Posts Tagged Cooking
How to Kill a Crab
Posted by blurcheryl in Asian, My Cook Book on August 10, 2011
Today we do a simple tutorial on how to kill a Crab.
First, you go and buy crab.
Give them water so they spit out whatever dirt or impurities in their stomach.
Then you check, which one is Male and Female just for Fun.
This one is female (bulging stomach)
This is one is male.
Then choose your crab. In the picture is the very terrified and struggling male crab on the chopping board.
If this is your first time killing a crab, take a deep breath and take a longer look at the crab. Make sure you make a fast killing and make sure you cook the crab well, so that everything is worthwhile. [God, let Mr. Crab go to heaven please?]
Flip Mr Crab on its back, then open the flap beneath, use a chopstick and stab Mr. Crab right to its heart where the abdomen ends (the tip of the triangle) and kill it almost instantly.
Then Rip the shell off and remove the gills and get rid of unwanted organs.
Keep the roe on its shell!! Okay, not much roe here 
Either cook the crab yourself or bring it to the restaurant and ask the chef to cook it for you.
Easy right? I think I am going to try killing the crab sometime soon. That’s the tutorial by my BIL. I just snap the pics.
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Cold Noodles with Tuna
Posted by blurcheryl in 30 minute Quickmeal, Asian, Healthy, Noodle, Pasta, Vegetable on July 7, 2011
Hubby ask me what’s for dinner a million time on the way back from work and I replied him bluntly that he should just have cornflakes with cold milk. He of course not happy with my reply but sometimes I prefer to skip cooking dinner so I have to pretend I am in bad mood to get my ways. When we got home and as I reach for the fridge for milk, * SCREAMS* No cold MILK!! Damn Damn Damn.
Hubby of course didn’t know what’s going on so I told him I am such a good wife, eventhough I am moody I will still cook him a nice meal. I have to think of something to cook randomly.
Aiyooooh.. Weather is so hot! What to eat? Porridge make me sweat more. Soup make me sweat too. Spagetti ah? Everyday also spagetti. Have to weigh my options based on weather this time. Hubby said I always on the aircond in the living room and the electricity bill skyrocketed. Cannot blame me what? Its the weather! I am forbidden to open wide the sliding door at the balcony or else all the freaking hateful bloodsucking mosquito would come in and attack the mosquito magnet. (mosquito magnet here refers to my hubby).
Check my fridge and here’s what I have
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A pack of zuchinni bought from Cold Storage for RM5.99
Check the can food section
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Still got Tuna in chilli oil
I still have lots of varieties of noodle left. I always stock up on noodles and if something happen during the Bersih 2.0 I think my supplies can last me for 2 weeks at least. heheheheh
I have to reduce my noodles stock anyway, I decided to make cold noodles. I am not a fan of cold noodles and I hardly order any cold soba when I dine at any Japanese restaurant as I prefer piping hot noodles to burn my tongue so that I dont eat too quickly.
I think cold noodles is a perfect dish for ridicously hot weather, its light and healthy too.
Here’s how I make them.
First, boil a a large pot of water with a couple of salt added. When the water is at boiling point, add the noodles and cook until al dente. Once the noodle is ready, remove it immediately from the salt water and give it a cold ice water bath, ideally. Or you can just leave it aside and add a couple of ice cubes on the noodle and leave it alone to cool at room temperature so that the ice melt or chuck it into the fridge.
Get your can of tuna ready, discard the chilli oil you dont need it. Leave aside
Blanch the sliced carrot and zucchinni with another pot of hot water until slightly soft. Do not overcook it or the texture of the vegetables will turn mushy. Leave the vegetable to cool, or again add ice cubes. Meanwhile, thinly slice onion and you dont need to cook it at all. set aside.
Mix the vegetables and slice onion together, add some olive if you have. Throw in the cold noodles and toss (discard the ice water please).
Then you may add the tuna in chilli, a couple teaspoon of olive oil, a pinch of salt and toss/mix again.
Tadaa!! Cold Noodles with Tuna
To add a bit of zing to your palate on this dish, eat this cold noodle together with the garlic tomato puree!!
TweetRed Potatoes Salad
Posted by blurcheryl in 30 minute Quickmeal, Chicken, Fruity, Healthy, My Cook Book, Salad, Vegetable on July 1, 2011
Recently have been going to Tropicana City Mall quite frequently for movie and also grocery shopping at Carrefour. Wow, to my surprise Carrefour has improved quite a lot, we found many products that we couldn’t find in the usual Tesco we went, and their fruits and vegetables are really fresh too even cheaper.
