Thai garlic chicken

Thai garlic chicken has the interesting way of cooking them. Put the chicken on a bowl, then put sugar, fish sauce, coriander, mint, salt and pepper. Mix it well then refrigerate it for 2 hours.
Then, straight away stir fry it! the result of it is… delicious.

Thai flavoured minced chicken serve with blanch bok choy

Let’s start with the bok choy. Not taking more than 5 minute to prepare. Nothing really special about blanches the bok choy. I should have made Bok Choy Jelly instead of blanch it (to make it look fancier).
The minced chicken is not hard to make, just make sure you have enough fish sauce and a lil bit of sweet chilli sauce.
This is the final presentation of it

Thai Pumpkin Soup

Do not expect me to cook Tom Yum Goong for entrée. I always want to discover a new way of cooking, a new way of eating and a new way of enjoying food.


My lack of experience of Thai cuisine is the major concern. I would not try that far away from the original recipe, in fact, I did not change anything. Keep it original.

The only entrée that I made is Thai Pumpkin soup. What makes Thai pumpkin soup different from pumpkin soup? Thai pumpkin soup uses Red curry paste and Coriander.

I think I fall in love with this soup. It just tastes so delicious. And I went really well with slice cucumber.
The only drawback is I put too much of the paste, so it is really spicy to me.

Thai-Thai-Thai

On 29th November 09, I went to Thai food festival. Yes, it is a journey to amazing Thai food. What I learnt from there, Thai food is not only about curry, it is about Pad Thai. I love Pad Thai.

If you do not know what Pad Thai is, it is a stir fry rice noodle with eggs, bean sprouts, peanut, coriander, and lime with your favourite meat.

I think the main ingredients of Thai food are Fish sauce and spices like coriander and mint. Thai food is not complete without fish sauce.

And I tried several dessert at the festival, including the (apparently) the famous drink from Thai, Coconut juice (Ma Praw On), Thai iced the (Cha Yen) and my favourite, some fruit jelly coconut drink.
The red colour ball is made from jelly on the outer side and crunchy some sort of fruit. I wonder how they make it?

And the other dessert I like is Thai ice cream; I tried both flavours, cream soda and Coca-Cola. Love both of them.

After a short 1 hour journey to Thailand in Sydney, I decided to cook 4 courses dinner. It consisted of 1 entrée, 2 mains, and 1 dessert.

Here is some of the pictures I taken

This is the overview of the festival. I came here in the early morning, just make sure it is not too crowded

As you can see... Thai Food Festival

The Yummy coconut drink with jelly

I tried their pad-thai. my gosh, really nice and fresh. And i bought the dried rice noodle and the sauce      (can't resist)

This is Thai Ice-Cream. not really ice cream.. it is just a Frozen Thai Ice... really nice

I want to learn carving watermelon. look so cool

Potato Gratin

When I arrived in Aussie for the first time, I also learn that Roast Chicken is the so yummy. However, my eyes were looking at the yellow-ish colour and I do not even know what that was. After my discovery, the dish called potato gratin (maybe, I am not 100% sure) too.
Well I try to make the remake of Potato gratin. Apparently, it is quite easy. Internet has provided us with heaps of this recipe. my next question is, how can you really plate potato gratin?

Wrong Bread, Right Soup

It is a little bit cold here. I decided to make soup to warm myself and my housemates. My original thought was, using the “right” bread to dip it in, and the bread should be crunchy enough.
The soup I am making is Corn soup with eggplant, zucchini and bacon.
This is the first time I cook eggplant. Eggplant has a bitter taste when you eat it raw, but becomes tender and developed rich flavour when cooked.
The soup turns out to be okay, but I do not know what to take a good picture of soup (since soup is flat). The bread I should use is French stick instead of garlic bread.

Overall taste, bread dipped in the soup has a rich complex flavour, can taste the herbs, garlic, corn, zucchini, cucumber and bacon.

Vanilla and chicken ice cream, serve with sweet peas puree

I am going off the limit again, defining ice cream as not something you would eat normally. This stuff is not new; the fat duck in London has Bacon and Egg ice cream (which I want to try too).


I am trying to make vanilla with ice cream, which is not that hard anymore, since I have a previous experience with making tomato ice cream, where taste like tomato and coconut-ty flavour.

