All posts filed under: Lunch

Mochi Black Rice Ball

Published by

Have you tried Mochi? It’s also called Japanese rice cake. It is made from short-grain japonica glutinous rice. The Mochi is soft and slightly sweet. It is used for making sweet or savoury dishes. Very often, we have it with stuffed red bean paste as a dessert. Traditionally, it involves a lot of hard work to make Mochi. Two people have to pound the glutinous rice with wooden mallets. However, these days, we can make it from sticky rice flour, cornstarch and sugar at home in a microwave. You do need to knead the dough a bit. From time to time, I like to make these rice balls as my breakfast or a quick lunch. The filling I used is pork floss this time. Just remember Mochi is very sticky to work with.  I wear gloves to prepare it. It’s so much easy in that way. I hope you like it. Makes 6 big rick balls or rolls (more if you make small size rick ball) INGREDIENTS: Sticky rice flour – 100g Cornstarch – 30g Full cream Milk …

Tofu Avocado Salad

Published by

Have you tried the combination of tofu and avocado? No. I high recommend it. Well, the truth is I was quite sceptical for this combination myself at the very beginning. I think it’s just weird. However, I know soy sauce goes well with both tofu and avocado. One of my favourite ways of having avocado is with soy sauce, lemon juice and fresh ground black pepper. Back to Tofu and avocado! The only question left was whether tofu and avocado can compliment each other. Well, there is only one way to find out, right? Since it’s a cold dish, I just need to chop everything and make a dressing. I decided to go for soy sauce and mustard with honey. I also added a little bit of roasted almonds. I think pinenuts would be nice too. I love fried onion. You probably have seen fried onion in some of my recipes already. It just adds more rich flavour to the dish. INGREDIENTS: Soft or Silk tofu – 350g Avocado – 1 Green onion – 1 …

Broccoli Soup

Published by

Sometimes, all I want is a nice warm soup, like today. I woke up, and I was craving for warm soup. Soup it is then! I had every ingredient in my kitchen. I just needed to chop everything up and cook. Blender will do the rest. It doesn’t take long to cook the sweet potato if you chop it into small cubes. It will cook in 5 minutes. Then, it probably needs another 5 mins to cook the broccoli. Grind heaps of black pepper. It makes the soup really yum. After everything is cooked. Just blend and season. It’s ready for you. You can have it warm or cold. The chicken stock can be replaced with vegetable stock. I garnished with some chopped pistachio and fried onion. A little bit of cheese or cream would be nice too. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the recipe! INGREDIENTS: Sweet potato – 150g, chopped into small cubes Broccoli – 370g, chopped Garlic cloves – 2, chopped Onion – 1/2, chopped Butter – 20g Freshly ground pepper – 1/4 teaspoon …

Potato Bacon Buns

Published by

Hey guys, it’s Friday again! I hope you all have had an amazing week! I am really looking forward to the weekend. Just want to spend a cosy weekend at home with my husband and probably catch up with some friends too. Life has been a little bit hectic at the moment. I haven’t had much time for cooking. I really miss it! Today, after I came back from the grocery shopping, I realised I didn’t get any bread from the bakery. I really can’t be bothered going out again. So I have a perfect excuse to warm up my oven. 🙂 I want something more than just plain bread.  I want something with filling. I sautéed some potatoes with bacon and heaps of black pepper in olive oil. My Kenwood chef has to do the work to make the dough. When the dough is ready, I made eight buns with the filling I prepared. Time to let it rise again. Patience, patience and patience! I cut the top before sending them in the oven. They looked …

Tagine Chicken wings and Prawns

Published by

Have I talked to you guys about Tagine yet? It’s my secret weapon to cook a quick meal. It’s a bit like one pot meal. I find myself using my cast iron Tagine whenever I am busy, but still want a home cooked meal. All I need to do is chop all the ingredients and marinate for a while. I normally would like to chop everything when I get home after work and marinate for 30 minutes. During that time, I can go play and feed the pets, or have a glass wine with my hubby. For this recipe, I made a sauce for the chicken wings and prawns. It has oyster sauce, wholegrain mustard and tomato paste. If you don’t like chick wings, you can always use different meat. I just like chicken wings. It goes well with rice. Otherwise, make a green salad. Dinner is ready! 🙂 INGREDIENTS: Chicken wingettes and Prawns: Chicken wingette – 8 Banana prawns – 8 Five spice powder – 1 tsp Minced ginger – 1 tsp Fresh ground black pepper …

