Sakura Chicken -- a disappointment this time

Whenever I get a whole chicken from the supermarket, I would get "kampong" for soups or Sakura Chicken for roasts. Sakura chicken is really more tender (esp the breast), but this one time, I was very disappointed with what I got. It was quite tough, and worst of all, the feet had "burn marks". From what I saw on Jamie Oliver's Fowl Dinners, birds with such burn marks on their feet indicate that they have been bred in an overly crowded farm where the ammonia levels in their waste actually cause their feet to burn. :( I really hope that the welfare of the chickens isn't declining, coz' I'd imagine that it affects the consumers' health.

Cekur Manis (a.k.a. Sabah Vegetable?)

I have used this vege a few times for soups but it's always a hassle removing the leaves from the stems. And I've never known what it's called until I saw it in Cold Storage in a pack like this!



Only $2.80 for a pack (at least 6 servings) and organic too! It says Cekur Manis on the pack. And as I was reading a book entitled "Handy Pocket Guide to Asian Vegetables", I found out that it is commonly known as Sabah Vegetable, Phak Waan Baan (Thai); Sayur Manis (Malay); Katuk (Indonesian); and Binahian (Filipino). I'm a bit curious to find out if there are other ways to cook it. Little Missy loves this, picking every piece of it from her soup!

Grow Great Grub

I've been reading this book by Gayla Trail, and it has been so inspiring! She writes about how to grow edibles from small spaces. I never knew about worm poo and worm tea before that! Previously I have tried growing some herbs in my "garden", I've never been serious about learning how to maintain them. Most of them have perished. Although, the kaffir lime I grew from seed has been thriving (Mum gave me a fruit from her enormous kaffir lime tree). I now have pandan, rosemary, baby thai basil and some baby mustard greens. I'm hoping that my purple shiso and purple ruffly basil would germinate... not much happening in 2 weeks :( I'm looking for saw-tooth corriander seeds, but I haven't found any yet.

Kaffir Lime

Baby Thai Basil

Fun with Nian Gao

I had a sweet potato lying around which looked a bit sad, so I thought of combining it with the nian gao which has also been lying around. I sliced up the sweet potato, and pasted a spoonful on nian gao on each slice, it was fun like play-doh! Then I beat up a couple of eggs with salt and dipped each piece in before pan frying!  I couldn't stop eating them while I was frying up the next batch :p

Quick Chicken Curry (under 10 min prep)

Agar agar Cake...?

It's Little Missy's birthday, so mum thought that it would be nice to surprise her fellow tots at playgroup with a big blue teddy bear "cake". Poor kiddies, they were probably expecting a real cake... until their first bite.
This is actually much more time consuming to produce than a conventional cake, but it has far fewer calories per serving (we hope!), and it's fun to look at. ;)

Ben looks on suspiciously at the Yu Sheng

"Do I have to eat THAT?"

New Year's Eve Yu Sheng

No artificial colouring :)

Growing sunflower sprouts

My sunflower sprouts have been incredibly proliferic, much to my surprise. When I transferred them to this recycled tub, I didn't keep my hopes high. Now over a week later, they just keep coming. I've harvested the "crop" 4 times for my yu sheng, and there are still more coming along. Seems like they germinate at different times. I'm not complaining!

A recipe for Yu Sheng dressing

A somewhat more traditional dressing for Yu Sheng...
1) 300g plum sauce
2) 1/3 cup toasted sesame seeds
3) juice and rind of 1 lemon
4) about 6-7 kaffir lime leaves (limau purut)
5) 1/3 cup macadamia oil (or any salad oil)
Whiz it all up in a blender or food processor, easy!