Morel

If you have never heard of morels, I suggest you that you should try it, because it is absolutely delicious. It has a very strong earthy mushroom flavour, almost nutty and with a sponge like texture that is just wonderful. The first time I came across this type of wild mushroom is from a comic book of all places. Ever since I was intrigued by this mysteriously weird shaped delicacy. I finally found it in a very small corner in the supermarket which is apparent since morels are considered to be quite expensive. As always I just cannot resist buying them and trying them for myself. The result, a fantastic mushroom fragrance not just on the plate, but the entire kitchen. YUMMY!

For those of you curious as to where the morels are in this dish, its at the left side of the plate, the brown textured thing. This was a chicken dish, the morels were used to make the sauce and since I dun like to waste such an expensive food, I served it as a side dish.

Pancakes

 Yet another adventure in the kitchen, This time just plain pancakes. To be honest I only made this dish because of its aesthetics of it rather than taste. I always wanted to make the HUGE pancakes that you see in comics and cartoons with beautiful big round brown fried marks on it. =P

Spanish feast

There is something about paella that just seem to put me of this dish. Maybe because I had a bad experience eating it for the first time in this spanish restaurant which really didn't cook it well. The only reason I decided to try my hand on this dish myself is because of a food program which just made it look so good. So for this dish I had two of my "firsts". My first time cooking a spanish paella and my first time cooking with the most expensive spice in the whole world - saffron. Why all the trouble and cost? Because I believe paella is a much better dish despite my initial impression of it.

粽子(Dumplings)

Ever since I saw my mom made these dumplings years ago, I knew I had to try to make some myself one day. A word of caution: Anyone who wishes to attempt this is in for some really hard work. It took two people a whole night just to make a few batches of small dumplings. Was it worth it? Well, after eating what you made yourself, it is always worth it.

"Kuk fan" version 2.0

Last year December, I wrote my first food post on a dish that I came up with myself. After 6 months, 1 day, 6 hours, and 27 minutes, I finally decided to improve on it to make it the updated version 2.0. =P

duck tales

Duck... a rather foreign word in my cooking journey. This is because duck meat is very gamelike and rich with thick layer of fat that is underneath its skin. If cooked properly it is the best absolutely delicious; cook it the wrong way and it might put you off duck meat for the rets of your life. I came across a recipe that was really interesting. It involved marinating the meat in fruit brine (orange juice + salt) for at least a few hours before cooking it. The cooking process was a two step approach. First steam the duck then "froast (fry + roast)" it in the oven. After that plate up the duck with side vegetables sautéd using the fat from the duck. As usual, I always fancy a little extra on my plate, so I made some mashed potatoes to go with it.

Chicken rice

Looks delicious doesn't it? the succulent chicken with fresh vegetables and the beautifully cooked fragrant rice is just too good to resist. Chicken rice is one of the best chicken dishes ever created. Although it may look simple, but the preparation and work required to cook this dish is anything but simple. Fortunately I did not need to go through all the hassle to enjoy this meal, my flatmate was kind enough to volunteer to cook dinner. So as you can see we had a very good meal that evening!

Mac & Cheese

Its been a long time since my last cooking adventure.. and although I have not tried anything special.. but cooking Mac and Cheese (as the Americans would call it) is a first time for me and definitely worth a space of the cooking blog.

Oh yeah, mine is not the authentic Macaroni and cheese, I did some twists to it just to make it a little special. See the pinkish and green bits, they are bacon, chives and parsley. =)

盐焗鸡

Was checking the photos in my camera and just realised I forgot to post this picture up on the blog. It was during the holidays that I tried making "chicken raosted in a salt shell" which basically means the English way of cooking "盐焗鸡" (yim kuk gai)... hehe

Left overs

What do you usually do with left-overs from the previous night? I had left over curry and chicken burger to eat and I also had some sausages, spinach and noodles stored up. Now add all those together and you might just come up with what i call a "japanese noodle wanna-be".

three course meal... again?!!

Yes... a three course meal again. There was no occasion for us to have a three course meal in our flat. It just happened that the whole flat went out during the day for some food shopping in the market, so there was plenty of food to cook with for dinner.



For starters we had broccoli soup with tomato and basil bread bought from the market as well as a some garlic and chilli olives also bought from the market.



For the main course we had burger in bread crumbs (or more appropriately named as "beef-potato-lentil-mixed herb cake/burger") ... basically an unknown but delicious piece of food =P. The side dishes were the bread from the starter and mango salad. The sauce is just a random sauce I came up with.

For dessert we had fruit trifle from Marks & Spencer... sorry no photo for that!

Good old Steak and Chips

I have always wanted to make a proper steak and chips meal. Although it wasn't exactly ideal timing to have to make this during one of my busiest weeks of finsihing my thesis, I still did it. Why? Simply because it was my turn to cook and I didn't want to cook something if I didn't really want to cook it. I believe there is a difference when you really put an effort to provide a good meal. Wouldn't you agree?



Oh yes, bread and butter pudding to end the meal, of course!

Fish... fish... fish

If you are thinking what I am thinking... the answer is no I did not make this myself, I bought it from one of the fish bars around. I dunno why recently I have this craving for fish and chips. I mean I love fish and chips even before I came to the UK. The funny thing is when I first arrived in the UK, fish and chips was the last thing I wanted to eat. And now after 4 years and a few months to go before I go back home, I suddenly felt like eating fish and chips. I think maybe I realised that it would be a real waste if I came all the way to UK and missed the chance to really taste fish and chips as it is made in the place of its origin. So I went "crazy" and searched for all the fish bars I could find, just to try their fish and chips. At the moment I have tried 5 places, and will look for more... hehe!

