Risoles Bihun/ Harumaki

26 april 2010, senin

Sebelomnya minta dimaafkan, coz kali ini gw ga ikutan cooking mama, bukannya males ato apa, coz bahannya kayak daun salam, serei, kemiri ga punya sama sekali. Ga tau gimana ngakalinnya tuh daun?? apa gw pake daun jeruk aja?? tapi kemirinya?? wah, bakalan ga enak dah kalo tanpa bahan2 itu kan?? so, gw bikin risoles bihunnya aja dah, tapi isinya gw tambah macem macem...hehe...

Pertama gw beli tuh kulit pangsit..lah kan kecil banget, gimana ngisiinnya? Akhirnya balik lagi ke spmket beli kulit lumpia, yang emang lumyan mahal daripada kulit pangsit.

Bahan
10 lembar kulit pangsit
2 bungkus bihun, sirem air panas biar lunak,potong pendek2
2 pt chikuwa
1 bh wortel iris halus
kanikamaboko secukupnya
3 sdm kecap ikan
3 sdm kecap asin
garam lada secukupnya
1 siung bawang putih memarkan

cara
1. Masak bawang putih hingga harum, masukkan wortel, chikuwa, kamaboko hingga wortel lunak, masukkan bihun
2. Tambahkan kecap ikan, kecap asin, garam lada
3. Masak hingga matang, dinginkan
4. Taroh isi di kulit pangsit, bungkus lalu goreng hingga kecoklatan
Hasilnya enak, garinggg...yah, daripada ga nikmatin sotonyaa...risolesnya aja gpp dah. MInggu ini kita liburan dulu ya...buat yang mengejar ketinggalan, ato yang mo istirahat dari game, biar ga bosan...so, 2 minggu lagi kita ketemu di menu yang lain yak...jangan malesssss...ganbatteee

Need Some Mint?

If so, look no further than my yard.  I've got tons of the stuff, just waiting to be used up.  If you live anywhere nearby, give me a shout and I'll be happy to share some with you.  Seriously.

While I may be a pretty good cook/baker, alas, my gardening skills leave something to be desired.  I keep threatening to plant a vegetable garden every year but somehow I know it will probably be an exercise in futility.  If I don't manage to kill it, the tree rats (oops, squirrels) will get it so why bother?  I did manage to plant some seeds last week in one of those plastic greenhouse things, but so far nothing has sprouted.  Figures. 

Not a sprout or seedling in sight.  Looks like the damn Sahara desert!

Oh, but mint.  Now that's a whole different story.  You just plant it once and it keeps on going year after year.  Just like the energizer bunny.  Ha, maybe it's really just a weed that tastes good.  No wonder I can grow it successfully!

I'm kind of sentimental about my mint, though.  That's because it came from the house we moved out of three years ago.  You remember - that wonderful, old (repeat "OLD") house where our kids grew up and where we spent some mighty good years.  My then-next-door neighbor gave me a few cuttings from her garden which I planted .  They multiplied by about a billion.  I brought some of it with me to our new house where it continues to flourish.  I consider it my personal heirloom mint.

So be forewarned, unless you come by and take some off my hands, you may be seeing a few more mint recipes here.  Last night I used it to make chimichurri sauce, which is a mixture of fresh herbs, olive oil and vinegar with a few flavors thrown in.  Originally Argentinian, it's now become more or less mainstream, but don't let that deter you.  It's normally used as a marinade for beef, but I decided to use it as a sauce instead.  Even Henry, who is usually suspect about anything he thinks may be spicy, declared it a winner.

This is local, grass-fed beef (London broil)

CHIMICHURRI  (adapted from Bon Apetit)

1 cup finely chopped Italian parsley
1 cup finely chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 large clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/3 cup good red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
   (or more or less to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.  Taste to adjust seasonings. 
Use it as a sauce for grilled meat (I grilled off two London broils,
sliced and topped them with the chimichurri) or use as a marinade
before grilling.

Yield:  about 1 cup

Of course, this didn't cause the slightest dent in my mint crop.  Mojitos, anyone?

Who would you pick as rising star chef?

April 29

The James Beard Awards are on Monday. It's been a long year. I hope my tux still fits.

At any rate, I wanted to give you the chance to cast your vote for James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year.

Most of the Beard Awards go to a rotating crew of nominees that don’t change that much from one year to the next, but you have to be age 30 or younger to win the Rising Star award, and it can be a real career maker.

Nate Appleman won last year, and boy has he been busy since then.

Anyway, the poll on the right is open until 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Monday. Please cast your vote.

Bloomin' Barrettes

Lately with the warm days approaching, I've been inspired by all the new spring flowers popping up. I decided to look through my bin of fabrics and create some flowers. Initially I was going to glue pins on the back to wear with plain tank-tops, instead I glued some of my barrette clips on the back to wear in my hair. Headbands with flowers and feathers are really in right now, but I just don't like the feeling of headbands, they tend to hurt after a couple hours. These are so cute and I love wearing them. A nice addition to a boring outfit!

A Grilled Turkey Sandwich and Fries - My Alternative to the KFC Chicken Double Down

I have to admit that all I know about the KFC Chicken Double Down is that which I have read in the online press. That is more than for any other reason that, to the best of my knowledge, the nearest KFC to where I am presently living is the one outside Glasgow Central Station and that would make it a very long journey just to sample some fast food! I must admit to having been surprised by the publicity generated simply by the launch of a fast food product but it at least gave me the idea for this grilled turkey sandwich, with homemade fries and garlic mushrooms. I decided to make it a turkey recipe as opposed to a chicken recipe, simply to make it a little bit different to most similar productions.

