Easy broccoli and chicken stir-fry

This easy stir-fry chinese style brocolli serves up to 2 people.

Ingredients

1. 1 chicken breast (sliced to thinner pieces)

2. 1 bulb of garlic(chopped finely or minced it)

3. 1-inch piece of ginger (sliced thinly)

4. 2 tablespoon of soy sauce

5. 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

6. 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt

7. 3 tablespoon of dry sherry or shaoxing cooking wine

8. 2 tablespoon of sesame oil 

9. 1/2 cup of water

10. 3 tablespoon of olive oil

11. 1 floret of broccoli

12. 1/2 big carrot

13. 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce or hoisin sauce

14.1 teaspoon of black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate chicken with half of the chopped garlic and ginger, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of salt, sherry/shaoxing wine and sesame oil and leave it for at least 15 minutes.

2. Heat the non-stick frying pan over high heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. 

3. Add in broccoli stems and carrots and stir-fry for about 30seconds. Add in the remaining florets, 2 tablespoon of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and season with black pepper. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes until brocolli is bright green but still crisp. Set aside.

4. Heat the frying pan again and 2 tablespoon of oil. Add in the marinated chicken and stir-fry until a little brown for about 2 minutes. Add in oyster sauce/hoisin sauce and return the brocolli and carrot into the pan. Also stir in mixture of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in 1/2cup of water into the pan.

5. Stir-fry for another 1 minute or until the sauce thicken. Serve while hot with steamed rice !

Japchae (Korean Stir-fry Glass Noodle with Mixed vegetables)

It was my first attempt making this korean glass noodle dish and I would say it tasted pretty good! I guess because of the nicely marinaded chicken and also the power of sesame oil ! I love putting using sesame oil for frying my fried-rice too because it makes the rice taste just like from the chinese restaurant! Hope you guys love this noodle recipe ! This recipe serves up to 4 people.

Ingredients:

1. 250g of Korean glass noodles. (you can get the normal glass noodle from your available store) 

2. 150g Chicken, beef or pork sliced thinly

3. 1 Carrot

4. 2-3 handful of Spinach (I forgotten this for this recipe though!)

5. 1/2 Onion chopped finely

7. 4 cloves of garlic chopped finely

6. 5 dried chinese mushroom (soaked and chopped into thinner slices)

7. Sugar

8. Salt

9. Black pepper powder

10. Soy sauce 

11. Sesame oil 

12. 1 egg

13. Olive Oil

Method:

1. Marinade the meat with 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 teaspoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and leave aside for half an hour at least. And soak the glass noodle in cold water for half an hour as well.

2. Parboil the spinach in boiling water, wash with cold water and drain out any excess water. Season with dash of salt and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Set aside.

3.  Boil the glass noodle in boiling water with 1 tablepoon of olive oil  for 5 minutes. After that rinse the noodle gently in running cold water twice. Drain the noodle and add in 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix well. Set aside.

4. Separate the egg white and yolk and beat individually. Pan-fry separately into very thin layer like pancake.Slice into strips and set aside.

5. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and stir-fry onion, carrot and add in dash of salt and pepper to taste. Add in the marinaded meat and slices of mushroom and stir-fry at medium heat for until cook. 

6. Add in the marinaded glass noodle, spinach and mixed well with other ingredients. Garnish with egg strips. Serve and eat while its still hot from the wok!

Making your own homemade plain yogurt

The advantages of making your own homemade yogurt are easy, healthier and cheaper! Firstly you just need to have some milk powder and spoonful of plain yogurt as the starter which will be the source of beneficial active cultures. You do not need to go to the store again to buy a new bottle of plain yogurt once you have your very own homemade yogurt as you can use it as the starter for the new batch and so on.

Make sure the bottle of plain yogurt which you going to purchase has the label saying containing "active live cultures" and also doesn't say "pasteurized". This is due to the process of pasteurizing would have kill off the good bacterias aka the active live cultures/probiotics present in the yogurt.These live cultures in yogurt are good for our body as their inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria. They are fermented in milk at warm temperature turning the milk into pudding-lie consistency as lactose is converted to lactic acid thus giving yogurt slight acidic flavour. Hence people with moderate lactose intolerant can digest yogurt without a problem as the process of turning milk into yogurt transforms the lactose into lactic acid, which means our body don't need to process the sugars in the original milk product.These good bacterias can also relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and prevent urinary tract infections. Other than that yogurt is also a source of various beneficial nutrients such as alcium, protein, and vitamin B2. It also helps in restoring the balance of your body's yeast levels thus preventing yeast infections. It can help prevent urinary tract infections.

