Yay Yay! Time for another page outta my lil Chef at Home cookbook! 

One fine day, Verity and I decided to cook up some Asian cuisine for dinner – Black Pepper Stir Fried Beef

in the process! I like my meals with heaps of veggies 😀

Verity helping to chop more veggies! 

Lots and lots of garlic paste in the already-marinaded beef chunks!

Okay to be honest, the original dish was supposed to be Chicken Stir Fry.

But we changed it entirely to Black Pepper Beef Stir Fry! Then again, no one follows the cookbooks 😉

ESPECIALLY ME.

After putting everything in the wok!

Letting it simmer and absorb all the juices 😀 Omnomnomnom

Oh and you know what's our secret ingredient? Wine!  

Lots and lots of it!

After letting it simmer for another half an hour, I just gave it some more herbs and condiments to taste.

Used heaps of black pepper seeds too 😀 😀

Ta-da!! Almost ready!

Erin was on the other side of the kitchen, also busy cooking.

But since she's vegan, all her meals were strictly vegetarian – no meat of any sort!

*sizzle sizzle*

For dessert, we decided to bake a special chocolate cake. *wink*

Omnomnomnom. Ima chocolate maniac, if you didn't already know 😀 

Prepare all the ingredients needed

Melted chocolate, butter and yummy delish stuff 

Pour it in with chopped walnut chunks!

Ooooh look at that nutty chocolatey goodness 😀

As usual, this is what my friends and I do after I've finished pouring the entire cake mix into the baking tin.

Who wants to waste good chocolate? 😛
 

NOBODY. 

Popped it into the oven and waited for the magic to happen.

In the meantime, our Black Pepper Stir Fry Beef was ready to be eaten with steamed rice 

Bon Appetit!

Doesn't look really appetizing in the photo   Cos I was too hungry and couldn't give two hoots about taking pictures. Just wanted to gobble it! I was delighted when my friends loved it just as much as I did!

One of them said it was spicy as! *giggle* Well, toughen up! Get used to Asian spicy food 😛

This was Erin's vegetable dish!

She let me take as many photos as I wanted before she ate 😛 Yay!

After eating and got really full to the brim, it was time to bring out the special chocolate cake! 😉

Walnuts ahoy!

Don't know why we turned the cake upside down and ate it that way instead

Yay everyone liked it!

Okay speaking of which, I'm really darn hungry as we speak.

Imma head out for dindins with the bestie now.

And to all my Muslim readers out there, Selamat Berbuka Puasa! 

Okay I know I owe you guys loads and loads of my cooking escapades!

If you are following me on Twitter, you would know that I've been cooking up heaps of stuff for lunches and dinner – often experimental and adventurous.

Cheesy Penne Pasta Potato Bake with Roast Chicken! 😀

Oh and, just so you know, I never follow recipes. So I have no idea how the "recipe" just popped up in my head!

Hmmm… perhaps all these years of eating or numerous food review sessions has subconsciously taught me a thing or two and honed my long-time repressed culinary instincts.

Anyway, that's what I made for dinner for my family in Sydney!

Feast up! Also, I will also show you a brief step-by-step on how to recreate the dishes.

Everything I cook is pretty damn easy, to me. If I can make them,  I don't see why you can't as well!

Ingredients used – potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, capsicums.

Chop 'em up, dice 'em well, slice 'em well!

Before you cut up your veggies, you might want to pre-heat your oven first to prepare for roasting.

Set it to about 180 degrees Celcius.

Marinade a whole raw chicken with salt, black pepper and barbeque/mushroom sauce.

Stuff the chopped vegetables into various parts of the poor thing.

Yes. That's my hand inside its asshole.

Sprinkle more condiments and your favorite herbs. I used basil and rosemary.

Remember to line your roasting tray with aluminium foil or butter it!

Take it out of the oven after about 45 minutes or how well-cooked your chicken is INSIDE.

Lay it to cool and carve it to shreds.

Boil potatoes and mash them with salt, pepper, milk and butter

Boil the pasta of your choice. I chose curls and penne.

Stir fry onions, garlic, spring onions, mushrooms, veggies and that shredded roast chicken

with your fave pasta sauce

Put everything together in a casserole dish layer by layer.

Mix the pasta evenly with the sauce mixed with everything you've fried earlier, and layer with mashed potatoes and grated cheese. Then pop it in the oven again to bake for about 30 minutes on 150 degrees celcius.

