Peanut Miso with Soba and mini Bento

Hi hi, like to share with you a recent dish that I cooked. This dish was inspired by one I ate at a vegan store at Beach Road. I loved the dressing on the green soba noodle they used. I thought I tasted peanut and miso when I ate it and so I researched via internet to learn about dressing that used miso and peanut. This recipe that I am sharing here comes very close to what I have tasted earlier. And I added chicken slices and green veg to go with the dressing and the buckwheat noodle. Yummy and healthy food. 🙂

Peanut miso dressing

2/3 cup chicken stock

2/3 cup peanut butter

3 tbsp miso

1/4 cup lime juice

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp ginger

1tbsp garlic

pinch of white pepper

Place all ingredients in food blender and blend for about 1 minute to form a smooth dressing. Can store in fridge for about a week and can use it for salad dressing too.

Also, like share with you a mini bento box I prepared for Zachary during his school excursion to the zoo. This is a snack bento. You can get most of the stuff I used here from Daiso.

The Japanese really love doing  bento box for their kids but I guess in Singapore, bento making is not common and seriously, I doubt I can find time to make these for Zachary to bring school. But it is really rewarding to see his happy face when he received this bento box

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Exam on bday

Hi Hi. It has once again been a long time since I last posted here. I had been busy studying.

My examination for my first paper of my audit certification was yesterday and I am now glad that it’s over and I pass it. Shall take a short break before embarking on the next paper.

And silly me had arranged for my examination to be on same day as my birthday. And ya, I am a year older since yesterday.

Hubby, Zachary and me celebrated together at Tung Lok Signature last night. Food was quite nice and I love the smoked duck breast. Ambience was not bad at the branch in Central.

And this year, Zachary was able to wish me “happy birthday mommy”. 🙂

Enjoyed the food and also my fabric and books shopping at Orchard yesterday.

During these days of studying hard for exam, I really miss crafting. I do some little crafting and sewing on and off but just simply could not get enough of them. Hoping to get more crafting done before I start preparation for next exam. Maybe a quilt this round? We shall see.

Also, I am so excited to be able to start preparing for my Taiwan and Hong Kong trip in mid May. It has been around 4 years since I last visited Taiwan and Hong Kong. And I going to hunt for some interesting craft items there this round. Actually, this trip was meant to be to Japan and we had booked all hotels and tickets and I had done most research before the earthquakes struck Japan. Since we are going to bring Zachary along and not want him be exposed to the radiation, we had then very very reluctantly cancelled our trip to Japan. I am hoping Japan will recover soon and we can visit this wonderful place next year.

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Ondeh Ondeh

Hubby was overseas last weekend for work. Had actually planned for a meet up with 2 of my close friends with their boys over at my place but it had to be called off at last minute. Luckily, my parents were free to come over and my mother in law and neighbor were fortunately around to help me eat the 40 over ondeh ondeh that me and Zachary has made.

 This little sweet treats are best eaten the very day itself as the grated coconut will just turn bad fast. I have attached the recipe here, adapted from seasaltwithfood blog. I have not used the pandan extract as the sweet potatoes I bought has a nice orange color.

Ingredients

500 g White Color Sweet Potato Flesh (3 Medium, about 720g)
150 g Glutinous Rice Flour
20 g All-Purpose Flour

2 Tbsp Pandan Extract (8 Pandan Leaves, pounded)
150 g Gula Melaka (Palm Sugar), finely chopped
150 g Grated Coconut

A Pinch Of Sea Salt

Method

Boil the sweet potatoes in a medium pot until tender, 20 to 30 minutes, depending on size of potatoes.

When cool enough to handle, mash the potatoes in a potato riser or masher. (If you are using a masher, you will have to peel the potatoes first)

In a large bowl, combine the sweet potato with glutinous rice flour, all-purpose flour, and Pandan extract and with knead well to form a soft dough.