The recipe I got for vanilla ice cream is from www.taste.com.au and makes some changes and adjustment to fit my chicken into the recipe. Nothing I can say about this… but 4 people said that it was nice and they wanted more and more. So happy

Dare to try??

Chicken and Jackfruit, Indonesian thickened curry style

I tried to venture another new dish to me, which is my Indonesian favourite food. Been living in Indonesia pretty much for my whole life and I never cook (I blame my Indonesia maid), they are a good cook. As a result of being spoilt, when I first time came to Melbourne, I was unable to: wash, iron, dealing with electrician, cleaning (you wish), and most importantly COOK.

My first dish I created (other than instant noodle) was plain pan-fry egg. It just a normal egg, tasteless. But now, I am trying to make something harder.

The dish is chicken and jackfruit, Indonesian thickened curry style. CURRY! I hate curry, because it just too hard to make, got at least 10 spices you need and I do not even know where to find it. So I decided to buy the ready made paste which makes my life so easy. Put the chicken, paste and jackfruit + coconut cream.

One of the hardest dishes to cook even paste is being used. I thought this dish is a disaster dish, when I tried it, it was so spicy and the taste of the curry is incorrect. I decided to transfer the food into a bowl and after 2 hours (which makes the curry at room temperature, not too hot, not too cold). Tested again and magically I become so nice, the taste that I am looking for.

Chicken, Bacon, and Leek

This is another new stuff that I cooked, and the first time I am using leek. I like leek! It tastes sp good. I want to make stuff again using leek next time.


And this is the second time I am using chicken and bacon in a dish. Apparently they went quite well. Unfortunately on this dish, I did not put bacon as many as it should be and as the result of it, I can’t smell the bacon.
The overall was impressive; I taste like a different way of carbonara. And it went well with pasta. But I did not use pasta at all for this purpose.

The below pic is the picture after 15 minutes cooking on the stove, but haven’t put it in to the oven, looks so plain

And this is the final presentation of the food.

Chicken Frittata, serve with salty garlic peas puree

This is the first time I made frittata. Using the goodness of Zucchini, Ricotta and Vine ripe cheery tomato, it just amazing. The first main just blows my mind. I never expected frittata would taste that nice lah.
And the green stuff is the salted peas puree with a lil bit of garlic. If the puree being eat it by itself, it will be too salty, however, combined it with the frittata, yum… it just complement each other. The perfect start to the first main since the food itself is a light starter.

the funny thinkg about this frittata i made, it is only nice of a small portion. I had one big fritatta lunch on the next day and it just disgusting.....

Overall yummmm

Chicken with Chilli lime mayo

The second entrée is another chicken, shredded chicken to be exact, mixed with mayo, lime, chilli. Then put it in the fridge to chill it.

I think I put to much chilli. I am unable to finish since it was too spicy for me. In other case, just do not eat the chilli. And you can substitute it with capsicum if chilli is too spicy.

Another easy made food to do, no time wasted on this one. My friends love this one

.

Mild curry flavour with Chicken, Egg, Mayo and Rocket salad

This is what happened to me on Saturday night trying to make food for whole week lunch and ended up having 6 courses dinner. I took me 6 hours to buy, prepare, cook, freeze, eat, and clean all the crap.

It is a really hard job to do, but the end result was lovely. It is not up to fine dining standard, but my friends were happy with my foods.

So, this is the first entrée, Chicken, egg, mayo and rocket salad curry flavour. I made the combination minced chicken; minced egg, mayo, mince rocket and curry powder, then mixed it together.

The flavour comes from the pre-made curry powder. Here is the pic below

It should be eaten in one bite. As it appears open your mouth, put the spoon in your mouth and enjoy it

Yum.... A good Start

When Breakfast becomes dinner

The Chicken Delay... I haven't got time to transfer and resize the Chicken pictures. meantime, this is the story about me almost straving to death....

I only have AU$10 left before my pay day, which is tomorrow. With $10, you can go to food court and have a decent food. But I feel like cooking. This is the time where I need to improvise, using cheap ingredients to create a yummy tummy food. One of my friends suggested making rice, egg with sweet soy sauce. I thought it carefully, it is not that hard to make rice, egg with sweet soy sauce, but where is the ART of it?

