Juicing with Purple Carrot

It's great to have my daring girl back from her school camp, the house is so quiet without her.  She slept 5 hours straight after she came home.  Her gift to me from the trip was loads and loads of washing!  Hahaha...

I would make some fresh juice at least once a week during winter to help boosting our immunity.  My favourite choice includes apple, orange, pear, lettuce, carrot, celery, cucumber, tomato and capsicum.  I  usually put in 4-5 varieties with half and half portions of fruit and vegetable.  I also throw in some parsley or wheatgrass if they come in handy.  I find this Dutch carrot at the supermarket and it makes a really nice colour and taste good in juicing.  In an actual fact, carrot is originally purple and it is changed to orange colour by Dutch about 300 years old.  Whether it's purple or orange, carrot is a good for our health.

I am joining the Guardian Angel Knitting Program for the first time.  Over the past 12 years, more than 2 million knitted garments have been donated to families in needs.  This year the program is supported by Variety, the children's charity to give warmth to the children in need not only in Australia but Christchurch in New Zealand where children are affected by the earthquake.  I am planning to make 2-3 garments by 31 August, that's about 6 weeks left.  My sister joins the program every year and she is so good at knitting.  For more information, visit their website Guardian Angel Knitting Program 

 My marble cake topped with profiteroles is listed in Petitchef's daily menu.  Yay!

Purple Carrot Juice

(make 2 glasses)

Ingredients:
2 small purple carrots
2 small carrots
2 stalks of celery
2 apples
2 pears
1/2 green capsicum
handful of baby spinach leaves

Method:
Cut the fruit and vegetables into small pieces and put into the juicer.  Enjoy!

Nutella Chocolate Brownies

I would say brownies is easy to make but I have not come across a recipe that I really like.  The last time when I bake one, my lover boy told me please not add nuts into brownie again and I knew he wouldn't like dried fruit as well.  I alway believe that when baking chocolate cake or slices, using cocoa powder is not as good as using real chocolate.  And I want to proof that I'm wrong so I'm trying to make one using cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate but I must put in chocolate bits just in case it doesn't work.  When it is all ready to go into the oven, I couldn't stop myself putting some Nutella on top.  I know I have got the idea from somewhere.  Then I find that it is from kitchenbelleicious's Nutella Coconut & Caramel Brownies Although this brownie is made for my son, my husband loves it the most and I've made the boys happy.

Nutella Chocolate Brownies


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
130g butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten
4-5 tablespoons Nutella
60g milk chocolate, chopped coarsely
60g white chocolate, chopped coarsely

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan-forced. Grease 19cm x 29cm slice pan; line base with baking paper.
2. Melt butter in pan, leave cool a little.
3. Sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, sugar and salt into the mixture until well mixed.
4. Add melted butter and beaten eggs into the dry ingredients. Stir in chopped chocolate. Spread mixture into pan. 
5. Spread Nutella diagonally or vertically along the pan and then use a knife to swirl up and down the mixture to form a pattern.  
6. Bake brownies 25-30 minutes. Cool in pan before cutting into slices.

Chicken, Leek and Pearl Barley Soup

As the seafood chowder is my daughter's new favourite, this chicken and pearl barley soup is my son's new favourite.  I like to throw in pearl barley when I make veggie soup, my son tells me that he likes pearl barley in the soup.  Well, I am surprised as he does not tell me he likes chocolate or chips! (maybe he doesn't like chocolate and chips but he LOVEs them)  So I make up this soup with the hope to use leek and pearl barley to create a new family favourite and I'm pleased that I have done that.  This recipe can easily change to a vegetarian soup by omitting the chicken and add in some celery or zucchini.  It's hearty and rich in fibre.  

My post of Egg, Spinach & Tomato tart has been chosen as the daily menu at Petitchef.  It's great!

I am submitting this post to participate ANU's Healthy Kitchen www.anuzhealthykitchen.blogspot.com special theme for July "Healthy Fibre & Protein Rich".  Join the fun cooking some wholesome food if you wish.

