Friday 31 July 2009

M&S recipes

Healthy diet solutions from M&S!

Wednesday 29 July 2009

Beef Stroganoff recipe


Ingredients

  • 50 grams butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 250 grams button mushrooms, sliced
  • 500 grams lean steak, cut into thin strips
  • 200 grams crème fraîche
  • 300 grams tagliatelle or 1 portion of rice
  • Chopped parsley to serve
Preparations

1) Melt 25 grams of butter in a large frying pan and then cook the onion until soft
2) Add in the mushrooms and cook over medium heat until they turn golden
3) Remove from the pan and leave to cool
4) Melt 25 grams of butter over high heat and cook the beef in small amount at a time. Stirring for 3-4 minutes until browned coloured. Before adding next batch of beef, make sure the fat in the pan is hot.
5) Add the onion, mushrooms and crème fraiche to all the beef and warm gently
6) Serve the beef stroganoff on either tagliatelle or rice
7) Sprinkly on top with the chopped parsley

Sunday 26 July 2009

Fried Stuffed Crab Claws recipe


This is one of my favourite Chinese recipe!

If you like fish or seafood, this is irresistable! Ideal to cook for big parties.

Courtesy of Foodiesite.






Thursday 23 July 2009

Watermelon juice recipe


Water Melon juice is one of my favorite drink in the summer!

This is so easy, you can make it in minutes.
Ingredients (serve 2)
Half a watermelon, seedless
2 tablespoons sugar (or vary to how sweet you want it)
1/2 cup cold water

Preparations
1. Scoop watermelon into a blender
2. Blend into puree until smooth.

Optional
Add ice cubes for lovely summer drink.

Italian Calzone recipe


Simple recipe for authentic Italian Calzone!

Ingredients (serve 4)
200g raw ham shredded
20g yeast
400g flour
130ml olive oil
200g mozzarella (diced)
300g ricotta (sieved)
4 eggs
6tbsp grated parmesan
Pepper
3-4 sprigs oregano (chopped)
6-8 tbsp chopped tomatoes (tinned)
2-3 tbsp percorino (grated)

Preparations
1. Mix the yeast with 60ml of lukewarm water
2. Add 3 tablespoons of flour
3. Cover and leave for 30 minutes
4. Pour the mixture into the middle of the remaining flour
5. Add 30m of oil, and then add a pinch of salt and 125ml of lukewarm water
6. Knead well and then cover and put in warm place to rise for 1 hour
7. Bind the ham, mozzarella and ricotta with the eggs, oregano and parmesan
8. Season the mixture and then preheat oven to 225c
9. Knead the dough again on a floured surface and roll out into 4 bases
10. Place the bases onto an oiled baking tray
11. Spread the filling on the bases but not around the edges
12. Fold and press the edges firmly
13. Brush with some oil and sprinkle with percorino and tomato
14. Place in oven and bake for 20-30 minutes

Wednesday 22 July 2009

French onion soup

Courtesy of Donna Hay. This is delicious!

Click here for French Onion soup!

She is my all time favourite food editor and stylist. Love the way she presents her food, and the photography is so beautiful for every dish.

Steamed Seabass recipe


This is my lunch today. If you like fish, this is a real treat.
Steamed Seabass, such an easy recipe to cook. Delicious!

A favourite amongst Chinese people.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

1 sea bass between 500g to 700g, gutted (with head and tail intact)
1 table spoon Chinese cooking wine (Yellow Wine, Shao Hsing, or Shao Xing)
3 table spoon light soy sauce
4 table spoon peanut or groundnut oil

Optional
1 stalk Spring onions
45g root ginger

Preparation

1. Clean and rinse the seabass in cold water and then pat it dry

2. Rub a bit of salt and the Chinese rice wine on both side of the fish

3. Place seabass on a plate and then steam over water for roughly 8–10 minutes
(You can tell if the fish is cooked properly by seeing if the dorsal fin - fin at the back of the fish - pulls away easily)

4. Heat the peanut/groundnut oil in a pan until it is smoking hot

Optional
Chopped the spring onions and ginger into nice thin slices and sprinkle over fish. This adds more flavoring but I prefer to eat seabass as it is.

5. Drizzle the hot oil over the fish slowly, a little bit at a time (if you have sprinkle the spring onions and ginger on it, you should be able to smell them sizzling)

7. Pour the soy sauce and ready to serve immediately

Tuesday 21 July 2009

100 of the easiest and fastest recipes ever

This is from the Observer.

Click here for 100 of the easiest and fastest recipes ever

Contributions from Gordan Ramsey, Michel Roux, Ichiro Kubota and many other famous chefs.

There are chicken recipes, soup recipes, healthy recipes plus other simple ideas that literally take no time to cook.

Enjoy!

Saturday 18 July 2009

Summer Vegetable Stew

Something for vegetarians.
This is a light dish using summer vegetables.


