Chocolate Fondue Recipe & Pics

HmmMmmmmMm ... looks yummy ya? It should be, the chocolate fondue is made from Toblerone Chocolates!


And all you need is:
1. Fondue set
2. Bittersweet Toblerone Chocolates - 3 X 100g bars (the black one)
3. Milk, cream or half & half - 2/3 cup (your choice depending on how "fat" conscious you are)

Method:
1. Break the Toblerone into pieces and let it remain at room temperature (don't keep in the fridge)
2. Heat liquid in a heavy base pan on low heat. When it's beginning to boil, tip the toblerone in and whisk continously till everything is dissolved. Turn off the heat, and scoop wat's needed into the fondue pot and serve.

Tip 1 : Halve the recipe if it's for 2 persons and you had a full meal already.

Tip 2: If you prefer your chocolate fondue to be thicker or thinner, adjust the liquid contents accordingly.

Tip 3: if you are interested to make it a bit more "adult", you could add 2 tablespoon of alcohol/ liqueur to the chocolate fondue. Most of the recommended liqueurs are 1. Amaretto 2. Kirsch 3. Chocolate Liqueurs. However, I believe you can add brandy, dark rum, kahlua, tia maria to it as well. Peppermint Schnapps would make it like After 8 but I doubt I'll like the taste on my strawberries. Add before the chocolate is full dissolved in the liquid.

Tip 4: Yes, I'm coming to it, you can certainly change to any chocolates of your choice. Just remember different chocolates have different "consistency" so you probably have adjust the liquids content according to your preferences.

NOTE: Typically chocolate fondues recipe I've look at puts 225g to 285g (8oz to 10 oz) of chocolate to 1/2 to 3/4 cup of liquid. Do take note that Milk is thinner than Cream so you can start off with less liquid first then add more if you think you prefer it thinner. The chocolate will also slightly thicken once it's taken off the heat.

The fondue set shown above was bought from Robinsons during a sale. Got it for $12! Good thing about this set is that it's pretty solid, and comes with a tealight candle!

As for what goes with the chocolate fondue other than strawberries? Did a quick search and came up with 1. bananas 2. cakes 3. biscottis 4. Venezuela fingers 5. marshmallows

But since my hubby doesn't like bananas, I wasn't too keen on marshmallows and I couldn't find fresh raspberries (the tartness would have gone very well with the chocolate), I settled for strawberries and cake. The biscottis weren't planned but since we popped into Coffee Bean for his fav BlackForest Ice Blend, I remembered that it was on the recommended list, so I got 2.

I wanted Sara Lee's Coffee Pound Cake(I believed I've seen it before), but they only had some other flavours and I chose the best of the lot - Strawberry Swirl Pound Cake. I took half of the cake and cubed it.

The above is the Espresso Biscotti from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves ($1.50), broken into bits by hand.

The above is the Almond Biscotti from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaves ($1.50), broken into bits by hand.

The final ensemble! The only person upset by it was Rascal, since he couldn't partake in any of the delicious smells he's been sniffing in the air for at least 1 hour!

What am I doing at this time posting this? I can't sleep! Rascal woke me up at 2am and I can't sleep! *help!*

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate ...

A male colleague is trying to impress his to-be-confirmed girlfriend and is asking me for chocolate recipes or to teach him to make chocolate stuff.

Just during lunch, I was talking to another lady colleague who asked me to tell her when I'm baking cookies next.

Flattered? You bet. Time consuming though, because before I embark on a next project aka recipe, I do quite a fair bit of research.

Why? There are many types of recipes out there to make really yummy stuff but my slogan is "There has got to be something easier!" so I will find the easiest recipe to make whatever I want. If the easiest recipe don't work, then I will see what ways I could shortcut. Great for beginners but serious cooks/ chefs will probably hate me.

I'm looking at chocolate cakes =) I used to have a favourite recipe but am looking at a few recipes to compare now. How long before I actually try to bake? Ask my body - been feeling flu-ish lately again. Anyway, chocolate fondue recipe up later, complete with pics!

