Home Made Aglio Olio ~

New recipe this time~ 

I'm a big fan of Aglio Olio all this while. This has been my favorite or may be my first choice if I would like to go for pasta or spaghetti. The second one will be pasta with marinara sauce, then the least that I like will be carbonara sauce. 

Aglio Olio

This time, my big project is to prepare my very own Aglio Olio! 

I got some very nice, big fresh prawns for my Aglio Olio, thanks to my mum~ Love you mum... The prawns are very sweet and fresh. Fresh ingredients are needed for good food~ hehe... 

These are the ingredients of my aglio olio, simple yet delicious:

1. Spaghetti 

2. SmartBalance oil (well, the original recipe should be using the olive oil, but due to my laziness to purposely go out and buy, I prefer to modify the recipe)

3. Chili flakes 

4. Garlic 

5. Onion

6. Salt

That's all.... simple huh?

A lot of oil is needed to prepare this dish. I never know it until I prepared my very own one. I pour lots of oil, thinking that it should be enough at the first time, but I ended up adding the oil again in the middle of the cooking, as the oil is not visible after I added in the spaghetti. 

After heating up the oil, I put in garlic and onion, you can put more if you like to take those. I put quite a lot of them, well, I like the aroma of them... 

After that, I put in the chili  flakes. Some info for the chili flakes, I tried to search in hypermarket, in AEON and Cold Storage, and guess what? I couldn't find them in the shelves. Surprise huh? Not sure whether it is sold out or it is really hard to get one. I ended up asking opinion from my colleagues and one of them proposed using the chili flakes provided by Domino Pizza. She offered my some so that I can use them in the cooking. Well, the taste is amazing! May be I will use Domino Pizza's chili flakes after this. My advice, keep the chili flakes next time when you order your Domino Pizza. hehe....

Next, just put in the spaghetti and salt for the seasoning. As for the prawns, I just boiled them and inserted them last in the cooking, to preserve the freshness and elasticity of the prawns..

The photos above shows the aglio olio that I prepared for my sister and I.  I cooked extra serving for my lunch box the next day, but my advice is not to do so, as the taste is never as good as it is just freshly cooked. But overall, it is still much better than what I have in the cafe. I'm satisfied though... hehe... 

Potato Vs Vinegar

My dinners again... Today I would like to share a little bit useful information to everyone. I prepared potato for the dinner as you can see from the photo. This is a new cooking my China friend shared with me. I like this very much.

Potatoes is one of my favourite food. This is more interesting when she taught me to add in vinegar into the potatoes during the cooking so that the potato will become crispy. Any type of vinegar will do, I tried the black vinegar and white vinegar, the effect is about the same, only the outcome -- colour is different. The pototes in the photo was added with black vinegar. Therefore the colour is darker. This is something new for me, not sure whether it's new for everyone.

The texture of the potatoes become totally different when added with vinegar. It becomes more crispy and will not become soft and mushy, regardless how long you cook it. Well, I like potatoes, doesn't matter how is the preparation. But this cooking is really interesting and I like the crispy texture very much.

I googled a bit on what actually happen when vinegar is added. As I qoute from this website,
Potatoes are made up of a series of cells that contain starch granules. These cells are glued together with pectin. As the potato cooks, the pectin slowly breaks down, and the starch granules start absorbing water. When you overcook them, the first thing that happens is the pectin breaks down too far. The potato cells start falling away, and the whole thing turns mushy.

Pectin breaks down much more slowly in acidic environments. A tablespoon of vinegar per quart of water was enough to boil the potatoes without having to worry about whether or not they'll overcook. 

I cooked again another potatoes dish with vinegar, this time I sliced the potatoes. The photo above is the outcome, this is more spicy dish, Look at the potatoes, you can see the edge of them are still edgy, and not mushy.

Interesting, right? Just a sharing with everyone!

My appetizing dinner = Taiwanese Sausages and Stir Fried Broccoli

HiHi.... I'm back!!!! Really sorry to play hide and seek again. As I mentioned before, this blog is my self-motivating and self monitoring item to see how far I can pursue my blogopshere longer.

I haven't been writing for so so so long... The last post was during February and now it's July approaching August!!! hehe... paiseh!

Today I would like to share a bit on my dinner that I prepared myself. Here it is... RICE + TAIWANESE SAUSAGE + STIR FRY BROCCOLI... 

Yes, I had sausages for my dinner. Some of you might be wondering, you are a dietitian, how come you are taking such unhealthy food??? LOL....Well, what I can say is, Dietitian is still a normal human being. I still take unhealthy food on and off. But like what I used to say, you must know your limit. Just try not to take these too frequent. 

I bought this sausage in NSK, Kuchai Lama. It's spicy Taiwanese sausage. I stir fried them with my non stick pan, so only little oil is required. Of course, I had my colourful vegetables which are broccoli and carrot, adding more different nutrients in one dish. Hehe... 

Look at the colour! Like it so much. Easy to prepare and yet I put in all vital nutrients inside, I got rice as carbohydrate source, I had sausages as my protein (even though the sodium content might be high, but bear in mind, this is taken once in a while) and of course I had vegetables for my fiber. Well, they are complete! Yes!!!!

=P

Dinner & Lunch Box Preparation

My dinner and lunch box? Wondering why dinner and lunch box is prepared together? Let's see the explanation. 