Just a preview of what I have eaten... (drool!)

Bishopston Fish Bar





Clifton Village Fish Bar

咕佬肉（糖醋排骨）

Almost forgot, I also tried to make sweet and sour pork for the first time. It wasn't the best, but I quite liked it!

First try: Thai paella & "Siu yuk" (烧肉)

My turn to cook again, and since it is the holidays, I decided to try some new dishes. This time around, it is "Siu Yuk" and a random dish I created due to the stock of sweet potatos that we have - Thai version of Paella. (It is the Thai version because I used green curry paste, that's about as much Thai as it gets =P)

Roti Canai

When you have one hungry guy with a craving for roti canai, there is only one thing to do... make ROTI CANAI!!!

Yes, after all the tossing, stretching and frying, at least something that resembles a roti canai came out of the frying pan. Although the roti was not as successful, the dahl was actually quite good... or maybe I was just too hungry to start with. =P

Roti kosong satu!

Gordon Ramsay

This was my first try on his recipe, and it was lots of preparation, but totally worth it as it was really good.

The main meal was actually two dishes. The first was a stuffed chicken leg and the other was mixed mushrooms tagliatelle. For dessert, I just made a simple ice cream like dessert from one of Jamie Oliver's recipes.

Main meal (slurp!)
dessert!

Crave for home food again

The craving for home food is back, this time it is Hokkien mee with chunks of delicious pork fat cubes...wuahahaha! To accompany this dish I made some spring rolls to go with it, YUMMY!

Hokkien Mee

Spring Rolls

Home-made sambal

"Lou fan" (mixed rice)

*this is the ingredients cooked without the rice added to it

Yes, this is my version of a healthy fried rice. The point of doing this dish is to have the delicious mix of ingredients with rice in one bowl and yet not need to fry it again in the wok. Although technically without the "frying" of the rice, it cannot be called "fried rice", but as long as it tastes good I don't mind. The way to make it is to cook everything like you would when you fry rice, but omit the last step of adding the rice into the wok. Just leave it in a big bowl and add the fried ingredients into the rice and just mix! After a good mixing, there you go, a big bowl of delicious "lou fan"

pasta pasta

Its my turn to cook, and I decided that we should have the good old pasta. As always, the portion is always so BIG! haha!

Bread crumb pasta

Now this is a really interesting recipe that I tried. I came across it on the food network channel and I thought it was definitely wortha try. I have to say, although it is just simple ingredeints, it tastes wonderful! Never thought bread crumbs taste so nice with pasta. =)

chicken pie for a hungry stomach

Another one of my urge, this time - Chicken Pie!!! (as you can probably see, I cooked a very BIG piece of pie, hehe).

Portugese egg tart

Yes... my cravings have led me to another adventure in trying to make this wonderful tart. As you can see there are two versions, that is because it did not turn out the way i thought it would. It was tasty but just not as good as the original (or more like not even close). The second version is slightly better but still far from perfect. So anyone whow knows the key to making the perfect portugese egg tart, please let me know, thanks! ;P

Version 1.0
Version 2.0

mixed mushroom spaghetti

I love mushrooms, and this dish is a ideal dish that brings out the intense flavour of beautiful wild mushrooms with simple ingredients. The result... without a doubt a big bowl of delicious mushroom spaghetti after which leaves you craving for more! =)

Muffins

I just felt like making some muffins to eat and surprisingly the recipe is very simple. This is the peanut butter and snickers muffin (I know ... very unhealthy..hehe)

Strawberry crumble

The main motivation of this dish - MY SISTER. Why? curiosity I guess. First got to taste apple crumble when my sister introduced it after she studied in UK. Now that I am in UK myself, I have been seeing many people trying this dessert, so I thought I should try making it for myself. This version of course is not apple crumble (I did that for the Valentines dessert already), It is Strawberry Crumble. I must say it taste heavenly!!! Probably better than the apple crumble. =)

Vegetarian Valentines

Yes, Valentines day 2007 is on a Wednesday this year and it just so happens it was my turn to cook for the flat. Since I felt like cooking something special and Valentines day just gave me another reason to do so. I went afternoon shopping at the BIG Sainsbury, why? because I am making a three course meal. Yes... a THREE course meal. It seems pointless when you think of three guys eating a three course meal on Valentines day. I admit it isn't ideal, but if we are going to celebrate Valentines, why not do it with some really good food, isn't it? =) Although at the end of my cooking I realised I made a vegetarian 3 course meal, which was not intentional at all. This just goes to show that, anything that tastes good is good food, with or without meat!

Starters: For starters we had good old fashion English Parsley soup with home-made bread to go with it.

Main Course: This is some sort of Cannelloni dish which is a italian dish, basically it is pasta with cheese fillings cooked in a tomato or white sauce and baked in the oven. As a side-dish I bought those big mushrooms and gently fry them in with chillies, thyme, vinegar and olive oil.

Dessert: To finish the meal, I prepared another English classic - Apple Crumble. To go with the piping hot dessert is just plain double cream which in my opinion is simple but delicious!

For those who are wondering what the red liquid in the wine glass is... NO it is not wine, it is just Ribena (fake wine, haha). Oh btw...The Video: Watch it now