Personality Crisis ... I think

Passionate (www.dictionary.com)

1. pas·sion·ate
a. Capable of, having, or dominated by powerful emotions: a family of passionate personalities.
b. Wrathful by temperament; choleric.
c. Marked by strong sexual desire; amorous or lustful.
d. Showing or expressing strong emotion; ardent: a passionate speech against injustice.
e. Arising from or marked by passion: a teacher who is passionate about her subject.

Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth EditionCopyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

2. passionate
adj : having or expressing strong emotions [ant: passionless]

Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University


Ruled by head rather than heart

PersonA is ruled by her head, not her heart. She is a cool, collected person who is usually unexpressive emotionally. Some may see her as unemotional. She does have emotions but has no need to express them. She is withdrawn into herself and enjoys being alone. The circumstances when PersonA does express emotions include: extreme anger, extreme passion, and tremendous stress. If someone gets her mad enough to tell her off, she will not be sorry about it later. She puts a mark in her mind when someone angers her. She keeps track of these marks and when she hits that last mark she will let them know they have gone too far.


What I say ...

Hmmm ... I'm a passionate person about what I like/ love. But yet, I make decisions based on head, rather that heart. So the above statement gets it wrong by 1 bit - i am not unexpressive emotionally. I will rage, I will scream, I will show my blackface - but I will make the decision based on facts, not my emotions. Now you look at it, does seems like contradictory doesn't it? But I never had the issue of mixing personal with business - difficult but it can be done if you lay down all the ground rules from the beginning. If it really has to come to that, I will run. I just don't like conflicts with friends within a working/ business environment. if it's not friends? The it's business as usual, afterall it has to be in the company's best interest right? I'm not paid to be politicking away, and besides I HATE office politics.

And it did seem strange to commented on that I can be hostile during working environment, yet friendly after office hours. I'm just not mixing personal with business, don't they get it? It's just not widely practiced I assume, although the phrase is on almost everyone's lips.

pics and more ... personality stuff

Finally got around to uploading the pics from my camera last night but was too tired to go through them to make into a proper step by step recipe for here. I'll try to get around to it tonight or so, provided I stop feeling so tired (think the flu bug is acting up).

Anyway lostsis intro this and I was like, "sounds fun!". Problem is, it requires me to write in "cursive" or longhand, which is alien to me. I never got the hang of cursive writing and printing is a lot easier for me (and especially typing *haha*). Anyhow, I tried my best and surprisingly, it has samples to match to my cranky cursive writing.

As for the results, I was pretty amazed. It's almost 80% to 90%, cuz + or -, there are somethings I never knew about myself or that explained my "behaviour" to me.

If you are in a self-discovery mode like me, do try it. It's really pretty amazing! It might even help me to evaluate how to be less disastrous in my kitchen hehe.

Birthday Dinner for my hubby ...

I wasn't too keen to spend a few hours to fuss over the dinner preparations and to sit down for a candlelight dinner ...

so I suggested that we cook the food and eat it, along the sequence of
1. Soup
2. Appetizer
3. Main
4. Dessert

We started about 5:45pm, given that we didn't have any breakfast or lunch (I was busy out doing shopping for food items - went to a. Dover market for my stockpile of pork b. Ginza Plaza for Toberone and my sashimi c. Cold Storage at 6th Ave for the rest of the barang).

Soup wasn't too adventerous - just canned Campbell Select Clam Chowder. Spilt into 2 portion, put a slice of Kraft cheese in each bowl, add some black pepper and hit the start button on my Microwave oven.

Appetizer was made from 5 ingredients - Salmon cubes (sashimi grade - wanted it to be minced but apparently they didn't understand what I wanted), Jap mayonaise, Jap La You (chilli oil), er, I think it's prawn roe ... those orange small balls, and Jap cucumbers. It was taught by Unisa, and it's a simple yet yummy recipe (even for someone like me who is not interested in Salmon). Basically just mix all of the above except for cucumbers. The cucumber is justfor me to console myself that I'm eating some form of veggies =)

Main was even simpler. I have a tub of garlic+herb+butter mix in my fridge already, so all I needed was to heat it up, add in some pacific clams, and then mix with some pasta (did linguine cuz he likes that). I'll post the recipe for the butter mix, it's great for garlic bread too.

