Quick Dinner: Crispy Skin Salmon, Garlic Mash, Whatever Salad

First and foremost, I need to stress that alike most of my recipes, this one relies greatly on guesstimation.

The way I see it, tastes differ and the best way to go about cooking is to take a taste of your food while you're cooking. This of course, I wouldn't recommend for baking which requires precision.

This meal took me about a half hour to cook and serves 2







What you will need

For the Salmon:
Salmon ( I had two pieces about 250g each)
Lemon
Parsley flakes

Garlic Mash:
5 small potatoes
minced garlic
thickened cream

Whatever Salad:
Salad mix ( I had rocket, lettuce and spinach)
Garlic Aioli
Mayonnaise
Lemon 
Honey
Feta Cheese


Salmon:

Preparing the salmon takes no time at all. Rub some salt on both sides. With the skin facing upwards, rub some olive oil, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle on some parsley flakes.

Heat up a saucepan with enough oil to ensure the skin doesn't stick, or no oil at all if you've got a stonedine type non stick pan. Put on the salmon with the skin facing down. Cook on medium to low heat for 5-10 mins until the skin turns brown. While doing so, preheat the oven at 180 degrees celcius fan forced.

After removing the salmon from the heat, put on a baking tray/dish and into the oven with the skin facing up for 10 mins and it's done!

Garlic mash:

Prepare the potatoes and mash them as you normally would.
Heat up a sauce pan. Then add one teaspoon of garlic and about 1.5 cups of cream. Simmer on low heat till the garlic and cream combine.
Pour the sauce into your mash and stir well. 


Whatever Salad:

Mix your desired amount of all the ingredients I have listed above and you're done! Just a tiny bit of honey would counter the spiciness and bitterness of the rocket.




I apologise for the post being a little rushed through as I have quite a bit to get done tonight, but I hope that it makes for a great quick dinner idea for you girls. The bf cleaned his plate which is a rare sight that encouraged me to share this some-sort-of-a-recipe. Unfortunately I created this dish and cooked it quite hurriedly, failing to take note of the exact measurements of ingredients I used. However, I think cooking is meant to be fun and/or therapeutic, so just follow your senses and add the ingredients as you go.


Till next time, xoxo

Honey Soy Chicken Wings & Some meal ideas

Having to prepare dinner everyday for the bf and I can be a chore. This is mostly because...
A. We are both picky eaters (I am well known for my lack of love for the greens)
B. I am not exactly what one would refer to as a 'foodie' and I cannot understand spending hours in the kitchen whipping up a meal that is eaten in a matter of 15 minutes.
C. Having to think of what to cook everyday can be difficult.

If you share one or more of the above reasons, this dish here is for you! It's simple, doesn't cost much and barely takes any time to prepare (although baking them takes nearly an hour).


What you will need:
10 chicken wings (I think that's about 1kg)
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup soy sauce
Sesame seeds
2 tablespoons crushed garlic
1 teaspoon ground ginger

Steps:

1. Mix the chicken wings and all the ingredients in a large bowl. Sesame seeds I've added mainly for aesthetic purposes. You can add your desired amount or leave them out. Personally, I sprinkle them lightly over the marinated chicken. 
2. Cover the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge. As step one is really simple and takes no time at all, I usually do this the night before and leave it in the fridge overnight for the flavour to really sink in. Otherwise, an hour or two would suffice.
3. When it's ready to be cooked, place them on a tray, pour the remaining marinate over and bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 55 minutes or until cooked thoroughly. 


Some ideas of sides

Garlic Boy Choy

Blanch the bok choy and place on a plate.
Heat a saucepan with oil, then add in garlic. 
Pour garlic over the bok choy and pour over some oyster sauce. 

An alternative is to pour some soy sauce and sesame oil.

This combination of honey soy chicken and garlic bok choy served with plain rice is really simple and takes no time at all.

I tried a less Asian approach on another occasion and had it with some bake potatoes, pumpkin & asparagus. Also the additional baked mushrooms with feta. Just an idea guys, just an idea. It wasn't to bad.

