~ Smoked Salmon with Egg / Avocado Burgers

Taken from:

Breko Cafe (for egg burger)

Description:
Firm smoked salmon paired with either flavorsome scrambled eggs or creamy avocado slices sandwiched between toasted buns - American burgers done right (and healthy)!

Ingredients (makes 2 egg burgers, 1 avocado burger):
100 g smoked salmon, sliced (around 9 slices)
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 avocado, sliced
3 burger buns, halved and toasted

Directions:
1) Whisk eggs and milk together. Scramble eggs and season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2) Assemble 3 slices of salmon on the bottom part of one bun, followed by half of the scrambled eggs and the top part of the bun. Repeat for another egg burger, and avocado burger.

Remarks:

These two types of burgers featuring smoked salmon really hit the G-spot! The smooth creamy texture of salmon simply melts into the egg/avocado filling and the warm toasted buns complemented the divine match! I've used Manuka Smoked Salmon, which seemed less salty that that of the one I had at Breko cafe, and the packaging boasts of the salmon being lightly smoked with natural Manuka wood smoke (whatever that is). The advertisement appealed to me well, and I bought it when I could have saved $3 buying the supermarket's housebrand. I had the avocado burger and I simply adored it. Bro seemed to like the egg one too! Seems like the premium charges are worth it!

Don't you just want to savour a bite too?

Leftover avocado. I love the emerald green that blends into a shade of pastel yellow of freshly sliced avocados:

This is the fate of the leftover avocado slices - avocado with tomato and lettuce sandwich:

~ Broccoli Cheese Potage

Taken from:

-

Description:
The marriage of broccoli and cheese in a creamy white base.

Ingredients:
3 small potatoes, cooked and mashed roughly
1 1/2 C milk
1/2 C broccoli florets, chopped
1 tbsp potato starch
1 tbsp water
Pinch of salt and pepper

Directions:
1) To a saucepan, add mashed potatoes and milk. Stir constantly to avoid scorching.
2) Add in broccoli florets when the soup is bubbling and simmer for 2 min.
3) Combine water and potato starch before stirring into the soup.
4) Season with salt and pepper to serve.

Remarks:
I like this soup, but Bro found it bland and didn't like it as it was meatless. It's hard to cook for carnivorous members. Maybe I'll throw in some garlic, onions and herbs next time!

~ Roasted Tomato Burgers

Aren't these adorable?

I just go bananas when there are free stuff to go around!

~ Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies

Taken from:

Allrecipes

Description:

Chewy peanut butter cookies~

Ingredients:

1 C peanut butter
1 C white sugar
1 egg

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 180 deg.
2) Combine ingredients and drop by tsps onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 min, and cool before storing in a closed container.

Remarks:
For some reason, this recipe didn't turn out right! I'd used natural peanut butter, and the cookies were very greasy and didn't set well. See the shiny sheen on the cookies?

~ Chocolate-Topped Egg Custard

Taken from:
Tiff :)

Description:
Warm smooth egg custard topped with cold creamy chocolate pudding~

Ingredients:
1/2 egg, beaten 
Milk
Chocolate pudding, chilled

Directions:
1) Stir equal parts of milk and egg together, and sieve.
2) Pour into a cup (around 3/5 filled), and prepare a saucepan of boilling water.
3) Put the cup into the saucepan, cover for 15 min with the fire turned off.
4) Before serving, spoon chilled chocolate pudding till 4/5 of the cup is filled.

Remarks:

It started out as an attempt to clear the half an egg that I've taken for almond-stuffed peaches. I poured milk into the egg and then conveniently left it in the boiling water that was used to cook hard boiled eggs meant for tuna sandwich filling. After which I opened the fridge, saw the dainty little glass of chocolate pudding that I've made the day before, and an idea struck me! Tah-dah! Here's the resultant output:

As the egg custard was relatively bland (no condiments, sugar or whatsoever), the chocolate pudding complemented it well with its sweet thick chocolatey taste. The contrast in temperature between the two offered a interesting twist - it felt so much like the inverse of Macdonald's hot fudge sundae without the guilt! Very good!