Dessert was Chocolate Fondue - used toberone chocolates and a leftover orange dark chocolate bar in the fridge with half and half. I had strawberries, biscottis and Sara Lee's strawberry pound cake to go with it. And we finished it about 45 minutes ago?

It was a good pace to cook and eat the food - much more enjoyable =)

hmmm ... my personality type?

My Bloginality is INTJ!!!

As an INTJ, you are Introverted, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judging.This makes your primary focus on Introverted Thinking with an Extraverted Intution.
This is defined as a NT personality, which is part of Carl Jung's Rational (Knowledge Seeking) type, and more specifically the Mastermind or Scientist.
You aren't as openly affectionate as some of you NT counterparts, and this may cause other bloggers to assume you aren't as friendly. Your ideas and actual applications for these ideas are brilliant, however, and you might be more likely to create something masterful on your journal.

Really? Read this too. And see how I will turn out to be a parent here.

*chuckle*

Hubby's Birthday Menu

Ok I’ve planned out the menu and decided to make it a “simple” dinner.

 

For Soup – Campbell’s Cream of mushroom or Instant Miso Soup … hmm … n fact I can even try to make onion soup *ponder*

 

For Appetizers – Baked Escargots (buy the frozen type) or Pan Fried Scallops or Sashimi

 

For Salad – Cherry Tomatoes, japanese cucumbers with some shredded lettuce – dressing: Thousand Island or Seared Scallops with Veggies

 

For Main Course – Spaghetti with my herbie butter (almost like Aglio Olio)

 

For Desset – Chocolate mousse or Chocolate Fondue

 

If I get around to doing it, I’ll post the pics and recipes for those I actually get around to making it =)

Pic of that pasta

rem some time ago in Jan i was posting this recipe of a quickie pasta?

Anyway here's the pic of it ...


forgot one very important tip, try to get those vine ripen tomatoes - they are more expensive but the taste is worth it =)

a new word for me - julienne

Today I learnt a new word - julienne when i was searching for a particular food recipe (secret food research *hee*) and I was like *huh* what on earth is it.

 

I guess since the writer is a chef, it is probably a common term.

 

Anyway I did a goggle search and this helpful explanation with photos came up here.

 

If I wrote the recipe and being the lazy me, I would have said "shred carrots coarsely". I'm really lazy, ain't I? But Julienne-ing an item really takes quite a bit of extra efforts ... not to mention my love-hate relationship with my kitchen tools =P

BTE pizza

B = Bacon T = Tomato E = Egg

Sounds like a simple recipe doesn't it? It sure looks simple to prepare to, when you watch Jamie Oliver do it on TV.

But ... why doesn't my BTE pizza slides off the pan as easily as his does? *sob*

Anyway, this "pizza" makes a yummy meal, as supper, brunch or dinner. It's healthy too. right? It's got eggs, bacon and the veggies group is represented by the tomatoes (well, you could argue tomatoes are fruits, and mushrooms are not exactly vegetables either, but you can't argue they are "healthy" food!). As my frying pan is quite small, i usually make 2, a smaller one for me, and a bigger one for my hubby.

As for the ingredients, Jamie Oliver uses mushrooms too, but as you know fresh mushrooms in Singapore (those brown button ones) are not exactly cheap and they don't keep well either. As such I seldom have them ready in my fridge unless I plan to do this ahead.

Ingredients

Ripe tomatoes - at room temperature, halved (anyway u like)

Bacon - JO has his in complete intact strips, but i cut up mine into smaller bits to fit into my pan.

Mushrooms - JO says brown button mushrooms are more flavourful, so don't bother getting the white ones. Clean with minimum water else drain thoroughly (i think he just brushed it). Slice it. (Which in this post is missing)

Eggs - as many as you like but minimum you need 2

Bread - have it toasted just before u plonk the BTE on it

Method

1. Put 1 tablespoon oil into a non stick pan, roll it around. When slightly heated, place tomatoes in one corner, cut-side down (more oil if your base is bigger - i think my base is only about 15 cm?). Leave it over low-medium flames.