You want your cheese to melt into the potatoes and the layers below it.

Yadda yadda yadda preparation time in total would be about 2 hours +

Okay, everyone is hungry… let's eat!

Salad for appetizers!

Mix cherry tomatoes, sliced mushrooms, avocados and lettuce with mayonnaise or mustard.

Have a good balanced diet!

Eat them together with the main meal. Are you hungry yet? 😀 😀

Ta-da! Portion for one.

We ended up getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th helpings!

I'm glad they loved it. Ahem. They better do 😛 😛

For it is cooked with love, by me

Whee I love to see a happy family enjoying my home-cooked dinner!

There was plenty to go around!

Not bad,. All gone! I've made another extra casserole dish… waiting for tomorrow though

Here's to hoping it will suffice for lunch tomorrow! 😀

Oh and, this also marks Episode One of my lil cookbook of homemade nomsters by me.

If you haven't tried making this, you probably should. Serves 5 and above 🙂 All the best!

Hey hey hey! It was officially the last day of Chinese New Year the day before yesterday. Yup, we the Chinese folk has 15 days to our festive season. Don’t ask me why though – it’s something I’d like to know too. So on the last day, we girls are supposed to throw Mandarin Oranges at the lake in hopes of having the boy of our dreams catch it.

*scratches head* Don’t know why it’s STILL being practised in this era! Perhaps just for the fun of it 🙂 I’d throw durians or jackfruits down if the guy of my dreams can’t find my tiny orange wtf. Hopefully he doesn’t get murdered or get his fingers butchered off while trying to catch my durian!

So I went back to this nostalgic street

One which I spent growing up as a child

Was glad to be back to spend some time with my fave fockers 🙂

The 1st day of Chinese New Year was just insane! And likewise the Reunion Dinner the night before. That huge ensemble of cacophony coming from my dining table was enough to deafen a dog. Laughters, exchange of jokes, passing commentaries of what might seem to be the most scrumptious food of the day and more

There was so much merry-making in the house!

Looks like food can really strengthen a family bond 😛

We were treated to a ravenous dinner of Steamboat and Seafood by the chefs of the days Popoh, Uncle Mike and Kakak. Together, they whipped up a storm to satiate our hungry stomachs with their deft Kitchen God hands – now how can you not have a good appetite for this?

There were a whole lot of stuff for us to dunk into the Steamboat!

I personally like to crack eggs inside my hot soup so that it gets all eggy when I drink it 😀

One bowl wasn’t enough for me, it was the noms!

Spot the baby squid, crabmeat stick, quail’s egg, tofu and the rest

They say the best food is sometimes granny’s homecooked signature dishes. Ya can never go wrong with that. To ensure the legacy of family recipes live on, Popoh has already imparted her cooking magic to Kakak. Technically, the latter is the only one who favours cooking. Not that I don’t! But I’d choose baking anytime 😀

Till this day, it is beyond me as to how we managed to chomp down everything on the plates in a jiffy

The crabs and prawns were the bomb though! Second after my eggy soup 😛

The fun never stops! Neither does our appetites – it just keeps rolling. Even more homecooked food was prepared for us all on the 2nd day of the Lunar New Year. There were hardly any space left on the table! Plates and plates galore babeh 😀 I shan’t go to the extent of naming them all for you because you can see precisely what we’re having *biggrin* (okay fine, lazy to list every dish down wtf)

It left me bloated for the entire day

As we had Steamboat on the 1st day and Chinese-style cooking on the 2nd, we decided to do something different on the 3rd day. Uncle Mike and his idea of a barbeque dinner held outside our front porch and lawn was a hit! So there it was, an entire night of live grilling in motion! Think sausages, corn on cobs, stuffed crabs, spicy stingrays, chicken meatchunks and more.

Preparation begins!

Woooooooooooo 😀 😀 Do you smell foooooooood

*cue for not-another-yee-sang-picture*

But there’s something prettier than the Yee Sang which cannot be eaten!

Spot my lil Angel Wing ring? Love it so much – it’s adorable!

You can get more pretty things like this too at Soak Republic. Go check ’em out 😀

Family tradition yo. You tell me, which Chinese fella hasn’t Yee Sang-ed before in his/her entire life? The more the merrier and as we toasted a brendice to health, wealth and prosperity, we wished the year of the Tiger will be one of fortune for us all.

