Creamy Tofu & Squids Soup

Hubby went out dinner with friends, decided to cook something simple for dinner. Little girl requested the noodle she ate for her bento this afternoon again, thus decided to make this soup to go with it. I modified the recipe I saw from Yum Yum (61) magazine.

Ingredient

200g squids, washed, cut and drained well

1 box soft tofu, cut into shreds

300 ml water

1 egg, mix well

Seasoning

1 chicken stock cube (I used those without msg)

1 tbsp light soy sauce

4 tbsp starch water

dash of pepper

black vinegar for serving

spring onions for garnishing

Method:

1. Boil water in pot, blanch squids til cook, spoon squids out, drain well
2. Add in tofu and seasoning, bring to boil
3. Thicken soup with starch water and stir in egg
4. Dish up, add in cooked squids, pepper, black vinegar and spring onions, serve.

Simple, fast and delicious soup.

500K Bento Contest Held by Pikko

Remember the Lovers on Boat Bento I did last month (see picture below)? I'd sent it to Pikko's 500K Bento Contest, keep my finger cross, hope I'll stand a chance to grab those marvelous prize ;p

Noodle & Broccoli Bento (95)

Another simple bento today, all ready in about 20 minutes :)

There r 3 de-skinned mangosteens and 2 grape tomatoes...

noodle mixed with some oyster sauce, soy sauce, black soy sauce and some oil (I didn't place the noodle in heart shape, it was just coincidence)...

flavored quail eggs I bought from HK and some blanched broccoli.

Little girl liked the noodle and eggs, ate half of the broccoli (she complained they r hard, should have blanched a bit longer) and left those big pieces of mangosteen (she always dislike those big pieces due to the seed).

Oh yeah! There is a tip I would like to share here, it is the energy saving way to cook dried noodles, like soba, flat noodle (like above), udon, and even pasta:

1. boil water in pot
2. place dried noodle into boiled water, cover lid, boil for another 1 minute
3. off heat, keep noodle in covered pot according to the cooking time specified in package instructions
4. drain, ready to serve

The noodles will be soft and ready to eat just like boiling them with heat, do try out urself with this energy saving way.

Dog-dog Tree

This photo was taken last year, we saw 2 rainbows outside & little girl wanna me to snap it to show hubby. And it was then that we realized we had this cute tree outside.

A closer look, I took it again early this year, don't it look like a terrier (dog), looked so cute...

... then, last month, MBPJ came, it was chopped off, :(

A Bouquet of Flower Bento (94)

This bento was ready in 15 minutes, faster than I'd anticipated. What I needed to prepare at the morning, was fried the sausage & quail egg, reheat the rice, chicken and cut the cucumber.

Contains of bento:

Fried sausage & quail egg flower

This is a leftover dish from last nite, stir-fried chicken & corn, I placed it underneath the flower

Smoked salmon & cucumber hand roll

Pineapple and mango

I was not with little girl while she was eating the bento, was busy chatting with her classmate's mum ;p However, she finished it quite fast, by the time I attended her, she left with 2 pieces of mango only.

Baked Pasta & Cheese Bento (93)

I was tired & lazy last nite, didn't plan out anything for today's bento, the snooze mode was still continuing this morning, thus I took out the pasta & cheese I made last week (stored in the freezer), baked it in the toaster oven, then blanched the sausages, edamame, artificial crab stick and corns. Everything was ready in 15 minutes.

Contains of bento: baked pasta & cheese, sausage flowers, crab stick flowers, edamame, pear & orange slices.

Little girl left with the pear slices only today, wonder why she dislike the pear?

Ham Pancakes

Remember I said I had a handful of blueberries only at the blueberry pancakes posting, therefore, I still had half of the batter left after making those pancakes. I pulled out the following ingredients to make-do this savory pancakes:

1/2 cup chopped ham

1 tsp parmesan cheese powder

1 tsp parsley flake

Just mixed the above ingredients into the pancake batter, cook pancake both side til brown. So, this is how it looks...

I didn't add in any sauce ...

... as it tasted good as itself oledi.

Blueberry Pancakes

After looking at the photos from here, I was so admired with Bakerella's baking & photographing skills. Since I had a handful of fresh blueberries on hand, just couldn't resist myself from trying out the pancakes, but I was out of plenty of the ingredients in her recipe. ok, I didn't make the orange maple butter, and I altered the pancake recipe to suit what I had ;p

Blueberry Pancake (my version)

1 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar, plus 1 tbsp for blueberries

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup milk

4 tbsp melted butter

2 eggs

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup blueberries

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda
2. In another bowl, whisk together milk, melted butter and egg
3. Add milk mixture to dry ingredients, stir together til just combined
4. Toss 1 tbsp sugar to blueberries
5. Heat non-stick pan, put in some extra butter and run over surface (repeat as necessary throughout process)
6. Pour a spoonful of batter into pan
7. Add some blueberries to each pancake
8. Cook both side til brown

I didn't follow hers or Martha's tip on keeping the cooked pancakes warm in the oven, however ...

after drizzled with honey ...

... more honey ...

... dig in and hmmmmmm... oh yes! I'm so glad I did it!

P/s Thanks hubby, for the photos.

Watermelon Skins, Peas & Chicken Soup

Mum gave me half of a yellow watermelon on Tue, hubby helped me skinned the watermelon & kept those skins in the fridge reserved for boiling the leong soi next day.

I planned on boiling this pea soup on Wed, but since I bought very few of it, I decided to mix in those watermelon skins. Does anyone have any idea what is the name of this peas? They r in this pink color pod, I think this peas r used only for boiling soup and I heard they r good for eyes.

The watermelon skins tasted a bit like winter melon, I lied to little girl that this is the winter melon soup, but she said it tasted very different, ;p think was due to the lack of salted radish.

The soup is very 'ching' (清) or clear.

It tasted best a day later.

Birthday Cake Sushi Bento (92)

It is my birthday today, sigh... another year older-d....

Little girl waked up happily this morning, kissed & wished me a happy birthday, she told me this too: "Mummy, I'm sure won't let u angry today, I'll be good girl & listen to u!" Oh well, kids... talk only-lah!

I thot of making little girl sushi rolls for bento last nite, then I changed my mind, why don make her sushi cake since it's my birthday, it'll be much more interesting.

In the morning, I started with blanching french bean, edamame and some corn, followed with frying the egg, then fixing the sushi cake.

As I don have round mold on hand, I used this flower shape mold, layered with rice, cucumber, cheese, rice, ham from bottom to top, and decorated the cake with drops of mayo, corns and a cucumber knot.

I used heart shaped mold for the 2nd sushi rice, again layered it with rice, cucumber, cheese, rice, smoked salmon and decorated it with mayo.

I got this fried egg idea from here, though it is in Chinese, it contains photo instructions that explain in detail.

Lastly, I put in some orange slices, a container of ketchup and some edamame to fill up the gaps. Total time used up => about 45 minutes.

Little girl adored this bento, she just couldn't resist cake, though it was made of rice ;p. She kept 2 slices of the fried egg for her snack and emptied the rest. Obviously, by seeing her enjoying her bento oledi made me happy :)