Cheese biscuits

My little girl loves her biscuits. She’s particularly keen on cheesy bites from Ella’s Kitchen and while I do love them for being all wholesome, I thought tomake our own since we ppretty much have the ingredients around all the time.

I found this recipe from a blog called super healthy kids and the recipe was nice and straightforward. My biscuits turned out bit hard though, not sure if that is because I omitted the wheatgerm. Nevertheless, very tasty and Sophie ate a whole bunch! Really need to try this again.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Homemade salad dressing – Makes approx 1 cup

5 tablespoons balsamic, white, or red wine vinegar
4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons Dijon mustard or regular mustard
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup (or honey as a substitute)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Ground black pepper to taste
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Directions: Toss all ingredients into a bowl and whisk! Refrigerate.

Young Coconut Jam

We stayed a week at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Devi in Chiang Mai last year and got utterly spoilt. The resort was beyond beautiful and we spent all our time lounging by the pool and just chilling out.

We started our days with private Muay Thai lessons (a first for both of us!) and it was awesome. Henry was so hooked on it that he joined a Muay Thai gym almost immediately when we got back!

So anyway, breakfast was a wonderful affair but what blew me away was the selection of jams on offer, in particular a Young Coconut Jam. Wonderfully fragrant, with strips of fresh young coconut, it was luscious yet wonderfully light somehow.

So i badgered the restaurant for the recipe but all they could give me was the list of ingredients. So i guess I’ll have to do the whole trial and error thing!

Ingredients:

500g Coconut Juice
1000g coconut grated white
1500g coconut milk
200g coconut flakes
200g coconut sugar
2g salt
2pcs pandan leaf
30g pectin
100g sugar
50g trimoline

Having trouble getting my hands on coconut sugar, pectin and trimoline – cannot seem to find them on our regular supermarket shelves!

Will likely give this a go after we give birth and baby’s more settled…

Babi Rosip

So Rosip is a sort of fermented Ikan Bilis sauce that you get only in parts of Indonesia. Looking at it, it resembles Chinchalok which is a fermented prawn sauce more commonly used in Asia.

It’s wonderfully fragrant and also works as a delicious dip when mixed in with cut chilli and some lime juice. Perfection with fried fish or other steamed seafood and even blanched vegetables.

But i digress.

I’m not a lover of Pork by far and don’t normally touch fatty pork even. But exceptions have to be made for this, it just won’t taste the same otherwise.

Ingredients:

• 1kg Belly Pork, sliced into thin slices less than 1cm thick. Place in a colander and let the excess water drain
• 12 – 15 pieces lemongrass, finely sliced, discard old leaves
• 100g langkuas or blue ginger, skin scraped off and sliced thinly
• Approximately half a bowl of Rosip, top up with hot water to make a bowl of sauce
• 1 heaped tbsp mashed garlic

1. Heat 3 generous glugs of soy oil in a wok over high heat.
2. When oil is hot, add lemongrass and fry till crisp, stirring often 
3. Add blue ginger to the lemongrass and fry for 2-3 mins 
4. Add the garlic and fry the mix till fragrant and a little brown, do not let it get too dry
5. Add pork and stir in well. Lower the fire slightly and fry till fragrant. Add a little bit more oil if too dry, fry till the oil from the pork comes out or until wok has a bit of char.
6. Lower fire to medium, strain half the rosip sauce into the mixture, adding only the liquid. Stir well.
7. Add the rest of liquid and half tbsp of sugar. Taste.
8. Add a glug of rice wine, stir in to taste. If mixture is too dry, add a little hot water to form gravy. simmer for another 5-8 mins and season to taste.

Here’s how it’s supposed to look:

      

Beginnings

6 April 2012

It’s been a wonderful year so far and am really excited to see how things turn out.

We’re just 5 months along with a little bun in the oven (Dr thinks it might be a girl so we’re gonna go along with that for now) and after a 2 month break in the first trimester, I went back to work early March.

It’s been quite tiring and the backache’s have been bad but I’m so happy that we’re finally expecting that it’s become a happy kinda pain (sort of). After burping like a sailor for 2 months, am glad I am now more fit for decent company.

Anyhow, in light of the fact that I will be soon a full-time mom, I thought this would be the perfect time to get my creative juices flowing again with writing, crafts, cooking and baking. Am thinking of trying my hand at food styling and photography too but shall not be ambitious, will see what happens.

Given that I haven’t done anything except the occasional casual dinner and one creative writing job, I’m pretty much a greenhorn at all of the above.  Nevertheless, I’m really excited to give it a go and see what happens!

Promise to check in again soon.