Which as you can see I don't do that too, I just place them in a ring - have to adapt to my pan's base =)

2. If you have the sliced mushrooms, in another corner of pan, add them and let it brown on its own.

3. Add the bacons.

4. When the bacon has browned, move the tomatoes, mushroom and bacon around so that you have an even distribution. Crack and drop the eggs over the BT stuff, so that eggs form a layer on top. See below. It will help to hold the seperate bits into one piece so it will look like a pizza. Sprinkle with coarsely grounded black pepper.

5. Toast the bread now!

6. Notice I never mention any salt? Well the bacon is normally pretty salty and I give them only a quick rinse, it should provide enough salt content to flavour the eggs. If your bacon is freshly bought, then you don't even have to rinse it (that's how much I trust Cold Storage stuff).

7. When the eggs are cooked like sunny side up, loosen the sides of the "pizza" and slide it over a bed of toasted bread. Mine's ... er ... kinda disgured. I still haven't gotten around to buy a new non stick pan although I have the permission to replace it.

7. Eat it as a open face sandwich or a gigantic "burger"! Enjoy!

Food at Cappadocia Cafe

Ok it's a mixture of pics I found in my old and new HP, so it would look slightly different from what they are serving now ...

First of all, the YUMMILICIOUS Hummus

Then followed by my favourite Segara Boregi (of which I've hunted down for it's recipe off the web and will be attempting it some time soon! but I made a slight mistake in my previous posting, it's filled with feta cheese and pasley, not spinach!)

My favourite main course, the lahmacun. I've also found the recipe off the web, and will attempt with a Pita bread instead of trying to make the thin base. I've not that confident! In fact, I think I can even try it with a Prata base!

Ok tt's all for now folks. Yes I know it's only a few pictures but I'm still recovering from my illness. I promise more to come =)

Yummy Frozen Pizzas!

Remember I was talking about some pizzas i bought from Cold Storage some weeks ago?

I went back to Cold Storage to take a look and it's Dr Oetker brand. See their webpage here.

We tried the Mozzarella, the Funghi (mushroom basically) and one more which i cannot remember (has yummy spinach!).

All 3 is good, with a nice thin crust and comes out from a oven 1o to 15 minutes (straight from the freezer) later, with a nice golden brown crust and none of that frozen food taste.

Try it sometimes! It cost about $7 to $8 i think, enough to feed 1 to 1.5 pax =)

Ya! Photos will be back on line again!

Provided my card reader works … just bought 1 from Sim Lim Square – only $15!

 

Later going to upload some pics, if I have time to touch them up first =) Look out for them!

 

Talk about disasters – after being sick for 1 miserable week, now I am desperately trying to recall what I did the days I was sick and was in office. Needless to say, I have missing documents and documents that I am wondering if I did them or I was dreaming? So basically have to do everything from scratch. Then, I lost the rubber heel to my new shoes =( later hopefully can hobble to a cobbler in time to get it fixed …. Very very comfortable pair of shoes from URS … too bad it’s a discontinued model (but I bought 2 more pairs at full price before the shoes were gone!)

 

Ok time to take my medication and get back to work … going to eat yummy Turkish food later *I can’t wait* *SLURP*

3 Carrots Soup

One interesting trivium about this soup - apparently my sister-in-law always makes 2 carrots soup only because my brother always never gets it right with buying the "green carrot". He always ends up with 2 radish instead. Why? Because he never tried asking the stall owner for the green carrots even if he cannot tell it apart from the radish! Unlike me, cuz I frequent the wet market so rarely, even the stall owner recognise me as the ultra blur one and will offer me assistance no matter how busy they are.

This soup was passed down by my family - either my ma-jie or my mum, but the purpose of this soup is to "detox" your body from "gas poisoning" from eating food cooked over a gas stove.