New York Cheesecake

Good old New York Cheesecake. 
I've always been a huge fan of the cheesecake but paying approximately $5 a slice at a cafe stops me from enjoying this. However, after baking one myself, I must admit, that the cost per slice is justifiable. Not only are the ingredients expensive to begin with, the effort that goes into it is a fair bit especially if your kitchen is not well equipped like mine. Don't let that deter you from trying out this recipe though. It's proven a hit at every occasion I've brought one to and impressed. 

What you will need:

400g digestive biscuits
150g butter, melted

750g cream cheese
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 teaspoons lemon rind, grated (grated lemon skin/peel)
2 tablespoons plain flour
3/4 cup thickened cream
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 cup caster sugar

250g strawberries
1 cup dessert wine
2 tablespoons caster sugar

Steps:


1. Preheat over to 160 degrees Celsius, and the line and base of your baking pan with non stick baking paper.
2. Process the digestive biscuits until they are finely crushed like bread crumbs. Add butter and combine well.
3. Spread the processed biscuits and butter into the pan, covering the base and the sides well. Make sure that the layer is thick enough to support the cheese filling. Cover up and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
4. Beat the cream cheese, lemon rind, sugar and vanilla essence with an electric mixer (or fork) until the mix is smooth. Then add in the eggs and combine. Lastly, beat in the cream and lemon juice.
5. Pour the cheese mixture into the pan with the biscuit base. Place in the over and bake for about 50 minutes or until the center of the cake sets. (You can see the hole in the middle of my cake in the picture where I have pierced a knife into. Make sure the knife comes out clean to test if the cake has set.)
6. Leave the cake in the oven to cool completely, with the door open. I left mine in for about 2-3 hours. Then place it in the fridge overnight.
7. For the strawberry compote, pour wine and sugar into a pot on low heat until the sugar dissolves into the wine. Pour in the strawberries and bring to a boil. Then, lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes until the strawberries are soft. Leave this to cool completely. I put mine in the fridge overnight.
8. Place the strawberry compote on the cake starting from the middle.

Personally, the first attempt was challenging, but with subsequent attempts with knowing what to expect, I was able to manage my time better and this cake is really enjoyable to bake. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.



Let's just say it's not this crazy cake that took me only all of 15 hours to bake. #crazythomasrainbowcake #neveragain

The quick and easy Mexican meal

Hola! 

As a result of a pop up store at a new mall that sold tortillas for $2.50 i developed a taste for these babies. In addition, they were giving out these 8 of these tortilla shells with every purchase which would have cost me from 4 to 5 bucks at Coles. This gave me a reason to try making these bad boys at home.  

What you will need: 

(According to what I have used)

Filling

500g beef mince (I suppose you could substitute this with chicken/pork/vego mince if necessary)

1 can of peeled crushed tomatos (or I reckon 2-3 fresh tomatos, finely chopped)

1 corn

1 red or green pepper, chopped

1 large onion, chopped (I used a brown one though the initial recipe I followed recommended a red one)

1 can of red kidney beans

Mexican spice mix (I bought a pre mix which would be more cost effective)

Guacamole

1-2 avocados

Coriander

Sour Cream

Lemon ( I used 1/2 a lemon with every 1 avocado)

Toppings

Cheese

Sour cream

Guacamole

Taco sauce

& of course your tortilla shells or tacos, although the latter proved to be extremely messy to eat.

Steps

Filling

1. As part of the prep, boil the corn first and separate the kernels from the corn cob

2. In a pot, heat up some oil and fry the onions.

3. Add the mince and fry for a couple of minutes till brown

4. Add in the pepper, corn, kidney beans and tomatoes, and mix well.

5. Add the Mexican spice into the mix. Leave to simmer.

That is all you'll need to do for the filling.

I usually leave it to simmer for quite a while, so the onions, kidney beans and peppers become nice and soft.

 Guacamole

This is a recipe that I base almost entirely on my judgement and taste buds. Tasting it as I go.

1. Mash your avocado
2. Add a generous amount of sour cream (I used about 2 tablespoons)
3. Add in your coriander ( I used a ready made coriander paste in mine and just kept adding to my desired taste)
4. Squeeze in your lemon juice and mix really well.





Place the mince in your shells, fill it up with your desired toppings and tadah! Hope you'll enjoy the meal as much as I have.