Chicken, Leek and Pearl Barley Soup


Ingredients:
2 chicken fillets, cut into small pieces
2 tomato, cut into chucks
2 carrots, cut into chunks
2 button mushroom, sliced
1 leek, cut into small pieces
1 cup pearl barley
2 heap tablespoons tomato paste
3 litres stock made from chicken bone

Method:

1. Make the stock with bone.  
2. Pan fried the leek with a little oil.  Then add the rest of the vegetable into the soup pot and let it simmer for 40 minutes or until the barley is soft.  The soup should thicken by then, seasoned with salt and pepper.

Seafood Chowder

My cousin-in-law just come back from their 3 weeks US tour.  Besides taking the photos of the magnificent view of America, they had also capture some photos of the unique American food.  One of it is the photo of calm chowder from the wharf in San Francisco.  Coming from a family that enjoy seafood, I would love to have a taste of that one day if I have the chance to travel to the US.  (hope I don't have to wait too long)

I have had  seafood chowder in restaurants but I'm not a big fan of fish (I like sashimi though)  so I have never try cooking it at home just in case it turns out too fishy and nobody would eat it.  Then this recipe of seafood chowder comes to my door from the free weekly magazine featuring our local chef's recipe.  The recipe only call for few ingredients and the technique is quite simple.  I would expect it to have cream or cheese to enrich the soup.  But the use of butter and flour making the roux already create a lovely bowl of creamy soup which is not too heavy.  Or is it rather the white wine doing the magic to bring everything together?  My daughter says this is her new favourite soup and I'm so please to find a good recipe right at my door.

I didn't have a good sleep last night as my daughter kept message me about her bus trip to Sydney.  Telling me how bumpy the road was, where she was and how far to to go Sydney.... This is her first time going away for so long but I'm sure she'll have fun visiting Sydney, playing at the snow field at minus degree and learning more about the country at Canberra with her school camp.

Have you have a look my hand made craft page yet?    


Seafood Chowder
(serve1-2)

120g fresh seafood marinara
(white fish, salmon, squid, prawns and mussels)
1 tablespoon carrot, finely chopped
1 tablespoon onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon peas
1/4 teaspoon chopped parsley (the seafood marinara I have already marinate with some parsley)
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup stock

Roux:
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons plain flour

Method:

1. For the roux, melt the butter in a pan, add flour and stir then gradually add milk to create a bechamel sauce.  Set aside.
2. Combine the wine and stock in another pan, add in carrot and onion and let it boils until the stock reduced by 1/3.  Add into the bechamel sauce and stir.
3. Add seafood and peas to the mix, let it simmer for about 3 minutes or the seafood is just cooked.  Seasoned with salt and pepper.  Squeeze in some lemon juice just before serving if needed and serve with croutons. 

Garden Show

We go to the Garden Show nearly every year as it is held during school holiday and July is good time to buy plants to plant for spring.  There are plants for tropical and native garden, sweet cottage garden, fruit trees, vegetables seedlings, fertilisers and other garden and outdoor entertainment related products such as pots, BBQ, pets and gourmet food....you name it.  We went at midday and the carpark at the showground was already full so we had a long walk to get to the show.  I didn't want to buy anything too heavy even the gooseberry tree was only $15.  I had some Christmas ornaments, two small pot plants and a bottle of jelly.  My kids also bought something special for themselves and they just love the handmade ice-cream.  They thought the kids rides were too kiddy for them so we head home early for an afternoon tea and finished the video of Eat, Pray & Love played by Julie Roberts.  Haven't seen a good movie for a long time, truly enjoy it!

Chinatown Chicken Pies with Sticky Rice Sushi

This recipe is adopted and modified from the cookbook "a passion for pastry" written by Britain's top chefs and food writers that I borrow from the library.  This is Jill Dupleix's recipe and I have never thought of putting chinese mushroom into pies and I like the name of it.  I've changed some of the ingredients to suit my liking and I serve it with sticky rice of my own creation.  When I was living in Hong Kong, my favourite winter breakfast is sticky rice filled with yu tyau (油條) and a glass of warm soy milk.  Yu Tyau is a deep fried pastry that is eaten with rice congee at breakfast.  I  mixed the rice with chinese mushroom and dried shrimp, filled and topped with yu tyau and Japanese fish eggs as my Chinese version of sushi.  I really like this asian twisted kind of dish! 

As I don't live near Chinatown, I often go there on school holiday to stock up some Asian groceries and take the kids to enjoy some authentic asian food.  We always come home with bags and bags of goodies that will last us till the next trip.      