A picture speaks a thousand words, so there will be 3 thousand words here to describe this delicate dessert.

~ Baked Almond-Stuffed Peaches

Modified from:

Dishy Desserts (book)

Description:

Hot peaches crowned with crunchy granola~

Ingredients:

2 peach halves, pitted
1 tbsp rolled oats, toasted
1 tbsp chopped almonds
1/2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1/2 egg

Directions:
1) Mix oats, almonds, brown sugar and egg together.
2) Spoon the mixture into the pits of the peach halves.
3) Place the peach halves into a tin and fill up with water, leaving the top of each halves exposed.
4) Bake at preheated oven at 180 deg  for 20 - 25 min. Serve warm.

Remarks:
In the book, crushed amaretti biscuits were supposed to be in place of the oats that I've used. I accidentally baked them for 40 min and they turned out slightly burnt on top, as I had forgotten about the time while I was taking pictures of the chocolate egg custard. I would suggest adding a little cinnamon or spice to spruce up this easy crunchy juicy treat~

~ Tuna Sandwich Filling

A perennial favourite for my family. The recipe can be found here.

~ Chocolate Cornstarch Pudding

Taken from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Less-guilt hasty chocolate pudding~

Ingredients:
2 tbsp packed brown sugar
5 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 tbsp cornstarch
1/8 tsp salt
2/3 C + 1 tsp milk
1 1/2 tsp butter
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
1) In a saucepan, stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. 
2) Place over medium heat, and stir in milk. Bring to a boil, and cook, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, and stir in margarine and vanilla. 
3) Let cool briefly, and serve warm, or chill in refrigerator until serving.

Remarks:
This one tasted just like chocolate whipped cream while it was warm! Cooling thickened it slightly, so it became more like a pudding. I forgot to add in the salt, and omitted the butter in the original, accounting for the airy cream-like texture. Sieve the corn starch and cocoa powder to minimise clumping, and whisk everything in a bowl or blender before pouring into the saucepan to cook; these would save a lot of trouble getting the pudding to be clump-free. I guess I should invest in better cocoa powder as well, since 5 tsp of cocoa yielded less than satisfactory chocolate taste for me (a dark chocolate lover).

~ Craisin Nut Bread

Taken from:
Allrecipes

Description:
Sweet festive bread infused with orange flavour and studded with craisins~

Ingredients:
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C white sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 C chopped craisins, soaked in boiling water or OJ for 5 min and drained

1/2 C chopped almonds

1 egg

2 tbsp vegetable oil

3/4 cup orange juice

1 tbsp orange zest

1/2 tsp orange extract (optional)

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 X 12" loaf pan.
2) Combine the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the cranberries and walnuts, and stir to coat with flour.

3) Mix together the egg, oil, orange juice, orange zest and extract. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture, and stir until just blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan.

4) Bake for 90 min in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 min, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
5) Cover bread with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 24 hours before serving for best results.

Remarks:
For the first time, I've followed a recipe almost exactly - didn't change anything except to cut the sugar by 1/4 C and baked the bread for another 40 min as it seemed very moist on the surface. It turned out that the exterior was rubbery and the interior was crumbly. I found the bread too sweet too (I realised that this IS a sweet bread after all), and I couldn't find my orange zest, almonds and cranberries! =(

After it was wrapped up and stored overnight, the bread was more fragrant and had the texture of a fruit cake. Next time, I'll stick to the 50 min mark for baking time, reduce the sugar again, coursely chop the almonds, add in more craisins and orange zest. Those should do the trick!

All in all, this recipe seems okay if the ingredients are accessible.

~ Pineapple Tarts (again)

I just love pineapple tarts (and these are a great way to clear those expiring pineapple filling sitting in the fridge behind that jumbo peanut butter container)! Unlike the last time, I've taken nicer pictures to do justice to such wonderful jewels this time round! The recipe can be found here (archive Jan 2009).

