Durian Swiss Roll

My fridge is packed with durian flesh and so I thought of using some for Swiss roll. I did it once long long ago...hmm..think it was 9 years ago! That's really long ago!

Very simple ingredients and very easy to make. Took me less than 40mins including getting the durian flesh out and meshing it.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2 cup of castor sugar (I use slightly less than 1/2)
3/4 cup of self raising flour (sifted)
Durian flesh meshed with fork for easy spreading

Preheat oven @ 180 degree.

Step 1: beat eggs with electric beater till its pale and thick.

Step 2: gradually adding the sugar in and continue to beat till pale and glossy. This is really long. About 5mins

Step 3: add in the sifted flour and gently fold with well combined. Be gentle and so as to not burst the air bubbles.

Step 4: pour into a Swiss roll baking pan (lined with grease paper) and baked for 10 minutes or till golden. It should be springy when touch.

Step 5: remove from oven immediately once done and turn it onto a clean sheet of grease paper. Remove the top grease paper (the one that was lined on the tin). Spread the durian purée evenly and roll it up, like how one would roll a sushi roll.

I find it nicer to eat when it's chilled.

Our Christmas...

The condo we used to live in organised a Christmas party for the residents and since we are eligible, I registered the kids for the party which was on 18th Dec. The turn out was not as good as last year but that means more chance to go up stage to play games for the girls.

The girls went up stage twice to play the games (though wining nothing) while Nicholas watched.

As usual, they had this Santa appearance and Santa will distribute the presents (which the parents had bought) to the kids. This is the most exciting part for my girls, for they were told that Santa had been "watching" them all year round and will have presents only for the good children. So they were very eager to listen out if their names were being called.

Nicholas was very anxious waiting...but when his name was being called, he refused to go up stage to take his present.

The girls each get a present from "Santa" and they were so excited!!

On 19th Dec, hubby's friend from Malaysia came over for dinner and I wasn't told till the morning itself!! I was so nervous as hubby suggested for me to whip up some Christmas dinner which I totally have never tried before. Moreover, they will be our first official guest to come over to our new place for dinner...*more sweats*... So, I dashed down to the Cold Storage and grabbed the frozen turkey; ham; sausages; salad...and a yummy log cake from Swiss cake. It was my first time roasting stuffed turkey and was so super nervous...I was praying real hard inside that I won't embarrass myself. But they were very nice people..everything I served, they ate as if it was really very yummy. It really flatter me!

The girls playing with their new friend in our garden...

On 22nd Dec, hubby suddenly suggested over dinner that we take a MRT down to Orchard Road and soaked into the mood! I was worried off the crowd but surprised to find its manageable. The kids, especially Nicholas, was so excited over the train ride!

Finally Christmas came!! The kids were the most excited ones. FIL and SIL came over for dinner and I made stuffed turkey again! Yup..its really yummy..the meat was not tough but tender and juicy..yum yum! This time, I placed some bacon on top of the turkey to give it some taste.

Made some baked scallops with cheese too. A new dish I tried today.

After ice-cream, the kids couldn't wait to unwrap their presents.

How can we leave Baby Ryan out of this , right?!

A family photo in front of the Christmas tree.

See those Thomas and Friend's shoes on his feet? He just couldn't resist wearing them right away!

And this present is from Santa @ the Condo's party. His favourite digger! See how happy he was?! He even pose for the photo take which was really rare!

And what's my Christmas's present? My best present is FINALLY, my baby can sit in the car seat for short distance drive (20minutes so far) without crying!!! Isn't it great news! YIPPEE!!! I can at least have my sanity back when I have to ferry the kids around!!

Yummy Steak In 30 Minutes

Sometimes, when I ran out of what to cook for dinner (Chinese food), I will just go western. Its so much easier to prepare and less time consuming. From preparation to ready-to-eat, it took me less than 30 minutes....

All I need to do is to put the beef steak (marinated with all necessary spices) into the oven to grill.

Scrub the potatoes and make a cross on top. Put it in the microwave, set it on high for 10mins, take it out, put some sour cream and bacon on it. I usually fried the bacon but used the ready-fried one for this...taste not as nice but passable.

There's always lettuce and cherry tomatoes in my fridge, so just wash some and put on the plate. Open a can of baked beans and that's it!

How's that?!

Stir-fried bean-sprout with slice fish

Easy and healthy dish. It's a little like the Sang loh Hoy Fun...

Ingredient:

1. Sliced snakehead or any fish of choice

2. Beansprout

3. Spring onion

4. Sliced ginger

Method:

1. Blanch the snakehead in boiling water. Remove and set aside. I usually keep the water to be used as gravy later.

2. Fry ginger in a little oil, add in the beansprout.

3. Add in the spring onion, stir well.

4. Add a little Maggi Seasoning sauce or any soy sauce (just a little for flavour), mixed well.

5. Add the cooked fish, gently tossing to mix well.

6. Add some water from no 1 and cover for a while. We like our beansprout "well-done"so I let in cook a while more.

That's all! Easy and healthy. One of my picky hubby's favourite.