Now dig in! Crunchy and juicy Yee Sang

With pomelo bits too 😀

The 4th day was spent celebrating Popoh’s 75th Birthday. Gosh.. it just felt like yesterday when Grandpa celebrated his 🙁 🙁 Anyway, bereavements aside, we had a little surprise made for Popoh in the afternoon. There she was, sippin’ on her cuppa ice-cold Nescafe when we nonchalently laid out the red eggs and in came my two couzzies carrying the (lopsided and partly smashed) Secret Recipe chocolate banana birthday cake!

Happy 75th dearest Popoh 😀

May you still be as strong to join us for our USA trip next year!

Meet the fockers 🙂 My folks that never fail to make the world go round! At least my world, that is *winks* Oh and lookie here! Penny wants to join in too. if you looked hard enough, you will notice that Uncle Mike is carrying Penny in the focker photoshot too 😀

We had lunchie soon after the whole session

And proceeded to dinner at East Ocean Restaurant an 8-course meal 😀

Nah. Show you my cute cousin. >_< The one that you girls like

In blue. Okay both are in blue but.. nevermind heh

In between, whilst we got bored and while waiting fer meals, boyfie and I camwhored all the way yo!

After so much food day in day out throughout the first few days of Chinese New Year, it’s time to bust out all the fat! Imagine.. the pork lard and all those sinful CNY cookies making a one-way beeline in expanding your waistline! So my fockers and I made it a point to work them all out together.. fulfilling at least ONE of the New Year Resolutions – to lose weight wtf

caught a really pretty sight along the way!

sunsets are love.. better at beaches!

But ya know what’s a bigger bigger bigger love? ELMO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Putcha hands up for muh fellow ELMO lovers! ^____^ Squeee!

Everybody loves Elmo! 😀

Rest of the days were spent gambling (for my case, it was losing money wtf. Whai not ONG one this year? T___T) , hiking, spending time with the fockers & boyfie as CNY coincided with Val’s Day nyahahaha and finally.. BRACING THE JAM ON THE NORTH-SOUTH HIGHWAY ALL THE WAY BACK TO KAY ELLE.

Took us a freakin’ 5 hours instead of the usual only 2!

But when it’s back in Kay Elle, it’s going a-visiting and late nights at buddies’ cribs and mamak outings 😀

Hope I’m the last one to wish you a VERY HAPPY SPANKIN’ CHINESE NEW YEAR!

E-mail me for my bank account number to deposit all your Ang Pows in yeah? 😀

Gong Xi Gong Xi!

It’s only a few days to Chinese New Year! That being said, our gang of foodies were lucky enough to be sponsored for a Chinese New Year Cover Shot session, which was our very 1st Cheongsam photoshoot! It is safe to say this is something novel which no other team of food bloggers have done, a very creative brainchild by Sidney of BigBoysOven 🙂

Saucer, MeiYee, ME, Bok, Coco, Sunny and Xin

as models of the day

First and foremost, I would like to thank our venue & meal sponsor, House of Tangs in Bangsar, Carven Ong Couture as our wardrobe sponsor and BigBoysOven as our dessert & cupcakes sponsor. Without them, today wouldn’t have been made possible anyway!

Master Chef Koh then joined us right after he whipped out his Yee Sang specialty served especially for us by House of Tangs. Yee Sangs are a total must have during this Chinese New Year festive season. It’s a trademark yo!

Remember I mentioned to yall previously that the method of eating a Yee Sang isn’t exactly very dainty nor adhering to any table etiquette? Well.. this is it. Look at all the hungry tiger plushies! I guess their appetites ain’t as ravenous as ours. After a long day of shooting, we were certainly famished

Ladies gossiping and table chatting ala Hong Kong-Shanghai drama series

And the insanity streak in us begins! The higher the better! Prosperity, success, wealth and health will be roaring ahead for the year of the Tiger! Hit ’em up to the ceiling if you may! 😛

I swear if we were any stronger, bits and pieces of Yee Sang

would be flying all over the room

Check out what pastry chef Sunny Yaw cooked up this time! I don’t read Chinese characters but my two cents tells me it should be Gong Xi Fatt Chai (Happy Chinese New Year). The mini tiger cub heads popping outta the pink icing were such a squeeze! Such meticulously decorated cupcakes, very detailed indeed 😀

A very adorable set of brightly colored cupcakes!

