Kimchi hotpot

Last month, went to have korean food, the taste of kimchi put me off, which was so so unusal for me. i used to have to have it every week before i moved here. i had this fav spot in town which i went so often on my days off that the waitress became my friend. now i have another favourite spot at Shinokubo aka korean town, but it is not that near home.

Last week, i was so so craving kimchi chige, i had a small portion for lunch.

HMM!!! loved it!

This week, with the typhoon around, i couldnt really get out of the house for a long time. And i am soooooooooooooooooooooo craving kimchi soup!!!

So i bought a kimchi paste for making kimchi soup, got a whole lot of white cabbage, mizuna vegetables, a variety of mushrooms, a nice portion of nice smooth oboro tofu (tofu that comes in a bowl shaped container)...

and...

tada~kimchi hot pot at home

added a tiny bit of lean pork to deepen the flavour. the rest of the sweetness really came from all the mushrooms and yummy veg!

ahh............... craving satisfied.

typhoon no.18 swept through with a major blast this morning.

it wasnt that dramatic at our side, but on the whole, the wind was sweeping everything all over the place.

My poor plants had a new hairstyle this morning.

the cars parked outside were polkadotted with dust and mud from the rain.

trains stopped (n our good friend had a nice smile when he said he cant go to work), but by noon, the winds mellower, the sunshine came out, all was fine!!! so i happily went out supermarketing, while somebody still had to go to work this morning. =P

HAHAHA i m so happy tmr is finally a sunshine day. time to hang out my laundry~~

What do you do when you have a whole bunch of grapes in the fridge that are getting less and less firm as the days go by?

Make jelly

kyoho grapes jelly with zero sugar added

we were super surprised at how this was still sweet with just pure grape juice!

Tonights dinner was adventure for me

tried to make gyoza with wings, which is the in thing now. adding water with some flour dissolved lastly to create a thin crispy crepe like wing around the gyozas.

ended up with a slightly too burnt bottom

picking up a piece, hmm looked ok. but taste wise, gotta improve.

ganbarimasu(working hard)!!!@@

daikon with crunchy anchovy topping salad

which was the only item that we ate in peace =) hehe

we both love this refreshing daikon salad which is very popular in restaurants. the difficult thing about making this at home is the daikon type. i usually get my vege from the local farmers mart, and that means daikon plucked out from the ground in the morning, which is really really hot because of the freshness. hot as in wasabi stinging hot! this time got this daikon from somewhere else. phew~ just right =)

cant wait for the rainy week to end.

rainbow kiwi

Look what i found at the supermart!!!

Rainbow kiwi from Fukuoka

Tastes like the gold kiwi. Sweet~!

This was sent by okaasan. Yummy kyoho(purple) & suiho(green) grapes from a farm near her place.

the purple ones were so so soooooooooooo sugary sweet, a few pops is good enough.

Dinner was fusion food~

Curry crusted roast snapper, sauerkraut & yaki onigiri (toasted rice balls)

Homemade carrot soymilk potage with croutons

Mushrooms are in season, including the western white button mushrooms.

When i spotted them, i was thinking of sauerkraut.

I love them in my salads too, but its been too cold & rainy these nights for me to think of a nice bowl of chilled crisp salad.

The sauerkraut warmed us up tonight =)

Flavours of autumn takikomi rice

Todays main was takikomi rice

Flavours of autumn takikomi rice

chestnuts, gingko & prawns glutinous rice

chestnuts & gingko are in season now and i love the subtle sweetness of these beautiful yellow nuts.

tuna & cabbage with a light curry gravy

purple sweet potato fish cakes

Bought hanpen, a very very soft tofu like fish cake, mashed it & mixed with some steamed purple sweet potato cubes, reformed into mini fish cakes & pan fried. =)

we have been having so much sweet potatoes these days, i wonder if its ok... =P

enoki packed shumai

It was bright & sunny today!!!

while we still have warm mornings, bread & salad will still be on our breakfast menus before the hot soups come in.

Pumpkin cheese toast, smoked salmon & spinach caesar salad

i love my croutons!

Last night was the night most children carry lanterns around parks & enjoy mooncakes for the mid autumn festival.

There were some events around here too. Called tsukimi (moon watching) night, families just gather to enjoy the moon (but it was hardly visible cos it was rainy rainy). There were glutinous rice balls sold too, but we didnt buy any.

Mum got us a whole lot of my favourite piglets in baskets.

we had tsukimi soba for lunch

Tsukimi soba basically means soba with an egg

hehe, so just for fun, tsukimi soba to mark tsukimi night

Dinner was something i havent made for a long time

Shumai (enoki version)

Mixed a whole pack of enoki with the meat & prawn paste for our shumai.

Enoki chopped up into small bits, really made the shumai very very juicy!!!

A generous 10 pieces for each of us!