It's quite a simple recipe - 3 carrots refer to 3 types of carrots - white carrots (radish), green carrots (no idea) and the normal orange coloured carrot. Peel and dice the carrots and cook with meat (i normally use pork). The soup will sweet enough without the need of adding salt or any MSG. I suppose you could boil it for 2 hours over low heat over a gas stove but I normally make soups with my slow cooker (crockpot), set it on Auto Mode and leave it for on for half a day, or if I am working, the whole day while I'm at work.

Today I used about 1.3L of water (4.33 bowls of water) with 1 large radish, 2 small green carrots and 2 normal carrots. I think I probably used about *scratch* 300g to 400g of pork? Not sure about it's about $4 worth of pork from the wet market.

Good thing about not using salt - I took some of the carrots and pork and mashed it up as treat for Rascal.

Nigella Lawson

I'm so excited! Just went to the library and borrowed a book of Nigella Lawson - Feast. Am going to spend next week's evenings pouring over the book.

I first got to know of her when I was watching a programme off Travel & Living, where she presented a Honey SemiFreddo. To be honest, I never heard of "semifreddo" but since she was explaining that it's easier to make than ice cream (don't have to buy an ice cream machine) and it is flavoured by honey, it got me very interested. I never had succeeded making ice cream since I was a kid, and so if this special "ice cream" is foolproof, I just had to try it! So this is the recipe and method as I furiously scribbled while she was doing it on the show. I tried it and the review were very good! I hadn't had the chance to try mixing other flavours but will get around to it some day!

So meanwhile, enjoy some lovely homemade semi freddo (it's actually softer and melts faster than ice cream - so if u don't like HARD ice cream, this is for you!).

Honey Semifreddo Recipe (Nigella Lawson)
1. 300ml double cream - whipped till stiff peaks are formed

2. Combine 100ml amber honey, 1 egg and 4 egg yolks in a double boiler. turn on heat and whipped the mixture till frothy and yellow.

3. Pour egg mixture unto the whipped cream and combine gently.

4. Line a loaf pan with cling wrap. Pour mixture into the loaf pan and cover with another later of cling wrap. Put in freezer overnite.

5. When serving, cut into slices and drizzle honey over it and sprinkle toasted pine nuts.

My Fav steamboat place

*sob* the price of being sick!

The office is going to have the CNY lunch (with the yusheng thingy) and they are likely to end up in my favourite steamboat place - 2nd Mini Steamboat Delight.

It was introduced to me by Kelly (who introduced a whole host of other yummy food - will talk about them some other time), cuz we both LOVED tom yum steamboat.

Long time ago, I liked Coca Steamboat, but their standards seem to have dropped, and some of the food wasn't that "fresh" ...

Among the food served (other than the raw stuff), they served

1. a very deliciously crunchy "chong you bing" (onion oil pancake/ biscuit) - it's not the normal thin crispy one. This one is THICK and CRUNCHY and has seafood too (don't remember trying their plain onion one).
2. delicious flavourful chicken feet salad (ya i know not everyone's into chicken feet like me) - it's a cold salad done thai style - spicy and sour *OoOooo* *slurp*
3. lime juice with a sour plum - very refreshing especially when your lips are burning!

Lunch is the best deal - set lunch for one is at $13+++, 2 pax is $24+++, 3 pax onwards is 10+++ EACH. Included is sotong, tofus, prawns, scallops,. veggies, crabsticks, cuttlefish, pacific clams, fishballs, and a bowl of rice/ beehoon / tong fen.

If you going wiht a party more than 4, then just order set lunch for 3 and order other food =)


Address : 273 Thomson Road #01-04 NOVENA GARDEN Singapore 307644
Tel : 62550600,62548596
Fax : 62434909

Cappadocia Cafe Restaurant

been sick for the past few days - was on MC since Tuesday afternoon, went back to work today, and came home with another 2 days MC. It's now officially flu, with fever and viral symptoms of headaches (first time I heard of it). Previously before I had fever, the doctor thought it was due to my nasal cavity being stuffed with mucus again (had it long long time ago with i was in Uni).