After thinking, and doing some analysis of expenses, I realise that I want to have Bacon and Egg… So, my dinner is a breakfast menu, with a slight twist and my home made special sauce.

BACON AND EGGS

This particular food is not hard to make, however I only have 1 egg ring, so it took me quite a while to cook it, and carefully plating it is a fun game to do too.

The main ingredients are Bacon, Ham, 2 Eggs, olive and the sauce. Cut the ham, bacon with the egg ring. Pan fried the bacon, and cooks the egg… the sauce, water, continental parsley, salt, pepper, then use gelatine.

This is the final presentation of it.
From bottom to top
White Egg – Ham – Ham – Ham – Egg Yolk – Ham – another egg

Isn't it look yummy?

Chicken - Chicken - Chicken - Chicken - Chicken - Chicken

Hi.... as u can see the headline, it is "Chicken" times 6...
I made 6 course full dinner, consisted recurring ingredient,you guess what? Chicken.I did not kill 6 chickens to make the food.. it is just about 2 chickens in total :)

The "Alobert Chicken Corner" menu:
2 Entree, 3 Mains and 1 Dessert!

The menu will appear one by one, day by day and it full of surprises....

Hopefully it can start tomorrow

Cheers 

Pork Dumpling

Chinese food is too hard to make, I am talking about pork dumpling. The effort, time, energy, and patience you put into it. Nevertheless, I would love to learn to cook Chinese food.

This is my first experimental project on pork dumpling, where does the taste come from, what kind of ingredients they used.

About mid of September, tried to make Siu Mai (another first journey to become a Chinese Chef), everything went well, except one thing went wrong, which is the taste. It does not resemble the Siu Mai flavour at all. It seems like I was eating Dumpling in a Siu Mai shape.

So, I decided to make pork dumpling based on my Siu Mai recipe.

this is the mixing, you can't really see the full ingredients there, like soy sauce, mirin etc

And this is the first several dumplings i made

and I used up all the wrapper and still got some meat left...

Mixing took 15 mins, easy. Wrapping the dumpling took forever. I almost gave up and decided no to continue it. Guess I am still learning, I took me 60 minutes to make 40-ish dumplings.


The cooking part is not the hardest part at all, just put the stuff in, boil it and in less than 15 mins, it is ready to eat. Dip it into the dumpling sauce and eat it.


Example of Steam Dumpling

and Example of Dumpling soup

Vegetarian Spaghetti Carbonara

I am trying to make Italian Carbonara with a hint of Asian. What comes in my mind when I heard Asian food? Chilli, lots of chilliesssssssss. Most of Asian people are able to eat spicy food and eat chilli raw, unfortunately it is just not me…

I hate chilli, I ate chilli sauce when I was in year 9, and I never have raw chilli in my mouth before. Okay, I Mean I had one and it was unintentionally though (when I was 10 yo).

So, do I like chilli now? Not really… Chilli is never accepted in my cooking… this time, I allow my food to be invaded my chilli (as a presentational purposes)….

I never thought that with less than 5 ingredients, the food is taste superb… cream, onion, garlic, mushroom (a must) and Chilli.

Yum.. For sure going to make it again

Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Soup

I just realised, I love to drink soups/stews. During a normal weekdays dinner when I was a child, my mum always prepare some kind of soup, ranging from clear easy made soup to the complicated Chinese traditional herb-y soup. Nowadays, I only have soup at most twice a week (if I am lucky).

Yesterday, I made this soup and it reminds me of my childhood that I’ve forgotten. After I taste the soup, it reminds me to one of my favourite soup, it called super square soup.

Super Square Soup is a soup where all the vegies been cut into small block, which consist of Potato, Carrot, Peas (only peas that taking a round shape), and mice pork.

my guess is, I hate vegies when I was child, and my mum successfully fooled me at that time. I ate it and I like it even up until now. (I am going to replicate mum’s super square food soon)

This is my second experiment with soup, the amount of ingredients I used just amazed me, which are; water, olive oil, carrot, peas, corn, chicken, bacon, mushroom, thyme, continental parsley, white wine vinaigrette, chicken stock, butter, garlic, onion, and flour.

Making soup is not as hard as I thought… and please refer to the pictures below for my presentation.

Fried Rice

This is Fried Rice... nothing much i can about this simple yet complicated dish.. I am still trying to perfect this dish...

