X'mas Scene lunch box - Sun dried tomato Tuna Linguini

I have a bottle of sun dried tomato in oil, it was placed in my shopping basket
due to a recipe of 10 minutes vegetable soup, it was an optional flavour,
but I took it as a MUST, with a speck of hesitation (I wasn't sure I would use it
anymore after the soup) I brought it home.

The soup thing is a nother story, so back to business, I was searching linguini recipe
in a rush, I'd bought a pack of fresh spinach linguini without a though on how to use it,
(the buy first think later bahaviour made my drawer, shelves and cupboard full of
 food ingredients) but I do want to slurp it tonight. Read through pages and pages
of pasta recipe, I found the simple but rapturous one.



I love colorless sauce either for pasta or salad, manifesting garlic pasta
perfect for me, and the original recipe involved only 4 ingredients,
garlic, red chili, sea salt and tuna (in oil). The rebellinous deep inside me
wasn't allowed me to follow the recipe exactly, so I quadrupled the garlic and doubled
the amount of red chili. I always enjoy saute garlic (or onion) then red chili..

I believe food is a medley of your favour ingredients to create a very you like
piece of production, so I added in a tiny bit of sugar, sun dried tomato (in oil)
and some pickle.They were truly fascinating!!

When I suggested him to bring a lunch box, he requested to reproduce
last night meal. I have to emphasize he seldom (almost never) repeat the same dishes
for consecutive days, this can be explained by tedious-hatred manner of him,
or I never made divine dishes or this is really a perfect one!



Such a easy peasy linguini is worth to stay in my cookbook.

Off to Malaysia Embassy in London

I had spent a minute on deciding the title, where it should be
day in Malaysia embassy or day in London. In fact I spent a day in
London nor Malaysia embassy, but I spent my big fat half day on foot.

In the context of losing my wallet, together with my IC and driving license,
I was advised to report to Malaysia embassy, I was planned to do so weeks ago,
but the forever procastinating police report hold my plan until today.
(Yes, I don't see any difference between police in Malaysia or UK,
in term of their effectiveness, so I guess I wont be so tempted to complaint
Malaysia police anymore.)

Anyway, I made my way to Malaysia embassy with a scibble map,
which later I find it quite useless then as it was too rough to get the way.
However, I took less than 20minutes to find out the right way
(in such a drizzly freezing weather 20minutes was not quick enough),
Having the Malaysia flat spotted is such delighting thing in this depressing morning.

In the Malaysia embassy, I smell, see and sense Malaysia,
the ambiance, the decoration, the language and the people
were all pieced up the picture of my home country.
One of the most significant thing is the small canteen
at the corner selling nasi lemak by "tudung" ladies,
and malay speaking person was crowded with cup of tea tarik each.
That's it the smell, picture and sound of Malaysia.

The thing I can't ignore was the time consuming process of any document
handled by them, which is persist perpetually no matter in Malaysia or UK,
maintaining their own personality is good huh?!

So, I was told to come back 3 hours later, its seem to be a long time to go,
but it was actually too long for me to stay in a coffee shop,
and too short to deal with my phone in China town. I was then decided
to have my phone unlock by today, hence mentally plus physically consesus
to pay a walk.

Instead of swaggering around I was striding the whole afternoon,
as my thrifty mind not allowed me to spend a sum of bus fare for just
reporting IC lost, which was so so so wasteful, I got to make it worth for
each pence I paid..

At the end of the day, I sat shiveringly on coach and waited for the
forever belated bus. The weather was getting atrocious, I was hoping
for a cup of hot pure dark chocolate (with hazelnut syrup without cream and milk)
to help me fight with the coldness and. Somehow I miss the humane sunlight in Malaysia.

Low fat low carb cake as breakfast

The other day, I was happened to read a culinary blog,
it intrigued me to bake such a fuffly cake in a nice morning.
I was almost ashame to admit I read it while I was working in the boutique,
the low traffic quite shop was not a good excuse, but the online-cabled pc,
I don't see why we need to access to internet, aren't they purposely strike us to do so?!

What so ever, I'm glad I had used it wisely and found out few great blogs,
all of them filled the spaces with beautiful description and delicious pisture,
which I enjoyed every click on them.

Long story short, I shouldn't have spend too much on the preface,
sight on the cake, u can visually tell its fluffliness, I was almost want it to
take over the place of bread, due to its texture and low carb non salt properties.
However, This idea gone after mate told me the fact brutally that its made out of
3 EGGS. Still it's high in cholesterol.

