My Kitchen

I read Edith's and Angie's blogs about their kitchens and this has inspired me to make this as my next blog topic.

My present kitchen is the second kitchen that I've had a chance to freely design. My first kitchen had a black and grey color combination and since I wanted a more cheerful color for my second kitchen I opted to get turqoise kitchen cabinets. It's a soothing color for me cos' this kitchen has no open views from the kitchen windows. Also, with the experience of staying in flats I didn't want a kitchen that gets a person isolated from the rest of the house once you step into the kitchen.

So when we bought this house, I had a major wall opened half way and also created an opening next to the living room. Now when I stand in the kitchen I can see almost the entire house and knows practically who is walking in and out of the rooms. And the best thing about the opening next to the living room is that I can watch my favourite TV programs while cooking the family's dinner :-) When the children were younger, this opening also allowed me to keep watch over the children when I was cooking in the kitchen.
So here's presenting my kitchen .....


This view of the kitchen was taken from the play area where the computers are.
Pardon the mess as you can see this kitchen is totally lived in LOL.

My kitchen sits the family dining table and this black marble table was given to me by my dad when he shifted out of the area. This marble table also gives me fond memories of the foods my mum had cooked for the family when I was a young adult. It was around this table that sat my mum, dad, brother and I and now it sits my family of six. This is also the table that I used to roll the dough of the breads and buns that I baked.

Here are pics giving you a closer look of what I have in the kitchen.
That's my ds J washing up after one evening's meal.

IK Gathering Jan 07

Members of Imperial Kitchen had a gathering at L's place on 7th Jan 2007.
We had over 20 members coming together to eat our lovely bakes and tete-e-tete over green tea and orange juice. It was a warm and friendly get together where I had the chance to meet up with some of those that I already know and made new friends too. This chance to meet up also enabled me to put ID names to faces. Ah...the only regret was that I didn't have a chance to speak to everyone and also I missed getting my photo shoots ...urgh. Hopefully next time I'll remember.

Orange Chiffon

I used the Pandan Chiffon recipe but substituted a couple of ingredients for the Orange Chiffon. The taste is nice and the cake is still fluffy. Only thing is the orange color is not strong enough to make the chiffon look orange.

Ingredients:

(A) 4 nos. large eggs yolks
1/2 tsp orange paste
1/4 tsp salt
zest from 1 orange

(B) 85 mls sunflower/corn oil
125 mls orange juice

(C) 150 gm cake flour
1 tsp baking powder

(D) 4 nos. large egg whites
140 gm caster sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

Method:

Pre-heat oven at 170 degree C.

Separate egg yolks from whites.

Use a fork and beat up (A) till well mix.

In a mixer bowl beat up (D) till stiff peak forms (i.e. when bowl is inverted the beaten egg whites remain inside).

Add in (A) into the mixer bowl and mix well, then add in (B) and also stir well.

Add in (C) and fold in gently till well blended.

Pour batter into a 20 cm. chiffon cake pan.

Bang the pan on a hard surface to release the bubbles.

Bake for 35-40 mins.

When the cake is ready, remove from the oven and give it a bang on a hard surface.

Then invert the pan and cool the cake.

When the cake is completely cool, remove cake from the pan using a thin knife to slice the sides and the bottom.

Mui Choy Pork Belly Stew

My dear friend B suggested to me to cook this dish cos' this dish can be kept frozen for a long time. Since it's a stew, the dish will become more tasty overtime. I searched through the internet as well as the websites that I frequent and finally came upon this blog called pablopabla. From the write up about Mui Choy pork in this blog and also the tips given by my friend B, I came up with this recipe. Here's sharing it with you....

Ingredients:

1 packet (300 gm) sweet Mei Chai, soaked for an hour, washed and water wringed out and then shredded.
1 packet (300 gm) salted Mei Chai, processed same as above.
500 gm pork belly, skin removed and cut into small pieces after washing with salt.
2 whole garlic, chopped.
2 tbsp cooking oil.
3 cups warm water

Marinade the pork pieces with ....(for about an hour)
2 tbsp chinese wine
2 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar

Method:

Fry chopped garlic in 2 tbsp of hot oil till fragrant.

