Lovely DIY Valentine's Dinner

Valentine= lover's day. Lover's day= love. Love= passion. So, passion= passion fruits?
Yeah, that is how i got the idea on my Valentine's Dinner menu.

Old couples might say: "Everyday is our Valentine's day. We can celebrate everyday at anytime."

But i still hope to prepare something special on this special day.

Seriously this is the first time i cook salmon, especially grilled salmon. But no fear as i did some homework before buying ingredients, on what ingredients mix with fish the best, how to grill, ingredients to season fish, and how to garnish my cooking.

Here is my menu:


Main dish: Grilled Salmon with Herbs (Thyme)
Side dishes: Sauteed Oyster with Passion Juice, Crab Meat, Mashed potato and Brocolli
Dessert: Sweet Lover

Lovely Valentine's Dinner: My Grilled Salmon

I called it a Romantic Pendaflour-light Dinner as we were having it DIY at home.
Why isn't it a Candle-light dinner? I think it's better option after taking into consideration the safety issue- the main course is salmon fish which has fish bone.. =p
Why is it Romantic? Who says romantic dinner is only meant for 2 person? On that night, we had a special guest- my sister. Wine was prepared too. This is also a special Valentine's day for me as i prepared for 3 pax instead of 2. Luckily my cooking standard was not dropped because of the stress level (to prepare for our fussy guest =p).

Lovely Valentine's Dinner: Special 3-pax Meal

For me, i didn't expect how well can the herb: Thyme completed my grilled salmon.
However, the real satisfaction comes from Agreement: When you hear "ya"..and Compliment such as "Wow", "good", "Umm.." and Action when you see all the food went into their stomach fast!

My serving task got completed to serve sweet dessert after meal.
It's Tiramishu Ice Cream with Passion topping.
Hope my valentine enjoy the meal, so as my special guest!

Lovely Valentine's Dinner: Sweet Lovers

To everyone who reads this, Happy Valentine's Day.

Dinner Idea: Pumpkin Rice

For dinner, i wanted to cook something easy, which can be done in a bowl. So i cut the pumpkin, put in ingredients, and i cooked Pumpkin Rice. It tasted similar to Yam Rice, but it is cooked with pumpkin rather than Yam. 

First, i cut pumpkin into small pieces.

Then i stir fry ingredients such as Anchovies, Dried Mushroom, Dried Prawn and Garlic.

Then i put the mix of white and red rice.

And i cooked as usual like cooking plain rice.

For further information about red rice, read my previous post on what is red rice.

How to make it tasted nice?

The tip is, to stir fry the ingredients until fragrant before cooking as usual.

Yummy, it didn't look that tempting, especially the color. But this is really nice, simple and healthy.

Fresh Pumpkin

Mix of Red and White Rice

My Pumpkin Rice

Dinner Idea: Japanese Style Fried Bihun

This evening, I wanted to cook Japanese Fried Bihun. I had limited time so I wanted to do it fast. First I took out all ingredients I can put in, from the fridge. So I prepared carrot, anchovies, tomato and bitter gourd. I put in canned Tuna fish too.

Raw Ingredient

Tuna Fish

Since it was Japanese style, I put in Japanese Bok Choi. It is also called Tiny Pak Choi or Chinese Cabbage. I like the smaller version as it has more leaf and more crunchy, and I think it tastes sweeter.

Fresh Tiny Chinese Cabbage

This is the most important seasoning I put in: The Japanese Teriyaki Sauce.

Teriyaki Sauce

Besides Japanese Teriyaki sauce, I put in little of soya sauce.

Here is the Japanese style Fried Bihun, my version of fried bihun.

The saltiness was just nice, and the bihun was very Q. I put in more ingredients than the bihun itself, so it was more to Fried Vegetables with Bihun, rather than Fried Bihun with vegetables!

I decided to cook a separate dish of tomato egg, with stir-fry of fresh onion, as the side dish.

Side Dish

Here is the list of Ingredients and Seasoning for Japanese style Fried Bihun:

Ingredients:

1. Any types of vegetables as you like

2. Anchovies

3. Canned Tuna Slice

4. Chopped Garlic

5. Cooking oil

Seasoning:

1. Japanese Teriyaki Sauce

2. Soya Sauce

My dinner

3. Fish Sauce

Dinner Idea: Red Wine Chicken

This evening, I wanted to try something new.  I had extra Red Wine, so I tried to cook  Red Wine Chicken.  

