Homemade Salted Egg

I am so excited to see if my homemade salted egg worked or NOT.....
When I opened the cabinet this morning, I saw the bottle of my homemade salted eggs and realised that I can finally have a taste of my very first homemade salted eggs.  It has been 1 month since I soaked it in the brine.  My other half was so anxious that he took out the 1st egg to test...it wasn't hard boiled yet though. Its kind of like the half-boiled which we may use for mooncakes. We even made some porridge to go along with these yummy salted eggs.

Here's a photo of the half-boiled salted egg.

Here's a photo of one fully boiled salted eggs.

Time to have some Asian porridge...wohoo!!!

Not Forgotten...

It has been awhile since I last wrote in this blog. We had to move due to job commitments....and from there, it was busy, busy, busy, hunting, searching, looking, deciding, etc.. Now that we are more settled, I finally have time to blog again.

Its spring now but we still have a little winter now and then. Just this morning, the temperature dropped to 9 degrees C...good golly. To make matters worst, my other half has fallen sick. My 2 kiddos have been under the weather for a week now and now that they have recovered, its my poor other half who is sick..sigh!!!  So, what can I do? what can I do?  One thing that came into my mind - asian porridge. Too bad I don't have any salted eggs, preserved veggies (kiam chye) and other stuff which we could easily hunt in chinatown. However, now that we have moved, it will take us more than several hours to drive down to chinatown. So, I will just have to make do with what I have.

Here's a photo of my asian porridge.  When my other half is ready to have his lunch, I will heat-up the porridge and knock an egg in it.  I managed to find some preserved vegetables...wohoo!!!

I think its time for me to make my own "homemade salted eggs" for emergencies such as this.  I really wish I can find some duck eggs but alas, I am not able to find it here.  So, I will have to use chicken eggs instead.  I have never ever done this before though...will give you guys some feedback after 30 days. Here's what I did with my homemade salted eggs:

An empty clean glass bottle
Duck Eggs or Chicken Eggs
Salt
Water
Sichuan Peppercorns
Star Anise
Warm Water
A dash of chinese cooking wine

Here's a photo of my homemade salted eggs in progress.

I also made hou yau kai (oyster sauce chicken) for my kiddos. Here's a photo of one of our main dishes for dinner tonite.

I will post an update after 30 days for my homemade salted eggs. Fingers crossed...hopefully it will be a success.

Quiche...

Quiche.....my kiddos think I am saying "Kiss".....haha!  So, what is quiche? Its a savoury open face pie with egg custard filling, cheese, veggies, meat, etc.  Some people told me that quiche comes from Germany and others state that its from France. What I can say is...who ever created this, quiche is AWESOME!!!!

I was thinking of making small individual pies but the lazybum in me shouted, just a big one will do...save time, save energy.... So, here's how my quiche turned out...

That's all for now....

Happy quiche.....ing!!!

Long Time No See...

It has been ages since I last wrote on this blog. I have been so busy...completing my last semester, working oh the days which I do not attend classes, trying to spend time with my kids, etc, etc, etc...golly! Its pretty hard work...no I understand why some people say that 24 hours is just ain't enough. I totally get it even though lots of my friends said that if I have better time management, I will not be like so.  However, with 2 kids who need your attention when you get home throw all your "time management" skills out of the window...that's how I feel as I want to catch-up with my kids, watch them grow, the milestones, etc, etc, etc.

I have not been doing much cake decorating lately....I wish I had more time but I will surely do one for my lovely princess on her birthday which is next month.  She requested for Strawberry Short Cake...hmm. That will be a challenge to me. Fingers cross!!!

Here's some of the photos which I took when I was working during the long school holidays in December 2011. I really enjoyed myself as I made so many different types of desserts for the dessert buffet counter.  Had an awesome time there!

We had a small family reunion dinner during Chinese New Year and then rushed to the temple for prayers and blessings. My 2 precious wanted to watch the lion dance and fire crackers.  Here's some photos of our simple reunion dinner.

I finally made frittata for my DH and he loved it ever since...ha!ha! Frittata is just an egg-based dish. I have been asking my Chef where frittata comes from and he said its from Italy and the meaning is "to fry". However, we do not fry frittata...not the version which I am using though, I bake it in the oven.  I enrich the frittata with mushrooms, bacon, sausages, veggies, potatoes and whatever I can find in the fridge.  Here's one of the frittata photos which I took.

In February, one of my friends asked if I could do a cake for her. She wanted to surprise her darling BF. I am so glad to hear that both of them loved it. Here's a photo I took before I delivered it to her house.

Lastly, here's a photo of one of the items which I made at my current workplace. My Chef is just awesome as he wants me to better myself and sharpen my skills. Eclairs is made from choux pastry filled with cream and decorated with chocolate and icing sugar. According to my Chef, eclairs originated from France.

Last but not least, we went to the temple to celebrate Lord Buddha's birthday. This is the day where we can bathe the little baby Buddha.  We will bathe him 3 times to improve harmony and inner balance in our lives.

That's the end of this post. Made baked pasta for tomorrow's potluck.  Can't wait to savour my friends' dishes...yummy-yum-yum.

Almond Meal Egg Tarts

A friend of mine was dying to have some egg tarts but she is gluten intolerance. We were talking about how she could tahan for so long, etc, etc... I did some research and came out with a recipe using almond meal. Called her to ask if almond meal is OK with her and she said, do the egg tarts please!!!  So, that's what I did and she was all ready to drive to my house..ha!ha!

Almond meal flour is totally different from our usual flour. Its made from ground almonds and it feels like corn meal flour.  Firstly, I made the tart casings with the almond meal, butter and egg yolk and place it in the fridge for 30 mins. I then made the egg custard with eggs, sugar, evaporated milk and vanilla essence. When its ready, I took out the almond meal dough, roll the pieces into a ball and flatten it on my palm. I then slowly, place it into the moulds and lightly flatten it with my fingers. Mind you, the dough is soft and crumbly. Then I poured the egg custard and baked at 200 degrees C for 15 mins.

The tart casing turned out very crumbly but it tasted really nice. Here's a photo or two of the almond meal egg tarts.  My friend came over and had 3 pieces... :)

Mission accomplish! Wohoo!!!

Oyaku Donburi

My whole family loves donburi especially oyaku donburi. This time around, instead of cooking for each individual person, I decided to cook for a giant (family of 4). My prince asked me before what is oyaku donburi and I explained to him that its a japanese one bowl meal which consist of chicken and egg over rice. However, instead of an oversize bowl, I used a rice pot...cooking for a giant..ha!ha!

Guess what? I still taste as nice and its a hit in the family...wohoo!!!

Tamagoyaki Burger

Ever since I found "water roux", I have baked all my bread with this roux. It is indeed so soft and fluffy. Even my 2 kiddos will ask for 2nds. Today, I decided to make myself some tamagoyaki burger.

I am one of those who loves everything simple and a buddy of mine told me that I could make myself some tamagoyaki within minutes without buying a tamago pan. Now...I was all ears.  Its quite simple actually. For the tamgoyaki, the ingredients which I used were eggs, water, soya sauce, bonito flakes and oil for cooking in a non-stick frying pan.  The above photo is the tamagoyaki...see the layers....yummy!!!

Now...the fun part, stack my burger.  Firstly, my lovely soft bread being buttered on both side, mayo, cheese, shredded lettuce, pickles and tamagoyaki. Some love it just the way it is but for me, chilli sauce is a must...ha!ha! So, here's my version of the tamagoyaki burger. Now...where's my green tea........