Mix the grated coconut with a pinch of salt and steam for about 2 – 3 minutes and let it cool completely

Bring a pot of water to boil. Pinch a small piece of dough (about 15 g each) and flatten lightly. Fill the center of the dough with palm sugar. Roll them in your palm to form a smooth ball and cook the ondeh ondeh in the boiling water. When the ondeh ondeh float to the surface, remove them with a slotted spoon and shake off the excess water.

Coat the ondeh ondeh with grated coconut and serve immediately.

Makes about 40 balls   

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Our 1st Crop Party

Hope you have a nice holiday yesterday. For me, I have bought Zachary with me to a crop party at Moy Yin’s place.

Our crop theme was xmas cards; but we only made one and spent the rest of time having tea, eating the yummy luncheon meat sandwiches and the nutella cupcakes I made specially for the gals at the crop party. And also, we decided to go shopping for stamps after the tea session. Ha ha.

I really wish to thanks Moy Yin for showing us to her craft area, giving free live demo on cricut expression and Yenni for sharing her card making tips and techniques. You may go into their blogs for more details of our crop party and the cards they made. Check out Yenni’s blog for lovely blog candy and drool at all her beautiful cards she make.

Lots of photos to share here.

a. nutella cupcakes I made

b. the xmas card I made.

c. the handmade gift from Yenni. (yenni: thanks so much. *hug hug*)

d. me and yenni and her card she made

e. me and moy yin and the card she made

f. busy zachary at our crop party

g. vintagy findings

h. moy yin’s craft area and interesting things she has

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Celebration @ Culina

Last Friday, we had an earlier birthday celebration for Zachary’s daddy at Culina. Daddy just gone on a 3 week reservist in Australia, hence the need for an earlier celebration.

The 3 of us had truly enjoyed our lunch there. Cosy environment and super fresh and yummy food. The ocean trout we ordered was very fresh and cooked just to the right tenderness. The kurobuta pork was also very juicy and contained just the right amount of fats.

Culina also carry liquor, fresh vegetable, meat and some hard to find culinary ingredients. Nice place to eat, rest and shop which give enough reasons for me to celebrate hubby’s birthday there for 2 years consecutively.

Make your way to Culina at Demsey if you have not been there. And on your way, pop by Huber Butchery for some great meat. I love the ham sold at Huber. Oh ya, Christmas is coming soon! One of my favorite festival with gift exchanges and xmas gatherings.

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Kabocha

Happy Halloween. I hope you have enjoyed your Halloween celebration as much as I have enjoyed looking at Zachary in his pumpkin cape and hat. Although he had hated putting on the pumpkin costume at home, he had thoroughly enjoyed walking round Orchard Road in it (as you can see from the photos below).

 

And an earlier celebration dish I prepared for the occasion was the roasted Kabocha (Japanese Pumpkin). I was given a free Kabocha when I was buying a dress at Parco Millenia last Friday during lunch. I had heard from my colleagues who bought the Kabocha that this is a very sweet and tasty pumpkin and it tastes great even if you just purely steam it.

So for the last weekend, I prepared two versions of Kabocha dishes. For the first one, I simply roast the cut Kabocha (skin on) at 200 deg.c for about 15 min. Added only olive oil and salt to it before roasting.

Recipe for second version as follow:

•  
  1. Cut kabocha into cubes (skin on)
  2. Add 3 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp mirin and about 1 cup of chicken stock to the kabocha placed in a pan (make sure the stock covers the kabocha)
  3. When the mixture boils, cover the pan and let it simmer till the liquid is almost gone.
  4. Put in roasted sesame seed and stir fry awhile

Well, my colleagues are right. The Kabocha has an exceptionally natural sweet flavor. Even the soy sauce I added for the second dish does not cover over the naturally sweet flavor of it. And the sweet tooth boy loves this.

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Dim Sum @ Peach Garden

Have always wanted to meet the blog author for ‘ieatishootipost’, Dr Leslie Tay. But unfortunately, I was always too late to sign up for his makan and food photography session.

