Bento post is moving home ~ Dedicated2Bento

Hello all,

I have decided to move all my Bento post to Dedicated2Bento blog.  Hope you like it there, and feel free to leave comment if you any question or suggestion.

Enjoy

Arale79

Feast of the month – Angler’s Birthday

Today is my angler’s birthday, so I thought I cook him dinner instead of going out.

I recently bought cookbook called Wakiya – Chinese Cuisine and in the book he say on special occasion prepare 9 dishes and then he goes on to say each dishes need to have meaning (can’t be bothered with that ha ha)

So here we go

1. Cuttlefish Ball
2. Coconut Juice
3. Spicy Prawn
4. SaCha Beef
5. Ching Bu Liang Soup
6. Rice
7. Mee Goreng
8. Birthday Cake
9. Green Tea

 

Snack

Catch of the day is Cuttlefish, when it comes to cuttlefish, the easiest dish I can prepare is Cuttlefish ball. after a few practise, i am quite happy with the way it taste now but one things that irritates me is whenever I lift the cuttlefish ball out of the hot oil, within minutes it shrinkss!!!! if any of you know how to prevent this, pls let me know!

Cuttlefish

Cuttlefish Ball

Drink

On our recent trip to CostCo, we found they sell a dozen of young coconut for $16, sound like a bargain to me. we brought them to Ms Chang place for dinner, when it comes to opening it, we was like “okaaaay, din think about that, how do we open then, fortunately after years of watching abang-abang (means young man in indo) opening coconut, i also practise their stunt using meat cleaver. see evidence below (quite an expert isnt it ha ha ha, nice square ring)

Young Coconut Juice

Main

Spicy Prawn

Stir Fry Sliced Beef and Snow Pea with Sa Cha Sauce

Chinese Herbs Soup - Ching Bu Liang

As with Asian tradition, when it’s your birthday, you will need to eat noodle ( I think it mean longevity hmm or is it prosperity), my two minutes solution is Indonesian Instant Noodle – Mee Goreng (he he)

Mee Goreng

Dessert

My most anticipated dish of the night is the Birthday Cake, I bought this cake from Cacao @Kew and it is called “Glamour Dome” it is quite stunning and soooooooooooooooo tasty.

Glamourous Dome!!!

 After the rich cake, as I am getting guilty by the minutes (after days and days of eating), we just have to wash down the guilt with hot green tea (abit like after confession session, you are clear of your sin? wishful thinking haha)

Grean Tea

Feast of the Month – New Year Eve Dinner 2009

My cousin (thanks Ms Chang) invited me to her house for new year eve dinner, we were discussing what we should prepared for dinner, in the end we decided we will cook dishes that we normally ordered at Chinese restaurant.  its our first time preparing steam scallop, braised pork belly and lobster with ginger and scallion. We are quite happy with the end result – yummm – Durian Sponge Cake is heavennnnn (I can’t get enough of the durian cream)

Appetizer

Cream Cheese Sundried Tomato Puff

 Entree

Steamed Scallop with Vermicelli and XO Sauce

 Main Dishes

Braised pork belly with mushroom and tofu

Lobster with Ginger & Scallion

Dessert

Durian Sponge Cake

Catch of the week – Brown Trout 2.0

I have a book about japanese knives and am quite intriqued about  Hiraki (Butterflying) cut, so I show it to my angler, “can you do this cut?’ he say “I can try” “ok. then if you were to catch brown/rainbown trout, bring one home”

Today I get not only one but two brown trout (early xmas present? HOPE NOT!!!!), I was going to try out the recipe in the book its a simple grilled semi-dried trout however my angler worry that it will be quite fishy and we might not like it, so I did tea-smoked instead. From some of the recipes that i can find on the internet, it is done on wok and use bamboo steamer (which I dont have) and then I saw one that recommend using cake rack (hmm that mean I can use my steamer rack and i will use claypot instead of wok)

I prepared two different type of tea-smoke mixture (my angler liked first version and i liked the latter)

• Long Grain Rice – Green Tea – Brown Sugar  (Result : Sweet, Clean Taste)
• Long Grain Rice – Jasmine Tea – Brown Sugar – Sweet Paprika – Star Anise – Cinnamon Stick (Result : Slight spicy and quite fragrant)

 

 

Catch of the week – Garfish 2.0

My angler caught garfish again, if any of you need futher intro of Garfish  <– click on the link

Today I have about 10 garfish that has been filleted nicely so I decided to make 2 dishes again. the Theme of the dinner is “Garfish all the way” ha ha.