You can eat your yogurt plain, or mix with some fruits. Eat with your oatmeal or you can also make delicious smoothie! Yogurt is also said can be the substitute for sour cream in cooking/baking. So how do we make our homemade yogurt?


Ingredients


1. 1000 ml milk
2. 33 g milk powder
3. 50 ml plain yogurt with active cultures



Directions


1. Pour milk and milk powder into a large saucepan at medium heat. Stir the milk powder until fully dissolve.

2. Do not boil the milk mixture but heat it until you see small bubbles start to surface at the sides of the pan because we do not want to kill of our good bacterias. Or remove the mixture from the heat when the temperature of the mixture reaches 82 degree Celcius.

3.Cool the mixture until the temperature has dropped to 45 degrees Celcius.
Add in the plain yogurt to the milk mixture and mix well.

4.Pour the overall mixture into a thermos flask to maintain the temperature of 45 degree Celcius for up to 8-10 hours. Another trick to maintain this temperature is by simply setting your oven to the temperature of 45 degree Celcius while your yogurt is kept in jars/thermos. The longer time of fermentation allowed the more sour your yogurt will turn into.

5.Do not worry if you see a thin layer of yellowish liquid on the top but mix it back into the mixture. Voila and your yogurt is ready! You can keep your yogurt in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.

6.Save a little extra out as a starter for the next batch. But over time your homemade yogurt will start to lose it's potency as starter, hence every fifth batch you may want to use store-bought yogurt as starter. Do make sure it says ''live active cultures'' on the bottle!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

This is a non-butter chocolate chip cookies with oats added for health benefits. Instead of butter I used Canola oil. This recipe yield about 40 pieces of medium sized-cookie. Hope you guys like it!


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Some cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup of chocolate chips
3/4 cup of oats
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon honey




Method:


1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celcius. 


2. Mix together wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, chocolate chips and oats. 


3. Make a well in the center and add in the canola oil, egg and honey. 


4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and flatten them slightly on the cookie sheet.


5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes

Carrot Apple Yogurt Drink

I have been experimenting and making various of smoothies with different type of fruits using my homemade yogurt every morning. This is a refreshing drink especially for the health-conscious ones due to its vitamins,minerals and fibres benefit. In any of my smoothies, I do not use sugars but substituted with honey due to health concern.Hope you guys enjoy it!

Ingredients: 

1. 1 carrot (chopped into small cubes)

2. 1 apple (chopped into small cubes)

3. 100ml plain yogurt

4.  Dash of cinnamon to taste

5. 2 teaspoon of honey

6. A pinch of salt

7. 5 pieces of ice cubes

Method:

1. Blend everything except ice cubes until all well mixed.

2. Add in the ice cubes and blend for few seconds and it is ready!

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Whenever I am visiting Uncle Ronnie and Auntie Margaret in Singapore, I will never have to guess for long what they going to bring me out to eat for the very first meal upon arriving there. I remember I brought a friend to Singapore and I told him, I already knew what we going to have for lunch later while waiting for them to pick us up from a mall and yes, I was right - for their infamous Hainanese-style Singapore chicken rice. 


So the other day I craved for soft, tender and juicy steamed chicken. Normally the steamed chicken rice in KK will cost about RM4.50-5.50 and not much restaurants in KK are serve their chicken being tender and juicy, but normally taste quite bland, dry and they are not generous in giving portions as well for what we paid. When I started to cook, I just realised how much money could be saved and actually I am beginning to enjoy cooking at a beginner stage. So as I am normally eating alone, I bought half a chicken that cost me only RM3.88 ! See how much can I save and I can eat for the next one or two meals again sigh! So here is my version of Hainanese Chicken Rice.