Another Bento for Daddy

Japanese beancurd with rice & fish roe toppling;

Soba & Hello Kitty Fish cake; Apples

When daddy open up his bento today in the office, he couldn't help not showing it to his colleague. Told everyone that I woke up in those ungodly hours to make this for him and Rachel.

Actually, I'm quite surprise that he did not complain about today's bento since it filled with carbo (rice fillings and soba) but guessed the generous amount of Fish Roe did the trick. Added some broccoli too so that at least there are some veggie and the apples are the leftover from shaping into Hello Kitty shape for Rachel.

Topped it all off with the Hello Kitty Fish Cake...Thought it doesn't look very man for him but without them, look so plain.

Bento For Hubby & Me Too

Lately, hubby and I had been skipping lunch very often, not because we are on any diet routine but solely because both of us are too lazy to walk/ drive out to buy our lunch. We only eat if any of our colleague volunteer to buy for us, otherwise, we just give it a miss.

And most of the time, by late afternoon, our tummy would start to protest..so embarrassing. So decided that since I'm preparing bento for my girl, might as well prepare a little more for us to eat during lunch.

So what's for lunch today? Fried pork roll with cheese fillings + animal pasta with capsicum and beef.

This is for hubby.

This is for me

See that cheese flowing out?? drooling already??

Simple Sea Bass

Another simple recipe!

All you need is:

1. A few Sea Bass boneless fillets without skin;

2. shredded ginger

3. a tsp of light soya sauce

4. some Boxthorn (kei chi)

5. 1 tsp of olive oil (or any cooking oil)

Steam it and its all ready to eat in 5 mins! Goes perfectly well with vegetables (I used the water left in the pan after steaming the fish to par boil the veggie to give a little flavour to it.)

Claypot Tung Hoon

One of my favourite dish

Ingredients:-

1. Butter/ pork lard - 2 slices

2. Coriander Leaves (root/stem part) - 4 stalk

3. Spring Onion (white stem part) - 2 stalk

4. Large prawn / crabs - estimate 2 to 3 prawns for each person (min 8)

5. Glass Noodle (Tung Hoon) - pre soaked to soften - 1 packet abt 130g

6. Ready made chicken stock - 500ml

7. Oyster sauce - 1 tbsp

8. Sesame oil - 1 tbsp

9. Dark soya sauce - 1/2 tbsp

10. Light soya sauce - 1/2 tbsp

11. Sugar - 1 tbsp

12. Cracked peppercorns - 1tsp

13. Pepper - dash

14. Chinese cooking wine (Hwa Teow) - 2 tbsp

15. Coriander leaves - for decoration

Lazy methods:

1. Place the butter on the bottom of the claypot

2. add in all the above according to order listed

3. Cover and cook over high heat abt 7 - 10 mins.

4. Remove from heat. Add no 14 and 15, cover for 5 mins.

5. Before serving, use a chopstick to place the prawn on top of the glass noodle for presentation.

Salmon Patty

A very easy receipe.

1. 2 fillet of Salmon - steamed and mashed

2. 3 to 4 potatoes - peeled, cut into cubes, boiled and mashed

3. some cheddar cheese (depends on your liking)

4. 2 eggs beaten

Step 1: Put all the above together and mixed well

Step 2: coat it with some bread crumbs and fry (oil covering half the patty)

Step 3: Ready to eat!

Pork Floss Sushi

You must be wondering, sushi roll again?! Yes, since they love it so much, we did it again today.

As my kids and I loves Pork Floss, I decided to try making sushi roll with pork floss and the response ? ... Fantastic! They loves it so much they requested me to make it again. My Big Princess had even placed order for this as her Bento tomorrow!

Although these foods are nothing extraordinary, but seeing the happy faces that eats them makes it extraordinary! Don't you agree?

Sushi Roll

Fillings: Tuna/ Prawn/ Crab stick

Today, daddy is not coming home for dinner and so I decided to make Japanese Maki for dinner after some positive encouragement from his elder jiejie. I prepare Maki bento for her yesterday and she said it very nice and kept asking me for more : )

And as to why I did it only when daddy is not around? Simple, because eating this Maki alone will not be able to satisfy his appetide.

The kids and I had lot fun in the kitchen spreading the rice and rolling it up!

Heart Shape Egg

Men are funny being. When I was frying this egg, daddy came into the kitchen, have one look at it and said to his daughters that mummy is crazy!

But when I dished it out for dinner, all of them especially daddy went for it!

Thinks appearance really help as my 2 princess usually takes very long to eat their food but today they finished real fast!