Tag: 4hb

Simple and delicious spinach and egg bake.

This recipe is literally hot off the oven because I’ve just had it for dinner.

Since it’s so simple to make and so tasty (there she goes tooting her own horn, again), I’ve decided to blog it right now.

The BF is away attending some geeky event after work so I was all alone at dinner time. Instead of nuking some gazillion year old frozen casserole, I thought I’d make something from scratch just to soothe my separation anxiety.

# – Simple and delicious spinach and egg bake.

And nothing makes me more happy than gooey egg yolks. You can say that the entire idea of this dinner revolved around the egg yolks.

Also, I had a huge bunch of spinach I got from Tesco for RM0.30 that I had to use up. Yeap, you heard me, 30 Malaysian ringgit cents!!!!!! I love midnight knock-downs :D

The ingredients:

  • 150 grams of spinach leaves, cleaned
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon of parsley flakes or fresh finely chopped parsley
  • 3 tablespoons of whipping cream
  • Some salt
  • Some ground black pepper
  • 4 cherry tomatoes, halved

# – First, pour a bit of cooking oil onto a paper towel and wipe it all over an oven safe dish. You can use butter to grease if you want…I was just too lazy to handle butter :P

# – Then, lay the spinach leaves at the bottom of the dish.

# – Season the spinach with some salt.

# – Now, crack 3 eggs over the spinach. Ideally, the yolks should not burst.

# – Sprinkle parsley flakes or fresh chopped parsley all over.

# – Pour about 3 tablespoons of whipping cream. Try to avoid splashing onto the yolks.

# – Season with ground black pepper.

# – And finish it off with a sprinkling of salt.

# – Stick the dish into a pre-heated oven at 160 degrees celcius for 12-13 minutes. 15 minutes if you like the yolks to set, but seriously!??

# – While the dish is still very hot, lay the halved cherry tomatoes all over.

# – Spinach and egg bake, DONE! It was absolutely perfect with buttered toasts :D

Wilted spinach with gooey egg yolks and creamy egg whites interspersed with juicy cherry tomatoes. I don’t know how else to explain it. Absolutely blissful.

I could eat this everyday!!!!

(For the record, the BF separation anxiety thing is a joke)

Steamed pork and fish meatloaf recipe.

This was supposed to be an authentic Indonesian “otak-otak” (that’s what the recipe book claimed anyway). I was quite excited to make it, since I had one frozen dory left and I was itching to use it.

Alas, luck was not on my side as I realised the dory was too small even for 1 person…

So, without so much of a blink, I decided to incorporate pork into the dish. And hence, the dish had to be renamed to “Steamed pork & fish meatloaf”. I’ll make real otak-otak another time..

# – Steamed pork & fish meatloaf, served with rice.

Funny thing was, the BF was unable to ascertain that there was pork in there. I guess if you blitzed the mixture fine enough you really can’t tell what it is. He was really surprised to know that there was pork!

The ingredients:

  • 200 grams of pork, cut into cubes
  • 120 grams of boneless white fish fillet (I used dory), cut into cubes
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 5-7 shallots
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 100 ml of coconut milk
  • 1 teaspoon of white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon of lime or lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon of chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon of salt

# – First of all, chuck the fish into a blender or food processors. Give it a blitz.

# – Then, add the pork.

# – Followed by the shallots, garlic cloves & chopped onion.

# – Pour in the coconut milk. Blend till combined.

# – Add the salt, lemon/lime juice, white pepper and chilli powder.

# – Blend till fine.

# – Lay a clingwrap film over a chopping board.

# – Scoop half the paste onto the middle of the film.

# – Fold the bottom part of the film over the paste.

# – Then fold the part with the paste inside over the top of the film.

# – Tie a knot on each end to form a sort of Christmas popper shape…like this.

# – Wrap the parcels in aluminium foil.

# – Stick them in the steamer for 20 minutes.

# – When it’s done, cut the clingwrap film and carefully remove it. Let the loaf stays in the foil.

# – This is optional, but you could use a kitchen torch to crispen the top a bit. Otherwise stick in the oven in grill mode for 5 minutes at 210 degrees celcius.

# – Steamed pork and fish meatloaf, DONE! Instead of rice, you can serve it with grated cauliflower for a slow carb option.

The looks were nothing to shout about but it was juicy, tender and very flavoursome. It’s also really healthy because as you probably have noticed, there’s not a drop of oil used in making this dish!

Delicious no-cook chinese marinated cucumbers.

I decided to make this after paying about RM5 for a puny plate of chopped 1/2 a cucumber at a chinese restaurant. Well, with RM5 I could get about 10 quality Japanese cucumbers (kyuri).

I can’t believe people (myself included) are actually paying RM5 for something that doesn’t even need cooking. I’m starting to sound like a major tight fisted housewife….but that’s exactly who I am!

This recipe is entirely my own conception, based on how I like to eat it. The marinade is savoury with just a tad of tartness from the Worcestershire sauce and kick from the chillies. I guess you can use ordinary cucumbers (with the seeds removed) but for best results, do use the Japanese sort as they’re more crunchy.

    Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoon of sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine
  • 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 – 2 Japanese cucumbers, chopped

# – First of all, cut the cucumbers into the shapes you want. By the way, you know how sometimes cucumbers can taste really bitter? There’s this trick that a senior in high school taught me….cut off the end of a cucumber and then rub the surface with it till tiny bubbles form around it, like this….

And you won’t have bitter cucumbers anymore. Honestly, I have no scientific or logical explanation for it, but it works!

# – I soaked the cucumbers in iced water for 10 minutes to crispen them up. Set aside. Honestly I don’t know if this works but psychologically I feel that it does :D So feel free to omit this step.

# – In a bowl, mix the sesame oil, light soya sauce, Chinese rice wine, Worcestershire sauce and chillies.

# – Throw the drained cucumbers into the mixture. Mix. Cover with cling wrap and stick it in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours. Don’t put in the fridge uncovered as this will dry out the cucumbers.

You could even marinade them in a freezer bag so that all the cucumbers could absorb the marinade more evenly and thoroughly.

# – Serve as an appetiser or even as a vegetable dish of its own to go with rice.

Very tasty, very refreshing and best of all….very accommodating to my purse ;)