His lovely creations are of course to commemorate the year of the Tiger.

After a while, we took our seats for the food shots and nomnom shots. Yes nomnom shots (as deemed by me) are shots that are taken while someone else is eating. Here’s a fine example of nomnoms at its finest 😛 😛

OMMMM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

Remember my previous food review about the House of Tangs CNY menu? Yup, it IS that delicious. But ya know what the best part is? They allowed us to share with our readers some recipes of 3 out of their many signature dishes. Did you hear right? Of course, you did – because sharing is caring!

So as promised, here the recipes are. You could make mom or granny cook this at home for your reunion dinner! Pork Ribs – every non-muslim’s favorite! Tender and succulent, it’s impossible not to sink your teeth in it

Ingredients:
– Pork ribs 1kg
– Ginger in fine slices 20gm

Marinade:
– Garlic 1 spoon
– Oyster sauce 1 spoon
– Sugar 1/2 tea spoon
– Tapioca flour 1 tea spoon
– 1 egg

Sauce:
– Water 1 spoon
– Black vinegar 1 spoon
– Sugar 1 spoon
– Dark soy sauce a little bit
– Sesame oil a little bit

Steps:
1. Cut the pork ribs into square for about 2 inches, marinate with the ingredients above for 3 hours.
2. Place the pork ribs into pre-heated oven at 180c to bake for 15 mins till golden brown and cooked.
3. Deep dry the fine ginger slices in hot oil till crispy and place on top of the pork ribs, and pour the sauce over, and serve.

The next one imma share with yall is the prawn dish. Served in a small portion, it will leave you wanting for more! I certainly did, as it was only a mouthful 😀 can’t have enough? Nevermindddd… let’s get your folks at home to cook this too ey?

Ingredients A:
– 2 large prawns
– Huge cabbage 2 pcs
Note: Slice the prawns into half to butterfly shape, add a little salt and pepper to marinate for about 5 mins. Then fry the prawn till cooked.

Ingredients B:
– Carrot 20gm
– Enoki mushroom 20gm
– Mushroom 2 pcs
– Celery 20gm

Ingredients C:
– Chick peas 20gm
– Green peas 20gm
– Corn 20gm

Marinade:
– Garlic 1 tea spoon
– Oyster sauce 1 spoon
– Sugar 1/2 tea spoon

Steps:
1. Boil the cabbage till soft, sift and let dry.
2. Slice Ingredients B thinly, boil, and sift dry.
3. Sauteed the garlic and pour in the Ingredients B and stir fry.
4. Wrap the ingredients with cooked cabbage into roll, and cut half.
5. Sauteed Ingredients C with butter and add sugar 1/2 teaspoon and salt 1/2 teaspoon. Cook with medium fire for 3 mins and pour onto the plate.
6. Serve the prawn on top of the cabbage roll on the plate with Ingredients C.

It’s time for dessert! The famous Chinese traditional dessert comes in many varieties, among the notable ones are of course the Chrysanthemum Rice Cake.

Ingredients A:
– Boiled water 1.3kg
– Chrysanthemum 10gm
– Vietnamese Rice Net Wrappers 10 pcs

Ingredients B:
– Glutinous flour 1.2kg
– Tang flour 240gm
– Santan flour 1 pack
– Corn flour 240gm
– Cooking oil 120gm
– Sugar 600gm

Steps:
1. Boil the water, put in Chrysanthemum and let it soak for about 20 mins. Sift the Chrysanthemum and keep the water for use.
2. Mix Ingredients B then mix the Ingredients A evenly. Pour onto a plate and steam for 2 hours. Let it cool.
3. When it is cool, cut it into pieces and wrap with Vietnamese rice net wrappers. Deep fry till golden brown and serve.

Good luck cooking those at home!

Let’s hope your version is just as nice as the ones we had 🙂

By the end of the evening, we were more or less done. Thanks to the awesome team of photographers of the day. Ken, Andrew, Alex and Chai! Gracias to the 4 of you for being so patient with us and lugging your gear and lighting equipment, withstanding hours and hours of shooting us! Trust me, I know exactly how that feels 😉

AND ONCE AGAIN, THEJESSICAT.COM AND THE REST OF THE FOODIES

(my 1st time wearing a cheongsam wtf!)