Since most parts was mushrooms, it wasnt hard at all to finish.

Makes 20 shumai

100g ground lean pork

1 pack enoki (chopped into 1/2cm lenths)

2 big shitake mushrooms (finely chopped)

1 tsp grated ginger

1 tsp each of shoyu, sugar & sesame oil

1/4 tsp salt

Mix everything together, fill the shumai skins and steam 15 min.

Guaranteed juiciness even without the fatty pork.

Garlic stir fried kailan

YES! KAILAN!!! written in katakana (words imported from other languages are written in katakana), i was really really surprised to find this at the farmers mart!!!

they are grown here in our community that means. the lady at the mart was explaining to me (without realising i grew up with kailan), said, you know i heard this is a new kind of cabbage! havent tried though, but interesting isnt it? i explained it was not cabbage like at all! simliar to choi sum. but a little crunchier. =) hmm we loved it!

pink radish miso soup

did u know pink radish, together with its leaves, taste very very good with miso?

not only good in salads, but also sweet and tasty in miso soup.

rain rain, go away~

beef hor fun sans noodles

Dinner was a familiar taste

beef hor fun style with rice

We both love hor fun, but i find the there is serious lack of vegetables in hor fun.

I added the whole bunch of vegetables for the both of us =)

plus some eringi mushrooms which has a nice chewy texture a little similar to squids.

with egg soup

& pumpkin cucucumber salad with parmesan cheese & croutons

The weather forcast changed the whole day!

first last night, we saw the rain symbol.

this morning, J was so excited to see the sun out shining and the forast with sunshine symbols.

we finally did our laundry which has piled up. then we left the house early in the morning. n it rained the whole morning!!!

after lunch, pitter patter.

came home early evening, saw our laundry still drying out. @@

tmr, looks like it will be sunny a bit. =) but the whole week is rain rain week. typhoon is coming we heard. my poor laundry. >.<

western madness

My computer is revived!!!

Darling J has been trying so hard to resuscitate my precious daytime companion, n he did! just a few minutes ago!!! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~~~

Anyhow, I have been good!!! my digestive system seems to have a better mood now.

but i m craving lots of western food.

suddenly, rice for breakfast is not so appetising, so i went to buy some breads.

Had Egg& ham & cheese english muffins one morning

Cheese melted all over the aluminium sheet while toasting. hmm~

Purple sweet potato cheese toast

Mashed the pretty purple sweet potatoes with some cream cheese, topped with cheese & toasted. I love the BEAUTIFUL blend of purple & melting cheese colour.

Then yesterday, while watching an English cooking show hosted by a chinese lady cooking European asian favourites like chow mein, sweet and sour pork, fried rice, etc

i was inspired to make a western style asian takeaway for J bento

Teriyaki chicken takeout lunchbox=)

I have been feeling some happy notes dancing in me these days, and there are just some things that i wanna do to up the happy feeling.

Making this lunchbox made me happy cos smelling this box, reminds me of the food courts in australia which has many many asian stalls. Singapore noodles & teriyaki chicken rice sets always look the yummiest to me.

Yeah, everywhere in the world has singapore noodles, but the true singaporean doesnt know what it is. go into any school canteen, or market food court and you can probably smell that early in the morning > fried beehoon / fried thick noodles.

yup, so some nice images ran through my head early this morning while i was making his lunch.

=) nice start

Dinner was western tonight

Autumn tagliatelle

Chestnuts, smoked salmon & shimeji tagliatelle in tomato based sauce

Yep, the table was full of my favourite stuff too, sesame bread sticks & croutons (in the bottle)

yup, LOTS of homemade croutons for our caesar broccolli salad

Hor doevres was japanese though

sanma wrapped tomatoes with shiso leaves

Sanma is in season now, and the DHA rich fish is yummiest at this time.

Taste is a bit strong though. like sardines. i like the smell when i grill them in the pan, but the taste is really too strong for me. But good for the brain, so i pinch my nose n munch happily away since J likes them.

My souvenior from making croutons.

Accidentally hit my hand against the top of the oven. didnt expect it to turn dark purple. now i know why mum has so many purple polka dots on her hands.

Each time i buy bread, i get a pack of bread crusts (the first n last slice of a loaf) at the counter for free. this new bread shop has a really really generous portion of it in each pack, and really really really thich slices! so they make perfect croutons!

from just 3 slices i made a nice big bottle of them! hehe, i am secretly thinking of macaroni soup each time i pop these into my mouth. but macaroni soup with clear chicken broth and croutons probably dont match in any non singaporeans mind. so to prevent J from thinking i m weirdo, i topped them on salad today, and maybe macaroni for another day so i can explain myself. hee

typhoon is coming. wind is getting chilly, and i m finally wearing long pajamas.

soon i think i will love staying under my blanket more n more in the morning.