First Dish is Shredded Fish Spring Onion Omelette

I have only ever make Spring Onion Omelette with dried small anchovies so this is my first go, i used about 5 fillet that I first pan fried on lightly oiled nonstick pan then I cracked 2 egg in a bowl, sliced 2 stalk of spring onion thinly, 1 tbsp of fish sauce, tear cook fillet into small pieces and whisk all together and make omelette. I might either use less fish or 1 more egg next time.

Second Dish is Pik Fong Tong Style Fish which means wind sheltering (dont ask me why it is called that way), all i know is it is  yummy. I first deep fried the fish fillet and then dry stir fry it with crispy garlic,  Panko (Jap bread crumbs), green onion and lots of chilies.

Catch of the week – Squid 2.0

Yes, squid again, does it mean that we love squid? I think so he he

My angler bought home 2 squid, each squid is about 300g.

I prepared two dishes, one is Spicy XO Squid and another is homemade Squid (Sotong) Ball. I am quite happy how the sotong ball turn out, recently I had “Cham” tea with my good fren at Oldtown cafe and I saw the fish & sotong ball which remind me to try out recipe that I saw on my cookbook. it is definitely less work than making fishball.

Spicy XO Squid

Squid (Sotong) Ball

Squid_SpicySotongBall

 

Catch of the week – Silver Trevally

This week catch is Silver Trevally also known as Blutter, Croaker, Silver, Skipjack, Skippy or White Trevally.

Quote from Fish Australia Book

By far the most common trevally in coller southern waters, this fish is normally caught in sizes ranges from juveniles weighing half a kg in estuaries to adults from 3 to 5 kg around reefs and open headlands.

 

I asked my angler to fillet the trevally on one side and leave the other side on the bone as I am trying out 2 recipes. The fillet is to be grilled and the other parts is to be steamed.

Snack of the day – Mini Ginger Cake with Honey Glaze

I love ginger – I have ginger everyday, ginger in my tea, cook soup with ginger, stir fry with ginger and bake with ginger too.

Mini Ginger Cake

 

Catch of the week – Squid/Calamari

Squid/Calamari

I got phone call from my other half , “I caught squid, how many do you need?” “Two is enough, not too big one”

So there you go, as per my request, I have two squid to prepare for dinner.

Squid Tentacles

I have been meaning to try out a few recipes from the Izakaya book (By Mark Robinson). One of them is Stir Fry Squid Tentacle with Celery.

Stir Fry Squid Tentacle and Celery

Squid Tubes

I am also trying recipe from my fav Japanese cooking site Yasuko-San’s – Ika Meshi (Squid stuffed with Sweet Rice). this dish is so tasty and easy to prepare.

Stuffed Sweet Rice Squid

Yummm

Arale79

Vegetable of the week – Chokoe/Chayote

This vegetable goes by a few different names depending where you live.  Chokoe (Australia), Labu Siam (in Indonesia), Buddha Palm Gourd (佛手瓜), Chayote (US). Chokoe may look like pear but that is where the similarities end.

Chokoes  is low in calories  as well as rich in pro-vitamin C , low in sodium, no cholestrol and high in fiber.

How do you prepare Chokoe dishes?

Here are few dishes that I knew of

• Stir fried Chokoe with dried and fresh prawn
• Lodeh Labu Siam (Chokoe in Coconut milk)
• Chokoe and Barley Soup
• Chokoe, Corn and Lotus root Soup