Blanched Asparagus

Published by

Baby asparagus is so delicious and tender. when it’s the season for fresh asparagus, I love to cook it just use the basic method – blanching. It’s simple, but it also let the origin food flavour shine.  It’s the easiest way to enjoy the food. Remember to trim the ends of the asparagus. Although spears are tender, the ends usually can be tough. It is hard to chew and unpleasant. You wouldn’t want to spoil your mood of enjoying nice food. I like to drizzle a little bit of olive oil and add a pinch of salt to the water I use to boil the asparagus. It not only helps to seal the nutrition in the vegetables, but also gives a bright green colour after you blanch the asparagus. INGREDIENTS: Baby asparagus – 2 bunches Extra virgin olive oil – 1, 1/2 teaspoons and extra Black bean paste/Soy Sauce – 1 teaspoon Sea salt Black pepper – freshly ground INSTRUCTIONS: Rinse and trim the asparagus end. Prepare a large sauce pan and boil enough water …

Hazelnut Soft Bread

Published by

Hey guys. I hope you are having an amazing day. I have a sweet soft bread recipe to share with you today. It looks like my desire for soft bread is still going strong. Last week, I used some hazelnut spread to make this sweet bread as my afternoon snack. When I said it’s sweet, it was actually not that sweet. I am watching my sugar intake. Anyway, all the sweet taste came from the organic honey I added in the filling. It’s just perfect with a cup of tea in the afternoon. Apart from honey and hazelnut spread, I added some cream cheese as well to give it a rich texture. If you like it sweeter, you can add some brown sugar, rice malt syrup or just add more honey. I used a round baking tray to shape the bread into a flower and garnished with some almond slivers. Feel free to use almond flakes if you prefer. The bread can be eaten cold or warm. I prefer to have something warm in a …

Damper with Feta

Published by

I only found out about damper a month ago after I have been living in Australia for over four years. Shocking! I love it! I made one yesterday for our dinner party. Everyone liked it. It was so easy to make and so delicious. So I have to create a post to share it with you guys. It’s really a great solution for a quick bread.  After it’s baked, it is crispy outside and soft on the inside. Damper is a traditional Australian soda bread that is baked on campfire by swagmen. Basically, it’s made from flour, water or milk, and butter. Personally, I think it tastes a little bit like savoury scones without so much butter and egg. In this recipe, I add feta cheese, dill and pine nuts. Unfortunately, I ran out of sun-dried tomatoes. Otherwise, I will not hesitate to put some in the bread. When I say it’s simple to make, I am not kidding. There is absolutely no need to knead the dough (oh, how much I love that! 🙂 ). Rub …

Scallion Pancakes (olive oil version)

Published by

I probably mentioned in my previous posts that my mom came here for a visit last month. Since she only can stay with us for two months, I must make the most of it during her stay. We did some travelling, Fraser Island, Tasmania (I will write about it once I get a chance) and some places in Brisbane. If you follow my Instagram (here), you probably have already seen some photos. Anyway, apart from travelling, finally I have had opportunities to cook some traditional Chinese family dishes with her, like the dumplings, pork buns, minced pork noodles and many other things. The scallion pancake is one of them. I remember I used to eat tons of it when I was a teenage. My best friend and I went to a small eatery near our school to have the pancake as our afternoon snack almost every single day when we were in high school. Because it was so yummy, we always ate too much. By dinner time, we just couldn’t eat anything anymore. My best friend’s …

Black rice salad

Published by

The weather in Brisbane is getting warm. I start carving for salads. I have been loving black rice lately. So I thought I might put them together to have a nice light dish for lunch. Black rice is rich in antioxidants, high in iron and fiber. I found it’s really filling and healthy. Good for my blood sugar level too. How to cook black rice? I wash and soak the rice in the water overnight. The next morning, I cook it in my rick cooker. If you don’t have a rick cooker, you can cook 1 cup of black rice with two cups of water/stock in a deep sauce pan. Bring is to boil, reduce the heat, leave it to simmer until all the liquid is gone. Let it cool in the pot. At lunch time, I just mix it with some fresh vegetables I have in the kitchen. Quick and easy! Makes 2 INGREDIENTS 1/2 cup cooked black rice 1/2 onion – diced 30 g baby rocket 1/2 capsicum – diced 1/2 preserved lemon (optional) 5-6 …