June 17, 2008
My husband loves peanut sauce! He loves it in his french fries, satay (sate) chicken, siopao ( or bapao, steamed buns with filling such as chicken or pork) and his most favorite is ‘gado-gado’. That’s typcial Dutch boiled mix vegetables with plenty of peanut sauce on top! When I first got here (Holland) I thought to myself ‘what’s the fuss?’ when we first went out to dine at my father in law and husband’s favorite Indonesian restaurant. They were raging about how ‘nice’ their gado gado was. I tried to hide my disappointment when it finally served on our table because really, it was just what I mentioned above. the restaurant’s peanut sauce didn’t entertained my palate.
If you wanna try it, just boil veggies like cauli flower, beans, carrots, cabbage, also boil some eggs that you top on the sauce. the peanut sauce was commercial bought since this was a quick fix I made during an unplanned menu. I much prefer it with my home-made peanut sauce.
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Posted in vegetables 
3 Comments »
June 17, 2008
Lucky for my future groom then, that we got married in Holland. And that it happened during the time that I wasn’t quite accustomed to my environment nor didn’t know where to get important stuff. I didn’t really know then where and how to arrange our wedding, which all decision was left to me by the groom. Otherwise it would have cost him a bit of fortune had I known how to use the internet to find a catering. Like this Arizona wedding catering.
When I was young, I used to dream about a perfect wedding! I guess every single female dreams of that. You know, from catering, flowers, sitting arrangements, food to serve, wedding singers..all those you need to arrange for a wedding. Arizona catering for sure would have provided us the perfect food instead of me running down the city when I tried to find a restaurant that would cater for our wedding. Must be really nice living in a country as huge as the United States where many services like the Phoenix Arizona catering make it easy for people planning a wedding. As I browse their site, I can’t help but wish I was marrying again! Their menus is unbelievably wide. Selections from Breakfast & Brunch, Served Luncheon, Luncheon Buffet, Hors d’Oeuvres, Hors d’Oeuvre Receptions, to Served dinners, Dinner Buffet, Theme Buffet, Dessert Menu and Beverage Menu.
Ah, it must have been nice to get their service if ever we celebrate a decade of anniversary by renewing our vows have them cater for us, wow!
Posted in cook's off, ideas No Comments »
June 10, 2008
A simple yet tasty salad to make, that’s what I had in mind one particular morning. So off I went to the grocery to buy my ingredients and you might say that it sound like Thai’s papaya salad. In a way, they are similar. But this one’s a Vietnamese recipe. You might want to try it, truly a great salad to have on your table.
Ingredients
- 500g beef (prime, soft meat piece)
- large green papaya
- 2 tbsp nuoc cham sauce ( commercial: 2 cloves garlic, minced, 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, 3 tablespoons white sugar, 2 tablespoons lime juice, 4 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 cup water)
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- julienned carrot (optional, I added to this for extra sweetness)
- small sliced red onion (optional)
- 20g Vietnamese mint
- fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
- red chilies, seeded and finely sliced
- 2 tbsp sugar
- unsalted roasted peanuts, finely chopped
Place the beef in a frying pan with enough water to just cover it. Simmer gently for 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked. Remove from the liquid, cool completely, then slice finely. Peel the papaya, grate the flesh into long shreds. Mix gently with the mint, coriander, chili, nuoc cham sauce, vinegar, lime juice and sugar. Mix in the beef and add peanuts just before serving. To maintain freshness of the leaves, serve immediately.
Posted in Vietnamese recept, salad 6 Comments »
June 10, 2008
I am going to take a vacation in the coming months and that will be back in Asia where my parents, sisters, nephews and nieces and all relatives live. The last time that I saw any of them was in 2004 so can you imagine my excitement to go back home?! I miss my father whose been sick for 11 years now and I also miss my mother whose not getting any younger and is the one taking care of my father. Ah, the downside of living away from the rest of your family.
