Weekend Snapshot # 7..Yuen Garden Dim Sum.

Last Sunday, uncle JK took us to this dim sum shop in Puchong, for breakfast and it took us quite sometime to wait for a table. Seems the rising cost of fuel has not taken its toil on this shop. Business was good and the shop was packed with customers from the ground floor to the upstairs space.

A Medley Of Flavours In Ratatouille.

Ratatouille is a name for a humble vegetable stew which originated from Southern France. It used to be called a poor man's dish as it only contains very simple vegetables that could be easily obtained or planted by the people of the mediterranean region. The vegetables like carrots, onions, peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, and cucumbers, are cut up into pieces and stewed with mixed herbs to bring out a flavourful dish.

Recently I cook a pot of ratatouille to be eaten as an accompaniment to rice and a salmon dish. It can also be tossed with pasta for a quick healthy meal. So for those who are keen on cooking this poor man's food packed with vitamins, here is a recipe to share.........

Ingredients:

2 red peppers or any colour, deseeded and quartered - skinned

2 tbsp vegetable stock

1 onion - thinly sliced

3 garlic cloves -crushed

2 aubergines (eggplant)- diced

2 cucumbers or zucchini - sliced

400 g canned chopped or stewed tomatoes

a few sprigs of thymes,majoram or oregano-or dry mixed herbs

a dash of ground black pepper

2 tsp olive oil

Method:

To skin red peppers, place pepper under a hot grill and grill skin side up, til the skin begins to char. Pop into plastic bag and leave to cool slightly then remove the skin and diced.

Heat olive oil in pan and gently cook the onions and garlic until translucent. Add aubergines and zucchini and continue to cook for 3 mins. Mix in red peppers and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for another minute. Add tomatoes and snip in fresh herbs. Season with a dash of freshly ground pepper and vegetables stock. Covered and simmer for about 20 to 30 mins til the vegetables are soft and tender.

A Bento of Honey-Glazed Salmon & Ratatouille.

These days it seems everybody is grumbling about the rising cost of every single thing including food. But we cannot just go without food and the best option is to eat at home. But sometimes our fussy eaters are unwilling to eat at home if the food is just the same old thing day in and out. So mums like us have to be creative in our dishes and cook up something new. Here is a recent bento meals for my fussy boys. (Even though they are quite grown up the bento is just to attract them to the food).......Try it out if you have no idea what to cook anymore. Besides, it is quite healthy, delicious and easy to cook too. Here is the recipe to share.........

Honey-Glazed Salmon

Ingredients:

300 g Salmon fillets

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Marinade:

1 clove garlic - crushed

2 tbsp honey

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp sesame oil

Salmon fillets............

Method:

Mix together the marinade ingredients. Pour the marinade over the salmon fillets and turn over to be well coated with the sauce. Leave aside in fridge to marinade for at least 1 hour.

Marinade sauce mixture..........

Preheat a grill to high or you can pan fried it like I do to save cost of electricity bills. Brush the top of fish with marinade and grill for about 6 minutes turning over half way til the fish is just cook. Place any remaining marinade in pan and heat up for 1 to 2 mins, then pour over the cooked salmon. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds before serving.

My ratatouille recipe will be up in my next posting.

Note: All oily fish like salmon, mackerel, sardines and trout are good for health. They contained omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids to help our body in the prevention of heart diseases, reduce the risk of stroke and helps to improve inflammatory conditions like arthritis. (I do try to take at least one portion of oily fish due to my arthritis condition)

New 3 Column Image.......

Today I just took some time to add another column to my 2 column blog to make it into a 3 column one for a more flexible space . When it comes to html tags, I used to freak out hoping I would not mess things up. So, thanks to Kess' Mama for blogging about these wonderful tips for new bloggers or old but non IT smart bloggers like me of this site here. The tips given are so clear and easy to follow. So if any of you who would like to do some makeover to your blog you can still look up for tips in this site here.

An Excellent Award........

Here comes another award to add to my collections. This time it is an "Excellent Award" from my interesting blogging buddy...Kess & Mama for my excellent recipes. Thank you, Kess, for this lovely award and loving my cooking and recipes. And you too deserve this award for being an excellent friend. More pats and hugs for you. Now to pass this award to my other excellent friends here for their excellent blogs........

Little Corner of Mine.

eastcoastlife.

U.Lee.

Home Sweet Home.

Cruising In 4 Wheel Luxury.......

If you love to cruise in a sporty car and yet wants to look smart and proper for your important appointment or dates, just in case it rains, then this latest model of Volkswagen Eos is yours to choose. This newest model has just been on the road since April.

I took some pics of this lovely convertible when the vivacious head of PR and marketing of Volkswagen Group Malaysia Sdn Bhd... Karen Cheng (hub's cousin) gave me some demo while I was in KL recently. Here are some photo shoots to share...

The dashing car with a sunroof that can be open up......

Side view..............

The front view...........

The rear view.........


The Roof can be retracted to transform into a topless sleek sporty look......reminds me of my son's transformer toy.......


The red leatherette seats that spells comfort and style.....

Weekend Snapshot # 6..Of Candlelights,White Roses, Wine & Fine Dining.

Sweet Jasmine among the roses......

Bouquet of white roses and candlelights on each table.....


A free flow of wines.................


Our table spread............


Banquet hall of a hundred tables.........


My Ciabatta bread...........


Roast beef & asparagus rolls, semi dried tomatoes, feta cheese salad, pesto dressing..........


Porcini mushroom cappucino..........


Mango sorbet with passion fruit coulis.........


Our main course of parmesan crusted cod fish, sauteed potatoes, bell peppers, wilted spinach, tomato nage.........


Warm flourless chocolate cake with vanilla bean ice cream & raspberry coulis.........