Add in the marinaded pork slices and fry for about 3 minutes.

Add in the 2 kinds of Mei Chai vegetables and mix well.

Add in the 3 cups of water or till the ingredients are just below water and let the ingredients simmer for about 2 hours, covered.

Do open the cover and stir the ingredients once in a while.

Once the ingredients have softened, you may want to adjust the taste with either sugar or salt or both to your liking.

Fish fillet with Salted mustard green

Here's what I did with my Batang fillet.....

Ingredients:
300 gm Batang fillet, cubed
(Marinade fish cubes with salt, sugar, sesame oil, chinese wine and corn flour for about half an hour.)

100 gm Salted mustard green ( kiam chye),
(shredded after soaking for about half an hour.)

1 tsp garlic, chopped finely
1 tsp ginger, chopped finely
1 tbsp fermented soya bean paste
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup water

Method:
Heat up 3 tbsp oil and fry garlic, ginger and fermented soya paste till fragrant.

Add in the fish cubes and fry evenly and then add in the shredded mustard green.

Add in the water and simmer, covered for about 10 minutes till fish is cooked.

Season the dish with rice vinegar and sugar and mix well.

Dish up and serve warm.

Szechuan Peppercorn Pork Stew

I had seen a recipe using Szechuan peppercorn to cook pork at Kitchencapers by a lady named Gina. I adapted the recipe and cooked it the way I know how.
Dh gave the thumbs up and ate a lot more than he usually did.

Ingredients:
400 gm shoulder butt pork, cubed
2 tbsp ginger juice
2 tbsp Szechuan peppercorns
2 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
half cup water

Method:
Marinade the cubed pork with all the ingredients above except the water for about an hour or more.

Heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil and stir-fry over high heat the pork cubes for about two minutes.

Add the water and let the pork cubes simmer for about half an hour over medium heat, covered.

When the liquid has reduced to half, check the pork cubes for tenderness.

Dish up and serve hot with white rice.

Beijing cabbage with button mushrooms & carrots

Noticed that I use Beijing cabbage quite a lot of times cos this is quite a hardy vege and it can be kept in the fridge for more than a week. I usually go to the supermarket once or twice a week and by the time the weekend comes I'm almost always left with this vege to cook. So here's sharing how I cooked it ...

Ingredients:
Half a head of Beijing cabbage, shredded.
6-8 pieces of canned button mushrooms, halved.
Half a carrot, sliced.
3 cloves of garlic, chopped.
2 slices of ginger, julined.
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tsps oyster sauce
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp chinese wine
fried onions and onion oil

Method:
Heat up 3 tbsps of oil and fry garlic, ginger and carrots till fragrant.

Add in the cabbage and mushrooms and mix well.

Add in water and let cabbage simmer for about two minutes, covered.

Remove cover and add in the salt, sugar, pepper, oyster sauce and chinese wine.

Stir well and scoop cabbage up.

Garnish cabbage with fried onions and a tsp of onion oil.

Nocturnal Nutella Muffins

Cos' I baked them in the night ,while watching the Countdown show and waiting for the countdown to 2007 :-)
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year !

I got the recipe from Edith's blog and here's sharing the recipe with you.
Recipe is good for 48 mini muffins.

Ingredients:
140 gm salted batter, softened
100 gm caster sugar
3 nos. eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
200 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella chocolate for topping

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 170 degree C and line mini muffin tins.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs and vanilla essence and stir till well mixed.

Fold in the flour and baking powder till well blended.

Fill each muffin cup 3/4 full.

Top each muffin batter with nutella chocolate and use a toothpick to swirl some batter over the chocolate.

Bake for 15 mins and remove from oven when sufficiently golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack and store in air-tight container when cooled completely.

NB: Sometimes for variation I would use the batter as it is and stuff a frozen blueberry into the muffin batter. This also tastes good.