Then I saw they having promotion for the red potatoes and they do look fresh so I bought a few. Red potatoes are less starchy compared to Russet, and easier to cook. The red colour is pretty as well and its ideal for a quick salad.
First, cut the red potatoes into wedges, leave the skin on.
Then season the potatoes with olive oil, I use Chilli Olive Oil my boss bought for me from Italy, then some basil, salt and pepper. Mix Well
Bake for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft. I throw in some leeks and rose scallions to bake too.
Then mix your own salad! Mine has some baked potatoes with leek, mustard chicken, spinach and thinly sliced yellow onions.
Does my salad looks oily? I use olive oil as a dressing, with a squeeze of lemon juice.
TweetKimchi Bibimbap
Posted by blurcheryl in 30 minute Quickmeal, Asian, Chicken, Korean, My Cook Book, Vegetable on June 28, 2011
What’s the most important ingredient in making Bibimbap? Its the Kimchi! You must have these, and it will make all the difference in making the yummiest Bibimbap!
I have 3 kilo’s of Kimchi at home btw, bought from Isetan Korean Fair quite recently. Slice the Kimchi and put aside. Keep the juice also, its a sin to throw away the kimchi juice okay.
Then go find whatever vegetables you have in the fridge, or even better.. leftovers from last night dinner whatever! What I have here are julienne carrots, shitake mushroom, stir fried chicken with leek, seaweed boiled in salt water to soften it, some kimchi and Gojuchang. You cannot make bibimbap without the Korean Hot Chilli Pepper!
Just before serving, if you have sesame oil… oooh lala .. add some. I think maangchi. would have agree to me on this.
The Fun part now! Mix everything together and eat in big mouthful! Yummy! Its even better with Fried Eggs!!
Bibimbap is such a comforting food. You can make this anytime in less than 30 mins. Awesome!
This one is maangchi version. (photo steal from maangchi.bibimbap)
Note: [Its unintentional. We forgot to serve fried egg with runny egg yolk for the bibimbap I made recently. Its not the first time I made Bibimbap, yet we only realised the absence of the fried egg, not right after we finish the meal, but the next day on the way to work. wahahahaha ..slow]
TweetFried Souffle? Yes, you read that right!!
Posted by blurcheryl in 30 minute Quickmeal, Asian, Bake, Egg, My Cook Book, Pork, Soup, Vegetable, Western on June 23, 2011
I am sure everyone know what is Souffle. Maybe have not tasted one, but heard of the Souffle word at least. HK movies always show them so high class, order souffle as dessert geh!
But have you heard of Fried souffle? Again maybe not.
Perhaps it doesn’t sound rational to fried the souffle. Does the idea bother you?
Try not okay?! The fried souffle is on the savoury side, the sweet sugar is absent from this recipe.
First of all, beat the egg white by using the hand whisk until the egg whites are fluffy and stiff. I’ve got 4 egg whites in it, it turn out quite a lot, so I suggest 3 egg whites would be sufficient for 2 person.
The seperated egg yolks, add in salt, pepper, chilli flakes a bit ( I notice that I put chilli flakes in everything I cook 
), if you have chicken cubes, maybe a half a cube, or you may add a teaspoon of fish sauce its all up to you. Finely chopped onion can be added too. Stir the egg yolk and whatever ingredients you want to put i.
Then fold in the egg mixure into the egg whites gently. Make sure its well combine try not to over ly done it or you’ll loose all the air in the egg souffle. Use a pan, drizzle over olive oil and pan fry the Egg souffle until golden brown.
Tadaa!! Fried Souffle done!
To serve the dish my way, make some bacon crumbly, add in nuts (I put here Pecan but not so nice, I think substitute with walnut would be better), some kwailo spinach, mushroom sauce (its actually Campbell Soup that I use so that I can drink the soup too). Malaysian being Malaysian, for the love of Chilli, you can eat this with Chilli sauce. Why not right? Kampung Koh Garlic Chilli lagi best. haha
Hope you will enjoy this recipe creation of mine! haha
TweetWine Mania
Posted by blurcheryl in Celebrations, Cocktail & Alcohol, Just Food, My Cook Book on June 17, 2011
Recently we have been drinking wine at home more often than we used to be 5 years ago. There’s no special occasion to celebrate but we will just open a bottle or two to enjoy at home. Then one day out of nowhere hubby got a text message from his brother, recommending him a bottle of wine and the address of the wine house. So Hubby has been keeping it until last month when we almost finish our wine supplies at home we made a trip to check out the wine that BIL recommend. Since then we made 2 trips to the same wine house and I think we’re going again sometime soon. You’ll see why later.