Ingredients (Per Person)

2 x 1/2lb turkey breast fillets
2 rashers of bacon
2oz low fat cheddar cheese (or other suitable hard cheese)
1 large potato
6 to 8 small button mushrooms
1 clove of garlic
Pinch of dried sage
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A little sunflower oil

Method

The first step in this recipe is to attend to the fries. The potato should be peeled, then sliced and chopped in to the shape of fries. Very importantly, the fries should then be dried as much as possible in kitchen towel before being submerged in the frier for around four minutes, until they show only the first signs of beginning to colour. They should then be removed from the fryer, drained on some more fresh kitchen towel and allowed to cool before being placed in a Tupperware container and refrigerated for at least half an hour.

I cooked the turkey breast fillets here on an indoor, standard kitchen grill. They would probably at least look better cooked on an outdoor grill but that is not always practical in Scotland in April! They should be lightly rubbed with sunflower oil on both sides and grilled for around four to five minutes each side, depending on their thickness. The bacon should be added to be grill for around a minute each side towards the end of the cooking time.

When the bacon has been added to the grill, the cold fries should be re-added to the fryer for their last two to three minutes of cooking time. The olive oil should then be added to a small saucepan and brought up to a medium heat before the peeled garlic clove is grated in to it and the sage also added. The closed cup mushrooms should be quartered and also added put in to the pan. Note that the mushrooms should be cooked for no more than a couple of minutes, as the idea is more to heat them through and flavour them with the oil and garlic than cook them in to mush.



When the turkey and bacon fillets and rashers are ready, they should be taken from the grill and the bacon rashers placed atop one of the turkey fillets. The cheese should then be grated and added on top of the bacon before the second turkey fillet is finally placed on as the top of the sandwich. The fries should then be well drained and added to the plate along with the garlic mushrooms for service.

How to Stuff a Cucumber: Food Tip of the Day - Thursday, April 29th, 2010

Who on Earth would want to stuff a cucumber - and why? I would have asked myself the very same questions, less than a week ago!

The background to this idea is very simple. Although I love cucumber and eat it regularly, there can be no disputing that it is a little bit lacking in the taste department, at times. This is due in considerable part to its extremely high water content, with the core and seeds being almost entirely comprised of water. It was one night, therefore, while preparing guacamole and finding that I had made too much for my purpose that I decided to try stuffing the rest of it in to a cucumber.

Firstly, I determined that stuffing a whole cucumber may prove too awkward by the means I intended employing so I first of all cut the cucumber in to circa 4" pieces. I then took a long metal skewer and used it to carefully poke and scrape the core out of the pieces of cucumber, before carefully stuffing the resultant empty centre with guacamole, using a small measuring spoon and the aforementioned skewer. This is a little bit messy and awkward to do on the first attempt but the results make it well worth persevering.

I then wiped each end of the cucumber pieces with clean kitchen paper (purely for cosmetic purposes) before wrapping them tightly in clingfilm like Christmas crackers and refrigerating them for a couple of hours. The cucumber could then be sliced as normal and served as normal - only now containing an extra little bit of taste in the centre to surprise and hopefully delight the unwary.

Although I used guacamole, there are of course an infinite number of substances with which the cucumber can be stuffed. I hope that you will try it out for yourself, experiment a little and come up with something truly delicious to suit your own tastes.

A place called home...

These days are so hot around Barcelona, and summer is almost here in Spain, where spring and autumm are so short. I must say that I don't like summer in Spain, it's so hot and I feel so bad from dawn to dusk, with all the hot weather. I'm so scared of the sun since I get burned when I was a child...

(read more)

But anyway, the good point about this is that we can do lovely pictures like the ones of this entry.

Rocío, Laia and I have been all day making pictures around some of our favourite places in Barcelona. It's curious how I'm used to live in Barcelona, or every place I've been living. When I was at England it was the same; maybe for only two months, but I get used to the place where I was living so fast. That makes me think that I can find home wherever I want... wich place would it be? London? Berlin? Stockholm...?

Tryin on some Swedish Hasbeen shoes that we want.

At Bulevard Rosa, a shopping mall in the middle of Barcelona. 

Gaudi's art at the Batllo house.

Laia and I :)

Rocío <3

Around the Cathedral. 

Visiting August's Temple, a roman edification in the middle of Barcelona.

I must say that I really love this city, but is getting small for me... although I know that it got something new in every corner.

Dress - Blanco

Tights - Primark

Shoes - Melissa

Bag - Women' secret

Sunglasses - H&M

Hairpin - Handmade

So, wich one is the best city on Earth for you?

2012 M2M Oficial Trailer

well Ini adalah Sampul depan dan belakang kaset film M2M DOOMSDAY yang masih dalam penggarapan....film yang menceritakan kiamat di sekolah ini terilhami dari film besar karya Roland yang berjudul "2012" saya harap kalian bisa sabar menunggu keluarnya film ini....jika ingin lihat trailernya kalian bisa kunjungi Facebook saya ok!! mungkin segitu aja untuk Post kali ini and i will see u on the next post.....!!