~ Love Pic!

What ugly image =p

~ Bangers and Cheese Fettucini

Adapted from:

Tiff =p

Description:

Crispy sausage rounds, juicy tomato cubes and smooth pasta smothered in a velvety fragrant cheesy sauce~

Ingredients (serves 1):
100 g fettucini
1 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp flour
400 ml milk
2 sausages, sliced
1 tomato, deseeded and diced
2 slices low-fat processed cheese
1/2 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1) Cook fettucini in salted water till al dente. Drain and reserve some liquid, around 1 C.
2) In a saucepan, sautéed garlic and sausages in oil for 5 min till brown. Set aside.
3) Introduce the flour to the saucepan, followed by milk. Whisk well to ensure no lumps.
4) Once the sauce is bubbling, add in the sausages and tomato. Season with pepper, add one slice of cheese and add pasta liquid if the sauce is too thick.
5) Toss the pasta with the sauce and don with remaining crumbled cheese.

Remarks:

This pasta is made as a quick lunch for my bro. He sort of fancied it, but felt that it didn't match up to the standard set by the recipe utilising Campbell soup. Oh well, kids nowadays do not know how to differentiate the good stuff from the bad.

I only tasted part of the sauce remaining on the saucepan, it was delectable :) Even better than Campbell's.

~ Chocolate Tofu Pudding

Adapted from:

Tiff =p

Description:

A yummy tofu breakfast that is kind to your tastebuds and health :)

Ingredients:

1 pkt silken tofu (300g), well drained
1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant oatmeal
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp milk

Directions:

1) Blend tofu, cocoa powder and oatmeal together, and steam the mixture for 10 min.
2) Mix honey and milk together to get a syrup.
3) Serve the pudding topped with the honey milk syrup, warm or chilled.

Remarks:

I wasn't really sure to call it a pudding or porridge or poop =x It looked really messy and gooey, but hmmm it tasted right for me! The tofu was well-masked by the chocolatey taste (put more than 1 tbsp for dark dark chocolatey taste), and saccharine mixture of milk (reduce to 1 tbsp for a thicker syrup) and honey sealed the deal with a sweet finish! Anyhow, the pudding was rather chunky resulting in a oatmeal-like texture as my blender was spoilt so I had to manually force the tofu through a small sieve to attain its current state. A blender is definitely on my shopping list.

I chilled some portion as well, and it turned out to be thicker:

~ Instant Pasta

Today I wasn't prepared to make dinner myself so I just cooked pasta in water seasoned with Myojo instant noodle soup base, and tossed in lettuce, tomato, frozen mixed veggies and egg :) The soup tasted weird with the nutty taste of the wholemeal spaghetti, but overall still acceptable for me since it's a healthy meal!

~ Sugared Orange Rind

Adapted from:

-

Description:

Orange rind candy~

Ingredients:

1 C water
1 C sugar
Rind of 1 orange

Directions:

1) Blanch the rind of 1 orange for 10 min. Pour away the water and add in cold water.
2) Blanch 3 times in total.
3) Using a spoon, scrap off the pith but take care not to spoil the external peel.
4) Cut the rind into 1" strips.
5) Dissolve the sugar in water and add in the rind. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hour, till water has evaporated.
6) Spread out the rind on a plate and store in airtight container when cool.

Remarks:

I am G.R.E.E.D.Y! Added too much sugar and boiled till the rinds turned out like stones and stuck to the teeth like glue! =/ Mum couldn't stop eating them though, and finished most of them the next day (the orange rind softened and were more chewy)

I made the mistake of placing the hot orange rind on tempura paper and they got stucked to paper. I had a hard time peeling them off the paper and some of the paper got attached to the sugared rinds. Almost wanted to throw them away when the microwave appliance came into mind and yeah, my efforts were not wasted :)

I bought rolled oats not long ago, and am enjoying its chunky goodness with oatmeal and wheatgerm:

Ok fine, it looks the same as my usual mushy oatmeal.