Ingredients:


A. For the chicken


     1.  Half kampong chicken (normal bigger chicken if serving more)
     2.  1 bulb of garlic ( separate to their cloves and cut or bruise them to release more flavour)
     3.  1/4 of big onion ( cut into half and separate from the layers)
     4.  Slices of ginger ( about the same amount as big onion)
     5.  Salt to rub on chicken




B. For the rice

1.      2 cups rice

2.      Chicken broth from steaming the chicken (Do not throw away the leftover ginger, garlic and onion)

3.      3 slices of ginger

4.      4 cloves of garlic chopped into tiny pieces

5.      Half tablespoon of butter

(PS: I am making garlic rice instead because I don’t have pandan leaf which you cook together with the other ingredients in the rice cooker and you’re done! You don’t need garlic and butter if you’re cooking the normal pandan chicken rice)

Method:

A.Steaming the chicken

1.      Rub salt all over the chicken.

2.      Stuff the half of the garlic, ginger and onion inside the cavity. (For my case of using half chicken I just stuff underneath the half cavity facing the steaming plate).

3.      Put the remaining half garlic, ginger and onion at the bottom steaming plate and top of the chicken. (Make sure your steaming plate is deep enough to collect chicken broth)

4.      Cover and steam the chicken over high heat for 50 minutes.

 5.      Cut the chicken when it has cooled down. Do not throw away the collected chicken broth which can be used to make your chicken rice.

B. Chicken Rice

1.      Cook rice in the rice cooker using the chicken broth and the ginger. (If you do not have enough chicken broth just add more water; or you can add more of your own chicken broth with the chicken cubes)

2.      When the rice is cooked, melt the butter on the heated wok then fry the garlic until turn golden brown.

3.      Pour in the rice and stir well in the wok for 1-2 minutes and it’s done!

Pumpkin Soup

When I was in my final year of Undergraduate studies, I remember cooking this nutritious pumpkin soup and toasting some slices of French loaf with garlic spread to go with it. The first time I served it to my housemates they immediately fell in love with it and then they craved for it ever since then, asking when could I cook this soup again all the time. This is one of the easiest recipes for soup where you can also get all the nutritional values and goodness from the types of vegetables added in. I altered this recipe a bit by adding in potatoes (you can also add in carrot or celery ) along with the main ingredient pumpkin. So here it goes and I hope you like it just like my friends and I do.

Ingredients:
1. 500g pumpkin (peeled and cut into small pieces) – Alternatively if the pumpkin is too hard to cut for you, you can soften it by steaming it and then scooping them out into a bowl.


2. 2 medium-sized potatoes (peeled and cut into small pieces) - optional


3. ½ chopped big onion (into small pieces)


4. 1 tablespoon of butter


5. 500 ml of chicken stock – Alternatively you can cook your own chicken stock by boiling chicken thigh and chicken bones with a bit of ginger or else just use Maggi chicken cubes


6. 1 cup of milk


7. Salt and pepper to taste




Method:

1. Steam the pieces of pumpkins (optional- and potatoes) until soft for about 15-20 minutes and then mashed them. Do not worry if you can’t mash all of them until smooth as the bit of chunks goes quite delicious in the soup too. If you want a very smooth puree texture, alternatively you can blend them in the blender.


2. In a medium sized pot, fry the onion in the butter until soft.


3. Mix in the mashed (or puree) of pumpkin and also the potatoes, stirring them well.


4. Add in the chicken stock, cover and let it simmer for 10 minutes.


5. Add in the cup of milk and simmer it for another 5 minutes.


6. Add salt and pepper to your own preference.

Arriving in Rome



This was what we were seeing most of the time of the duration of the journey of 2 hours and 38 minutes from East Midlands to Rome. I guess we were flying over the scenic view of the Alps. It was overwhelming when all the while I could only be watching these from National Geographic shows. To the very next destination, I would very much want to experience ski however neither do I know the basic skill in order to learn ski easier like skating or roller blading. So don't laugh at me.

And then towards 2.5 hours, we began to sight some of the suburbs area of Rome.

We were greeted by a sleeping cat at the bus stand outside the Ciampino Airport. It reminded so much of my cat called Dusty back at home.

We took the 40 minutes bus from the airport which dropped us somewhere in the city centre and to be exact at Termini Station. You can check for more information at http://www.terravision.eu/rome_ciampino.html . At Termini Station, we bought our unlimited 3-days pass which was 11 euros as we only staying in Rome for 3 nights. Metro in Rome is relatively cheap as per metro ride would be only 1 euro or you can also opt for daily ticket of unlimited stops for 4 euros. 1 week pass costs at 16 euros only. You can also use the pass for buses and trams within Rome. Attached below is the metro map and other connecting lines.