I prepare both of my dinner and lunch box together. The dinner is took soon after everything is prepared while another portion of my dinner will be inserted into my lunch box for my lunch the next day. I believe for those who always cook at home, you will know that it is never easy to cook small meal for 1 or 2 person. Therefore, you need to prepare larger meal each time when you cook. Well, I definitely cannot finish 2 person's size meal for my dinner alone, that is why I prepare more and another extra portion will served as my lunch the next day. What a good idea, huh? hehe... 

Let's see what I prepared for myself...Luxurious huh? hehe... 

I prepared stir fried lady fingers, egg fried together with tomatoes and ABC soup. Everything is included in my meal. Carbohydrate, protein and fiber... the so-called dietitian's Healthy and balanced meal...hehe... 

The vegetable is easy to prepare especially when you use the non stick pan. Another name of lady fingers is okra. Lady fingers usually contain a lot of mucous thing when they come into contact with water. Try to minimize the usage of water in the dishes and try to use non stick pan, it really helps a lot. 

Next, the egg which fried together with tomatoes. This is my first time preparing that. I fried the chopped tomatoes with little oil, then put in the beaten egg. The aroma is so nice, the tomatoes become so sweet after cooking. A simple yet delicious dishes... 

ABC soup is another easy food to prepare. Cut all the vegetables (onion, carrot, potatoes, and tomatoes) and boiled with lots of water. I cut the vegetables into smaller pieces so that everything will be cooked well faster. 

I took half of the food here and packed another half portion for my lunch box the next day. Two meals prepared together, easy and time-saving as well. Good idea for everyone who works.... 

:)

Cola Chicken

Hi, I'm back with another cooking, Cola Chicken. This is one of my favourite cooking since it's easy to prepare and not time consuming. Of course, the most important is that I like this dish very much, my family also like it when I prepare this. Love it so mucchhh....

It's so easy to prepare this, unless you are too lazy to do it, if not, you'll sure find it very very easy. I learnt to cook this from a recipe I found in the newspaper, it's more complicated before this, but I modify myself to make it simpler... hehe... Forgot to tell, I like to modify thing, especially in cooking.. 

The ingredient is just soy sauce, thick soy sauce, coca cola and chicken. Easy, right? hehe...

1st, prepare all the ingredients needed....The chicken... preferably chicken wings... but if you have other parts of the chicken, you can still using them, don't be too rigid, okay? :P 

After that, marinate the chicken with soy sauce and thick soy sauce. The amount of them are according to your own feeling, as long as you don't put too much or too little. Well, cooking is all about feeling, just follow your heart.

They look so beautiful, right? An advice for all, don't put too much of the thick soy sauce, if not later the chicken will become too dark. Marinate them for 1/2 hour.

After that, just put a bit of oil and fry the chicken for a while, remember not to fry until the chicken are cooked. Just make sure fry a bit to give some nice colour to the chicken.

Here's the chicken after a light frying moment... nice colour!

After that, pour in the coke into the chicken. Do not pour too much of it, just to avoid the chicken become too sweet, don't forget that the coke contains sugar inside.

In order to make sure the chicken is well cooked, I put some plain water into it, this is also to avoid putting too much coke inside. Cover it and cook with low heat, simmer for 15 minutes so that the flavour of the coke can get into the chicken.  

Then, open the cover and cook until the sauce thicken. If you prefer to have more sauce, make sure do not cook until too dry. 

Well, finally, the cola chicken is well done. Again, it's easy, isn't it? hehe.....

Cola Chicken

Some people might be asking : Dear Dietitian, this is not suitable for those with diabetics, what if we want to cook for those with diabetics? 

Answer : Well, the usual coke can be change into light Coke or diet Coke in order to control the sugar intake while still providing the cola flavour. Nice, isn't it? Now the Cola Chicken is suitable for all. Everyone can enjoy it!

My cooking ~ Sambal Belacan Fish & Tomyam Vegetables

My cooking!!!

Yeah, after suffer from LOA (loss of appetite) for a few days, I plan to cook myself, so that my appetite can be improved. Well, recently have been forcing myself to eat anything, no appetite at all, most probably due to the same and repetitive menu offered in all the cafes in  my working place. 

After work, go back and spend some time to cook for myself. Tired??? YES!!! tired after working, but still need to eat, right? So here's my dinner. 

I got some nice sambal and I cooked the sambal with fish. Simple, yet delicious recipe. 

I fried the fish and stir fried some onions. Then put in the sambal and cook it, simple!

This is my dishes ~ Sambal belacan fish!

Next, time for my vegetables. The fish is a bit dry, without much sauce. So I cook tomyam vegetable, sour dishes can improve appetite!

How's the vege? Not so bad la, right? With so many different colours of vegetables inside, I put carrot and celery. 

One thing special here, 2 fishes at one time??? haha... yes, I need to cook for 2 servings at 1 time, so that it is easier for me to cook. It is really hard to cook 1 person's portion as the ingredients get to scorch/burn easily. Another benefit is you don't have to cook so many times, keep the remaining inside the fridge and reheat at other time. 

Well, you always think of creative way to prepare the food! At least, I had my appetite back, thanks to my own cooking. Not skilful, but at least objective achieved.