Sunday 30 September 2012

Garlic Butter Fried Rice #SundaySupper


Today will be a special Sunday for me as it is also the Mid-Autumn Festival which also known as the Mooncake Festival celebrated by the most of Chinese community.  The festival is held on the 15th day of the eight month of the Chinese Lunar calendar, that's today.  Traditionally, all family members would gather in the evening to celebrate after the dinner.  Varieties of fruits and mooncakes will be prepared and they would lightened up lanterns with  candles at home or a community open park for this "appreciate of the moon" festival.  This year I will celebrate with Simon alone as both of us unable to join our family members and this will be our first Mid-Autumn Festival together.

Besides what  need to prepare as mentioned above, I have to thank our most jovial #SundaySupper member - Amber from Mama’s Blissful Bites for her wonderful idea for this week theme.  Dishes in Five Ingredients or Less.  What do you think?  Challenging right?  But, I believe you will love this event when you got to see the creative menu list from more than 50 contributors of #SundaySupper with this theme.  It will definitely will be a helpful menu for those busy mothers  and who have busy daily schedule like me.  Can't wait to see the rest of what of the rest have prepared.

My choice for this theme is Garlic Butter Fried Rice.  Rice is an essential food for most of the Asian to go with other dishes.  To make it more savory and to save time to prepare other dishes, this recipe will be ideal for those who always rush of time.  You only need four main ingredients for this recipe - rice, butter, eggs and garlic.  It will be a brilliant recipe if you happen to have left over white rice as overnight white rice always have a better result when you fried it.  You may choose to just take it plain like that or serve with some side simple dishes or ready made food.  For example, I like it to go with some Chinese sausage that I have cut into tiny cubes that I have saute with a small portion of oil and some saute garlic and onions, fresh cucumbers and some chopped scallions.  Does this sounds good?  Let's try this out!

Sunday 23 September 2012

Homemade Apple Jam #SundaySupper


Autumn is always my favorite season of the year, even though I am not living in a country that have four seasons.  It could be I was born during the autumn and that reason for me to  a have special affection with autumn.  Just celebrated my birthday yesterday and this was the first was done in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. 

This week the #SundaySupper group is coming up with Autumn Apple Party to welcome the fall season of the year.  Hosted by our team member Cindy from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings.  There are more than 50 wonderful recipes using apple will be shared during this party and this is going to be an exciting one!

This is my first experience that I have do my "assignment" for #SundaySupper on my birthday and I challenge myself to bring Homemade Apple Jam to the party, as I never tried to make them before.   Simon and myself love bread with spread all the time.  Butter and peanut butter were always our normal choice.  There is a day he did mentioned he likes fruits jam too. It's straight away strike on my mind to try it out!

I love any pastry that goes with apple, especially those with cinnamon combination is one of my favorite too.  So, cinnamon will not missed from my jam.  I simmer it with low heat about 30 to 40 minutes.  To my surprise, it only takes me about an hour plus to prepare the whole process.  The result turns out good - looks good, taste good and am sure will make some more soon.  Good news is, after this experience, I will not have to buy fruit jam from the store!

Sunday 16 September 2012

Potato Omelette


As usual, I used to visit the fresh market every Saturday with Simon.  Once I arrived at my regular stall yesterday, my attention was attracted on a big basket of potatoes.  They looks so good and so different from the regular type which normally are brought in from our neighboring country - Indonesia or from India.  The owner of the stall came forward and started to recommend me these potatoes and told me it was planted locally from Kundasang.  You won't believe it, I have grabbed loads of it...LOL!

Let me take this opportunity to introduce where is Kundasang.  Kundasang is a wonderful village located about 6km away from Mount Kinabalu Park with an elevation of about 2,000 meters above the sea level, it is one of the coolest place in Sabah with temperatures dropping to 13◦C at night, and it is definitely is one of our favorite spot for a  short holiday.

So, what am going to do with these potatoes and am so eager to try it out as soon as possible! The first that came to my mind was Potato Omelette for our Sunday breakfast.  To make it more colorful I have added with some assorted fresh vegetables - cherry tomatoes, red chili & celery.  This going to be a healthy breakfast set.  Let's see how it goes....

Sunday 9 September 2012

Hot & Spicy Popcorn Chicken #SundaySupper


It's football season for all Americans now.  I was a little puzzle when I saw the theme for this week #SundaySupper - Football Tailgating Menu.  This week #SundaySupper hosted by  Lane from  Supper for a Steal, the big fan of Football.  After done some online research I finally got the whole idea!  Thanks for #SundaySupper always given me an opportunity to explore further on other countries tradition and their seasonal menus and recipes.  I love the idea to get together family and friends to have tailgating party and have fun before the match.  How I wish I could have a chance to join one of them.

Being a fans of spicy food, I have selected Hot & Spicy Popcorn Chicken, hope it could spice-up your Tailgating event.  A snack for any of your favorite match whether you prefer to watch it live at the stadium or enjoying it on your comfort couch in front of the television at home.   You even can pre-prepared it at home as this is so easy to make, and goes better with a can of cold beer.  Please make sure you prepare more as you may end-up keep chewing it and I am sure it will taste better than the regular popcorn!

Sunday 2 September 2012

Stir Fried Smooth Chicken Cubes with Peppers

It was a long weekend.....and we just back from our shot trip to Tawau and Sandakan.  Even though it was a little tired but we were satisfied as we able to take short break after such a long time.

After few days break from not cooking, I was looking forward for an easy to prepare recipe and I have thought of this - Stir Fried Smooth Chicken Cubes with Peppers.

You guys must be wondering why I named this dish as "smooth chicken cubes" even though I am using chicken breast meat for this recipe.  Yes, this is the specialty of this dish.  The answer is I had used egg white as one of the ingredients to marinate the chicken cubes.  And I also pan-fried the chicken cubes.

From this dish you will not only able to taste the smoothness of the chicken meat but you will also able to taste the sweetness and also the savory of the chicken cubes as I have used peppers and carrot to go together with it.  I am sure you going to like it especially for those who doesn't like the fussy of the chicken bones.