The cakes shown above was baked in oven at 180degree celcius.
The original recipe was designed for those who don't have a oven at home,
where a non stick pan can do the job of oven, but it took me more than 30mins
to bake it to a buff finish (which shown below). I prefer the texture of oven baked cake
much more than pan baked one, as 30mins was more than enough to reduce its moisture,
creating some dryness to it.

I filled them with strawberry jam and red bean paste, it taste really yum with them,
I'd love to add some drizzle of icing sugar or honey with banana slices if I've some at home.



Note: If you have a rectangle baking pan at home please do use it to try this recipe,
you can easily make a swiss roll out of it.



In the same morning we had this 8 grains beany soup with our cake,
but he doesn't really like this soup, and I bought the premixed grains and bean from
chinese grocery shop, I actually love it but mate left quite a spoonful in his bowl，
telling me his disagreement. I realised I started being prone to the taste of my love one,
to delight him spontaneously myself.

Almost forgot to post the recipe, here it is,

1. crack n separate 3 egss
2. measure 3 teaspoon of sugar
3. measure 1 table spoon of flour
4. whip the eggs white and sugar to soft peak
5. fold in egg yolks
6. fold in flour.
7. pour in butter wiped baking pan/non-stick frying pan
8. Bake at 180degree celcius or bake on fryin pan with lid covered at gentle heat.

Good night

Transformed red bean crisp

I had hoped to see a multi-layered red bean crisp, but the resulted white babies looks cute,

taste like red bean pao, honestly this is the best product of a spoilt process.

As if I were a failed witch, who always produce unexpected things from her poor magic.






If you don't know my intention you can't tell these are failed product.



Of cause, I'm not going to show you the recipe, as I messed up the materials,

I added a wrong quantity of flour to dough A and B, luckily some thing gross didn't happen,

as I kept adding flour to dough A and adding butter to dough B to balance it back.

Yet I didn't follow the flour that requested on the recipe, as I don't know what is it in english,

and I don't see where could I get it (might try to seek it in china town).



However the biggest problem of mine is lack of kneading skill,

I almost sprain my wrist to knead the dough.. it's not only tiring,

but wasting time as well...






The whole article sound like the limitations of my "experiment".



What a shame, I don't feel like to improve/redo it, I gonna go back Malaysia and take a kneading course.

Fish fillet with ginger spring onion

The fun of cooking a table of chinese dishes has to date back to 2 weeks ago,
we're enjoying the smoky but loving atmosphere in the kitchen,
produced few dishes including this fish fillet with ginger and spring onion.

Chicken or fish fillet with ginger and spring onion is always the selection of the night,
I escaped from dinner provided by hostel. We're prohibited to eat or purchased outside food,
no matter when except the go-home-day. This regulation doesn't and never stop us from
trying to eat outside, but as what my sister said regulation is setted to be broken by people,
we all were happily and enjoying to try the patient and kindness of our guardians,
and this prohibition indirectly stimulated us to be a adventurer, though outside food,
wasn't superb (sometime we're being risky just for a bowl of instant noodle),
but it was soooo much fun. We tried so much of method to "illegally import" food into our room,
and all your room-mate would definitely throw a wish-a-bite sight to you,
that's the happiest moment!

I've never ordered fish fillet with ginger and spring onion as it is bit more pricy than chicken,
seafood always imply extravagant, no matter where we are (most obvious in restaurant on menu).
As the freshness is everything and everybody could tell if it had been stored for a long time.

Ginger, spring onion, coriander, chilis and range of herbs would be the best way to cover the smell
of seafood, as I was afraid the pre-packed fish fillet has lower quality.

I marinate the fish fillet with ginger paste, wine, and white pepper.
Pour in too much of soy sauce after slightly fried it, which finally screwed it up.
It end up tongue throwing salty.. I'm still new to kitchen, forgive me.

Weekend lunch

Weekend meals are always different from weekday meals.
Most of the people is having busy time on weekdays, hence,
meals on weekdays are simple, easy and tedious, or maybe
fast food, take away or dine out. Weekend will then be the days
for something special than usual.

I'm not a full time worker, but I spend too much time on defragmenting,
anlyzing and finally resuming myself back to the starting point.
Plus, I'm a weekday vegetarian, so weekend is probably the best days of the week,
to have everything I've been craved for.