Here’s the bottles of wine we got last weekend.
This is the bottle of wine we bought at first, Baron de Prats. It is surprisingly inexpensive and I love the aromas of the red wine! The taste of the wine is easy to drink for me too, I hate wines that gives bitter aftertaste. So we went back and bought a box of 6 to keep. I can also use this wine to cook (and cheat drink) heh heh heh heh
Another bottle of wine that I would REALLY like to recommend ( I stuggle a bit here as I’m selfish to share about the goodness of this wine). The name of the wine, Obsession really suits the wine. I can say its very hard to get a good white wine, and this one I can’t imagine not being able to buy it anymore. So I am heading back to the wine house to get more of it. Once you open the bottle, you can smell the beautiful aromatic and fruitiness of the white wine and the taste is so beautiful I enjoyed every drop of it . I wish I could open another bottle only for myself to drink.
We bought this bottle of wine too because its on sale. Can’t describe because we haven’t tried it yet.
Also bought this
We spend about RM500+ just for the wines last weekend but really can’t help it. The wine house is having a SALE and we kiasu scare it’ll be out of stock.
TweetBaked Potatoes & White Lady
Posted by blurcheryl in Bake, My Cook Book, Pork on June 16, 2011
Yet another Simplish Meal, for Simple People like me, Simple Food, Simple Preparations and Simply Delicious.
Ingredients are:
- One small packet of cream
- 1 cup milk
- Pepper and salt to taste
- 4 slices of pancetta or substitute ( Proscuitto is not suitable for this dish)
- Bakers Potato, thinly slice
- Herbs like basil can be added
Firstly, drizzle a bit of olive oil on the casserole. Then line it with pancetta with the meat overhang outside the casserole. At the same time heat the cream and add in milk in a separate pot. Bring it to slightly below boiling point, add in herbs, pepper and salt to taste.
Then stack the potato slices in the casserole and pour in the cream mixture. Make sure the cream covers all the potatoes. With the pancetta overhang, just fold it back to the casserole, covering the potatoes like in the photo.
Slow bake the potatoes for 2 hours at 150 -170 C.
Also Hubby tried to make cocktail using the bottle of Cointreau he got for me recently. Use a shaker, add ice, mix Cointreau with Bombay Sapphire and Lemon Juice. Voila! You’ve got White Lady!
Enjoy!
TweetCopycat Lasagna
Posted by blurcheryl in Bake, Lamb, My Cook Book, Pasta on May 27, 2011
Why I made Lasagna:
- I learned of this recipe inspired from watching the Masterchef Australia recently.
- Also that box of dry lasagna sheets has been around for more than 3 months at home, without seeing daylight.
- I have minced lamb
- Recently bought a few bottles of wine
- Red wines paired with rich food like this is superb
- I am lazy to go out eat
- I want to stay home watch TV
- Impress my hubby
- Still there’s parmesan cheese left
These are some of the ingredients I prepared.
I added the oil cooked shallots and garlic inspired by Masterchef Australia for the meat sauce.
This is the recipe printed on the San Remo Instant Lasagna box.
Meat Sauce
2 tablespoon vegetable oil
60g ham, finely chopped ( omitted)
1 medium onion, finely chopped (substitute with oil cooked shallots)
1 carrot, finely chopped (omitted)
1 stick celery, finely chopped (omitted)
1 clove garlic, crushed (substitute with oil cooked garlic)
500g beef mince (made meatball -lamb and pork)
5 tablespoons tomato paste (subsitute with pasta sauce)
125ml dry white wine (omitted)
375ml water (didn’t really follow)
1 chicken stock cube (own measurement, chicken stock)
salt, pepper and pinch of nutmeg (omitted nutmeg)
Cheese Sauce
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons plain flour
500ml milk
salt, pepper
125g mozzarella cheese (cubed or grated)
Meat Sauce
Heat oil in a medium saucepan, add and cook gently for 3 minutes. Add onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring, until onion is soft. Add mince and cook stirring, until brown.
Stir in tomato paste, wine and water into which stock cube has been dessolved. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cheese Sauce
Melt butter in medium saucepan, stir in flour and cook for 2 minutes over gentle heat. Remove from heat and gradually stir in milk. Return to heat and stir until thick and smooth.
Season with salt and pepper, add mozzarella and stir over low heat until cheese melts.
Lasagna
Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Pour 125ml meat sauce into base of lightly greased baking dish. Alternate layers of lasagna, meat and cheese sauces, ending with cheese sauce layer. Sprinkle top with grated parmesan cheese if desired.
My lasagna!
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