Ok....I am finally back after a great weekend of fine dining at the big city. So here are some photo shoots discreetly taken with my small portable camera which I manage to smuggle snugly in my evening bag. The pics were not too good because of the dim lightings and my 4 years old 2 gb camera.

The wedding dinner was a grand affair with about 100 tables decorated with fresh white roses and candlelights. Among the hundreds of guest were our DPM's wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor, Toh Puan Ena Ling, Group Chief Editor of The Star...Wong Chun Wai and many others. Our DPM came late when everybody was leaving because he had another wedding function elsewhere. The dinner party ended around midnight after much drinking and boogieing by the bride and bridegroom and their parents.

Dressed To Kill......

While still at logger heads over my condo makeover, looking for the right colours for my kitchen cabinets and walls, I have been busy the last few days with another part of my makeover. That is to find the right formal evening wear for a wedding dinner this weekend.

As this wedding dinner is quite special because it is right in the heart of the capital city in a 5 star hotel, I do not want to look like a drappy old lady in front of the city socialites or even worse put my host to shame if I do not do justice to the word " Formal Attire" as printed in the invitation card. So off I went looking for the right evening wear and the right shoes and evening bag to match..........

And I have been dreaming to look like this........

or something like this........

As I cannot wear high heels I had to shorten my gown to this...

so I might look something like this.............

With shoes that suits me like these..................


And an evening bag like this...............

Plus a black crochet shrug like this...........

With a glittering belt that cost me a fortune like this......

I am all ready dressed to kill or is it to please everyone including myself or do I look like a millionairess among the crowd.......

A Dose of Crème Brûlée ......

Son H Crème Brûlée ...............

"The origins of crème brûlée (pronounced krehm broo-LAY) are very much in contention, with the English, Spanish, and French all staking claim. The Spanish have taken credit for this sensuous custard as "crema catalana" since the eighteenth century, while the English claim it originated in seventeenth-century Britain, where it was known as "burnt cream" and the English school boys at Cambridge demanded it. It apparently wasn't until the end of the nineteenth century that common usage of the French translation came into vogue, putting it on the map from Paris to Le Cirque in New York City. Its wide recognition today seems to have given the French credit for inventing crème brûlée. "....Debbie Puente.

Crème brûlée (French for "burnt cream"; pronounced /ˌkrɛm bruːˈleɪ/ in English, IPA: [kʁɛm bʁyˈle] in French) is a dessert consisting of a rich custard base topped with a layer of hard caramel, created by burning sugar under a grill, or with a blowtorch or other intense heat source. It is usually served cold in individual ramekins.
The custard base is normally flavoured with just vanilla, but it can be enhanced with chocolate, a liqueur, fruit, etc. Sometimes the hardened sugar on top will be given a Maillard reaction, or caramelization, by igniting a thin layer of liqueur sprinkled over the top.... Wikipedia.

On Sunday son H made some crème brûlée and here I wanted to share the recipe with my readers.......

Ingredients:

300 milk

100 ml whipping cream

50 g castor sugar

4 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

4 tbsp brown sugar

Method:

In a saucepan combine whipping cream, milk and sugar and slowly bring to a boil. Remove from heat.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs and add to cream mixture together with vanilla essence. Mix well til blended and strained.

Pour the custard into ramekins. Then place ramekins into baking tray. Pour enough boiling water to baking tray enough to come half way up the sides of ramekins.

Place baking tray in a preheated oven and baked at 180 degrees Celcius for 30 mins til custard is set.

Remove from oven and leave to cool and refrigerate til ready to serve.

To serve, sprinkle a layer of brown sugar on top of crème brûlée and grill under a broiler or use blow torch to burn til caramelize.

Crème brûlée baking in oven.............

Daily Blogger Award.....

How wonderful to get an award from a dear blogging friend of Little Corner of Mine. This award is given to blogs that have at least 3 post per week. I must be a hardcore blogger now as I am a daily blogger.Hope I can keep up with this pace and deserve to be call a daily blogger. Now is my turn to pass this award to my friends who I assume are daily bloggers too......

1. Healthfreakmommy ....2. Dora....3. Home Sweet Home....4. Kess & Mama. 5. Bokjae.

Manhattan Fish Market......

Baked fish with herbs rice............

Grilled seafood platter.................

Seafood spaghetti...............

These days with the rising cost of everything, it is indeed no surprise that most restaurants are changing their menu for a new pricing in their food. One of them is Manhattan Fish Market which has a new print of menu since last week. Most dishes has a price increase of a few ringgit. Anyway for consolation there is still a 10 percent discount for Jusco membership cards................

My Dreamz Have Come True.....

9. http://mohlee56.blogspot.com/2008/05/fulfilling-my-dreamz.html

I have recently found out that I have won a double pass in my first ever contest I took part in this blog last month. I am sure most of the bloggers out there will also be as lucky as I am. If you haven't heard about this, please hurry out to check at this site here and try your luck. Just register as member of AMBP (All Malaysian Bloggers Project) and you will have the chance to take part. AMBP are giving out 80 Normal Season PS1 Dreamz double passes (worth RM260 each, and valid until Aug 31) to give away to AMBP members.

For those who had enter this contest please check out here to see whether you are one of the lucky 35 winners.

Rainbows Is One Year Old Today...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

To

RAINBOWS
















My blog Rainbows is a year
old today and I am
very happy it is still here
among the thousands
of blogs in this blogsphere.
My blog would not
come this far without the
support of all my
readers and new found
blogging friends whom I
would like to thank from
the bottom of my
heart. I appreciate all your
frequent visits and
your comments making it a great year to
remember. Hoping for more good things to
come from me to all of you out there.



From:

Sweet Jasmine........


Note: My second 'baby' was born recently over here at http://bloggerbin56.blogspot.com/