Today focus is on sweet and sour chicken, I know the picture is not focus on it.

Sweet and sour chicken is a very ordinary dish in Malaysia,
almost every restaurant get it delicious, but not in UK,
I got to roll my sleeves up and do it by myself to get the right taste.
And I finally did it last Sunday, which was supper yummy,
not to exagerate but it really taste better than loads of UK Oriental restaurant
produced sweet and sour pork/chicken.

That afternoon we're so happy with our lunch, and we'd saved up almost 20pound
for rubbish chinese cuisine out the street. But it would be really great,
if I didn't burn my Cantonese style porridge and my Le Crueset pot.
(It would be a completely disastrous if I burn my pot and not getting my sweet and sour chicken right.)


I've started working in a boutique near to my house (just 5minutes distance),
they offer me 2days a week, I was keen for more days, but I found it's rather boring,
so I hope I could get another job from somewhere else, hopefully subway?

I sigh for jobless when I'm not working but cry for boring when I'm working,
until I saw an indian brought her CV to the shop with a desperate face,
I recall I was like that before I got a job, at that moment I'm appreciate the tedious work.

Now, I can see the hope to travel around Europe again, Yipeee~

Celebrating Deepavali/Devali in London

我期待这天很久了，目的是下伦敦大吃大喝还有大购物，
虽然我平时可以随便自己下伦敦，走出门口几步路就是车站，
直达伦敦市中心，往返车票也不过6.7镑，但是每人帮我拎东西，
想买也买不多啊！

趁这次deepavali，伴和马来西亚的印度朋友要下伦敦庆祝，
我当然要排除万难的跟去咯!很不幸的是，通往印度街的undeground停开，
搭了rail replacement bus大约1小时（我应该没有夸张到）
才去到目的地。心情超级不爽，因为搭巴士，我坐的又是backward seat，
而且一路走走停停（因为塞车，而且路很小，巴士很难通过），
我头痛又头晕，又累又饿，实在...后悔，想着我这个时候要是在唐人街，
已经吃好点心，在逛街了...

伴看我脸色不对，就问我是不是不高兴了，我说“是！”，
是不是后悔了，我说“是！！！“，虽然很不应该说这么扫兴的话，
但是真得很受不了英国的intercity巴士，更受不了车尾的backward seat！
（真不明白英国地大，但是为什么房子建得那么小，道路也窄小。）

但是很快的，我的不欢就散了...
已进入餐馆，卡里的香味让我和伴对看，然后说好想立刻开动。
我吃了第一口咖哩后，我就对伴说，我觉得都值得了，值得了..
伴瞪了我一眼..哈哈哈！！我很容易生气，但是也很容易被收买呀！

这里的印度餐的buffet，超级好吃！！！
鸡肉羊肉咖哩住的超级软烂，鱼咖哩相较下就差了点，
不过每一道小菜，甜点甚至汤品，都让我和伴赞赏有加！
结果，我们两人吃了6碟...很可怕的一对情侣，
印度朋友问说那汤（Rasam）可辣吧？！
我们俩说，啊？？酸而已吧？连我都没觉得辣的东西，
伴一定不觉得辣，啊，我们上辈子应该是四川人。



吃饱饭后我们就搭车往伦敦市中心去。
我们这次都用普通digital cam，因为不想提DSLR提得那么辛苦，
最后证明，我们竟然不太会用DC了..所以没什么照片。

我在日本grocery store逛了很久，什么都想要，但是不敢全部都扫，
Budget, budget, budget这个词，真是我目前害怕的字啊！

最后还是买了一大袋，因为新开幕有10%折扣，小贪的我，开心了一下，
我买了很多紫菜，希望可以代替一下我们两个爱吃的洋芋片..
过后到唐人街也是提了一大袋出来，啊，有人帮忙提的感觉真好！

下午那餐，我们两个果然是豁出去大吃特吃，结果到晚上9点还是饱得直打嗝。
走到火车站的时候发现下一班火车还有6分钟就depart了，伴说来不及了啦，
我说没有这样的事，说完就开始跑了起来，每次开始跑的人是我，
没一分钟就喘不过气来要先停下来的也是我，真是没用啊...

当然火车还是赶上了，2030就到家了，看着我的战利品，真是开心。
我在火车上对伴说，羊肉这种重口味的肉类，久久吃一次就够了，
伴说，你别再说了，我想到都想吐了..