Sunday 28 November 2010

Eggs with Tomatoes

Dear Whimsical Readers,

Hello again dear readers! This is the most simple Chinese dish you can ever imagine, and yet very yummy, tasty and delicious!! It goes really well with white rice! Do you believe it will only take you less than 7 minutes to cook! Just crack the eggs, chop the tomatoes and let's get started !

Ingredient: Serves 2
2 Tbs Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 Tomatoes (chop them into cubes or quartered)
Salt and Pepper

Method:
1. Break 2 eggs into a bowl, and beat them lightly.
2. Add salt and pepper into the bowl
3. Add oil into the frying pan in medium heat
4. Fry the tomatoes, season with a pinch of salt
5. Add the eggs, fry them till it forms like a scramble eggs.

Enjoy!


Yours Truly,
The Whimsical Buddies

Sunday 21 November 2010

Udon Noodles in Miso Sauce

Udon Noodles in Miso Sauce

Hello Whimsical Readers,

F~ Let us travel today (mentally of course*) to Japan, a world of kimono, geisha, sushi, cherry blossom and not forgetting Miso Soup. I would usually have a bowl of Miso Soup when I have sushi, it just completes the whole japanese food experience. But what if you're not a fan of soup noodles and prefer dried noodle dishes instead? Here's the solution I would like to share with you today a totally japanese dish but with an interesting twist, it's Udon Noodles in Miso Sauce, not soup. Curious? Let's get to it then!

Ingredients: Serves 2
200 grams Udon Noodles
100 grams Bak Choy (halfed)
60 grams Baby Corn (diagonally sliced)
60 grams Snow Pea (diagonally halfed)
1/2 block Dried Tofu (cubed)
1 Tsp Ginger (thinly sliced)
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 Packet Miso Soup Paste
50ml Water
Seaweed flakes (garnish)

dried Tofu

Method:
1. Before beginning, mix the Miso Soup Paste with 25ml of Water. Then once your Pan/ Wok is heated with the Cooking Oil, add in the Ginger, Baby Corn, Snow Pea and Bak Choy all together for 5 minutes before tossing the Tofu in for another 3 minutes.
2. Turn down the Flame to a medium before adding in the Udon Noodles, heating it for about 2 minutes.
3. Add the Miso Soup Paste and mix well for 5 minutes, adding the remaining Water if needed or if you prefer some sauce in your Noodles. (Taste as you add the water otherwise the taste will be too diluted)
4. Dish out and serve hot. You can decide your Noodles with some Seaweed Flakes to give it a more Japanese taste.

Enjoy! or as they say in Japan いただきます "itadakimasu"


Yours Truly,
the Whimsical Buddies

Sunday 14 November 2010

Rösti

Dear Whimsical Readers,

How are you today whimsical readers? The dish I am about to share its one of the swiss national dish! It's call ROSTI! This is a famous Swiss breakfast for people like farmers back in the 50's. It is termed as "poor man's food" because it's mainly made out of potatoes only! It's just as simple as that! Well, nowadays it is not really considered a poor man's dish anymore.

Rösti
There are many ways you can "spice" up your Rösti, for example, you can add a variety of meat on top with it to suit your taste. As for me, I like to stick to as old school as possible. I like the authentic taste to it. Which is add "nothing". Don't worry, I will recommend which meat would be most suitable to add on to your version of the Rösti. I would highly suggest Streaky Bacon. Smokey Salmon and German/Brititsh Sausages goes really well too!

Ingredients: Serves 2
2 Tbsp of Salted Butter (1 tsbp for each Rösti)
2 Russet Potatoes
2 Eggs
100gm Parmesan Cheese
Salt and Pepper
Sour Cream

Method:
1. Grate the potatoes when it's raw! That's if you got time. I would prefer to slice it (even though it takes a lot of time) I dislike the texture of grated potatoes, I prefer them sliced thinly.
2. Beat the Eggs and mix it into the grated/sliced potatoes, add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Fry the rosti right after the butter melts, throw in 1 handful of cheese and fry till it turns golden brown and crisp on both side. *careful when you turnover the rosti*
5. Serve the Rösti, top up with 1 table spoon of sour cream!

YUMMY! Enjoy!

Note: if 1 Russet potato makes the Rösti too big to handle in your pan, you can spilt them in half so you would end up with 2 smaller Röstis per person.


Yours Truly,
The Whimsical Readers

Sunday 7 November 2010

Spicy Fried Noodles

Spicy Fried Noodles
Hello Whimsical Readers,

F~ I hope you liked last week's Potato Salad, I know I can't wait for my next session of Potato Fun with my bestie. In the meantime, let me show you another type of "starch" from the Asian region. It's not really from anywhere because I sorta created it with a good friend of mine while she was crashing at my place. The thing about fried noodles is you can more or less put whatever you want in it, as long as they go well with each other, the rule goes more or less the same way for fried rice. It's just sometimes you find similar ingredients inside because #1 it's cheaper, #2 easily available throughout the year, #3 it's kinda what people already expect. But that does not mean you can't break free from the norm and experiment yourself. That's what we did and it turned out great so here it is!

Ingredients: Serves 4
300 grams Bee Hoon Noodles (soak according to instructions)
180 grams grams Long Bean (2 inch long) or Chinese Cabbage (thinly chopped)
12-16 Prawns
8 pieces Crab Stick (sliced 1cm)
1 medium Onion (thinly chopped)
2-4 Tbsp Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce (see Mapo Tofu recipe for reference* 12/9/10)
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
Salt & Pepper (to taste)

Method:
1. As usual in a heated Pan/ Wok of Cooking Oil, lightly stir-fry the Onions for a few minutes.
2. Followed by the Prawns (be careful not to over cook them) for a couple minutes before adding in the Long Beans or Chinese Cabbage. Adjusting the flame to a medium-high, close the lid for 5 minutes.
3. To maintain the bright colours of the vegetables and prawns, what you can do is either dish it out and keep it aside or if using a flat pan, you can move the ingredients around the pan so you can cook you Bee Hoon Noodles simultaneously.
4. Adding in the Been Hoon Noodles and fry them for 5 minutes, adding some Cooking or Sesame Oil if needed to avoid them sticking to the Pan/ Wok.
5. Add in the Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce, according to your spice tolerance level and mix it well. (if you dished out the other ingredients earlier, you might want to add 1/2-1 Tbsp more of the Laoganma Chilli Bean Sauce so there is sufficient flavour to mix around.
6. Mixing in all the ingredients well for another 2 minutes and serve hot.

Enjoy!
Yours Truly,
The Whimsical Buddies