Dinner Party

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I had my friend and her husband over for dinner yesterday. I cooked up five main dishes and one dessert menu. Since it is summer over here, I didn’t want anything too warm or hearty so it was mostly cold salads and finger foods. Such a good night with laughs and chit-chat over 4 hours. It is always nice to have good food and company. It couldn’t be better!

– Mediterranean Bites: home-made bread topped with apricot cream cheese, sundried tomato, black olives, basil and truffle oil

– Bulgogi: Korean style marinated thinly sliced beef with enoki mushrooms and spring onions

– Cold Udon Salad: poached udon and fish balls with grated zucchini, carrot, coriander and parsley dressed with soy sauce and sesame oil

– Cheese Parcels: grated cheese wrapped in filo pastry with sweet and sour sauce

– Honey Roasted Carrot and Lentil Salad: honey roasted carrot on beds of green beans and mixed salads topped with ricotta cheese, roasted walnuts, cumin seeds and drizzle of infused honey

– Earl Gray Custard Slice: earl gray tea infused custard slice with pear puree for dessert (no photo)

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Posted in: Dinner, My recipes \ Tagged: , , , ,

Braised pork with rice and crunch salad + coconut bread

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Lunch

I’m not a big fan of eating meat (pork here) though I try to incorporate a variety of protein in my cooking for Daniel.
I cooked braised pork shoulder in Asian barbeque sauce. It just fell apart when I tried to pick it up with tongs after being cooked in the oven for about 3 hours. You know that is a good sign as well as a nice smell around the house 🙂
For the salad, I mixed grated carrots, beetroot, red cabbage, bean sprouts, coriander and parsley.
So crunchy and refreshing – goes well with hearty meat dish like that.

Pork is considered as quite fatty meat, though depending on what cut you buy and how you cook, you can eat them healthy.
Pork is high in vital nutrients such as phosphorus, selenium, zinc, potassium and copper. Vitamin B1 found in pork helps the growth and repair of muscles and nerve tissue. Riboflavin for skin health, vitamin B6 for metabolism, iron for energy, zinc for immune system, protein for building muscles. So if you choose unprocessed lean cuts and trim most visible fat, it is good for overall health.

I also baked a coconut bread which turned out to be so moist inside and crusty outside. I’ve become a huge fan of coconut after studying nutrient.
Well..I was scared of having any fats in my diet. I used to have everything non-fat or diet products just because “fat” sounded so bad and fattening to me.
It turned out I was totally wrong. You need GOOD fats, not BAD fats in your diet. Coconut is one of the good ones. Yes, it has a high saturated fat content (about 92% of the fatty acids). But you need good quality saturated fatty acids for the health of your bones, protecting your liver and heart.

Coconut stabilises your blood sugar, lowers cholesterol, hydrates you. Also lauric acid found in coconut oil has strong antifungal and antimicrobial properties.
It is extremely stable in heat, which means, unlike other types of oils, it doesn’t get oxidation and release free-radicals (causing cancer) while cooking. On top of all that, it can be used for pretty much everything e.g. cooking, baking, moisturiser for your skin and hair, etc. So I always keep a jar of coconut oil next to my stove for cooking and also under the basin to use on my skin after shower.
It smells amazing when you bake with coconut flour or flakes. It tastes good and fills you up because of its high fat content and dietary fibre.
So try to use more coconut products – coconut water, coconut oil, coconut flour, coconut flakes, coconut butter, coconut cream, never ending…….

