Update and Birthday

This is the final week of the basement renovations. I really can’t wait for it to be over, I’m starting to get cabin fever from being in the house so much! The rooms are finished and the floor’s going in.

Elsewhere in the household, there was a birthday. Little Guy turned 5! We had a little celebration yesterday with cupcakes and play buddies over. Daddy’s over at Nova Scotia this week for work so we’ll wait till he’s back for a proper birthday cake and a second round of celebration.

These chocolate cupcakes, from JoyofBaking.com, are good. They’re moist and has a mild chocolate flavour from using Dutch-processed cocoa powder. I used Fry’s Cocoa Powder, which is the only Dutch-processed cocoa powder I could find in the stores. The frosting uses unsweetened chocolate. It’s quick to make and easy to pipe too. I halved the recipe and got only 5 of these cupcakes. Click here for the recipe.

Trying not to get frosting on his face…

Lunch at a Pizzeria

 

Update and Anchovies (Ikan bilis) Fried Rice

The basement work is halfway through now and the dust level has dropped. My kids have learnt to walk on the edges of the protective paper laid down on the floor for the workers to walk on or leap over it to get to ‘clean territory’. We ‘borrowed’ some clean paper from the contractor’s roll and put a layer over at night so we can walk about normally and roll it up in the morning before they arrive. I should be able to show you a finished picture by the end of next week. The men work hard and fast. During the first week of work, we thought we’ll be able to sleep in on Saturday but at 9am, the doorbell rang!

For dinner tonight, I made ikan bilis – salted and dried anchovies (in Malay) – fried rice. I brought them back from Malaysia already gutted and cleaned, and store them in the freezer. Before using them today, I gave them a wash and put them in the toaster oven at 200 degrees F for about 1.5 hours till dry and almost crisp. I then fried them in hot oil till brown and crunchy-crisp. They crisp up in no time because they’re already so dried. The fried rice is cooked the usual way and the anchovies are mixed in at the end. Great with sambal!

By the way, my new computer arrived but it’s a Mac. I’m still posting with my phone until I learn how to import and manage my photos!

Fried anchovies draining on paper towels.

 

New Interruptions

Another reason for not posting recently – my basement is being finished! It doesn’t affect my kitchen but it does affect me – I’m not relaxed I can’t relax! Also, having workers in the house means I can’t leave the house for long periods so I haven’t been able to properly grocery shop for food hence, no meals to blog about. Oh well, it’s just going to be three weeks. I’m looking forward to the end result! 🙂

Posted from WordPress for Windows Phone

 

Vermicelli with BBQ Pork and Mushroom

Tonight’s dinner was one of those ‘use whatever you have’ dishes. Hubby wanted noodles for dinner and I had half a packet of dried brown rice vermicelli (‘mei fun’ in Cantonese) in the pantry. Rice vermicelli is usually fried with meat (pork), shrimps and greens. I had some BBQ pork in the freezer, dried mushroom and some baby bok choy so it’s perfect.

Fried rice vermicelli is a simple dish but involves several steps: soaking the dried vermicelli, frying an omelette and cutting it to shreds, and frying the vegetable and meat separately. It is not an easy dish to make as you can either undersoak or undercook the vermicelli resulting in hard, indigestible noodles, or oversoak or overcook the noodles resulting in a sloppy, gloppy dish! The first time I fried vermicelli, I had noodles everywhere, it was a mess! But you do get better at it over time. 🙂

(Forgive the rather poor pictures. I took these photos with a camera phone! I’m still waiting for my computer to arrive.)

Fried Rice Vermicelli with BBQ Pork and Mushroom

Ingredients
200g shredded BBQ pork (you can also use 100g shredded pork and 100g shrimps)
3 dried Chinese mushrooms
2 eggs
200g baby bok choy
250g rice vermicelli (I used brown rice vermicelli)
1 small shallot, sliced (or 1 stalk green onion)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp BBQ pork drippings/juice (ask from the BBQ pork butcher, the meat is usually in a pan with the juices).

1. Soak dried vermicelli in lukewarm water for 10 minutes or until softened. Pour into a colander and drain well. (If using pork, season with a little soy sauce, cornstarch and pepper.) Rinse mushrooms and soak in hot water till softened. Retain the water and slice mushrooms thinly, set aside. Beat eggs in a bowl and fry in a non-stick pan into an omelette. Cut into shreds and set aside. Combine the BBQ pork drippings and the light soy sauce to make one and a half cup of seasoning. (Or use 1-2 tbsps of oyster sauce if you do not have the drippings.)

2. Wash and cut bok choy into section. Fry with 1 tbsp of oil till softened. Remove from pan and set aside. Fry BBQ pork till fragrant and heated through, remove. If using raw pork and shrimps, fry till cooked and remove. Fry mushrooms and shallot till fragrant. Drizzle over the dark soy sauce, mix, then add in the seasoning. Bring to a boil. Bring heat to medium.

3. Add in the rice vermicelli and toss well. Add the bok choy and cover for 1 minute. Remove the cover and toss to combine all the ingredients and to make sure the noodles is evenly covered with the seasoning. Toss until the the vermicelli is fairly dry. Add in the pork and toss again to combine. Taste and add more light soy sauce if needed. Dish out and scatter the shredded omelette on top. Enjoy!

 

Breathing New Life into Failed Cake

Remember my earlier post about the cake that didn’t rise hence I couldn’t make the tall party cake? I didn’t know what to do with it but I couldn’t just throw it out so I put it away in the fridge. Then yesterday I remembered my long procrastinated project – cake pops! I had all the ingredients and materials. Just never gotten around to making them. It was a fantastic way to use up the cake, I’m so pleased it didn’t go to waste. The cake pop was great with the lemony cake and the chocolate. I served them at an ‘Everyday Style’ party I hosted this morning and they were a hit!

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Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake crumbled and mixed with canned cream cheese frosting. Dipped in melted Mercken’s chocolate wafers, thinned with sunflower oil.