Category: Homemade Recipes

Warm & cool beetroot, tuna with couscous salad meal recipe.

Yeap, another recipe for salad. Can’t you tell that we’re desperately trying to eat more healthily? All those late night suppers and crisps and salted chunky chocolate chip cookies have truly shown on our mid sections -_-

Just last night at 3am, I cracked 6 eggs, grated half a block of mature cheddar to make the most decadent cheesy scrambled eggs on marmite toasts.

Yeap. Trust me, we need these damn salads.

# – Beetroot, tuna & couscous salad meal.

The redeeming point is that this salad taste pretty damn good. And, quite gorgeous to look at I must say :D

For the salad:

  • 1 can of solid tuna in brine, drained
  • 1 beetroot, sliced
  • 3 tablespoons of malt vinegar
  • 60 grams of couscous
  • 2 potatoes, cut into cubes
  • 2 carrots, cut into thick strips
  • 2 cucumbers, cut into cubes
  • 3 eggs, hard boiled
  • Water
  • 3 tablespoons of Extra virgin olive oil
  • A dash of salt

For the dressing:

  • 100 ml of extra virgin olive oil
  • 50 ml of balsamic vinegar
  • A dash of salt and pepper

# – First of all, hard boil the eggs. What I normally do is submerge the eggs in water, then bring to a boil for 4 minutes. Turn off flame and allow to rest while I do other tasks.

# – While the eggs are cooling down, pan fry the tuna till crisp on the edges with just a touch of oil. Set aside.

# – In the same pan, pour enough water to cover the amount of beetroot slices, then add the 3 tablespoons of malt vinegar. Give it a dash of salt too.

# – Throw in the beetroots, cover and let them simmer for about 20-30 minutes. Cook longer if you want the beetroots to be softer.

# – Take the beetroot slices out and you’re now left with a deep purplish red liquid. Pour it away if there’s too much, leaving an amount enough to cook the couscous in. Cook the couscous in the liquid. This is my favourite part of the dish, making these deep purple red caviars :)

# – Now, it’s time to assemble the chilled part of the salad. Throw in the couscous, tuna, cucumbers, beetroots and eggs into 2 plates and stick in the fridge for at least an hour. Since we’re eating the salad as our main meal, the portion is quite large. However, if you’re making it as an appetiser to accompany other dishes, I reckon this recipe could be divided into at least 6 decent portions.

# – In the meantime, chuck the carrots and potatoes into a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and a dash of salt. Shake the tin to coat the vegetables well. You can totally throw in some peeled whole garlic cloves too (yummy!).

# – Stick the tin of vegetables into a preheated oven of 190 degrees celcius for 45 minutes – 1 hour.

# – Make the dressing but whisking the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper together.

# – After the vegetables have done roasting, take the now chilled salads and throw in the beautifully roasted carrots and potatoes.

# – Drizzle the balsamic vinaigrette dressing all over the salad. Serve immediately.

# – Warm & cool beetroot, tuna with couscous salad meal, DONE!

I’ve actually made this a couple of times. This is surprisingly delicious for a salad (I am a carnivour), with a variety of textures in every bite.

The sweetness of the roasted carrots & potatoes went really well with the slightly tart beetroots and the purple couscous. The eggs and tuna provided the essential delicious proteins while the fresh cucumbers kept it all crisp and refreshing.

We’re toying with the idea of eating salad meals like this for a lengthy period of time and to be honest, I really wouldn’t mind as long as they taste like this every time.

All that’s left to do now is to conjure up more salad recipes that could replicate the fun & exciting eating experience of this salad!

Quick basic coleslaw recipe.

This is a recipe for a basic coleslaw. I whipped this up as an accompaniment to the baby back ribs I made a while ago. It’s so easy to make….delicious, refreshing and crunchy.

# – Quick basic coleslaw.

This is way healthier than eating coleslaw outside too. I find it comforting to know exactly where each ingredient came from and what went into flavouring it.

The ingredients:

  • 1/2 a cabbage, sliced
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 1 small onion, sliced
  • 6 tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • 3 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
  • A pinch of black pepper
  • A pinch of nutmeg
  • A pinch of celery salt or ordinary salt

# – First, slice the cabbage.

# – Then, grate the carrots and slice the onion. Dump into a mixing bowl.

# – Dump in the cabbage as well, followed by 6 tablespoons of mayonnaise (I like my coleslaw creamy, feel free to reduce amount of mayo if you want).

# – Give it a splash of red wine vinegar.

# – Season with some celery salt or ordinary salt.

# – A pinch of nutmeg for a wonderful aroma.

# – Lastly, a dash of black pepper for a bit of a kick. Stir well, cover and stick in the fridge to chill for at least one hour for the flavours to settle in. However, you can eat it straightaway if you like :D

# – Quick basic coleslaw, DONE!

I love it when I can get my vegetable intake with no cooking involved. Heheheh /lazy

Sweet and sticky baby back ribs recipe.

I am extremely pleased with this recipe! It’s quite simple to make really and the baby back ribs were juicy, succulent, flavourful and practically falling off the bones.

It was so delicious, I honestly wish I had made MORE! It made me want to eat baby back ribs everyday!

# – Sweet and sticky baby back ribs.

The surprising thing was I used frozen ribs (bought them fresh but due to bad timing I had to freeze them for a few days) and seriously, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

For the rib preparation:

  • 2 pieces of baby back racks, about 400-500grams each
  • 100ml soy sauce
  • Enough water to cover the racks in a pot

For the marinade:

  • 100g of soft brown sugar
  • 100ml of Shaoxing wine or any chinese rice wine
  • 100g of ginger , peeled and finely grated
  • 3 pieces of garlic cloves , peeled and crushed
  • 200ml of tomato puree (you can use ketchup too)
  • 1 tablespoon of mustard
  • 100ml of soy sauce

# – First, submerge the ribs in a pot of water. Then pour in the soya sauce.

# – Bring to a simmer and let it boil for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it cool down for 1/2 to 1 hour.

# – In the meantime, prepare the marinade. Pour the Shaoxing wine into a heated pan, followed by the brown sugar.

# – When sugar has dissolved, add in the finely chopped ginger and garlic. Bring to a gentle simmer.

# – Then, squeeze in a dollop of mustard.

# – Followed by the tomato puree or ketchup if you should fancy. Stir to combine.

# – Pour marinade into a bowl to cool down slightly.

# – Place the ribs in a tray that you’d be roasting them in. I suggest lining it with foil for easy cleanup later.

# – While the ribs are still warm, brush about 1/4 of the marinade all over them, coating evenly. Cover and refrigerate the remaining marinade.

# – Cover the ribs with foil or clingwrap and stick it in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours. Overnight is best. I did mine just 2 hours though and it was so good…imagine if it had marinaded overnight!!!!!

# – When ready to cook, stick it in a preheated oven at 220 degrees celcius for 40 minutes, curved sides up.

# – Brush the marinade all over the ribs at every 15 minutes for 2 times.

# – After the 40 minutes mark is up, turn the oven down to 180 degrees celcius, brush the last remaining marinade all over the ribs and leave the oven door ajar for 10 minutes. This is to ensure that the ribs have sticky and gooey sauce to eat with :D

# – Sweet and sticky baby back ribs, DONE! Serve with baked potatoes and homemade cole slaw.

# – DELICIOUS!

# – I love ribs!

This recipe was actually adapted from the recipe that belongs to one of my favourite TV judges, John Torode. Thank you for gifting me with simple to make but stupendously awesome baby back ribs.

/sniffs