Been craving for snacks - savoury ones and my fridge is empty of that ... my cheese had but dried up and I tried making chilli mayo tuna ... was so-so but did nothing to ease the craving ...

then now the craving for chocolate mousse has hit me ... so am surfing in all.recipes.com to look through the various recipes ... and of course drool over the pics ...

Don't think I'm up to cooking for Vday so I think I will just bug him to take me for the turkish restaurant we frequent.

This friend of ours, Boon Tun, gave us a birthday treat at Cappadocia Cafe Restaurant quite a few years back when it was located at Unity Walk, Robertson Quay. They since have moved to Rail Mall, my good fortune =)

See the cute birthday _boy_ below.


It was the first time I had hummus and it was so delicious.

So now when we eat there, we will order hummus as well as my favourite ... er I think it's called Segara B something, basically it's like deep fried spring roll filled with feta cheese and spinach.

My main course is usually the lamb dish (dun remember it's actual name) or lahmacun which is a very THIN crispy "pizza" with a thin layer of beef and some fresh veggies on top, while hubby's fav is Moussaka. I'm starting to get hungry now (yes I haven't had dinner yet - hubby's playing squash and I'm waiting for him to buy dinner back ... it's almost 9pm ... oops i better finish this quick and feed Rascal!)

Dessert is nothing special - usually we are too stuffed on their appetizers (we sometimes order up to 3 appetizers for both of us and we order 1 main dish to share). However, their Turkish Apple Iced Tea is a must try. Wonderfully refreshing and and delicious to drink!

Pricing wise is not too expensive. The Lahmacun is less than $10 and is easily enough to satisfy me for a main course (normally i give 1/4 of it to my hubby). The appetizers are about 10 each - can you try their appetizer sampler which is quite good too! The main courses are below $20 I believe. Prepare to pay about $30 to $40 each, if you going to order 1 main and 1 appertizer each =)

Be prepared to wait though. Weekdays they have only chef cooking (I believe is the owner and he helps out with the serving too). Weekends are slightly better wuith 2 cooks.


Address : 390 Up Bt Timah Rd Singapore 678045
Telephone : 6314 9244

Pei Dan Chok (Century Egg Porridge)

I was suppose to eat the pasta for dinner yesterday but I had a craving for soup - but with not much stuff in my fridge and I didn't want to take a 30 minute walk to the cold storage, I decided to make pek dan chok.

Of course, it's nothing like the thicky gooey porridge my ma jie makes, but it will suffice to satisfy my cravings.

There's a trick to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot when cooking. So here's my quick recipe for pei dan chok.

Pei Dan Chok (Century Egg Porridge)
(Serves 2)

1 cup of rice ( the cup I used is from the rice cooker)
2 tablespoon of glutonous rice (optional)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil (I use corn oil)

Wash and drain the rice. Add salt and oil to the rice, mix well then some water - about 2 tablespoon water. Leave it to stand for 15 - 30 minutes, longer if possible (if you could prepare it overnight, put the rice mixture in a plastic bag, seal and chuck it in the fridge).

Prepare
some pork, sliced thinly, season with salt and pepper and cornflour. Let it marinate for at least 5 minutes (if you could prepare it overnight, put in a plastic bag, seal and chuck it in the fridge).
1 rice bowl of chicken stock (I use Swanson chicken broth)
2 or 3 century eggs, cut into small pieces (note: if u like ur porridge white, add it just before porridge is done)
1 salted egg (optional)

Add the chicken stock and 3 bowls of water to the soaked rice, bring to boil, stir in the salted egg and add the rest of the ingredients. Bring it to boil again, then turn down to low heat. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 30 to 45 minutes. Mash the salted egg yolk if desired. Serve.

When I cook porridge, i usually put 1 chopstick at one end and put one edge of the pot cover on it. It helps me to do less cleaning up because the porridge is less likely to froth over the pot. Although my hubby claims that it will spoil the chopstick eventually, so use a long satay stick if you have.

Yes still no pictures, hadn't got around to buying the new cable. *sigh*

quick pasta!

I had some colleagues over and decided to do cooking instead of ordering in pizzas.