Japanese flavoured rice with roast pork

 

My latest creation and I consider this as a lovely yummy incredible food that i ever cook.... by using miso paste, ginger, garlic, mushroom, mirin and Sake to create the authentic Japanese flavour. and for the roast pork.. i just roast it.. soaked 5 hours in the olive herbs bath then roasted....

Anyone, can somebody teach me how to smoke food? Appreciated

this is another angle from the first batch...

this is the second batch and as u can see the mushroom on the left hand side

and this is the first batch, view from rear

Tomato Ice cream with Strawberry Puree

I bought Ice cream machine/maker 2 weeks ago and my first ice cream is Tomato ice cream... It was a successful ice cream.

this is the final presentation... i am not so sure why the ice cream taste like Tomato/Coconut-ty flavour. And i do not know how to make it smooth-er... any comment ??

another angle of my food.. yummmm

Smith's new flavoured popcorn

If you are not reside in Australia, let me introduce 4 (temporarily) new flavours chips.... the winner will be the permanent chips along with Original, BBQ, Chicken, Thai Sweet Chilli...

I have tested all of them. Some of them are nice, one of them is crap, most of them have great idea. In no particular order, I will reveal it:
Caesar Salad
It was a great idea, but does it translate from idea to taste? this is one of my wanted list (before I tried it)... the combination of healthy salad and unhealthy chips just make me want it desperately. I tried it and I think it is not well translated to the real taste. It has this extreme subtle hint of tomato, bacon and lettuce. The taste is not my cup of tea… I would not buy this flavour anymore.

Idea (5/5), Taste (3/5), Would love to try it again (1/5)


BBQ Coat of Arms
Sounds promising at first, although not my wanted list.. I decided to try it out… after I had my first bite, I remember, It is a remake of Smoky BBQ… Nothing is new with this flavour. I have tried this flavour before… same taste different packaging (and name). although it is a remake, I would love to buy it again.

Idea (1/5), Taste (4/5), Would love to try it again (3/5)

Buttered Popcorn
I have a doubt with this flavour.. not on my list at first, but decided to have a go with it… I think it is a good idea… combining two snacks to create ultimate tasty treat. This is my Favourite. The drawback of this chip is the saltiness.. got this best popcorn saltiness which I can’t bare…

Idea (5/5), Taste (4.5/5), Would love to try it again (5/5)

Late Night Kebab
I am unable to comment on this one, this is the worst chips I ever eaten.. It tastes like Ground, earth and soil… it was a great idea, just does not translated well into the chips..

Idea (5/5), Taste (0/5), Would love to try it again (0/5)

Alobert, Try it!!

Nb: http://www.smithsdousaflavour.com.au/flavours-vote.php and vote for Buttered popcorn!

090927 Laksa, Yellow curry,Teriyaki Beef, stif fry snow peas, mashed potato

Well... decided to cook Lunch for Whole week! yes...I have been spending too much and need to reduce it by cooking, cooking and cooking...

FYI.. the food court in my area cost between $8-$12 per lunch... (means$60 per week = $3000+ I spend on lunch for whole year!!!) SO expensive!!! so, decided to enjoy my whole Sunday cooking.

had 5 Asian food on my mind. to start with;

0. this picture, I bought it for my breakie.. (i did not make it actually, i think it was Spring Roll, sumthing deep fired meat ball and can't even remember the last on.)

lots of onions.. lots of potato.. reminds me of the commercial kitchen

cooking cooking cooking... which lead to my first dish.. LAKSA...

Singaporean Laksa... What i love about cooking... i can put as many as i want and as less as i want!

the noodies

and this is the Lunch I had.. Singaporean Curry Laksa with Albert's magic palm hand touch!

and this is my second dish, the Yellow curry.. I just remember why I do not like yellow curry... They use Pepper corn...

and 3rd dish.. Teriyaki Beef... easy simplest dish i ever make...one of my old time fav.

this is the end result... yeah.. no plating...

I do not believe in Asian food plating

my 4th, this is Stir fry Snow peas with Sambal

and this is the end look... I quite like the snowpeas

and the 5th, last but to least.. Mashed potato with cream sugar and salt..

yummm

5 dishes,
Singaporean curry laksa, Yellow thai curry, teriyaki beef, stir fry snow peas and mashed potato

and it took me total of 4 hours to create all of this...