Chinatown Chicken Pies with Sticky Rice Sushi
(make 8-9)

Ingredients:

1 chicken fillet
1-2 dried shiltake mushroom, soaked with water till soft
2 shallots, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/4 cup baby peas
4-5 puff pastry
1/2 teaspoon ginger, finely chopped
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon corn flour mixed with 1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon sugar
salt and pepper
coriander leaves
egg, beaten
Method:

1. Cook the chicken with the vegetables, add in the sauces and water.  Then season it with salt, sugar and pepper.  Thicken it with the corn flour mixture and finally add in the cooking wine.  Leave cool a little.
2. Cut the pastry into 4 equal sized squares.  Place 1 tablespoon of filling onto the pastry.  Brush the sides with egg then place another pastry over the top.  Use a cup as a guide to fold up the pastry.  Brush the top with egg and place a piece of coriander leave on top.  Brush the leave with more eggs.  Repeat the process until all the fillings is gone.
3. Bake at a preheat hot oven for 20 minutes or until the pastry is puffed.  Turn down to moderate and bake for further 10 minutes or until pastry is golden brown. 

Borscht Soup Hong Kong Style (羅宋湯) and my 1st year of blogging

When my daughter was a little toddler, this was her favourite soup.  It is a tomato based soup with tender meat and a variety of vegetables which does not only feed the little kids well, it is also a winter warmer.  My daughter is now a teenager and she much prefer to have meat boneless but tomato is still her favourite food.  She would praise for me if I make her something with tomato for dinner.  This soup is popular in Hong Kong's cafe and western restaurant that beef bone and beef brisket are used.  I prefer to use ox tails as it has the meat and bone in one.  You can substitute it with chicken, pork or bacon bones as well.  The original Eastern Europe borscht soup is made from beet and the tomato based style is influenced by the Italian.

Time has gone fast and my blog will be a year old at the end of July.  I only manage to blog regularly since March this year.  Now I have a collection of over 80 recipes that I'd love to cook not only once but  more often in the future.  I would also like to thanks for my followers and people who has commented and visited my blog.  I have visitors come to check up my Hong Kong baked pork chops and rice and baked Portuguese chicken daily and I hope these recipes work well at your kitchen.  It's greatly appreciated and I've learned so much from you!

I plan to go back to work after a year long break to regain my health and well-being.  There are a lot of things I'd like to achieve and I hope I can still blog regularly in the future.  I have not had enough fun working with pastry yet.  I'm going to make tart and soup in July.  It is actually very nice working with pastry in winter as the butter is so hard and you don't need to put the pastry into the fridge back and forth to harden it.

Have a great day 4th July to my American friends!

Hong Kong Style Borscht Soup

Ingredients:
500g or 4-5 pieces of ox tails, trim off excess fat
2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
3 large tomato, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large potato, peeled and chopped
1/4 drumhead cabbage, chopped
2 heap tablespoons tomato paste
1 thin slice of ginger
3 litres water

Method:

1. Boil the ox tails with hot water for half a minute.  Drain.
2. Pour water into the soup pot, add the ox tails and all the vegetables.  Let it boils for 20 minutes, add the tomato paste and reduce the heat to low.  Let the soup simmer for about 2 hour or until the meat is tender.  Seasoned with salt.  (If you are using bacon bones, there is no need to add salt)

Tips: If you don''t want to the veggies overcook, you can simmer the ox tails with water for 1 hour before adding vegetable and tomato paste, then continue to simmer for another hour until the meat is tender.

Note: You can replace oxtail with chicken, substitute ginger with bayleaf.

羅宋湯

材料：

牛尾 500克 或 4-5 塊，去肥

紅蘿蔔2條

西芹2條

番茄3個

洋蔥1個

馬鈴薯1個

椰菜1/4個

蕃茄膏2大湯匙

薑1片

水3公升

用法：

1. 牛尾飛水。其餘蔬菜切大粒。
2. 把牛尾和菜放入湯煲，加水。大火煲20分鐘，轉慢火加2湯匙番茄膏，再2煲小時或至牛尾軟化。加鹽便成。

Tips:如不想蔬菜煲太久流失營養，可以慢火煲牛尾和水1小時，然後才加蔬菜再煲1小時。