I seasoned the chicken with some of pepper, red wine, soya sauce, salt and corn-starch.

Then I pan-fry it.

Although the red wine chicken didn't look that tempting, but actually tasted delicious. It was just normal black pepper grilled chicken recipe, but I put less pepper and add in a few spoons of red wine. Red wine and meat is the perfect match.  Yummy. Anyone can try this recipe, you just need to have some red wine.

For the side dish, I cooked a stir-fry Kailan. For the soup, it was Tomato with Bitter-gourd. Of course it was bitter, but Bitter-gourd is good for health.

Fresh Kailan Vegetables with mix ingredients

Seasoned chicken with red wine

My dinner: Red Wine Chicken, Stir-fry Kailan and Bittergourd Soup

Dinner Idea: Beet Root Soup and Vegetables

I guess this week is my cooking mood. =) I prepared a beet root soup, stir fried mushroom, and stir fried vegetables.

I bought a very big beet root. So i cooked a pure beet root soup, with no meat but just a little of salt.

Fresh Beetroot

Slices of cut Beetroot

I cooked a stir fried oyster mushroom, with tomato and black pepper.

Stir Fry Oyster Mushroom

For vegetables, this is a type of leaf from Goji Berry. It has almost the same nutrition of Goji Berry, which is good for protecting eyesight. I cooked a stir fried vegetables with anchovies.

Goji Berry Leaf

Here is the dinner set just nice for 2 person:

My dinner

Dish: Tomato Egg

Ingredients: (Serving for 2)

Egg 2
Tomato 2
Garlic 3 pieces
Cooking oil 5 tbsp
Salt 1 tsp

Method:
1. Clean all ingredient and cut the tomato into small pieces.



2. Heat up cooking oil for 2 minutes and garlic for 3 minutes.
3. Beat egg in a bowl, add in salt and pour into the pan.
4. Fry the egg until it is cooked.
5. Remove and serve hot.

Here serve the healthy Tomato with egg:



Cooking Tips:
1. Meat sliced can be added for better taste.
2. This dish is best to be served with rice or sandwich bread.

Health Tips:
Tomato and egg are the best combination for vitamin C.


Preparing time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total Serving time: 15 minutes

Honey Lemon Juice

If you are feeling heaty and need something simple for your body cooling, why not try to have a cup of warm Honey Lemon Juice?

To prepare a cup of this healthy drink, it is very simple.

1. Buy a lemon from hypermarket.

2. Cut into slices.

3. Pour 2 to 3 tablespoon of honey into a cup.



4. Use a spoon to slightly squeeze the juice from the lemon slices.



5. Add in half cup of hot water and the other half with cold water. Here is the completed healthy beverage!



6. Warm water can also be replaced with cold water according to personal preferences!

Healthy Chinese Style Porridge

Ingredients: (Serving for 2)

1 cup of Red rice and 1 cup of normal white rice



(you may refer to this page for description on Red rice:
http://princevsprincess.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-is-red-rice.html)

100 grams of dried Wolfberries, 100 grams of dried scallop, 100 grams of dried gingko nuts



(you may refer to this page for description on Ginkgo nut/seed:
http://princevsprincess.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-is-ginkgo.html)

Seasoning such as pepper, salt


Method:
1. To prepare dried Gingko nuts, firstly hit and remove the hard skin, peel the soft skin, and remove the bitter seeds.
2. Clean red and white rice thoroughly under running tapped water.
3. Heat up plain water in a pot, together with remaining ingredients.
4. Boil for at least 2hours.
5. Remove, put into bowls and serve hot.



Sesame can be also added to the porridge..



Tips:
1. Do not close the pot cover to avoid overflow and stir well from time to time to avoid buring.
2. Red rice has higher iron contain than white rice. However, it's not necessary to use red rice. White rice can be used to replace the Red rice.
3. Add more water than cooking portion as water will get evaporated while cooking.


Health Tips:
This porridge is good for health especially during cold weather, with mixes of typical chinese healthy ingredients.

