chicken essence powder, mix well, add pepper to taste and viola – it’s done!  It really is that quick and easy.

 

Dinner-time: Truffle Pasta with Poached Egg

The mom-in-law. She lives with us so she does most of the cooking on weekdays. But she’s away for a couple of days so I took the opportunity to head back into the kitchen and whip up a simple dish for a weeknight dinner.

While stocking up for groceries to prep for the weeknight meal, the Man decided to pick up some Tagliatelle. He was in the mood for some Tagliatelle with white truffle oil. I found this recipe online.. tweaked it a little and viola.. whipped up this pasta along with some barbecued pork and steamed broccoli for a simple meal.

The recipe called for poached eggs. The Man and I, we attempted making them once but it failed terribly and ended up looking like flower eggs in hot water, so I never really dared to make them again. This time round, I was fairly determined to make them. Went online to find a tutorial on You Tube… watched the Gordon Ramsey video a couple of times before heading to the kitchen to make the poached eggs.

If you followed the step-by-step guide listed by Mr Ramsey, you’ll find that you will also be able to poach eggs at home too! We added white vinegar to the boiling water as it’s supposed to help the egg envelope in a cocoon faster. Pleased with the result, I started to prep the rest of the dish.

With some olive oil, I sauteed the portobello mushrooms and once it’s cooked, I added the cooked Tagliatelle pasta. If you find the pasta a little dry, you could add about 2-3 tablespoons of the pasta water (retained from cooking of the pasta). Thereafter, add about 3 tablespoons of white truffle oil. Give it a good toss and prepare to plate the pasta before putting the poached egg on top of the dish. Throw in a little chives as garnish and you’re done!

Kinda easy peasy huh?

So, S from Schwingen in Switzerland and L from The Swiss Watch Blog, I hope this recipe has inspired you gals to bring out the truffle oil and start cooking.

Spiced-up comfort food

Whenever the Man ain’t feeling all too dandy (usually after a hard night of drinking), he would crave for mouse noodles 老鼠粉.  Yikes, what are mouse noodles?  They are actually called Mee Tak Mak, rice noodles shaped like a mouse’s tail.  Sounds and looks gross but trust me, it’s good.  After a hard night of partying, these mouse noodles are best served in a hot chicken broth.  Totally clears the system and immediately you’ll feel better as well.

When I popped over to my cousin’s place earlier this week, she kindly cooked lunch before we proceeded to whip up some macarons.  Her creation of the Mee Tak Mak all spiced up was so-so good!  This was more like comfort food for me rather than the soupy version for I love spicy stuff.  So I decided to recreate this spicy dish for the Man and the family last night.

Verdict?  The family loved it!  Even the helper who usually can’t quite take spicy stuff gave this a thumbs up. 

Spicy Mee Tak Mak with Korean sauce (Serves 4)

Ingredients:

• 2 packets of Mee Tak Mak (got the packet ones from NTUC)
• 1 medium red shallot – diced
• 2-3 tablespoons of Korean Gochuchang paste
• 1/2 cup of water
• 4-6 pieces of Taiwan Sausages
• Handful of bean sprouts
• Salt – to taste
• Chinese parsley – coarsely chopped, for garnish (OPTIONAL)
• Century egg – coarsely chopped, for garnish (OPTIONAL)

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Add shallots and sweat them till it turns soft and translucent.
2. Add Gochuchang paste and stir paste into shallots.  Add water.
3. Add Mee Tak Mak and stir-fry the noodles till desired texture is achieve (I like my noodles abit firmer than soft).
4. Add Taiwan Sausages and bean sprouts and mix them well with noodles.  If noodles are too dry, you can also add a little more water.
5. Add salt to taste.
6. Turn off heat and add chopped Chinese parsley at this point.  Remember to mix parsley well with noodles before dishing it up.
7. (OPTIONAL) Adding the century egg gives the dish another flavour, so if you are a fan of century eggs, you could add this to the dish.