So, when I saw his blog post on the Peach Garden Dim Sum food photography cum makan session on the very day he posted, I thought I was real lucky to finally be able book a place for the session. The session was 2 Saturdays ago and would like to share some photos taken here. The dim sum at Peach Garden was really good and I like the siew mai and the bean curd skin with prawn the most. And of course, I bought home with me some valuable food photography tips from Leslie too (We have learnt about the Fibonacci curve from him!).

Some photos taken during the makan session:

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Mushroom Pasta with Citrus Soy Dressing

I always love mushrooms and anything citrus. So when I chanced upon this recipe on ‘Steamy Kitchen’, I told myself to try it for sure. And I was really fast this time round to buy the necessary ingredients the very day and cooked it during the last weekend, just before hubby flew off.

I have used the Korean Shimeji and the oyster mushroom.

Recipe for the mushroom pasta as follows (extracted from ‘Steamy Kitchen’):

Serves 4

12 ounces fresh mushrooms, ends trimmed and separated
1/2 pound dried pasta of your choice
1 tablespoon cooking oil
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1 teaspoon minced fresh herbs of your choice (i.e. cilantro, parsley., green onion, chives)

For the dressing
1 lemon, zested
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
11/2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta according to package directions, then drain.

2. To make the dressing, combine all the ingredients except for the extra virgin olive oil in a bowl. Whisk for a few seconds, until all ingredients are combined. Then drizzle in the extra virgin olive oil and whisk briskly until emulsified.

3. Heat a fry pan or skillet over medium high heat. When hot, swirl in the cooking oil and add the mushrooms. Cook for 2 minutes until the mushrooms have softened. Turn off heat, toss in the cooked pasta, citrus soy sauce, sesame seeds and the fresh herbs.

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Blackforest @ Canele

The interview for the Big Shot I went to 2 weeks back ended much earlier than I thought. So I had a few hours to myself  before I need to pick up Zachary. And I decided to pop in to Canele for a quick tea session.

Many options available and many chocolate ones too. Took me awhile to decide on my all time favorite – blackforest. It was so beautifully handcrafted – in fact, all the desserts in the display were all beautifully crafted.

And it definitely tasted as fabulous as it looked. Chocolate genoise with kirsch, layered with 66% dark chocolate mousse, chocolate crumble, kirsch chantilly and dark cherry. The cherry seems to taste like the one I have in my fridge – the Griottines. These Griottines cherries surely taste heavenly.

I will make my way back to Canele to try the other chocolate desserts. And definitely thumbs up for the service at the Shaw branch and the very cosy setting.

 

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A farewell lunch @ Novus

My big boss from Liechtenstein is retiring by end of the year. So, he was here the past week for his last time to the Singapore office for an joint audit. Though I only get to meet him only for 3 times for the past 2.5 years, I have got to know that he enjoys music, nice food and reading a lot. He’s a rich man and lacks nothing; has a wonderful wife and house back in Switzerland and he’s looking forward to his retirement. So, for his farewell gift, I have got him a Mitch Albom’s latest book and also a compilation of classical violin pieces.  It was a very humble gift from me definitely. But I could see that he was very touched by my sincerity and could not stop thanking me for the gift and thoughts.

And we bought him to this fine dining place at Novus, located at National Museum, for his farewell lunch. I chanced upon this place via a food and entertainment magazine. Searched on this place and read very good review about it. Indeed, the ambience and the food standard was far better than I had expected. And my 3 other bosses were extremely pleased with the place and food. Of course, I am indeed glad that I have found this place for them and for myself.

So what’s so great about Novus? Hmm, the staff was nice and attentive. Food we had was extremely tasty (my big boss said this was the best he had throughout the stay in Singapore for the past week) and the food styling was impressive.  And haha, the chef, Stephen Zoiss from Austria, which we got to meet up with, is so handsome and young.

It was a pity that I didn’t bring along my camera to take snapshots of the food. But I am definitely making another trip to Novus soon; very sure of that. Till then, I will post the pictures of the food to share with you.

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