We followed the directions to the booked hostel  (booked a month ago) and got out to a stop as written and this was what we were seeing. So we were expecting a bus to pick hostel guests up every 30 minutes.This place was quite in a suburb area, extremely quiet and just opposite there was a short row of shops which consist of two coffee shops, an internet cafe and a laundry as far as I can remember.



We waited for almost 40 minutes but the bus was yet to be sighted. We decided to go into the internet cafe and try to make a call to the hostel but the hostel receptionist seemed to be only speaking Italian and hung on us. We tried few times but still the receptionist was speaking Italian. We had to ask someone working in the internet cafe who could speak English to help us to pass the message that we needed a bus to pick us up.



To our suprise we found out that the hostel would be only officially opening back the next day after closing for a season of winter break.
We were puzzled, what had just gone wrong?



Itinerary seemed right, yeah we were going to stay for 3 nights. So we went back to check back our online hostel booking itinerary; 3 nights - checked !
Later we realised we actually had missed out the stay for today.
And then we realise we were supposingly to stay Rome for 4 nights.
Great, we booked our flight an extra day earlier without accommodation!



We began to search through some hostel booking engines again, to find a place to stay for today. Most of the prices seemed higher for last minute booking. We had no choice but to choose staying in campsite, which was very cheap around 13 euro if I can remember correctly. Never mind, just a night stay anyway. But we were too thrifty to spend above 18 euros for a night.



So we booked the hostel called Tiber Village Camping Hostel. No choice but to drag our luggages to another hostel location again and worst of all we need to drag our luggages to this same location again the next day. We need to travel back to Termini station and then interchange to Flaminio Station and then align at Prima Porta Station. And then we need to wait for some public bus ( no shuttle bus at that time! I just checked their website) to get the hostel.



And so from arriving to the first hostel at late morning till realising our carelessness, booked new hostel, travelling to new hostel, waiting buses etc and eventually we arrived at our new hostel around 3 pm! We were freaking tired already with some frustration of how could we be so funnily careless!

So this is Tiber Village Hostel. Not that bad looking from the entrance. But travelling to/from was quite a pain in the ass. We thought as long as we can commute with metro and buses then everything would be good enough but we were wrong, we wasted a lot of time waiting and travelling inside the bus and then interchanging in metro again. Anyways lessons learnt for the next summer trip always stay in the middle of city centre. However we had to bear with all the choices of hostels for the entire of 3 weeks of Easter break since we had booked all cheap hostel in advance through online.

Anyways Tiber Village hostel in Rome overall was not that bad. We kinda enjoyed the beautiful and quiet surrounding. Perfect for a camping outing with friends but not for us who were looking forward to explore the city as it was no where close to the city.

Just like most other hostels around Rome, they were in the process of reopening back their hostel business after a season of winter break. The swimming pool was not cleaned since the closing and there were all type of greenish algae growing all over. I guess we were like among the less than 10 guests in the campsite.

Indeed it was quite a pleasant and relaxing walk around the campsite. And the weather just PERFECT. Spring is definitely one of my favourite season with flowers starting to bloom in the middle of march.Though it was sunny but it was comfortable enough not to be hiding under an umbrella just like back in Malaysia.



This was the little camping hut we were staying. It has a double decker and 1 single bed. And a toilet without shower. Since it was already quite late in the afternoon to travel all the way to city, we decided explore a little bit around the campsite area and would be going out a bit later to catch the bus around 5pm plus for dinner and to a church building nearby.

 Nice campsite

And the we saw larger hut compare to ours. So we decided to sneak into the nicest hut and because it has unlocked door.

So it has an almost well-equipped kitchen even with knives.

It has a master bedroom and also another room with two single beds.

And then we realised the toilet for the master bedroom had a damp towel hanging. Okay we were unsure if there was any occupant.

Feeling not really satisfied with our own hut, we "took" some stuffs to decorate ours. 

Okay, just a hanger:P

Three hangers; one hanger for each of us :P

Public toilet/showers.

  

Across the bridge

And we spotted a lake at the other side. And there were some personal caravans camping over there overlooking the lake. 

Then we spotted a giant storage of beer.

But too early for an alcohol drink. Later we catch a bus to metro station to see San Paolo Cathedral and look for dinner.


I wanted to fit in all my first day experience in this post however I am worried my dear readers are falling asleep. Do wait for my next post! xoxo!