Preparing time: 30 minutes
including time to prepare Gingko nuts)
Cooking time: 2 hours
Total Serving time: 2hours and 30 minutes

Chinese Dumpling 水饺

Ingredients: (Serving for 2)

Dumpling Skin half packet (can be bought from any wet market or hypermarket)
Chicken meat/ prawn meat 300 grams
Water Chestnut 50 grams
Carrot 50grams
Egg 1
Salt, Pepper, Soy Bean Sauce
Cooking oil 3 tbsp

Method:
1. Mince chicken meat or prawn meat or mix both.
2. Mix other ingredient and egg in the meat.
3. Wrap by using wantan skin.



4. Heat up pan and cooking oil, fry the dumpling until it turns to golden color.
5. Put a cup of water into pan, and cook until the water nearly dry.
6. Remove and serve hot.

And this is the cripsy bottom skin:




Cooking Tips:
1. This is best served with ginger slice added in black vinegar.
2. You can add other types of vegetables, such as onion leaves, carrot, or spinach into the meat mixtures.
3. The same dumpling can also be cooked by using different cooking style, such as pan fry, deep fry or soup. The dumpling in soup is more healthy as compared to pan fry.


Preparing time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total Serving time: 40 minute

Homemade Hash Brown

This day, when the Princess was looking at two big potatos while preparing a simple breakfast, she suddenly had the idea to prepare hash brown, for the Prince! But she had totally no experience in doing that before.

Firstly, she cut the two big potatos into small cubes, and slightly steamed them.
Next, she opened the cupboard, and she mixed all the ingredients into potato cubes.
There were 2 tablespoon of flour, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of milk powder, some pepper and salt.

That's it.

She took out a pan, put some oil, pan fry the potato mixtures until the both side turned golden.

Here is the homemade hash brown, it doesnt have nice looking, but it's surely more healthy than commercial hash brown bought outside.

Preparing time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Total Serving time: 1 hour

Egg Toast Bread

Ingredients: (Serving for 2)

Egg 2
Whole grain/ plain bread 4 pieces
Cooking oil/butter 3 tbsp

Method:
1. Break egg into a bowl and beat it for 2 minutes.
2. Soak bread into egg.
3. Heat up cooking oil/butter for 2 minutes.
4. Put bread on pan and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Fry the bread until it turns to golden color.
6. Remove and serve hot.

Cooking Tips:
1. Can add different ingredients into the egg mixing, such as milk or marjerin.
2. Can add different spices into the egg mixing, such as pepper, sugar, salt or Cinammon powder.
3. Can add different ingredient on top of bread while cooking, depending on own creativity.


Preparing time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Total Serving time: 10 minutes


Egg Toast Bread is easy to be prepared. But what can we add into egg toast bread to make it special? Here is the idea:

Add slices of seaweed on top of bread..



Or you can add peanut butter, or Milo nugget for kids..

Roti Canai Western Wrap

Ingredients: (Serving for 2)

1. Roti Canai/ Indian Bread 2 Pieces
(can buy from any Mamak Stall or buy frozen Roti Canai from hypermarket and pan fry for 10 min)

2. Lettuce and Carrot
(or other types of vege)

3. any brand of Tuna


4. Chili Sauce

Method:
1. Wash all fresh ingredients.
2. Heat up the Roti Canai.
3. Put a few Lettuce on top of Roti Canai.
4. Spread tuna on top according to own favour.



5. Put the remaining ingredients on top, add some chili or tomato sauce, and wrap it.


You can also roll it like this:



Or you can wrap like this:




That's it! As simple as A, B, C!..and you can add own ingredients according to own creativity: Tomato, Onion, Spinach, Chesse, Meat Slice, Ham, Scramble Egg, Mustard, Pepper and other more!
Enjoy this healthy and simple breakfast!

Preparing time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Total Serving time: 15 minutes

Homemade Old Town Breakfast

Believe it or not, this is prepared by the Prince for the Princess!

1. Pretty easy, get a packet of Oldtown White Coffee, pour the coffee powder and boiled water into a cup.

2. Next, boil 2 eggs in a pot for 5 minutes. Obviously the Prince has overcooked the half-boiled egg.

3. Next, toast the whole-meal bread, apply Fruit Jam, Butter, Peanut Butter or Kaya (according to own favourite) and cut into two.

Here is the sweet homemade Oldtown Breakfast made from 101% sweet heart:




Preparing time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Total Serving time: 20 minutes