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Posted in: Baking, Dinner, Lunch, My recipes \ Tagged: ,

Sushi

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Sushi (well..a.k.a Kimbap in Korea) used to be a special meal for me when I grew up.
We had a picnic day in Spring and Autumn twice a year when I was at school. Sushi was a must dish that everyone brought in their lunch box and compared whose tastes and looks better. I liked that excitement the night before, waiting for a picnic day, sometimes sleepless night with a big smile on my little face. Mum used to get up really early and made noises in the kitchen to make my lunch box when I was still sleeping in bed. Then I wake up and walk to the kitchen. The kitchen bench is a full of colourful ingredients like a rainbow. Spinach, carrot, pickled radish, ham, cheese, eggs, some herbs, etc. My family ends up having mum’s sushi for breakfast, lunch and dinner that day. She made the prettiest sushi in the world and it, of course, tasted delicious! Ah..nostalgia..my childhood food 🙂

I know sushi has become a big trend of healthy take-away food. To me, though, western sushi has so much rice and no flavour compared to Korean sushi. And did I mention it is a bit pricy for a small roll of sushi >.<
I normally make one myself home because it is so easy and fun to make. If you haven’t done it before, it may look a little intimidating task but trust me on this! You just need to practice a couple of times until you get the hang of it. Always the first one is the ugliest, exactly like when you make pancakes. I used two cups of sushi rice and some vegetables to make two big rolls. A bit of chilli sauce to spice it up as well. I find it helps to have the sharpest knife you’ve got at home in runny water before you slice them up so that rice doesn’t stick to your knife and ruin your beautiful sushi. Writing this post…I think myself I really should call this Kimbap, not sushi!!!!

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Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Paté Platter for Dinner

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Having vegetables and fruits most of the time, I can feel quite exhausted and a lack of energy at times. The micro-nutrients from vegetarian diet are great though it is true that you get iron and vitamin B12 deficiency.
After my visit to my uncle who is a oriental medicine doctor back home, I had to find a list of foods that contains high iron to boost more energy in myself. I tried a pan-fried liver before but somehow the flavour got more intense after cooking, and it was hard to eat after a couple of mouthful. Pate, on the other hand, needs a little bit of preparation but I think it has better texture and flavour.

The liver is a storage for many important nutrients, a rich source of iron, vitamin B12 and vitamin A. It has a incredible nutritional benefits when compared with fruits, veggies and other meats. I guess having the organ meats helps the farmers and environment as well. People worry about a high cholesterol content in the liver, though it is a good cholesterol (you need it in your body unless you have hyperlipidemia!) and a small amount is okay. It is all about moderation after all.

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Problem with making pate, though, is most recipes suggest using so much butter or oil to make a smooth texture. Well I had to give up on that. There is no way I use that much butter in my food.So I used a couple of table spoons of coconut oil, hoping it helps to hold everything together. I also had the liver in milk for an hour before cooking to get rid of any bad smell. Then I boiled it with white wine, bay leaves, peppercorns and some other spices in a saucepan until it’s cooked through. Remove from the heat, cool down a bit, blend it all up, put it in a ramekin, and set in the fridge. Well…it turned out to be so crumbly without butter >.<
I might need to try again with some other substitutes to make a buttery texture next time.

Viola! I served with zucchini bread, red onion jam, home-made pickles and green salad.
Very satisfying dinner 🙂

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Posted in: Dinner, My recipes

Vegetable Stack with Blue Cheese

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Another vegetarian dish I made up from what I have in the fridge!I made a jar of char-grilled red capsicum and caramelised red onions last week, which lasts in your fridge for a couple of weeks. It means that you can save time when cooking and it is a great addition to other dishes.
I highly recommend preserving vegetables like this so that you can quickly grab from the fridge and make something up when you are in hurry or don’t have many ingredients in the fridge.
I always have some kind of pickles and kimchi in my fridge, never run out of it! Also it is fun to make them.
Tonight I just needed to cook some eggplant and zucchini in the pan and stack up all the vegetables in beautiful layers:) I try to have as many colours of vegetables as I can on my plate. It is good for you and looks pretty too.
As a treat, I also put some gorgonzola cheese on top. When I tried blue cheese for the first time, I was in a shock why people consume this moldy cheese which both looks and smells horrible. Seriously it smells like old socks >.< After some courageous attempts and my taste buds have developed over years, now I’m so enjoying this distinctive flavour of blue cheese and it is one of my favorite cheese. Especially French and English ones, so yummy! A good combination is blue cheese with a slice of pear, caramelised onion and walnut wrapped in prosciutto. Juste delicieux!

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Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, My recipes