cooking collaboration with Hubby 4 our 16th anniversary

Nachos with meat tacos, homemade salsa, sour cream, guacamole, and cheese sauce

salads, potato salad, and sweet grapes

red velvet parfait, pandan puding, cakes

chocolate chip mint ice cream

meat pie, honey wings and Hubby's perfect burger... all so yummy, thanks dear.... for 16 wonderful years with You.....

Oxtail soups

Basic Oxtail Recipe Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds beef oxtail, cut into pieces 4 shallot onions, quartered 5 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon peppercorns 1 stick of cinnamon 1 stalk of lemon grass 1-inch piece of ginger root, peeled 5 cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preparation:

Fill a large pot with water, and add the oxtail pieces, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 3 hours over medium-low heat, skimming the foam occasionally, until the oxtail meat is very tender and the broth is reduced to 3 cups. The cooking time can be reduced to about one hour when using a pressure cooker.

Oxtails produce a lot of fat as they cook. Strain the excess grease before serving, or let the soup cool and refrigerate it overnight to harden the floating fat and make it easier to remove.

Garnish the soup with chopped green onions and fried onions.

Sweet caramel popcorn

• 
  
  Ingredients:
  1 tablespoon peanut oil 
  1 cup unpopped white popcorn 
  2 teaspoons salt 
  2 cups light brown sugar 
  1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter 
  1 cup light corn syrup 
  1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Method:
Heat peanut oil in a large pot over high heat. Add 6 kernels to pan as testers; cover. When at least 3 of the kernels pop, add remaining kernels. Shake pan occasionally as corn pops. Keep over high heat until popping slows to a few pops per second, about 5 minutes. Empty popped corn into a large brown paper bag. Add 2 teaspoons salt. Shake bag to distribute salt and drain excess oil; discard unpopped kernels. Measure 13 cups of fully popped kernels; spread on large roasting pan; set aside.

Combine brown sugar, butter, corn syrup and baking soda in medium heavy saucepan; heat to boiling over medium-high heat. Cook, without stirring, until mixture reaches 150 degrees C on a candy thermometer, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat.

Heat oven to 165 C
Carefully pour caramel mixture over popcorn. Stir mixture with heat-resistant spatula or buttered wooden spoon to evenly coat popcorn, working quickly to coat kernels.

Bake popcorn 1 hour, stirring every 10 minutes to continue coating uniformly. Remove pan from oven; cool on wire rack. Break apart any clumps of corn with your hands.

Source: chicagotribune.com

Pork Noodle

Ingredients:

• 1 lb. thin egg noodle
• Enough water for boiling
• 5 tbsp pork oil* 
• fish sauce, about 1 tbsp per serving of noodle
• white pepper to taste
• 2 -3 tbsp soy sauce 
• 1 tsp sesame oil 
• Green onion, small rings for garnish
• Fried shallots for garnish

Direction:

1. Heat water in a pot until boiling
2. Separate the noodle and add to the boiling water
3. Stir a few times, cook about 2 minutes, don't overcook it
4. Drain the water and add the remaining ingredients, mix well

For the meat, 3-4 servings
Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 lb. chicken or pork, see notes above for cut size
• 1/2 tbsp garlic 
• 1/2 tbsp sugar (optional)
• 1 1/2 tbsp fish sauce 
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
•  dash of white pepper 
• 1/2 tbsp sweet soy sauce
• oil for sauteing

Direction:

1. Heat oil in a wok until hot
2. Add the meat and the rest of the ingredients, stir fry well until the meat is cooked
3. Separate the water/sauce from the meat, discard the sauce/water

To serve :

• Put noodle in a bowl, add the meat to one side, add the vegetable on the other side.  Garnish with green onions & fried shallots.

Pouched Pears

Ingredients:

• 4 large  ripe pears
• 1 cups unsweetened  pear juice
• 1 cups water
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 6 whole dried cloves
• 4 whole green cardamom pods

Directions:

• 1. Peel, quarter, and core the pears
• 2. Arrange pear quarters in a single layer in a wide pan 
• 3. Pour over the fruit juice, water and lemon juice
• 4. Bring to a simmer (not a boil), reduce heat, cover and simmer 10 - 15 minutes, until just     tender
• 5. Remove from heat and allow to cool
• 6. Pick out the whole spices before serving.
• 7. Serve in the poaching liquid

Chocolate chips cookies

Recipes from Allrecipes

Ingredients

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 2 g baking soda
• 3 g salt
• 170 g unsalted butter, melted
• 220 g packed brown sugar
• 100 g white sugar
• 15 ml vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 335 g semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Pineapple upside down cake

 From allrecipes

Ingredients

• 4 eggs
• 115 g butter
• 220 g packed light brown sugar
• 1 (20 ounce) can sliced pineapple
• 10 maraschino cherries, halved
• 145 g sifted cake flour
• 5 g baking powder
• 2 g salt
• 200 g white sugar
• 15 g butter, melted
• 5 ml almond extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a 10 inch heavy skillet with a heat-resistant handle (I use a cast iron skillet), melt 1/2 cup butter or margarine over very low heat. Remove from heat, and sprinkle brown sugar evenly over pan. Arrange pineapple slices to cover bottom of skillet. Distribute cherries around pineapple; set aside.
3. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Separate the eggs into two bowls. In a large bowl, beat egg whites just until soft peaks form. Add granulated sugar gradually, beating well after each addition. Beat until stiff peaks form. In a small bowl, beat egg yolks at high speed until very thick and yellow. With a wire whisk or rubber scraper, using an over-and-under motion, gently fold egg yolks and flour mixture into whites until blended. Fold in 1 tablespoon melted butter or margarine and almond extract. Spread batter evenly over pineapple in skillet.
5. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until surface springs back when gently pressed with fingertip. Loosen the edges of the cake with table knife. Cool the cake for 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plate.

Australian Meat pie

Ingredients:

Step One:
1 lb ground beef
1  onion, finely minced
3/4 C water
2 t Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 beef bouillon cubes
1/4 cup ketchup
Oregano, black pepper, nutmeg to taste.

Step two:

3 T flour
1/4 C water

Soften the onion in a pan with melted butter, add meat and brown. Remove excess fat, add the rest of the step one ingredients. Cover and boil for 15 minutes.

Mix the flour and water from step two to make a paste, and add it to the meat. Stir and allow to cool.

 grease a pie plate and line with puff pastry. Pour the cooled filling into the pie, brush the exposed pie edge with an egg wash, then top it with another puff pastry and seal top and bottom with a fork. Trim the excess and bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then drop the heat to just 350 to cook for an additional 20 minutes or so (pull it when it’s golden brown).

Home made Vanilla ice cream

Ingredients

• 1 cups milk
• 2 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 eggs yolks 
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Directions

Combine sugar milk and salt in heavy saucepan, add egg yolks, mixing it until it well incorporated heat gently over med heat, stirring constantly about 3 minutes, it will looks like a custard, then remove it from heat , let cool to room temperature. .then add the whipped cream and vanilla, mix it. Let it in the refrigerator for at least 3 hour , then I use  the Ice cream machine to do the rest of the job. ....hmmm yummy