WISHES ALL YOU DEARIES A SAFE TRIP BACK TO YER FAMILY THIS CHINESE NEW YEAR!

_{GONG XI FATT CHAI!}

_xoxo

Just came back after a weekend getaway in Singapore. Perfect remedy for weekday stress! But very very… very BAD strain on the pockets. Spent a bomb on shopping again. Sigh.

But just when I thought I could stick to that, I completely blew it when I touched down in Singapore – Double sigh. Bought a pair of stone-washed skinny jeans from Topshop, not the usual blue denim tones but black instead. Walked into River Island for the 1st time and discovered it was quite a big hit in Singapore!

Walked out with more purchases ouch!

Yes I know the price tags are dangling -_-

Cotton On was next, bought myself a bodycon print skirt from there.

Walked PAST Forever 21 and withstood the temptation of entering as I knew it was my danger zone. Completely off limits for me unless I want to fall in a pool of debt or end up stripped for cash. No sirree! But I failed big time in Somerset 313.

There was 4 levels of Forever 21 goodies there!

pic from rockthetrend

4 levels of Forever 21
4 levels of Forever 21
4 levels of Forever 21
4 levels of Forever 21
4 levels of Forever 21
Imagine, 4 storeys of lovelies suited for the fashionista in you.
Gosh!

But what was SO MUCH BETTER was the rooftop garden at Orchard Central! Baby brought me up there all the way to the *can’t remember which floor* but it was the highest one. From there, we overlooked Orchard and all the high-rise condominiums around its vicinity

This is us trying to snap a decent picture at the balcony overlooking the city. Angle’s perfect, color is fine and whatnot but look what ruined the photo completely :

I became a man with a macho moustache
-_-

As we wandered deeper and around the rooftop garden, we came by a wall which reminds me of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The entire wall was enveloped with lush greeneries and potted flowers and other plants!

Us by the not-so-concrete-anymore wall

There were lotsa restaurants there and some which I reckon is fine dining, considering the impeccable setup as well. Indoor water features include mini fountains with lillies inside! There was also a playground at the rooftop garden with bright colorful statues:

Trying to squeeze ourselves into the picture with the playground!

Other days of the week was spent baking cookies. Yup! I’ve got a keen interest in baking cookies already. In fact, I’ve begun to harbour the love for baking delicious morsels last year. The only setback was that I never owned an oven to burn down the house nor experiment with.

See the gingerbread man wannabe?
*coughs*

The recipe we used was the one I looked up on Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, sans the pecans as YingZi’s pre-braces condition disallowed her to crunch on hard bites. Anyway, it was long and grueling to mix the entire batch of batter together – thanks to the oatmeal & semi-melted chocolate!

We didn’t have a blender in the house so no blended oatmeal!
It just adds the extra crunch to it once it’s fully baked 🙂

I buttered the baking tray and off we put it into the oven. The smell was extremely invigorating! Ya know, that chocolatey fresh-from-the-oven smell you get whenever someone’s baking?

Yup that’s the one 🙂 But let’s just hope it tastes as good as it smells!

We couldn’t wait to sink our teeth in those loves!

After less than 20 minutes and laid down to cool,
it was ready to be eaten!

Yes I know, it doesn’t look too fancy-pancy or neatly rounded with perfectly proportioned corners. It’s irregular, lop-sided, mishapen but call it whatever you want, it’s your TASTEBUDS that takes control 🙂

So shut your eyes and open your mouth wide

we loved it!
So did YingZi’s mom 🙂

I had it for the next morning’s breakfast, the following day’s breakfast and even during the journey back to Malaysia! Wanted to bring some for my friends to try ’em but it was all swarmed by ants the very next morning as I stole some for midnight snacks but forgot to shut the lid FML

Anyway, I had a fab time in Singapore!
Loves 🙂

Didn’t bring my DSLR this time because the luggage was enough to drag a horse down. So this is technically my 1st holiday without bringing a camera.

But no sweat, baby bought me this very novel Nikon camera necklace-charm with blings on it! Love it lots, really special (although it can’t take real photos) ! Never seen it anywhere before.

Now I can still lug a DSLR around even when I’m not carrying my real DSLR with me 🙂

SMILE!
You’re on candid camera 🙂