Ingredients ( Serve 4 )

2 thinly sliced garlic cloves
1 chopped onions
1-2 tablespoon of olive oil
400g plum/cherry tomatoes
400g new potatoes cut into chunks
700g broad beans (about 200g podded weight)
250g peas in pod (about 125g podded weight)
100-150ml vegetable stock (hot)
100g roasted peppers (sliced in a jar with oil)

Optional

125g mozzarella cheese
Basil leaves
Pesto

Preparations

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan
2. Add onions and fry until colour darkens (browned)
3. Add garlic and fry until tinged golden.
4. Add the tomatoes and heat for a few mins until it thickened and saucy
5. Leave to simmer
6. Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 12-15 minutes until tender
7. Steam broad beans and peas for 3-4 minutes
8. Add veg mixture to tomato sauce
9. Add enough stock to give the consistency you like
10. Add the roasted peppers on top and simmer for a couple of mins to wam though

Optional
Tear mozzarella into chunks and scatter over stew with basil and serve with a drizzle of pesto and chunks of warm bread. Delicious!

Thursday 16 July 2009

Cheese Twists Recipe


Another very easy recipe to make. You can cook this up in no time.

Ingredient
  • 1 package of frozen puff pastry sheets, thawed
  • 1/2 cup / 50g Parmesan Cheese
  • 3/4 teaspoon / 2g ground seasoned pepper
  • 1/4 / 1g garlic powder
  • 1 egg white - lightly beaten
Preparation

1. Mixed the Parmesan Cheese, pepper and garlic in a bowl and set aside
2. Unroll 1 pastry sheet onto cutting board and lightly brush over with egg white
3. Sprinkle 1/4 of the cheese mixture evenly over the pastry sheet and press lightly into pastry
4. Turn the pastry sheet over and repeat step 3 above
5. Take 1 pastry sheet and cut evenly into desire strip size and twist 3 or 4 times
6. Repeat step 5 for all other pastry sheet and place in lightly grease baking sheets
7. Heat oven at 350F (175C) oven and bake pastry for 12 - 15 mintues or until golden brown
8. Leave to cool or keep air tight

Let me know how you get on!

Steamed Egg Dessert recipe

This is such an easy recipe to cook.

It literally takes less than 10 mins to prepare.

Light in texture, smooth and nutritious.

Infact, this is an alternative to Creme Brulee!

One of the more popular desserts in Asia.

Ingredients (serve 1 person)

1 egg
200ml milk
2 tea spoon castar sugar

Preparations

1 Mix egg and caster sugar into a bowl
2 Whisk until sugar dissolves
3 Add milk and mix until it becomes a creamy texture
4 Cover bowl with aluminium foil and steam over water for approximately 8 minutes with lid on

Steamed Egg Dessert is best serve hot. If you prefer to serve it as a cold dessert, place in fridge after it cool down.

Tuesday 14 July 2009

Kopi Luwak coffee

Kopi Luwak coffee is no ordinary coffee. Infact, it has lengendary status around world because it is made from half digested coffee beans eaten by little mammals called luwaks.

Kopi Luwak apparently taste like no other coffee and comes with it own Certificate of Authenticity!

Originated from the Indonesian island Sumatra, the luwaks will only eat the finest coffee beans available which it then excretes! The still intact coffee beans are then separated from the stools and cleaned, roasted and grounded like normal coffees.

Whoever thought of making coffee from this is clearly adventurous but the concept worked. A cup of Kopi Luwak coffee cost between $300-$600 and you get a certificate to go with every cup of Kupi Luwak coffee.

Whether it lives up to its legendary status as one of the finest coffee in the world, that depends on individual tastes but the price is worth paying if only for the experience.

Monday 13 July 2009

Sticky Pork Spare Ribs


This is a very popular and typical Chinese delicacy and surprisingly, a simple recipe to cook.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup or 125ml hoi sin sauce
  • 1/2 cup or 90g brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup or 125ml oyster sauce
  • 8 cloves garlic (crushed)
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
  • 1 cup or 250ml water
  • 2 kg Pork spare ribs (between 10-16 pieces)

Serving Suggestions

You can eat the ribs by itself, or serve with a bowl of rice/fried rice. I personally like to shred the meat into a a bowl of noodles or fried with vermicelli.

Preparations

  1. Preheat over to 180C (355F)
  2. Mix the hoi sin sauce, oyster sauce, garlic, sugar, ginger and water in a bowl
  3. Place the pork spare ribs onto a flat tray and cover with hoi sin mixture
  4. Cover with tin foil and leave in fridge or cool place for 30 minutes
  5. Then cook for 1 hour in oven
  6. Remove tin foil and cook for another 25 minutes
  7. Increase the heat to 200C (390F) and cook for another 20 minutes
  8. You can eat straight from the oven or set aside to cool

Have fun!