Cookbook Challenge 7.0 – Durian Cream Sponge Cake January 1, 2010

 We were invited to my cousin’s (Ms Chang) place for New Year Eve Cook & Dine, so I took this opportunities to “action” this week Cookbook Challenge. As this week theme is Soft, my first thought goes to cake – I remembered my mom used to bake us Swiss roll (Bolu Gulung in Indo), she would normally use pineapple jam or stawberry jam, since Ms Chang said she has durian, we decided to make Durian cream Swiss Roll.

The reason why Durian Swiss Roll turns Durian Sponge Cake is because we had a slight mishap, we spread durian cream on the presentation side (oooopss – due to excitement i believe hahahha), so instead of rolling it up, we have to stack it up instead ha ha ( I can assure you- it doesnt affect the taste whatsoever – heaven!!!!)

This recipe is adapted from my cousin’s Magimix Recipe book

Durian Cream Sponge Cake

Cookbook Challenge 6.0 – Gingerbread Men December 28, 2009

 As I am in Sydney celebrating Xmas with my siblings, I didn’t bring any of my cookbooks with me so  I went to Coles to get their Christmas Magazine. This recipe is a blend of 2 recipes – Spiced Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread Men. Everyone in the house had a go at decorating the cookies, the outcome shows that we havent got much talent in decorating ha ha (most of the adults, we blame it on the cookies being too small to decorate, but we all know the real reason dont we? hahaha). The recipe use golden syrup but we havent got any at home so we replace it with Korean honey ginger tea which turn out surprisingly good.

Cookbook Challenge 5.0 – Watermelon and Feta Salad December 20, 2009

Watermelon & Feta Cheese Salad

 

I was quite worry about this week cookbook challenge theme “Greek” as I don’t own any greek cuisine cookbook.  When searching through my bookshelf  I come across ”Fabulous Salad” book and found “Greek Garden Salad” which consist of tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese, red onion and olives.  then I remember having seen some cooking show where the chef  was replacing olives with watermelon. so I prepare this salad for this week cookbook challenge get together at @Rilsta house ( I had so much fun – get together rock! thanks Rilsta for organising).

CookBook Challenge 4.0 – Butter Bean, Red Kidney and Wakame Salad with Lemon Dressing December 13, 2009

When I saw this week cookbook theme “Beans”, my first thought is yes, I’m going to pick something vegetarian.

This recipe is adapted from “The Enlightened Kitchen  – Fresh Vegetable Dishes from the Temples of Japan” by Mari Fujii. The recipe called for Cannellini Bean however I use butter bean instead. Mari did noted that you can replace cannellini bean with pea, edamame bean, soybeans or any mixed beans.

“Wakame seaweed and beans are both high in fiber, making this salad both nutritious and tasty”

Butter, Red Kidney Bean & Wakame Salad

Cookbook Challenge 3.2 – Chicken Rolled in Sesame Seeds December 6, 2009

This recipe is adapted from “Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking” by Harumi Kurihara

In the book, she mention that you can also use small pieces of boneless chicken thighs or chicken breasts for this recipe. I guess being this week theme is hor d’oeuvres I should have done that. however me being me, when I saw the photo in the cookbook and I just haveto replicate what I see, so chicken wingette it is  ha ha.

Chicken Rolled in Sesame Seeds

Cookbook Challenge 3.1 – Seaweed Chicken Roll-Ups December 4, 2009

I am very excited with this week’s theme of hor d’oeuvres (although I have to double check with Rilsta what hor-d’oeuvres is  ha ha but once i get that sorted, off i go searching through my cookbooks)

I decided to try out 2 recipes, one is from a dimsum book and another is a Japanese cookbook. Both recipes actually share a “Star” ingredients which is Sesame Seeds. I love sesame seeds(black and white), i just sprinkle it anything and everything (luckily I am not allergic to sesame seeds, then obviously I wont be doing that huh? ha ha)

First recipe is adapted from “Chinese Dim Sum” – Wei Chuan Publishing

I follow the recipe to a Tee except I use one extra ingredient – At first I was quite concern that the sesame seeds would not stick to the chicken roll when being deep-fry, so i rollup one seaweed chicken and did a trial. indeed as soon as the seaweed chicken hit the cooking oil, all sesame seeds “unstick” itself and float up. then I remember there is some chinese book i read before, you need to dip into egg white before coating sesame seeds, so I did that and I was quite happy that at least some of the sesame seeds stay ha ha ha

The chicken paste is actually quite tasty and easy to prepare, i might try to make chicken nugget out of it next time.  except i think i will bake the nugget (healthier option) instead of deep frying.

Seaweed Chicken Roll Up

Chicken Thigh 1.0 – Stir fry Chicken with Roasted Chestnut December 3, 2009

During winter time, we often buy fresh chestnut and bake them using tanyu claypot, however since it is summer now, it is hard to find it at our local groceries shop hence I resort to pre-roasted peeled chestnut, still taste as good thou and less work ha ha

Stir fry Chicken & Roasted Chestnut

Cookbook Challenge 2.0 – Pork Vindaloo November 26, 2009

This recipe is adapted from “Asian Flavors of Jean-Georges” by Jean-Georges Vongerichten.

I don’t normally cook Indian curries, most of the time it is either Indo,Thai or Jap curries and it’s also interesting that this curries use vinegar. The recipe called for red wine vinegar however I used plum vinegar instead (dont think this is a right move because it has really high salt content ). Strange things is my pork vindaloo taste abit like beef rendang ha ha ha

Pork Vindaloo

Sliced Beef 5.0 – Sweet Beef and Shiitake Stir Fry November 25, 2009

Sweet Beef and Shiitake

If you don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen preparing complicated dish? here is one that is simple and tasty. You can replace it with beef or chicken, its all up to what you have in the fridge.

Cookbook Challenge 1.0 – Squirrel Patterned Parrot Fish with Sweet & Sour Sauce November 16, 2009

OK here is my first take on Cookbook Challenge Week 1 – Citrus.

The recipe is adapted from “Fish – Chinese Style Made Easy” by Wei-Chuan Cookbook.

The fish I am using today is Parrot Fish (Wrasse), my angler caught it on the weekend, it has quite tough skin and thick meat, which i thought would be good for deep fry to get crispy texture.

For the sweet and sour sauce, the recipe calls for vinegar however I am replacing it lemon juice instead (so much for a citrus theme isnt it?)

Sweet and Sour Fish