On the lighter side, I am in search for a cool presents I can give to everybody back home. I already have bought stuff for the older ones so I am in search of what to give my young nephews and nieces. I want it to be something that they can use, like a shirt that they can actually wear. I also want it to be designed by myself. Only printing press in my area does not accept few orders. Again, the internet has given me a great idea because I found just the right online store that not only will let me design the shirts myself, but because they have an easy to use interface, designing is easy! I actually am getting excited at the idea of ordering not only Custom T Shirts from them but also bags! Imagine I can design to my hearts content - I’m quite handy with Photoshop, and just upload them to the website. Choosing the shirt color is easy, they have loads of colors, designs, and types of shirts. From V-neck, round neck, short sleeves or long sleeves. I already have the exact shirt for each kid back home. I hope they all like my presents, and actually use them!
Posted in chitchat, cook's off No Comments »
June 10, 2008
Each Saturday, my husband and I lunch in this very simple Mc Donald type Chinese WOK to go place, just at the next city. Without tasting their wonderful ‘Kikkoman Fish’ which is my all time favorite, my weekend is never complete. I’m serious! ha ha ha! Anyway, I tried to make some at home - whatever I can find in my kitchen, I mixed in this own concoction…and this was a quick shot of it. My husband gave it a two thumbs up, said it was even better than the commercial one we have during the weekends. Ah, must be real love, eh? *lol*
I just took a quick snap but as you can see, I did not even focused properly because I really wanted to try it immediately. I gave my shoulder a pat afterwards. Allow me to say it, it was nice.
What I used: white fish, filleted, coated in flour and browned in hot oil. Roughly cut vegies like carrot, red bell pepper, baby corn, leeks, snap peas (you can actually use any vegetable that doesn’t produce too much water, that’ll be great!), kikkoman sauce (japanese soya sauce) a bit of light soya sauce, chopped onion, chopped garlic, pepper, and fish sauce. Use thickener if you’d like some thick sauce.
Great with steamed jasmine rice I tell you!
Posted in own Recipe, seafood 1 Comment »
June 10, 2008
Since March of this year, my foodblog has been pretty ‘inactive’ due to many things that have happened around me and my family. There was death int he family, I lost my job. had to find a new one. And now I have just that. In as much as I would like to update this regularly, it had to take a back seat since I was not really cooking much. And not only that. I had to open another website few weeks back, it’s kind of a special project and it’s been taking what’s left of my internet time. To be honest at times when I’m too tired from work, I do not want to do any internet activities and just focus on other things. Even for relaxation I had to find something else to do than turning on my laptop. For fun I turn to my PSP (playstation portable) and I’m quite happy about it since I have learned how to play pool!
Yeah, you might not believe it but a game like pool which I found really boring in the past relaxes me now whenever I need some. What makes it fun is that it takes away my thought from food (oh yeah! because of the past months of losing my job and death, I kind of ‘let go’, was a bit depressed and now I’m carrying probably extra 15 lbs that I want to lose!) and if my husband will agree with my idea, maybe we can play the real thing once in a while since he also likes pool. In the past during his younger years, he was good at billiards so I asked him to teach me play the real thing. He has been giving me tips which pool cues to use and has even found this link, PoolDawg Review for me to check out.
Ah, maybe there’s a truth in the saying ‘a family that plays together, stays together’ . And of course, I wish to be back to regular blogging here, soon.
Posted in buzz, cook's off No Comments »
May 23, 2008
On my previous entry, I posted my homemade peanut satay sauce which I used for my chicken satay. But if you noticed there was another dip in the photo, and that was my simple vinegar dip.
I rather like this too because it balances the thickness and richness of the peanut sauce. And pretty simpel to make too.
All you need is few tablespoons of vinegar then mix it with crystal sugar. The trick is to simply adjust it to your taste by constantly tasting while mixing. Just before serving the satay , chop some fresh cucumber with skin included and some red bell pepper , mix it in at the last moment to prevent the pieces from cooking.
Why not try it, you might like it!
Posted in barbeque, dip, ideas 5 Comments »
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