Soft Peanut Butter Cookies

Being unemployed and having almost nothing to do apart from job hunting all day long causes a certain kind of stress. One that I have learned to manage through activities I find somewhat comforting. One of which is cooking. 

This comes with the added bonus of feeding the boyfriend who, as of recent, has become rather fiendy for the snacks at night. Nothing is as bad as cooking and having to throw food away because it doesn't get eaten and has gone bad. 

After watching an episode of Masterchef recently, I've been wanting to try these.

This recipe is easy, inexpensive and quick.






What you will need:

1 and 1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup peanut butter (I've used one no sugar added in mine)
1 egg
50 grams butter
1/2 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence


Directions:

1. Mix the butter, raw sugar and sugar in a large mixing bowl. I do not own an electric mixer so I've done all my mixing by hand, with a fork. 

2. Add in the peanut butter, egg and vanilla essence and mix. 

3. Mix in the flour and baking powder.

4. Let the batter rest in the fridge for a bit. I left mine in for about 45 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 175 degrees (fan-forced)

5. Lay baking paper on a tray and roll the batter into balls. Like Matt Preston, I wanted to be fancy and i pressed a fork into each of the rolled balls, also to flatten them out a little.

6. Bake the cookies for about 13 minutes. 

7. When done, leave to cool. 

Now you have chewy, soft peanut butter cookies!

I hope you'll enjoy them like I have. :)

 

Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

Helloooo ladies :)

Sorry we haven't posted in quite a while but here we are with another post, will get to your questions as soon as possible :D

But here we were thinking about it and we decided that you know, why stick to just beauty tips? What do women love to do when they're not beautifying themselves? Here's the answer:

A multitude of things.

Hence, we've decided to add a little spice into this blog and start with some other lifestyle ways of ours that you could follow. But not to worry, we'll still have our regular beauty tips and we'll see how well received this segment is and maybe we'll do more :D

So today, as the title states "Red Velvet", Red Velvet Cupcakes? Red Velvet Lips? We'll cover both today!!

Let's start with the CUPCAKES. I don't know about you but I love food.

We made some homemade ones that were so moist and so good mmm, we wanted to share this goodness with you ♡ here's the recipe!!!

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting ♡

(Most ingredients can be found in SG local NTUC)

1. 3 ¼ cups plain flour
2. 1 teaspoon salt
3. 227g unsalted butter
4. 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar or just I in sugar
5. 2 eggs
6. 4 tablespoons cochineal food colouring
7. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8. 2 ½ tablespoons hersey's unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
9. 1 ½ cups full milk
10. 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
11. 1 ½ teaspoons apple cider vinegar (IMPORTANT)

For cream cheese frosting (optional)

1. 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2. 4 cups icing sugar, sifted (or as sweet as you want)
3. ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4. 6 ounces cream cheese

*measurments have to be precise as possible!!!

For cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper baking cups.
2. Sift together the flour and salt in a bowl and put one side.
3. In the bowl of a electrical mixer, cream together the butter and sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing slowly after each addition.
5. Stop the mixer and whisk together the red food coloring, vanilla and cocoa powder. Slowly add this and keep mixing until well mixed.
6. Add a cup of the flour mixture, followed by a cup of the milk, and mix well. Repeat until all the flour and milk are mixed well into the mixture.
7. In a small bowl, add the baking soda to the apple cider vinegar. Mix quickly and add this mixture into the batter. Mix until just incorporated.
8. Scoop the batter into the paper baking cups, each cup should be only 2/3 full. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Place the cupcakes on the table top to cool completely. 
9. For frosting
   1. Place all ingredients stated above into the bowl of an electric mixer; beat until combined. Be sure to beat on high speed at the very end for at least 2 minutes to ensure that the frosting is light and fluffy.
   2. Transfer frosting into a plastic piping bag fitted with a metal tip, if you don't have a piping bag, you could just use those transparent bags and snip a hole at the bottom and swirl to your heart's content :)

  Tips!!!

- wait for the cupcakes to cool before putting on frosting if not the icing will melt ):

- follow the measurments as closely as possible!!

- recipe makes about 12-ish kinda depends on the size of your paper baking cup (:

- best served when left in the fridge overnight, tbh, all cakes are better left overnight in the fridge ☆

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!! 

Good luck! ☆

-Audrey