I still kind of cheated – I bought 3 frozen pizzas to bake. The pizzas are good! Will be buying them for further consumption for sure … just let me dig out the boxes and post it here.

I made potato salad as well as pasta. Potato salad was pretty simple, just boil the potatoes, eggs, and peel and chop up the veggies and some ham. Then put some yummy mayonnaise (must be Japanese type – the one with the baby on the packaging), sprinkle some black pepper and it’s ready to serve! For variations, add peaches or honeydew and put cooked shrimps instead ham (omit the eggs).

Before doing the potatoes, I was preparing the sauce for the pasta – the recipe came from my 3 ingredients cooking book.

Ingredients required

1. 6 small ripe tomatoes
2. 500g pasta (any sort but I used penne for easy eating)
3. a small handful of fresh basil leaves

From your cupboard, 3 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper to taste.

I didn’t quite follow the method prescribed, I just threw all the ingredients minus the pasta into my hand held blender, processed it and put into the fridge for 2 hours. Take out and allow tomato mixture to return to room temp. Cooked the pasta as per instructions, mix and serve.

But I did make one extra batch but I followed the recipe instructions.

Cut the tomatoes into halves and light crush till juices start to run. Mix with olive oil. Tear the basil leaves into bits and add to the mixture. Add salt and pepper to season and chill for 2 to 3 hours.

My tomato mix is currently overnight. Intend to use it tomorrow so let see how it goes =)

Fresh basil leaves are available from Cold Storage.

talking about scallops ...

I found this recipe off Donna Hay's website ... looks simple enough to handle and not too much time to prepare too ... decisions decisions decisions *sigh*

I thought her slogan is nice ... turn simple into special ... =)

anyway this link is for you to check out her Scallops recipe and do your own research on your special menu!

http://www.donnahay.com.au/Story.jsp?storyid=2222863&sectionid=818

Research for Vday's Dinner - dessert shortlisted!

OoOOOoOoOOo every since I saw this picture on AllRecipes.com I couldn’t stop drooling! I finally found the recipe corresponding to the picture, but the reviews were pretty mixed.

So I dug around a little more, and found something I can do the day before and the reviews were mostly 5 out of 5 stars. Cool eh … I don’t have martini glasses but I do have some wine glasses, so those will have to do =)

So this is the recipe for Death by Chocolate Mousse (I only grabbed the mousse part).

Servings for 2

Ingredients

1/4 cup heavy cream

1/4 (12 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips = 3 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 pinch salt

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon white sugar

Method

1. Combine 1/4 cup cream, chocolate, vanilla extract, and salt, in the top of a double boiler. Heat until chocolate is fully melted and mixture is smooth.

2. Alternatively, if you have a food processor, you can blend mixture by placing chocolate, vanilla extract, and salt in the processor bowl. Bring 1/4 cup cream to a boil on stovetop, then slowly pour cream into processor with blade running. Continue to process until mixture is smooth.

3. Pour chocolate mixture into a bowl and cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

4. In a large bowl, beat 1/2 cup chilled cream with 1 tablespoon sugar. Beat until stiff peaks form. Fold whipped cream into chocolate mixture. Pour mixture into serving container. Chill for at least 6 hours before serving.

Tip: Cover the top of the container with cling wrap to prevent the mousse from drying out.

jamie oliver scallops with veggies

I'm sure Jamie Oliver would have given a better name than me, but I was scribbling on a piece of paper while watching the show and trying to acknowledge the presence of my hubby's friend at my place. By the way, I WANT TO GO TO SCOTLAND TOO!!!!

Here goes ...

Ingredients
Scallops
Salt
Pepper
5 spice powder
A knob of butter
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Fresh rosemary and marjoram leaves
Half a lemon
Baby leeks
Asparagus

1. Boil water with 1 teaspoon of salt. Add baby leeks and asparagus. Remove after 1 minute, drain well.
2. Clean and drain well the scallops. Score one side of the scallop with criss cross pattern.
3. Sprinkle some salt, pepper and some 5 spice powder on top of the scored scallops. How much depends on personal tastes.
4. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan over medium flames, and put the vegetables in. sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
5. After 1 minute, push the vegetables one side of the pan. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, put the scallops in, scored side down. After 1 minute, flip the scallops and add a bit of butter.
6. Throw in a handful fresh rosemary and marjoram leaves over the scallops.
7. Put the vegetables on the plate, with scallops on top. Squeeze half a lemon over the scallops. Serve.

Research for Vday's Dinner - first item shortlisted!

Remember I said that I’m going to start shortlisting recipes for Vday?

I just found the first one! I couldn’t stop thinking about this scallop dish by Jamie Oliver that was shown on the TV. He met up some friends in Scotland, and they showed his friends diving and catching the scallops! It was so amazing to see how the scallops trying to escape!

But most importantly, it was the way he presented the dish, simple and yet looked so mouth watering (yes it’s the lemon factor again).

Anyway I just found this recipe, it looks so simple and yet sounds really yummy! And yes again, I will probably change the lime to lemon =) Not sure if I want to serve it as appetizer or main meal yet. But I know where to get the scallops! Read that Meidiya (correct?) stocks fabulous Japanese seafood (who can forget those seafood on Iron Chef?). Will just be doing the scallop meat without the shell ... cannot imagine how expensive that would be!

Will try to dig out the Jamie Oliver recipe and post for comparison. Yum!

Grilled Scallops with Basil and Lime Butter

Ingredients

9 king scallops, shucked and cleaned
salt and black pepper

Basil and Lime Butter:
85g (3oz) butter, softened
2 x 15ml spoon (2 tablespoons) fresh chopped basil
juice and rind of 1 lime

Method
1. Preheat the grill

2. Remove the coral (or roe) from each scallop and set aside. Slice the scallop in half and set aside.

3. In a small bowl mix the butter ingredients together and set aside.

4. Spread 40g (1 and one half oz) of the flavoured butter onto a grill pan.

5. Add the scallops to the grill pan 5cm (2") apart. Dot with the remaining butter and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning occasionally. Transfer to a serving dish.

6. Spoon the juices from the pan over the scallops and serve with sliced new potatoes and salad leaves tossed in a little vinaigrette dressing.

Serves 3 as a starter

Recipe from: http://www.seafish.org/plate/details.asp?catid=2&recipeid=375

The Apples of my eyes

I always loved apple pies, and even more so apple crisps.

My sister made it once when she returned from US and she made one during her short stay with us. Only thing was, I think she forgot to put the sugar in the crust and it was so sour! But still very yummy (just top up with some honey or ice cream to go with it).

Anyway I was bugging her for ages to pass me the recipe (she still owes me the red wine vinegar chicken recipe too) to no avail. Then one day, my allrecipes.com e-newsletter came in with a weekly highly highlight on apples. So i surfed through the recipes, read through all the reviews and selected one to try with the advised modifications.

It was very good! The topping is very crispy and kinda healthy (it has oats it in!). The apples is nice and soft(tarty too!). I have the pictures somewhere but I can't seem to locate it. Anyway, after this, I'll be researching on recipes for V Day =) so watch out for it.

APPLE CRISP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE FILLING
10 green apples
1/3 cup white sugar
2 tablespoon plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup of raisins (more if you like)
Juice of 1 lemon (reduce if you don’t like it tart)

INGREDIENTS FOR THE TOPPING
1 cup quick-cooking oats
1 cup self-raising flour
3/4 packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 block SCS 125g salted butter)

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C for at least 20 minutes.
2. Peel, core and dice the apples. Toss with lemon juice immediately,
3. Combine the white sugar, 2 tablespoon plain flour and ground cinnamon, toss with the apples and raisins.
4.Place the apples on a baking dish (Mine’s 20 X 20 X 6cm I think).
5. Mix the oats, flour, brown sugar and add in melted butter. Crumble evenly over the apple mixture.
6. Bake at 175 degrees C for about 45 minutes.

Tip 1: If you like your apples softer, cover the top with foil and bake for a further 15 minutes.

Tip 2: Up the cinnamon if you like. I do it with 2 teaspoons for the filling and sprinkle some for the topping.